Category: trump

Former prosecutors say this 10-minute video provides ample evidence for Trump’s impeachment

Posted on by Walter Einenkel

Online news outlet Just Security, which focuses on 'rigorous analysis of law, rights, and U.S. national security policy,' has created an intense 10-minute compilation splicing together video clips from events leading up to the Capitol insurrection alongside Donald Trump's speech to the mob before they marched to and into the Capitol.

Using videos that were created and uploaded by users of the gutter of right-wing social media dumpster Parler (before the FBI lights came on and users started to scramble), the events of Jan. 6 are becoming clearer. The original video was collected by ProPublica and made available to the public, and Just Security was able to create more context for Donald Trump's speech, using the crowd responses. Set chronologically, the video is a damning piece of evidence that could and should be used in the impeachment trial of the twice-impeached former president. It shows the crowd reacting in real-time to Donald Trump's calls to "fight" for him at the Capitol, as well as whipping the crowd into a white-hot frenzy toward his own vice president. 

Just Security reporters Ryan Goodman and Justin Hendrix interviewed numerous “former senior Justice Department officials and former federal prosecutors” to get their takes on the video compilation and the result is a roadmap into the possible second impeachment of Donald Trump.

The video begins with footage of Donald Trump speaking to the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal crowd, highlighting his claims that “We will never give up. We will never concede. You don’t concede when there is theft involved,” and “We want to be so nice. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people.”

Video of the crowd obtained from Parler shows people yelling and cheering, and responding to Trump’s call to action by yelling things like “Storm the Capitol,” “Invade the Capitol building,” and “Take the Capitol.” Calling the “left” of the United States, “ruthless,” Trump continuously called on then-Vice President Mike Pence to “do what’s right for the Constitution and the country.” 

Trump hits the war and fighting metaphor again, saying that “Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy,” and how the Stop The Steal folks will now march down to the Capitol building and make themselves a herd heard.  The video then pivots to the march down to the Capitol building, showing charlatan luminaries like InfoWars’ Alex Jones telling the crowd to go to the “other side of the Capitol building,” where he claims Trump will be.

Later, the video shows a crowd at the door of the Capitol building chanting “We want Pence,” over and over again. It’s not a bunch of people calling for Mike Pence to speak—that’s something that’s never happened in America, frankly. A man inside of the Capitol building is videotaped talking into a landline phone in the building, asking for Speaker Pelosi and Mike Pence, saying “We are coming for you, bitch!”

Other video taped next to scaffolding erected at the Capitol building shows a guy speaking into a megaphone, saying he hopes Mike Pence goes to the “gallows,” and that he would like to see him in front of a “firing squad.” I wonder why Mike Pence didn’t come out to nod paternalistically at the MAGA supporters, like he has for the past four years?

Video inside of the Capitol building hallways shows big bearded faketriots screaming at D.C. and Capitol police, telling them that “You’re outnumbered. There’s a million of us out there, and we are listening to Donald Trump—your boss.”

The chant of “Fight for Trump” continues.

At 4:17 PM that day, after hours of inaction, Trump released his weak sauce Twitter video, once again calling the election “fraudulent,” but telling his supporters to go home. This is followed by video of Mr. QAnon Narcissistic Mascot Jacob Chansley saying that Trump told them to go home and that the rioters had “won the day,” because it had sent the message they would remove officials from office “one way or another” if they didn’t overturn the results of the election—or whatever demands they come up with, I guess?

Finally, they cut in MAGA acolytes like Texas realtor Jenna Ryan, who chartered a private jet to go and storm the Capitol building. After first telling people she hadn’t gone in the building, only to have her own footage and a lot of other footage show that she was lying, the video has a local news interview with her saying that she thought she was following Trump’s instructions. She was, but that’s still a crime.

Former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Elie Honig tells Just Security that “The House impeachment managers should consider rolling this tape as their final exhibit at the trial. It shows, clearly and viscerally, how President Trump’s words in fact incited the insurrectionist mob — particularly when taken in combination with Trump’s own tweet, after the riot, praising the mob as ‘great patriots’ who should ‘remember this day forever.’”

Former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman disagrees with Honig on strategy, but not on how damning this all is: 

From a legal standpoint, a prosecutor in a case charging Trump with seditious conspiracy would play this tape in an opening, and then say, “Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, the evidence will show that the insurrectionists came to Washington that day because they believed the President had called them there to do their patriotic duty; once there, the President worked them into a demented rage, telling them they had to fight like hell, and that he would be there with them at the Capitol. They went with blood in their eyes screaming ‘Fight for Trump!,’ threatening the lives of Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence, and proceeded to storm and lay waste to the Capitol, the sanctum of our democracy, all while President Trump viewed the bedlam with delight from his safe perch back at the White House. They were criminals and deserved to be punished; but any fair-minded person will see from this evidence and more that we will bring forward that it was the President who lit the match and threw it on the fire because he wanted – and at a minimum reasonably foresaw – that they would become an out-of-control mob.”

In lieu of real evidence of fraud, the Trump administration and its surrogates—and those wanting to make some last-minute money off the MAGA crowds—promoted the idea that the entire election of Joe Biden over Donald Trump was rigged. In every form of media, at every opportunity, they told millions of Americans that not only were their suspicions of problematic votes cast, but that in fact, a coordinated effort to overthrow the “landslide” victory of Donald Trump was underway.

You can argue that the people who believe the things that Donald Trump says are being conned. They are. You can say they truly believed that their attempt to force Congress to throw out millions of American votes was just and constitutional. You can say all of those things because Donald Trump, the president of the United States, told them exactly that. Other elected officials, including senators, told them it was true. 

The fact of the matter is that Trump’s guilt is very easily verified. He purposely misled his supporters and then attempted to have them illegally overthrow our government. The only defense the MAGA insurrectionists being arrested right now have amounts to an insanity plea. They believed the government was out to get them and they needed to violently defend themselves because they believed they were about to be hurt by magic. It’s not a worthwhile defense in most of their cases, and hopefully, they can watch from a jail cell’s closed-captioned television set as their fearful leader and liar is convicted of crimes against our Constitution and the Executive office of our country.

Vimeo Video

"Fight For Trump" Just Security - Incitement at US Capitol from Justin Hendrix on Vimeo.

Trump plots death-by-a-thousand-cuts for Republican Party

Posted on (Updated by Kerry Eleveld

Aides to Donald Trump have apparently jingled some keys in front of him just long enough to divert him away from forming his own party, but that has only renewed his focus on torturing what remains of the Republican Party. First and foremost, that means figuring out how to exact revenge on Republicans who crossed him on impeachment, such as Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. 

But Trump's dark cloud extends far beyond some dozen or so GOP congressional lawmakers all the way into the states, where parties are veering far right. Arizona is perhaps the best example, where the Republican Party voted to censure former GOP Sen. Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain for opposing Trump, and Republican Gov. Doug Ducey for failing to steal the election for Trump (i.e., certifying the election results).

At the same time, Trump also plans to meddle in the GOP's effort to retake the U.S. Senate. In fact, he's already arguably hobbled the party's efforts—after being censured, Ducey decided not to run for the state’s Senate seat in 2022, where newly elected Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly will be trying to win a full term following his special election victory last November. 

But Arizona's Senate race is just the beginning. Republicans are now facing 2022 battles for open seats they currently control following Republican Senate retirements in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina—a list that could easily expand. And this is where Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Trump will almost surely be at loggerheads over who the party should nominate to run for those seats. In Ohio, for instance, Trumper and seditionist Rep. Jim Jordan seems like a shoo-in for backing by Trump. But while Jordan's radical stances and questionable personal history are a perfect fit for his district, he's likely not the strongest statewide candidate. 

More broadly, McConnell surely wants to claim ownership over the center of gravity of the national party, but that will be impossible as long as Trump is squatting on his turf. That is particularly true because Trump remains a fundraising juggernaut at the moment, with tens of millions in PAC money at his disposal and almost no limitations on what he can do with it. And as we all know, Trump has zero allegiances to achieving real goals for the party, such as winning back the Senate or retaking the House. Trump's only real goal is getting revenge and maintaining his stranglehold on the GOP. If Trump blows a few elections in the process, meh—that's of little concern to him as long he can throw his weight around. 

Speaking of which, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is still trying to claw his way back into Trump's good graces after admitting on the House floor that Trump played a role in helping to incite the Capitol riot. Of course, McCarthy also went full seditionist, opposing certification of the election results and voting against Trump's impeachment. But Trump only ever fixates on the negative—it's part of his charm. 

So state Republican parties are severing their ties to the moderating forces that once made the GOP safe for suburban voters, Trump and McConnell are about to go to war on Senate candidates, and McCarthy is chasing his own tail in the House and coming up short every time. On top of that, an ominous fundraising cloud continues to hang over the seditionist caucus.

Other than that, everything's perfectly copacetic. Oh, and if you want some insight into how those warring factions have been working out electorally for Republicans, look no further than Georgia, where twin GOP losses just handed control of the Senate to Democrats.

Dr. Fauci says this new administration’s belief in actual science and evidence is ‘liberating’

Posted on by Walter Einenkel

On Thursday, the Biden administration started its second day of work, signing a series of executive actions and holding press conferences. Dr. Anthony Fauci, arguably the only person who technically served during the Trump administration, has aptitude for his job, and wasn’t a morally bankrupt monster, held a press conference in the White house briefing room, all by himself, to discuss what new mutations of COVID-19 mean and to answer (mostly Trump-related questions) from the press corps. After acknowledging the 400,000-plus dead Americans, and explaining the need to get COVID-19 under control because the less infection spread means the less chance of mutations, Fauci was asked about differences between the Trump administration and the Biden administration.

These questions were asked in various oblique ways, like the first one—a seeming attempt to promote a right-wing apologetics BS story that tries to blame vaccine distribution problems not on the Trump administration but on Amazon. The question came from Fox News’ newest White House correspondent, Peter Doocy, Fox News logic contortionist Steve Doocy’s son. The argument is that the new announcement that the online retailer has offered help to the Biden administration in order to distribute vaccines more robustly is something that was purposefully held back from Trump and therefore, Trump’s bungling of everything he’s ever done is once again someone else’s fault. The question ended with whether or not Fauci knew of any talks about this kind of thing during the Trump administration. Fauci explained that he didn’t know what the difference might have been but that “One of the new things in this administration is that if you don’t know the answer, don’t guess. Just say you don’t know the answer.” 

Dr. Fauci said that so far, based on the information our government has right at this moment (remember, the Biden administration began about 24 hours ago), some of the mutations of the viruses seen around the world have not touched down in the U.S., Ffngers crossed. Fauci also explained that the new president is looking to really “amplify” the breadth of the distribution efforts—arguably the single most important thing our country needs right now to get back to some kind of baseline healthy stasis.

He also said he was optimistic we can get to a 70- or 80% vaccination level of the American population by the end of the summer, saying that in so doing we will be able to see a “degree of normalcy” reappear in our lives. Not a perfect normalcy, but not the current shitty 1990s action film we have all been extras in during the past 10 months. Dr. Fauci said his main concern was making sure Americans understand how important it is to get the vaccine—that fighting “hesitancy” will be the biggest hurdle as the year progresses. 

Again, Facui was asked what he thought of the new team the Biden administration has put together and whether or not things would have been different had they been in charge back in January when this first began. Fauci very diplomatically explained that he could tell you what he felt about the team but would not “extrapolate” beyond that. “One of the things that was very clear, as recently as about 15 minutes ago, when I was with the president, is that one of the things that we’re going to do is that we’re going to be completely transparent, open, and honest. If things go wrong, not point fingers, but to correct them, and to make everything we do based on science and evidence.”

Kaboom.

Finally, asked about the difference Fauci felt being in front of the press under a Biden administration after “joking” today about the previous administration, Fauci did make a joke—a dead serious one. “You said I was joking but I was very serious about it. I wasn’t joking.” He went on to finish by explaining that everybody there saw that there were times under the Trump administration when non-scientific things like hydroxychloroquine and other things were pushed by the orange guy, and that it was a bad place to be. “The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know what the evidence is, what the science is, and know that’s it. Let the science speak. It is somewhat liberating.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Dr. Fauci would be back again. Sounds good to me. I like this version of Fauci the best.

YouTube Video

McConnell, feeling the heat of GOP mega-donors, turns on Trump

Posted on by Kerry Eleveld

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, who just one year ago led the charge to acquit Donald Trump of impeachment charges, has been going through a head-spinning donor-inspired evolution over the last couple weeks since Trump incited violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

After more than five weeks of silently endorsing Trump's efforts to overturn the election results, McConnell has moved from accepting President-elect Joe Biden's win to getting to "maybe" on convicting Trump to publicly blaming Trump for the murderous rioters who stormed the Capitol.

"The mob was fed lies," McConnell said from the Senate floor Tuesday, as he prepares to hand off the Senate majority to Democrats. "They were provoked by the president and other powerful people," McConnell added, conveniently failing to define "other people," since the vast majority of GOP congressional lawmakers helped fuel the fire of outrage among Trump supporters. Nonetheless, McConnell’s comments are still by the far the furthest he has gone in trying to disentangle himself and his caucus from Trump. Among GOP congressional leadership, only Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Republicans' No. 3 in the House, has gone further with her statement skewering Trump for lighting "the flame of the attack."

McConnell spent four solid years diligently avoiding leveling any direct criticism whatsoever at Trump, whether he was calling white supremacists "very fine people" or trying to steal a second election by extorting foreign officials. In fact, McConnell rallied his caucus to end the Senate trial last year without hearing from a single witness. In the process, McConnell and Senate Republicans taught Trump he would never suffer the consequences of his actions, no matter how abhorrent or harmful they were to American democracy.

But surprise, surprise—the mighty dollar is proving more powerful than opportunistic loyalty to a man now ending his term as the grossest, pettiest, and least liked American president in modern history. And Republican lawmakers are indeed facing a reckoning for building Trump into a monster and then fanning the flames of his bogus claims that the election was stolen from him. Not only are corporate donors pulling back from their widespread support of Sedition Party candidates, but other big-dollar donors are making their demands for a break with Trump perfectly clear. The New York Times reported over the weekend:

William E. Oberndorf, an influential Republican donor who gave $2.5 million to Mr. McConnell’s super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, in the 2020 election, said that donors should be closely watching the impeachment votes as they formulate their plans for giving. A longtime critic of Mr. Trump, Mr. Oberndorf said it had been a mistake for the party not to oust Mr. Trump during his first impeachment trial last year.

“They now have a chance to address this egregious mistake and make sure Donald Trump will never be able to run for public office again,” Mr. Oberndorf said. “Republican donors should be paying attention to how our elected officials vote on this matter.”

McConnell, who has never really liked Trump, may be legitimately angry over the violent mob Trump sicced on congressional lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans alike. But he's also sure gotten some monetary help in getting there. And given the choice between continuing to endear himself to Trump and securing the cash to help him win back the Senate majority? Sorry Trump, you lose.

In fact, McConnell doesn't even have the time to attend Trump's supposed celebratory send-off Wednesday morning at Andrews Air Force Base—he'll be attending Catholic mass with Joe Biden instead. 

.@senatemajldr on the U.S. Capitol Attack: "The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people." pic.twitter.com/QIeviyHkl3

— CSPAN (@cspan) January 19, 2021

Support for convicting Trump grows among Republicans

Posted on by Kerry Eleveld

Support for a Senate conviction of Donald Trump among Republican voters has grown since last week, though it's still not particularly high. But as more information emerges about the Trump-inspired violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, GOP support for convicting Trump has ticked up a half dozen points from 14% on Jan. 8-11 to 20% on Jan. 15-17, according to new Politico/Morning Consult polling released Tuesday.

It's still wildly low by any reasonable measure, but given that Trump commanded roughly 90% support among the GOP base throughout his term, it's a notable break from someone who conservative voters never held to account for anything he did. About 86% of Democrats also "strongly" or "somewhat" support Senate conviction, as do some 50% of independents.

Last week, FiveThirtyEight.com also found that overall support for Trump's impeachment in an average of polls was up a handful of points from where it stood during the Ukraine scandal, 52% now versus about 47%-48% then.

No matter what, Trump is leaving office with a wildly diminished profile because, well, he sucks and he actually launched a deadly attack on U.S. soil, the nation's duly elected Congress, and the government he was supposedly charged with leading. In the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, 60% of respondents said he would be remembered as a below-average president, with 47% saying he qualified as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.

In Gallup’s final polling, Trump's job approval stood at 34%—his lowest to date in the poll. He averaged 41% approval throughout his tenure, hitting an all-time high of 49% early last year around the time of his Senate acquittal and the early days of the pandemic. "Trump is the only president not to register a 50% job approval rating at any point in his presidency since Gallup began measuring presidential job approval in 1938," writes the outlet. 

So much winning. 

This Week in Statehouse Action: Sedition edition

Posted on by Carolyn Fiddler

By this time next week, we’ll have a new president! (… hopefully)

But with Donald Trump’s second impeachment (who says Congress can’t act at state legislature-like speed when it wants to?) because of his responsibility for last week’s violence in the U.S. Capitol, we’re very much not yet done with the old one.

Worse, we’re far from done with his effects on politics—from federal elected officials all the way to state capitols.

In fact, the number of state legislators so affected by Trump that they traveled to DC last week for the terrorist attack on the Capitol is actually much larger than it was when I wrote about it in this space last week.

Here’s a list of the people who make laws in states who participated in this domestic terrorism (13 strong to date):

  • Alaska Rep. David Eastman
  • Arizona Rep. Mark Finchem
  • Illinois Rep. Chris Miller
  • Maryland Del. Dan Cox
  • Michigan Rep. Matt Maddock
  • Missouri Rep. Justin Hill
  • Nevada Assemblywoman Annie Black
  • Pennsylvania Sen. Doug Mastriano
  • Rhode Island Rep. Justin Price
  • Tennessee Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver
  • Virginia Del. Dave LaRock
  • Virginia Sen. (and gubernatorial candidate) Amanda Chase
  • West Virginia Del. Derrick Evans*
  • West Virginia Sen. Mike Azinger

*Derrick Evans faces criminal charges and has since resigned from the West Virginia House.

… plus various former state legislators, which is bad, but at least they don’t make laws any more.

by the by armed insurrection by private citizens is also bad

So yeah, that’s Republicans from 12 states and counting that physically, actively participated in a violent, seditious attack on the very core of our government.

And if you think these lawmakers left those anti-democratic impulses in DC, I’ve got some bad news for you.

Loyalty to Trump and distrust of the 2020 presidential election results has become a mainstream position in many (GOP-governed) parts of the country.

Earlier this week, Wisconsin Senate Republicans shut down Democrats’ attempt to pass a resolution condemning the violence in the U.S. Capitol and acknowledging Joe Biden’s victory over Trump.

As a reminder, Wisconsin GOP lawmakers did more than their fair share to further Trump’s lies about about the election being “stolen” from him, including holding bogus hearings and filing bogus lawsuits.

Thankfully, some lawmakers who fomented Trump’s dangerous, anti-democratic lies about the fairness of the presidential election are actually facing consequences.

In Georgia, the Republican lieutenant governor stripped three GOP senators who backed Trump’s attempts to undermine the state’s election results of their committee chairmanships.

In Virginia, three Republican delegates (Ronnie Campbell, Mark Cole, Dave LaRock) signed a letter casting doubt on the validity of the election outcome and asking Vice President Mike Pence to effectively disenfranchise millions of Virginia voters.

Democratic House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn booted the three Republicans from one committee each, saying in a statement that they “showed exceedingly poor judgment and conducted themselves in a manner unbecoming of their office.”

In Oregon, where Republican Mike Nearman opened a locked door to admit protesters to the state capitol (closed to the public because of the pandemic) as lawmakers gathered inside for a special session in December, Democratic House Speaker Tina Kotek has removed Nearman from all committees and called on him to resign.

She also fined him $2,000 in damages the unruly protesters did to the building, several of whom were arrested after spraying responding officers with bear mace and attacking journalists.

And we’re not done: Early this week, the FBI issued a warning that armed far-right extremist groups are planning marches on state capitols across the country this weekend.

To return to another piece of business from last week’s edition, the GOP-controlled Pennsylvania state Senate finally swore in and seated Democratic Sen. Jim Brewster.

On Tuesday, a federal court tossed a last-ditch lawsuit brought by Republican Nicole Ziccarelli, and Senate Republicans decided to accept the Democrat’s 69-vote victory (nice).

Remember, this shitty move by the Pennsylvania GOP had nothing to do with their control over the chamber.

Even after seating Brewster, Senate Republicans have a 29-21 majority. (Technically one member is independent, but he caucuses with the GOP.)

And now, a rerun of a totally different sort.

In the eons-ago time of Before Trump, it was something of a fad among GOP-controlled legislatures to attempt to gerrymander the Electoral College.

That is, Republican lawmakers in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, who were still sore about Obama winning their historically blue states, wanted to figure out a way to give some of their electoral votes to the Republican presidential candidate for a change by allocating them by (conveniently GOP-gerrymandered) congressional districts.

Then 2016 happened and they weirdly forgot all about it.

(That is, Trump won all of those states but Virginia, which was about to go fully indigo at every level of government.)

But (via Dave Weigel, who writes another newsletter you should read and has been on this incredibly esoteric beat for as long as I have, somehow) Republicans in some states are suddenly reconsidering this scheme.

In Michigan and Wisconsin, specifically, proposals to effectively disenfranchise voters who live in densely populated areas are already being floated.

Michigan U.S. Rep. Mike Huizenga proposed such change in a Facebook post earlier this week.

It’s been tried twice before in the Wolverine State.

In Wisconsin, there’s actual legislation to allocate the state’s electoral votes by (gerrymandered) congressional district being considered.

Thankfully, both of these states have Democratic governors who aren’t shy about using their veto pens.

And on top of that, Michigan is about to get its first redistricting via an independent commission.

Still, as yet another anti-democratic proposal from the GOP, it should very much generate concern.

Facing potential Senate conviction, Trump comes around to idea of condemning violence

Posted on (Updated by Kerry Eleveld

If there's one thing we can count on from Donald Trump, it's an epic uphill battle to get him to do the bare minimum that any normal human being would do. 

No, it wasn't easy. But all the king's horses and all the king's men finally convinced Trump to "unequivocally condemn" the violence he incited at the Capitol—not that he took any responsibility for it. He didn't. Still, the bar was pretty low since his last video addressing the murderous mob included the Valentine's Day missive, "We love you. You're very special."

This time around, it appears Trump's aides finally managed to convince him that he could be in real legal and political jeopardy after he was impeached a second time and by the most bipartisan vote in American history. Talk about special.

“As I have said, the incursion of the U.S. Capitol struck at the very heart of our republic,” Trump said at the outset of the 5-minute video released shortly after his second impeachment. “It angered and appalled millions of Americans across the political spectrum.”

“I want to be very clear: I unequivocally condemn the violence that we saw last week,” he added. “Violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country. And no place in our movement. Making America great again has always been about defending the rule of law, supporting the men and women of law enforcement, and upholding our nation’s most sacred traditions and values. Mob violence goes against everything I believe in and everything our movement stands for."

“No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence. No true supporter of mine could ever disrespect law enforcement or our great American flag. No true supporter of mine could ever threaten or harass their fellow Americans,” Trump continued. “If you do any of these things, you are not supporting our movement, you are attacking it, and you are attacking our country. We cannot tolerate it.”

Trump defended his cultists’ First Amendment rights to protest but urged demonstrators to remain peaceful. Whether someone is a Democrat or Republican, on the left or the right, Trump stressed there was "never" a justification for violence. 

Whether Trump's comments will have any practical effect other than maybe mitigating his legal liability moving forward and giving GOP senators a fig leaf for acquittal is an open question. Law enforcement agencies nationwide are bracing for attacks on state capitols and the U.S. Capitol alike, with the National Guard reportedly beefing up its presence in Washington to some 20,000 troops. The entire National Mall will reportedly be closed on Inauguration Day due to security concerns. 

House Republicans overwhelmingly stood behind Trump after he incited white supremacist insurrection

Posted on by Ashton Lattimore

The House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump for a historic second time on Jan. 13, and in the process confirmed that even after he incited a white supremacist insurrection at the Capitol building, an overwhelming majority of Republicans see still no problem with Trump’s conduct. While it is technically correct that the 10 Republican votes in favor of impeachment made it “the most bipartisan one in history,” as described by the The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, and others, that’s an extremely low bar to clear. In fact, the vote numbers don’t suggest bipartisanship in any meaningful sense, but rather paint a stark portrait of a political party that has almost unanimously aligned itself with white supremacy and the white backlash to BIPOC political ascendancy. As if to drive home the point, GOP representatives even booed Rep. Cori Bush for denouncing white supremacy during the hearings. Rather than rushing to lionize the handful of Republicans who momentarily broke with the party—and did so only after their own sense of safety was threatened—news coverage needs to reflect these realities.

There are 211 Republicans in the House of Representatives, only 10 of them voted in favor of impeachment. That means over 95% watched as insurrectionists broke into the Capitol with Confederate battle flags held high and white supremacist symbols adorning their bodies as they apparently searched the building for government officials to execute, and decided, “This is fine.” Of course, the overwhelmingly white Republican caucus may have correctly surmised that they weren’t the ones in mortal danger on Jan. 6. Rather, Democratic members of Congress—especially women and Black and brown members—represented the primary targets of the mob’s ire, as newly emerging details have revealed.

The same day the impeachment vote was taken, the Boston Globe reported that as Rep. Ayanna Pressley and her staff barricaded themselves in her office to keep safe from the intruders, they discovered all of the panic buttons in the office had been torn out. On Instagram Live the evening before the vote, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that during the attack she “had a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die.” Both Pressley and Ocasio-Cortez are part of The Squad, an outspoken group of progressive Black and Latina Democratic representatives elected to the House of Representatives in 2018 and 2020, which also includes Bush and Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Jamaal Bowman. As highly visible avatars of women and BIPOC’s growing political and demographic power, members of The Squad have long been on the receiving end of racist rhetoric and right-wing death threats. The events of Jan. 6 suggest at least some people had designs on carrying those threats out, possibly even with help from members of Congress who graciously offered “reconnaissance tours” to the insurrectionists. 

The attempted coup also posed a significant risk to a great many Black and brown people who aren’t lawmakers. The residents of Washington, D.C. itself—a largely Black city—along with Congressional support staff and Capitol building custodians had to contend with the trauma of being descended upon by a white supremacist mob, and afterward, were left to clean up the mess that same mob left behind. Overly credulous news coverage praising “principled” Republicans not only threatens to miss the racial realities of where most of the party stands, but also the narrowly circumscribed and race-specific extent of its support for the working class.  

With the looming threat of more insurrectionist violence in the coming days, it is of the highest moral and political significance that so many House Republicans condoned and aided the racist incitement that put the republic, fellow Americans, and the lives of their own Congressional colleagues in serious peril. And because the animating impulses behind the Capitol insurrection won’t wane with the dawn of the post-Trump political era, it’s imperative that we in the media don’t close our eyes to what the impeachment vote actually has to tell us about race, politics, and power in the United States.

Ashton Lattimore is the editor-in-chief of Prism. Follow her on Twitter @ashtonlattimore.

Prism is a BIPOC-led nonprofit news outlet that centers the people, places and issues currently underreported by our national media. Through our original reporting, analysis, and commentary, we challenge dominant, toxic narratives perpetuated by the mainstream press and work to build a full and accurate record of what’s happening in our democracy. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Trump’s aides have finally been shamed into silence. He doesn’t get it

Posted on by Kerry Eleveld

Donald Trump, the twice impeached and reviled leader of the free world, is ticked off at absolutely everyone for his current predicament with the exception one singular exceptional person: himself.

Based on reports in The Washington Post and The New York Times, Trump felt "blindsided" by the openness of Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell to convicting him. Trump is harboring a special hatred for House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy for publicly condemning his actions before ultimately voting against impeachment. And Trump isn't even on speaking terms with personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who crisscrossed the country spewing conspiracy theories about massive voter fraud that Trump chose to buy into so his exceedingly fragile ego could be protected from the reality that he's a bona fide loser. “Trump has privately expressed concern with some of Giuliani’s moves,” writes the Post. Huh—turns out Rudy G. might have been a tad off. Who coulda guessed it? But Trump's so furious with Giuliani, he's refusing to pay his $20,000 per day fees from the entirely fruitless post-election legal battle. 

"Trump has instructed aides not to pay Giuliani’s legal fees, two officials said, and has demanded that he personally approve any reimbursements for the expenses Giuliani incurred while traveling on the president’s behalf to challenge election results in key states," writes the Post.

But wait, there's more! Trump's really pissy at virtually every one of the aides that still exist at the White House for refusing to publicly defend him for launching a riotous and lethal attack on the government he's charged with leading. Where's the loyalty? Son-in-law Jared Kushner, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows—all just trashy disappointments to Trump. As House Democrats, and even some Republicans, pounded away at Trump's indefensible conduct, those aides held no press conferences, issued no talking points, did no interviews on the White House grounds, and even declined to whip votes against impeachment. Gee, it's almost as if they were shamed into silence. Or too incompetent to mount a defense. Or both. Surely only the best aides are still skulking around the West Wing at this point.

“I just think this is the logical conclusion of someone who will only accept people in his inner orbit if they are willing to completely set themselves on fire on his behalf," one senior administration said.

Speaking of which, there is one person who's been willing to suck back up to Trump even after Trump couldn't be bothered to take his calls during the deadly insurrection threatening his life in real time—Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. "Enough is enough!" Graham cried immediately following the deadly attack. "Count me out." Er ... I mean, "in!"  

Two peas in a pod from hell.

Rep. Cori Bush needs just 30 seconds to slam the door shut on Donald Trump’s presidency

Posted on by Walter Einenkel

Newly elected Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri came into office on the mandate that she is fighting for Black lives. She has been very clear that she intends to do everything in her power to help save the lives of millions of Americans mistreated by a racist and unequal justice system. Bush is also very aware that there is a history of white supremacy in our country that is deeply embedded in the institution she is now hoping to reform. Bush, like every Black person who has risen into a politically powerful position before her, is now faced with the tangible political and physical violence that always accompanies the threat she poses to white supremacists and their anxieties.

On Wednesday, in a room filled with Republican white supremacists who want to bullshit America into believing they have some claim to the concept of “unity,” Bush delivered a short, powerful, and pitch perfect reason why she would be voting to impeach Donald Trump. This will be the second time Donald Trump is impeached during his presidency, and considering his actions over the last four years, the only surprising thing is that Donald Trump will have only been impeached twice.

This is the entire 30-second speech Bush gave. One might consider it the Gettysburg Address of impeachment speeches:

Madam Speaker, St. Louis and I we rise in support of the article of impeachment against Donald J Trump. If we fail to remove a white supremacist president who incited a white supremacist insurrection, it’s communities like Missouri’s First District that suffer the most. The 117th Congress must understand that we have a mandate to legislate in defense of Black lives. The first step in that process is to root out white supremacy starting with impeaching the white supremacist in chief. Thank you and I yield back.

Fin.

Rep. Bush’s speech was cheered by Democratic representatives in the chamber and booed by … some others.

What does it mean when they boo the Black congresswoman denouncing white supremacy?

— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) January 13, 2021

Fin, part deux.

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