Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Trump Impeached Again

 TRUMP IMPEACHED AGAIN

6 comments:

Fred C. Dobbs said...

Trump’s approval rating drops to new lows after Capitol riot, poll finds

A new poll shows President Trump is exiting the White House with his lowest-ever job approval rating, and a majority of respondents believe he bears at least some responsibility for last week’s deadly Capitol riot.

The survey, released Friday by the Pew Research Center, was conducted in the days after Trump continued to falsely assert that he won the election and incited a mob of his supporters to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6 as lawmakers confirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.

Trump’s approval rating has dropped sharply in the wake of the November election and the Capitol riots, according to Pew. In August, 38 percent of survey participants approved of his performance as president, according to the research organization. That number has now dropped to 29 percent, the lowest Pew has recorded during his presidency. ...

Fred C. Dobbs said...

... Almost 70 percent of those surveyed said they don’t want to see Trump continue as a major figure in politics, according to the Pew poll, including a substantial portion of Republicans. Still, 57 percent of Republicans said they want him to remain a major figure in politics. Ninety-three percent of Democrats disagreed.

Americans have increasingly dismal views of Trump’s conduct since the election, the Pew survey found. In mid-November, 54 percent of Americans said his behavior since. Nov. 3 was “poor.” That number increased to 62 percent in January. Even Trump’s own supporters are increasingly disapproving of his behavior: Ten percent of respondents who voted for Trump rated his post-election conduct as “poor” in November, and 20 percent did so in January. ...

The surveys come days after Trump was impeached in the most bipartisan vote in history for “inciting violence against the government of the United States,” and as senators weigh how to vote in Trump’s upcoming trial. After a vote on whether or not to convict Trump of the charge in the Senate, the chamber could take up a separate vote that would bar him from seeking office again. ...

Fred C. Dobbs said...

New Warnings of Violence as Security Tightens for Inauguration

WASHINGTON — Law enforcement officials are vetting hundreds of potential airplane passengers and beefing up airport security as officials amplify warnings of violence before the presidential inauguration from extremists emboldened by the Capitol attack last week.

The Transportation Security Administration is increasing the number of federal marshals on flights and explosive-detection dogs at airports. Screening officers will be deployed to assist a militarized “green zone” in downtown Washington.

Federal officials say the security perimeter, which includes an increasing number of armed members of the National Guard, is necessary to prevent an attack from domestic extremists. Such groups “pose the most likely threat” to the inauguration, according to a joint threat assessment from the F.B.I. and Department of Homeland Security, which warned that attackers could target federal buildings and public officials in the days leading to the inauguration of Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the 46th president.

The extremists “remain a concern due to their ability to act with little to no warning, willingness to attack civilians and soft targets, and ability to inflict significant casualties with weapons that do not require specialized knowledge,” federal officials wrote in the bulletin obtained by The New York Times.

David P. Pekoske, the T.S.A. administrator, said in a statement on Friday that the agency was vetting “hundreds of names” before the event on Jan. 20. Commercial airlines have tracked an increase in passengers checking in firearms on their way to airports in the Washington area, according to a separate bulletin from the Justice Department. Two of the prominent airports close to Washington are actually in Virginia, which has more relaxed firearms laws. ...

Fred C. Dobbs said...

... Federal law enforcement officials have said they continue to be alarmed by an increase in chatter from groups like the boogaloo, a far-right group that aims to start a second civil war, and other racist extremists threatening to target the nation’s capital to protest Mr. Biden’s decisive victory in the popular vote and Electoral College.

Since the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, intelligence officials have seen Chinese, Iranian and Russian efforts to fan the violent messaging, according to a joint threat assessment dated Thursday. The escalation is consistent with previous attempts to take advantage of divisive Republican talk, such as Russia’s drive to amplify disinformation spread by President Trump during the campaign about the security of mail-in voting.

Officials wrote in an intelligence bulletin obtained this week by The Times that extremists aiming to incite a race war “may exploit the aftermath of the Capitol breach by conducting attacks to destabilize and force a climactic conflict in the United States.” ...

Fred C. Dobbs said...

Trump’s Inevitable End

Trump now becomes the first president in American history to be impeached twice. Half of all presidential impeachments since the Republic began have been impeachments of Trump. This latest impeachment is different than the first, and not just because it was bipartisan. It culminates a week in which Trump has finally faced the broad social pariahdom he’s always deserved.

When a mob incited by the president ransacked the Capitol, killing one policeman and pummeling others, it also tore down a veil. Suddenly, all but the most fanatical partisans admitted that Trump was exactly who his fiercest critics have always said he was. ...

Fred C. Dobbs said...

Washington Braces for Biden’s Inauguration and Trump’s Impeachment Trial

Feared protests did not materialize Sunday, but law enforcement officials were
still concerned about disruptions to President-elect Joe Biden’s swearing-in.

... As inauguration week dawned, one set of worries dissipated, while others intensified: The feared mobs engulfing state capitals on Sunday did not materialize. ...

President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, will not be part of his
defense in the Senate trial for his second impeachment. ...

... Mr. Trump met with Mr. Giuliani on Saturday night at the White House, and the next day the president began telling people that Mr. Giuliani was not going to be part of the team. It is unclear who will be the defense lawyer for Mr. Trump, given that many attorneys have privately said they won’t represent him.

Mr. Giuliani himself at first said he was taking part in the trial and then a day later said he had no involvement. ...