At his rally before the invasion of the Capitol, Trump said to his minions:
And after this, we're going to walk down and I'll be there with you. We're going to walk down--
We're going to walk down. Anyone you want, but I think right here, we're going to walk down to the Capitol.
But then he ducked back into the White House to watch the whole thing on TV. That’s how you know he’s Richard III and not Henry V.
14 comments:
I always thought the battle cry of the Republican party should be awk-buck-buck, but that's unfair to poultry.
'My kingdom for a horse!'
Picture Trump at the head of the Insurrectionists column
tooling his little golf cart toward the Capitol building.
Anyway...
What happens the next time a president tries to steal an election?
via @BostonGlobe - January 9
WASHINGTON — As they emerged from the wreckage of a ransacked Capitol this week, many lawmakers said they did not recognize their own country.
... to a cadre of political scientists and legal experts who have been closely watching President Trump’s attempts to cling to power since losing the November election, the most frightening part of Wednesday for the future of US democracy was not the mob, but the 147 Republican lawmakers who voted to object to the election results even after the riot.
That vote showed that many in the political elite were willing to depart from the central norm upholding any democracy — that the loser and their party accepts their loss — and to try to take advantage of the antiquated and vague laws that govern Congress’s limited role in presidential elections.
The scene raises the frightening possibility that unscrupulous lawmakers, egged on by enraged grassroots supporters, could go even further in attempting to overturn election results in the future. And there’s little to stop them.
“The moment people don’t feel it is in their interest to act democratically, democracy is just lost,” said Michael Miller, a democracy expert at George Washington University. “The Constitution cannot save it. It’s not going to leap out of its case in the National Archives and start attacking people.”
If there’s any good news that sprang from Wednesday’s violence, it’s that for now, the US electoral system has withstood the immense strain Trump placed on it. Despite hordes of Trump supporters invading the Capitol and derailing the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s win, Congress eventually discharged its duty and finished tallying the Electoral College’s votes in the wee hours of Thursday morning.
It appears that a peaceful transition of power will take place on Jan. 20, despite Trump’s attempts to harangue Republican swing state officials to “find” thousands of votes for him and reverse the result.
But as the broken glass is still being swept from the Capitol, fear lingers in the air about what could happen in the future, given how far Trump, his congressional allies, and his supporters were willing to go to attempt to stay in power this year. ...
There are at least two ways for a president who wishes to stay in office despite losing the election to subvert that process through Congress. One is to convince governors or legislatures in some states to send the votes of a competing slate of electors who support him or her to Washington, and then have a majority of Congress choose to acknowledge that slate. That couldn’t happen this week because no state legislature or governor, despite considerable pressure from Trump and his allies, chose to take that step.
“Yesterday would have looked very differently if the state legislatures had done what President Trump asked and had attempted to back the alternative electors,” said Edward Foley, an election law expert at Ohio State University.
Another way to attempt to overturn the result would be for a majority of lawmakers in both chambers to vote to object to some states’ results, bringing the winning candidate’s total below the 270 electoral vote threshold for victory. The 12th Amendment says the House of Representatives would then gather to elect a new president.
That scenario did not happen on Wednesday because there was not a majority in either chamber that wished to take that step. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen in the future. ...
Trifles light as air are to the credulous proofs as strong as holy writ. Trump isn't Richard III; he is a cruder, more truculent version of Iago.
I like the quote, but Iago for me is too perfect a villain; he brings perfidy to the level of high art. It's one of the great roles of all time.
McConnell is said to be pleased about impeachment, believing it will be easier to purge Trump from the GOP
NY Times - January 12
Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has told associates that he believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him, believing that it will make it easier to purge him from the party, according to people familiar with his thinking. The House is voting on Wednesday to formally charge Mr. Trump with inciting violence against the country.
At the same time, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader ... has asked other Republicans whether he should call on Mr. Trump to resign in the aftermath of the riot at the Capitol last week, according to three Republican officials briefed on the conversations. ...
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In his first public appearance since the Capitol siege, Trump expresses no contrition for inciting the mob
President Trump on Tuesday showed no contrition or regret for instigating the mob that stormed the Capitol and threatened the lives of members of Congress and his vice president, saying that his remarks to a rally beforehand were “totally appropriate” and that the effort by Congress to impeach and convict him was “causing tremendous anger.” ...
“People thought what I said was totally appropriate,” Mr. Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, en route to Alamo, Texas, where he was set to visit the wall along the Mexican border. Instead, Mr. Trump claimed that protests against racial injustice over the summer were “the real problem.” ...
... Mr. Trump’s defiance came despite near universal condemnation of his role in stoking the assault on the Capitol, including from within his own administration and some of his closest allies on Capitol Hill.
Earlier, he asserted that it was the impeachment charge, not the violence and ransacking of the Capitol, that was “causing tremendous anger.” ...
He did not address his own role in inciting the mob of his supporters. ...
“The 25th Amendment is of zero risk to me,” he said. “But it will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration. As the expression goes, be careful what you wish for.”
Reading from a script, Mr. Trump briefly addressed the mob attack on the Capitol, noting “we believe in respecting America’s history and traditions, not tearing them down. We believe in the rule of law, not in violence or rioting.” ...
GOP Reps will vote to impeach Trump
via @BostonGlobe - January 12
Rep. John Katko is the first Republican to say he’ll vote to impeach President Donald Trump following the deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney also says she will vote to impeach Trump.
The Wyoming congresswoman, the No. 3 Republican in the House, said in a statement late Tuesday that Trump “summoned” the mob that attacked the Capitol last week, “assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.” She says, “Everything that followed was his doing.”
Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger has become the third Republican member of Congress to call for Trump’s impeachment.
Kinzinger said in a statement Tuesday that Trump is responsible for whipping up “an angry mob” that stormed the Capitol last week, leaving five dead. He says “there is no doubt in my mind” that Trump “broke his oath of office and incited this insurrection.”
Joint Chiefs Remind US Forces That They Defend The Constitution
The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff reminded American forces Tuesday of their oath to defend the Constitution following the attacks on the Capitol building last week.
The letter was addressed to The Joint Force, which is made up of about 1.3 million active duty service members and more than 811,000 National Guard and reservists — all of whom swore an oath to "Support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." The oath has stood since America's founding nearly 250 years ago.
"The violent riot in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, was a direct assault on the U.S. Congress, the Capitol building, and our Constitutional process," the memorandum said. "We witnessed actions inside the Capitol building that were inconsistent with the rule of law. The rights of freedom of speech and assembly do not give anyone the right to resort to violence, sedition and insurrection."
The Joint Chiefs emphasized in the letter that President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, becoming the 46th Commander in Chief, and any acts to disrupt the constitutional process not only violate military values, but the law. ...
Now there are five...
Representative John Katko of New York was the first Republican to publicly announce that he would back the impeachment proceedings. Not holding the president accountable for his actions would be “a direct threat to the future of our democracy,” he said.
Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 House Republican, said on Tuesday evening that she would vote to impeach, citing the president’s role in an insurrection that caused “death and destruction in the most sacred space in our Republic.”
Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a frequent critic of Mr. Trump, joined his Republican colleagues on Tuesday evening, saying the nation was in uncharted waters. He said that Mr. Trump “encouraged an angry mob to storm the United States Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes.”
Representative Fred Upton of Michigan issued a statement saying that he would vote to impeach after Mr. Trump “expressed no regrets” for what had happened at the Capitol.
Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington State issued a statement saying, “The president’s offenses, in my reading of the Constitution, were impeachable based on the indisputable evidence we already have.” ...
The Pentagon will arm National Guard troops deploying to the Capitol for the inauguration
National Guard troops who are flooding into Washington to secure the Capitol for Inauguration Day will be armed, the Army secretary, Ryan McCarthy, has decided, Defense Department officials said Tuesday.
The armed troops will be responsible for security around the Capitol building complex, the officials said.
As up to 15,000 troops continued to arrive in Washington from all over the country, Defense Department officials had been weighing whether to deploy them with arms. Mr. McCarthy has decided that at the very least those around the Capitol building will carry weapons, said the officials, who confirmed the decision on the condition of anonymity.
Mr. McCarthy’s decision came after a meeting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California. Ms. Pelosi, according to congressional staff members, demanded that the Pentagon take a more muscular posture after a mob, egged on by President Trump last week, breached the Capitol. ...
House votes to impeach Trump
via @ABC - January 13
The House of Representatives has voted to impeach President Trump -- making Trump the only president in American history to be impeached twice.
Ten Republicans have sided with Democrats to vote for impeachment with the count currently standing at 225-194.
217 votes were needed to impeach the president.
House lawmakers charged Trump with one article of impeachment for "incitement of insurrection" citing his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has declined to yet say publicly when the House will send the article over to the Senate, a source involved in the Democratic leadership deliberations told ABC News earlier Wednesday Pelosi plans to send the article to the Senate next week.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office confirmed earlier in the day that the Senate will not return early for an impeachment trial, so the earliest the trial could start is Jan. 19 -- a day before Biden's inauguration.
NY Times: How Democrats and Republicans Voted
As the House voted Wednesday on whether to formally charge President Trump with inciting violence against the government of the United States, 10 Republicans cast their votes in favor. ...
Representative John Katko of New York was the first Republican to publicly announce that he would back the impeachment proceedings. Not holding the president accountable for his actions would be “a direct threat to the future of our democracy,” he said.
Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 House Republican, said on Tuesday evening that she would vote to impeach, citing the president’s role in an insurrection that caused “death and destruction in the most sacred space in our Republic.”
Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a frequent critic of Mr. Trump, joined his Republican colleagues on Tuesday evening, saying the nation was in uncharted waters. He said that Mr. Trump “encouraged an angry mob to storm the United States Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes.”
Representative Fred Upton of Michigan issued a statement saying that he would vote to impeach after Mr. Trump “expressed no regrets” for what had happened at the Capitol.
Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington State issued a statement saying, “The president’s offenses, in my reading of the Constitution, were impeachable based on the indisputable evidence we already have.”
Representative Dan Newhouse of Washington announced that he was backing impeachment, attacking his party’s core argument, that the process was being rushed. “I will not use process as an excuse,” he said during the impeachment debate, to cheers and applause from Democrats. Mr. Newhouse also offered a mea culpa, chiding himself and other Republicans for “not speaking out sooner” against the president.
Representative Peter Meijer of Michigan said that Mr. Trump had “betrayed his oath of office by seeking to undermine our constitutional process, and he bears responsibility for inciting the insurrection we suffered last week.”
Representative Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio said Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers in the House and Senate “had their lives put in grave danger as a result of the president’s actions,” adding, “When I consider the full scope of events leading up to Jan. 6 including the president’s lack of response as the United States Capitol was under attack, I am compelled to support impeachment.”
Representatives Tom Rice of South Carolina and David Valadao of California also voted for impeachment.
In bipartisan vote, the House impeaches Trump a second time
via @BostonGlobe - January 13
... On Tuesday, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 House Republican, became the highest-ranking official in her party to publicly join the impeachment effort. She said Trump “summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.”
Cheney was among 10 House Republicans who voted with Democrats to approve the impeachment resolution Wednesday. Her support Tuesday was followed by several other Republicans announcing their defection from Trump — a sharp turnabout after spending four years transforming their party into a vehicle for his ambitions.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday he did not favor impeachment, but that “doesn’t mean the president is free from fault.”
“The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters,” McCarthy said during the House debate. “He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”
He said a Congressional censure “would be prudent” and called on Trump to “accept his share of responsibility, quell the brewing unrest and ensure President-elect Biden is able to successfully begin his term.”
A short while later, the White House issued a short statement from Trump.
“In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind,” Trump said. “That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers. Thank You.”
The Republican defections on impeachment could be the first salvo in a broader effort by the party’s establishment to extricate its interests from Trump’s in the wake of last week’s riot — as well as the party’s humiliating defeat in two Georgia Senate races that cost it control of the chamber. ...
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