Month: January 2021

It may seem absurd to impeach a president who is scheduled to leave office in two weeks. I said a couple of days ago that I thought it was unrealistic. But that was before yesterday. When that president is leading a violent insurrection determined to overturn the election he lost, we are dealing with a problem that requires immediate action. And so here we are:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would consider impeachment if Trump is not removed from office immediately.

“If the Vice President and Cabinet do not act,” Pelosi said, “The Congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment.”

Pelosi, a California Democrat, holds the power to bring up an impeachment vote. Across the Capitol, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat poised to control the gavel, said he also backs impeachment if Trump is not removed.

The two leaders said the 25th Amendment must be invoked by Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s Cabinet.

Trump has only 13 days left in office.

Pelosi said impeachment, if Trump does not leave immediately ,”is the overwhelming view” of the Democratic caucus.

The call comes a day after pro-Trump rioters took over the Capitol with violence, forcing an evacuation and lockdown and resulting in the death of one female rioter.

Lawmakers blame Trump, who met with protesters earlier in the day to complain the election was stolen by Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump was impeached last year, but the Senate did not convict him.

Pelosi called on the State, Defense, and Treasury secretaries, as well as the attorney

general, to move to remove the president.

She called Trump “a dangerous person who should not continue in office.”

I think the 25th Amendment is the real goal here. The Democrats have delivered Mike Pence an ultimatum. And pence has good reason to act — Trump basically threw him to the wolves yesterday. The mob that attacked the Capitol were looking for him specifically. Trump called him out in his speech just moments before. And if Pence ever had a future with the Trump base, it’s gone now. They will never forgive him anyway. Maybe he can save his reputation.

And this may be having an effect on the GOP as well:

National Association of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons released the following statement in response to large groups of armed Trump adherents who have violently stormed the U.S. Capitol building as members of Congress meet to count the electoral votes:

“Armed violent protestors who support the baseless claim by outgoing president Trump that he somehow won an election that he overwhelmingly lost have stormed the U.S. Capitol today, attacking police officers and first responders, because Trump refused to accept defeat in a free and fair election. Throughout this whole disgusting episode, Trump has been cheered on by members of his own party, adding fuel to the distrust that has enflamed violent anger. This is not law and order. This is chaos. It is mob rule. It is dangerous. This is sedition and should be treated as such. The outgoing president incited violence in an attempt to retain power, and any elected leader defending him is violating their oath to the Constitution and rejecting democracy in favor of anarchy. Anyone indulging conspiracy theories to raise campaign dollars is complicit.

Vice President Pence, who was evacuated from the Capitol, should seriously consider working with the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to preserve democracy.

People have been writing about the possibility of Trump refusing to accept the result of the election ever since he starting talking about refusing to accept the result of the election back in 2016. They even “war gamed” it. But I don’t think anyone really took it that seriously. Trump is ultimately a coward. But what happened yesterday has sobered people up. This now requires that Democrats step up and make the GOP take ownership of what’s happened and start telling their people the truth.

I don’t know if it will happen. But it should. Donald Trump has always been a dangerous president. But this next two weeks may be the most dangerous period yet. He should be removed one way or the other.

From the Washington Post, November 10, 2020,

Speaking about President Trump’s and his legal team’s myriad and baseless claims of massive voter fraud, an anonymous senior Republican official offered a rhetorical shrug.

“What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time? No one seriously thinks the results will change,” the official said. “He went golfing this weekend. It’s not like he’s plotting how to prevent Joe Biden from taking power on Jan. 20. He’s tweeting about filing some lawsuits, those lawsuits will fail, then he’ll tweet some more about how the election was stolen, and then he’ll leave.”

*If you think that [insert your favorite stupid prediction here] was even more obviously stupider, I won’t argue. There is a lot to go around (see Zappa, Frank, above). But I think you get my point.

Chris Hayes: We have watched this from 2015. Every single thing that Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney said about the man was true and they knew it. And anyone who was too stupid to know it is too stupid for public life, that it would always end up here. Mitch McConnell said in May of 2016 , he reassured Republicans that his temperament would be fine.

And now that the entire enterprise sits atop a mountain of corpses in the deadliest year in American history as we have watched people storm the capitol and attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power ..[inaudible] I understand the desire to not run around with your hair on fire but this is very clearly a national emergency that we find ourselves in and it is slightly bizarre to watch the kind of decrepit proceduralism of the congress at this moment when we are in said emergency.

I think he was talking about this in particular:

Clearly, there is no energy for doing what needs to be done,as usual. But there should be. The reason for doing it is simple. You can preclude someone who is convicted from holding federal office ever again. They won’t do that, of course, because so many Republican voters love Donald Trump. But he is even more unfit that he was the day he came down in that escalator.

More Chris:

I relate to his passion on this. I’m sick that we’ve come to this but we knew that Trump was a lunatic from the beginning. And I blame the Republicans, who also knew this, for foisting this grotesque demagogue on us for their own purposes.

“America’s long journey as a stable democracy appears to be in doubt.”

The Trump/QAnon cult is a national contagion, an immoral panic, a mass insanity. The woman shot and killed by Capitol police Wednesday when pro-Trump extremists overran the U.S. Capitol was a QAnon cultist from San Diego.

But Washington, D.C. was not the only place Trump’s insurrection manifested on Wednesday. Incidents took place in Washington, Georgia, Kansas, Ohio, Michigan, California, Oklahoma, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Texas:

From Atlanta to Salem, Oregon, and points in between, Trump backers repeated the outgoing president’s false claims that his victory was stolen by massive voter fraud, officials and local media reported.

In Oregon’s capital, where crowds protesting in favor of Trump and against state COVID-19 restrictions burned an effigy of the Democratic governor, Kate Brown, police declared an unlawful assembly and ordered protesters to disperse. Oregon state police reported at least one person was arrested in Salem on suspicion of harassment and disorderly conduct.

There were no immediate reports of serious violence, although a news photographer was sprayed with mace or pepper spray at a rally in Salt Lake City, Utah’s capital, police said.

Protesters entered the Kansas statehouse in Topeka and assembled inside the first floor of the Capitol rotunda, though they remained orderly, television station KSNT reported. State police later said the demonstrators had obtained a permit in advance.

In Denver, the Colorado capital, Mayor Michael Hancock instructed city agencies to close early “out of an abundance of caution” after about 700 demonstrators gathered at the statehouse.

In Georgia, a major courthouse complex and two other government buildings in Atlanta were ordered closed due to protests near the statehouse. Among those disrupted were aides to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the Republican election official pressured by Trump in a weekend telephone call to “find” enough additional votes for Trump to win the state.

There’s more, of course:

Trump supporters and members of the neo-fascist group Proud Boys rioted outside the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday, clashing with Black Lives Matter protestors, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

Hundreds of Trump supporters protested outside the Michigan State Capitol on Wednesday, the Detroit Free Press reported. The demonstrations have been peaceful, Michigan State Police said.

And still more. New Mexico, Wyoming and Texas closed their state capitol buildings, NBC reported. Some evacuated employees. Texas closed its state Capitol grounds in Austin Wednesday afternoon “out of an abundance of caution.”

The bulk of the violence occurred in Washington, D.C., closest to its source: Donald J. Trump.

One legislator estimated perhaps a thousand rioters breached the Capitol, yet authorities arrested barely 50 insurrectionists Wednesday, and those mostly for curfew violations. Four were arrested on firearms-related charges.

Investigations and prosecutions must follow. We have discussed here how allowing high officials walk away from crimes committed in office has contributed not only to the distrust of government but the downward spiral in official corruption. Arresting and prosecuting violent extrmists should be the easy part, right?

The FBI is seeking your help in doing that.

When the riot ended, Congress returned to its business early Thursday morning and affirmed Joe Biden’s presidential win. Donald Trump’s January 6th insurrection could not change that. What changed was the nation’s sense of itself and the world’s image of the United States.

Reports of insurrection came in a flood Wednesday. Scenes of chaos played out at the U.S. Capitol as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol complex instigated by the outgoing president himself.

Calling his election loss an “eggregious assault on democracy,” Donald Trump told a rally they should walk down the Mall and confront Congress. “And I’ll be there with you,” he said. But after getting the mob moving, true to form Trump retreated to the White House.

As a joint session of Congress attempted to conduct the business of formalizing the presidential win of President-elect Joe Biden, the mob in MAGA hats began chanting QAnon slogans. They then swept past police barricades, overwhelmed Capitol security, and entered the building through smashed windows and doors. The Secret Service whisked Vice President Mike Pence to a secure location and the members of Congress took shelter.

“We’re storming the Capitol. It’s a revolution,” Elizabeth from Knoxville, Tenn. told a White House reporter for Yahoo News. Police had maced her as she tried to enter the Capitol.

Pro-Trump extremists broke windows, ransacked offices, shouted “Trump, Trump” and “Whose house? Our house!” as they went. They included a Republican West Virginia state delegate who streamed the assault. Many carried Trump flags while a couple bore Confederate ones.

In a standoff with police, one woman was shot and killed, reportedly a QAnon cultist from San Diego. Three others died from “medical emergencies.” Police found a couple of improvised explosive devices somewhere outside the building.

“It’s not over!” several rioters told an MSNBC reporter on scene. “Wait till we come back with guns.”

“It was literally an attack on democracy,” Sky News reported. The world looked on aghast.

With few exceptions, the overwhelmingly white extremist mob received very different treatment at the hands of police than largely peaceful Black Live Matter protesters had in the summer. Black and brown Americans watching could not miss it. White insurrectionists posed for selfies with Capitol police inside the building.

Laura Clawson posted at Daily Kos:

At every moment of the Trumpist assault on the U.S. Capitol, differences have been glaringly visible between how these overwhelmingly white, far-right people have been treated and how protesters for racial justice have been treated over the past year by the very same law enforcement agencies. From the fact that the Capitol prepared for Black Lives Matter protests with ranks of heavily armed officers while claiming to have been simply caught unawares by an assault on the Capitol that had been telegraphed in advance, to the violence meted out to racial justice protesters while members of the crowd that violently stormed the Capitol were “gently walked … down the stairs,” as CNN reported, it’s impossible not to see. (If you’re honest.)

The pro-Trump protests reached beyond Washington, D.C. There were generally peaceful incidents in Georgia, Arkansas, Texas, Utah, Oregon and Washington. A mob breached the grounds of the governor’s mansion in Olympia, Wa. In Salem, Ore., protesters burned Gov. Kate Brown (D) in effigy.

Trump eventually issued a tepid video statement advising his followers to be peaceful. But he repeated that the election had stolen from him, the same meassage with which he fueled the riot. Trump issued more incitement tweets from his bunker until Twitter and Facebook suspended his accounts.

The man is pathological. That was clear from the moment in June 2015 when he descended the escalator in Trump Tower and began his campaign by inveighing against Mexican rapists.

With 13 days left in his presidency, what more might Trump do? Some low-level White House staffers have resigned to distance themselves from Trump and charges of sedition or inciting a riot. More resignations are expected. But with Trump increasingly isolated and agitated, as his days count down he remains a clear and present danger to public safety.

Trump cannot remain in office until Jan 20. A second impeachment demanded by some Democrats may be too little too late and could fail again. A block of Trump’s supporters in the House maintained their insistence the election was a fraud even after the riot subsided. Progressives in Congress have prepared a resolution calling for their expulsion.

Invoking the 25th Amendment to swiftly remove Trump from power requires more spine than in his entire Cabinet put together. I’m not holding my breath.

How many of these morons woke up Wednesday thinking themselves Real American™ patriots? By sundown the world knew them as pro-Trump, white-nationalist extremists engaged in seditious insurrection — domestic terrorists.

Never. Ever. Talk to me again about how much you love America.

In fact, many Republicans (45%) actively support the actions of those at the Capitol, although as many expressed their opposition (43%). 

Among all voters, almost two-thirds (63%) say that they “strongly” oppose the actions taken by President Trump’s supporters, with another 8% say they “somewhat” oppose what has happened.  

Overall, one in five voters (21%) say they support the goings-on at the Capitol. Those who believe that voter fraud took place and affected the election outcome are especially likely to feel that today’s events were justified, at 56%. 

I guess that’s good? Only 21% of Americans — 45% of Republicans — think that an attempted coup is fine. How reassuring.

For the record, a first draft of what happened today for history from the Daily Beast:

Around 2 p.m., members of Vice President Mike Pence’s Secret Service detail started getting antsy, whispering to each other and peering out the windows just off the Senate floor to see the growing masses. That’s when loud bangs started popping outside—reverberating through the historic landmark, with at least six officers having to get their eyes flushed because they had no gas masks.

On an email listserv for the congressional press corps, journalists soon reported they had been on the floor, hiding as gunshots were fired. While live-streaming from inside the House side of the Capitol, PBS reporter Lisa Desjardins showed protesters opening every door in the hallway, walking in and out of rooms like that of the House Appropriations Committee.

At one point, reporters inside filmed the mob banging on the doors and police with guns drawn. Lawmakers donned gas masks and some prayed together, NBC’s Haley Talbot reported.

Outside the Capitol, demonstrators were seen clashing with U.S. Capitol Police and overcoming barricades. Thousands of Trump supporters cheered at the news that others had breached the building. “That’s so exciting,” said one woman who declined to give her name. “We should all go in, get them, and teach them a lesson.”

“Whose house? Our house!” protesters chanted, as they marched.

Police from several states were called in to help, including from New Jersey, Montgomery County in Maryland, and Virginia.

Unlike in June, when the Justice Department under then Attorney General Bill Barr ringed federal buildings with unidentified police personnel against mostly peaceful Black Lives Matter protests, it was unclear who is in charge of the response to the MAGA violence and what they intend to do.

The chief spokesperson for the Pentagon, Jonathan Hoffman, said in a statement that the Justice Department was in charge. But the Justice Department stopped short of confirming that Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen was in command, saying he was “coordinating with our law enforcement partners to add additional Federal law enforcement support to the Capitol Grounds.”

The FBI’s Washington Field Office said it had “responded to reports of suspicious devices,” but didn’t elaborate. An FBI spokesperson said agents have “been deployed to assist our U.S. Capitol Police partners as requested in protection of federal property and public safety.”

A significant number of Washington D.C. National Guard forces were set to be activated in a law-enforcement capacity, The Daily Beast confirmed. Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller said in a statement: “We have fully activated the D.C. National Guard to assist federal and local law enforcement as they work to peacefully address the situation… Our people are sworn to defend the constitution and our democratic form of government and they will act accordingly.”

University of North Carolina emeritus professor Richard Kohn, the foremost American scholar of civilian-military relations, said the chaos showed that “obviously the executive branch is in the hands of the guy who wanted this to happen.”

The military should do “nothing,” Kohn urged, while the D.C. National Guard should “assemble, clear the Capitol grounds, ensure the Capitol Police can get inside, and the D.C. police should be arresting people.” Kohn added that a grand jury should be convened to indict Trump “with incitement to riot… it’s astonishing but not surprising.”

Members of Congress described confusion and terror, amid mixed reports of suspicious devices and the sound of gunshots.

Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI), said that he and his staff were “sheltering in place” in their office while other buildings were being evacuated, thanking the police for keeping them safe.

On the Senate side, HuffPost’s Igor Bobic said protesters had made it into an empty Senate chamber, which had been evacuated minutes earlier.

“Trump won that election!” one shouted, according to Bobic.

Police, meanwhile, eventually began to use some kind of gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd.

“We’ve got ’em on the run if we push forward!” a man with a megaphone said, as thousands of Trump supporters streamed in from the president’s speech earlier Wednesday.

Multiple officers appeared to be injured during the clashes. One reporter on the ground described the scene of thousands of “Stop the Steal” protesters overpowering federal law enforcement as “the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Eventually, with thousands of protesters still attempting to force their way into the buildings, the Capitol Police announced that the entire plaza had been placed in lockdown.

“All buildings within the Capitol Complex, Capitol: External security threat, no entry or exit is permitted, stay away from exterior windows, doors. If outside, seek cover,” the message read.

Around 3 p.m., a House aide told The Daily Beast, “All the members who were on the floor got out and are in an undisclosed location on the complex.” And by 3:45 p.m., police had begun reasserting control over the Capitol entrance, pushing protesters off one of the stairs.

As lawmakers scrambled to safety and police attempted to regain control, the implications for democracy were already dire.

“This is unbelievable. Actually, it’s not unbelievable. It’s totally predictable,” said Rosa Brooks, the Georgetown University professor and co-founder of the Transition Integrity Project, which conducted war games to sketch out how a contested election result might play out. “I still hope and trust it’s not going to be a successful coup attempt.”

Let’s hope they had their fun and this is over. Still, these people are all nuts:

Protests at state capitals across the country turned threatening Wednesday as demonstrators entered legislative buildings and police escorted elected officials from their offices in response to violent threats.

The protests against the November presidential election results, fueled in large part by unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud that were repeated often by President Trump and the White House, coincided with mob violence in the nation’s capital where Trump supporters overran U.S. Capitol Police and officers drew their firearms to protect lawmakers in the House and Senate.

In state capitals, police moved to protect elected officials who were threatened by pro-Trump mobs.

Staffers at the Utah state Capitol were ordered to evacuate the building, wrote Bryan Schott, who covers the legislature for the Salt Lake Tribune. In Georgia, police escorted Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to safety as militia members gathered outside the Capitol building in Atlanta.

Protesters at a rally in Salem burned Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) in effigy, as city police urged people to avoid the area around the statehouse. Fistfights broke out in Sacramento, where police struggled to contain clashes between dueling groups of demonstrators.

In Kansas, state police monitored a group of protesters who entered the statehouse in Topeka. The state Highway Patrol said they had no plans to increase security, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. The protesters later dispersed without incident.

Peaceful protests urging the overthrow of President-elect Joe Biden’s win in November gathered in Austin, Texas. Protests were calm and controlled in Little Rock, Ark., though some Trump supporters showed up with automatic firearms and riot shields.

These people are all like their Dear Leader — spoiled, childish fools who simply cannot accept that they didn’t get their way. We have never seen anything like this. It was a violent coup attempt.

This is what the world is seeing in their morning papers:

Trump made a video saying that people should go home. But he also said this:

He incited this and he clearly likes it.

He must be removed. Now. It may just be happening. The NY Times is reporting that Pence is the one who ordered the National Guard. And here’s an odd statement from Trump’s National Security Adviser:

To add to the embarrassment and shame:

People, this is very, very bad. I don’t know how it will end. Hopefully, it will just fizzle out. But this sounds ominous;