Welcome to the third world
At least one Republican congressman told Sen. Mitt Romney (R-outcast), McKay Coppins recounts in The Atlantic, that he “wanted to vote for Trump’s second impeachment, but chose not to out of fear for his family’s safety.” A Republican senator in leadership urged Romney not to vote to convict Trump dujring his second impeachment trial. “You can’t do that, Romney recalled someone saying. Think of your personal safety, said another. Think of your children.”
Romney tells Coppins he is paying $5,000 per day out of pocket for security since Jan. 6, 2021. On his way to work with a police excort that day, he recalls: If somebody wants to shoot me, he thought, what good is it to have these guys in a car behind me?
Romney is not the only one worried about his security. Along with special prosecutor Jack Smith and Fulton County, Georgia, D.A. Fani Willis, other officials are now targets (NBC News):
Prosecutors and FBI agents involved in the Hunter Biden investigation have been the targets of threats and harassment by people who think they haven’t been tough enough on the president’s son, according to government officials and congressional testimony obtained exclusively by NBC News.
It’s part of a dramatic uptick in threats against FBI agents that has coincided with attacks on the FBI and the Justice Department by congressional Republicans and former President Donald Trump, who have accused both agencies of participating in a conspiracy to subvert justice amid two federal indictments of Trump.
The threats have prompted the FBI to create a stand-alone unit to investigate and mitigate them, according to a previously unreleased transcript of congressional testimony.
“We have stood up an entire threat unit to address threats that the FBI employees’ facilities are receiving,” Jennifer L. Moore, then an executive assistant director of human resources for the FBI, told the House Judiciary Committee in June. “It is unprecedented. It’s a number we’ve never had before.”
Trump wants revenge for his two impeachments. And, as he campaigns for president, he insists that his congressional allies put up a colorful distraction from his multiple indictments and trials. An impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, Trump hopes, aims to paint Biden as just as corrupt as Trump. Trump knows that the press won’t hesitate to take the “both sides” bait and carry water for him. He’s probably right.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California is giving Trump and his MAGA radicals in the House just what they want. Or else they’ll strip him of his speakership. And he probably can’t afford Romney’s security.
The Hill reports some dissension in the ranks:
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said Tuesday that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) should hold a vote on whether to pursue an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, while saying he would likely vote against it.
“I think it’s the right thing to do,” Bacon said of holding such a vote. “But you know, [former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)] set the standard. She did an inquiry last time without a vote.”
Bacon noted that while he was in favor of a vote, he would likely not vote for the inquiry. He said for there to be an impeachment inquiry, there needs to be “some kind of direct evidence towards the president.”
“I think the American people want a better, better governance and higher bar. Impeachment should be rare,” Bacon said, adding that he doesn’t think it is “good” for the country.
Marcy Wheeler is keeping up with the MAGA impeachment inquiry more closely than I. So, a few of her incisive posts this morning.
Republicans keep admitting that they’re conducting an impeachment inquiry BECAUSE they have no evidence of wrong-doing.
That, and the fact that they’re too busy seeking non-existent evidence for an impeachment to fund the government, should be the only thing covered. https://t.co/fPud4rPAzk
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) September 14, 2023
Imagine having once been a Libertarian, but then telling your followers that this constitutional abomination of an impeachment has anything to do with facts.
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) September 14, 2023
Really shameful how these right wingers have utterly betrayed their claimed values. https://t.co/TNQDLWwVHU
Wheeler continues, “Hill reporters who are too scared to write, in their own voice, that McCarthy has opened an impeachment inquiry BECAUSE he has no evidence of wrongdoing should maybe instead ask Don Bacon how many weaks [sic] of shut-down it’ll take before he’ll vote to replace McCarthy with an adult.”
Don’t hold your breath.