Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Last Call For Impeachment Reached, Again


A Queens-born real estate developer made history Wednesday when he became the first U.S. president ever impeached twice by the House of Representatives.

Donald Trump, a 74-year-old lame duck Republican, is accused of inciting a lethal mob of far-right supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol in order to prevent Congress from certifying the results of his resounding loss in the November 2020 election. President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat, recorded 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232.

With Trump’s encouragement, Confederate-flag bearing white supremacists and fascist agitators besieged the Capitol, threatening to kill Vice President Mike Pence, breaking into lawmakers’ offices, stealing public property and smearing feces on the wall.

The attack left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer beaten by rioters.

Ten Republican members of Congress joined the Democratic majority in voting to impeach the Jamaica Estates native for the second time.

In December 2019, Trump became the third president impeached by Congress — and the first from Queens.

Trump was at the time accused of pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate Biden and of withholding military aid until the Ukrainians conducted the investigation. He was also accused of obstructing the Congressional investigation.
 
Maybe Trump can get that statue he always wanted in Astoria Park, the one labeled "Two-Time Loser".

The Coup-Coup Birds Come Home To Roost, Con't

As the House debates Trump's impeachment today, the only question is how many Republicans will finally do the right thing and join Democrats in calling for Trump's removal. The "principled" Republicans that remain that don't want to face possible expulsion and sedition charges better pay attention, because the evidence is mounting that their House colleagues were in on the coup plot to slaughter Democrats.
 
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, during a live webcast Tuesday evening, said she witnessed some members of Congress leading people through the Capitol on Jan. 5 in what she termed a "reconnaissance for the next day," when insurrectionists took part in a deadly siege on the legislative branch.

During the Facebook Live, Sherrill, D-Montclair, addressed her constituents to explain why she voted for a resolution to ask Vice President Mike Pence to remove President Donald Trump from office by invoking the 25th Amendment. That measure passed late Tuesday, 223-205, but Pence had notified House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier in the day that he would not comply with the request.

That makes it likely that the House will, for the second time, impeach Trump on Wednesday. Sherrill said she intends to support an article of impeachment against Trump for "incitement of insurrection."

After laying out her reasons for seeking Trump's removal, Sherrill moved on to those of her congressional colleagues who, she said, "abetted" the president's attempt to overturn the results of the election and undermine democracy by inciting a violent mob.

"I'm going to see they are held accountable and, if necessary, ensure that they don't serve in Congress," she said, speaking sedately, but severely.


Sherrill's commentary on her colleagues is below:

“We can’t have a democracy if members of Congress are actively helping the president overturn the elections results.

And so not only do I intend to see that the president is removed and never runs for office again and doesn’t have access to classified material, I also intend to see that those members of Congress who abetted him; those members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on Jan. 5 — a reconnaissance for the next day; those members of Congress that incited this violent crowd; those members of Congress that attempted to help our president undermine our democracy; I'm going to see they are held accountable, and if necessary, ensure that they don't serve in Congress.”

Sherrill did not specify whether the "groups" were Trump supporters or detail what took place during the "reconnaissance." The term refers to an exploratory mission for the purpose of gaining information.
 
This is a very bold accusation, but frankly I've suspected this was true on some level for a week now. The insurrectionists who flooded the Capitol with blood, weapons, and violence knew where they were going and what they were doing.  They hit specific offices of specific members of Congress. If things had gone even a little differently in the timeline, we'd be talking about whether or not Trump and his ruling junta were even going to allow funerals for the House Democrats who died.

Keep all this in mind going forward.

The Turtle's Shell Game


There's a better than 50-50 chance that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would vote to convict President Trump in an impeachment trial, sources tell Axios.

What they're saying: "The Senate institutional loyalists are fomenting a counterrevolution" to Trump, said a top Republican close to McConnell.

Why it matters: This would represent one of the most shocking and damning votes in the history of American politics, by the most powerful Republican in Congress. McConnell's vote would open the door to the possibility that Trump could be convicted and prohibited from running for president again.

An anti-Trump infection is spreading among Hill Republicans: 
House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming — the third-ranking House GOP leader, and a top establishment voice — announced that she will vote to impeach Trump. Cheney said of the Capitol mob: "There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution."

The New York Times reported that McConnell "has told associates that he believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him."
 
McConnell threatening Trump with impeachment and removal is a whole different ball of wax than just impeachment. A successful Senate conviction on the issue of sedition would bar Trump from ever holding federal office again.
 
But note the sedition part, not the removal part. Mitch will never allow the Senate to reconvene before 1 PM on Wednesday the 20th.

Trump would be the ultimate loser, a national punchline for all of US history, a man so bad that not only did his entire party get smoked in the elections, he got kicked out of politics by his own party.

And Mitch got his judges and Supreme Court. He's got a plan to get the House and Senate back, and eventually the White House. He has another six-year term to accomplish it.

He no longer needs Trump at all.

StupidiNews!