► As POLITICO reports, momentum continues to build for impeaching President Trump:
House Democrats are moving quickly toward impeaching President Donald Trump as early next week, a reflection of the seething outrage that remains over his incitement of deadly riots inside the U.S. Capitol.
Timing remains in flux and Speaker Nancy Pelosi has yet to make a decision on exactly how to proceed, including whether to pursue a constitutional process that could remove Trump without impeachment. Top Democrats are still in talks with all their members and will hold a caucus-wide call at noon. But they are expected to decide today on their next steps, according to several lawmakers and aides.
Whether or not Trump could officially be impeached before his time in office expires at noon on January 20 is less important than holding Trump accountable for this week’s assault on the U.S. Capitol:
If Democrats pass articles early next week — and Pelosi immediately sent them to the Senate — the Senate would be required to begin a trial immediately under congressional rules. Trump’s first impeachment trial, on charges he abused his power and obstructed a congressional investigation, ultimately lasted four weeks before the Senate delivered its verdict.
That timetable suggests the goal of any impeachment is unlikely to be Trump’s removal and is much more focused on the option to prevent him from holding federal office in the future. Some Democrats believe that possibility could woo Senate Republicans, some of whom are eyeing a 2024 bid themselves.
► CNN reports on another tragic loss resulting from the Trump mob’s attack on the Capitol building:
Prosecutors in the US Attorney’s office plan to open a federal murder investigation into the death of Brian D. Sicknick, a US Capitol Police officer who died Thursday night, a law enforcement official tells CNN.
Sicknick was injured Wednesday when a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol. He died at approximately 9:30 p.m. ET Thursday “due to injuries sustained while on-duty,” Capitol Police officials said in a statement.
The death is being investigated by the DC Metropolitan Police Department’s homicide branch, the US Capitol Police and their federal partners.
Sicknick was many Capitol Police officers who were attacked with lead pipes and other blunt instruments.
► As Marianne Goodland reports for the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman, there is a growing list of high-profile names and organizations calling on the resignation of Rep. Lauren Boebert and Rep. Doug Lamborn for taking part in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election:
The letter said the two lawmakers “have betrayed the trust of Colorado voters by helping incite violence against the body you were elected to, a body designed to serve us. By endorsing the president’s unsubstantiated and repeatedly debunked, discredited, and false claims of voter fraud, you encouraged and tacitly endorsed the actions of these terrorists and threatened the basic foundation of our democracy.”…
…Signatories to the letter include seven Democratic members of the Colorado General Assembly, city council members in Aurora, Broomfield, Denver and Edgewater; former Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Trish Zornio and Lorena Garcia, and two dozen progressive organizations, including unions, Planned Parenthood and ProgressNow Colorado.
Meanwhile, Boebert appears to have no concept of the harm she and fellow Trumpians have caused. In a video released today, Boebert sounds absolutely looney:
We are the United States of America. Freedom will find a way to persevere. God bless each and every one of you. You are all in my prayers. pic.twitter.com/EoOAbJVeMa
— Sentinel Editor Dave Perry (@EditorDavePerry) January 8, 2021
This calls for the “Quad Facepalm.”
►Ronna McDaniel has been re-elected as Chair of the Republican National Committee. Seriously. As The Washington Post reports:
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who remained a staunch Trump supporter during her four-year tenure, was reelected unanimously Friday at an RNC meeting in Florida where members seemed uninterested in making changes after losing the White House and the Senate.
The reelection of McDaniel, who ran unopposed, came at the end of a difficult week for Republicans that included the loss of two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia, a takeover of the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob and the distribution of a video by Trump acknowledging there will be a new president Jan. 20.
In remarks, McDaniel praised Trump for picking her and did not condemn his role in Wednesday’s mayhem at the Capitol.
As The New York Times reports, plenty of Republicans are still — STILL — unsure about whether they should completely distance themselves from Trump:
A small number of Republican officials who have been critical of Mr. Trump in the past, including Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and two governors, Phil Scott of Vermont and Larry Hogan of Maryland, called for Mr. Trump’s removal from office.
Top Republicans ran headlong into an immediate problem, though: Millions of Republican voters are seeking no such separation from Mr. Trump, nor are the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, many of his House colleagues and state lawmakers around the country.
► You can count Rep. Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert among those Republicans who aren’t yet willing to abandon Dear Leader Trump…whether it makes any logical sense or not:
► Texas Sen. Ted Cruz seems hellbent on taking Donald Trump’s position as the most disgusting elected official in the country. As Chris Cillizza explains for CNN:
Ted Cruz said something truly remarkable — like, truly — in an interview with a Houston TV station on Thursday.
“The President’s language and rhetoric often goes too far,” the Texas senator said straight-facedly. “I think, yesterday in particular, the President’s language and rhetoric crossed the line and it was reckless. I disagree with it, and I have disagreed with the President’s language and rhetoric for the last four years.”
Yup! You read that right. The Texas Republican senator, who not only has stood by Trump through thick and thin over the past few years but also was one of a handful of senators who voted to object to the Electoral College results following a riot at the US Capitol on Wednesday, actually uttered these words, “I disagree with it, and I have disagreed with the President’s language and rhetoric for the last four years.”
It would be sort of funny — in a get-a-load-of-this-guy way — if it wasn’t so incredibly disingenuous.
This man has no soul. #ResignCruz is trending on Twitter.
► The editorial board of The Kansas City Star hammers Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley for his leading role in objecting to the certifications of electoral votes:
No one other than President Donald Trump himself is more responsible for Wednesday’s coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol than one Joshua David Hawley, the 41-year-old junior senator from Missouri, who put out a fundraising appeal while the siege was underway.
This, Sen. Hawley, is what law-breaking and destruction look like. This is not a protest, but a riot. One woman who was apparently part of the pro-Trump mob was fatally shot by Capitol Police as lawmakers took cover. Some of those whose actions Trump encouraged and later condoned brought along their Confederate flags.
And no longer can it be asked, as George Will did recently of Hawley, “Has there ever been such a high ratio of ambition to accomplishment?” Hawley’s actions in the last week had such impact that he deserves an impressive share of the blame for the blood that’s been shed.
This man also has no soul. #ResignHawley is also trending on Twitter.
Cloistered in the White House, Trump raged uncontrollably about perceived acts of betrayal. He tuned out advisers who pleaded with him to act responsibly. He was uninterested in trying to repair what he had wrought. And he continued to insist he had won the election, even as his own vice president certified the fact that he had not.
Only after darkness fell in Washington on Thursday, after the Capitol had been besieged by death and destruction and a growing chorus of lawmakers had called for his immediate removal from office, did Trump grudgingly accept his fate.
“Now Congress has certified the results,” Trump said in a video recorded in the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room late Thursday afternoon. “A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power. This moment calls for healing and reconciliation.”
► Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman is getting hammered for his ridiculous stunt pretending to be a homeless person. As Westword explains:
Mayor Mike Coffman didn’t inform anyone on his communications staff that he planned on spending a week as “Homeless Mike,” instead opting to tell just one person: Shaun Boyd of CBS4.
So the mayor’s staffers were caught off-guard when the television station aired Boyd’s piece on January 5 documenting Coffman’s week living on the streets and in shelters in Denver and Aurora. And it sounds like he might have needed a little communications help with his story.
“I think that Mayor Coffman’s shallow performative exercise was ill-informed. It could’ve been well-informed. It was poorly executed, in my opinion. And that’s what happens when you ignore expert advice,” Shelley McKittrick, the former homelessness programs director for the City of Aurora, said on January 7.
Among other problems, Coffman told “reporter” Shaun Boyd of CBS4 Denver that living outside as a homeless person is a “lifestyle choice.”
► As Colorado Public Radio reports, falling gas tax revenues have Colorado leaders concerned about transportation funding options.
► As The Colorado Sun reports, Colorado’s efforts to quickly distribute the COVID-19 vaccination aren’t without problems…but overall the process is working.
► State Rep. Rod Pelton (R-Cheyenne Wells) says he will refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine and is instead trying to prevent himself from catching COVID by taking de-worming medication meant for horses.
► We mentioned Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley earlier. Well, someone who knows him very well is very disappointed with the ambitious young Senator. From The Huffington Post:
The political mentor of Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) told a local newspaper on Thursday that backing the freshman Republican’s bids for office was “the worst mistake I ever made in my life,” calling Hawley’s attempts to undermine confidence in the election of President-elect Joe Biden “dangerous.”
Jack Danforth, a former senator and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations who is considered the dean of Missouri Republican politics, played a key role in elevating Hawley ahead of the latter man’s race against Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in 2018.
“Supporting Josh and trying so hard to get him elected to the Senate was the worst mistake I ever made in my life,” Danforth told St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Tony Messenger. “Yesterday was the physical culmination of the long attempt (by Hawley and others) to foment a lack of public confidence in our democratic system. It is very dangerous to America to continue pushing this idea that government doesn’t work and that voting was fraudulent.”
Remember that time when Josh Hawley thought he might be President one day?
4 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Friday (January 8)”
I wanna know one thing. I keep hearing charges that say something like “unlawful entry to a restricted government building” or something like that. Is this a felony? I would imagine so, but I don’t know. Surely breaching the heart of democracy when it was closed to the public during an important constitutional function is a felony, right?
Its important, because if that is a felony, then they also get at least two counts of felony murder on their charge sheet. Because one protestor and one police officer died in their commission of that felony. And if it was a leftist protest, they’d probably get more felony murder charges for the other medical and accidental deaths. After all, if you do an armed robbery on a jewelry store and the clerk dies of a heart attack, I think you’d probably get charged with felony murder.
There’s an awful lot of radicalized extremists on video tape who could face such charges of multiple felony murder counts. Including I think 8 state lawmakers who’ve been identified.
Four years ago, anti-Trump protestors at Trump’s inauguration faced charges, ‘rioting’ IIRC, that led to possible 75 year prison sentences. It will be interesting to see how America deals with these right-wingers.
But he should follow other administration officials and resign – especially if he plans to run in four years. Shh,, plenty of less qualified and lesser known R candidates have run before. Besides, he seems to have just figured out that Trump hates him now.
January 08, 2021 10:26 AM UTC
4 Comments
Happy “
I wanna know one thing. I keep hearing charges that say something like “unlawful entry to a restricted government building” or something like that. Is this a felony? I would imagine so, but I don’t know. Surely breaching the heart of democracy when it was closed to the public during an important constitutional function is a felony, right?
Its important, because if that is a felony, then they also get at least two counts of felony murder on their charge sheet. Because one protestor and one police officer died in their commission of that felony. And if it was a leftist protest, they’d probably get more felony murder charges for the other medical and accidental deaths. After all, if you do an armed robbery on a jewelry store and the clerk dies of a heart attack, I think you’d probably get charged with felony murder.
There’s an awful lot of radicalized extremists on video tape who could face such charges of multiple felony murder counts. Including I think 8 state lawmakers who’ve been identified.
Four years ago, anti-Trump protestors at Trump’s inauguration faced charges, ‘rioting’ IIRC, that led to possible 75 year prison sentences. It will be interesting to see how America deals with these right-wingers.
Boebert's video is flat frightening. That anyone that clueless could get elected is an indictment of her district.
Sadly, I live in it. We've got to get her out of there.
Pence should immediately resign.
Sure, he was never fit.
But he should follow other administration officials and resign – especially if he plans to run in four years. Shh,, plenty of less qualified and lesser known R candidates have run before. Besides, he seems to have just figured out that Trump hates him now.
RE: Shorter Coffman . . .
. . . the sign probably gave him away.
But, it’s heartening to see my former Representative trying to lift himself up by his tiny bootstraps . . .
. . . for some folks with nowhere else to go, being mayor is probably a lifestyle choice, I suppose. Go figure?