USA Politics (redux)

[T. D.]

Bill Kristol tweet:
Amazing statement by the Secretary of Defense.

Note whom Secretary Miller and Chairman Milley did NOT speak to: President Trump.

We have had something close to the de facto invoking of the 25th amendment.





From Bloomberg live coverage blog:

Notable: Vermont is a very liberal state, but it has a Republican governor. And that governor, Phil Scott, says Trump should resign or be removed from office.
Governor Phil Scott
@GovPhilScott
The fabric of our democracy and the principles of our republic are under attack by the President.

Enough is enough.

President Trump should resign or be removed from office by his Cabinet, or by the Congress. 6/6

[SimonNZ]

But does he then get his pardon?

[drogulus]

     Trump is locked out of Twitter for 12 hours.

[krummholz]

There is a way to get him out of office in short order: the 25th Amendment. Would require Pence and the rest of the cabinet to be on board, I believe. I agree that a successful impeachment is still iffy - though much likelier today than it would have been even yesterday.

[krummholz]

Notable: Vermont is a very liberal state, but it has a Republican governor. And that governor, Phil Scott, says Trump should resign or be removed from office.
Governor Phil Scott
@GovPhilScott
The fabric of our democracy and the principles of our republic are under attack by the President.

Enough is enough.

President Trump should resign or be removed from office by his Cabinet, or by the Congress. 6/6

Hooray for Phil Scott, the governor of my state. He was critical of Trump from the early days of his presidency, but tempered his criticisms and has been largely silent about Trump's behavior for a couple of years. Good to hear that he has said what he needed to say without mincing words.

[Karl Henning]

I hope for the election workers that they don't have to do a recount--and for the public's sake too.

PD

Ossof's margin is now above the recount threshold. Go, Peachtree State!

[milk]

"To knowingly pretend a lie is true is, simply put, to lie. Doing that carefully enough to let you claim you're only raising questions only makes it even clearer that you know you're lying. Lying to people is no way to speak for them or represent them. It is a way of showing contempt for them, and of using them rather than being useful to them. This is what too many Republican politicians have chosen to do in the wake of the election. They have decided to feign anger at a problem that cannot be solved because it does not exist, and this cannot help but make them less capable of taking up real problems on behalf of their voters. And in any case, it makes them cynical liars." -  Yuval Levin

Or:

Be courteous, kind and forgiving
Be gentle and peaceful each day
Be warm and human and grateful
And have a good thing to say

Be thoughtful and trustful and childlike
Be witty and happy and wise
Be honest and love all your neighbors
Be obsequious, purple, and clairvoyant

Be pompous, obese, and eat cactus
Be dull, and boring, and omnipresent
Criticize things you don't know about
Be oblong and have your knees removed

Be tasteless, rude, and offensive
Live in a swamp and be three dimensional
Put a live chicken in your underwear
Get all excited and go to a yawning festival
- Steve Martin

[Karl Henning]

This is Trump's last stand, but the reality is he'll go down as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.

The worst, by a solid margin; this just cements it.

[Karl Henning]

Well, the past two weeks have brought the attempted coup that was vigorously denied here, to a head.

The Capitol building has been stormed and there have been shots inside the building.

Trump had encouraged his followers to come to DC and "be wild".

The woman who was shot has died.

https://news.yahoo.com/woman-shot-capitol-armed-trump-203838306.html

[Karl Henning]

Philip Bump:

All of this, from start to finish, is dishonest opportunism. Trump — and through omission, Cruz — misled the public in service of their own power. It's no more complicated than that. Trump and Cruz made obviously untrue claims to an aggravated electorate, knowing that the claims were inaccurate, so that they could maintain power (in Trump's case) or soon gain it (in Cruz's). Even as temperatures rose and even as Trump encouraged massive protests at the Capitol in an effort to pressure legislators, Cruz did nothing more than nod along.

Ted Cruz's electoral vote speech will live in infamy

[T. D.]

From NYT via Bloomberg News:

More details from the NYT on the security situation in the Capitol today:
Maggie Haberman
@maggieNYT
NEW: Trump initially rebuffed and resisted requests to mobilize the National Guard, according to a person with knowledge of the [e]vents. It required intervention from White House officials to get it done, according to the person with knowledge of the events.
Sent via Twitter Web App.

And:

The Washington Post's editorial board is calling for Trump's removal.
"President Trump's refusal to accept his election defeat and his relentless incitement of his supporters led Wednesday to the unthinkable: an assault on the U.S. Capitol by a violent mob that overwhelmed police and drove Congress from its chambers as it was debating the counting of electoral votes. Responsibility for this act of sedition lies squarely with the president, who has shown that his continued tenure in office poses a grave threat to U.S. democracy. He should be removed."

More from Bloomberg:

Derek Wallbank Senior Breaking News Editor  dwallbank
We're starting to find out more details about some of those who stormed the Capitol. At least one of them was a Republican elected official.

Derrick Evans, a freshman lawmaker from West Virginia, livestreamed video of the incident, according to West Virginia Public Broadcasting. He later deleted at least one of the videos.

The state House speaker in W.Va., Roger Hanshaw, says Evans will have to answer to his constituents and colleagues about what happened. West Virginia Democrats have called for his resignation.

Still more:

From CBS News on the possibility of invoking the 25th amendment:

Nick Riccardi
@NickRiccardi
Retweeted
Ed O'Keefe
@edokeefe
JUST IN: "This is not news we deliver lightly," @margbrennan says as she reports: Trump Cabinet secretaries are discussing invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump. Nothing formal yet presented to VP Pence.

"I'm talking about actual members of the Cabinet," she says
Sent via Twitter Web App.

[Mirror Image]

The worst, by a solid margin; this just cements it.

Absolutely. He's a disgrace to our democracy.

[springrite]

Absolutely. He's a disgrace to our democracy.

Yes, but your home State is the State that may have saved democracy.

[Mirror Image]

Yes, but your home State is the State that may have saved democracy.

That's quite true and I'm proud the people here pulled through and voted against those nutcases. Kelly Loeffler can go back to her multi-million dollar house (that she no doubt made off COVID) and her NYSE CEO husband. David Perdue can go back to doing what he did best: drugs.

[SimonNZ]

I heard a Trumpist say they must have been undercover Antifa wearing MAGA hats.

Proof? Some of them were wearing black.

[greg]

I heard a Trumpist say they must have been undercover Antifa wearing MAGA hats.

Seems unlikely.
But I found this, there's some stuff here people may want to check out:

https://twitter.com/LLinWood/status/1346946445157404674


and can make up their mind about it... guess we'll see eventually, though.

[T. D.]

The six senators who voted to sustain the objection of Arizona's results:
Ted Cruz
Josh Hawley
Cindy Hyde-Smith
Roger Marshall
John Kennedy
Tommy Tuberville

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/activists-contrast-treatment-blm-pro-trump-mob/2021/01/06/a59a5a0e-506a-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html
Kid glove treatment of pro-Trump mob contrasts with strong-arm police tactics against Black Lives Matter, activists say

Emma Kinery Politics Reporter  EmmaKinery
D.C.'s police chief says 13 people were arrested today at the Capitol, none of whom were D.C. Residents, and five weapons recovered. Three of those arrested were from Maryland. The department will provide another update later this evening.

Laura Davison Congress Reporter  laurapdavison
The majority of Senate Republicans rebuked Trump in the Arizona tally vote. But in the House, most GOP members are sticking with him.

It's not an overwhelming majority, but enough to show that Trump is still the leader of his party.

[T. D.]

As Jonathan Swift said in Gulliver's Travels:

I desired that the Senate of Rome might appear before me in one large chamber, and a modern representative, in counterview, in another. The first seemed to be an assembly of heroes and demi-gods; the other, a knot of pedlars, pick-pockets, highwaymen, and bullies.

Wonder what JS would have thought of the current US House of Representatives...

Derek Wallbank Senior Breaking News Editor  dwallbank
Final vote in the House: 121 to object to Arizona's electoral vote, 303 to uphold it. Most Republicans voted to object.

[geralmar]

[Herman]

The woman who was shot has died.

Four people have died. Trump will be very happy about this.

He loves Americans dying. That's always been transparant.

This, of course, in addition to the nearly 4000 dying of Covid yesterday. He loves that, too.

If he is not welcome in Scotland I guess he'll go to Dubai or Moscow straight away.