Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan Update: January 15, 2021

Governor Walz Calls for Civility, Calm, and Peace on Statewide Tour

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This week, in the wake of last week’s events in Washington D.C., Governor Walz visited American history monuments across Minnesota to call for calm, civility, and peace. At the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul, a Civil War Memorial in Wasioja, and a Vietnam War Memorial in Duluth, Governor Walz encouraged Minnesotans to reflect on the greater context that led to this dark moment in history.

As our nation works to hold those who incited last week’s violence accountable, Governor Walz urged Minnesotans to reflect on how divisive rhetoric undermined our democratic institutions over time and called on Minnesotans to come together to restore democracy for all.

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Continue reading “Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan Update: January 15, 2021”

GOP in bind over Trump as corporate donations freeze

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Republicans are in a bind as they consider how to move on from President Trump, who has passionate support from a large chunk of the party but has become completely toxic in the eyes of more traditional Republicans.

Washington Republicans are urging the party to cut ties completely with Trump over his role in the deadly riot that consumed Capitol Hill last week as corporations halt donations.

Some say Trump and his brand can have no future in GOP politics if the party is to survive given his increasingly toxic image with women, suburban voters, moderates and independents. Continue reading.

Rioters wanted to ‘capture and assassinate’ lawmakers, prosecutors say. A note left by the ‘QAnon Shaman’ is evidence.

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As federal law enforcement officers sift through evidence tied to the attack on the U.S. Capitol, they have tried to determine what compelled rioters to force their way into the building. Namely, did any of them plan to kill or capture lawmakers or their staffers?

Officials now say they have found clues to that question from one of the mob’s most distinctive figures: Jacob Anthony Chansley, the shirtless, tattooed man often referred to as “QAnon Shaman,” who stood out in a headdress made of coyote skin and buffalo horns.

In a court filing late on Thursday, federal prosecutors in Phoenix wrote that “strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government.” Continue reading.

Trump’s Lonely Last Days

Impeached for a second time, the president has few allies remaining.

HE LOST HIS FAVORITE means of communication, he lost the support of 10 House Republicans, he lost several formerly loyal soldiers to resignation, even Sen. Mitch McConnell reportedly said he’d committed an impeachable offense. 

But that’s not the end of it. The walls have continued to close around President Donald Trump in his final days in office. On Wednesday, he was impeached for a second time. But there was an unsettling quiet on the president’s favorite medium, Twitter. As the impeachment debate continued on the Hill and nearly a dozen GOP lawmakers voted in favor, Trump couldn’t complain to his followers – he was banned from the social media site only days before. Instead, he released a tweet-length statement as a press release (it didn’t generate much buzz).

The typically boisterous, provocative president is quiet (at least to the outside world – reports suggest he is anything but quiet inside the White House) as his tenure tailspins to a close. And he’s getting lonelier by the day as people and businesses reject him. Continue reading.

Post-ABC poll: Overwhelming opposition to Capitol attacks, majority support for preventing Trump from serving again

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The vast majority of Americans say they oppose the actions of the rioters who stormed and ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, while smaller majorities say President Trump bears responsibility for the attack and that he should be removed from office and disqualified from serving again, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Even as the findings are sharply partisan, over half of Americans — and 1 in 8 Republicans — say Trump should be criminally charged for his role in the attacks.

The president also comes in for broad criticism over his repeated and baseless assertions that the November election was rigged and tainted by widespread fraud. By a margin of more than 2 to 1, Americans say the president has acted irresponsibly in his statements and actions since the election. Continue reading.

Where do Republicans go from here?

Trump has never put party first, but breaking up won’t be easy

ANALYSIS — If I didn’t write about the future of the Republican Party within the next 12 hours, my political analyst card would have been revoked. I don’t make the rules, I’m just trying to abide by them. So here are some thoughts on the state of the union between Republicans and President Donald Trump. 

Just a couple of weeks ago, the thought of 10 GOP House members voting to impeach Trump would have been unfathomable. Now some Republicans, including outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, appear eager to begin the next chapter of the GOP without him. Unsurprisingly, that is not going to be that easy. 

Even before the invasion of the U.S. Capitol, the GOP’s messy transition (or divorce) from Trump looked inevitable. I wrote about it nearly two years ago in CQ Roll Call, “Republicans have a post-Trump identity crisis on the horizon.” I didn’t, however, let my normally optimistic mind wander to what happened last week.  Continue reading.

Abandon Trump? Deep in the G.O.P. Ranks, the MAGA Mind-Set Prevails

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As President Trump prepares to exit the White House, his ideas, including falsehoods and conspiracy theories, continue to exert a gravitational pull among grass-roots G.O.P. officials.

In Cleveland County, Okla., the chairman of the local Republican Party openly wondered “why violence is unacceptable,” just hours before a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol last week. “What the crap do you think the American revolution was?” he posted on Facebook. “A game of friggin pattycake?”

Two days later, the Republican chairman of Nye County in Nevada posted a conspiracy-theory-filled letter on the local committee website, accusing Vice President Mike Pence of treason and calling the rioting a “staged event meant to blame Trump supporters.”

And this week in Virginia, Amanda Chase, a two-term Republican state senator running for governor, maintained that President Trump might still be sworn into a second term on Jan. 20 and that Republicans who blocked that “alternative plan” would be punished by the president’s supporters. Continue reading.

Senate Democrats signal hope for bipartisan Trump impeachment trial

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As President Trump’s historic second impeachment trial looms, the Senate Democratic leader’s office is emphasizing cooperation with Republicans rather than conflict — suggesting that Democrats want their latest effort to convict Trump to be more bipartisan than the last one, which saw a lone GOP senator break ranks with his party.

Despite the unprecedented speed with which the House acted Wednesday — impeaching the president one week after the deadly storming of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has rebuffed Democratic calls for the chamber to reconvene before Tuesday, its scheduled date and one day before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

Nonetheless, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) signaled Thursday that Democrats are far from taking a go-it-alone approach. Continue reading.

Trump Ignites a War Within the Church

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After a week of Trumpist mayhem, white evangelicals wrestle with what they’ve become.

“Over the last 72 hours, I have received multiple death threats and thousands upon thousands of emails from Christians saying the nastiest and most vulgar things I have ever heard toward my family and ministry. I have been labeled a coward, sellout, a traitor to the Holy Spirit, and cussed out at least 500 times.”

This is the beginning of a Facebook post from Sunday by the conservative preacher Jeremiah Johnson. On Jan. 7, the day after the storming of the Capitol, Johnson had issued a public apology,asserting that God removed Donald Trump from office because of his pride and arrogance, and to humble those, like Johnson, who had fervently supported him.

The response was swift and vicious. As he put it in that later Facebook post, “I have been flabbergasted at the barrage of continued conspiracy theories being sent every minute our way and the pure hatred being unleashed. To my great heartache, I’m convinced parts of the prophetic/charismatic movement are far SICKER than I could have ever dreamed of.” Continue reading.

Experts warn of vaccine stumbles ‘out of the gate’ because Trump officials refused to consult with Biden team

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Even as COVID-19 cases continue to overwhelm hospitals, the Trump administration balked at close communication with its successor

The last time a presidential transition began during a national emergency — in 2008 amid the Great Recession — the outgoing Bush administration set aside partisanship to work closely with incoming Obama officials on how to deal with the economic collapse.

“Everyone was completely responsive to any question,” said Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama. “They talked to us about major decisions.”

That smooth handoff is in stark contrast to what is happening now as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to assume power during a double-barreled crisis involving a lethal virus and its economic fallout that experts say demands close cooperation. Instead, as thecoronavirus overwhelms U.S. hospitals and kills more than 3,300 people a day on average, the Trump administration has balked at providing access to information and failed to consult with its successors, including about distributing the vaccines that offer the greatest hope of emerging from the pandemic. Continue reading.