Trump is isolated and angry at aides for failing to defend him as he is impeached again

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When Donald Trump on Wednesday became the first president ever impeached twice, he did so as a leader increasingly isolated, sullen and vengeful.

With less than seven days remaining in his presidency, Trump’s inner circle is shrinking, offices in his White House are emptying, and the president is lashing out at some of those who remain. He is angry that his allies have not mounted a more forceful defense of his incitement of the mob that stormed the Capitol last week, advisers and associates said.

Though Trump has been exceptionally furious with Vice President Pence, his relationship with lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of his most steadfast defenders, is also fracturing, according to people with knowledge of the dynamics between the men. Continue reading.

Trumpist masculinity reaches its high water mark

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A whole taxonomy of Trumpist right-wing manhood could be developed from the Internet investigations, wanted posters and arrest affidavits now trickling out in the wake of last week’s riot at the Capitol. En masse, the photos show a conglomeration of weird beards, ammo and camo, and a very specific brand of looks-like-somebody-got-a-Bass-Pro-gift-card-for-Christmas raging White masculinity.

But you also have the breakout alleged criminals representing their own splintering subcategories: QAnon Shaman. Hogan’s Heroes. Ski Dad, i.e. an overly tan man who looked like he should be teaching the bunny hill class but instead appeared to be stealing a lectern. Another man wearing a sweatshirt reading — God help us, find out what company makes this and shut it down — “Camp Auschwitz.”

And, Zip Tie Guy. Continue reading.

Why Remove Trump Now? A Guide to the Second Impeachment of a President

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With only a week left in his term, the House impeached President Trump, but he will leave office before he stands trial in the Senate. Here’s how the process works.

WASHINGTON — The second impeachment of President Trump, coming a week after he egged on a mob of supporters to storm the Capitol, is taking place with extraordinary speed and testing the bounds of the process itself while also raising questions never contemplated before. Here’s what we know.

Impeachment is one of the weightiest tools the Constitution gives Congress to hold government officials, including the president, accountable for misconduct and abuse of power.

Members of the House consider whether to impeach the president — the equivalent of an indictment in a criminal case — and members of the Senate consider whether to remove him, holding a trial in which senators act as the jury. The test, as set by the Constitution, is whether the president has committed “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

34 House Democrats call for investigation into Jan. 5 tours by fellow members ahead of attack

Capitol is supposed to be closed to tours

Rep. Mikie Sherrill and 33 other House members want an investigation into access given by fellow House lawmakers to visitors to the Capitol on Jan. 5 before the violent attacks on Congress the next day.

The New Jersey Democrat alleged Tuesday night that members of Congress led guests on what she described as “reconnaissance” ahead of the insurrection on Jan. 6.

A letter issued Wednesday asks the acting House sergeant-at-arms, acting Senate sergeant-at-arms, and United States Capitol Police to investigate “suspicious behavior” on Jan. 5 and changes to visitor access. Continue reading.

Giuliani calls wrong senator in last-ditch effort to delay certification of Biden’s win

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President Trump‘s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani reportedly left a voicemail message for the wrong lawmaker late Wednesday as he was attempting to reach Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) in an effort to stall Congress’s certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election.

According to The Dispatch, Giuliani recorded a voicemail message addressed to Tuberville at approximately 7 p.m., saying that wanted to discuss how congressional leaders were “trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you.”

“And I know they’re reconvening at 8 tonight, but it … the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow—ideally until the end of tomorrow,” he added. Continue reading.

In the Know: January 15, 2021


Attorney General Keith Ellison
AG Ellison shuts down fraudulent student-loan debt settlement company in Minnesota, KSTP

Congress
Adriano Espaillat is the latest member of Congress to test positive for the virus after Capitol siege., The New York Times 
What We Know So Far: A Timeline Of Security Response At The Capitol On Jan. 6, NPR 
6 questions about Trump’s 2nd impeachment trial answered, much still unknown, ABC News
As Democrats push for probe of GOP ties to riots, Rep. Lauren Boebert denies involvement, says she’s getting ‘death threats’, Washington Post 

Donald Trump/Mike Pence
MAGA Is an Extreme Aberration,The Atlantic
Online extremists are ignoring Trump’s call for calm, Politico
Trump Reconciles With Ex-Strategist Steve Bannon in Talks on Election, Bloomberg
How the rioters who stormed the Capitol came dangerously close to Pence, Washington Post

Continue reading “In the Know: January 15, 2021”

Koch network pledges to ‘weigh heavy’ lawmakers’ actions in riots

Other GOP megadonors decline chance to defend Trump or his allies who challenged the election results.

The powerful Koch political network, funders of the Tea Party, will “weigh heavy” the actions of members of Congress in the days leading up to and after last week’s siege of the Capitol when considering future donations, in a sign that the GOP’s megadonor class is uncomfortable with the party’s recent actions.

In a statement to POLITICO, the Koch network said it will take last week’s events seriously when deciding where to put its millions of dollars in spending next election cycle.

“Lawmakers’ actions leading up to and during last week’s insurrection will weigh heavy in our evaluation of future support. And we will continue to look for ways to support those policymakers who reject the politics of division and work together to move our country forward,” said Emily Seidel, CEO of Americans for Prosperity and senior adviser to AFP Action, the group’s super PAC. Continue reading.

Veterans, ex-spies in Congress prominent in fraught week on Capitol Hill

Veterans, ex-spies in Congress prominent in fraught week on Capitol Hill

A bipartisan group of young lawmakers with military or intelligence backgrounds has been in the forefront of the congressional response to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and the cadre played a central role since then in the second impeachment of President Donald Trump. 

The group, which draws mostly from the Armed Services Committee, protected their fellow lawmakers during the attack. They also used military expertise to detect what they said were unnamed lawmakers who had possibly helped rioters plan their attack the day before.

They spoke of their oath to protect and defend the Constitution, in the military and in Congress alike, as they implored their colleagues to impeach Trump for his role in instigating the mob. Continue reading.

Democrat Ayanna Pressley’s office reveals a disturbing detail discovered during the Capitol siege

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Disturbing details are emerging about the state of Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s (D-Mass.) office amid the U.S. Capitol riots that took place as lawmakers certified the Electoral College vote. 

On Wednesday, Jan. 13, Pressley’s Massachusetts Chief of Staff Sarah Groh revealed to the Boston Globe that the entire panic button unit had been removed from the wall in the Democratic lawmaker’s office. As angry Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, Groh revealed she and her colleagues looked for the panic button as they attempted to lock themselves inside the office. 

That’s when she discovered the button was no longer there. “Every panic button in my office had been torn out — the whole unit,” she told the paper. She also revealed she had previously used the button but received no notification about it being removed. Continue reading.

A Black officer faced down a mostly White mob at the Capitol. Meet Eugene Goodman.

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It was a video clip that captured not only the terror of the day, but the values at stake: a lone Black police officer in the marble halls of the U.S. Capitol building, facing down a mob of mostly White rioters who had stormed in bearing Confederate flags, weapons and vows to reclaim a lost election.

The footage captured by HuffPost political reporter Igor Bobic has gone viral in the past week, spurring people across the world to hail the officer as a hero. The U.S. Capitol Police have not publicly identified him, but three of his friends told The Washington Post that the officer is Eugene Goodman of Maryland, confirming what journalists at CNN and elsewhere have reported.

On Thursday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers said they would introduce a bill to award Goodman the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the highest awards a civilian can receive in the United States. Continue reading.