13 January 21
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13 January 21
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Reader Supported News
RSN: Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman | Hey MAGA Marchers: Where Was Coward Trump as You Died?
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News
Excerpt: "When Donald Trump incited you to assault the Capitol, he said he would be with you. He wasn't."
N OPEN LETTER TO MAGA MARCHERS
Four of you are dead and you’ve killed a policeman. More of you will suffer and die from the COVID that spread through your maskless march. Many of you now face prison terms and ruined lives.
Had you been black, you’d’ve been gunned down before you got anywhere near the Capitol building.
Some of you in Los Angeles compensated by assaulting a black woman who accidentally walked into one of your rallies. Others expressed your opinions about Jews by wearing hats saying 6MWE (Six Million Wasn’t Enough).
Maybe Trump’s bone spurs kept him from marching with you.
When Alice Paul and Martin Luther King and Dorothy Day and Cesar Chavez and so many other great American leaders have organized marches for social change, they personally endured gassings, beatings, imprisonment. They never hesitated to risk their own bodies for a higher cause.
When Trump urged you to assault the Congress, he never intended to join you. He sat safe in the White House you pay for, watching you kill and be killed. He will certainly pardon himself to avoid the kinds of criminal charges many of you will face.
When the COVID came here, Trump let it spread so America could develop “herd immunity.”
You are the herd. Are you immune yet?
While you marched, Trump’s virus killed more than 4,000 Americans. It was the pandemic’s worst death day … until the one after that and the one after that. After all these months, Trump’s viral death toll is getting worse, not better.
Because of Trump’s negligence, more Americans died on the day you marched than at Pearl Harbor or in the World Trade Centers. Advanced medical treatments you paid for but can’t get yourself saved Trump when he got the virus. You can’t now get the vaccines you paid for because – as he golfs at your expense ($151 million and counting) – Trump really doesn’t care what happens to you.
Trump’s 2020 margin of defeat (7 million votes) was the biggest to oust any incumbent except Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter.
This letter’s co-author, Bob Fitrakis, monitored El Salvador’s elections in the 1990s. Harvey Wasserman was a plaintiff in the successful federal lawsuit demanding a recount in Ohio 2004, for which we supported a Congressional challenge to the Electoral College delegation.
We brought mountains of credible evidence, reputable lawyers, and solid court victories. We lost in Congress. But defeated presidential nominee John Kerry, a combat vet, incited no armed rebellion. We wouldn’t have followed him if he had.
This year, well over 100 million registered voters got paper ballots to be protected, scanned, and accurately counted. In Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia, there were recounts we could not get in Ohio 2004 or Michigan 2016 despite favorable court rulings. The recounts all proved Trump lost.
Trump’s much-hated Dominion machines were installed by Republicans in Georgia over vehement objections from the Election Protection movement.
They did not turn this election. But we want them gone. We ask you to help us rid our elections of ALL such ballot-marking devices and touchscreen machines.
We want ALL registered voters to get paper ballots … to be hand marked, digitally scanned, accurately counted, and safely preserved.
Digital images and paper ballots must be kept for recounts, which this year proved that Trump lost.
We want money out of politics. Billionaires must be stopped from buying what’s good for their fellow mobsters and bad for the rest of us. Gerrymandering must end, along with the Electoral College.
We want democracy and statehood for DC and Puerto Rico.
We want no more would-be dictators inciting fake rebellions while followers like you take the fall.
To Trump – like those who died in war to protect America – you are “suckers” and “losers.”
You can do better. Let’s work together for a true democracy.
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman co-wrote The Strip & Flip Disaster of America's Stolen Elections: Five Jim Crows & Electronic Election Theft . (www.freepress.org).
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
Protesters gather outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. (photo: Amanda Voisard/WP)
Six Hours of Paralysis: Inside Trump's Failure to Act After a Mob Stormed the Capitol
Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and Philip Rucker, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "Hiding from the rioters in a secret location away from the Capitol, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) appealed to Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) phoned Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter."
And Kellyanne Conway, a longtime Trump confidante and former White House senior adviser, called an aide who she knew was standing at the president’s side.
But as senators and House members trapped inside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday begged for immediate help during the siege, they struggled to get through to the president, who — safely ensconced in the West Wing — was too busy watching fiery TV images of the crisis unfolding around them to act or even bother to hear their pleas.
“He was hard to reach, and you know why? Because it was live TV,” said one close Trump adviser. “If it’s TiVo, he just hits pause and takes the calls. If it’s live TV, he watches it, and he was just watching it all unfold.”
Even as he did so, Trump did not move to act. And the message from those around him — that he needed to call off the angry mob he had egged on just hours earlier, or lives could be lost — was one to which he was not initially receptive.
“It took him awhile to appreciate the gravity of the situation,” Graham said in an interview. “The president saw these people as allies in his journey and sympathetic to the idea that the election was stolen.”
Trump ultimately — and begrudgingly — urged his supporters to “go home in peace.” But the six hours between when the Capitol was breached shortly before 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon and when it was finally declared secure around 8 p.m. that evening reveal a president paralyzed — more passive viewer than resolute leader, repeatedly failing to perform even the basic duties of his job.
The man who vowed to be a president of law and order failed to enforce the law or restore order. The man who has always seen himself as the protector of uniformed police sat idly by as Capitol Police officers were outnumbered, outmaneuvered, trampled on — and in one case, killed. And the man who had long craved the power of the presidency abdicated many of the responsibilities of the commander in chief.
The episode in which Trump supporters rose up against their own government, leaving five people dead, will be central to any impeachment proceedings, critical to federal prosecutors considering incitement charges against him or his family, and a dark cornerstone of his presidential legacy.
This portrait of the president as the Capitol was under attack on Jan. 6 is the result of interviews with 15 Trump advisers, members of Congress, GOP officials and other Trump confidants, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to share candid details.
'Fight for Trump'
The day began ominously, with a “Save America March” on the Ellipse devoted to perpetuating Trump’s baseless claims that somehow the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Before the president’s remarks around noon, several of his family members addressed the crowd with speeches that all shared a central theme: Fight. Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons, told the crowd that lawmakers needed to “show some fight” and “stand up,” before urging the angry mass to “march on the Capitol today.” Donald Trump Jr., another of the president’s sons, exhorted all “red-blooded, patriotic Americans” to “fight for Trump.”
Backstage, as the president prepared to speak, Laura Branigan’s hit “Gloria” was blared to rev up the crowd, and Trump Jr., in a video he recorded for social media, called the rallygoers “awesome patriots that are sick of the bull----.” His girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, danced to the song and, clenching her right fist, urged people to “fight.”
The president, too, ended his speech with an exhortation, urging the crowd to give Republicans “the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
“So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue,” he concluded.
Trump, however, did not join the angry crowd surging toward the Capitol. Instead, he returned to the White House, where at 2:24 p.m. he tapped out a furious tweet railing against Vice President Pence, who in a letter earlier in the day had made clear that he planned to fulfill his constitutional duties and certify President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris as the winners of the 2020 electoral college vote.
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify,” he wrote. “USA demands the truth!”
By then, West Wing staffers monitoring initial videos of the protesters on TV and social media were already worried that the situation was escalating and felt that Trump’s tweet attacking Pence was unhelpful.
Press officials had begun discussing a statement from Trump around 2 p.m., when protesters first breached the Capitol, an official familiar with the discussions said. But they were not authorized to speak on behalf of the president and could only take the matter to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, this person said, adding that “the most infuriating part” of the day was how long it took before Trump finally spoke out.
Around the same time, Trump Jr. headed to the airport for a shuttle flight home to New York. As he waited in an airport lounge to board the plane, the president’s namesake son saw that the rallygoers they had all urged to fight were doing just that, breaching police barricades and laying siege to the Capitol.
An aide called Trump Jr. and suggested he immediately issue a statement urging the rioters to stop. At 2:17 p.m., Trump Jr. hit send on a tweet as he boarded the plane: “This is wrong and not who we are,” he wrote. “Be peaceful and use your 1st Amendment rights, but don’t start acting like the other side. We have a country to save and this doesn’t help anyone.”
But the president himself was busy enjoying the spectacle. Trump watched with interest, buoyed to see that his supporters were fighting so hard on his behalf, one close adviser said.
But if the president didn’t appear to understand the magnitude of the crisis, those in his orbit did. Conway immediately called a close personal aide who she knew was with the president, and said she was adding her name to the chorus of people urging Trump to speak to his supporters. He needed to tell them to stand down and leave the Capitol, she told the aide.
Conway also told the aide that she had received calls from the D.C. mayor’s office asking for help in getting Trump to call up the National Guard.
Ivanka Trump had gone to the Oval Office as soon as the riot became clear, and Graham reached her on her cellphone and implored her for help. “They were all trying to get him to speak out, to tell everyone to leave,” said Graham, referring to the small group of aides with Trump on Wednesday afternoon.
Several Republican members of Congress also called White House aides, begging them to get Trump’s attention and have him call for the violence to end. The lawmakers reiterated that they had been loyal Trump supporters and were even willing to vote against the electoral college results — but were now scared for their lives, officials said.
When the mob first breached the Capitol, coming within mere seconds of entering the Senate chamber, Pence — who was overseeing the electoral certification — was hustled away to a secure location, where he remained for the duration of the siege, despite multiple suggestions from his Secret Service detail that he leave the Capitol, said an official familiar with Pence’s actions that day.
Instead, the vice president fielded calls from congressional leaders furious that the National Guard had not yet been deployed, this official said. Pence, from his secret location in the Capitol, spoke with legislative and military leaders, working to mobilize the soldiers and offering reassurance.
Even as his supporters at the Capitol chanted for Pence to be hanged, Trump never called the vice president to check on him or his family. Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff, eventually called the White House to let them know that Pence and his team were okay, after receiving no outreach from the president or anyone else in the White House.
Meanwhile, in the West Wing, a small group of aides — including Ivanka Trump, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Meadows — was imploring Trump to speak out against the violence. Meadows’s staff had prompted him to go see the president, with one aide telling the chief of staff before he entered the Oval Office, “They are going to kill people.”
Shortly after 2:30 p.m., the group finally persuaded Trump to send a tweet: “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement,” he wrote. “They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”
But the Twitter missive was insufficient, and the president had not wanted to include the final instruction to “stay peaceful,” according to one person familiar with the discussions.
Less than an hour later, aides persuaded Trump to send a second, slightly more forceful tweet: “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful,” he wrote. “No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order — respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!”
'You're very special'
McCarthy did eventually reach Trump, but later told allies that he found the president distracted. So McCarthy repeatedly appeared on television to describe the mayhem, an adviser said, in an effort to explain just how dire the situation was.
McCarthy also called Kushner, who that afternoon was arriving back from a trip to the Middle East. The Secret Service originally warned Kushner that it was unsafe to venture downtown to the White House. McCarthy pleaded with him to persuade Trump to issue a statement for his supporters to leave the Capitol, saying he’d had no luck during his own conversation with Trump, the adviser said. So Kushner headed to the White House.
At one point, Trump worried that the unruly group was frightening GOP lawmakers from doing his bidding and objecting to the election results, an official said.
National security adviser Robert C. O’Brien also began calling members of Congress to ask how he could help. He called Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) around 4 p.m., a Lee spokesman said. In an unlikely twist, Lee had heard from the president earlier — when he accidentally dialed the senator in a bid to reach Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) to discuss overturning the election.
Others were still having trouble getting through to the White House. Speaking on ABC News shortly before 4 p.m. Wednesday, Chris Christie, a GOP former governor of New Jersey, said he’d spent the last 25 minutes trying to reach Trump directly to convey a simple, if urgent, message.
“The president caused this protest to occur; he’s the only one who can make it stop,” Christie said. “The president has to come out and tell his supporters to leave the Capitol grounds and to allow the Congress to do their business peacefully. And anything short of that is an abdication of his responsibility.”
Around this time, the White House was preparing to put out a video address on behalf of the president. They had begun discussing this option earlier but struggled to organize their effort. Biden, meanwhile, stepped forward with remarks that seemed to rise to the occasion: “The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect the true America, do not represent who we are.”
Trump aides did three takes of the video and chose the most palatable option — despite some West Wing consternation that the president had called the violent protesters “very special.”
“This was a fraudulent election, but we can’t play into the hands of these people,” Trump said in the video, released shortly after 4 p.m. “We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home, and go home in peace.”
Amid the chaos, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) had implemented a 6 p.m. curfew for the city, and as darkness fell, the Secret Service told West Wing staff that, save for an essential few, everyone had to leave the White House and go home.
At 6:01 p.m., Trump blasted out yet another tweet, which Twitter quickly deleted and which many in his orbit were particularly furious about, fearing he was further inflaming the still-tense situation.
“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long,” Trump wrote. “Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”
Thirteen minutes later, at 6:14 p.m., a perimeter was finally established around the Capitol. About 8 p.m., more than six hours after the initial breach, the Capitol was declared secure.
The following evening, on Thursday, Trump released another video, the closest advisers say he is likely to come to a concession speech.
“Congress has certified the results: A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th,” Trump said in the video. “My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power. This moment calls for healing and reconciliation.”
His calls for healing and reconciliation were more than a day too late, many aides said. Yet as Trump watched the media coverage of his video, he grew angry.
The president said he wished he hadn’t done it, a senior White House official said, because he feared that the calming words made him look weak.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said he would move quickly in his new role to push through a robust and deficit-financed economic stimulus package. (photo: Elizabeth Frantz/NYT)
Atop the Powerful Budget Committee at Last, Bernie Sanders Wants to Go Big
Alan Rappeport and Jim Tankersley, The New York Times
Excerpt: "To the chagrin of Republicans, the democratic socialist senator will play a central role in shepherding Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s agenda through Congress."
hortly before the 2016 election, Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the Republican nominee for vice president and the speaker of the House, told a group of college Republicans why he thought Democrats winning control of the Senate would be a policy nightmare.
“Do you know who becomes chair of the Senate Budget Committee?” Mr. Ryan asked. “A guy named Bernie Sanders. You ever heard of him?”
Republicans have long feared the prospect of Mr. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist from Vermont, taking the helm of the powerful committee given his embrace of bigger government and more federal spending with borrowed money. With Democrats reclaiming the Senate, that fear is about to become a reality. Mr. Sanders, the most progressive member of the chamber, will have a central role in shaping and steering the Democrats’ tax and spending plans through a Congress that they control with the slimmest of margins.
U.S. Military. (photo: Getty Images)
ALSO SEE: The Military Has a Hate Group Problem.
But It Doesn't Know How Bad It's Gotten.
Joint Chiefs Memo to the Armed Forces on the Violent Riot
The Joint Chiefs of Staff, USNI News
Excerpt: "The violent riot in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021 was a direct assault on the U.S. Congress, the Capitol building, and our Constitutional process."
The following is the Jan. 12, 2021 message to U.S. troops from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
EMORANDUM FOR THE JOINT FORCE
SUBJECT: MESSAGE TO THE JOINT FORCE
The American people have trusted the Armed Forces of the United States to protect them and our Constitution for almost 250 years. As we have done throughout our history, the U.S. military will obey lawful orders from civilian leadership, support civil authorities to protect lives and property, ensure public safety in accordance with the law, and remain fully committed to protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
We witnessed actions inside the Capitol building that were inconsistent with the rule of law. The rights of freedom of speech and assembly do not give anyone the right to resort to violence, sedition and insurrection.
As Service Members, we must embody the values and ideals of the Nation. We support and defend the Constitution. Any act to disrupt the Constitutional process is not only against our traditions, values, and oath; it is against the law.
On January 20, 2021, in accordance with the Constitution, confirmed by the states and the courts, and certified by Congress, President-elect Biden will be inaugurated and will become our 46th Commander in Chief.
To our men and women deployed and at home, safeguarding our country-stay ready, keep your eyes on the horizon, and remain focused on the mission. We honor your continued service in defense of every American.
[signed]
Mark A. Milley
General, U.S. Army
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
John E. Hyten
General, U.S. Air Force
Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
James C. McConville
General, U.S. Army
Chief of Staff of the Army
David H. Berger
General, U.S. Marine Corps
Commandant of the Marine Corps
Michael M. Gilday
Admiral, U.S. Navy
Chief of Naval Operations
Charles Q. Brown, Jr.
General, U.S. Air Force
Chief of Staff of the Air Force
John W. Raymond
General, U.S. Space Force
Chief of Space Operations
Daniel R. Hokanson
General, U.S. Army
Chief of the National Guard Bureau
Rep. Liz Cheney speaks during a press conference at the Capitol on Dec. 17, 2019. (photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Powerful GOP Support for Trump's Impeachment Shows Major Republican Shift After Capitol Riot
Bart Jansen and Ledyard King, USA Today
Excerpt: "The expected House vote Wednesday on whether to again impeach President Donald Trump will stress major fractures within the Republican Party over supporting or defending him in the aftermath of a riot at the Capitol one week ago that left five dead."
All House Republicans supported Trump in December 2019, when House Democrats impeached him on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress stemming from his dealings with Ukraine.
But the third most senior Republican in the House – Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming – said Tuesday she will vote to impeach Trump, a sign that at least a few in the GOP could join her in punishing the president. At least two other lawmakers announced Tuesday they would vote to impeach Trump.
"Much more will become clear in coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough," Cheney said in a forceful statement. "The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President."
“There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” Cheney said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., welcomed the support.
“Good for her to be honoring the oath of office,” Pelosi said.
Cheney's decision means Republican are not as united now as Democrats, who say Trump is a danger to the country, seek to remove him from office days before his term ends. The riot, which many lawmakers blame in part on Trump's insistence that he won the election, sparked enough outrage and opposition to Trump that some Republicans could vote to impeach him for a second time.
Republican leaders haven't told members to vote against the article of impeachment, according to a House Republican leadership aide speaking on condition of anonymity. The position represents a stark change from 2019, when leaders urged lawmakers to support the president and promoted their unity.
“The big difference is their lives were threatened,” John J. Pitney Jr., a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College, told USA TODAY. “Ukraine was literally and metaphorically distant. People could forget about Ukraine. If you were in the Capitol last week, you can’t forget about the insurrection.”
A vote on impeaching Trump is expected to take place late Wednesday – and pass – in the Democrat-controlled House. The one article being considered charges the president with "incitement of insurrection," for what Democrats say was his direct role in fomenting violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6. The rampage left one police officer dead, a female rioter fatally shot and three other assailants dead.
Once it passes, Pelosi would then decide when to take it to the Senate, where at least 67 of the 100 members would have to support conviction.
A vote to convict, already a long shot, almost certainly won't happen until after Trump leaves office Jan. 20, but the Senate also could vote to disqualify Trump from holding federal elective office again.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has told associates that he believes Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased Democrats are moving to impeach him, believing it will make it easier to purge him from the party, The New York Times reported Tuesday, according to people familiar with his thinking.
During a conference call Monday with House Republicans, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told lawmakers not to attack other Republicans who voted for impeachment because it could put their lives at risk, according to a source familiar with the call but not authorized to speak on the record. Members have received threats after their names have been said publicly by others, the source added.
But several members bristled at Cheney's position. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., opposed censure or any other punishment for Trump. He said Cheney shouldn’t represent the conference any more.
“She should resign her position as conference chair,” Biggs said. “This is crap, right here.”
Support for impeachment is expected to be much smaller than for GOP objections to the Electoral College vote count last week, with perhaps a dozen Republicans joining Democrats. In 1998, five Democrats joined Republicans on three articles to impeach President Bill Clinton, who, like Trump in 2019, was acquitted in the Senate.
Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., will vote to impeach Trump as well, according to a statement he issued Tuesday.
“To allow the president of the United States to incite this attack without consequence is a direct threat to the future of our democracy,” Katko said in a statement. “I will vote to impeach this president."
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., tweeted support for removing Trump from office under the 25th Amendment and said Tuesday he would vote for impeachment.
"There is no doubt in my mind that the President of the United States broke his oath of office and incited this insurrection," Kinzinger said in a statement.
Newly elected Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., told CNN he is "strongly considering" voting to impeach Trump because the president is "no longer qualified to hold that office."
Others haven't spelled out their positions, even as they harshly criticize Trump.
Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, tweeted after the riots that his anger continues to grow over the desecration of the Capitol and that the president doesn't have his support. "What happened was an act of domestic terrorism inspired and encouraged by our President," he said.
Ally Riding, a spokeswoman for the Utah Republican, said he has yet to make a decision on impeachment.
"He feels like it's a rushed process and he wishes that (they) would take time and call witness and have hearings and do so in a way that everyone can come away with the same conclusion as opposed to the last impeachment," she told USA TODAY.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., tweeted that Trump was responsible for the riot.
"The President of the United States has been lying to his supporters with false information and false expectations," wrote Fitzpatrick, who also is considering a resolution to censure the president. "He lit the flame of incitement and owns responsibility for this."
Many in GOP oppose impeachment
While some Republicans slam the president, others in the GOP are standing by Trump and plan to oppose impeachment, saying impeachment could further divide the nation.
McCarthy suggested other steps instead, including a resolution of censure, creation of a commission to investigate the riot, and reforming the Electoral Count Act of 1887.
Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., said in a New York Times column that options include censure, criminal proceedings and actions under the 14th Amendment after a thorough investigation into the events leading up to the assault on the Capitol.
"We cannot rush to judgment simply because we want retribution or, worse, because we want to achieve a particular political outcome," Reed said.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Tuesday that efforts to remove Trump under the 25th Amendment or through impeachment during the final days of his term will do nothing to unify the country.
“These actions will only continue to divide the nation,” Jordan said.
One alternative being discussed is a public rebuke of Trump. A group of Republicans led by Fitzpatrick is circulating a resolution that censures Trump because "he acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law."
Polling: Trump support slipping
Pitney suggests Trump's plummeting approval rating could open up the door for Republicans to oppose him.
An average of public polls at RealClearPolitics.com found Trump's approval rating of 41.6% dropped 14 points from Dec. 30 to Jan. 10.
“His approval rating was never great, and it’s even lower now,” Pitney said. “Some Republicans may figure they finally have some space to stand up to him.”
But Trump is expected to wield considerable influence after he leaves office, despite his removal from Twitter, Facebook and other social media websites.
“I think it is a challenge for many of them, at least what we’ve seen so far," Karen Hult, a political science professor at Virginia Tech, told USA TODAY. “They agree with many observers that this simply doesn’t make sense to do impeachment this late in the president’s term, especially when at the same time, it’s very unlikely the Senate would reach a two-thirds vote to convict."
The Republican Party from national to local district levels remains a party of Trump, Hult said. Lawmakers might feel that their constituents elected them in November to support Trump and that they could face opposition in defending their seats if they oppose him, she said.
“More importantly, perhaps for some of them, to vote in favor of the impeachment resolution would not be responsive to many of whom they see in their constituencies," Hult said. “Many of these people may be concerned about being primaried in the next election."
Senate GOP faces same dynamics
A Senate with 50 Republicans and 50 lawmakers who caucus with Democrats is unlikely to convict Trump with the required two-thirds majority. One argument for pursuing impeachment is that the Senate could bar Trump from holding future office if he is convicted.
But the divide remains among Republicans. Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., have called on Trump to resign. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said he will consider impeachment if the House approves a charge.
“One argument is: If they let him get away with this, that sends a signal to future presidents they can do anything they want in the final weeks of their administration,” Pitney said.
Trump said Tuesday that impeachment talk is causing tremendous anger, but he wants "no violence."
“This impeachment is causing tremendous anger. It’s really a terrible thing that they’re doing," Trump told reporters Tuesday as he traveled to Alamo, Texas. "For Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to continue on this path, I think it’s causing tremendous danger to our country and it’s causing tremendous anger. I want no violence.”
The timing for a Senate trial is uncertain. McConnell said the trial couldn’t be held before Trump’s term ends Jan. 20.
But there is precedent for holding a trial after an official leaves office. Pelosi could delay sending the article of impeachment to the Senate to avoid a distraction during the start of President-elect Joe Biden’s term.
Pelosi told reporters early Tuesday that she hasn’t decided when to send the article to the Senate.
“That is not something I will be discussing right now as you can imagine,” Pelosi said. “Take it one step at a time.”
Lisa Montgomery. (photo: Kansas City Star)
US Executes Lisa Montgomery, the Only Female on Federal Death Row
Cheryl Corley, NPR
Corley writes: "Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, died by lethal injection early Wednesday after the Supreme Court vacated several lower-court rulings, clearing the way for her to become the first female prisoner to be put to death by the U.S. government since 1953."
Editor's note: This story includes information that may be upsetting to some readers.
It was midnight when the Supreme Court ended a day of legal challenges, setting aside what Department of Justice attorneys called "unwarranted" obstacles to the execution of Montgomery for a "crime of staggering brutality." By 1:31 a.m. ET Wednesday, she was pronounced dead.
Just ahead of Montgomery's execution at the Federal Corrections Complex in Terre Haute, Ind., her attorney, Kelley Henry, said her client's death by lethal injection was far from justice, as no other woman who had committed a similar crime faced the death penalty.
In 2004, Montgomery drove from Kansas to Missouri, ostensibly to purchase a puppy from Bobbie Jo Stinnett, a 23-year-old dog breeder who was eight months pregnant. Instead, Montgomery strangled her, cut her fetus from her womb and tried to pass the surviving baby off as her own.
Four years later, she was sentenced to death.
Until Montgomery's death overnight Wednesday, it had been nearly 70 years since a woman on federal death row had been executed.
The execution followed an intense, 11th-hour, court battle over Montgomery's fate.
U.S. District Judge Patrick Hanlon in Indiana granted a stay of execution, citing the need to determine whether she was too mentally ill to be executed.
On Tuesday, an appellate court in Chicago reversed that decision, paving the way for the execution to go forward. But in a separate ruling, an appeals court in Washington, D.C., blocked the execution to give time for hearings on whether the Department of Justice had given sufficient notice of Montgomery's execution date, which was set for Tuesday. The Department of Justice challenged that ruling.
A whiplash of legal challenges and decisions continued throughout the day until the Supreme Court's midnight ruling allowed the federal Bureau of Prisons to proceed with the plan to end Montgomery's life by lethal injection. Montgomery's lawyers had also filed a clemency petition asking President Trump to commute her sentence to life in prison, to no avail.
In preparation, authorities had transferred Montgomery on Monday from the federal women's prison in Texas where she had been held for more than a decade to the Indiana facility. The family of the woman she murdered, had traveled there as well to witness Montgomery's death.
Henry, Montgomery's attorney, said throughout the legal proceedings that no one was excusing Montgomery's actions, but that her troubled life provided context for the crime. She said her client had brain damage and severe mental illness that was exacerbated by a lifetime of abuse, including child sex trafficking, gang rape and physical abuse largely at the hands of family members.
She said the Constitution, "forbids the execution of a person who is unable to rationally understand her execution," Henry said in a statement shortly after the Supreme Court issued its final order.
"The government stopped at nothing in its zeal to kill this damaged and delusional woman," the attorney said.
Montgomery's execution is one of three that the Justice Department had scheduled during this final full week of the Trump administration. The two others were halted by a federal judge on Tuesday.
Cory Johnson, 52, was scheduled for execution on Thursday for his involvement in the murder of seven people nearly three decades ago. Dustin John Higgs, 55, was scheduled to be put to death on Friday for his involvement in the murder of three women nearly 20 years ago. Both have tested positive for COVID-19 and the judge ordered their executions be delayed until mid-March to allow them to recover. The Justice Department has appealed that order.
If the judge's delay is overturned, those executions could be the last to occur for the foreseeable future. Senate Democrats unveiled legislation Monday that would abolish the federal death penalty, and President-elect Joe Biden has said he wants to eliminate it as well.
In 2019, the Justice Department announced it would revive federal executions after a 16-year hiatus. Under the Trump administration, 10 men have been executed since July 2020.
Now one woman joins the list of those put to death.
A surfer at Huntington beach on the Pacific coast of the US. Scientists expect about 1 metre of sea level rise by the end of the century. (photo: Allen J Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Rex/Shutterstock)
Record Ocean Heat in 2020 Supercharged Extreme Weather
Damian Carrington, Guardian UK
Carrington writes: "The world's oceans reached their hottest level in recorded history in 2020, supercharging the extreme weather impacts of the climate emergency, scientists have reported."
Scientists say temperatures likely to be increasing faster than at any time in past 2,000 years
More than 90% of the heat trapped by carbon emissions is absorbed by the oceans, making their warmth an undeniable signal of the accelerating crisis. The researchers found the five hottest years in the oceans had occurred since 2015, and that the rate of heating since 1986 was eight times higher than that from 1960-85.
Reliable instrumental measurements stretch back to 1940 but it is likely the oceans are now at their hottest for 1,000 years and heating faster than any time in the last 2,000 years. Warmer seas provide more energy to storms, making them more severe, and there were a record 29 tropical storms in the Atlantic in 2020.
Hotter oceans also disrupt rainfall patterns, which lead to floods, droughts and wildfires. Heat also causes seawater to expand and drive up sea levels. Scientists expect about 1 metre of sea level rise by the end of the century, endangering 150 million people worldwide.
Furthermore, warmer water is less able to dissolve carbon dioxide. Currently, 30% of carbon emissions are absorbed by the oceans, limiting the heating effect of humanity’s burning of fossil fuels.
“Ocean warming is the key metric and 2020 continued a long series of record-breaking years, showing the unabated continuation of global warming,” said Prof John Abraham, at the University of St Thomas in Minnesota, US, and one of the team behind the new analysis.
“Warmer oceans supercharge the weather, impacting the biological systems of the planet as well as human society. Climate change is literally killing people and we are not doing enough to stop it.”
Recent research has shown higher temperatures in the seas are also harming marine life, with the number of ocean heatwaves increasing sharply.
The oceans cover 71% of the planet and water can absorb thousands of times more heat than air, which is why 93% of global heating is taken up by the seas. But surface air temperatures, which affect people most directly, also rose in 2020 to the joint highest on record.
The average global air temperature in 2020 was 1.25C higher than the pre-industrial period, dangerously close to the 1.5C target set by the world’s nations to avoid the worst impacts.
The latest research, published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, showed the oceans absorbed 20 zettajoules more heat than in 2019. This is equivalent to every person on Earth running 80 hairdryers all day, every day, or the detonation of about four atomic bombs a second.
The analysis assessed the heat absorbed in the top 2,000 metres of the ocean. This is where most of the data is collected and where the vast majority of the heat accumulates. Most data is from 3,800 free-drifting Argo floats dispersed across the oceans, but some comes from torpedo-like bathythermographs dropped from ships in the past.
The study also reported that the sinking of surface ocean waters and upwelling of deeper water is reducing as the seas heat up. This means the surface layers heat up even further and fewer nutrients for marine life are brought up from the depths.
The worldwide lockdowns resulting from the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 cut carbon emissions by about 7%. While this was a record drop, it was “not even a blip” in terms of the total CO2 in the atmosphere and had no measurable effect on ocean heating.
“The fact the oceans reached yet another new record level of warmth in 2020, despite a record drop in global carbon emissions, drives home the fact that the planet will continue to warm up as long as we emit carbon into the atmosphere.” said Prof Michael Mann, at Penn State University in the US, and one of the study team. “It is a reminder of the urgency of bringing carbon emissions down rapidly over the next several years.”
Prof Laure Zanna, of New York University, said: “Continuous ocean temperature measurements, as presented in this study, are crucial to quantify the warming of the planet.”
Rising sea level driven by heating, as well as the melting of glaciers and ice caps was important, she said. “That directly impacts a significant fraction of the world’s population."
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