Tag: Trump attempt to steal a second term

Psychoanalyst Justin Frank: Capitol riot was a source of incredible pleasure’ for Trump

On Thursday, House impeachment managers finished their presentation of the case against Donald Trump, arguing that he should be convicted for the crime of inciting an insurrectionist attack against the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

The video, photographic and other documentary evidence of Trump’s responsibility for the attack on the Capitol is overwhelming. He has no reasonable defense for his crimes, and his attorneys have not offered one. Instead they will lie, obfuscate, change the topic and present Trump and his followers as being the “real victims” of a dark plot centered on “political correctness” and denying “free speech” to “conservatives” (read: white, Christian and male). 

House impeachment manager Joe Neguse explained the importance of convicting Donald Trump: “We humbly, humbly, ask you to convict President Trump for the crime for which he is overwhelmingly guilty. Because if you don’t, if we pretend this didn’t happen, or worse, if we let it go unanswered, who’s to say it won’t happen again?” Continue reading.

Opinion: If Republican senators acquit Trump, they will own the violence that follows

Washington Post logo

House impeachment managers closed their prosecution Thursday with a warning to Republican senators: If they vote to acquit former president Donald Trump, the blood will be on their hands when he unleashes political carnage again.

“When” is the proper word, for, given Trump’s long pattern of inciting violent threats and actions, the next brutal outburst is not a question of “if.”

“If we don’t draw the line here, what’s next?” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the lead impeachment manager, asked the senators. “Is there any political leader in this room who believes that, if he is ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to get his way? … If he gets back into office and it happens again, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.” Continue reading.

New report reveals 2 aides for Texas AG Paxton met with Trump officials just before the Capitol riots

AlterNet logo

It’s no secret that GOP Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s traveled to Washington, D.C., the week of the U.S. Capitol riots as he appeared next to former President Donald Trump while he was onstage at the “Save America” rally. But now, his top aides’ travel to Washington is also coming to light and questions are looming about the purpose of their trip that same week. 

According to KXAN, Paxton’s aides—First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster and Communications Deputy Director Kimberly Hubbard—were the two who traveled to the nation’s capital to meet with Trump’s senior White House officials.

Records from Paxton’s office, obtained by KXAN, show details about Hubbard’s reimbursed travel expenses on taxpayers’ dime. Documentation shows that Hubbard “traveled to Washington on Jan. 5 and left Jan. 7, too. She stayed at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Washington the first night and the Alexandrian Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, the second night. Hubbard only sought reimbursement for personal car travel in Virginia, meals and her hotel stays, for a total of just over $700.” Continue reading.

Mounting evidence suggests Trump knew of danger to Pence when he attacked him as lacking ‘courage’ amid Capitol siege

Washington Post logo

Mounting evidence emerging as former president Donald Trump’s impeachment trial unfolds in the Senate this week indicates Trump may have been personally informed that Vice President Mike Pence was in physical danger during the Jan. 6 Capitol siege, just moments before denigrating him on Twitter.

Trump’s decision to tweet that Pence lacked “courage” — a missive sent shortly after the vice president had been rushed off the Senate floor — underscores how he delayed taking action to stop his supporters as they ransacked the Capitol.

Many of them were intent on doing harm to Pence, whom Trump had singled out at a rally earlier in the day, falsely claiming the vice president had the power to stop Congress from formalizing Joe Biden’s electoral college victory. Continue reading.

Analysis reveals Trump operation paid $3.5m to organizers of the rally that led to deadly capitol attack

AlterNet logo

A new political spending analysis released Wednesday shows that former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign and its joint fundraising committees paid more than $3.5 million to the individuals and firms involved in organizing the January 6 “Stop the Steal” rally that presaged the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Investigators at OpenSecrets, a project of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics that examines how money influences U.S. elections and public policy, analyzed recent Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings and found “newly identified payments… [that] show people involved in organizing the protests on January 6 received even larger sums from Trump’s 2020 campaign than previously known.”

The findings come in the midst of the Senate impeachment trial that will determine whether or not Trump will be convicted for inciting the violent insurrection carried out by a mob of his supporters. Continue reading.

Democrats argue Trump will incite violence again

The Hill logo

House Democrats pressing the Senate to convict former President Trump in his impeachment trial argued Thursday that an acquittal would raise the potential for him to incite violence again in the future.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the lead impeachment manager, argued that Trump’s pattern of incitement, which Democrats say led a mob to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, would resume if he were to become president again.

“My dear colleagues, is there any political leader in this room who believes that if he is ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to get his way?” Raskin asked. “Would you bet the lives of more police officers on that? Would you bet the safety of your family on that? Would you bet the future of your democracy on that?” Continue reading.

Justice Department says an Oath Keepers leader waited for Trump’s direction before Capitol attack

The Justice Department is now making clear that a leader among the Oath Keepers paramilitary group — who planned and led others in the US Capitol siege to attempt to stop the Biden presidency — believed she was responding to the call from then-President Donald Trump himself.”

As the inauguration grew nearer, [Jessica] Watkins indicated that she was awaiting direction from President Trump,” prosecutors wrote in a filing Thursday morning. 

This is the most direct language yet from federal prosecutors linking Trump’s requests for support in Washington, D.C., to the most militant aspects of the insurrection. Continue reading.

Trump attorneys falsely claim he was denied ‘due process’

Washington Post logo

“Our Constitution and any basic sense of fairness require that every legal process with significant consequences for a person’s life, including impeachment, requires due process under the law, which includes fact-finding and the establishment of a legitimate evidentiary record with an appropriate foundation.”

— David I. Schoen, attorney for former president Donald Trump, in an argument to the Senate about Trump’s second impeachment, Feb. 12, 2021

“The due process clause applies to this impeachment hearing, and it’s been severely and extremely violated.”

— Trump attorney Michael van der Veen, responding to senators’ questions at Trump’s impeachment trial, Feb. 12, 2021

This falsehood is rich with hypocrisy.

The day before these remarks, Trump’s legal team was meeting with Republican senators to strategize on Trump’s defense. Forget about due process. Any lawyer who tried this with jurors in court would be sanctioned or disbarred.

Luckily for Trump, it was not a judicial proceeding. It was political. The House and Senate each set their own rules on impeachment. Each chamber votes. There’s no appeal. The end. Continue reading.

Senator stunned by GOP’s determination to avoid the truth: ‘How will they ever look Pence in the face again?’

On MSNBC Thursday, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) tore into his colleagues who were unswayed by the damning testimony at this week’s Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.

“I don’t know how anyone can call themselves a defender of law and order when you say it’s okay for this mob, this raging mob, to rampage and pillage,” he said.

The House impeachment managers presented new evidence to the Senate on Wednesday, including never-before-seen footage of how the pro-Trump mob came close to harming senators, something which stunned even some Republicans watching. Continue reading.

Will impeachment even be a blip in 2022 battle for Senate control?

NRSC Chairman Rick Scott says midterms will focus on job creation

Former President Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment has dominated recent headlines, but neither party expects the votes cast Saturday by senators from battleground states to be a major factor in the fight for Senate control next year.

Seven Republican senators crossed party lines and joined all 50 Democrats in voting to convict Trump for inciting the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 to stop Congress from confirming Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential race. But that was 10 short of the two-thirds majority, or 67 votes, required by the Constitution. Forty-three Republicans voted to acquit Trump.

Two GOP senators in competitive races voted to acquit Trump. Just one Senate Republican up for reelection in 2022, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, voted to convict the former president. Two other Republicans in states with competitive Senate races who opted not to run for reelection, Pennsylvania’s Patrick J. Toomey and North Carolina’s Richard M. Burr, both also voted to convict.  Continue reading.