Trump publicly calls for “no violence” and peaceful transition

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President Trump urged the American public on Wednesday to refrain from violence ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, again calling for a peaceful transition of power.

Why it matters: The statement was released as the House debated whether to impeach Trump for a second time, after the president was accused of inciting the pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol and left five dead last week.

  • D.C. is currently on high alert ahead of the Biden inauguration, with the National Guard deployed to the nation’s capital. Continue reading.

ICYMI: In Congress, MN Republicans Stand by Trump as Others in the GOP Turn on the President


At least 5 Republican Representatives to Vote for Impeachment, Over a Dozen Senators Open to Conviction

St. Paul, MN – While Representatives Hagedorn, Emmer, Fischbach, and Stauber refuse to hold Donald Trump accountable for attempting to overturn a free and fair presidential election by inciting a violent insurrection attempt against the United States of America, other Republicans in Congress are putting their country before their party.

At least five Republican Representatives plan to vote for impeachment, including Liz Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives. In addition, more than a dozen Senate Republicans, including Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, are considering voting to convict President Trump following his impeachment. Here’s what they said, in part:

Continue reading “ICYMI: In Congress, MN Republicans Stand by Trump as Others in the GOP Turn on the President”

Republicans want reconciliation. Here’s what they need to do first.

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NOTE: The following is an editorial by The Washington Post’s Editorial Board.

A WEEK after the shocking Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol by an angry mob, Republicans are suddenly calling for unity. “We must work together to lower the temperature and unite the country,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.). “We must come together and put this anger and division behind us,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.). It is time to “take the crazy rhetoric down on both sides,” said Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.). What all of these GOP leaders — and many more calling for reconciliation — have in common is that they voted against counting President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral votes, even after a mob stormed the nation’s seat of government on President Trump’s behalf.

If Republicans want to talk about reconciliation, there is a minimum price of entry: a straightforward, unequivocal acknowledgment that the election was not rigged and that Mr. Biden won the vote fair and square. Mr. Trump is attempting to make the 2020 election a 21st-century Lost Cause, entrenching the myth that malicious forces subverted American democracy to install Mr. Biden against the will of the voters. It is this lie that Mr. Trump fed his supporters before telling them to march to the Capitol and show “strength” — and that he continued to feed them in tweets even during the raid. It is the same lie that Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Cruz and a startling number of Republicans fueled as they twisted what should have been a rubber-stamp electoral vote counting process into a forum for overturning a clean election and a locus for the mob’s anger.

Some other Republicans and right-wing commentators have arguedthat there is little difference between what Republicans have done since last November and what Democrats did following Mr. Trump’s 2016 victory. It would follow, they suggest, that Mr. Biden and the Democrats should make the first moves toward reconciliation by standing down from impeachment. This is unhinged. Democrats immediately acknowledged Mr. Trump’s win. There was a broad factual basis for the Russia investigation that followed. Democrats did not paint American democracy as so hopelessly corrupted as to convince a massive chunk of the country that the 2016 election was stolen and inspire a violent attack on the Capitol. Only Republicans are guilty of escalating the nation’s partisan warfare to such a sad place. Now that the consequences of their dishonest campaign are becoming clear, it is on them to begin the reconciliation process — by telling the truth. Continue reading.

McConnell is said to be pleased about impeachment, believing it will be easier to purge Trump from the G.O.P.

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Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, has told associates that he believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him, believing that it will make it easier to purge him from the party, according to people familiar with his thinking. The House is voting on Wednesday to formally charge Mr. Trump with inciting violence against the country.

At the same time, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader and one of Mr. Trump’s most steadfast allies in Congress, has asked other Republicans whether he should call on Mr. Trump to resign in the aftermath of the riot at the Capitol last week, according to three Republican officials briefed on the conversations.

While Mr. McCarthy has said he is personally opposed to impeachment, he and other party leaders have decided not to formally lobby Republicans to vote “no,” and an aide to Mr. McCarthy said he was open to a measure censuring Mr. Trump for his conduct. In private, Mr. McCarthy reached out to a leading House Democrat to see if the chamber would be willing to pursue a censure vote, though Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ruled it out. Continue reading.