Tag: Trump insurrection

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I didn’t write about the future of the Republican Party within the next 12 hours, my political analyst card would have been revoked.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.

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 brought leadership turmoil to security agencies in run-up to Capitol riot

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The three top federal agencies responsible for protecting the nation — the Departments of Justice, Defense and Homeland Security — are all being run by acting officials, as the United States endures one of its most sensitive national security crises.

The leadership vacuum is the product of President Trump’s tempestuous relationships with his Cabinet secretaries and tendency to replace them for long periods of time with acting officials who lack Senate confirmation — a pattern that has led to turmoil atop critical federal agencies for much of his presidency.

Never has the absence of confirmed leaders seemed more pronounced than now. All three agencies were being led by acting officials in the run-up to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, where extremist Trump supporters who embrace the president’s false claims of election fraud stormed the building to demand that lawmakers dispute President-elect Joe Biden’s victory during a pro forma certification of the electoral college vote. Continue reading.

Dozens of people on FBI terrorist watch list came to D.C. the day of Capitol riot

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Dozens of people on a terrorist watch list were in Washington for pro-Trump events Jan. 6, a day that ended in a chaotic crime rampage when a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, according to people familiar with evidence gathered in the FBI’s investigation.

The majority of the watch-listed individuals in Washington that day are suspected white supremacists whose past conduct so alarmed investigators that their names had been previously entered into the national Terrorist Screening Database, or TSDB, a massive set of names flagged as potential security risks, these people said. The watch list is larger and separate from the “no-fly” list the government maintains to prevent terrorism suspects from boarding airplanes, and those listed are not automatically barred from any public or commercial spaces, current and former officials said.

The presence of so many watch-listed individuals in one place — without more robust security measures to protect the public — is another example of the intelligence failures preceding last week’s fatal assault that sent lawmakers running for their lives, some current and former law enforcement officials argued. The revelation follows a Washington Post report earlier this week detailing the FBI’s failure to act aggressively on an internal intelligence report of Internet discussions about plans to attack Congress, smash windows, break down doors and “get violent . . . go there ready for war.” Continue reading.

Even GOP lawmakers’ best sycophantic yelling couldn’t stop Trump from getting impeached again

Despite the best efforts of some of the Republican Party’s brightest stars, on Wednesday, Donald Trump became the first president in American history to be impeached twice. And just one week after Trump incited a coup attempt on the Capitol building that left multiple people dead and launched this second, historic impeachment effort, a group of congressional Republicans have apparently coalesced a unifying message in these closing days of the Trump administration.

That message is: Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!

To be fair, not all the House Republicans have chosen to publicly throw a temper tantrum over Trump’s impending impeachment. Some were too damn scared to do much of anything, and at least 10 actually crossed party lines to vote in favor of sending the articles of impeachment up to the Senate. But as representative after representative rose Wednesday to address the House during the impeachment proceedings, it was clear that within the GOP caucus was a sizable number of lawmakers who, absent anything even resembling the normal human capacity for shame, were eager to use their time to whine, bloviate, and above all else, play the victim. Continue reading.

Behind the targeting of Nancy Pelosi by the Capitol insurrectionists

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Among the various forms of violence on display during the U.S. Capitol insurrection, one has been largely overlooked: misogyny, or hatred toward women. Yet behaviors and symbols of white male power were striking and persistent features of the riots.

Members of the overwhelmingly male crowds defending a president well-known for his sexist attacks, embraced male supremacist ideologies, wore military gearand bared their chests in shows of masculine bravado. They even destroyed display cabinets holding historical books on women in politics.

Actions targeting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi give the clearest illustration. Members of the mob broke into her office and vandalized it. Items like mail, signs and even her lectern proved to be particularly popular trophies – symbolizing an attack on Democrats and the House Speaker, but also against one of the most powerful women in American politics. Continue reading.

The president as pariah: Trump faces a torrent of retribution over his role in the U.S. Capitol siege

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He has been banned on social media, shunned by foreign leaders, impeached (again) in the House, threatened with censure by Republicans, deserted by Cabinet members, turned on by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), canceled by his hometown of New York City, dropped by the PGA golf tour and snubbed by New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick.

And that’s just in the past few days for President Trump, who after ruling Washington for nearly four years through a mix of bullying, intimidation, patronage and a sense that his willingness to spread falsehoods and misinformation would have no consequences is suddenly facing a torrent of retribution from those who long excused his behavior or were too scared or powerless to confront it.

The fallout on Trump for his role in riling up thousands of supporters in a speech ahead of their deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol last week has intensified quickly — leaving the world’s most powerful leader as a pariah in many quarters, more isolated than ever. Continue reading.

AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s call to action distorted in debate

WASHINGTON — The House impeachment debate on Wednesday heard a distorted account of President Donald Trump’s remarks to his supporters a week ago when he exhorted them to “fight like hell” before they swarmed the Capitol.

REP. GUY RESCHENTHALER, R-Pa.: “At his rally, President Trump urged attendees to, quote, unquote, peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. There was no mention of violence, let alone calls to action.”

THE FACTS: Trump’s speech was a call to action — a call to fight and save the country.

“Our country has had enough,” he told those who went on to stage the violent siege of the Capitol. Continue reading.

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.