I will have plenty more to say about the insurrection that happened in the Capitol on Wednesday (and if you follow me on social media, you’ve seen that already) but today, we have an imperative to do everything we can to get Trump out of office immediately.
The siege on the Capitol by his supporters was months in the making. Months before Election Day, Trump was telling his supporters that if he lost, it was because the election would be rigged. And sure enough, when he lost, he claimed the election was stolen from him and did everything he could to push that lie. Which inevitably inspired a multitude of conspiracy theories and lies that spread through the right-wing ecosystem like wildfire.
Trump invited his supporters to come to DC on January 6th to distract and disrupt the joint session of Congress where his loss would be affirmed, and then he incited them. At the rally he said things like, “Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.” He also lambasted “weak Republicans” for not doing more to overturn the election and told the crowd it would be a “sad day” if Pence didn’t come through for them. So, right as every Democrat, Republican, and Mike Pence was in the Capitol, he was stoking up the rage in his supporters against all three of those groups.
And here’s the part of Trump’s speech at the rally that is being seen as the incitement: “We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.” (You can read the full transcript of his remarks HERE.)
Following those remarks, some of his supporters started to walk to the Capitol. And that crowd grew and grew. We all saw what happened next. They breached the Capitol and all the legislators, Mike Pence, and Congressional staff had to be taken to a secure location. They successfully disrupted the counting of the votes, even if only temporarily. Four pro-Trump extremists died, as did one member of the Capitol Police. Trump and his words are a danger to the country and he needs to be removed immediately.
The 25th Amendment
The 25th Amendment allows for the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet secretaries to declare that Trump is unfit and remove him from power. It is a temporary measure that the president can challenge, but the way that it works, Trump would be out of power for the remainder of the presidency because it is a 21 day process to get his power back, and by then Joe Biden would be president.
Unfortunately for all of us, despite the reports that several Cabinet members talked about invoking the 25th, Mike Pence refuses to invoke it. So game over.
Impeach Trump Again
Both Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are in favor of the 25th Amendment and impeaching Trump again. (According to reports, Pelosi is also exploring another Constitutional way to remove Trump, but I don’t have more information about that yet.) They tried to convince Pence to invoke the 25th but he refused to get on the phone with them. That leaves impeachment. Articles of Impeachment are already circulating Congress, and it appears the Democrats are coalescing behind the one written by Rep. David Cicilline that says says Trump deserves removal for 1) “willfully inciting violence against the government of the United States” and 2) improperly pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory on false pretenses.
The Democrats are deciding today what the timing of their exact next steps are, so here’s what we need to do. If we have a Democratic Rep and/or Senator, we need to call them and give them back up. Let them know that we are fully behind Trump being impeached again. If we have a Republican Rep or Senator, we need to tell them that Trump is a danger to our nation, as they clearly experienced on Wednesday when they had to hide from Trump’s supporters, and I’d lean into the reality that if Trump is removed, he would be permanently barred from running for President again.
You can find the contact information for your Representative HERE, and your Senators HERE. Please make this call (or send an email) today. We have no time to spare on this one.
I’m sure you have questions, and I’ll do my best to answer them. Leave a comment or send me an email.
Thank you for taking action.
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I am absolutely on board for all of the above. However, here’s my issue. Let’s say they do impeach him sometime next week. Then McConnell holds up the trial until after Jan 20. Then, we’ll be doing the trial while Joe Biden is just beginning his term and Trump is gone. I just don’t know if that’s worth it. And I bet you that Biden doesn’t want that hanging over his new administration either. What do you think? Again, I want his butt gone now. Period. But, I just don’t know if we have enough time. Such a dilemma!
McConnell has to begin trial proceedings as soon as the House delivers the articles to the Senate. So there’d be no delay there. It’s possible the Senate would hold a trial and vote before Biden is inaugurated, but a more likely goal would be to get Trump convicted so he can never run for president again. I can think of several GOP 2024 hopefuls that would sign on for that. Finally, we won’t have Warnock or Ossoff in the Senate before the 20th.
Thank you for that. I fully support the impeachment, regardless of whether he serves the rest of his term. We cannot let what he did stand. He must be held to account.