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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
January 7, 2021
Trump's crowning disgrace — how the media enabled four years of terror
What a sad chapter
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago
snip//
Trump has been at war with an unraveling America for years. The parallel reality has been that the American press corps has not figured out how to deal with that frightening scenario. It hasn’t' properly grappled with the idea that our commander-in-chief would purposefully try to harm America's security and undo its democratic traditions.
It's hard to think about what might have been if the press had carried out its duties differently over the last four years — if the press had shown more courage and not allowed itself to be bullied by a mad man.
Wednesday's insurrection was Trump's crowning disgrace. And over four years, the press helped him get there.
Eric Boehlert: Trump's crowning disgrace -- how the media enabled four years of terror
https://pressrun.media/p/trumps-final-disgrace-and-how-theTrump's crowning disgrace — how the media enabled four years of terror
What a sad chapter
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago
snip//
Trump has been at war with an unraveling America for years. The parallel reality has been that the American press corps has not figured out how to deal with that frightening scenario. It hasn’t' properly grappled with the idea that our commander-in-chief would purposefully try to harm America's security and undo its democratic traditions.
It's hard to think about what might have been if the press had carried out its duties differently over the last four years — if the press had shown more courage and not allowed itself to be bullied by a mad man.
• What if the press had taken Trump's coup attempt more seriously over the last two months, instead of waving his strategy off as "performance art" and "bad sportsmanship"? What if news dispatches had regularly used “sedition,” “treason,” and “coup” to accurately describe the unfolding crisis? What if news that Trump had discussions about imposing martial law with advisors in a West Wing meeting had sparked banner headlines and widespread media calls for resignation?
• What if national media outlets had refused to play any role in the GOP's attempt to denigrate the election process by denying a platform to Republican members of Congress who refused to say Joe Biden had won the election?
• What if Trump's pronouncement in September that he might not peacefully give up power if he lost the election had generated huge headlines across the country and network evening news coverage, instead of sparking crickets from the media?
snip//
• What if the press had told the truth about Trump's unhinged and demented presidential rallies, instead of politely calling them "fiery"?
• What if national media outlets had refused to play any role in the GOP's attempt to denigrate the election process by denying a platform to Republican members of Congress who refused to say Joe Biden had won the election?
• What if Trump's pronouncement in September that he might not peacefully give up power if he lost the election had generated huge headlines across the country and network evening news coverage, instead of sparking crickets from the media?
snip//
• What if the press had told the truth about Trump's unhinged and demented presidential rallies, instead of politely calling them "fiery"?
Wednesday's insurrection was Trump's crowning disgrace. And over four years, the press helped him get there.
January 7, 2021
Mick Mulvaney resigns from Trump administration: 'I can't stay here'
By Jordan Williams - 01/07/21 08:39 AM EST
Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Thursday resigned from his post as the special envoy to Northern Ireland following the riot on the U.S. Capitol.
His resignation follows that of some other notable White House aides in the aftermath of the violence, including Stephanie Grisham, chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump, and deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger.
National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien also reportedly considered stepping down on Wednesday, according to several reports.
Mulvaney said he wouldn’t be surprised to see more resignations as President Trump winds down his final 13 days in office, but added that he understood why some in the administration would still choose to stay.
more...
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/533080-mick-mulvaney-resigns-from-trump-administration-i-cant-stay-here
Mick Mulvaney resigns from Trump administration: 'I can't stay here'
Mick Mulvaney resigns from Trump administration: 'I can't stay here'
By Jordan Williams - 01/07/21 08:39 AM EST
Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Thursday resigned from his post as the special envoy to Northern Ireland following the riot on the U.S. Capitol.
“I can’t stay here, not after yesterday,” Mulvaney said in an appearance on CNBC. “You can’t look at that yesterday and say I want to be a part of that in any way shape or form.”
His resignation follows that of some other notable White House aides in the aftermath of the violence, including Stephanie Grisham, chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump, and deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger.
National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien also reportedly considered stepping down on Wednesday, according to several reports.
Mulvaney said he wouldn’t be surprised to see more resignations as President Trump winds down his final 13 days in office, but added that he understood why some in the administration would still choose to stay.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of my friends resign over the course of the next 24 to 48 hours, and it’d be completely understandable if they did,” Mulvaney said. “Those who choose to stay, and I have talked some of to them, are choosing to stay because they are concerned that the president might put someone in to make things even worse.”
more...
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/533080-mick-mulvaney-resigns-from-trump-administration-i-cant-stay-here
January 7, 2021
Rebecca Shabad
7m ago / 7:48 AM EST
Nearly 100 lawmakers call for Trump's removal through impeachment or 25th Amendment
Nearly 100 lawmakers call for Trump's removal through impeachment or 25th Amendment
https://www.nbcnews.com/card/nearly-100-lawmakers-call-trump-s-removal-through-impeachment-or-n1253234Rebecca Shabad
7m ago / 7:48 AM EST
Nearly 100 lawmakers call for Trump's removal through impeachment or 25th Amendment
Nearly 100 Democratic members of Congress have backed calls for or Trump's removal from office in the next several days either through the impeachment process, the 25th Amendment or another way after the violence that rocked the Capitol on Wednesday.
The calls come as multiple sources familiar with the matter said there have been informal discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment among staff-level officials within the Trump administration.
Trump spent Wednesday inciting and praising a mob that stormed the Capitol, so much so that he has been locked out of Twitter and Facebook for at least 12 hours.
The calls come as multiple sources familiar with the matter said there have been informal discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment among staff-level officials within the Trump administration.
Trump spent Wednesday inciting and praising a mob that stormed the Capitol, so much so that he has been locked out of Twitter and Facebook for at least 12 hours.
January 7, 2021
A Trump supporter called C-SPAN in tears to ask if her president had lied to her
Listen to a self-described Trump supporter rethink her support in real time.
By Dylan Matthewsdylan@vox.com Jan 6, 2021, 9:45pm EST
For the entire Trump presidency, the question skeptics of the administration kept asking was: what will be enough? What could make his supporters realize they’ve been had?
Charlottesville wasn’t enough; trying to get a foreign prosecutor to pursue his political opponents wasn’t enough; a botched hurricane response that left thousands dead wasn’t enough; a pandemic that left hundreds of thousands dead wasn’t enough. So what would do it?
In that context, something remarkable happened on C-SPAN on Wednesday night, after a Trump-inspired mob stormed the Capitol and attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and keep Trump in office. At least one of the group storming the Capitol, Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, was killed by an unknown shooter after she had made it inside the Capitol building.
On C-SPAN this evening, an apparent Trump supporter, calling herself “Tammy from Boise,” called in and wanted to know: Was her president lying to her?
***CSPAN video @ link***
Here’s a full transcript of “Tammy’s” remarks:
Keep in mind: C-SPAN cannot do live fact-checking of its callers, so there’s absolutely a possibility that “Tammy from Boise” is acting, not really a Trump supporter, etc. We also don’t know if she meant “I’m sorry” to refer to her Trump vote or her emotional state. (We’ll update if we learn more to confirm or disconfirm her call.)
But it’s a powerful moment regardless that encapsulates the degree to which the Trump administration has relied both on actively lying to its supporters (by telling them that the election was stolen — something Trump continued to do throughout the day) and on a kind of gamification of politics that flattens real consequences.
What snapped Tammy out, in her telling, was the realization that a real woman was shot and killed as she and other Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. Trump’s exaggerations were not merely harmless rhetoric; they directly got someone, a supporter of his, killed.
A Trump supporter called C-SPAN in tears to ask if her president had lied to her
https://www.vox.com/2021/1/6/22218031/trump-supporter-cspan-president-liedA Trump supporter called C-SPAN in tears to ask if her president had lied to her
Listen to a self-described Trump supporter rethink her support in real time.
By Dylan Matthewsdylan@vox.com Jan 6, 2021, 9:45pm EST
For the entire Trump presidency, the question skeptics of the administration kept asking was: what will be enough? What could make his supporters realize they’ve been had?
Charlottesville wasn’t enough; trying to get a foreign prosecutor to pursue his political opponents wasn’t enough; a botched hurricane response that left thousands dead wasn’t enough; a pandemic that left hundreds of thousands dead wasn’t enough. So what would do it?
In that context, something remarkable happened on C-SPAN on Wednesday night, after a Trump-inspired mob stormed the Capitol and attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and keep Trump in office. At least one of the group storming the Capitol, Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, was killed by an unknown shooter after she had made it inside the Capitol building.
On C-SPAN this evening, an apparent Trump supporter, calling herself “Tammy from Boise,” called in and wanted to know: Was her president lying to her?
***CSPAN video @ link***
Here’s a full transcript of “Tammy’s” remarks:
I just have one question. I wanted to know if my president lied to me today. If he did I want him to tell me. More importantly, I want him to tell the family of the woman who got shot and killed today. I voted for him — I voted for him. I’m sorry.
Keep in mind: C-SPAN cannot do live fact-checking of its callers, so there’s absolutely a possibility that “Tammy from Boise” is acting, not really a Trump supporter, etc. We also don’t know if she meant “I’m sorry” to refer to her Trump vote or her emotional state. (We’ll update if we learn more to confirm or disconfirm her call.)
But it’s a powerful moment regardless that encapsulates the degree to which the Trump administration has relied both on actively lying to its supporters (by telling them that the election was stolen — something Trump continued to do throughout the day) and on a kind of gamification of politics that flattens real consequences.
What snapped Tammy out, in her telling, was the realization that a real woman was shot and killed as she and other Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. Trump’s exaggerations were not merely harmless rhetoric; they directly got someone, a supporter of his, killed.
January 7, 2021
Donald Trump Is Now a Terrorist Leader
The attack on the Capitol is the culmination of Trumpism, and the GOP owns this.
David Corn
Washington, DC, Bureau ChiefBio | Follow
snip//
Trump owned this terrorism. He has whipped up his cultish followers with lies and conspiracy theories. At a rally on Wednesday morning, Trump told his supporters that the 2020 election was a grave crime and that Republicans and Democrats on the Hill were about to destroy American democracy by accepting the results. (During that event, Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer and chief coup-stirrer, called for “trial by combat.”) Trump directed his frenzied supporters toward the Capitol, where they breached police lines and took over the building. They shut down Congress. They terrorized lawmakers and staff, they fought with security forces, they broke American democracy.
This is all Trump’s doing. He has encouraged violence among his supporters since the 2016 campaign. At his rallies, he encouraged followers to assault protesters and provoked violent threats against journalists. During the Black Lives Matter protests, he threatened to shoot looters. When asked during a campaign debate if he condemned the Proud Boys, violent pro-Trump shock troops, he told them to “stand back and stand by.” Wink, wink. As my colleague Mark Follman has reported, Trump has long played footsie with far-right radicals. Elizabeth Neumann, a former Department of Homeland Security official who focused on counterterrorism and threat prevention, contended in a Washington Post op-ed that Trump has been fomenting violence: “Language from campaign materials and Trump’s extemporaneous speeches at rallies have been used as justification for acts of violence.” His “inconsistent and muddied” criticism of violence and white supremacists, she pointed out, exacerbated the problem: “Extremists thrive on this mixed messaging, interpreting it as coded support.”
By depicting his electoral loss as a theft and profound threat to the nation, Trump signaled to his followers, especially the extremists, that now was a desperate time requiring desperate measures. With such talk, he has become the instigator of one of the most significant terrorist actions in modern American history.
But Trump is not the sole author of this horrific assault on the US government and the citizenry. He has been enabled and supported for years by the Republican Party, Fox News, and other right-wing media, and the conservative movement, even as he fueled hatred and division and his corruptions were repeatedly exposed. They excused his aiding and abetting of a foreign adversary’s attack on the United States. They turned a blind eye to the brazen abuse of power that led to his impeachment. They cheered him, as he downplayed a pandemic, ignored public health guidance, and allowed tens of thousands of Americans to perish in preventable deaths. They remained silent as Trump repeatedly demonstrated he had no respect for democratic norms or the basic norms of decency. They remained silent as he presented tens of thousands of lies and false statements to the American public. Instead, they protected him, they hailed him as their leader.
snip//
It is easy to declare this day a dark one. But what is truly sad is that it is not at all surprising. Trump has always looked to harness hate. He has always relished recklessness. He has always demonstrated that his only devotion is to his own interests. He has always revealed that he holds no allegiance to democratic values. Yet despite all of that, he was fully embraced by the entire GOP and the conservative world. (At the rally preceding the attack on the Capitol, Donald Trump Jr. proclaimed, “It’s Donald Trump’s Republican Party.” And he was right.) This was more than a deal with a devil. It was an abject surrender to a man of malice. To a bully. To a would-be tyrant. To a president who has become a force of terrorism.
David Corn: Donald Trump Is Now a Terrorist Leader
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/01/donald-trump-is-now-a-terrorist-leader/Donald Trump Is Now a Terrorist Leader
The attack on the Capitol is the culmination of Trumpism, and the GOP owns this.
David Corn
Washington, DC, Bureau ChiefBio | Follow
snip//
Trump owned this terrorism. He has whipped up his cultish followers with lies and conspiracy theories. At a rally on Wednesday morning, Trump told his supporters that the 2020 election was a grave crime and that Republicans and Democrats on the Hill were about to destroy American democracy by accepting the results. (During that event, Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer and chief coup-stirrer, called for “trial by combat.”) Trump directed his frenzied supporters toward the Capitol, where they breached police lines and took over the building. They shut down Congress. They terrorized lawmakers and staff, they fought with security forces, they broke American democracy.
This is all Trump’s doing. He has encouraged violence among his supporters since the 2016 campaign. At his rallies, he encouraged followers to assault protesters and provoked violent threats against journalists. During the Black Lives Matter protests, he threatened to shoot looters. When asked during a campaign debate if he condemned the Proud Boys, violent pro-Trump shock troops, he told them to “stand back and stand by.” Wink, wink. As my colleague Mark Follman has reported, Trump has long played footsie with far-right radicals. Elizabeth Neumann, a former Department of Homeland Security official who focused on counterterrorism and threat prevention, contended in a Washington Post op-ed that Trump has been fomenting violence: “Language from campaign materials and Trump’s extemporaneous speeches at rallies have been used as justification for acts of violence.” His “inconsistent and muddied” criticism of violence and white supremacists, she pointed out, exacerbated the problem: “Extremists thrive on this mixed messaging, interpreting it as coded support.”
By depicting his electoral loss as a theft and profound threat to the nation, Trump signaled to his followers, especially the extremists, that now was a desperate time requiring desperate measures. With such talk, he has become the instigator of one of the most significant terrorist actions in modern American history.
But Trump is not the sole author of this horrific assault on the US government and the citizenry. He has been enabled and supported for years by the Republican Party, Fox News, and other right-wing media, and the conservative movement, even as he fueled hatred and division and his corruptions were repeatedly exposed. They excused his aiding and abetting of a foreign adversary’s attack on the United States. They turned a blind eye to the brazen abuse of power that led to his impeachment. They cheered him, as he downplayed a pandemic, ignored public health guidance, and allowed tens of thousands of Americans to perish in preventable deaths. They remained silent as Trump repeatedly demonstrated he had no respect for democratic norms or the basic norms of decency. They remained silent as he presented tens of thousands of lies and false statements to the American public. Instead, they protected him, they hailed him as their leader.
snip//
It is easy to declare this day a dark one. But what is truly sad is that it is not at all surprising. Trump has always looked to harness hate. He has always relished recklessness. He has always demonstrated that his only devotion is to his own interests. He has always revealed that he holds no allegiance to democratic values. Yet despite all of that, he was fully embraced by the entire GOP and the conservative world. (At the rally preceding the attack on the Capitol, Donald Trump Jr. proclaimed, “It’s Donald Trump’s Republican Party.” And he was right.) This was more than a deal with a devil. It was an abject surrender to a man of malice. To a bully. To a would-be tyrant. To a president who has become a force of terrorism.
January 7, 2021
The ‘Oh Fuck’ Moment Is Finally Here for Trump’s Enablers
AMERICA’S SADDAM
opinion
via REUTERS
His mob wasn’t there to find evidence of fraud, or force legislators to listen to their grievances; they were there for the lulz. They were there because Trump had sent them.
Rick Wilson, Editor-at-Large
Published Jan. 07, 2021 5:05AM ET
Donald Trump's violent insurrectionist forces stormed the U.S. Capitol yesterday and, even after five long years of Trump’s increasingly obvious combination of evil and insanity, the disgust America felt at seeing his MAGA mayhem crew ransack the Capitol like redneck Visigoths was unexpectedly powerful.
As an anthropologist of the shittiest human being on the planet, a scholar of all Trump’s pathologies, a plumber in the vast deeps of his fuckwit necromancy, I should be past shock, but even I was appalled by not only the order to march on the Capitol spitting from his blubbery lips but by the organized teams of rioters who then invaded the House and Senate.
snip//
The dark, spreading cancer at the center of this crisis is Donald Trump. Like all cancers, he's determined, persistent, and remorseless when it comes to destroying his host. There is no other analogy that truly fits this moment. The chaos and attention he craves is playing out on the streets with violent results.
Suddenly, Washington looks less like the shining city on the hill, the seat of the world's longest-running and most prosperous representative democracy, and more like a Third World capital in flames. And Trump’s base, mindless and grunting their “but muh fraud” mantra, did what a dictator’s mob does: pointed at a target, they let their sick momentum carry them where it will.
We must be clear about who these people are, what they want, and the necessity of stopping them.
These are not patriots; they’re anarchists. They're insurrectionists, not conservatives. They are shock troops from America's Saddam. Organized in a thousand Facebook groups and with a million bad ideas transmitted to their brains from Fox, OAN, Newsmax, and QAnon, we’re fortunate as a nation in only one respect—they’re not very good at revolution.
Rick Wilson: The 'Oh Fuck' Moment Is Finally Here for Trump's Enablers
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-oh-fuck-moment-is-finally-here-for-trumps-enablers?ref=homeThe ‘Oh Fuck’ Moment Is Finally Here for Trump’s Enablers
AMERICA’S SADDAM
opinion
via REUTERS
His mob wasn’t there to find evidence of fraud, or force legislators to listen to their grievances; they were there for the lulz. They were there because Trump had sent them.
Rick Wilson, Editor-at-Large
Published Jan. 07, 2021 5:05AM ET
Donald Trump's violent insurrectionist forces stormed the U.S. Capitol yesterday and, even after five long years of Trump’s increasingly obvious combination of evil and insanity, the disgust America felt at seeing his MAGA mayhem crew ransack the Capitol like redneck Visigoths was unexpectedly powerful.
As an anthropologist of the shittiest human being on the planet, a scholar of all Trump’s pathologies, a plumber in the vast deeps of his fuckwit necromancy, I should be past shock, but even I was appalled by not only the order to march on the Capitol spitting from his blubbery lips but by the organized teams of rioters who then invaded the House and Senate.
snip//
The dark, spreading cancer at the center of this crisis is Donald Trump. Like all cancers, he's determined, persistent, and remorseless when it comes to destroying his host. There is no other analogy that truly fits this moment. The chaos and attention he craves is playing out on the streets with violent results.
Suddenly, Washington looks less like the shining city on the hill, the seat of the world's longest-running and most prosperous representative democracy, and more like a Third World capital in flames. And Trump’s base, mindless and grunting their “but muh fraud” mantra, did what a dictator’s mob does: pointed at a target, they let their sick momentum carry them where it will.
We must be clear about who these people are, what they want, and the necessity of stopping them.
These are not patriots; they’re anarchists. They're insurrectionists, not conservatives. They are shock troops from America's Saddam. Organized in a thousand Facebook groups and with a million bad ideas transmitted to their brains from Fox, OAN, Newsmax, and QAnon, we’re fortunate as a nation in only one respect—they’re not very good at revolution.
January 7, 2021
https://politicalwire.com/2021/01/07/gaetz-booed-on-house-floor/
Gaetz Booed On House Floor
January 7, 2021 at 6:27 am EST By Taegan Goddard
Gaetz Booed On House Floor
https://politicalwire.com/2021/01/07/gaetz-booed-on-house-floor/
Gaetz Booed On House Floor
January 7, 2021 at 6:27 am EST By Taegan Goddard
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was booed on the House floor on Wednesday night when he said “some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters — they were masquerading as Trump supporters,” CBS News reports.
January 7, 2021
The Day Trump Broke the GOP
January 7, 2021 at 6:38 am EST By Taegan Goddard
The Day Trump Broke the GOP
https://politicalwire.com/2021/01/07/the-day-trump-broke-the-gop/The Day Trump Broke the GOP
January 7, 2021 at 6:38 am EST By Taegan Goddard
“Republicans started the day losing the Senate. They ended it with President Donald Trump’s supporters losing their minds,” Politico reports.
“Jan. 6, 2021 might have been remembered for an intraparty battle over whether to certify Joe Biden’s election win or who to blame for the Georgia defeats. But instead it will go down as the day that broke the Republican Party as we know it and began the GOP’s ultimate reckoning with Trumpism.”
“It literally took a riot of Trump supporters in the Capitol for many Republicans to finally confront the defeated president — a moment of bedlam that put those GOP lawmakers’ own lives at risk. After his supporters stormed into the Capitol, vandalized the building and fought with police officers, several typically strong allies turned on Trump.”
“Jan. 6, 2021 might have been remembered for an intraparty battle over whether to certify Joe Biden’s election win or who to blame for the Georgia defeats. But instead it will go down as the day that broke the Republican Party as we know it and began the GOP’s ultimate reckoning with Trumpism.”
“It literally took a riot of Trump supporters in the Capitol for many Republicans to finally confront the defeated president — a moment of bedlam that put those GOP lawmakers’ own lives at risk. After his supporters stormed into the Capitol, vandalized the building and fought with police officers, several typically strong allies turned on Trump.”
January 6, 2021
Trump Incites Rioters
The president may use the language of patriotism, but these are the actions of Benedict Arnold.
By Nicholas Kristof
Opinion Columnist
Jan. 6, 2021
Wednesday was a horrifying and shameful moment in American history. I’ve covered attempted coups in many countries around the world, and now I’m finally covering one in the United States.
Trump and his enablers talk a good game about patriotism. They denounced President Barack Obama for sometimes not wearing a flag lapel pin. They criticized Colin Kaepernick for protesting police brutality by taking a knee rather than standing during the national anthem — and then Trump incited a mob on Wednesday to invade the United States Capitol. The rioters encountered a minimal police response, not the kind that Black Lives Matter protesters received.
Many of those pro-Trump rioters probably dispute the idea of white privilege. But the fact that they were allowed to overrun the police and invade the Senate and House chambers was evidence of that privilege.
What the pro-Trump rioters attacked was not only a building but also the Constitution, the electoral system, our democratic process. They humiliated the United States before the world and left America’s enemies chortling. They will be remembered as Benedict Arnolds.
more...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/opinion/capitol-riot-trump.html
Nicholas Kristof: Trump Incites Rioters
Trump Incites Rioters
The president may use the language of patriotism, but these are the actions of Benedict Arnold.
By Nicholas Kristof
Opinion Columnist
Jan. 6, 2021
“If the Democratic Party wants to stand with anarchists, agitators, rioters, looters and flag burners, that is up to them. But I as your president will not be part of it. The Republican Party will remain the voice of the patriotic heroes who keep America safe.”
— Donald Trump, Aug. 28, 2020
— Donald Trump, Aug. 28, 2020
Wednesday was a horrifying and shameful moment in American history. I’ve covered attempted coups in many countries around the world, and now I’m finally covering one in the United States.
Trump and his enablers talk a good game about patriotism. They denounced President Barack Obama for sometimes not wearing a flag lapel pin. They criticized Colin Kaepernick for protesting police brutality by taking a knee rather than standing during the national anthem — and then Trump incited a mob on Wednesday to invade the United States Capitol. The rioters encountered a minimal police response, not the kind that Black Lives Matter protesters received.
Many of those pro-Trump rioters probably dispute the idea of white privilege. But the fact that they were allowed to overrun the police and invade the Senate and House chambers was evidence of that privilege.
“We are witnessing absolute banana republic crap in the United States Capitol right now,” Mike Gallagher, a Republican representative from Wisconsin, tweeted, adding an appeal to Trump: “You need to call this off.”
What the pro-Trump rioters attacked was not only a building but also the Constitution, the electoral system, our democratic process. They humiliated the United States before the world and left America’s enemies chortling. They will be remembered as Benedict Arnolds.
“Our democracy is under unprecedented assault, unlike anything we have seen in modern times,” President-Elect Joe Biden said. He described it as “an assault on the citadel of liberty, the Capitol itself.”
more...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/opinion/capitol-riot-trump.html
January 6, 2021
Powerless to change result, Pence braces for Trump's fury
By Kevin Liptak and Kaitlan Collins, CNN
Updated 10:49 AM ET, Wed January 6, 2021
(CNN)Vice President Mike Pence enters the US Capitol on Wednesday for a date with history.
He has told President Donald Trump, the boss he's served obsequiously for four years, that he cannot submit to demands he overthrow the results of the election.
Trump, consumed with conspiracies and unsound legal advice, hasn't listened. He now appears ready to unleash his rage on a man who has thus far successfully avoided that fate.
It's an excruciating position for Trump's loyal lieutenant, who has his own political ambitions that, for now, appear to run opposite to his constitutional responsibilities. Even advisers closely aligned with Trump describe the coming assault against Pence as despicable.
Pence is due to arrive on Capitol Hill at 1 p.m. ET to preside over the joint session of Congress that will formalize President-elect Joe Biden's victory over Trump. As president of the Senate, his role is purely ceremonial: he will open envelopes, present them to "tellers" and announce the winner at the end.
It's a duty he's tried, unsuccessfully, to explain to Trump over several meetings stretching hours, beginning in the middle of last month. During a final huddle in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Pence again made clear that his powers do not allow him to block certification of Biden's win.
But Trump either heard something different or decided to ignore what Pence said. He released a statement late in the evening saying he and his vice president were in "total agreement" that he has the power to decertify votes.
more...
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/mike-pence-trump-electoral-college/index.html
Powerless to change result, Pence braces for Trump's fury
Powerless to change result, Pence braces for Trump's fury
By Kevin Liptak and Kaitlan Collins, CNN
Updated 10:49 AM ET, Wed January 6, 2021
(CNN)Vice President Mike Pence enters the US Capitol on Wednesday for a date with history.
He has told President Donald Trump, the boss he's served obsequiously for four years, that he cannot submit to demands he overthrow the results of the election.
Trump, consumed with conspiracies and unsound legal advice, hasn't listened. He now appears ready to unleash his rage on a man who has thus far successfully avoided that fate.
It's an excruciating position for Trump's loyal lieutenant, who has his own political ambitions that, for now, appear to run opposite to his constitutional responsibilities. Even advisers closely aligned with Trump describe the coming assault against Pence as despicable.
Pence is due to arrive on Capitol Hill at 1 p.m. ET to preside over the joint session of Congress that will formalize President-elect Joe Biden's victory over Trump. As president of the Senate, his role is purely ceremonial: he will open envelopes, present them to "tellers" and announce the winner at the end.
It's a duty he's tried, unsuccessfully, to explain to Trump over several meetings stretching hours, beginning in the middle of last month. During a final huddle in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Pence again made clear that his powers do not allow him to block certification of Biden's win.
But Trump either heard something different or decided to ignore what Pence said. He released a statement late in the evening saying he and his vice president were in "total agreement" that he has the power to decertify votes.
more...
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/mike-pence-trump-electoral-college/index.html
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