The aftermath of Trump's acquittal in his second impeachment trial

[Sandy Shanks]

Jonathan Allen wrote recently, "Many Americans want to forget about former President Donald Trump, but President Joe Biden won't let them."

Democrats are celebrating their victories over Trump and Trump Republicans, capturing the House, Senate, and the Presidency. They are not eager to forget Trump and those victories.

So, those "many Americans" would be Trump's followers. Following Trump's second impeachment, his incitement of an insurrection, and a seven million vote loss, they really don't want to talk about Trump anymore.

 

[Dana7360]

Thats bullshit. If he incited a riot that ended in deaths because his words, he is liable in CRIMINAL COURT as a civilian....which can have much worse penalties.

What a load of crap.

More than likely Trump will be indicted, but you are missing the point. Despite overwhelming evidence that Trump incited an armed mob loyal to him, incited an insurrection that got five people killed, the Republican Party said he was not guilty.

That is not a load of crap.

Neither is the horrible precedent the Republican Party created. In the closing days of their term of office the U.S. Senate gave future Presidents a free pass to do anything they wish.

"There's no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it," the Republican Senate Minority Leader said Saturday. "The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president."

The fact that Trump incited an insurrection is highly significant. If that isn't an impeachable offense, what the hell is?

I would like an answer to that question.

Republicans can't have it both ways. Republicans free Trump, but it is okay to indict him in criminal court. It doesn't work that way. Republicans are responsible for what they did.

I can answer your question.

According to republicans lying about having consensual oral sex with an adult woman who isn't his wife is an impeachable offense.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Trump's own defense secretary blames him for the insurrection on Jan. 6.

Donald Trump’s former acting defense secretary Christopher Miller blamed the deadly Capitol riot on Trump’s incendiary speech in Washington before the building was stormed by his supporters, he told Vice News in a startling interview revealed Thursday.

“Would anybody have marched on the Capitol, and overrun the Capitol, without the president’s speech? I think it’s pretty much definitive that wouldn’t have happened,” said Miller, a hawkish Special Forces veteran chosen by Trump to replace former Defense Secretary Mark Esper days after the 2020 presidential election.

Asked directly by Vice if he thought the president was responsible for the violence at the Capitol, Miller responded: “It seems cause-and-effect, yeah.”

Trump had repeatedly claimed American voters’ choice of Joe Biden was illegitimate. He urged his followers on Jan. 6 to move on the Capitol. “And we fight,” he urged. “We fight like hell. If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Listeners quickly began moving toward the Capitol and were soon engaged in hand-to-hand combat with police officers guarding the building.

Stunned viewers across the nation watched rioters on TV rampage through the Capitol. Yet Pentagon officials didn’t approve a request to deploy troops for nearly 3½ hours, Maj. Gen. William Walker, head of the D.C. National Guard, told a Senate hearing early this month. It was a delay that could have resulted in a massacre or a government takeover by right-wing extremists loyal to Trump.

Trump's Own Acting Defense Secretary Blames Him For The Capitol Riot

"It's pretty much definitive" that the storming of the Capitol would not have happened without Trump's speech, Christopher Miller said in a Vice interview.

www.huffpost.com

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Was the Jan. 6 insurrection planned or was it spontaneous?

NBC News reports, "More than two months after the U.S. Capitol was attacked on Jan. 6, the Justice Department has yet to answer a key question: Was the siege planned well in advance?

"Or was the decision to storm the building made on the spot by demonstrators who conspired to go to Washington to engage in violent protest in the streets?

"In the days immediately following the riots, federal prosecutors suggested in court documents that two separate extremist groups made up of followers of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, planned to forcibly enter the Capitol and stop the official counting of Electoral College votes for president.

But no evidence of any planning well in advance has yet been revealed, and a recent court filing suggests that such a plan may not have been formed until the actual day of the riot.

Trump had repeatedly claimed American voters’ choice of Joe Biden was illegitimate. He urged his followers on Jan. 6 to move on the Capitol. “And we fight,” he urged. “We fight like hell. If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Jonathan Allen wrote recently, "Many Americans want to forget about former President Donald Trump, but President Joe Biden won't let them."

So, those "many Americans" would be Trump's followers. Following Trump's second impeachment, his incitement of an insurrection, and a seven million vote loss, they really don't want to talk about Trump anymore.

Has Trump made himself irrelevant? Many, including most Republican lawmakers, sure hope so.

Politico writes, "He backed away from creating a third party and has soured on the costly prospect of launching his own TV empire or social media startup.

"His vow to target disloyal Republicans with personally-recruited primary challengers has taken a backseat to conventional endorsements of senators who refused to indulge his quest to overturn the 2020 election.

"And though he was supposed to build a massive political apparatus to keep his MAGA movement afloat, it’s unclear to Republicans what his PAC is actually doing, beyond entangling itself in disputes with Republican icons and the party’s fundraising arms.

"Ex-president Donald Trump finds himself adrift while in political exile. And Republicans, and even some allies, say he is disorganized, torn between playing the role of antagonist and party leader.
“There is no apparatus, no structure and part of that is due to a lack of political understanding on Trump’s behalf,” said a person close to the former president."

We know one thing. As the leader of the Republican Party he sure has been quiet. Perhaps it is because he has has nothing important to say.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Fox News reports, "A national survey conducted by former President Donald Trump's 2016 and 2020 pollster suggests that the Republican Party is divided into what it calls five distinct "tribes."

The poll by the Republican firm Fabrizio, Lee and Associates highlights that four of the five "tribes" hold very positive attitudes on Trump and strongly approve of the job he did in the White House.

Where are they?

The pollster is lying. This thread contains documented criticism of Trump, and "four of the five tribes"are nowhere to be found. They make no attempt to defend Trump.

Want proof? Scan this thread. Except for occasional attacks on writers, Trump's followers -- if there are any -- have avoided Trump.

 

[jbrownson0831]

The Republican Party has given a free pass to future Presidents for anything they might do in the closing days of their term of office. A former President incited an insurrection against our government during the closing days of his term of office. It doesn't get worse than that.

The Republican Party acquitted the former President!

ABC News reported, "Exactly a month and a week after insurrectionists incited a riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial came to a climactic end on Saturday afternoon, with Trump being acquitted for his alleged role of inciting the deadly event. A majority of senators voted to convict the former president, but failed to reach the super majority threshold needed for a conviction."

To provide an example of the perfidy of the Republican Party one need only look at the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Despite the opinions of nearly all Constitution experts Constitution lawyers to the contrary, McConnell said "he voted "not guilty" because he believes Trump is "constitutionally not eligible for conviction" given that he is no longer president," according to NBC News.

In addition, a Senate resolution established the Senate's jurisdiction in the impeachment trial. McConnell and most Republicans violated a Senate resolution. McConnell said nothing about the evidence. He couldn't. The evidence was overwhelming.

The American people have already spoken, but the Republican Party is not paying attention. Under their leadership, the Republican Party has lost the House, Senate, and the White House in just the last four years.

Now this. A Republican President committed an act of sedition, and the Republican Party freed him from consequences. With the precedence set, all future Presidents are free of responsibility for any action they might take in the closing days of their term.

It is easy to surmise this might be opening act of the decline of American democracy.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we lose our freedoms it will be because we have destroyed ourselves from within. Abraham Lincoln

The American people will remember this day. The Republican Party lost with this feckless decision.

Real Americans will remember everything that happened in 2020. So why should you care?

 

[Sandy Shanks]

The enormous stupidity displayed by some of Trump's apologists never ceases to amaze me.

Take, for example, Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin.

Recently, he accused Speaker Nancy Pelosi of being behind the January 6 riot at the US Capitol. He said the riot wasn't actually an "armed insurrection" because it was not shooting engagement. Five people were killed in the uprising. He told a Senate hearing that there were professional protesters stirring up the problems that day and that they might have been affiliated with radical leftist groups.

Then, late last week, he stepped on it again.

Here's Johnson on with conservative talk radio host Joe Pags :

"Even though those thousands of people that were marching to the Capitol were trying to pressure people like me to vote the way they wanted me to vote, I knew those were people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, and so I wasn't concerned...

" ... Now, had the tables been turned -- Joe, this could get me in trouble -- had the tables been turned, and President Trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned."

It is difficult to comprehend that these statements were made by a U.S. Senator. I wonder if Johnson is okay from a mental standpoint.

Of course, I often wondered that about Trump. What kind of an idiot would suggest injecting Lysol to kill off a virus, and what kind of a President would incite an insurrection against his own government?

Perhaps both need some quality time with a psychiatrist.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

The enormous stupidity displayed by some of Trump's apologists never ceases to amaze me.

And, as we all know, Trump himself. I was watching this press conference, and I could not believe my ears. Nobody could be this stupid, but he was.

NBC reports, "Dr. Deborah Birx said Monday that military protocol prevented her from publicly questioning then-President Donald Trump's dubious suggestion that injections of disinfectant could fight Covid-19.

"In a moment that came to symbolize the Trump administration's pandemic response, Brix struggled to hold a poker face on April 23 when the president told reporters that disinfectants and "ultraviolet or just a very powerful light" could be used to treat coronavirus patients.


"You can see how extraordinarily uncomfortable I was," Birx said in a new interview with ABC News.

"A former U.S. Army physician, Birx said she's long been trained not to show up a commander, no matter how outlandish a statement was being made."

"I have spent almost 30 years in the military. I worked for every president from Jimmy Carter up and through President Bush," she said.

She added: "Frankly, I didn't know how to handle that episode. I still think about it every day."

NBC continued, "At no time, Birx said, did she think about correcting Trump at the moment."

Little wonder as to why the GOP leadership wants to shed this man. Maybe they have. Trump is being uncharacteristically quiet as of late.

So are his followers as this thread shows.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Of course, Putin wanted the mindless, incompetent Trump reelected.

The Times reports, "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia authorized extensive efforts to hurt the candidacy of Joseph R. Biden Jr. during last year’s election, including by mounting covert operations to influence people close to former President Donald J. Trump, according to a declassified intelligence report released Tuesday.

"The report did not name those people but seemed to be a reference to the work of Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, who relentlessly pushed allegations of corruption about Mr. Biden and his family involving Ukraine."

The report also found that there were no efforts by Russia or other countries to change voter registration or the ballots themselves.

"Russia sought to influence how the American public saw the two major candidates “as well as advance Moscow’s longstanding goals of undermining confidence in U.S. election processes,” the report said.

Russia was aided in their efforts by Trump who began asserting in mid-summer that the coming election would be fraudulent.

Russia was further aided by Trump, the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and QAnon when they mounted an insurrection in the halls of Congress on Jan. 6. Further undermining the "public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbate sociopolitical divisions in the US," Trump insisted on that day that the election had been stolen from him, thus prompting the violence that followed. No doubt Putin was enormously pleased with his efforts on that day.

For more on the report see US intelligence report says Russia used Trump allies to influence 2020 election with goal of 'denigrating' Biden

 

[initforme]

The bar has been lowered now it's time for someone poor to get elected. Imagine the possibilities.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

The Times reports, "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia authorized extensive efforts to hurt the candidacy of Joseph R. Biden Jr. during last year’s election, including by mounting covert operations to influence people close to former President Donald J. Trump, according to a declassified intelligence report released Tuesday.

Contrary to what the Trump administration told us, China decided to sit this one out.

The Times report also said, "The declassified report represented the most comprehensive intelligence assessment of foreign efforts to influence the 2020 vote. Besides Russia, Iran and other countries also sought to influence the election, the report said. China considered efforts to influence the presidential vote, but ultimately concluded that they would fail and likely backfire, intelligence officials concluded."

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Reuters reports, "Racially motivated extremists pose the most lethal domestic terrorism threats to the US, according to an unclassified intelligence report that warned that the threats could grow this year.

"The blunt assessment, in a report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, echoes warnings made by US officials, including the FBI director, Christopher Wray, who testified earlier this month that the threat from domestic violent extremism was “metastasizing” across the country.

"Merrick Garland, the attorney general, has also described it as a top priority as his justice department works to prosecute hundreds of people who participated in the mob attack on the US Congress in January.

"Developments such as the anger over restrictions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic and a belief in the debunked narrative that November’s presidential election was fraudulent “will almost certainly” spur additional violence in 2021, the report said."

“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

“When you catch somebody in a fraud, you are allowed to go by very different rules."

“We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

"Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you. We are going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
*********************************************************************************President Donald J. Trump

 

[Sandy Shanks]

“When you catch somebody in a fraud, you are allowed to go by very different rules."

“We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Trump's followers, in and out of Congress, have absolutely nothing to say.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

“When you catch somebody in a fraud, you are allowed to go by very different rules."

“We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

"Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you. We are going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
****************************************************************************************President Donald J. Trump

Washington (CNN)Former President George W. Bush said the January 6 US Capitol insurrection left him "sick to my stomach" and he remains "disturbed" when he thinks about it.

"I can't remember what I was doing, but ... I was sick to my stomach ... to see our nation's Capitol being stormed by hostile forces," Bush said in an interview with The Texas Tribune. "And it really disturbed me to the point where I did put out a statement, and I'm still disturbed when I think about it."

The episode, Bush said, "undermines rule of law and the ability to express yourself in peaceful ways in the public square."

"I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions, and our law enforcement," he said. "The violent assault on the Capitol -- and disruption of a constitutionally mandated meeting of Congress -- was undertaken by people whose passions have been inflamed by falsehoods and false hopes."

George W. Bush on US Capitol insurrection: 'I'm still disturbed when I think about it'

Former President George W. Bush said the January 6 US Capitol insurrection left him "sick to my stomach" and he remains "disturbed" when he thinks about it.

www.cnn.com

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Has the Republican Party sunk that low? Does the party want a Trump clone for its Presidential candidate in 2024?

NBC News says that is a distinct possibility. They reported, "Ron DeSantis wouldn't be governor of Florida without Donald Trump."

Now he is positioning himself to replace Trump, and the GOP seems to be supporting the effort.

Trump's "endorsement in 2018 turned a young congressman into the runaway winner of a Republican primary that featured a far more seasoned establishment favorite, Adam Putnam. Not quite three years later, many in the party see DeSantis as the person best positioned to carry on Trump's legacy as their national standard-bearer in 2024."

The abrasive governor who is often at odds with local leadership is in the Trump mold. Trump arguably was the most abrasive President in American history and he was easily the least popular.

In other words, DeSantis fits.

And he has been lucky. Although often rejecting the science of the pandemic, "Florida has, since the beginning of the pandemic, seen fewer per-capita coronavirus cases and deaths than many states, including many that instituted the more restrictive measures. And DeSantis' poll numbers are rebounding a year ahead of his re-election bid. A Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy survey last month found him with a 53 percent job-approval rating," NBC.

"At last month's Conservative Political Action Conference for hardcore GOP activists, he finished second to Trump in one presidential straw poll and first in another from which the former president was excluded.," NBC added.

But is this what the Republican Party wants? Have they sank that low because of their uninformed, extremist grassroots?

Trump lied his way through the four years of his administration. The Post reports, "By the end of his term, Trump had accumulated 30,573 untruths during his presidency — averaging about 21 erroneous claims a day."

Trump lost his reelection by over seven million votes. To this day he is not able to admit that he lost. Because of his refusal to admit defeat, because he claimed the election was stolen from him, he was able to incite an insurrection against our government on Jan. 6. Trump has been impeached twice.

Is the Republican Party yearning for a repeat?

Unfortunately, the answer appears to be "yes."

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Has the Republican Party sunk that low? Does the party want a Trump clone for its Presidential candidate in 2024?

Complete silence from Trump Republicans. I wonder why. I also wonder why Trump has so much support from grassroots Republicans. The never prop him up.

Perhaps they are ashamed of supporting a fool. We will never know. We do know most of his followers are uninformed and they want to stay that way. They are not fans of reality.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

“When you catch somebody in a fraud, you are allowed to go by very different rules."

“We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

"Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you. We are going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
***********************************************************************************President Donald J. Trump

NBC reports, "The federal prosecutor who had been overseeing the Justice Department’s investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol says evidence likely supports sedition charges against some of the rioters.

“I personally believe the evidence is trending towards that and probably meets those elements,” Michael Sherwin, the former acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said in an interview with CBS News’ Scott Pelley that aired Sunday on “60 Minutes.”

"Asked if he expects sedition charges to be brought against some of the suspects, Sherwin said, “I believe the facts do support those charges, and I think that as we go forward, more facts will support that.”

"Sherwin joined law enforcement officers at President Donald Trump’s rally on Jan. 6 in downtown Washington and observed his supporters, many wearing tactical gear, leaving early and heading to the Capitol. He said he knew the situation was spiraling out of control when he saw people starting to climb the scaffolding outside the Capitol."

“Now the question is, is he criminally culpable for everything that happened during the siege during the breach?” said Sherwin, noting that many people said they came to D.C. because Trump told them to take back the House. That fact “moves the needle towards that direction," he said. "Maybe, the president is culpable for those actions.”

 

[Sandy Shanks]

TEL AVIV, Israel — For three elections in a row, Israeli politics had an outsize guest star: Donald Trump.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his close relationship with Trump — who was widely popular in Israel — a centerpiece of his campaigns. His Likud party hung a 15-story poster on Tel Aviv's busiest highway showing the two leaders grinning and shaking hands.

Trump, who appeared to relish his political clout in the country, was widely seen as trying to swing the polls in Netanyahu's favor. Shortly before the March 2019 election, Trump invited Netanyahu to the White House, guaranteeing him days of media coverage.

As weary Israeli voters head to the polls for a fourth time in two years Tuesday, Netanyahu can no longer rely on a helping hand from the White House.

President Joe Biden is staying out of the Israeli election after having left Netanyahu waiting for weeks to even receive a phone call. The silence lasted so long that White House press secretary Jen Psaki clarified that it was not "an intentional dis" of Netanyahu.

Polls show Netanyahu's party will almost certainly win the most votes and seats in Tuesday's election. It is not clear, however, whether he will be able to form a majority coalition in Parliament along with his right-wing allies. He is also projected to win fewer seats than he did in last year's vote.

Trump no longer centerpiece as Netanyahu again bids for power in Israel

The prime minister's rocky relations with Democrats are a millstone that his opponents are trying to hang around his neck.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Has the Republican Party sunk that low? Does the party want a Trump clone for its Presidential candidate in 2024?

NBC News says that is a distinct possibility. They reported, "Ron DeSantis wouldn't be governor of Florida without Donald Trump."

Now he is positioning himself to replace Trump, and the GOP seems to be supporting the effort.

CNN reports, "Donald Trump has set the price of admission for Republicans in the midterm elections, and probably the next presidential race: an embrace of the big lie that he was cheated out of office by a historic voter fraud operation.

"The former President's effort to turn 2022 polls into a personal revenge mission and to replenish his personality cult got a big boost Monday when a comrade-in-arms, Rep. Mo Brooks, launched an Alabama US Senate run.

"Brooks is the latest Republican to seek to leverage his efforts to thwart a democratic election as a springboard for higher office. He led a push in the House to block the certification of President Joe Biden's victory after telling Trump supporters at the "Stop the Steal" rally that turned into the Capitol insurrection on January 6: "Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass."

"In 2020, America suffered the worst voter fraud and election theft in history," Brooks said, claiming no other candidate for the US Senate had stood as strongly as he had alongside Trump. Channeling his hero, he slammed "weak-kneed RINOs," the "fake news media" and "radical socialists."

60 court cases and the Supreme Court tell us that Brooks is lying. Also, he makes no attempt to substantiate the statement. That is pure Trumpian. Trump Republicans consistently make accusations they cannot explain, including Republicans on this forum.

Brooks knows he is lying. It doesn't matter. He is not talking to rational voters. He is talking to the uninformed, intelligence challenged members of Trump's cult who dominate the GOP on the grassroots level.

Want proof of Republican lack of awareness at the grassroots level?

The poll from the Associated Press–NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows 33% of Republicans say Biden was legitimately elected as the 46th president of the United States, while 65% say he was not.

Poll finds 65% of Republicans say they don’t believe Biden’s election was legitimate

Three-quarters of Republicans say Trump was a good or great president, Associated Press–NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll shows.

www.marketwatch.com

The poll was taken in February.

Brooks is speaking to 65% of the Republican base which is loyal to Trump. If it is favorable to Trump and his kind, members of Trump's cult believe anything. In Alabama that is enough to win elections, and Brooks knows it.