Posted on 02/01/2021 10:28:43 AM PST by Red Badger
Establishment Republicans are urging Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to quietly greenlight President Donald Trump’s conviction in the Senate.
Reports are emerging that McConnell, is being privately urged to support a conviction vote in the Senate’s Republican caucus by prominent Republicans and former White House officials.
In talking to reporters off the record, one Republican member of Congress made clear that the goal to forbid former President Donald Trump from ever holding elected office again is a commonly held goal not among Democrats and Progressives.
“Mitch said to me he wants Trump gone,” one Republican member of Congress told reporters in confidence.
“It is in his political interest to have him gone. It is in the GOP interest to have him gone. The question is, do we get there?”
The lobbying by influential Washington insiders to disqualify Trump from ever holding office in the future started in the US House of Representatives after the January 6th chaos at the US Capitol Building.
The secretive lobbying began to center on McConnell after the House’s impeachment vote.
McConnell has negotiated February 8, 2021, as the start date for Trump’s second impeachment trial.
It was announced that partisan Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy would preside over the trial instead of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, leading many to question the legitimacy of the process on the whole.
Last week, in a shocking floor speech, McConnell said Trump and his allies were the catalysts for “storming” of the Capitol Building on January 6th.
Several videos contradict the use of the word “storming,” showing people casually walking into the Capitol Building through open doors stationed with Capitol Hill police officers who stood by without taking action.
McConnell, who himself has not ruled out voting to convict the former President, said Trump was directly responsible for provoking the actions on January 6th, saying:
“The last time the Senate convened, we had just reclaimed the Capitol from violent criminals who tried to stop Congress from doing our duty. This mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people. And they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like. But we pressed on.”
Meanwhile, Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul successfully convinced all but five Senate Republicans to vote with him in a declaration that the attempt to impeach a president who is no longer sitting, with the excuse that he incited, a riot is completely unconstitutional.
If the 45 Senate Republicans who voted to end the impeachment trial before it began to intend to vote the same way during the Senate trial, then Democrat Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will not be able to round up the two-thirds majority required to convict President Trump.
I don’t know who wrote this headline, but it actually makes no sense. Senate Republicans (or Democrats for that matter) aren’t going to vote to impeach Trump because Trump has already been impeached. The House has the sole power to impeach federal officials, including the President. The Senate can vote to “remove” Trump, of course.
Impeachment is simply an accusation of high crimes and misdemeanors. That’s already happened. In a criminal case it’s analogous to an indictment. In this case, we’re this a court case, it would undoubtedly be tossed on the grounds that it’s moot. The Senate can only vote to remove Trump from office. Since he’s already out of office the whole thing is a pointless political stunt.
If they really did believe Trump is guilty of criminal activity, they would charge him in the criminal justice system. Since he’s not the POTUS anymore, that is certainly an option. They know full well he’s not guilty of anything criminal, though, and that a jury would be less likely to convict him than the Senate is.
“It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”
― George Orwell, 1984
I read an article specifically about McConnell and how he really does want to be minority leader, rather than majority leader. The thesis of it was that because of the filibuster, nothing can really happen in the Senate without support from the minority party. Since that’s the case, Mitch has delivered just enough votes from his party to gain cloture. In the process he’s become a power broker in the Senate (and likely enriched himself) by picking and choosing different Senators on different bills, and providing political cover to them in order to help move bills.
I don’t know how much truth there is to that, but it certainly rings true and seems like something that would go in behind the scenes in the DC swamp.
First, McConnell doesn’t care about holding a majority position in the Senate. Whether he is a majority leader or a minority leader doesn’t matter to McConnell. In fact McConnell’s political skill-set does better in the minority than the majority.
The preferred political position for Mitch McConnell is where he has between 45 and 49 republican Senators, and the Democrats hold the Majority with around 55. Of course with Senator Harry Reid’s retirement, this would now imply Majority leader Chuck Schumer holding office.
Why does McConnell prefer the minority position?
The answer is where you have had to actually follow Mitch McConnell closely to see how he works. When the Majority has around 52 to 55 seats, they need McConnell to give them 8 to 9 votes to overcome the three-fifths (60 vote) threshold for their legislative needs. It is in the process of trade and payment for those 8 to 9 votes where McConnell makes more money, and holds more power, than as a sitting Majority Leader.
The 60 vote threshold, and McConnell’s incredible skillset in the minority, is where he shines. Each of the needed votes to achieve sixty is worth buckets of indulgence to the minority leader and those on K-Street who need the Senate to support their legislative constructs. The votes to get to sixty are worth a lot of money.
Whether he does it or not, good chance the Republican party is toast anyway.
Who wants to follow sniveling weasels who talk a good game but never act, as well as sell out their own parties President for 4+ years??
RIP scumbags!
MAGA party coming to you!
Thanks; that’s the one I was thinking of. I just couldn’t remember where I’d seen it.
So happy the GOPe have taken the bait of “thou shalt not speak of election fraud”..... Whichever way they turn they’re screwed
Their whole entire shtick is pretending to fight the Democrats. We are their audience, and we are throwing tomatoes at them.
And if they try to punish Trump for speaking out against election fraud, we won’t even bother with throwing tomatoes at them. We’ll just get up and leave.
It really like ‘Professional wrestling’.....................
When Robinhood backed established hedge funds against small investors, they probably killed their company. If McConnell backs the establishment against decent Americans, I expect the same outcome. It’s the same battle in many ways, just a different venue.
Thank You I’ve been around politics since I was a child I can see when someone writes an article with an agenda lord knows we saw enough of them the last several years
“Mitch wants Trump gone”
Wait a minute. I thought Trump was gone. Hmmm!
Urge McConnell? That is a hoot. McConnell don’t need no stinking urging. Way before the Republican vipers said a word to McConnell on the subject, his predilection was to do it in a heartbeat if he thought he could pull it off.
Not party suicide. Just the end of their political careers!
Oh it seems like just about everyone who voted for this is getting a primary challenger and it willl be wonderful when at least 7 by my account lose
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