► House impeachment managers — a group that includes Colorado Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Denver) and Joe Neguse (D-Boulderish) — have provided a first glance at the arguments that will be presented next week in former President Trump’s second impeachment trial. As The Washington Post reports:
House Democrats made their case to convict former president Donald Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in a sweeping impeachment brief filed with the Senate on Tuesday that accused Trump of whipping his supporters into a “frenzy” and described him as “singularly responsible” for the mayhem that ensued.
In the brief, the nine House impeachment managers argue that Trump is not protected by the First Amendment’s freedom of speech provision, which was never intended, they wrote, to allow a president to “provoke lawless action if he loses at the polls.”
“If provoking an insurrectionary riot against a Joint Session of Congress after losing an election is not an impeachable offense, it is hard to imagine what would be,” the brief states.
Democrats also rejected the claim embraced by many Republicans that it is unconstitutional to convict a president after he has left office — an argument that Trump’s lawyers are expected to make in his defense.
“There is no ‘January Exception’ to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution,” the House Democrats wrote. “A president must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last.”
Trump’s legal team is expected to file its initial response to the impeachment trial summons later today.
Meanwhile, as Aaron Blake writes for The Washington Post, Trump’s new lawyer and his Senate lapdog, South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, are making some rather odd threats about the upcoming trial:
They suggested that holding a lengthy trial including witnesses could open up “Pandora’s box,” in Graham’s words, because Trump’s team could then call its own. But the types of witnesses they floated don’t seem to pose much of a threat.
Graham focused on the idea that Trump’s defense would then call witnesses that could reinforce that certain elements of the Capitol siege planned and coordinated the attack beforehand…
…This is a strategy that has been floating around in conservative circles for weeks. The suggested implication: If these people preplanned it, that means they couldn’t possibly have been incited by the president. (“If these federal law enforcement agencies had prior knowledge that this was a planned attack then POTUS didn’t incite anything,” Donald Trump Jr. claimed a few weeks back.)
It’s the very definition of a straw-man argument.
Don’t make us call our own witnesses who will corroborate…the case for impeachment!
► If you don’t know anything else about Rep. Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert (R-Fox News), you are probably aware of her carefully-crafted image as an everywoman who carries a gun around with her. On Monday, Q*Bert popped that bubble when she made it clear that she has never take a gun onto the House floor despite weeks of insinuations otherwise.
► Senate MINORITY Leader Mitch McConnell is speaking out against bonkers Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. As Chris Cillizzaexplains for CNN:
“Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country,” McConnell said of the conspiracy-loving Greene. “Somebody who’s suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.’s airplane is not living in reality. This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.”
See, McConnell knows that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) is set to meet with Greene this week to talk about her views — and, likely, to dole out some sort of punishment. According to Politico, McCarthy remains undecided about the best way to deal with Greene — and whether stripping her of committee assignments, for example, for comments she made prior to coming to Congress would set a dangerous precedent.
McConnell’s comments are designed to push McCarthy right off the fence on which he is currently sitting. It’s aimed at forcing McCarthy’s hand. It’s McConnell saying, essentially: This is not what the Republican Party is going to be in the future — and it stops now.
Whether or not House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has the stones to actually reprimand Greene is another story entirely.
More political (and coronavirus) news is available right after the jump…
A big chunk of the company’s losses came from $19.3 billion in write-downs in the last three months of the year as the company marked down the value of U.S. natural gas fields acquired when gas prices were far higher before fracking flooded the market a decade ago.
In case you had forgotten, Republicans controlled both the U.S. Senate and the White House in 2020, so blaming their troubles on liberal politicians doesn’t make any sense (not that they won’t try). As we noted in this space last week, oil and gas companies are in trouble for a very simple reason: The market has shifted toward electric vehicles.
Renewable energy certainly has an important role to play in our energy future, but it would be shortsighted for government, whether at the federal level or state level, to unnecessarily pick winners and losers at the expense of consumer reliability and affordability.
Good Gravy! They’re still using that old talking point about the government “picking winners and losers?”
► Lawmakers in Aurora are apparently not impressed with talking points from the oil and gas industry. As The Aurora Sentinel reports:
No Aurora lawmakers objected to a slate of stronger oil and gas regulations during a city council study session Monday night.
The city council will vote on the new proposals — which include stronger air, water and financial requirements on operators — in the coming weeks.
The Sentinel reported last month that the new, proposed regulations are largely the same as old rules governing two oil and gas companies, and they won’t apply to wells the city has already approved. Nor would they apply outside of city limits in Adams and Arapahoe counties, where oil and gas production remains historically high.
But Aurora would prioritize public health and environmental well-being when approving new permit applications — a nod to the state’s sweeping 2019 bill creating some tougher rules for oil and gas firms.
► AAA says gas prices are increasing because of rising crude oil prices:
Via AAA (2/2/21)
► Illinois Republican Rep.Adam Kinzinger thinks the GOP needs an “intervention” to rid itself of Trumpism, which is sort of like an illicit drug but without the part that makes you feel good.
► The first six members of the Colorado Independent Congressional Redistricting Commission were selected on Monday. According to a press release from the Colorado Independent Redistricting Commission, here are the initial half-dozen names:
Two Democrats:
Paula Espinoza, a resident of Roxborough Park, in the 4th Congressional District
Elizabeth Wilkes, a resident of Colorado Springs, in the 5th Congressional District
Two Republicans:
Danny D. Moore, a resident of Centennial, in the 6th Congressional District
William J. Leone, a resident of Westminster, in the 7th Congressional District
Two Unaffiliated:
Jolie C. Brawner, a resident of Denver, in the 1st Congressional District
Lori Smith Schell, a resident of Durango, in the 3rd Congressional District
► According to new polling data from Navigator Research, President Biden already boasts a higher approval rating (53%) than former President Trump EVER managed to achieve. And then there’s this:
► Senate Democrats may have convinced Ohio Rep. Tim Ryanto run for an open Senate seat in 2022, giving the party perhaps its best chance of flipping the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Rob Portman.
► Four female lawmakers in Colorado are helping out families who can’t afford diapers; the groups will introduce legislation that would direct the State of Colorado to spend $4 million to purchase 26 million diapers for low-income families.
► Colorado Newsline reports on a looming overhaul of the state’s COVID-19 dial.
Say What, Now?
► Here’s former State Representative Paul Rosenthal:
POLITICO has a similar story about conservative groups that are no longer answer Trump’s phone calls.
► Former President Trump’s pollster lays out why The Big Orange Guy didn’t get re-elected, and it’s pretty simple.
ICYMI
► The New York Times takes a detailed look at former President Trump’s long (and unsuccessful) campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election. It’s a long read, but worth your time.
► As CNN reports, many of the terrorists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6 DIDN’T EVEN BOTHER TO VOTE in 2020.
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It's a good day when McConnell says he's opposing a confirmation and the confirmation goes through anyway. The Senate has just confirmed Alejandro Mayorkas as the Secretary of Homeland Security, 56-43
. . . It’s a freakin’ miracle cure! — Like hydroxycloriquone for climate change!!!!
(. . . Unless you’re capturing that carbon by some already well-proven methods, such as planting more trees and saving more forests, that is. Oh, and, it probably might also help some to burn less carbon and crap to have to capture, too?)
What’s notable about both sections is how they cite Trump without stating these claims in their own words. This is a convenient way to sidestep Trump’s claims without actually vouching for them. It cites Trump in a way that distances his own lawyers from it, which is telling about how comfortable they are about prosecuting his actual claims.
On January 16, 1999, a Southern politician with a mop of faintly graying hair stood on the floor of the United States Senate and made a striking proclamation about what it meant to impeach a president.
“You don’t even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic if this body determines that your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds in your role,” the politician said. “Impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office.”
That man was South Carolina’s own Lindsey Graham, then a 43-year-old, third-term Republican Congressman. The president in question was Bill Clinton.
The wing-nut caucus is beginning to realize the chickens coming home to roost are afflicted with the rather unpleasant conditions of Coccidiosis (parasitic) and Cannibalism (behavioral-aggressive pecking).
February 02, 2021 09:49 AM UTC
13 Comments
The Groundhog has spoken
Mitch McConnell is talking about unity and ethics while still blocking Merrick Garland.
There is no shame in the man.
I must say, he deserves MTG, CJ, JH and whatever other nutcase Trumplican© comes after his sorry ass. He and McCarthy own the lot of them.
It's a good day when McConnell says he's opposing a confirmation and the confirmation goes through anyway. The Senate has just confirmed Alejandro Mayorkas as the Secretary of Homeland Security, 56-43
If they open Pandora’s box, . . .
. . . out pops pissy Lindsey?
Looks like Mr. Haley is phoning it in. I think that is a line frequently used by Josh P. and K. Wonstolen 10 years ago.
Karma has finally pulled up in a bulldozer at the gate of the Oily Boyz mansion ….and there ain't nothin' they can do about it.
So the decades of government largesse solely for O&G isn't "picking winners and losers." Yes, they need some new talking points.
Master Limited Partnerships. Depletion Allowance. Socializing negative externalities (just a small sampling).
More oily bois good news: . . .
Carbon capture . . .
. . . It’s a freakin’ miracle cure! — Like hydroxycloriquone for climate change!!!!
(. . . Unless you’re capturing that carbon by some already well-proven methods, such as planting more trees and saving more forests, that is. Oh, and, it probably might also help some to burn less carbon and crap to have to capture, too?)
First hint of the mindset of the Trump defense brain trust: the filed response to the impeachment resolution.
An appropriate
responsereminder:But Michael, IOKIYAR, don't you know?
The wing-nut caucus is beginning to realize the chickens coming home to roost are afflicted with the rather unpleasant conditions of Coccidiosis (parasitic) and Cannibalism (behavioral-aggressive pecking).
Paul Rosenthal has lived here long enough that he should know that Colorado does have our own version of Punxatawney Phil: https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/holiday/flatiron-freddy-groundhog-day-boulder-six-more-weeks-winter/73-a62dc741-f985-4373-9550-9414bd28c670