Sign from July 2, 2017 Impeachment March
One of the biggest political events to take place last week was U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren‘s announcement that, after reading the Mueller Report, she believes that the U.S. House “should initiate impeachment proceedings” against Donald Trump. Here is Warren’s tweet containing this announcement, which Warren reiterated during subsequent tweets and television interviews:
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2020 Elections, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, CNN, Congress, Democrats, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren, Eric Swalwell, House, impeachment, Kamala Harris, Mueller Report, Nancy Pelosi, Republicans, Robert Mueller, Russia, Senate, Trump
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
It seems like both mainstream and social news media are obsessed with Donald Trump and his latest Outrage of the Day. But under our Constitution, we have three co-equal branches of the federal government, and half of one of those branches — Congress — is in Democratic hands. The Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, just marked their first 100 days back in control of the House of Representatives, with some fanfare, including the Twitter hashtag #100DaysForThePeople. Pelosi also appeared on CBS‘ 60 Minutes program last Sunday to talk about what the Democrats have accomplished thus far this year, and what further actions they plan to take. Given that the House majority is the Democrats’ only foothold in the federal government at this time, they have done quite a lot:
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2020 Elections, 60 Minutes, border wall, CBS, climate change, Congress, Donald Trump, gun control, gun safety, gun violence, House of Representatives, impeachment, Nancy Pelosi, Net Neutrality, Russia, Senate, Trump Shutdown, Twitter, voting
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Much hay was made this week from Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s answer to a Washington Post interviewer’s question about impeaching Donald Trump. Here’s the question and Pelosi’s response:
There have been increasing calls, including from some of your members, for impeachment of the president.
I’m not for impeachment. This is news. I’m going to give you some news right now because I haven’t said this to any press person before. But since you asked, and I’ve been thinking about this: Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.
Many Democrats took to blogs and social media to express their disappointment with Speaker Pelosi’s answer. For example, here’s author and MSNBC contributor Malcolm Nance:
However, what this episode really shows is that the Democratic Party’s base (including a few House members) and its leadership have different considerations that allow them differing degrees of freedom in what they can say publicly at this time.
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Leave a comment! Tags: Bill Clinton, Congress, Democrats, Donald Trump, impeachment, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Richard Nixon, Robert Mueller, Russia, Starr Report, U.S. House, U.S. Senate
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD)
Republicans are having some major difficulties with former Donald Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen‘s testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform yesterday. Cohen sat for over 7 hours, giving testimony about the workings of the Trump Organization that was riveting, and at times stunning. Notably, the committee Republicans rarely if ever attacked Cohen’s specific allegations about Trump wrongdoings and illegal acts. Instead, they, and Republicans in the media and elsewhere, simply painted Cohen as “a liar” based on his guilty plea in two previous cases, one of which involves scheming with Donald Trump to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stephanie Clifford a/k/a Stormy Daniels, as well as lying for Trump about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Apparently, these Republicans realize that they face the following problems regarding Michael Cohen:
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Leave a comment! Tags: Allen Weisselberg, Congress, Democrats, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Michael Cohen, Moscow, Mueller, Republicans, Russia, Stephanie Clifford, Stormy Daniels, Trump Tower
Twitter, source of trouble for some politicians
Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Ilan Omar of Minnesota got herself into hot water this week after she sent the following tweets regarding Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy‘s call for her and another Democratic Congresswoman to be admonished over their criticism of Israel:
https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1094747501578633216
https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1094761790595088384
Omar’s tersely expressed view that U.S. support of Israel is only a result of money, and her mention of lobbying group AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) in response to the query “who thinks is paying American politicians to be pro-Israel,” angered a number of Americans. Many of those who were upset (including members of Congress) accused Omar of raising age-old anti-Semitic tropes regarding Jewish money as an instrument of global domination. On Monday, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders called on Omar to apologize for her tweets. Within hours, Omar issued an apology which mentioned “colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes.”
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Leave a comment! Tags: AIPAC, Congress, Democrats, Donald Trump, Ilan Omar, Israel, Jewish, Kevin McCarthy, lobbying, Nancy Pelosi, narrative, Republicans, Twitter
Protests against the Trump Shutdown
As the Trump Shutdown of the federal government drags on, and the polls continue to blame Trump and the Republicans, the pressure will eventually become too great on the GOP. They will have to cave to the Democrats (who now have majority control in the House of Representatives), both on Trump’s desired border wall, and the untenable idea that Trump could shut down the federal government because he hasn’t gotten his way on the wall. So now the question is, how will Trump and the Republicans cave without appearing to capitulate to the Democrats, which would cause great anger among the Republican base? The answer is likely to turn on interpretations of the terms “wall,” “fence” and “border security.”
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Leave a comment! Tags: border wall, Chuck Schumer, Congress, Democrats, Donald Trump, government shutdown, House of Representatives, immigration, immigration reform, Nancy Pelosi, Republicans, Trump Shutdown, wall
Sign indicating Washington, D.C. national park land and monuments closed due to Trump Shutdown
When you have the facts on your side, and you communicate them in an effective and dynamic way, it’s good policy and good politics. That is the situation the Democrats are in regarding the current U.S. government shutdown. Democrats have correctly labeled it the “Trump Shutdown.”
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2016 election, border wall, Chuck Schumer, Congress, Democrats, Donald Trump, government shutdown, immigration, Mexico, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Republicans, Trump Shutdown
Google page telling people to “Go Vote” on Election Day
If the Devil had shown up Tuesday morning and had said to Democrats, “I’ll give you control of the House of Representatives, but my price is the loss of a few more seats in the Senate where you’re already in the minority,” that would have been a good deal all day long. That result is just what happened in the 2018 midterm elections. While all the votes have not yet been processed, we know that Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives, and that Republicans have kept their slender majority in the Senate, possibly improving on it by several seats. The flipping of the House to the Democrats, however, represents tremendous change, while Republicans keeping their Senate majority, even possibly winning a few more seats, does not. Moreover, at the state level, the Democrats won numerous victories which could change the political landscape further. Additionally, many of the victors this year were women and people of color (often both), the vast majority of them Democrats. Finally, younger voters came out in much bigger numbers this year.
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2018 midterm elections, Colorado, Congress, Dana Rohrabacher, Democrats, Donald Trump, Florida, Foxconn, Georgia, Kris Kobach, Republicans, Scott Walker, Watergate
“Stand on Every Corner” protest, St. Paul, MN
This year, several prominent Republicans have either left the Republican Party altogether, or at least have called for fellow Republicans to vote for Democratic candidates in this year’s midterm elections. In June, conservative columnist George Will called for Republicans to vote Democratic this November, primarily to punish Congressional Republicans for not exercising their constitutional powers to stand up to Donald Trump. At about the same time, longtime Republican strategist Steve Schmidt announced that he was leaving the GOP, citing the Trump administration’s cruel family separation policy. Schmidt was followed earlier this month by former U.S. Congressman David Jolly of Florida, who announced that he and his wife have left the GOP. And Republican pundit William Kristol heavily criticizes Donald Trump and seems to be implicitly cheerleading the Democrats in the upcoming elections, with tweets such as:
There are more examples of Republican defections to varying degrees. So the question is, can and should Democrats realistically call upon Republicans to vote for Democratic candidates, at least for their U.S. House Representative, in the midterm elections?
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2018 Elections, 2018 midterm elections, Congress, Constitution, David Jolly, Donald Trump, First Amendment, George Will, GOP, government, protest, Republican Party, Republicans, Steve Schmidt, William Kristol
President Harry Truman at NAS Key West, FL, 1950
Right now, folks inside the White House are high-fiving each other, cracking open beers to celebrate Donald Trump‘s “win” in confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, there’s probably at least one staffer running around, warning that the Kavanaugh confirmation process has galvanized Democratic voters for the upcoming midterm elections which are less than 30 days away. This comes on top of voter enthusiasm levels that already favor Democrats this year. In particular, Democrats have a very good chance of winning back majority control in the U.S. House of Representatives. (The Democrats’ Senate forecast is not as good, largely because this year, many more Democratic than Republican Senate incumbents are up for re-election.)
Thus, some White House advisors likely are telling Trump that, to prepare for a possible Democratic House beginning in January, Trump will have to act like Harry Truman. You may recall that Democratic President Harry S. Truman won re-election in 1948 largely by running against the Republican majority “Do-Nothing Congress.” In Trump’s case, that’s likely to be one-half of a Congress. Therefore, we can call the likely Trump strategy “Half a Harry.” Here’s why that strategy probably won’t work for Donald Trump:
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2018 midterm elections, Brett Kavanaugh, Congress, Democrats, Donald Trump, Franklin Roosevelt, Great Depression, Harry Truman, House of Representatives, Republicans, Senate, U.S. Supreme Court, White House, World War II
