Day 303…
Can it be said that you overslept if there is nothing in particular that you needed to wake up for?
Regardless, after a couple of days of anxiety provoking national events that kept me awake, I finally slept like the dead last night and didn’t wake up until noon.
What I’ve woken up to is a fairly strong, though largely uncoordinated, discussion about how to keep the President from being able to take any further destructive action over the next two weeks that would put more Americans in harm’s way.
Yesterday, President-elect Biden referred to insurrection that the President launched as, “One of the darkest days in the history of our nation.” Throughout the day and overnight into today, the true magnitude of what actually occurred on January 6 has started to sink in.
A fifth person has now died. Capitol police officer Brian D. Sicknick lost his life to the injuries that he received clashing with the terrorists. A federal murder investigation will be opened into his death.
The question about why there was such an inadequate law enforcement response to the rioters is in sore need of investigation.
Three days before the coup attempt, the Pentagon asked the Capitol police if they wanted National Guard support for the protest event. On the day of the event, as the mob was heading towards the Capitol, the FBI asked them if they needed the support of their agents. In both cases the Capitol Police refused.
Earlier in the week, the leader of the far-right white supremacist organization, Proud Boys, was arrested as he entered Washington for carrying empty high-capacity magazines with his group’s logo on them. He has admitted to making public statements about rioting. The extremist far-right message boards were full of plans about the upcoming rally. The President, himself, had tweeted about the event and his intention to attend.
None of what happened on Wednesday should have been a surprise to anyone. It wasn’t a secret.
With the departure of the Attorney General there is a lack of coordinated leadership at the Department of Justice. There is also still no official leadership at the Department of Homeland Security. Chad Wolf, who was appointed by the President near the end of 2019 is just the acting head of the Department. His position is technically illegal as he has never been confirmed.
After the initial breach of the perimeter by the insurrectionists, the House Majority Leader, Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland called the Governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan from within the Capitol building and said that the Capitol Police were completely overwhelmed. Hogan wanted to mobilize the Maryland National Guard, but the Department of Homeland Security, refused, and delayed their deployment for 90 minutes.
The Mayor of Washington D.C., Muriel Bowser, who was nervous about using federal forces given their heavy-handed approach in past protests, wanted to the Metropolitan Police Force to take the lead, but the Capitol is under the sole jurisdiction of the Capitol Police.
Every effort to send in reinforcements was thwarted.
The end result of all of this is that Capitol Police were completely overwhelmed by the wave of armed insurrectionists who broke through them with ease. In some cases, the officers just let them in. There is film of Capitol officers, in the middle of the event, posing for selfies with the rioters inside the building.
Under pressure from Democratic leaders, US Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund has now resigned. The Sergeant of Arms of the Senate has also resigned at the behest of the Senate Majority Leader.
Two members of the President’s Cabinet have now resigned as well - Elaine Chao, the United States Secretary of Transportation and Betsy DeVos, the United States Secretary of Education.
There has been a lot of discussion over the last two days about using the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution to remove the President from office and elevate the Vice President for the, now less than two weeks, that remain in this term.
Section 4 of the Amendment states: Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
It is not unreasonable to look at the departure of Chao, who is also the wife of the Senate Majority Leader, and DeVos as a way for them to avoid having to weigh in on invoking that Amendment.
There is no defensible moral stance here. For those Cabinet members who stay until the end of this disastrous term, they will at least be able to claim, whether true or not, that while they didn’t agree with what the President was doing they felt it was their duty to stay so that things did not get any worse.
Leaving now, these two craven self-serving people are sending the message that while they disapprove of the President trying to stage a coup, they are OK with everything else that he’s done over his entire term of office.
Separating kids from their families and keeping them in cages. Ignoring a global pandemic and letting hundreds of thousands of Americans perish. Gutting environmental protections. They are signaling that all of that was fine, but this, this went too far.
As Brianna Keilar so aptly said this morning on CNN, “These are not patriots. These are people leaving the arena early to avoid the traffic.”
On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Vice President urging him to invoke the 25th. As of this morning, at least 200 legislators, 37 Senators and 191 House members have signaled that they would support this move.
While he hasn’t responded to the letter, reports from within his circle are that he won’t do it. He is reportedly worried about creating even more chaos.
The second option to remove the President from power is to impeach him. Again.
Yesterday, Speaker Pelosi sent a letter to the members of the House. In it she said that should the Vice President not proceed with removing the President using the 25th that they should initiate an unprecedented second impeachment proceeding.
“Nearly fifty years ago, after years of enabling their rogue President, Republicans in Congress finally told President Nixon that it was time to go. Today, following the President's dangerous and seditious acts, Republicans in Congress need to follow that example and call on Trump to depart his office -- immediately. If the President does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action.”
There is another truly remarkable paragraph included in the letter:
“This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike. The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy.”
There are only twelve days left in the President’s term. Is there time to impeach him? It took eight days last time they impeached the President to get it done in the House. After the Speaker of the House’s politically-motivated delay, it then took the Senate three weeks to vote on it.
The House is saying that they will be able to get their side of the proceedings done by Monday. That leaves only eight days before the inauguration for the Senate to consider it.
37 Senators is not a majority. As rats continue to jump off this sinking ship, however, more may join.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is hilariously attempting to rewrite his history of supporting this President’s every action. He seems to have forgotten the call to action he made to the President’s supporters to resist those who would stop him just two days ago. He seems to have forgotten that he voted to overturn the Electoral College results from Pennsylvania even after the coup attempt had been put down. If he thinks that it will save his own hide, I am sure that the Democrats can count on his miserable support.
Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal called upon the President to resign this morning.
The President is likely going to try and pardon himself. It is completely unclear what the legality of that move is. If he does it and the objection to it winds up in the Supreme Court, as it seems certain it would, would the right-leaning majority uphold it?
If he resigned, and the Vice-President took over, in theory the Vice-President could then pardon him completely legally.
Would he, though? If that actually happened, would he want his legacy to be pardoning a President who incited and supported an insurrection against the government?
The President has already tweeted that he will be going to Mar-a-Lago on the 19th and will not attend the inauguration. He at least seems to realize that his term will end. White House advisors, however, say that he has no intention of resigning before then.
President-elect Biden seems to be staying out of the fray. He announced the rest of his Cabinet picks this morning.
The results of the Georgia election have allowed him to deftly sidestep having to put Senator Bernie Sanders in a Cabinet position. While there is a sizable group of Democrats who wanted Sanders to be the President, there is also a sizable group who feel he is much too far to the left. Republicans truly loathe him.
Because the Democratic balance of the Senate in on such a razor-thin edge, putting Senator Sander’s seat at risk by removing him from that position is enough of a danger that both Biden and Sanders apparently agree that he should remain where he is.
I got so much sleep last night that I still feel groggy. Having to work through all of this and make some sense of it should have woken me up but I think it’s done the opposite. I may need a nap.
But I won’t. It looks like it’s freezing outside, but I’m going to take a shower, get dressed and go out for a walk anyway.
The President’s options are becoming more and more limited. He has backed himself into an ever-shrinking corner. That, of course, is exactly when an animal becomes the most dangerous.
These next few days will probably have some unpleasant surprises in them. Whatever happens is going to be completely out of our own personal control, so we need to just keep living our lives.
The agitator who was photographed sitting at Nancy Pelosi’s desk has been arrested in Arkansas.
The Washington Post has released footage that they got of the shooting of the woman who died. It is absolutely chilling. She was part of an armed mob that was attempting to break down a glass door to get at a group of lawmakers who were on the other side of it. Had they actually succeeded in getting in, there is no telling what might have happened.
Some justice is starting to happen. While it unfolds, we need to take care of ourselves.
No eating of our feelings. No pointless anxiety.
I say this as much for my own benefit as yours but, while the next few days unfold, go outside and take a walk. Eat well.
And get some sleep.
❤️I agree, to take the best care of myself is what I can do, not self destruct thats the devils command.
Greatful to be surrounded by people doing the next thing right keeping their dreams alive our contribution to a tomorrow and staying in the light of self care, as we walk through the dark together