Day: January 12, 2021
Suddenly resignation is on the table
The New York Times is quoting Senator Majority Leader McConnell as saying President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that McConnell is please the Democrats are going to impeach him. Such a leak would happen only if McConnell wanted it to. It is a signal that the Majority Leader thinks conviction in the Senate is a real possibility, or even that he wants it to happen.
Jettisoning Trump would avoid a growing split in the Republican Party over impeachment and possibly restore it to the good graces of corporate donors, who have been pledging not to support those House and Senate members who voted against certification of the Electoral College outcome. Without a sharp break with Trump, the Republican Party will be in the dock at the coming trials of the seditious insurrectionists now being rounded up and charged in court.
Conviction of Trump in the Senate would make Trump ineligible for future Federal office and tag the Republican Party with a brush whose stain would be difficult to remove. Trump’s best bet for avoiding it is to resign before impeachment and get Vice President Pence to pardon him. That at least would create a giant legal tangle if the Democrats were to proceed in the Senate with the trial. Or, the Vice President could trigger the 25th Amendment, which immediately deprives the President of his executive powers, and pardon him.
The trouble with these ideas is that Trump really can’t trust Pence, whom he excoriated on Twitter during the January 6 riot for failing to overturn the election results. Pence could renege, denying that there was any prior agreement if Trump were to assert there was one.
Power is draining rapidly from the Trump Administration. There have been multiple high-level resignations that will limit the Administration’s ability to get things done. European officials today refused to meet with Secretary of State Pompeo, who wanted to do a farewell tour on the Continent. President Trump plans to visit his treasured border wall tomorrow, but the press will tell the truth: most of it replaces pre-existing fencing, it will have little impact on illegal immigration, and the Mexicans didn’t pay for it. American taxpayers did.
McConnell will try to save what he can as Trump’s ship runs aground. But Trump won’t be among the precious cargo he tries to rescue. Trump had better reconsider resignation and pardon, before it is too late.
PS: Then there is this, from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which essentially says the demonstration the President supported and spoke to amounted to seditious insurrection:
And this, from a Republican member of the House. His colleague Liz Cheney has also said she will vote for impeachment. The dam is breaking.
The House Judiciary Committee has the particulars. And here is the single impeachment article.
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Stevenson’s army, January 12
SecState Pompeo seems determined to change many existing policies before January 20
in order to lock in Trump views and box in Biden. This week he did it with Taiwan and the Houthis. Yesterday he put Cuba on the terrorist supporter list. And today he going to link Iran to al Qaeda.
Meanwhile, Reuters says DOD is violating the new law blocking troop withdrawals from Afghanistan.
Dean Cohen calls for punishment of Capitol rioters.
Interesting case: MD Senators defend head of military medical school.
Politico warns of extremists in US military ranks.
As the son of a policeman, I’ve long been concerned about the militarization of local police. TNSR has good article.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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