The Republican Party likes the direction it’s heading

I tend to do a lot of news reading while on my exercise bike (at least when it is too cold to exercise outside – high today was 22F). A lot of what I read this morning was news from yesterday. So I’ll summarize based mostly on yesterday’s news. Mark Sumner, Laura Clawson, and Joan McCarter of Daily Kos are liveblogging the impeachment trial proceedings, posting a few sentences when something important is said. For the last few days they created four posts a day this way. Yesterday was the first half of the prosecution making their case. Here are some of the major points they made. They talked about the series of ways the nasty guy summoned and incited the Capitol attackers. They documented the provocation. That’s the Big Lie that the election was stolen, the “stop the steal” campaign, and the command “fight like hell.” That last part included where, how, and when. The provocation began last May. There were the words of the attackers, saying they were there because the nasty guy commanded them to be there. There were videos of protests against election counting in various states, all linked to nasty guy tweets and statements. They showed how the nasty guy rhetoric escalated over time. They talked about the various methods the nasty guy tried to overturn the election results by legal means. They talked about him calling the Georgia Secretary of State to demand he find more votes. They talked about Mike Pence doing his job in defiance of the nasty guy – here’s an example of a Republican defying the nasty guy so you can too. They reminded senators that the nasty had attacked fellow Republicans for being “weak.” He isn’t interested in them beyond what they do for him. Reporter Ben Collins tweeted a top post on TheDonald on January 5th. It shows a member of Congress with two choices: “Certify Trump” and “Get Lynched by Patriots.” Click on the image for a full view. They showed videos with Capitol floor plans to show how close attackers got to members of Congress, especially Pence, and how Capitol Police diverted Sen. Mitt Romney from the attackers. They showed the narrow timing between when the nasty guy tweeting about Mike Pence and when the attackers took up the chant to hang Pence. They talked about multiple Republicans pleading with the nasty guy to call off the attack because they knew he was the only one the attackers would listen to. If you don’t want to wade through all that Mark Sumner provided a summary of the day. A phone call from the nasty guy to Sen. Tuberville puts a timestamp of 2:15 on Pence being taken from the Senate chamber. Implying the Capitol had been breached. By 2:24 the nasty guy had tweeted that Pence was a coward, urging the attackers to go after him. That tweet was read in real time over a bullhorn, prompting the crowd to take up the chant “Hang Mike Pence.” At 2:26 Pence was hustled down the stairs and to safety. Hunter of Kos reported on research from OpenSecrets showing the nasty guy campaign paid at least $3.5 million to those organizing the attack. At least $50 million was spent on the “Stop the steal” campaign. We don’t know the full amount because the nasty guy campaign used shell companies to hide how it was spending money. Case Michel tweeted that there are plenty of questions about who financed the attack. Where there people besides the nasty guy campaign who were giving money? Because of finance secrecy rules we may never find out. Even with all that evidence from the first half of the prosecution’s arguments Laura Clawson reported the GOP senators are still working hard to come up with excuses. Such as: Yeah, the attack was horrific, but you didn’t really show the nasty guy was behind it. Or: Yeah, he did it, but he’s already out of office. Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported another reason why GOP senators are looking for excuses is GOP legislators in statehouses are standing by to punish any senator from their state who doesn’t vote for acquittal. The example is Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana who became the 6th GOP vote to approve the Senate can try a president who has already left office. Cassidy isn’t worried – he just started a six year term and this vote will hopefully be forgotten in 2026. Another reason why these GOP senators are looking for excuses: They want to be able to finish the job the nasty guy started. John Stoehr and his effort to explain politics to the rest of us tweeted a thread about the excuses the GOP senators are giving:

Turns out, the Senate Republicans saw the truth before the Republican National Committee later issued “talking points” telling them no, they do not see the truth. Nothing the president did that day was inciting, the RNC said, according to [Aaron] Blake [of the Post]. That raises an interesting question for a democratic republic such as ours. If the Republicans have gone blind to the truth because they want to go blind to the truth, how on earth are Democratic impeachment managers supposed to get them to see? The Democrats presented and will continue to present a pretty damning political case demanding Trump’s disqualification from holding public office. How do you beat a pretty damning political case? You say, actually, I don’t see it that way at all. You lie.

Leah McElrath tweeted something similar:

This #ImpeachmentTrial is providing the @GOP with an off-ramp from Trumpism, white supremacy, and fascism. It’s an OPPORTUNITY for them, and they appear to have NO plans to take advantage of it. The Republican Party likes the direction it’s heading. Pay attention to that fact.

Murshed Zaheed tweeted:

Unless the Ds bring in the arrested insurrectionists as witnesses who are on record that Trump incite them, they are not conducting a serious trial giving them a chance 4 conviction. Videos, socmed posts are not enough. Folks are desensitized by now. If the leadership of Democratic Party - on both ends of Penn Ave - want to maintain their credibility wrt their words of holding the lead perpetrator 1/6 insurrection vs US accountable- they need to call for witnesses. Otherwise, they are complicit in letting Trump get away w it.

The vote for whether to call witnesses won’t be until next week. GOP senators of course don’t want witnesses. As for Dems, I’ve heard why drag this out any longer if enough GOP senators are going to acquit anyway. The answer to that is the need to be thorough in documenting what the nasty guy did. Anthea Butler tweeted:

For all the rancor in this country surrounding white supremacy, racism, covid, etc, there is a spirit of the age that says "let's move on" without dealing deeply with the broken trust and dereliction of responsibility of lawmakers, and others in leadership. No one wants to take responsibility or be held accountable for their words or actions that have spawned violence, conspiracy theories and lies. Even when those actions imperil lives. This refusal to take responsibility, to own up to faults and actions, is going to haunt us in so many ways and creates the conditions for all of these things to happen again. It's as if the ugliness that was spawned can just be swept under the rug until it burst forth again. This country is trying to emerge from something akin to domestic violence. We're being shown the violence by the House Managers in Graphic detail, but Republicans would have you think that nothing happened, and "we'll never do it again", while protecting the perp.

Another story on how the GOP is sinking in public opinion. This one is by Eleveld of Kos. Those having a favorable view of the GOP is down by six percentage points since November. That is due to GOP voters leaving the party. The favorable view of Dems has gained a couple points, mostly from independents. Wrote Eleveld:

Historically, the party that initiates impeachment proceedings takes a political hit. But Trump and his flagrant efforts to subvert the will of the people have proven to be historically unpopular, and Democrats are actually gaining in popularity due to their efforts to hold Trump accountable and safeguard American democracy. Republicans, on the other hand, are sticking with Trump no matter the consequences because they simply can't imagine a world in which they have to appeal to anything beyond white identity to win elections.