The Trump presidency is at last in its final days. Yet the brokenness of US politics doesn’t seem to be going away.
Congress returns with a weakened Democratic majority and a Republican Party divided over what to do about Donald Trump. Several GOP politicians continue to entertain his baseless belief that the 2020 election results were fraudulent and are trying to obstruct the transition of power.
Amid all that, Trump has been caught on tape trying to convince Georgia’s (Republican) secretary of state to “find” him more votes. And while we’re not looking, he’s off pardoning his golf buddies.
A session like no other
The 117th Congress opened with a whimper on Sunday — the COVID-19 pandemic meant much of the traditional ceremony was pared back. Unsurprisingly, Democrat Nancy Pelosi was elected speaker for a fourth term.
But the true drama lies ahead. On Wednesday US time, Congress will meet to confirm each state’s electoral college results from November’s general election. What is normally a quick formality will likely be a partisan shitshow after GOP politicians, led by Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama and Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, announced plans to raise objections to the results — 13 senators, including former presidential candidate Ted Cruz, and about 140 House Republicans have promised to object.
Those objections will see both House and Senate return to their chambers for a rather pointless two-hour debate. Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has told senators not to object, and several other Republican figures such as Mitt Romney have criticised the ploy.
None of the histrionics will stop Joe Biden becoming president. But it’s a sign of the choices Republicans will have to keep making over the next four years: maintain loyalty to Trump or remain committed to traditional institutions, which conservatives once theoretically cared about.
That’s why Hawley has led the charge to object. The ambitious, dead-eyed grifter clearly harbours presidential ambitions and has figured that Trump’s sinking ship is the best way to endear himself to an increasingly conspiracy-brained Republican base.
What will Pence do?
Vice-President Mike Pence’s final act in office will be to effectively finish off the Trump presidency by officially announcing the electoral college results. But Pence is also trying to walk the Trump tightrope, with the president mad his veep hasn’t fought hard enough to overturn the election results.
While Pence has never explicitly backed Trump’s false claims about electoral fraud, he recently welcomed efforts by GOP senators to object.
That’s not enough for Trump. He’s reportedly mad that Pence isn’t fighting hard enough for him, and in a rogue tweet last night, claimed Pence could use the joint Congress session to overturn the election result. Pence does not have the power to do this.
Last week a federal judge tossed out a lawsuit brought by congressional Republicans which aimed to pressure Pence into rejecting the electoral college results.
The power to pardon
The US constitution gives the president power to grant clemency for federal crimes, and it’s not unusual for a rash of pardons to be issued at the end of a term. What is unusual is the way Trump has used the power as essentially a get-out-of-jail-free card for his mates.
Recently he pardoned former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, long-term associate and GOP hack Roger Stone, and Charles Kushner, father of his son-in-law and adviser, Jared. For comparison, Barack Obama used many of his final pardons to free people serving excessive prison sentences for non-violent drug offences.
But perhaps one of Trump’s most egregious pardons wasn’t given to one of his cronies, but to four contractors from the private military company Blackwater who were convicted of murdering Iraqi civilians in 2007. That mass shooting, which left 14 civilians dead, was comparable to the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, according to the FBI agent investigating it.
Of course there’s always a crony angle with Trump. Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince, a big fan. Prince’s sister is Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos.
The article talks about Trump’s egregious use of the presidential pardon but misses perhaps the most important point – Trump’s successful tactic of using the possibility of pardons to buy continuing loyalty and omerta among his gang of accomplices. He has made it clear in various public statements that each has a very good prospect of a pardon so long as they give no cooperation to any investigation that could hurt Trump. Most have delivered by stifling any number of investigations, and he has duly rewarded them with pardons in these (let us hope) final days. Manafort is the prime example, but there are plenty more.
You miss the motivation behind so many Senate Republicans moving to support Trump’s delusions of electoral fraud and disputing the election result. It’s not to support Trump. It’s to steal his base. The “Deplorables” are a new GOP constituency and Trump has gotten them into the voting booths for the first time. Smart Republicans like Ted Cruz know that as demographics continue to shrink the old Republican base, a new one will help anyone pitching themselves for a run for the GOP nomination in 2024. So he’ll say and do what ever it takes to get them in his tent for the next presidential election.
The article does not miss that – e.g. see the paragraph about Hawley, roughly halfway down.
RE the My Lai analogy, the less than subtle difference being that the Officer Commanding the Helicopter Gunship troop that was giving support, when he saw what Lt Calley and his Unit were doing, ordered Calley to stop or he would turn his guns on the Americans. He was basically ostracised by his fellow US Army Officers for this action. It took the US Govt some 30 years to reward his actions at My Lai.
Info :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson_Jr.
For the Republicansit has nothing to do with Trump and all about them stealing their way back into government. Like our Liberal party, they will do anything to stay in power as they did by spending eight years blocking anything good that Obama tried to get through and we know that because it was McConnell’s strategy to get back the power, just as the Liberal party here spend all their time lying and smearing the Labor party whether in power or trying to get back into power.
I hope once Biden is inaugurated we never see or hear from Trump or his familyever again.
The Dems just won the Senate majority.
So the Democrats used the Russian ploy to wreck Trumps term and now the Republicans will use the stolen election to wreck Biden’s term (if he lives that long) Only in Merica. Why we blindly follow these imbeciles is beyond me.