Three years ago today, the United States Senate voted 57-43 in favor of convicting the 45th president following a trial on the single article of impeachment that the House of Representatives had passed 232-197 on January 13.
Below is the Congressional Research Service summary of the impeachment resolution:
This resolution impeaches President Donald John Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Specifically, the resolution sets forth an article of impeachment stating that President Trump incited an insurrection against the government of the United States.
The article states that
prior to the joint session of Congress held on January 6, 2021, to count the votes of the electoral college, President Trump repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the presidential election results were fraudulent and should not be accepted by the American people or certified by state or federal officials;
shortly before the joint session commenced, President Trump reiterated false claims to a crowd near the White House and willfully made statements to the crowd that encouraged and foreseeably resulted in lawless action at the Capitol;
members of the crowd, incited by President Trump, unlawfully breached and vandalized the Capitol and engaged in other violent, destructive, and seditious acts, including the killing of a law enforcement officer;
President Trump's conduct on January 6, 2021, followed his prior efforts to subvert and obstruct the certification of the presidential election, which included a threatening phone call to the Secretary of State of Georgia on January 2, 2021;
President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government, threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of government; and
by such conduct, President Trump warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold U.S. office.
Unfortunately, this simple majority did not meet the two-thirds supermajority required to convict, and the former president stood acquitted.
In the votes whether to impeach and convict, scant few Republicans – 10 representatives and seven senators, respectively – voted in accordance with decency and sense. One member of Congress particularly distinguished himself. After having voted to acquit, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell proceeded to excoriate the 45th president in a barn burner of a speech.
As I noted in the essay that I published this past January 6, the day after the acquittal three years ago I posted on Facebook a draft resolution of censure, the verbiage of which I took directly from McConnell. I say again, we would inhabit a vastly better world today had Congress adopted such a resolution then. It would have been better still, of course, had more Republicans joined Democrats in casting principled votes against the 45th president, rather than yield to cynicism and/or cowardice.
The January 6 Committee presented further evidence of the 45th president’s disgraceful attempt to overturn democracy in the United States. Last August, a federal grand jury and another in Fulton County, Georgia handed up indictments (here and here) providing still more evidence. The trials in these two cases – should they come to pass – would present yet more.
For people of decency and sense, however, a moral judgment of the 45th president – along with a recognition of the unique danger he poses to our constitutional republic – was already inescapable three years ago today. Mitch McConnell knew it, and yet he would not act responsibly on that knowledge then. And like so many others, he will not do so now.
In addition to publishing an essay this past January 6, I spoke at a rally. Below is the text and here is video of my remarks. It is essential that we reach persuadable people – particularly in swing states – and convince them of these evident truths before it is too late.
REMARKS DELIVERED IN CASTLE ROCK, COLORADO ON JANUARY 6, 2024
Three years ago today, the 45th president of the United States, having experienced a decisive defeat in the 2020 election, sicced a mob of his supporters on the U.S. Capitol in a bid to disrupt the official certification of Joe Biden’s victory. It was the culminating event in a multi-pronged campaign of deceit, corruption, and intimidation, the aim of which was to overcome the legitimate political process and retain the defeated president in office.
Yesterday, President Joe Biden marked this anniversary with an address at Valley Forge. Early in his remarks he explained the significance of the venue, and returned to the theme later. It is an important speech, and I urge you to Google it up and watch it in full.
President Biden recounted some of what took place on January 6th. Consider also what a significant Republican has said.
On February 13, 2021, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered a fiery speech condemning the former president. He did so, however, after casting a vote at the conclusion of the second impeachment trial not to hold the former president accountable. The very next day, drawing from the text of McConnell’s speech, I posted on Facebook a motion of censure I had drafted. Listen please:
Whereas, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated on February 13, “There's no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of” January 6;
Whereas, the events to which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell referred were, in his words, “a disgrace” during which “American Citizens”:
“attacked their own government”
“used terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of domestic business they did not like”
“beat and bloodied our own police”
“stormed the Senate floor”
“tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House”
“built a gallows and chanted about murdering the vice president”;
Whereas, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, former President Trump incited these acts by having to the rioters “fed wild falsehoods…because he was angry he had lost an election” and that his “actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty”;
Whereas, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel stated, “The people that stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president” and that “having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole, which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth”;
Whereas, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, the incitement encompassed “the entire manufactured atmosphere of looming catastrophe, the increasingly wild myths – myths about a reverse landslide election that was somehow being stolen, some secret coup by our now-president”;
Whereas, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, the mob acted upon “an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters' decision or else torch our institutions on the way out”;
Whereas, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, “The unconscionable behavior did not end when the violence actually began” and that the “mob was assaulting the Capitol in his name…carrying his banners, hanging his flags, and screaming their loyalty to him”;
Whereas, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, “It was obvious that only President Trump could end this” and “[h]e was the only one who could” and “[f]ormer aides publicly begged him to do so” and “[l]oyal allies frantically called the administration”;
Whereas, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, “The president did not act swiftly” and “did not do his job” and “didn't take steps so federal law could be faithfully executed and order restored” and “[i]nstead, according to public reports, he watched television happily…as the chaos unfolded” and “kept pressing his scheme to overturn the election”;
Whereas, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, “[E]ven after it was clear to any reasonable observer that vice president Pence was in serious danger, even as the mob carrying Trump banners was beating cops and breaching perimeters, the president sent a further tweet attacking his own vice president”;
Whereas, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, “[P]redictably and foreseeably, under the circumstances, members of the mob seemed to interpret this as a further inspiration to lawlessness and violence”;
Whereas, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, “Later, even when the president did half-heartedly begin calling for peace, he didn't call right away for the riot to end” and “did not tell the mob to depart until even later” and “even then, with police officers bleeding and broken glass covering the Capitol floors, he kept repeating election lies and praising the criminals”;
Whereas, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, it was Donald Trump who did “engineer the campaign of disinformation and rage that provoked” the assault on the bastion of our democracy;
Therefore be it resolved, that Donald John Trump, former president of the United States, for his disgraceful conduct against the United States, its Constitution and our democracy, is hereby censured in the strongest possible terms as one who is unfit ever again to hold the office of president of the United States or any other position of public trust.
I cannot help but think that had Congress swiftly adopted such a resolution then – and in having done so, locked into the historical record the assessment of Congress and of some members who later caved to MAGA – the security of liberal democracy in the United States would be much greater now.
Let’s be clear. MAGA is a potent force:
Right here in Colorado.
Right here in Congressional District 4.
Right here in Douglas County.
Right here in Castle Rock.
Both ardent supporters of the former president and others who have simply acquiesced, are as President Bidens called them, “MAGA Voices” who have “made their choice.”
I conclude with a passage from President Biden’s speech:
Now, the rest of us, Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans, we have to make our choice.
I know mine, and I believe I know America’s.
We’ll defend the truth, not give in to the big lie.
We’ll embrace the Constitution of the Declaration, not abandon it.
We’ll honor the sacred cause of democracy, not walk away from it.
Join us!
You:"McConnell delivered a fiery speech ...after casting a vote at the conclusion of the second impeachment trial not to hold the former president accountable. "
MAGA is loyal after being pranked... God/Creator/Evolution too, pranks us... and we remain loyal...😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-i-preach-to-the-choir/comment/48890783
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-i-preach-to-the-choir/comment/48880024
Researcher:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_G._Gallup
https://web.archive.org/web/20160618085730/http://www.albany.edu/psychology/20915.php
Research:
Science:"Semen Displacement as a Sperm Competition Strategy in Humans"
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/147470490400200105
Science:" The human penis as a semen displacement device "
https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=4cea697c1f0d9c80e0fa8c366ae686ec72eea642