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For a few minutes in January, Republicans wanted to impeach Trump

Published on 19 Comments on For a few minutes in January, Republicans wanted to impeach Trump

Huh. I guess the hot ticket for Republicans right after January 6 was to haul out the 25th Amendment and boot Donald Trump out of office:

Halfway through, McCarthy switches gears and tells Liz Cheney: "We know it'll pass the House. I think there's a chance it'll pass the Senate, even when he's gone."

Apparently "it" is articles of impeachment, and McCarthy said he'd advise Trump to resign. Needless to say, McCarthy soon changed his mind and decided that Democrats were such malicious hypocrites that he couldn't support their impeachment of Trump over a minor little boys-will-be-boys roughhousing in the Capitol.

Today, of course, I believe the party line is that Trump single-handedly saved democracy by making Democrats pay for their perfidy, or something. I can't keep it straight. But whatever it is, it's the Democrats' fault.

19 thoughts on “For a few minutes in January, Republicans wanted to impeach Trump”

  1. Leisureguy

    The bald-faced lies that the GOP now tells with such abandon is astonishing. I suppose one mark of a cult is that its members accept with fervent belief whatever they are told, even when what they're told today contradicts what they were told yesterday, but still I am amazed by how readily the GOP rank and file swallow this swill. And the leadership clearly have no ethics or integrity whatsoever.

    1. Jasper_in_Boston

      ...even when what they're told today contradicts what they were told yesterday, but still I am amazed by how readily the GOP rank and file swallow this swill.

      Don't confuse ignorance with indifference. There's plenty of the former in MAGAt circles, mind you, but a lot of the GOP base simply doesn't care if we descend into autocracy: That's a small price to pay for owning the libs.

  2. kahner

    I've seen reports that people close to McCarthy say he's unconcerned about this and doesn't expect any political fallout. And sadly, I'm pretty sure he's right.

    1. navamske

      I hope the political fallout is that he doesn’t get to be Speaker. The idea of Keven McCarthy's being two heartbeats away from the presidency is frightening.

    2. Jasper_in_Boston

      Why would there be any political fallout? Is his district the least bit purple? If not, he certainly has nothing to fear in terms of reelection. The only way 90% of House Republicans can mess up is if they show themselves to be insufficiently Trumpy (then, of course, they face a primary challenge). McCarthy's successful efforts to rally his conference to oppose removing Trump should insulate him from any concerns on that score.

  3. Yehouda

    Republicans didn't "want to impeach Trump." They should it would politically useful to do it. Later they decided it is actually not politically useful.

  4. KenSchulz

    In the audio and transcript, Rep. Cheney refers to a ‘25th Amendment resolution’. It actually seems to me that it is possible that the discussion about ‘passage’ is about the resolution, not articles of impeachment. But what would such a ‘resolution’ be? The 25th lays out two Congressional actions: 1) approving removal of the President by the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet by two-thirds vote of both houses ‘or other … body …’; and/or 2) empowering that ‘other body’ by legislation, to act by majority vote with the VP to remove the President. In my understanding, the word ‘resolution’ in the context of Congressional action refers to nonbinding votes, not to legislation. So were the Republicans contemplating some kind of sense-of-Congress resolution encouraging the Cabinet to invoke the 25th?

    1. Solar

      McCarthy specifically talks about him being sure the articles of impeachment will pass the House, and thinking that also possibly the Senate, and wondering if the Dems would be ok if he resigned instead, and not wanting to have any discussion about the possibility of Pence pardoning him. The discussion was about the impeachment and him thinking he should resign.

  5. D_Ohrk_E1

    Earlier today, more tapes were revealed. In it, McCarthy indicated that Trump admitted to some responsibility to what happened. Although such an admission of guilt and acknowledgement of one's actions contributing to crimes is useful, the bigger implication is that Trump may have to take the stand to deny that he said this, were a criminal trial to go forward. Trump is a prosecutor's best witness, after all.

    1. Salamander

      And yet, everybody knows that Trump lies. All. The. Time. His testimony will be worthless, other than to steal airtime, whip up his base, and rack up perjury charges.

        1. Jasper_in_Boston

          Good luck getting a jury to convict. I mean, never say never, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised, if, given the adamantine partisan polarization that currently characterizes the citizenry, prosecutors simply won't be able to seat a reliably objective and open-minded jury capable of finding Trump guilty. And even a successful prosecution wouldn't be the final word, given the inevitable appeal ultimately decided by five deeply reactionary MAGA jurists.

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