Tag Archives: impeachment

national news

Yep, Trump is, um … consequential

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump has redefined the term “consequential,” as in he has been a “consequential president” for most of the four years he held the office.

The greatest consequence of the Trump tenure as president is about to occur this week. The U.S. House of Representatives is a lead-pipe cinch to impeach for the second time. To be clear, it appears to be equally certain that this impeachment won’t result in Trump’s removal from office. He’s only got nine days to go before President Biden takes the oath of office.

However, the guy who always wanted to make a name for himself — whether it was in business, in entertainment and now in politics — is going to hit the big time, if you know what I mean.

President Andrew Johnson got impeached and came within a single vote in the Senate of being convicted. President Bill Clinton got impeached and the Senate never came close to convicting him on any of the three articles it considered. Then came Trump’s first impeachment. He, too, skated clear with little to worry. Why? Because the GOP caucus in the Senate — except for Mitt Romney of Utah — lacked the guts to do what needed to be done; Trump needed to be convicted for seeking dirt on Biden from a foreign government.

Now he’s done it! He incited the riot that damaged the Capitol Building. It killed five people, including a D.C. Metro police officer. Trump called for an insurrection against the government. It’s on the record. We all saw him do it. We heard the words. He wanted the mob to prevent Congress from ratifying Biden’s election as president in 2020.

Now the House is going to make history by impeaching Trump a second time. House members will make the case that Trump must be barred from holding any federal office in the future. I am not at all confident they will persuade enough Republican senators to show the courage they need to keep this presidential idiot out of public office for the rest of his life.

But … by golly, Donald Trump has shown himself to be a “consequential president.” 

national news

How can Trump avoid conviction for this act?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s worth asking, which I will do.

How in the world can Donald Trump walk away from a nearly certain impeachment by the House of Representatives? It’s a rhetorical question, but it’s worth pondering.

Trump stood before a crowd of rioters and urged them to walk to Capitol Hill and try to “take back” the government that someone allegedly stole it from them.

Where I come from, that is inciting a riot. It is against the law. If “no one is above the law,” which Trump has actually acknowledged, then how does the president of the United States avoid being convicted of “inciting an insurrection,” which the single impeachment article alleges against him?

The Democrat-controlled House is all but certain to impeach Trump for the second time in his term as president. The question of the day, of course, rests with the Senate. The House needs a simple majority to impeach, the Senate requires a two-thirds vote to convict. The new Senate will be split 50-50, which certainly makes Senate conviction problematic, given the gutlessness of most Republicans in that body.

By my count, at least three Republican senators are speaking as though they could convict Trump: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Mitt Romney of Utah. The rest of ’em? It’s a crap shoot for some of the GOP caucus, not so much for too many of them.

What remains to be seen and heard, though, is their rationale for voting “no,” if it comes to that.

Trump has few political friends, especially now that he has incited the riot that sought to topple the very fabric of our government. Were the Republicans who serve in the Senate who plan to acquit Trump had any sense of the gravity of what he has done, they would pivot immediately and do right by the Constitution they all swore an oath to protect.

To my earlier point, I will await the discussion on why Trump should walk free of the serious crime he clearly has committed against the government he once ran.

national news

Ulterior motive surfaces

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There appears to be an ulterior, but noble nonetheless, motive behind the House of Representatives’ effort to impeach Donald Trump a second time, just days before he leaves office.

The House will vote Tuesday or Wednesday to impeach Trump for inciting the riot that erupted on Capitol Hill this past Wednesday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knows the Senate won’t take the measure up until no earlier than Jan. 19; Joe Biden will take office the next day.

The Senate won’t consider the impeachment article possibly for weeks, maybe months from now. The aim I have read is to give President Biden some time to get the executive branch of government formed, confirmed by the Senate and then getting them all to work on solving the myriad problems confronting us.

The ulterior motive? It is to ban Trump from ever seeking public office again. House members could insert language into the single impeachment article that says Trump must not be allowed to run for president, or for that matter for a school board or county commissioner seat ever again.

He incited the riot that killed five Americans. He sought to overturn the results of a free and fair election. He needs to be punished for it. If the Senate trial won’t convict him and, thus, toss his sorry a** out of office, it has the authority to rule that he must be barred from seeking any public office.

We now shall see whether our federal lawmakers can complement that authority with the will to do what is right.

DC riot, Donald Trump, Joe Biden

Put ’em on the record

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I suppose it’s time to face reality.

The U.S. House of Representatives is going to impeach Donald J. Trump for a second time, making him No. 1 in the annals of presidential infamy as the only POTUS ever to be impeached twice.

Trump certainly deserved to be impeached and then tossed out for soliciting dirt on Joe Biden from the head of a foreign government. That didn’t come to pass in 2019. The Senate acquitted him because only one Republican senator — Mitt Romney of Utah — had the courage to stand up against Trump and stand for the Constitution.

Now, though, comes the second impeachment on a charge of inciting an insurrection against the federal government. As Trump’s former friend/ally/confidant Chris Christie — the former New Jersey governor — said, if that isn’t an impeachable offense, “then I don’t know what is.”

The reality though is that the House impeachment won’t result in a Senate trial in time for Trump to be booted out of the White House. He’s only got 10 days to go before President Biden takes the oath along with Vice President Kamala Harris.

An impeachment, though, does have value. Once the Senate gets the articles of impeachment, House and Senate defenders of Trump will have been forced to explain why in the name of love of country they oppose impeaching and/or convicting him of the crime for which the House will contend he committed.

They all will cast their votes. Some of them might make public statements. Whatever the case, the public will know who these individuals are and will be able to hold them accountable for their statements and (in)action.

Trump’s inciting of the mob this past Wednesday is, as CNN commentator John Avlon noted, “history book stuff.” That single act will be written into our nation’s history, where it will stand forever as a testament to the ugliness of the time that we ushered with the election of Donald John Trump as president of the United States.

So, let’s have that debate, shall we? I am looking forward to laughing my a** off listening to those try to defend such despicable — and seditionist — behavior from the president of the United States.

national news

Bring senators back now, Mr. Majority Leader

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

We have 10 days to go before President Biden takes office.

Donald Trump will be gone from the White House. The House of Representatives might impeach the current president a second time, say, by Wednesday or Thursday of this week. House members will consider at least one impeachment article: incitement of insurrection, which to many folks’ view is as impeachable an offense as one can imagine.

If the House impeaches Trump, then the Senate — led at the moment by Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — would conduct a trial. However, McConnell said the Senate won’t convene until the day before Biden takes office.

Whoa! Hold on! The Senate majority leader can summon senators back to office immediately, declaring a national emergency. He can seek to suspend the rules and then fast-track the vote of senators to determine whether Trump stays in office for the remainder of his term.

I believe it is imperative for the Senate to act quickly, just as it acted to confirm Supreme Court justice after the Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death 11 days before the presidential election.

All of this presumes that Trump won’t quit, or that the Cabinet won’t invoke the Constitution’s 25th Amendment and remove him from office.

It can be done. It should be done. Majority Leader McConnell must not sit idly while Donald Trump — who incited the rioters to storm Capitol Hill this past Wednesday — to walk away from the presidency on his own terms. The riot, as if McConnell and other GOP members of Congress need reminding, put their own lives in peril had the rioters been able to storm the House and Senate while our legislators were doing their constitutional duty in ratifying Biden’s victory over Trump.

Time isn’t on the side of those who want Donald Trump to be held accountable. However, the Senate has the mechanism to move rapidly … which it must do.

national news

Impeach him once more!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Make no mistake, none at all, that I do not relish the idea of impeaching Donald J. Trump a second time just a few days before the end of his tenure as president of the United States.

But it needs to occur. The House of Representatives reportedly is set to take up debate on Monday of an article of impeachment. My sense is that the Democrats who run the House will be able to fast-track this article, sending it immediately to the Senate for trial.

This individual, Trump, is a danger to the nation. We saw the danger play out in real time on Wednesday. Trump stood before a mob of rioters and implored them to march on the Capitol. They did and all hell broke loose.

Then he told them he “loved” them, repeated the lie about voter fraud in the 2020 election. Oh, and then today Trump said he regrets the violence and that a “new administration” will take over.

The man continues to present a clear a present danger to the nation for every minute he remains in office.

An impeachment doesn’t mean removal. We know that already, given that the House impeached him in 2019, only to watch the Senate acquit him because only one GOP senator — Mitt Romney –had the courage to stand up for the rule of law and the Constitution.

Is this instance different from that one? Will it prompt Republicans in the Senate to steel themselves for what they must do, which is to convict Donald Trump of inciting violence against the government he took an oath to protect? Man, I hope so.

national news

Wanting to cheer Bolton … but now cursing him

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I wanted to cheer John Bolton when word got out that his memoir would hit the bookshelves.

I am left now only wanting to curse him.

The former national security adviser to Donald John “Liar in Chief” Trump has written a book that lays even more bare what many of us knew already. “The Room Where it Happened” is a blistering tell-all.

He tells us that Trump asked China for help in his re-election effort; he confirms that Trump asked Ukraine for political help in exchange for weaponry; he also tells us that Trump gave China a pass on construction of concentration camps. There’s more, of course.

Why curse him instead of cheer the ex-national security adviser? Because he could have told us all of it during the impeachment of Trump. He didn’t. He sat on it. Why? Bolton says the impeachment was too narrowly focused and had become “too political.” What a crock of fecal matter!

I am cursing Bolton not because I believe his impeachment testimony would change enough minds to convict Donald Trump of abuse of power and/or obstruction of Congress — the charges the House brought to the Senate during the impeachment inquiry.

I curse Bolton because he withheld this information from a public that needed to hear it from someone who, as the book title suggests, was “in the room” when Donald Trump committed these impeachable offenses. He heard this stuff first hand, in real time, at ringside.

The Republican majority in the U.S. Senate that acquitted Trump of the charges brought against him likely would have been unmoved by any Bolton testimony. It’s just that Americans needed to hear this in the context of that impeachment trial and needed to hear GOP senators explain how Trump’s behavior didn’t rise to an offense worthy of his expulsion from office.

John Bolton choked.

I am glad he is speaking out now. I happen to believe what he has said about Donald Trump. I just wanted him to speak out when it really mattered.

Damn you, John Bolton!

medical news

Hell freezes over: Trump tells the truth!

I never thought this day would come, but it did … yesterday, during a White House campaign rally-style riff by the president of the United States who supposedly was briefing the nation about the health outbreak that has gripped the world.

A reporter asked Donald Trump whether he declined to appoint U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, to join a task force to reopen the country in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic out of anger at Romney’s criticism of him.

Trump said he is “not a fan of Mitt Romney. I don’t want his advice.”

So, the answer is “yes,” Trump is still angry at Romney because the Republican senator voted to convict the president of abuse of power during the Senate impeachment trial.

See what I mean? Trump actually told the truth that he does hold a grudge against Romney!

This fit of truth-telling isn’t worth any sort of praise, given the smallness and pettiness it represents about what passes for Trump’s thought pattern.

national news

Good luck getting POTUS to come clean on this one

I want to wish U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley all the luck he can muster as he tries to get Donald Trump to explain fully why he fired a dedicated inspector general.

Trump canned intelligence community IG Michael Atkinson because he had “lost confidence” in the man who revealed to Congress a complaint that whistleblower brought regarding that “perfect phone call” Trump made to the president of Ukraine.

The report led to Trump’s impeachment in the House of Representatives. Why? Because Trump asked the Ukraine president for a political favor; he wanted dirt on Joe Biden. In return, Trump would release money appropriated by Congress to supply Ukraine with weapons to fight Russia-backed rebels.

Grassley, a Republican, has joined a bipartisan group of senators who want a thorough explanation for Trump’s firing of Atkinson. A loss of “confidence” is insufficient.

The whistleblower law is intended to provide an ability for government officials to report fraud, waste and abuse of power. That was the case here. The whistleblower did what the law allowed … as did Atkinson, the inspector general.

The law requires the president to notify Congress of his decision to fire an IG; the notification must come 30 days prior to the IG’s removal. Trump didn’t do that. He acted impulsively, which according to Grassley is an inappropriate way to handle this matter.

Will the president do as the senators have demanded? He might if he had any appreciation or understanding of the limits of his power. He doesn’t. Which is one of the many reasons why he is unfit to serve in the office he occupies.

national news

Trump torpedoes inspector general role … once more

Donald Trump’s venality is on full display for all the world to see and to gasp at the president’s shamelessness.

He fired an inspector general selected by a panel of inspectors general to oversee the spending of coronavirus relief funds appropriated by Congress. Trump, who signed the relief bill into law, then selected an IG of his choosing to do the task.

Do you get where I’m going with this? If not, I shall explain.

The panel of IGs had picked an independent inspector general, Glenn Fine, to serve as a watchdog. Trump wouldn’t stand still for that, so he canned Fine, who serves as the Pentagon’s inspector general, and installed someone from the Environmental Protection Agency to oversee the disbursement of the $2.2 trillion pandemic relief package.

This switch comes in the wake of Donald Trump’s firing of Michael Atkinson, the former intelligence community inspector general, who became a player in the Trump impeachment inquiry. How? Because Atkinson submitted the findings of a whistleblower who complained that Trump had abuse the power of his office by soliciting a political favor from the Ukraine president; that complaint resulted in Trump’s impeachment.

Atkinson was fired because he did his job. Trump, though, called Atkinson’s report “fake news” gleaned from a “fake report.” Which is absolute crap. Republicans in the House and Senate actually acknowledged that what Atkinson revealed was true. It wasn’t false, or phony or anything that Trump called it.

Now this venal individual who serves as president has undercut an inspector general’s role in providing transparency in the way that relief money would be spent.

Donald Trump’s ignorance and arrogance are utterly — and breathtakingly — without limit.

Disgraceful.