Tag Archives: Trump impeachment

crime news

Expunge impeachments? Huh?

Allow me this full-frontal criticism of the U.S. speaker of the House: Kevin McCarthy has rocks in his noggin.

McCarthy, a Republican, is considering seeking an expunging of the record that shows Donald J. Trump has been impeached twice by the House.

As if that is going to erase the memories of every living American who witnessed the House impeach the ex-POTUS for (a) trying to get a political favor from a foreign head of state and (b) inciting the mob that attacked the government on 1/6 in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

He was impeached twice, man!

What does McCarthy hope to accomplish? Does an expunging of the record mean that Trump wasn’t impeached? Of course not! The record will stand forever.

McCarthy is certifiably loony.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Heads up, Liz Cheney

Liz Cheney no doubt watched with keen interest what happened to her Republican U.S. House colleague Tom Rice.

Rice got thumped badly in the GOP primary in South Carolina. Why would Cheney take such a keen interest in Rice’s defeat? Because the two of them were among 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Donald J. Trump, who along with the cultists, has been on the warpath ever since.

Rice paid the price politically when he lost the South Carolina GOP primary this week. So, now comes the question: Is the same fate awaiting Cheney out yonder in Wyoming, where she faces a Trumpkin challenger for her House seat?

I hope that’s not the case, given that Cheney has emerged as the rare Republican voice of sanity, reason and fealty to the Constitution in the ongoing probe into the 1/6 insurrection … that Donald Trump incited with that fiery speech on the Ellipse just two weeks before he would hand the presidency over to the man who defeated him, Joseph R. Biden Jr.

From my perch in North Texas, I must acknowledge that it doesn’t look good for Rep. Cheney. Then again, Wyoming Republicans aren’t necessarily clones of their colleagues in South Carolina.

That is my most fervent hope.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Thank you, Rep. Rice

Tom Rice deserves a shout out, a high-five, even an atta-boy for standing firm in his decision to cast a vote to impeach Donald J. Trump.

Rice is a conservative member of Congress from South Carolina. He’s a Republican who’s been getting lots of grief from his own party for standing up for the rule of law and for casting what he calls a “most conservative vote” in favor of the U.S. Constitution.

He voted overwhelmingly for Trump’s agenda while The Donald was masquerading as POTUS. Then he said enough is enough and voted — along with nine other Republican House members — to impeach Trump when he incited the 1/6 insurrection.

Of course, and this is no surprise, Trump has called Rice a “disaster” as a member of Congress. Rice laughs it off. He faces a strong challenge in the upcoming state GOP primary.

GOP Rep. Tom Rice says impeaching Trump was ‘the conservative vote’ (msn.com)

If he loses his party’s nomination for another term in the House? No big deal, said Rice. He’ll stand forever on his vote to impeach Trump because it was the right thing to do.

I am proud of him. Thank you for taking a stand in favor of the Constitution. If only the ex-POTUS had any understanding of the importance of that vote.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

So long, Rep. Kinzinger

1 Comment

Donald J. Trump’s purging of the “disloyal” elements of otherwise outstanding Republican members of Congress is continuing.

U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois has announced his decision to forgo another try at re-election in 2022. The GOP congressman is one of 10 members of his party to vote to impeach the 45th POTUS in 2020, an act that the former Insurrectionist in Chief has seen as an act of disloyalty to him.

The ex-Crook in Chief reportedly declared today that with Kinzinger’s planned retirement, that leaves just “eight more to go,” meaning eight more Republicans who voted to impeach him need to be purged from the ranks of Congress.

Kinzinger currently serves as one of two Republicans on the House select committee examining the events that led to the riot on 1/6; the other is Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who also faces a primary challenge in her state next year.

The actual culprit in Kinzinger’s departure is the Democratically controlled Illinois legislature that redrew the state’s congressional districts to make it harder for Kinzinger to win again. Still, the fact that the former POTUS is applauding his departure is a signal that No. 45’s desire is being met.

It makes me sick to my stomach to believe that a twice-impeached POTUS whose company has been indicted for tax fraud can have the kind of sway over a once-great political party. It is the reality of the current climate.

Sickening.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

It was an ‘insurrection’

1 Comment

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

For several months now, I have been referring to the Jan. 6 riot as an “insurrection,” a term that reportedly gives congressional Republicans a case of the heebie-jeebies.

Senate Republicans didn’t like the term inserted into legislation that called for creation of an independent bipartisan commission to investigate the cause and effect of the insurrection; it also would have sought remedies to prevent it from happening in the future.

Well, you know what? I will continue to call it what it was: an insurrection against the government of the United States of America.

It was nothing short of that. It was a direct frontal assault on the very democratic process which on that day was certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election that resulted in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris  being elected president and vice president of the United States.

The ticket led by the 45th POTUS incited the insurrection, for which the House of Representatives impeached him for a second time. It was a big more of a bipartisan impeachment than the first go-round, with a handful of Republicans joining their Democratic colleagues in impeaching POTUS 45; what’s more, some GOP senators ended up voting to convict the disgraced ex-POTUS at trial.

My point, though, is that no one should shy away from calling the DC riot what it was: an act of insurrection against the government of the United States. For the GOP congressional caucus to dig in against the investigative commission because they dislike truth-telling language is a cheap and shallow attempt to deny the obvious.

The effort to get at the truth behind the insurrection must not end. The House has formed a select committee. It already includes one Republican House member; others should join the effort.

Let’s not be coy about what’s at stake. It is to find a way to prevent future insurrections from occurring.

Ever!

DC riot, national news

GOP leader has ‘had it’ with Cheney?

(Photo by Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I never thought the day would come that I would be standing behind a conservative Republican member of Congress.

But here I am, telling you that Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming is getting the bum’s rush from her party leaders simply because she — and not them — chose to honor the U.S. Constitution they all swore an oath to protect and defend.

Disgusting, despicable, disgraceful.

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California says he has “had it” with Rep. Cheney, which means she could lose her job as the House’s No. 3 GOP leader. Why is that? Because she voted to impeach Donald Trump after the president of the United States incited the insurrection mounted by the terrorists who stormed Capitol Hill on Jan. 6.

So, because she believes that Trump committed an act against the government by inciting the rioters to do what they did.

Is she less of a Republican politician because she chose to honor the Constitution? Of course not! Yet the GOP leadership now demands fealty to a cult leader above all else.

McCarthy has done the impossible. He has turned this center-left American patriot into a fan of a right-leaning member of Congress.

I am proud of Liz Cheney for standing up for the Constitution.

national news

Sen. Romney earns salute

1 Comment

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Someone with whom I am casually acquainted over social media objected this weekend to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum granting its annual Profile in Courage award to Sen. Mitt Romney.

Romney, a Utah Republican got the award for voting in early 2020 to convict Donald J. Trump of abuse of power during Trump’s first impeachment trial in the Senate. I applaud the honor that Romney will receive later this year.

This acquaintance disagrees. He wrote: This is just plain sad. No doubt the foundation decided this was a worthy act as a way to encourage those of faint heart and limp spine to stand up to political bullies. But really, what did Romney risk? There’s not much evidence that he might lose his seat over it, but even if he did, he’s still a very wealthy man near the end of his career. The fact that so many of his colleagues lacked the willingness to do the obvious for the good of the nation they swore to defend doesn’t make Romney’s vote particularly courageous. It makes the others abject cowards.

I responded with this: I will disagree. Romney’s vote has exposed him to ridicule and shaming from many within the GOP. I agree that they aren’t “legitimate” Rs who stand on policy or principle, but rather are beholden to the carnival barker who sold ’em the snake oil. I applaud the JFK Library for recognizing the courage Romney exhibited by being the first senator to vote to convict a president of his own party. Yep … well earned.

I just felt the need to share this with you here.

Sen. Romney will receive the award this summer. I believe JFK would be proud.

national news

Conviction still unlikely

12 Comments

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The evidence of incitement of insurrection has been searing, heartbreaking, graphic and it reveals a profound danger to our republic.

Despite what I believe we have seen in the impeachment trial of Donald John Trump, I fear it won’t move a sufficient number of Republican U.S. senators to do what they should do … which is convict the ex-president of the crime for which the House of Representatives impeached him for the second time.

Trump will get an acquittal. He likely will crow about it. The good news from my standpoint, though, is that his legacy — and I use that term with great caution — will be scarred forever by the knowledge that most senators believe he violated the sacred oath of his office.

He stood before the crowd of terrorists on the Sixth of January and implored them to march on Capitol Hill. He told them to “stop the steal” of an election he lost fair and square to President Biden. They tried to do as they were instructed to do by their hero, the disgraced president.

It won’t move enough senators to convict Trump. Which means the Senate cannot vote to ban this monster from ever seeking federal public office.

That will be to the shame of all the Republicans — and I am talking specifically to Texas’s two senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, both of whom indicate no interest in doing the right thing.

They will hide behind the phony argument about the trial’s alleged unconstitutionality. They will look indifferently at the evidence, at the sight and sounds of terrorists storming the Capitol building, ignoring how many of their colleagues came to being physically harmed … or worse.

The good news, as I see it, will be that Trump will be marked forever as someone who sought to destroy the very government he took an oath to defend and protect.

national news

Another GOP’er to leave

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Hey, who’s counting? OK, I guess I am.

Richard Shelby of Alabama today became the third prominent U.S. Senate Republican to announce he won’t seek re-election in 2022.

He joins Rob Portman of Ohio and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania as declaring themselves to be lame ducks.

I know what you are thinking: Where is he going with this?

Might they now muster up the courage to vote to convict Donald Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill, of exhorting the terrorists to storm into the Senate chamber where the second of Trump’s impeachment trials is about to begin?

Shelby, Portman and Toomey can join GOP Sens. Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and perhaps Susan Collins as possible votes to convict Trump. That leaves only 11 more Republicans to persuade to do the right thing.

Trump can do nothing to those who are leaving public office. Therefore, the threat of reprisal against those politicians is a goner. Just sayin’, man.

national news, political news

Rep. Cheney ‘won’t bend’

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I sure hope I don’t choke on these words, so I’ll take great care when I write them.

It is that I am proud of U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., for standing on principle and not “bending” to the whims of partisan hacks.

Cheney has come under intense fire from Donald Trump’s core of lunatics who are angry at her because she voted on Jan. 13 to impeach their hero. The Wyoming Republican Party has censured her for her vote.

Rep. Cheney isn’t backing down. Not one bit!

She told “Fox News Sunday” this morning: “The oath that I took to the Constitution compelled me to vote for impeachment, and it doesn’t bend to partisanship. It doesn’t bend to political pressure,” she added. “It’s the most important oath that we take, and so I will stand by that, and I will continue to fight for all of the issues that matter so much to us all across Wyoming.”

Cheney on Trump impeachment vote: ‘The oath that I took … doesn’t bend to partisanship’ | TheHill

How about that, ladies and gentlemen? She reveres the oath she took when she joined the House of Representatives. That oath compels her to protect the Constitution and the laws of the land. She did not swear any fealty to Donald Trump. She didn’t give him a pass for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection that well could have brought great physical harm to all 535 members of Congress … and the then-vice president, Mike Pence.

They were gathered on Capitol Hill to do their constitutional duty, which was to certify the results of an election that proclaimed President Joe Biden the winner over Donald Trump.

Cheney and the other GOP House members who voted to impeach Trump all have incurred the wrath of the Trumpkin Corps.

I mentioned “choking” on these words. It is because Liz Cheney is not my kind of politician. She is too right-wing for my taste. I would not vote for her if I lived in Wyoming.

However, I am addressing only her principled stand against the insurrection that Donald Trump incited with his angry rhetoric to the mob that stood before him.

It is amazing in the extreme that Rep. Cheney would have to defend her vote to defend the Constitution, but she did … and for that I am proud of her.