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Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
Noooo!

People, we're riding a winning streak like nothing I've ever seen.

We won the presidency with a plain vanilla candidate with modest political skills and elected the first black/female/Asian VP.

We kept the house.

We won the senate, somehow beating two sitting senators with a black preacher and the first Jewish senator in the south and the youngest in a generation.

If that wasn't enough, Trump just strapped dynamite to his chest and blew himself up. Even Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham ran from the blast zone. People are fleeing the GOP, leaving the party in the fiendish hands of Ted Cruz, who has blood on his hands.

And people want to spend the next couple of weeks trying to impeach Trump?

Oh, heck no. Let's not say or do anything that will change the headline here. Let's not give Fox some new talking points. Let's not start looking like wild-eyed, vengeful liberals.

Let's just sit here and enjoy the win. Can we do that, for once?

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As the violent mob incited by President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, some West Wing staffers panicked that they were possibly becoming participants in a coup to overthrow the government. “What do I do? Resign?” one nervous White House staffer asked a friend on Wednesday afternoon, shortly after news broke that a woman had been shot and killed inside the Capitol. The West Wing staffer told the friend that White House Counsel Pat Cipollone was urging White House officials not to speak to Trump or enable his coup attempt in any way, so they could reduce the chance they could be prosecuted for treason under the Sedition Act. “They’re being told to stay away from Trump,” the friend said. The White House declined to comment.

Cipollone’s purported concern that Trump was committing treason—a federal crime—illustrates the chaos and fear of Wednesday’s unprecedented events. At least one staffer isn’t waiting to flee the ship. On Wednesday night, CNN reported that Stephanie Grisham, the former White House communications director and Melania Trump’s current chief of staff, resigned over the Trump-inspired riot. As staff quit or steer clear, Trump is increasingly isolated and alone. According to a person close to the White House, Trump refused to take calls on Wednesday from business leaders who wanted him to call off the insurrectionists. A former West Wing staffer said Republicans were texting and calling Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to lobby him to intervene, but Meadows wasn’t answering.

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If Mr. Trump wants to avoid a second impeachment, his best path would be to take personal responsibility and resign. This would be the cleanest solution since it would immediately turn presidential duties over to Mr. Pence. And it would give Mr. Trump agency, a la Richard Nixon, over his own fate.

This might also stem the flood of White House and Cabinet resignations that are understandable as acts of conscience but could leave the government dangerously unmanned. Robert O’Brien, the national security adviser, in particular should stay at his post.

We know an act of grace by Mr. Trump isn’t likely. In any case this week has probably finished him as a serious political figure. He has cost Republicans the House, the White House, and now the Senate. Worse, he has betrayed his loyal supporters by lying to them about the election and the ability of Congress and Mr. Pence to overturn it. He has refused to accept the basic bargain of democracy, which is to accept the result, win or lose.

It is best for everyone, himself included, if he goes away quietly.

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In any case this week has probably finished him as a serious political figure.

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Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has joined the growing chorus of those calling for President Donald Trump's term to abruptly end by saying Trump should resign.

"Those who are suggesting impeachment or the 25th Amendment, that's time-consuming," Powell told Savannah Guthrie on TODAY Friday. "I wish he would just do what Nixon did, and that's step down."

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"Somebody oughta go up there and tell him it's over," Powell said about Trump. "The plane's waiting for you, you're out. That way he would not only step down, he would in addition sort of cut the guts out from underneath this group of people who he has working for him."

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"What he is responsible for is one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen in all my years as a government employee here in the United States of America and in Washington, D.C.," Powell said. "He should be totally ashamed of himself, and he should take that shame and turn it into a resignation as quickly as possible."

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Originally posted by pianojuggler:

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In any case this week has probably finished him as a serious political figure.

The word "probably" is the problem.

Reports are that his base is still worshiping him. Right-wing media (noozmucks, oan, even tooker carlson are still giving him cover, insisting that "antifa" and other radical lefties infiltrated and egged on the "patriots" to storm the Capitol.

He must be prevented from ever holding any office of trust, honor, or power ever again. And that comes by impeachment and conviction.


I get Cindy's perspective. I don't agree with it.

I was just watching a video interview with a guy in Romania. He said when coups are attempted, if the coup fails and the perpetrators are allowed to just go back home with no accountability and punishment, they come back and try again, learning from their past mistakes and having more success the next time around.

This is about I-1, but it is about something much bigger... it is about aborting a slide toward authoritarianism and away from democracy. Our little experiment has made it almost 250 years. Will we make it another 250? Not unless we aggressively fight for our democracy against all enemies foreign and domestic.

The Constitution and its Amendments provide guidance and remedies. We need to heed them.

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Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf resigned Monday, becoming the third Cabinet-level official to quit on the heels of the riot at the U.S. Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters.....

Wolf, in a letter to Department of Homeland Security staff, said his resignation was “warranted by recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court rulings regarding the validity of my authority as Acting Secretary.”

“These events and concerns increasingly serve to divert attention and resources away from the important work of the Department in this critical time of a transition of power,” wrote Wolf, whose resignation is effective at just before midnight.

He also said that he was “saddened” to resign, as he had planned to remain in his post until Biden took office next week. He had been acting secretary of DHS since November 2019.

Pete Gaynor, who currently is the administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will become acting DHS secretary.

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The White House declined to comment on Wolf’s resignation, which came four days after Trump withdrew Wolf’s nomination to become DHS secretary, as opposed to acting chief.

The White House at the time of the withdrawal had said that the move was not related to Wolf’s comments about Trump after the riot, in which a Capitol Police officer was killed, a member of the mob was fatally shot, and three other people died from medical issues.