Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is backing last-minute efforts to impeach President Trump. After the storming of the Capitol last week, McConnell reportedly lost the last of his patience with Trump and now is “furious” with him and ready to see him publicly humiliated and shown out of office as soon as possible.
McConnell is a powerful political operator who calls a lot of shots around Washington, and the fact that he’s now done sticking behind Trump is a big sign of which way the winds are blowing: establishment GOP figures are done caring about the base and are now fully onboard the anti-Trump movement.
If House Democrats move forward with their rapid attempt to impeach Trump, McConnell might vote to convict which could give enough votes to lead to the President’s impeachment.
Laura Ingraham says Fox News has confirmed McConnell will not stand in the way of impeachment and is “done with Trump” pic.twitter.com/N0YOEjONK9
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) January 13, 2021
Getting Rid of Trump and His Movement
McConnell reportedly told his colleagues privately that an impeachment of Trump would be good because it will get rid of Trump and his movement. He’s also satisfied that Democrats have brought forward a draft of their articles of impeachment. McConnell’s aides deny that he’s happy about the situation or the impeachment possibility.
McConnell is wrong that Trump being impeached would get rid of his movement. Even as conservatives are being kicked off Twitter and Parler and other social media apps are being blacklisted, it’s clear that the right is feeling under attack and even more upset and frustrated than they were when they elected Trump in 2016.
McConnell blames Trump’s rhetoric on Wednesday for leading to the riots and believes the President is responsible for the GOP’s embarrassing losses in both runoff elections for the Senate in Georgia, which were won by Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao resigned as Transportation Secretary after the Capitol Hill riots. Her family-owned shipping business Foremost Maritime Inc. has deep ties to communist China, and there’s no doubt that her decision to quit has also helped stoke McConnell’s rage as well.
Where’s the Impeachment Process At?
With one week to go of Trump’s term, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer have promised they will bring forward the articles of impeachment for a vote and several House Republicans are promising they will vote to impeach, too.
Previous requests to VP Mike Pence to remove Trump from office under the 25th Amendment by Pelosi were rejected by the VP.
The impeachment articles against Trump from Reps. David Cicilline, Ted Lieu, Jamie Raskin and Jerrold Nadler say that Trump is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, reading in part:
“In his conduct while President of the United States – and in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States, and to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, Donald John Trump engaged in high Crimes and Misdemeanors by inciting violence against the Government of the United States.”
What Else are the Democrats Claiming Trump Did?
In addition, the articles of impeachment set to come before the house today say that Trump “repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the presidential election results were the product of widespread fraud and should not be accepted by the American people or certified by State or Federal officials.”
Trump “willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged – and foreseeably resulted in – lawless action at the Capitol” according to the impeachment as well.
If Trump does get impeached at this point in time it would be a huge humiliation for him . But it is highly unlikely to end the MAGA movement: if anything it would just be the start of an even more intense version of it.
