He’s out but not forgotten
January 22, 2021 Leave a comment
Donald Trump was warned the pardons he once hoped to bestow upon his family and even himself would place him in a legally perilous position, convey the appearance of guilt and potentially make him more vulnerable to reprisals.
As well, Trump was warned that pardons for Republican lawmakers who had sought them for their role in the Capitol insurrection would anger the very Senate Republicans who will determine his fate in an upcoming impeachment trial – unless he was prepared to list specific crimes. Not as chance.
In the end, no family pardons. However, there were at least 74 pardons and 70 commutes. Those pardoned include Steve Bannon [former chief strategist], Elliott Broidy [a former top fundraiser for Trump’s campaign who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy], and rapper Lil Wayne [gun charges].
Dozens of influential Republicans around Washington — including former top Trump administration officials — have been quietly lobbying GOP members of Congress to impeach and convict Trump. “Mitch [Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell] said to me he wants Trump gone,” one Republican member of Congress said. Those who want to run for President in 2024 should want to impeach Trump.
Seems former allies are dumping Trump as fast as they can. Former Vice President Mike Pence didn’t attend Trump’s ridiculous departure ceremony at Joint Base Andrews. McConnell has said that Trump is at least part to blame for the insurrection. As other Republican senators look for him for guidance [or cue], this could push them to vote against Trump for the impeachment. It seems McConnell has lost his clout.
McConnell is proposing that the Senate give former Trump’s legal team two weeks to prepare for the upcoming impeachment trial once the Senate receives the article and delay its start until mid-February. Is he trying to get back into Trump’s good graces?
It was later announced that the second Senate impeachment trial of Trump is now scheduled to begin on February 9 after Senate leaders reached a deal to push it back, giving Trump’s legal team more time to prepare. While some Republicans are in favor of convicting Trump, getting 17 may be difficult. Even after what he did, many senators are standing with Trump [and the party].
“The [former] President wrote a very generous letter,” Biden told reporters. “Because it was private, I will not talk about it until I talk to him, but it was generous.” A senior Trump aide described the letter as a “personal note” that prays for the success of the country and the new administration to care for the country. So Trump at least kept up one tradition.
Trump repeated some of his favorite falsehoods in both his farewell video address, which was released on Tuesday, and in his final speech on Wednesday morning at Joint Base Andrews. But they are the usual lies and deceptive comments.
One of the biggest shocks that the Biden team had to digest during the transition period was what they saw as a complete lack of a vaccine distribution strategy under Trump, even weeks after multiple vaccines were approved for use in the United States.
Biden has put further construction of the Trump Wall on hold while a decision on what to do with the remaining contracts. The contracts have penalties in case the contracts are canceled by the government. $16.45 billion has been spent on the wall already – mostly to replace older walls that were unacceptable.
Trump revoked a rule he signed early in his term that imposed a five-year lobbying ban for administration officials and a lifetime ban on lobbying for foreign governments. Trump is presumably allowing for those officials to begin lobbying when they leave government.
Bill Clinton had also nixed the five-year lobbying ban at the end of his tenure, which Trump had criticized during the 2016 campaign. “He rigged the system on his way out,” Trump said of Clinton as he ran against his wife, Hillary Clinton. So it’s OK for him to do it now.
The National Security Agency said it was installing Trump National Security Council staffer Michael Ellis as its general counsel, after acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller ordered NSA Director Gen. Paul Nakasone to place the Trump loyalist into the role. That will probably be a very short stay as general counsel.
Facebook and Twitter have lost a combined $51 billion in market cap following their bans of Trump recently as investors balked at the tech giants’ surprise censorship of Trump roughly two weeks before his term was set to end. Facebook part is about $47.6 billion alone.
Research released found that online discussions about election fraud plunged a whopping 73% since Twitter and other social media companies banned Trump and his key allies on January 8.
Five prominent anti-vaccine organizations that have been known to spread misleading information about the coronavirus received more than $850,000 in loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, raising questions about why the Trump government is giving money to groups actively opposing its agenda and seeking to undermine public health during a critical period.
First lady Melania Trump did not write her own “thank you” notes to the White House residence staff who have cared for her and her family for the last four years.
The public overwhelmingly wants to see the Republican Party move on from Trump once he’s left office according to a SSRS poll. Overall, just 19% say the party ought to continue to treat Trump as its leader, while 77% say it should move on. Among Republicans, views are split, with 48% saying the party should move on and 47% saying the party should continue to treat Trump as the leader of the party.
Yet 75% of Republicans say they have little or no confidence that elections in America today reflect the will of the people, including a majority (57%) who say they are not at all confident that election results represent the will of the people.
The Republican Party’s popularity rating has taken a 9-point hit since before Election Day, with just 32% viewing it favorably. That shift rests mostly on a decline in positive views among Republicans themselves: 92% had a positive take in October, just 76% do now.
Views of the Democratic Party, meanwhile, have held about even, 49% have a favorable view now compared with 46% in October. And self-identified Democrats are more apt to have a favorable view of their own party (89%) than Republicans are to say they have a positive take on their chosen party.
Mitch McConnell, the current majority leader who will become minority leader after Biden is inaugurated and the results of the Georgia Senate runoffs are certified, is viewed more negatively than he has been at any point in CNN’s polling by a wide margin. About two-thirds (66%) have an unfavorable view of the Kentucky Republican, outpacing his previous high by 17 points. Democrats, Republicans and independents are about the same.
At 47%, more people have an unfavorable view of the first lady now than at any point since first asked about views of her in February 2016. The poll, conducted by SSRS, puts Trump’s favorable rating at 42%. Trump’s highest favorable rating was in May 2018 at 57%. She is the lower than the previous 3 first ladies.
As per Gallup, Trump had the lowest average poll at 41% of any president in the last 7 decades plus finished off at 34% approval. Not surprising, Trump’s average job approval rating among Democrats for his term was 7%.
One group of historians says he rates as the worst president and another survey said the third worst.