However, there are a couple of obvious, immediate to-do items:
- Remove Donald J. Trump, the domestic Dear Leader, from office immediately.
- Record the names of the Congressional enablers of this attempted coup in a book of infamy. They aided and abetted the sedition by amplifying and lending their credibility to Trump's lies.
Impeachment is the only answer. He will not resign, nor will Pence and the Cabinet remove him. Even if either of these things occurred, he would still be free to run for a nonconsecutive second presidential term. Only impeachment, conviction, and a ban on holding federal office ever again will serve.
Moreover, I'm deeply concerned about how a self-pardon (or, considerably less likely now, a pardon from a temporarily elevated President Pence following a last-minute Trump resignation) might intersect with an impeachment proceeding.
- Does a pardon, however granted, prevent Congress from even considering impeachment of the pardonee?
- If a president pardons the impeachment's subject (himself, in this case) after an impeachment effort has commenced, may the impeachment continue?
- If an impeachment can continue in the House after the subject has been pardoned, and the House votes out the articles of impeachment, may the Senate choose not to take up the articles?
- If the Senate does conduct a trial and the pardoned subject is convicted on the impeachment charges, may the Senate continue on to consider removal from office and/or a ban on ever holding federal office again?
If Mitch McConnell has even one drop of patriotism in his veins, he will reconvene the Senate as soon as possible to conduct a trial on the articles of impeachment the House will almost certainly pass this week, assuming a self-pardon doesn't short-circuit the effort. (McConnell has claimed that only the consent of all 100 senators can bring the chamber back into session before the 19th but I don't think that's a legal requirement: it's just his way of making reconvening as difficult as possible.)
Speaking of Republican enablers, the New York Times published the list of Congressional Republicans who aided and abetted the domestic Dear Leader's lies of electoral fraud by cynically objecting to the counting of Electoral College votes from a handful of battleground states. These Republicans pretended election fraud occurred at scale and that Congress could and should overturn the election results.
That their gambit failed (and indeed, wasn't meant to succeed) is irrelevant. Their actions signaled that disenfranchising millions of their fellow citizens was acceptable, that only some voters matter, and that Trump supporters should have the final say on which.
These elected officials do not respect democracy unless they like the results.
Some of them might argue they were showing Trump and his supporters that their concerns were being taken seriously. But those concerns arose from the lie that electoral fraud occurred — a lie that these Republicans repeated and reinforced. Pandering to a mob you helped to incite is grotesque.
Since you might be blocked by the paywall or the article might disappear someday, here's the list of Congressional Republicans who supported a barefaced lie that fomented sedition:
- Senate:
- Tommy Tuberville (Alabama)
- Rick Scott (Florida)
- Roger Marshall (Kansas)
- John Kennedy (Louisiana)
- Cindy Hyde-Smith (Mississippi)
- Josh Hawley (Missouri)
- Ted Cruz (Texas)
- Cynthia Lummis (Wyoming)
- House:
- Robert B. Aderholt (Alabama)
- Mo Brooks (Alabama)
- Jerry Carl (Alabama)
- Barry Moore (Alabama)
- Gary Palmer (Alabama)
- Mike Rogers (Alabama)
- Andy Biggs (Arizona)
- Paul Gosar (Arizona)
- Debbie Lesko (Arizona)
- David Schweikert (Arizona)
- Rick Crawford (Arkansas)
- Ken Calvert (California)
- Mike Garcia (California)
- Darrell Issa (California)
- Doug LaMalfa (California)
- Kevin McCarthy (California)
- Devin Nunes (California)
- Jay Obernolte (California)
- Lauren Boebert (Colorado)
- Doug Lamborn (Colorado)
- Kat Cammack (Florida)
- Mario Diaz-Balart (Florida)
- Byron Donalds (Florida)
- Neal Dunn (Florida)
- Scott Franklin (Florida)
- Matt Gaetz (Florida)
- Carlos Gimenez (Florida)
- Brian Mast (Florida)
- Bill Posey (Florida)
- John Rutherford (Florida)
- Greg Steube (Florida)
- Daniel Webster (Florida)
- Rick Allen (Georgia)
- Earl L. "Buddy" Carter (Georgia)
- Andrew Clyde (Georgia)
- Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia)
- Jody Hice (Georgia)
- Barry Loudermilk (Georgia)
- Russ Fulcher (Idaho)
- Mike Bost (Illinois)
- Mary Miller (Illinois)
- Jim Baird (Indiana)
- Jim Banks (Indiana)
- Greg Pence (Indiana)
- Jackie Walorski (Indiana)
- Ron Estes (Kansas)
- Jacob LaTurner (Kansas)
- Tracey Mann (Kansas)
- Harold Rogers (Kentucky)
- Garret Graves (Louisiana)
- Clay Higgins (Louisiana)
- Mike Johnson (Louisiana)
- Steve Scalise (Louisiana)
- Andy Harris (Maryland)
- Jack Bergman (Michigan)
- Lisa McClain (Michigan)
- Tim Walberg (Michigan)
- Michelle Fischbach (Minnesota)
- Jim Hagedorn (Minnesota)
- Michael Guest (Mississippi)
- Trent Kelly (Mississippi)
- Steven Palazzo (Mississippi)
- Sam Graves (Missouri)
- Vicky Hartzler (Missouri)
- Billy Long (Missouri)
- Blaine Luetkemeyer (Missouri)
- Jason Smith (Missouri)
- Matt Rosendale (Montana)
- Dan Bishop (North Carolina)
- Ted Budd (North Carolina)
- Madison Cawthorn (North Carolina)
- Virginia Foxx (North Carolina)
- Richard Hudson (North Carolina)
- Gregory F. Murphy (North Carolina)
- David Rouzer (North Carolina)
- Jeff Van Drew (New Jersey)
- Yvette Herrell (New Mexico)
- Chris Jacobs (New York)
- Nicole Malliotakis (New York)
- Elise M. Stefanik (New York)
- Lee Zeldin (New York)
- Adrian Smith (Nebraska)
- Steve Chabot (Ohio)
- Warren Davidson (Ohio)
- Bob Gibbs (Ohio)
- Bill Johnson (Ohio)
- Jim Jordan (Ohio)
- Stephanie Bice (Oklahoma)
- Tom Cole (Oklahoma)
- Kevin Hern (Oklahoma)
- Frank Lucas (Oklahoma)
- Markwayne Mullin (Oklahoma)
- Cliff Bentz (Oregon)
- John Joyce (Pennsylvania)
- Fred Keller (Pennsylvania)
- Mike Kelly (Pennsylvania)
- Daniel Meuser (Pennsylvania)
- Scott Perry (Pennsylvania)
- Guy Reschenthaler (Pennsylvania)
- Lloyd Smucker (Pennsylvania)
- Glenn Thompson (Pennsylvania)
- Jeff Duncan (South Carolina)
- Ralph Norman (South Carolina)
- Tom Rice (South Carolina)
- William Timmons (South Carolina)
- Joe Wilson (South Carolina)
- Tim Burchett (Tennessee)
- Scott DesJarlais (Tennessee)
- Chuck Fleischmann (Tennessee)
- Mark E. Green (Tennessee)
- Diana Harshbarger (Tennessee)
- David Kustoff (Tennessee)
- John Rose (Tennessee)
- Jodey Arrington (Texas)
- Brian Babin (Texas)
- Michael C. Burgess (Texas)
- John R. Carter (Texas)
- Michael Cloud (Texas)
- Pat Fallon (Texas)
- Louie Gohmert (Texas)
- Lance Gooden (Texas)
- Ronny Jackson (Texas)
- Troy Nehls (Texas)
- August Pfluger (Texas)
- Pete Sessions (Texas)
- Beth Van Duyne (Texas)
- Randy Weber (Texas)
- Roger Williams (Texas)
- Ron Wright (Texas)
- Burgess Owens (Utah)
- Chris Stewart (Utah)
- Ben Cline (Virginia)
- Bob Good (Virginia)
- Morgan Griffith (Virginia)
- Robert J. Wittman (Virginia)
- Carol Miller (West Virginia)
- Alexander X. Mooney (West Virginia)
- Scott Fitzgerald (Wisconsin)
- Tom Tiffany (Wisconsin)
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