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By Meaghan Ellis

For Republican lawmakers, former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial appeared to be a relatively easy acquittal but the latest vote in favor of subpoenaing witnesses reportedly has his base in an uproar.

On Saturday, Feb. 13, when the impeachment trial resumed, House Impeachment Manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) proceeded with a surprise move by requesting to call witnesses following Rep. Herrera Beutler’s (D-Wash.) statement detailing bombshell claims about her conversation with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) about his call with Trump during the U.S. Capitol riots.

While an angry mob was storming the Capitol, Trump allegedly sided with the angry mob by attempting to justify their actions. The alarming report led to a 55-45 vote among Senate lawmakers to subpoena witnesses. Now, Trump supporters are reportedly in a frenzy about the latest trial development.

A new report released by ABC News has shed light on Trump’s legal defense team’s reaction to Raskin’s surprise move. ABC News White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega offered details from investigative reporter Katherine Faulders and ABC producer John Santucci.John Santucci. She revealed the decision has left the president’s team unsettled because they assumed they would only have to make it through today.

“Sources close to President Trump are floored by what just happened,” Cecilia Vega wrote on Twitter. “Stunned/Stupefied/Total panic over who steps up to help the team because the lawyers left were only sticking together because they thought it was over today.”

Now, the legal team is reportedly in “complete panic.” The latest news comes as lawmakers continue the legal proceedings for Trump’s impeachment trial which will likely continue for an extended period of time now that witnesses are being called.

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Source: ALTERNET

By Meaghan Ellis

Al Schmidt, the Republican commissioner for the city of Philadelphia, is speaking out about the post-election threats his family faced while urging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) to truly consider the weight of his deciding vote in former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

On Friday, Feb. 12, Schmidt took to Twitter with a message with disturbing details about the death threats made toward members of his family after Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) certified the state’s election results affirming President Joe Biden’s victory.

According to The Hill, he went on to discuss Trump’s impeachment trial as he offered a direct message to McConnell. Schmidt warned the Republican lawmaker to carefully cast his vote. He tweeted, “The former POTUS incited supporters to threaten to kill my children and put their “heads on spikes” because we counted votes cast by eligible voters. They named my children and included my home address in the threats. Please consider when voting your conscience.”

The latest news comes months after the backlash Schmidt faced after Trump attacked him on Twitter. At the time, Schmidt was featured on CNN and the former president was not pleased with his appearance.

“A guy named Al Schmidt, a Philadelphia Commissioner and so-called Republican (RINO), is being used big time by the Fake News Media to explain how honest things were with respect to the Election in Philadelphia,” Trump tweeted. “He refuses to look at a mountain of corruption & dishonesty. We win!”

Schmidt, his wife, and staff members began receiving dangerous text messages and death threats as angry Trump supporters across the United States expressed frustration about the outcome of the election. At the time, Trump and his allies invested a substantial amount of their time circulating conspiracy theories and many of the bizarre, false claims about the presidential election; the same claims that, subsequently, led to the U.S. Capitol riots.

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Source: ALTERNET

By Meaghan Ellis

Calls are intensifying for Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) to testify due to the latest reports about her conversation with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) where he allegedly admitted that former President Donald Trump sided with his angry mob of supporters as the U.S. Capitol riots unfolded.

A report published by The New York Times focuses on Beutler statement delivered on Friday, Feb. 12 where she revealed harrowing details about her phone conversation with McCarthy while violence erupted in the Capitol.

According to Beutler, McCarthy told her about Trump’s claims suggesting the mob’s violate actions were justified. During McCarthy’s call with Trump, the former disgraced president reportedly attempted to blame Antifa for the violence that was erupting. When McCarthy pushed back telling Trump that the angry mob consisted of his own supporters, he reportedly said, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”

Beutler’s claims only add to House impeachment managers’ case against former president as it suggests “Trump was aware of the danger to lawmakers during the breach and did nothing to stop the riot as the Capitol was being stormed by the deadly mob,” reports USA Today.

In addition to the bombshell claim Beutler laid out, she also urged witnesses with key information about Trump’s words and actions on the day of the Capitol riots to come forward to share what they know. “To the patriots who were standing next to the former president as these conversations were happening, or even to the former vice president: if you have something to add here, now would be the time,” Ms. Herrera Beutler said in the statement.

The report comes as Senate lawmakers cast their vote to subpoena witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial. According to USA Today, lawmakers voted 55-45 in support of lead House manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin’s (D-Md.), request for Beutler to be called as a witness.

Along with Senate Democrats, Sens/ Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Ark.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) also voted in favor of subpoenas, which will likely extend the time of impeachment proceedings.

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Source: ALTERNET

By Thom Hartmann

What if Donald Trump actually hoped that his mob would murder Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi?

What if he believed such a crime would create a crisis big enough to let him declare a state of emergency, shut down the government for a transition period through that emergency, and retain his position as President moving into the new year?

Senator Tommy Tuberville told Politico that he told Trump that “they just took” Vice President Pence, but there’s no indication on the current public record that Trump understood that “they” meant that Pence had been taken to safety.

“They” could have been taken by Trump to mean the mob had taken Pence, just as easily as it could mean the Capitol Police had saved Pence from the mob.

It’s entirely possible Trump thought Tuberville was telling him that the mob had just seized Vice President Pence and was hustling him off to the sturdy gallows they’d built on the Capitol lawn.

In fact, Trump almost immediately tweeted, after talking to Tuberville: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify, USA demands the truth!”

That doesn’t sound like Trump’s relieved that Pence was just taken to safety.

What if Trump believed that Pence had been “neutralized” at that point in the process of counting the electoral votes, that the count was stopped, and that Pence would soon be dead?

Could this tweet have been his call for his allies in Congress, now that the VP was out of the picture and they were in charge, to throw the count back to the House of Representatives, where in the past he had repeatedly asserted (probably correctly) that Republicans there would give him the presidency per the 12th Amendment like in 1876?

If that’s actually what Trump thought was happening, his phone call with Kevin McCarthy makes a lot more sense.

Trump told McCarthy that the mob was more concerned about the outcome of the election then was McCarthy himself, something he probably wouldn’t say if he thought that Pence had been taken to safety and the process certifying Joe Biden as president would …read more

Source: ALTERNET

By Meaghan Ellis

Former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial will likely be wrapping up over the next couple of days and, unfortunately, there is a strong possibility his acquittal could ironically fall on the most sardonic date: President’s Day.

According to Axios, historians are focused on evaluating the bigger picture as it pertains to Trump’s controversial legacy: “the election fraud lie, the efforts to overturn the results through violence, the impeachment of a president days before his exit, and the actions of his own party to block his conviction.”

The publication notes how Trump’s impeachment trials have drastically diminished the power of the impeachment process, altogether. In fact, Renee Romano, a professor for Oberlin College, weighed in with her concerns about what a possible Trump acquittal would signify.

According to Romano, the battle between lawmakers amid the impeachment trial signifies the “result of tension between two opposing historical narratives.

One political party identifies with Trump’s perspective on the election being rigged. That group believes the violence that ensued at the Capitol is justified based on Trump’s arguments. However, the opposing side believes President Joe Biden’s victory is legitimate as it is no secret that the American public widely supports the Democratic Party because they have evolved into a representation of a “multiracial” society.

“I think a lot of this is about race, and entitlement,” Romano said. “And now, we’re at a stage where you basically have to use violence to overthrow the results of a democratic election to protect white minority power.”

She added, “In any society where you have such a divide over how you see reality, that’s an unstable country,” Romano said. “I’m not hopeful for the future of the country.”

Andrew Rudalevidg, an expert on the governance behind presidential power, also offered a broad perspective on the message Senate Republicans are sending by failing to hold Trump accountable for a second time. He also noted the extent of how damaging it is that Trump has been allowed to undermine Congress’ authority and the rule of law.

“Congress not even pushing back against a physical assault suggests that there’s a lot they will put up with,” Rudalevige said.

It’s a President’s Day present: an affirmation of the autonomy of the executive branch.”

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Source: ALTERNET