Capitol girds For transfer of Power
Impeachment, siege did little to dent popularity
WASHINGTON •Fewerthan one in five republicans believe donald Trump should be removed from office, according to a new poll, which shows the depth of support the u.s. president has among the party faithful, despite his recent impeachment.
The Ipsos Mori/axios survey, conducted between Monday and Wednesday, also found that 57 per cent of republicans want Trump to be the party’s presidential nominee in 2024. Furthermore, 62 per cent of republican respondents said they supported Trump contesting the election results.
The views highlight the vast challenge moderate republican congressmen who hope to reclaim the party from Trump face in the coming years. The exact proportion of republicans who supported Trump’s immediate removal in the poll was 17 per cent.
The findings also suggest that despite outcry from political leaders around the world at the storming of the Capitol last week, there has not been an immediate abandonment of Trump by his supporters.
On Thursday, top democrats and republicans were discussing how best to stage a Senate trial on whether to convict Trump of the single article of impeachment, for “incitement of insurrection,” that passed the House on Wednesday.
It seems all but certain that the republican leadership’s request for the trial to begin after Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20 will be agreed, meaning senators would be debating conviction with Trump out of office.
No impeachment trial has ever been held for a president who has left office.
Votes from two thirds of the 100 senators are needed to convict. Given there are 50 democratic senators, it means at least 17 republicans must back the move.
One potential incentive for them to do so is that if conviction is secured, then a second vote can be taken to bar Trump from ever holding public office again, with just a simple majority of votes needed to pass.
Lisa Murkowski, the republican senator for Alaska who often holds Trump at arm’s length, Thursday released a statement saying he had been “appropriately” impeached. Other republican senators said they would consider convicting.
Blocking Trump from seeking the 2024 republican presidential nomination, something he has publicly considered pursuing, could help moderates break his grip on the party’s base.
However, the scale of that challenge is becoming apparent. Just 10 republican congressmen in the House voted for impeachment.
That is 10 more than Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 but is dwarfed by the 197 republican congressmen who voted against.
Tucker Carlson, the Fox News presenter who has one of the biggest audiences of any cable news host, used his monologue on Wednesday night to warn that impeachment would backfire.
“By impeaching the president during his final week in office, Congress will not succeed in discrediting Trump among republican voters. In fact, it will enhance donald Trump among republican voters,” Carlson said.
“Who does your average republican voter trust more, donald Trump or the many people who hate donald Trump? donald Trump or Mitch Mcconnell (the republican Senate leader)? donald Trump or CNN? Come on, you know the answer. It’s not complicated.”
u.s. officials and independent experts say Trump is at the centre of the amorphous but increasingly motivated extremist movement that is determined to disrupt the transfer of power to Biden and violently challenge the legitimacy of the election for months — and possibly years.
They have warned authorities to be on alert at state capitols, as well as for a possible second attack on the u.s. Capitol or on the White House. Law enforcement authorities have said extremists may use firearms and explosives and are monitoring online
WE WON’T SIT ON OUR HANDS FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS.
calls to rally in cities nationwide beginning Sunday.
“It has begun to shift from ‘We are going to win this’ to ‘This fight is going to be a long one,’” said rita Katz, executive director of SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist groups and their use of social media to inspire and organize adherents. “The prevalent consensus across the movements involved in or supporting the Capitol siege is that they will keep pushing forward.”
As Trump spends his final days in office, some of his followers, bereft of his directions via Twitter, are unsure where to focus their energy, experts said. Some events planned in Washington and in state capitals have been cancelled, partly out of fear the events were organized by federal authorities as a “false flag” operation meant to trap Trump’s followers.
The organizer of the “Million Militia March” appears to have abandoned an Inauguration day demonstration, warning followers on his website to “STAY FAR AWAY FROM dc & ALL STATE CAPITALS ... IT IS A TRAP.”
On Thedonald.win, a forum that attracts some of Trump’s most zealous supporters, users appeared to accept that law enforcement probably would crush any protest in the near future.
“We won’t sit on our hands for the next four years but we can pick and choose our battles moving forward,” read one message allegedly written by Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of the far-right Proud Boys.