The Cascadia Advocate is written by the staff, board, and contributors of the Northwest Progressive Institute, a netroots powered strategy center working to raise America's quality of life through insightful research and imaginative advocacy.
NPI was founded in August 2003 and is based in Redmond, Washington.
Wednesday, January 20th, 2021
Today, just before high noon Eastern, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. took the oath of office and became the forty-six President of the United States of America.
After being sworn in, Biden delivered his Inaugural Address. If you weren’t able to watch or listen to it when it was delivered, we urge you to do so now. The transcript of the speech is also enclosed below in case you’d prefer to read it.
In the transcript, note that emphasis (boldface) is ours. Enjoy!
Wednesday, January 20th, 2021
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy.
— Isaiah 9:2–3
After four long and horrible years, the Trump error has come to an end.
Today, at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in as the forty-sixth President and forty-ninth Vice President of the United States of America. Both are history makers: Biden is the oldest person ever to be inaugurated as President, while Harris is the first woman, the first Black person, and the first Asian American to serve as Vice President.
The United States Capitol on Inauguration Day 2021 (Photo: Biden/Harris Transition)
The Biden-Harris inauguration comes at a pivotal and perilous moment in American history. Everywhere we look, our country faces grave threats, from homegrown fascist movements to climate damage to system racism, poverty/income inequality, and the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
Rarely has our country so badly needed steady, competent, and effective leadership as it does on this day, January 20th, 2021.
For me, this long-awaited occasion brings to mind another date in American history, nearly a century ago, when America was at another nadir: March 4th, 1933. On that day, Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the oath of office to become President of the United States and declared to an anxious nation:
“This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.”
– Excerpt from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address (March 4th, 1933)
We need that same New Deal spirit today to rebuild our broken country.
01/20/2021 may well be remembered as a day that served as a bridge between two historic presidencies: one that could rank as the worst for a very, very long time, and one that our team at the Northwest Progressive Institute hopes will be remembered as restorative and a model of responsibility.
For four years, we have walked in darkness towards a better future, resisting and persisting. We have seen the light before today, but now we actually get to step into it. And oh, how wonderful and warm it feels!
Just think: Donald Trump no longer has the nuclear codes. Stephen Miller no longer works in the Executive Office of the President. Mike Pompeo no longer speaks for this country as its top diplomat. America’s wrong wing no longer has the power to sabotage the census, suppress science, put kids in cages, start wars, or loot and plunder our public lands from within the White House.
That’s worth celebrating. We had to overcome a lot to get to this moment.
Last night, as I was contemplating what to write today, an email came from the Biden-Harris transition press office: the Daily Guidance and Press Schedule for Wednesday, January 20th, 2021, the first day of the Biden-Harris administration. Opening that email and looking through the schedule for today was incredibly gratifying. This is real, I thought. This is happening. Our nation will have real leadership again from people who understand the value of service.
We cannot, of course, forget that over 400,000 Americans have died from SARS-CoV‑2, a virus that the now-ended Trump-Pence regime barely bothered to combat. We cannot forget the crimes against humanity perpetrated at our borders, or the aid and comfort given to American fascists and autocratic regimes around the world by the people who occupied our executive branch for four years, or the thirteen barbaric executions they arranged, or the continuation systemic racism that they endorsed, or the environmental destruction they plotted.
But we must and should commend ourselves for all we did to fight against all of the above and reach this moment. When you’re going through hell, keep going, the old adage goes. And so we did. For four years, we kept going, with the understanding that we would need to fight until we couldn’t anymore.
Some of companions on this journey, sadly, didn’t make it.
When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took the oath a short time ago, I thought of the stalwart progressive activists we’ve lost over the last few years. People like Al Garman, Elaine Phelps, Priscilla O’Leary, and Alex Hendrickson. They didn’t live to see the end of the Trump error, but they’re with us in spirit nonetheless.
In electing Biden and Harris, those of us who remain have fulfilled our obligations to them to carry on their work, and put our country on a path to a better future.
Today, in their honor, and in the memory of everyone we’ve lost to COVID-19 or police brutality, we begin a new chapter in America’s story. A chapter that we hope will be characterized more by progress and possibilities realized than by tragedy and suffering. Let’s go forward, further into the light, together.
Tuesday, January 19th, 2021
When longtime, long-winded Senator Joe Biden was tapped as Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008, Republican foe John McCain chortled to an aide: “Well, good for Joe. But, boy, Obama will never get a word in edgewise now.”
A very different Joe Biden will be sworn in Wednesday at noon Eastern (9 AM Pacific) as America’s forty-sixth president. He is still emotional – witness the Delaware going-away ceremony Tuesday – but has learned to be brief, succinct and focused on righting the ship of state. Borrowing the George H.W. Bush phrase, he is taking charge of a country in the “deep doo-doo.”
Amidst the flurry of executive orders expected is a major Biden action directed at thwarting climate damage. It’s an action that will have reverberations for Washington, British Columbia and the Salish Sea. Our new president is expected to terminate the Keystone XL pipeline as one of his first acts in office.
The controversial pipeline is designed to carry 800,000 barrels of oil a day from the tar sands of Alberta through Montana, South Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansan and Oklahoma, bound for refineries on the Gulf Coast.
Already, there is yelping from the Great White North.
“We hope President-elect Biden will show respect for Canada and sit down at the very least and talk to us,” said Alberta’s drill-baby-drill Premier Jason Kenney. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not exactly raise a battle flag, saying: “Our government is making sure Canada’s views are heard and considered by the incoming administration at the highest levels.”
The “highest levels” mean Biden’s climate adviser, ex-Secretary of State John Kerry, who recommended in 2015 that President Obama reject Keystone XL. Obama pulled the plug, but Trump gave green light to the project in 2017.
How does that impact us?
Positively, in that it impedes extraction of bitumen crude and Alberta’s role as a center of a carbon economy that fuels global warming.
We see it on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border.
Our winter snowpacks are shrinking, river flows are down, droughts are more frequent, vast tracts of forest have been killed by the pine bark beetle, and we’ve experienced forest and range land conflagrations that British Columbia Premier John Horgan has termed “the new normal.”
By pulling the plug on Keystone XL, however, Biden puts the Canadian government on the spot to complete an even larger project.
The Trans-Mountain Pipeline expansion, if completed, would have a capacity of 890,000 barrels a day. The oil would be headed this way, starting in Alberta and traveling through British Columbia to a pipeline terminus in Burnaby, B.C. An expanded tank farm would be located on the road up to Simon Fraser University.
The oil would be bound for export, meaning a sevenfold increase in tanker traffic through some of North America’s most sensitive marine waters. The tankers will travel out Burrard Inlet, and through Haro Strait – which separates our San Juan Islands and B.C.’s Gulf Islands – and hence out the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The tankers will traverse feeding grounds of our southern resident orca whale population, pass the mouth of the Fraser River – home to major and endangered sockeye salmon runs – past pass both Canadian and American national park properties. At the often-foggy mouth of the Strait, Olympic National Park is nearby to the South, Canada’s Pacific Rim National Park nearby to the north.
Any tanker spill would be catastrophic, which is why Premier Horgan and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee have opposed Trans-Mountain.
But Canadian courts have rejected efforts to block the project.
The Canadians’ response record, even with small spills, does not bolster confidence. At the behest of Trudeau’s Liberals, the Canadian government now owns the Trans-Mountain project, an indication of its commitment.
Want to see the environment at stake?
When winter snows melt, drive to Deer Park in Olympic National Park, up a vertical mile from marine waters.
The view looks up Haro Strait to world-renowned islands, down to Victoria, and part way out the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Just as Victoria is no longer dumping sewage into the Strait, we face greater risk of a tanker spill..
The Biden administration will, of course, do much more in its early days.
The United States will rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. The new administration will tackle an environment/climate agenda that first took shape in Jay Inslee’s brief 2019 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Its provisions for protecting public lands first appeared as part of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s campaign.
Over the last half century, the Northwest’s residents have kept the region livable, in part, by keeping bad things from happening.
The clear cutting of ancient forests on federal lands was stopped by spotted owl lawsuits. Congress limited tanker size in the Salish Sea, preventing any pipeline terminus on the U.S. side of the border.
The Trump administration tried to remove restraints and set the timber industry, mining companies and Big Oil loose on the public domain. It sought to drastically restrict public input allowed under the National Environmental Policy Act. It has sought to lift the Clinton-era “Roadless Rule” to open nine million acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, to timber harvest and other commercial activity.
The Biden administration has made clear it intends to lift kids out of poverty, raise the minimum wage, begin restoring the middle class… and protect the environment and address the climate crisis.
Bold goals, which have the support of Senators Cantwell and Murray, and Democrats in Washington’s congressional delegation.
At the same time, however, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers promises to resist environmental initiatives as ranking Republican member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Expect her to be a reverse Rachel Carson. Representative Dan Newhouse chairs the Western Caucus, a group of Republican House members allied with the timber, mining and oil/gas industries.
Progressives will need to back the forty-sixth president, but make sure he will have our backs when it comes to safeguarding shared waters of the Salish Sea. Our worries should be heard and considered at the highest level.
Tuesday, January 19th, 2021
The lone remaining Republican statewide elected official on the Left Coast is openly pondering severing ties with the party, NPR reported today.
Secretary of State Kim Wyman, shaken by Donald Trump’s attacks on democracy and our cherished tradition of free and fair elections, acknowledged in a statement that the Republican Party is no longer a party that believes in republicanism.
I think every Republican elected official right now in the country is really having to do some soul searching about why they’re Republican, and what it means to them, and why they are a part of the the party. I know I have been doing that.
Before a ballot was printed, before any election official even knew who was going to be on the ballot, the President of the United States was talking about rigged elections, and that it was the only explanation that was plausible for him losing.
Reflecting on the attack on the Capitol on January 6th, Wyman added:
If that’s what my party stands for now, I don’t know that I can continue being a Republican, because that’s not what republicanism is about.
Last autumn, we published a lengthy and carefully researched report detailing Wyman’s involvement in the Republican Party, including the Republican Party at the national level. We put that post together because we felt that voters deserved access to that information before the election concluded.
It ended up as one of the Cascadia Advocate’s most read posts of 2020.
By that point in the campaign, Wyman had spent months telling editorial boards, civic groups, and voters that the position she was running for should be “nonpartisan” while seeking reelection as a Republican.
I pointed out that this was disingenuous:
Wyman could have modeled the very behavior she says she wants to see by declaring no party preference in her bid for a third term and running as an unaffiliated candidate.
But she didn’t. Instead, she filed as a Republican.
And she has been campaigning, with gusto, as a Republican, on the (mostly virtual) campaign trail.
Because she is a Republican, through and through. Even despite neofascist Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party.
Occasionally, Wyman has put out a public statement softly disagreeing with something that Trump has said, but that has pretty much been the extent of her divergence from Trump.
I don’t doubt Wyman’s sincerity when she says she isn’t voting for Trump. But she has not joined the opposition to Trump, or done anything to hold her own party accountable for the incredible damage that it has inflicted upon our country’s democratic institutions.
Since that post was written and published, Wyman has become more critical of Donald Trump, and more open about the anguish she feels about the direction of the Republican Party. These latest comments are very encouraging.
Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman acknowledges kind words from an elector at the 2020 meeting of the Electoral College in Olympia (Photo: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)
By openly talking about her political identity and revealing that she’s doing some soul searching, Wyman is moving closer towards being the role model we’d like to see her be. Kudos to her for being willing to discuss her feelings of pain and disappointment openly. It takes courage to go on the record like that.
As mentioned, Wyman has talked about making her job nonpartisan. If she were to disaffiliate from the Republican Party and make outreach to groups across the ideological spectrum a priority, then she would be practicing more of what she preached during her campaign. It would be a well-received move.
We are always interested at NPI in working with people of all political persuasions to find agreement and advance worthy causes.
We have appreciated the opportunity to engage with Kim Wyman and her staff on issues like getting the Democratic Party to adopt a presidential primary for delegate allocation, modernizing the Corporations & Charities Filing System (CCFS), and fixing issues with VoteWA and vote.wa.gov. From 2013 to the present, Wyman’s office has always been approachable, and we appreciate that.
It can be hard to leave behind an institution you’ve been part of for a long time and have fond memories of. But when an institution has become as broken and destructive as the Republican Party has, it’s the right thing to do.
Monday, January 18th, 2021
“If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience,” the celebrated Irish playwright and political activist George Bernard Shaw wrote a little more than a century ago.
At this incredibly fraught and perilous moment in American history, we don’t just need steady, compassionate governance — we need savvy, capable leadership with a respect and appreciation for history and a willingness to learn from it.
Fortunately, the transition work done by our next President and Vice President during the past few weeks suggests that they will be entering office mindful of the risk of unforced political errors and legislative malpractice.
The last time Democrats had a trifecta at the federal level (control of the White House, U.S. House, and Senate) at the beginning of Barack Obama’s presidency in 2009, the country was in the throes of another crisis — the Great Recession.
Though Obama’s team was able to stabilize the economy, rescue the auto industry, and lower unemployment, they were not able to facilitate an inclusive recovery, or position the Democratic Party for a successful midterm election cycle. We’re still living with the consequences of their missteps over a decade later.
There is much to like and admire about Barack Obama. There were many progressive policy advances during his presidency. But any fair appraisal of his tenure has to consider his mistakes and failures as well as his successes.
Especially in times of crisis, a new administration’s early decisions are extremely consequential. That’s why it’s so reassuring to see Biden and Harris making moves that will keep our country and the Democratic Party out of some of the traps the Obama team fell into back in 2009. Here’s a few examples of what I mean.
Joe Biden’s initial signature legislative proposal is called the American Rescue Plan. It’s a nearly $2 trillion economic relief package that would provide direct financial assistance to millions of Americans, raise the minimum wage, fund nationwide vaccination programs, and help struggling small businesses.
American Rescue Plan Fact SheetThe proposal is more than twice as big as President Obama’s initial signature legislative proposal in 2009 — the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which was only about $831 billion in size.
ARRA was good legislation, but it wasn’t nearly as big as it should have been, which limited its potency and effectiveness. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste, and it would make absolutely no sense for Biden-Harris to propose a small or medium scale relief package at the outset of their administration. They need to go big — as big as they possibly can. In fact, we’d love to see the scope of this proposal increased even further, with more aid for state and local governments.
The greater the investment, the more fiscally responsible the package will be, even if the investments are not paid for with new tax revenue. When your house is burning down, you don’t worry about the cost of putting out the fire — you focus on putting out the fire. That’s exactly what we need to be doing right now. Kudos to Biden and Harris for proposing a plan that is much bigger in scope than ARRA was. Congress should expand it even further, not water it down.
The American Rescue Plan is also a great name for the package. It’s memorable and easy to say, and it properly invokes progressive framing.
George Lakoff would be proud.
The best known arm of the national Democratic Party is the Democratic National Committee, or DNC, which doesn’t have the breadth of power its most trenchant critics seem to think it does, but is nevertheless important.
The DNC has an undemocratic, unwritten tradition of letting incumbent Democratic presidents (or, more accurately, their political advisers) decide who should serve as DNC Chair when the party holds the White House, and then simply installing that person without competitive elections.
Obama’s team used that power badly. They weakened the DNC in two huge ways.
First, rather than investing in the party, they set up a competing, ineffective political apparatus called Organizing For America, or OFA, which was supposed to be the successor to the groundbreaking Obama campaign that lifted Obama to victory in 2008. After Obama’s successful reelection in 2012, OFA began to wither on the vine along with the Democratic Party. It never became a political force.
Second, they repeatedly installed as DNC Chair elected officials who could not give the party and the job their undivided attention and loyalty.
Their first pick was then-Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia, who had senatorial ambitions and ultimately stepped down from his position to pursue those ambitions. Their second pick was Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who arguably turned out to be the most disastrous DNC Chair the party had ever seen. (After Wasserman Schultz was picked, I wrote a post here expressing my concerns about her selection, which ended up being entirely justified.)
Rather than picking a governor or member of Congress to head the DNC, Biden’s team has nominated Jaime Harrison, who is available for partybuilding following his loss in the South Carolina U.S. Senate race to Trump apologist Lindsey Graham, who once denounced Trump and now cannot quit him.
Since Harrison isn’t an elected official, he will be able to focus full time on building a strong DNC. His selection has been hailed by state party chairs all over the country, who are thrilled at the prospect of a strong partner at the DNC.
With Harrison as chair, the party will be better positioned to avoid a repeat of the horrific 2010 midterms, when Republicans wiped out the Democratic U.S. House majority and took over governorships and statehouses across the country.
Twelve years ago, Barack Obama disappointed many of his strongest supporters when he named wrongheaded neoliberals like Rahm Emanuel, Larry Summers, and Tim Geithner to key positions within his administration.
Biden (and Harris) appear to have taken note. They’ve assembled a more promising economic and regulatory team for their administration.
Here are some of their key nominees:
The Cabinet and executive team Biden and Harris have built are definitely not as progressive as the team that Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren would have built, but this team does lean more to the left than Obama’s, and that’s progress.
Biden and Harris will end their transition in a strong position. They’ve chosen a record number of nominees for key posts and will have a more cooperative United States Senate thanks to the momentum-building victories in the Georgia runoffs only two weeks ago, which ended Mitch McConnell’s Republican majority.
However, the road ahead is perilous. Biden and Harris are inheriting a horrific public health emergency, a debilitating economic crisis, and a disinformation-plagued society from Donald Trump and Mike Pence. If that weren’t bad enough, America’s relationships with its allies have been badly damaged, and the country’s adversaries emboldened. In about every respect, the country is in a weaker and more fragile state than it was four years ago when Barack Obama left office.
Arguably, the biggest mistake that Barack Obama made in 2009–2010 is one I haven’t mentioned yet: allowing the Bush administration and Wall Street to escape accountability for their wrongdoing. Obama incorrectly concluded that the country would be best served by moving on instead of prosecuting those responsible for horrific human rights violations and economic injustices.
It wasn’t, of course.
Biden and Harris must not make that mistake.
Accountability is a prerequisite for healing. It is a necessity. Incoming Attorney General Merrick Garland must launch a broad, wide ranging criminal probe into the wrongdoing committed by Donald Trump, his family, and his associates.
The people involved in the looting and plundering of this country during the last four years must be brought to justice. That includes Trump’s Republican enablers in Congress, like Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks, Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz.
History tells us that appeasement doesn’t work against neofascists and bullies. They must be confronted. They must be fought. We have no objection to Joe Biden’s calls for unity and healing, but we can only have unity and healing if we deal with the grave threat to our democracy and our future that’s in front of us.
Can Joe Biden and Kamala Harris rise to the challenge? We have faith they can. We’ll be doing our part to encourage them to govern progressively and wisely.
Monday, January 18th, 2021
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and like we do every year in honor of Dr. King’s memory, I’m posting an excerpt from his Letter From Birmingham Jail.
In these passages, Dr. King makes the case for the value of direct action (citing the examples of sit-ins, marches, and so forth) to his audience, explaining that nonviolent direct action sets the stage for negotiation. History, he observed, has shown that civil rights advances are never achieved except through pressure.
Many decades have elapsed since these words were written. Sadly, racism and injustice remain a painful reality for many people in this country.
Nevertheless, the struggle for greater freedom and equality continues.
Here’s Dr. King. (Note that typos are contained in the original manuscript.)
You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action.
Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.
It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.
My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking.
But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.”
I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.
Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.
The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.
I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation.
Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.
One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely.
Some have asked: “Why didn’t you give the new city administration time to act?” The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act.
We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor will bring the millennium to Birmingham.
While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation.
But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights.
My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure.
Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.
Take a few minutes today to read the whole thing.
Sunday, January 17th, 2021
Good morning! Here’s how Cascadia’s U.S. Representatives voted on removing Donald Trump during the legislative week ending Friday, January 15th, 2021.
The House chamber (U.S. Congress photo)
IMPEACHING DONALD TRUMP FOR THE SECOND TIME: Voting 232 for and 197 against, the House on January 13th adopted an article of impeachment (House Resolution 24) charging President Trump with “incitement of insurrection” for his role in prompting a deadly assault on the Capitol on January 6th by a violent mob of his supporters. A Senate trial on the article will be held after President-elect Joe Biden takes office January 20th.
The vote followed the House’s impeachment of Trump in December 2019 over his dealings with Ukraine, making him the only president to be impeached twice.
The article included wording from Section 3 of the post-Civil War 14th Amendment, which bars from future government office any federal or state official who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States or given “aid or comfort to the enemies.…”
All 222 Democrats in the House of Representatives supported the article and 197 of the 207 Republicans who voted were opposed to it. The ten Republicans voting for impeachment were Reps. David Valadao of California, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, John Katko of New York, Peter Meijer and Fred Upton of Michigan, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Tom Rice of South Carolina, Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse of Washington and Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
Dan Newhouse, R‑Washington, said: “There is no excuse for President Trump’s actions. The president took an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Last week, there was a domestic threat at the door of the Capitol, and he did nothing to stop it.”
Dan Bishop, R‑North Carolina, said the article dismisses the president’s right to free speech. “Congress can disapprove, revile, condemn, even censure, but you cannot, consistent with the rule of law, punish that which the Constitution’s 1st Amendment declares protected. If you do it, the violators of duty to this Constitution…will be those who vote for this article of impeachment.”
A yes vote was to impeach the president.
 | Voting Nay (2): Republican Representatives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson |
 | Voting Aye (4): Democratic Representatives Suzanne Bonamici, Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrader Voting Nay (1): Republican Representative Cliff Bentz |
 | Voting Aye (9): Democratic Representatives Suzan DelBene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Pramila Jayapal, Kim Schrier, Adam Smith, and Marilyn Strickland; Republican Representatives Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse Voting Nay (1): Republican Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers |
Cascadia total: 13 aye votes, 4 nay votes
REMOVING PRESIDENT TRUMP BY 25TH AMENDMENT: Voting 223 for and 205 against, the House on January 12th passed a non-binding resolution (House Resolution 21) calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke 25th Amendment proceedings to remove President Trump from office.
Pence had already announced he would not do so.
Under Section 4 of the amendment, if the vice president and a majority of Cabinet members declare in writing to the president pro tempore of the Senate and speaker of the House that the president “is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” the vice president immediately becomes acting president with full executive duties and powers.
Mary Gay Scanlon, D‑Pennsylvania, said:
“Any other president with an ounce of character would have resigned after seeing the bloody consequences [at the Capitol].”
“Any other administration would have invoked the 25th Amendment long ago. I don’t care if the president incites a riot against Congress on his first day or the last day of his or her presidency, such an act is a crime against our government much less against the people who are paralyzed or killed in the attack. If a president can refuse to acknowledge [this] to American voters, then incite a coup to stay in power without punishment, then our democracy is lost.”
Tom McClintock, R‑California, said:
“The 25th Amendment specifically addresses the incapacity of the president to discharge the duties of his office. It was never intended as a political weapon when Congress doesn’t like the way he discharges those duties… Every act we take builds a precedent for future acts. Once Congress asserts this new role as armchair psychiatrists and a new power to equate intemperate speech with functional disability, the most important pillars of our government — stability, the rule of law and the separation of powers — will fracture. It won’t affect this president, but it will stop future presidents from this day forward.”
A yes vote was to use the 25th Amendment to remove the president.
| Voting Nay (2): Republican Representatives Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson |
| Voting Aye (4): Democratic Representatives Suzanne Bonamici, Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrader Voting Nay (1): Republican Representative Cliff Bentz |
| Voting Aye (7): Democratic Representatives Suzan DelBene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Pramila Jayapal, Kim Schrier, Adam Smith, and Marilyn Strickland Voting Nay (3): Republican Representatives Jaime Herrera Beutler, Dan Newhouse, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers |
Cascadia total: 11 aye votes, 6 nay votes
The Senate will debate the new administration’s national security nominees in the week of January 18th, while the House schedule was to be announced.
Editor’s Note: The information in NPI’s weekly How Cascadia’s U.S. lawmakers voted feature is provided by Voterama in Congress, a service of Civic Impulse, LLC. All rights are reserved. Reproduction of this post is not permitted, not even with attribution. Use the permanent link to this post to share it… thanks!
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Friday, January 15th, 2021
Defeated Washington State gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp and his sad excuse for an attorney Stephen Pidgeon have pulled the plug on Culp’s malicious and baseless lawsuit against the State of Washington alleging that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent, Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office says.
“Rather than concede gracefully, Mr. Culp has used this lawsuit to distract from the magnitude of his loss and to sow confusion. Mr. Culp also fundraised off his baseless allegations, even as the country has erupted in violence stoked by the types of reckless allegations made in this litigation. This past week has put into stark relief the damage that has been wrought by such untruths,” the Attorney General’s office declared in a court filing.
Ferguson warned Pidgeon — a racist and a conspiracy theorist — that if he did not withdraw the suit, the state would move to seek sanctions against him.
The threat worked, and the suit was withdrawn with prejudice, meaning that it cannot be refiled. Pidgeon was paid $50,000 by Culp to instigate the suit.
Stephen Pidgeon offers oral argument at a February 2020 hearing in Garfield County v. State (Photo: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)
In addition to his work with Culp, Pidgeon is also a longtime associate of Tim “Chairman” Eyman. Eyman has repeatedly described Pidgeon “brilliant” and likes to gush about his nonexistent legal acumen. Of course, in reality, in addition to holding a plethora of un-American views, Pidgeon is a failed candidate for statewide office and a highly unsuccessful attorney who often loses cases.
He and Eyman teamed up multiple times in 2020 to file lawsuits against the state regarding the emergency measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Their lawsuits didn’t go anywhere, but Eyman was nevertheless successful in getting gullible reporters to show up and give him lots and lots of coverage.
In an attempt to explain their retreat, Culp and Pidgeon offered a plethora of excuses to their rabid followers during a Facebook Live event.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp
Culp claimed the lawsuit was being pulled because the path ahead was treacherous… or, as he put it, a “minefield”. That’s misleading.
Pidgeon said the lawsuit was nixed due to “technicalities”. That’s false.
In fact, Pidgeon was forced to withdraw the lawsuit because it had no merit whatsoever. It fraudulently alleged fraud. It would have been a waste of public resources for it to have been given any consideration in any courtroom.
The Washington State Democratic Party is tired of Pidgeon not being held accountable for his unacceptable, unprofessional conduct. The party announced today that a complaint has been filed against Pidgeon with the Washington State Bar Association by attorneys Dmitri Iglitzin and Gabe Frumkin.
“We cannot come back from this assault on our democracy unless those involved in the degradation of our Constitution and democratic institutions understand that such reprehensible behavior will have severe consequences,” said Tina Podlodowski, Chair of the Washington State Democratic Party.
“When any public official or officer of the court betrays their sacred oath to defend our Constitution, accountability for those actions must be swift. Washingtonians will not tolerate the use of our judicial system for shameless self-promotion at the expense of the rule of law.”
The complaint against Pidgeon can be read below.
Bar complaint against Stephen PidgeonWe’re glad to see Pidgeon finally being held accountable for a change. We hope he’s disbarred and is forced to leave the legal profession.
Thursday, January 14th, 2021
This evening, the Washington State Senate Ways & Means Committee is hearing testimony on Senate Bill 5096, which would levy a capital gains tax at the state level to fund essential public services and make our upside down tax code more equitable. Prime sponsored by Senator June Robinson (D‑38th District), SB 5096 would levy a nine percent capital gains tax beginning January 1st, 2022.
A short time ago, I testified in support of the bill on NPI’s behalf, urging that it be given a “do pass recommendation”, and explaining that our research has consistently found stable support among Washington voters for a capital gains tax on the wealthy for more than half a decade.
We first asked voters in Washington how they feel about a capital gains tax in 2015, and we have continued to ask every year since then.
Our May 2020 responses are below.
QUESTION: Do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose taxing the capital gains of wealthy individuals to help pay for public schools, colleges and universities?
ANSWERS:
- Support: 59%
- Strongly Support: 42%
- Somewhat Support: 17%
- Oppose: 32%
- Somewhat Oppose: 11%
- Strongly Oppose: 21%
- Not Sure: 9%
Note that more respondents said they strongly support a capital gains tax on the wealthy than the total number who said they were opposed.
We also found in that same survey about that an almost identical percentage of voters feel that schools in Washington are still underfunded, despite the Legislature’s work to respond to the Supreme Court’s McCleary decision.
QUESTION: Do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose taxing the capital gains of wealthy individuals to help pay for public schools, colleges and universities?
ANSWERS:
- Agree: 60%
- Strongly agree: 35%
- Somewhat agree: 25%
- Disagree: 31%
- Somewhat disagree: 15%
- Strongly disagree: 16%
- Not Sure: 9%
Our May 2020 survey of 1,070 likely 2020 Washington State voters was in the field from Tuesday, May 19th through Wednesday, May 20th, 2020.
It utilizes a blended methodology, with automated phone calls to landlines and text message answers from cell phone only respondents.
The poll was conducted by Public Policy Polling for the Northwest Progressive Institute, and has a margin of error of +/- 3.0% at the 95% confidence level.
As mentioned, we’ve always found majorities in support of dedicating a capital gains tax on high earners to education. However, there’s also strong support among Washingtonians for a hybrid approach, with some revenue being dedicated to schools and some revenue being dedicated to lowering taxes for low and middle income families who currently pay more than their fair share, as we can see from the responses to this question that we asked in October of 2019.
QUESTION: If Washington’s Legislature levies a state capital gains tax on the sale of assets like stocks, bonds, or precious metals by the very wealthy, how should the revenue be used: do you think the money should go only to the Education Legacy Trust account to fund early learning, public schools, colleges, and universities; should the money be used exclusively to reduce taxes for low income families and small business owners; or should the money be used for a combination of education funding and reductions in taxes for low income families and small business owners?
ANSWERS:
- Think revenue should go only to the Education Legacy Trust account: 21%
- Think it should be used exclusively to reduce taxes for low income families and small business owners: 12%
- Think it should be used for a combination of education funding and reductions in taxes: 48%
- Not Sure: 19%
Our October 2019 survey of nine hundred likely 2019 Washington State voters was in the field October 22nd-23rd, 2019.
The survey used a blended methodology with automated phone calls to landlines and text messages to cell phone only respondents.
As with the May 2020 survey, this poll was conducted by Public Policy Polling for NPI, and has a margin of error of +/- 3.3% at the 95% confidence level.
Unlike Crosscut/Elway, when we ask about support for a capital gains tax in our statewide surveys, we always mention what it could hypothetically pay for. That’s because you cannot accurately gauge how voters feel about a proposed revenue measure unless you tell them how the revenue would be used. All budgets contain appropriations; otherwise, they would not make any sense.
There are two sides to every mathematical equation, and leaving out the investment side will yield flawed data every time. Taxes have a purpose. Thy can and should be thought of as investments. By pooling our resources together, according to our ability to pay, we can afford great public services that allow us to lead more fulfilling lives and be economically secure.
One more note about our polling: In public opinion research, it’s important to have a representative sample. Otherwise, the data could be flawed. Unlike the instant polls you sometimes see on television (Sinclair’s KOMO is very fond of those), or polls on social networks, our polls are scientifically accurate.
Our pollster uses a blended methodology to ensure that the sample is representative. Blended means that responses are gathered through more than one medium. It’s not sufficient just to call people at their homes anymore because many people (and almost all young people) don’t have landlines anymore.
The notion of accounting for “cellphone only voters” has also become dated. Nowadays, an outright majority of respondents to our periodic statewide surveys do so via text message. That was true for both our October 2019 poll and our May 2020 poll, which the questions above are from.
Our electoral polling serves as a measuring stick to allow us to gauge how representative our samples are. In October of 2020, we polled on every single statewide candidate election and released the results right here on the Cascadia Advocate. In each race we polled, our research correctly foreshadowed the winner, even in races where there were large numbers of undecided voters.
We are proud of our strong partnership with Public Policy Polling and the work that we put into ensuring that our questions are neutrally worded.
It has been over half a decade since Governor Jay Inslee first proposed a capital gains tax as part of his budget. Though much has changed during those six years, one thing hasn’t: voters’ enthusiasm for making our tax code more equitable with a capital gains tax on the wealthy. We’ve talked about doing this for long enough. Voters have elected strong Democratic majorities for two cycles running now. They want and expect results. It’s time for the Legislature to deliver.
Thursday, January 14th, 2021
Having seemingly lost their enthusiasm for defending Donald Trump and disputing the results of the 2020 presidential election, Republicans at the federal and state level have turned to grumbling loudly about the security measures that have been put into place in our state and federal capitals, both to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to stop domestic terrorists from hurting and killing people.
In addition to requiring the wearing of masks and practicing physical distancing, Democrats at the federal level have introduced new security measures, including screenings for weapons and dangerous objects outside of the entrance to the House chamber. Thousands of National Guard troops are now stationed in and around the Capitol, as well, to ensure the building cannot be successfully attacked and ransacked again, and a new fence surrounds the Capitol.
After the failed coup attempt, a fence has gone up around the Capitol, protected by the DC National Guard. (Photo: Joe Flood, reproduced under a Creative Commons license)
So far, Republicans seem the most upset about the security screenings.
“For members of Congress to enter the floor of the U.S. House, we now have to go through intense security measures, on top of the security we already go through. These new provisions include searches and being wanded like criminals. We now live in Pelosi’s communist America!” howled Representative Debbie Lasko.
What’s the problem, Representative Lasko? if you haven’t done anything wrong, then you have absolutely nothing to worry about… right? After all, that’s what Republicans like you have been telling the rest of us for years!
“You are creating a problem you do not understand the ramifications of,” snarled a very upset Representative Steve Womack to Capitol Police when he entered the House chamber earlier this week.
Actually, Representative Womack, that’s a perfect description of what you and your colleagues have been doing. By continually enabling Donald Trump and his insurrectionist followers, you set the stage for all the changes that are now happening in our seat of government, including these more stringent security screenings outside the House chamber that annoy you to no end.
So much for “Law and Order!” and respecting law enforcement.
Once again, Republicans have proven that they are wholly unwilling to accept the rules and standards that they want to impose on everybody else.
Every time I enter a courthouse (local, state, federal), I go through a metal detector and send my belongings through an x‑ray machine. And often get wanded.
I wish it weren’t necessary, but I understand the wisdom of ensuring that people don’t bring guns or other weapons into courtrooms.
Why should the Capitol be any different, especially given the horror of last week? And why should members of Congress be treated any differently than anyone else coming to the Capitol? As any security expert knows, an institution is only as strong as its weakest link. A traitorous lawmaker allowed to bypass security screenings could easily cause mayhem. Disturbingly, many of the Republicans sent by voters to Congress are Trump cult members who are more loyal to him than the Constitution, as today’s impeachment vote once again proved.
If the goal is “Law and Order!”, then making sure that only trusted, trained police officers are carrying guns in the Capitol seems like an extremely prudent idea.
Here at the state level, Republicans have complained bitterly that parts of the Capitol Campus are off limits to the public and surrounded by a chain-link fence with yellow caution tape, patrolled by the Washington National Guard.
They keep asking, rhetorically, why people can’t be allowed inside the Capitol to watch their government at work. But they know why: it’s not safe.
The Washington Capitol Campus is more than just the Evergreen State’s seat of government. Like the U.S. Capitol, it’s also a workplace. Republicans may feel comfortable putting their lives at risk by ignoring public health guidance and recommendations from security experts in the wake of the Capitol attack, but they cannot be allowed to put others’ lives at risk with their absurd demands.
The argument that the temporary closure of some of our public buildings is a tragic forfeiture of our God-given liberties is ridiculous. These building restrictions have not caused people to lose their constitutional rights. For example, it’s still possible to protest, even on the Capitol campus, as unwise as that may be.
Given the Republican Party’s legacy, it’s odd they’re so bent out of shape about these building closures. Recall, for a few moments, all of the measures they have previously insisted on and defended as necessary to wage a “War on Terror”.
Remember the Boston Marathon bombings? In the wake of those horrible events, the authorities effectively shut down an entire city for several days while they hunted down the perpetrators. I don’t remember hearing any complaints from Republicans about that. Indefensibly, many Republicans simply do not regard white Christian terrorists as a threat like they do Islamic terrorists, even though white Christian terrorists are the bigger threat according to security assessments.
Happily, this isn’t 1921. It is not necessary to be physically present to observe one’s government at work firsthand. Even before the pandemic and the recent rise in domestic terrorist activity (including not only the attack on the Capitol, but the breaching of the gates to the Executive Mansion grounds in Olympia), watching committee meetings and floor activity on TVW was a more advantageous way to monitor the goings-on in the statehouse than observing in person.
It’s so advantageous, in fact, that people who work on the Capitol Campus, including reporters and legislative assistants, use it extensively, despite being in close physical proximity to the rooms where the broadcasts are originating.
Why leave the office when TVW can bring the action to you?
That said, we agree that it is valuable for people to be able to visit the seat of their government and walk the same halls their elected representatives walk. Visiting the state capitol and the U.S. Capitol is an experience everyone ought to have. Accordingly, we fully support the restoration of physical public access to these sacred buildings when it is safe. Unfortunately, right now, it isn’t.
You might think members of a party that fervently brandishes the phrase “Law and Order!” as a rallying cry would understand this, but sadly, you’d be wrong.
Wednesday, January 13th, 2021
Donald Trump is on the ropes, ratings at Fox are down, corporate PACs are cutting off dead-ender defenders of the occupant of the Oval Office, major technology companies have kicked Trump off their platforms, and Beltway-based media have discovered – big time – the terror threat posed by militia groups.
Our television screens are filled with mug shots of guys who look like they were sired in the sex scene from the movie “Deliverance.”
How does the right — or, more accurately, wrong — wing plan to regroup with President-elect Joe Biden assuming office in a week, and Democrats taking control of the United States Senate the moment Kamala Harris becomes Vice President?
Several approaches are being sent up the flagpole or sent out on the airwaves or in email fundraising blasts. Which do you think will endure?
The immortal words of Nixon press assistant Ron Ziegler appear to have been embraced by Trump. Texas-bound on Tuesday morning, Trump claimed his remarks to a pre-insurrection riot were “totally appropriate.”
He also tried to equate the coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol with summer demonstrations at the East Precinct station in Seattle and the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse one hundred and eighty miles to the south.
In Trump’s words: “If you look at what other people have said, politicians at a high level about the riots during the summer, the horrible riots in Portland and Seattle and various other places, that was the real problem.”
After two months of claiming the November 3rd election was “stolen,” or indulging Trump’s fantasies, the incumbent’s defenders are now washing hands, Pilate-like, for their role in the insurrection. Their claim? Democrats are dividing America.
“Over fifty million Americans believe the election was stolen,” Representative Jim Jordan, R‑Ohio, recent Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, intoned on December 4th. “I’ve never said this election was stolen,” Jordan told colleagues Tuesday in the House Rules Committee.
Deposed Fox News mouth Bill O’Reilly has tweeted: “The latest impeachment fiasco is hurting the country, causing even more hatred, and Democrats don’t even care, do they?” Or, in the words of Newt Gingrich: “The left has to learn that they can’t suppress the voices of seventy-four million people,” referring to the Trump vote in November. Eighty-one million Americans voted for Joe Biden, folks rarely mentioned on conservative media..
Fox appears to be going into opposition mode, as it did when Barack Obama and Joe Biden were in office. Progressive House members from “The Squad” are being depicted as the powers behind Biden. When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sharply put down a hostile question, she was described as out of control.
Of impeachment, says Gingrich:
“The will of the American people has to be subordinated to the will of Pelosi. Trump has to be impeached to stop him from running again. Pelosi fears the American people might pick him if they were allowed to.”
Fox is relentlessly claiming that its competition – CNN in particular – plans to go soft on the Biden administration, even as its host conduct one softball interview after another with Republican members of Congress.
The constant theme of right wing media, even when Trump was riding high, is that we’re getting picked up. At the infamous January 6th rally, Representative Mo Brooks, R‑Alabama, declared: “Today is the day American patriots are taking down names and kicking ass.” Rudy Giuliani called for “trial by combat.”
Brooks and Representative Paul Gosar, R‑Arizona, tried to gin up attendance in advance of the rally. Yet, Trump and his pilot fish are claiming that they are being persecuted, as Big Tech is dousing disinformation and deleting death threats.
“Unrestrained Tech Titans Target Conservatives,” said a headline this morning on Fox News. Or Trump addressing suspension of his Twitter account, describing it as “a continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics.”
“I think it’s causing tremendous anger,” added Trump.
From the Bill O’Reilly spin zone comes this explanation of the U.S. Capitol insurrection: “How the left’s hatred infected the right.”
Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson have picked up the theme, that four years of attacks on Trump spared the fires on Capitol Hill last Wednesday.
The theme has also been picked up locally by KTTH pundit Rantz, who blames all violence on the left, and by the Facebook page of State Representative Jenny Graham, R‑Spokane, who often makes unintelligent statements. Graham, who has linked to conspiracy theories, has redoubled her Seattle bashing.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy refused for two months to acknowledge that 81 million Americans elected Biden as President.
Even after the Capitol was trashed, he voted against certifying the electoral votes from Arizona, along with more than half the House Republican caucus.
Yet, there was McCarthy, putting in a post-insurrection phone call to Biden appealing for peace. The Reverend Franklin Graham has been Trump’s leading shill in the evangelical community and depicted both Democratic Senate candidates in Georgia as godless baby-killers.
Graham’s reaction to the insurrection? Without mentioning the attacks on Capitol Police, he has celebrated National Law Enforcement Day.
He has called for a reconciliation meeting between the President-elect and the President who still denies losing. “Thank you, President Donald Trump, for your conciliatory words to the nation last night,” Graham tweeted after Trump read a script more than a day after the trashing.
“Let’s come together… on our knees,” said Graham, who has been running late night television ads inviting Seattleites to come to God.
What to make of this?
Republican officials accept no responsibility for actions they helped trigger last week. They are retreating behind tested themes, e.g. we’re being picked on, to rally the believers. They will quickly pivot to attacks on Biden and the competent crew of people he has picked to staff the Executive Branch.
“Those who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind,” Winston Churchill said memorably, halfway through World War II.
That certainly seems to be happening.
Still, there are armed and dangerous people out there, and a formidable propaganda machine. The wrong will right itself. The damage it has caused to America goes far beyond broken windows and trashed U.S. Capitol offices.
And it is not going away.
Wednesday, January 13th, 2021
For the second time in thirteen months, Donald Trump has been impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors by the United States House of Representatives.
Voting two hundred and thirty-two to one hundred and ninety-seven, the House agreed to transmit a single new article of impeachment to the Senate. Every Democrat who participated in the vote backed the article, along with ten Republicans who crossed over. Five members of the House did not vote.
Before today, no President of the United States had ever been impeached twice, and only two other presidents had been impeached once (Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton; Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached by the House.)
NPI thanks the U.S. House for upholding the Constitution of the United States by impeaching Donald Trump for a second time. It had to be done, and it is done.
We are disappointed that only ten House Republicans found the courage to vote for impeachment after Trump incited an attack on the Capitol.
Nearly two hundred other Republicans chose to stick with Trump despite that, including top House Republicans Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise.
Fortunately, the Democrats held together and stood for the Constitution.
“We must think on what Lincoln told us,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her colleagues in floor remarks supporting impeachment.
“We, even here – even us here – hold the power and bear the responsibility. We, you and I, hold in trust the power that derives most directly from the people of the United States, and we bear the responsibility to fulfill that oath that we all swear before God and before one another: the oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, so help us God.”
“We know that we face enemies of the Constitution. We know we experienced the insurrection that violated the sanctity of the people’s Capitol and attempted to overturn the duly recorded will of the American people. ”
“And we know that the President of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion, against our common country.”
“He must go. He is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love. Since the presidential election in November – an election the President lost – he has repeatedly held about – lied about the outcome, sowed self-serving doubt about democracy and unconstitutionally sought to influence state officials to repeal reality. And, then, came that day of fire we all experienced.”
“The President must be impeached, and, I believe, the President must be convicted by the Senate, a constitutional remedy that will ensure that the republic will be safe from this man who is so resolutely determined to tear down the things that we hold dear and that hold us together.”
“It is indisputable that Donald Trump incited insurrectionists to launch the most deadly and destructive assault on the United States Capitol since the War of 1812,” said U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal in a statement following the vote.
“He told these domestic terrorists — many associated with white nationalist groups — to ‘stand by.’ Then he urged them to ‘fight like hell.’ Next, he proclaimed, ‘we are going to the Capitol.’ ”
“The insurrectionists followed these orders from the President of the United States, and carried out a violent attack on our country with the intent of overtaking Congress, overturning this election and undermining our democracy.”
“We must urgently remove Donald Trump from office to protect our country, our Constitution and our very democracy. We must send a clear message to the President that the United States Congress and the American people will not stand by and allow one man to turn our democracy into an autocracy; that we will not stand by while that man incites insurrectionists to launch a deadly assault on our country. We must hold him accountable.
“Just over a year ago, I voted to impeach this president. My vote was for the Constitution and for ‘We, the People.’ The threat that Donald Trump posed to America then has only continued to escalate.”
“The Senate must immediately vote to convict Donald J. Trump for incitement of insurrection and remove him from office.”
“The assault by pro-Trump extremists on January 6 was not just an attack on the United States Capitol but an attack on the United States and our democracy,” said U.S. Representative Adam Smith. “After President Trump and his supporters spent months spreading lies and propaganda about the election, President Trump’s supporters attempted to stage a coup and overturn the results of our free and fair presidential election and end our democracy as we know it.”
“Everyone involved in this attack must be held accountable, including the President. There is no question that President Trump incited this violence starting with his perpetual lies about the presidential election, encouraging his supporters the morning of the attack, and utterly failing to quell violence and respond sufficiently after the attack had begun.”
“From the beginning, the lies about the presidential election stoked by President Trump and his co-conspirators, including many Republicans in Congress, are not about election fraud but a brazen attempt to hold onto power by any means necessary, even at the cost of lives and our democracy.”
“With only seven days left in office, Trump has demonstrated he is unfit to remain in office a single day longer. Inciting an insurrection in an attempt to maintain power warrants the immediate impeachment of President Trump, also ensuring his disqualification from holding any public office in the future.”
“All Americans who believe in the rule of law and our Constitution must hold President Trump accountable for his actions and I urge my Senate colleagues to convict and remove him.”
“A week ago, an armed mob assaulted the very embodiment of our democracy, the U.S. Capitol, said U.S. Representative Suzan DelBene.
“This was more than just an assault on a building. It was an insurrection perpetrated against our government to stop Congress from fulfilling its constitutional duty to certify the presidential election results.
“The sitting President of the United States undeniably incited the deadly events of January 6. He summoned his supporters and urged them to attack.”
“During his rallying cry to them earlier in the day, President Trump falsely said, ‘we won this election, and we won it by a landslide.’ He made statements that encouraged and foreseeably resulted in the lawless assault on the Capitol, including ‘if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.’ He later failed to immediately call on his supporters to stop the attack.”
“As a result of these violent actions, five Americans died and fifty police officers were seriously injured, including fifteen officers who were hospitalized.”
“Today, with my support, the House of Representatives passed a bipartisan article of impeachment against President Trump. He violated his oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. He continues to be a danger to our national security as long as he remains the commander-in-chief. He should be held accountable and barred from holding federal office in the future.
“Some ask, why do this now, and to that I answer: How can we not?”
“It is critical that we hold a president accountable for his dangerous actions. Inaction would be an abdication of Congress’ duty and a failure to uphold our oath of office. We must be a country where no one is above the law.”
“Last week President Trump encouraged an angry mob of his supporters to ‘walk down to the Capitol’ and ‘…fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.’ He fanned the flames, and then when given the opportunity to ask the violent, seditious mob storming the Capitol to back off and go home, he said he loved them and continued to spread the lies that the election was rigged and that he won,” added U.S. Representative Kim Schrier.
“The President is a danger to our country and a threat to our national security. We had all hoped that Vice President Mike Pence would step up and invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. That would be the most expeditious way to revoke the power of the presidency from Donald Trump. Since Vice President Pence has refused to do this, the House must do its duty and impeach the President. We cannot allow him to hold this office any longer and endanger any more lives. That is why I voted today to impeach President Trump for incitement of insurrection.”
Tuesday, January 12th, 2021
In 2019, when the United States House of Representatives first acted to impeach Donald Trump, only Democrats and independents voted to hold the current occupant of the Oval Office accountable for his high crimes and misdemeanors.
This time, impeachment will pass with bipartisan support. We still don’t know how many Republicans will vote to impeach. But we do know that at least one from our region will be among their number, and that is Jaime Herrera Beutler, who represents the 3rd Congressional District, spanning Southwest Washington.
Here’s Representative Herrera Beutler’s statement on the matter.
The President of the United States incited a riot aiming to halt the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next. That riot led to five deaths. People everywhere watched in disbelief as the center of American democracy was assaulted. The violent mob bludgeoned to death a Capitol police officer as they defaced symbols of our freedom. These terrorists roamed the Capitol, hunting the Vice President and the Speaker of the House.
Hours went by before the President did anything meaningful to stop the attack. Instead, he and his lawyer were busy making calls to senators who were still in lockdown, seeking their support to further delay the Electoral College certification. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy describes pleading with the President to go on television and call for an end to the mayhem, to no avail.
The President attacked Vice President Mike Pence on Twitter while Pence was in a secure room having fled from the mob that had breached the Senate floor threatening to hang him.
Finally, the President released a pathetic denouncement of the violence that also served as a wink and a nod to those who perpetrated it: “I love you,” he said to them, “you are special.”
More hours of destruction and violence ensued before law enforcement officials were finally able to clear the Capitol.
The President’s offenses, in my reading of the Constitution, were impeachable based on the indisputable evidence we already have. I understand the argument that the best course is not to further inflame the country or alienate Republican voters.
But I am also a Republican voter. I believe in our Constitution, individual liberty, free markets, charity, life, justice, peace and this exceptional country. I see that my own party will be best served when those among us choose truth. I believe President Trump acted against his oath of office, so I will vote to impeach him.
Thank you, Representative Herrera Beutler, for upholding your oath this time around. Your loyalty to the Constitution will surely incur the wrath of a large number of rabid Donald Trump followers, some of whom we imagine may illegally threaten you. We’re sorry for whatever anxiety and stress may come your way as a result of taking this vote. But it is the right thing to do. We believe one day you’ll look back and regard this as one of the finest decisions you ever made.
Wednesday, January 20th, 2021
Read or watch the amazingly talented Amanda Gorman’s 2021 inaugural poem
Today, after President Joe Biden delivered his Inaugural Address, National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman read a poem composed in honor of the occasion, which was, without question, one of the top highlights of the inaugural ceremonies. If you did not get a chance to watch or listen to Gorman’s stirring rendition of this beautiful composition, you can do so right now, right here.
You may also read the poem below. Enjoy!
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# Written by Andrew Villeneuve :: 3:30 PM
Categories: Holidays
Tags: Inauguration Day
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