Whenever I heard people argue that impeachment, section 3 or criminal trials were misguided because Trump‘s state should be left to the electorate, I thought, wait, the founders didn’t worry about demagogues because they thought demagogues would be unpopular. They worried about demagogues because they knew that a charlatan promising the world and harnessing a wave of popular anger could win. That’s why forms of accountability like impeachment, prosecution, and later, section 3 were devised.
Cannot disagree with your order of responsibility. Today I posted on FB (yeah, I know, but former students and friends will see it) a picture of me at the Gettysburg Pennsylvania Monument pointing out an ancestor who fought there and was badly wounded. I noted that he fought to keep the Confederate flag out of the Capitol. Four years ago was in essence a desecration of his sacrifice and memory. 81 years later his great-grandson died at the Battle of the Bulge fighting Nazis. I am appalled and angry.
Sorry, I blame the American people first and foremost. It was in their power to defang trump, first in the primaries and then in the election. An older, slower Biden was still a far better choice, and then it came down to Harris; good vs evil, and evil prevailed. This is totally on the voters. How do we know? When voters are given the policy positions, they preferred Harris overwhelmingly, as long as they did not know the positions were hers. Once informed, they preferred trump. That's just plain ole racism and sexism folks. Blame Garland and the DOJ and Congress and McConnel all you want; yell at the SCOTUS too if it makes you feel alright. The choice was in the voters' hands. And they chose the shit show. And they are gonna get it too.
Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you for writing this post. Every day, a least once, I think about how bizarre it is that he will be sworn in as President of our country later this month. It really feels like a very bad dream.
I remain astounded and disappointed that the Democrats spent the last four years doing absolutely nothing to prevent anything like this from happening again.
The Democrats spent the last four years doing enormous amounts of things to try and stop this from happening again. You know who didn’t? The Republicans and the people who voted for Trump. Blaming the Democrats is a really odd thing to do in this moment.
Thank you, David. I am so tired of folks who have done nothing, yet feel entitled to sit back and point fingers at our Democratic Party and say "It's all your fault!" Damn, we worked hard. And will keep working hard. Persist.
No they did not. They could have pushed for a drastic reduction in the power of the presidency and expanded protections of democratic processes. Both things long overdue anyway. But they didn't, and now the rest of us have to deal with the failure.
I’m not even sure how to respond to that. So you want the Democrats in four years to undo a *centuries* long evolution in Presidential power, and then some vague handwavey thing about “democratic processes”? On the first one, what? Find a rational argument and we’ll talk. On the second, what? Maybe the Democrats could ask SCOTUS to enforce the 13th and 14th amendments. What’s that you say, SCOTUS is in the bag for Trump? Shocking.
They absolutely tried, at the federal level, at the Georgia level, at the NY level, at every level. They passed a bill to make the election more cheat proof. They put Jan 6 offenders in jail. They RAN HARD AGAINST TRUMP to the point of dumping an incumbent president to try and win. They donated billions of dollars,in support of that last minute candidacy. They didn’t do “absolutely nothing” and it’s an appalling comment to say that.
Martin Lefebvre, reading Marcy Wheeler is a slog (not a lawyer!) but she is amazing. Her arguments about MG's term as AG are incredibly well informed and her conclusions sound. Thanks for posting. People here need to read it.
I read emptywheel and the only thing I find difficult is keeping track of the names of all the players. That's not her fault; they're the bad guys, not her. Russian novels give me the same trouble.
She also takes the time to tease out connections that nobody else even sees.
I often gloss over the facts in her posts as she justifies her conclusions since I'm certain she knows what she's talking about; no need to check her work.
And she sees the deeper motivations that few if any other writers seem to know even exist. She's the opposite of so many journalists who do little more than paraphrase the statements of their interviewees (looking at you, Maggie Haberman).
Because he's a nerf brain? I’m responding to a comment that the Dems did “nothing” which is not remotely the same as “Merrick Garland didn’t move quickly enough”
Biden came into office two weeks after the GOP's televised coup attempt, with the WH and its allies publicly committed to avoiding timely consequences for Trump. You don't wait until someone has rebuilt enough power to run for office again before taking them out of the pool unless you actually want to swim with them.
He came into office planning for a rematch that he anticipated would be close and dangerous for democracy, resisting the impeachment with the help of powerful Dem congressional allies, unwilling to apply the Insurrection Act or staff the DOJ with pitbulls, already suffering from dementia and opposed to passing the torch.
It's obvious who Biden thought might benefit from such risk-taking!
I’ve often asked myself, a former career prosecutor, the same question, Mary. I have an intuition, nothing more, that Biden himself may have influenced Garland’s thinking. Biden is/was the old school type of pol who perhaps thought that an immediate investigation and prosecution of Trump would have undercut his policy initiatives and sowed even more discord. Of course, if true, it doesn’t exonerate Garland in the slightest because justice did demand swift and decisive and bold action. I’d love for folks to weigh in on this.
Do not blame Garland. He moved much faster than everyone understands. but when it takes months or even years to hear appeals and/or exploit electronic evidence he doesn't have the ability to alter the flow od time.
Amendment to no.3 - no Republican president will feel constrained. This court will happily let any Republican president get away with anything but will crucify any Democratic president who steps out of line.
January 6, 2021: the blood of noble police officers was shed, and the feces of rioters were spread. All. Over. Your. Capitol. My. Capitol. Our Capitol. And Donald J Trump fled... from each and every form of accountability.
I know this is beating a dead horse, but I would place MITCH MCCONNELL at the top of that list. Had Mitch only done his job, gotten that conviction after the SECOND freakin’ Impeachment - we wouldn’t be here. Instead, he punted to the DOJ and washed his hands.
You're being far too kind to Biden, who should be recognized as an unprecedented traitor and the ultimate example of the dereliction of Democratic centrist ideology.
There is strong evidence that he came into office committed to protecting Trump and the GOP J6 co-conspirators from the powers of the presidency in order to open the door to a rematch that the already mentally faltering Biden ("How Biden’s Inner Circle Worked to Keep Signs of Aging Under Wraps," Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2024) and his advisors saw as their only slim hope for a second term, saving them from a younger and less deeply hated opponent while setting the stage for a Hillary-style run as the friend of true conservatism.
We know that the WH and its allies resisted the impeachment and subsequent leveraging of the enforcement powers of the presidential office (Oath of Office, Insurrection Act, DOJ staffing) to subdue the GOP's rebellion even as they began serious planning for a rematch that they themselves anticipated would be dangerous for democracy:
• "…when asked about whether impeachment could slow Biden's agenda. 'Yes, I do have concerns,' And so does Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi… Let's give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running, and maybe we will send the articles some time after that.'" ("Clyburn says Trump impeachment trial could be delayed until after Biden's first 100 days," NBC News, 1/10/21)
• "Coons pressed House Democrats to relent, saying their quest for witnesses would cost them Republican votes to convict and maybe even some Democrats. 'The jury is ready to vote… People want to get home for Valentine‘s Day.'" ("Inside Democrats’ witness fiasco," Politico, 02/13/21)
• "Since… Biden’s inaugural address… Biden and his inner circle have been drawing up meticulous plans and creating a large legal network focused on… a close election finish, in which (Trump and GOP) launch a scorched-earth, Big Lie–fueled crusade." ("Biden Is Building a ‘Superstructure’ to Stop Trump From Stealing the Election," Rolling Stone, 3/24/24)
The flimsy cover story for Biden's aid and comfort to GOP rebels, whose treason was televised, rested on fairytales long promulgated by Democratic Party elites about a Republican Party supposedly always on the verge of reform and cooperation rather than an increasingly fascist melding of the super-rich and white evangelical nationalists that Dems have appeased every step of the way:
• "'We made a conscious decision when (Biden) came into office that we didn’t want to make his presidency a continued campaign and battle with Donald Trump,” Jen Psaki… said… 'President Biden wanted me to take the temperature down in the country.'" ("Book: Biden balked at Trump’s impeachers," Politico, 10/19/2022)
What the actual fuck? "signs of aging" which are common to all people. But what they really mean is dementia, which Biden does not have, according to extensive neurological reports, made public. Unlike trump's. Stop letting the American people off the hook; expecting the DOJ to do the job or the courts is saying the voters are too stupid to make the right choice. If so, then that has to be addressed. Better civics education, mandatory voting, shortening the election season ( 100 days is about right ). A parliamentary system would help, but we can't get there yet. But for now, I point the finger at my fellow Americans who voted for trump or sat home. They own it; not Biden, not McConnell or Roberts or Cannon.
No, I do not. And neither did his own neurologist. I've been around people with brain injuries my whole life, both growing up and in my career. In no way does Biden demonstrate "acute" decline. I mean, holy shit.....my SIL just had an AVM. Talk about acute decline....
The president swore an oath to defend the Constitution yet refused to use the powers of his office to punish the coup in a timely or decisive manner, despite his anticipation of a rematch that he believed would be close and dangerous for democracy.
In other words, he rejected his duty to govern as executive in exchange for a perceived political lifeline for himself and his clique, essentially locking the electorate in a cage with a brazen traitor so that Biden’s reelection would be our only escape.
Was the electorate, witness to both the rebellion and the absence of a vigorous patriotic defense of democracy and law in its wake, inspired to consider Biden strong and Trump weak? Did they see the GOP walk away from their coup and assume that democracy was stable? Were none attracted to a movement that evinced confidence in itself rather than handwringing over how to best serve their sworn enemies?
No, Quagmiremonkey is 100 percent correct, and, moreover provides the receipts to support his argument. Biden had no interest in or stomach for immediately holding Trump to account for January 6th.
Short and sweet and totally on point. Thank you for naming the people to blame. All of those named bear great responsibility. I blame the American people first( especially my fellow “Christians”) and McConnell a close second. Who would have ever dreamed this could happen in the USA?? I never did…………
Whenever I heard people argue that impeachment, section 3 or criminal trials were misguided because Trump‘s state should be left to the electorate, I thought, wait, the founders didn’t worry about demagogues because they thought demagogues would be unpopular. They worried about demagogues because they knew that a charlatan promising the world and harnessing a wave of popular anger could win. That’s why forms of accountability like impeachment, prosecution, and later, section 3 were devised.
Cannot disagree with your order of responsibility. Today I posted on FB (yeah, I know, but former students and friends will see it) a picture of me at the Gettysburg Pennsylvania Monument pointing out an ancestor who fought there and was badly wounded. I noted that he fought to keep the Confederate flag out of the Capitol. Four years ago was in essence a desecration of his sacrifice and memory. 81 years later his great-grandson died at the Battle of the Bulge fighting Nazis. I am appalled and angry.
Sorry, I blame the American people first and foremost. It was in their power to defang trump, first in the primaries and then in the election. An older, slower Biden was still a far better choice, and then it came down to Harris; good vs evil, and evil prevailed. This is totally on the voters. How do we know? When voters are given the policy positions, they preferred Harris overwhelmingly, as long as they did not know the positions were hers. Once informed, they preferred trump. That's just plain ole racism and sexism folks. Blame Garland and the DOJ and Congress and McConnel all you want; yell at the SCOTUS too if it makes you feel alright. The choice was in the voters' hands. And they chose the shit show. And they are gonna get it too.
Dan stated that the list was an ascending order so he agreed with you.
Yes I later realized that. Covid brain fog. never got back 100%.
Yes, and the rest of the world will as well.
Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you for writing this post. Every day, a least once, I think about how bizarre it is that he will be sworn in as President of our country later this month. It really feels like a very bad dream.
I remain astounded and disappointed that the Democrats spent the last four years doing absolutely nothing to prevent anything like this from happening again.
The Democrats spent the last four years doing enormous amounts of things to try and stop this from happening again. You know who didn’t? The Republicans and the people who voted for Trump. Blaming the Democrats is a really odd thing to do in this moment.
Thank you, David. I am so tired of folks who have done nothing, yet feel entitled to sit back and point fingers at our Democratic Party and say "It's all your fault!" Damn, we worked hard. And will keep working hard. Persist.
No they did not. They could have pushed for a drastic reduction in the power of the presidency and expanded protections of democratic processes. Both things long overdue anyway. But they didn't, and now the rest of us have to deal with the failure.
I’m not even sure how to respond to that. So you want the Democrats in four years to undo a *centuries* long evolution in Presidential power, and then some vague handwavey thing about “democratic processes”? On the first one, what? Find a rational argument and we’ll talk. On the second, what? Maybe the Democrats could ask SCOTUS to enforce the 13th and 14th amendments. What’s that you say, SCOTUS is in the bag for Trump? Shocking.
Also, your fixation on the Democrats is increasingly weird.
I would have at least like them to have tried. Obviously it’s politics.
But they didn’t try. Four years of talking about the right as an existential threat, zero days of acting like it.
They absolutely tried, at the federal level, at the Georgia level, at the NY level, at every level. They passed a bill to make the election more cheat proof. They put Jan 6 offenders in jail. They RAN HARD AGAINST TRUMP to the point of dumping an incumbent president to try and win. They donated billions of dollars,in support of that last minute candidacy. They didn’t do “absolutely nothing” and it’s an appalling comment to say that.
“Let’s just win again” is not a good plan! It’s appalling that you think it was. Although obviously a popular one on the left.
Now we’re stuck with “let’s hope the GOP decides to keep democracy.”
Really trying hard that.
Fuckin A. Let's put the blame where it belongs.
But why did Garland take so long to do something?
https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/12/30/the-opportunity-costs-of-conspiracy-theories-about-merrick-garland/
Martin Lefebvre, reading Marcy Wheeler is a slog (not a lawyer!) but she is amazing. Her arguments about MG's term as AG are incredibly well informed and her conclusions sound. Thanks for posting. People here need to read it.
I read emptywheel and the only thing I find difficult is keeping track of the names of all the players. That's not her fault; they're the bad guys, not her. Russian novels give me the same trouble.
She also takes the time to tease out connections that nobody else even sees.
I often gloss over the facts in her posts as she justifies her conclusions since I'm certain she knows what she's talking about; no need to check her work.
And she sees the deeper motivations that few if any other writers seem to know even exist. She's the opposite of so many journalists who do little more than paraphrase the statements of their interviewees (looking at you, Maggie Haberman).
Because he's a nerf brain? I’m responding to a comment that the Dems did “nothing” which is not remotely the same as “Merrick Garland didn’t move quickly enough”
Biden came into office two weeks after the GOP's televised coup attempt, with the WH and its allies publicly committed to avoiding timely consequences for Trump. You don't wait until someone has rebuilt enough power to run for office again before taking them out of the pool unless you actually want to swim with them.
Oh, please, none of that is actually true. Try again.
He came into office planning for a rematch that he anticipated would be close and dangerous for democracy, resisting the impeachment with the help of powerful Dem congressional allies, unwilling to apply the Insurrection Act or staff the DOJ with pitbulls, already suffering from dementia and opposed to passing the torch.
It's obvious who Biden thought might benefit from such risk-taking!
See my sources in the post below.
I’ve often asked myself, a former career prosecutor, the same question, Mary. I have an intuition, nothing more, that Biden himself may have influenced Garland’s thinking. Biden is/was the old school type of pol who perhaps thought that an immediate investigation and prosecution of Trump would have undercut his policy initiatives and sowed even more discord. Of course, if true, it doesn’t exonerate Garland in the slightest because justice did demand swift and decisive and bold action. I’d love for folks to weigh in on this.
Do not blame Garland. He moved much faster than everyone understands. but when it takes months or even years to hear appeals and/or exploit electronic evidence he doesn't have the ability to alter the flow od time.
Tell me you're MAGA trolling here without telling me you're MAGA trolling here.
Pathetic.
I think the people defending the Democrats for failing are more MAGA than me, a guy who wanted them to actually fight MAGA.
Really, like they could have done something? Like …? Ain’t that some s*it!….
Sometimes it feel like Americans live in a dumpster fire and that they're happy with it.
Amendment to no.3 - no Republican president will feel constrained. This court will happily let any Republican president get away with anything but will crucify any Democratic president who steps out of line.
I would reverse the order but it's a good list.
January 6, 2021: the blood of noble police officers was shed, and the feces of rioters were spread. All. Over. Your. Capitol. My. Capitol. Our Capitol. And Donald J Trump fled... from each and every form of accountability.
I know this is beating a dead horse, but I would place MITCH MCCONNELL at the top of that list. Had Mitch only done his job, gotten that conviction after the SECOND freakin’ Impeachment - we wouldn’t be here. Instead, he punted to the DOJ and washed his hands.
THIS IS ALL MITCH MCCONNELL’S FAULT.
And not behaving like the uber-partisan POS he really is.
I prefer to start with Gingrich, who brought this style of politicking to the fore as Speaker.
I feel like "A plurality voted for the toddler" is a more than adequate way to respond to any number of things right now and for the next four years.
"We could have had nice things, but ... a plurality voted for the toddler."
You're being far too kind to Biden, who should be recognized as an unprecedented traitor and the ultimate example of the dereliction of Democratic centrist ideology.
There is strong evidence that he came into office committed to protecting Trump and the GOP J6 co-conspirators from the powers of the presidency in order to open the door to a rematch that the already mentally faltering Biden ("How Biden’s Inner Circle Worked to Keep Signs of Aging Under Wraps," Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2024) and his advisors saw as their only slim hope for a second term, saving them from a younger and less deeply hated opponent while setting the stage for a Hillary-style run as the friend of true conservatism.
We know that the WH and its allies resisted the impeachment and subsequent leveraging of the enforcement powers of the presidential office (Oath of Office, Insurrection Act, DOJ staffing) to subdue the GOP's rebellion even as they began serious planning for a rematch that they themselves anticipated would be dangerous for democracy:
• "…when asked about whether impeachment could slow Biden's agenda. 'Yes, I do have concerns,' And so does Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi… Let's give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running, and maybe we will send the articles some time after that.'" ("Clyburn says Trump impeachment trial could be delayed until after Biden's first 100 days," NBC News, 1/10/21)
• "Coons pressed House Democrats to relent, saying their quest for witnesses would cost them Republican votes to convict and maybe even some Democrats. 'The jury is ready to vote… People want to get home for Valentine‘s Day.'" ("Inside Democrats’ witness fiasco," Politico, 02/13/21)
• "Since… Biden’s inaugural address… Biden and his inner circle have been drawing up meticulous plans and creating a large legal network focused on… a close election finish, in which (Trump and GOP) launch a scorched-earth, Big Lie–fueled crusade." ("Biden Is Building a ‘Superstructure’ to Stop Trump From Stealing the Election," Rolling Stone, 3/24/24)
The flimsy cover story for Biden's aid and comfort to GOP rebels, whose treason was televised, rested on fairytales long promulgated by Democratic Party elites about a Republican Party supposedly always on the verge of reform and cooperation rather than an increasingly fascist melding of the super-rich and white evangelical nationalists that Dems have appeased every step of the way:
• "'We made a conscious decision when (Biden) came into office that we didn’t want to make his presidency a continued campaign and battle with Donald Trump,” Jen Psaki… said… 'President Biden wanted me to take the temperature down in the country.'" ("Book: Biden balked at Trump’s impeachers," Politico, 10/19/2022)
You're an idiot.
What the actual fuck? "signs of aging" which are common to all people. But what they really mean is dementia, which Biden does not have, according to extensive neurological reports, made public. Unlike trump's. Stop letting the American people off the hook; expecting the DOJ to do the job or the courts is saying the voters are too stupid to make the right choice. If so, then that has to be addressed. Better civics education, mandatory voting, shortening the election season ( 100 days is about right ). A parliamentary system would help, but we can't get there yet. But for now, I point the finger at my fellow Americans who voted for trump or sat home. They own it; not Biden, not McConnell or Roberts or Cannon.
You don’t think Biden has suffered some acute and serious cognitive decline?? As the man himself would say, “c’mon, man”.
No, I do not. And neither did his own neurologist. I've been around people with brain injuries my whole life, both growing up and in my career. In no way does Biden demonstrate "acute" decline. I mean, holy shit.....my SIL just had an AVM. Talk about acute decline....
The president swore an oath to defend the Constitution yet refused to use the powers of his office to punish the coup in a timely or decisive manner, despite his anticipation of a rematch that he believed would be close and dangerous for democracy.
In other words, he rejected his duty to govern as executive in exchange for a perceived political lifeline for himself and his clique, essentially locking the electorate in a cage with a brazen traitor so that Biden’s reelection would be our only escape.
Was the electorate, witness to both the rebellion and the absence of a vigorous patriotic defense of democracy and law in its wake, inspired to consider Biden strong and Trump weak? Did they see the GOP walk away from their coup and assume that democracy was stable? Were none attracted to a movement that evinced confidence in itself rather than handwringing over how to best serve their sworn enemies?
Oh ye Gods. Calm down.
You don't need a compelling argument or facts on the ground when you're kissing up!
No, Quagmiremonkey is 100 percent correct, and, moreover provides the receipts to support his argument. Biden had no interest in or stomach for immediately holding Trump to account for January 6th.
Yeah, no.
Thanks. Good list of the culprits. Those of us who still hope for something better for this country have a lot of work to do.
Short and sweet and totally on point. Thank you for naming the people to blame. All of those named bear great responsibility. I blame the American people first( especially my fellow “Christians”) and McConnell a close second. Who would have ever dreamed this could happen in the USA?? I never did…………
It wasn't for lack of trying. I'm not at all sure what more could have been done.
I think you have those in the wrong order of weight of responsibility.