The impeachment trial is starting on February 8, but we need to make the phones jump in our senators’ offices. If you live in a state with GOP SENATORS, OR HAVE FRIENDS AND FAMILY THAT DO, ask them to make 10 CALLS to their senators offices before that date.
This morning (1/3), President Biden, Vice President Harris and House and Senate leadership met in the Rotunda to pay their respects to Officer Brian D. Sicknick, the U.S. Capitol police office who died defending the Capitol on Jan. 6. At least 134 police officers were assaulted, some with life-changing injuries and two have committed suicide. A horrified country won’t soon forget the images of white nationalists with confederate flags and Nazi paraphernalia, sacking and looting our capitol. Neither will the rest of the world, which recognizes a coup when they see one and has no confusion over who’s to blame.
Minimal script for Democratic senator: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Sen. [___] to vote to convict Trump and to disqualify him from holding further office. Americans are united in the importance of holding him accountable to strengthen the country’s safeguards against a future presidency like his.
Minimal script for Republican senator: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Sen. [___] to vote to convict Trump and to disqualify him from holding further office. I hope [he/she] will honor [his/her] oath & defend our Republic. If inciting a militant attack on our country and Capitol, doesn’t disqualify a leader from public office, what does? #DoYourDuty
More script if you want it (both parties): I am also frustrated that the Senate sees fit to waste taxpayer-paid time playing games with the Constitution, trying to shirk their responsibility to hold a trial. Trump was impeached while still a sitting president, but the Constitution allows impeachment even after an official leaves office, and lawyer/legislators like Senators Hawley and Cruz, who both worked for Supreme Court justices, should know better. We are tired of funding this kind of corruption.
FAQ’s on constitutionality of impeachment here.
Contacts
- Senator Feinstein: email, DC (202) 224-3841, LA (310) 914-7300, SF (415) 393-0707, SD (619) 231-9712, Fresno (559) 485-7430
- and Senator Padilla:
email,DC (202) 224-3553,LA (310) 231-4494, SAC (916) 448-2787, Fresno (559) 497-5109, SF (415) 981-9369, SD (619) 239-3884 - Who is my representative/senator?: https://whoismyrepresentative.com
Deeper Dive
Despite the cynical dismissiveness of Ted Cruz and Nikki Haley urging us to put aside this insurrection as an act of “unity”, we, as a nation, cannot move on from this trauma until we see accountability for the man who started it, who stoked it for months, who ignored calls for help from those in danger, and who didn’t acknowledge Officer Sicknick’s death until his funeral. GOP leaders who are worried about losing Trump’s base, should instead be worried about the Republicans who are already leaving a party that has lost its way, both functionally and morally.
What Ted Cruz and Nikki Haley have missed is that Americans of all parties are starting to unite around basic values of governance. In a new Post-ABC poll, 57 percent of Americans say they think Trump bears blame for the events at the Capitol. That includes 1 in 5 Republicans.
- We are united, no matter what we look like, or who we vote for, in believing that elected leaders have a duty to uphold our democracy and govern in our interests and to hold to account any leader who tries to harm us or our country.
- We are united in describing any leader who stokes violence and division and tells repeated lies to subvert our democracy as unfit to represent us.
- We are united in holding a leader accountable for their actions from their first day in office to their last, whether or not legislators understand their Constitutional duties.
- We are united in demanding that such a leader must be removed and barred from holding office again in order to achieve justice for our nation.
(From Indivisible.org) UPDATE: On January 25th, the House impeachment managers presented and read aloud the article of impeachment to the Senate. The House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald Trump for the second time on January 13th and the Senate trial is scheduled to start the week of February 8th. Notably, many of the representatives selected to serve as impeachment managers for the trial were leaders in drafting articles of impeachment, including Reps. Raskin and Cicilline, and Rep. Lieu—who, along with Reps. Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley, started drafting the articles of impeachment while sheltering in place during the Capitol attack incited by Trump.
On January 12th, the New York Times reported that Mitch McConnell agreed that Trump committed impeachable offenses. We need to hold McConnell’s feet to the fire to ensure Donald Trump’s treasonous actions are justly punished!
Donald Trump has spent the last four years doing everything in his power to destroy our democracy and its institutions. He has used the office of the presidency for his own personal gain and profit. He has not once, in his four years in office, shown an interest in running this country, except to the point that it might benefit himself, his businesses, or his own corrupt family.
When white supremacist forces supported Trump’s racist rhetoric and actions, he not only refused to condemn them, he called them “very fine people.” When he decisively lost his re-election bid in November 2020, he refused to concede. Instead, he called up state officials in Georgia to demand that they overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate victory in that state. His enablers in the Republican party allowed him to live in denial, all while whipping up their base to believe the fiction that the election was “rigged” and had been “stolen” from Trump. And on January 6, 2021, when the 117th Congress met to certify the election of Joe Biden to the presidency, the consequences of Donald Trump’s racism, corruption, and unhinged denial broke down the doors.
Thousands of Trump supporters, some of them apparently armed, overtook the Capitol and put the Vice President, U.S. Senators, and Representatives in the House in mortal danger. Trump stood by and said nothing for hours, before finally posting a video proclaiming to the insurrectionists who were occupying the Capitol that “I love you and you are all very special.”
This treasonous behavior cannot go unpunished. Donald Trump must be impeached, again. McConnell must use his existing emergency powers to bring the Senate back into session and the House of Representatives must draw up articles of impeachment immediately and move quickly to vote on them, and then the Senate must vote to convict Trump, remove him from office, and vote to ensure he is disqualified from ever holding federal office again.
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 