House of Representatives

Subterms

    More stories

    • 150 Shares179 Views

      in Elections

      Julia Letlow, Whose Husband Died of Covid, Will Run for House Seat

      by

      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyJulia Letlow, whose husband died of Covid-19 before being sworn into Congress, will run for the seat.Julia Letlow said she would run to represent Louisiana’s Fifth Congressional District.Credit…Julia Letlow for CongressGlenn Thrush and Jan. 14, 2021Updated 4:28 p.m. ETJulia Letlow, the wife of Representative-elect Luke Letlow, a Louisiana Republican who died of complications from Covid-19 days before he was to be sworn in, will seek the open seat in an upcoming special election.Ms. Letlow will run as a Republican to represent Louisiana’s Fifth District, which covers the conservative northeastern part of the state. Her husband died on Dec. 29 at the age of 41 after suffering from a “cardiac condition” while hospitalized with the virus. His death came just weeks after he won the seat vacated by his former boss, Representative Ralph Abraham.“Everything in my life and in my marriage has prepared me for this moment,” Ms. Letlow wrote in a statement on Thursday. “My motivation is the passion Luke and I both shared: to better this region that we called home and to leave it a better place for our children and future generations.”Mr. Letlow, a longtime Republican aide, backed social distancing measures and the wearing of masks during his campaign, though photos from his social media accounts also showed him campaigning indoors without masks at times. He also argued for the loosening of some coronavirus restrictions when infections ebbed over the summer.Ms. Letlow, who lives in Richland Parish, currently serves as the director of external relations and strategic communications at the University of Louisiana in Monroe.Her entrance into the nonpartisan election on March 20 was widely anticipated and may discourage other Republicans who had been mulling a run from entering the race.She is likely to face Allen Guillory Sr., a Republican from Opelousas, who tallied under 10 percent in the Nov. 3 election, and Sandra “Candy” Christophe, a Democrat from Alexandria who announced last week she would run.Ms. Letlow has been active in Louisiana Republican politics for years and was selected for her university job, in part, to provide “insight into strategies and alliances” that would be helpful for the school during its interactions with elected officials, her online biography said.“I am running to continue the mission Luke started — to stand up for our Christian values, to fight for our rural agricultural communities and to deliver real results to move our state forward,” she said in her statement.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 125 Shares119 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump impeachment risks bogging down early days of Biden presidency

      by

      The prospect of Donald Trump facing a bitter impeachment trial in the US Senate threatens to cast a shadow over the earliest days of Joe Biden’s presidency, as Washington on Thursday headed into a militarized virtual lockdown ahead of next week’s inauguration.With warnings of more violent protests being planned following the pro-Trump mob’s deadly attack on the US Capitol last week, some Republican members of Congress who voted for the unprecedented second impeachment of the president fear they are in personal danger.Peter Meijer, a Michigan Republican who voted along with the Democratic majority in the House on Wednesday to impeach Trump, on the charge of incitement of insurrection – after he encouraged the riot in a futile attempt to overturn his election defeat by force – said some of his colleagues were hiring armed escorts and acquiring body armor out of fear for their safety.“When it comes to my family’s safety, that’s something that we’ve been planning for, preparing for, taking appropriate measures,” Meijer told MSNBC.“Our expectation is that somebody may try to kill us,” he said.“Our expectation is that somebody may try to kill us.” — Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI), who voted to impeach Trump, says he and other lawmakers believe their lives are in danger following yesterday’s impeachment.He also says they are altering their routines and buying body armor. pic.twitter.com/stOO00OKYD— The Recount (@therecount) January 14, 2021
      There is no schedule yet for when the House may present the article of impeachment – essentially the charge against Trump – to the Senate for trial.Trump was acquitted at his first impeachment trial in the Senate early last year after being charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, stemming from his request that Ukraine investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter ahead of the 2020 election.The Senate resumes full session on the eve of the inauguration events on 20 January to install Biden as the 46th US president and Kamala Harris as his vice-president.A swift impeachment trial would entangle Biden’s urgent efforts to have his cabinet choices confirmed by the Senate and fire up his agenda to tackle the raging coronavirus pandemic as well as the related economic crisis and vaccination chaos.There is no real prospect of Trump being ousted before Biden takes office next Wednesday, after the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, rejected Democratic calls for a quick trial in the Republican-led chamber, saying there was no way to finish it before Trump leaves office.Biden, meanwhile, has urged Senate leaders to avoid an all-consuming trial during his first days in the White House so that they can focus on the crises facing his incoming administration.“I hope that the Senate leadership will find a way to deal with their constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation,” Biden said in a statement on Wednesday night.Biden’s inauguration events have already been scaled back due to security concerns and the risks of spreading infection during the Covid-19 pandemic.The west front of the Capitol building, where the swearing-in occurs and which was overrun by marauding rioters invading the US Congress last week, is now fortified by fencing, barriers and thousands of national guard troops. Soldiers have been sleeping sprawled in the marble corridors of the complex.Trump himself is increasingly isolated at the White House and “in self-pity mode”, according to several reports.Under the US constitution, a two-thirds majority is needed in the Senate to convict Trump, before or after he leaves office, meaning at least 17 Republicans in the 100-member chamber would have to join the Democrats.McConnell’s vote would be crucial. At Trump’s first impeachment, no House Republicans voted in favor of charging him and all Republicans in the Senate voted to acquit him except for Utah’s Mitt Romney.If McConnell signaled to his caucus that he would vote to convict Trump this time, that could give other senators the cover they needed to follow suit if they believed privately that Trump deserved it but feared a backlash from voters.On Wednesday, McConnell released a note to Republican senators in which he did not deny that he backed the impeachment push, the New York Times reported. The leader said that he had “not made a final decision on how I will vote, and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate”.McConnell and some other senior Republicans may see conviction as a way to prevent Trump being a liability to the party in the future, and therefore an opportunity.If Trump is already out of office by the time of the trial, historical precedent suggests the Senate could disqualify him from holding office in the future with only a simple majority vote.But the legal details and what would happen, including if Trump attempted to pardon himself in his last days in the White House, are far from resolved.The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, set to become majority leader when Biden takes office, said that no matter the timing, “there will be an impeachment trial in the United States Senate, there will be a vote on convicting the president for high crimes and misdemeanors, and if the president is convicted, there will be a vote on barring him from running again.”The Florida Republican senator Marco Rubio has warned, meanwhile, that the impeachment process risks making Trump a martyr to his diehard supporters.Rubio told NBC he thought Trump bore some responsibility for the attack on the Capitol, which happened on the day both chambers of Congress were meeting in order to certify Joe Biden’s victory, but that putting Trump on trial could make things worse.“It’s like pouring gasoline on fire,” he said, noting that some who were displeased with Trump “after seeing what happened last week, sort of reckoning with the last four years – now all of a sudden they’re circling the wagons and it threatens to make him a martyr.”No US president has ever been removed from office via impeachment. Three – Trump in 2019, Bill Clinton in 1998 and Andrew Johnson in 1868 – were impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate. Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 rather than face impeachment. More

    • 175 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      US House votes to impeach Donald Trump for a second time – video report

      by

      The House of Representatives has voted 232 to 197 to impeach the US president, Donald Trump, for a second time, formally charging him with inciting an insurrection. It was the most bipartisan impeachment vote in US history. 
      After an emotional day-long debate in the chamber, 10 Republicans joined Democrats to hold Trump to account before he leaves office next week. 
      Donald Trump impeached a second time over mob attack on US Capitol
      The 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump
      Donald Trump’s second impeachment: five key takeaways More

    • 63 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      Trump Impeached for Inciting Insurrection

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Trump ImpeachmentliveLatest UpdatesHow the House VotedWhy Impeach Now?Republican SupportKey QuotesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTrump Impeached for Inciting InsurrectionPresident Trump became the first president to be impeached twice, after the House approved a single charge citing his role in whipping up a mob that stormed the Capitol. He faces a Senate trial that could disqualify him from future office.Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California declared the past week one of the darkest chapters in American history.Credit…Erin Schaff/The New York TimesJan. 13, 2021Updated 9:42 p.m. ETWASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump on Wednesday became the first American president to be impeached twice, as 10 members of his party joined with Democrats in the House to charge him with “incitement of insurrection” for his role in egging on a violent mob that stormed the Capitol last week.Reconvening in a building now heavily militarized against threats from pro-Trump activists and adorned with bunting for the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., lawmakers voted 232 to 197 to approve a single impeachment article. It accused Mr. Trump of “inciting violence against the government of the United States” in his quest to overturn the election results, and called for him to be removed and disqualified from ever holding public office again.The vote left another indelible stain on Mr. Trump’s presidency just a week before he is slated to leave office and laid bare the cracks running through the Republican Party. More members of his party voted to charge the president than in any other impeachment.Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, declaring the past week one of the darkest chapters in American history, implored colleagues to embrace “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.”A little more than a year after she led a painstaking, three-month process to impeach Mr. Trump the first time for a pressure campaign on Ukraine to incriminate Mr. Biden — a case rejected by the president’s unfailingly loyal Republican supporters — Ms. Pelosi had moved this time with little fanfare to do the same job in only seven days.“He must go. He is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love,” the speaker said, adding later, “It gives me no pleasure to say this — it breaks my heart.”The top House Republican, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, conceded in a pained speech on the floor that Mr. Trump had been to blame for the deadly assault at the Capitol. It had forced the vice president and lawmakers who had gathered there to formalize Mr. Biden’s victory to flee for their lives.“The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters,” said Mr. McCarthy, one of the 138 Republicans who returned to the House floor after the mayhem and voted to reject certified electoral votes for Mr. Biden. “He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”Outside the House chamber, a surreal tableau offered reminders of the rampage that gave rise to the impeachment, as thousands of armed members of the National Guard in camouflage fatigues surrounded the complex and snaked through its halls, stacking their helmets, backpacks and weapons wherever they went. Their presence gave the proceedings a wartime feel, and evoked images of the 1860s, when the Union Army had quartered in the building.A week of trauma and deliberation left lawmakers sparring not just over impeachment, but also over facial coverings mandated because of the coronavirus and newly installed metal detectors outside the House chamber meant to stop lawmakers from bringing guns onto the floor. Some Republicans darted past the machines without stopping, setting the alarms wailing. Several Democrats said they had concerns — so far unsubstantiated — that far-right colleagues might have played a role in facilitating the attack, and they requested an investigation.Dozens of others stayed away from the Capitol on the momentous day, fearful of exposing colleagues or themselves to the virus and of lingering security threats, instead casting their votes remotely by proxy.The House’s action set the stage for the second Senate trial of the president in a year. The precise timing of that proceeding remained in doubt, though, as senators appeared unlikely to convene to sit in judgment before Jan. 20, when Mr. Biden will take the oath of office and Mr. Trump will become a former president.The last proceeding was a partisan affair. But this time, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, was said to support the effort as a means of purging his party of Mr. Trump, setting up a political and constitutional showdown that could shape the course of American politics.If a Senate trial resulted in Mr. Trump’s conviction, it held out the prospect, tantalizing for Democrats and many Republicans alike, of barring him from ever holding office again.In a measured statement after the vote, Mr. Biden called for the nation to come together after an “unprecedented assault on our democracy.” He was staring down the likelihood that the trial would complicate his first days in office, and said he hoped Senate leadership would “find a way to deal with their constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation.” That work included cabinet nominations and confronting the coronavirus crisis.In the House, Democrats and Republicans who supported his ouster made no attempt to hide their fury at Mr. Trump, who was said to have enjoyed watching the attack play out on television as lawmakers pleaded for help. Republicans harangued members of their own party for supporting his mendacious campaign to claim election victory.Returning to the same chamber where many of them donned gas masks and hid under chairs amid gunfire one week ago — as rioters carrying zip ties and chanting “hang Pence” and “where’s Nancy” overtook the police — lawmakers issued stinging indictments of the president and his party.“They may have been hunting for Pence and Pelosi to stage their coup,” said Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the lead impeachment prosecutor, “but every one of us in this room right now could have died.”President Trump encouraged a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol one week ago.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesAt least five people did die during the attack, including an officer and a member of the mob who was shot just outside the chamber door.Lawmakers said the threat from Mr. Trump had not subsided.“He is capable of starting a civil war,” said Representative Maxine Waters of California, a veteran liberal.The Trump Impeachment More

    • 150 Shares119 Views

      in Elections

      As His Predecessor Is Impeached, Biden Tries to Stay Above the Fray

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Trump ImpeachmentliveLatest UpdatesHow the House VotedWhy Impeach Now?Republican SupportKey QuotesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyAs His Predecessor Is Impeached, Biden Tries to Stay Above the FrayThe president-elect has long tried to keep from being sucked into President Trump’s dramas. He may find that posture hard to maintain when he takes office and the Senate puts Mr. Trump on trial.President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is likely to find it harder to keep President Trump’s impeachment at arm’s length once he takes office.Credit…Kriston Jae Bethel for The New York TimesMichael D. Shear and Jan. 13, 2021, 8:22 p.m. ETWASHINGTON — His fellow Democrats are red hot with rage after the assault on the Capitol, but President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has maintained a studied cool, staying largely removed from the searing debate that culminated on Wednesday with President Trump’s impeachment and keeping his focus on battling a deadly pandemic, reviving a faltering economy and lowering the political temperature.Hours after the vote in the House to impeach Mr. Trump for a second time, Mr. Biden denounced what he called a violent attack on the Capitol and the “public servants in that citadel of liberty.” He said a bipartisan group of lawmakers had condemned the violence by following “the Constitution and their conscience.”But he also pledged to ensure that Americans “stand together as a nation” when he becomes president next week, exhibiting the deliberate approach to politics that became the trademark of his march to the White House.“This nation also remains in the grip of a deadly virus and a reeling economy,” he said in a statement. “I hope that the Senate leadership will find a way to deal with their Constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation.”Rather than step up to lead his party’s effort to hold Mr. Trump accountable, Mr. Biden has deferred to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats in the House and Senate. He has spent the past week honing policy proposals and introducing new appointees while delivering a carefully calibrated, above-the-fray message. “What the Congress decides to do is for them to decide,” he said about impeachment two days after the attacks.Mr. Biden’s emphasis on the governing challenge ahead is based on a belief that the nation is in a devastating crisis and that requires him to prioritize keeping Americans healthy in the middle of an increasingly devastating pandemic and restoring the prosperity that has evaporated in its wake. But it also underscores the contrast between his cautious, centrist approach to politics and the seething anger of many elected Democratic officials and voters over Mr. Trump’s assaults on democratic norms and their desire to punish him for it.The president-elect has made it clear that he intends to work toward repairing the breach in America’s political culture after Mr. Trump’s four tumultuous years in office.“Too many of our fellow Americans have suffered for too long over the past year to delay this urgent work,” he said in the statement. “I have often said that there is nothing we can’t do, if we do it together. And it has never been more critical for us to stand together as a nation than right now.”But he will be pursuing a Democratic agenda in a sharply divided Congress at the same time, forcing him into a balancing act that is sure to be especially precarious in his administration’s opening weeks as the Senate again litigates Mr. Trump’s behavior and weighs convicting him.“I think he looks calm,” said Stuart Stevens, a Republican strategist who helped run Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign and has become an outspoken critic of Mr. Trump. “Part of this whole moment is a return to normalcy. Having a level-headed president who isn’t rage tweeting and trying to win every news cycle — it’s a hallmark of the Biden people. They’ve been very patient.”As a candidate, Mr. Biden embraced a strategy that purposely kept him above the fray, refusing to be dragged into the chaotic maelstrom of Mr. Trump’s presidency at every turn.But what worked to win him the Democratic nomination and the White House may wear thin when he is sworn in next Wednesday at the Capitol amid extraordinary security, the potential for further political unrest and pent-up demand from his own party for legislative victories.Once in office, Mr. Biden is likely to find it all but impossible to keep issues like impeachment at arm’s length, especially with the spectacle of a Senate trial dominating news coverage and slowing his push to win confirmation for his nominees. Robert Gibbs, who served as President Barack Obama’s first press secretary, recalled how the White House struggled to maintain their campaign’s messaging discipline in the first days of the administration in 2009.The Trump Impeachment More

    • 138 Shares119 Views

      in US Politics

      Second impeachment puts Trump in first place among lords of misrule

      by

      [embedded content]
      Donald Trump, Donald Trump (so good they impeached him twice).
      It was always going to end this way. A presidency centered on fear, rage and division is climaxing in a Grand Guignol of three acts at the US Capitol in Washington: last Wednesday’s insurrection, this Wednesday’s impeachment, next Wednesday’s inauguration.
      As Barack Obama noted after act one, “we’d be kidding ourselves if we treated it as a total surprise”.
      What remains uncertain is whether this is the moment that the fever breaks and the nation gets back on track or merely a harbinger of further polarisation, violence and decline.
      Liz Cheney and nine other Republicans who joined Democrats in a 232-197 bipartisan vote to impeach Trump did not provide a comprehensive answer to that question. Yes, it was 10 more than the first impeachment just over a year ago and, yes, there are cracks in the dam. But it has not yet burst.
      And certainly on this Wednesday, with its besieged capital being prised from the grasp of a would-be autocrat, America resembled the sort of fragile state that it used to think it was in the business of rescuing and rebuilding.
      Barriers, checkpoints and a ring of steel had been erected on Capitol Hill. Members of the national guard, with masks, guns and military garb, could be seen sleeping on hard floors in the hallways of the Capitol. The last time troops were quartered here was during the American civil war; there were more of them than in Afghanistan or Iraq today.
      Inside the chamber, where members wore masks under strict new coronavirus rules, the historic day began with a prayer from R Adm Margaret Grun Kibben, the House chaplain. She noted that last week “we found ourselves seizing the scales of justice from the jaws of mobocracy”.
      But it did not take long for partisanship to bare its teeth. Although this process has been much speedier than Impeachment One, which sanctioned Trump for pressuring Ukraine for political favours, there were again angry speeches from both sides. More

    • 150 Shares179 Views

      in US Politics

      Donald Trump impeached a second time over mob attack on US Capitol

      by

      The House of Representatives on Wednesday impeached Donald Trump for inciting a violent insurrection against the government of the United States a week after he encouraged a mob of his supporters to storm the US Capitol, a historic condemnation that makes him the only American president to be charged twice with committing high crimes and misdemeanors.
      After an emotional day-long debate in the chamber where lawmakers cowered last week as rioters vandalized the Capitol, 10 House Republicans joined Democrats to embrace the constitution’s gravest remedy after vowing to hold Trump to account before he leaves office next week.
      The sole article of impeachment charges the defeated president with “inciting an insurrection” that led to what the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said would be immortalized as a “day of fire” on Capitol Hill.
      The president, Pelosi said, represented a “clear and present danger to the nation we all love”.
      The final count was 232 to 197, with 10 members of the president’s party supporting his unprecedented second impeachment, making it the most bipartisan impeachment vote in US history. Among them was Liz Cheney, the No 3 House Republican and daughter of Dick Cheney, George W Bush’s vice-president. Though she did not rise to speak on Wednesday, she issued a blistering statement announcing her decision, in which she said that there had “never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States” than Trump’s conduct on 6 January.

      “The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” said Cheney in a statement.
      Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, attempted to carve a middle path for his caucus. He said Trump “bears responsibility” for Wednesday’s attack, while warning that impeachment would “further fan the flames of partisan division”. As an alternative, he proposed a censure. More