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WHERE ARE THEY NOW
JOE BIDEN:
Knowing the only way to avoid fully owning the pandemic, the schools, the hospitality industry, The Squad, the economy, the DC gridlock, the Portland violence, Andrew Cuomo, the weather, the cancelations, and America’s tribal bitterness is to keep talking about Donald Trump.
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THE HOUSE IMPEACHMENT MANAGERS:
With their lives forever changed by their iconic, heart-and-soul performances, especially Stacey Plaskett, Joe Neguse, and Jamie Raskin, but also second guessed by history (and by former federal judge Michael McConnell, whose essential reading New York Times op ed persuasively argues that the impeachment article should have been more about the failure to stop the insurrection after it started – and other high crimes – and less about the impossible-to-prove-on-their-timetable charge of incitement).
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MITCH MCCONNELL:
As the most powerful Republican in the land whose initials are not “DJT,” with an eye on 2022….:
“My goal is, in every way possible, to have nominees representing the Republican Party who can win in November," McConnell said by telephone. "Some of them may be people the former president likes. Some of them may not be. The only thing I care about is electability…. "I’m not predicting the president would support people who couldn't win. But I do think electability — not who supports who — is the critical point.” (Politico)
….with his code now easily broken by the opposition party…:
Outraged Democrats saw the approach as a classic McConnell tactic: Create a politically expedient standard and then argue that the standard left him no choice but to do what suited him in the first place. They argued that he had tried to have his politics both ways, appeasing Mr. Trump’s supporters with his vote to acquit while trying to signal to establishment figures that he sided with them and they should continuing backing Republican candidates. (New York Times)
…and by Gang of 500 Law and Justice Subcommittee Co-Chair Ruth Marcus:
This would be easier to praise if McConnell hadn’t stayed so silent for so long as Trump spouted his false statements about the election; if he hadn’t made it impossible to hold the trial while Trump was in office; if he had managed to state flatly that he would have voted to convict Trump absent the supposed constitutional bar; and if he endorsed some other measure, like censure, against Trump now.
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KEVIN MCCARTHY:
With a lot more to explain than he seems to realize – and an endless series of choices about how to define the 2021/22 Republican Party.
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THE REPUBLICAN PARTY:
Betwixt, bothered, and bewildered:
Trump leaves the GOP at a crossroads: It’s hard to imagine the party's next two years will be pretty given its divisions over Trump’s impeachment, his agenda and how to deal with his extra-legal challenges to the election. Soon after Trump's acquittal, state parties began hammering Senate Republicans who voted to convict. (Politico)
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In Washington, a quiet majority of Republican officials appears to be embracing the kind of wishful thinking that guided them throughout Mr. Trump’s first campaign in 2016, and then through much of his presidency, insisting that he would soon be marginalized by his own outrageous conduct or that he would lack the discipline to make himself a durable political leader….
Only a few senior Republicans have gone so far as to say that it is time for Mr. Trump to lose his lordly status in the party altogether….
Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, a longtime Trump ally who has been critical of the former president since the November election, told reporters in the Capitol on Friday that he believed Mr. Trump would be weakened by the impeachment trial, even if the Senate opted not to convict him. (Mr. Cramer, who also called the trial “the stupidest week in the Senate,” voted for acquittal.)
“He’s made it pretty difficult to gain a lot of support,” Mr. Cramer said of Mr. Trump. “Now, as you can tell, there’s some support that will never leave, but I think that is a shrinking population and probably shrinks a little bit after this week.” (New York Times)
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DONALD TRUMP:
Facing a world of possibilities, a series of interconnected crossroads, crushing loneliness, the absence of familiar megaphones, life rhythms that hold the peril of Groundhog Day and the promise of a new day, the ambitions of Ivanka and Jared, the sting of the words “President Biden,” not instantly hearing his name each time he switches on cable news, having old friends and associates express sympathy at best (pity at worst), realizing the opening paragraph (and maybe the first line) of his obit will be more about January 6 than his beloved movement, having to pay for stuff that was for a long time free, diminished but still-awesome power, constantly looking for signs that Joe Biden has lost some steps (while losing some of his own), being discussed with derision even by some MAGA supporters, and….criminal and civil peril that is as serious as a heart attack:
Mr. Trump still faces possible legal jeopardy stemming from his efforts to subvert the election through false claims of fraud. Among other things, there are criminal investigations in Washington about the riot and in Georgia about Mr. Trump’s efforts to pressure state election officials to overturn the results of the state’s vote. Legal experts said the former president could likewise be exposed to civil litigation from victims of the Capitol rampage. And there are continuing investigations of his finances in New York. (New York Times)
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