Thread by @digiphile

Today, the President of the United States kept telling
absurd lies & refused to concede.
He incited acts of domestic terrorism.
Members of the @Cabinet should be quietly considering the 25th Amendment.
The House should open an impeachment inquiry, @RepJerryNadler @SpeakerPelosi

An inquiry is not a conviction.

It is the first, necessary step for Congress to hold a corrupt President willing to lie & incite his partisans to overturn an election accountable.

He incited a mob towards an insurrection that breached the @USCapitol, disrupting a Joint Session.

"With his incitement of a direct assault on the people’s house, [Trump] has forfeited his claim to finish his term. The House must…impeach him, & the Senate must vote to remove him. And as it does so, …bar him from ever again serving in public office." ?theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

"If senators could not see it a year ago, when the violence he incited was visited upon the most vulnerable, perhaps they have seen it today, as the violence arrived at their doorstep."– @YAppelbaum "The president must be impeached."

Over to you, @RepJerryNadler

"Congress should convene immediately and impeach this president for the second time. Given the threat he poses, Mr. Trump cannot be allowed to serve out the remainder of his term. He has demonstrated that he is unfit to do so."– @Sifill_LDF naacpldf.org/press-release/…

FYI: @propublica makes the statements of Members of Congress searchable at @PP_Represent.

For instance:
#Impeach:


#Impeachment:


#25thAmendment:


#ImpeachTrump #ImpeachTrumpNow projects.propublica.org/represent/stat…
projects.propublica.org/represent/stat…
projects.propublica.org/represent/stat…

The proportional response to inciting a violent insurrection in which a mob engaged in planned acts of domestic terrrorism — in this case, storming the @USCapitol & disrupting a joint session of Congress with the intent to overturn a presidential election — is removal from office

There is a long history of demagogues inciting crowds to mob violence that goes back millennia globally, from riots to lynching.

Inciting seditous violence isn’t new.

Populism, corruption, & violent rhetoric were central to the fall of the Roman Republic
smithsonianmag.com/history/lesson…

In 134 BC, Tiberius Gracchus, an elected tribune of the people, proposed a land reform bill that would benefit poorer & middle-class Romans: a populist reform.

Gracchus brought his law before the Plebeian Assembly, however, without the thumbs-up of the Senate.

He broke a norm.

And when a fellow tribune, Marcus Octavius, threatened to veto this bill – which was his right under Roman law – Tiberius Gracchus changed the rules to have Octavius stripped of office. Gracchus' power, as a populist tribune of the plebs, then grew.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius_…

Gracchus, a war hero, had a talent for populist rhetoric that inflamed the passions of supporters, who began following him around Rome in a kind of personal militia.
A mob.
And when Gracchus stood for election again, Senators, fearing a tyrant, beat him & his supporters to death.

Mob violence & domestic terrorism have always plagued our union, from slavery to white Americans using lynchings to terrorize Black people:
to the Tulsa Race Massacre:

In many cases, mobs were aided & abetted by law enforcement.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/a…
history.com/topics/roaring…

The restoral of the @TheJusticeDept as a powerful force for upholding @CivilRights & fighting far-right extremism is crucial in 2021.

The way for Congress to keep our Republic, now, is to respond proportionately to a corrupt demagogue inciting seditious violence, & remove him.

Today, @LeaderHoyer will request Unanimous Consent to bring up a @RepRaskin resolution that calls on this @VP to convene the @Cabinet to activate the 25th Amendment.
If @Mike_Pence does not, @SpeakerPelosi said impeachment goes to the House floor Wednesday speaker.gov/newsroom/11021…

In some ways, Trump is our era’s Gracchus. (He’s no war hero.)
US Senators will not beat him & his supporters to death, as the Romans did, but they can & should impeach & remove a would-be tyrant who disinformed Americans & incited an armed insurrection to overthrow this Republic