The way to make sense of what's happening is to accept this isn't a peaceful transfer of power, but a pacted transition.

Trump is only leaving because the institutions/interests required to hold power---civil and military---have withdrawn their support.

That doesn't mean there's any chance he's staying---all of those institutions have essentially clarified that he's done on January 20th---but it does mean we are dealing with a unique (in the U.S. in our lifetimes) situation.
And it doesn't mean there was ever any doubt that he was going to have to leave. But it totally transforms the politics of leaving, and upends all the norms of traditional US voluntary peaceful transfers.
Trump isn't 100% directly to blame for what happened yesterday, but it's also true that if he simply conceded the election in the normal fashion at any point in the last two months, yesterday would not have happened.

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More from @MattGlassman312

8 Jan
I don’t believe this is correct. Rule I, clause 12(e) was added in the 114th Congress, and specifically allows the Speaker, after “consultation” with the minority leader, to unilaterally break an adjournment and reconvene when in the public interest. (Citations in next tweet).
Now, you still need to get a quorum back to DC. Until you do that, you definitely will need unanimous consent to do anything, because if you don’t have UC, anyone could object to the lack of a quorum.

But in terms of moving up the time to reconvene, Pelosi has that authority.
Read 6 tweets
8 Jan
Enough. Pelosi is openly announcing she talked to Miley about keeping the nuclear codes away from the President, but she won't use her authority to reconvene the House ASAP and move an impeachment resolution today?
And here's all the authority (Rule I, clause 12(e))she needs to break into an adjournment and reconvene the House: ImageImage
Read 6 tweets
8 Jan
It sure looks like the necessary preparation, manpower, and resources for guarding the Capitol were severely lacking. I've been there for State of the Union, way bigger perimeter.

But I see people saying deadly force should have been used earlier, but I'm not so sure.
Deadly force would have changed things. The USCP probably could have prevented the breech by killing people. Honestly, if you described this chain of events, my assumption would have been dozens dead, mostly rioters.

I'm not convinced that would have been a better outcome.
With the manpower and resources on hand, the tactical decision to focus on protecting the members rather than the building might have been best. You can clearly see that the deadly force perimeter was the chambers until the members were all evacuated.
Read 6 tweets
8 Jan
Wednesday I was mostly angry at idiots for storming the Capitol and trashing a beautiful monument to the republic in a futile attempt to vent conspiracy-driven rage.

Now that it's clear this was all premeditated, I'm mostly enraged at those who actively or passively abetted it.
That the White House reportedly affirmatively denied authorization to deploy of the National Guard to defend the Capitol from a violent mob of thousands, with all of Congress and the VP inside, would rank among the most republic-undermining actions a US POTUS has ever taken.
Especially after planning, promoting, and executing a rally specifically timed and designed to create that very mob, and fueling it with an utterly absurd and baseless conspiracy theory about the collapse of the republic via election fraud.
Read 5 tweets
7 Jan
I have no idea if Trump is going to finish his term, but a lot of the pillars of his political support are starting to buckle, if not yet completely collapse.
Read 4 tweets
7 Jan
It's simply not possible to imagine any American president in any of our living lifetimes observe an angry mob occupy the Capitol, and decide that he shouldn't be a visible and vocal leader the following day.

What even is the job of POTUS if not to be leading this very moment?
The easiest thing in the world to imagine is GWB or Obama standing in the hallway at the Capitol with some officers, observing the wreckage, and giving a serious, determined, and detailed account of his plan for a federal response.
Like, does the president seriously not have any policy changes in mind in the wake of this? Even a complete idiot politician could easily gin up those answers.

You know who couldn't: someone who simply doesn't care, or even worse, actually likes what happened.
Read 4 tweets

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