Thread by @jedshug

I made a Google Sheet tracker of the House GOP members most plausibly to impeach today:
86 who voted No on the challenge to PA's electors (a smaller number than the AZ challenge).
I noted 26 signers the SCOTUS brief TX v. PA, leaving 60 to track closely:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

1/ Starting a live thread on impeachment now.
@LeaderHoyer is praising 3 of the GOP members who already announced votes to impeach:
Most praise for @Liz_Cheney
@RepJohnKatko
@RepKinzinger

2/ Read the full Judiciary Report linked here.
I disagree with using the word "incitement," because it muddles/confuses the debate and gives an excuse for a valid legalistic argument to vote No.
But Judiciary report is excellent summarizing the facts.
judiciary.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…

3/ @JasonSmithMO is now ranting about how impeachment will hurt people's feelings.
Seems to me all this "snowflake" talk has been projection of all kinds o' white fragility.

4/ @NancyMace R-SC: "The House has a right to impeach, hold president accountable, but this is too rushed. Creates a constitutionality problem."

Pro tip: Expediting impeachment creates no constitutional problem. If she means due process, that's inapt esp. for the *House* vote.

5/ Jim Jordan is starting to speak. As I reach for the mute button, both @CNN and @MSNBC cut away for commentary.
Wise move, tv producers. Lol.

6/ @RepNancyMace's No vote is a big disappointment.
She's a new member, no long record protecting Trump, and as my Google sheet indicates, she voted no on electoral challenges - plus her recent sharp criticism of Trump.
If she's a no, there won't be many.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

7/ FYI @JerryGoldfeder and I will be talking about impeachment this evening 5 pm on a @NYSBA panel, free & open to the public:
nysba.org/events/impeach…

8/ @msnbc is discussing any alternative to impeachment, mentioning the 14th A. S 3 barring those who "engag[ed] in insurrection."
@AriMelber rightly acknowledges no consensus on its applicability. My view: Not YET enough evidence to say Trump "*engaged* in insurrection."

9/ @cnn is reporting from anonymous GOP House members: "We are scared for our lives if we publicly oppose Trump."

10/ It's important not to overstate the significance of the number of House votes to impeach as a sign of what the Senate would do.

Even if House and Senate used to be more fundamentally different, they are still different institutions, and different political interests...

11/ Senators of course have longer terms & more presidential ambitions. More decisive here is different House v. Senate leadership.

House GOP leadership has moved to passive tolerance of yes votes, but McConnell is reportedly endorsing yes votes:
nytimes.com/2021/01/12/us/…

12/ I'll go out on a limb and guess that Ken Buck (R-CO) is a "no."

(JK. He is on my list b/c he voted no on the PA electoral challenge, but he was never a likely vote to impeach).

https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1349360628184588289?s=20

13/ Adding to my House vs. Senate points:
GOP Senators' reaction to Cruz & Hawley was much sharper than any House reaction to their anti-democracy colleagues.
Cruz creates bipartisanship: All Senators - from both parties - can't stand him. Hawley is getting there, too.

14/ Strange as it may seem, for the above reasons, there may be more GOP Senate votes to convict and DISQUALIFY (perhaps even the necessary 17) than GOP House votes to impeach (still stuck at 5, seems like only a dozen is possible).

15/ House is now in a series of procedural votes.

@msnbc reports that the next stage of debate will start 12:15.
And @SpeakerPelosi has *not decided* when House will send Articles to Senate for trial.

16/ I have criticized @SpeakerPelosi over the last 2 years, including her timing and framing of this Article of impeachment...
But she is on fire right now.
Powerful indictment of Trump.

17/ Jim Jordan plays his greatest hits.
Shouting a list of MAGA accomplishments like the "Wall"...

18/ @RepJerryNadler: "Trump cannot stay in office one minute longer" and repeats that line.

It sure seems like Nadler thinks a removal trial will happen this week, or he wrote a very confusing hyperbolic speech.

19/After shamelessly citing Lincoln (who knew how to handle insurrections!), Republican says:
"I cannot think of a more petty, vindictive & gratuitous act than impeaching a president a week before he leaves office."

Um. Trumpism is mainly petty, vindictive, & gratuitous acts.

20/ That was @RepMcClintock, wearing a mask that says:
"This mask is as useless as our governor."

Masks prevent contagious viruses, but not contagious suicidal stupidity.

https://twitter.com/gramsofgnats/status/1349413039011893249?s=20

21/
@RepRichmond: "The last time we were here, we told you to vote to impeach because he cheated in elections, and he'd do it again. You said he learned his lesson.
Simply put:
We told you so."
🔥

22/ @DebbieLesko: "He'll be out of office in a week. What's the point?"

Debbie, did you like how last week went? A week is a long time during an insurrection.
And hi, disqualification.

23/ @RepJeffries and @davidcicilline are giving good speeches on Trump's "clear and present danger" and Trump inspiring terrorism.

I like this legalistic-adjacent framing more than throwing around the word "incitement."

24/ @davidcicilline:
"The insurrectionists marched in here to lynch the vice president & murder the speaker. They were terrorists sent by the sitting president to seize Congress."

Yes. Talking about Trump & terror can be *more powerful* than misusing legal terms like "incite."

25/ @JeffVanDrew, the NJ Dem-turned-hardcore-Trumper, missed out on 3 years of sucking up to Trump, so he's trying to make up for it all in one deplorable minute.

26/ @RepRaskin, who has shown great strength and courage, also shows deep wisdom: He mostly reads from @Liz_Cheney's powerful indictment of Trump for the violence last week.

In my book, @jamie_raskin, still the smartest member of the House.

27/ @RepMattGaetz gonna Gaetz.
Screaming incoherently about "actual fire."

Does he realize he's in a crowded political theater?

28/ @GOPLeader McCarthy is telling a fair history about the 1800 election.
Yes, the Founders were "divisive" "dirty" partisans who "demonized each other."
(Those were his words.)
Frankly, that transition was a miracle, but more complicated than he pretends.

29/ Breaking: We now have a 6th GOP for impeachment:
@RepNewhouse (R-WA).
And remarkably, he had *signed* the Texas v. PA lawsuit challenging Biden's electors. This is the first such reversal I know of.

30/ @RepNewhouse, again, a surprise because he joined the litigation against Biden's electors in December, Texas v. PA.

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1349427024436187136?s=20

31/ @CoriBush tells it like it is:
A "white supremacist" president sparked a "white supremacist insurrection."

Thank you. Yes, the Stochastic-Terrorist-in-Chief.

32/ I forgot that Doctor Feelgood Ronny Jackson is now a member of our U.S. Congress.

The attacks on Congress's legitimacy coming from outside and within...
Like illegal painkillers, white supremacy is a powerful drug.

33/ This just in: "Nevermind."
- Roseanne Rosanadana and Nirvana.
(It's definitely not "All Apologies." More like Aneurysm, and in need of Lithium).

https://twitter.com/adegrandpre/status/1349430109539864586?s=20

34/ In all seriousness, if impeachment pushed Trump finally to denounce violence, and if somehow his statement decreases the risk of violence anywhere, then this impeachment was already worth it.

35/ Speaking of violence, here's Nazi-fetishist @RepCawthorn who told a right-wing audience to "lightly threaten" members of Congress.
citizen-times.com/story/news/202…

36/ Taylor Green (R-QAnon) is now shouting about Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police.
It was actually surprisingly standard GOP rhetoric, unlike her recent delusional claims that Trump will still be president after Jan 20.

37/ @chiproytx was a get-able yes vote. He says Trump’s conduct was impeachable but this Article on “incitement” is flawed.
I’m sorry, but his criticism is valid and the “incitement” stretch was utterly avoidable. The House waited too long and still botched the wording:

https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1349442837662851080

38/ Chip Roy bluntly condemns Trump for impeachable conduct, acknowledges no need for statutory crimes to impeach, but says misuse of “incite” will be precedent for other cases, like the misuse of 14th A Sec 3 (which indeed is happening).
Sorry, @chiproytx has a good point.

39/ It’s reasonable to ask whether me he would vote No regardless (“irregardless” @HawleyMO) of how it was written.
But why give him such a reasonable excuse?
Yet another example of House Democrats’ political and legal malpractice.

38/ I would like to know how, when, and why this Article of Impeachment got re-titled from "Abuse of Power" (the legally appropriate title for Article 1 Ukraine impeachment) to the controversial (and to me, mistaken) title "Incitement" of Insurrection.

https://twitter.com/jedshug/status/1349452102314156033?s=20

40/ For what it's worth, many of us on the left have been raising concerns about the Democrats' misuse of terms like "incitement" for a while, and in particular about this Article for several days.
On Sunday, I wrote:

https://twitter.com/jedshug/status/1348382773032202241?s=20

41/ On Monday... Many of us have been raising this concern.

In US history, conservatives have misused terms like "treason," "sedition," and "incitement" to criminalize the left (1790s, 1910s, McCarthyism, Vietnam era, post 9/11). We don't need to.

https://twitter.com/jedshug/status/1348667588436504576?s=20

42/ @RepArmstrongND was also a winnable vote on my chart (voted no on electoral challenges, didn't sign TX v. PA), but he just raised the same concerns about the word "incitement."
And those concerns are valid.
Yes, unforced error, House Dems.

43/ 👇
"An overused cliche, if you can keep using it."
@imillhiser:

https://twitter.com/imillhiser/status/1349457428379795458?s=20

44/ Just now, a 7th House GOP vote to impeach:
New member @RepMeijer, who replaced anti-Trump libertarian @justinamash, who left the GOP.

https://twitter.com/RepMeijer/status/1349457669229322241?s=20

45/
Now up to 9 GOP votes:
@RepAGonzalez of Ohio
@RepTomRice of South Carolina

https://twitter.com/RepAGonzalez/status/1349461350456717312?s=20

46/ I'd be surprised if @TomRiceSC7 @RepTomRice meant to vote yes.
He voted to contest the electoral college on Jan 6, and I think he signed the TX v. PA litigation. And he has given no written statement or speech that he would vote yes.

47/ Biggest news of the day? (Given that we already knew impeachment would pass with some serious House GOP votes)
@JHarden13 to the @BrooklynNets:

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1349465282520166407?s=20

48/ Now 10 House Republicans have voted to impeach.
228 votes to impeach vs. 194 against, with 10 votes remaining...
(Still waiting if Rice was intentional).

Either way, this is the most BIPARTISAN impeachment of a president in American history.