Legislators Supporting Sedition Need to Resign
The enemies of democracy aren’t finished with their Trumper Tantrum.
The FBI has identified armed groups intending to descend upon Washington DC starting January 16th with the intention of targeting the congress should it act to impeach or otherwise interfere with the President’s reign.
According to ABC News, the feds are warning state governments about a group calling for “storming” state, local, and federal government courthouses and administrative buildings in the event President Trump is removed prior to Inauguration Day.
https://twitter.com/AaronKatersky/status/1348674449965527045?s=20
Meanwhile, more details about last Wednesday’s events are emerging. According to the Associated Press:
Under battle flags bearing Donald Trump’s name, the Capitol’s attackers pinned a bloodied police officer in a doorway, his twisted face and screams captured on video. They mortally wounded another officer with a blunt weapon and body-slammed a third over a railing into the crowd.
“Hang Mike Pence!” the insurrectionists chanted as they pressed inside, beating police with pipes. They demanded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s whereabouts, too. They hunted any and all lawmakers: “Where are they?” Outside, makeshift gallows stood, complete with sturdy wooden steps and the noose. Guns and pipe bombs had been stashed in the vicinity.
Only days later is the extent of the danger from one of the darkest episodes in American democracy coming into focus. The sinister nature of the assault has become evident, betraying the crowd as a force determined to occupy the inner sanctums of Congress and run down leaders — Trump’s vice president and the Democratic House speaker among them.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has raised the spectre of expelling members of congress who abetted the riot under the 14th Amendment, and evidence of actual involvement has emerged. I say throw all these bums out.
The individual who goes by the name Ali Alexander (aka Ali Abdul Razaq Akbar), in hiding now because he was a prominent organizer for the “stop the steal” riot, has told supporters via social media accounts (now deactivated, but screenshots exist) that Arizona Congressmen Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs, along with Alabama’s Mo Brooks helped him in the planning to place "maximum pressure" on Congress.
Gun-toting Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, who ran for office while openly supporting the QAnon movement, is facing backlash after she was accused of live-tweeting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's location during the attack on Capitol Hill last week.
Locally, Congressman Darrell Issa, who voted to challenge the election results shortly after the siege on the Capital building was lifted, is making the rounds on right wing media saying those calling for Trump’s removal are “overplaying” the deaths during the Jan 6 assault on Congress. That would include the killing of the Capitol Police officer who the Trump mob bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher.
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1348660795857657857?s=20
Local anger at Issa includes Voice of San Diego editor Scott Lewis, not normally known as somebody willing to weigh in in non-local issues:
“Issa was trying to overturn the election. The president expressly wanted him to, and pressured many of his colleagues in the House and Senate to. As the latest videos and witness testimony from inside the mob make horrifically clear, had the marauders been able to locate the lawmakers or Vice President Mike Pence, they would have tried to murder them,” Lewis writes. “And after that happened, Issa indulged the conspiracy theory that drove the mad horde into the Capitol.”
Indivisible groups from throughout California are calling for the resignation or removal from office of California Congressional delegation members who refused to acknowledge the election of Joe Biden.
Those members include:
Ken Calvert - CA42
Mike Garcia - CA25
Darrell Issa - CA50
Doug LaMalfa - CA01
Kevin McCarthy - CA23
Devin Nunes - CA22
Jay Obernolte - CA08
A letter signed by activist groups from throughout California, addressed to House speaker Nancy Pelosi includes the following statement:
These rioters, and anyone involved in inspiring, encouraging, and abetting them, must be held accountable for their actions. Shockingly, these insurrectionists had been enabled by a large cross-section of radical extremist politicians, seven of whom represent the State of California. These seven seditionists have made a mockery of democracy, by embracing the fascist rhetoric of a far-right figurehead with a far-right movement behind him. They have suppressed votes, while lying about the nature of our electoral system, sullying our elections, and opposing their legally legitimate electoral losses. They have violated their oaths of office to uphold our Constitution and to protect our nation from terrorists, both foreign and domestic. In so doing, they have proven themselves entirely unfit for office.
They must resign.
And if they refuse to resign, then they must be removed from office, per Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which states, “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress...or hold any office under the United States or any State who...shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against [the Constitution].”
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the stupidity of Santee’s Assemblyman Randy Voepel, who was quoted in the Union-Tribune as defending the conspiracy claims underlying the right wing assault on democracy:
“This is Lexington and Concord. First shots fired against tyranny,” said California Assemblyman Randy Voepel, a former Santee mayor who at one point left the Republican party for the tea party movement because he deemed the GOP too “liberal.” “Tyranny will follow in the aftermath of the Biden swear in on January 20th.”
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AOC gets it right...
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1347969995314233351?s=20
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