The Daily Beast
As Dems emphasizes the impeachment trial, Trump plots revenge
Andrew Burton Congressional Democrats can’t wait to start working on the new president’s agenda, but their attempt to clean up the mess the latter left behind is threatening to delay work before it even begins. When the House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump for inciting the January 6 deadly uprising on Capitol Hill – with unanimous support from Democrats and even some Republicans – it set in motion the constitutional inevitability of a Senate trial, a process launched as soon as the impeachment article reaches the upper house. On Friday, the newly minted Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer (D-NY), announced that the article would be sent on Monday, making Tuesday a likely opening day of the trial, according to Senate rules. That, unless unanimously agreed otherwise, would freeze the Senate floor until the end of the trial – a problem for Senate Democrats eager to confirm President Joe Biden’s office and start work on a COVID relief bill – 19. I spoke with @ SpeakerPelosi. The impeachment articles will be delivered to the Senate on Monday. Make no mistake: there will be a full trial. There will be a fair trial. – Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 22, 2021 The moment sets the first major tipping point for the new Democratic majority. The responsibility they longed for Trump seems tantalizingly close, with more Republicans than ever inclined to separate him from the Republican Party. A Senate conviction would give Trump the shameful punishment of a lifetime ban on federal office. But getting to that trial can come at a cost: taking up part of a precious window early in Biden’s term, which almost every Democrat is eager to use to quickly install Biden’s office and provide relief from the coronavirus pandemic. Within hours of Schumer’s announcement, Senate Democrats seemed to be on different pages about the best way forward – and the urgency of a post-presidential impeachment trial. Almost the entire caucus is waiting for an agreement to split the Senate plenary time between a trial and a legislative deal, so both can happen simultaneously. This would require unanimous support, however, which means that only a senator’s opposition could sabotage him. “Since the former president is a former president, there is no imminent threat,” said Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI). “And although the Constitution requires us to deal with this, there is no reason to interfere with the position of a Cabinet. So my preference would be for us to do two things at the same time. But other than that, some Democrats found a proposal by minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) attractive: to start a trial in mid-February, to give Trump time to stand up for a legal team, and give them a few weeks to handle confirmations and other business. On Friday, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) said he was “intrigued” by the idea. “The president has no defense. Certainly, you are not going to make a trial with a defendant who doesn’t even have a lawyer, ”he said. “So I hope that we can time this so that we can do significant work on the cabinet’s confirmations, and that the committees can at least put the legislation in line. That seems reasonable to me. “On Thursday, Trump hired Butch Bowers, a South Carolina attorney, as his lawyer at the impeachment trial, Punchbowl News reported. Asked directly about McConnell’s proposal on Friday afternoon, Biden did not say that he opposed it. “I didn’t hear the details of that,” he said, “but the more time we have to get up and run to face these crises, the better.” Other Democrats are eager to end and end the trial. the course of just three days – and turn the page. “I think it has to move fast, at all deliberate speeds, indefinite delays are of no use to anyone, and the evidence is very open and closed – they just came out of the president’s mouth,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). And Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) expressed some impatience with the idea that Trump needed more time to prepare for the trial. “What he did to incite these domestic terrorists to invade the United States Capitol, I do not know why the president was not putting together a team from the beginning, from the day the Chamber took this action,” said Luján. ‘It won’t last until the primaries’: Republicans who voted against the threat of getting death threats The impeachment discussion is taking place in an already unstable Senate. Democrats officially won the majority on Wednesday, with the inauguration of three new Democratic senators and the rise of Vice President Kamala Harris, the House’s decisive vote. But party leaders have yet to agree on ground rules for the next session – which include the division of resources between parties – as McConnell uses the debate procedure to force Democrats to take a position on ending the obstruction, which Schumer called “strange,” Delaying the process. The GOP, now in the minority, seems content to frame Democrats’ calculation of impeachment as a radical choice. “In the absence of any agreement,” said Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), “we will not do any confirmation, we will not do any relief COVID-19, we will do nothing but impeach a person who is not even president.” Such an agreement is possible, if the Republicans decide to agree. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), a trusted ally of Trump during his presidency, said Democrats “have to choose national security over revenge.” But revenge is exactly where the ex-president’s head is while he without ove for your presidency position. Sources close to Trump say that this month he had already started talking to MAGA advisers and other diehards about creating a new political party, to build from his diehard fan base among conservative grassroots and Republican voters. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that a name he has been hitting is “Patriot Party”. The task of launching a new, viable third party is a monumental and cumbersome one, and several of Trump’s closest advisers are unsure how to take his recent flirtations and reflections seriously. However, Trump made it clear that sheer grudge could easily influence decision-making, depending on how a Senate trial would end. Trump told some people close to him that if Republican lawmakers moved to prevent him from taking office again – a potential result of the impeachment trial – he could make their lives miserable by helping to establish a new right-wing party that it could lead Republican voters astray in the elections, according to two people with knowledge of their private comments in the past few days. Trump also discussed this month’s prospects for supporting primary opponents and campaigning against elected Republicans who he feels were not loyal enough to him during his failed crusade to overthrow the 2020 presidential election. Trump told some people close to him that if Republican lawmakers move to stop him from taking office again, he can make his lives miserable by helping to establish a new right-wing party Alex Edelman / AFP via Getty “They’d better not do that for me,” he said. Trump during some of the final moments of his presidency, according to one of the sources who heard him say so. The source added that the now former president was also complaining about how dumb and short-sighted Republicans would have to be to betray and get rid of their most popular and – for Trump – most successful political figure. It is a scenario that some prominent Republicans actively fear could split the party and benefit its progressive opponents. “Well, I think a third party movement would destroy conservatism,” Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Trump’s close ally who still advises the former president on Thursday, told reporters. “I think if there was an effort to break up and form a new party, this would be a dream scenario for liberal Democrats, because if we do that, it will be the end of effectively having conservative voices. I think Trump will be an important voice in the Republican Party; the best thing for him and us is to form a good team in 2022 and build a recovery. “But for now, the president is closely monitoring the situation of his new base in the State of the Sun, measuring the temperature of those he is protecting, and in which GOP players – of whom he remains the standard bearer – are trying to expel it. By the time Trump had settled in his private club in Florida, Mar-a-Lago, in the first half of the day of Biden’s presidency, the former Republican president was already working on the phone, asking confidants and longtime advisers how they thought their new legal team should take shape and which Republicans on Capitol Hill might be working quietly to prevent their political return, according to two people familiar with the phone calls. On Wednesday night, Trump had discovered at least one name – but he was not one of his bomb launchers like Rudy Giuliani. It was Butch Bowers, a South Carolina lawyer who advised other Republican Party figures, such as Mark Sanford, even when the former governor handled his own impeachment campaign at the hands of the South Carolina House in the early Obama era. Bowers is also a veteran of the George W. Bush Department of Justice. Graham helped organize Trump and Bowers. Bowers did not respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon, but some of his former conservative clients – even some who are disgusted with Trump – speak well of him. “He is an established figure in South Carolina, who knows South Carolina’s electoral law well …[and] he is a very capable human being, ”former Representative Sanford (R-SC), a Trump critic on the right, told The Daily Beast on Friday. “He has represented me intermittently for the past two decades, but with the exception of 2009, nothing extraordinary.” Sanford added: “[This] it is very far away, without disrespect to the Giulianis of the world, of that kind. [Bowers] is a first class human being. I’m not a fan of Trump, of course, but as an honest broker in law negotiations and all that entails, I don’t know any better person than Butch. ”Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Subscribe now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper into the stories that matter to you. To know more.