Protesters around the country call for Trump's impeachment
Protests calling for the impeachment of Donald Trump were held around the country this evening, ahead of Wednesday’s historic House floor debate and vote. The best way to see photos and videos of the countless demonstrations is on Twitter by searching the hashtag #impeachmenteve. Polls show that roughly half the country’s voting population wants Trump impeached and removed from office, yet polls also show he’s in a good position to be re-elected.
If you went to a protest tonight and have pics, tweet them and tag me and I’ll re-tweet. (My twitter handle is @ryangrim.)
More than a majority of the House has publicly said they’ll be voting for impeachment, meaning that the vote is a done deal, whether it happens Wednesday or drags to Thursday. Trump clearly knows that it will be a stain on his legacy, testified to by the bonkers, 6-page letter he fired off to Nancy Pelosi, which Trump’s lawyers are now complaining they didn’t have a chance to weigh in on. From here the impeachment resolution will travel to the Senate, where Mitch McConnell is hoping to make quick work of it. In the House, the media is focused on vulnerable Democrats, but in the Senate the gaze will turn to Republicans up for reelection, like Martha McSally, Susan Collins, Joni Erns, Cory Gardner, or maybe Thom Thillis. A vote to impeach from somebody like Collins could be a way for her to prove her independence, but it will infuriate the Trump voters she also needs.
Meanwhile, if Trump flagrantly abuses the power of the presidency, survives impeachment, and then gets re-elected….oh boy.
This weekend, Maryam Saleh and I published a story that I hope you make time for, a look at the liberal, pro-Israel group J Street. I don’t want to give too much away, because I do think it’ll be worth your time if you can get to it.
Yet the most important news of the week (perhaps the year/decade?) was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which found that a February 18 blowout at an Exxon-owned natural gas well in Ohio blasted more methane than the reported emissions of entire countries such as France or Norway. Methane is roughly 80 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon. Climate activists have been warning about it for years amid the transition from coal to natural gas, but have been largely ignored. Methane emissions are poorly understood, and the volume is no doubt far worse than is currently being measured. If we’re going to get a handle on climate change, the entire planet needs to stop fracking in fairly short order. As Greta Thunberg says, you can’t negotiate with physics. It’s an exclamation mark to a New York Times story last week, where they used a special camera to make visible methane leaks that are typically invisible.
Meanwhile,the officials leading the Democratic Party’s campaign apparati continue to blunder their way forward,. In 2018, as we covered at the time, the DCCC put its thumb on the scale, as did the local New Jersey machine, to nominate Jeff Van Drew. He won in the wave, but predictably voted against the party whenever it mattered. On Saturday, he said he was switching parties and becoming a Republican. Then his entire staff quit, and he apparently realized he’s toast in a Republican primary. Now he’s not sure if he’s really going to switch. Great work, DCCC.
Unbowed, the local machine has already settled on its new candidate, Brigid Harrison, and I’m told county bosses have forwarded her name to the DCCC to vet for an endorsement. Local progressives, meanwhile, are apoplectic that the DCCC might jump into this primary after botching the last one. People on the ground are rallying behind Ashley Bennett, a local Freeholder who flipped a GOP seat and has announced a bid.
In Texas, the DSCC endorsed M.J. Hegar, even though a number of progressive candidates have been out-polling and/or out-organizing her so far.
Aida Chavez, meanwhile, reports that while the DCCC has a strict ban on working with any firm that works with progressive primary challengers, that apparently doesn’t extend to firms that work with PACs who back Republicans.