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The Immediate Calls to Remove Trump Were Irresponsible
In the wake of the rioting at the Capitol on Wednesday, there have been many calls for President Trump to be either removed pursuant to the 25th Amendment, or impeached by the House and removed by the Senate.
I find these suggestions to be well past unwarranted, and beyond irresponsible. I find them to be deranged.
I am not surprised that many Democrats — apparently including Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader Schumer — have made such demands. I don’t actually consider them to be deranged. I think that they are scheming, dishonest politicians, which is no surprise.
I am surprised to see such deranged hysteria from Republicans.
Here is a partial list of Republicans or conservatives who have called for President Trump’s immediate removal from office following the reprehensible rioting on January 6, either through the 25th Amendment or by impeachment and conviction. I would appreciate any additions to this list.
- David French (here). Dated January 6.
- The Dispatch Staff (here). Dated January 7. I assume that this includes Jonah Goldberg and Steve Hayes.
- Jim Geraghty (here). Dated January 7.
- Kyle Smith (of National Review, here). Dated January 7.
- Most sadly, our own editor Jon Gabriel (here). Dated January 6.
- Erick Erickson (here). Dated January 8.
One would hope that thoughtful, respected, professional commentators would refrain from proposing anything so drastic for, say, at least 2-3 days. One might want to see how events unfolded. One might want to gather additional information. One might want to, well, act like a responsible adult.
Sadly, though he does not approve on prudential grounds, even Andy McCarthy has opined that the President’s actions are impeachable (here, dated January 7).
I am also disappointed in Sen. Ben Sasse who stated (here): “The House, if they come together and have a process, I will definitely consider whatever articles they might move . . . I believe the president has disregarded his oath of office…what he did was wicked.”
I don’t know whether I feel like Jeremiah, or like Cassandra, or like a lowly broken record. Over and over again, in times of crisis as events unfold, I have urged people to stay calm and reserve judgment. In this case, order was restored within about 6 hours, and Congress proceeded to confirm President-Elect Biden’s victory.
I have previously, and unequivocally, condemned the lawless and barbarous storming of the Capitol by rioting miscreants. Nothing that I write should be construed to justify such criminality. I have also criticized some of the President’s claim, such as his insistence that he won in a “landslide.” I also criticize his negative tweet about Vice President Pence Trump. I do not condone such rhetorical excess. I simply object to the deranged overreaction, too.
Of those that I’ve seen thus far, David French takes the derangement gold medal. Not only does he want the President removed from office, but yesterday (January 7), he tweeted: “Expel Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz.” (Here.)
What is the proper response to such derangement? Generally, I think that we should simply stop reading, or listening to, anything said by these commentators who have demonstrated such poor judgment. At least until and unless they issue an apology. We should always be prepared to extend forgiveness to those who act intemperately, in the heat of a moment.
Published in Politics
Justifiably. Wherever this “Christian” falls on the piety scale, I hope that I’m far, far away.
No way to get Rob redacted from the Ricochet Podcast? Sad.
I’ve had some very harsh things to say about the Republican party, but you’ve outdone me. And your eliminationist rhetoric should probably be brought to the attention of the police.
As we go through the week, more and more Conservative voices have said that they have had enough of Donald Trump. Cal Thomas has an excellent column that I have posted about in the Member Feed. https://ricochet.com/863153/cal-thomas-on-donald-trump/
The very best paragraph is as follows:
“The excuses, the comparisons with what the left does and the ‘whataboutisms’ won’t cut it this time. This is not conservatism. This is not Republicanism. The Republican Party was founded largely as an anti-slavery party. Too many among today’s members and among conservatives (not always the same thing) have become enslaved to the person and personality of Donald Trump. This is not hero worship. It is idolatry.”
https://www.goshennews.com/opinion/cal-thomas-the-conservatives-bad-bargain/article_50ffede6-51f1-11eb-b59b-7716f03e71c3.html
Peggy Noonan has outdone herself. She remarks as to what should happen to Trump’s enablers and the rioters. As for Trump she states:
“As for the chief instigator, the president of the United States, he should be removed from office by the 25th Amendment or impeachment, whichever is faster. This, with only a week and a half to go, would be a most extraordinary action, but this has been an extraordinary time. Mike Pence is a normal American political figure; he will not have to mount a new government; he appears to be sane; he will in this brief, strange interlude do fine.
“The president should be removed for reasons of justice—he urged a crowd to march on Congress, and, when it turned violent, had to be dragged into telling them, equivocally, to go home—and prudence. Mitt Romney had it exactly right: “What happened here . . . was an insurrection, incited by the president of the United States.” As for prudence, Mr. Trump is a sick, bad man and therefore, as president, a dangerous one. He has grown casually bloody-minded, nattering on about force and denouncing even his own vice president as a coward for not supporting unconstitutional measures. No one seems to be certain how Mr. Trump spends his days. He doesn’t bother to do his job. The White House is in meltdown. The only thing that captures his interest is the fact that he lost, which fills him with thoughts of vengeance.
“Removing him would go some distance to restoring our reputation, reinforcing our standards, and clarifying constitutional boundaries for future presidents who might need it.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/bring-the-insurrectionists-to-justice-11610065179. See also https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/peggy-noonan-urges-the-25th-amendment/
This isn’t the first time Cal Thomas or Peggy Noonan have fallen short.
It has been a long week and a long night. Time to step away. I am going to bed. Peace, my friends.
Oh, it was Rob…well that’s different…a Ricochet founder and TV personality jokingly advocating that Trump be burned alive……what a hoot! Oh, my sides! And how incredibly brave! He should produce a comedy show sometime.
Keep in mind that I was urged to edit my rather tame quip about diarrhea yesterday about this very podcast based on an earlier CoC violation by the owner of this site. I guess I need to up my game and get more graphic to keep up with Mr. Long. Doubtful that any Ricochet member would be allowed to ‘joke’ that Joe Biden be burned alive though without being censored or banned from the site for a time. I guess you have to be a founder to express such side-splitting humor.
Well, The Founders are not to be trifled with. Ask Captain Sisko, he’ll tell you.
I made a quick trip to the local hardware store this afternoon and noticed that all the local Trump flags are still flying and the signs are still out. The one anti~Trumo sign is still out, too.
After what the Democrats have done this week, I won’t be surprised if they stay up past inauguration day.
What? Don’t they pay attention to CNN????
Oh, wait…
delete
If the President hadn’t ginned up his supporters about the election the riots in DC would not have happened, so maybe he should resign. Regardless, he’s gone in 2 weeks.
If we had a reliable, fair and truthful press then the riots would not have happened. Unfortunately, we have nothing like that, so when the press reported that the election was fair no one believed them, not even their own side believes them. So they should resign, too. They’ve been pushing one false narrative after another, so their credibility is long gone never to return. They are useless and worthless and ought to make way for better people.
If the Democrats had not debased the electoral process by enabling election fraud with mail-in ballots and the like, the riot in DC would never have happened. If they hadn’t spent 4 years calling half of the American people racists, if they hadn’t pushed one false narrative about Trump after another, one coup attempt after another, there would have been no riot. So the Democrats should all resign.
As for the NeverTrumpers and their ilk, they exist only to puff themselves up with their own sense of superior morality, and they have no particular influence or effect otherwise.
I was going for: In 30 to 50 years all the people in the Congress at the time of the riot will all have passed of natural causes and their deaths will be attributed to the riot.
That’s the point, the election, fair or unfair, has made the “had enough of Donald Trump” decision for everyone and in 11 days and counting down, the man you voted for, Joe Biden, will be President and Trump will be out of office.
Impeachment, 25th Amendment, ball peen hammer to the skull, etc, are all unnecessary machinations to remove Trump from office when he is leaving on January 20th as scheduled by law on his own.
All the hurry and remove Trump from office before his term expires reminds me of the Monty Python Twit Contest skit of shooting the tied down dead rabbits:
I, and many others, find this despicable statement. It’s a call to violence. It’s inciting hatred. It’s also not Gary’s statement, but Rob’s on the podcast. (As Gary clearly points out.)
Not good.
But Gary also clearly associated himself with it so it’s his as well.
I agree with a lot of what Gary posts, and disagree a lot of it as well. Either way, he has always seemed like a good hearted guy, even if he gets carried away sometimes. Some of his more sentimental posts make that good naturedness pretty clear.
At times, he’s nearly alone in keeping the Member feed from becoming a completely closed echo chamber.
And yet, his comments send people over the edge and threads end up becoming dart throwing at Gary contests. It’s annoying. This is why one of the rules around here (lightly enforced) is that you should play the ball, not the man. That keeps discussions on track and interesting.
There is at least as much Gary Derangement Syndrome as there is Trump Derangement Syndrome in Member Feed commentary. It would be nice if people would stick to the “play the ball” rule.
Gary starts way too many balls he doesn’t return serve on. He never talks about public policy and economics etc.
Look, I don’t think that there’s anything to be gained from getting into a major discussion about Gary, especially since it likely plays into his attention-seeking nature. But I do not at all believe that he is a bar to this place becoming an echo chamber. Reasonable, good faith arguments, such as I read from you, prevent the existence of an echo-chamber. Gary has earned well the reaction to his posts here, and I find the reference to “derangement syndrome” insulting. I could go on ad nauseam with chapter and verse, but it’s not worth it. So we disagree.
Let me be clear – I don’t care who jokingly advocated for burning the President of the United States alive. It’s not an appropriate comment about any President even Biden. Ever. I don’t care if it’s Scott Immergut, Rob Long, Gary Robbins or anyone else spouting this idiocy. It’s childish, disgusting, and uncalled for. Ricochet has attracted the membership it has over the years precisely because it was an alternative to the obscene and reckless hysteria on other discussion forums. However, given much of the recent childish and petulant outbursts by Ricochet’s founders it must be said that any claims that Ricochet is still a site for civil conversations is a fraudulent claim. Ricochet is no longer what it has advertised itself to be.
The crazies are outing themselves. I hope someone is keeping track of this.
This is just a Psyop on the part of the left, including the NTs. I doubt it will work after watching the actions they have taken the last four years.
Oh, I haven’t paid attention to Peggy Noonan since, well, ever. She’s not important.
My list is so long I have forgotten who is on it.
What I’ve discovered in the Trump era is there are some conservatives where the cult of personality dominates.
Evidently they will only support the policy of a politician if they like the guy.
If they hate the politician, policy becomes inconsequential, then all bets are off, and everything from illegal spying on a political campaign by our domestic law enforcement agencies, illegal FISA applications, Special Counsel snipe hunts, prosecutions and prison time for process crimes ….. I could go on …. it all becomes nothing to see here folks …. nothing matters as long as the result damages the politician they hate.
Despicable yet illuminating.
The world is upside down when you can get more coherent commentary on what is happening in the world from Matt Taibbi than from likes of a Jonah Goldberg or a David French.
This is what I think.
The whole post was excellent.
It isn’t bullying. He had a wish but no power to punish if the VP ignored him, which he did.
That was wrong. I want to know more about who did that. Anarchy and revolution are nasty things. Our political class and the Democrats better remember that before they ignore the warning signs and continue to ignore and ever silence the people.
Yawn.