The Morning Dispatch: It Could Have Been So Much Worse

Plus: Will Trump face a second impeachment?

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Rioters attempt to enter the Capitol at the House steps. (Photograph by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images.)

Happy Monday! With everything going on in the world, it seems kind of small to care about something as trivial as the NFL playoffs. Which teams even played yesterday? We didn’t have time to watch. (Editor: Sorry about the Bears, Declan.)

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • House Democrats will very likely move to impeach President Trump this week. According to a timeline laid out by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the House is likely to pass a resolution early this week calling on Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and wrest power from President Trump. Once Pence does not, the House will bring impeachment legislation to the floor.

  • The U.S. economy lost 140,000 jobs in December as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations surged nationwide, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate currently stands at 6.7 percent, down from a staggering 14.8 percent in April but still nearly double its pre-pandemic levels.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Michael H

    I really wish the D's huddled w/ Rep Cheney on the Articles of Impeachment so instead of going for "insurrection" they could have gotten language that more R's would sign onto. If the goal is removal why not work with Cheney/McConnell/Sasse/etc to get strong language that R's would be willing to vote for. Instead of making this a D v R exercise, bring in the R's ready to impeach to further help the cause to remove Trump.

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    Jonathan McAnulty

    Impeach and remove as soon as possible, though at the same time, I don't mind a bit of deliberation, for the purpose of clarity and level-headedness. Ideally remove him before his term is over, but if it has to be a conviction one day after he is out of office, it is still a conviction and a statement of principles.

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    Julie from Texas

    I'm for "President Trump should be impeached and removed as soon as possible." If the Democrats want to pause for a bit to get Biden's cabinet in place, that's fine, but the 100 days suggested by Jim Clyburn is much too long. Memories fade, and we need the fresh horror of last Wednesday pushing people to do the right thing.

    Also, this concept that impeachment will divide the country. It won't matter, because everything gets painted according to what media people consume. So just do the right thing and at least prevent further violence.

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  4. C Diddy

    1 - President Trump should be impeached and removed as soon as possible. Congress cannot let an attack from the Executive branch go unpunished and must defend itself. Republicans should be forced to go on record now so we can vote out the ones who don't have the courage to act.

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  5. WileySurfs

    i just gotta say, i was all about Defund the Police before these events unfolded. but now i'm not so sure.

    after all, aren't we counting on law enforcement's superior numbers and equipment to deal with these Trump nuts if they decide to brigade and take violence to the extreme?

    i'm not so confident that a couple guys in 1930s button-down police tunics and simple wooden clubs could deal with that. a mob, maybe...but an army? it seems doubtful =/

    i feel like they should keep those heavy loadouts for extreme situations, though--like what we have happening now. no neighborhood should look like an occupation zone.

    anyhow, Defund the Police was a TERRIBLE slogan. would anyone get behind Defund Schools or Defund Healthcare?

    Reform the Police should have been the slogan. we don't want to cripple these people. we just want to reform organizations with better training, a wider variety of options for dealing with the mentally ill and people with drug addictions, and much more robust interpersonal skills/deescalation/diversity training.

    it's more like Shift Around Police Funding, but that's not too catchy.

    anyhow, it's safe to say that many of us are scared. this is unprecedented in American history, and how will the authorities--and we citizens--deal with it? personally, i'm hoping our first line of defense holds out. i'm hoping 2/3 of cops and military personnel don't suddenly turn around and change sides, yelling "I'M FOR TRUMP!!" because then we're REALLY gonna have a shit storm on our hands o.o

    this is sort of an experiment, and the stakes are high--and frightening. we're All In whether we like it or not, and this isn't a game anymore. we're gambling with lives, and the results will be permanent.

    it's times like this that i better understand why so many people are religious. it must be comforting to believe your God/gods are up there watching over you. or that if you die, you'll wake up and find yourself in some sweet, warm, pillowy afterlife far beyond the troubles and terrors of this dirty old world.

    someone say a little prayer for we atheists, because we could use it right about now, lol ;)

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  6. Avatar photo
    LE

    Option 1 for sure. Check the editorial at Americamagazine.org, January 11; says it better than I ever could.

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    Alex Mudd

    Prefer 1 but I'd be fine with 2 as long as it means he's barred from running again.

    He spent a year priming his true believers to assume any loss was the work of nefarious deep state actors and Democrats.

    He and his legal team have spent the past two months fabricating and/or propagating easily disproven conspiracy theories.

    The seditionist hordes he emboldened clearly plotted to assault the Capitol based on the reams of online conversations that are, for some reason, just now being brought to light.

    Then he said the exact right things on Wednesday to send his army of brain washed lemming loyalists (those who weren't coordinating on militia Facebook groups or The Donald subreddit/discord) right off the cliff next to the real seditionists who were already intent on violence.

    Trump may be shortsighted or unhinged enough to not realize people would get seriously hurt and die (he's certainly apathetic enough not to care even if he foresaw the inevitable), but how many times do we have to accept the "he didn't know any better" excuse?

    Somewhat unrelated thought experiment - how delusional is he really? I'm inclined to agree with the Dispatch team that the Georgia call was evidence that he actually does, at least to some degree, believe some of the pro-Trump conspiracy theories.

    Does he actually believe there is some (apparently very ineffectual) law enforcement effort to round up Clinton's cabal of satanic child traffickers? Does he earnestly ask Mark Meadows for progress reports on the things the craziest parts of his base believes he's doing? Where is the line drawn in his head between intentional lies and delusions of grandeur?

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  8. Candi M Davis

    Trump should be impeached and convicted in the senate and sent on his way. He is the president of the United States and no matter what he believes about the vote being fraudulent, he has a duty to his countrymen to uphold the tradition of a peaceful transition of power. Without that peaceful transition our country would descend into wars and conflicts unending. He is yelling fire in a crowded theatre at the top of his lungs and he doesn’t care who gets hurt in the stampede. And the theatre isn’t on fire. It may need some renovation, but it’s solid.

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    cheerio

    IRT the social media. So. What. These are private companies and if they can't figure out how to stay in business without providing a forum contributing to full on seditious and violent acts, they don't deserve to exist.

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    Murrayprof

    Let me get this straight: The VP met with the guy who siced a mob on him chanting "hang Mike Pence". The secret service would have had to remove my foot from his ass if it were me.

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