Democrats Plan to Move Quickly on COVID Bill

Plus: The acting Capitol Police chief apologizes to lawmakers.

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Good morning. Let’s get right to it.

Portman Talks with The Dispatch

A few days ago, I wrote that it is unlikely 17 Senate Republicans will vote to convict former President Donald Trump in his upcoming impeachment trial. That’s even more clear today: Only five Senate Republicans joined Democrats in voting to proceed to the trial this week. Forty-five Republicans supported Sen. Rand Paul’s procedural effort to dismiss the trial. 

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who announced this week that he is retiring, was among the Republicans who supported Paul’s point of order. He has said his vote doesn’t necessarily act as a proxy for how he’ll ultimately decide on Trump’s conviction, although he has concerns about the constitutionality of impeaching and convicting a former president. (Legal experts across the political spectrum are generally in agreement that impeaching and trying a former president is constitutional. One of the two possible penalties for impeachment, they note, is disqualification from holding future office.)

Portman spoke about the upcoming trial during a phone interview Thursday with The Dispatch’s CEO and co-founder, Steve Hayes. Although he said he is “listening as a juror,” and he won’t make “any decisions until I hear both sides,” Portman sounded unlikely to vote against Trump.

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  1. Jaybrown

    Regarding the minimum wage, is it not true that an objection by the Senate Parliamentarian could be overruled by a simple majority vote?

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    Jesse Blankenship

    I cannot see Joe Manchin voting to impose a $15.00 hr minimum wage on West Virginia's small businesses under any circumstances. The sheer idiocy of a static nationwide $ 15.00 wage for unskilled labor borders on the suicidal. Unless indexed to local standards of living the results for low wage workers will be generally catastrophic.

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    Synchronize Your Dogmas (Bill B)

    On the trump impeachment, Portman says; “People in Congress are going to tell them that he’s not going to be able to run again, therefore they can’t vote for who they want to. And I think that's going to further polarize and deeply divide the country.”

    Yes. So what? The elected representatives of the nation are going to tell the American people that some people are not only undesirable but Constitutionally prohibited from holding national office. The EC was supposed to do that originally. Impeachment now has to serve that function.

    This is what we elect them for. To fulfill thier oaths of office and provide leadership. That's the damn job.

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  4. Scroop Moth

    The easiest (and cheapest) way to target the $1,400 payments to people with low income is to send checks to everyone and then get money back later through income taxes. It's too hard to match payments to current taxable income until after taxpayers file their 1040's.

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    2sequoia

    Portman says:

    “I suppose you could argue that it would heal the country more to have a conviction. But, number one, there's not going to be a conviction. We all know that. Frankly, I've known that from the start, and I think you have,” he said.

    Assuming enough Republican senators did vote to convict, he added, “what would that mean in terms of healing the wounds here?”

    He said many of Trump’s voters truly believe the former president’s claims that the election was stolen, and they would be outraged if Trump is convicted and unable to run for the presidency again. “People in Congress are going to tell them that he’s not going to be able to run again, therefore they can’t vote for who they want to. And I think that's going to further polarize and deeply divide the country.”

    Portman is retiring. How can he possibly think that failing to convict Trump will be good for the country, and Republicans in the long run? His voters believe that the election is stolen and nothing is going to change their mind about that except Trump himself.

    The Republican share of the American electorate is continuing to shrink. I realize that this post is somewhat of a repeat of what Sean says below, but I really don’t get it. Trump has cost the Republican Party the House, the Presidency, and the Senate. I fully understand to reject Trump at this point will cost them some elections right now but if they don’t do it at some point they are going to become irrelevant.

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      cheerio

      Maybe he and other Republicans can show leadership and integrity and admit that yes, the election was a fair one and the winner is now in the White House. Concede you F#@(ers

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    Pat Riot

    Kevin McCarthy met with Trump yesterday. When has that ever happened in the past? Oh that's right, never.

    Trump still controls the Republican party and there is no sign that will change unless he physically dies (at which point Trump Jr. will control the Republican party).

    Trump doesn't want to be convicted by the Senate, so the Republicans will vote to exonerate him again. It's as simple as that. Rob Portman and others will lie their usual lies about how they have this motive or that for their Trump fealty. Every Constitutional argument they ever make always seems to magically align with Trump's innocence and power. Uh huh, sure.

    A vote for any Republican in the USA is a vote for Trump. It's a vote for January 6th and many more like it in the future. It's a vote for "stop the steal". It's a vote for the major-party-sponsored domestic terrorism that Trump has created.

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  7. Anthony Pasquini

    I don't care how badly the Capitol Police acted, but NO ONE should ever apologize to Congress. Congress has never apologized to the American people for decades of corruption, arrogance, and abuse.

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    1. Jaybrown

      Congress expected, fully funded, and deserved protection from the USCP. They didn't get it. Whatever their past behavior in general as public servants, they should have been offered an apology for the failure. The police protect convicted criminals from other criminals.

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  8. Kenneth Feneley

    quoting Portman...."I've figured out how to find common ground and get to a result. And we've been good at it. I mean, 82 of our bills were signed into law by President Trump, 68 by Obama," Lotsa (un)common sense here, eh. As guy as smart as Portman oughta be able to remember that the "68 by Obama" was in large part because he was Dem while Reeps ran the legislative branch and the "82" was while Reeps ran the senate with the T-man's version of twisted-Republicanism. That kind of "common ground" hasn't reduced today's ravenous partisanship. Frankly, I think it further incites it. As far as I'm concerned, Portman can stuff his self-congratulations back into his underwear and sulk into retirement.

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    KAM

    Thank you for this continued attention to the failure of the Capitol Police. We can and should hold Trump responsible for January 6. But with early warning, a 2,000-officer force, and a budget greater than that of the police departments of Detroit and Atlanta, the USCP has no excuse for allowing a bunch of yahoos, very few of them armed, to overrun our Capitol.

    This is a failure of the most basic function of any government. And nearly all the loss of life and harms done to buildings and especially to our national psyche could EASILY have been avoided.

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      Ruby Girl

      Yes!

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    Denise Cote

    My husband and I are retired and have sufficient income. We don't need more government money, and in fact gave most of the 2 relief checks away. Any future checks should be reserved for those actually needing them.

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    1. Tim Johnson

      Amen. Amazing that the bill is to help an economy ravaged by job loss, yet a lot of the money is going to people who no longer need to work.

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