Trump voters, who had proven immovable throughout his tenure including the tumultuous post-election period, now appear to be fracturing in reaction to the attack on the Capitol Building. New findings from a survey fielded Thursday, January 7, 2021 (n=2,009) by Avalanche Insights show that a quarter of Trump voters agree that action should be taken to immediately remove him from office. Further, 41% of Trump voters believe he has “betrayed the values and interests of the Republican Party.”
This emerging disapproval is not only of Trump, but also of fellow Trump supporters who engage in violence. Two-thirds of Trump voters in the survey oppose the actions of Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol with 44% saying these actions “betrayed American values.” Over half (55%) say they should be prosecuted for their actions and 29% believe they committed treason.
More broadly, 62% of Americans hold Trump responsible for yesterday’s events and say he should be removed by the 25th Amendment or impeachment. This call for immediate action extends well beyond Trump, with 71% of Americans saying the Republican Members of Congress who promoted or supported yesterday’s actions should either resign or be censured. Half agree that Capitol police actions demonstrate preferential treatment to white people. Finally, 75% of Americans want the people who stormed the Capitol building to be prosecuted.
FOR ORGANIZERS…
This brand new data shows support, not merely overall, but among Trump’s base for removing him from office. It’s critical to get this information out as widely as possible and your help is needed in amplifying these data points on your channels in social media, coalescing under #RemoveNow. Check out this social media toolkit for some sample content and join a Twitter storm at 3pm ET.
With 24 hours to take a breath, U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson hasn’t wavered. He wants Donald Trump ousted, no matter that the one-term president’s time expires at noon, Jan. 20.
After Wednesday’s siege by an unruly mob at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., the congressman Tweeted that he’s “calling on the Vice President to initiate proceedings under the 25th Amendment to gather the Cabinet and remove the President from office. On this dark day for our nation, we need to stand up and end this immediately. Nothing less than the future of our democracy is at stake.”
In a 20-minute phone interview Thursday afternoon, Thompson reiterated that he “absolutely” wants Trump’s reign finished immediately.
“We need to do whatever we can to remove him from this position of power,” Thompson said. “In addition to that, he needs to be impeached for a second time. The articles of impeachment have been drafted and I’ve signed onto that effort. I believe it should be done as quickly as possible.”
There’s no waiting out Trump’s term, Thompson emphasized.
“You saw how much damage he did yesterday — one day. I’m frightened to think about what else he could do,” Thompson said.
Rep. Mike Thompson. (Rich Freedman–Times-Herald)
Trump “is completely off the rails. He’s become an enemy of the state,” said Thompson, believing the president incited the rioters to seize the Capitol building “to try and prevent a peaceful transition of power” to President-elect Joe Biden.
“He set up a coup attempt yesterday (Wednesday), trying to encourage the vice president to steal this election,” Thompson said, calling the siege aftermath “a sad, sad day in this country.”
Trump “encouraged people to break the law, take up laws against their own country and march to the Capitol and stop the peaceful transition. He asked them to march with him, but when they started marching, he went back to the White House,” said Thompson. “That speaks volumes to what kind of person he is.”
Explaining the lack of law enforcement to help thwart the Capitol siege “is the $64 million question,” said Thompson, adding that he sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “asking to do a top-to-bottom review to find out what went wrong and that we ensure it never goes wrong again.”
Thompson said he also sent Pelosi a text Wednesday night requesting the head of the Capitol State Police be terminated.
“Folks that run security should be fired by morning,” Thompson said. “Whomever was in charge not only put our institution of representative government at risk, but put at risk of the lives of every person in that Capitol building, every staff person, every member of the House, every janitor. And they put the life of every cop at risk by putting them out there ill-prepared to do the job they were asked to do.”
Thompson said he was safely in his office when the mob entered the Capitol, though he was evacuated once when “some kind of explosive device” was located and a second time when shots were fired.
“When hooligans broke through security, I was over in the library,” Thompson, managing to quip, “I don’t think they could find a library with a GPS.”
Seriously, added Thompson, “they need to arrest every one” of the infiltrators “and try them for treason.”
“They call themselves ‘patriots’ but they are really traitors,” Thompson said.
Four people died during the siege, including one woman by gunfire.
“I think the president bears full responsibility for what happened,” Thompson said. “He did this. He did this whole thing. He convinced people to participate in a coup. That’s why he needs to be impeached.”
Thompson said Trump will “definitely be impeached by the House, I’m sure of that. I hope the Senate drums up some courage since they didn’t last time.”
Thompson sees a window of opportunity.
“The dam is starting to break. Some Republicans are calling for his removal. I move to convict him,” Thompson said.
Though 9/11 and school shootings “were terrible, this is in a different league,” Thompson said. “It’s armed insurgence with a treasonous effort to topple our government. It’s an attack on the institution, an attack on democracy, an attack on our republic.”
Almost lost in the scuffle — Democrats flipped the Senate earlier this week, thanks to Georgia, with Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff emerging with run-off wins.
“That’s a shining light in all of this,” Thompson said, reflecting on 500-plus bipartisan bills languishing on Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s desk.
With McConnell on the verge of becoming Senate minority leader and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris the tie-breaker in a potential 50-Democrat, 50-Republican vote, “it’s now a different story,” said Thompson, awaiting the Inauguration Jan. 20.
“Everybody I know — Democrats, Republicans, Independents — don’t want a revolution. They want a return to normalcy,” Thompson said. “It’ll be a much better world.”
A bitterly divided House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump. Here’s what your representatives had to say.
By Maggie Fusek, Benicia CA Patch,
United States President Donald Trump Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019, became the third American president in history to be impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. (Shutterstock)
BENICIA, CA — The congressional representative for Benicia, Democrat Mike Thompson, voted with his party on Wednesday’s U.S. House of Representatives’ vote to approve two articles of impeachment against U.S. President Donald Trump and charge him with abusing his office and obstructing Congress.
The nation’s 45th president became just the third person in the office to be impeached. He now faces trial in the Senate and the unlikely possibility of being removed from office for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Last week, a bitterly divided House Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment accusing Trump of abusing the power of his office and obstructing Congress. However, given the Senate is controlled by Republicans, it’s considered highly unlikely.
Impeachment is not a conviction, rather the rough equivalent of a grand jury issuing indictments. Senators act as judge and jury.
California has 55 members of Congress and 48 of those members belong to the Democratic Party.
Here’s how lawmakers for Benicia and nearby communities voted on both articles of impeachment, as well as what they had to say about it:
U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, Fifth District
Thompson, a Democrat who represents Napa County and parts of Solano County — including Benicia and Vallejo — along with parts of Lake, Sonoma and Contra Costa counties, said he voted in favor of both articles of impeachment in part because “Trump jeopardized our national security.”
Here is Thompson’s full statement:
“Impeachment is a solemn duty outlined in the Constitution and one that I do not take lightly. I did not run for Congress to impeach this President, but rather to help our community get ahead and to serve the country I love. Unfortunately, the President brought this on himself by putting his own personal and political interests above those of the people he serves. This jeopardized our national security.
“The two articles I voted to pass today outline serious breaches of the public trust committed by the President, rising to the bar of high crimes and misdemeanors spelled out in our Constitution. As a combat veteran and having served eight years on the Intelligence Committee, I understand the threat that foreign actors can play in our elections. Every elected official must dedicate themselves to protecting our democracy. No one should invite a foreign country to interfere with our most sacred act of voting. It was a severe abuse of power for the President to ask a foreign nation to interfere in our election to benefit his personal and political interest and to condition bipartisan and Congressionally-approved aid on that interference. And it was an unacceptable obstruction of Congress for the President to order his officials to defy legally-issued subpoenas.
“Unchecked, these actions could lead us down a path that will unravel the fabric of our nation. I am saddened to have had to vote in favor of these articles of impeachment. But, in the interest of defending our nation, I was compelled to vote to ensure our country holds the same values for our children and for generations to come. Ben Franklin, one of our most influential Founding Fathers, wrote that we have ‘a Republic, if you can keep it.’ I believe we must fight to keep it.”
U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, Third District
Garamendi, a Democrat whose district includes Yolo County and parts of Solano County including Dixon and Suisun City, said he voted in favor of both articles of impeachment to “preserve and protect our Constitution and my promise to my constituents to carefully analyze all issues before me.”
Here is Garamendi’s full statement:
“Impeaching a President is one of the most solemn and consequential decisions the United States Congress can make. It is not an action I, or my fellow House colleagues, take lightly. Impeachment exists to protect our democracy. As Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers, the impeachment clause in the Constitution exists to address ‘the misconduct of public men,’ which involves ‘the abuse or violation of some public trust.’
“The investigations and hearings conducted by the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees provide overwhelming evidence that President Trump abused his power of office and endangered our national security when he coerced the president of Ukraine into investigating his likely rival in the 2020 presidential election by withholding $391 million in critical military aid and a White House meeting from the Ukrainian government. Withholding this military assistance to Ukraine as it enters the fifth year of its deadly war against Russia endangers Ukraine’s sovereignty and safety as well as the United States’ national security interests.
“President Trump has also issued a blanket order prohibiting all executive office personnel from testifying in Congressional impeachment hearings, responding to subpoenas, and turning over documents. Therefore, he has obstructed the legitimate and Constitutional obligation Congress has to conduct an impeachment inquiry when there is evidence of wrongdoing by the President.
No one is above the law. The President’s actions leave me no choice. President Trump has violated his oath to ‘faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States,’ and to, ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.’ Now I will uphold my oath of office to preserve and protect our Constitution and my promise to my constituents to carefully analyze all issues before me. I will vote in favor of both articles of impeachment against President Donald John Trump.”
U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, Second District
Huffman, a Democrat who represents Marin County, part of Petaluma and parts of Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity and Del Norte counties, voted in favor of impeachment. Huffman said Trump “compromised national security to cheat his way to re-election.”
Here is Huffman’s full statement:
“Madam Speaker, as we take this solemn, necessary step of impeaching President Trump, my Republican colleagues have made up their minds; we can’t persuade them to do the right thing. So, I address my remarks to the future. Because today’s vote will be judged by future generations including my precious children Abby and Nathan. Maybe grandkids.
“Historians will study what members of this Congress did when our democracy was tested like never before by a President who put personal interests above country; who compromised national security to cheat his way to re-election; and when caught, not only lied and refused to admit wrongdoing, but flouted Congress’ authority. He even called the Constitutional impeachment mechanism ‘unconstitutional.’
“Historians will marvel how some members continued to stand by this man; how they put blind partisan loyalty – or fear of Donald Trump – above their duty to defend the Constitution; how they made absurd partisan arguments and tried to obstruct these proceedings; and how, instead of pushing back when their party fell under a dark spell of authoritarianism, they embraced it – as if the Constitution, the rule of law, and our Oath of Office mean nothing.
“So, Madam Speaker, for our future generations, our children, and the judgment of history, let me be clear: I stand with our Constitution, with the rule of law, and our democracy. I’ll be voting ‘yes’ to impeach Donald J. Trump.”
U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, 11th District
DeSaulnier, a Democrat whose district encompasses Concord and Pleasant Hill and parts of Martinez and Contra Costa County, voted in favor of impeachment, saying in part that failing to hold Trump “accountable for his actions will lead to more violations.”
Here is DeSaulnier’s full statement:
“The reality and urgency of this moment could not be more consequential to American democracy. President Trump violated the law by soliciting foreign interference in our elections.
“With the President’s pattern of escalating behavior, failing to hold him accountable for his actions will lead to more violations. This President is a threat to our national security. That is why today I voted to defend our democracy, uphold our oath of office and the Constitution, and impeach President Trump.”
As President Donald Trump became just the third president in U.S. history to be impeached, many residents in the local area reacted favorably to Wednesday’s impeachment proceedings.
“We cannot allow a sitting president to usurp the United States Constitution, and use his office as a political weapon,” said Thomas Bilbo, chairman of the Solano Pride Center Board. “Donald Trump has failed the American people by using the power of his office in a way that threatens to destroy our democracy, and the Republican Party seems to be willing to let him do it.”
The House of Representative impeached the president on two charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Impeachment proceedings began after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for a formal inquiry into the president’s dealings with Ukraine.
“The divisions we’re seeing on Capitol Hill is based on one party using facts to determine actions by our President damaged our democracy and credibility around the world,” added Bilbo, who is also a candidate for the Solano County Democratic Central Committee. “The other party is just blustering and name calling because they are unwilling to look past party politics and see that the validity of the US Constitution is at stake.”
Supportive of the impeachment, local Gretchen Zimmermann said she was still worried for the future of the country.
“Never before in my lifetime have we been so far removed from being able to agree on basic facts. People now feel entitled to believe any version of reality that pleases them,” Zimmermann said prior to the House votes. “I’m not hearing any rational debate from the Republicans in the hearings, only loud declarations of a different version of reality. Orwellian dystopia is here now.”
Zimmermann said she didn’t feel the lead-up to Wednesday’s House votes had the same energy when President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House in 1998.
“I’m old enough to remember (President Richard) Nixon, too. I was a kid, but, by this stage of the Nixon impeachment (process), people who paid attention to the evidence raised during the hearings, including Nixon’s supporters, came around to thinking Nixon had done wrong,” she added. “We had the Fairness Doctrine back then. We didn’t have Fox News screaming alternative facts.”
Vallejoan and business owner Ken Ingersoll also spoke about the parallels between the Clinton and Trump impeachments.“I think the impeachment is political theater,” he said. “No different than what the Republicans did to Clinton. Back then, Republicans took their best shot in a good economy, well today, the way I see it, it’s just desserts for them.”
Benician Roger Straw said he wasn’t surprised by Wednesday’s votes.
“Trump’s uncivil, ignorant and malign leadership and lack of leadership has been on display constantly over the last three years, and the clarity of Trump’s actions involving Ukraine and his open contempt of Congress give no other recourse but to impeach,” he said. “Congress and the public have remained vigilant throughout, and stand by the Constitution’s right — and responsibility — to hold no one above the law, including a corrupt president.”
With Trump’s impeachment, a trial in the Senate will take place. Two-thirds of the Senate must be present to agree to remove Trump from office.
Trump voters, who had proven immovable throughout his tenure including the tumultuous post-election period, now appear to be fracturing in reaction to the attack on the Capitol Building. New findings from a survey fielded Thursday, January 7, 2021 (n=2,009) by Avalanche Insights show that a quarter of Trump voters agree that action should be taken to immediately remove him from office. Further, 41% of Trump voters believe he has “betrayed the values and interests of the Republican Party.”
This brand new data shows support, not merely overall, but among Trump’s base for removing him from office. It’s critical to get this information out as widely as possible and your help is needed in amplifying these data points on your channels in social media, coalescing under #RemoveNow. Check out this social media toolkit for some sample content and join a Twitter storm at 3pm ET.
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