Churning in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol following 74-year-old President Donald Trump’s campaign rally, the Army and Air National Guard plan to not let their guard down for the Jan. 20 inauguration scheduled to happen on the West Steps of the Capitol. After the Jan. 6 melee where Capitol Police looked defenseless as rioters stormed the Capitol, the Department of Homeland Security plans to leave no stone unturned for the inauguration. Some have said, giving the threats from right wing militias, to hold the inauguration as some undisclosed location, something that would give into domestic terrorists threats. Capital Hill lawmakers have debated whether or not to impeach Trump before the inauguration, charging him with “inciting and insurrection.” House Democrats led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) look to impeach Trump for a second time.
Charging Trump with “inciting an insurrection” would have to show proof that there’s something Trump said or did to aid-and-abet hundreds of participants in his rally before Congress was to meet in joint session to total the Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden. Though delayed by several hours, House and Senate members met on Jan. 7, eventually certifying Biden’s victory at 3:30 AM EST. Pelosi wants to adopt Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) new articles of impeachment accusing Trump of “inciting an insurrection,” something that would have difficulty in the Senate. Trump said nothing to his Jan. 6 crowd of around a million about crashing the Capitol or committing any other crimes. Democrats accuse Trump of actively working to topple the U.S. government. Pelosi acts like it’s an accepted fact that Trump tried to overthrow the U.S. government.
Calling Trump’s speech before a small fraction of his followers invaded the Capitol and trashed government property and act of insurrection, Pelosi wants Trump impeached to stop him from holding elective office. Impeaching Trump to prevent him from running for office would be a grave mistake. Nothing in the Constitution allows a president to be impeached just because you don’t want him to hold office. Pelosi says Trump have become as clear-and-present danger to the U.S. Constitution, and rule of law and National Security. She’s asked Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to have Trump stripped of using the nuclear codes. Pelosi has blamed Trump 100% for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, knowing Trump never told any of his supporters to storm the Capitol, deface government property or break any laws. Pelosi acts like Trump led the charge.
Whatever Pelosi’s vendetta with Trump, failing to have him removed from office when she impeached him Dec. 18, 2019, only to watch her venture fizzle Feb. 5, 2020 when Trump was acquitted in the U.S. Senate. Back then, the articles of impeachment were equally spurious as they are now, accusing Trump of meddling in the 2020 election in a July 25, 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Now Pelosi thinks she can accuse Trump of “inciting and insurrection,” when she doesn’t know what it means. Whoever stormed the Capitol, whether they listened to Trump’s speech or not, weren’t armed with lethal weapons, other than Capitol police finding s few crudely made pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails and zip ties. Pelosi should know a lot about insurrections since she approved former President Obama’s billions in cash-and-arms to Syrian rebels to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
Does Pelosi really think the Jan. 6 melee was anything more than an unruly mob? She claims that that the riot was an organized coup d’etat, something so preposterous, so off-the-wall, so off-base that it discredits her own articles of impeachment. Unless Pelosi has evidence that Trump participated in an organized coup, her articles of impeachment would go nowhere in the Senate. Instead of wasting more government money and time in Trump’s last nine days in office, Pelosi would spend her time more wisely helping work on President-elect Joe Biden’s upcoming legislative agenda. With Covid-19 raging and the economy reeling, Biden has more on his plate than to worry about another Washington show trial. Does Pelosi really want to suck the oxygen out of Biden’s big day Jan. 20? Biden has expressed no interest in impeaching Trump when he leaving office in nine days.
Preparations now underway for Biden’s inauguration must include appropriate security given what happened Jan. 6 and threats by right-wing militia groups about the upcoming inauguration. “There’s no hiding the fact that soldiers and airmen do have lethal force with them,” said Army Brig. Gen. David Wood, confirming that the National Guard will be prepared for any contingency. Because Capitol and D.C. police failed to provide adequate security to the Capitol Jan. 6, it’s incumbent on the National Guard to prepare properly for the inauguration. That includes setting a one-mile cordon around the Capitol, keeping any possible agitators away from the festivities. Because Capitol Hill and D.C. police failed, it’s up to the National Guard to supply security for the inauguration. Holding Biden’s inauguration and swearing in ceremony sends an important message to the nation and the world.
