More Questions Answered

   I wasn’t planning on another post this soon but you all actually are enjoying my blogs on all this and politics is not a slow game. It’s barely after 10:00 am when I’m writing this and there’s already major updates coming from Washington. This is what you need to know. 
   As you all know from my last update, President Trump was given back his twitter account late last night after a 12-hour lock was placed on it. The first thing he did was release a pre-taped, scripted video in which we were given what was as close to a concession speech as I think we’re going to get. However, don’t take this video at face value. Top aides had to convince the president to release the video because he had no plans to do anything like this himself. Now today, we’ve gotten our first set of actual tweets from the president’s personal account and as I said in my closing last night, he did not surprise anyone in anyway. The first tweet mentions the 75,000,000 “American patriots” who voted for him and how they will have a “giant voice long into the future”. He also states that, “They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!” That was a direct quote in case you’re wondering why that sentence ended in three exclamation points. I told my dad the other day that Trump must think if he uses enough adjectives and punctuation that he would be seen in a better light. I personally don’t think it’s working if that is, in fact the strategy.
   For weeks, we’ve all been wondering if President Trump would be in attendance of the inauguration of his successor, Joe Biden. Lucky for us, Trump decided to clear it all up in a simple tweet released earlier this morning. It reads, “To all those who’ve asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.” As a side note, I don’t recall any president or other political figure who used twitter as an official way of communication as much as this one does. You’d think he or his press officers would at least write it first on an official form and release that instead of informal posts that only allow for 140 characters. I guess by now it doesn’t matter but I thought I’d point it out anyway. This is a major break with tradition as every outgoing president has attended the inauguration of their successor going all the way back to the transition from George Washington to John Adams in 1797. 224 years of peaceful transition and respect has gone out the window. While his action is against tradition it might be a good thing in retrospect. I mean, look what happened on Wednesday. It has also been reported that the president and First Lady may not even be in Washington on Inauguration Day, instead leaving for their Florida resort Mar-a-Lago on the 19th. Apparently, they would leave early in order to use Air Force One without having to ask for Biden’s permission, which is, again, normally tradition. This means that Vice President Pence would be the only representative of the outgoing administration present on the 20th. In other attendance news, former presidents Obama, Clinton, Bush, and their spouses will be present at the inauguration. In the wake of Wednesday’s attack on the capitol, the venue for the inauguration, some have raised concerns about security. Current officials and former secret service agents are reassuring the public that security is their top concern and are working overtime to make it as safe and secure as possible. 
   The COVID-19 pandemic is still a major threat and the US is continuing to hit bleak milestones with each passing day. Many are rightly concerned about these numbers, especially considering that there are still millions of vaccines waiting to get into the arms of the American people. The Trump administration said that they planned to have 20 million Americans vaccinated by the end of last year. By that point, there had only been about 3 million people vaccinated. Today it was reported that president-elect Biden plans to release every vaccine once he takes office. This breaks with the prior administration’s plan to hold back vaccines for the second round of shots. Biden feels the ball has been dropped in terms of vaccine rollout and wants to do all he can to get it into the hands of Americans ASAP especially with the numbers climbing and intensive care units on the brink.
   The invoking of the 25th amendment and the impeachment of the president is still very much on the forefront on everyone’s mind. The cabinet is informally discussing the 25th amendment. Today, House Speaker Pelosi and members of the House today had a phone call with the democratic caucuses discussing impeachment. During this call, the call for impeachment was made and agreed upon by more democrats than before. Now it seems likely that Articles of Impeachment will be drafted and that vote could come as early as next week. However, the Senate is still under republican control headed up by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell so conviction may be unlikely given the previous trial. It is also out of session until January 19th and they may not be jumping at the chance to convene early for this event. Two more republicans have said that they would vote to impeach if the charges were valid. Nancy Pelosi also sent a letter to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff  to discuss revoking the president’s access to the nuclear codes and the ability to launch nuclear attacks and other acts of war. This was done following a few days of reports that the president’s mental state has deteriorated and that he has become even less rational than before this week’s events.
   Repercussions from the capitol attack are still unfolding and the latest is perhaps one of the most severe so far. Following the death of a capitol officer on Wednesday, US attorneys are opening a federal death investigation. Law enforcement agencies are also doubling down on charging anyone involved with the capitol attacks which means that the president could potentially face criminal charges connected to the attack if law enforcement officers deem it necessary and valid. Speaking of criminal charges, reports have been spreading for weeks that President Trump plans to pardon those who are in his inner circle, including his adult children, son-in-law, attorney, and even himself. Apparently we could start seeing those pardons role out on January 19th. Whether this will actually happen remains to be seen.
   Over the last day, we’ve seen a number of resignations from the White House. The First Lady’s chief of staff, the deputy national security advisor, the special envoy to Northern Ireland, the secretary of transportation, the secretary of education, the capitol police chief, and the sergeant-at-arms of the Senate. Today, key White House counsel, Pat Cipollone is thinking of resigning as is Hope Hicks. Her resignation comes as a shock given that she is one of the president’s most trusted allies. 
   The days in this administration are dwindling down and the next twelve days will definitely be ones to watch. Whether he is impeached or the 25th amendment is invoked is not known at the present but something happening to remove him does seem likely as the hours pass.