Speak it, Jerry.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) released the following statement on his refusal to attend the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States:
“The rhetoric and actions of Donald Trump have been so far beyond the pale – so disturbing and disheartening – and his continued failure to address his conflicts of interest, to adequately divest or even to fully disclose his financial dealings, or to sufficiently separate himself from the ethical misconduct that legal experts on both side of the aisle have identified have been so offensive I cannot in good conscience participate in this honored and revered democratic tradition of the peaceful transfer of power.
“We cannot normalize Donald Trump, and we certainly cannot turn our heads and ignore such a threat to the institutions and values of our democracy. His refusal to adequately address his business conflicts of interest, to show remorse for the inflammatory rhetoric in which he engaged during his campaign, his attempts to intimidate the press, and his continuing failure to demonstrate any interest in uniting Americans reveal a deep disrespect for the office of President.
“I refuse to sit idly by as he flaunts his illicit behavior without regard for the American people’s interest. I refuse to abide any effort to undermine a free and independent press, which serves a pivotal role in any democratic system and whose rights are guaranteed by our Constitution. I refuse to applaud for a man with a history of offensive and abusive behavior to women and minorities. I refuse to treat January 20, 2017, as business as usual.
“For these reasons, I have no interest in participating in the inauguration ceremony of Donald J. Trump.”
That’s ultimately just a symbolic gesture. Is he preparing to draft articles of impeachment? Is he preparing to introduce articles of impeachment as many times as the Republicans introduced bills to repeal the ACA? If he does, I’ll less than three him then.
Please, let’s not talk about impeachment until we somehow solve the Pence problem!
We won’t be able to impeach Trump until 2018 at the earliest and even that’ll be a longshot— first, we need to take control of the Democratic Party, and then the Democrats need to take control of Congress.
By then, there’ll be grounds to impeach Pence as well, so we can throw them both in prison and install the (Democratic) speaker of the house instead.
I just looked up a map of Nadler’s district and holy fuck is that gerrymandered! It’s not even contiguous!
@Jessie #4:
I’m not surprised any longer.
My favourite example is one I saw a dozen years ago (sorry, I can’t even remember which state it’s in). There were two adjacent districts of about the same population, which each consisted of a city and its surrounding rural area, between them usually returning two Democrat reps or a Democrat and a Republican. Both were gerrymandered so that the two cities are now one district, connected by a narrow strip which covers the highway between them: it looks exactly like a dumbbell. The second district comprises all of the remaining rural areas and has just a fraction of the population of the other district. The two now always return a Democrat and a Republican.
Apparently this is considered to be fair.