One more point about the President and the decision to call in the National Guard. I’ve mentioned several times below that the chain of command simply went around the President. Mike Pence gave the order even though there’s really no legal basis for him doing so. Most of these reports suggest the President was just checked out, maybe not interested in talking to them.

CBS and only CBS is reporting that cabinet members are discussing invoking the 25th amendment to remove President Trump from office. I will believe it when I see it. But there have been a few hints over the last hours that the national security structure and some critical functions of government are operating separate from President Trump. The Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs conferred with Mike Pence and the Democratic and Republican congressional leaders about bringing in the National Guard. Apparently there were no discussions with the President and Mike Pence eventually gave the order, even though there’s no basis I can think of on which Pence could give such an order.
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Longtime TPM Reader DC:

A few thoughts on what we witnessed today from an institutional perspective.

For almost 20 years, I’ve taught a course called Res Publica: A History of Representative Government.  It tries to pin down, historically and philosophically, the kinds of questions we should think about when we call our system of government a “republic” or a ‘democracy” or, most properly, a democratic republic.

We’re in a bit of a fog of war situation. But the statement from the acting Secretary of Defense said he had spoken to Pence and the Republican and Democratic congressional leadership about mobilizing the National Guard. But there was no mention of having talked to the President. Now the Times is reporting that it was Pence who gave the order for the deployment. Now, I guess great that he did that. But on what basis would the Vice President give that order? The Vice President isn’t commander-in-chief. Is the President still President? Is he somehow even in the White House seen to be commanding the the insurrectionists, not functioning as President? That sounds hyperbolic. But again, what’s the legal basis here?

This is the first time in going on 250 years of American history that the peaceful transfer of power and the constitutional processes to accomplish that have been disrupted by force. The first time. The Civil War was obviously a vastly graver breakdown of constitutional order. But the secessionists didn’t try to prevent Lincoln from being inaugurated. They just left. What we are seeing here has never happened before. Biden will still be inaugurated. The process that was underway will happen later today or tomorrow. But this has never happened before.

This is still true. This is even more important than it was yesterday. And don’t forget this.

I probably don’t have to tell you to be excited about the results out of Georgia tonight where it seems highly likely that the the Democrats picked up both Senate seats and thus took control of the Senate. You don’t need me to tell you about the historic nature of Raphael Warnock’s victory. But the consequences of these victories is likely even greater than many realize.

We know from past experience that Republicans will try to repurpose their election fraud charade as the rationale for new voting restrictions. Many non-Republicans are looking at this ghastly carnival and simply being thankful that it will almost certainly fail in its goal of giving President Trump a second term in office. But this is a dangerous and misguided complacency. It’s one that will further endanger the country down the road, not only in additional voter suppression laws but in the danger of repeats and possibly successful repeats of what is happening now.

To put it simply, this will create a new reality in which this episode lives on not as a shameful, discrediting episode but as a grievance and rallying cry on the right with no counterforce opposing it. We absolutely have to avoid this.

How do you do that?

The damage inflicted by the pandemic and recession is well known: hundreds of thousands dead, millions out of work.  The psychological damage has also been noted: the increase in anxiety and depression disorders, a rise in childhood suicides.  But the pandemic may have also contributed to the craziness of our politics. Read More

Yesterday, TPM broke the news that the Atlanta-area U.S. attorney was leaving his post early. Byung Jin “BJay” Pak, of the Northern District of Georgia, had planned to leave on Inauguration Day, but instead was leaving immediately due to “unforeseen circumstances,” he told his staff yesterday.

Today, we learned who will replace him: Bobby Christine, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. TPM broke that story too.

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