The straw that broke the camel’s back, the breaking point, the red line.
These are expressions that are repeated these days in United States to explain why some of the historical allies of President Donald Trump have distanced themselves or directly broken with him.
From legislators of the Republican Party to members of his government, there are several figures who have said “enough already” after the events of Wednesday in Washington DC, where a mob of violent followers of the president stormed the Capitol.
The unusual images of dozens of people breaking security, invading the headquarters of the United States Congress and occupying several of its rooms caused stupor and outrage in a country not used to this type of scene.
Eyes quickly turned to Trump, who before the march to the Capitol had delivered an incendiary speech in which he insisted, without evidence, that the election of November was a robbery.
In view of the chaos and Trump’s lack of forcefulness to reject the attack, multiple voices demanded the president’s resignation or that he be removed from power through impeachment or by invocation of the amendment 25 of the Constitution.
The siege of the Capitol by supporters of President Trump left scenes never seen in the United States. The striking thing about the case was that, unlike what happened with other scandals of the four years of Trump’s presidency and of his time As a candidate, several of these voices came from the Republican field .
There are those who say that these positions arrive late, when Trump only has 13 days in the White House and after other situations that deserved a similar reaction.
For other people, it is better late than never , and the union that was seen in Congress between legislators of rival parties after the alarming events of the Capitol augurs times better.
It remains to be seen if the video released by Trump on Thursday afternoon, in which he condemns the events of Wednesday and for the first time clearly admits that the 20 in January there will be a new government and its term ends, it helps calm tempers and reconciles it with its fellow ranks.
Trump changes his tone, condemns the assault on Capitol Hill and admits the end of your mandate The distancing of faithful allies In addition to a string of resignations around Trump, which we will explain later, the events of January 6 marked, above all, the growing isolation in the The president is here.
His most faithful allies in the Republican Party – the vice president, Mike Pence ; Senate Leader Mitch McConnell , and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham – ended up turning their backs on him in their attempt to reverse the result of the November 3 elections.
This break was particularly evident on Wednesday during the joint session of Congress to certify the victory of Democrat Joe Biden.
First, before the session began, Vice President Pence released a statement in which he explained that he had no authority to unilaterally reject the votes of the Electoral College.
Thus settling the debate, promoted mainly by Trump and chanted by his followers, about his ability to give back to the election result. With this he unleashed the anger and criticism of the man to whom he has shown absolute loyalty throughout the entire presidency.
Already in the hemicycle, McConnell, in a sober dark suit, pronounced a highly praised speech in which he extended an olive branch to his fellow Democrats.
“If this election were reversed by simple allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter into a death spiral “, said the still leader of the Republican majority in the Senate.
” We would never again see the entire country accept the result of an election. Every four years there would be a fight for power at any cost, “McConnell continued before the violence broke out in the building.
” We cannot continue to separate into two different tribes, with different facts and different realities. The country risks embarking on a dangerous path in which the winner of an election is truly the only one to accept the results. ”
Lindsey Graham asked that he not be counted on to challenge legitimate results of the elections. Another of Trump’s great allies, former attorney general William Barr , who left office last 23 December, issued a harsh condemnation of the president he served.
In a statement sent to the agency The Associated Press , Barr called Trump’s conduct “treason against his office and his followers” and denounced that “mobilizing the masses to pressure Congress has no excuse. ”
Succession of resignations In less than 24 hours are have produced several resignations in the sphere of the Trump government and in the environment of the first lady.
The most notable have been the resignations of two members of the cabinet: the Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao, and Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos .
Both announced their decision this Thursday.
Chao explained his resignation with these words: “Yesterday, our country experienced a traumatic event attic and totally avoidable in which supporters of the president stormed into a mob on Capitol Hill after a march in which Trump addressed them. ”
“ As surely happens with many of you , this has deeply affected me in a way that I just can’t ignore. ”
Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, who is the wife of Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, was the first cabinet member to resign. Chao’s resignation will be effective Monday 11, nine days before the inauguration of Biden and Kamala Harris .
The reasons given by DeVos, who resigned hours after Chao, are similar: the events of Wednesday and Trump’s tactic of “adding fuel to the fire among his followers.” Mick Mulvaney, former White House chief of staff and former director of the Office of Management and Budget, announced Thursday that he is leaving his post as the US special envoy to Northern Ireland.
“I can not do it. I can’t stay, “Mulvaney told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
” Those who decide to stay, and I’ve talked to some of them, are doing so because they are concerned that the president make someone else worse, ”Mulvaney said on the US channel CNBC.
Former Attorney General William Barr was seen as one of the people closest to the president. Thursday’s resignations likely won’t be the last and are in addition to those announced Wednesday.
Two of the main assistants of Melania Trump abruptly resigned that same afternoon in a clear sign of discontent.
During Thursday’s session there was also speculation about the possible departure of those responsible for the national security agencies, but former officials of those services and leaders of large companies in the sector begged them not to do so.
They stressed that their role is important for the continuity of the government and that a political crisis must be prevented from turning into a national security crisis.
Not everything is dissent However, not everyone have moved away from the president, who continues to have a strong and very loyal base (almost 75 millions of people voted for him.)
In addition, Trump has the unconditional support of a group of people, not only his family but names like him do Rudy Giuliani or Roger Stone , who was recently granted a presidential pardon.
Trump has the unconditional support of their children. And during the process of certifying the votes of the Electoral College it was clear that more than 100 members of the House of Representatives and about a dozen senators follow him in their belief that the elections were fraudulent.
Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, whose names sound like potential presidential candidates in 2024, led the objections to the results of Arizona and Pennsylvania respectively.
Finally, after the violent irruption of Trump supporters in Congress, which put the safety of legislators of all political colors at risk, only six senators supported Cruz’s initiative and seven Hawley’s, but the support was much higher for both cases in the House of Representatives.
Schism in the Republican Party? “This is no longer your Republican Party, this is Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” he fervently stated during the march of the Wednesday Don Jr., the president’s eldest son.
Don Jr. said the act should be a wake-up call for the Republican Party, which he accused of not doing enough to help to his father to reverse the election results, to “stop the theft.”
“This should send you a message: this is no longer your Republican Party, this is the Republican Party of Donald Trump, the party that puts ea United States first “, he stressed.
Donald Trump’s eldest son warned the Republican Party that he cannot ignore the voices of his father’s followers. He is not the only one who thinks that the Republican Party is no longer the same and that a battle is coming to see who leads it.
The most conservative and historic members of the party are trying to wrest power from Trump and his allies.
McConnell seems willing to spearhead that turn. Others, such as Utah Senator Mitt Romney , presidential candidate in 2012 and the only Republican in the upper house who voted to convict Trump in the impeachment February 2020, they may also take on a leadership role.
They will be challenged by those who seem most interested in attracting the Trump electorate.
From the split could arise a third party with the capacity to compete with the duopoly of Democrats and Republicans.
“It may happen that the party is divided, breaks, as it seemed that it was going to happen this Wednesday. I’m not talking about a formal division, but rather a conformation in which there is one wing of the party that is still strongly aligned with Trump and another that is trying to move beyond Trump. And if the Republicans are divided, this will strengthen Biden ”, Steven Levitsky , Professor of Governance at Harvard University
Senator Mitt Romney has opposed Trump virtually throughout his presidency. In that power struggle, it was notorious that Hawley of Missouri, the first senator to announce that he would object to the election results, did not deviate from his initiative even as the Senate regrouped after the violence on Capitol Hill.
Nor did Cruz, senator from Texas, who insisted on the need to postpone the certification of the votes for ten days in order to carry out an audit.
” Crises can represent a political opportunity and there are many politicians who will not hesitate to use them to obtain advantages,” wrote Anthony Zurcher , BBC journalist specializing in American politics.
“Meanwhile, Trump remains in power for now. And once he breaks camp to go home to Florida, he could start making plans to retaliate and perhaps one day return to power and rebuild a legacy that is currently in tatters. ”
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