No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Trump incites an insurrection, faces removal

Episode Date: January 10, 2021

Trump incites an insurrection at the US Capitol, Democrats push for his removal from office, and even Republicans have a strong case to make sure that he can never run again. Brian interviews Pennsylvania Lt. Governor John Fetterman about a Republican effort in PA NOT to seat a Democratic official and his headline-making announcement about a Senate run in 2022.Written by Brian Tyler CohenProduced by Sam GraberRecorded in Los Angeles, CAhttps://www.briantylercohen.com/podcast/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we're going to talk about Trump inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the push for removal from office, and even a strong case for Republicans to make sure he can never run again. I also interview Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Federman about a Republican effort in PA not to seat a Democratic official and his headline-making announcement about a Senate run in 2022. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. So I'm sure by now you know that a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. this past week in an insurrection incited by Donald Trump. The mob left five dead, including a police officer,

all because Trump had convinced his supporters that he didn't lose an election that he absolutely did lose. But he's too small of a man to admit that, and so instead, he opted to start a riot. And people like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, who will take any opportunity known to man to pander because nothing's more important than their own personal ambition and running for president in 2024 are happy to stand up and validate this scheme by objecting to the certification at a joint session of Congress. You can draw a straight line from these tactics and the rhetoric by Trump and Cruz and

Hawley and the rest of their Republican enablers to the violence and chaos and death that we saw at the Capitol. And it goes without saying that anyone and everyone involved shouldn't be let within 40 miles of public office. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley should resign and if they don't, they should be expelled from the Senate. But for now, I want to focus on Trump and the very real effort to remove him that's gaining a lot of traction fast. So there are three options for Trump's removal here.

First is that Trump resigns, although I think we'd have more luck watching the sun envelop the moon tonight than seeing that happen. Otherwise, one option would be Pence and the majority of Trump's cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment, and the other is impeachment. Now, the less likely of the two is the 25th Amendment, because let's be honest, when was the last time pinning our hopes on Republicans actually panned out for Democrats? especially the Republicans left in Trump's cabinet. These are the people who are still there,

still there after exploding the deficit and locking kids in cages and coddling dictators and alienating our allies and allowing a pandemic to rip through this country. They stayed. So you think those people are who we should pin our hopes on? You think those people are really going to be the ones to turn on the guy? Plus, we've got resignations from two cabinet members already,

Betsy DeVos and Elaine Chow. And that's not them being brave. This is them jumping shit before they'd have to make any uncomfortable choices, meaning the ones who actually acknowledge Trump's at fault are gone, and the rest of them are loyalists, which is all a long way of saying that I don't think the 25th Amendment is going to pan out. Not to say that it can't or that it shouldn't, but I imagine that it's unlikely that it will.

By the way, just FYI, Pence refusing to invoke the 25th means that he's too cowardly to do anything about the guy who incited a riot that wanted him murdered. Literally, here's what the pro-Trump, Mab was chanting when they stormed the Capitol. Hang Mike Pence. All because Pence wouldn't anoint Trump the president, as if a vice president gets to just unilaterally choose who wins an election. So Trump's sick to mob to go kill him, and yet still the guy's going to

stay deferential to Trump. Like, if you could explain to me how any of these people are able to stand upright without a spine, I'd love to know. Which leaves us with impeachment, again, because I know you're not going to believe this, Susan Collins, but it turns out Trump didn't learn his lesson. And I just want to nip one thing in the bud in case Republicans want to claim, oh, the Democrats are at it again, impeaching Trump because they don't like him.

No. The reason Democrats would impeach him again is because he incited an insurrection. He didn't have to do that. He chose to do that. Impeachment isn't brought about by Democrats. It was brought about by Trump, just so we're clear about that.

So the way impeachment will work is that the article of impeachment will be introduced, and as of this recording, it looks like there's only one article, which is incitement of insurrection. I feel like you don't necessarily need another article when you've got that one. Seems like that should pretty much do the trick. The House would then bring that resolution to the floor for an immediate vote, and they'll need only a simple majority to pass it. And not only do Democrats control the chamber, but we've already had even Republicans come out in support of removing Trump. from office. So I don't imagine that it would be too difficult to find enough support to pass the resolution and yet again impeached Trump. But just impeaching him isn't enough because only if he's convicted could that bar Trump from ever holding office again. Now McConnell's already

distributed a memo outlining how an impeachment trial would work. The earliest the trial would begin would be January 19th, which is the day before Biden takes office, meaning that yes, you could still have an impeachment trial, even though Trump's out of office. And by the way, there's precedent for that. In 1876, Secretary of War, William Belknap was investigated by the House for corruption. Just minutes before the House was set to vote on his impeachment, Belknap raced to the White House and handed his resignation to President Ulysses Grant. The House went ahead and impeached him anyway, and the Senate proceeded to have a trial.

A majority voted to convict, but not the two-thirds required, so he was acquitted. So all of that's to say the first days of the Biden administration would be spent with the Senate trying Donald Trump, where two-thirds would be needed to convict him. If he's convicted, they could then vote with a simple majority to bar him from holding future federal office. Now, here's the case for impeachment. First off, from a moral perspective, the guy incited an insurrection at the Capitol.

Like, I don't know what we need more than that. Five people are dead, including a police officer and four of his own supporters. There were bombs found at the DNC and the RNC. The Capitol overtaken for the first time since the British during the War of 1812, all of it caused directly by Trump's relentless lies about the election being stolen. I don't mean to beat a dead horse here,

but if that's not impeachable, inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol for the first time in over 200 years where your supporters were trying to kill politicians, including your own vice president, where they brought zip ties for hostages? If that isn't impeachable, then literally nothing is. And just as an added bonus, just because I feel like I should bring this up, If Trump's convicted, he loses out in his post-presidency perks, meaning no more $219,000 pension, no more secret service detail, or charging U.S. taxpayers to house the secret service at his properties, no more health insurance, no more office space, no more staff. And look, I get these things would have no material impact on his life, but I don't know.

Call me old-fashioned. I tend to not want a single dollar of my taxes going to the guy whose last act was trying to have most of the presidential line of succession murdered. But moral arguments aside, there's a political benefit to convicting him, too. And I'm talking about for Republicans. Convicting him and barring him from running again removes Donald Trump as an obstacle for other Republicans. Like, it's a win-win. If you're a Republican running for president and Trump's around, guess what? He's probably going to beat you.

He's got too much support in the Republican Party. So this is your chance. We're all ped fellows here. Democrats want Donald Trump out because he's a dangerous, despotic criminal. and Republican presidential hopeful should want him out because clearly you'll do anything to become president like enable an armed insurrection or I don't know, let someone call your wife ugly Ted Cruz

so bring it to its natural resolution and embrace the Senate trial and convict him and get it out of the way even if you're not running for president you probably want him out of the picture anyway because he's not only dangerous but he's an albatross he can't win a general election he just proved that so either way if you're a Republican whether you're running in 2024 or not it would benefit you to ensure that the guy is out of the picture.

And more important, it would benefit democracy to make sure he could never hold office in this country again. Which brings me to Georgia. I wanted to make sure that we ended on a high note and there is nothing, nothing, better than the fact that Mitch McConnell will be the Senate minority leader. John Ossov and Raphael Warnock have both won their races. They ran on clear, strong platforms, on support for relief checks, for expanding health care, for justice, which could not have been. than more of a contrast to their opponent's platforms of I did not commit insider trading and be

afraid of radical liberals. Really, uh, really strong stuff there from both sides, as, uh, as they say. And so now what that means is that we're going to see $2,000 relief checks. We'll see a voting rights act, a $15 minimum wage, federally decriminalized marijuana, climate change legislation, codifying protections for women's reproductive rights, confirming judges. We could see statehood for D.C. We'll see Biden's entire cabinet get approved without having to water down any choices to appease McConnell. He will be irrelevant,

which is exactly how he belongs. And so if you're wondering what to do now that Democrats are taking office, the answer is making sure that we actually use our power and that we use it swiftly. Like there's not only a ton of damage that needs to be undone, but issues like climate change that are an existential threat to humanity need to be dealt with yesterday. So push your Democratic

representatives to move to act as if they have a mandate, as if 81 million people just showed up to give them power because unified control of government is rare, but come January 20th, we'll have it. So with that said, now is the perfect time to start looking forward to 2022.

Because if Stacey Abrams has shown us anything, it's that winning elections doesn't happen overnight. It takes time and resources. So if we want to keep and expand our Senate majority in 2022, that means starting right now. And I'll have an announcement on that in the coming days, something that I'm doing personally that I'll be asking for your help with. But my interview guest, Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor, John Federman, made headlines when he announced that he was exploring a Senate run in PA in 2022. And we talk about that and more.

Okay, today we've got the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania again. John Federman, thanks for coming back on. Oh, thank you for having me back on. It's a pleasure. So this got lost in the cycle because, you know, the whole insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and all. A little thing like that. Yeah. Yeah.

So in Pennsylvania last week, Republicans had refused to seat a newly elected Democratic state senator. You were removed, everything devolved into chaos in the chamber. What the hell happened at the first state senate session? Sure. Yeah. It's really what I call it picture day, where it's perfunctory, its families are there, and newly elected or reelected senators are swelior.

worn in. And every year, every cycle, there's 25. So, you know, and every other time passed, it's just, it's, again, ceremonial. But they, the majority, made the decision that they would not see a duly elected Democratic state senator, who just coincidentally happens to be my state senator. But their argument was, is like, well, it was a very close election, and it certainly was close, but it was definitively certified and rendered as official. And then our Supreme Court affirmed it once again. So not only was Senator Brewster elected democratically by his constituents, he was affirmed by our state Supreme Court, which is, of course, overwhelmingly elected by the people of Pennsylvania overall. So that's two wills of democracy that are

being thwarted. And they said, you know, we're not seating them and we're just going to wait. said, well, I don't want this. We can't let it go this way. I'm imploring you. And of course, they refused. And I did what I had to do. And I, as the president of the Senate and the presiding officer, I refused to entertain their motion. I said, no. You know, everyone gets seated. Everyone who is democratically certified. His credential is no different than anyone else's that we're swearing in. And they invoked a rarely used, if ever, procedural maneuver where they voted me out, quite frankly. And I kept pushing, and we ended up having to get Senator Brewster up for a vote, but of course they refused.

So as you mentioned, it devolved into the chaos, and it subsequently ended with me needing to leave the center chambers. And they said, well, you broke the rules. And I said, yeah, I did break the rules, but you broke the law. You broke, you know, I'll break rules over breaking the law. and where they ever decided that their will is more important than democracy, both in my district or statewide, just because you don't like it or agree with it. And I want to emphasize, Senator Brewster was more than happy to sign, saying if the court appeals go against him, he'll step down and let his challenger step in.

So this was just a flex and an unnecessary one at that. And then what happened happened and complicating things, there were about 200 angry Trump supporters under my office balcony protesting the election. And the difference between Wednesday versus the, thankfully a peaceful one outcome and Tuesday, you know, who knows what the difference was? You could have easily gone differently that way in Pennsylvania. We can't forget this idea that democracy means there are results that you like. You don't an outcome simply because it goes against your party's wishes.

or your own personal preferences. Yeah, and this seems to be a recurring theme. Shockingly enough, it's not just Pennsylvania that we're seeing that. Yeah, it's everywhere. And, you know, I would have hoped that when a group of militiamen were seriously planning to kidnap, maybe even harm a governor of a sitting state like Michigan, that that would have been like, whoa, who, you know, this, you know, this, this, this, this cosplay has gone far enough.

Like, we've got to knock this off. But it didn't. And I'm not the least. bit surprised, but I'm profoundly disappointed the way things went on on Wednesday. If anything, I feel like we got lucky that it could have been much worse. All I would have taken would have been one or two random individuals with an assault rifle or, you know, a gas can and a lighter. I mean, who knows? By the way, there were lost in all the melee of what had happened. There were bombs that were sent to the DNC, to the RNC that were found at the Capitol. I mean, like,

unto itself would be one of the biggest news events, you know, of the year. And yet it was just one more, one more thing that happened amid all the, the pandemonium caused by, caused by Trump and then straight down, down the lines of the rest of the Republican Party. And it took the president getting booted off a Twitter, you know, and this, like, it's, these are, like, I think, I think 2021 thinks it's still 2020, you know, with this stuff happening. You know, like, like I really, we really need to turn the page no matter how hard the hangover of 2020 seems to be. And, you know, I certainly don't take any day between now and

Joe Biden's inauguration for granted, especially after what happened on Wednesday. But this, this notion that it is not free speech to lie. You know, you can't scream fire in a crowded movie theater when there isn't one. Saying that the election was rigged or it was stolen is demonstrably false. It's not true. It never was true. And we saw what happens when you have two months solid of misinformation and lies and propaganda that all it takes is that one spark and the tinderbox goes off. And what could have happened to our leaders and to the capital itself would have been something that never even occurred during the civil war for Pete's sakes. Okay. So in Pennsylvania, what are Republicans waiting for? How does this last state senator get

seated at least. I really don't know. There's a court case that's outstanding, but I'm not even sure that even if that court judgment affirms Senator Brewster as the winner, you know, who knows? I mean, all bets are off. You know what's so ironic is that one of the senators that voted to have me removed from the chambers because I wasn't following the rules part took in storming the capital, Doug Oastriano. You know, there was a picture of him on Facebook with a former state rep, Rick Saccone. like, hey, together. And then the next picture of Rick Sucone posted was, we're storming the Capitol. I mean, his exact phrase. I mean, and it's like, you know, rules for thee, but not for me. I can, I can subvert democracy wholesale and invade the capital. I mean, and that's the kind

of weird juxtaposition that we're in where, you know, some silly, stuffy protocol is somehow more important than this idea that, you know, he hasn't been censored or anything from the Senate. Like, they booted me for demanding that they seat a democratically elected state senator. Meanwhile, he's down in Washington, D.C. You know, like, I, you know, it's, it's astounding to me personally. Yeah, I mean, well, you, you should know better than to let a Democrat who won an election try to take his seat. Yeah, I mean, how, yeah, the insanity, right? Yeah.

But, it's, it's true. But, but, I mean, you can see the picture of them online. It's, it's just this idea that that was a brief. too far for me demanding a democratically held, excuse me, democratically elected seat, be seated with the same credential he had. He was sworn in that day too. So they had the identical credentials. No, he can't be seated and you got to go. Meanwhile, I'm catching a bus down to Washington, D.C. to storm the capital the next day. Yeah. All right. Well, let me ask you a quick question. Is Pennsylvania, as it stands, the House and Senate District,

are they gerrymandered? Are congressional or not? Our congressional are true. And they're fair. And just so your viewers understand, before the redistricting in 2018, we went from 13 Republicans to 9 and 9, 9 and 9, right down in the middle. And that's a true reflection. Pennsylvania is a very purple state. I've been saying that forever. There was a time where it was like, ah, Pennsylvania is blue. I'm like, no, it's not.

And what's so crazy now is that after it went 9 and 9, the Republicans were complaining. They're like, ah, you know, like they don't want fair. They want them all. You know, they'd be happy if they could, they could rig it. So it was 18 Republicans. So our house and Senate is still gerrymandered. And with the new census and our Supreme Court that won't put up with that. And the governor, I'm optimistic we will get a better redistricting and redrawing of those maps.

I've never wanted anything other than a fair Democratic will. I'm fine with nine and nine, you know. Would I love 18 Dems and different? or Republicans? No, because that's not fair. That's not true. That's not the will of Pennsylvania. If you have a problem with nine Dems and nine Republicans, it's because you don't believe in true redistricting and democracy. Right. And I do want to mention, so there is a panel for redistricting that will draw the House and Senate maps and that panel split two Dems, two Republicans, and the fifth member is appointed by the state Supreme Court where Democrats have a majority.

So that does bode well for this year's redistricting process. You know what it bodes well for? It bodes war for fairness. Fairness. Just basic fairness. Just what they did with our congressional districts. You know, there wasn't any revenge. We didn't say, well, you know what?

You gerrymandered us. Well, you know, we'll see what you like. And we'll do 13 and 5 in reverse. I was like, no. We did it fair and common sense the way it should be. And look what we got. Nine and nine. You know, and that's the death.

Democratic will of Pennsylvania. And we have swing districts. We have PA-17 out here, although we might be losing that. And then we have Fitzpatrick's district out in Bucks County. And what's crazy is that the Republicans argued that we rigged Pennsylvania for Joe Biden, but we led Fitzpatrick win by 13 points. You know, like Joe Biden won his district, but, you know, Fitzpatrick, a Republican, won by 13 points. You know, like it defies logic. You know, their argument that it was rigged, but it's the Democratic will, and that's all I've ever wanted. So let's talk about you. Your state's Republican senator is retiring in 2022. Are we going to see a John Federman for U.S. Senate next cycle?

Well, you know, as some of you may know, I did announce that we're taking a look at it. And I can tell you, and I mean this in the most sincere way, like the response was truly humbling and overwhelming. It's not what I expected. And it really was. All I did was tweeted an article that I'm kicking a few tires and looking at this, and then it went from there. So definitely continuing with that process, profoundly grateful and honored to everyone that's, you know, donated and extend the kind word. And, you know, there'll be others in this race, no doubt. I know there's others looking at it. The great thing about Pennsylvania is we have an amazing bench, you know, and any one of them would be, you know, Pennsylvania would be well served one way or the

other. But, yeah, I am just overwhelmed with gratitude at the response that we got, you know, just with announcing that we're exploring. Well, what lessons would you take if you were to launch your run or, you know, for anybody, anybody who ultimately runs for the Senate as a Democrat in Pennsylvania. What lessons can you take from Georgia in order to mount a successful run? Sure. Well, what I would take is, I mean, I've had the good fortune of being, you know, elected statewide. So I think I have a pretty good idea of what running statewide is. You know, in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania is a very large and diverse state. We have one county with 5,000 people in it. We have Philadelphia, one of the largest cities in America. And it's a very

diverse and your worldview can be radically different and still call yourself a Pennsylvania citizen based on where you happen to live in the Commonwealth. And we can't ever forget that. And we can't ever forget that rural counties and urban areas have different needs and different challenges. But there's also some overlapping ones too. And I am not a partisan where and when I don't have to. My partisanship is out of necessity. It's not discretionary. I don't like to look at it as professional wrestling. I don't like flexes that would attempt to humiliate or to demean the other party. But there are things that we can't tolerate in Pennsylvania, and that is smearing our elections. And that's just not true.

I put it out there as long as we had this awful cycle. We had three cases out of seven million votes. If you got more proof, let's see it, dude. Let's see it. And not one single person took me up on that challenge. You want to know why? Because they couldn't. They couldn't. I can't even remember how many millions of dollars, Texas is. Yeah, Dan, Patty. Yeah, that's right. Thanks for mention that. My dude owes still owes Pennsylvania $3 million. And we're probably never going to get that. But, I mean, talk about going down in a hot, swirling, naming pile of garbage, that whole notion. And then the tragic taking the loss of five lives, you know, like actions have consequences. You scream fraud. You scream lies. You scream all that. It's going to end somewhere.

And as I said earlier in our time together, if a legitimate plot to kidnap and possibly assassinate the governor of Michigan wasn't enough to get you saying, well, you know, pump the brakes on some of this, it's not professional wrestling anymore. It's not, you know, for ratings. It's, it's dangerous. And we know that now more than ever. And I will push back against that in every opportunity I can, whether it's in my state Senate or whether if I'd be lucky enough to ever represent us in the U.S. Senate. But, you know, things are different. You know, I think we're going to look at our political atmosphere or landscape pre and post that uprising on Wednesday. And we realize now that there's precious left that's not on the table anymore, you know, and we got to move.

we got to pull it back. I'm not suggesting a big kumbaya movement and things are raw, but we need to agree that this is unacceptable. It can never happen again. And democracy will benefit your party sometimes or it benefits my party sometimes. It benefits all of us all the time. And we can never forget that. And one party has lost their way in that regard. And we must insist that we return back to that. Really well said. So obviously something we learned from Georgia and Wisconsin is that it takes a strong ground game that starts early. And you don't win statewide by basically starting in June for a November election. So this isn't also something that candidates can do themselves. Like if you're to run, you're busy running a race. So who is

Pennsylvania's Stacey Abrams or does Pennsylvania even have one yet? Well, I mean, Stacey Abrams is a unique and singular individual for sure. I mean, her work has, has, you know, changed the country, quite frankly. So I mean, I wouldn't suggest that we have any one of that, but we do have a very strong Democratic Party organization in our state by witness the fact that we were able to win Pennsylvania by 80,000, a margin that is well beyond, say, Georgia or Arizona. That being said, my focus has always been and will continue to be engaging those smaller rural states, because if they become inflamed or they become, they feel like they were ignored,

you have Donald Trump. And the only reason Donald Trump ever won Pennsylvania in 2016 and the presidency was because he pulled 80 plus margins out of these counties. You know, these places are important for a moral perspective and an infrastructural perspective, but politically too, you ignore them at your peril. And that kind of organizing was something that I infreux. used into the Biden campaign in Pennsylvania.

You know, my first campaign manager managed Pennsylvania for Joe Biden. And, you know, I made sure everyone understood. In my view, and it turned out to be correct, you've got to send Joe to Erie. You got to send Joe to Johnstown. You've got to send Joe to Bucks County. It is not a Philly Pittsburgh game in Pennsylvania. Never was, never can be. And moving forward, it's absolutely a 67 county game.

So how could we help, my listeners and viewers? Well, just the simple honor of allowing me to spend time with your viewers is, you know, and I give it straight, good or bad about where we are in Pennsylvania. I try to. And contributing, keeping an eye on this race, it's going to be pivotal in maintaining control of the Senate and just being vigilant, you know, and just being engaged and understanding that things on the ground in Pennsylvania are more complicated. We are a deeply purple state. Understanding the dynamic in Pennsylvania. is critical for your viewers. There are intensely progressive pockets in Pittsburgh and in Philadelphia, but there's also intensely, I think one county in Pennsylvania voted 84% to 16% for Donald Trump. I mean, those are remarkable margins. Pay attention to Pennsylvania. Support our efforts in Pennsylvania because this race would be pivotal in maintaining and expanding control of the Senate and just understanding that the dynamic might be something that is different in your state, different in your district, but I can assure you, Pennsylvania is very purple, and that's not going to change

certainly by the 22 cycle. And this race is going to, I think, be one of the most critical in the 22 cycle out of all of them. Totally. Well, John, thanks so much for taking the time and best of luck. And we, you know, you got a whole lot of people supporting you. So looking forward to seeing what happens in this next cycle. I am so grateful. Thank you for having me on again. And thank everyone out there that, you know, just really blew, blew us away with the response, you know, from yesterday. So thank you again. Thanks again to John Federman. That's it for this episode.

Talk to you next time. You've been listening to No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen. Produced by Sam Graber, music by Wellesie, interviews captured and edited for YouTube and Facebook by Nicholas Nicotera, and recorded in Los Angeles, California. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe in your preferred podcast app. Feel free to leave a five-star rating and a review. and check out Brian Tyler Cohen.com for links to all of my other channels.