My daily chronicle of news about the Trump administration (20 January 2017 – 20 January 2021), Republicans, Democrats, corporations, courts, resistance, and persistence continues. I am still posting important articles, especially ones that reflect the differences between the Biden administration and the Trump administration and ones that address the toxic legacy of the Trump administration and Republicans. However, I hope to devote more of my time to posting muckraking articles on my site in the coming months. Thanks for reading!
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Sunday, 1 January 2023:
Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger; I ‘fear for the future of this country’ if Trump isn’t charged with a crime related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, CNN Politics, Kevin Liptak and Jack Forrest, Sunday, 1 January 2023: “Outgoing Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Sunday he fears for the future of the country if former President Donald Trump isn’t charged with a crime related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, though he believes the Justice Department will ‘do the right thing.’ ‘If this is not a crime, I don’t know what is. If a president can incite an insurrection and not be held accountable, then really there’s no limit to what a president can do or can’t do,’ the Illinois lawmaker told CNN’s Dana Bash on ‘State of the Union.’ ‘I think the Justice Department will do the right thing. I think he will be charged, and I frankly think he should be,’ Kinzinger said of Trump. ‘If he is not guilty of a crime, then I frankly fear for the future of this country.’ Kinzinger served as one of two GOP members on the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot. The panel concluded its work last month and laid out a case for the DOJ and the public that there is evidence to pursue charges against Trump on multiple criminal statutes. The committee referred Trump to the department on at least four criminal charges: obstructing an official proceeding, defrauding the United States, making false statements, and assisting or aiding an insurrection. The panel also said in its executive summary that it had evidence of possible charges of conspiring to injure or impede an officer and seditious conspiracy.”
Lula da Silva is sworn in as Brazil’s president; outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro skips Lula’s inauguration, once again following the playbook of his close ally, Donald Trump, The Washington Post, Gabriela Sá Pessoa and Samantha Schmidt, Sunday, 1 January 2023: “Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former Brazilian president and stalwart of the Latin American left, was sworn in Sunday to the office he first held two decades ago, taking the helm of a polarized nation with promises to save the Amazon rainforest and preserve democracy. Lula, 77, won the presidency in October in the closest presidential election in Brazilian history, three years after being freed from prison on corruption charges that were later dropped. After a bitterly fought race against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, marred by misinformation and disinformation, he will now be expected to unite the nation while keeping campaign pledges to rebuild the economy, tackle police brutality and combat deforestation. Brazil’s fiscal challenges will limit his ability to address poverty and hunger. During his inauguration speeches, he committed to fighting against economic inequality and racial and gender injustice. While nodding to political reconciliation, Lula also criticized the Bolsonaro administration’s management of the coronavirus pandemic, saying it amounted to ‘genocide’ and should ‘not stay unpunished.’ He said ‘democracy was the great winner’ of a violent election marked by ‘a hate campaign plotted to embarrass and manipulate the Brazilian electorate. The public machine was used by an authoritarian project of power,’ the president said. ‘To hatred we will respond with love, to lies we will respond with truth, and to terror and violence we will respond with the law and its harshest consequences.’ As he took office, one key person was missing. Bolsonaro flew to Florida on Friday and skipped the traditional handover of the presidential sash to his successor, a symbolic reaffirmation of Brazil’s young democracy. The outgoing leader once again appeared to follow the playbook of his close ally, Donald Trump, who also skipped the 2020 inauguration of his successor, President Biden.” See also, Lula Becomes Brazil’s President, With Jair Bolsonaro in Florida. Brazil inaugurates its new president, Liuz Inácio Lula da Silva, on Sunday. Facing investigations, former President Jair Bolsonaro has taken refuge in Orlando, Florida. The New York Times, Jack Nicas and André Spigariol, Sunday, 1 January 2023: “President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took the reins of the Brazilian government on Sunday in an elaborate inauguration, complete with a motorcade, music festival and hundreds of thousands of supporters filling the central esplanade of Brasília, the nation’s capital. But one key person was missing: the departing far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro. Mr. Bolsonaro was supposed to pass Mr. Lula the presidential sash on Sunday, an important symbol of the peaceful transition of power in a nation where many people still recall the 21-year military dictatorship that ended in 1985. Instead, Mr. Bolsonaro woke up Sunday thousands of miles away, in a rented house owned by a professional mixed-martial-arts fighter a few miles from Disney World. Facing various investigations from his time in his office, Mr. Bolsonaro flew to Orlando on Friday night and plans to stay in Florida for at least a month. Mr. Bolsonaro had questioned the reliability of Brazil’s election systems for months, without evidence, and when he lost in October, he refused to concede unequivocally. In a sort of farewell address on Friday, breaking weeks of near silence, he said that he tried to block Mr. Lula from taking office but failed. ‘Within the laws, respecting the Constitution, I searched for a way out of this,’ he said. He then appeared to encourage his supporters to move on. ‘We live in a democracy or we don’t,’ he said. ‘No one wants an adventure.'”
Continue reading Aftermath of the Trump Administration, January 2023: