Category Archives: Donald Trump

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(Bloomberg) -- A firm hired to monitor Texas power markets says the regions grid manager overpriced electricity over two days during last months energy crisis, resulting in $16 billion in overcharges.Amid the deep winter freeze that knocked nearly half of power generation offline, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, known as Ercot, set the price of electricity at the $9,000-a-megawatt-hour maximum -- standard practice during a grid emergency. But Ercot left that price in place days longer than necessary, resulting in massive overcharges, according to Potomac Economics, an independent market monitor hired by the state of Texas to assess Ercots performance. In an unusual move, the firm recommended in a letter to regulators that the pricing be corrected and that $16 billion in charges be reversed as a result.Potomac isnt the first to say that leaving electricity prices at the $9,000 cap for so long was a mistake. Plenty of power companies at risk of defaulting on their payments have said the same. But the market monitor is giving that opinion considerable weight and could sway regulators to let companies off the hook for some of the massive electricity charges they incurred during the crisis.The Arctic blast that crippled Texass grid and plunged more than 4 million homes and businesses into darkness for days has pushed many companies to the brink of insolvency and stressed the power market, which is facing a more-than $2.5 billion payment shortfall. One utility, Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, has already filed for bankruptcy, while retailers Griddy Energy LLC and Entrust Energy Inc. defaulted and have been banned from participating in the market.The market is under quite a bit of duress, Kenan Ogelman, Ercots vice president of commercial operations told Texas lawmakers Thursday. Moodys Investors Service downgraded Ercot one notch from A1 to Aa3 and revised the grid operators credit outlook to negative.Retroactively adjusting the power price would ease the financial squeeze on some of the companies facing astronomical power bills in the wake of the energy crisis. EDF Renewable Energy and Just Energy are among those asking the Public Utility Commission to reset the power price for the days after the immediate emergency while others have also asked regulators to waive their obligation to pay until price disputes are resolved.If we dont act to stabilize things, a worst-case scenario is that people will go under, said Carrie Bivens, the Ercot independent market monitor director at Potomac Economics. It creates a cascading effect.The erroneous charges exceed the total cost of power traded in real-time in all of 2020, said Bivens, who spent 14 years at Ercot, where she most recently was director of market operations before becoming its watchdog. Its a mind-blowing amount of money.While prices neared the $9,000 cap on the first day of the blackouts, they soon dipped to $1,200 -- a fluctuation that the utility commission later attributed to a computer glitch. The panel, which oversees the states power system, ordered Ercot to manually set the price at the maximum to incentivize generators to feed more electricity into the grid during the period of supply scarcity. The market monitor argues that Ercot should have reset prices once rotating blackouts ended because, at the point, the emergency was over.Its asking the commission to direct Ercot to correct the real-time price of electricity from 12 a.m. Feb. 18 to 9 a.m. Feb. 19. Doing so could save end-customers around $1.5 billion that otherwise would be passed through to them from electricity providers, Bevins said.But power generators that reaped substantial profits from the high prices during the crisis week are likely to push back. Vistra Corp. on Thursday submitted comments to the utility commission arguing against repricing. During a Texas senate hearing the same day, utilities South Texas Electric Cooperative and the Lower Colorado River Authority also voiced opposition.Texas Competitive Power Advocates, a trade association representing generators, said retroactively changing prices could discourage future investments in Texass electricity market. Changing prices after the fact creates additional instability and uncertainty, Michele Richmond, the groups executive director, said in an email.Bivens acknowledged the market monitor isnt typically in favor of repricing, but noted in her letter to the commission that the move wouldnt result in any revenue shortfalls for generators. Instead, the new price would reflect the actual supply, demand and reserves during the period.This isnt some Monday morning quarterbacking, she said in an interview. Ercot made an error and we dont let errors slide.The utility commission on Wednesday adopted a prior recommendation made by the market monitor, voting to to claw back some payments to power generators for services they never actually provided during energy crisis. The commissioners also expressed support for capping the price of certain grid services -- a request made by several retailers -- but didnt take action on it. Another commission meeting is scheduled for Friday.(Adds Ogelman quote, Moodys downgrade in fifth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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Trump Organization Under Criminal Investigation in NY Will Donald Trumps Accountants Flip? - Yahoo Finance

Infowars host Alex Jones can be heard saying that he is "sick" of former President Donald Trump in a newly unearthed video.

Jones made the remarks while filming an interview for the documentary You Can't Watch This in January 2019. In an expletive-filled outtake leaked by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on Tuesday, the far-right conspiracy theorist insisted that he would have preferred to have never met the former president, despite heavily promoting Trump to his audience for more than five years.

"It's the truth and I'm just going to say it, that I wish I never would have f***ing met Trump," Jones said. "I wish it never would have happened. And it's not the attacks I've been through. It's I'm so sick of f***ing Donald Trump, man. God, I'm f***ing sick of him. And I'm not doing this because, like, I'm kissing his f***ing ass, you know. It's, like, I'm sick of it."

A spokesperson for Trump declined to comment to Newsweek when asked about the video. Infowars had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

While the video suggests that Jones may have privately tired of Trump, he has publicly remained one of the former president's most ardent supporters. Jones participated in multiple "Stop the Steal" rallies following Trump's election loss to President Joe Biden, including a January 6 rally in Washington, D.C. that immediately preceded the deadly breach of the U.S. Capitol.

The leaked footage was recorded by filmmaker Caolan Robertson, who told SPLC that Jones "doesn't care about most of the stuff he professes to." Jones has rarely strayed from praising Trump since the former reality television star became a political figure. Trump himself took part in a December 2015 Infowars interview with Jones, with the then-candidate telling the host that "your reputation is amazing" while vowing to "not let you down."

In January, a video showing Jones denouncing the false pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory while speaking to a supporter of the theory on Infowars went viral, gathering millions of views. Jones had previously used his platform to boost QAnon and similar debunked conspiracies like Pizzagate.

"Every God damn thing out of you people's mouths doesn't come true," Jones said. "It's always 'Oh, there's energy,' 'Oh, now we're done with Trump.' You said he was the messiah! You said he was invincible! You said that it was all over. That they were going to Gitmo and now that he's part of a larger thing of Q."

"I will not suffer you Q people after this," he added. "I knew what you were day one and I know what you are now and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of all these witches and warlocks and pumpkin popsomes and everything. Oh God. Bye-bye Q, I can't talk to you anymore. Jesus, lord help me."

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Video Shows Alex Jones Saying He's 'Sick' of Donald Trump and Wishes He Never Met Him - Newsweek

Donald Trump clung to his core election falsehoods in his first post-presidential speech, wrongly blamed wind power for the catastrophic power failures in Texas and revived a variety of the baseless claims that saturated his time in office, on immigration, the economy and more.

A look at Trumps remarks Sunday at the Conservative Political Action Conference:

WIND POWER

TRUMP, assailing Democrats on energy policy: The windmill calamity that were witnessing in Texas ... its so sad when you look at it. That will just be the start.

TRUMP, on President Joe Biden: He wants windmills. ... The windmills that dont work when you need them.

THE FACTS: Windmill calamity is a false characterization. The power outages during the severe February storm in Texas were primarily due to failures in natural gas, coal and nuclear energy systems, not wind and solar.

Those traditional sources were responsible for nearly twice as many outages as frozen wind turbines and solar panels, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the states power grid.

ERCOT reported that of the 45,000 total megawatts of power that were offline statewide during the winter storm, about 30,000 consisted of thermal sources gas, coal and nuclear plants and 16,000 came from renewable sources. Wind only supplies about a quarter of the electricity in Texas.

Its not like we were relying on it to ride us through this event, Joshua Rhodes, a research associate at the Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas at Austin, said of wind power. Nor would it have been able to save us even if it were operating at 100% capacity right now. We just dont have enough of it.

Wind power comes from turbines, not windmills. Windmills grind grain. Trump always gets that wrong.

___

ELECTION

TRUMP: Had we had a fair election, the results wouldve been much different.

TRUMP: You cannot have a situation where ballots are indiscriminately pouring in from all over the country ... where illegal aliens and dead people are voting.

TRUMP: This election was rigged and the Supreme Court and other courts didnt want to do anything about it.

TRUMP on Democrats: They just lost the White House. ... I may even decide to beat them for a third time.

THE FACTS: All of this is flatly wrong, except it is true that the high court did not intervene, because the justices Trump nominees among them saw no reason to.

Biden won the election. It was run and counted fairly. His victory was affirmed in Congress, with Trumps vice president presiding over the process in the Senate, in the hours after the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection by a mob stoked by Trump.

Trumps allegations of massive voting fraud were either refuted or brushed off as groundless by a variety of judges, state election officials, an arm of his own administrations Homeland Security Department, and his own attorney general. His campaigns lawsuits across the country were thrown out of court or otherwise came to nothing.

No case established irregularities of a scale that would change the outcome no flood of dead people voting or ballots indiscriminately pouring in from all over the country.

Biden earned 306 electoral votes to Trumps 232, the same margin that Trump had when he beat Hillary Clinton in 2016, which he repeatedly described as a landslide. (Trump ended up with 304 electoral votes because two electors defected.)

___

IMMIGRATION

TRUMP, on foreign countries that are the source of migrants to the U.S.: Theyre not giving us their best and their finest.

THE FACTS: This falsehood goes way back in the Trump administration. Foreign countries do not select people to send to the U.S. That is not at all how immigration works.

He is referring to the diversity visa lottery program, although he did not identify it as such in these remarks. As president, Trump routinely assailed the program, mischaracterizing it as one in which other countries pick out undesirable citizens to send to the U.S.

The U.S. government runs the visa program and foreigners who want to come to the U.S. apply for it. The program requires applicants to have completed a high school education or have at least two years of experience in the last five years in a selection of fields identified by the Labor Department.

Out of that pool of people from certain countries who meet those conditions, the State Department randomly selects a much smaller pool of winners. Not all winners will have visas ultimately approved. Its not a pipeline for countries to send their troublemakers to the U.S.

___

CHINA

TRUMP: We took in hundreds of billions of dollars from China during my administration. They never gave us 10 cents.

THE FACTS: False and false, and very familiar.

Its false to say the U.S. never collected a dime in tariffs on Chinese goods before he took action. They are simply higher in some cases than they were before.

Its also wrong to say the tariffs are being paid by China. Tariff money coming into the treasury is mainly from U.S. businesses and consumers, not from China. Tariffs are primarily if not entirely a tax paid domestically.

___

ECONOMY

TRUMP: We built the strongest economy in the history of the world.

THE FACTS: No, the numbers show it wasnt the greatest in U.S. history, much less in the history of the world. He was actually the first president since Herbert Hoover in the Depression to leave office with fewer jobs than when he started.

The U.S. did have the most jobs on record before the pandemic, but population growth explains part of that. The 3.5% unemployment rate before the pandemic-induced recession was at a half-century low, but the percentage of people working or searching for jobs was still below a 2000 peak.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer looked at Trumps economic growth record. Growth under Trump averaged 2.48% annually before the pandemic, only slightly better than the 2.41% gains achieved during Barack Obamas second term. By contrast, the economic expansion that began in 1982 during Ronald Reagans presidency averaged 4.2% a year.

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CPAC 2021: Here are the lies Donald Trump told - AL.com

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For much of the past four years, Sen. Rob Portman has had to answer questions about former President Donald Trump's behavior, tweets and personal attacks on other politicians.

So when Trump makes his first post-presidential speech Sunday afternoon at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Portman hopes it's more about policy than personalities, the Republican fromTerrace Park told George Stephanopolous Sunday morning on ABC This Week.

While Republicans love Trump, Portman said,the Republican policies are more popular than the former president.

More: Who is Sen. Rob Portman?

Stephanopolous asked Portman whether Trump's dominance in the Republican Party is a blessing or a burden.

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman announced he will not be seeking re-election when his term is up in 2022, Monday, Jan. 25, 2021, at the Hilton Hotel in Cincinnati.(Photo: Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer)

Portman, who is retiring at the end of his term,didn't say whether Trump was either.

"He's very popular among Republicans, and the polling all shows that," Portman said. "Ido think the policies are what's even more popular. That's why the Republicans did pretty well in 2020, other than the presidential level."

Almost half of the 1,000 Trump voters surveyed by USA Today in February said they'd abandon the GOP if Trump started a third political party.

Portman said Trump has an opportunity tonight to talk about the successes over the past four years, such as the strong economy, building up the military and other issues.

But can Republicans talk about those issues with Trump in the lead?

"It sometimes makes it more difficult," Portman said. "But look, he has an opportunity today to talk about his accomplishments. I mean, instead of talking about personalities and who might not have agreed with him on the impeachment process, talk about what youdid."

Read or Share this story: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/28/portman-donald-trump-cpac-should-talk-issues/6859681002/

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Rob Portman: Republican policies are more popular than Trump. 'He has an opportunity today' - The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Senate on Saturday acquitted former President Donald Trump of an article of impeachment that charged he incited the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

The 57-43 vote fell far short of the Constitutions two-thirds requirement.

Seven Republicans broke ranks and voted to convict Trump: Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

Trump thanked the 43 Republicans who voted to acquit him in an emailed statement.

Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun. In the months ahead I have much to share with you, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people. There has never been anything like it! Trump said.

It is a sad commentary on our times that one political party in America is given a free pass to denigrate the rule of law, defame law enforcement, cheer mobs, excuse rioters, and transform justice into a tool of political vengeance, and persecute, blacklist, cancel and suppress all people and viewpoints with whom or which they disagree. I always have, and always will, be a champion for the unwavering rule of law, the heroes of law enforcement, and the right of Americans to peacefully and honorably debate the issues of the day without malice and without hate.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voted to acquit but tore into Trump in a floor speech afterwards. He said President Trump is constitutionally not eligible for conviction as a result of already leaving office, but that there is no question none that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.

The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president and having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole, which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth, McConnell said.

McConnell, who is Washingtons most powerful post-Trump Republican, accused the former president of being responsible for increasingly wild myths about a reverse landslide election that was somehow being stolen.

Although he voted to acquit, McConnells speech mirrored the pro-conviction arguments of impeachment managers. He said Trump imperiled former Vice President Mike Pence and Capitol police officers.

The leader in the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise when people believe him and do reckless things, McConnell said.

This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters decision or else torch our institutions on the way out.

McConnell said Trump was watching the same live television as the rest of us. A mob was assaulting the Capitol in his name. These criminals were carrying his banners, hanging his flags and screaming their loyalty to him. It was obvious that only President Trump could end this The president did not act swifty, he did not do his job Instead, according to public reports he watched television happily as the chaos unfolded. He kept pressing his scheme to overturn the election.

McConnell added that Trump voters arent responsible for the violence. 74 million Americans did not engineer the campaign of disinformation and rage that provoked it. One person did. Just one, he said.

But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) argued that the acquittal could result in more violence.

The failure to convict Donald Trump will live as a vote of infamy in the history of the United States Senate, Schumer said.

Schumer said that if lying about the results of an election is acceptable, if instigating a mob against the government is considered permissible, if encouraging political violence becomes the norm, it will be open season on our democracy and everything will be up for grabs by whoever has the biggest clubs, the sharpest spears, the most powerful guns.

Trump attorney Michael van der Veen maintained in closing arguments that Democrats were hypocritical for impeaching Trump over a heated pre-riot speech and said the proceeding was unconstitutional.

Throughout the summer Democrat leaders including the current president and vice president repeatedly made comments that provided moral comfort to mobs attacking police officers, van der Veen said.

Van der Veen said that the Capitol break-in that disrupted certification of President Bidens victory and left five dead actually was pre-planned and premeditated by fringe left and right groups.

The gathering on Jan. 6 was supposed to be an entirely peaceful event, van der Veen said. He argued that local officials failed to provide adequate security for the Capitol.

Trumps now second impeachment acquittal followed a dramatic request by House managers to call at least one witness threatening to drag the trial weeks longer only for a compromise to be reached adding a statement from Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) into the record.

Lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) argued that Trump must be convicted and banned from holding office again to preserve US democratic traditions.

Weve shown you how President Trump created a powder keg, lit a match and then continued his incitement even as he failed to defend us from the ensuing violence, Raskin said Saturday.

This case is about whether our country demands a peaceful, non-violent transfer of power.

Raskin said that Trump knew there would be violence at the Capitol after he concluded a pre-riot speech and that he didnt join the march because he didnt want to be too close to the action when all hell was about to break loose.

Were defending the US Senate and the US House against a president who acted no better than a marauder and a member of that mob by inciting those people to come here. And in many ways he was worse. He named the date, he named the time and he brought them here. And now, he must pay the price, Raskin closed.

The trials outcome was long viewed as a foregone conclusion due to the 17 Republican votes needed to convict. Last month, just 10 House Republicans voted to impeach Trump and on Tuesday only six GOP senators voted that the trial was constitutional.

Many Republican senators said they could not see past their belief that the trial was unconstitutional because Trump no longer holds office. Others said that they believed that impeachment managers failed to prove that Trump incited the violence.

No. 2 Senate Republican John Thune of South Dakota, against whom Trump has encouraged a 2022 primary challenge, also voted to acquit Trump, despite saying on Wednesday that the Democratic case was very effective and I think theyve done a good job connecting the dots.

It was the fourth Senate impeachment trial in US history and follows Trumps acquittal last year in a separate trial for allegedly obstructing Congress and abusing his power by asking Ukraine to investigate now-President Biden and his son Hunter.

The Senate also acquitted Trump in February 2020 of charges he obstructed Congress and abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to investigate President Biden and his son Hunter. A single Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, voted to find him guilty on one of those two counts.

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Senate votes to acquit Donald Trump in impeachment trial

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene apologized for previous incendiary social media post regarding conspiracy theories. Associated Press

ROME, Ga. Tomany of her constituents, Marjorie Taylor Greene got to Congress because she embodies a variety of conservative values: anti-tax, anti-bureaucracy, pro-religion, pro-guns, pro-Donald Trump.

Her violent rhetoric and conspiracy theories?

Those aren't as popular with Republican conservatives in Georgia but probably aren't a deal-breaker, either.

"I know her I think she's representing us very well," said Debbie Scoggins, 54, a co-owner of Giggity's sports bar in downtown Rome, the imperially named city at the heart of Georgia's 14th Congressional District.

Sweeping the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, Scoggins said she met Greene as the latter asked for her vote.Pointing to the wide boulevard that runs past the old brick buildings of the rehabbed downtown, Scoggins said,"She's been all up and down Broad Street, asking people what they want from her ...She's passionate; she cares about people."

To others, Greene's passionboils into something far more than that: dangerous, conspiracy-driven extremism, the kind of rhetoric that leads to things like the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by fervent Trump supporters.

President Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene at a Senate runoff campaign rally in Dalton, Ga., on Jan. 4, 2021.(Photo: Brynn Anderson/AP)

"We just elected a bomb thrower, and she is not going to back down," said John Cowan, aRome-based neurosurgeon who lost a Republican runoff to Greene last year.

Greene's election in 2020 underscored how Trump's political movement swept some far-right candidates into public office; her tenure so far has exposed Trump-generated divisions in the Republican Party moving forward, though local GOP members said they are unsure if they can defeat Greene in next year's congressional elections.

Greene removed from committee: Incendiary social media posts prompt House action

GOP two-step: Republicans keep faith with Trump in backing of Marjorie Taylor Greene

Earlier this month, the Democratic majority in the U.S. House, along with 11 Republicans,voted to dismissGreene from two congressional committees, bringing another hailstorm of bad publicity to this rural, small-town corner of northwest Georgia.

Some Republicans in Georgia, and elsewhere, said people like Greene are killing the party it's"a battle for sanity," Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., told NPR News. Greene, meanwhile, raised money off of the attacks on her and threatenedto back primary opponents for Republicans who voted for Trump's impeachment.

"Youve picked a fight you cant win. We will make sure of it," Taylor tweeted at Kinzinger during the recent Senate impeachment trial that acquitted Trump of charges that he incited the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Republicans in northwest Georgia, some speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to alienate their neighbors, said too many of their colleaguesare hurting the party byignoring Greene's more extreme views: Her seeming support for violence against political opponents, her apparent QAnon belief that a secret sect runs the United States, her suggestions that school shootings were staged to inspire calls for gun control.

Some voiced concern that Greene's lack of committee membership could cost the region some federal aid. But they added it'stoo early to say whether a more establishment Republican might challenge her in a party primary next year.

"I think Jan. 6 was a big, big wake-up call for the Republican Party," Cowan said. "The issue is, how are we being represented?"

The House is expected to vote Thursday about whether to strip Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments, over her past embrace of conspiracy theories. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says she apologized. (Feb. 4) AP Domestic

Amy Stone, 47, a Democrat and chief compliance officer who lives inChickamauga, said Greene succeeded because she was seen as being like Trump, spreading false claims that politicians want to forge "socialism" and take away people's guns.

"I feel like she did a really great job of just stirring that fear," Stone said. "And then riding Trump coattails because around here, Trump is king."

Local Republicans said it could take a long time to figure out how someone likeGreene could win a GOP primary and get elected to Congress, even from a conservative area like northwest Georgia.

"Everyone's scratching their head trying to figure that out," said Hal Storey, 63, a local businessmanwho described himself as a political independent,

Some reasons are already clear, however:A successful businesswoman, Greene had money and a good organization. Her incendiarysocial media posts gave her name recognition.She managed to cast herself as the "Trumpiest" candidate in a Republican primary field full of Trump supporters.

Greene says she regrets comments: Congresswoman says she's sorry for 'wrong and offensive' comments

More: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, controversial Republican embraced QAnon conspiracy theories

Initially, Greene did not even plan to represent the 14th District. She prepared to run in another district,a less Republican area in the northern suburbs of Atlanta that had elected a Democrat in 2018. The district did so again in 2020.

In the meantime, Greene took advantage of an unexpected political development that allowed her to run in a more Republican district.

Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga., first elected to Congress from northwest Georgia in 2010, announced in December 2019 he would not seek reelection. A businessman, Graves was a more traditional Republican who developed a reputation as a fiscal hawk.

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During the 2016 Republican presidential race, Graves also criticized Trump. In a letter to constituents, he said: "Would I be comfortable if my three children acted like Trump? Certainly not.

Nine Republicans jumped into the 2020race for the newly open seat, but most had to create a campaign structure from scratch.Greene,moving into the 14th District from the northern Atlantaarea, hada ready-made organization she had created for the other race.

"She had the car up and running, while other people were assembling the pieces," said Charles S. BullockIII,a political science professor at the University of Georgia.

Greene's aggressive style, and provocative use of social media, gave her name identification and enabled her to build support from the area's large group of Trump supporters. It allhelped her accomplish step one: Finish in the top two of the primary and qualify for the runoff.

This despite criticism of a string of Facebook videos in which Greene said Muslims should not be allowed to serve in government, and that Black people have become "slaves to the Democratic Party." Greene also ran ads showing her holding semiautomatic weapons.

In theone-on-one runoff with Cowan, Greene cast herself as a champion of Trumpism and declared her opponent as insufficiently conservative; she won with 57% of the vote.

During an online debate,Taylor hit Cowan for not having donated toTrump's campaign "you haven't given a dime to President Trump" while Cowan brought up Taylor's extreme views.

"I'm all of the conservative and none of the embarrassment," he said.

Greene,who spent a reported $2.2 million on the campaign,prevailed even as her views drew national attention to the congressional race featuring the "QAnon candidate."

As in most of the country, most people don't follow the details of politics, said residents of northwest Georgia. They did not think through the ramifications of some of Greene's beliefs. They did not fathom QAnon, the conspiracy theory that baselessly claims that a cabal of pedophiles and Satan worshipersare secretly running the government.

American flags fly over a sign reading 'Pray For Our Nation' on Highway 27 Friday, Nov. 6, 2020, in Rome, Ga. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)(Photo: Ben Margot, AP)

Cowan noted that the primary was June 9 and the runoff was Aug. 11. Details about Greene's background emerged gradually, he said, and people did not have enough time to absorb and fully understand the implications of some of Greene's views.

"I don't think there was enough time and money to adjudicate it properly," Cowan said.

In Georgia's 14th Congressional District, winning the Republican nomination is tantamount to winning the seat. Greene's Democratic opponent in the general election Kevin Van Ausdal, 35, a political newcomer who hadpledged to "bring civility back to Washington withdrew from the race just more than a month before Election Day.

Some Greene supporters said the Democrats were just stirring up trouble for the Republicans, and still are.

"They need to get some of these old ones that's in there out that have gone wacko," saidRaleen Carr, 64, a Greene backer who works at a coffee shop in downtown Ringgold.

Carr cited Greene's youth and opposition to abortion "not killing babies," she said as reasons for Green's support in Georgiaand her opposition in Washington. Carr said, "they are trying to get her out because of her morals and her values."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer carried a poster of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene holding an AR-15, while calling for her removal from House committees. USA TODAY

From the three rivers that originally made Rome a trade center,to the carpet industry that made Dalton a brand name,the 14th Congressional District was drawn to loop inRepublican and conservative areas.

The electorate here is a distillation ofthe conservative evolution of the Republican Party, especially in the once solid-Democratic South. It's a tradition that runs from BarryGoldwater to Ronald Reagan to Georgia's own Newt Gingrich and now includes the Trump movement.

In getting to Congress, Greene campaigned on the Trumpian view thatthe nation is in decline, threatened by "socialism" and other countries that take advantage of the United States.

The approach "appeals to people who see the world changing around them," said Bullock, the professor. "They're uncomfortable. They don't know what to do about it."

There are other factors behind Greene's popularity, some residents said. Some supporters aresimply resentful of Blackor Hispanic peopleand never happy about civil rights laws that stretch back to the 1960s, some residents said,speaking on condition of anonymity.

Others simply hate Democratsand are thrilled to see Greene's slashing attacks on them. "I think people in northwest Georgia have applauded that," Cowan said.

More: Steny Hoyer blasts Marjorie Taylor Greene over AR-15 post targeting Democratic 'Squad'

More: House Republicans, divided and angry, meet to decide fate of Liz Cheney and Marjorie Taylor Greene

The area has historically chafed at the federal government.

There are Civil War references all over Rome, from a marker along a river noting the site of the Noble Brothers Foundry,which once made locomotives and cannons for the Confederate Army, to cannons themselves sitting atop Jackson Hill. Officials recently removed a statue ofConfederate Gen. William Bedford Forrest, who after the war became the firstGrand Wizardof theKu Klux Klan.

The city also honors all sorts of history, including a statue of its mosthistoric resident: Ellen Axson Wilson, first lady of the United States during Woodrow Wilson's presidency; she died during hisfirst term.

Taylor might not even be the most conservative member to ever represent the area.

Rep. Larry McDonald, elected in 1974 in a district that included parts of northwest Georgia, campaigned against what he saw as a communist conspiracy to destroy the United States. In office, he voted against the Martin Luther KingJr.holiday, falsely claiming in a statement that the civil rights leader had been "manipulated by communists and secret communist agents."

McDonald was also a Democrat, a throwback to the party's "Solid South" at a time when Republicans were poorly organized in the state. He died in one of the most infamous incidents of the Cold War:aboardKorean Air Lines Flight 007 that was accidentally shot down by the Russians in 1983.

Some northwest Georgia Republicans offered a different view of the political world. They said too many politicians are out for themselves and indifferent to the loss of manufacturing jobs andthe decline of religious morality.

In downtown Dalton, where the whistles of passing freight trains are often heard,Greene supporterSusan Mealssaid, "we don't think what's going on now is working sometimes you just need a change."

Meals, a nurse, did not agree with some of Greene's views: "There are a lot of people out there on both sides who have conspiracy theories I don't agree with. Does that make them bad people? No."

Greene would probably not be "my best friend," said Meals, 58. "But I didn't vote for her to be my best friend."

Down the road inRinggold, some houses fly the Confederate battle flag or the recently discardedGeorgia state flag that includesthe Stars and Bars.Another familiar sight through the district: the spires of churches, four of which lineNashville Street in downtown Ringgold.

Preston Brown, 49, a Republican who works in the area's fairly large tourism industry, said he didn't think it was right that Democrats made the decision to remove Greene from her congressional committees.

"That," he said, "seems like an overreach of authority.

The House has voted to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from House committees. Here's why this is significant for the congresswoman. USA TODAY

Residents said most people in Georgia's 14th Congressional District really aren't intopolitics, especially the way it's practiced now. Some residents don't even know who Greene is.

Othersrefused to talk about her. And otherssaid they would discuss the congresswoman only on the condition that they not be named, fearful of blowback from friends and customers who ardently support Trump and Greene.

One business owner, who asked that his name not be used, said people said "we're going to shut you down" if he came out against Trump."It's pretty crazy," he said.

Greene does not represent the area in total, some residents said, particularly the African American population and a growing number of Latinos. The district is more than 80% white, according to Census figures.

Alexandros Cornejo, 41, an immigration attorneywho said he doesn't belong to either political party, said Greene is certainly not representing clients who work hard for a living. "At this point, she's become a nuisance and a distraction she needs to go."

Whether that happens in next year's election remains to be seen.

For one thing, Greene figures to be well-funded. Greene said on Jan. 29 she had raised more than $1.6 million off of negative media coverage of her.On Feb. 3, the day before the House voted to kick her off committees, Greene tweeted she had raised $175,000in a single day, and told followers that "they are attacking me because Im one of you."

Storey, the businessman who grew up in Rome,said people will be "scratching their head"for years over how Greene made it to Congress. He simply doesn't believe that most residents agree with the "divisiveness" and "meanness" displayed by Greene's campaign.

"That doesn't represent the community I grew up in," he said.

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'Around here, Trump is king': How Marjorie Taylor Greene got to Congress by running as the MAGA candidate - USA TODAY

On Feb. 10, Fox News was in lockstep with other cable news channels and major broadcast networks in presenting more than four hours of the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

But at 5 p.m. Eastern, Fox News pulled away from the most graphic video evidence of violence during the insurrection by pro-Trump rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and switched to its popular daily roundtable show The Five.

Most of the panelists dismissed the Democratic impeachment managers presentation, defended the former president and moved on to other topics including the viral Zoom cat lawyer video despite the historic nature of the events in Washington. Viewers who wanted Fox News journalists take on the proceedings had to wait until anchor Bret Baier showed up at the top of the 6 p.m. hour.

The editorial judgment to cut away was met with derision on social media, where the conservative-leaning news network is often hammered by critics. On screen, Juan Williams, the lone liberal on The Five, angrily chastised his co-hosts for ignoring the evidence presented.

What played out that day demonstrates the pressure Fox News is under, as the network faces growing scrutiny over its role in supporting Trump and his disinformation claims that many believe helped to fuel the deadly insurrection attempt in the Capitol.

The profit engine of Rupert Murdochs Fox Corp. presents itself as a news network, but its often defined by its opinion hosts, such as Sean Hannity, who pay fealty to Trump and the former presidents devoted followers.

Those followers now have multiple options to feed their fix for right-wing opinions some of them far more extreme than what is delivered on Fox News. Satisfying those viewers while also reporting information that does not fit their worldview has become a challenge for an organization that faces vocal detractors on the political center and left, a potentially expensive lawsuit from one of Trumps baseless voter fraud targets and an increasingly outsize role in the parent companys financial performance.

I have friends who dont watch Fox anymore because they see it as untethered from reality, said Richard Goodstein, a Washington attorney who has appeared on the channel as a liberal guest. The question for Fox is balancing losing viewers like that to losing viewers who switch channels rather than watching someone like me who forcefully brings facts and opinions that they cannot tolerate.

Chris Stirewalt, the former political editor for Fox News, said in an op-ed column for The Times that he faced anger from the Trump multitudes after defending the networks election night call of the once reliably red Arizona for Joe Biden.

When I defended the call for Biden in the Arizona election, I became a target of murderous rage from consumers who were furious at not having their views confirmed, he wrote.

Giving the benefit of the doubt and often full-throated support to a president whose lies led to an attempt to overturn an election in turn led to voting software maker Smartmatics $2.7-billion defamation lawsuit against the network and three of its hosts.

The suit filed Feb. 4 alleges that Fox News and its hosts Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro damaged Smartmatics reputation and business by spreading Trumps conspiracy theories about the election being rigged to elect President Biden. (Fox News and the hosts have filed motions to dismiss the suit, saying the Trumps claims were newsworthy, even if they were false.)

A more immediate question hanging over Fox News is the same one the Republican party is grappling with: What is the next move for Trump? Just as Republican legislators fear Trump will support primary challengers back home if they take him to task, Fox News has to determine how to navigate his expected re-emergence following his acquittal in the second impeachment trial.

Joe Walsh, a former tea party movement congressman from Illinois and conservative radio host, said the right-wing audience remains enthralled with Trump.

Thats the only thing thats going to satiate the folks who turn on Fox, Walsh said. Right now they are going on about big tech censorship and immigration. Thats not going to be enough.

The challenges come as Fox News has emerged as the most significant piece of Fox Corp., which slimmed down after selling most of its entertainment assets to the Walt Disney Co. for $71 billion. During the current fiscal year, Fox News is expected to contribute 80% or more than $2 billion to Fox Corp.'s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, an industry-wide measurement of profitability.

Fox News has been the most-watched cable news channel for 19 consecutive years, thanks to its effective positioning as a right-leaning alternative to other TV news outlets. As the rest of the traditional TV business declined in 2020, the channels audience grew. Fox News became the most-watched network in all of cable TV, according to Nielsen.

The network expected an audience falloff once Trump lost the White House, as it had seen viewers tune out after Barack Obama, a Democrat, defeated his Republican opponents in 2008 and 2012.

But Trump remained the main story in the weeks after the 2020 election with his unfounded charges of voter fraud, leading to the insurrection at the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters that killed five people, followed by the second impeachment trial. Depressed Trump supporters tuned out of Fox News during coverage of those events, while the ratings for MSNBC and CNN surged as viewers who dont habitually watch cable news were tuning in.

Fox News has managed to ride out ratings fluctuations in the past, but it took longer this time. The network has ranked first in viewers since Bidens inauguration, although it still trails CNN in the 25 to 54 age group important to advertisers.

The dip was significant enough for Fox Corp. Chief Executive Lachlan Murdoch to calm the waters. On Feb. 9, Murdoch told financial analysts that the company extended the employment contract of Fox News Media Chief Executive Suzanne Scott and praised her performance.

Arnon Mishkin, director of the Fox News decision desk, explains his call of Arizona for former vice president Joe Biden.

Scott took over the operation in 2018 after it had been rocked by sexual harassment scandals and racial discrimination lawsuits related to the reign of the networks founding chief executive, Roger Ailes. After maintaining the networks ratings leadership for two years, she is now jiggering the networks lineup and will add at least two more hours of right-leaning opinion programs, which have always been the most reliable ratings performers.

Murdoch also tried to counter the notion that Fox News has veered too far to one end of the political spectrum.

We dont need to go further right, Murdoch said. Well stick where we are, and we think thats exactly right and thats the best thing for the business and for our viewers.

Despite the younger Murdochs assurances, there is a sense among some politicos and people inside Fox News that the network has already moved further right to stave off the insurgence of new outlets that are courting their audience. Even veterans of past Republican administrations, such as Matthew Dowd, who worked for George W. Bush, believe there has been a shift.

We saw them as conservative and more likely to be more friendly than others, but we never saw them as like, Oh, lets do Fox because theyre basically a propaganda arm, Dowd said. You always thought of it as a conservative outlet, but it was rational conservative.

A Fox News insider not authorized to speak publicly on the matter said the conservative bent of the network is reflective of where the Republican Party has gone under Trump.

This past year, Fox News saw the rise of a pesky new rival in Newsmax, which kept up a steadfast defense of Trumps voter fraud claims through President Bidens inauguration. Last fall, the Boca Raton, Fla.-based channel averaged as many as 1 million viewers at 7 p.m. Eastern on some days with host Greg Kelly, who on Trumps last day in office said, I miss him already.

Newsmaxs ratings have faded in recent weeks. Since the inauguration it has averaged 226,000 viewers compared with 2.5 million for Fox News.

The other right-wing Fox wannabe is the more strident San Diego-based One America News Network, which does not have enough distribution in cable and satellite homes to be measured by Nielsen.

But the new breed of conservative outlets know how to attract attention. After Fox News Media canceled Dobbs Fox Business Network program where many of Trumps election fraud falsehoods were promoted OAN founder Robert Herring asked in a tweet for the host to give him a call. We may have a position available for you in which you wouldnt be censored for speaking the truth! Herring wrote.

Dobbs remains under contract to Fox News and still gets an annual salary in the seven figures.

Neither of the upstart channels has the financial resources or infrastructure to knock Fox News off its perch. Nevertheless, Fox News is entering an era where a multitude of new contenders will try to nibble away at the conservative audience it once had to itself.

Theyve gone from having zero wing-nut competition to aggressive wing-nut competition, said Mike Murphy, a former Republican consultant and current political analyst for NBC News.

In addition to watching on cable, viewers can stream Newsmax and OAN without a pay TV subscription. There are also more digital conservative channels such as the First, which carries a nightly show from former Fox News host Bill OReilly, and Glenn Becks Blaze Live. Both are available on free ad-supported streaming services such as Pluto.

Social media has provided new outlets for right-leaning voices as well. The Facebook page of Fox News contributor Dan Bongino, a former cop and Secret Service agent turned pugnacious Trump-defending pundit, has more monthly engagements than any major mainstream news organization on the platform.

Jon Klein, a digital media entrepreneur and former CNN president, said audience fragmentation is inevitable now that streaming has reached critical mass.

Ten years ago conservative audiences were not that digitally savvy, Klein said. The early adopters of digital media were younger, more liberal, educated, et cetera. None of this digital technology is a mystery anymore to the older white males who watch Fox News and certainly not a mystery to the alt-right young men they want.

Fox News does have an internal image problem resulting from the Arizona election call, which it stood by, despite an angry response from the Trump campaign and his supporters.

Stirewalt was fired from Fox News in a company restructuring on Jan. 19. Bill Sammon, the longtime executive in charge of the Washington bureau, which has long fought to remain independent from the networks opinion side, announced his retirement a day earlier.

Both moves were seen as responses to their roles on election night, leaving some of the journalists at the company stunned and concerned that the network is lessening its commitment to straight news.

Rupert Murdoch recently told the Washington Post that Stirewalts exit was not related to the Arizona call. It was known among Fox News executives that Murdoch was not a fan of Stirewalt, who declined comment.

Even the perception that Fox News ousted journalists over reporting an election result that was ultimately accurate could damage one of the foundational constructs of the channel. The integrity of the Fox News polling unit and the precision accuracy of its election decision desk has helped define the divide between news and opinion.

But keeping the core conservative Fox News viewer happy is the companys primary goal. Rupert Murdochs U.S. newspapers the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post have been highly critical of Trumps actions on their editorial pages since he lost the election. Any personal political convictions he has on the matter are not worth alienating fickle TV viewers who could ultimately have an impact on the companys balance sheet.

They are not sentimental about their programming decisions, Klein said of the Murdochs. They do what they need to do to get an audience.

Excerpt from:

Fox News tries to satisfy Trump fans, but at what cost? - Los Angeles Times

The Republicans who defied him are already suffering a backlash

WASHINGTON, DC

MITCH MCCONNELLS denunciation of Donald Trump on February 13th was as withering as it was unexpected. Despite having just voted with 42 of his Republican colleagues to acquit Mr Trump of inciting an insurrection on January 6th, the Republican Senate leader suggested he was guilty as charged. President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day. Headline writers promptly fell over themselves to label this the start of a Republican civil war. But if Mr McConnell and the conservative mainstream are really in that fight, they are very much at a pre-Valley-Forge stage, shivering over their wounds, as winter closes in.

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Mr Trumps acquittal was a more accurate measure of his command of the Republican field. The case brought against him by House Democratsimpressively led by Representative Jamie Raskin of Marylandwas devastating. The video footage they played, depicting the presidents demagoguery and the violence it provoked, was so horrifying it reduced some Republicans to tears. The fact that only seven then mustered the courage to join the entire Democratic caucus in voting against Mr Trump suggests that the impeachment power is now in effect defunct.

Those honourable seven, it must be added, were all to some degree shielded from Mr Trumps wrath. Bill Cassidy and Ben Sasse were newly re-elected; Richard Burr and Pat Toomey are retiring; Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney (of Maine, Alaska and Utah) have home-state appeal that makes them unusually resistant to Mr Trumps bullying.

The 43 Republicans who voted to give Mr Trump the insurrection mulligan that Mike Lee of Utah had claimed he deserved mostly did so on a technicality. They claimed a former president could not be impeached, a view contradicted by most legal advice, as well as the precedent established by an earlier Senate vote.

Notably, this quavering Republican majority included almost every conservative with presidential ambitions, including Marco Rubio and Tim Scott, as well as dedicated Trump stooges such as Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley. It would seem none is planning to run against Trumpism: they are banking on being post-Trump, not anti-Trump. Polling of Republican voters supports their calculation. Over 80% still back Mr Trump; more than half say he did everything he could to stop the insurrection. Meanwhile, the backlash against the seven Republicans who voted against Mr Trump has been vicious.

Messrs Burr, Cassidy and Sasse have all been censured by their state parties. Im getting a lot of feedback from people saying the only reason they supported Senator Cassidy is because President Trump supported him, said Blake Miguez, a Republican leader in Louisianas state legislature. I predict that his next five years will be some of the most miserable a senator from Louisiana has ever experienced. Mr Cassidy, a doctor and faithful Christian, has sought to mollify his constituents by explaining that, contrary to what they may have heard, Mr Trump was guilty as charged. No cigar, it would seem.

Mr McConnell, though tempted to vote against Mr Trump, appears to have concluded that this would have doomed his chances of returning as Majority Leader in 2023. His criticism of the president looks like he is trying to have it both ways. It also seems to have backfired. On February 16th Mr Trump released a statement attacking Mr McConnell as a dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack and threatening to unseat him as Senate leader. It could have been even worse for the veteran Kentuckian. Mr Trump reportedly cut some additional insults at the urging of his aides, including a contention that Mr McConnell had too many chins.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline "Marred but at largio"

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Donald Trump lives to fight and incite another day - The Economist

House Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) the chair of the Committee on Homeland Security filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing former President Donald Trump of conspiring to incite the deadly attack on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol.

The filing marks the latest in a slew of lawsuits and probes that center on a range of allegations, including efforts to influence election officials in Georgia, defame women who accused him of sexual assault, and manipulate the value of his assets for tax and loan purposes.

In a new interview, Laurence Tribe one of the nation's top constitutional law scholars, who briefly served at the Justice Department during the Obama administration told Yahoo Finance that Trump faces a "a huge number of lawsuits" that will occupy his attention for the remainder of his life.

It remains unclear whether Trump will end up serving time in prison, Tribe says, predicting that no matter the outcome of litigation Trump will "gradually fade away," in part due to the grueling demands of his legal defense.

"He is fully subject to civil and criminal lawsuits both state and federal across the land," says Tribe, a professor emeritus of constitutional law at Harvard University Law School who taught there for more than 50 years.

"It's a panoply of charges," he adds. "So [Trump] is going to be busy defending himself from now until the end of his life."

The Senate on Saturday acquitted Trump of an impeachment charge that alleged he had incited the Jan. 6 attack, falling 10 votes short of the 67-vote threshold necessary for a conviction. But many of the Republican Senators who voted to acquit, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), said Trump could face charges in the criminal justice system for his actions.

The lawsuit filed by Thompson on Tuesday follows a criminal probe opened by prosecutors in Georgia last week over Trump's attempt to overturn the outcome of the election. Trump also faces defamation lawsuits filed by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll and former "Apprentice" contestant Summer Zervos, who allege Trump wrongfully described their sexual assault claims against him as false.

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Plus, Trump faces separate probes from New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance over alleged financial impropriety tied to his corporate and personal conduct. The investigation from James, which is civil and not criminal, focuses on whether Trump improperly inflated the values of his properties.

Meanwhile, Vance is pursuing a criminal probe into possible insurance, tax, and bank-related fraud into Trump's business dealings, The New York Times reported in December. Progressives have also been urging Joe Biden's Justice Department to investigate Trump, as well though the current president has expressed reluctance to prosecute his predecessor.

Still, Trump no longer enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution that may have been afforded to him while in office, Tribe said.

"The only immunity that a former president has is for actions that are within the outer perimeter of his official power," Tribe says, suggesting that such protection likely does not apply to any of the lawsuits or probes he currently faces.

Tribe spoke to Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer in an episode of Influencers with Andy Serwer, a weekly interview series with leaders in business, politics, and entertainment.

Over his career, Tribe argued 35 cases before the Supreme Court and wrote a number of books, most recently "To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment," which he co-authored with Georgetown University Law Professor Joshua Matz.

Tribe's list of former students includes top figures on both sides of the aisle: former President Barack Obama, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), and House Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the lead House impeachment manager who made the case against Trump.

Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Tribe expressed uncertainty about whether Trump would ultimately face conviction or liability in any of the current or prospective lawsuits. But Tribe predicted that the series of legal actions would diminish Trump's prominence.

"There may be political decisions by the Justice Department to turn the page," Tribe says. "I do think in the court of history, he will be convicted."

"He himself will gradually fade away, whether in an orange jumpsuit or not," he adds.

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Trump will be 'busy' with lawsuits for the rest of his life: Laurence Tribe - Yahoo Finance

SALT LAKE CITY Slightly more than half of Utahns agree with the majority of Senate Republicans who found former President Donald Trump not guilty of inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

A new Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll shows 51% of voters in the state say the Senate should not have convicted Trump, while 43% say he should have been convicted. The remaining 7% were not sure.

The Senate voted 57-43 to acquit the former president last Saturday after a five-day trial. Seven Republicans, including Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, crossed party lines to vote with all 50 Senate Democrats. Conviction in an impeachment trial requires a two-thirds majority, or 67 votes.

Pollster Scott Rasmussen said the survey results about Trump reflect broad partisan perspectives.

In the poll, 74% of those who identified themselves as Republicans opposed conviction, while 13% favored it. Among Democrats, 92% favored conviction and only 4% believe the Senate should have acquitted Trump.

Rasmussen surveyed 1,000 Utah registered voters from Feb. 10-16, during and after the Senate trial. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The wording of the question about whether the Senate should convict Trump was changed after the trial to reflect his acquittal. Rasmussen said there was no discernible difference in the response patterns between those who took the survey before or after the verdict.

Because Trump had already left the White House, removing him from office upon a conviction was out of play. The Senate, however, could have prevented Trump from holding federal office again.

Utahns are split over whether Trump should be barred from holding a future federal office. The poll found that 48% of Utahns believe he should not be barred, but 46% say he should be barred. The remaining 6% were not sure.

But nearly one-quarter of Republicans agree that Trump should not be allowed to hold federal office again, along with 92% of Democrats.

The opposing votes that Utahs two Republican senators cast in the Senate impeachment trial of Trump had no noticeable impact on what voters think about their overall job performance, according to the poll that was conducted during and after the trial.

Romney voted to convict Trump, while Sen. Mike Lee voted to acquit him.

It is fair to say that the trial had little impact on Lee and Romney. Thats partly because the trial was pretty unsurprising and partly because the senators did nothing out of character with their earlier comments, Rasmussen said.

Both senators signaled how they would vote after the House impeached Trump in early January. Romney and Lee came to opposite conclusions about the constitutionality of holding an impeachment trial for a former president and on the verdict.

According to the poll, Romney still rates considerably higher among Democrats than Republicans.

The poll shows 61% of Republicans in the state disapprove of Romneys job performance, including more than half who strongly disapprove.

The first-term senators 50% approval rating among Utah voters is only slightly lower than where it has been the past year and the same as it was last month. His disapproval rating in the latest survey is 45%.

Lee continues to have a lower approval rating among all voters in the state but remains strong in the Republican Party.

The survey found 45% of Utahns approve of Lees performance, while 41% disapprove. Two-thirds of Republicans like the way the two-term senator is doing his job. Those numbers havent changed much in the past year.

Romney and Lee have received criticism and praise for their votes on Trump.

Some conservative Republicans signed a petition to censure Romney, while another group launched a change.org petition thanking him.

Lee, 49, faces reelection in 2022. He has sent out a flurry of fundraising emails the past few weeks jabbing Democrats and the media. He called last week in Washington nasty and said Democrats illegitimate, vindictive push to convict Trump shows again how divisive and angry they can be.

The left is going after red states including Utah like never before. Theyre preparing to dump MILLIONS into seeing me lose. I know that money doesnt buy votes, but we need to get our message out and I cant do it alone, reads one email.

The left-leaning Alliance for Better Utah launched a campaign this week called Humans Against Mike Lee. Its stated purpose is to educate the public about the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad reign of Mike Lee.

If you watched any of the impeachment trial last week or if youve paid attention to the news at all over the past 10 years you know that Sen. Mike Lee is the worst, according to Better Utah political director Kathryn Calderon. Hes an extremist who enjoys debating semantics and picking culture war fights instead of getting things done to help Utahns.

Romney, 73, has not said whether he will seek a second term in 2024.

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Should Senate have convicted Trump? Utahns voice opinion in new poll - Deseret News