Saturday, January 16, 2021

On Politics: The Pariah Post-Presidency

Isolated and angry, a diminished President Trump is leaving Washington for an uncertain future.
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By Lisa Lerer

Politics Newsletter Writer

Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your wrap-up of the week in national politics. I’m Lisa Lerer, your host.

The post-presidential years of Richard Nixon may provide the closest historical analogy to the challenges facing President Trump as he leaves office.Carlos Barria/Reuters and Chick Harrity/Associated Press

For four years, President Trump bullied his rivals and intimidated his enemies. He commanded the world stage and commandeered social media, spreading torrents of misinformation and falsehoods. From Israel to Iowa, Mr. Trump was inescapable — and seemingly unstoppable.

Since the attack on the U.S. Capitol, his power has been rapidly disappearing, evaporating in a cloud of recriminations and condemnation.

In the final days of his presidency, Mr. Trump has been snubbed by foreign allies and banned from social media. Some members of his cabinet fled, and some in his own party helped deal the final blow of a second impeachment. High-profile friends, like the New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, are declining national honors to avoid being in his presence. His hometown wants little to do with him.

Mr. Trump arrived in Washington as an insurgent, an unlikely politician who defied the odds to win the White House. He departs isolated and diminished, leaving behind a Capitol transformed into a war zone, a frayed body politic and a fractured Republican Party that has been ousted from power.

Typically, the post-presidential period has offered redemption for even our most polarizing leaders. Out of the political fray, former presidents find new hobbies and missions, often growing in national esteem in the process. Bill Clinton built a global philanthropic empire. George W. Bush discovered his “inner Rembrandt.” And Barack Obama wakeboarded and wrote.

But America has never seen a true pariah post-presidency.

Marooned in the White House, Mr. Trump is facing the lowest job approval of his time in office, polling shows, and increasingly negative reviews for his post-election behavior. He plans to leave Washington hours before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in, making him the first president since Andrew Johnson in 1869 to skip the inauguration of his successor. (Mr. Johnson was also impeached.)

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Instead, he’ll flee to Mar-a-Lago, going full Florida man in a state known to attract those seeking a restart — or an escape.

But Mr. Trump will be hard-pressed to evade the considerable financial challenges facing his resorts and hotels, difficulties exacerbated by a pandemic that devastated the hospitality industry and unlikely to be helped by his fallen personal brand. Adding to his economic stress is the more than $300 million in debt coming due in the next few years that he has personally guaranteed.

Even his favorite sport has stepped away, with the P.G.A. Tournament relocating from Mr. Trump’s New Jersey golf club to protect its “brand and reputation,” as P.G.A. of America’s chief executive, Seth Waugh, put it. Mr. Trump was “gutted” by the decision, according to a person close to the White House, as he had worked personally for years to push the tournament executives to hold events at his courses.

Even if Mr. Trump wants to adopt a lower-profile — a decision that’s hard to imagine the media-loving president making — it will be difficult for him to avoid politics.

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In the coming weeks, Mr. Trump faces a Senate impeachment trial and the likelihood of continued Democratic-led investigations into his business dealings, presidential decisions and the inner workings of his government. A vocal wing of the party is pushing for prosecutions and a raft of legal challenges against Mr. Trump, his family and his allies.

Though he won more voters than any other Republican presidential candidate in history and maintains the support of a vast majority of G.O.P. voters, a small but growing segment of his party believes the president has become too toxic even for those who elected him.

“I do not think a party centered on President Trump is viable,” said David Asp, a former member of the Republican National Committee from Minnesota. The party should move away from Trump as quickly as possible, drop the conspiracy theorists and advance a vision for the party focused on the national interest.”

Perhaps the closest historical analogy to the kind of post-presidency that lies ahead for Mr. Trump is that of President Richard Nixon, who left Washington in disgrace to avoid being impeached for his role in the Watergate break-in. (Mr. Trump, for his part, does not care for the comparison, exploding at aides who bring up the ex-president’s name, according to CNN.)

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But Mr. Nixon, say those who’ve studied his post-presidential period, felt remorse for his actions, expressing regret that paved the way for the former president to rebuild his reputation as a best-selling author, foreign policy expert and elder statesman.

“Nixon actually felt a sense of responsibility for what had happened,” said Kasey Pipes, the author of a book about Mr. Nixon’s post-presidency. “He felt bad about it and publicly and privately would tell people: ‘I let you down. I let the country down.’”

When Mr. Nixon died in 1994, then-President Bill Clinton praised his “wise counsel,” accomplishments and “devotion to duty,” delivering an eulogy that urged Americans to judge the former president on the “totality” of his life.

“Nixon had come full circle and people had accepted him again,” Mr. Pipes said. “It’s going to be much more difficult for Trump to achieve that level of public acceptance and the main reason is that we haven’t seen any public accountability from him whatsoever.”

He added, “And if we know anything about Trump, I don’t think we will.”

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A guide to Joe Biden’s inauguration

Inaugurations are like snowflakes: Everyone is unique, shaped by the personality and priorities of the incoming president. It’s safe to say that this inauguration will be unlike any other, marked by heightened security concerns and a still-raging pandemic.

  • Mr. Trump will not attend. The president plans to depart Washington the morning of Inauguration Day, skipping the traditional military helicopter departure by the former president. He has no plans to invite Mr. Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, to the White House, as is customary. Instead, Mr. Trump will hold his own farewell event at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, where Air Force One is kept.
  • Nor will much of an audience. Most of the National Mall will be closed to the general public, blocking access to the area where hundreds of thousands of Americans typically gather to watch the swearing-in ceremony. Local and federal officials have established a downtown security zone and called in more than 20,000 National Guard troops. The Capitol will also be closed, as will a number of metro stations and bridges. Airbnb has canceled and blocked all bookings in the city for the days leading up to the event.
  • Mr. Biden will take the oath outside. The incoming president and his aides are determined that Mr. Biden take the oath and deliver an address outside the West Front of the Capitol, preserving an iconic tableau that has often set the tone for a new presidency. Lady Gaga will sing the national anthem and Jennifer Lopez will perform. Mr. Biden will be sworn in by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. sometime before noon. Instead of a traditional parade before cheering spectators along Pennsylvania Avenue as the new president, vice president and their families make their way to the White House, there will be an official escort with representatives from every branch of the military for one city block.
  • But most of the festivities will be virtual. There are plans for a televised “virtual parade across America” and a 90-minute prime-time television event that will feature Justin Timberlake and Jon Bon Jovi, and will be hosted by the actor Tom Hanks.

Want to watch all of the festivities? We’ll be livestreaming the inaugural events on The Times’s website.

By the numbers: 10

… That’s the number of House Republicans who, along with every House Democrat, voted to impeach Mr. Trump on Wednesday, formally charging him with inciting violence against the government of the United States.

NEW YORK TIMES AUDIO

A breakaway G.O.P. congressman and a social media-savvy white nationalist

Representative Peter Meijer, a freshman congressman from Michigan, was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach President Trump. He spoke to “The Daily” about his decision to break from the rest of his party.

Separately, listen to our narrated story (also available on Audm) from The Times’s media columnist, Ben Smith, about Anthime Joseph Gionet, who went from making silly Vines at BuzzFeed in 2015 to livestreaming from inside the trashed office of a senator in 2021.

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Friday, January 15, 2021

On Politics: The Big Promises Biden Is Making

The president-elect signals an aggressive economic agenda: This is your morning tip sheet.

Biden asks Americans to “imagine a future” beyond the virus, pushing a $1.9 trillion plan to promote jobs and prosperity. It’s Friday, and this is your politics tip sheet.

Where things stand

  • President-elect Joe Biden was not progressives’ first choice for the Democratic presidential nomination. But now that he’s on his way to the Oval Office, he appears to have heeded at least one message from the Bernie Sanders wing of his party: Go big.
  • In an address last night outlining his $1.9 trillion plan to confront the coronavirus and revive the economy, Biden indicated that he intends to use Democrats’ newfound control of both houses of Congress to push an aggressive economic agenda, with none of moderate Democrats’ typical shyness about government spending. He promised “historic investments” in a combination of “infrastructure, manufacturing, innovation, research and development, clean energy.”
  • He offered assurances that the proposal made good economic sense: that by increasing employment and tackling poverty, he would also be stimulating business growth and bringing down the deficit. But as he discussed the coronavirus crisis and a range of other issues, he put economic justice at the center.
  • “Imagine a future, made in America,” he said, subtly reclaiming some of President Trump’s populism after four years in which promises of a reinvestment in American manufacturing went largely unfulfilled.
  • “We’ll use taxpayers’ dollars to rebuild America,” Biden said. “We’ll buy American products, supporting millions of American manufacturing jobs, enhancing our competitive strength in an increasingly competitive world.”
  • He said his plan aimed to deliver 12 million Americans from poverty, and he pushed for the approval of a $15 national minimum wage. He also announced new investments in food stamp programs for the duration of 2021 and relief for tenants facing eviction or foreclosure.
  • Calling the current vaccine rollout “a dismal failure,” Biden pledged to “move heaven and earth to get more people vaccinated.” He said that today he would unveil the specifics of a $400 billion plan to confront the virus, which will aim to coordinate the circulation of vaccines and to increase funding for testing and personal protective equipment.
  • “The decisions we make in the next few weeks and months are going to determine whether we thrive in a way that benefits all Americans,” he said, “or whether we stay stuck in a place where those at the top do great while economic growth for most everyone else is just a spectator sport, and where economic prospects dim, not brighten.”
  • Of course, with only the slimmest of majorities in both the Senate and the House, and with Democrats apparently lacking the votes to do away with the filibuster, Biden may still face an uphill battle in fully delivering on these promises. Some prominent Republicans quickly fired back on social media, calling his proposals too much, too fast.

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  • Since Trump’s impeachment on Wednesday, Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate have given little indication of how they will handle his trial. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, indicated that he wouldn’t bring the chamber back from recess earlier than Jan. 19, one day before Inauguration Day.
  • Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not yet delivered the article of impeachment to the Senate. And Senator Chuck Schumer, who as the chamber’s top Democrat is set to become the majority leader, has not yet tipped his hand on his plans for the trial.
  • Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, said she approved of the House’s decision to impeach the president, suggesting that she might join Democrats in voting to convict Trump whenever the trial occurs.
  • Murkowski said that the House had acted “appropriately” and that the president had trafficked in “false rhetoric that the election was stolen and rigged.” Murkowski didn’t say she would definitely vote to convict the president, but she did seem to suggest that he had committed something very close to what he was impeached for: inciting insurrection.
  • “On the day of the riots, President Trump’s words incited violence, which led to the injury and deaths of Americans — including a Capitol Police officer — the desecration of the Capitol, and briefly interfered with the government’s ability to ensure a peaceful transfer of power,” Murkowski said.
  • On the House side, Representative Liz Cheney faced heavy blowback from fellow Republicans for voting on Wednesday to impeach Trump, while others praised her for standing up to the president despite widespread continued support for him from the party’s rank and file.
  • Some of Trump’s staunchest allies in the Freedom Caucus are circulating a petition calling on Cheney to step down as chairwoman of the House Republican Conference. In it, they write that her vote to impeach the president had “brought the conference into disrepute and produced discord.”
  • Cheney brushed aside calls to step down, saying that she was “not going anywhere” and calling her impeachment decision “a vote of conscience.” Other House Republicans, including some members of the Freedom Caucus, have expressed loyalty to her.
  • Representative Adam Kinzinger, who also voted for impeachment, said that Cheney had “gained immeasurable respect” over the past week. He said that it was Republicans attacking Cheney who should be shoved aside.
  • In a sign of how Republicans who supported challenging the election results may struggle to cover their tracks after Trump leaves power, Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma released an apology letter to Black Tulsans yesterday.
  • Many Black leaders in the city had expressed outrage over his role in seeking to overturn the results in a number of states that Biden won, and some said Lankford should be disallowed from serving on a commission to commemorate the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.
  • Andrew Yang, the businessman whose long-shot campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination last year made him a household name, yesterday announced his campaign for mayor of New York City.
  • Reprising his signature demand for a basic income provided by the government, Yang began a full day of campaigning in Morningside Heights with an address to supporters.
  • “The fears for our future that caused me to run for president have accelerated since the pandemic started,” Yang said, pledging to address “how much worse Black and brown New Yorkers have been hit by this virus and its economic impact.”
  • Yang joins an already crowded (and growing) field of mayoral candidates, including a number who have embraced similar proposals for a basic income.

Photo of the day

Doug Mills/The New York Times

Amid heavy security precautions, workers placed bunting for next week’s inauguration across the street from the White House.

What Biden’s selection of Jaime Harrison to lead the D.N.C. means

By Lisa Lerer

Jaime Harrison raised more money than any Senate candidate in history when he challenged Senator Lindsey Graham in South Carolina last fall.

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Now, after losing that race by more than 10 percentage points, he’s going to be responsible for telling his whole party how to spend its political cash.

As my colleague Jonathan Martin and I reported yesterday, Harrison is Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Democratic National Committee. Generally, when Democrats hold the White House, the committee defers to the president on the leadership of the party. So Harrison is likely to face no competition for the job. The Biden team also announced some high-profile surrogates as vice chairs, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Representative Filemon Vela of Texas and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta.

A former state party chairman, Harrison was championed by dozens of leaders within the committee who would like to see the organization continue to invest in local political infrastructure. And having built a national profile during his race, the former Senate candidate comes to the job with a built-in base for fund-raising and news media attention.

That doesn’t mean it will be easy. Harrison will be charged with helping to navigate deeply uncertain political terrain and decide the party’s messaging ahead of what are widely expected to be some challenging midterm elections. Already, fights are simmering within the party between those who would like Biden to press his message of unifying the country and a more liberal wing that wants to see the new administration hold President Trump and his allies accountable for any misdeeds in office.

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Plus, Harrison will face a simmering battle over the party’s primary nomination schedule. Some Democrats would like to see Iowa and New Hampshire — states with overwhelmingly white and older voting populations — lose their vaunted status at the start of the primary calendar. Others would like to eliminate caucuses, the complicated nominating processes used in Iowa and Nevada.

This fight will probably hit close to home for Harrison: His home state — South Carolina — votes fourth.

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