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In the week since pro-Trump mobs violently stormed the U.S. Capitol, Senator Ted Cruz has served as a rather convenient lightning rod for his fellow Texas Republicans. As the attempted insurrection began to mount outside, Ted Cruz was on the Senate floor, leading the charge to block the certification of the presidential election. In a blatant political ploy, the conservative firebrandwho wants to run for president again in 2024tried to stake his claim to Trumps base. Within 10 minutes of his speech, hordes of violent extremists stormed past police barricades. Ten minutes after that, rioters entered the Capitol. In the wake of the attack, Cruz has faced broad condemnation and widespread calls to resign.

While Cruz was one of the most vocal Texas allies in Trumps call to overturn the presidential election results, he was far from alone. Republican leaders in Texas have fanned the flames of insurrection for years, adopting the kind of rhetoric and political stunts that cater to the most extreme elements of the states conservative base, peddling racism, xenophobia, bigotry, and delusional conspiracy theories.

In 2015, during his first year as governor, Greg Abbott established a penchant for catering to the most marginal fringes of his partys base. In response to conspiracy theories that President Barack Obama was using a U.S. military exercise called Jade Helm 15 as cover for a federal takeover of several states, including Texas, Abbott mobilized the State Guard to monitor the situation. In doing so, Abbott gave credence to a conspiracy that hardly anyone took seriously, elevating it into a national affairand Texas, once again, into a laughingstock.

Texans are intimately familiar with the traumatic violence that extremist rhetoric and fear mongering often bring against people of color. In August 2019, a white supremacist in the Dallas suburbs published a manifesto online detailing his intent to kill Latinos in order to stop what he believed to be a Hispanic invasion of Texas. He then drove to a Walmart in El Paso and killed 22 peoplemost of whom were Hispanicand injured dozens more.

Trump and many other Republicansespecially in Texashave long used that same sort of invasion language about undocumented immigrants coming into the country. The day before the mass shooting in El Paso, Abbott sent out a campaign mailer that urged supporters to DEFEND Texas from the threat of illegal immigration. As the letter read, Unless you and I want liberals to succeed in their plan to transform Texasand our entire countrythrough illegal immigration, this is a message we MUST send.

After a full week of dodging questions about his rhetoric, Abbott finally issued a non-apology apology, saying that mistakes were made and course correction has been made. He said he understood the importance that rhetoric will not be used in any dangerous way and will make sure that we work collaboratively in unification.

Then theres the anti-voter fraud crusade that Texas Republicans have waged for years, one that has disproportionately targeted communities of color, with devastating consequences. In 2020, Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxtons cracked down against local Democratic officials attempts to expand mail-in voting and to enact other measures to make it safer to vote in a pandemic, claiming it would invite voter fraud.

As Trump spent the past year convincing his supporters that the only way he could lose reelection was if Democrats stole the election, his Republicans allies in Texas were quick to back him up. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said on a conservative talk radio show that Democrats were trying to use COVID as an excuse to steal the election, and thats what theyre trying to do everywhere.

Even as it became clear that Biden defeated Trumpwith no widespread voter fraudRepublicans in Texas did not demur. In the days after the election, Abbott offered carefully worded support for Trumps continued attempts to dispute the elections. Democracy depends upon fair and open elections, Abbott said in his statement. We all agree that every legal vote counts and that illegal votes do not.

Patrick then offered up to $1-million in rewards to anyone who provided information of voter fraud that led to conviction. After roughly 60 of Trumps legal challenges were rejected by the courts, Paxton, who is currently under FBI investigation over recent allegations of corruption and abuse of power, filed a last-ditch lawsuit in December to throw out several states election results. The lawsuit was so outlandish it was dismissed without a hearing. On January 6, Paxton spoke at the Stop the Steal rally, urging the crowd to fight for Trump.

Texas GOP Chair Allen West, a former tea party congressman from Florida who took control of the state party last year, responded to the lawsuits defeat by suggesting that Texas and other red states leave the union. This decision will have far-reaching ramifications for the future of our constitutional republic. Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.

Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert followed up with yet another failed lawsuit petitioning Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the results. When it was defeated two weeks ago, he told the pro-Trump propaganda organ Newsmax that, Basically, in effect, the ruling would be that you got to go to the streets and be as violent as Antifa and [Black Lives Matter].

Then, January 6 happened. Video footage showed a police officer being pulled down on the capitol steps by rioters and beat with a flag pole adorned with the American flag. Once inside, the mob stalked through the halls of Congress and broke into the House and Senate chambers as members escaped. Some rioters, armed with bats, pipes, pepper spray, and zipties, shouted hang Mike Pencewho had refused Trumps pleas to block certification in the Senateand Wheres Nancy? A noose hung from makeshift gallows outside on the Capitol grounds. During the assault, Cruz sent a fundraising email, which he later said was pre-scheduled, to supporters, boasting that he was leading the fight to reject electors from key states unless there is an emergency audit of the election results.

Five people died, including a police officer who was reportedly attacked with a fire extinguisher. When the building was finally cleared after the hours-long siege, lawmakers reconvened to finish the certification vote. Undeterred, 147 Republican lawmakersincluding Senator Ted Cruz and 16 U.S. Representatives from Texasstill voted against certification. While he moved to condemn the violence in the aftermath, Cruz made clear that he accepted no culpability. Not remotely, he said.

The backlash against the bloody attempt at insurrection was swift. Trump faced immediate calls to resign and Democrats began assembling a second impeachment. Cruz, too, has faced widespread calls to resign. Republicans jumped to condemn the storming of the capitol, voicing surprise that Trumps Stop the Steal rally ended in violence.

But many had seen it coming. Two days before the riots, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, publicly urged Trump to rein in his extremist supporters, who had been gathering in Washington, D.C. ahead of the rally. The President of the United States needs to return to Washington, D.C. and demand that the Proud Boys and Boogaloo Boys cease the violence they are promoting this week in the nations capital, the seat of democracy, Lee wrote. This President and only this President has the power to stop this potential unwarranted violence heading towards Washington, D.C. on the premise of false allegations of fraud in the 2020 election.

Many Democratic lawmakers now fear for their safety when in public. Representative Al Green, another Houston Democrat and prominent advocate for Trumps impeachment, said that he was harassed by Trump supporters on flights and in airports as he traveled back to his district for the weekend. He needed a police escort to get to his connecting flight in Nashville. These were some very angry people, Green told Politico. Im a son of the segregated South. I can remember the expressions of hate when people were saying ugly things, calling me ugly words that I dont repeat. I remember the look. And I saw that on the faces of some of these people. I saw that also here at the Capitol when these people were marching. If youve ever been accosted by a person who has hate in their heart and wants to hurt, you never forget that look.

On Monday, congressional Democrats were briefed by Capitol Police on three potential plots to overthrow the government, including one where tens of thousands of armed insurrectionists would surround the Capitol and keep Democrats from enteringby force if necessary. The FBI has also warned law enforcement agencies around the country that there may be armed protests at all 50 state capitols. Texas DPS, which is in charge of Capitol security, said that it has deployed additional troopers and resources as the legislative session begins.

For one of his last public events as president, Trump traveled on Tuesday to Alamo, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valleya region that Texas Republicans have, through a massive border security operation, turned into one of the most militarized and surveilled places in the country.

There, Trump sought to celebrate what he sees as the key achievement of his administration: hundreds of miles of big, beautiful border wall that has cut through peoples land, historic sites, and natural reserves. In the wake of the violent Capitol riots, some locals werent eager for him to come: The Texas Civil Rights Project took out a full-page ad in the local newspaper, The Monitor, that read: YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE. FUERA!

Trump may very well never step foot in Texas again, but the specter of Trumpism is not going away. And for now, neither are the Texas politicians who so fervently aided him.

Read more from theObserver:

Bringing the Dead Home:Thirty years after Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, only a fraction of human remains held by Texas museums and universities have been returned.

How We Got Here:Texas health system has been underfunded, understaffed, and unprepared for years. Here, COVID-19 found the perfect place to spread.

Being A Prisoner During COVID Is A Death Sentence: Death row exoneree Anthony Graves reflects a decade after his release.

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Texas Republicans Fanned the Flames of Insurrection Long Before January 6 - The Texas Observer

Nick Calio will remain president of the Air Transport Association (Photo by Scott J. Ferrell)

Nick Calio, the Republican president and CEO of the lobbying group for the U.S. airline industry, will remain on the job despite the transition to the Biden administration.

Calios stay was confirmed by a source with knowledge of the thinking of the board of Airlines for America, which represents seven of the largest passenger airlines as well as three top cargo airlines.

We look forward to Calios continued leadership as the U.S. airline industry looks towards recovery from this unprecedented crisis, A4A said Saturday, in an email.

Speculation regarding Calios continued service has circulated since Joe Biden won election as president on November 3rd.

Calio is a longtime Republican who ran legislative affairs office for both President George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

Calio took over at A4A in January 2011, moving from a job as a top lobbyist for Citibank. He replaced Jim May at the behest of Glenn Tilton, the former Texaco CEO who became CEO of United Airlines and A4A chairman.

Calio is one of Washingtons top paid lobbyists, collecting about $4 million annually, according to the website Nonprofitlight.com.

The airline industry is a visible one, but it has never had a particularly influential role in Washington. The biggest passenger airlines are not giant companies, relatively speaking, but rather have annual revenue in the $50 billion range. Even the two big overnight cargo carriers, A4A members FedEx and UPS, are bigger: each has annual revenue in the $70 billion range.

Nevertheless, in the coronavirus crisis, airlines did better than many other industries, securing targeted relief packages in both stimulus bills passed by Congress. In March, the Cares Act included $31 billion for airline employees. The December stimulus include $15 billion for airline employees and another $1 billion for employees of airline contractors.

The packages were largely a result of extensive lobbying by airline labor unions, who worked closely with the carriers and A4A.

Labor took it over, but we also had to get the airlines, said a union source who asked not to be named.Once they got on board, Nick has been a great partner. In the past year, theyve done everything we asked.

In fact, Calio has regularly been lauded for an ability to build consensus. But he is not not universally esteemed by airline labor.

Calio has always been seen as highly partisan, said Peter Goeltz, a longtime Democratic lobbyist and former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Goeltz noted that A4A has been stocked with Republicans, including Rebecca Spicer, the wife of former Trump White House Press Secretary spokesman Sean Spicer, as senior vice president of communications, reporting directly to Calio. She also worked in the George W. Bush White House.

With a new administration coming in, theres got to be some wholesale changes at the top of A4A or the air carriers will have to get used to having a little less influence. Goeltz said.

Even working together, A4A and airline labor were unable to get the U.S. Department of Transportation to take a stand on requiring passengers to wear masks or mandating airlines to keep middle seats empty, Goeltz said.

Now, incoming President Biden has said he will require masks on mass transportation and Delta is the only airline that keeps middle seats empty.

According to the A4A website, Under Calios leadership, A4A rebranded and honed its focus on being an influential voice in helping to shape legislative and regulatory policies and priorities that improve air travel for everyone.

Known for his ability to build consensus, Calio focused the re-launched association on working collaboratively with airlines, labor unions, Congress and the Administration to promote safety, security and a healthy U.S. airline industry, the website says.

It also says that as President George W. Bushs principal liaison to Congress, Calio worked closely with the leadership and members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and had the primary responsibility for formulating and implementing White House strategy on all legislative issues. He held the same position during the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

A graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, Calio is now vice president of the universitys board of trustees. He also graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

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Airline Industrys Top Lobbying Group Will Retain Its Republican Chief - Forbes

WASHINGTON As lawmakers entered the Capitol on Wednesday for one of the most solemn enterprises in American government, the impeachment of a president, Representative Lauren Boebert was causing a spectacle before even making it into the chamber. She pushed her way through newly installed metal detectors and ignored police officers who asked her to stop so they could check her with a hand-held wand.

This reprised a standoff from the evening before, when Ms. Boebert, a freshman Republican from Colorado, refused to show guards what was inside her handbag as she entered the building. In both cases, she was eventually granted access, but not before engineering a made-for-Twitter moment that delighted the far right.

After joining her colleagues on Wednesday, Ms. Boebert took to the House floor to denounce the vote on impeachment that passed a few hours later.

Wheres the accountability for the left after encouraging and normalizing violence? Ms. Boebert asked loudly, arguing that Democrats had tolerated excessive violence last summer during the unrest over racial justice. I call bullcrap when I hear the Democrats demanding unity.

The standoff at the metal detectors was a characteristic stunt by Ms. Boebert. She is only 10 days into her term but has already arranged several episodes that showcased her brand of far-right defiance as a conspiracy theorist who proudly boasts of carrying her Glock handgun to Washington. She is only one of 435 House members, but Ms. Boebert, 34, represents an incoming faction of the party for whom breaking the rules and gaining notoriety for doing it is exactly the point.

In the same way Republicans leaders had to adapt to the Tea Party over a decade ago, House leaders must now contend with a narrow but increasingly clamorous element of the party that not only carries Mr. Trumps anti-establishment message but connects with the voters who are so loyal to him and so crucial to future elections.

In the process, Ms. Boebert and her cohort have exasperated other lawmakers and Republicans.

There is a trend, in both parties, of members who seem more interested in dunking on folks on social media and appearing on friendly cable networks than doing the work of legislating, said Michael Steel, a Republican strategist and former press secretary for the former House Speaker John Boehner. They seem to see public service as more performance art than a battle of policy ideas.

In recent days, Ms. Boebert and a group of other freshman Republicans, including the QAnon devotee Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, a 25-year-old freshman who claimed he was armed during the Capitol riots, have questioned or outright flouted guidelines meant to protect lawmakers from violence, intruders or the spread of the coronavirus.

Their fluency in social media, access to conservative television and talk radio platforms and combativeness with reporters on live television allows them to gain notoriety in nontraditional ways.

There used to be a level of gatekeeping that went on with how members developed a profile when they got to Washington, said Kevin Madden, a strategist who served as a senior adviser to Mitt Romney during his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. Usually you had to work for it and earn that notoriety. Now its given to you with one YouTube video.

In an introductory video of sorts that she released last week, Ms. Boebert was shown walking against a Washington backdrop with a gun holstered at her waistline. I refuse to give up my rights, especially my Second Amendment rights, she said to the camera.

In her short time in office, Ms. Boebert has already sparred with a Republican colleague over security lapses at the Capitol last week and expressed interest in bringing her gun to work. Her Twitter account was temporarily suspended after she spread the falsehood that the presidential election was rigged.

She also faced criticism, and some demands that she resign, for tweeting out information about some lawmakers locations during the siege at the Capitol by a violent mob last week.

The behavior exhibited by Ms. Boebert and some of her fellow freshman Republicans prompted Timothy Blodgett, the Houses acting sergeant-at-arms, to send a memo to lawmakers on Tuesday notifying them that security screenings would be required for members seeking access to the chamber and that lawmakers who declined to wear masks would be removed from the House floor. Several Republicans responded by yelling that their rights were being violated as they passed through the metal detectors, behavior that has exasperated Democrats.

I dont know what the consequences are going to be for people who hold power and dont ever want to be held accountable, Rep. Tim Ryan, Democrat of Ohio, told NPR on Wednesday about lawmakers who bypassed security measures in the Capitol. He added that defiance by lawmakers was a sign of how obnoxious things have become for some of these folks who were supporting Donald Trump. The rules dont apply to them.

Ms. Boebert unofficially started her campaign for Congress in September 2019 in Denver, announcing to the Democratic presidential candidate Beto ORourke that he would not be taking one of the most potent symbols of rural autonomy: her guns.

I was one of the gun-owning Americans who heard you speak regarding your Hell yes, Im going to take your AR-15s and AK-47s, Ms. Boebert said to Mr. ORourke at the time. Well, Im here to say hell no, youre not.

She has expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy group, though she has tried to temper that by saying she is not a follower.

Ms. Boebert was running a restaurant in Colorados ranch country where she encouraged the servers to openly carry guns when she stunned the states Republican establishment by defeating a five-term incumbent in the primary and then winning the general election.

She was so inexperienced, said Dick Wadhams, the former head of the Colorado Republican Party. I dont think she even knew she had no chance, which turned out to be a good thing for her. She caught everyone by surprise.

So far, she has had the same effect on Washington. On Wednesday, the Capitol Police and Ms. Boeberts office declined to respond to requests about whether she had actually been carrying a gun either time she had trouble getting into the chamber. Ms. Boebert has said that she has a concealed carry permit, issued through the District of Columbia, for her gun and has claimed on Twitter that she has the right to freely carry within the Capitol complex, which is not true.

On Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department did not respond when asked if Washingtons police chief, Robert J. Contee III, had met with Ms. Boebert to explain the districts gun laws to her, as he had said he would do last week.

Ms. Boebert has frequently defended her behavior as one of the reasons she was elected. Just as Mr. Trump has done with his base, she tells her followers that she is fighting for them. As for her right to carry a gun, she has written on Twitter that self-defense is the most basic human right.

In Colorado, Ms. Boeberts district covers much of western Colorado, a sprawling, politically diverse landscape of mesas and jagged mountains that includes liberal enclaves like Aspen and Telluride as well as often overlooked towns where cattle ranching, mining and natural gas drilling pay the bills. For generations, the district elected deeply rooted local men who, whether Democrat or Republican, tended to be cowboy-boot-wearing moderates focused on the local economy and natural resources.

Once a reliably red state, Colorado flipped with the election of Barack Obama in 2008, and Republicans have struggled to regain a foothold. Democrats now hold both Senate seats, the state House and the governors office.

Republicans seeking to keep viability in the state regard Ms. Boeberts behavior warily.

I think most Republicans here are still behind her, Mr. Wadhams said. But she cant just pick fights in Washington. She has got to pay attention to the issues in her district, too: in water, natural resources, mining. If she doesnt do that, shes in real trouble.

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A Republican Lawmaker for Whom the Spectacle Is the Point - The New York Times

For a number of Republicans who have long been skeptical of Mr. Trump, the events of the last two months have been clarifying. From his initial refusal to concede defeat and his relentless attacks on Republican state officials, which undermined the partys hopes for winning the Georgia Senate seats, to savaging lawmakers and his own vice president just hours before the Capitol riot, Mr. Trump has proved himself a political arsonist.

Trump is a political David Koresh, said Billy Piper, a former chief of staff to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, referring to the cult leader who died with his followers during an F.B.I. siege in Waco, Texas. He sees the end coming and wants to burn it all down and take as many with him as possible.

The violence in Washington appeared to embolden an array of Republican lawmakers, including some who took office only days ago, to condemn Mr. Trumps political recklessness and urge the party toward a different course. The partys humiliating double losses in Georgia, the day after Mr. Trump appeared at a rally there, also served to punctuate the growing peril for Republicans in the fastest-growing, more culturally diverse parts of the country, which are on track to amass more political power in the coming decade.

The party faces a threat to its financial base, too. Several of the most powerful business federations in Washington denounced the chaos this week in stinging language, including an extraordinary statement from the normally nonpolitical National Association of Manufacturers that suggested Mr. Pence invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office.

Representative Tom Reed of New York, who has emerged as a leader of more moderate Republicans in the House, said Thursday that the party needed to begin not worrying about base politics as much, and standing up to that base. He argued that Republicans should pursue compromise legislation with Mr. Biden on issues like climate change, and forecast that a sizable number of Republicans would take that path.

If that means standing up to the base in order to achieve something, theyll do it, Mr. Reed predicted.

Mr. Reed warned his party that the Democrats would depict the G.O.P. as a dangerous party in 2022 if they did not rebut that charge.

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Republicans Splinter Over Whether to Make a Full Break From Trump - The New York Times

Noteworthy Republicans in the House, like Rep. Liz Cheney and Rep. John Katko, voted to impeach President Donald Trump. USA TODAY

WASHINGTONRep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking House Republican, voted to impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday, leading a list of Republicanswho backed the president's removal after blaming him for incitinga deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol last week.

Trump will leave power as the first president in the nations 245-year history to be impeached twice. The vote to impeach Trump was 232 to 197, the most bipartisan impeachment vote in history.

There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution, Cheney said in a statement Tuesday, declaring: "I will vote to impeach the President."

SENATE: Impeachment trial likely won't begin until Biden sworn in

Cheney, R-Wyo., was the highest-ranking Republican to back Trump's removal from office. She noted that the Jan. 6 attack, which resulted in five deaths, including a Capitol Police officer, aimed to obstruct America's democratic processes and caused "injury, death and destruction in the most sacred space in our Republic."

For that, Cheney saidthe president alone was to blame.

The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing, she said in a statement. None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not.

Nine other Republicans also voted to impeach Trump:

In this Dec. 17, 2019 file photo, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington.(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)

Katko, a former federal prosecutor and moderate Republican who endorsed Trump for reelection, said he reviewed the facts and reached his own conclusion.

"To allow the President of the United States to incite this attack without consequence is a direct threat to the future of our democracy,"Katko said in a statement. "For that reason, I cannot sit by without taking action. I will vote to impeach this President."

Kinzinger, a former Air Force veteran who served multiple tours overseas, said there was "no doubt in my mind that the President of the United States broke his oath of office and incited this insurrection."

More: House passes measure calling on Pence to invoke 25th Amendment; Pence says he will not

"I will vote in favor of impeachment," he wrote in a statement.

Upton, a moderate, joined the group Wednesday, saying he would have preferred censuring the president, but he had decided"it is time to say: Enough is enough."

Herrera Beutler announced late Tuesday she would vote to impeach, saying her party "will be best served when those among us choose truth." She slammed Trump's "pathetic denouncement" of the violence during the riots.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats applauded Republicans for backing the effort.

"Good for her for honoring her oath of office," Pelosi said of Cheney.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., similarly applauded Cheney, calling her a "person of principle."

Newhouse on Wednesdaybecame the first Republican to announce on the House floor that he would support impeaching Trump.

Last week there was as domestic threat at the door of the Capitol and he did nothing to stop it, Newhouse said.

That is why with a heavy heart and clear resolve, I will vote yes on these articles of impeachment, he said to applause from the Democratic side of the House.

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Throughout Trump's presidency, Cheney has remained a loyal Republican vote but has repeatedly come out against the president over his rhetoric and some foreign policy decisions.

In recent months, Cheney's criticisms of the president havegrown stronger. She's taken veiled jabs at Trump over his refusal to wear a mask, publicly asked him to stop using his Twitter account to accuse an MSNBC media host of murder and pushed Trump for answers after media reports surfaced showing Russians had offered bounties to the Taliban for killed U.S. troops.

And before backing Trump's removal, Cheney vehemently opposed pro-Trump efforts by some of her Republican colleagues to object to counting Electoral College results in certain swing states, saying on Twitter that "Congress has no authority to overturn elections by objecting to electors. Doing so steals power from the states & violates the Constitution."

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Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/12/liz-cheney-house-republicans-say-theyll-vote-impeach-trump/6647030002/

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The 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump: 'There has never been a greater betrayal by a president' - USA TODAY