Latest news with #impeachment
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
"I Want Him Impeached Now": Former Trump Supporters Are Revealing Exactly When They Changed Their Minds
Recently, on Reddit, ex-Trump supporters opened up about what made them change their minds about the President, and their responses were shockingly honest. Here are some of the most thought-provoking answers: 1."A few months ago, I began to dislike him because of his treatment of Zelenskyy. The Epstein files were the nail in the coffin. I want him impeached now." —IAmABearOfficial 2."I'm originally from Alabama, so I was taught to just vote Republican. So 2016 rolls around, and I do that. I never really paid attention to politics, so I didn't care about my vote. Especially in a red-dominated state. I didn't pay attention to politics til the end of 2019 and going into 2020. When COVID hit, I watched the news more closely and listened to the idiotic stuff he was saying. When he mentioned something about putting disinfectant in our bodies, I knew this wasn't the guy for our country or me. As the months and years went on, my opinions of him got worse and worse." "Most of my acquaintances that I still talk to ask me if I would rather have 'Sleepy Joe' instead. My response is, 'If someone is sleeping, they are not fucking things up currently.' But apologies that I didn't pay closer attention in 2016. I wouldn't have voted for him if I knew. I can't even vote Republican anymore cause they aren't true Republicans anymore. They are MAGA kiss asses." —UberFabulous 3."Watching 75-year-old Martin Gugino being violently shoved by riot police and cracking his head on the pavement during the 2020 protests in Buffalo, NY. Then watching Trump get on Twitter, making up all sorts of lies to justify it." —Economy_Combination4 Related: 4."I joined the military. I grew up super conservative and carried that into adulthood. Then, being out of my hometown and among a diverse crowd and working with people from other countries, I realized that I was wrong. Empathy and compassion win over bigotry and hate." —misterfistyersister 5."Until the 2020 election, I only paid attention to voting records, policy statements, and platforms. What do I care what personality someone has, as long as they vote the way that aligns with my beliefs? It's the policies that matter, it's the bills that matter, not whether a politician is a little off-putting personally. I'm embarrassed now, but I was a Republican for far too long. I believed what the platform spoke of, and I believed the policy guidelines. I didn't pay attention to personalities or even specifics." And I was more of a centrist-leaning conservative anyway. Not a hardliner, not a fascist. More of a 'yes, changes are needed, but let's do it carefully, let's pace ourselves, let's try not to change everything all at once. Let's take deliberate, well-planned steps, let's not rush things and do things we regret.' And to be honest, all during Trump's first term, my life wasn't that bad. Whatever the federal government did during that period, it didn't affect me much. So what was I to be upset about? 'Stay the course,' I thought, 'because things are relatively okay for me now.' But then I caught a random video that compiled many of the horrible things Trump has said and done. This was around January 2020. And I was horrified. Before this, I never gave him any attention. And then came the 'UV light' thing for COVID and all the chicanery with how he handled the pandemic. And I pulled my wife aside, and showed the video to her, and I asked her, 'Has he always been like this? Is this new?' And after her volley of punches at me, and after her voice gave out, screaming, 'Haven't you been paying attention?' I finally decided that I needed to do some more research. I researched Trump, and all that he's done and said (policy aside). And I was disgusted. I could not believe I'd been blind to it all this time. And I researched the things Republicans have been trying to get done, and the dealings, and the lies, and the sneakiness, and the collusion, and the patronizing, and the racism, and the indifference to the poor, and the catering to the rich ... and I was also rather horrified, and embarrassed too. And so I voted for Biden in 2020. I couldn't abide by this kind of leadership, this kind of morally corrupt person at the helm. And by 2024, I realized ... my life wasn't worse under a Democrat president either. What was I so afraid of? And I noticed that most liberals weren't extreme anyway. They didn't want to enact sweeping changes that would make the USA look nothing like before. They wanted the same changes I wanted, maybe at a faster pace, maybe at a higher budgetary cost, but there was nothing I outright disagreed with. And so while I deeply regret voting for Trump in 2016, I don't regret voting for Biden at all in 2020. There you go. I'm that guy. I bared my soul here." —whomp1970 6."It was my first time voting. I voted for him in 2016. I was slowly becoming less and less of a fan in his first term. I was solidly not for him, but also not a hater by 2018 and into 19. I started thinking of myself as an independent. But once COVID hit, I saw how he pandered so hard to his conspiracy theorist base, yet got vaccinated. It made me flip a full 180 on him and just accept that I thought he lied, pandered, and did whatever he could to gain votes. He'd flip-flop on subjects based on how he thought which decision would make him more popular with his base." "I grew up with very conservative parents, and hated Obama because of my parents. But I was in college, and Obama was finishing his last term while the primaries were going on. And I started to see that I actually didn't hate Obama and thought he was a pretty decent president. So that was kind of the beginning of my political shift. But a full transformation did not happen until around COVID, when I had come to terms with the fact that I just didn't agree with almost anything Trump or modern-day Republicans stood for." —tdoger 7."Meeting a trans woman in real life. I was horrifically indoctrinated into the alt-right from discovering 4chan at 8 years old and didn't leave until 24. Narcissism became my coping mechanism, like all the other hurt children in adult bodies I hung out with. We were better than everyone who wasn't us, and anyone who didn't agree or fall in line was devalued and attacked. My friends would post pics of trans people we found online to make fun of together as nightly bonding. The left were hysterical, blue-haired, daddy issues, no friends, etc. It was all just projection from all of us. We couldn't make friends any other way, so we made friends through hate." "In 2018, after voting for Trump and descending into alcoholism, I met a person in a game who I just vibed with. They turned out to be a trans woman later in our friendship, and I was so surprised by the reveal. More importantly, I was surprised at how awful my friends started treating me for continuing to talk to her. Eventually, I found myself defending her and pushing back on my friends. Over the years, I cut contact with every one of them, flew across the world to date her for a few months, and returned to find the shambles of a human being: myself. I'm sober, through years of therapy, and walking on a beautiful path of discovery and the possibility of genuine human connection again. All thanks to someone I was told to hate. Now, I just view the far right and MAGA as I view my past self. Hurt people desperate for connection, doing the wrong thing to get it." —Bailables 8."Back at the start of college, I liked the idea of 'draining the swamp' and getting a businessman and non-politician into government. Unfortunately, you can't run the country like a business. It's not meant to make a profit; it's not supposed to be transactional. We do this, you do that." "I was already not following him anymore by the time COVID came around, but his handling of the pandemic, attacking people, and treating it almost like a joke made no sense to me. At a time when you need someone to bring people together and comfort a public that was scared, he did nothing but point fingers, yell, and blame. Come the Project 2025 stuff, I could not imagine supporting him. I'm still registered as a republican, but he holds no values that the true Republican Party holds, and has warped it into the MAGA party." —Nsgdoughboy 9."I've realized that he is not in line with God's teachings regarding how to view immigrants and the poor." —GolgothaBridge Related: 10."Oh boy... I'd say my girlfriend had a big part in it, but specifically Tim Pool. Like many Republicans I know, I got my political info from rage-bait YouTubers and Facebook memes. I'd get riled up and say stupid shit, and she would listen, and then start to ask questions, and we'd look up the issue and discuss, and more often than not, I'd admit I was wrong and eat a nice helping of crow. That being said, the single event that made me go 'wait a fucking doesn't sound right at all' was the New York Attorney General fraud case against Trump." "I was all aboard the 'he's being politically persecuted' angle being pumped out by traitors. I was listening to Tim Pool rage on the 'woke, liberal left' and this AG case, and he was, as many of them do, explaining to his audience about how the case wasn't fraud. And then he brought up on air the Zillow value of Mar-a-Lago to prove a point. I'm a numbers guy. I work in engineering for commercial and residential construction. A billion+ vs. $26m is a 'yuge' difference. The value stated was so absurd, I stopped what I was doing to look it up. Then, I compared it to the surrounding properties. Then I read through the indictment. Then I looked up the history of the place, Trump, and how exactly they tax access properties in Palm Beach, I believe. The numbers don't lie. I understood without digging too long why the property was actually valued so low and why he was charged with fraud. This, of course, led me to ask, 'What else am I being bullshitted about?' And I deep dove into all his trials, what actually happened on January 6, the fake electors scheme, his history of being an anthropomorphic shit stain, etc. Yes, I feel like an asshat for supporting him. In fact, Harris was the first political campaign I ever donated to. I've also tried to talk to some family, friends, and co-workers, but they are so far up Fox News' ass they couldn't hear me if they wanted to. I'm the un-American traitor now. It's disappointing." —Truxxis 11."At a terrifying time, when what we truly needed was empathy and unity, I saw the guy I'd proudly voted for in '16 do the opposite of everything my morals stood for. Every day, I watched him bitch and complain about everyone who disagreed with him. Then the BLM George Floyd protests started. The demonization of anyone standing up for civil rights and change was too much. And the final straw was when he had his goons tear-gassed peaceful American protesters, so he could pose for his stupid photo shoot, cemented it." —locofspades 12."I voted for him because I definitely didn't want Hillary. I wanted an outsider to come in and drain the swamp. It became pretty clear not long into his first term that he wasn't going to drain the swamp. He also chewed through some people I respect highly (Generals Mattis and Kelly, among others) and was extremely disrespectful towards them, which I had a problem with. While it was chaotic, it was entertaining, but I knew pretty quickly he was not a good leader. The events of J6 to me were surreal and really opened my eyes up to what a bag of shit he was." —Humphrey_the_Hoser 13."The barbaric actions of ICE agents rounding up and deporting people of color. A large portion of the workforce is immigrants who are honest, hardworking people. Some of the people being detained are US citizens, but they don't ask for proof of citizenship. It's just detain first, ask questions later. When he said he was going after criminals, I was hoping for violent gang members like Tren de Aragua. He also mentioned tighter border policies, and I was hoping it would reduce the flow of fentanyl into this country. I wanted a safer border and country, not the deportation of immigrants who haven't done anything wrong." —killerzf9 Related: 14."I was suppressing my homosexuality my entire life up until I was about 21, which would've been 2018. I liked Trump and was loud about liking Trump, I think in part, to hide any suspicion from anybody (maybe even myself?). Weirdly, my family was not Republican. I was the only loudmouth in the family, and they just tolerated me. After several years of loneliness, I bravely explored the community I was by nature chosen to belong to and found out I wasn't a monster after all. I am now married to a man and have angrily rejected the divisive and harmful bullshit Republicans spew. Give your loudmouth Republican teenager some time. They may be dealing with what I was dealing with." —Secondbest35 15."As an independent, I leaned more conservative, so I usually voted Republican. (But not always. I stumped and voted for Obama.) I was really on the fence in 2016, but I was so upset with Clinton and her handling of Benghazi that I just couldn't bring myself to vote for her. Most of my family was voting for T., so I went along. I regretted that choice." "Pretty much everything he did regarding environmental policy and pulling out of the Paris Accord angered me. I have been around long enough to remember rivers being on fire, and coughing my way to work, driving through smog that was as opaque as any heavy fog. But how he, and the entire GOP congress, peddled COVID-denying science, recommending stupid 'cures,' sending test kits to Russia, repudiating vaccines... ZERO compassion. Bad enough that he was doing it, but for the entire party to echo his insanity... I still consider myself an Independent, but I'll never vote Republican again." —AncienTleeOnez 16."I just matured, honestly. I had a kid and started thinking more about the world I wanted for him. Watched my wife go through a pregnancy, which gave me a deeper insight into women's healthcare and its importance. Realized a lot of previously held beliefs didn't reconcile with reality. The only thing I'm right-wing on now is strong second amendment rights, everything else is left." —T0KEN_0F_SLEEP 17."When he said, 'I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters.' I laughed when I first heard it. Then I realized… he wasn't joking. That was the moment I stopped laughing." —ayanboss007 18."I genuinely didn't like the overstepping of political correctness. Then he stacked the Supreme Court, and we witnessed the overturning of Roe v Wade. That's when I realized the man is a pawn in a larger crusade, and they have the upper hand. That's when I got genuinely afraid. Don't get me wrong, I quickly saw how much of an A-hole he was, but it was all water under the bridge until major, life-changing things happened even before he was back in office. Now he threatens my life and everything I want out of this life (to do my science). That fear has turned into rage." —TheTopNacho 19."I went to one of his rallies. Seriously, I was a moderate republican for DECADES, and I went to one of his rallies in Ohio and actually heard him talk unedited for the first time. He's kind of funny, and REALLY gone mentally. Like rambling incoherence gone. I'd been watching Fox, so I just figured the left was whining about nothing, then I was like... Oh. he crazy." "The parking lot was even worse. I'm used to a few people at a rally who are conservative with views I don't align with, which is a polite way of saying there are typically a handful of white supremacists at any republican event. That's 'fine' in the sense that I'm not going to tell you how to live your life even if I disagree with it. At the trump rally, there were way more than a few. It was borderline lots. I got handed three different pieces of material with obvious Nazi stuff on it because I 'look like I'd appreciate it.' So that stopped my support for Trump. That got me out of the bubble, and I really started seeing the absolute level of BS the right puts up with constantly. J6 stopped my support for all Republicans forever, as I consider the brand to be fundamentally flawed. During COVID, my church really supported some right-wing stuff, and about 20 people died, mostly old people, of course, so the church started... blaming the democrats. In Ohio. In 2020. So after J6, I left the Republican party and haven't looked back. I'm disgusted with both my senators and my representative. They are all slimeballs, and I have no respect for any of them." —tosser1579 20."In 2016, I was a college student surrounded by mostly well-off conservative friends. We were taught that things needed to change in American politics (I still believe that, but not in the way I once did). We loved that he was less of a politician, less guarded with his words, and really seemed motivated to make changes. We also didn't really think he would win. Personally, I was generally closer to the center politically. I could agree with some things Democrats said, but I also wasn't very politically minded and mostly listened to the discussions my friends were having as my primary source for political news." "And then I started watching the news on my own, and I didn't really like the things he said. I didn't like his rhetoric or the way he went about things, and the changes we had hoped to see never really happened. Slowly, I started to become disillusioned with him. During that time, I also changed my major to history and focused mostly on the WW2 era. I started making connections and didn't like what I was seeing. I never voted for him again, and now a good portion of my job is trying to get people to make those same connections I did. I'm still a bit conservative. I hope one day there will be a conservative party I can support, but it's certainly not this one." —Dobbys_Other_Sock Related: 21."I'm Canadian, and honestly, I did like Trump during the first half of his first term. There was something refreshing about how he called out corruption overall, especially when he said he knows there are big tax loopholes and corruption, and pointed out that Hillary said she is against corruption while just enriching herself and her inner circle. But the irony didn't take long to hit. As time went on, it became clear he wasn't draining the swamp — he was just redirecting the flow to himself and his own circle of elites. That hypocrisy was the first crack." "But the final straw? The tariff war, especially with Canada. It wasn't that I suddenly became emotionally charged over a Canada vs USA rivalry; I looked at it objectively, and it was just… dumb. Economically dumb. Canada and the U.S. are deeply integrated economically, especially in manufacturing — auto parts, machinery, raw materials, you name it. Slapping tariffs on imports from a major trade partner that your own industries depend on? That's not tough negotiation, that's shooting yourself in the foot while looking in the mirror and calling it a power move. And ironically, Canada barely felt a thing. If anything, we just shifted slightly, stopped buying some U.S.-specific goods where we could, especially if there was only a minor price difference. Most of our day-to-day stuff — like beef, produce, even fast food supply chains like McDonald's — are domestically sourced here anyway. What baffled me most was how none of his so-called 'pro-business' party members seemed to get it. Not even a surface-level Google search economist would've greenlit that move. It was a lose-lose dressed up as a win. So yeah, Trump went from being someone I thought was a refreshing player in politics to someone I disliked but respected for playing the game, to someone I just outright lost respect for. The tariff war made it clear: it wasn't strategic, it wasn't patriotic — it was just reckless, and even a kilometre away you could see the crash coming." —-NexusOneX- 22."Mocking that disabled reporter was the last straw for me." —JPBeanArch 23."I preferred Trump over Clinton in 2016, but for me, it was the Helsinki Summit. His secret meeting with Putin, where nobody was allowed in, and all notes were destroyed. And the groveling and sucking up he was doing was embarrassing to see from an American President. Basically, everything after that, I just saw him for what he is." —BibendumsBitch 24."For me, it was rather simple. I started to see his BS rhetoric as just that. Everything he did was the best it had ever been done. No, it wasn't. He'd double down on shit. My elderly mother-in-law does the same when called out on stupid shit (not politically related). Then he started vilifying everyone who disagreed with him in public. It made me cringe when he spoke for Americans because I didn't feel that way. The way he demeaned people was the last straw. I would say I'm still conservative, but as long as MAGA represents the face of conservatism, I will have nothing to do with it." —martinfendertaylor finally, "Pretty much anything he did this whole year." —sarcastic_fish_69 Can you relate? Share why you stopped supporting Trump in the comments or via the anonymous form below: Also in In the News: Also in In the News: Also in In the News: Solve the daily Crossword
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Philippine Senate Chief Favors Dropping VP Duterte's Impeachment Case
The leader of the Philippine Senate has signaled there won't be an impeachment trial against Vice President Sara Duterte, saying a court ruling that voided the complaint should be followed. 'The decision of the Supreme Court is clear: the impeachment complaint is null and void,' Senator Francis Escudero said at a media briefing on Tuesday.
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Sara Duterte impeachment ruling sparks constitutional storm in Philippines
Monday's opening of the Philippines ' Congress has been thrown into chaos by a Supreme Court ruling that effectively killed the long-awaited impeachment trial of Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio. Advertisement The Supreme Court's decision, delivered late on Friday , quashed the Senate's long-delayed trial on a technicality, ruling that the impeachment violated the constitutional 'one-year rule' against multiple proceedings within a year for the same official. The fallout has cast a pall over what would otherwise have been a self-congratulatory celebration, in the form of the president's state of the nation address to Congress on Monday. On Sunday, the presidential palace issued a statement stating that President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr 's administration 'respects but disagrees with the ruling'. The 15-member court's decision does not exonerate Duterte-Carpio, nor does it bar future impeachment attempts, but – if followed – it effectively postpones any new proceedings until 2026. Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio speaks during a press conference in Manila on February. Photo: AP Of the 14 justices who concurred, 12 were appointed by the vice-president's father, former leader Rodrigo Duterte . Justice Marvic Leonen, who delivered the majority opinion, was appointed by the late president Benigno Aquino. Even Marcos' lone appointee joined the majority. Only one justice abstained, citing 'official business'. Advertisement
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Republicans plan to use threat of third Trump impeachment as key issue to boost their standing in midterm races
Republican strategists say they plan to make a major midterm talking point from the threat of a third impeachment against Donald Trump that could come if Democrats retake the House. 'We know what the stakes are in the midterm elections,' John McLaughlin, a Trump pollster, told NBC News. 'If we don't succeed, Democrats will begin persecuting President Trump again. They would go for impeachment.' Right now, Republicans hold an eight-seat advantage in the House, walling the president off from a third impeachment, but that could change if the Democrats surge in 2026, as the president's party typically suffers during midterm elections. Still, according to Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who led the party's second impeachment against Trump over the January 6 insurrection, the Democrats themselves plan to focus more on what they see as the president's 'terrible agenda.' 'We've already impeached him twice,' Raskin told NBC. 'So obviously that's not a complete solution, given that he is able to beat the two-thirds constitutional spread. So I don't think anybody thinks that's going to be the utopian solution to our problems.' Both House impeachments — first for an alleged offer of quid pro quo with Ukraine to go after Joe Biden, then for the Capitol riot — did not have enough votes to secure convictions in the Senate. During the second Trump administration, the president has continued to face attempts to initiate new impeachment trials, including from Michigan Democrat Shri Thanedar in the spring and a June effort over the administration's Iran strikes, though none of these have come to pass. Impeachments may not be coming any time soon, but Republicans face a variety of other risks to their three-party majority control of the federal government. The president's job approval rating has dipped to 37 percent, according to Gallup, the lowest of this term and just above Trump's lowest-ever approval rating, driven by hemorrhaging support from independent voters. A majority of Americans also oppose his signature One Big, Beautiful Bill, which contains a series of tax cuts and restrictions on social programs like Medicaid. The party also continues to face fallout and internal division over the White House's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files scandal, in which Trump and his allies campaigned on releasing materials related to the notorious financier's sexual misconduct, only to backtrack as more information concerning Epstein and Trump's long-time friendship came to light. The president has lashed out at his own base for seeking information about the scandal, which he calls a Democratic 'hoax,' while House Speaker Mike Johnson effectively ended business in the lower house until after its upcoming summer recess to avoid Democratic amendments calling for the release of the files. Meanwhile, former White House ally (and GOP mega-donor) Elon Musk has vowed to form his own political party, in the face of disagreements with the Trump administration over spending policy and the Epstein saga. There could also be blowback to economic conditions if the Trump administration's repeatedly delayed double-digit tariffs take full effect on major U.S. trading partners.
Japan Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
Philippine court says Sara Duterte impeachment unlawful
The Philippines' Supreme Court on Friday said the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte is unconstitutional, in a stunning victory for the embattled politician and rival of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The top court said the complaint didn't comply with the constitutional rule that only one impeachment proceeding may be initiated against the same official within one year. Duterte was awaiting a trial in the country's Senate that could lead to barring her from public office if convicted. Her legal team welcomed the decision, saying it has "once again upheld the rule of law and reinforced the constitutional limits against abuse of the impeachment process.' The court said in a statement that the Senate "could not acquire jurisdiction over the impeachment proceedings,' which suggests that the trial can't go ahead when Congress opens next week. In a separate statement, a spokesperson for the Senate said the chamber is "duty-bound to respect the finality of rulings issued by the High Court.' The vice president was impeached in February by the House of Representatives on accusations that include plotting to assassinate Marcos and misusing public funds. She denies allegations of wrongdoing. "The articles of impeachment, which was the fourth complaint, violated the one-year period ban because there were three complaints that were ahead of it,' court spokesperson Camille Sue Mae Ting told reporters. The court added in a statement that a new impeachment complaint can be filed starting Feb. 6 next year and "is not absolving Vice President Duterte from any of the charges against her.' The court statement said the decision was unanimous. Judges appointed by former President Rodrigo Duterte, the vice president's father, dominate the high court. It's unlikely that another impeachment complaint will be filed again, said Bob Herrera-Lim, managing director of risk consultancy Teneo. "The narrative that emerged from the midterms is that the Duterte family still has significant political support, and that voters may have tired of the battle between the Marcos and Duterte families as being the focus of politics,' he said. Marcos is set to deliver an annual State of the Nation Address on Monday before lawmakers during the opening of the 20th Congress. "We call on everyone to respect the Supreme Court and place their trust in our institutions,' Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro said.
