House Democrats have introduced a resolution to impeach President Donald Trump, charging him with "incitement of insurrection." For Congress, impeachment is typically the last resort against a president after all other avenues have been exhausted, according to Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif. 15th District), but he said as long as President Donald Trump remains in office, the country is at risk.
"The president is a threat to life and he is a threat to our democratic ideals," Swalwell told Cheddar.
Swalwell said that Trump's actions were more dangerous than those of other presidents who faced impeachment. "There have been prior presidents to have been impeached, or have come close to impeachment, but no one has ever endangered so many lives. And this president still has access to the nuclear codes."
The resolution comes after the House Democrats' attempt to urge Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment was blocked by their GOP counterparts, some of whom are now calling for unification following last week's attack.
"I'm not going to be bullied by those who were accomplices to the attack on the Capitol. Those who are calling for unity and healing were the same ones who foolishly and falsely lead thousands to believe that they could overturn a peaceful election," Swalwell said. "Republicans and Democrats want to unite, but we have to separate ourselves from those who are responsible."
When it comes to those lawmakers who backed Trump's false claims that the November election was stolen, Swalwell stated that they have to be held responsible for their roles in the Capitol attack, even if that means expulsion from the body.
While House Majority Whip James Clyburn suggested that the House could delay sending impeachment articles to the Senate until after President-elect Joe Biden's first 100 days in office are complete, Swalwell noted that the body is capable of handling several issues at once and that letting this incident slide under the radar could set a negative precedent.
"The second we allow people to enable and inspire and radicalize others to take arms against the United States, that is the second we either go back in time to 1860 or we look like countries who we do not want to look like," he said.
The dating app Bumble has sponsored bills and pushed lawmakers to criminalize the online practice of sending unsolicited nudes or “cyberflashing." Payton Iheme, Bumble's head of public policy for the Americas, joined Cheddar News to discuss why the app was going after the harassing behavior beyond its own platform. "Now, while we went to work internally in the company, and we created something called private detector to automatically blur those images so the user can decide if they want to see them, there's nothing for the rest of the internet," she said. "And so that's why we went to work with these laws."
Constituent service platform Indigov recently raised $25 million in a Series B funding round. Indigov bills itself as a constituent relationship management tool that helps elected officials improve the way they organize, respond to, and engage those they serve. The startup's services are being used by federal, state, and local governments across the country, including the U.S. House of Representatives. Alex Kouts, founder & CEO of Indigov, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Cheddar Politics takes a deeper look at the takeaways from the Georgia primary elections on Tuesday. Georgia Public Broadcasting's local and state politics reporter, Stephen Fowler, joins us to discuss the limits of Trump endorsements and break down what the outcome in each race means.
After learning that the suspect in the Uvalde school shooting posted about his intentions on Facebook, activists are urging social networks to make changes. Lena Derhally, a licensed psychotherapist and author of "The Facebook Narcissist," joined Cheddar News to discuss the role social media plays in school shootings. "They're not really invested in taking down hateful content," she said about social platforms."In regards to the shooting, it was 15 minutes before that actual threat. It would be pretty hard for a social media company to trace that threat that quickly. But what they can do better is take down threats and hateful content much faster and more than they're doing now."
Following the mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead, the debate over gun control has been reignited. While studies have shows most Americans agree on some additional regulations, there hasn't been much legislative traction even as gun violence worsens in the country. Brian Lemek, the executive director of Defend The Vote and the former executive director at Brady PAC for gun control, joined Cheddar to discuss reform efforts. "The lawmakers that we have aren't passing these at the federal level," he said. "That's the problem. We have the wrong people in charge."
The crypto industry is still reeling from Terra's recent crash. The company's blockchain was temporarily halted earlier this month after the collapse of its cryptocurrency Luna (LUNA) and its stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), which led to almost $45 billion being wiped from the tokens' market caps within a week. Now, many are left wondering what Terra's struggles mean for the broader crypto market. Reeve Collins, CEO of the NFT platform BLOCKv, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell from Davos 2022 to discuss.
