It's a Bill! It's a Law! No, it's an Executive Order!

President Biden is already on his way and taking actions quickly, the Articles of Impeachment against Former President Trump have been delivered by the House to the Senate, and COVID-19 is still a threat.

Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:00):
President Biden is already getting to work and
taking actions quickly. theArticles of Impeachment against
former President Donald J. Trumphave been delivered by the House
of Representatives to theSenate, and COVID-19 is still a
threat. I'm Joe Maronski. Andyou're listening to the
political informant, your placefor facts first politics.

(00:32):
15 executive orders on his firstday in office and over 30
executive orders in his firstthree days 40 presidential
actions in just seven days, andwe are seeing Joe Biden getting
to work and using his authorityas much as he can. Now before we
get started, I do want to note,memorandums and proclamations
are similar, but not technicallyexecutive orders, although media

(00:56):
networks often count them assuch. So let's talk a little bit
about the history of executiveorders. Now, they were not
deemed to be counted until 1907.
And then the counting wasformalized in 1936 through the
Federal Register act, but ordersare still found to this day that
are left uncounted. Technically,the first numbered order was by

(01:18):
Abraham Lincoln, but like Isaid, there were plenty of
orders before him. Somepresidents don't like executive
orders, whereas others use themdaily. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
issued 3721 executive ordersaveraging 307 orders a year.
George Washington, of course,the first President issued eight

(01:40):
and it's important to note thatbecause as we move on through
history, we do see an up anddown path. But that up and down
path is steadily going up. Youknow, the lows of presidents are
in the two hundreds. Whereastechnically, George Washington's
eight executive orders wouldhave been high for the time that
he did it. And nowadays we see300 400 executive orders by one

(02:02):
president. john adams, thesecond President James Madison,
the fourth president, JamesMonroe, the fifth president all
only issued one executive orderin their term. Now William Henry
Harrison, who was the ninthpresident, technically issued no
executive orders, but that isbecause he only served for 31

(02:23):
days, he actually died 31 daysinto his presidency, he served
from March 4 1841 to April4 1841. Of course, his death
sparked a contrastconstitutional crisis about the
line of succession, but hedidn't issue any executive
orders. Let's go through somerecent presidents. So Jimmy
Carter issued 320 executiveorders ronald reagan issued 381,

(02:46):
George HW Bush issued 166, BillClinton issued 364, George W.
Bush issued 291, Barack Obamaissued 276 and Donald Trump
issued 220 executive orders.

(03:07):
Now, these are used for thingsfrom federal workplace policies,
all the way to things such asthe 2017 travel ban. Now if we
go back in history and look athow many executive orders were
issued, before World War Two,the average was 59 executive
orders a year from Presidentpost World War two presidents

(03:28):
average 314 orders a year,obviously now that has gone down
seeing Barack Obama 276throughout his whole term,
Donald Trump 220 throughout hisold term, but right after world
war two executive orders were ahuge thing. Obviously, as I said
before FDR issued over 3000. Sopresidents use them, some don't.

(03:54):
But why don't they use them moreoften? Well, they're actually
not that easy to issue. Theyhave to be written in very
specific ways. And of course,they're open to court challenges
if they're not written exactlyright. This is exactly why we
saw Trump's 2017 travel ban incourt constantly and rewritten
numerous times. And the otherreason is that they can actually

(04:16):
make Congress pretty angry.
Executive Orders is basically away of going around Congress and
congressional members are notthe most fond when their job
gets taken from them by thePresident. So, you know,
presidents who use a lot ofexecutive orders, statistically
don't get much done in Congress.

(04:37):
Now, of course, when I say useexecutive orders, we're talking
about those high numbers 200 300that have been issued in recent
years, really isn't that high.
When you consider that postWorld War Two 300 was a year.
Many of President Biden's ordershave been re vocations of former
President Trump's orders. Butthis isn't entirely uncommon.

(04:57):
Actually, Ronald Reagan Reaganrevoked 29 of his present
predecessors orders. In hisfirst year in office. George HW
Bush revoked 11 of Reagan'sorders. In his first year
Clinton revoked 21 of hw Bush'sorders. In his first year,
George W. Bush revoked 25 ofClinton's Obama revoked 10 of
George W. Bush's. Trump revoked15 of Obama's orders. So it's

(05:20):
not entirely uncommon for a newpresident to revoke their
predecessorsorders, just not as fast as Joe
Biden has. He's using a lot ofhis orders to put in place COVID
policies as well though.

(05:41):
Examples include federalproperty mask mandates, student
loan pauses and evictionmoratoriums, but we'll get into
that a little bit later on. Now,people on the right are
criticizing Biden for using thismany executive orders so
quickly. But some of Bidensupporters on the left are
saying, you know, we don't havetime in a pandemic to wait for

(06:02):
something to go throughCongress. He needs to do this.
But, you know, it's that weird,weird sort of situation when,
you know, yeah, he's using someexecutive orders to set in place
COVID policies, but he's alsofocusing on revoking some of
Trump's policies when he said wewere looking at to the future.

(06:22):
So you have that kind of backand forth on both sides. But we
will definitely see moreexecutive orders come out of
this Biden administration.
The impeachment articles againstformer President Donald J. Trump
have been delivered to theSenate by the House of

(06:43):
Representatives appointedimpeachment managers. Now, this
triggers the fourth everimpeachment trial of a
president. Let's go back againin history. So Andrew Johnson
was the first president to havean impeachment trial. And this
was triggered by the Civil Warand the death of Abraham
Lincoln. Of course, once AbrahamLincoln died, Andrew Johnson

(07:04):
became president because he washis vice president. And and the
Articles of Impeachment allegedthat he violated the Tenure of
Office act and abused hispowers. But he held on to his
presidency by literally onevote, a single vote kept his
presidency. Next up would beBill Clinton, in which Congress
alleged that he perjured himselfwhen he lied to investigators

(07:26):
about his relationship withMonica Lewinsky and obstructed
justice by telling White Housestaffers to deny the
relationship. Obviously, BillClinton was not removed from
office and reason being manysenators believed he'd not
committed crimes that rose tothe level of high crimes and
misdemeanors, which is thestandard of proof in an
impeachment trial. And then, ofcourse, Donald Trump had his

(07:48):
first impeachment trial. Not toolong ago, he was charged with
obstruction of Congress andabuse of power. And it was a
very partisan vote on on theobstruction of Congress charge
it was 53 to 47. Right alongparty lines. And in the abuse of
power line, Senator Mitt Romneyvoted with Democrats, so it was

(08:09):
a 52 to 48 vote. This time he'scharged with incitement of
insurrection. And HouseDemocrats and a few Republicans
who voted to go through withimpeachment cited the January 2
phone call with the GeorgiaSecretary of State Brad
Ravensburger. Now, this is theinfamous phone call now, which

(08:30):
was first released by theWashington Post in which you can
hear President Trump saying thathe needs to find votes. And that
you know, it's a crime for theSecretary of State to hide these
votes. Of course, the Secretaryof State has claimed he has no
clue about any hidden votes. Ifhe did, he would obviously bring
them forward. And yeah, he's arepublican, he wasn't happy with

(08:51):
the results of the election. Buthis job is to hold a fair and
free election. Democrats andRepublicans are still debating
the format of the trial. So wewon't know much about how it'll
go down for a little bit longer.
But we do know that the ChiefJustice john G. Roberts will
actually not preside. Becausethe Constitution states the

(09:11):
Chief Justice only presides whenit's a sitting president. So
democrats in the senate aresaying, Hey, he's not a sitting
president. He's a formerpresident. Of course, that
brings up the argument. Well,why are we having an impeachment
trial for a former president,which is something that Rand
Paul brought up today. Thistrial itself is set to take

(09:31):
place the week of February 8,but things have already gotten
underway. A lot of the formalitysenators were sworn in, and as I
mentioned, Senator Rand Paulforced to vote through a point
of order. He questioned theconstitutionality of convicting
a former president. So the voteafter debate was actually a 55
to 45 vote, which means fiverepublicans voted to continue

(09:54):
with the trial saying it isconstitutional. Those would be
Mitt Romney. Ben sasse SusanCollins, Lisa Murkowski and Pat
Toomey. Rand Paul also claimedthat john Robert should preside
not President Pro Tem PatrickLeahy. But again, Democrats are
saying he's not a sittingpresident. So we don't need john

(10:14):
G. Roberts to preside. Themanagers appointed by the house
say they're prepared to usesocial media footage and posts
as their main evidence in thetrial. They're actually very
weary of using witnesses becauseof the executive privilege
claims they faced in his firsttrial. But things are definitely
going to heat up before thingsget any easier. In an

(10:38):
impeachment trial, you need atwo thirds vote, which means
that a simple majority that theDemocrats have isn't going to
cut it in this case. They need67 votes to convict President
Trump and with only fivesenators siding with Democrats
on this most recent vote aftersenator Paul's point of order.
It does not look too good forthe Democrats on Capitol Hill.

(11:07):
On January 6, and our mob ofTrump supporters q anon
conspiracy theorists andconservative extremists stormed
the Capitol. So this isobviously the center of Trump's
impeachment trial. But ofcourse, there are citizens were
being tried for what they did.
So to date, the Department ofJustice has charged more than
150 people and identified ahundreds of others as suspects.

(11:30):
The acting US Attorney forWashington DC Michael Sherwin
said that they've opened over400 subject case files. But in
some of these cases, they'restill trying to identify the
suspect. Interestingly enough,they're mainly working off of
public tips and tips from familyand friends of the suspects. So
people are seeing these picturesonline and calling and saying,

(11:53):
hey, that's my brother. That'smy best friend, which is
certainly something that youwon't see too often. Let's talk
specifically though, about JakeAngelica. So he is also known as
the Q shaman and he was seen inthe horns and shirtless in a lot
of those pictures from theinsurrection. He's 33 years old

(12:14):
and from Arizona. So his stay injail has already been something
else. You know, he started ahunger strike because the jail
wouldn't give him organic food.
He got the organic food vinyleit was a huge thing. But that's
not even the weirdest part. Hewas transferred to Washington DC
on January 19, and he's incustody of the US Marshals

(12:36):
Service. His lawyer tried to gethim released with a GPS monitor
on January 15. But the judgedenied it and said he will be
held without bond. He's chargedwith two felonies and four
misdemeanors which are civildisorder obstruction of an
official proceeding, enteringand remaining in a restricted
building disorderly anddisruptive conduct and

(12:58):
restricted building, violententry and disorderly conduct and
a Capitol building and parrotingdemonstrating or picketing in a
Capitol Building. But weirdenough, his lawyer is blaming
former President Trump. In arecent statement, Albert
Watkins, the lawyer for AngelaLee said, quote, he regrets
very, very much having not justbeen duped by the president, but

(13:21):
by being in a position where heallowed that duping to put him
in a position to make decisionsthat he should not have made. So
that's like a very weird defensestrategy. Never heard of that
one before. But it will be veryinteresting to see if this plays
out if it's an effective defensestrategy and of course if it

(13:43):
plays any role in theimpeachment proceedings of
former President TrumpThe Coronavirus is still a
threat. But finally the UnitedStates is seeing a few days in a
row without hitting new records.
According to the World HealthOrganization to date, the United

(14:06):
States has 24,916,899 confirmedcases with 416,004 deaths.
January as a whole though, isthe most deaths in a single
month to date for the UnitedStates with 77,698 deaths. But

(14:27):
let's talk a little bit aboutthe vaccines. So, late Tu
sday night, we found out that Asra Zeneca will be speaking on We
nesday, January 27, at a meting with the CDC regarding th
emergency use approval for itvaccine, which is a huge st
p in the right direction but its also very interesting be
ause Astra Zeneca is the only vacine so far that's gotten th

(14:51):
s far. That doesn't use the sae technology as the Pfizer or ma
ernal vaccines which would of corse be with the mRNA present Bi
en announced the purchase of 20million more doses of the Ma
onna and Pfizer vaccines and sas we'll have enough vaccines fo
every single American by ths summer. To date, the CDC sa
s 44,394,075 doses have been ditributed, with 23,540,994 be

(15:21):
ng administered so far. retrictions, though, are de
initely loosening California lited it stay at home order. Th
Ohio Governor said he wants evry kid back in school by Ma
ch 1 at the latest. And this isgetting some pushback. Some pe
ple on the right are saying its because Biden's president an
they want to make him look god. Well, people on the left sa
yes, it is because Biden is prsident, but not for the lo

(15:44):
ks. It's because he actually taes the virus seriously. Dr. Fa
ci is back in the briefing rom and White House doctors who wo
ked with Vice President Pence onthe task force set in place by
President Trump are speaking ouand actually saying they we
e dismissed and ignored but nohing has really come up this ye
. Global cases topped 100 milion on January 26, according to

(16:05):
Johns Hopkins University, and glbal deaths are at 2,149,800 an
Joe Biden invoked the deense production act which wi
l help to speed up vaccine prduction and increase supply. No
President Biden also has sined a lot of executive orders re
ating to COVID. Those are as folows requiring a mask on fe

(16:28):
eral property, creating the poition of a COVID-19 response co
rdinator to oversee the goernment wide response, paused fe
eral student loan payments madated masks on public tr
nsportation including aiplanes and buses, fa
ilitating data sharing to alow for a quote data driven re
ponse establishing the COID-19 Health Equity Task Fo

(16:49):
ce supporting the reopening ofschools supporting workplace sa
ety, establishing a COVID-19 pademic testing board, gu
ranteeing unemployment inurance for people who refuse to
work due to COVID-19. Esablishing teams to help di
tribute federal aid money, diecting the Treasury De
artment to take quote a seies of actions to expand and im

(17:12):
rove delivery of stimulus chcks. Directing all government de
artments and agencies to qute promptly identify actions th
y can take within existing auhorities to address the cu
rent economic crisis reulting from the pandemic and re
nstating COVID-19 travel retrictions from Brazil, Europe an
South Africa for non US ciizens. He also did sign a me

(17:34):
orandum which supported sttes use of national guard for CO
ID-19 response.
With the world constantlyevolving, especially now it is
key that you stay informed. Thepolitical informant is now
available wherever you listen topodcasts so you can easily

(17:56):
access the information and thetruth that you deserve to hear.
I'm Joe Maronski. And you'vebeen listening to the political
informant your place for fact,first politics