[ Let’s see... how would I address this as a true believer? “Our Dear Leader realizes that his presidency is essential to the welfare of it’s citizens and MAGA. Without him in office, their will be drought, famine, pestilence and S&P down 50%. His efforts are not for personal gain but for the greater good by doing whatever is necessary to defeat the enemies of the people who dare to run against him.” Sounds totally and perfectly justified!
He did his job: pollute the airwaves by not answering questions by raising objections that are hard to refute because they are meant to obfuscate. Then start shouting "NOTHING HAPPENED" because Trump never actually got the dirt he asked for. Then when asked about the propriety of Trump asking in the first place, start bleating the same obfuscating crap. Only louder.
I am seeing Pelosi and the D's upping up the ante. They don't talk about QPQ anymore. Bribery and extortion are the key words now. Pelosi is a very careful pol, using the bribery word is not an accident. I bet there is more revelations to come out in the days to come.
Questions to the lawyers here. Next week, Sondland will be asked about his, previously unreported, call to Trump from a restaurant in Kiev. This call is corroborated by two witnesses. No way he can pretend not to recall. If he denies making the call, is that considered perjury? What are his options?
Unless this impeachment process leads to a removal or resignation all of this is noise. It is just a waste of time and the Beltway and East coast media obsessing over something that will not come to fruition. Why drag out a full year of this (similar to Muller wasted two years) when all that is going to happen is an acquittal or non-conviction. If it does led somewhere I will comeback and eat crow on this thread but I doubt it.
Mark Sandy, director of national security programs at OMB, is apparently going to testify. I imagine he could provide insight into the role of the current acting director of OMB, (Russ Vought, a Republican political hack) as well as that of Mulvaney. The big weakness in Trump's abuse of power efforts is that crooked schemes of any size are likely to come into contact with some career government employees - and that once some of those career people start speaking up, there's no reason for others to stay silent. We'll see if the outbreak of whistleblowing in the State Department and NSC starts to spread to other places (for example, the Justice Department).
A few reasons: - Republicans should actually be forced to embarass themselves by defending the indefensible, rather than being just able to dodge. - Democratic voters would be demoralized and demobilized if their own party failed to pursue Trump for obvious crimes, making it more likely that Trump could win another term. - Impeachment, even without conviction, still is pretty unpleasant for the target; going through with it might help deter future wrongdoing, even if the Senate acquits.
Shitty take. Just as a matter of principle, he needs to be investigated and impeached. Beyond that though, the facts are there and are overwhelming. Trump base will stick by him come hell and high water but for the rest of the population, the level of corruption is clear now. That will also force the Rs in the Senate to take a tough vote and whatever they do, the will pay the price in november. Finally Trump himself, unlikely to be removed, will be a weaken and impeached president, carrying a load of scandals in 2020 and running for reelection. Her will be simply toxic beyond his shrinking base.
That is a pretty big news. This dude may be realizing it is now or never to jump ship and come clean.
What's the alternative? Just let blatant criminality go unnoticed and unreported since Republicans are not even pretending to care? Seems like a very simplistic non-solution. It's hardly a waste of time documenting the extent to which Republicans in congress will go to obstruct justice and defend a undeniably corrupt and inept administration.
Yes. But at the same time, trump and co are ********ing awful criminals. They ********ing botched this big time.
I’ve criticized Pelosi a lot in the last six months....but this is ********ing brilliant Speaker Pelosi: "If the president has something that is exculpatory — Mr. President, that means do you have anything that shows your innocence — then he should make that known ... So far, we haven't seen that, but we welcome it." Via ABCpic.twitter.com/h87oGKqMr7— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 14, 2019
IMO Sondland should be regarded as a co-conspirator rather than a mere witness like Bill Taylor He's already been forced into damaging admissions which potentially implicate himself in a criminal extortion scheme. IMO his lawyers will be advising him to admit to anything that the Dems can surely prove. Perhaps he can get creative around the call content knowing a recording (hopefully) won't come out. He does need to be very careful not to open himself up to criminal obstruction charges. That is basically what happened to Stone.
One thing that does happen in these situations is that CYA becomes high priority. So if you have your fingers in a criminal scheme in a government department, maybe best to be in the beach head team reporting it - than facing the music following a Biden win in 2020 That is also why these investigations matter. They send a message to the little people.
This scheme is pretty insane when you factor in Bilbo Barr flying out to Italy and Great Britain to demand evidence that Ukraine/Clinton hacked the election & discredit US Intelligence Services whilst Donny was pestering Australia and extorting Zelensky