The Trump Impeachment

[L'Emmerdeur]

I'd question whether Attorney General Barr sees any problem with Trump's rhetoric (re: Tero's post about Trump calling FBI agents 'scum'), considering how important he says it is to give respect to those charged with law enforcement, but Barr has shown that he's a Trumpist zealot with no integrity.

[Svartalf]

whaddya mean no integrity? He has the integrity of a guy who knows which side of his bread has the butter on.

[Tero]

Republicans grabbing on to the failure line:
Horowitz defends his Trump-Russia report but is "deeply concerned" about FBI's surveillance failures

...and using the FBI failure to COMPLETELY exonerate the poor man, spied on by DEEP STATE from the start. He is entitled to use Ukraine now!

But his team did find 17 "significant inaccuracies and omissions" in the FBI's handling of FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) applications to surveil Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide, and found that "the surveillance of Carter Page continued even as the FBI gathered information that weakened the assessment of probable cause."

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/inspe ... ion-today/

[Tero]

Kurt Bardella
House Republicans' Trump impeachment strategy is simple: Distract, deceive and yell

Indeed, in observing my former House GOP comrades over the many days of contentious House hearings, I am reminded of a scene from the classic Will Ferrell comedy “Anchorman,” where the famed (and fictional) Channel 4 News team angrily confronts its news director over the hiring of a female reporter. In the scene, several of the male journalists take turns yelling their opposition to the addition. Steve Carell’s character, Brick Tamland, isn’t really smart enough to have a critique but wishing to be included, he screams, “I don’t know what we’re yelling about!”

Ironically, this tactic of outrage was often utilized by Republicans to defend the widespread use of their congressional oversight authority. Just go back and watch the 2012 House Oversight Committee hearing where Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress. You’ll see Trump defenders like Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, yelling about the need to “get the facts.”

Revisit the 11-hour grilling that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was subjected to by Republicans during the Benghazi hearing and you’ll see the now familiar sight of Republicans yelling and badgering their witness. As Rep. Adam Smith, R-Wash., observed that day, the Republicans’ strategy was to try and “wear you down.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/h ... cna1100081

[Sean Hayden]

I'm pretty sure they could say he's guilty and it wouldn't matter. They'd just be in trouble with their party for giving the other guys ammunition --don't do that dummy!

Which brings me back to: who are they talking to? Why?

[Tero]

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell knows Donald Trump is guilty. He just doesn't care — McConnell plans to cover it up and doesn't even really care how obvious that is

All that was made clear from an article published late Wednesday in the Washington Post, in which Senate Republicans admitted that the plan is to rubber-stamp their acquittal of Trump, and their lack of desire to even try to dignify this travesty of justice by pretending to hold a real impeachment trial, as the Constitution demands.

Senate Republicans want to hold "a short impeachment trial early next year that would include no witnesses," the article explains, because they believe "it would be better to limit the trial and quickly vote to acquit Trump."

Trump was reportedly interested in staging a big spectacle in the Senate trial, and calling Hunter Biden, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, the original Ukraine whistleblower and who knows who else. For once, Republicans may defy him, but only to safeguard his presidency.

It was pretty much overdetermined that McConnell was going to go this way. He doesn't even bother to hide that he is a soulless robot programmed only to accumulate power and hang onto it.

https://www.salon.com/2019/12/12/republ ... otal-sham/

[Scot Dutchy]

Do you really think Trump will go on trial. Labour has just won the UK GE.

[pErvinalia]

He will go on trial in the senate, but the Repubs will stifle it.

[JimC]

A faux trial...

[Tero]

I've congratulated Trump on his achievement. Whatever happens in Senate, no stopping the House vote:
https://mobile.twitter.com/P_Lepinkaine ... 4964111360

[Tero]

They all got 5 min and many went all deep state, crooked FBI and deep state in their time
One listed Trump policy and achievements. Not the issue here, GOP!

[Tero]

Onion-fox:
This poorly executed attempt to downplay the president’s overwhelming electoral victory in 2016 with some sort of flimsy pretext to democracy is inexcusable and the exact type of threat our founding fathers warned us about. Frankly, it’s unconstitutional and shameful to see Democrats stoop to such low levels.” At press time, Democratic candidates had announced the suspension of their campaigns saying this kind of divisiveness was not what America needs right now.
https://politics.theonion.com/fox-news- ... 1840395457

[Seabass]

Satirists just can't compete with the actual absurdity of Fox News. Fox News is unparodiable.

[Sean Hayden]

Republicans are just lying. It's hard to listen to. They aren't lies about complicated issues which require real work to uncover either, they're saying black is white. To hear them tell it they don't even know why Trump is being impeached. They can't identify from the "scattershot" approach what democrats are accusing him of.

They don't know?

[Tero]

I did not catch onto why the conspiracy theorists were feeding this to Trump till now. The company is owned by a Ukrainian. Therefore anti-Russia. In the same way that the FBI can't be trusted because there are democrats working there.