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Graham to Pelosi … We Can Hold Sham Trial Without Your Stinkin’ Articles of Impeachment

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Ever since the House voted to impeach Trump on December 18, Nancy Pelosi has refused to send the two impeachment articles to the Senate for a vote. She has wanted just one simple thing from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell … an assurance of a fair trial.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has apparently had enough of Pelosi’s “political stunt.” He has given her until sundown to get out of town.

Graham’s ultimatum to Pelosi is this … if she does not deliver impeachment articles against Trump to the Senate by the end of the week, the Senate should “take matters in our own hands.”

“What I would do, if she continues to refuse to send the articles as required by the Constitution, I would work with Senator McConnell to change the rules of the Senate so we could start the trial without her, if necessary,” Graham proposed.

Now isn’t that just peachy? So simple … so Republican!

You have to hand it to GOPers, they are masters at the the art of political cheating. If they don’t like rules, they change them. If they don’t like laws, they ignore them!

This is what actually came out of Graham’s mouth:

“Well, we’re not going to let Nancy Pelosi use the rules of the Senate to her advantage. This is dangerous to the presidency as an institution. They impeached the president, but the speaker of the House is holding the articles back, trying to extort from the majority leader of the Senate a trial to her liking. They’re trying to hold these articles over the head of the president.”

So Nancy Pelosi is using the current rules of the Senate to extort a promise of a fair trial? What gall, what brazenness!

Unfortunately for Graham, it’s unlikely Republican senators would vote for such a radical move.

According to Rachael Bade of the Washington Post, “Senate rules suggest such a move would be difficult, if not impossible. It would take 60 votes to pass a resolution on impeachment outside a trial and 67 votes to change the impeachment rules. That threshold would require Democratic support, since McConnell has only 53 Republicans — and Democrats would be loath to undercut Pelosi.”

But with Graham, McConnell and all the other Republican sycophants in the Senate, is anything really beyond the realm of possibility?

Photo | Joshua Roberts/Reuters, nationalreview.com

Remember When Nancy Pelosi Talked About Trump “Self-Impeaching”?

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They all laughed. But it appears the often-maligned Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (and I count myself among the maligners), was on to something when she consistently brushed aside calls for impeachment and instead talked about Trump “self-impeaching.”

Back in May, Pelosi said,  “The point is that every single day, whether it’s obstruction, obstruction, obstruction — obstruction of having people come to the table with facts, ignoring subpoenas. … Every single day, the president is making a case — he’s becoming self-impeachable, in terms of some of the things that he is doing.” She added, “So, he’s doing our work for us in a certain respect.”

Pelosi knew time was on her side. If she gave Trump enough rope, the self-destructive man-child would eventually hang himself.

And so it has come to pass that with Trump’s attempted strong-arming of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to “uncover” dirt on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, Donald Trump has in effect impeached himself.

If Pelosi had initiated impeachment proceedings right after Robert Mueller issued his report, a divided country, and Democratic Party, may have remained divided. This was essentially the case after AG William Barr tainted the jury pool of public opinion by falsely summarizing the contents of Mueller’s report.

Yes there was great pressure on Pelosi, especially from the Party’s progressive wing, but the veteran leader knew the timing wasn’t right. She knew it would take time to get the American people to understand the Mueller report was not a “complete and total exoneration” of Donald Trump. As it has turned out, even after Mueller’s damning testimony before the House and his 448-page report, a large segment of Americans still believes Trump beat the rap.

But with the current Ukraine scandal, the facts are so simple; the corruption so pure. Trump used the power of his office to get a foreign country to help bolster his re-election prospects (sound familiar?) by withholding money already earmarked by Congress for that country’s defense. He not only has publically admitted as much but the “transcript” of his telephone conversation with Zelensky confirms the attempted extortion.

The fact is that Trump felt so emboldened by Mueller’s flop of a performance in front of the House Judiciary Committee that the following day is when he talked with Zelensky about digging up (creating?) dirt on the Bidens. Talk about hutzpah!

Pelosi was shrewd enough to know that the narcissistic Trump, after the Mueller dud, would be even more secure in his invincibility that he would eventually do something so utterly stupid, so brazenly corrupt, that it would be easy for the American public to grasp …  and would unite House Democrats behind formal impeachment.

Madam Speaker, pardon me for ever doubting you.

P.S., as of this writing, 218 House Democrats have come out in favor of the impeachment process … just enough votes to sustain articles of impeachment.

Photo | washingtonpost.com

 

 

Impeachment Junkies … Buckle Up For Some Turbulence Ahead

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Things are about to get real. Impeachment headwinds that have been swirling since the day Trump first set foot in the Oval Office are blowing like never before.

Nancy Pelosi’s strategy of “slow-walking” Donald Trump to the guillotine has suddenly picked up steam. What many Americans thought would happen immediately after Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued his damning Trump-Russia report, way back in March, is finally upon us.

It is being reported that after a closed-door meeting with her caucus, House Speaker Pelosi will announce a formal impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump. This may take the form of establishing a select committee to conduct the impeachment.

“The dam has burst, folks,” tweeted progressive advocacy group Indivisible after more House Democrats recently voiced support for impeachment proceedings against Trump, adding to the majority of the House Democratic caucus that already backed impeachment.

House Democrats who now support impeachment exceeds 164 out of the 235, according to ABC News.

This fast-moving development comes mostly amid new questions about whether Trump made aid to Ukraine contingent on Ukraine’s President agreeing to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

Meanwhile, Republicans are digging in their heels to defend Trump, with Texas Republican, Rep. Lance Gooden, introducing a resolution to remove Jerry Nadler from his chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee.

The chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), has warned that backing the impeachment of Trump will cost Democrats their House majority in the 2020 election.

Nice try… but these scare tactics won’t work.

As more Americans learn of the unparalleled, blatant corruption of Trump and his administration, and the total, shameless enabling by the Republican Party, the public outcry for Trump’s removal will reach a crescendo that even lockstep Senate Republicans will only ignore at their political peril.

Buckle up, cowboys.

Photo | cnn.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will Mueller’s Testimony Change Anything? Probably Not

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In less than two weeks, Robert Mueller will testify before Congress.

On July 17, the reluctant witness will answer questions, in open hearings in front of two Congressional committees, about his probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible obstruction of justice by Trump.

While many fans of karma, and the rule of law, are excited about Mueller possibly exposing Trump for the criminal that he is, it is more likely they will be sorely disappointed. But whatever Mueller’s testimony, it will probably not change the dynamics of impeachment. It is crystal clear by now that Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders in the House do not want to start impeachment proceedings against Trump.

Republicans on both the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees think Mueller’s appearance will be a disaster for him because they plan on exposing him as an incompetent, political hack. They, somehow, will try to get at the former Eagle Scout’s credibility.

Good luck with that!

No, Mueller’s testimony will be ineffective not because a few Republican attack dogs, while making fools of themselves, will show he is a flawed individual and that members of his staff were biased against Trump. Mueller will likely disappoint because he will simply stick to the facts we already know.

Mueller has stated he plans on confining his testimony to the “four corners of his report.”

So don’t expect the ex-Marine to answer some serious questions, such as:  whether he or his team thought there was sufficient evidence to charge Trump with obstruction, were he not president.

But even if Mueller reveals some new information harmful to Trump, it is unlikely to be the game changer that will spark impeachment proceedings the next day, or week or month.

Nancy Pelosi wants Trump to be the Republican presidential candidate in 2020 no matter what we may learn from Mueller.  In her perfect world, the Democratic candidate will trounce Trump at the polls and Democrats will flip the Senate.

Good luck with that!

The American people, Madam Speaker, need for you to do your job, Mueller or no Mueller! If you do not, you run the serious risk of demoralizing your base and helping Trump to a second term.

Photo | bostonherald.com

 

The Flip Side Of Energizing The Republican Base? Demoralizing The Democratic Faithful

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Nancy Pelosi is intent on carrying out her “clever by half” slow-walking of the constitutionally mandated impeachment proceedings against perhaps the most vile and corrupt individual ever to occupy the White House.

One of the Speaker’s “main reasons” for tamping the brakes on even beginning an impeachment inquiry is that it would rile up Trump’s base. Hey, you wouldn’t want to stir up a hornet’s nest, right?

Impeaching Trump would also allow the master con man and media manipulator to play the “martyr card,” all to the detriment of a Democrat winning the presidency in 2020. And since the Senate will never vote to remove Trump from office, what’s the point?

Yet what Pelosi fails to recognize (or give enough credence to) is that by not doing her job, she is demoralizing her very own base. The same group that swept Democrats into power in the 2018 midterm elections on the hope and promise of holding the lawless Trump to account.

Pelosi’s calculated move of letting Trump twist in the wind for as long as possible could very well be the reason Trump gets re-elected in 2020.

Just like in 2016 when many Democrats were so disillusioned by the corrupt way the Democratic National Committee did everything to help Hillary Clinton get the Democratic presidential nomination, they just might sit out the 2020 election or vote third party.

When you add that very real possibility to the fact that Trump and his Republican cohorts will do everything in their power to stay in power, you have the recipe for electoral disaster for Democrats in 2020.

Disillusionment, in political terms, can often lead to voter cynicism and withdrawal. It gets people to believe there just is no justice and all politicians are the same (crooked). It’s the old “politics as usual” syndrome. It goes directly to the  “I hate politics, a pox on all your houses” way of thinking.

Nancy Pelosi, as shrewd a politician as she is, may just resign many Democrats to the belief their vote doesn’t matter. The thinking could run along these lines: “We came out in droves in 2018 to give Democrats the power to remove Trump and you did nothing!”

Time is of the essence. An official impeachment inquiry needs to begin ASAP. Or Democrats run the risk of a demoralized and disillusioned blue electorate in 2020.

Photo | nypost.com

 

 

If Trump’s Latest “Foreign Collusion Is OK” Remarks Don’t Tip The Scales Towards Impeachment, Nothing Will

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Donald Trump is either begging to be impeached or is totally clueless about what constitutes a crime (or, more likely, just doesn’t give a damn).

In broad daylight, for the entire world to hear, Donald Trump stated if offered dirt by a foreign power on a political opponent, he would take it.

In an ABC News interview, Trump told George Stephanopoulos he wouldn’t necessarily call the FBI if approached by foreign entities with information on his 2020 opponent: “It’s not an interference. They have information. I think I’d take it.”

To Donald Trump’s way of thinking, it’s just good old-fashioned oppo (opposition) research, right?

Coming as a complete shock to both Democrats and Republicans, the man currently occupying the Oval Office is actually inviting foreign powers to help him win in 2020 … again!

But isn’t this par for the course?

Remember when candidate Trump made a direct appeal to Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails and make them public?

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” said Trump, referring to emails Clinton had deleted from the private account she had used when she was secretary of state. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

If Trump’s latest statements on accepting foreign interference in our elections don’t tip the scales in favor of starting impeachment proceedings, I don’t know what will.

Unlike Richard Nixon, who did his lawbreaking in private, Trump chooses to commit his crimes on national TV!

But then again, why not? He did promise to be “the most transparent” president ever.

I’ll give him credit for keeping at least one campaign promise!  But seriously, Madam Speaker, you are turning the House, and its constitutional duty to impeach a lawless president, into a joke. Political calculations be damned!

I know. We’ve become so inured to Trump’s lawlessness that we just add the latest wrongdoing to the ever growing “Trump bulls*it mountain.”  But this latest disregard for the sanctity of our elections is a bridge too far.

How long does the list of “high crimes and misdemeanors” have to get before you, as Speaker of the House,  say “enough is enough” to this brazen criminal occupying “The People’s House?”

It is way past time to do your job.

Photo | abcnews.go.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Real Reason Pelosi Keeps Pushing Back On Calls For Impeachment

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Donald Trump has committed enough impeachable offenses to remove 10 presidents from office. Yet Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, does not want to start formal impeachment proceedings. We’ve all heard her reasoning: (1) The public doesn’t want it; (2) He’ll never be impeached anyway; (3) It turns Trump into a victim; and (4) It will badly tear apart an already divided country.

Yet I’m more than a little skeptical about Madam Speaker’s song and dance.  I believe the real reason Pelosi is against formal impeachment proceedings is that she wants Donald Trump to be the Republican presidential candidate in 2020.

If Trump were to be removed from office (a very big “if” considering Trump’s nearly unanimous support among Senate Republicans) we would end up with a President Mike Pence. Come convention time late next year, it is very unlikely Republicans would want Pence as their party’s presidential candidate. It is more likely they would go with a Romney, a Kasich or some other “moderate” Republican who would throw his/her hat into the ring. In other words, there just might be a more formidable opponent for the Democratic nominee.

Forget the myth that Trump would be a strong candidate for reelection. If Trump remains in office, after another year of Congressional (and state) investigations uncovering even more dirt, he would be a wounded duck going into the 2020 contest. This is exactly what Pelosi wants.

Proof that Trump is already in trouble, and not as daunting as some would like you to believe, comes via the most recent Quinnipiac University poll showing, if the election were held today, Trump fares badly against the top Democratic presidential hopefuls:

Former VP Joe Biden over Trump 53 – 40 percent

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders over Trump 51 – 42 percent

California Sen. Kamala Harris over Trump 49 – 41 percent

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren over Trump 49 – 42 percent

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg over Trump 47 – 42 percent

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker over Trump 47 – 42 percent

Trump never rises above 42% against any of the Democratic contenders in this national survey. Buttigieg and Booker besting Trump?

OK, while this poll is encouraging for Democrats, it’s very early in the game. And let’s not forget there is a thing called the Electoral College to contend with, along with voter suppression, hacked voting machines, foreign interference, voter fraud and other factors that could impact the 2020 election.

Yet, if I’m right, Nancy Pelosi is giving many reasons why not to impeach Trump … except the real one.

Photo | cnn.com

 

Madam Speaker, What Is It Going To Take To Start Impeachment Proceedings?

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While Nancy Pelosi and many Democrats in her caucus are slow-walking impeachment proceedings against Trump, deferring to more investigations, ex-ethics chief, Walter Shaub, has tweeted a few “inconvenient truths” for Democrats to consider.

“Heed the signs and don’t underestimate the threat to our republic from within,” writes Shaub, who served under former President Obama and then for six months under Trump until his resignationin July 2017.

Here is Shaub’s 14-tweet thread of “offenses” committed by the man currently occupying the White House and his administration:

Walter Shaub

✔@waltshaub

Heed the signs and don’t underestimate the threat to our republic from within:

-Trump obstructed justice
-A McConnell-packed SCOTUS says precedent can be changed more easily than previously thought
-AG Barr is an open partisan and slow-motion Saturday Night Massacre beneficiary

Walter Shaub

✔@waltshaub

Replying to @waltshaub

-White House ignores congressional subpoenas, document requests
-Mnuchin is violating a law on turning over taxes to House
-Barr & Senate allies want to investigate officials who investigated Trump to retaliate against them and deter future efforts to hold him to the rule of law

Walter Shaub

✔@waltshaub

Replying to @waltshaub

-State Dept is setting up a commission to supplant human rights with “natural law”
-An Inspector General found standing room only in border detention cells, with detainees standing on toilets to breathe
-children stolen from parents at the border are dying in internment camps

Walter Shaub

✔@waltshaub

Replying to @waltshaub

-Trump cut resources for investigating domestic terrorists
-FBI- reports a recent significant rise in white supremacist domestic terrorism
-evidence found of a white supremacist plot to add census Q to help gerrymander in ways “advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites”

Walter Shaub

✔@waltshaub

Replying to @waltshaub

-Trump is still resisting setting up defenses against foreign election interference
-Trump’s personal attorney solicited foreign govt investigation of current Trump political rival Biden
-AG Barr said something in a weird interview about investigating former Trump rival Clinton

Walter Shaub

✔@waltshaub

Replying to @waltshaub

-There’s cause for concern Trump/Kushner personal interests may be influencing middle east policy
-Ignoring Congress, Trump declared fake emergency & abused authority to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia to continue its atrocities in Yemen, after it murdered a Washington Post reporter

Walter Shaub

✔@waltshaub

Replying to @waltshaub

-Trump declared fake emergency to get more power to ramp up activity at border
-ethics violations (and ethically dubious conduct not rising to a violation) occurring at an unprecedented rate among Trump appointees
-senior admin official says she doesn’t care about an ethics law

Walter Shaub

✔@waltshaub

Replying to @waltshaub

-if impeached, Trump says he’ll try to get SCOTUS to overturn the impeachment
-McConnell, who blocked Merrick Garland ostensibly because it was an election year, shamelessly hinted this week that he’d be willing to fill a SCOTUS position for Trump in an election year

Walter Shaub

✔@waltshaub

Replying to @waltshaub

-Trump is praising autocrats, undermining allies
-Tone of OLC’s recent opinions has changed under Assistant AG Steven Engel, who was tied to one of the torture memos
-Military went to the border for Trump
-Military hid a ship to placate Trump
-Airborne seen wearing MAGA patches

Walter Shaub

✔@waltshaub

Replying to @waltshaub

-Trump admin & Graham inexplicably advocating war in Iran/Venezuela
-DOJ experimenting with new legal theory for prosecuting those who publish classified information (raising a question as to whether the theory will be limited to hostile foreign actors or expanded to journalists)

Walter Shaub

✔@waltshaub

Replying to @waltshaub

-some public voices are normalizing Trump admin conduct
-voicemail from Trump lawyer to Flynn shows a disturbing carrot/stick approach (or worse)
-Trump has seemed to dangle pardons to buy silence or worse
-Trump admin officials are violating records laws to conceal actions

Walter Shaub

✔@waltshaub

Replying to @waltshaub

-Trump said “Russia, if you’re listening”
-Trump said “fine people” marched with nazis
-Trump has told over 10,000 false or misleading statements, per Washington Post
-Trump helped cover up Khashoggi murder, and Kushner’s said to have offered advice to MBS on weathering the storm

Walter Shaub

✔@waltshaub

Replying to @waltshaub

-a foreign prince is reported to have said he has Kushner in his pocket (but denies saying that)
-Helsinki
-Trump’s behavior is erratic and is marked by frequent lies, bizarre public outbursts, name-calling and confusion
-no press conferences, and no transparency

Walter Shaub

✔@waltshaub

Replying to @waltshaub

-Trump allies in congress are either lying about the Mueller report or haven’t read it
-Trump allies in congress are trying to prevent Mueller & others from testifying because they know their base hasn’t read the report and right wing media has kept them from hearing about it

Speaker Pelosi, while Mr. Shaub’s list of “offenses” is long, it is hardly exhaustive of the “high crimes and misdemeanors” committed by Donald Trump. When will enough be enough?

Photo | cnn.com

 

 

 

Why All The Pelosi Love And Praise?

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If you believe the spin put out by even some reputable news outlets, Nancy Pelosi is a genius; a “master strategist.” We’re told she has Trump’s number; knows how to get under his skin; plays chess while Trump plays checkers; has Trump wrapped around her little pinky … and so on and so on.

The reality is Nancy Pelosi is none of the above. By not initiating impeachment proceedings, she is no better than her loathsome Republican counterparts. She is putting party above country … politics above the rule of law.

It’s pretty sad when some Republicans are calling for Trump’s impeachment … but not the Democratic Speaker of the House! If Pelosi had her druthers, Trump’s fate would be decided by the 2020 election.

A current Republican U.S. representative, Justin Amash (R-MI), has called for Trump’s impeachment. And now a former Republican representative, Tom Coleman, from the red state of Missouri, is calling both Trump and Pence ‘illegitimate.”

Said Coleman in an article he recently wrote for The Kansas City Star, “While Mueller did not find sufficient evidence that Trump or his campaign had violated a criminal statute, the net effect was that the Trump campaign encouraged a foreign adversary to use and misrepresent stolen information on social media platforms to defraud U.S. voters. Because the presidency was won in this way, the president’s election victory brought forth nothing less than an illegitimate presidency.”

Coleman goes on to say, “The political calculus not to pursue impeachment is understandable. Current polls show a majority of voters do not favor it. But critical times require exceptional leadership. Lawmakers of both parties should not blindly follow the polls but instead follow the evidence and their conscience. Politics should not rule the day. Partisan politics is what got us to this dangerous place — so dangerous, I believe, that the survival of our democracy is at risk.”

“Master Strategist” Pelosi needs to start, at the very least, an impeachment inquiry ASAP. Get the evidence out. The American people will be on board with formal impeachment once they learn the true facts contained in the Mueller report.

As Coleman noted, “This process would allow a full public review of wrongdoing, while providing Americans an opportunity to obtain a better understanding of the consequences to our national security and the lingering threat to our democracy.”

Tom Coleman concludes his opinion piece with this poignant observation:

I believe the public would conclude Democrats are no better than the Republicans who have enabled Trump for the past two years, putting party above country. It could hand Trump a second term. Failure to pursue impeachment is to condone wrongdoing. To condone wrongdoing is to encourage more of it. To encourage wrongdoing is to give up on the rule of law and our democracy. To give up on the rule of law and democracy invites autocracy and eventually dictatorship. History has taught us this outcome. In my lifetime, it has occurred in other places including the Soviet Union and Germany, as well as in Russia and Venezuela today.

Nancy do your duty, politics be damned.

Photo | youtube.com

Trump Strikes Back At Dems … “I Don’t Do Cover-Ups”

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At a “surprise” Rose Garden appearance yesterday, Donald Trump, channelling his best John Oliver, hit back at Democrats bent on investigating him. He was particularly incensed that Nancy Pelosi accused him of being engaged with a cover-up.

While Trump may be into many things, he told the assembled press he is not into cover- ups.

Photo | aljazeera.com

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