George Conway III and Neal Catyal are lawyers. Conway is married to Kellyanne Conway; Catyal is a former Acting Solicitor General of the United States. This article appeared in the Washington Post.
That last phrase — “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” — was a historical term of art, derived from impeachments in the British Parliament. When the framers put it into the Constitution, they didn’t discuss it much, because no doubt they knew what it meant. It meant, as Alexander Hamilton later phrased it, “the abuse or violation of some public trust.”
Simply put, the framers viewed the president as a fiduciary, the government of the United States as a sacred trust and the people of the United States as the beneficiaries of that trust. Through the Constitution, the framers imposed upon the president the duty and obligation to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed” and made him swear an oath that he would fulfill that duty of faithful execution. They believed that a president would break his oath if he engaged in self-dealing — if he used his powers to put his own interests above the nation’s. That would be the paradigmatic case for impeachment.
That’s exactly what appears to be at issue today. A whistleblower in U.S. intelligence lodged a complaint with the intelligence community’s inspector general so alarming that he labeled it of “urgent concern” and alerted the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Though the details remain secret, apparently this much can be gleaned: The complaint is against the president. It concerns a “promise” that the president made, in at least one phone call, with a foreign leader. And it involves Ukraine and possible interference with the next presidential election. The complaint is being brazenly suppressed by the Justice Department — in defiance of a whistleblower law that says, without exception, the complaint “shall” be turned over to Congress.
We also know this: As he admitted Thursday night on CNN, the president’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, has been trying to persuade the Ukrainian government to investigate, among other things, one of Trump’s potential Democratic opponents, former vice president Joe Biden, and Biden’s son Hunter about the latter’s involvement with a Ukrainian gas company.
Trump held up the delivery of $250 million in military assistance to Ukraine, which is under constant threat from neighboring Russia. He had a phone conversation on July 25 with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian government, the call included a discussion of Ukraine’s need to “complete investigation of corruption cases, which inhibited the interaction between Ukraine and the USA.”
So it appears that the president might have used his official powers — in particular, perhaps the threat of withholding a quarter-billion dollars in military aid — to leverage a foreign government into helping him defeat a potential political opponent in the United States.
If Trump did that, it would be the ultimate impeachable act….
It is high time for Congress to do its duty, in the manner the framers intended….
Trump managed to “vanish” all transcripts from his college work at Warton, while also raising questions about Obama’s grades and accomplishments at Harvard.
I think that the inquiry process for impeachment will provide an occassion for massive distruction of records or tampering with them, including an audio tape of the phone call(s) to Ukraine. I think there will be more stonewalling and foot dragging and changing the subject and more of Trump’s tweets calling the impeachment processnoting more than a partisan “presidential harassment.”
I hope I am wrong.
In the digital age, there are often copies and even when there are not, it is extremely difficult to “erase without a trace. ”
NSA undoubtedly has the conversations stored in this case.
Anything people say or write on the phone or online is recorded for posteriority these days.
Even this. (Hi there! )
As Trump said, his convo is has been recorded and copied by many nations in many places. There won’t be a problem with pedals. 🙂
Maybe Attorney General William Barr can provide his own “summary” of Trump’s Wharton transcript after having made sure that the actual transcript was locked up where no one could see it.
Here’s the Attorney General William Barr summary of the “transcript”:
“Donald Trump was the best student ever! The grades were remarkable and his extraordinary academic prowess was recognized by all his professors”.
Barr will call the above a “transcript” and the media will run headlines and have endless news reports about how Trump’s transcript shows he was an extraordinary student!
This is how propaganda works and Barr did this with the Mueller report and he just did it when he released a “summary” of a long conversation of Trump asking the Ukraine to work with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to gather dirt on Joe Biden, or their foreign aid would not be forthcoming.
We haven’t seen the actual transcript of Trump’s call, but we can all assume that what was actually demanded by Trump was much, much worse.
I hope the House gets that transcript, unless Trump’s willing henchmen in the White House destroy it first.
I think the electronic equivalent of the shredding machines at the White House are about to raise the global temperature by a significant amount. Recall the unfortunate foot of Nixon’s secretary?
A comment from my favorite satirical commenter (Benito Mussolini) at The Intercept:
“A lot of people seem to assume that Ms. Pelosi has promised a vote on impeachment. But she has only backed an impeachment inquiry. An inquiry means there must be an investigation to determine if an impeachable offense was committed. For this, Mr. Mueller must be taken out of mothballs and dusted off.
I don’t expect the President’s conversation contained anything incriminating – as he himself stated, intelligence services from multiple countries are eavesdropping on his conversations, so he exercises more restraint over the phone than he does on Twitter. However, Mr. Trump may very well interfere with the course of the investigation, and that would be an impeachable offense.
This strategy doesn’t necessarily work every time, but if you try it enough, it will succeed eventually.”
And a follow-up:
“Just checked, and Mr. Mueller’s last investigation took a little under two years. Assuming he gets better with practice, the next investigation should take about 16 months. This means the impeachment vote will probably take place in March 2021. The Democrats will therefore have to help Mr. Trump to get re-elected to ensure he will still be eligible for impeachment. I think they can do it.”
Given all that, the democrats may be trying to investigate Trump all the way to the White House, just as the Republicans investigated Hillary all the way there.
Imagine if the next time there is any flooding in Vermont, Trump is planning to tell a Republican prosecutor that if he doesn’t start “investigating” the corruption of Bernie Sanders’ wife in her sweetheart deal that made her rich, they won’t get their disaster aid.
Somehow I doubt that dienne77 would say “it’s true that there was a lot of really shady things going on with Bernie’s wife and the fact that Bernie’s pals looked the other way and it was perfectly fine for Trump to make sure that Rudy Giuliani works with the Vermont prosecutor to find out if Bernie and his wife committed an indictable crime or if Bernie and his wife are just a little corrupt and greedy.”
I doubt if dienne77 would be listening to all the information coming about about Bernie’s “corruption” and saying “we must allow the investigation to continue because it was proper and wait until the election”. Because Bernie would lose that election thanks to some of his supporters insisting that Trump should have license to get Republican Vermont prosecutors who need some aid from him to investigate Bernie.
“First they come for the Socialists…..”
When this is turned on Bernie — and it absolutely will be if he starts looking like the nominee — it will be the fault of those so-called “progressives” like this Intercept writer that it convinces the public that Bernie is corrupt.
And those people will have been complicit in the destruction of Bernie Sanders. Because they valued politics over doing what is right.
^^I apologize to dienne77 for writing this rant. My other more coherent post disappeared (hopefully it will eventually post). I was truly offended by the snarky satirical commenter at the Intercept who seems determined to minimize the seriousness of what we are experiencing in this country.
We are in an incredibly dangerous situation. It is clear from the phone call that every time Trump benefits from progressives saying “it’s all a nothing burger” about serious corruption that is as clear as day, Trump takes his corruption even further. The solution is not to say “we should just ignore it” because that enables Trump to do even worse things. and then say “but you said that was okay, so this is okay too.” Right down to Putin-like treatment of his political opponents.
I repeat, Trump TOLD US he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue. He does the most corrupt things right in front of our faces and some progressives embrace the right wing view that it’s all a “nothing burger”. No wonder he does even worse when he thinks the public won’t find out.
The more Trump is enabled, the worse he gets. That is very dangerous.
dienne77,
Are you saying that Trump should be free to break the law because the “politics” are better for the Democrats?
I am really sickened by people like the Intercept who only care about politics. This is NOT about politics – it is about doing the right thing.
The Mueller Report (which was first mischaracterized in a misleading White House “memo” because the White House wanted to cover up for Trump) documented many counts of lawbreaking. The conclusion was that it didn’t matter because Trump couldn’t be indicted as a sitting President. Only impeachment was allowed.
Nancy Pelosi did what the Intercept wanted. She gave Trump the benefit of the doubt — maybe he really was ignorant and his lawbreaking was just him awkwardly doing his job. That was the point of view of some Trump-defenders who keep insisting there isn’t a shred of evidence Trump does anything wrong.
So what happened after Pelosi did what you wanted and didn’t start impeachment proceedings?
Trump immediately called the Ukraine and threatened to withhold aid unless they worked with his personal campaign lawyer and found some dirt on Biden.
Again, the progressives say ‘well we don’t know that this wasn’t perfectly fine and let’s just ignore it.
So what happens next time?
Maybe Trump does what he says he can do and shoot Biden on Fifth Avenue with his enabling supporters being fine with it.
You really want to wait that long? What happens if it is BERNIE he is digging dirt on? Are you and the people at the Intercept really okay when Trump calls a Republican prosecutor in Vermont to
“suggest” that his city will not get their flood relief aid unless they open an investigation into Bernie’s wife improper and illegal dealings that made her a lot of money and bankrupted a college?
You think that is okay?
This is NOT about politics. This is about something that every decent parent knows.
If you continually enable your toddler when he bashes another kid in the face with his heavy toy — you say to him “oh dear that mean mom yelled at you when you didn’t mean it” and the next time your toddler pushes the kid off the slide and you say to him “oh I know you didn’t mean it and here’s an ice cream cone because that mean dad yelled at you”, you are creating a monster.
You and the Intercept are the parents creating a monster by your need to mischaracterize every Trump corruption as him just accidentally doing something with all these mean people getting mad at him and acting like it is a big deal.
We can’t even begin to imagine the “next time”. But we were warned. Trump told us he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue. I suspect you and the Intercept would say “Trump says the man walked into his bullet and he didn’t mean to hurt him, and since we don’t know for sure that Trump intoned to hurt the man, we must ignore it. Because of politics.”
Trump made his living because he know he could play people like the guy at the Intercept for fools. You are playing right into his con.
But I bet if Bernie was the target of Trump’s illegal wrongdoing, you’d suddenly find a crime there. I bet you would NOT say “well it is Bernie’s fault because his wife did do something that looks really corrupt and illegal and people who were friendly to Bernie did work to cover it up instead of investigate it. So i’m really glad that Trump is arranging for this investigation into all the corruption that Bernie has done so we know just how bad it was.”
“First they came for the Socialists…..”
The hypocrisy is glaring.
Mueller’s investigation is the wrong timeline benchmark. If the House Dems want to, they can move very quickly. The Clinton impeachment inquiry was approved in October 1998. Before year-end, the House approved articles of impeachment. Senate trial started in January 1999, and concluded in February 1999 (with acquittal, which of course seems like the likely result with Trump as well).
The House could also move to censure the president instead of going through the elaborate impeachment proceedings that likely won’t go anywhere.
No previous impeachment led to a conviction by the Senate. There is a lesson in being impeached. It is a strong rebuke. If ever a president deserved impeachment, it is this one.
Hearings are the way that you get information. It was the Watergate hearings — which many Democrats feared because the public still loved Nixon who had won in the biggest landslide in history — which changed minds.
We need to see real, unfiltered, testimony.
It is beyond outrageous that the Trump House was able to release a self-serving memo that recounted the version of Trump’s conversation that they judged to be most self-serving to Trump, and the entire news media called it a “transcript”.
It is beyond outrageous — it is frightening. It is shades of Orwell’s 1984.
“I was truly offended by the snarky satirical commenter at the Intercept”
It was cynical, not satirical. And given the close to 0 effect of Muller on Trump, cynicism is acceptable.
I don’t call repeating right wing Republican talking points “cynical”. Pushing right wing propaganda is propaganda.
To see how offensive it is, substitute a Richard Nixon apologist who wants to undermine any investigation into Nixon writing this:
“I don’t expect Richard Nixon did anything wrong — as he himself stated, he tapes his conversations, so of course he exercises restraint.
However, Mr. Nixon may very well interfere with the course of the investigation, and that would be an impeachable offense.
This strategy doesn’t necessarily work every time, but if you try it enough, it will succeed eventually.
Just checked and the last impeachment a century took a very long time. That means the impeachment vote will probably take place after Nixon’s term is over. The Democrats will therefore have to change the Constitution again to allow Presidents more than 2 terms, and then help Nixon get re-elected to ensure he will still be eligible for impeachment. I think they can do it.”
Cynicism is believing that nothing the Democrats does matter because Trump has turned the entire White House apparatus into a tool to protect his mob boss actions and thus he can shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.
Cynicism is not writing the kinds of comments that Nixon apologists wrote during Watergate that made it clear Nixon was innocent but maybe the desperate and inept Democrats could try to “get’ him anyway.
My Representative Pete Visclosky [D-IN] has just come out in favor of impeachment.
……………………………………
[NWI Times] U.S. Rep. Visclosky supports Dems call for impeachment inquiry into President Trump
GARY — U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky has announced his support for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s call for an official impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
“As Chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, I am greatly concerned that the conduct of the President continues to threaten the safety and security of our nation and our allies,” Visclosky said. “Given the seriousness of the President’s actions, I believe that the Speaker’s announcement is warranted.”
He said he now awaits the details of the information gleaned from the current Committee investigations.
“It is imperative that as the inquiry moves forward, Congress does not lose sight of its duty to address the pressing needs of the citizens of our nation,” he said…
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/national/u-s-rep-visclosky-supports-dems-call-for-impeachment-inquiry/article_5188bcd5-e232-5f3f-a4af-288da8bb51b7.html?utm_medium=social&utm_s
IQ45 is not the brightest crayon in the box. All that he has ever had going for him was a) starting out with a LOT of money, b) willingness to do ANYTHING–any amount of conning and blustering and threatening–to achieve his goals, and c) a kind of low conniving. He has been praying to his god Mammon to have Biden to run against, and he’s been doing all he can to position himself to go up against Biden. A race against Biden would make the age business less of an issue for Trump, and Trump long ago, because of his instinctive racism, conceived an utterly loathing for Obama, and he sees running against Biden as a way to run against Obama’s surrogate. So, this business with Ukraine is TYPICAL Trump behavior. Don’t win on the merits. Find a work around. Bully. Cajole. Make a “deal.”
This is lowlife mob thug behavior. Exactly the sort of behavior Trump has indulged in all his life.
And this just in,
Nancy Pelosi said to be inching closer to position that sky is blue, water wet.
Bob Shepherd: She’ll never top Trump’s knowledge that hurricanes are big and wet.
Trump has an advatage.: He has a sharpie and Pelosi just has Steney Hoyer.
Pelosi’s Paradox: Democrats keep getting half way to impeachment, and then half way again….
ha! yes!
Great! Zeno meets Rousseau!
You put your big toe in, you take your big toe out, you put your big toe in , then you shake it all about, you do the Dog and Pony, then you turn yourself around. That’s what it’s all about.
I’m glad that the Democrats are finally taking a stand. What worries me is just how much obstruction is Trump capable of doing? Barr represents Trump and will do everything possible to prove that ‘nothing happened’.
Can the House now get people to testify? Can they get Trump’s tax returns? Surely he is hiding many of his misdeeds in his tax returns. Why else continue to fight so hard to keep everything hidden.
He sues everyone. Will this keep the House from getting the information that they need? How long will things be tied up in courts? How many court appointees are committed to saving Trump from further ’embarrassment and torture’?
Our democracy depends on the truth getting out. The R wing media is the problem.
We still don’t have Trump’s tax returns.
……………………………………………………..
There’s No Reason to Drag This Out – We Have All the Proof We Need
By Michael Moore, Michael Moore’s Facebook Page
25 September 19
There’s no reason to drag this out any longer — we now have all the proof we need. So let’s keep the Impeachment SIMPLE. Here’s the timeline the House should follow, beginning today:
ONE WEEK for the committees to compile the case based on Trump’s existing confessions, the whistleblower’s report & the special prosecutor’s already well-documented evidence.
FOUR DAYS for a single joint committee to hold the hearings (let the committee’s attorneys ask the questions and steer the case).
ONE HOUR for the Committee to call for a vote of the committee’s members as to whether the Impeachment charges should be sent to the full House.
FOUR DAYS of debate on House floor.
ONE HOUR for a roll call vote of the House.
DONE.
By October 17th.
Then move on to removing Trump on 11/3/20.
(Note: The House is scheduled to go on a two-week vacation (!) this Friday. Speaker Pelosi must suspend this vacation due to the national emergency facing the country.)
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse and commented:
“The Ultimate Impeachable Act”
In addition to every other disturbing thing (that happens every single hour, every single day), IQ45 called Barr “my lawyer.” The U.S.A.G. is ‘my lawyer”-? Well, yes.
Poor Trump is Sharpie impaired. [Remember Borowitz is using satire. He’s a comedian.] One of Trump’s better works with crayons was coloring a stripe of the US flag blue.
…………………………………….
Panicky Trump Orders Dozen New Sharpies Before Releasing Ukraine Phone Transcript..Borowitz Report
The President was reportedly incensed after he discovered that aides had not replenished his supply of Sharpies after he used his last one diverting the path of Hurricane Dorian.
NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—A reportedly panic-stricken Donald J. Trump ordered a dozen new Sharpies before releasing a transcript of his phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump was reportedly incensed after he discovered that aides had not replenished his supply of Sharpies after he used his last one diverting the path of Hurricane Dorian.
In New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Vice-President Mike Pence scoured stationery stores in midtown Manhattan to find the precious Sharpies, but came up empty.
While the quest for Sharpies continued, aides professed that the situation was “under control.”
“President Trump has actually done some of his best work with crayons,” one aide said.
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/panicky-trump-orders-dozen-new-sharpies-before-releasing-ukraine-phone-transcript
I really think that Donald Trump–poor, dumb Donald Trump–isn’t bright enough to understand that offering Ukraine military aid IF they investigated his political opponent was a fundamental violation of ethical norms. It’s a big surprise to him that anyone would think anything wrong with this. Shady dealing is how this idiot has operated all his life. All I did was say, you get a lot from us. So I need you to do me a little favor. To show me a little “reciprocity.” (That’s IQ45’s big word for the year.) And, of course, he was doing this at a time when Ukraine was desperately seeking military aid from the United States. And, of course, this isn’t the first time he has asked a foreign power to attack his political opponents. He freaking did this IN PUBLIC when he asked Russia to hack Clinton’s emails. And to compound matters, he offered to enlist both his personal lawyer AND the Attorney General of the United States in this illegal act. And he said all this with a lot of people listening.
He’s not decent enough to think any of this wrong, and he’s not smart enough to understand why it’s wrong. The man is totally unfit for his office. He’s amoral and breathtakingly stupid.
And any Republican who reads the material from the transcript and doesn’t agree that that’s precisely what he was doing–offering a quid pro quo–is either as dumb as Trump is OR is willing to stoop to any depth to defend the Party’s guy. How low, how low, how low can the Republican Limbo Party go? Is there any bottom to it?
Bob Shepherd,
It is very important that we as Americans don’t start using Trump’s Orwellian language that are part of the right wing modus operandi that keeps them in power.
You referred to “the transcript”. Remember, this is not a transcript of the call.
The only thing we have is the White House version of what they wanted to put in the memo. They knew the media would call it a “transcript” and that is what has happened so that the public now thinks that they are informed about what Trump said to the Ukraine.
This memo that everyone is wrongly calling a “transcript” is the version that makes Trump look the MOST innocent! Can you imagine what the White House left out?
In April, 1974 Nixon released his heavily edited transcripts of the tapes.
If he had done so in 2019, our fascist-enabling media would have announced that everyone could read the “transcripts” of Nixon’s tapes and know that he was totally exonerated.
The journalists in 1974 did not help a corrupt White House spew its self-serving propaganda by using words like “transcript” to describe what should always be called “The White House Trump-approved version of the call”. I have heard so many people on tv and in print calling it a “transcript” which is exactly what the Trump White House wanted.
I can only imagine how bad the conversations that were left out of “The White House Trump-approved version of the call”. Unfortunately, too many Americans right now are absolutely certain they have read the entire transcript and that’s all there is.
I think the quid pro quo was probably absolutely clear if the Trump White House was not hiding so much of what was said. If this is the stuff they thought was safest to release, the rest must be really incriminating.
The quid pro quo is clear enough from what was released. What else does a) We give you a lot of money, b) We need some reciprocity, so c) I want you to do me a favor mean? But yes, the transcript is probably even worse. But it doesn’t need to be. What went on is quite clear.
The quid pro quo is clear enough from what was released. What else does a) We give you a lot of money, b) We need some reciprocity, so c) I want you to do me a favor mean? But yes, the transcript is probably even worse. But it doesn’t need to be. What went on is quite clear. But yes, I should have referred to the “outtakes” from the conversation.
At what point do we stop saying, “We need more information”? The quid pro quo is evident from the outtakes. This is what I meant earlier when I commented that Nancy Pelosi is inching toward a determination that the sky is blue and water, wet.
It’s time, finally, to stop letting the Teflon Don off.
Bob,
Sorry for getting on my soapbox! I agree with you!
What’s imprachment?
Impractical impeachment?
George Conway has been incredibly critical of Trump, for good reason. Neil Katyal is a smart lawyer and former Solicitor General who has argued a multitude of Supreme Court cases. Both know that Trump is crooked and that he is a traitor to the Constitution and to the Republic.
The release of the summary notes on the Ukraine phone call were damning. Trump did – in fact – expressly solicit illegal hep from a foreign government to dig up dirt — fake conspiracy dirt — on a political opponent, and he used American foreign policy and taxpayer dollars to do it. And the summary notes are only the tip of the iceberg.
As Jonathan Chait at NY Magazine put it,
“the real trick in Trump’s defense is framing the call as the entire scandal. The scandal is much more than that. The call is a snapshot, a moment in time in a months-long campaign that put American policy toward Ukraine at the disposal of Trump’s personal interests and reelection campaign…Rudy Giuliani was openly pressuring Kiev to investigate Joe Biden…When Trump ordered military aid to Ukraine to be frozen, he went through his chief of staff and budget director Mick Mulvaney…Attorney General William Barr also was involved in preventing Congress from seeing the whistle-blower complaint, and the call summary shows that he had a personal interest in doing so…There may be many others.”
This was not just Trump. It was Trump and top members of his administration, all engaging in electoral ratf*cking. Again.
If anyone saw Trump’s press conference yesterday afternoon, he looked and sounded bad. And lied. Repeatedly. Badly.
Let me say this again. Trump is a traitor. Anyone still defending him or supporting him is too.
“If the president said ‘I will give you the money but you’ve got to investigate Joe Biden,’ that is really off-the-rails wrong,” Doocy responded. Oh my goodness! Don’t tell me there is a Fox host with some ethics. Help! the sky is falling!!!!
…………………………………………………………………………………….
Brian Kilmeade defended Trump arguing that, “I have no problem with the timing. To me, the timing makes total sense,” while Ainsley Earhardt argued that Democrats are “putting their feet too far ahead” and that judgments should be reserved until the transcript of the phone call is released.
“If the president said ‘I will give you the money but you’ve got to investigate Joe Biden,’ that is really off-the-rails wrong,” Doocy responded.
‘Off-the-rails wrong’: Fox host blasts Trump if he offered Ukraine a quid-pro-quo deal
Sep 24, 2019
This is the best of the conversation…”NOT A VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT”!
From The New York Times:
Full Document: Trump’s Call With the Ukrainian President
BY THE NEW YORK TIMES UPDATED 9:23 p.m. ET on Sept. 25, 2019
The White House released this document on Wednesday, showing a July call between President Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. The document warned its contents were “not a verbatim transcript.”
Trumpscripts
A Trumpscript’s not a transcript
Cuz transcript is verbatim
And Trumpscript is a fan script
For folks who never rate him
Do you think Trump is getting a bit worried? He’s irrational and there is no telling what he’ll do if he flips out.
…………………………………………
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
THE GREATEST SCAM IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN POLITICS!
39.7K
6:24 AM – Sep 26, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
26.7K people are talking about this
I LOVE a good song in the morning.
🎼 🎹
So impeachable
That’s what you are
So impeachable
Though near and far
Like the the lies you spew that cling to us
How the thought of you does things to us
Never before has someone been more
So impeachable
In every way
And forevermore
That’s how you’ll stay
That’s why Donald, it’s now teachable
To someone so impeachable
That he is so impeachable, too
Oh, carol! (BTW, the name of the Neil Sedaka song written to his crush, Carole King {I think he’d left out the “e”). This is good!
Watch out, SDP & Randy Rainbow!
By Nicholas Kristof
Opinion Columnist
On Fox News, Tucker Carlson agreed with a guest that President Trump’s conduct is all “acceptable political behavior.” House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy says that this is all about Democrats “undoing the 2016 election.” No: That’s part of a tornado of obfuscation, falsity and distraction, so I’ve devoted my column to laying out why Trump’s behavior is beyond the pale.
Here are some excerpts of Trump’s hints to Ukraine’s leader in his phone call: “I would like to have the attorney general call you … It’s very important that you do it. … I will ask him [Giuliani] to call you along with the attorney general. … If you could speak to him, that would be great. … If you can look into it [the Biden matter] … it sounds horrible to me. … I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call. … I’m sure you will figure it out. … Your economy is going to get better and better, I predict. … I will tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to call. … Whenever you would like to come to the White House, feel free to call.”
That’s how gangsters send messages. You do what I want, and you’ll get benefits; you defy me, and you’ll suffer. Trump tried to use America’s federal power to coerce a foreign leader into engaging in a criminal investigation of an American citizen for his own political benefit. The point of my column is that whether or not you think that is impeachable, we should be able to agree that it is unconscionable.
This is ironic–to think that Giuliani was responsible for RICO!
Some Republicans are still as dense as a block of wood. [I like trees. They are much smarter than Lindsey.] Have they really seen the ‘details of the transcript’ or just the Sharpie edited version?
…………………………………….
“I said I’m underwhelmed. I’m not troubled. I don’t think there is anything remotely quid pro quo,” Graham said, summarizing his remarks in the meeting defending Trump.
He described the mood by other Republicans in the room as “relief” when they saw the details of transcript.
Graham, who was given a preview of the Trump-Zelensky transcript from Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday, said he had no intention of pursuing the matter.
“I don’t want to turn the Senate into a circus,” he said. “I think there’s a belief among Republicans [that] Democrats have lost their minds when it comes to Trump.”
carol, right after that Graham news clip aired, it was repeated to a Dem Congresswoman (&–darn–I forget who!). She responded w/a brilliant & hilarious comment, disparaging of Graham.
If any of you know who/what I’m referring to, perhaps you can provide her clip.
GOOD. If there are any strong Dems, Giuliani and Barr are now implicated and action can be taken against them. Trump is desperate to be re-elected and since he has no sense of right or wrong, will do anything. Makes me wonder what he was discussing with Putin when nobody heard their conversation.
…………………………….
BREAKING NEWS
The whistle-blower complaint alleges that President Trump tried to get Ukraine to interfere in the election and the White House tried to cover it up.
Thursday, September 26, 2019 9:18 AM EST
Attorney General William P. Barr and the president’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani were central to the effort to get Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election, the complaint said.
In addition, the whistle-blower, an unidentified intelligence officer, learned from multiple American officials that “senior White House officials had intervened to ‘lock down’ all records of the phone call, especially the official word-for-word transcript of the call that was produced as is customary by the White House Situation Room,” the complaint said. “This set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call.”
It is even more complex than appears. A story in today’s NY Times says that Trump is obsessed with Ukraine. Manafort is in jail because of information leaked in Ukraine about millions of cash payments to Manafort on which he never paid taxes. Conspiracy theorists have persuaded Trump that Ukraine was at the root of the Russia investigation, and he appointed someone to investigate why the FBI started that investigation, which he believes leads to Ukraine, Soros, and Hillary. Twisted mind.
I think it is much less complex. I am always suspicious when the NY Times reports “leaks” that always provide an “innocent” cover for Trump’s actions. Those reporters who wrote the story are always writing these kinds of pieces that basically accept the right wing White House propaganda as the absolute truth.
Sure, Trump is “obsessed” with Manafort and bothered because he believes the conspiracy theories so of course his conversation with Zelensky was just a reflection of Trump being Trump about the Ukraine making Manafort and his campaign look bad. But nothing about that is criminal. Those NY Times reporters specialize in writing all kinds of supposedly “insulting” things about Trump’s personality, but it is always used in service to excuse what is a clear crime. Trump’s supposed obsession with corruption in the Ukraine or Manafort had nothing to do with the fact that Donald Trump decided to pressure a foreign country to gather dirt on a likely political opponent because he wanted to use that dirt to help his campaign by smearing his opponent.
The entire NYT story goes to great lengths to distract readers from that obvious thing. Trump was not saying “work with the guy at the FBI who is in charge of investigating all the corruption I think is going on.”
Trump wanted dirt on Biden. And he told the Ukraine to work with Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer.
I suspect that what was left out of the White House memo about the conversation is similar to what was left out of William Barr’s memo about the Mueller Report. Remember that Barr sort of alluded and minimized the completely corrupt and criminal actions that the Mueller Report had documented. Barr’s summary was basically “oh there were some other things done that weren’t criminal”
I think that the transcripts were locked up and this “memo” concocted because what is just alluded to in the memo about Trump’s call with Zelensky is much worse in reality.
Impeachment does not require a crime. See Neil Katyal article in today’s Times. Clinton’s behavior with Lewinsky was not criminal.
You are right. Trump is likely certifiably unfit to be president of an Elks Club, let alone President of the US. But I think that most Americans still assume impeachment needs an underlying crime.
It was clear that Ken Starr’s office used a manufactured crime to justify impeachment. It wasn’t about the sex – it was “obstruction of justice”. Linda Tripp was recording intimate details of Monica Lewinsky having an affair with the President and took that to a right wing lawyer. After she left that meeting, Tripp immediately began egging on Monica and insisting that she ask Bill Clinton to get her a job. Monica kept saying no, but Tripp kept nagging her that she deserved it and eventually that’s what Monica did. The fact that Tripp decided her mission should be to get Monica to ask Clinton for a job immediately after meeting with a right wing lawyer with ties to the lawyers in Starr’s office is obviously not a coincidence. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren actually asked Ken Starr under oath whether his office had learned about a woman recording Monica months earlier than his office implied it knew. And Starr was completely hemming and hawing and eventually said he “didn’t recall”. I know that corruption is old news, but it was clear that Starr was desperate to manufacture a “crime” because a highly inappropriate sexual liaison was not going to justify impeachment.
But unlike Ken Starr’s office, the Democrats don’t need to manufacture an impeachable crime. No one egged on Trump to ask the Ukraine to help his personal attorney get dirt on Biden. Trump decided to do that all on his own. And Trump did it right after he realized that Barr’s ability to play the news media about all of Trump’s documented crimes in the Mueller Report meant that he was above the law. Why wouldn’t the next thing he did be to make sure a foreign government helped him win the next election? He got away with that once, after all.
I still think that given Barr’s history of covering up for Trump, what Trump did during that call with Zelensky was significantly worse than what we read in the White House “memo” that Trump’s White House released after making sure the entire transcript was locked up where no one could see it. Just like when Barr released his “memo” while hiding the Mueller Report and insisted his memo was an accurate presentation of the Mueller Report (it was not).
Given how much incriminating information Barr intentionally left out of his “memo” about the Mueller Report, I suspect the entire transcript of Trump’s call with Zelensky shows even more criminal actions specifically involving Trump insisting that the Ukraine help gather dirt on Biden. Maybe Trump even referred to illegally hacking Biden’s computers as part of the “investigation”.
I think that the Trump White House hopes that the House will take its eye off the ball looking for larger conspiracies instead of focusing on the clear crime that is going to be most reprehensible to the American public. Trump extorting a foreign government to get dirt on his political opponent to win an election. No one made Trump do that — he chose to take that criminal action. And while the Republicans sort of tried to float the idea that a President should be able to hold up foreign aid in order to get a foreign government’s help to gather dirt on his opponent, it wasn’t really flying. So you will read lots of stories by the co-opted NY Times reporters to try to distract and pretend that Trump’s blatant criminality was really just him focusing on corruption because he is kind of a nut about it. Which is all perfectly legal, of course. What isn’t legal is Trump extorting a foreign government to “get” his political opponent. So the White House is trying very hard to distract from that one cold fact. And they can always find co-opted NYT reporters to help them spew their propaganda.
Neil Katyal, the former acting Solicitor General of the U.S, argued today in the NY Timesthat impeachment does not require a crime.
Excerpt:
That’s why our founders wrote the impeachment clause to be broader than criminal activity. Many crimes are not impeachable (jaywalking, for example). Other activity isn’t necessarily criminal but is obviously a basis for impeachment (not defending the United States against a foreign attack).
For our founders, the touchstone of presidential unfitness to serve was always abuse of the public trust. They viewed the president as having a fiduciary obligation to the American people — just like trustees — and if the president violated that duty, he should be impeached. The first Congress discussed as one of the obvious bases for impeachment the possibility that a president dismissed “meritorious officers.” Or as Charles Black, the greatest scholar of impeachment, once reasoned, if the president announced a policy that he would give pardons to every police officer who killed someone in Washington, D.C., that wouldn’t be criminal but would be obviously impeachable.
Mr. Trump’s administration tried to hide the full whistle-blower complaint by attempting an end-around a federal law that requires that the full report be sent to Congress. His own Justice Department (once again) is working hard to clear him of wrongdoing. This time, the president’s appointees in that department did not even have the veneer of first allowing a special counsel investigation to proceed before trying to undermine its conclusions; they tried to stop the investigation before it even began.
I just got this message from Senator Mike Braun [R-IN]. He got voted into office by declaring that he was the strongest supporter of Trump. Much stronger than his two competitors for the office. He actually wants me to contribute money. I have no idea how I got on his email list.
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THE SQUAD COMES FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP
Carol,
Democrats in the House have sunk to a new low. Months of constant attacks by “The Squad” have finally pressured Nancy Pelosi into impeaching our President. These baseless attacks are just another attempt to distract the American people from their radical socialist agenda.
These radical socialists will not stop until President Trump is out of office and they have bankrupted our country. These attacks undermine our democracy and must be stopped.
WE MUST STAND WITH THE PRESIDENT
Nancy Pelosi has caved extremist pressure and used her power as Speaker to attack President Trump.
That’s why we must protect the Senate. These reckless impeachment charges will be meaningless in the Senate as long as we stand firm behind President Trump.
Republicans must unite behind our President.
As long as I am in the Senate, I will stand with President Trump against these baseless attacks by his political enemies.
Congress has become gridlocked thanks to the Squad and their endless witchhunts, costing taxpayers millions in wasted investigations all to appease their liberal base. Liberals refuse to acknowledge that President Trump WON in 2016.
That is not stopping President Trump and I from following through on our promises to Hoosiers.
Record employment. Secure borders. A booming economy. That is the Trump agenda.
If you stand with President Trump over the socialists in Congress, we need YOUR help immediately.
Thank you for your tireless support, I will continue to fight for you and defend our President.
-Senator Mike Braun
“The Squad” comes for Trump? I didn’t know Pelosi was ever a member of “The Squad!” No, in fact, not even a fan.
This whole e-mail is so full of holes, it is hilarious!
retiredbutmissthekids: What is sickening is that red state Indiana has people who believe this nonsense. “These radical socialists will not stop until President Trump is out of office and they have bankrupted our country.”
I wrote a very unpleasant reply back stating exactly what Trump had done to warrant impeachment. Radical socialists are bankrupting our country? Good heavens, what will he say about Bernie?
I’d say Trump and the GOP are bankrupting our country. How does one justify tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations, Trump’s worthless trade wars with China, putting children in cages and immigrants in concentration camps, cutting funding for social programs and alienating the US from its allies? I’m not sure what ‘radical socialists’ have done. Oh yeah. the problem is the Squad. They have influenced Pelosi.
This must be the current thinking of the GOP. Lies come naturally.
Senator Braun [R-IN] is on a socialism kick. This just came in. Democrats want to eliminate planes and automobiles? Really? There is a way to pay for ‘radical left’ programs. How about taxing the wealthy, corporations and financial transactions? How about eliminating places like the Cayman Islands where the wealthy hide their money and pay no taxes?
🚨 Stop Socialism in 2020! 🚨
Carol,
The upcoming 2020 election will be a turning point for American history. The voters will have the choice to Keep America Great or turn us into a socialist society.
Donate $20.20 to Stop Socialism in 2020!
Since President Trump was elected, the Democratic Party has rebuked any effort for bipartisanship results. They simply want to advance a radical socialist agenda that would cost trillions and eliminate 160 million private insurance plans, planes, and automobiles. We must stop them.
Senator Braun has been leading the effort to advance President Trump’s agenda and defend American values.
If you’ve watched any of the Democratic debates, you should be scared for the future of our country. All of the candidates have aligned themselves with the radical left, promising everything for free with no possible way to pay for it. We need to protect our democracy and stop socialism at all costs.
DONATE ANY AMOUNT TO STOP SOCIALISM IN 2020!
Keep America Great,
Team Braun
I’m very afraid for the whistle-blower’s safety. I’m sure if his/her name gets out there are many Trump followers who will be outraged. Their great leader is a skunk who stinks to high heaven all over the globe. Giuliani and Barr, possibly Pence, are all involved. Trump is abusing the system and its time for impeachment so that his name will go down in history as the vile person that he is.
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In Ukraine Phone Call, Alarmed Aides Saw Trouble
The alarm among officials who heard the exchange between President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart led to an extraordinary effort to keep many more people from learning about it.
…The electronic version of the reconstructed transcript produced from notes and voice recognition software was removed from the computer system where such documents are typically stored for distribution to cabinet-level officers, according to the complaint. Instead, it went into a classified system even though the call did not contain anything especially delicate in terms of national security information.
The actions were unusual in a normal national security process but not unheard-of in Mr. Trump’s administration. Since early in his tenure, when transcripts of his telephone calls with the leaders of Mexico and Australia leaked, Mr. Trump has been sensitive to preventing such records from getting out.
He has proved particularly attuned to guarding the confidentiality of other conversations involving the former Soviet Union. After his first meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia after taking office, Mr. Trump took his interpreter’s notes and ordered him not to disclose what he heard to anyone.
The specifics of Mr. Trump’s call with Mr. Zelensky would be one thing by itself, but it came during a period of other events that provide a context. For months leading up to the call, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, had been vigorously lobbying Ukrainian officials to investigate Democrats over the 2016 election and Mr. Biden’s dealings with the country.
Starting in mid-May, the whistle-blower wrote, he began hearing from other American officials “that they were deeply concerned by what they viewed as Mr. Giuliani’s circumvention of national security decision making processes to engage with Ukrainian officials and relay messages back and forth between” Kiev and the president.
Other people close to the situation have said that among those angry at Mr. Giuliani’s activities was John R. Bolton, who at the time was the president’s national security adviser. He left the administration this month amid disagreements with Mr. Trump over Russia as well as other issues.
But State Department officials, including Kurt D. Volker, the special envoy for Ukraine, and Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, were left to try to “contain the damage” by advising Ukrainians how to navigate Mr. Giuliani’s campaign, according to the complaint.
The Ukrainians, it added, were led to believe that arranging a meeting or phone call between their president and Mr. Trump would depend on whether Mr. Zelensky showed willingness to “play ball” on Mr. Giuliani’s wishes. Indeed, it said, Mr. Trump ordered Vice President Mike Pence to cancel plans to travel to Ukraine for Mr. Zelensky’s inauguration on May 20…
How about this goodie. It’s getting hard to find words hideous enough to describe what I think about Trump.
……………………..
Trump demands Schiff resign over account of Ukraine call
President Trump on Friday demanded House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) “immediately” resign from Congress for reading what the congressman described as a parody of the president’s phone call with Ukraine’s leader that is at the center of a whistleblower complaint.
In a series of tweets early Friday, Trump accused Schiff of lying to Congress and “fraudulently” reciting a version of the call that made it “sound horrible” and made the president appear “guilty.”
“And Trumpscript is a fan script”
Yeahyeahyeah, but what happens after a Trumpscript hits the fan?!
If establishment Dem, Joe Biden, is the candidate for president, Hunter Biden and Tony Podesta’s activities in Ukraine will lessen the Dems’ odds of winning.
Senator Mike Braun [R-IN] just sent out an information letter. How wonderful that these immigrant detainment facilities will be ‘held to high standards and will include separate housing for each family unit.’ They will all get phones, private meeting rooms classrooms and medical facilities. BS.
This fellow is a ‘died in the wool liar’. He is a MAGAt.
………………………………………..
On August 21, 2019, DHS and HHS announced a final rule to implement the FSA and address the humanitarian and security crisis at the southwestern border. Under this new rule, the federal government will detain family units together while their immigration cases are being processed, instead of mandating their separation or release. These family detainment facilities will be held to high standards and will include separate housing for each family unit, as well as phones, private meeting rooms, classrooms, and medical facilities. Through this new rule, DHS and HHS will be better equipped to uphold the rule of law, reduce incentives for illegal immigration, and ensure fair and expeditious court proceedings. However, most importantly, it will allow the federal government to keep families together and guarantee high standards for the care of children.
This rule will go into effect on October 20, 2019.
I LOVE good news. May the unenlightened see the light.
A new Hill-HarrisX survey on Friday found support for impeachment proceedings against President Trump has risen 12 points compared to a similar poll conducted three months ago.
See video of the program. Is Fox getting a conscious?
The ‘Fox News Sunday’ host clashed with colleague Sandra Smith after she echoed White House talking points on the whistleblower complaint.
The first question Fox News host Sandra Smith asked her colleague Chris Wallace when he joined her to talk about the whistleblower complaint against President Trump at the end of a week packed with bombshell news was: “Did it change anything?”
“Oh, I think it’s changed quite a lot, Sandra,” the Fox News Sunday host replied. “And the spinning that has been done by the president’s defenders over the last 24 hours since this very damaging whistleblower complaint came out, the spinning is not surprising, but it is astonishing, and I think deeply misleading.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/chris-wallace-clashes-with-fox-news-colleague-over-trump-defenders-deeply-misleading-spin-on-ukraine?via=newsletter&source=DDAfternoon
We Need Other Whistleblowers to Come Forward
By Michael Moore, Michael Moore’s Facebook Page
27 September 19
The Mafia Don-in-Chief just said the following: “I wanna know who’s the person who gave the whistleblower the information. Because that’s close to a spy. You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies & treason? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”
That’s true. The whistleblower’s body would be found in a shallow grave in Rock Creek Park or floating in the C & O Canal in Georgetown.
Trump just issued a threat of physical violence against a patriot. If you or I did that, there’d be a knock on the door from two FBI agents in about 11 minutes from right now. Trump is a thug from Queens, and he has now reverted to his thug-like brain. He knows he’s been caught. And not just him. The whistleblower names at least 6 others who may have conspired with Trump in his plan to enlist a foreign power in smearing Joe Biden and his son. And then they all tried to cover it up for the past two months. Trump now longs for the days when you could just “disappear” an annoying ratfink. Trump today wished out loud for the power to dispose of this brave whistleblower.
I say, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. There must be so many other instances of wrongdoing and abuse by Trump in these last three years. We need other whistleblowers to come forward — and they need to be protected.
And I’d be happy if Trump was simply dropped off somewhere in Foggy Bottom and left to his own devices to find his way back to NYC.
“I wanna know who’s the person who gave the whistleblower the information. Because that’s close to a spy. You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies & treason? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”
Wow, Carol, this is really thiggish and big time. But it also increases the braverz of the whitleblower—and any other whistleblower against Trump.
Máté Wierdl: Trump works by intimidation and lying. How many potential whistleblowers will now come forward with information against Trump after this threat on the whistleblower’s life? Most will now be afraid for their families and the death threats that will follow.
Trump is totally vile.
Trump is a traitor and a thug. If his tax returns are ever released, we will learn more about his frauds and tax evasion
I DO hope the impeachment investigation gets hold of Trump’s tax returns. He is working too hard to keep it hidden.
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DONALD TRUMP’S CALL WITH UKRAINIAN LEADER, ONE DAY AFTER ROBERT MUELLER’S CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY, SHOWS THE PRESIDENT IS A BRAZEN CRIMINAL..September 26 2019,
CAREER CRIMINAL DONALD TRUMP just barely avoided prosecution earlier this year when special counsel Robert Mueller pulled his punches and refused to indict the president for either obstruction of justice or campaign finance violations in connection with the Trump-Russia investigation. Mueller’s decision not to indict Trump came despite overwhelming evidence in Mueller’s own final report that the president of the United States was guilty of a crime.
Most people who survive that kind of legal threat would lie low, at least for a while, and try to get back to some level of normalcy. But Trump is a habitual criminal, and his reaction to escaping Mueller’s investigation was to go on yet another crime spree…
In the end, Mueller didn’t indict Trump for anything, and Congress decided not to try to impeach Trump in connection with the Russia probe. On July 24, Mueller testified before Congress about his investigation and final report. After his testimony, the special counsel quietly exited the scene, having let Trump off the hook.
The president was a free man.
SO WHAT DID TRUMP do with his newfound freedom?
The very next day — on July 25 — he was at it again, this time with Ukraine.
Trump got on the phone that day with the new president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, and repeatedly sought his help in an attempt to damage Trump’s political rival, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. This time, there was no question, as there had been in the Russia case, about whether Trump directly sought the help of a foreign power to help him win an election. A summary of the call released by the White House on Wednesday proves Trump did exactly that…
https://interc.pt/2mZHiO0
This lunacy is what we are up against.
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We learned that Trump sat in the Oval Office and asked a foreign power for dirt on a political rival in exchange for military assistance.
There is no doubt that this is an abuse of power. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acted quickly by calling for an impeachment inquiry.
Trump’s campaign team and the RNC also acted quickly, sending out a fundraising email calling the impeachment inquiry a “WITCH HUNT!”, “HOAX!”, “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!” It was pure red meat for his base, and Trump has raised $13 million dollars since Pelosi called for an impeachment.
There are complete sentences in this hogwash so Trump has some lackey writing his nonsense.
Here is the official line coming directly from the WH:
Resolute Reads
REAL NEWS PRESIDENT TRUMP DOESN’T WANT YOU TO MISS
After Failing on Russia, Democrats Try a New Hoax
-The Washington Times
“Sequels are rarely better than the original. If we have learned anything over the last six days, as the feeding frenzy over the whistleblower has overtaken official Washington, it is this: Democrats want to impeach President Trump and they do not care if the facts support their cause,” Matt Mackowiak writes. “After more than two years of Democrats’ hyperventilating, Mr. Trump was cleared of collusion and conspiracy. Democrats and their media allies overhyped their claims and won Pulitzer Prizes along the way. But they failed in their objective.”
Complaint From So-Called ‘Whistleblower’ Is Riddled With Gossip, Blatant Falsehoods
-The Federalist
The formal complaint from an anti-Trump “whistleblower” has followed “the same template used in the infamous and debunked Clinton campaign-funded Steele dossier,” Sean Davis writes. “Rather than provide direct evidence that was witnessed or obtained firsthand by the complainant, the document instead combines gossip from various anonymous individuals, public media reports, and blatant misstatements of fact and law in service of a narrative that is directly contradicted by underlying facts. A footnote in the document even boasts about its use of ‘ample open-source information.’”
Adam Schiff and Democrats are Twisting Words to Smear Trump
-Washington Examiner
“We were promised a Hollywood-style, smoking gun quid pro quo. But after the transcript was released, the whistleblower complaint came out, and the House Intelligence Committee grilled acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, leaving most people with glazed-over expressions, wondering what the big deal is,” Jenna Ellis Rives writes. In the hearing, Chairman Adam Schiff attempted to play word games with Maguire in an effort to manipulate the situation. “So why the manipulation? Because the Democrats know their case is weak. Their only hope lies in trying to twist legal terminology for their political advantage.”
More dishonesty: “Adam Schiff performs fake conversation between Trump and Ukraine President”
At the UN, Trump Rightly Stands Up for National Sovereignty
-Washington Examiner
President Trump “is never afraid to stand up for popular self-government and the greatest guarantor self-government has ever had: the nation-state,” the Washington Examiner editorial board writes. “Trump did very well in his Tuesday speech to the U.N. General Assembly to reassert, once again, that the nation-state is a good thing; speaking as he was in an institution with misguided supranational ambitions. This was something U.N. bureaucrats and diplomats needed to hear from the leader of the free world.”