OK, I’ll just throw this out here. It probably makes me a terrible person, but I can’t look at Hope Hicks without thinking that her career path involved plans to become ex-Mrs Trump #4, to put it as delicately as possible.
You’re not far from the truth, I was thinking the same thing. She is younger than Ivanka, 30 versus 37.
This is an interesting tweet. Has anyone seen actual written info on it?
Oh wait here we go DocumentCloud
Okay, who did that half-assed redaction job on pages 40+? 
Is there anything of note? I made it through about 20 pages of text messages and the only surprise was that Sean Hannity apparently really does believe his own horseshit.
You know, I was thinking it might be Hannity. The Fox show, the radio show, etc. But once I got to page 40, I knew for sure.
I, too, was surprised by that.
Well, or plays the character well.
Certainly Manafort ain’t no choir boy, and one would doubt that Hannity would fail to be aware of that. If you’re chatting with Hannibal Lecter, like the two of you are best buds who chat every day at church and only eat a vegetarian diet, and we know that you know who Hannibal Lecter is, then I have to feel a tinge of doubt about the sincerity of your words.
It’s also a bit strange to be inserting quite so much Jesus and personal backstory, so frequently. If that’s Hannity’s every day communication pattern, he’s basically turtled up in his cover story so far that it’s safe to say that the man knows that he’s supremely f’ed the day that the cover is blown.
One is reminded that we still don’t know what Hannity’s deal with Michael Cohen was. It will be interesting to see if the Feds raid his home at some point.
Maybe soon.
Rather curious on page 9:
Hannity: Gorka is right. This is a banana republic
Hannity: Republicans suck
I presume he’s talking about this. But, of course, Hannity blames the Republican party rather than Democrats.
As has been noted before, the Trump investigation was started by and lead by Republicans. Hannity seems to admit that the Deep State is not Democrats, it’s “everyone in government except Trump”. Which is, in essence, true. The only issue being that most of the people in government are largely non-partisan and just want to do their job professionally, and most of the Republicans are simply siding with the professionals over Trump. And up till such a point as Trump makes any sort of coherent argument for his side, supported by any form of logic and/or numbers, siding with the professionals is the correct choice.
The professionals can be wrong in some instances, but Trump is only against them to the extent that he doesn’t want to admit that he doesn’t know anything and just said a bunch of stupid shit while trying to get elected. That’s not how you outperform the professionals.
Page 17 -
Hannity: Disgusting. I’ll be in the cell next to u.
As of yet, we have no reason to think that you will, Hannity. Curious that you do.
Reading through the whole conversation, I think it’s fair to say that Weissman’s book deal is about the stupidest thing a human has ever done, and is a strong punch to the testicles of our country. I really hope that he’ll change his mind.
Oh yeah and, for anyone curious, apparently it’s “hannity@aol.com”. Page 50.
Whoever redacted this document was mega crap.
Though, saying that, I don’t know why I wrote “Reading through the whole conversation” in my previous post since I’m still reading it. >.>
Great idea. Who will enforce those contempt citations? What would be the practical effect of imposing them?
I disagree with you that they are wasting time in courts. If the courts are the only place you have left to enforce your authority, then that’s where you go. Like I said in Post #11787. (Politico confirms. Hat tip to Walken After Midnight, who posted the link in the Pelosi Appreciation thread.)
By the way, what is the “real fight”?
This is what happens when crazy people can tell morons what to do.
I don’t see how the long game gets around that, either.
There is no authority. The Trump Administration is just going to ignore the court rulings.
It’s better to get to that point faster than slower. Gaslighting works, so you don’t want to give it time to happen. It should be a surprise when Congress and the White House have law enforcement officers shooting at each other in the street, not just another day of Trump’s craziness.
Disagree. I think at the point when Trump ignores the courts, Republicans will act. They do yank his leash when he goes too far and he gets in line. If they allow him to ignore the courts, then why go to all the trouble to stack them as McConnell has?
That certainly would be a hope, but I mean that’s the same sort of logic that presided in the Roman Senate after Caesar became Dictator, and among the Ally powers when Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland.
To be fair, Trump is an idiot who largely just doesn’t want to look like a failure and McConnell probably has a whole bunch of stuff on him, so we’re probably safe on that front. But, Trump has been figuring out this whole deal. He figured out how to create and use the Caravan/Terrorist conspiracy theory, and after being told off for being a Nationalist a few hundred times, he’s probably looked at how previous Nationalists succeeded in the past and formed some ideas off of it.
I’d rather solve the issue rather than rely on Trump to prove a failure. The latter is probably a safe bet, but the risks aren’t low enough to rely on that.
You know what my next question is.
If applying to the courts isn’t the answer, then how do we “solve the issue”?
This is one of those situations where “Cite?” is the best response, but there will be a couple of examples that can be semi-credibly cited, and then we can all spend the thread arguing about whether McConnell really pressured Trump into caving on the government shutdown or something.
But your reading is probably wrong, and in any case buying into it isn’t worth the catastrophic risk if it’s wrong.
This probably makes less sense than you think it does.
“If the judge is corrupt, why would anyone bother to bribe the jury?”
I said that the path is to get there faster. We’re basically fucked. The solution is to get fucked faster.
Announce impeachment hearings. Throw in everything from Russia to Montenegro to the IRGC to making jokes about being President for life to making threatening calls to Joe Scarbarough to arresting asylum seekers illegally to whatever all else that Trump has done that is an impeachable offense.
Have the White House completely refuse to cooperate.
Take it to the Supreme Court, and have them decide that Congressional oversight - particularly for impeachment - allows no refusal.
And then we get to the scene where the Congressional are raiding the offices of the DOJ to arrest people for Contempt of Congress. That’s where we’re going. The fastest path there is the safest one.
United States Capitol Police, I meant to say.