It’s like a kid who tells the teacher that the dog ate his homework. He knows the dog didn’t eat his homework, but he needs something to say, however implausible. He doesn’t believe that the dog ate his homework, but he says it anyway.
That’s all from me on it.
It’s more like the kid that has so convinced himself that his dog ate the homework, that he not only repeats this implausible lie to anyone he can get to listen, but also hires investigators to track down this dog to pump its stomach.
I live in trumplandia, I see this cognitive dissonance on display every single day. It’s not just about politics, it’s about anything that places them anywhere but the hero of their own narrative.
They truly do believe that they are great and wonderful, and that they are the very bestest of all, no matter how much reality smacks them in the face that this is not true.
And once again, this is further condemnation of these Republican liars, it is not cutting them any slack.
One of the things that I appreciate about the Federal Fraud Statutes is that they don’t draw a meaningful distinction between “knew he was lying” and “didn’t know but said it anyway:”
Fraudulent intent is shown if a representation is made with reckless indifference to its truth or falsity.
That’s basically a “knew or should have known” element.
And that makes me happy
Yeah, that’s pretty much it, “reckless indifference”. Trump doesn’t care if it’s true or not, only if it’s useful.
But he also convinces himself that if it’s useful, it’s also true. He’s just that delusional.
Pretty much. “I believed my own bullshit” is not a real defense.
My opinion is that Trump has absolutely no concept of truth, which means there can be no lies. Trump is a sociopath (or psychopath?). I firmly believe his attitude is truth is whatever one chooses to believe so if you can get enough people believe something is true, it is true. I imagine he considers his own opinion on any given matter is irrelevant (since he can change his opinion simply by thinking about it, much like document classifications). What matters is what others believe.
So, do I think Trump actually believes the election was stolen? Absolutely. I suspect he feels his failure to get elected in 2020 was entirely the result of a conspiracy of Democrats who did whatever was necessary, legal or not, to assure Trump would lose. If it wasn’t for this conspiracy, he would be King. In order to make this true, all he has to do is get more people to believe it.

They’re not in control yet.

Two people who will have the power to launch Congressional investigations in 40 days have said they are going to launch investigations,…
Exactly. Of course they will launch some sort of investigations.
But we do not know yet what they will be. Thus this thread is simply ranting about stuff that may happen. Why don’t we wait until it does?

I wanna point out that there is no such investigation, and there might not even be one.

Of course they will launch some sort of investigations.
It takes a big man to admit that he was wrong. My hat’s off to you.

It takes a big man to admit that he was wrong. My hat’s off to you.
I have always said that. Was I wrong when I said that earlier?

Certainly there will be investigations, there always have been. An investigation into Immigration would hardly be surprising. That is different than the sort of radical witchhunt that a couple of MAGAs want. That does not mean it won’t happen, but this thread is premature until whatever investigations occur- since none have.
So, unless there is such an investigation happening now- I was not wrong.
There are no GOP investigations - yet. There will be some sort of investigations, of course. We do not know what they will be or the extent. Will they go total MAGA insanity or limit themselves to border issues, Afghanistan, etc? Remains to be seen.

There are no GOP investigations - yet.
No shit. There are zero thread participants who weren’t clear on that.

There will be some sort of investigations, of course.
There was exactly one thread participant who was unclear on this.

There was exactly one thread participant who was unclear on this.
I missed that post, which one was it?
Moderating:

There are no GOP investigations - yet. There will be some sort of investigations, of course. We do not know what they will be or the extent. Will they go total MAGA insanity or limit themselves to border issues, Afghanistan, etc? Remains to be seen.
Let’s stop this pointless hijack of the thread now.
If you don’t feel there are investigations being contemplated and currently framed, then your solution is to stay out of this thread until they meet your definition of an investigation. Meantime, continuing this discussion is not productive in any way. Others should be free to discuss whatever investigations they feel will soon be undertaken.
Thanks.
Summary

…Of course they will launch some sort of investigations.
But we do not know yet what they will be. Thus this thread is simply ranting about stuff that may happen. Why don’t we wait until it does?
You keep saying there is no investigation yet. However, it appears the GOP members of the Oversight Committee disagree. The report they issued, which has been linked twice in this thread, is titled “A President Compromised: The Biden Family Investigation”.
The fifth paragraph of the Executive Statement starts with the sentence
Committee Republicans’ investigation has uncovered evidence demonstrating deliberate, repeated deception of the American people, abuse of the Executive Branch for personal gain, use of government power to obstruct the investigation and prevent transparency, and potential violations of the United States Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause.
At the end of the sixth paragraph they state
…the Biden Administration changed longstanding policy and now refuses to produce Biden family SARs or to make them available for Committee Republican investigators’ in camera review.
Start of the seventh paragraph:
President Biden’s actions and his Administration’s obstruction of this investigation raise important questions that deserve answers for the American people.
The first five words of the section titled “The Biden Families Layers of Corruption and Self Dealing” starts:
Committee Republicans began this investigation…
Bullet point one of this same section states:
The progress of this investigation has been obstructed at the outset by the Biden Administration’s unwillingness to answer questions or provide documents about the President’s involvement in business dealings, even those that implicate grave national security concerns.
The bolding here is mine. Clearly they wouldn’t be using the word investigation if they didn’t feel there was one already in progress or being contemplated. I’m not going to list every time they use that word in the 30 page report but it’s clear they feel there is an ongoing investigation. I recommend you read the report linked for more insight into their thinking.
Sorry Apenglow. I didn’t see your note until I posted. I’ll drop it.
You still have time to delete your response. I’d appreciate it if you would, because otherwise it looks like you got in one last lick after the mod note.
I think the clearest example of Trump drinking his own Flavorade is in his “perfect” phone call to Zelenskyy in which he pressures Zelenskyy to give back the DNC server that they had in their possession.
I think it is particularly importnat that they proceed. ave you seen the pictures of Joe Biden that are rumored to be on the hard drive? Any evidence as to their validity?
I heard there were pictures of Biden meeting the Lizard King and they both shape-shifted. I know it’s true because my cousin’s hairdresser saw it!
I did NOT realize that there were allegations that Hunter Biden had pictures of his father on his hard drive.
That obviously changes everything.
/s

I think it is particularly importnat that they proceed. ave you seen the pictures of Joe Biden that are rumored to be on the hard drive? Any evidence as to their validity?
There are some hoax photos circulating that were screengrabs from some old porno. If your news sources are reporting these with any speculation that they are legitimate, I implore you to get better news sources.