That whistleblower complaint is damning. Watching Schiff testify now - he needs to ease up on the language that could be interpreted as speculative and partisan.
It appears to have actually gotten worse. If I’m reading this right, $100,000 is now in the 86th percentile.
So a bunch of white house officials realized how shitty this whole thing was and tried to hide the transcript, and Trump is so oblivious to his own malfeasance that he just ordered the thing released?
What a maroon.
Maguire testimony beginning right now if anyone is masochistic.
So the accused says there is no problem. I guess case closed then.
Think of how much time we would save in the courts if we just took the perpetrators word for what actually happened
Wait, that’s what this administration does for fellow white male Republicans. If you are anything else you are automatically guilty as insinuated.
I’m not convinced he’ll be partisan.
Edit : though I’m watching on DVR and just starting, so I could already be wrong.
I was talking more about the GOP. Nunes opening statement was another recitation of Democrats are colluding with Russia and the Ukraine.
One interesting thing about the report is how many people are apparently aware of this inappropriate call. And we know this because this whistleblower did not actually hear the call, but had it second hand, yet got it 100% correct apparently.
:eek:
Giuliani is in this up to his eyebrows. Barr is in it at least up to his neck. And Trump is in over his head.
Anyone else hear Lindsey Graham’s idiotic utterance? That impeaching Trump due to a phone call would be “insane”? Yeah, that’s it, because he made a phone call. Brilliant.
They were ready to impeach Nixon because of some blank tape. Can you believe it, just eighteen minutes of blank tape?
It’s even worse: He thought Democrats should apologize after seeing the transcript. Donny Dipshit.
**Will the Democrats apologize after seeing what was said on the call with the Ukrainian President? They should, a perfect call - got them by surprise! **
Over thin plastic? Now that’s insane!
** nods **
I don’t think of myself as a lock-step follower of much of anything and I don’t drink much Kool-Aid.
It seems to me that the Republicans in the Senate absolutely must be thinking in these terms:
We have the power to refuse to convict Trump. If we choose to use that power, we establish that this is not a fairly elected democratic government any more. We turn the reins of power over to a dictatorship; we go on record as saying that the US President may do whatever he deems necessary in order to stay in power, and, having thus done so, we can assume that Trump will win re-election and/or that the results of the election will be officially announced as such, and the people currently in power will remain in power indefinitely with no checks, balances, or will of the people to inferfere with it.
What do I want, going forward? Do I wish a seat at the oligarchy and a chance to participate in that brave new world (within which my own future successes and rises to power will not depend on convincing the electorate of anything but exclusively on the approval of the folks in primary positions of power) or do I wish to shut down this power-grab and probably sink the current administration and also deflate the Republican party for several election cycles?
Hmm, when Republicans participated in puncturing Nixon, they weren’t exiled to the wilderness for a generation or anything…
That must be me; I’m glued to this.
Maguire is fucked and he knows it.
Ahh, the old faux “executive privilege” claim. Why am I not surprised?
Christ, Schiff is an idiot. Maguire said in his opening statement that the allegations were credible and now he’s asking him in questioning if he thinks they were credible. His questioning should now assume it. “You said your statement that the allegations were credible…”. And he shouldn’t be prosecuting Maguire, he should be enlisting him. Democrats are nice people but they are strategically inept.
Nunes was ineffective and he knew it.
It’s ashame he didn’t realize that before he ran for office.
I’m at work and can’t see the testimony, but if the witness is throwing around phony “privilege” I have no problem with him being treated as hostile.
That wasn’t really the case, bobot. Much of Schiff’s questioning centered around the fact that Maguire was faced with a whistleblower complaint about the POTUS and the AG and he went to the White House and then the DOJ for advice on whether and how to proceed with the complaint. Schiff was establishing the timeline of events and showing us all how insane the situation was; the fact that Maguire (who may well have been merely trying, in his judgement, to act properly in balancing what he saw as competing priorities) seems to have sought counseling from the people who were accused of wrongdoing was definitely notable.