Mine is Mitch McConnell
With the revelation that even more “secret transcripts” were improperly stored on this server, I would like to offer my congratulations to Donald Trump for making a previously-unknown top-secret classified server the key repository of evidence in the bigliest criminal case(s) of the Millennium.
Beginning to think Mueller may have missed a few things guys.
I read that Ryan told the board to start preparing for a post-Trump world.
What’s it called when so much bad news comes out so fast you have to stop paying attention because you cannot intellectually or emotionally absorb it all?
My buddy and I spoke today around 2 pm about the NRA/Russian asset scandal, the WH admitting they put the Ukraine transcript on a top-secret server, and how Rudy literally provided the world proof of a scandal involving the State Dept with TIME STAMPED SCREEN GRABS OFF HIS PHONE, like some golden goose of evidence.
Since then Pompeo was subpoenaed, the Envoy resigned, Trump asked the NRA for help in his defense, he’s told Russia he doesn’t care if they meddle, and I can’t even keep track of what else.
Things are going at a frightening pace.
Preet Bharara on Twitter
Holy crap. Sorry. You must be surrounded by people that…that…support that guy.
At last note, the NRA was probably under FBI scrutiny for laundering money to the RNC and Trump.
If they’re still under such scrutiny, I hope that Trump’s meeting with them went real well and that they go active in their efforts to aid him by any and all means.
Trump’s process is pretty easy, I imagine. Say that he wants to launder some money. He goes out and meets with a bunch of people and talks about how much money they’d make laundering money.
Later, some percentage of those people get back to him. The remainder assume that he was joking.
Don’t know if you’re old enough to recall, but Nixon was like this, too.
When the tipping point is reached, it happens fast.
In this case, it’s even more urgent for it to happen fast, because the subject of the impeachment/removal quest is unhinged and very dangerous.
I predict Senate Republicans will take advantage of this gift and sadly, reluctantly vote to remove. They’ll never have a better opportunity to get rid of him for an easily understood reason.
Kind of like the disgusting “peace with honor” withdrawal undertaken by Nixon, pledged first in 1968 as a campaign promise to end the Vietnam War, and then again in 1973 at the Paris Peace Accords as a promise to… end the Vietnam War.
I believe that was an insult rather than a fantasy.
Wondering how much of what we’re learning now was in that Super Deluxe Limited Special Unredacted Edition that Congress got to view in the SCIFs. Remember how they all came out of there acting like they’d just seen something disturbing?
Problem is it’s next to Hillary’s in the Ukraine, and it’s really, really hard to find.
Seriously funny and serious at the same time though. So, this is where you keep all the records of your criminal activities? Thanks for the tip.
You really think so? To me it seems like Nixon taught the GOP that if they want to stay power, they have to circle the wagons early and fiercely. That’s what they are doing. Whoever breaks ranks first… that will be the really interesting political story of our time.
And yet…McConnell encouraged Trump to release transcript of Zelensky call: report
Now, while McConnell is relentlessly partisan, amoral, and seeks only power, he’s not stupid. I can think of very few people who think releasing that memo did Trump any favours at all - if anything, it was worse than any of the previous reporting/speculation of it. Perhaps he’s preparing the spot under the bus for Trump?
From your LA Times link:”I think he’s badly wounded right now,” said a Trump campaign advisor who is in frequent contact with the president, one of several aides who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions. “I’m suddenly very worried about 2020.”
Uh, you suddenly should be very worried about 2019.
Whoa! That’s big!
I know that doesn’t mean (yet) that they would convict, but a short time ago we were discussing whether Mitch would find a way not to bring it to a vote at all.
Here’s why I think he will:
The Mueller report was damning, but it was based on things that happened in the past, was dense in the extreme and hard for the public to grasp. The Ukraine criminality is current, egregious, easy to understand and explain to constituents.
McConnell has always known the Trump dumpster fire would eventually destroy the Republican “brand.” He could only ride this sick pony so far.
Dems have made it clear they will bring an impeachment vote quickly. Republicans can take a swift vote to remove and still have a full year before November 2020 to regroup.
The longer Trump stays in office, the longer he defiles the Republican “brand.”
As previously noted by galen ubal, McConnell is relentlessly partisan, amoral, and seeks only power – but he’s not stupid. He does not want to give Trump the opportunity to destroy the country by disputing the results of the 2020 election, which we all know he will. “Rigged,” just like 2016. But a clean removal by the Senate Republicans is indisputable. Trump will not be able to fight against it.
Moreover, if Dems fail with articles of impeachment/removal over the Ukrainian criminality, it does not in any way preclude them from bringing new articles of impeachment once they obtain Trump’s tax returns and bank records, widely expected to reveal gross criminal abuses such as money laundering, bank and tax fraud. Dems will get them. The law is entirely on their side. If Republicans fail to remove on the first articles of impeachment, Dems will simply continue to bring new ones again and again, right up until November 2020. More time to demolish the Republican party.
The only hope Moscow Mitch has of retaining his majority in the Senate – his top priority – is to jettison Trump with enough time to form a new line of attack.
Nominee Mittens Romney, anyone?
ThelmaLou: is it, though? Isn’t he just betting on a Senate no-removal vote, which would be interpreted by the base and presumably enough “independent” voters as “total exoneration”?
Or, if the Senate does remove Trump, the Pubbies have plenty of time to regroup, as Aspenglow said?