So Trump obviously has the money that if he wanted to, he could flee the country somewhere where there’s no chance he would be extradited back to the US (cough Russia cough). If he goes on trial before the Senate, does the House have the authority to demand that he remain in the district while it’s underway on the grounds that he’s a flight risk?
Andrew Sullivan made a point that I SEMI agreed with on Real Time this past Friday…He pointed out it can be dangerous territory trying to litigate the executive conversations that the POTUS has with Foreign Leaders. and I am para phrasing…but basically he said “those conversations are privileged”
And I do understand the position he was arguing from, but even though those are privileged it doesn’t mean they are protected or free of consequence. It is entirely why there are transcripts and such.
Going after Dumbass over this is absolutely and unequivocally RIGHT, but it is a dangerous road to travel and the House (and specifically Pelosi) do need to be cautious and tread carefully and deliberately.
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Have you seen his tax returns or something? Because I do not think there should be any assumptions made that he has any money at all.
If he had “money” he wouldn’t be in bed with Russian financiers, assuming the later is true.
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Nothing is certain at this point. The House, by some miracle, could still decide not to create actual articles of impeachment, which is sort of equivalent of a grand jury finding insufficient evidence for indictment. And as long as that sh*tweasel Mitch McConnell is alive, the Senate will never vote to convene actual impeachment proceedings. I would have said it is nice to see that corporate [shill] Pelosi finally grow a spine and realize that there are some things more important than playing nice with the ultrarich Trump backers that she was trying to keep from angering, but that’s not what happened. She’s just playing CYA. The people in her own party who have been hollering for impeachment had enough, and she realized if she didn’t finally do something that looks real, they would have removed her as party leader. Her bloviating about accountability is nothing but holding onto the ears of the tiger she’s riding.
Nixon had fairly lock step support from his party for the bulk of the Watergate scandal
The existence of the tapes came to light in July of 73, the Saturday Night Massacre was that October. The smoking gun tape wasn’t handed over and played until April of 74. And that was the moment when public support for Nixon collapsed, and the bulk of GOP congressmen started to turn on him. He resigned 4 months later. Both the shift in public opinion and GOP backing were rapid.
There were more early defectors than there are now, and the Congressional GOP we involved in back door negotiations with the DNC. So they were participating to a greater extent than today’s party. Like that’s how Ford was foisted on him, the GOP pre-negotiated for his confirmation with the DNC. Seeking someone who was amenable to Democrats, unconnected to Nixon, and unlikely to challenge congress.
But the salient point there is that the Democrats controlled congress through this whole process. The GOP wasn’t able to prevent or control investigations and hearings. And wouldn’t have been able to stop an Impeachment, even if they had enough margin to prevent conviction. So participating was always presaged on protecting the party and to a certain extent Nixon. In supporting the impeachment bid they got the opportunity to force Nixon to resign, and and a lot stuff points to Nixon’s pardon and the lack of further prosecutions coming out of that sort of back channel negotiation.
You need 21 to pass articles onto the full house. And only 218 to impeach. The GOP largely can’t prevent impeachment even if they can prevent conviction (or trial) in the Senate by staying lock step.
So the x-factor is still public opinion, if it shifts enough for McConnell’s caucus to balk due to worries about the election he might lose control of enough people that he can’t just obstruct. Conviction remains unlikely, but there’s really no telling what impact a senate trial might have. It only takes a couple senators defecting to turn control of committees and take away control of simple majority votes.
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Which is why he’s fighting against it so hard?
Impeachment is win-win for Democrats (and the country). There are two possible outcomes (assuming the House votes to refer impeachment trial to the Senate before the election):
-
(most likely) Senate does not convict: Trump’s base sits on their heels, having been “vidicated”, while Dem base and independents who have at least 5 cells in their body with integrity are worked into seething rage, and show up in record numbers. Senate shifts massively as every GOP senator is harassed day and night over why they voted against removal.
1.a Mitch McConnell somehow puts off trial in Senate despite 24-hr protests in the streets of DC and Kentucky and every major American city. See 1 above, except 10x. -
Senate acts with (surprising) integrity and votes to remove Trump. Trump ineligible to run for office in 2020, removed from ballot. Trump’s base revolts against every sitting GOP Senator, and Senate ends up with Democratic supermajority.
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To be fair, neither does the center. They notoriously took money from Nestle while writing a report that could have highlighted Nestle’s misdeeds, but the report ended up not being published. Their current (on leave last I heard) president was the guy who blamed some random dude for Kavanaugh’s actions.
Whatever happens, the Dem establishment has to stop worrying about how the Know-Nothing 27% that makes up Il Douche’s base will react. The point is to bring his crimes to light to the other 25% of those who voted for him, many of whom have been hurt by his policies and/or regret their 2016 vote. Get just 1/5 of them and the margin shifts to the Dem candidate in the general election (unless it’s Biden, who’d blow the advantage).
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Trump is worried that working on impeachment is going to interfere with Democrat’s ability to pass gun safety legislation.
Big big worry! The most worry, really, that’s ever been worried.
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Bingo. And mobilize the 50% of eligible voters who haven’t voted. The challenge is to make those potential voters aware that, regardless of team affiliation, the President cannot be allowed to break the law this egregiously without consequences.
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Nixon’s poll support was still at around 27% the day he stepped onto the helicopter to leave.
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This is just so god damned exhausting.
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I think I’m going to pitch a series to Netfix with a Pelosi-character detective that hears about a murder and then spends 51 minutes trying to find ways to not investigate the murder, per se.
Maybe I’ll call it The Procedurals.
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There’s John Rogers’ magic number again.
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Called it above. I’ll give her this, as slowly as she moved getting to the point of supporting impeachment she’s moving very quickly in ensuring the Dems will limit their options as much as possible.
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Oooh - thanks for this one!
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I’ve been calling them the Know-Nothing 27% since the days of Prince Bush. You find this 25-30% cohort of mouth-breathing bigoted and sexist right-wingers in every Western democracy’s electorate.
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Perhaps “the lost causers,” as they seem to have an inordinate number of confederate traitor-worshipping idiots in that cohort, and they will surely not get the dig?
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Years of stand-up comedy.
Physics degree from a world-renowned institution.
Showrunner for several multi-season series.
And even he knows that the only things he’ll be remembered for is that and the Orcs.
Which is still better than most of us.
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Just an inquiry. Wake me up when the actual impeachment proceedings begin.
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