If trump's motto is "hit back ten times harder,"
Why is he saying "Hey Russia, I forgive you for your assault on our democracy. Hug me?"
David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter and conservative, on why the Trump/GOP attacks on Comey fail (emphasis mine):
The first line of defense—revealed by the president’s own team yesterday—is that Comey somehow vindicated Trump by confirming that he told Trump in January that Trump was not personally a target of an investigation. But if that assurance had been enough for the president, Trump would not have added the demand that Comey end the investigation of Michael Flynn. Trump evidently felt strongly motivated to protect Flynn—more strongly motivated than he had been to protect any of his other associates.
Also, Trump seems to think that if he’s not under PERSONAL investigation, he’s in the clear. As for Flynn, there must be something pretty damning that Flynn has on him, that he wants to hide. Can you say unprincipled narcissist much?
Line two of defense is that the president’s expression of a “hope” that Mike Flynn could be “let go” merely expressed a wish, not an order. But Adam Liptak, Supreme Court reporter for The New York Times, almost instantly produced an example of an obstruction of justice conviction that rested precisely on “I hope” language—and the all-seeing eye of Twitter quickly found more. Anyone who has ever seen a gangster movie has heard the joke, “Nice little dry cleaning store, I hope nothing happens to it.” The blunt fact is that after Comey declined to drop the investigation or publicly clear the president, Trump fired Comey. A hope enforced by dismissal is more than a wish.
Nice little democracy you got there, hope nothing happens to it.
A third line of defense is the attack on Comey personally: that he somehow discredited himself by not speaking out or resigning when he first felt the president had asked for something improper. I wonder how those in the Trump White House who have not yet spoken out or resigned felt about this argument. Comey stayed for the same reason that non-venal people throughout the Trump administration stay: in the hope of protecting not only the country, but also the president himself, from the worse people (or the no people at all!) with whom the president would likely replace them.
Lame. Comey stayed to try to do the best possible job he could. You might say the same of those who work with Trump now despite their disagreements with him.
Paul Ryan tried a fourth line of defense during the hearings: that Trump had merely committed a protocol violation due to his inexperience in government. But if Trump were such an ingénue, why did he take such extraordinary care always to be alone with Comey when he made his improper demands?
I’m so fucking sick of this defense. Would Ryan or any GOPer be holding a Dem to the same standard? Ignorance is no excuse. It would never be an excuse for anyone except the world’s biggest snowflake.
The final line of defense was presented by Trump’s personal lawyer after the hearing ended: Comey was the villain of the story for leaking “privileged” conversations with the president. The premise here seems to be that executive privilege somehow forever silences a terminated federal employee. This is an extremely weird argument:
- Trump did not invoke executive privilege to prevent Comey from speaking to Congress, the usual place where executive privilege is asserted.
- Trump himself had spoken and tweeted about the conversation, which is usually taken to void executive privilege.
- Executive privilege has never before been thought to impose a lifetime obligation of silence upon former members of the executive branch.
- The Supreme Court case most directly on point, U.S. v. Nixon, established that executive privilege cannot be used to conceal evidence of crime, which is what Comey’s leak and subsequent sworn testimony, purportedly revealed.
Michael Isikioff of Yahoo News reported that four top D.C. lawyers had refused to handle Trump’s defense.
“The concerns were, ‘The guy won’t pay and he won’t listen,’” said one lawyer close to the White House who is familiar with some of the discussions between the firms and the administration, as well as deliberations within the firms themselves.
If accurate, Isikoff’s reporting suggests that a lifelong habit of skipping out on bills has saddled Trump with an attorney ill-prepared for the task ahead.
Friends of the president will reply that the Comey hearing did not produce a smoking gun. That’s true. But the floor is littered with cartridge casings, there’s a smell of gunpowder in the air, bullet holes in the wall, and a warm weapon on the table. Comey showed himself credible, convincing, and consistent. Against him are arrayed the confused excuses of the least credible president in modern American history.
Watch the video- Macron schools Trump in the dignified way worthy of his title.
scrotus-potus reblogged
Remember when we had a President who wasn’t a flip flopping traitor surprisingly consistent only on his Russophilia?
Remember when we had a President who didn’t embarrass us daily, even hourly?
#PrideMonth
Those were the days…
Remember when we had a President that could speak in full, complete, correct, coherent sentences?
Remember when we had a President who wasn’t a tool of white supremacist Breitbart conspiracy theorist anti-science flat-earther nutjobs?
Remember when we had a President who actually got a record number of people insured, as opposed to *saying* he wants to, but actually is trying to fund a 900 billion dollar tax cut for the super rich by taking away healthcare for 23 million people?
#PrideMonth
Remember when we had a President who wasn't under investigation by the FBI for possible treasonous collusion with a foreign adversary? #PrideMonth
Remember when we had a President who wasn't a flip flopping traitor surprisingly consistent only on his Russophilia? Remember when we had a President who didn't embarrass us daily, even hourly? #PrideMonth
“We can’t have someone in the Oval Office who doesn’t understand the meaning of confidential or classified.” - Donald Trump, multiple fucking times
scrotus-potus reblogged
The Washington Post has a great graphic representation of the growing web of Trump’s ties to Russia.
[Source]
#trumprussia
scrotus-potus reblogged
I figured Flynn would be the first to sing!! #Trumprussia
#TrumpRussia
Trump being elected makes America look incredibly weak. So much for #MAGA
Fucking useful idiots and traitors.
Both should apply. The first for utter Republican hypocrisy, the second for brazen Trump criminality.
scrotus-potus reblogged
I want you to think about how fucked up this AP headline is.
BREAKING: Trump transition was told Flynn likely needed to register as foreign agent before taking top national security role.
He was told Flynn was acting as a foreign agent. The NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER WAS A FOREIGN FUCKING AGENT.
let me say that again…
The NATIONAL MOTHER FUCKING SECURITY ADVISER WAS A FOREIGN FUCKING AGENT and evidently this was fine with Trump.
Treason. #Trumprussia
scrotus-potus reblogged
Three Terrifying Reasons for Trump’s Latest Rant
Early Saturday morning, March 4, the 45th president of the United States alleged in a series of tweets that former president Barack Obama orchestrated a “Nixon/Watergate” plot to tap Trump’s phones at his Trump Tower headquarters last fall in the run-up to the election. Trump concluded that the former president is a “Bad (or sick) guy!”
Sunday morning, Trump called for a congressional investigation.
Trump cited no evidence for his accusation.
Folks, we’ve got a huge problem on our hands. Either:
1. Trump is more nuts than we suspected – a true delusional paranoid. Trump’s outburst was triggered by commentary in the “alt-right” publication, Breitbart News, on Friday, which reported an assertion made Thursday night by right-wing talk-radio host Mark Levin suggesting Obama and his administration used “police state” tactics last fall to monitor the Trump team’s dealings with Russian operatives.
If this is what triggered Trump’s tantrum, we’ve got a president willing to put the prestige and power of his office behind baseless claims emanating from well-known right-wing purveyors of lies.
Which means Trump shouldn’t be anywhere near the nuclear codes that could obliterate the planet, or near anything else that could determine the fate of America or the world.
2. The second possibility is the Obama administration did in fact tap his phones. But if this was the case, before the tap could occur it’s highly likely Trump committed a very serious crime, including treason.
No president can order a wiretap on his own. For federal agents to obtain a wiretap on Trump, the Justice Department would first have had to convince a federal judge that it had gathered sufficient evidence of probable cause to believe Trump had committed a serious crime or was an agent of a foreign power, depending on whether it was a criminal or foreign intelligence wiretap.
In which case we have someone in the White House who shouldn’t be making decisions that could endanger America or the world.
3. The third possible explanation for Trump’s rant is he was trying to divert public attention from the Jeff Sessions imbroglio and multiple investigations of Trump associates already found to have been in contact with Russian agents during the election, when Russian operatives interfered with the election on Trump’s behalf.
Maybe he’s trying to build a case that the entire Russian story is a plot concocted by the Obama Administration – along with the intelligence agencies and the mainstream press – to bring Trump down. This way, he can inoculate himself against more damaging evidence to come.
But if it’s all a big show to divert attention and undermine the credibility of the intelligence agencies and the press, Trump is willing to do anything to keep his job – even if that means further dividing America, undermining trust in our governing institutions, and destroying the fabric of our democracy.
So there you have it. We have a president who is either a dangerous paranoid who’s making judgments based on right-wing crackpots, or has in all likelihood committed treason, or is willing to sacrifice public trust in our basic institutions to further his selfish goals.
Each of these possible reasons is as terrifying as the other.
For Democrats to be the only ones sounding the alarm risks turning it into the new normal of partisanship. For Obama himself to respond would only dignify it.
So the responsibility falls to Republican leaders to stand up and call this what it is: Dangerous demagoguery.
Former Republican presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, former Republican senators and members of Congress, and current Republican senators and members of Congress, must have the courage and decency to stop this outrage.
We are in a serious crisis of governance, and their voices are critical.
scrotus-potus reblogged
We're now up to 11 confirmed on the list of trump advisers with ties to Russia....
- Stone - Cohen - Manafort - Bannon - Page - Tillerson - Ross - Flynn - Sessions - Gordon - Kushner
(15 if you include trump and his kids)
scrotus-potus reblogged
Putin disappears or kills journalists and enemies.
Trump may have blood on his hands.