Tag: Trump impeachment inquiry

‘Short-fingered vulgarian’ Trump mocked for working himself into expletive-laden lather in hours-long rant

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump tweeted out an expletive in his ongoing morning rant against impeachment.

The president sent out eight tweets over nearly two hours reacting to TV news reports and complaining about the impeachment process launched last week by House Democrats, each one seemingly angrier than the last, until he reached a crescendo shortly before noon.

“The Do Nothing Democrats should be focused on building up our Country, not wasting everyone’s time and energy on BULLSH*T, which is what they have been doing ever since I got overwhelmingly elected in 2016, 223-306,” Trump tweeted. “Get a better candidate this time, you’ll need it!”

View the complete October 2 article by Travis Gettys from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

NOTE:  Remember, it’s the GOP-controlled Senate that is holding up legislation, the U.S. House has sent 400+ bills to the Senate where Sen. McConnell is stonewalling action on them.

Trump: Democrats wasting time on ‘bulls—‘ with impeachment inquiry

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Wednesday blasted Democrats for wasting time on “bullshit” as the House moves forward with its impeachment inquiry.

The president on Wednesday morning unleashed a torrent of tweets slamming Democrats as Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stood alongside House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to lay out their agenda and progress on the impeachment inquiry.

“The Do Nothing Democrats should be focused on building up our Country, not wasting everyone’s time and energy on BULLSHIT, which is what they have been doing ever since I got overwhelmingly elected in 2016, 223-306,” Trump tweeted shortly after the conclusion of the press conference, misstating the 232 electoral votes his opponent got in 2016.

“Get a better candidate this time, you’ll need it!” he added.

View the complete October 2 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

‘It’s a dumb thing to say’: Critics blast Trump for calling his impeachment inquiry a ‘COUP’

Washington Post logoPresident Trump claimed he was a victim of a coup d’etat on Tuesday night, continuing his dramatic rhetoric that has drawn fierce pushback from legal scholars and Democrats since the House impeachment inquiry began last week.

“As I learn more and more each day,” he wrote on Twitter, “I am coming to the conclusion that what is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a COUP, intended to take away the Power of the People, their VOTE, their Freedoms, their Second Amendment, Religion, Military, Border Wall, and their God-given rights as a Citizen of the United States of America!”

Critics disputed the president’s tweet by pointing to basic definitions of a coup d’etat, a violent illegal overthrow of the government by an opposing group, and impeachment, a legal process laid out in the Constitution. Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), a presidential hopeful, even suggested Trump should not be allowed to make such a remark on Twitter, sharing his “COUP” tweet with CEO Jack Dorsey.

View the complete October 2 article by Meagan FLyinn on THe Washington Post website here.

Robert Reich: Here’s the real lesson of Trump’s Ukraine scandal

AlterNet logoAmid the impeachment furor, don’t lose sight of the renewed importance of protecting the integrity of the 2020 election.

The difference between Richard Nixon’s abuse of power (trying to get dirt on political opponents to help with his 1972 reelection, and then covering it up) and Donald Trump’s abuse (trying to get Ukraine’s president to get dirt on a political opponent to help with his 2020 reelection, and then covering it up) isn’t just that Nixon’s involved a botched robbery at the Watergate while Trump’s involves a foreign nation.

It’s that Nixon’s abuse of power was discovered during his second term, after he was reelected. He was still a dangerous crook, but by that time he had no reason to inflict still more damage on American democracy.

View the complete post from Mr. Reich on the AlterNet website here.

Impeachment inquiry erupts into battle between executive, legislative branches

Washington Post logoThe House impeachment inquiry broke into a full-throated battle between the executive and legislative branches Tuesday, as congressional Democrats and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traded threats and accusations, President Trump questioned whether a leader of the probe should be arrested, and a senior Democrat said Trump should be imprisoned in “solitary confinement.”

As the scope of the inquiry broadened, it touched a wide swath of top administration officials. In letters to Vice President Pence and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, demanded answers by Friday to questions about what they knew, when they knew it and their roles in Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine.

But much of the day’s turmoil centered on Pompeo, who said in a letter to the chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and Oversight and Reform committees heading the investigation that five State Department officials called to give depositions over the next two weeks would not appear as scheduled.

View the complete October 1 article by Karen DeYoung, Josh Dawsey, Karoun Demirjain and John Hudson on The Washington Post website here.

GOP maps out impeachment defense amid messaging stumbles

House Republicans are scrambling to hash out a unified strategy to defend President Donald Trump as the GOP struggles to respond to the rapidly-moving impeachment probe.

With Democrats aggressively pushing ahead with their impeachment inquiry, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) convened a conference call on Monday afternoon where he urged members of his leadership team and GOP committee leaders to get on the same messaging page, according to multiple lawmakers and aides.

McCarthy implored his troops to stay focused on communicating that there is nothing that rises to the level of impeachment in the president’s July phone call with Ukraine, when Trump urged the Ukrainian president to investigate the Biden family.

View the complete September 30 article by Melanie Zanona on the Politico website here.

No, ‘Firsthand Knowledge’ Was Never Required Of Whistleblowers

A conspiratorial article in The Federalist falsely claiming that until recently, intelligence community whistleblowers were required to have “firsthand knowledge” of wrongdoing to file a complaint is being used by other conservative media outlets, Republican members of Congress, and the president himself in desperate attempts to discredit a whistleblower complaint that is at the heart of an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Trump is currently facing an impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House of Representatives following the revelation that he pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden. The allegations against Trump stem from an anonymous whistleblower complaint submitted by a member of the intelligence community. The Trump administration attempted to prevent Congress from accessing the complaint, even though the law required it, but then relented and released the damning report.

Trump defenders in conservative media have pushed a number of misleading narratives about the complaint, and an article published on September 27 by Federalist co-founder Sean Davis is the latest flashpoint in right-wing attempts to spin the allegations in a favorable light to Trump.

View the complete September 29 article by Timothy Johnson from Media Matteris on the National Memo website here.

Staring down impeachment, Trump sees himself as a victim of historic proportions

Washington Post logoDonald Trump is not the first American president staring down impeachment to nurse a deep sense of persecution and self-pity. But he is the first to broadcast that mentality to the world.

In the five days since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) opened an impeachment inquiry following revelations about President Trump’s conduct with his Ukrainian counterpart, Trump has been determined to cast himself as a singular victim in a warped reality — a portrayal that seems part political survival strategy, part virtual therapy session.

As Trump tells it, he is a hard-working and honorable president whose conduct has been “perfect” but who is being harassed and tormented by “Do Nothing Democrat Savages” and a corrupt intelligence community resolved to perpetuate a hoax, defraud the public and, ultimately, undo the 2016 election.

View the complete September 28 article by Philip Rucker on The Washington Post website here.

Republicans might oppose impeachment, but do they condone what Trump did?

Washington Post logoFor most of the time President Trump has been in office, Republican elected officials have chosen to look away or down during difficult moments. They have preferred silence over speaking out, whether out of a fear of political retaliation or a calculation that the value of policies he and they are pursuing outweigh any damage brought about by his behavior.

The revelations of the past two weeks put Republicans in new and far more uncomfortable territory, but little has changed so far in their posture toward the president. They are doing all they can to keep their heads down, showing once again the degree to which the president has cowed the Grand Old Party.

First it was the reports by the media, starting with The Washington Post and then by others, about the existence of a whistleblower’s complaint charging Trump with using his office to ask a foreign leader to attack a political rival.

View the complete September 28 article by Dan Blaz on The Washington Post website here.

Republicans show signs of discomfort in defense of Trump

The Hill logoRepublicans, even as they generally show support for President Trump, are showing signs of discomfort amid an impeachment fight that has engulfed the country.

The battle over Trump’s actions toward Ukraine marks the biggest test to date for Republicans, who are juggling the president’s demand for loyalty with questions about his push for a foreign government to investigate a political rival.

While the party has largely rallied behind him against the Democrats’ impeachment push, there are some signs of cracks just days into the scandal that is likely to dominate the rest of 2019.

View the complete September 28 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.