Tag: Trump impeachment

Defense secretary says Pentagon official who questioned legality of withholding Ukraine aid to resign

The Pentagon official who raised concerns about the Ukraine aid being held in 2019 has submitted her resignation to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, the Pentagon announced Tuesday

Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Elaine McCusker will resign effective June 26, Esper said in a statement.

“Since joining the Department of Defense Elaine has worked tirelessly to ensure that our budgeting and audit processes give full value to the taxpayer while meeting the enormous security needs of our nation as well as the men and women who serve it,” Esper said. “I am grateful for her dedication to public service and the contributions that she has made to the Department and wish her the very best in her future endeavors.” Continue reading.

McConnell claims impeachment ‘diverted the attention’ of Trump administration from coronavirus response

Washington Post logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the impeachment of President Trump distracted the administration’s attention away from the coronavirus crisis, defending the president amid criticism of the delayed U.S. response to the pandemic.

In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, McConnell blamed the Democratic-led impeachment effort, even though Trump was acquitted by the Senate on Feb. 5 — more than three weeks before the first coronavirus death in the United States.

“It came up while we were, you know, tied down in the impeachment trial,” McConnell told Hewitt. “And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything, every day, was all about impeachment.” Continue reading.

Never have GOP votes against impeachment seemed more shortsighted

Washington Post logoEvery time Vice President Pence appears for a coronavirus briefing, it is a reminder what the votes of just 20 Republican senators for impeachment might have accomplished for the republic.

Pence is no Franklin D. Roosevelt, but neither is he an obviously outmatched leader like his boss. The vice president is a sycophant but not an incompetent. He possesses the type of qualities one might find in an effective governor facing a hurricane. President Trump possesses the qualities one might expect in a shady businessman trying to shift responsibility for bad debt and mismanagement — which was the main leadership qualification on his pre-presidential résumé.

Never has the phrase “President Pence” had a better ring to it. Never have Republican votes against impeachment seemed more shortsighted and damaging to the country. Continue reading.

For Republicans in Trump’s cover-up, it was all about the money

AlterNet logoIn the latest Daily Kos/Civiqs poll, fully 60% of Americans disapprove of how the U.S. Senate conducted Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. The behavior of
Senate Republicans following that trial probably won’t get many cheers, either. The three most closely watched Republicans during the trial, those who pretended to be open-minded and committed to doing their jobs, have all popped up in the last few days with slathering praise for the Trump administration which let loose all the money once the trial was done. It turns out the issue wasn’t the threat of heads on pikes at all. It was all about the bribes.

Retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander tweeted to thank Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Trump for the investment of “$9 million in Tennessee to provide and improve high-speed broadband infrastructure projects for 3,744 rural households, 31 businesses and 41 farms.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski had Transportation Secretary and Moscow Mitch spouse Elaine Chao to thank for “a $20M Port Infrastructure Development Program grant to the Port of Alaska to help offset the 1st phase costs of the Port’s desperately-needed modernization program, enabling safe, cost-effective, & reliable Port operations.” That’s a whole 1% of the estimated cost for the port. Was it worth a vote to keep the worst president ever to sit in the Oval Office? Continue reading.

Here’s how the GOP shot itself in the foot with handling of Trump’s impeachment: conservative columnist

AlterNet logoIn a column for the conservative Bulwark, Cato Institute Vice President Gene Healy accused the Republicans of botching their defense of Donald Trump during his impeachment trial, saying they will someday be haunted by the positions they took.

Noting that the president said of his acquittal that it’s a “gorgeous word,” Healy maintained it may not pan out for Republican lawmakers in the same way.

“Whether you cheer or jeer the Senate’s refusal to convict, the more important question is, what precedent did it set? Unlike Supreme Court majority opinions, impeachment verdicts don’t explain themselves. ‘Not guilty’ can mean anything from total vindication to ‘contemptible behavior that doesn’t quite justify removal.’ A great deal turns on how senators from the president’s party explain their votes,” he wrote. “On that score, Senate Republicans sent a distressingly mixed message in the impeachment trial’s immediate aftermath. In their floor speeches explaining their votes, too few managed to clearly condemn Trump’s misuse of presidential power for personal benefit. And too many embraced novel constitutional theories, concocted by Trump’s defense team, that would license more dramatic presidential abuses in the future.”  Continue reading.

‘Weekend Update’ Does Epic Takedown Of Trump Over Impeachment, Attacks

Colin Jost couldn’t believe Trump attacked Romney at a National Prayer Breakfast for citing his religion for his impeachment trial decision.

“Saturday Night Live’s” spoof news show “Weekend Update” often mocks President Donald Trump, but Saturday’s episode could have marked a record number of especially hard-hitting jabs.

Hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che slammed Trump for mocking religion at the National Prayer Breakfast, for the president’s weird apparent makeup line in a photograph, and for calling out California for making the entire state a “stanktuary” (which Jost pronounced as “skantuary”), apparently meaning to say a “sanctuary state.”

As for the orangish line around Trump’s face in a recent photo, Jost said it was “like the day at the nursing home when they let the residents put their own makeup on.” Continue reading.

Fox Judge: Guilty Trump Was Acquitted, Not Exonerated

“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” — George Orwell, “1984”

The Senate trial of President Donald Trump ended not with a bang but a whimper. What different outcome could one expect from a trial without so much as a single witness, a single document, any cross-examination or a defendant respectful enough to show up?

Law students are taught early on that a trial is not a grudge match or an ordeal; it is a search for the truth. Trial lawyers know that cross-examination is the most effective truth-testing tool available to them. But the search for the truth requires witnesses, and when the command from Senate Republican leaders came down that there shall be no witnesses, the truth-telling mission of Trump’s trial was radically transformed into a steamroller of political power.

And in its wake is a Congress ceding power to the presidency, almost as if the states had ratified a constitutional amendment redefining the impeachment language to permit a president to engage in high crimes and misdemeanors so long as he believes that they are in the national interest and so long as his party has an iron-clad grip on the Senate. Continue reading.

Impeachment fallout threatens to upend battle for Senate

The Hill logoThe political battle scars from President Trump‘s impeachment trial are the new wild card heading into this year’s fight for control of the Senate. 

The near party-line votes to acquit Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress are most likely to impact the reelection bids for Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Doug Jones (D-Ala.), who were already considered two of the most vulnerable senators heading into November.

Collins has presented herself to voters as an independent, but that branding took a hit Wednesday when Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) cast the only Republican vote to remove Trump from office. Continue reading.

Republicans sense momentum after impeachment win

The Hill logoHouse Republicans believe they are gaining momentum after a terrible week for Democrats and a strong one for President Trump.

GOP lawmakers are becoming optimistic they have a chance to pick up seats or even win back the majority in November.

Taking back the House would require picking up at least 18 seats and would be a tough climb, but Republicans say the turmoil in the Democratic Party and a strong economy bolstering Trump give them reasons for optimism. Continue reading.

Nancy Pelosi: McConnell and the GOP Senate are accomplices to Trump’s wrongdoing

Washington Post logoNancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, is speaker of the House of Representatives.

For more than 200 years, our republic has endured, not only because of the wisdom of our Founders and the brilliance of our Constitution, but because of the generations of patriotic Americans who have had the courage to risk their lives to defend it.

But, tragically, the American people have watched President Trump and Republicans in Congress dismantle the Constitution that we cherish.

The House impeachment managers, led by Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), presented to the Senate and the public an incontrovertible truth that the president himself has admitted: President Trump abused the power of his office to pressure a foreign power to help him cheat in an American election. And when he was caught, the president launched an unprecedented coverup to block Congress from holding him accountable. The president’s actions undermined our national security, jeopardized the integrity of our elections and violated the Constitution. Continue reading.