Donald Trump spent his first years inn office attacking internationalism…
He boasted about America ‘FIRST’….
He crowed about about how he was gonna extract Billions from everyone else…
Yea?
He hasn’t done ANY of that…
Now he’s so worried about Joe Biden that he’s calling and talking to every foreign leader he can to try to bully them into making up stuff against Biden’s son Hunter…
Donald J. Trump , who swore on a bible in front of camera.s and thousands that he would would uphold the laws of America and put this country first has cast THOSE promises aside to use his office’s influence over government in keeping his time in office…
REPORTER: What exactly did you hope Zelensky would do about the Bidens on the phone call?
TRUMP: Well I would think if they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens. It’s a very simple answer. They should investigate the Bidens. How does a company newly formed and all these companies — by the way, likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens. Because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine. So I would say that President Zelensky, if it were me, I would recommend that they start an investigation into the Bidens. Because nobody has any doubt that they weren’t crooked. That was a crooked deal 100%.
Why it matters: It’s another instance of the president publicly calling for a foreign power to investigate one of his top political rivals. Trump is currently in the throes of an impeachment inquiry for doing exactly that with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — something he admitted to but continues to argue is perfectly appropriate.
The big picture: At a press conference on Wednesday, Trump refused to answer a question from a reporter about what exactly he was asking Zelensky to do about the Bidens. On Thursday, Trump told reporters: ”If they were honest, they would start a major investigation.”
Note…
Trump just subtly threatened China about Trade ….
The guy does NOT give a SHIT….He’s angry at Democrat’s going after him…
He’s gonna go full steam ahead challenging this country try to stop him from using his office to go after a political opponent …Influence peddling…
image…scmp.com
The Wall Strret Journal reported that Trump removed the Ambassador of Ukraine because of her refusal to encourage Ukraine to investigate Biden.
Sounds about Right….
The dead hooker the GOP has chained itself to is starting to smell.
The silence of Republicans only betrays their moral cowardice.
“Conservative values?” Where oh where have you gone?
Or perhaps you never even existed at all.
Which us why it cracked me up yesterday that our friend CG said yesterday that he had only 5 litmus test a to vote for a Democratic nominee. How about one–vote for the candidate who will rid the Oval Office of Donald Trump!
Not good enough when the other option is unacceptable. You already know that though.
And it’s impressive that you still think that I am so important anyway.
Yeah – Once a president requires other countries to attack his opponents in exchange for political favors, why do you need more than one litmus test?
I’m not and never would vote for him.
Focus on convincing the people that might, not to do so.
I’m just giving you crap because you are SO critical of every realistic potential Democratic nominee and are so damned sanctimonious about it. Yet you will be voting for someone who will get about .004% of the vote.
We are trying to save the Republic here. When you have a candidate who is something other than a footnote or wet dream of the Republican days of 2004 I’ll take your “analysis” seriously.
Oh and the Cards up 1-0 againat Braves. We’ll see if your expert analysis on the playoffs gets any better.
The Democrats deserve criticism are not above it. If one of them becomes President, I am certainly going to be critical.
Sanctimonious to me is a compliment, from whatever tribe I hear it from. Someone has to stay true to their own values.
Enjoy the morning
If you were voting in Getmany’s 1933 election, and the election was winner take all – like it is in the US, would you have voted for a third party anyway – or the socialists who came in second?
And yes I know Hitler didn’t just put immigrant young children in cages – he killed them . I know.
The first false equivalency there would be that it would have been a parliamentary election. People were not voting directly for President or Chancellor.
I am sure I would not have voted for Hitler’s party.
Perhaps by using this analogy you could also entertain the frequent right-wing question of “what if the people then had 2nd Amendment rights like we do?”
“Not good enough?”
I thought being a real American was always good enough.
In spite of every of every vile statement, every illegal act, every insult to our Democratic institutions, our friend Corey still plans to help re-elect Trump by throwing his vote away, for the second time.
In reality he’ll be voting for the smelly dead hooker.
Some litmus test.
But Keith, the other option is to vote dor soneone who doesn’t support the Hyde Amendment! And what’s more important while our Republic is burning than the Hyde Amendment!
Liberty burns either way then with that specific example. With the one you want, actual Americans would have to pay, against their will, to cause the actual death of actual Americans.
On a moral and macro scale, that is worse to me than Trump’s personal illegal machinations.
Be grateful I am not one of the people that feels the need to affirmatively choose a “lesser evil.”
If you want Democrats to win elections, stop focusing on old grudges and try to appeal to voters who have less pliable values.
Abortions – as you know them- are and will continue to become a thing of the past. Women don’t Want to go to abortion clinics where they are often harassed by protestors who threaten them. More and more women are opting to end their pregnancies by taking “medication” that terminate the pregnancy.or you can end the pregnancy by doing lots of sit-ups.
The Supreme’s will NOT OVERTURN Roe vs Wade ….
But could nibble around the edges…
I believe they have ruled on a couple side issues supporting the basic right of women to have them….
Did CG give his 5 hurdle’s?
I’ve posted it before and I do not want you to make a special post out of it
Not be corrupt
Oppose Obama’s horrible Iran deal
Oppose partial birth/post birth abortion and Support the Hyde Amendment
Support for Israel
Not be beholden to racial or religious arsonists of any type including Al Sharpton
Thanks CG….
If you asked me I’d probably only score half (or 2 ½ points)
(a) Al Sharpton and other racists, racial demagogues, anti-racial demagogues, anti-religious demagogues and xenophobes should be shunned (although I’ll defend their right to expression against being shouted down or shut down by Antifa or the Klan),
(b) Not being corrupt, of course;
(c) Support for Israel without dispossessing or disenfranchising non-Jews.
But (d) I really couldn’t agree with anti-choice/pro-life policies like the Hyde Amendment or regulating abortion & fertility clinics out of business.
(e) Nor do I think that there is any better alternative at the moment to the JCPOA with Iran (or for that matter, the six-power deal with North Korea). Pulling away from such deals has made things worse not better, unless you’re crazy enough to think that the best alternative is a shooting war.
The question of “what is best now” is somewhat irrelevant as the damage has been done but there was ample reason to oppose the Iran deal at the time and many Democrats did.
The Hyde Amendment should not even be lumped in with the overall abortion debate. It is about taxpayer subsidy of it. For years, pro-choice Democrats swore up and down that they would not try to do away with it.
I am Pro-Life period on the broader issue with exceptions for rape and the life of the mother. I believe data has indicated that most Americans are opposed to abortion after the first trimester.
My “litmus test” is not even about that though.
Partial birth abortion is a specific procedure that doctors have testified is “never medically necessary.”
Lately, there has been rhetoric surrounding beliefs that even babies born fully formed could be subject to death after the fact. Absolutely barbaric and not even professed pro-choice people should support that.
All three of my sisters consider themselves pro-life and one of the most important issues to them. But all three are solid Democrats- at least as much as I am, if not more so.
I believe The Iran deal would have been completed with or without US support. And it would have delayed how long it would take for Iran to get a nuclear weapon.
So CG thinks we should be “grateful” that he doesn’t feel the need to vote for a “lesser evil”– because of course he would view that option to be the Trump Republican Party.
Yet he harangues James and others for not being pro impeachment even though he admits if he had no other choice but a Democrat he would vote for Trump, despite supporting his impeachment.
OK
Would CG support impeachment if Pence is also caught up in it and it means that Pelosi becomes president?
I’ve seen zero evidence that Pence is somehow caught up in this. Trump may put that out there strategically to try to save himself. and Pence acting as a lapdog and defending Trump on this does not mean he also did it himself.
But if evidence surfaces that Pence broke the law, then impeach him too. The 2020 election will still take place and I would most prefer the party move on from Trump and Pence.
Pence isn’t involved in this?
Well I guess the saying is right
There’s no one as blind ss he who refuses to see.
He’s totally involved and the Trump people are turning on him. What will Mother day?
Trump, Pompeo, Pence and boat load of others ARE in on the Ukraine caper….
All the top people at State maybe….
Remember
Trump does not cover anybody except HIMSELF….
David Frum….
“For now, all we need to say is that Pence betrayed his most important duty as vice president: Be ready to step into the nation’s highest office should the need arise. He’s as much a part of the problem as Trump is, and Pence’s personal choices ensure that the scandal of the century will continue to rip apart U.S. politics even if the impeachment process somehow succeeds.”
Politicalwire ….
Pence believes ,in my view, that he is the natural heir to the Trump cult.
Other than that he ais viewed much as Dan Quayle was in the GH Bush administration,as a guy who was lucky even to make it as high as VP.
Quayle was so weakened by attacks in the 1988 campaign ,and his subsequent almost invisible role in the vice presidency ,that he didn’t even run for President until eight years after leaving office and then he exited the race early having failed to make any impression as a serious candidate.
In the post Trump era there will be a multitude of candidates stepping forward ,Pence will be just one of many.
agreed on the unremarkableness of Pence….
It’s curious that the same people who were so scared politically to hold Trump responsible based on the actual evidence now want to go after Pence too.
Unless there is any evidence that Pence had any communication with foreign governments himself in regards to political dirt on opponents, that is really barking up the wrong tree.
Trump is the guy at the top. Above Pence, Pompeo, and everyone else. Keep your eye on the target.
I have said that Democrats should not fear trying to impeach Trump, but if there is one thing that would get a lot of people to turn on that effort, it would be trying to go after Pence too without any evidence.
Investigate him!
Republicans have already “turned off” to that effort if you haven’t noticed.
The polls show increasing amounts of Republicans in favor of the impeachment process.
No, they aren’t at the level of Democrats on the matter, no surprise there, but there has been movement.
Focus on Trump. You aren’t going to be able to get two for the price of one, and if as expected you have to run against Trump in 2020, he will be the one on which people base their votes, not Pence.
I’ve seen those “polls.”
Meaning nglesx.
Trumps approvals and support have remained unchanged and the Republican Congresspeople still cower like the cowards they are.
They “understand “ what today’s Republican Party is ,even if you don’t.
We are talking about the voters. They are the ones who will lead the cowardly Republicans, etc. (And you certainly can’t say that about Mitt Romney, based on what he Tweeted today and the attacks he is taking for it)
Everything is “meaningless” once have you the narrative in your head.
You said there was no way Republicans in South Carolina would ever call for taking down the Confederate flag.
You said there was no way that Alabama voters would ever reject Roy Moore or elect a Democrat.
Once the narrative does not work out, you “eat crow.”
Oh you always resort to trying to bring up where people are wrong about things.
We all are .You too.
So?
The “narrative “ as you call it shows nothing but the fact that a few more Republicans are now calling for an “investigation .”
Indeed, the number roughly corresponds to Trumps “disapproval” numbers.
So what is surprising about that?
Republicans remain firmly committed to Donald Trump and they will stay that way.
To repudiate Trump would mean repudiating themselves.
That they can’t do.
Sorry you can’t accept what your party has become.
Yeah ,better to keep talking about me or Keith or anybody ekese here.
Anything to keep from talking about the people who caused this mess…
Republicans.
I am usually right, but when I am not, I own up to it.
The facts are that a significant portion of Republican voters (and Independents) have gone from opposing impeachment to being in favor or it or open to it. That is the most significant thing. Certainly a lot more Republicans want Trump to be impeached that Democrats that wanted Clinton to be or that Republicans at this stage wanted Nixon to be.
Why not let the process play out before launching into tirades? We know you hate Republicans (at least when talking on the internet) and have for over 50 years. You don’t have to prove anything.
Right now, the number of people who identify themselves as Republicans is the lowest in your life, so it’s a smaller universe of people to consider and Trump is a big reason why.
It is “playing out.”
What’s your point?
What?Im gonna “stop” it?
More obfuscation.
The fact is you know ,but won’t admit, that there is no way in Hell that twenty something Republican Senators are going to vote to remove Donald Trump.
There is no way over the next several months that amajority or likely even a significant minority of Republicans are going to call for Trumps removal.Certainly not anyway near enough to sway Republican Senators.
As for your grtuitous yah yah about “hating” Republicans?No more that you “hate” Democrats.So why not cram that little canard you throw around with abandon ?Amusing tripe.
I am observing ,however ,how you are subtly trying to lay the groundwork for, when Trump is saved by the moral coward Republicans in the Senate, blaming it all on the Democrats.
None of us know what the Senate will ultimately do. Too early to tell..
As I have said though, it really doesn’t matter. Focus on how this might hurt Trump in the election.
It will definitely cause less Republican Senators to be open to voting to convict and definitely do the opposite of hurting him in the election, if suddenly Democrats are seen as trying to tie Pence into something illegal, without any evidence.
I think what I said is clear. You are free not to agree with it, but not to misrepresent it.
You vote for Republicans whereas I have yet to ever vote for a Democrat so I still find that a bit hard to reconcile, considering the fact that you are always much harsher rhetorically on Republicans as a whole in these online forums we have known than I ever have been on Democrats as a whole.
Democrats can’t make Republican Senators vote a certain way.
I am far more interested in what could be the November 2020 result of this rather than the 10 minute roll call vote on the Senate floor that you seem to have tunnel vision about.
I will blame Democrats from an analytical and academic standpoint if they blow the messaging and opportunity this is presenting them.
Oh so you are now conceding that the “impeachment “is nothing but a political tactic for the election.
I see I see.
No more of that “right is right and wrong is wrong” stuff eh.
Let’s just see how it effects the election.
Once again, Unsurprising.
No, it’s both, and no different than what I have been saying.
Impeaching and removing Trump is the right thing to do.
If the votes are not there to do that, Trump’s political opponents should be able to litigate it before the electorate itself. If handled correctly, it should work to their benefit.
It’s not really that complicated.
Joe Scourborough
The conduct revealed over the past week is so out of bounds that any Republican still supporting him is forever stained as a partisan who chose to put party over country when it mattered most…..
twitter….
Just as the other side should be grateful that I am not voting for Democrats.
But again,why the focus on me? I am one vote in a large country and not even in a swing state. My vote will make no difference to anyone, but me.
I believe impeachment is the right thing to do morally, just as I will vote I believe the way I should morally. Others whether it comes to a Presidential vote or impeachment are putting politics ahead of principle, that’s the difference.
When last we heard from james, he was the one saying he might not vote for any Democrat against Trump unless it’s Biden. Focus on him first.
And no I never said I would vote for Trump if I had no other choice but a Democrat. I am not voting for Trump, period. There are other choices we all have as Americans.
I did say in the past that if I had a gun to my head and was forced to pick between Trump and Hillary for the entire country, and that it was up to me and me alone, I would have picked Hillary, and then asked the person with the gun to my head to pull the trigger.
The thought of Warren as President is far scarier than Hillary as President though.
Time for lunch
Tough work day.