Early on in the impeachment probe, it was clear that Republicans’ insistence on Nancy Pelosi holding a full House vote and also on the relevant committees releasing deposition transcripts to the public were nothing more than desperate attempts to undermine the legitimacy of the proceedings in the eyes of the public.
The GOP never wanted the full vote, they certainly didn’t want to the transcripts released and the last thing they need is public hearings from the parade of officials who delivered closed-door testimony. (Those hearings begin this week.)
You’ll note, for example, that many of the GOP lawmakers who “stormed” the closed briefing room last month as part of Matt Gaetz’s absurd publicity stunt were in fact members of the committees conducting the inquiry and thus had no need to “storm” anything. They could have just walked in and participated. Literally.
Well, Democrats finally gave Republicans what they asked for but didn’t want. Pelosi held a full vote and, starting last week, transcripts from multiple former and current officials were released, including the accounts of Gordon Sondland, George Kent, Kurt Volker, Marie Yovanovitch, Bill Taylor, Fiona Hill and Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman.
Every, single one of those transcripts was bad for the White House. Shockingly, the most damaging bit came from Sondland, who revised his own account to include an admission of a quid pro quo tied to the stalled military aid. (Sondland was expected to be a “good” witness for Trump, given that he donated $1 million to the campaign and was a staunch supporter).
Not surprisingly, Republicans quickly moved the goal posts. For instance, on October 9, Lindsey Graham claimed that if Democrats refused to release the transcripts it would amount to “abuse of power”. Fast forward to last week and Graham quite literally said he refuses to review the evidence, despite having demanded to see it less than a month previous.
Go figure.
Well, on Monday morning, Donald Trump took things to their (il)logical extreme – he told America that the transcripts are fake.
“Shifty Adam Schiff will only release doctored transcripts”, the president said, without providing any evidence. “We haven’t even seen the documents and are restricted from (get this) having a lawyer”.
He went on to say that “Republicans should put out their own transcripts!”
Obviously, that is completely ridiculous. The transcripts are just the transcripts.
And do you know who knows it? Jim Jordan, that’s who. Here, just ask him:
“Yeah, they’re gonna release the real transcripts”, Jim said, on November 4. He even laughed at the suggestion that the accounts of the proceedings might be altered by Schiff.
One wonders if he’ll now be compelled to claim otherwise in order to pacify Trump.
He must think the American public are idiots. Oh wait, he may have a point.
A full campaign of nazi deception is about to unfold, to apparently counter the tsunami wave of legitimate facts — which makes one wonder what will be the straw to break the camels back. How far can American’s be pushed to see how toxic the corruption is — and what is the process of holding people like barr accountable for his corruption?
Barr is having advance meetings (including one on Wednesday with Senate Judiciary chair Lindsey Graham) so that talking points and presentations can be ready in advance of an official release.
Barr and his associates have been racing to complete this report so that it can be dropped on the impeachment inquiry before the holidays. Major parts of the report apparently remain unwritten, but the fact that the publicity campaign is getting underway in advance of the report’s completion is not exactly a sign that this is going to be a contrite “nothing major found” report.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/6/1897632/-William-Barr-is-racing-to-deliver-a-report-that-blows-up-the-impeachment-inquiry-and-everything-else
Half of this country including Jim Jordan support a president with the petulance and powers of a king, in defiance of the constitution of the United States. On Veterans Day let us not forget that their support of this would be mob boss threatens to render the service and sacrifice of those who have put themselves in harms way to protect and defend the constitution of the United States; to a chasing after the wind.
Wanna thank a vet? Vote these evil right wing power hungry snobs like Jordan out of office!
Although I go off on tangents — I strongly agree with your comment, but specifically the use of king and mob boss — it was a good start! To take that a step further, I suggest nazi — not just to trigger the Godwin Law, but to make a specific point about trump, as nazi. It’s important to review pre-WWll Geramany and think about the subversion of a constitution, laws and social order. Many people today are well aware that trump feels himself to be above the law, to a point where he creates and modifies laws and has powers that are unlimited and that he has no accountability — he places himself above the laws of America and he has greater powers than the U.S. Constitution and he’s as close to being insane as any person ever to be an American president. Yet, his political party of ardent, sycophants and fellow nazis fail to see the very little things, as they rage against windmills, ranting and raving — hoping their evil intent will become the will of the people.
The American Constitution was designed to give Congress greater powers than a president, which is why Article l is about Congress, followed by Article ll and the sequences which follow. If you’re a power hungry mobster like hitler, chances are, you can’t count and have little understanding of order and priorities and hence seek chaos and the means to destroy rules and laws. The most terrifying aspect of the trump nightmare is the fact that the GOP Party is willing to destroy America and follow the examples set by their nazi familes.
FYI, the destruction of the German Constitution:
Two of the penultimate acts Hitler took to consolidate his power in 1934 actually violated the Enabling Act. Article 2 of the act stated that
'Laws enacted by the government of the Reich may deviate from the constitution as long as they do not affect the institutions of the Reichstag and the Reichsrat. The rights of the President remain undisturbed.'
Hindenburg died on 2 August, and Hitler appropriated the president’s powers for himself in accordance with a law passed the previous day. However, in 1932 the constitution had been amended to make the president of the High Court of Justice, not the chancellor, acting president pending new elections. Nonetheless, the Enabling Act did not specify any recourse that could be taken if the chancellor violated Article 2, and no legal challenge was ever mounted.
After the passage of the Enabling Act, the constitution was largely forgotten. Nonetheless, Hitler used it to give his dictatorship the appearance of legality. Three Reichstag elections were held during his rule. However, voters were presented with a single list of Nazis and “guest candidates”. Secret voting technically remained possible, but the Nazis made use of aggressive extralegal measures at the polling stations to intimidate the electors from attempting to vote in secret. Thousands of his decrees were based explicitly on the Reichstag Fire Decree, and hence on Article 48.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_Constitution#Hitler%27s_subversion_of_the_Weimar_Constitution
Enabling Act of 1933
Although they received five million more votes than in the previous election, the Nazis failed to gain an absolute majority in parliament, and depended on the 8% of seats won by their coalition partner, the German National People’s Party, to reach 52% in total.
To free himself from this dependency, Hitler had the cabinet, in its first post-election meeting on 15 March, draw up plans for an Enabling Act which would give the cabinet legislative power for four years. The Nazis devised the Enabling Act to gain complete political power without the need of the support of a majority in the Reichstag and without the need to bargain with their coalition partners.
As a vet, I wholeheartedly agree…the thing that many folks don’t seem to understand about vets is that we took an oath to support and defend the CONSTITUTION (not the President) against ALL ENEMIES (of the Constitution and the country) both foreign AND DOMESTIC…I know that was my oath of office, and I thought it was the same for any appointees or elected officials…including Jim Jordan, William Barr, Mike Pompeo etc…
OK just relax a bit. Not saying you couldn’t be right – but if you look at his past and recent behaviour it is just as much like that of a mob boss as an fascist. I would say more so. RICO prosecutions are the answer!
When you consider that his “spiritual” advisor, Paulsa White, claims that God appoints Kings and only God can remove them, when referring to Trump, it’s no wonder that what he demands is fealty rather than loyalty. Then we have sycophantic Republican Senators claiming to not answer questions because they are jurors, yet act like defence lawyers who don’t care if their clients are guilty.