“The ambassador – the woman – I said, ‘Why are you being so kind? Well sir, she’s a woman, you have to be nice'”, Donald Trump said of Marie Yovanovitch, during a truly wild Friday interview on Fox & Friends.
The president is struggling to come to terms with the reality of public testimony delivered over the last week. The accounts of Yovanovitch, Bill Taylor, Fiona Hill, Alexander Vindman, Gordon Sondland and David Holmes (among others) were devastating for the White House and generally undercut Republican talking points at every turn.
Hill went so far as to implore GOP lawmakers to cease and desist from trafficking in conspiracy theories cooked up by Russian intelligence.
Watch Dr. Hill chide House Republicans
During his Friday morning call-in interview with Fox, Trump was asked specifically about Sondland’s remarks. The Trump donor-turned EU ambassador said the following this week on national television:
I followed the directions of the President. Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret.
I know that members of this Committee have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: Was there a “quid pro quo?” As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes.
Mr. Giuliani conveyed to Secretary Perry, Ambassador Volker, and others that President Trump wanted a public statement from President Zelensky committing to investigations of Burisma and the 2016 election. Mr. Giuliani expressed those requests directly to the Ukrainians. Mr. Giuliani also expressed those requests directly to us. We all understood that these prerequisites for the White House call and White House meeting reflected President Trump’s desires and requirements.
If that seems unequivocal to you, that’s because it is. Even Fox knows it.
“Mr. President, your ambassador said there was [a] quid pro quo because you wanted an investigation into corruption, but it involved Joe Biden and Hunter Biden”, Steve Doocy said, before throwing Trump a bit of bone.
Rather than take Doocy’s cue (Fox was clearly trying to coach the president into saying something about the extent to which the overriding concern was corruption, and if that ensnared the Bidens, well then, so be it), Trump said “First of all that is not true. That is absolutely not true”.
“Which part is not true?”, Doocy asked.
“Joe Biden is corrupt”, Trump answered.
“Ok”, Doocy shrugged.
Trump was also pressed on Rudy Giuliani. “But two of his sources are right now in jail”, Brian Kilmeade reminded Trump, a reference to Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who were arrested trying to flee the country last month.
The president didn’t appreciate that, and proceeded to smear Yovanovitch, who he also maligned in an extraordinarily ill-advised tweet during her testimony last week.
Giuliani, Parnas and Fruman are all implicated in the scheme to have Yovanovitch ousted on ginned-up allegations with no basis whatsoever in reality. That effort was countenanced by Mike Pompeo, or at least that’s the picture painted by multiple witnesses in the inquiry.
“This was not an angel, this woman, OK?”, the president went on to press.
Trump continued. “All of those witnesses, they were all Shifty Schiffs”, he mused, in a comically ridiculous moment that prompted Kilmeade to adopt his signature “wtf?” expression.
Eventually, the president insisted he wants a Senate trial.
“Look, number one, they should never, ever impeach. I watched – I watched – five people on your network say ‘There’s nothing here'”, Trump stammered. “You ready? There should never be an impeachment”.
“But, assuming these people are as sleazy as they are and Nancy Pelosi is totally incompetent, she’s lost —“. “So you want a trial?”, Doocy asked, interrupting Trump mid-sentence. Undeterred, the president continued to rant. “If they do put it up because they’re crazy, I mean Adam Schiff is a nut job”.
Ultimately, it sounds as though Trump has resigned himself to impeachment in the House and a trial in the Senate. In a testament to the inevitability of that outcome, key Republicans on Thursday met with Kellyanne Conway and Jared Kushner to discuss a strategy for the Senate proceedings.
Oh, and Trump scolded Doocy for not illegally outing the whistle-blower. Doocy reminded Trump that even Fox would not go that far, even if they had proof of who the person is, which they don’t. Watch this exchange:
“You said we know the name of the whistleblower, but we have no idea”, Doocy insisted.
“I don’t believe you”, the president snapped.
An exasperated Kilmeade threw up his hands. “Alright”.
The biggest question is.. Is Trump capable of answering a question, without prioritizing cult like themes, logical fallacies and obfuscation.
There was definitely something ‘shifty’ going on in that interview, literally from those sell outs on their couch and figuratively from Trump’s insane rant. Trump couldn’t take a cue to save his life (or presidency) and I’m sure F&F hosts can’t sleep without a fistful of Xanax.
If you listen to the entire Fox and Friends interview you’ll probably agree. The man is either on drugs or needs to be.
Yup I’ve actually suspected for awhile he’s on (at least) a daily dose of Adderall. The rumours about his snorting habits before becoming president just served to further confirm my suspicions. Now I’m totally convinced. I’ve seen the exact same pattern of behaviours and ranting before. He was charismatic for some time and with continued daily use just devolves
All the batshit crazy tribal cult stuff that makes the GOP a cancer, isn’t going to change, if anything, trump and all these people are in an echo chamber spitting out an unfathomable cacophony of total retarded nonsense — where chaos and lies mix into a psychopathic sludge that seems to be growing in momentum. This mindset is the core guiding light that drove the German people to enraptured hitler. Meanwhile the libtards are focused on confusion.
I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.
Will Rogers
==> “Right-wing authoritarianism captures the tendency to defer to legitimized authority,” the researchers write. If, in your mind, your leader can do no wrong, it follows that he can lie with impunity.
Relatedly, people who score high in social-dominance orientation “consider the social world as a competitive jungle,” they add. It’s easy to see how lying would be viewed as acceptable if you hold what the researchers describe as “the dog-eat-dog worldview where everyone does whatever is needed to get ahead.”
The researchers caution that these findings should not be overstated: Lying on the part of politicians was considered morally wrong by most people across the ideological spectrum. But people on the political right were far more likely than those on the left to disagree with this consensus, and this difference may allow Trump to lie without fear of losing their support.
https://psmag.com/news/why-so-many-trump-supporters-are-ok-with-the-presidents-lies
Whether Trump weasels out of an impeachment or not depends critically on one person: John Bolton. If Bolton has any integrity, Trump is toast. If Bolton values a future in the Republican party over truth, Trump slides. Hope for the former, but expect the latter.
On second thought, I see another pathway to Trump impeachment, if Fox News turns on Trump. Chance of that happening is roughly 2%.
Meanwhile in the world of the GOP nazis:
“So much right-wing judicial corruption,” tweeted Drexel University Law Professor Anil Kalhan in response to Kennedy’s reported role in a would-be Kavanaugh nomination. “#GOPsleaze.”
And Kalhan’s criticism wasn’t limited to hashtag-coded outrage. He also called into question the legitimacy of Kennedy’s rulings during his final year on the bench.
“Kennedy made his request in April 2017,” Kalhan noted in a subsequent tweet. “He then proceeded to adjudicate cases involving major Trump priorities–like the #MuslimBan case–knowing Trump was weighing a decision about one of Kennedy’s own personal priorities while those cases were pending.”
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/anthony-kennedys-final-scotus-decisions-called-into-question-after-revelation-of-trump-meeting/