Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota on Tuesday said the newly reported claim from John R. Bolton about his conversation with President Trump on Ukraine puts more pressure on GOP senators to support calling the former national security adviser as a witness in the Senate impeachment trial.
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa suggested Monday that President Donald Trump's impeachment trial could damage Joe Biden's presidential campaign in Iowa as the state's caucuses are less than a week away.
Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., who has been one of President Trump's staunchest defenders through the impeachment process, is expected to announce that he will run for U.S. Senate.
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Assuming I don’t get tossed in a cage by Stephen Miller’s goons, I promise to deliver more of the same in the coming twelve months. The snark, the Molly Ivins Moments, the puppy pics, the polls, the drunken posting of entire articles in violation of established copyright laws, the Wednesday Rapture Index (oh, yes...it’s coming, many people are saying), the free wash ‘n wax with any fill-up, and mixed-metaphoring my slow descent into madness ‘til the cows come home to roost.
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Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Note: Today’s meeting of the deep state has been moved from 10am to 1pm because Pam is double-booked and her Pilates instructor says her (Pam’s) minivan will be set on fire if she shows up even a minute late. Also don’t forget we're using the auxiliary bunker until we can figure out how to get rid of the cat pee smell in the main one. (As if it needs to be said: bad Fluffy, bad.) —Chet
Size of the "Mountain of Evidence" the House Impeachment Managers Delivered to the Senate: 28,578 pages
Public approval of Trump's impeachment in the latest ABC News-WaPost poll: 52%
Public approval of Bill Clinton's impeachment at this time in 1998, per ABC News-WaPost polling: 40%
Percent chance that, overall, Sanders supporters dislike Biden and Warren more than Biden and Warren supports dislike Sanders, according to Politico-Morning Consult polling: 100%
Percent boost in consumer confidence after Trump and China signed whatever bullshit trade agreement they just signed, according to he same poll: 0%
BOOM! to the Sunday Night Massacre. Senate Republicans thought the impeachment trial of President Trump was over and done—all that remained was running out the clock and voting to acquit him in time for a triumphant State of the Union address. So they went to bed Sunday night with sugar plums and happy visions of eternal one-party rule dancing in their heads. And then, out of the fog and the mist appeared………………..their worst nightmare:
[T]he President ordered former national security adviser John Bolton to keep military aid to Ukraine frozen in a bid to coerce political favors.
Get it? Get it? Orange head in a vise? My graphics department goes the extra mile for you every time.
The revelation, first reported by the New York Times, heaped new pressure on a handful of Republican senators who may be interested in hearing testimony from Bolton and other witnesses in a process that could significantly delay Trump's hopes for a swift acquittal as soon as this week. […]
[A] draft manuscript for Bolton's yet-to-be published book reveals that he was told by Trump to maintain a hold on military aid until officials in Ukraine opened investigations into...Joe Biden.
So, have any other reporters had a chance to gaze upon the Holy Grail of bombshells besides the New York Times? Oh yes. One of the best. John Nichols at The Nation:
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Here’s my review of John Bolton’s book: Donald Trump did everything he was impeached for.He is as guilty as sin. #Bolton should testify before the Senate. Then, recognizing the clear and present danger posed by this president, the Senate should vote to remove Trump from office. pic.twitter.com/QpsOawIw37
What else is there to say? Happy year of the rat, everyone!
CHEERS to the tick tick tick of the countdown clock. Less than a week to go before Iowans and their sled dog teams trudge off into the frozen tundra to take their places in gymnasiums all across the state to choose the Democrat they want to be president. Here's a quick update on the candidates:
Sanders: "I'm leading in the polls!"
Biden: "Slow down, cowboy. You're tied in the polls. With me."
A reminder of what Iowa will look like one minute after the caucus winner is announced and all the candidates and media flee into New Hampshire’s loving arms.
Buttigieg: "You ever seen a gay candidate on the offensive? It looks like this: Meow Hisssss!!!"
Warren: Des Moines Register endorsement is in the bag!
Bloomberg: "I'm 100% for farms. Cubicle farms, that is! Ha ha ha."
John Delaney: "You Iowans better not have been pranking me when you said you'd vote for me if I ate 500 pounds of corn dogs in thirty days. Cuz I did.”
Andrew Yang: "Did you people not hear me? I said I WILL PAY YOU A THOUSAND BUCKS A MONTH. ONE….THOUSAND…CASH. Hello???"
Tulsi Gabbard: "How do you people…..urggnnnghh….pound in yard signs….arrghhrh….when your ground is frozen…urgghhrl…solid?!!"
And waiting in the wings to spring his trap and win it all in the upset of the millennium: Deez Nuts. Watch…and learn.
JEERS to premature descents. On January 28, 1986—good lord, 34 years ago—the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members, including civilian teacher Christa McAuliffe. I'm guessing that if you were more than toddler-age, you remember exactly where you were when you heard about it. I was in the Otterbein College (Westerville, Ohio) campus center at 11:38am, and can still conjure up the queasy feeling that set in when I realized what had happened. A stunned crowd of students and faculty gathered around the big-screen TV and just...watched. Lest we forget these were the heroes on board that day:
Teacher-in-Space Christa McAuliffe and astronauts Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik, Mission Commander Dick Scobee, astronaut Ronald McNair, pilot Mike Smith, and astronaut Ellison Onizuka.
Today folks from the Challenger Center and elsewhere, along with family members of the crew, will commemorate the tragedy, starkly reminding the world that it takes off-the-charts courage, brains and skill to put yourself through the rigors of space flight. Which pretty much explains why I blog for a living.
JEERS to creepy crawlies with evil on their minds. If you liked ebola, you'll looooove the coronavirus. Yes, folks, nature's microscopic stormtroopers are spreading disease, death and fear as they infect their way to infamy. Thankfully the Trump administration hasn’t gutted the CDC entirely, so they're actually on the case:
» There is an ongoing outbreak of respiratory illness first identified in Wuhan, China, caused by a novel (new) coronavirus.
There’s no evidence that drinking these will help fight off the coronavirus. But it might not hurt.
» Person-to-person spread is occurring. Other parts of China have also reported cases.
» Older adults and people with underlying health conditions may be at increased risk for severe disease.
» The situation is evolving. This notice will be updated as more information becomes available.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses. There are several known coronaviruses that infect people and usually only cause mild respiratory disease, such as the common cold. However, at least two previously identified coronaviruses have caused severe disease.
The most important thing, according to the CDC, is that “travelers avoid non-essential travel to Hubei Province, China, including Wuhan." In addition, C&J recommends that you duct-tape all of your neighbors' windows and doors so if they have the virus they can't spread it to you. Better seal their chimneys good and tight, too. Let's not take chances.
JEERS to Father Mailboxes Etc. Leave it to the merry band of perv priests to find new and creepy ways to torture kids in the name of Jeezus. This guy's taking the fast elevator downstairs when his ticker finally, blessedly, quits on him:
[Rev. Brian] Stanley was accused of wrapping a boy in bubble wrap and tape in 2013 in a janitor’s room at St. Margaret Church. The boy's eyes and mouth were also covered while he was left alone for an hour, according to the attorney general's office. Stanley was supposed to be counseling the boy.
That’s a pretty warped definition of counseling. He got 60 days in jail, which seems awful lenient to me. But at least, believe it or not, there may be a silver lining to this story. I think we just figured out how to update the priestly vestments around the world to identify the pervs: The ACME 100% Bubble Wrap God Girdle. Their slogan practically writes itself: "If you hear a pop…call a cop."
CHEERS to the first ringy-dingy. On January 28, 1878, the commercial telephone switchboard made its national debut in New Haven, Connecticut. The first customers were Amanda Hugginkiss, I.P. Freely and Seymour Butz. We hear the first operator lasted a whole five minutes.
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Ten years ago in C&J: January 28, 2010
CHEERS to royal attractions. This will be quite the spectacle: Queen Elizabeth will deliver an address to the United Nations General Assembly this summer. One small programming note: if Muammar Gadaffi isn't done with the speech he started delivering there last November, the Queen will speak from the 7th Floor break room.
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And just one more…
JEERS to broken promises. Remember when President Obama starting holding those really cool science fairs at the White House that allowed the whole world to see the ingenuity and creativity of America’s physicists, chemists, biologists, and engineers of tomorrow? Remember how excited everyone was three years ago when the Trump administration said they were absolutely, positively going to continue the tradition? Yeah, well, here’s something else for you to remember: they reneged on their promise—there was no White House science fair in 2017. Or 2018. Or 2019. (And there sure as hell won’t be one in 2020.) So, since we have no best-of footage from the last three years, enjoy this classic moment from 2012, when the White House was a true laboratory of democracy instead of a dark fortress of doom...
Monday was a banner day for the GOP in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump as three members of the Republican legal team, even by some liberal estimations, ran circles around the Democrat case for removal of the president.
Pam Bondi handled the myriad legitimate allegations against Joe and Hunter Biden. Eric Herschmann focused on the massive double standard being applied against Trump in this case.
Batting cleanup the famed Alan Dershowitz engaged in a historical tour de force and urged senators, some of them his former students, to rise above partisan concerns and do what is right for the country. Clinton impeachment figure Ken Starr also spoke for the defense, as did Patrick Philbin.
The low key Starr made a workmanlike appeal against a partisan impeachment, using his work in and knowledge of the Clinton drama to make his case.
Then it was Bondi’s turn and the extremely telegenic former Florida Attorney General point by point laid out the corruption at the heart of the Burisma affair. She detailed how the cozy relationship between the then veep’s son and other scions of wealth and power enabled Hunter Biden to leverage his status into a position he was completely unqualified for with Burisma. By the end of her time at the podium she had eviscerated both Bidens.
This was bound to happen when the Democrats opened the door to this line of attack on Friday.
Bondi will be heard from again on the national scene.
She was followed by the powerful arguments of Eric Herschmann, who launched a devastating strike on the double standards involved in the Trump impeachment. He showed graphic evidence of past misdeeds by Democrat presidents, most notably the infamous Obama hot mike moment with Russian leader Medvedev, that rose to the level of impeachment. Yet Democrats never uttered a peep about those. Fancy that.
Herschmann made a point of using the Democrat’s own words against them and when he was done their obvious hypocrisy was laid bare.
Alan Dershowitz then made the day’s final detailed presentation. Dershowitz used his brilliant knowledge of history and impressive courtroom manner to nail down the historical precedent against impeachment.
Citing the vague nature of the charges against the president, he noted that the Founders had made the bar for impeachment high, lest the president, as in the British parliamentary model, serve at the will of the lower house and be subject to removal from office by a virtual vote of no confidence.
At the day wrapped up, many noted the last day of the GOP case on Tuesday looks to be the finale of a very good defense for the president.
This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
Republicans are angrily pressing the White House in private about the revelations from the manuscript, saying they were blindsided by the former adviser’s account — especially because the administration has had a copy of it since Dec. 30. Many Republicans have adopted the arguments offered by Mr. Trump’s defense team, but Mr. Bolton’s assertions directly contradict them.
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Confirming @ABC on White House preparing for likelihood of witnesses - and preparing to fight a Bolton subpoena in court.
Don’t miss the forest for the trees. We went from “no witnesses, absolutely not” to threats about “if Bolton, then Hunter Biden and Obama” to “WH prepares for witnesses” in 24 hours. That’s… pretty amazing. Look, we all know what the GOP wants, but they may not get what the script calls for. Their problem is they do not know how to ad lib.
My heart breaks for them. Meanwhile, the witness vote is likely Friday.
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"Though the White House continued to push aggressively Monday against witness testimony — especially from Bolton — some aides are now convinced that they will lose that battle." https://t.co/k2Z5eJWNjx
Here We Have It. The Trump Impeachment Smoking Gun.
A report about a book by John Bolton makes the president’s Republican defenders look like liars and fools. Maybe they’ll be fine with that.
And then, Sunday night, it fell apart. The New York Times reported that former National Security Adviser John Bolton has written in his upcoming book that Trump made explicit the quid pro quo that his lawyers are denying: that Trump told him directly that he wanted to keep the military aid frozen until the Ukrainian government agreed to help with investigations of Democrats. Not only that, but apparently the White House has had Bolton’s manuscript all month. Trump’s team knew this was coming.
While I certainly don’t expect the president’s support in Congress to collapse, it’s impossible not to see close parallels to the “smoking gun” tape that ended Richard Nixon’s presidency in 1974. That tape, proving that Nixon ordered his staff to have the Central Intelligence Agency block the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s inquiry into the Watergate scandal and released to Congress and the public after the House Judiciary Committee had passed articles of impeachment, was so devastating for Nixon not so much because it was proof of his crimes; plenty of proof of plenty of crimes had long since been placed in the record. Instead, it became the moment when conservative Republicans realized that Nixon had deliberately set them up with false arguments even though Nixon knew that the evidence, if released, would undermine those arguments and make them look like liars and fools.
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so if i am understanding correctly, a fair process should happen neither in public nor behind closed doors, not with witnesses nor without witnesses, quickly but in due time, neither by day nor by night
Don’t Be Confused by Trump’s Defense. What He Is Accused of Are Crimes.
Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress have long been considered criminal and merit impeachment.
President Trump’s defense falls apart for precisely the same reason. As with burglary, American legal treatises and judicial opinions have long recognized the criminal offense of “abuse of power,” sometimes called “misconduct in office.” In 1846, the first edition of the pre-eminent treatise on American criminal law defined this common-law offense as when “a public officer, entrusted with definite powers to be exercised for the benefit of the community, wickedly abuses or fraudulently exceeds them.” The treatise noted that such an officer “is punishable by indictment, though no injurious effects result to any individual from his misconduct.”
Trump impeachment defense lawyers Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz share disturbing problem
While the president still stands accused of sexual misconduct by more than 20 women, two of his lawyers are embroiled in their own sexual misconduct and assault scandals.
There is a theorem that "creeps of a feather flock together." But there's more to it than the affinity bad men share for each other. The commonality between Trump's approach to life and the posture of the people he's selected to defend him echoes the "Access Hollywood" tape: "When you're a star, they let you do it."
Except now they — Trump, Starr and Dershowitz — are trying to collectively assault us all by defiling our Constitution. That should have every one of us, men and women alike, equally outraged.
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some movement in the witness talks among Republicans... it's a bigger group of Rs than previously thought, especially after today's Senate GOP lunch... lots of senators pulling each other aside, talking through what a contained deal could look like as pressure mounts
Bolton Blows Up Trump Team’s Foolhardy Quid Pro Quo Defense
They advanced an argument they didn’t need to make, and now it will cost them.
Don’t build your fortress on quicksand.
That’s been my unsolicited advice for President Trump and his legal team. You always want the foundation of your defense to be something that is true, that you are sure you can prove, and that will not change.
Instead, the president and his team decided to make a stand on ground that could not be defended, on facts that were unfolding and bound to change. Last night, that ground predictably shifted. In a soon-to-be-published memoir, former White House national-security adviser John Bolton asserts that the president withheld $391 million in defense aid in order to pressure Ukraine into investigating Trump’s potential 2020 election opponent, former vice president Joe Biden.
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Thanks to a little known ruling of the Senate parliamentarian, if it passes #6 while the trial is still in session the manuscript is automatically entered into the congressional record. https://t.co/9yjtHYwudZ
John Roberts Can Call Witnesses to Trump’s Trial. Will He?
Democratic House managers should ask the chief justice to issue subpoenas for John Bolton and others.
The framers’ wisdom in giving this responsibility to a member of the judiciary expected to be apolitical and impartial has never been clearer. With key Republican senators having told the American people that they prejudged the case against President Trump before it began and even working with Mr. Trump’s lawyers to build the very defense for which they’re supposed to be the audience, the notion that they’re doing the “impartial justice” they’ve sworn to do is very much in question.
The Democrats’ impeachment managers should immediately ask the chief justice to issue subpoenas for key witnesses and documents, insisting that the Senate rules make him and him alone the decision maker about whether to “make and enforce” those subpoenas. That’s his prerogative — and his responsibility, one he can’t simply shift to the senators as permitted for evidentiary questions under the Rule VII carve-out.
What happens next won’t be totally within Democrats’ or the chief justice’s control. As Representative Adam Schiff acknowledged Thursday, the chief justice can decide evidence questions like executive privilege, but his determinations can be overruled by a majority of senators.
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It's a remarkable indictment of our national politics that the Bolton revelations are leading to questions about whether Republicans will allow him to testify at the Senate trial and NOT whether Trump should be convicted and removed from office
Biden’s Iowa Problem: Our Poll Suggests His Voters Aren’t the Caucusing Type
Why there’s a wide split in recent surveys in the state.
This mismatch — between the voters who say they will participate in a caucus, and the voters who typically show up in primaries — may be at the heart of the wide split in recent Iowa polls.
Many pollsters rely, in some way, on past vote history to conduct their surveys. Some pollsters use it to define which voters could be selected to participate in a survey, like a recent Monmouth University poll that selected registered Democrats or independents who turned out in 2018 or in a recent primary, or who registered since 2018. A Neighborhood Research and Media poll was even more limited in its model for who was likely to vote: voters who turned out in either the 2016 or 2018 primary. These polls in Iowa showed Mr. Biden with the lead, and the Times/Siena poll also found Mr. Biden tied or ahead among these groups.
But new voters/young voters…
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.@MikeBloomberg continues on the Senators: “In the Senate they won't even sit at the same table and eat. There's a 100 senators and they don't even know each other this is just so ridiculous they are acting like young school brats...â€Â
Bloomberg is passing Pete in the polls. More importantly, he’s on message and will fund beyond his candidacy.
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during an impeachment trial triggered by Trump’s attempt to obtain dirt on his 2020 rival, Republican senators celebrate the trial’s dissemination of dirt on that rival (about whom no actual evidence of wrongdoing has emerged) https://t.co/tnUmMAV5TF
Three GOP senators have called for John Bolton to testify in President Trump’s impeachment trial amid explosive allegations from Bolton’s upcoming book. One Republican senator offered a one-for-one compromise in which both parties can call their own witnesses. Nancy Cordes breaks down the ongoing debate from Capitol Hill.
Three GOP senators have called for John Bolton to testify in President Trump’s impeachment trial amid explosive allegations from Bolton’s upcoming book. One Republican senator offered a one-for-one compromise in which both parties can call their own witnesses. Nancy Cordes breaks down the ongoing debate from Capitol Hill.