Democrats tell Supreme Court that impeachment inquiry of Trump is still underway

House Democrats asked the Supreme Court to release the redacted grand jury testimony from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s completed Russia probe because their investigation into whether President Trump committed impeachable offenses is still underway. The House Judiciary Committee said the secret grand jury testimony “is central” to its continuing inquiry into whether Trump obstructed...
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Cheers and Jeers: Tuesday

Energize An Ally Tuesday

Are things getting better? No, they are not, and I only need two data points to reach this scientifically-validated conclusion: 1) Donald Trump is president and 2) President Donald Trump says things are getting better.

Current count: 1.6 million active cases and 92,000 deaths (the aforementioned goalpost-mover-in-chief says anything under 100,000 is a great victory, and also anything over 100,000 is a great victory, so take your pick.) Testing is nowhere near where it needs to be, a bunch of states are re-opening too fast, and unprotected MAGA yahoos are unhelpfully breathing all over everyone (though some are wising up and grudgingly issuing sorta-culpas after they get sick), and there still aren’t enough medical supplies.

Also: tens of millions of people are still out of work and struggling, and we've got a long way to go 'til things get better. That's why two additional organizations were recently added to the five hand-picked agencies officially supported by Daily Kos...

Continued...

And they are...

Farmworkers Pandemic Relief Fund

As COVID-19 spreads to our rural communities and pandemic impacts our food supply chain, many farmworkers, some of whom are undocumented and left out of the federal relief programs, are struggling make ends meet, while also protecting themselves and our food. All funds raised will go directly to farmworkers to help them purchase basic needs for their families, like groceries and hygienic supplies; pay for utilities and other expenses; and assistance to offset medical costs and to aid in purchasing medical supplies.

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The National Diaper Bank Network

Helps families fill their diaper needs. Before the coronavirus pandemic, 1 in 3 American families with young children reported that they were in need of diapers. There are no state or federal child safety-net programs that allocate dollars specifically for the purchase of diapers. The National Diaper Bank Network provides a resource to help alleviate this need.

These are in addition to the original five: One Fair Wage, Emergency Coronavirus Tipped and Service Worker Support Fund, the CDC Foundation, Feeding America, Meals on Wheels, and the National Domestic Works Alliance.

C&J is committed to continue shining the spotlight on these organizations who are the very definition of "essential." Since it's via ActBlue, you can make a donation to one group or mix and match, for which we, and they, thank you. Now more than ever our support is critical since it’s safe to predict more awfulness this week. (Because, again, you-know-who is in charge.) So if you have a few bucks to spare, any or all of these front-line relief organizations could really use the support. We shower your aura with many gratitudes.

And now, our feature presentation…

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Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Note: Oh no. Jared just cracked a nail. Life is so unfair.

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By the Numbers:

6 days!!!

Days 'til National Wine Day: 6

Percent of Americans who believe God will protect them from the coronavirus, according to polling by University of Chicago Divinity School and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research: 45%

Percent chance that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is on Joe Biden's climate policy panel: 100%

Lines of attack against Joe Biden that were poll-tested by the RNC and failed to land with test audiences: 20

Minimum number of years China's economy grew before the virus stopped it: 40

Percent chance that "doing what feels good, what's convenient, is how little kids think," according to President Obama's televised commencement speech Saturday: 100%

Current zip code of Salem on Days of Our Lives: 06638

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Puppy Pic of the Day: A message we all need to hear…

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CHEERS to sayin' it loud and sayin' it plain. As the pandemic rages on, the popular-vote winner of the 2016 election has been watching the armed swarming of capital buildings in states that just *happen* to have Democratic governors, and she knows what she sees when she sees it:

Armed men storming a legislature to disrupt its democratic proceedings is domestic terrorism. It cannot be tolerated.https://t.co/NcCFgA5COE

� Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 15, 2020

As many people have said, they only care about your “life” when you’re a blastocyst. After that, all bets are off and you’re one side-eye away from becoming cannon fodder. Truly God’s people—if god was a psychopath overcompensating for a very small wee-wee. 

JEERS to clods in cars. Speaking of protesters, a gaggle of unmasked mouth-breathers showed up at the state house in Augusta to drag their knuckles across the sidewalk and protest the unacceptable political affiliation of our governor Janet Mills. And guess who showed up? Her predecessor, Paul LePage, who turned Maine into the Alabama of New England for eight intolerable years. What a brave man to mingle so freely with the Covid-taunting protesters and their flying Covid spittle. Or…not:

Former Gov. Paul LePage, who recently returned to Maine from Florida, addressed a crowd of several hundred people in Augusta from inside a Lexus SC430 parked about 30 feet away. LePage remained in the car because he is self-quarantined, and his remarks were broadcast via cellphone.

True fact: in his previous life, Paul LePage was the lemming at the top of the cliff yelling, "Y'all go ahead and jump, I'll catch up later!"

CHEERS to staying out of the way. Over the weekend, Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan, a Republican-turned-independent who voted for Trump’s impeachment, announced that he's not launching a third-party bid for president:

Calling it a "difficult decision," Amash tweeted Saturday that he was ending his effort to be the potential nominee for the Libertarian Party.

"After much reflection, I've concluded that circumstances don't lend themselves to my success as a candidate for president this year, and therefore I will not be a candidate, " Amash said.

Also over the weekend, I announced that I released Justin Amash's dog unharmed.

P.S. One year ago this week, Amash became the first House (or Senate, for that matter) Republican to break free of the Trump tractor beam:

Here are my principal conclusions: 1. Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented Mueller�s report. 2. President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct. 3. Partisanship has eroded our system of checks and balances. 4. Few members of Congress have read the report.

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 18, 2019

Duly noted.

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BRIEF SANITY BREAK

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In order to entertain his daughter who is bored during quarantine they go to the garbage every day together � wearing different costumes. Dads, bruh.���pic.twitter.com/pGLbgL2T77

� Rex Chapman�� (@RexChapman) May 17, 2020

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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK

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JEERS to early arrivals. The 2020 hurricane season—the one thing that the coronavirus pandemic managers can't seem to figure out how to close down—launched a surprise attack by arriving two weeks early. Tropical storm Arthur formed over the weekend and will rough up North Carolina's Outer Banks a bit, but no actual ravaging is expected. Here's the year's first appearance in C&J of the Splotch of WoeTM:

We hear President Trump is furious with the early arrival. All his hurricane Sharpies are still in storage.

JEERS to the Boy Wonder's bubbleheaded blunder.  On May 19, 1992, Vice President (and now proud passenger on the Trump krazy train, though in no official capacity) Dan Quayle cited Murphy Brown as a poor example of family values.  Said Ken Tucker back then in Entertainment Weekly:

Dan Quayle's spleen venting about the way Murphy Brown subverts family values is only the most direct expression to date of a notion that has gained in intensity over the past decade—that TV has some sort of obligation to present only ''positive'' examples of family life, that any portrayal of something other than the happy nuclear clan is detrimental to our American way of life.

She won. He lost.

But TV isn't an arm of social policy or government propaganda; it has no more responsibility to be upbeat and positive than do, say, poetry or the theater. ...

Someone pour Quayle a glass of cold milk, please.

Isn't it nice to know that the Republican party has come so far in its thinking over the last 28 years? (You may commence smirking at will.)

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Ten years ago in C&J: May 19, 2010

JEERS to the bamboozler.  Did you read about this jerk?  Goes to Bowdoin college here in Maine, gets booted for "academic dishonesty," then weasels his way into Harvard and bilks 'em out of 45 thousand bucks.  In fact, Adam Wheeler’s deception and greed were so pure and self-centered that, as soon as they got wind of him, Goldman Sachs and BP started a bidding war to bring him on board.

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And just one more…

CHEERS to art imitating life. If there's one government agency that's ripe for satire, it's Space Force. Lo and behold, the Netflix gods have made it happen, and with a dynamite cast that includes the late Fred Willard in his final role. Steve Carell is the hapless four-star general tasked with assembling the Buzz Lightyears of tomorrow, and let's just say he's going to have some challenges:

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Opens in ten days. Spoiler alert: Space Force turns out to be an uncoordinated, disjointed, money-wasting venture that drives its leaders crazy. Amazingly, that’s also what happens in the Netflix series.

Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?

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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial

“More than anything, Cheers and Jeers has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that Bill in Portland Maine knows what he’s doing.”

President Barack Obama

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Trump railroads Republicans with new watchdog firing

Senate Republicans find themselves in a familiar place: steamrolled by President Donald Trump’s purge of government watchdogs and offering little indication of how they plan to stop him.

Some GOP senators offered tacit rebukes on Monday after the president fired the State Department’s inspector general late on a Friday night without providing a clear explanation for his decision, as required by law. Those lawmakers did the same last month when Trump sacked the intelligence community’s inspector general, Michael Atkinson — again, late on a Friday night.

And both times, their pleas have been ineffective. The president has defied Senate Republicans without hesitation, continuing to fire and reassign inspectors general whom he feels are insufficiently loyal to him without engendering real blowback from his party. It’s a dynamic that reflects both Trump’s hold on the GOP and the limits of Congress’ broader ability to rein in a president.

Several Senate Republicans reiterated Monday that the president is required by law to elaborate on his decision to fire Steve Linick, the State Department’s inspector general. They said they would wait for his response to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has sent letters to Trump demanding more detailed explanations of his firings of both Atkinson and Linick. When he fired Linick and Atkinson, Trump simply said in his official notification letters that he had lost confidence in both men.

“It’s very clear that the president has to provide a justification 30 days prior to the removal of an inspector general,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who co-wrote the 2008 law requiring notification to Congress ahead of an inspector general’s removal. “It is not a sufficient justification to say he simply lost confidence. As the co-author of that law, I know that is not what we intended. We intended a more fulsome explanation.”

But Trump unequivocally defended his most recent move — further underscoring that GOP senators’ warnings aren’t having an effect.

“It happens to be very political whether you like it or not. And many of these people were Obama appointments. So I just got rid of him,” the president said.

In this Oct. 2, 2019, file photo State Department Inspector General Steve Linick leaves a meeting in a secure area at the Capitol in Washington.

Trump’s decision to fire Linick without complying with the 2008 law is the latest example of the president’s concerted campaign against high-level administration officials in the aftermath of his acquittal in the Senate’s impeachment trial, with a particular focus on those who played a role in his impeachment.

Several Republican senators who faulted Trump for his conduct toward Ukraine during the trial but still voted to acquit him said they had hoped Trump would learn a lesson from the impeachment saga. But Trump has emerged emboldened and eager for retribution, even as Republicans speak out against him.

“We deserve an explanation,” said Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.). “These are important positions. They are watchdogs for these agencies, and they have an important role to play, and I think it’s important for us to be a part of the oversight process.”

But Republicans also acknowledged that the president has the authority to decide who serves in his executive branch, and most stopped short of endorsing more aggressive mechanisms to compel the president’s compliance. As Democrats introduced legislation that would require congressional approval for the firing of an inspector general, several Republicans said it was too soon to consider such an action — and reiterated that the president is already required by law to provide a detailed justification, even as he maintains the authority to hire and fire these officials.

“The inspector general serves a purpose,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of GOP leadership. “But they do serve at the discretion of the president, which seems to be contradictory but that’s the way the law is written.”

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told reporters on Monday that he would consider supporting legislation from Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) aimed at shielding inspectors general from politically motivated terminations, but he didn’t rule out introducing his own proposal.

“I would like to see a way to preserve the independence of the inspectors general,” Romney said. “There are multiple ways one could potentially do that.”

Linick’s firing drew criticism from some Senate Republicans over the weekend, including Grassley, Collins and Romney. They’re the same GOP senators who sought details on Trump’s firing of Atkinson, who was also sacked on a Friday night with little by way of an official explanation.

And on Monday, Grassley sent yet another letter to the president demanding that he provide a written explanation for his removal of Linick by June 1. The Iowa Republican also followed up on his previous demand about Atkinson’s firing. That response was due on April 13, but Trump has thus far ignored the letter.

Grassley said on Monday that he expects a response sometime this week, adding that he has been pressing the White House on the issue.

“I had a telephone call maybe two weeks ago because I was complaining I didn't get an answer,” Grassley said. “And they said, 'We're gonna get you one right away.' Well they didn't get it right away. But we're gonna get it.”

Rather than heed the senators’ advice, Trump called out Collins in a tweet late Sunday night and said she and other senators should deal with “this whole whistleblower racket.” It was a direct shot not only at Collins, but also at Grassley, who has long advocated for the independence of inspectors general and protections for whistleblowers.

When asked about Trump’s tweet, Collins said that “there seems to be a bit of confusion” and emphasized that her comments “were in reference to the removal of the State Department inspector general.”

It’s not just the usual suspects who have asked Trump to back off his war on independent oversight agencies. Last month, Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) wrote to Trump asking him to support inspectors general rather than undermine them, in particular after Trump reassigned a Health and Human Services watchdog who had published reports that were critical of his administration.

“One thing I think must be done is that we follow the law, which is 30 days notice and a rationale,” Portman reiterated on Monday. “Although we understand these are executive branch confirmed positions and the president has the right under the Constitution to decide who he wants in his executive branch, we wanted there to be some degree of independence.”

Trump said on Monday that he fired Linick at Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s request.

Linick was investigating Pompeo and his wife over allegations that they improperly directed political appointees to run personal errands for them, including walking their dog and picking up their dry cleaning. Linick was also probing the Trump administration’s effort to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia without congressional approval, Democrats said on Monday.

The Democratic-controlled House Foreign Affairs Committee is investigating the firing, alongside the Democratic minority of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Republicans have thus far declined to join that effort, prompting withering criticism from Democrats.

“Is a mild rebuke the most my Republican colleagues can muster? A tweet? Concerned statements?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “They are so afraid of President Trump, they cling almost to his ankles that when they know he is doing wrong, when they know he is hiding the truth, they’re afraid to say anything. They shudder. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

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McConnell in new ad hits opponent Amy McGrath for supporting Trump impeachment, calls her ‘extreme’

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's reelection team launched an advertising campaign on Monday slamming his Democratic challenger Amy McGrath as an “extreme liberal politician.”

Dems tell Supreme Court of ‘ongoing’ new impeachment inquiry in effort to obtain Mueller materials

House Democrats told the Supreme Court on Monday that they are in the midst of an "ongoing Presidential impeachment investigation" as part of their "weighty constitutional responsibility" -- and, the Democrats argued, grand-jury material from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s now-completed Russia probe must be turned over as a result.

2016 repeat? Trump revives Clinton playbook to battle Biden

2016 repeat? Trump revives Clinton playbook to battle BidenTrump and his allies are dusting off the playbook that helped defeat Hillary Clinton, reviving it in recent days as they try to frame 2020 as an election between a dishonest establishment politician and a political outsider being targeted for taking on the system. Eager to distract from the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 89,000 Americans and crippled the economy, Trump and his advisers have started their fog machine again, amplified by conservative media as it was during the Russia probe and the impeachment investigation. The strategy already centered on playing up allegations that Biden’s son, Hunter, profited off the vice presidency.


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Mike Pompeo ‘urged’ Trump firing of inspector general asked to investigate Mike Pompeo

On Saturday, The New York Times reported what we probably should have presumed all along: It was Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who "urged" Donald Trump to fire the State Department's inspector general, continuing the widespread purge of government officials responsible for oversight of the impeached president and his team of corrupt incompetents.

The official non-reason Trump gave for firing inspector general Steve Linick was that Trump had "lost confidence" in him, the same catch-all Trump has used to dispense with all other watchdogs who investigated, or merely raised questions about, illegal acts by Trump's team. While the White House seems uninterested in giving any more plausible rationale for the firing than Trump's ever-vocal gut, it does appear Mike Pompeo had a specific reason why he might have wanted his department's watchdog out: Linick had been asked to investigate charges that Pompeo had been corruptly using a State Department employee to run personal errands for himself and his wife.

Mike Pompeo has remained steadfastly loyal to Trump. He was identified as a key player in Trump's withholding of congressionally earmarked military funds to Ukraine in an attempt to force that nation's government into crafting materials to help him smear his presumed election opponent, and defied congressional demands for testimony. He is quite definitely the sort of person who would use government resources to have personal favors done, and would not be the first, second or sixth of Trump's cabinet appointees to be credibly identified as doing so. He is certainly, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the sort to sabotage government investigations into such wrongdoing.

House Democrats are already vowing investigation into Linick's firing; there is no plausible rationale for Trump firing inspectors general across government, immediately after his impeachment, other than as a government-wide attempt to block all remaining oversight into his team's actions. Senate Republicans, as usual, are using Trump's action to either reaffirm their loyalty to Trump over the rule of law or to reaffirm their commitment to saying Trump probably oughtn't break laws while doing not a damn thing in response.

The eternally dumb Sen. Ron Johnson, proven a traitor to his own oath and nation during impeachment, as well as both before and after it, suggested that he was comfortable with the firing because Linick had not been sufficiently helpful in assisting Senate Republicans with an unidentified Senate investigation almost certainly pertaining to continued election-year efforts to smear Trump opponent Joe Biden.

The less dumb Sen. Chuck Grassley, also a traitor to his own oath and nation for the same multi-year patterns of behavior, issued the now bog-standard sternly worded statement noting that Congress requires explicit written reasons for such a firing, and that he will continue to be slightly huffy about that until the precise moment somebody asks him to take an actual action upon which he will fold like an origami swan.

Sen. Mitt Romney, alone in his impeachment opinion that perhaps if top administration officials are doing crimes it would behoove the Senate to at least momentary feign an interest in acting as check against such acts, gave a similar statement. Trump’s actions are a “threat to accountable democracy,” Romney warned, without suggesting he would engage in even the smallest of acts to combat that threat.

So the answer is no. No, it does not appear that the Republican Senate is willing to take any action as Trump continues his purge of those who have been investigating, or who have merely been charged with watching over, his team's continued pattern of grossly unethical and/or criminal acts.

It is likely that Grassley and other Republican concern-bearers will take no actions to support House efforts to call witnesses and probe the reasons for the firings, much less engage in such probes themselves. The party has made it absolutely clear that Trump and his allies are allowed to use government for their personal gain, and are allowed to sabotage any government effort or fire any government employee necessary in order to obtain that gain. They betrayed their country unforgivably in refusing to even conduct a trial or hear from direct witnesses, during impeachment; the play now will be to allow Trump to commit any number of further crimes, rather than conducting oversight between now and November. Trump's corrupt acts will not disappear then, whether or wins or loses, but for Johnson, Grassley and the others, putting off judgment day is paramount. Even if it is only temporary, it is now a party necessity.

Tapper to Senator Johnson: I find it hard to believe that if President Obama had gotten rid of four Inspectors General in six weeks that you would have the same attitude that you seem to have right now pic.twitter.com/7e9sBsVUT1

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) May 17, 2020

Ron Johnson ‘not crying’ over Trump’s firing of State Department watchdog

The chairman of a key Senate oversight panel on Sunday backed President Donald Trump's late-Friday firing of the State Department's inspector general — the fourth federal watchdog to get the ax in recent months.

Trump on Friday removed State Department Inspector General Steve Linick and replaced him with an ally of Vice President Mike Pence. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the president indicated he "no longer" had the "fullest confidence" in Linick and promised to send the Senate a nominee "who has my confidence and who meets the appropriate qualifications."

While the move infuriated many Democrats, at least one Republican senator appeared indifferent.

"I'm not crying big crocodile tears over this termination. Let's put it that way," Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

"In the end, they serve at the pleasure of the president," Johnson said of inspectors general, adding that Trump has "the authority to hire and terminate."

"I don't think anything that this administration could say is going to satisfy some people. There will still be people huffing and puffing and stomping their feet," he added. "But, again, it is the president's decision whether or not to hire or terminate an inspector general."

Linick had been investigating allegations involving Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to New York Rep. Eliot Engel, the Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The allegations were that Pompeo and his wife, Susan, had directed a political appointee to run personal errands for them.

Those errands included picking up their dry cleaning, walking their dog and making dinner reservations — details first reported by NBC News and confirmed to POLITICO on Sunday by a congressional aide.

Aides to Pompeo did not respond to messages seeking comment Sunday.

Not all Republican senators were comfortable with Linick's termination. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah on Saturday tweeted: "The firings of multiple Inspectors General is unprecedented; doing so without good cause chills the independence essential to their purpose.

"It is a threat to accountable democracy and a fissure in the constitutional balance of power," Romney continued.

Pelosi in a Sunday interview with CBS' Margaret Brennan called Linick's firing "unsavory" and said it was "typical of the White House" to do such a controversial move "late on a Friday night."

Trump in recent months has purged the federal government of several other watchdogs he apparently viewed as disloyal to him.

The president removed Christi Grimm, the acting inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, who issued a report critical of the administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic; removed the intelligence community’s inspector general, Michael Atkinson, whose handling of a whistleblower report ultimately led to Trump’s impeachment in the House; and sidelined Glenn Fine, who had been tapped by a panel of inspectors general to oversee the group charged with monitoring the coronavirus relief effort.

Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.

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Trump adviser claims inspector general was fired for being part of 'deep state'

Trump adviser claims inspector general was fired for being part of 'deep state'White House adviser Peter Navarro downplayed the firing of the State Department's inspector general in a TV appearance on Sunday, linking him to the “deep state” and saying that those who are not loyal to the administration must go.Steve Linick became the fourth inspector general Donald Trump has fired in two months, following his acquittal by the Republican-controlled Senate in his impeachment trial.


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