Category: Impeach

Tennessee senator tries to burn Adam Schiff, but Twitter roasts her almost instantly

Posted on by Walter Einenkel

Sen. Marsha Blackburn is well-known around these here parts for being a pretty detestable human being. Then again, detestability seems to be the only qualification for being a Republican senator these days. And Blackburn has indeed been doing her job as a Republican senator: groveling at the feet of Donald Trump while dismantling our democratic processes. 

As Donald Trump’s impeachment trial goes into another day, Republicans in the Senate are spending their time not paying attention with the deck already loaded, the fix already in. But having all of this obdurate criminality in place does not stop Republicans like Marsha Blackburn from being dumb as dirt. The senator from Tennessee decided to go and give her two cents, in a classic Republican attempt at gotcha-style politics:

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Sorry! I should have warned you that your mind might be blown clear from your skull by Blackburn’s wit and wisdom. The Twitterverse very quickly realized that Marsha Blackburn had said something—something too stupid and unbelievably hubristic to let lie.

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But people were also pissed.

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Damn. “Guttersnipe” sounds awful.

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And it didn’t stop. In fact, the ratio just took off on Sen. Blackburn

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Some literature for Blackburn to read while she doesn’t fulfill her sworn oath on the Senate floor:

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And some more reminders:

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Before you knew it, #Marsha was trending. And not because The Brady Bunch is getting a reboot.

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That Tweet is to remind people that Sen. Marsha Blackburn is trash.

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And finally:

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Kellyanne Conway’s husband on Senate Republicans: ‘What are they afraid of?’

Posted on by Walter Einenkel

Conservative lawyer and husband of truly awful person Kellyanne Conway continues to work to the left of his wife in the public sphere. Known for attacking the current administration, the one his wife works vociferously for, Conway was on CNN earlier Wednesday to discuss the first day of the U.S. Senate’s impeachment trial and investigation into the corruptions of Donald Trump. The most glaring corruption right now is Speaker Mitch McConnell’s transparent directive to use the Senate impeachment trial as a way to help Donald Trump cover up and pave over his crimes.

CNN host Jake Tapper, speaking with Conway, asked for his impressions of the first day of the Senate trial, and Conway started by saying that Trump’s lawyers were “outclassed,” underprepared, and “lying.” Calling their performance “distressing,” Conway explained that while that was bad enough, the more pressing disappointment was Republican senators.

CONWAY: The second is the Party-line votes on witnesses, the Party-line votes on witnesses. This is a trial. This is a trial where they should want to hear the evidence. If everyone is so sure, if they’re so sure that the evidence will exonerate President Trump then, yeah, let’s hear from John Bolton. We should hear from Pompeo. We should hear from Mulvaney.

Conway goes on to explain that yes, none of this makes sense.

CONWAY: Absolutely. They have no justification not to. I mean, when you get to a trial, you’re entitled to issue trial subpoenas. And even before that, even in a criminal case, you’re entitled to issue pre-trial discovery—both sides—even if evidence has been heard before a grand jury. You know, the United States against Nixon, a famous case that dealt with executive privilege back in 1974, involved pre-trial discovery where the defendants had already been indicted.

Tapper brings up the statements of Mitch McConnell who has said this trial should exist with no witnesses or much of anything. Conway points out that the Senate has the power and the “obligation” to try to get to the bottom of these criminal complaints against the president.

CONWAY: That’s what this is. That’s what a trial is for, and their job is to hear the evidence. Hear all of it. Not some of it, or none of it—which seems to be the way they are going.

Tapper, having now exhausted all avenues of discussion here, since the issue is clear, asks Conway again: what’s the deal with these Republicans?

CONWAY: What are they afraid of? They must be afraid of something. That's the thing that I find most disturbing about it, is they don't want to hear the evidence because they know the truth. They know he's guilty. And they don’t want to hear the evidence because they don’t want the American people to see the evidence.

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Lindsey Graham’s 2020 opponent releases impeachment statement using Lindsey Graham’s own exact quote

Posted on by Walter Einenkel

Jaime Harrison is running for Senate as a Democratic candidate hoping to unseat incumbent Lindsey Graham. Sen. Graham, like Sen. Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republican Party stoolie squad, have fallen into line under the single-most transparently corrupt president in any of our lifetimes. As one of the big proponents of impeaching then President Bill Clinton, back in 1998, Sen. Graham has come under fire over the past year for how starkly contradictory his public statements today when compared to those from 1998. Harrison justifiably has decided to use Graham’s words against him, tweeting out from his personal account, Harrison posted a video, with “Official Impeachment Statement:” as the header. 

In the video we see Harrison speaking to the camera, reading a statement from a paper in his hands.

HARRISON: For the good of the nation, I think, it would serve us all well if we thought about this one idea. After we’re all dead and gone,

It is here, on the second sentence, that we can hear Sen. Graham’s wilting southern accent come up behind Harrison’s, as it is revealed to be Sen. Lindsey Graham’s statement on impeachment, from Dec. 22, 1998, to reporters somewhere underneath the Senate’s chambers.

GRAHAM: [continued] do you have something to present history that will withstand scrutiny, where everybody had a chance to have their say, in a reasonable way, in a focused way, so that history would judge us based on the facts, and based on a meaningful hearing not just on the political moment.

The image fades back to Harrison reading the end of Graham’s words.

HARRISON: [continued] And if we think about that, it’s very important to me that we leave behind a legacy that meets the model of American justice.

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It may be hard to believe but before Donald Trump there were many Republicans, like Sen. Graham, who used a patina of eloquence in order to drive home their bleak and cynical world views. Now that this mask has been ripped free and the soul of the Republican Party has been revealed to be the monstrous faces of bigotry and greed, it is hard to connect the senator from South Carolina, who spoke so eloquently about impeaching then president Bill Clinton for his extramarital affair, with the senator from South Carolina who has said in no uncertain terms that he will not even pretend to participate in an impartial trial concerning the abuses of power in the Executive Branch of government.

SemDem has been covering a lot of Harrison’s moves in his trip toward the Senate, and you can learn a lot more about Harrison’s chances and stances here.