Moscow Mitch McConnell, so well-known for, among other things, his efforts to cover up Russia's interference on behalf of Donald Trump in the 2016 election, is now scorching the political ground of the Senate over the idea that an impeached Trump should be convicted and removed from office for trying to extort and bribe Ukraine into interfering on his behalf in 2020.
In a particularly loathsome and vile performance Tuesday, McConnell said, "It insults the intelligence of the American people to pretend this was a solemn process reluctantly begun because of withheld foreign aid." Which is really a leap, since the majority of the American people support Trump's impeachment and at least pluralities support his removal from office. If the intelligence of the American people is being insulted here, it's by the travesty he and fellow Republicans are inflicting on the republic.
"We must vote to reject the House's abuse of power," McConnell said, and "vote to keep factional fever from boiling over and scorching our Republic." Yes, this is the same McConnell who has been coordinating with Trump's lawyers—including Pat Cipollone, who turned out to be a material witness to Trump's attempted extortion of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—at every step of the way in this process.
The man who says partisan fever "led to the most rushed, least fair and least thorough presidential impeachment inquiry in American history" is trying to keep "factional fever" from "scorching our Republic." That's really rich. There's only one answer from a smart American public: We end his Senate majority.
On Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul took the Senate floor, where he read the name of the alleged whistleblower at the center of the House impeachment inquiry.
His comments occurred after Paul was not allowed to read the same statement last week. He submitted the same question last week during President Trump‘s impeachment trial and it included the person’s name.
“I think they made a big mistake not allowing my question. My question did not accuse anybody of being a whistleblower,” Paul said Tuesday from the Senate floor.
The Chief Justice may have silenced @RandPaul for a short time, but not for long.
Thank you Senator for not backing down and having the courage to fight against the #DeepState.#ericciaramella #whistleblower #CrossfireHurricane #InsurancePolicy
pic.twitter.com/DunjWL9kbP— Amy Kremer (@AmyKremer) February 4, 2020
The question made reference to two alleged Democratic operatives including one who has been reported to be the whistleblower who filed a complaint about Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Now during the proceedings, I asked a question that was disallowed. And I’m going to ask that question again this morning, because the Constitution does protect debate and does protect the asking of questions,” Paul said. “I think they made a big mistake not allowing my question. My question did not talk about anybody who is a whistleblower. My question did not accuse anybody of being a whistleblower.”
Paul noted that he “simply named two people’s names,” then repeated his question, including saying the names.
“And you say, well we should protect the whistleblower, and the whistleblower deserves anonymity. The law does not preserve anonymity,” Paul said. “His boss is not supposed to say anything about him, he’s not supposed to be fired. I’m for that.”
Paul said naming names was necessary to determine if there was a possible plot to take down the president.
“My point is, is by having such protection, such overzealous protection, we don’t get to the root of the matter of how this started,” the senator said. “‘Cause this could happen again.”
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The President’s son, Donald Trump Jr. praised Paul for asking these questions.
“Must watch,” Don Jr. tweeted along with a video of Paul’s presentation. “Great job Rand Paul for calling this nonsense out.”
Must watch. Great job @RandPaul for calling this nonsense out. pic.twitter.com/iBl0wMv0iv
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 4, 2020
Sen. Paul’s comments came as both Republican and Democratic senators spent the day making arguments for and against removing Trump from office due to his supposedly questionable dealings with Ukraine.
The post Rand Paul Says the Name of Alleged Whistleblower, Asks if Impeachment Was Rigged from Beginning appeared first on The Political Insider.
Donald Trump is preparing his revenge against everyone who has crossed him. Just as he got on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and committed an impeachable offense the day after Robert Mueller testified before Congress, Trump will take the success of the Senate Republican impeachment cover-up as license to commit new abuses of power and acts of personal retribution.
This is completely clear to anyone who’s observed Trump even casually, but Republican sources are also lining up to (anonymously) dish to reporters. “It’s payback time,” one “prominent Republican” told Vanity Fair, while, according to another source, “He has an enemies list that is growing by the day.”
Enemy No. 1 is former national security adviser John Bolton, who it seems is “going to go through some things.” In addition to the White House threatening Bolton’s publisher over the contents of his forthcoming book, Trump wants Bolton himself criminally investigated, a source told Gabriel Sherman. But even if a criminal investigation doesn’t materialize, “Trump has been calling people and telling them to go after Bolton.”
It’s not just Bolton, though. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney dared to vote for witnesses in the impeachment trial, so he’s in trouble. Reps. Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler led the impeachment inquiry and the team of House managers at the trial, so they’re on the enemies list.
It’s exactly what you’d expect from Trump. He expects to be free from any consequences for his actions, and anyone who threatens what he sees as his royal prerogative is going to be the target of his unhinged narcissistic rage. Expect the next several months to be even uglier than what we’ve already seen—but nothing compared to what will happen if he manages to cheat his way to a win in November.
By PoliZette Staff | February 4, 2020
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) made his closing statements in Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial on Monday, and things took an odd turn when he claimed the president might end up selling Alaska to Russia if he is not impeached.
Schiff argued that if non-criminal acts are not impeachable, Trump would be able to sell off U.S. states to foreign powers, according to The Blaze.
The California Democrat slammed the argument that only criminal actions that meet the constitutional standards of “high crimes and misdemeanors” are impeachable, saying that if this were the case, “a whole range of utterly unacceptable conduct in a president would now beyond reach.”
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“Trump could offer Alaska to the Russians in exchange for support in the next election, or decide to move to Mar-a-Lago permanently and let Jared Kushner run the country, delegating to him the decision whether to go to war,” Schiff said. “Because those things are not necessarily criminal, this argument would allow that he could not be impeached for such abuses of power.”
SCHIFF says that if non-criminal actions aren’t impeachable, “Trump could offer Alaska to the Russians in exchange for support in the next election, or decide to move to Mar-a-Lago permanently and let Jared Kushner run the country”pic.twitter.com/Qvg8c4nMHR
— Nate Madden (@NateOnTheHill) February 3, 2020
This of course is not the first time that Schiff has tried to use a fictional narrative to take Trump down. Last year, Schiff created his own “parody” version of Trump’s infamous phone call with the Ukrainian president that he read out during a committee hearing, literally making up words that were said instead of truthfully reading out the transcript.
Schiff wasn’t the only Democrat to make odd arguments on Monday. Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) stated that only guilty people refuse to cooperate with investigations against them, which means that Trump must be guilty.
“Once he got caught, President Trump engaged in categorical and indiscriminate obstruction of any investigation into his wrongdoing,” Demings said. “He ordered every government agency and every official to defy the House’s impeachment inquiry. And he did so for a simple reason: To conceal evidence of his wrongdoing from Congress and the American people.”
“The president’s obstruction was unlawful and unprecedented, but it also confirmed his guilt,” she added. “Innocent people don’t try to hide every document and witness especially those that would clear them. That’s what guilty people do. That’s what guilty people do. Innocent people do everything they can to clear their name and provide evidence that shows that they are innocent.”
Rep. Val Demings: “The president’s obstruction was unlawful and unprecedented—but it also confirmed his guilt. Innocent people don’t try to hide every document and witness, especially those that could clear them. That’s what guilty people do.” https://t.co/lCrIAfTgkR pic.twitter.com/fD84NWrdGi
— ABC News (@ABC) February 3, 2020
Someone should remind Demings that we have a phrase called “innocent until proven guilty” in this country that is a staple of our legal system. The burden is on the prosecution to prove guilt, not on the defendant to prove innocence.
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Schiff and his fellow Democrats failed to prove that Trump is guilty, and they can’t stand the fact that their efforts to impeach him are dead in the water. They can hurl as many outlandish accusations at Trump as they want to, but they are only making themselves look bad at this point. Democrats have wasted the time and taxpayer money, and most Americans see right through them.
This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
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The post Schiff Ends Impeachment Trial Arguments By Bizarrely Saying Trump Could Sell Alaska To Russia appeared first on The Political Insider.
Sen. Rand Paul continues to be a flaming heap of whistleblower-outing trash. Whistleblowers are protected for reasons that an alleged libertarian like Paul should appreciate—that protection encourages people to come forward when they see something wrong in government. But after Chief Justice John Roberts refused to read Paul’s question naming the person who Republicans believe to have been the whistleblower on Donald Trump’s impeachable Ukraine call, Paul took matters into his own hands.
He’s already read the question, with the name, to reporters. But apparently he didn’t get enough attention for that, so on Tuesday, Paul brought a large poster of his question up with him as he made a floor speech in the Senate, during which he read the question.
To recap: the chief justice refused to read Paul’s question because it named a rumored whistleblower, possibly endangering that person. Paul then held a news conference to read the same question, and then, as if he hadn’t done enough, read it on the Senate floor while standing before it printed on a large poster, for anyone watching C-SPAN to hear and see.
Paul has insisted that this is all innocent because he doesn’t know that this is the whistleblower, he just happens to be asking lengthy questions about a random person whose name hasn’t come up in the impeachment for … reasons. I think we know the reason, and the reason is that Rand Paul is a terrible piece of human trash and he’s part of a political party that rewards that.
By David Kamioner | February 4, 2020
Less than two days before the historic impeachment vote in the U.S. Senate, two senators who were thought to be swing votes, Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, announced they could not vote to remove the president from office.
Thus, they will vote for the president and no on the charges.
Most analysts had predicted the GOP’s Murkowski would hold the line. But Manchin was more of an educated guess. LifeZette called it. However, others thought Manchin would not defy his Senate leadership. So either he got a doomed cause waiver to help him in his home state or he’s planning a jump to the GOP. Either is possible and the party switch would not hurt him in deep red conservative West Virginia.
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Murkowski’s independent libertarian-trending Alaskans probably just want the whole show over with and will have no problem with her vote.
The only remaining possible holdouts are Collins, Jones, Tester, and Romney.
Republican Susan Collins of Maine may vote guilty on one or both counts because she knows the president will win anyway and at least one guilty vote could help her in blue-leaning Maine. She could have received the done deal waiver from McConnell. The Left may also consider an anti-Trump vote a thrown bone because of her yes vote for Brett Kavanaugh.
Democrat Doug Jones of Alabama is in a hard place. He’s likely to lose this year no mater how he votes on impeachment, as he won in a fluke in 2017. However, even the slightest hope would be gone if he votes against the president. So does he vote to convict and pray the Democrats take care of him after he leaves office or does he vote with the president and hope GOP infighting once again gives him an upset victory?
Democrat Jon Tester of Montana was once considered a possible vote for the president on impeachment. But smart money now says he will vote with his party. But there’s a small chance he bucks them, which would help him in deep red Montana.
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And then there’s Mittens.
Hates the president but loves his GOP Senate seat from conservative Utah. The pressure in Utah is already getting intense for him to hold up the GOP shield wall. Could vote with the president on one count and against on the other. Our call is that he sticks with the GOP on both counts.
This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
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The post Manchin and Murkowski Solid for President in Senate Impeachment Vote appeared first on The Political Insider.