Category: Recommended

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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McConnell is also covering up the bad behavior of Republican senators during this impeachment trial

Posted on by Joan McCarter

The D.C. press corps is filling in where the cameras that Mitch McConnell refused to allow into the impeachment trial are absent. So we know just what a farce Republicans consider this exercise to be. And precisely why McConnell made sure the American people don't see it.

Reporter Michael McAuliff tweeted that, a few of hours into Rep. Adam Schiff's presentation "21 empty seats on the GOP side of the Senate, 2 on the Dem side. […] Some are just stretching their legs, but most are not in the chamber. Some of them have been out of there for a while." Those who were out for "for a long time"—Republicans Lindsey Graham, Jim Risch, and Bill Cassidy. Reporter Paul McLeod tweeted about McConnell's histrionics toward the end of Schiff's presentation when "McConnell threw his hands down and made a clear 'are you kidding me?' face." Republican Rand Paul, Ben Jacobs tweeted, decided to occupy his time working on a crossword puzzle. That's how much they care about the process; how much they care about their singular role in our republic.

As for Chief Justice John Roberts, it shows how seriously he's taking this whole thing, too. Because it's his job to enforce the rules, which tell them they have to give up electronic devices and stay silent and are "requested to remain in their seats at all times they are on on the Senate floor" during the proceedings.

They're all taking this about as seriously as they took that oath they swore to at the outset, to provide impartial justice.

Jay Sekulow makes a fool of himself in the Senate, so of course the Trump team doubles down

Posted on by Hunter

One of the more baffling moments of the frequently baffling defense offered up by Trump's impeachment team was an extended rant on "lawyer lawsuits" delivered by Trump personal lawyer and co-conspirator to crimes Jay Sekulow. Nobody could figure out what he was going on about. Here’s a taste:

“Lawyer lawsuits? We’re talking about the impeachment of a president of the United States, duly elected, and the managers are complaining about lawyer lawsuits? The Constitution allows lawyer lawsuits. It’s disrespecting the Constitution of the United States to even say that in this chamber. Lawyer lawsuits.”

It now looks like Sekulow's whole rant was based on him completely mishearing House manager Val Demings. So naturally Team Trump is, rather than admitting that, doubling down on Sekulow's newly discovered bonnet-bug. Of course.

What House manager Demings was talking about, in her own speech, was "FOIA lawsuits" (commonly pronounced as FOY-uh). She was referring, of course, to the Freedom of Information Act-based lawsuits that have secured redacted government documents that the administration attempted to hide from the public. The Washington Post and reporter Igor Bobic, however, report that White House legislative affairs director Eric Ueland insisted that Sekulow did not mishear and that "lawyer lawsuits" was a real thing. The transcript "says 'lawyer lawsuit,'" claimed Ueland.

Wait, what transcript? We don't know. Neither of the ones the Post looked at contained such a phrase, and there is certainly a distinct possibility that Ueland is, like the Trump White House continues to do on a daily and hourly basis, simply lying about it. Inventing a new hand-waving outrage out of thin air, refusing to acknowledge those who point out it is incorrect or manufactured, and then angrily insisting the new invention is in fact a great travesty and a shameful, shameful moment for Dear Leader's critics is exactly what Trump's team would do, because it is what Trump's team did throughout the night, over and over.

Republicans were not allowed to witness "secret" House depositions, they insisted. They not only were allowed, but did. Donald Trump was not allowed to present a defense, they shouted to senators. The House invited the White House to send a legal team, produce a defense, and produce documents for that defense; Trump's legal team refused. Republicans were not allowed their own witnesses, they claimed; House Republicans produced multiple witnesses, who were questioned and cross-examined on live television. These were not mischaracterizations. They were lies about recent, extremely televised, extremely reported-on public happenings that we all witnessed.

While Republican senators prattle on about the supposed dignity of their chamber, the Trump legal team lying to the Senate outright about matters in clear public view has resulted in exactly zero outrage from those lawmakers. We can infer from that that they both expect to be lied to and, in fact, are counting on it. It doesn't matter what Trump's "legal team" comes up with during their own presentations. Jay Sekulow can simply invent new words and phrases and scream at the Senate about the outrage they represent, and most of the Republican senators will nod their heads and vote ... exactly like they intended to from the first moment.

Republicans swoon with fake outrage after Nadler calls a cover-up a cover-up

Posted on by Laura Clawson

It looks like the accurate characterization of Republican plans for the impeachment trial of Donald Trump as a cover-up is getting under some Republican skin. After Rep. Jerry Nadler dared to call a cover-up a cover-up on the Senate floor late Tuesday night, Republicans are clutching their pearls and declaring themselves offended in a blatant effort to change the subject from the cover-up to how Democrats are mean.

“It was so insulting and outrageous it was a shock to all of us,” Sen. John Cornyn huffed to CNN producer Ali Zaslav.

”They're on a crusade to destroy this man, and they don't care what they destroyed in the process of trying to destroy Donald Trump... I'm covering up nothing. I'm expose your hatred of this president, to the point that you would destroy the institution,” Sen. Lindsey Graham ranted.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski declared herself “offended.” Sen. Ron Johnson said Nadler was “insulting” and “completely inappropriate.” Senate Majority Whip John Thune called it “not helpful to [the Democrats’] cause,” a classic claim from Republicans: It’s not that they’re strenuously trying to change the subject from the facts of the case with an attack on Democrats; it’s that Democrats committed an unforced error.

Get them their fainting couches and smelling salts, now. Members of a historically norm-breaking, institution-dismantling party are just overcome with shock at someone daring to identify their actions for what they are. Or it’s all a strategy of distraction. Hmmm ...

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.