To impeach or not to impeach, that is the question

Republicans have complained about the lack of direct evidence.

Trump asked a foreign power to intervene in our Presidential election for his benefit. That is abuse of power. So is bribery.

“I would like you to do us a favor, though.”

This is from the transcript of the July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky. It was provided by the White House. The following is a quote from Trump.

Good because I· heard you had a prosecutor who· was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor bf New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General.· :Rudy very much knows what's happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States,· the woman., was bad news and the people she was dealing with in.the Ukraine.were bad news so I jtist want to_let you know that. The other thing, there's a lot of.talk about Biden's son,. that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great.Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you ·can look into it ... It sounds horrible to me.

“What you’re describing is a quid pro quo,” asserted a reporter. “We do that all the time,” replied [Trump's chief of staff] Mulvaney. “Did he also mention to me the corruption related to the DNC server? Absolutely. No question about it. But that’s it. That’s why we held up the money … I have news for everybody: Get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy.” http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/10/mulvaney-ukraine-get-over-it.html

After the July 25 phone call with Zelensky, as he usually does, Trump doubled down on the Biden investigation. On Oct. 3, in a news conference on the White House lawn, he called on Ukraine and China to look into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

“If they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens,” Trump said when asked what he wanted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to do about the former veep and his son.

“They should investigate the Bidens,” Trump said. “Likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/03/trump-calls-for-ukraine-china-to-investigate-the-bidens.html

 

Speaking of direct evidence, NBC reports, "John Bolton, the former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, said Monday he is willing to testify in the Senate impeachment trial if subpoenaed.

"In a statement posted Monday, Bolton wrote, "I have concluded that, if the Senate issues a subpoena for my testimony, I am prepared to testify."

"The decision marks a significant, and potentially dramatic, development in the impeachment process that House Democrats set in motion just two weeks after Bolton left the White House on contentious terms with the president. It’s also a reversal for Bolton, who previously said he would only testify before Congress if he is subpoenaed and a judge ordered him to defy the White House by appearing."

The noose is tightening, and this puts McConnell behind the eight ball. He doesn't want witnesses. The Republicans have said the impeachment evidence is secondhand and hearsay. Bolton has direct knowledge of what happened, and his opposition to Trump's scheme caused his firing.

 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., stood by her decision to withhold the articles of impeachment from the Senate but said she would not hold them indefinitely.

 

Your talking points are out of sate. Get a refund.

 

Did you enjoy my review? I see you agree with it. You did not challenge a single thing I said. That is quite common with Trump's fans. They are totally unable to defend him. They give the pathetic, phony excuse there isn't anything to defend.

 

Challenging a sufferers hysteria is pointless.

 

It got quite a few laughs and a couple explanations of "poor sod", so yeah.

If you MUST troll, at least keep current.

 

Here the pathetic rewsponses from two of Trump's fans.

With fans like these Trump doesn't need any enemies. His fans refuse to defend him, while avoiding reality and personally attacking writers who tell the truth.

I assume you mean "date." Do you know what a review is?

 

You keep thinking your hysteria is actually something worth replying to.

 

Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Friday she will send the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate next week, ending a heated standoff with Republicans over the terms of the impeachment trial.

"I have asked Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler to be prepared to bring to the Floor next week a resolution to appoint managers and transmit articles of impeachment to the Senate," Pelosi said in a letter to House Democrats.

 

I get depressed just thinking about it. I know it needed to be done but will not have the desired effect.
Care to make any predictions?

 

Yes, since the articles are not high crimes or misdemeanors it will eventually be dismissed.

 

Thank god. Get this joke over with.

 

That is, she caved. Like we knew she would.

Pelosi held the articles so Warren, Sanders and Klobuchar would not miss the January 14 Dem debate in Des Monies.

That is, she held them for personal and partisan gain, and lied about it.

 

There is very little doubt that McConnell and the Republicans in the Senate will not allow witnesses to be called. Also, they will not allow any documents. That is what a trial is all about, witness testimony and evidence.

Then the Republicans will pronounce Trump innocent of all charges. Because Trump's guilt is obvious by his own statements and that of his chief of staff, Americans will recognize this as a cover-up and vote accordingly in November.

Want proof? Look at the comments made by Trump's supporters on this thread. Their only defense of Trump is to say there is no evidence. That, of course, as seen by the review (posts 846 - 852), is perfectly ridiculous. Most of Trump's fans do not wish ti take part in this thread even though it is the only thread that updates readers on Trump's impeachment. They don't want to hear it.

Because of Trump, the GOP has lost key elections in 2018 and 2019, including control of the House. They will lose much more in 2020.

 

Now that McConnell and clan have successfully reduced the House to nothing more than a grade school PTA meeting...historically speaking...their next move should be to do something similar to the the Enabling Act of 1933. which would give them the power to enact laws without the involvement of the house thereby giving Trump plenary powers complete and absolute.

 

With Trump at the helm, that is scary. He is a bumbling fool who bumbles from one catastrophe to another while causing people to die along the away.

 

Yes very scary...but perhaps McConnell has enough Trump acolytes to pull it off.
"The Nazis were in power, but Germany was still a democracy—until they passed the Enabling Act. With this act in place, the Nazis had full power to enact any law without running it through parliament.
They needed support to do it, though. They need two-thirds of the parliament to vote for it, and they couldn’t do that without the support of other parties. They pressured the others by reminding them of the Reichstag fire. A Nazi paper headline read, “Full powers—or else! We want the bill—or fire and murder!”

 

And he will remain your President until at least January 2021, just as I have been telling you for almost three years.

 

With no concessions from McConnell.

Pelosi gambled and lost.

 

What, exactly? She knew she couldn't tell McConnell what to do, but during the past month the evidence against Trump piled up. She wasn't trying to win over Republicans in the Senate. That is ludicrous.

She was trying to win over Americans, and she did.

 

You need to pay better attention.
She wanted a number of things from the Republicans. She didn't get any of them.

 

You need to pay attention. A Democratic speaker of the House is not going to get shyt from a Republican Senate. Gee, I thought everyone knew that.

Hey, wait a minute, this just in from CBS.

Washington — The White House is preparing for some Republican senators to join Democrats in voting to call witnesses in President Trump's impeachment trial, which could get underway in the coming days.

Senior White House officials tell CBS News they increasingly believe that at least four Republicans, and likely more, will vote to call witnesses. In addition to Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah and possibly Cory Gardner of Colorado, the White House also views Rand Paul of Kentucky as a "wild card" and Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee as an "institutionalist" who might vote to call witnesses, as one official put it.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/impeac...an-gop-defections-new-witnesses-senate-trial/

Do I have to teach you everything?

Wouldn't it be great if the House could call Bolton, Mulvaney, and Pompeo as witnesses, something Trump fears the most.

I hope Hunter Biden is called as one of Trump's witnesses. The Bidens may have used poor judgment, but that is not a crime. In fact the Bidens committed no crime, no corruption, unlike Trump, who committed both. I hope Trump is able to get the whistleblower as a witness as well.

The Bidens and the whistleblower will prove how stupid Trump and the Republicans are. If Bolton, Mulvaney, and Pompeo are called as witnesses,Trump will be proven guilty in the eyes of the public but exonerated by Republicans. That will be remembered November 3. The Republicans may not win the House, Senate, or Oval Office for a generation.

 

Everybody but Nancy and her horde of true believers.

 

The question has been asked several times. What did Pelosi gain by withholding the two Articles of Impeachment. I will try to answer that, but please note Congress was in recess for most of that period, and they returned to work one week ago. That fact is often overlooked by McConnell and the rest.

A new report from the website Just Security details documents relating to Trump’s campaign to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens as his administration froze nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine. The new report stems from unredacted versions of documents seen by Just Security, a national security website affiliated with the New York University School of Law.

The documents reveal that on Aug. 30, after meeting with Trump, Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget, told Elaine McCusker, the acting Pentagon comptroller, in an email that there was "Clear direction from POTUS to hold" the aid. Duffy's boss is Mick Mulvaney. Minority leader Chuck Schumer wants both called as witnesses. The emails showcase the growing tensions between the White House and the Department of Defense over the hold on the Ukraine funds amid concerns that the aid would not be released before the end of the fiscal year, after which the appropriation would expire.

For more, see, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/co...ly-unredacted-emails-show-why-senate-n1109641

Former national security adviser John Bolton surprised everyone by offering to testify at Trump’s impeachment trial — after refusing the House’s request to appear late last year.

Recently, a federal judge authorized Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, to share documents and contents of a seized iPhone with House investigators.

Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, will not be defending Trump in the Senate trial. That says a lot.

Senior White House officials tell CBS News they increasingly believe that at least four Republicans, and likely more, will vote to call witnesses. In addition to Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah and possibly Cory Gardner of Colorado, the White House also views Rand Paul of Kentucky as a "wild card" and Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee as an "institutionalist" who might vote to call witnesses, as one official put it.

A lot has transpired since the House passed the two Articles of Impeachment.