Trump: There’s a Right Way and a Wrong Way to Get This Done
Here’s a note I just got, presenting a truly terrible idea:
In January, 68 Members of Congress voted to move forward with impeachment proceedings against Trump. Since then, we’ve done a lot of work to get to 218 yes votes to open an impeachment investigation — and with convictions of Manafort and Cohen, there is more momentum for our work than ever!
I don’t support this idea at all. Let Mueller do his job and see what turns up. It’s a good guess that there is going to be tons of evidence that will scream impeachment, but if I’m wrong, I’m wrong.
Pushing this now backs his supporters into a corner and makes the midterms a referendum on impeachment. Horrible idea. These people don’t like to be defamed and attacked (who does?), and they think their man is the Second Coming of Christ.
In addition, they’re armed and dangerous, but fiercely patriotic; most of them will back down if there’s clear-cut evidence of a felony. Treason will get the job done nicely, but there are other felonies (obstruction, emoluments clause violations) that will suffice as well.
As my grandmother used to say, only half in jest:
Patience is a virtue
Possess it if you can
Often found in women
But seldom found in men
The dude pictured above doesn’t appear too patient; we need to be.
Craig,
At last, a sensible observation ! ( I thought we’d lost you completely, for a while there):).
The nation (and the World) has indeed grown weary of the seemingly never ending Mueller Inquiry.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a moderate Republican observed, a word of caution to those trying to convict the President, don’t act in haste. I’ve seen no evidence of collusion after two years. Mueller is looking at it, we’ll see what he says. But what has emerged is plenty of evidence of corruption at the DOJ,FBI and CIA. What’s stunning is not one Democrat seems to care.
Just reverse the roles. Imagine if the Republican Party had paid a foreign agent to go to Russia to get dirt on Hillary Clinton, then used it to get a warrant, never told the court about the clandestine activity and false testimony.
That’d be a front page story everywhere. The media would be screaming corruption, and they’d be right. When the U.S. attorney and a DOJ lawyer say ” it’s our job to stop Trump being elected”, that’s a problem for our democratic process. Could you imagine what would happen if they’d said ” it is our job to stop Clinton “?
Sen. Graham only expressed everyone frustration of an Inquiry which rightly or wrongly, seems more about “getting Trump” than Russian electoral interference.
The greatest problem Mueller is encountering is the perception of whether he is adhering to his original mandate to discover whether Trump, other others associated with his campaign, colluded with the Russians in 2016 to tilt the election in his favor.
After 15 months, Mueller has indicted a number of Trump associates, but on charges having nothing to do with any Russian collusion. They face inordinately long prison sentences unless they “flip” and testify against Trump. Even pleading guilty to non-existent crimes.
We are left with the impression that Mueller cannot find much to do with his original mandate of unearthing Russian collusion, but he still thinks Trump is guilty of something.
In other words, Mueller has reversed the proper order of jurisprudence.
Instead of presuming Trump innocent unless he finds evidence of Russian collusion, Mueller started with the assumption that the reckless raconteur Trump surely must be guilty of some lawbreaking. Thus, it is Mueller’s job to hunt for past crimes to prove it.
While Mueller so far has not found Trump involved in collusion with foreign citizens to warp a campaign, there is evidence that others most surely were colluding, but are not of interest to Mueller.
It is likely that during the 2016 campaign, officials at the Department of Justice, FBI, CIA and National Security Agency broke laws to ensure that the outsider Trump lost to Hillary Clinton. FBI and DOJ officials misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in order to obtain warrants to surveil Trump associates. National security officials unmasked the names of those being monitored and likely leaked them to the press with the intent to spread unverified rumors detrimental to the Trump campaign.
A spy on the federal payroll was implanted into the Trump campaign. Hillary Clinton’s campaign team paid for research done by a former British intelligence officer working with Russian sources to compile a dossier on Trump. Clinton hid her investment in Christopher Steele’s dossier by using intermediaries such as the Perkins Coie law firm and Fusion GPS to wipe away her fingerprints.
As a result of wrongful conduct, more than a dozen officials at the FBI and DOJ have resigned or retired, or were fired or reassigned. Yet so far none of these miscreants has been indicted or has faced the same legal scrutiny that Mueller applies to Trump associates.
No president has ever faced impeachment for supposed wrongdoing alleged to have taken place before he took office.Andrew Johnson,Richard Nixon, not even Bill Clinton, who lied about his liaisons with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office. With the effort to go back years, if not decades, into Trump’s business and personal life, we are now in uncharted territory.
This may be at the heart of Mueller’s problem. Mueller may decide to pursue Trump by the same methods a he would a mafia or organized crime boss. In other words, use any and all methods to bring him down and others in his entourage to “fink” on him.
Therein, lies a frightening assumption, and a real threat to the American democratic process.
The decision as to whether or not an individual should fill the office of President, is a political decision and the prerogative of the voters, not law enforcement officials.
The office of President, is not a “criminal enterprise” , and certainly not to be treated as such. In his zeal, Mueller may be inadvertently be straying into activity which could constitute High Treason.
Supposing, through induced false testimony, illegal threats, and clandestine methods (ends justify the means) Mueller influenced the mid-term and even 2020 Presidential election. The result would be far more devastating than anything any Russian government could achieve.
Mueller is in danger of pursuing Trump not for any alleged “collusion”, but simply for being Trump! For an appointed Special Counsel to knowingly or unknowingly conspire with Trump’s enemies to remove the voter’s constitutional right to elect the President of their choice,is an act of High Treason.
To avoid such a disaster Mueller needs to refocus his Inquiry and quickly present his conclusions to Congress. Americans need the whole truth to ensure equality under the law and thereby end this nearly two-year nightmare.
Incorrect.
Trump’s attacks backfire: Big majorities back Mueller and Sessions, while president’s disapproval hits 60%, new poll says
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/31/most-americans-support-robert-mueller-probe-and-ag-jeff-sessions-poll.html
Craig,
The current polls, especially a poll conducted by the Washington Post-ABC News, are better than expected for a President embroiled in such an imbroglio.
What should be considered is the impact of the two recent plea’s and convictions, and that most of the media have misreported these events as reflecting adversely on the President. Those impressions will start to wear off, and the inquiry will start to lose credibility as the facts get better known, and there are no more sensational convictions.
Donald Trump will never be a very popular President in the polls, he’s far too brash, outspoken and his personality flaws make him difficult to like, but his policies will reshape American politics for generations.
Apart from his own eccentricities and unconventional behaviour, President Trump also suffers from having no really popular allies to defend and soften his image. Hid wife, while beautiful and intelligent, is clearly not politically ambitious or eager to be thrust into the role of first lady.
His cabinet has become more settled and effective, but also dull and lacking the sort of personalities to compensate for the Presidential excesses. Mike Pence is a dull worthy, rather than potential successor and counter balance.
Politically, the President still holds a fascination factor for millions, and his policies are working, but he’s becoming over exposed and the public will sooner or later grow weary of the continual state of controversy.
All Presidents need a period of consolidation when the public can take a rest from non-stop political reporting. The media will not allow this to happen, and while damaging for the President, it’s proving equally destructive for the media who are losing (probably irretrievably) any semblance of objective credibility.
America seems locked into a macabre dance of death between a difficult, but reforming, President and a self destructive media writhing in the death throws of it’s once all powerful monopoly as the creator of public opinion.
Most of Trump’s difficulties he’s brought upon himself. Like most demagogues he’s unable to build a stable team of highly talented colleagues, and has virtually no allies in Congress whose personal popularity could help counter-balance his mistakes and rough edges.
In the end, it all about Donald Trump, as long as he’s winning, his supporters will stay will stay loyal, but once his policy initiatives and reforms are well established, the need for Trump will evaporate quickly as will his support. Support for his poilcies will continue and become the political standard.
He’s what used to be called an “uncomfortable man”. Useful in a crisis, useful to break old molds and usher in a new era, but then no longer needed.
The idea that Trump is “reforming” the country is ludicrous, but I guess it’s all a function of what you want. If you don’t care about the truth, the environment, public schools, consumer protection, interracial harmony, the national debt, the quality of life for the common American, gay rights, women’s rights, religious freedom, or equal protection under the law, then I suppose you’re right.
It’s pointless to talk too much about this, because neither of us know what’s going to happen next. I’ll be shocked if we don’t learn that Trump engaged in clearly criminal behavior is is removed from office. But who knows?
Craig,
I think you should prepare to be shocked.
Reform comes in many forms, not necessarily just the facets you find of interest.
The “truth” is a very subjective idea in political life, and always has been. Every President lied,covered up, deceived etc. The idea that a president should be investigated for “crimes” allegedly committed before taking office is a new and novel idea, and without precedent.
In fact, it could be argued the immunity provision was included to prevent such an occurrence.
As for the environment, public schools, consumer protection, interracial harmony, the national debt, gay rights, women’s rights, religious freedom, or equal protection under the law.
All these issues are covered by, or are, the responsibilities of the legislature. The quality of life for the common American is the responsibility of the President and has been much improved under the current administrations economic policies. The issues of gay rights, women’s rights, religious freedom,public schools etc, are largely state issues or already provides for with adequate Federal legislation.
But reform for America is a much larger issue. America must adapt to a changing global status and circumstance. Although this is an issue for many American, it’s primarily a challenge facing any future President.
President Obama was the last US President of the old order, no matter who succeeds President Trump, the world has changed and a new reality has dawned.
President Trump is a catalyst of this inevitable change. To his credit, he understands and is responding to the changes occurring fairly astutely. The US could no longer continue to enjoy the delusion of globalized “leadership” as the US economy shrank into gentile poverty and abject despair for at least 40% of the American populace.
Sooner or later that dynamic was leading to a collapse from which the US would find almost impossible to recover.
President Trump didn’t start the process, he just exposed the circumstances and broke the national delusion to the dismay of the old privileged and increasingly effete elite in Washington.
President Trump’s supporters mostly come from the ‘other’ America, those who are losing out. They are those left behind in the “old economy”, who produced the wealth, the industries that have been “globalized” ( in reality exported), they are the ‘deplorables’ who lost out in the new world order.
For these citizens, President Trump is their only hope. They have no interest in your promise of a Utopian nirvana, where there’s no place for the likes of them and their aspirations.
There is no question President Trump has many unattractive personality trait’s, but even his “lies” are mostly only personnel boasting, or excessive egotism. In comparison to the great “liberal” hero’s such as JFK and FDR, his deceptions are of a different level of magnitude.
Both JFK and FDR lied on a far greater and more sinister scale. The litany of deceit and dishonesty by both these “heroes” enormous. Yet, theirs was a different time and both were aided by a largely compliant media.
Both were aided by being more attractive individuals and more likable.
JFK owed his election to rampant election fraud in Texas and his connections to organized crime. He lied about his health, his taxes, his infidelities,(literally, while in office in fact in the Oval office !). His nepotism was rampant ! He appointed members of his family, or in laws, to cabinet positions, (even made his brother Attorney-general), authorized assassinations and coups in foreign nations. Started and maintained illegal, clandestine wars for personal benefit.
The list of his transgressions is long and all occurred while in office, yet the press loved him.
In comparison, Trump’s main transgression seems to be just being Trump! So far, he’s doesn’t seem to have committed any offenses while in office, yet the level of bile from the media has been unprecedented and hysterical.
It’s about time they investigated. I’m going to help the Congress out by saying that he is guilty of multiple hate crimes for trying to build a wall between them and Mexico, all the stuff he has said about Muslims, and the travel ban for the Muslim countries he made previously.