Smilin’ Gordon Sondland’s mass execution of the upper echelons of the Trump Administration was just interrupted by a potty break, so here’s a thread for when they get back. As Nunes predicted in his opener, Sondland is going to get smeared today, but I don’t think he meant it the way it’s going to happen.
Post Break Thread
by HRH mistermix, Lord Bombay Sapphire, Duke of Schweppes| 224 Comments
This post is in: Impeach the Motherfucker!
Nashville_fan
At least now we can all pretend that “nobody” knows what happened. Now we can call a thing a thing. Republicans can now look into the camera and say we are corrupt and there is nothing you can do about it. (White power, lower taxes, etcetera, etcetera . . .)
Good grief.
Nashville_fan
@Nashville_fan: I meant “stop pretending” . . . argh
rikyrah
Never forget
Johnsonn was one of the July 4th Senators in Russia ????
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Yes, yes, yes. We need to find out what was up with that.
Yarrow
@rikyrah: Yep. Here’s the full list:
No wonder Sen. Kennedy has been defending Trump so strongly.
bbleh
This is amazing. John-Dean-level stuff. Popcorn.
TaMara (HFG)
Sad I have to go to a meeting.
Major Major Major Major
That testimony was brutal! The only one I’ve watched so far since Twitter made it clear there were Things To See.
sdhays
Non-impeachment news: Did anyone see that Nikki Haley sent classified information over insecure email? I guess the Dump DOJ is going to have to lock her up, right?
Yarrow
@Elizabelle: It’s pretty clear they were there because they’re owned by Putin. There is no way they would have gone on the 4th of July otherwise. He was making a public example of them and an obvious threat if they didn’t comply.
The Dangerman
@Nashville_fan:
Trump: “People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I am a crook. Fuck you.”
Just Chuck
One bus to rule them all. The Omnibus. The GOP is getting thrown under it.
Nashville_fan
@The Dangerman: I mean . . . seriously . . . that is what it has been from Day 1.
Snarki, child of Loki
@Yarrow: Yep, those GOPers had to go pledge their fealty to Putin on 4th July.
cmorenc
After today’s revelations, the GOP’s defense will be forced to retreat into what was their true presumably impenetrable bunker was all along:
Yes, we did that, and you can’t do ANYTHING about it libs, suck on it.
Of course, this strategy presumes the combo of William Barr, the Fox News bubble, and the die-hard MAGA base will withstand any bombardment, with the assistance of voter suppression and foreign social-media interference on their behalf.
Baud
Ancillary but important. I hope this stuff causes Roberts to shy away from endorsing Trump’s extreme immunity and privilege claims.
Elizabelle
Nunes’s Cow’s Lesser Half is up.
He wants to get back to the Facts. Spewing about Democrats’ operatives getting campaign dirt from Ukraine for the 2016 election. To dirty up the Trump Campaign.
He is so dreadful.
ALEXANDRA CHALUPA!!
Elizabelle
@Baud: It really might. Fingers crossed.
A lot of people have their eyes on history.
Betty Cracker
Here’s a great summary of round one:
Now Nunes is giving an overview of the Crackpot Dome scandal while Sondland says uh, I don’t know anything about that…
MattF
@Baud: Also, Roberts will preside over Trump’s trial.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Yeah. And Nunes even said at the outset that Sondland might know nothing about it. But he’s gonna spew the shit anyway.
Dirty up the campaign. Such projection.
Yarrow
Nunes: “Democrats’ Russia hoax witch hunt.” It’s like buzzword bingo.
Steeplejack (phone)
Hoarsewisperer has a good live stream on Twitter, starting here:
When you get to the present moment and want to refresh, click on a tweet one or two above where you are. That will refresh the whole stream, but you won’t lose your place.
And you don’t need to be “on” Twitter to read this. Just need your browser.
Mary G
Devin is spewing every Fox News and QAnon catchphrase he can think of. Sondland is just smirking at him. “I’m actually rich, unlike someone in the WH, so dance, monkey, dance.”
Luciamia
Waiting for the next Netflix original, “Rudy Goes Rogue!”
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack (phone): Thank you. I just muted Nunes — life is short; why listen to that crap.
Hoarse Whisperer can endure it, so I don’t have to.
Yarrow
Nunes is focusing on Burisma because he’s got nothing else.
delk
Reading you guys on my commute to and from PT was great. Thanks everyone for the excellent play by play.
JWR
Drink!
Kelly
@Steeplejack (phone):
Lost my place days ago.
Gin & Tonic
@JWR: I really feel sorry for her.
LAO
Lolololo. Giuliani was acting on his own. Weak tea.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Elizabelle:
Exactly. Every time I turn on the TV I last about 30 seconds before I want to start screaming.
Steve Crickmore
Sondland breaks ranks with Trump and his diehard supporters when he paraphrases Orwell with his direct testimony that freedom is the freedom to say that “two plus two equals four,”
Yarrow
All this testimony is focusing on fairly recent Ukraine events. Let us also remember that in 2016 at the Republican National Convention they changed the platform re: Ukraine to become more Putin-friendly. It was a Ted Cruz supporting delegate who submitted the amendment. Reminder that Ted Cruz is funded by the Mercer’s and was the first to use the Cambridge Analytica data.
Gin & Tonic
This is interesting:
Amir Khalid
@Just Chuck:
You shouldn’t trust snyone with that much power, even a good guy like our Omnes.
LAO
Sondland is a perfect Trumper. Sitting there with a smirk on his face believing he’s the smartest guy in the room. Makes him difficult to cross.
Elizabelle
LOL. The GOP attorney is getting after Sondland for concluding something without actual evidence.
LOL, cuz it’s what his ranking member does, day after day after day. Two plus two — it cannot equal four! There is no evidence for that!
JWR
I was surprised he didn’t mention Seth Rich. That’s how nutty his opening remarks sounded to me.
PS. It’s Southern California, and it’s finally raining! (Well, sorta raining, anyway.)
Gin & Tonic
@Yarrow: J.D. Gordon was not a Cruz delegate, he was a Trump campaign staff employee.
WereBear
I know it’s confidential, but I would have loved to see Sonderland’s face as his pricey lawyer explained just how deep the rabbit hole will go for him if he gets convicted.
The Graybar Hotel beckons.
Just Chuck
@Yarrow: Man, the Dems on the committee need to start rattling off the names of all of Nunes’s Russian business partners…
MattF
A large part of the R problem is that Trump has made it clear that anything short of ‘The Great One, praised be His Name, did nothing wrong and the phone call was perfect’ is treason. There’s very little wiggle room, even in theory. And in practice, I’d say there’s none at all.
Aleta
@Baud: a welcome thought
Elizabelle
It seems many jackals are back on the previous thread commenting.
This one being, allegedly, break-y.
Sebastian
@Yarrow:
there were seven of those mofos??
Leto
@Elizabelle: Yeah, as I replied to Ella in NM in the previous thread, this is just insanity. I’ve otherwise run out of ways to describe it.
Yarrow
@Gin & Tonic: You are correct. I mixed up a few people. Sorry about the mix up. Statements on Cruz still accurate.
Raoul
GOP counsel just made it a priority to subpoena Rick Perry’s Chief of Staff. These guys are just not very smart.
JWR
Me too! I only recently learned of her exostence, but in reading just how she somehow became involved in one of Devin’s warped fantasies, I totally understand what you’re saying.
Just Chuck
@MattF: Yes, but once T gets loser stink on him, they’ll abandon him in droves. Wingnuts may love them some losers, but they hate loser stink. Save for about 27%
Yarrow
@Sebastian: Yes. Seven. It should have been a huge deal. Seven Republican elected officials go to Moscow on American Independence day. At any other time it would have been a massive story and many of them probably would have had to resign.
Leto
@MattF: They can’t admit to anything. One admission and the whole thing falls apart. It’s why they’re going to smear everyone connected to this as a liar, never Trumper, “deep stater”… any admission is tantamount to treason against the great Orange One. Doesn’t matter that Sondland is sitting there admitting that everyone is in on it, that he’s recounting all the specifics (I took photos!), no, they’re all liars who were trying to “undo the election” of a deeply unpopular president.
patroclus
It sounds like that when Senator Johnson confronted Trump on the aid being held up due to the extortion, Trump just started lying and said that he didn’t know anything about it.
Gin & Tonic
@JWR:
Yarrow
@patroclus: That’s what it sounds like. Senator Johnson went to Russia on the 4th of July so his loyalties are questionable. He could easily be lying about that conversation.
Leto
@Yarrow: The official US May Day Party delegation went home for their performance report, and to see how they could expand their ranks.
I hate them all. They need to be wiped out at every level. From Senate down to dog catcher. Every. Level.
And now we’re back to, “we took a picture on the lawn, it was a nice sunny day.” JFC, traitors, all the way down.
Cheryl Rofer
Yarrow
@Cheryl Rofer: “croakier voice than usual”? Was he intubated at Walter Reed?
Raoul
@Yarrow: The Johnson to Moscow storyline has — to my huge frustration — never gotten enough traction. Its freakin’ weird. These missions are almost (though not always) bipartisan, in part so that the appearance of favor or skulduggery is minimized. But this trip was, as I recall, hastily organized, with minimum press detail attached.
There was some pressure after to say what they got up to, and the GOP Sens issued a mealy statement about how they were protesting something or other. Never passed the smell test.
JWR
@Gin & Tonic:
Hell yes!
Kelly
twitter.com/justinamash/status/1197184568203399169
Quinerly
Moments before Wednesday’s impeachment hearings and right after U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland’s opening statement was released, Fox News contributor Ken Starr wondered aloud whether Sondland flipping on President Trump would cause GOP senators to push Trump to resign. “The real issue is the senators are watching,” Starr said. “Are senators going to now say in light of what we hear today, it’s going to be a long day even with the ambassador alone, in light of what we have heard, ‘We need to make a trip down to the White House’? That historic example set during the Nixon presidency. From what I’ve been able to glean I don’t think that’s going to happen. But obviously what happens today could—has the potential to be a game-changer.”
Leto
Sondland’s testimony summed up.
LAO
Wow. Sondland’s answer on the irregular channel was devastating.
Elizabelle
Whoa. Sondland making a great point that the “irregular channel” was not that irregular. Principals were involved. They were all in on it. Names names.
I think that backfired on Castor.
Elizabelle
“Everyone’s hair was on fire, but no one decided to talk to us.”
Ella in New Mexico
Croup? lol
Leto
http://<a href=”https://images.app.goo.gl/5UrSqZ8ntEP5CU2MA”>images.app.goo.gl/5UrSqZ8ntEP5CU2MA>Sondland’s testimony summed up.</a>
testing because I still can’t make shit link properly, can’t edit last comment even though I just posted it.
Yarrow
@Quinerly:
PsiFighter37
In normal times, the GOP senators would be making the walk to the White House this afternoon and demanding resignation. Alas, we live in strange times…
LAO
@Elizabelle: huge backfire. Castor is having great difficulty recovering from it.
Avalune
@Leto: Sometimes if you refresh your refresh the edit box reappears.
Ella in New Mexico
Honest to God I can’t figure out what the fuck Castor is trying to accomplish here–are we back to the “Oh, the hearings were so Booorrrrrinng” strategy?
Mary G
Now Castor is yelling at Sondland for not taking notes!
Avalune
@Leto: Also I’m very disappointed. I worked hard to find the link in your broken link only to find it was one of the images you’d already sent me. And not the one with the little girl brutally running over a little boy with her John Deere looking Power Wheels.
Yarrow
Castor is grasping at straws now.
Aleta
“talk about a drug cocktail” ??
He misses that personalized buzzer for tea service he required during his million dollar European blowout.
Elizabelle
The trifecta of unreliability because Sondland did not take notes.
Right. That will work out well for you, Castor.
Unreliability. Speculation. Dirtying up the campaign.
All they have is squid ink.
JGabriel
It’s kind of amusing watching the GOP try to impeach their own witness.
LAO
More Goldman. Excellent
patroclus
The reason no one bothered to tell them that this was blatant extortion is because they’re all Trump toadies who were merely following his orders to carry out the extortion and because they all wanted Ukraine to get the aid no matter what extortion Trump was insisting on.
Leto
It’s kind of amazing that career foreign professionals, who talk to high level people all the time, can remember the people they spoke with (helps that they all take notes); this dude is like, “Lol, I speak to people all the time, how can I be expected to remember everyone!” It’s like the Alfred E. Newman defense.
Also Castor’s last question just blew up in his face. Granted, most of his questions blew up in his face, so no difference.
Baud
@Yarrow:
Oh my. He was defending Trump just last week.
JWR
No kidding! When this post went up, it seemed to be where it was at. Apparently not. Thanks! ;)
Leto
@Avalune: Haha! Ask and you shall receive:
images.app.goo.gl/fUMww8aoRmXF5xPC8
Dorothy A. Winsor
Holy cow. Sounds like I’m missing a helluva hearing.
WereBear
One of the rules of good writing is how evil sows the seeds of their own destruction.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
So I just did something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile and watched the two recent Equalizer movies (which are extremely enjoyable and satisfying BTW though over-the-top violent).
As a result I can’t stop wishing Denzel Washington was sitting in Adam Schiff’s seat looking patient until the moment he sighs, starts his watch timer going [*], leaps over the table and starts breaking bones [**]. That approach seemed to solve all problems in the movies.
[*] For some reason Robert McCall (the character) liked to time his fight scenes.
[**] They used the bone-breaking sound effect a LOT in those films.
Just Chuck
@Baud: Another rat jumping off the ship.
Leto
@Leto:
@Avalune: and of course wrong link, with no edit ability.
Here: images.app.goo.gl/UndGeHByWuMEKxML6
Jay C
I seriously have to wonder: did the HIC Republicans bring Steve Castor on as counsel despite his being an imbecilic doofus, or because of it….?
Avalune
@Leto: And you are replying to yourself. Do I need to send someone to the house to make sure you are ok?
Baud
If Perry is called to testify, he can credibly say he doesn’t recall.
Leto
@WereBear: or how stupid people don’t understand what they’re doing, so of course they sow their own demise. Tomato/topato ?
Leto
@Avalune: only if they bring Thin Mints.
@Baud: make him put his glasses on. He’ll then remember.
Yarrow
The choices are becoming clear.
Avalune
@Leto: That sounds good…they need to bring me some too.
Martin
Well, this isn’t how I thought this was going to go down. I don’t quite understand this strategy. We’re sorta coming clean about everything, but also trying to thread the needle that his previous testimony wasn’t false. I guess they’re presuming that the committee will give him a pass on lying during his deposition if his dirt is dirty enough? Dems need to resolve this in some capacity or else he’s just an unreliable witness.
Kent
Honestly. Best case scenario for the institutional GOP at this point? The Senate GOP leadership goes to Trump and convinces him to declare “mission accomplished” and that he isn’t running for re-election in 2020 due to health reasons or whatever excuse they want. That would totally take the wind out of the sails of impeachment and give the Senate all the cover they would need to acquit him in any impeachment trial (for the good of the Country).
Trump can then spend 2020 going on a MAGA mission accomplished victory tour while the GOP leadership picks who they want to run in 2020 and they get to start planning the post-Trump GOP now, not after a 2020 defeat.
Of course if it makes sense it would never happen. But the media would fucking fall all over themselves giving a honeymoon and boot licking to any post-Trump candidate who is a fresh face, and basically give the whole GOP a do-over.
But that would be my worst-case scenario for taking back the White House in 2020.
Dmbeaster
@JWR: She is actually excited to say her piece, but will probably not be called by Nunes despite being listed as a witness.
The GOP does not actually want her testimony – just the talking point Chalupa, DNC, Ukraine, dissing Trump in 2016!
Of course, Trump got the Ukranians so worked up in 2016 by changing the GOP platform to delete a reference to supplying the Ukraine with arms in their war with Russia.
Quinerly
@Yarrow: ?
Martin
@Baud: There’s a disappointing lack of Red Bull at the Department of Energy! Save a pretzel for the gas jets! Meat!
germy
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Baud: Oooops!
Martin
Terrorists flying jets into tall buildings. Everything else is looking catastrophic.
germy
Maggie smells blood.
Leto
germy
Mike Furlan
@cmorenc: “Yes, we did that, and you can’t do ANYTHING about it libs, suck on it.”
A winning strategy since the Presidency of Ronald Reagan (at least).
germy
Martin
Castor has minutes to fill and nothing to fill them with. His entire plan for today went out the window during the opening statement. All he can try and do is impeach Sondland, with not a lot to work with.
randy khan
@Baud:
Perry can forget something only if he remembers two other things first
Cheryl Rofer
Martin
As something of an authority on the subject, Sondland is a VERY mediocre white male.
randy khan
Dupe comment; deleted.
Leto
@Martin: On the other hand, Dem’s counsel it just destroying it here. Continuing to bring everything out, showing text messages, just bringing all the goods, and having Sondland confirm everything. Can’t wait to see the Pizzagate response from Repubs.
germy
Yarrow
@Cheryl Rofer: This photo really is amazing.
patroclus
Just to re-iterate. Dan Goldman is really good at this. He’s prepared; coherent; he’s driving home salient points; he’s eliciting valuable information; he already knows what the answers are going to be.
Avalune
Since I haven’t really been able to watch, I can only speculate, but every time anyone talks about Nunes it makes me think of Arya Stark’s character who would recite her revenge/kill list every night before she went to sleep.
Pizzagate. Space Aliens. Beghazi. Emails. Uranium…
germy
Gin & Tonic
@Cheryl Rofer: That is actually real? Really real?
dmsilev
@Cheryl Rofer: You know, I thought at first that that’s for-sure a Photoshop job. Apparently not, it’s really the set of notes Trump had.
Yarrow
According to NBC liveblog, most Republicans have left the room.
Still present: Castor, Jordan, Ratcliffe and Stefanik.
Cheryl Rofer
Yarrow
@Gin & Tonic: Really real.
zhena gogolia
@Kelly:
lol!
dmsilev
@Yarrow: Someone really needs to Photoshop in several repetitions of “All work and no play makes Donald a dull boy”.
Cheryl Rofer
@Gin & Tonic:
@dmsilev:
I questioned it at first. That’s why I posted the tweet with the Getty Images photgrapher’s name. Apparently it is real.
sukabi
@Betty Cracker: that look on Nunes face? That’s the face of someone who’s ass just puckered hard enough to make a diamond, an already cut diamond.
Gin & Tonic
@germy: Opinions? “In my opinion, you would really help out the POTUS and grease the way for your Javelins by going on CNN and saying you’re investigating Joe Biden and his son.”
Not a demand, I guess, just an opinion.
guachi
What’s real? I can’t see tweets at work.
dmsilev
@Cheryl Rofer: I’m sure Rudy will be eager to tell the Committee this in person, under oath. Right?
Betty Cracker
@Cheryl Rofer: He wrote “I WANT NOTHING” twice. ?
Martin
The great thing here is that Schiff has the authority to keep adding time to the hearing giving each counsel another half hour. There’s literally no downside to doing this. Goldman can do this all day, and Castor just digs the hole deeper.
artem1s
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
can’t help but wish for the “Man On Fire” version of these hearings to get started myself.
Yarrow
@Cheryl Rofer: It’s in the official Getty Images Twitter thread.
Leto
@randy khan: Lol, well played sir ?
germy
Raoul
@Elizabelle: “I think that backfired on Castor.”
Could be said a number of times today. Among other things, Rick Perry should be sweating profusely about now. Certainly his CoS is in hot water.
Martin
@germy: I agree.
dmsilev
@guachi: It’s a photo of the notes Trump had in his hand while talking to the press just now. Written, of course, in Sharpie. First few lines reads:
which, if nothing else, is a really bad haiku.
Elizabelle
@germy: Agree 1000% with TBogg.
Postpone that debate. This is more important, and don’t give the news channels and pundits the chance to change directions.
Was thinking about that this morning, and what a shame the schedule turns out to be.
Martin
Evergreen:
Yarrow
@guachi: A photo of Trump holding notes for him to say prior to leaving the WH. It says things like, “I want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo.” It’s really something.
WereBear
@Jay C: We’re talking imbecilic doofus all the way down.
JWR
Attempting to embed a tweet, so please, bear with me.
Leto
@Yarrow: Can’t be real. Hand’s too big. /s
JaySinWA
@germy: I just listened to the sound bite, and Ken Starr is seriously misquoted here. He is paraphrasing Adam Schiff’s position. Those ellipses are doing heavy lifting.
There are others indicating Starr has acknowledged that there is a strong case here, but I haven’t seen the video.
PatrickG
@Cheryl Rofer: My spouse took 45 seconds to believe that was real. When told this was being reported by CNN, she demanded a second source.
I fully understood her incredulity!
Leto
Wtf is it with Republicans and basements? Dumb dumb talking about their “secret basement testimony”, Pizzagate basement shit… so weird.
VeniceRiley
I think the debate should go forward and all the candidates should square up with each other beforehand and decide what points to push. Name names and talk about what we found out. Praise Adam S. handling of the chair. Spit on Nunez as a deranged conspiracy theorist. All of it.
That won’t happen, of course.
Harris should say that she doesn’t mind that particular bus fleet Sondland threw the President under is segregated whites only. *snicker
Yarrow
@Leto: What are Republicans doing in their own basements is the real question. Can’t be good.
Searcher
You know what occurred to me?
All of the loyal co-conspirators who were willing to keep their mouths shut went to jail in the first round of investigations.
Everyone left to get pulled into Treason 2: The Treasoning is (a) not nearly as loyal and (b) is looking at all of those loyal conspirators now in prison and saying “No, thanks.”
Amir Khalid
@WereBear:
Ahem:
doofi.
Leto
Dumb dumb is talking about how the president has to “certify” that the foreign aid has to go to “non-corrupt” countries, without talking about how every damn agency (DoD, State, etc…) had already certified that the Ukrainians were good to go. On top of the fact that it wasn’t his to hold up. /smfh
Just Chuck
@dmsilev:
I do not want a quid pro quo,
I do not want it in the snow.
I do not know this Volker man,
I do not know Gordon Sondland.
Yarrow
Who is this person who’s in charge of foreign aid who testified on Saturday that Nunes keeps talking about?
PatrickG
@dmsilev:
The next sentence should read:
Do you like green eggs and ham?
Amir Khalid
I’ve been following these hearings only through the Balloon Juice threads. Am I correct to conclude that they are developing not necessarily to the Republicans’ advantage?
Yarrow
@JWR: This will be the Republicans’ talking point going forward.
Cheryl Rofer
I figured he would, which is why I took a screenshot.
dmsilev
@PatrickG: Nobody tell Ted Cruz. He hasn’t finished the book yet and we’d hate to spoil the ending for him.
Roger Moore
@germy:
I have an even better suggestion: Schiff should just extend the hearing so it overlaps with the debate. If the Democrats hold a debate and nobody watches because they’re all glued to the impeachment hearings, are they really in disarray?
Avalune
I did not do no quid pro quo
It’s also lies that I do blow
It’s all because of lil Schiff
I cannot help it that I sniff
It really was a perfect call
I wanted nothing, nothing at all.
Gelfling 545
@Just Chuck: ????
trollhattan
@dmsilev:
What would a squid pro quo look or taste like? Are ink-clouds involved?
Why does my auto-fill nym vanish overnight? Does it have a half-life?
SFBayAreaGal
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: You may know this, The Equalizer was a television series before the movies were made.
lgerard
@Yarrow:
Mark Sandy, OMB
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Yarrow: as in Trump was crying.
Yarrow
@Roger Moore: Make the debates online-only and keep the TV covering the hearings. Yesterday they went into prime time. It was long. I think there’s an afternoon portion today so could run long again.
WereBear
@Amir Khalid: LOL
Yarrow
@lgerard: That’s what I figured. Wonder why Nunes wouldn’t say his name? Also, the closed-door session transcripts have been released but it takes longer than a few days. Nunes seems to be grasping at straws.
Leto
@Amir Khalid: Republicans went in thinking they had a royal flush, turns out they were holding Go Fish cards.
Raoul
I know Kristol is a twerp, but I am loving this tweet so damn much.
(Couldn’t get the copy paste of the embed tweet to work. Oh well.)
Leto
Whew, Dumb Dumb is talking about the whistleblower again. I almost forgot the whistleblower! Guys, guys: whistleblower!
/headdesk
Martin
@PatrickG: I think we need to work in ‘I did not want it in Kiev, This thing on my my head is not a weave’
patrick II
Most people here seem happy with Sondland. But I am not so sure. He refuses to say that Trump directed him to trade Biden for weapons. Talk to Rudi. Trump is still in the clear.
delk
@Betty Cracker: I think because he ran out room to write ‘nothing’ so he wrote it again and did the same thing.
JWR
Ooo, ooo! Devin is again demanding that they interview the Whistle Blower, who knows all!
Richard Guhl
Is it possible to have a group impeachment for Trump, Pence, Mulvaney, and perhaps, Barr?
Bribery, extortion, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and abuse of power just speaks of togetherness for these thugs.
Elizabelle
Now Nunes is up saying whistleblower, whistleblower, whistleblower.
Says it’s the Democrats that have spun the conspiracy theories. It is such projection.
If only the whistleblower would have testified, Sondland would not be here right now.
FWIW, I looked up Nunes’ bio today. He is married with 3 young daughters; littlest is 7. He and his wife Elizabeth are both from the Portuguese/Azores-American community. She was a schoolteacher when they married.
Surprises me to think of him as a family man. He is so whack.
PsiFighter37
@patrick II: Perhaps, but so many other senior people were named that someone below them are going to start singing. You can bet the staffs for Oversight, Intelligence and Judiciary are writing up more subpoenas as we speak. I highly doubt SCOTUS is going to get in the way…maybe an optimist but Roberts will tell Gorsuch and Kavanaugh that this is not the hill to die on.
eric
@patrick II: cnn seems to disagree, and that may be all that matters: LIVE UPDATES In stunning testimony, Sondland ties Trump and top officials to a plan to demand investigations of the Bidens in a quid pro quo
Martin
@Richard Guhl: They can write articles of impeachment for all senate confirmed officials plus VP. Chief of staff is not confirmed, but head of OMB is, so Mulvaney doesn’t get an out.
lgerard
I have to laugh at Sondland lamenting that he wishes he had access to everyone else’s notes.
If I had known what everyone else was going to say, my story would sound a lot better
Cheryl Rofer
@Yarrow: Holmes is scheduled to testify later today.
Leto
@Elizabelle: Dumb Dumb helped to sink the proposed move of intelligence assets from multiple bases to my previous base. Something that had been years in the planning, costing millions of dollars, because he wanted it relocated to the Azores, where no infrastructure existed for it, and it would’ve only benefitted his tiny community, not the actual taxpayers, us. I hate him so much.
Dev Null
@dmsilev: But the last line is the bestest!
E2A: “Pres”, not “President”.
Hoodie
@patrick II: No he’s not in the clear. You seem to be expecting a Perry Mason moment, which almost never happens. Everything Sondland is saying is helping draw an evidentiary ring around Trump, when taken in combination with the other testimony and physical evidence. You have the call record, Sondland confirming that Trump instructed them to talk to Rudy and that Rudy indicated that the announcement of the investigations was required, witnesses like Taylor and Morrison filling in the convenient gaps in Sondland’s memory. It is frequently the case in criminal conspiracies that you don’t have the Boss explicitly saying “Whack Joey Bananas.” Sondland was dumb enough to ask Trump directly and, as would be expected, Trump lied because Sondland is just a useful idiot for Trump. There is a mound of evidence that Trump lies about everything, and his “denial” of the quid pro quo in the call with Sondland is another lie, consistent with the sleazeball character. If this was a criminal case, no jury would believe him.
Aleta
@lgerard: I only recall what you tell me.
Steve in the ATL
@trollhattan:
Restauranteur agreed not to serve calamari, squid agrees to provide ink for printing menus.
At least according to a cartoon Bella Q once sent me.
Elizabelle
I think tomorrow’s New York Daily News cover might be one for the record books.
They are not that fond of Rudy.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Leto: And you thought it was just a coincidence they brought pizza to the basement?
Ruckus
@Leto:
Thing is, so many of them are in on the con that if one talks, it’s the end.
Another Scott
I heard some of Sondland’s statement and Schiff’s questioning on CSpan Radio this morning. I haven’t read the threads here yet.
What struck me was that yes, he was naming names and throwing everyone under the bus and blaming lack of cooperation from the White House and State in giving him notes and records of calls and meetings for his mistatements/lies/omissions earlier (“I don’t take notes, that’s just the way I am…”), but he seemed completely oblivious that in trying to do what Rudy and Donnie and Mikey and Ricky wanted (so that the money would be released), he was making a dumpster fire of bipartisan, multi-administration Ukraine policies.
“I was just trying to clear the logjam and getting Zelenskyy to say he was going to have an investigation – he wouldn’t have to actually do it…”
Is he really that clueless??
An Ambassador’s job is to represent the United States, not be a fixer for the narrow political views of an administration. Having Zelenskyy cut his own throat, and reward Putin and the corrupt oligarchs in Ukraine in the process, in exchange for long-promised aid, was not in the US’s interests.
Grrr…
I hope some of the questions pick up on that important point.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@Leto:
It’s the con. It’s always the con. If you admit any part was a scam then you’ve admitted all of it is a scam-a con. Remember, they aren’t try to con the left, just enough morons like themselves.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: Shut up, you. He knows what he’s doing.
Leto
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Haha, good point! ?
@Ruckus: I can only hope that this kick to the house of cards is enough, although just like cockroaches, they’ll eventually come back
Edit: @Ruckus: Totally agree. Roughly 47% of the US is more than willing to accept the con at face value.
Matt McIrvin
@patrick II: The way I see it Trump is in the clear anyway–at least until 2021– because the Senate will never convict him under any circumstances, and there seems to be a weird consensus that he’s above the law otherwise. This is about how much political damage happens to Trump and the Republican brand. I suspect the most it’ll do is keep people not already in the tank from entering it, but there’s a chance that’s enough.
Roger Moore
@Richard Guhl:
Like a RICO-style impeachment?
trollhattan
@Steve in the ATL:
Excellent. Perhaps evening entertainment added to venue, consisting of Squidward Tentacles performing interpretive dance and clarinet tunes.
mrmoshpotato
Questioning has resumed, and Schiff has recognized himself for 5 minutes. Hehe
Leto
@mrmoshpotato: If you don’t recognize yourself, who will?
I think it was the great Deskcart: I recognize myself, there I speak! ?
Redshift
@Another Scott: I doubt he’s that clueless; more likely he thinks if he plays dumb about those things while throwing the people under the bus about things the Dems really care about, they probably won’t try to have him prosecuted.
Cheryl Rofer
New thread
cckids
@Kent:
THIS. Especially if they choose someone like Kasich (sp?) Waaaay too many “centrist” Democrats like him.
zhena gogolia
This is like some horrible existential torture — every time I have a few minutes free and could watch uninterrupted, it’s Nunes!
mrmoshpotato
Nunes trying to summarize and “Of course you can correct me if I get it wrong.” The jokes write themselves.
sdhays
@Baud: Perry will confess to everything, summing up with “Oops!”.
Zinsky
@Gin & Tonic: I wish these GOP jerks WOULD subpoena Alexandra Chalupa! From what I read, she is fiesty as Hell and would rip these room temperature IQ losers a new sphincter!
mrmoshpotato
@sdhays: “There was no quid pro quo. There was no quid pro quo.”
*is shown all of the evidence of a quid pro quo*
“Oops!”
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia: LOL What Powerball numbers should we pick tonight?
patroclus
To address patrick’s point above, no I am not “happy” with Sondland. He helped execute Trump’s extortion scheme and he has also adopted the defense that he didn’t realize that investigating Burisma equated (for Trump) smearing the Bidens. And, as you point out, he has refused to implicate Trump with a “smoking gun” recollection of a specific direction to engage in the extortion. All of this is not good.
Nonetheless, he has provided key testimony – direct testimony concerning Trump himself and not hearsay – that confirms everything everyone else has been saying. And he has implicated everyone – Trump, Pompeo, Mulvaney, Pence and, of course, Guiliani in the scheme. In Watergate analogies, this was a “John Dean” moment – direct testimony from someone intimately involved – and not merely a Hugh Sloane or Jeb McGruber moment. John Dean testified in June of 1973 – the impeachment hearings didn’t happen until summer 1974. And the “smoking gun June 23, 1972 tape” was not released until August 1974. John Dean directed Nixon’s cover-up for 9 months; Sondland directed Trump’s extortion scheme for a few months.
Sondland’s testimony has advanced the investigation significantly, but you’re right that we’re not there yet. More needs to be done – Bolton’s testimony, I suspect, will be key.
artem1s
@patroclus:
I’ll take it. it’s still a better ending than Twilight.
sdhays
@mrmoshpotato: There was no quid pro…umm. I forgot the third part of that. Oops!”
Gravenstone
@dmsilev: “No puppet! No puppet! You’re the puppet!” re-framed for 2019.
Another Scott
@PatrickG:
It really is flabbergasting.
What’s worse is that he referred to it multiple times in the video clip.
:-/
(I had the sound off.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
(probably dead thread, but…)
@SFBayAreaGal: Sure. And I was a big fan of the TV show back in the day. But I was curious about the movie treatment and what Denzel would be like in contrast to Edward Woodward.
Dan B
@JWR: Even moar unbewievable is it’s a cloudless sunny day in Seattle! Seattle mole people are cursing and screaming at the burning devil in the sky!!
Actually we’ve had a week of mostly cloudy to completely overcast. Oscar The Kat was rolling around on Tikal, our sunny back terrace for ten minutes in unrestrained bliss.
P.S. Good to hear you’re getting some precip.
Dan B
@Avalune: Poetry SLAM!
Is this a sign of an Unstable Genius mind?
Thank me later. /
Uncle Cosmo
@Yarrow: Nah, they stuffed him full of “freedom fries” – he was intuberated.