Flash drive. Tweet. Even condo was still a fresh neologism, back in those days.
Forty-five years, and (despite what the Never-Trumpers and their media supporters would like us to believe) the rot at the heart of the Republican Party is the same as it ever was. Also, Mr. Trudeau is one of the great artists of our era…
GOP Venality Open Thread: Only the Buzzwords ChangePost + Comments (79)
Saturday Night Horrorshow Open Thread: YOUUUKRANE!!!!
What Rudy Giuliani’s version of reality looks like from Ukraine https://t.co/brQUhHTSgY
— toomas hendrik ilves (@IlvesToomas) December 27, 2019
Not much joy in sercon dissection of the latest foreign policy revelations at this hour on a holiday weekend, but: This man is still, theoretically, the Oval Office Occupant’s personal lawyer.
Earlier this month, Rudolph W. Giuliani made an unexpected trip to Ukraine, accompanied by a TV crew from One America News Network (OAN), a little-known American channel to the right of Fox News. Giuliani’s mission was to exonerate his client, President Trump, of the charge in the articles of impeachment that he tried to bribe Ukrainian officials into investigating Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election, and to dig up incriminating information on Biden and his son Hunter.
The documentary of that trip has now been released, and it tells a truly fantastic tale, as presented by OAN correspondent Chanel Rion. As she and Giuliani tried to uncover the truth, Rion claimed, 1,000 Ukrainian troops were deployed in Kyiv as part of an effort to find them. Once they were found, they raced to the airport, where Jewish Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk and Jewish businessman and philanthropist George Soros were waiting for them with “human Dobermans in little black Mercedes.”
For journalists like me who have lived and worked in Ukraine for years, these claims were comical. Kyiv’s main international airport is about as much of a hub for intrigue as La Guardia. There is no evidence of a mobilization of Ukrainian troops in Kyiv while Giuliani and Co. were there. Soros does not live in Ukraine and hasn’t visited since 2016, and no one else has reported Pinchuk lurking at the airport. (Rion later tried to hedge her claim about Pinchuk and Soros, if only halfheartedly.)…
On cable news shows and Twitter, Giuliani has been echoing the same outlandish claims made by the documentary. He stated that one former Ukrainian prosecutor they spoke to who had proof of a Biden conspiracy had been poisoned with mercury, died twice and been revived. With Trump putting on pressure, the Senate Judiciary Committee has agreed to hear Giuliani and his evidence. In short, Giuliani’s claims about information coming from Ukraine look like they are going to become ammunition for Trump’s eventual impeachment trial in the Senate…
Man who wrote the tweet at the top is a former president of Estonia, where they don’t have our (literally) insular privilege to treat all this as a wacky TV serial.
perhaps just a bit senile in his dotage
— toomas hendrik ilves (@IlvesToomas) December 27, 2019
“Giuliani offered no proof of his allegations and he’s sought to blame on Soros in previous media appearances.” pic.twitter.com/057z1jbRBs
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) December 23, 2019
Also, Rudy has a new “communications director”:
Here is Rudy's director of communications and traveling companion. Recalls Maria Butina.
Christianné Allen is the 20-year-old Director of Communications for Rudy Giuliani. She has not yet graduated from college. pic.twitter.com/BgqhLkSWXm— GrassRootsGuy (@GrassRootsGuy) December 21, 2019
Additional nightmare fuel, via Politico: The mystery of Rudy Giuliani’s spokeswoman. Over the river and off the map!
Saturday Night Horrorshow Open Thread: YOUUUKRANE!!!!Post + Comments (135)
Impeachment Inquiry Open Thread: The Reason for the Season
As Americans gather with their loved ones for Christmas, Trump couldn’t let the day pass without talking about the most important woman in his life…
Nancy Pelosi https://t.co/e39WbaeZM4
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) December 26, 2019
Short answer: Article I, Sec 2, Clause 5
Long answer: a coordinated effort to use the powers of the presidency for the sole purpose of getting a foreign country to act in a way that would benefit a re-election campaign is bad and apparently that’s a partisan thing now https://t.co/3GcBZvqCkW
— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) December 26, 2019
As Trump questions "by what right" does Nancy Pelosi impeach him, the elected president, a reminder … https://t.co/sWpaOP5XJR
— David Frum (@davidfrum) December 26, 2019
Must be very frustrating to him
— David Frum (@davidfrum) December 26, 2019
If we spend all of 2020 working hard and working smart, Donald Trump will spend next Christmas hiding under his desk and crying, because he'll know his arrest is coming the minute the next president is inaugurated.
Here's to 2020. Now get to work!
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) December 26, 2019
Trump is climbing in the polls… sort of. https://t.co/oVlHcyLtNf
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) December 26, 2019
Impeachment Inquiry Open Thread: The Reason for the SeasonPost + Comments (22)
Impeachment Inquiry Open Thread: Sad Old Man Giuliani Officially Underbus’d
There are times when it’s appropriate to quote a particular morsel of a longer piece because it’s emblematic of the whole thing. In this instance, one must read @Olivianuzzi’s entire story to appreciate how low Giuliani has sunk. https://t.co/3K4Trfi6HH
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) December 23, 2019
Yes, we all knew it was coming, but this piece almost too cruel, until you remember it’s Roody Colloody. Olivia Nuzzi is a professional journalist-assassin, and I doubt very much she’d have written this — or that her editors would’ve published it — if there were even a small chance Giuliani could make another political ‘comeback’:
As the black SUV came to a stop on 33rd Street in Manhattan, its lights flashing, a pale hand stretched through the open window of the passenger door and gave a little wave. It was attached to Rudy Giuliani, who smiled from behind his tortoiseshell sunglasses. He apologized for being late. “Couldn’t go on sidewalks like I used to,” he said, mourning a perk of his past life as mayor.
It was early in the afternoon on Sunday, December 8, and Giuliani had just returned from Ukraine, where he said he was looking for information to undermine the case to impeach his client, President Donald Trump…
In addition to being the president’s free personal attorney, Giuliani, who is 75, is an informal White House cybersecurity adviser and a high-priced cyber-security contractor. In one hand, he clutched three phones of varying sizes. Two of the devices were unlocked, their screens revealing open tabs and a barrage of banner notifications as they knocked into each other and reacted to Giuliani’s grip. He accidentally activated Siri, who said she didn’t understand his command. “She never understands me,” he said. He sighed and poked at the device, attempting to quiet her.
Giuliani is quick to announce that he knows “every block of this city,” but he lives on the Upper East Side and doesn’t linger much across or below the park. When I asked him to bring me somewhere he likes to hang out, he quickly directed his bodyguard to the Mark, a five-star hotel on East 77th Street. Always a creature of habit, Giuliani is extra-aware of where he’s welcome these days. He says that “because of what’s happened” his circle is tightening, that he doesn’t trust anyone anymore.
I asked him how he ever trusted Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two Russian associates with a business called Fraud Guarantee who were arrested by the FBI in October. “They look like Miami people. I know a lot of Miami people that look like that that are perfectly legitimate and act like them,” Giuliani said. “Neither one of them have ever been convicted of a crime. Neither one. And generally that’s my cutoff point, because if you do it based on allegations and claims and — you’re not gonna work with anybody,” he said, laughing. “Particularly in business.”…
In the grand tradition of Soros conspiracy theorists, Giuliani believes the media is doing the billionaire’s bidding by printing lies about him, yet he often bungles his own attempts to discredit the media’s reporting. While attempting to argue that, despite what has been written, “I have no business interests in Ukraine,” he told me about his business interests in Ukraine…
As he spoke, he fixed his gaze straight ahead, rarely turning to make eye contact. When his mouth closed, saliva leaked from the corner and crawled down his face through the valley of a wrinkle. He didn’t notice, and it fell onto his sweater.
“If they think I committed a crime, they’re out of their minds,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for 50 years. I know how not to commit crimes. And if they think I’ve lost my integrity, maybe they’ve lost theirs in their insanity over hating Trump with some of the things they did that I never would’ve tolerated when I was U.S. Attorney.”…
He had a few ideas for going after the credibility of witnesses. “The guy that overheard the telephone call,” for instance, “anybody check if the guy has an earpiece? Maybe he didn’t have it in. How old is he? How old is that guy?” There was a possibility that he was deaf, he said, and didn’t know what he heard. “How do we know he isn’t a paranoid schizophrenic?,” he said. “How do we know he isn’t an alcoholic?”…
Read the whole thing; you don’t wanna miss the kicker at the end.
I just got off the phone with Giuliani, who called again. He claims he’s now read the story and thought it was unfair, and that he fell into the wall because he has a bad knee. He said he shouldn’t talk to me and that he’s going to the opera tonight. “Merry Christmas,” he said. https://t.co/nLC7LVFCxA
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) December 23, 2019
— Schooley (@Rschooley) December 23, 2019
Impeachment Inquiry Open Thread: Sad Old Man Giuliani Officially Underbus’dPost + Comments (20)
Late Sunday Night Open Thread: The GOP Goes Full Whited Sepulcher (Again)
Notice the pushback here isn’t that @CTmagazine was actually wrong about Trump… https://t.co/oHNaBEAET5
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) December 20, 2019
Trump just raged at Christianity Today for calling for his removal.
But Trump responded to CT's *moral* critique of him with a defense that's thoroughly *transactional.*
I'm giving Evangelicals a good deal, so shut up about my corruption!
New piece:https://t.co/87WgC2hu2k
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) December 20, 2019
… The magazine’s core indictment is that Trump “attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader” to “discredit” one of his “political opponents.” It adds that Trump “abused his authority for personal gain” in a “profoundly immoral” manner that damages the presidency, the country, and “the spirit and the future of our people.”…
Indeed, the transactional cast to Trump’s rage over this is particularly instructive, once you understand that Trump and his top advisers have consciously enlisted the nation’s evangelicals as an army of Trump defenders in the war against impeachment, which is widely depicted in the evangelical movement as a kind of epic persecution of Trump carried out by the godless and the damned.
As Sarah Posner details in a terrific piece, this effort is concerted, multifaceted and highly organized. Numerous high-profile evangelicals regularly depict impeachment as a disruption of God’s plan for America to be governed by Christians in accord with “biblical” values.
Impeachment is merely the weapon that the secular, satanic left is wielding to carry out its broader pro-abortion, anti-religious-liberty agenda, which requires the removal of Trump, the savior of Christian America, all to keep the persecution of Christians going at full throttle…
The editor of Christianity Today just ‘clarified’ that they are, indeed, merely haggling about the price of their vote, now:
… [T]his is neither a criticism of the evangelical Trump voter nor an endorsement of the Democrats. The 2016 election confronted evangelical voters with an impossible dilemma: Vote for a pro-choice candidate whose policies would advance so much of what we oppose, or vote for an extravagantly immoral candidate who could well damage the standing of the republic and the witness of the church. Countless men and women we hold in the highest regard voted for President Trump, some wholeheartedly and some reluctantly. Friends we love and respect have also counseled and worked within the Trump administration. We believe they are doing their best to serve wisely in a fallen world.
We nevertheless believe the evangelical alliance with this presidency has done damage to our witness here and abroad. The cost has been too high. American evangelicalism is not a Republican PAC…
Would you *please* stop saying the quiet parts out loud, Pastor Trump?…
Gosh, congrats on supporting such a Godly man who has done so much for religion. You must be proud.https://t.co/IR3nncxuMQ
— TwoArticleHat (@Popehat) December 20, 2019
Trump certainly has done a lot for religion itself He has made me invoke God more than any other president in my lifetime. I mean, it's usually preceded by "oh my f—ing" but the point still stands.
— ??Dante Atkins?? (@DanteAtkins) December 20, 2019
Oh, whew. For a minute there, I thought it was just about political power at all costs and not about deeply held religious beliefs. https://t.co/HK9OTyZARe
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 21, 2019
Naa it’s just game recognizing game. https://t.co/KQUdWpHbhp
— Schooley (@Rschooley) December 21, 2019
Late Sunday Night Open Thread: The GOP Goes Full Whited Sepulcher (Again)Post + Comments (79)
Merry Impeachmas, From Donald & His Duma Buddies
“Russian attempts to interfere in the election were disclosed by Congress on Sep 22, 2016, confirmed by US intel agencies on Oct 7, and detailed by the Dir of National Intelligence office in Jan 2017. According to US intel, the operation was ordered directly by Putin.”??♀️ pic.twitter.com/0b93NKvBXg
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) December 21, 2019
Every single time I think, "Naw, Trump wouldn't be *that* brazen, would he?" he does something even more brazen than I could have imagined. Here's the president of the United States, telling us that his impeachment is unfair because… Vladimir Putin says so. https://t.co/9sgJ13jGMi
— Rosa Brooks (@brooks_rosa) December 22, 2019
Who needs the Washington Post and anonymous administration sourcesX when you can get the information straight from President’s mouth: Putin told me! pic.twitter.com/H3ZdAHpaT9
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) December 21, 2019
Furthermore…
And here is your bureaucracy version of a literally smoking gun:
Newly released #UkraineDocs show that a mere 90 minutes after Trump's phone call, the White House ordered the military aid to be put on hold, but to be "closely held" infohttps://t.co/IqT70JkWBH
HT @Zeddary pic.twitter.com/H9eeHuOlo4— Peter W. Singer (@peterwsinger) December 21, 2019
?This is breaking news and it’s important. New documents show:
1. Ukraine aid was held just hours after the Trump/Zelensky “do us a favor” call
2. Internal notes show Trump’s direct involvement
3. Staff knew it was wrong, kept it secrethttps://t.co/KHhS99oP0h
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 21, 2019
This is how it always goes. He's always lying, it's always Russia, it's always worse than it first appears. It takes a long time for evidence to come out, which is a sign that he's been getting away with a lot we don't know about at all. https://t.co/nYxvaq12xv
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) December 22, 2019
Merry Impeachmas, From Donald & His Duma BuddiesPost + Comments (107)
Thursday Morning Open Thread: What Comes Next
NEWS: @SpeakerPelosi says she will not name impeachment managers until she sees what the process will be in the Senate. “So far we have not seen anything that looks fair to us,” she said. Articles will not be sent to the Senate until she names the managers to present the trial. pic.twitter.com/aT8R3qrHzy
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) December 19, 2019
Per a very thorough explainer in the Washington Post, paper of record in the town whose monopoly industry is politics:
… The Constitution only says that the Senate has to hold a trial, with the senators sitting as jurors, House lawmakers serving as prosecutors known as managers, and the chief justice of the United States presiding over it. Senators must take a public vote, and two-thirds of those present must agree on whether to convict the president and thus remove him from office. But the Constitution doesn’t lay out exactly how to hold a trial.
Rules the Senate approved in the 1980s give some guidelines, but the really important stuff — such as whether to call witnesses and what kind of evidence to admit and how long to make it — is up to the senators themselves to decide. The only modern guide we have is the Clinton impeachment trial, which allowed no new evidence and only taped witness testimony of key witnesses. It was largely considered a successful example of bipartisan cooperation, as Republicans worked with Democrats to put together as fair a trial as possible.
A majority of senators need to agree on the rules for Trump’s impeachment trial. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) will probably try to come to a compromise beforehand on what witnesses to call to avoid a big, dramatic battle during the trial. But they have vastly different views on how to do this. Schumer has said he wants people close to the president during the period scrutinized in the impeachment inquiry, such as Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, or former national security adviser John Bolton, to testify. The Washington Post has reported McConnell wants no witnesses at all. Republicans are also feeling pressured by Trump, who appears ready to use the Senate trial to attack his political opponents and try to undermine his impeachment…
Minutes after the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters she wouldn’t be naming House managers until she saw the parameters of the Senate trial and was assured it was fair, strongly suggesting that she believes a fair trial includes witnesses.
Assuming they get the articles without delay, senators will come to an agreement on a start date for a trial. We expect that will be in January. Senators will start by taking an oath of impartiality and will work six days a week until they’ve voted on both articles of impeachment. If there are witnesses, senators can ask them questions in writing, which the presiding official, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., will read out loud. The president can choose his own lawyers, and they can cross-examine witnesses. The chief justice can overrule something that happens in the trial that he feels is out of line with the rules, but senators can overrule him with a vote.
If Trump is convicted on even one count, the Constitution says he has to be removed from office. Senators could take yet another vote to prevent him from running for office ever again…
If @SpeakerPelosi is indicating she will hold the articles until McConnell guarantees a trial with witnesses, she's probably looking at this:
71% of Americans say Trump aides shud testify (ABC/Wapost)
Also, even Rooney, who voted AGAINST impeachment says they should testify.
— Heidi Przybyla (@HeidiNBC) December 19, 2019
Thursday Morning Open Thread: What Comes NextPost + Comments (164)