Impeach the Motherfucker!

Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: Lock HIM Up!

by Anne Laurie| May 1, 201911:00 pm| 77 Comments

This post is in: Dolt 45, Don't Agonize - Organize, Impeach the Motherfucker!, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Repubs in Disarray!, #notintendedtobeafactualstatement, Fuck Yeah!

Here is the complete exchange, via CSPAN, between Kamala Harris and Bill Barr — including the part where Barr couldn't say whether Trump or anyone in the White House has ever suggested that he open an investigation into anyone. It's worth a watch. pic.twitter.com/wJOdSFR7JR

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 1, 2019

Nadler stops short of calling on Barr to resign but says: “I think there are great difficulties for the attorney general at this point. Besides the fact that he clearly misled the American people, he seems to have testified non truthfully to the Senate and the House”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 1, 2019

Shorter #Barr: @realDonaldTrump is the real victim here, and he was entitled to stop the investigation.

— Jeffrey Toobin (@JeffreyToobin) May 1, 2019

Shorter Klobuchar: I read the damn report and you know this is obstruction.

Shorter Barr: I know. I don't care.

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 1, 2019

Was Barr sworn in on a redacted Bible?

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) May 1, 2019

AG Barr is a disgrace, and his alarming efforts to suppress the Mueller report show that he's not a credible head of federal law enforcement. He should resign—and based on the actual facts in the Mueller report, Congress should begin impeachment proceedings against the President.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 1, 2019

Politico, “Democrats weigh a ‘Benghazi Trump’ strategy”:

Democrats may not be able to saddle President Donald Trump with impeachment proceedings or pry documents from his administration, but they have another means of bludgeoning him: hearings, hearings and more hearings.

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It’s a counterstrategy to the president’s all-out resistance to congressional investigations, lawmakers told POLITICO. Democrats say the optics are on their side. Witnesses like Attorney General William Barr, former White House counsel Don McGahn and special counsel Robert Mueller are all but guaranteed to draw blanket media attention. And even if the boldfaced names don’t show up, party leaders recognize that the spectacle of empty chairs and drawn-out legal fights could dog Trump and create negative narratives during the 2020 presidential race…

Democrats say a spate of hearings will also highlight Trump’s efforts to stonewall their myriad probes. The president has resisted at least half a dozen subpoenas from House committees and launched an unprecedented series of federal lawsuits to invalidate some of the information requests.

The approach is almost as much political as it is tactical. It gives Democrats a chance to navigate around the thorny impeachment question while still showcasing their majority and flexing their investigative chops. And they might even uncover some wrongdoing along the way just as the 2020 presidential race heats up…

And one attention-grabbing hearing could be rescheduled in the coming weeks. Felix Sater, the chief negotiator for Trump’s failed election-year attempts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, had previously agreed to testify, but his appearance was pushed off until after the Mueller report came out.

“We need to put some color around the Mueller report and really come to a conclusion in concert with the American people over what the proper response is,” said Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a member of the Intelligence Committee.

“And until people are more familiar with the details of what occurred, it’s hard to come to a unified notion,” Himes added. “Certainly, in my district and around the country, there’s ambivalence about the right mechanism of accountability for the president. Just as in the 1970s, we need to do more work and better understand what occurred.”…

“Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” Richard Nixon https://t.co/cKjHCUnlEl

— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) May 1, 2019

The Beltway take on #Barr is that he’s a good man corrupted by proximity to @realDonaldTrump. Actually, he’s always been a ruthless, intellectually dishonest shill for untrammeled presidential and corporate power, made to look decent by a light dusting of Poppy Bush Family ties.

— Howard Fineman (@howardfineman) May 1, 2019

Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: <em>Lock HIM Up!</em>Post + Comments (77)

Contempt

by Betty Cracker| April 23, 20191:14 pm| 105 Comments

This post is in: Impeach the Motherfucker!, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, General Stupidity

Breaking from Le Post:

House panel moves to hold former White House official in contempt after he obeys Trump administration’s instruction not to testify

The House Oversight Committee moved Tuesday to hold a former White House personnel security director in contempt of Congress for failing to appear at a hearing investigating alleged lapses in White House security clearance procedures.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said he would consult with the House counsel and members of the panel about scheduling a vote on contempt for former White House personnel security director Carl Kline. At the instruction of the White House, Kline failed to show up for scheduled testimony on security clearances.

The move marks a dramatic escalation of tensions between Congress and the Trump White House, which is increasingly resisting requests for information from Capitol Hill.

“The White House and Mr. Kline now stand in open defiance of a duly authorized congressional subpoena with no assertion of any privilege of any kind by President Trump,” Cummings said in a statement. “Based on these actions, it appears that the President believes that the Constitution does not apply to his White House, that he may order officials at will to violate their legal obligations, and that he may obstruct attempts by Congress to conduct oversight.”

Anyone know what happens next? I’m not sure how the House proceeds after a contempt vote. Hopefully it’s not referred to the DOJ, which is now headed by a Trump toady who has even less grounding in institutional ethics than Jeff Sessions.

PS: While the debate rages about whether or not to open impeachment proceedings against Trump, can we all agree to start impeaching William Barr, maybe as a trial run? Having now read the Mueller report, I can see more clearly than ever what a lying hack that guy is.

ContemptPost + Comments (105)