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You are here: Home / Archives for Politics / Impeachment / Impeach the Motherfucker!

Impeach the Motherfucker!

Impeachment Round Up

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Here are a few impeachment-related links and observations:

In a real shocker, it turns out that the White House is going to release a redacted version of the whistleblower complaint. That’s why Pelosi was smart to focus not just on the complaint but also on Trump’s bad acts in general – it doesn’t leave room for Trump to say “we gave them what they wanted, why are they still unsatisfied?”. (Nancy also said he needs to turn over the full complaint, since it ain’t her first rodeo with this asshole.) Contrast that with Biden’s conditional statement that if Trump doesn’t comply with Congress, they will have to start impeachment hearings. The Trump administration has shown, and will continue to show, malicious compliance – they’ll let people testify, but have them assert executive privilege, they’ll release documents with all of the incriminating parts blacked out – in short, they’ll do anything to run out the clock on oversight.

Chuck Todd was a little bit stern with Senator Foghorn Leghorn John Kennedy last night, but Lord Baby Jesus does he get a lot of attention for a very little effort. Basically, Todd made the elementary point that “whatabout Hunter and Joe” and “both sides need investigating” is not a defense for Trump’s bad acts. Maybe Joe read Margaret Sullivan’s piece in the Post, where she points out that Trump’s strategy on the Ukraine scandal counts on the press engaging in their usual both-sides bullshit when it comes to the completely unfounded accusations about Biden.

The Senate’s unanimous consent resolution to have Trump release the whistleblower report has spawned a lot of speculation about McConnell’s decision to allow the vote. My theory was that it was another Lucy and the football move by McConnell – along with being the least he could do other than nothing, the wording of the resolution would allow Trump’s redacted version to be spun as complying. Others have speculated that it was a last-ditch attempt to entice the Democrats into delaying a bit more, but that seems pretty far-fetched. Since there wasn’t really a vote on the resolution, I don’t think it tells us anything about where the Republicans have moved. I doubt that a single one of them will vote to convict after Trump is impeached, not even St. Mitt or Sister Susan of the Order of the Perpetually Furrowed Brow and Look of Concern.

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Open Thread: Tic-Toc MOFO

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So the crazed, dried up circus peanut is going to try and distract from all of this with a “transcript”? I rolled my eyes so hard I almost hurt myself.

Will that transcript be written in sharpie or crayon?

Here’s another ITMFA open thread while we wait for Pelosi.

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Today is the Day, Now is the Time

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If your Member of Congress is on the fence about impeachment (assuming they’re a Democrat, of course, since Republicans can only vote for impeachment for Democrats per the Constitution), call or write them now. Joe Morelle, my spineless Congressman here in NY-25 (campaign motto: “Always the rearguard, never the vanguard”) finally caved a few minutes ago, according to a tweet from another constituent. I emailed his office earlier this morning.

I can think of no reasonable excuse for a safe seat Democrat not to support impeachment proceedings after the last couple of days of Ukraine revelations. Maybe some of the members in Trump districts can have a pass for now as their constituents catch up on the news, but not guys like Morelle.

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Ka-BOOM (Open Thread)

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Breaking news from The Post:

President Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold back almost $400 million in military aid for Ukraine at least a week before a phone call in which Trump is said to have pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate the son of former vice president Joe Biden, according to three senior administration officials…

Trump’s order to withhold aid to Ukraine a week before his July 25 call with Volodymyr Zelensky is likely to raise questions about the motivation for his decision and fuel suspicions on Capitol Hill that Trump sought to leverage congressionally approved aid to damage a political rival. The revelation comes as lawmakers clash with the White House over a related whistleblower complaint made by an intelligence official alarmed by Trump’s actions.

Sounds pretty quid pro quo-ish to me. Also, seven freshmen Democrats from swing districts — Reps. Gil Cisneros of California, Jason Crow of Colorado, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Elaine Luria of Virginia, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia — released an op-ed in The Post this evening:

The president of the United States may have used his position to pressure a foreign country into investigating a political opponent, and he sought to use U.S. taxpayer dollars as leverage to do it. He allegedly sought to use the very security assistance dollars appropriated by Congress to create stability in the world, to help root out corruption and to protect our national security interests, for his own personal gain. These allegations are stunning, both in the national security threat they pose and the potential corruption they represent…

This flagrant disregard for the law cannot stand. To uphold and defend our Constitution, Congress must determine whether the president was indeed willing to use his power and withhold security assistance funds to persuade a foreign country to assist him in an upcoming election.

If these allegations are true, we believe these actions represent an impeachable offense. We do not arrive at this conclusion lightly, and we call on our colleagues in Congress to consider the use of all congressional authorities available to us, including the power of “inherent contempt” and impeachment hearings, to address these new allegations, find the truth and protect our national security.

Looks like the dam is breaking in House leadership [Politico]:

House Democrats may vote this week on a resolution condemning President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and party leaders consider ramping up impeachment proceedings against the president, according to lawmakers and aides.

Pelosi is expected to meet with the six committee chairmen investigating Trump on Tuesday afternoon to discuss Democrats’ next steps and may even issue a forceful statement endorsing the impeachment investigation.

My guess is no formal impeachment inquiry will be announced until after the acting DNI appears before Congress on Thursday and makes it clear he intends to continue to illegally withhold the whistleblower complaint. After that, the House will start the investigation. It will have no other option.

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Offense, Not Defense

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Hat that says: "DOWN WITH THIS SORT OF THING"

If nothing changes, there’s a good chance Trump’s attempt to “both-sides” the Ukraine extortion scandal away will work. Trump tweet-screamed about FAKE NEWS, THE REAL STORY and SPIES all of yesterday and is at it again today, now with the full Fox News/GOP elected officials chorus.

Someone made a slick video ad for him that intersperses clips of mainstream media yapping heads (NYT’s Ken Vogel [see here], ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, NBC’s Brian Williams, etc.), all breathlessly speculating about the propriety of Hunter Biden raking in money abroad while his father was VP.

The ad also features a clip of Biden as VP bragging about giving the Ukrainian government an ultimatum to fire the (corrupt!) prosecutor within “six hours” or kiss billion-dollar loan guarantees bye-bye. If you’re not aware of the context (and remember, maybe 3% of Americans are aware of the context), it’s the most both-sidesiest thing ever.

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Here Are Your Representatives On Impeachment

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We’ve got a lively discussion going on impeachment already this morning. If you want to know if your representative supports impeachment, you can put your zip code in the blank at this website and find out.

Press your representative hard if they’re a “no.” Send them good words if they’re a “yes.” At Ben Ray Lujan’s town hall a couple of weeks back, he seemed very reluctant about impeachment, even though he has come out in favor of moving forward.

Republicans can and should support impeachment too. Don’t give up just because your rep is a Republican.

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A Little Late-Night Honesty

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Beto has had it with reporters.

Also, Nebraska State Senator John McCollister has had it with his silent Republican colleagues:

A majority of House Democrats now favor impeachment.

Cloudflare has left 8chan on its own, and reports are that it’s down already.

It’s so easy to soften what we say, to be polite. We’re taught to do that from childhood. But it’s time to say things clearly and simply, to take a stand.

 

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More Like This Please

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h/t News and Guts

Politico:

DEMOCRATIC AD-MAKER MARK PUTNAM has cut the first paid ad from the hearing, funded by TOM STEYER’S Need to Impeach, a spot that’s going to grab many eyeballs in the coming days. The group is spending in the mid-six figures to air the ad on CNN and MSNBC before and after the second presidential debate (which airs tonight and Wednesday night on CNN live from Detroit). Needless to say, this is prime time for millions of politically active TV viewers.

Yeah, I know Tom Steyer. But I think every candidate should do something similar. Make it a series of increasing complexity and edited to give the finger to all the “oh, it was sooo boring” pundits (who should all drunk stumble into the tar pits in LA and be lost forever, IMHO).

Open thread

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The Cruelty Is the Point

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The House Democrats released a report on what’s being done in our name at the border. CNN has a summary here and links to a PDF of the complete report here.

The report says 18 infants and toddlers under two years old were snatched from their parents and held “for 20 days to half a year.” It details the pointless and cruel ways hundreds of kids have been shuffled around like lost baggage and in some cases held after their parents were deported without them. Here’s the conclusion of the executive summary:

The information obtained by the Committee indicates that the Trump Administration’s decision to separate thousands of babies, toddlers, and children from their parents and put them in government custody for months or years is causing immense suffering. This staff report provides numerous case studies that illustrate their trauma in stark terms. These child separations were not required by law and were not in the best interest of the children. Instead, the policy of separating children from their parents appears to be a deliberate, unnecessary, and cruel choice by President Trump and his Administration.

There are horrifying new details in the report, but we’ve known about the abuse for a long time. We’ve also known Trump uses family separation as a “deterrent” for a long time, and there was extensive coverage of the child camps in recent weeks.

Despite these facts, Trump’s approval rating ticked up slightly. He’s still historically unpopular, having never cracked 50% approval in a reputable poll despite a strong economy, etc. But still, somewhere north of 40% of our fellow citizens think he’s doing a good job, child caging and all.

The cruelty is the point with Trump, and the same must be said of anyone who approves of him. They’re either enjoying the spectacle of pain and heartache inflicted on desperate people, or their indifference amounts to a depravity in its own right. Shameful.

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Impeach the Motherfucker III

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According to The Times, the U.S. is taking “more aggressive digital action” in Russia’s power grid “in a warning to Moscow and in a demonstration of its abilities,” explicitly to brush Putin back from further election interference. Yesterday afternoon, Ryan Goodman, professor and former special counsel to the DoD, highlighted this excerpt from The Times article (source):

So, Pentagon and intelligence officials are taking action independently because everyone’s afraid if they clue Trump in, he’ll blurt out details to a hostile foreign power’s officials or quash the effort altogether. My gratitude that at least someone is taking the threat of Russian interference seriously is tempered by the knowledge that, under normal circumstances, unelected officials shouldn’t freelance U.S. foreign policy. There’s a norm that will be difficult to reestablish.

Anyhoo, yesterday evening, Trump confirmed that efforts to counter Russian interference in U.S. elections either have to take place behind his back or not at all:

Recall former DHS Sec Kirstjen Nielsen’s failed attempt to put plans in place to deal with Russian interference in the upcoming election. One of the primary duties of the DHS secretary is to ensure election security. But in a bid to save her job, Nielsen focused on caging kids instead when she was told that bringing up Russian interference wounds Trump’s ego. [Mother Jones]

When former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen began to prepare a plan to address potential Russian interference in the 2020 election, she was told by President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to refrain from discussing the issue in front of the president, according to a report from the New York Times.

A senior Trump administration official recalled to the Times that Mr. Mulvaney said it “wasn’t a great subject and should be kept below his level,” because Trump considers any discussion of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election to be a challenge to the legitimacy of his presidency.

The DHS is the federal agency primarily responsible for election security, but despite Nielsen’s growing concerns about Russia’s continued involvement in the 2018 midterms, she abandoned her effort to organize a meeting with the White House in the hopes of creating a cohesive strategy for 2020 after pushback from Mulvaney. The issue therefore did not gain traction within the White House and has resulted in a lack of public awareness regarding the latest potential attempts of Russian election interference.

These are two instances we know about where Trump’s ego and unwillingness to address urgent threats compromised national security.* Mitch McConnell was complicit before and after the 2016 election, refusing to join a bipartisan effort to counter foreign interlopers prior to the last presidential election and refusing to bring a bipartisan election security bill to the floor of the Senate for a vote now.

We know what’s going on here. Trump always abandons his responsibilities as president when they conflict with his personal interests and is keen to avoid any suggestion that someone other than his magnificent self was responsible for his glorious victory. McConnell and the Republicans have known for some time that they can’t harness white grievance to secure power to enact plutocrat-friendly policies forever, which is why they started laying the groundwork for minority rule long before Trump came along, rigging elections and cheating in every conceivable way.

The House is the last line of defense. The situation demands an impeachment inquiry focused on Trump’s attempts to thwart an investigation of previous election interference and failure to protect the country from foreign interlopers going forward. Hearings would expose Republican complicity and, if House leadership follows Laurence Tribe’s recommendation, deny McConnell the opportunity to “exonerate” Trump via acquittal in the Senate — all while underscoring the corruption of the Republican Party.

I have a ton of respect for Nancy Pelosi, who knows a lot more about congressional procedures and political strategy than I can ever hope to learn. My hope is she’s being deliberate about impeachment because she has a strategy to not only expose Trump but also his corrupt enablers in Congress. I sincerely hope so, because lawlessness will continue until lawbreakers are held accountable, and past a certain point, it will be too late.

*Thanks, it must be said, to The Times. Their garbage Beltway reportage notwithstanding, the paper still breaks some incredibly important stories.

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Tribe’s Impeachment Compromise

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Constitutional law scholar Laurence Tribe wrote an op-ed for The Post suggesting a compromise that would allow the Impeach the Motherfucker NOW! crowd and Team Proceed Cautiously Because 2020 Is Everything to meet in the middle. The compromise is predicated on the notion that a House impeachment needn’t function explicitly as a prosecutor or grand jury that refers its findings to the Senate for trial — Tribe says the House can conduct an inquiry “in which the target is afforded an opportunity to participate and mount a full defense” and skip the referral.

He cites precedent during the Watergate impeachment proceedings, when Nixon’s attorney appeared to defend Nixon against charges leveled by the House. Since Nixon subsequently resigned, there was no need to refer the articles of impeachment to the Senate, but Tribe says the House Judiciary Committee in that era drafted findings that included “determinations of fact and law and verdicts of guilt to be delivered by the House itself, expressly stating that the president was indeed guilty as charged.” On that basis, Tribe surmises that “an impeachment inquiry conducted with ample opportunity for the accused to defend himself before a vote by the full House would be at least substantially protected, even if not entirely bullet-proofed, against a Senate whitewash.”

Here’s Tribe’s conclusion:

The point would not be to take old-school House impeachment leading to possible Senate removal off the table at the outset. Instead, the idea would be to build into the very design of this particular inquiry an offramp that would make bypassing the Senate an option while also nourishing the hope that a public fully educated about what this president did would make even a Senate beholden to this president and manifestly lacking in political courage willing to bite the bullet and remove him.

By resolving now to pursue such a path, always keeping open the possibility that its inquiry would unexpectedly lead to the president’s exoneration, the House would be doing the right thing as a constitutional matter. It would be acting consistent with its overriding obligation to establish that no president is above the law, all the while keeping an eye on the balance of political considerations without setting the dangerous precedent that there are no limits to what a corrupt president can get away with as long as he has a compliant Senate to back him. And pursuing this course would preserve for all time the tale of this uniquely troubled presidency.

Go read the whole thing — I almost certainly bollixed up some key points by summarizing. But if I’m understanding Tribe correctly, he offers an intriguing alternative here.

Since the Senate won’t do its job, the House will need to get creative, and televised hearings that fully explore Trump’s corruption and abuse of power while not subjecting the process to a Republican cover-up sounds like a good option to me. What say you?

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ITMFA

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This is the best piece I’ve read about impeachment lately – read the whole thing.

For a long time, I was on the fence about impeachment. A couple of things that swayed me are mentioned in the article linked above. First, left to his own devices, Trump will drive the media narrative and suck up all of the media oxygen in the next 15 months. A set of impeachment hearings by one House committee meeting on a regular schedule with good counsel driving hard questions–not a bunch of different committees meeting on occasion with grandstanding preening questioners–will put Trump’s crimes on the front page of newspapers and lead the nightly news. Trump will have to respond, and he’ll look guilty and weak. Second, even when the Senate votes against conviction, vulnerable Senators like McSally, Collins and Gardner will have to take an actual vote. They would rather tsk-tsk about Trump and do nothing – a vote puts them in a tough position a few months before the election.

Third, it’s the right thing to do, and Congress needs to do its duty. Pelosi’s reticence is probably driven in part by pushback from members who would rather do nothing and hope that Trump just won’t be re-elected. That might happen, but a lot of Democrats went out of their way to vote for candidates who promised to do something about Trump, and Congress doing nothing is going to suppress Democratic turnout. There are also some “independent” low information voters who might learn something from the Mueller report being read into the record, one day at a time. (And, btw, fuck yes this committee must get Mueller to testify, if only to read his report into the record. Look at the effect of his press conference, which essentially just repeated some facts from his report, yet still enraged Trump and led the newscasts.)

Finally, the House also needs to pass all the legislation that Democrats promised, and Presidential candidates need to talk about how they would sign those bills if they were elected. Maybe Democrats’ policy messages will be drowned out by the impeachment hearings, but we already run the risk of Trump’s inane tweeting drowning them out.

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Friday Morning Open Thread: Everybody’s Talkin’ Bout It…

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(Marshall Ramsey via GoComics.com)
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Thursday Morning Open Thread: Mueller Drops the Mic

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(The Washington Post: “40 House Democrats want to open an impeachment inquiry into Trump”. Plus Republican, for now, Justin Amash.)

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Justin Amash Backs Impeachment

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In a long tweet thread, Republican congressman Justin Amash (Michigan) says that he feels that President Trump must be impeached.

 

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