Schadenfreude

The things that matter!

Trump met with Republicans this week to talk about legislative goals, and discussion veered into polling, his time on The Apprentice, and how his tweet of the Baghdadi raid dog was his 2nd most retweeted post ever.

The first, he told the group: Covfefe.https://t.co/a8nWVUpxom

— Michael C. Bender (@MichaelCBender) November 1, 2019

I thought this was a joke, but that's exactly what happened https://t.co/pCeNUf0726

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 1, 2019

Republicans in disarray!
[Are we really this lucky, to have Ted Cruz & Mike Lee undermining McConnell & McCarthy?] https://t.co/0QAkLUu7f5

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 2, 2019

… In this shift in strategy to defend Trump, these Republicans are insisting that the president’s action was not illegal and does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense as the Democratic-led House moves forward with the open phase of its probe.

But the shift among Senate Republicans could complicate the message coming from Trump as he furiously fights the claim that he had withheld U.S. aid from Ukraine to pressure it to dig up dirt on a political rival, even as an increasing number of Republicans wonder how long they can continue to argue that no quid pro quo was at play in the matter.

The pivot was the main topic during a private Senate GOP lunch on Wednesday, according to multiple people familiar with the session who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the meeting…

I’ll believe that Trump is growing into the presidency when GOP lawmakers stop talking about him like a toddler. https://t.co/yrrPzpSk3h

[This is the 1048th tweet in the #ToddlerinChief thread.] pic.twitter.com/DPv10ZqfqY

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) November 2, 2019

1. Impeachment and conviction won’t reverse the election. Hillary won’t be POTUS;
2. Every member of Congress who votes won their elections;
3. People vote; land doesn’t;
4. Impeachment is a constitutional remedy that explicitly endorses removing a president for abuse of power. https://t.co/mlGpB5dNUR

— David French (@DavidAFrench) November 1, 2019

Foreign correspondent explains to bemused former colonizers:

NEW: @realDonaldTrump thinks he can beat back articles of impeachment with some t-shirts & a “fireside chat” transcript reading. Republican strategists say the plan “doesn't seem like it would be advisable” and would be “the Mount Everest of dumbfuckery.”https://t.co/uhxNObHnHj

— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) November 1, 2019

… According to The Washington Examiner, Trump plans to push back against Democrats’ hearings by focusing his defense on the previously released memorandum documenting his conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “At some point, I’m going to sit down, perhaps as a fireside chat on live television, and I will read the transcript of the call, because people have to hear it,” he reportedly said. “When you read it, it’s a straight call.”

Additionally, Trump plans to turn “read the transcript” into a shorthand slogan for his defenders, in part by selling T-shirts with the phrase printed on them.

Of course, this ignores the fact that Vindman and a slew of other Trump administration officials have already testified that Trump withheld $391 million worth of military aid to Ukraine.

Steve Schmidt, a veteran GOP campaign operative who ran John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, told me that he thought Trump’s plan to read the memorandum aloud “doesn’t seem like it would be advisable.”

“It’s curious that the president thinks the language of the transcript exonerates him while most people see a quid-pro-quo, an abuse of power, and an incriminating statement,” he added.

Another Republican strategy graybeard, Everything Trump Touches Dies author Rick Wilson, was even less generous in his assessment of the merits of Trump’s latest messaging plan…

When told about Trump’s desire to sell “Read The Transcript” T-shirts to promote his latest defense, Wilson responded, “Of course he does, because he’s a f**king moron.”

“At some point, the conceit that Donald Trump is playing 37-dimensional chess and is a strategic genius was detonated by anybody who is paying attention,” he continued. “The political rule of ‘holes’ that says ‘stop digging’ [when one finds oneself in a hole] is one he clearly ignores and cannot internalize, so right now he’s doing things in a way that is going to increase his exposure to a whole variety of sanctions and legal challenges.

“The famous Watergate line that ‘these are not bright guys and it got out of hand,’ we are seeing it again in the age of Trump — but they’re even less bright.”

Asked whether he thinks Trump understands the gravity of what he appears to have done or the political peril in which he finds himself, Schmidt noted that he isn’t a psychologist and “it’s tough to read anybody’s mind, but circumstantially, I’m not sure that he does.”

Which is what makes the Republican refusal to admit the obvious feel increasingly like a suicide cult. https://t.co/ZAjlgYmaOJ

— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 1, 2019

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Once Again, with Feeling — <em>Repubs in Disarray!</em>Post + Comments (123)