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Post by oldarmybear on Sept 30, 2019 9:56:41 GMT -5
Impeachment now a threat like no other Trump has faced
By JULIE PACE and ZEKE MILLERSeptember 28, 2019
Activists rally for the impeachment of President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., committed Tuesday to launching a formal impeachment inquiry against Trump. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) — From the moment Donald Trump became a national political figure, he has been shadowed by investigations and controversy.
They have been layered, lengthy and often inconclusive, leaving many Americans scandal-weary and numb to his behavior. And with each charge against him, Trump has perfected the art of deflection, seemingly gaining strength by bullying and belittling those who have dared to take him on.
Now Trump is facing a high-velocity threat like none he’s confronted before.
It has rapidly evolved from a process fight over a whistleblower complaint to an impeachment inquiry within two weeks. Much of the evidence is already in public view. A rough transcript of a phone call in which Trump asks Ukraine’s president to help investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden. The whistleblower’s detailed letter alleging the White House tried to cover up the call, and possibly others.
Unlike special counsel Robert Mueller’s two-year investigation, which circled an array of people in Trump’s orbit but not always the president himself, Trump doesn’t have the benefit of distance. His words and his actions are at the center of this investigation.
“The Mueller report , it was always Manafort this and his son that. There was a cascade of players,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, referring to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Donald Trump Jr. “This was just Donald Trump and a disturbing conversation with another world leader.”
So, suddenly, Washington is different and the history of Trump’s presidency has changed. By year’s end, he could become only the third American president impeached by the House of Representatives.
That new reality caught Trump and his advisers off guard, according to people close to the president. If anything, they thought the specter of impeachment had been lifted after the Mueller investigation ended without a clear determination that Trump had committed a crime.
The contours of that investigation played to Trump’s strengths. Mueller spent two years in silence, allowing the president to fill the vacuum with assertions that the investigation was a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.” The details of the investigation that did leak out were often complicated and focused on people in Trump’s sphere. Even Mueller’s pointed statement that he had not exonerated Trump did not seem to stick. There was ultimately plenty of smoke, but no smoking gun.
Numerous other Democratic inquiries appeared likely to meet a similar fate, including House investigation into Trump’s business dealings, his tax returns and a variety of administration scandals. For many Americans, they were one big blur of investigations without any clarity of purpose.
Then the whistleblower gave the Democrats what they needed: a simple, easily explainable charge — that the president sought a foreign government’s help for personal political gain — and his words to back it up.
For House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., and several Democratic moderates who had resisted calls for impeachment, the calculus shifted . It was now more of a risk to recoil from impeachment than charge ahead.
“What we’re seeing right now is a completely different moment in the history of this country,” said Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, D-Fla.
One thing that didn’t change — at least not immediately — was the clear partisan divide over Trump’s actions, both in Washington and across the country.
According to a one-day NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll conducted Wednesday, 49% of Americans approve of the House formally starting an impeachment inquiry into Trump. Among Democrats, 88% approve of the investigation, while 93% of Republicans disapprove.
Mike Staffieri, a retiree and Republican who lives just outside of Richmond, Virginia, said Democrats were trying to “throw enough poop at the wall and hope something sticks.”
On Capitol Hill, some Trump allies concurred, confidently dismissing the impeachment inquiry as just another partisan effort to take down a president who is despised by many Democrats. That rough transcript of a phone call in which Trump presses Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to work with Attorney General William Barr and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on an investigation into Biden? It’s just Trump being Trump, according to his backers.
“You’ve heard President Trump talk. That’s President Trump,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.
Mark Updegrove, a presidential historian and president of the LBJ Foundation in Austin, Texas, said it’s that enduring support from Republican lawmakers that currently separates Trump from Richard Nixon, who resigned in the midst of the Watergate impeachment inquiry because his party began to abandon him.
“The big difference between this and Watergate is that you had both Republicans and Democrats being deeply concerned about the president being involved in criminal wrongdoing,” Updegrove said. “It was a bipartisan effort and you certainly don’t have that here.”
But it is early, compared with Watergate. There were small signs that some Republicans were trying to keep some measure of distance from the president. Some GOP lawmakers fled Washington for a fall break claiming they hadn’t yet read the whistleblower’s complaint. Others said they were open to learning more about the situation.
Trump’s hold on the Republican Party makes it nearly impossible to foresee a scenario in which the GOP-controlled Senate convicts Trump if he were impeached by the Democratic-run House.
The president is acutely well aware that it’s his party alone that can protect him. In the midst of the past week’s firestorm, he tweeted to Republicans: “Stick together, play their game and fight hard Republicans.”
He later deleted the tweet.
www.apnews.com/6f4f4a684812489ab29bd43fb5862111
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Post by oldarmybear on Sept 30, 2019 10:03:24 GMT -5
I am sure Trump is growing weary of the constant barrage of the illicit charges and allegations of maleficence against him. The dems have nothing but hatred to go on. I despise what thy are doing to divide our nation. We should be united in the cause of freedom and making the USA the greatest place to live in this world. |
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Post by george on Sept 30, 2019 10:09:07 GMT -5
If Trump is impeached I am in favor of a civil war, war fought as General Sherman would fight. Make it as bloody and brutal as possible. This is not about Trump. This all about the deep state telling America all presidents must be approved by the Black state. This is about the total destruction of our constitution. There is a good chance Trump will be impeached. There are quite a few Republicans that I think will betray Trump and America. Mitt Romney would go to the top of the list. Our founding Fathers knew we would have to defend our country from within . That is exactly why they gave us the means to do it. The thing we need the most is not guns. It is courage.
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Post by pepper on Sept 30, 2019 12:00:49 GMT -5
Can I ask a question? How can the Congress impeach the president on hearsay evidence. It is not permitted in any other court, why is it permitted in this kind of kangaroo court? Why aren't they putting the Biden's in jail, as they have sworn to statements that prove what Biden's son is guilty of???
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Post by katie5445 on Oct 2, 2019 21:47:30 GMT -5
Because Biden and his son have been investigated. The far right are making accusations of multi conspiracy theories. You may disagree that Trumps words were abuse of power but that isn't agreed by all republicans and most your politicians are silent, which I get. It will do no good since I do think Trump has always been a piece of shit and liar to say this isn't why, it is the country first. you aren't going for that but it really doesn't matter. A "civil war" over Trump, that would have been more likely when he had "Celebrity Apprentice" he isn't worth, one injury, one death of any American. Absurd.
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Post by pepper on Oct 2, 2019 22:28:35 GMT -5
Apparently someone thought Kennedy wasn't worth anything but a bullet...does that make it true...Of course not!!! You have no agreement until the transcript of that call is made public...until then your opinion is just that...your opinion!
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Post by katie5445 on Oct 2, 2019 23:50:57 GMT -5
What????
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Post by pepper on Oct 2, 2019 23:54:58 GMT -5
Opinions of what our presidents are worth isn't worth the band width that it takes to write them on. I was making a point...Your opinion is yours, just as the people that planned Kennedy's death thought that he wasn't worth more than a bullet, was theirs....In my opinion, both are wrong!
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Post by katie5445 on Oct 4, 2019 21:29:28 GMT -5
Opinions of what our presidents are worth isn't worth the band width that it takes to write them on. I was making a point...Your opinion is yours, just as the people that planned Kennedy's death thought that he wasn't worth more than a bullet, was theirs....In my opinion, both are wrong! What presidents are worth, I am also missing that point. I can only assume by Kennedy's death, you mean all the conspiracy theories I don't buy. We can however buy that Donald Trump is a horrible liar, as was Nixon and Clinton. We can also buy that dozens of persons in his admin, either are in jail or are his accusers. We should all buy, this isn't looking so good, if you are a patriot, instead of a person lover. I don't "love" politicians, none of them, they are employees by our vote. First is your country, second is your party and then the person, my thought is to bad we don't have a democracy where the leader is gone when he/she doesn't perform for the country or the party and not a question of criminal acts. Anyone who thinks between the republicans or dems they should disappear is out of their mind, there is a two party system for a reason, checks and balances and I would like to see more than just two parties, considering independents are the largest voters leaving both parties. Libertarians should have a voice other than belonging to the republican and party and the dems and republicans really ought to split their party, they have become to divided. |
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Post by pepper on Oct 4, 2019 22:00:15 GMT -5
Ok, I will explain it to you again...Someone thought that Kennedy wasn't a good president, a good politician, a good partner in crime, a good lover, a good something...and thought he was only worth a bullet. Which he got when he was killed. It was the killer's opinion.
Now, what I meant by using this analogy is that opinions are nothing but what someone thinks, right or wrong! They actually have no literal value. So, your opinion or my opinion is no more valuable than mine, at this point.And, until we can hear the exact phone call transcript, neither one of us have any basis to be opinionated. And, until we do hear the exact words used, we only have opinions based on our party affiliation...which has absolutely no value. My suggestion to wait to hear the conversation in full and in tact is the only way either one of can obtain a valuable opinion...Now, do you understand that? We don't know what was really said, we only have the word of biased people on both sides...and no one can make a valuable statement on this until we do.
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Post by pepper on Oct 4, 2019 22:01:57 GMT -5
Since when does a liberal have the knowledge of what is going on in the Republican party to advise splitting our party? It seems you disagree quite a bit with your own party, shall I suggest a split in yours?
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Post by katie5445 on Oct 6, 2019 20:12:10 GMT -5
I already did, thanks. What is with how does a dem know what is going on in your party, um, tv news, opinion pundits, the net to here, actuality I don't get your question. I was looking at your party and how many times in posts, tv, web, social media, call fellow republicans "RINOS" and that is why I made the statement!
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Post by pepper on Oct 7, 2019 21:26:44 GMT -5
The media??? Really???? And, we all know how honest those people are, right?
I can prove something false with facts, documentation, and sources and you still don't accept it as truth...Why in the hell do you accept the lies the media spread? Are you that gullible? Are you able to deny the leftwing media lies on a daily basis? The leftwing politicians have been proven to be lairs right here on this board...I think you should readjust your trust issues.
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Post by oldarmybear on Oct 8, 2019 7:04:18 GMT -5
yes, Katie is that gullible....
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Post by katie5445 on Oct 13, 2019 17:41:55 GMT -5
Ah, now it is to "gullible," nothing other than trying to dumb me down, you are a sad lot. That is one of the reasons Trump is a loser as well. Do you think it really gives you or your party some advantage??
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