US Politics Mega-thread - Page 1832

On September 30 2019 23:33 redlightdistrict wrote:
I guess people would say Jimmy is too old but Mike Gravel who has been running for president going on a year now is about the same age as Jim. It would be an easy win for Dems if Carter ran imo

WASHINGTON — House Democrats investigating whether to impeach President Trump issued a subpoena on Monday demanding that Rudolph W. Giuliani, his private lawyer, produce communications and other records related to his attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the president’s Democratic rivals.

The new demands of Mr. Giuliani and separate requests sent to three of his associates said to be involved in the Ukraine matter suggest that Democrats are moving quickly to stand up their investigation. On Friday, they issued a subpoena to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for documents and demanded that he make five department officials available for depositions.

On October 01 2019 05:45 farvacola wrote:
Gonna have to throw him in jail for contempt of a duly issued subpoena I’m guessing.

WASHINGTON — President Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent telephone call to help Attorney General William P. Barr gather information for a Justice Department inquiry that Mr. Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation, according to two American officials with knowledge of the call.

The White House restricted access to the call’s transcript to a small group of the president’s aides, one of the officials said, an unusual decision that is similar to the handling of a July call with the Ukrainian president that is at the heart of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump. Like that call, the discussion with Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia shows the extent to which Mr. Trump sees the attorney general as a critical partner in his goal to show that the Mueller investigation had corrupt and partisan origins, and the extent that Mr. Trump sees the Justice Department inquiry as a potential way to gain leverage over America’s closest allies.

And like the call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, the discussion with Mr. Morrison shows the president using high-level diplomacy to advance his personal political interests.

President Trump initiated the discussion in recent weeks with Mr. Morrison explicitly for the purpose of requesting Australia’s help in the Justice Department review of the Russia investigation, according to the two people with knowledge of the discussion. Mr. Barr requested that Mr. Trump speak to Mr. Morrison, one of the people said. It came only weeks after Mr. Trump seemed to make military aid to Ukraine contingent on Mr. Zelensky doing him the “favor” of helping Mr. Barr with his work.

On October 01 2019 06:28 Mohdoo wrote:
lol so today we got:

1. Subpoena
2. But wait, Australia as well
3. Oh and pompeo was on calls with Zelensky
Happy Monday!

Attorney General William P. Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence agencies’ examination of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the matter.

Barr’s personal involvement is likely to stoke further criticism from Democrats pursuing impeachment that he is helping the Trump administration use executive branch powers to augment investigations aimed primarily at the president’s adversaries.

But the high level Justice Department focus on intelligence operatives’ conduct will likely cheer Trump and other conservatives for whom “investigate the investigators” has become a rallying cry.

The direct involvement of the nation’s top law enforcement official shows the priority Barr places on the investigation being conducted by John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, who has been assigned the sensitive task of reviewing U.S. intelligence work surrounding the 2016 election and its aftermath.

On October 01 2019 02:40 farvacola wrote:
McConnell has said that he does not see a way for him to avoid holding a trial in the Senate if the House were to pass articles of impeachment. So pass them articles!

On October 01 2019 06:35 Gorsameth wrote:
The biggest victory Republicans can get in the impeachment proceedings is clearing Trump publicly on the senate floor.

Ofcourse Mitch wants it in the Senate as soon as he can, sadly the political move for the Democrats is to keep it in the House for as long as possible to keep everything under their control and deny the Republicans their 'No collusion!' victory lap.

On October 01 2019 06:44 Mohdoo wrote:

Pelosi won't hand Mitch anything less than an absolutely damning report. Like 100x Mueller's report.

On October 01 2019 06:53 farvacola wrote:
Deciding whether to do something based on how the GOP will spin it is a recipe for loss that Dems have been practicing for many years now, that’s not the right framework. Also, impeachment in the House has its own spin optics that easily outweigh what could occur in the Senate.

On October 01 2019 07:07 farvacola wrote:

What will happen is a mixed question of certainty and prediction, and while you're right that the GOP will spin things as they always have and many folks will remain unmoved, there still exists a sizable group of folks on the edge of voter/non-voter status that could shift their stance based on what shakes out. Folks who are tired of limp-dick Democrats who stand for nothing could be difference makers come voting day, particularly in light of the narrow margins in '16.

On September 30 2019 04:54 Ben... wrote:

I am just as skeptical of corporate media and it has been something I have brought up here in the past several times. In particular, I've brought up the New York Times several times due to both the bizarre behaviour of their editorial department and their exchanging access for puffy articles citing admin officials that have the effect of normalizing the administration's abnormal activities. Similarly with CNN continuing to allow administration representatives on their programs to spout misinformation while doing not nearly enough to push back against it. MSNBC has also been particularly problematic with Chuck Todd's softball interviews and several other MSNBC anchors' willingness to forgo journalistic integrity in exchange for poorly sourced stories that sounded too good to be true (see that story Lawrence O'Donnell had to retract a little while back). We've all seen those supercut videos of the major media entities seemingly forgetting the existence of Bernie, but he isn't the only one they have done that to. There's also videos floating around of the same type of thing happening with Warren, Buttigieg, and several others, especially earlier in the year when the media was all championing Biden. In many ways, the media is just as bad or worse with regard to creating the false equivalences, boosting Trump or attacking Democrat candidates in exchange for a perceived benefit.

However, I view the media versus misinformation campaigns doing similar things as mutually exclusive because the two entities behave this way for entirely different reasons. The social media outrage stuff we were talking about isn't the realm of the corporate media. It's an entirely separate beast, and one that has been prone to manipulation in the past. That's all I'm saying. There's a lot of outrage on social media. Is some of it valid? Sure. But still, be incredibly suspicious of a lot of it.