Whether Donald Trump can be impeached depends on the Republicans. A few have said that firing James Comey was perhaps not a nice thing to do. They haven’t been particularly vehement about it, testing the water. Over the next few days (and rolling revelations), it’s worth watching what direction Republicans move. Most of those speaking out have left themselves room to say oh golly gee, I guess Donald Trump is an honorable man after all; I was mistaken. Events today are making that less likely, but it’s probably best not to be too optimistic.
Anyhow, we have something of a weathervane. If those who have already spoken out begin taking the sleazy road, that makes impeachment less likely. If others begin to join them in criticizing the administration, things could get interesting.
Here’s my list. Do you have any more?
Justin Amash, MI3
Richard Burr, NC senator
Shelly Capito, WV senator
Barbara Comstock, VA10
Charlie Dent, PA15
Jeff Flake, AZ senator
James Lankford, OK senator
John McCain, AZ senator
Marco Rubio, FL senator
Ben Sasse, NE senator
Angus King of Maine has been making some noises, but he registers as an independent ETA and caucuses with the Democrats.
Major Major Major Major
Doesn’t Angus King caucus with the Dems?
germy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/fbi-searches-republican-political-consulting-firm-in-annapolis/2017/05/11/43949a9e-367a-11e7-b373-418f6849a004_story.html?utm_term=.e1ca42605b6f
Anonymous At Work
I thought Rubio at spoken in Trump’s defense?
Or is this a list of his erstwhile defenders who aren’t ready to talk “independent” or “special” investigation?
Jeffro
Trump tweet from 20 minutes ago: “Russia must be laughing up their sleeves as the U.S. tears itself apart over a Democrat EXCUSE for losing the election.”
What’s today, Thursday? Anyone wanna guess where we’ll be with this stuff come Monday morning?
And as for Cheryl’s list, I look forward to watching the spineless Barbara Comstock try to save herself from the wave that is coming.
lollipopguild
Repthugs have to start inching their way towards the exits on trump or else they risk being labeled as a card carrying member of “The Traitor Party”.
Jeffro
And 20 state AGs are calling for an independent investigation, too.
Eric U.
I remember in the Watergate hearings, when my idiot congressman from Roanoke VA. finally said the Prez broke the law, that was the end. He had to be bludgeoned into it by a preponderance of evidence though. M. Caldwell Butler.
germy
then I doubt he’ll be impeached.
They would have impeached HRC in a heartbeat for no reason at all, but I don’t see them going after “one of their own.”
I’d like to be wrong about this, I just don’t see them having the courage or the character to do this.
japa21
Cheryl, I keep meaning to say this and keep forgetting. Welcome to the team, you are a great addition.
schrodingers_cat
@Jeffro: Why is he tweeting all the time, doesn’t he have work to do?
Major Major Major Major
@Jeffro: ‘laughing up their sleeves’?
Cheryl Rofer
@Anonymous At Work: I have seen a quote from Rubio contemplating an independent investigation. I was a little surprised at that.
A Ghost to Most
I’m hoping Cory Gardner is feeling the whirlwind, and he is a windsock kinda guy.
Cheryl Rofer
@japa21: Thanks! Fun to be here!
zhena gogolia
@Jeffro:
No, Donnie, we SAW the Russian Foreign Minister laugh in our face about your incipient coup d’état.
SatanicPanic
@Jeffro: They’re not hiding it. They were in his office laughing at us just yesterday!
geg6
@Major Major Major Major:
It’s a turn of phrase you may never have heard. Have you heard of it? He thought it up himself, you know. Thought it sounded good.
Cheryl Rofer
@Eric U.: This is precisely the kind of thing I’m thinking of. After Archibald Cox’s firing, many Republicans defended Nixon. What to watch is the direction of the trend.
lollipopguild
@germy: They would have impeached The Devil in a Blue Pantsuit for breathing while being a woman.
Eric U.
@Cheryl Rofer:
my view of Rubio is highly informed by the guy that plays him on the Amazon series “Alpha house”. It really seems to be perfect, Rubio is just clueless. And you just never know what he’s going to do next, but it’s really unlikely he’ll go against the party in the end. My observation is that he is probably the easiest person in congress for them to control.
Corner Stone
Stephanie Cutter looks like a crazy ex-girlfriend. Like a Glenn Close for the times.
germy
@lollipopguild: Greatest disappointment in Jason Chaffetz’s life is that she didn’t win. He was going to build a whole career hounding her. Now all the fun is gone from his life.
Cookie monster
@Major Major Major Major: Means to laugh secretly at something. May be a Britishism.
Cheryl Rofer
The required photos of FBI agents removing computers and documents.
Corner Stone
@germy: Dude was going to launch his run for president off busting HRC’s balls for the next four years.
Major Major Major Major
@Cookie monster: Well that would explain why Trump knows it, then.
germy
@Cheryl Rofer:
WaPo
lollipopguild
@germy: Yes, he was going to file impeachment papers the second she put her hand on the Bible.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
p.a.
To quote the late Dennis Green, “they are who we thought they were.”
No impeachment, especially before Nov. 2018. The wheels of justice don’t spin that fast, and I can see this cabal, whose backbone is hard line ideologues, playing ‘deny deny deny’ until thet are overwhelmed at the polls.
Now, if they gin up a war…
germy
@Corner Stone: Now it’s back to NuSkin with him.
Cheryl Rofer
MOAR about the Strategic Campaign Group.
ETA: I see germy has already posted this above.
germy
@lollipopguild: Was Gowdy planning some shit also? Or did his last experience with flop sweat scare him off for good?
LurkerNoLonger
@germy: I don’t think it will take courage, but fear; fear of losing their seats in 2018. So…kind of the opposite of courage.
Immanentize
@Jeffro:
I was told by Trump himself that he just invented the phrase “laughing up their sleeves.”
germy
@LurkerNoLonger: Some of those redhat fans who show up at the drumpf rallies are scary looking. Wouldn’t put it past one or more of them to send a bullet flying into the campaign office window of anyone who dared attack Daddy.
DocSardonic
Do not try to ascribe sentience to Rubio. He is basically the product of a very sick three way that included a weather vane, an empty suit, and a ventriloquist’s dummy. So the prevailing political wind and whichever donors hand is up his ass will determine his position, subject to change by the hour, or by the dollar amount.
NCSteve
Angus King is a Democrat. He caucuses with the Democrats, he talks like a Democrat, and he votes like a Democrat. He’s a better Democrat than about a third of the Senate’s declared Democrats. The only thing that makes him an “independent” is Maine’s bizarre nonpartisan independent fetish.
Miss Bianca
Hey, Cheryl, just a shout-out – nice to see you FP’ing here regularly!
Immanentize
@geg6: Sorry, you got there first. It is a really old fashioned saying — my Victorian Great Aunt used to say it. It refers to people who laugh without showing it happening. In other words, laughing at you. It fits perfectly, except the Russians are looking at Trump.
les
Not happenin’. These are republicans: all they know how to do is make mushy noises and fall in line. He’d have to admit guilt and then testify against repub congresscritters first.
germy
Elvis Costello
Immanentize
@Cheryl Rofer: This is so excellent. Even if this raid has nothing at all to do with the 2016 doings, those images will forever be attached to Trump and his firing of Comey. And the more they deny it, the more it will stick.
lollipopguild
@germy: There were a lot of REPthugs who were going to go after Hillz for the capitol crime of being elected President. Trump winning deprived them of all that fun. Fox noise would have been attacking her from day one and everything she would have done would have been a “crime”.
hedgehog mobile
@A Ghost to Most: Agreed.
germy
@lollipopguild:
Yes, and now instead they have to defend all this bullshit, every day, every hour. It can’t be fun for them, normalizing this regime.
Cheryl Rofer
@Miss Bianca: Thanks!
sigaba
@Major Major Major Major:
“Have you ever heard that expression before? No? I just came up with it a few days ago. Laughs, sleeves.”
Major Major Major Major
@germy: I knew Trump was a fan. Great taste, that guy.
sigaba
@geg6: beat me
Cheryl Rofer
In response to those who are more knowledgeable about Angus King than I am, I have updated the opening post.
gene108
@germy:
Hell, there were rumblings in the winter and spring of 2014 that the House was going to impeach Obama over Fast and Furious or Benghazi or generally President-ing while black.
It didn’t poll well, so the House settled on suing the Obama Administration over a provision in the ACA.
They would be spending all their energy to set-up the case to impeach Hillary over the slightest misstep, real or imagined.
NotMax
Notice your list is composed exclusively of senators.
The Senate does not have impeachment power, only the power to convict someone already impeached by the House.
MJS
@Immanentize: No way the inarticulate fucker Trump knows that phrase on his own. Someone fed him that.
? Martin
In politics there’s safety in numbers. Once those numbers shift enough, everyone goes along.
germy
@MJS: Bannon? He’s the “literary” one, isn’t he?
Cheryl Rofer
@NotMax: Nope – three representatives are on the list. Right now, I’m just looking for crowd movement, not a whip count.
Turgidson
@geg6:
Just like he thinks he invented the phrase “prime the pump” just last week.
Immanentize
@MJS: agreed
Major Major Major Major
@germy: You misspelled literate.
piratedan
@germy: YOU WIN! The King Horse award for the afternoon!
? Martin
@MJS: It’s an english idiom. I learned it from my irish family members where it’s commonly used. Trump probably learned it from his scottish mom.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Venerable idiom meaning to be privately amused.
LurkerNoLonger
@germy: They will have to decide what they fear more, death or losing their cushy congressional gig.
Turgidson
@LurkerNoLonger:
Of course, if it gets to that point, they can rest assured that the BothSides dipshits in the media will praise them to the skies and back for their courage. Maddow and Lawrence might call it out as the cowardice it is, but they’ll be outnumbered by the fellators.
Roger Moore
Personally, I think it’s too early to seriously talk about impeachment. The key point to hammer on now is independent investigation. That’s exactly what trump is trying to prevent by firing Comey, so we need to push really hard on the need for some kind of independent investigation, whether it be by the FBI protected from political interference, a special counsel, or a serious special Congressional investigation.
The big thing here is that without some really solid evidence of wrongdoing, even “patriotic” Republicans are going to keep hedging their bets. When I try to put myself in their shoes, I can understand it. They want to believe there’s an innocent- or at least politically survivable- explanation for the whole Russia mess, and as long as they can keep believing that they don’t want to turn the trump Presidency into an endless series of Clinton-type fishing expeditions. That means we need to do as much as possible to make the investigation look formal, official, and 100% not a witch hunt.
germy
rawstory
Mnemosyne
Apropos of nothing, I find it fascinating that the #1 movie in the country is all about the main character’s daddy issues and how he needs to get the fuck over them before he helps destroy the whole universe.
Plus stuff in it blows up real good.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Except for Amash, Comstock and Dent.
TenguPhule
Irony is dead.
TenguPhule
@LurkerNoLonger: They’ll have to think about it at length.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
Heh. FBI officials are masters of understatement.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ah, I was just gonna say: Where are the governors? I can’t imagine Kasich isn’t full of opinions (and piss and vinegar and spite) on this, as on every other, subject. I imagine he’s just thinking about which forum he’ll grace with what he imagines to be leaderly righteousness.
NotMax
@Cheryl Rofer
Pre-first cup of birthday coffee misread. Mea culpa. Any movement will not occur with alacrity. Remember that Watergate played out over 900 days from break-in to ultimate conclusion.
germy
@TenguPhule: Future historians will look back at us and call this the “Duck Soup” era.
Miss Bianca
@germy:
?!
“Hey, you know what I just said to your boss? ‘YOU’RE FIRED!’ Isn’t that great? Isn’t that ‘ – hey, where are you all going? Get back here, I’m the PRESIDENT, dammit! I can have you ALL fired!”
Yep…that would have gone well.
JCJ
@Eric U.:
During the time of Watergate the US representative from my district in Indiana was Earl Landgrebe. He is famous for supporting Nixon until the end. He had an awesome quote that basically describes the Republican Party of today:
Hungry Joe
Remember a GOP congressman named Landgrebe, from southern Indiana? As Watergate evidence came pouring in he said, “Don’t confuse me with the facts. I’ve got a closed mind.” He seemed extreme in 1974, but he was just a man ahead of his time.
lollipopguild
@TenguPhule: Trump beat irony to death in Times Square while thousands cheered.
Turgidson
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’m going to go ahead and allow myself to envision that “unlikely to be greeted warmly” really means “will be greeted by being served with a criminal indictment,” just for a brief moment.
…
…that was nice.
JCJ
@Hungry Joe:
Ha! Beat you by one! He was from northern Indiana (Valparaiso) and his district included West Lafayette.
Redshift
@germy: But the Spawn of Huckabee said she’d talked to “countless” FBI personnel and they were glad to see Comey go!
Hungry Joe
@JCJ: Unbelievable: We posted the same message at the same time. I assume you’re from Evansville? (I lived there till I was 10, been a Californian ever since.)
lollipopguild
@germy: Rufus T. Firefly for President.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Hungry Joe: was it Roman Hruska (sp?) who defended a Nixon nominee by saying that the mediocre deserve representation, too? So sad that he didn’t think he could do so on his own.
Mnemosyne
@lollipopguild:
Fix’d, because there are few people who hate Donnie more than his fellow New Yorkers. The thousands would be watching on pay-per-view because they wouldn’t dare go into the city where Those People all live.
JCJ
@Hungry Joe:
Nope, from West Lafayette. Never been to E’Ville
Hungry Joe
My wife lived in West Lafayette as a kid, while her father was getting his Ph.D. (in Eng. lit) from Purdue.
lollipopguild
@Turgidson: I was thinking more on the lines of “President Trump visited FBI Headquarters today and was greeted by well aimed gunfire…..
SatanicPanic
@TenguPhule: My face is sore from face-palming
NotMax
@germy
Or, one hopes, refer to it as either The Guilted Age or The Era of Bad Dealings.
Mnemosyne
@Turgidson:
Well, it turns out that FBI agents are empowered to arrest people they think are committing federal crimes and go to a judge afterwards to explain themselves, and I doubt that Donnie has endeared himself to his Secret Service detail, so …
bystander
@TenguPhule: Want to bet there’s already a photoshop of that pic circulating with Trump getting p**d on by Lavrov and Kislyak?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@NotMax:
Intresting that, isn’t it? Sort of if the 10 pt blue shift in the generic House poll is correct and the Dem take the House in 2018 then those Republican Senators are open to a solid case.
bupalos
As I’ve been all along, I’m a little torn on whether I’m even rooting for quick impeachment. I kind of feel like the Trump fever needs to run it’s course, work it’s way more fully into its Republican host and work the damage that needs to happen to make an actual sea-change in the U.S. political landscape towards liberalism.
Another part of me wants this nightmare over, and worries that this guy has the kind of severe mental illness that endangers the world, an immediate danger that makes my nice preferences about political landscapes seem irrelevant.
TenguPhule
@bystander: Not taking that bet.
Jeffro
@Immanentize:Trump tweet: “Russia must be laughing up their sleeves…”
Everybody’s talking about it…a lot of people are laughing, over there, in Russia…believe me…believe me bigly…
I think we’re heading for another Khan/Machado-style meltdown here folks, everybody buckle up!
Jeffro
Actually, if you think about it, the only way to “laugh up your sleeve” is if you have wraparound sleeves with cuffs that are close to your mouth all the time.
Like w/ a straitjacket.
It’s a cry for help, people…
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Governors – at least red state ones – probably don’t feel a huge need to weigh in on this. Things are proceeding pretty nicely if you’re hoping Trump falls. And in the cases where there’s a case to be made, the AG can do that.
SatanicPanic
@bupalos: I think we need to get rid of him ASAP. Minority lives are at stake
Cheryl Rofer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I saw something from Kasich that was much more positive toward Trump than I expected.
clay
@Mnemosyne: Also worth noting that the film has villains who are an unnatural shade of gold and are thin-skinned narcissists who overreact to the slightest provocation.
efgoldman
@germy:
Impeachment is a 100% political process, and less than zero percent a judicial process.
I have no idea whether the writers of the constitution intended it to be that way, but that’s what it is.
I think it’s possible (but not likely) that a majority of the house would vote for it.
I think it’s damn near impossible, on the scale of pigs flying. that 2/3 of the senate would vote to convict/remove.
The only times it’s happened, was removing judges who’d been convicted of felonies.
NotMax
@Jeffro
Cuffs on a straitjacket are buckled and secured behind the back.
Points for correct spelling of the garment.
Cheryl Rofer
@NotMax: No problem. Yes, it took time for Watergate to play out. I just want to have a marker for where we are now. I think this one is going to move faster, but that may just be my hope speaking. Being in the middle of these things is no fun. There was a reason that Gerald Ford said at his inauguration “Our long national nightmare is over.”
Aleta
These things are actually very simple to resolve.
from Bloomberg on Tues.
efgoldman
@Cheryl Rofer:
Tricksie resigned before a senate trial. Even having lived thru it, I still think it’s doubtful they would have gotten 2/3 to convict. Close, maybe over 60, but no cigar.
Turgidson
@bupalos:
That’s where I am too.
My most optimistic take on things is that it took this. It took the GOP actually taking over the government and being expected to…govern, with a demented manchild president who is the logical endpoint (we hope) of the GOP’s decades-long assault on decency, reason, facts, and norms. It took this to finally make their electoral and ideological house of cards fall apart. If that’s to happen, maybe we need Hair Furor to bumble along a while longer so that Dems can build up the critical mass of energy and motivation to annihilate the GOP in the next two elections, and we need the GOP to be forced to finally hit a point where they have no realy choice but to abandon their Dear Leader. They never really got to that point with Bush the Lesser (despite a mountain of malfeasance to rival Kilimanjaro) until after he was gone, when it was expedient to start saying he wasn’t a REAL conservative.
If we actually dispose of him quickly, the GOP might actually manage to ride this out without the maximal political damage I think they need to suffer in order for this country’s government and political system to move forward with a somewhat durable Democratic majority and a GOP that is forced to start moving back in the direction of sanity.
But the longer it takes, the more damage is done in the meantime. Where’s the sweet spot? No freakin clue. If we could be rid of the guy tomorrow I’d probably take that deal, because he’s that bad. I’m not particularly afraid of a President** Pence actually accomplishing anything of note if he assumes the office that way, himself covered in Hair Furor’s Russian vomit with no credibility or political capital. Indiana was going to vote that stuffed suit out if he hadn’t joined on as copilot of the RSS Trumpenburgenkov. I think the whole country would take care of that in 2020.
But the GOP might do what they’ve always done if they’re mostly but not completely routed in 2020. Replay the fraud they perpetrated on the country (particularly the dolts in the Beltway media) in 2009. Reemerge as “independent” “patriots” concerned about “keeping government out of Medicare” and all the greatest hits. And they never heard of those guys Trump and Pence. No, no. Never heard of them. Just like they’d never heard of George W. Bush, the scratched off Bush/Cheney sticker on their Medicare-funded scooter notwithstanding.
The party needs to be destroyed completely. Maybe hitching their wagon to Hair Furor provides the opening for that to get it done. I’m not too hopeful, but there’s a sliver of a chance, maybe.
Mnemosyne
@clay:
And who nonetheless are convinced that they’re a genetically superior master race so they just. can’t. STAND. that they were bested by this motley bunch of assholes.
bupalos
@SatanicPanic: The “minority” I’m thinking of is more “mammals and most warm-blooded creatures.” That kind of immediate danger.
If we’re talking actual Federal policy, I think there is at least as great a threat from a quick impeachment where the R’s decide cut the cancer quickly and keep him at arm’s length and go on with the “sane” ones governing as there is with 2 years of majority and 2 years of lame-duckness that end with them being known as Trumpublicans. But these obviously aren’t the only 2 options. Who knows where this goes. I’m having a really hard time envisioning 4 or even 2 years of this. It’s been not even 4 months.
Frank Wilhoit
Stop using the word impeachment. Whatever happens next, it will be something not foreseen or provided for by the 1787 Constitution (as amended), which is now a dead letter.
GregB
20 AG’s led by MA’s Maura Healy signed on for a special prosecutor.
Also Congressman Walter Jones. NC
clay
@Aleta: Certified letter, what the fuck?
zhena gogolia
@Aleta:
Only if confirmed by his tax returns.
NotMax
@efgoldman
Federal judge Alcee Hastings had been acquitted by a jury of bribery and perjury charges more than five years prior to being impeached, convicted and removed from office
debbie
Add the FBI to that list. I heard an interview with the deputy FBI director and I don’t see him or the FBI folding. In fact, they seem righteously indignant at any suggestion Comey wasn’t supported and respected throughout the FBI.
bupalos
@Frank Wilhoit: I wouldn’t be so sure. If the Republicans can get free of Trump and Pence and put ZEGS on the throne, they might calculate that they would have a clean slate and a sort of hybrid newcomer/incumbent to run in ’20.
I have to think pragmatic people are looking at what Trump did today- contradicting the story he just cooked up for them to repeat 24 hours earlier- and wondering whether they can really live with this guy and his issues. He is so unlikely to get more stable, and fairly likely to get even more whacked out.
Gin & Tonic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes. In defense of G. Harold Carswell.
NotMax
debbie
@NotMax:
Rats! The optics on that would have been wonderful.
Starfish
@A Ghost to Most: I called him yesterday and left a message on his “no one ever answers these phones” line.
clay
I’m watching Greta on MSNBC — no idea why — and my God, she’s a virtual Tweety clone! Not only with her shock of blond hair, but also in the way she sounds like she always has too much saliva in her mouth, AND in the way she interrupts her guests before they can finish answering her questions.
She’s, what, Tweetette? She-Tweety? Sheety?
Shalimar
@TenguPhule: Makes you wonder. If they really didn’t expect the Russians to publish the photos, what was the purpose of stupidly allowing cameras and electronic equipment in the Oval Office?
“We didn’t know they were actually taking pictures. We only gave them permission to install bugs.”
Shalimar
@clay: Scientolotweety.
clay
@Mnemosyne: Times like this I wish we had a ‘Like’ button. (And other times, I’m so glad we don’t.)
Who’s the trash panda? Cole?
clay
@Shalimar: They claim they didn’t know the photographers were from state media. They’re really fucking stupid.
NotMax
@debbie
Makes one ponder just how small the epistemic bubble must shrink before suffocation sets in, doesn’t it?
? Martin
@clay: I have a note from my mom. She says I have a good brain and am good at math and deserve an A.
? Martin
@clay: What is this world coming to when the President can trust the FBI more than the Russian foreign minister? It’s crazy.
SiubhanDuinne
@Shalimar:
What I saw, can’t remember where, is that the Russians had said the photographer was just there to chronicle the Foreign Minister’s various activities, but they neglected to mention that he (photog) also works for Tass.
Naturally, the more-incompetent-with-every-day-that-passes WH never bothered to ask for any additional information or do any extra vetting. The Tass information should not have been that difficult to determine.
But I do have a question. Throughout the Obama years ? we regularly saw wonderful pictures of the First Family, visitors, holiday decorations, all taken by the outstanding Pete Souza. It seems that everything I’ve seen out of the Trump WH (including Mar-a-Lago) are press photos. Do they not have an official photographer? Or have I just missed seeing a credit line? I’ll admit I haven’t looked very hard, like at all.
Tom Q
@efgoldman: Your take doesn’t agree with contemporary history. The word from Republicans at the time was that there were fewer than 20 votes in the Senate to acquit Nixon; that’s why Goldwater et al. made their famous trip to the White House. Nixon knew they were right, and that’s why he resigned. No way he would have survived.
Lizzy L
@Frank Wilhoit: This. I think we are all sailing blind. Orangehair is scary because we really don’t know what he’s going to do next — and I mean, we really Don’t Know. The impeachment process is ponderous and public, and it takes months — does anyone really think that Orangehair would submit to it? One can’t put these things to a vote, but if we at BJ were to take a vote on Is He Sane, I’m pretty sure 97% of the commentariat here would vote No Fucking Way Are You Kidding Me He’s Batshit. And insane people do unexpected things. It’s practically definitional.
Our institutions are really about to be tested. Charles Pierce has a piece over at Esquire in which he says It Feels Like a Turning Point. Yeah, maybe. I think “It” — whatever “It” is — is going to get much weirder.
Fnarf
You list three House members. You only need 21 more. Good luck with that. Trump is not getting impeached no matter what happens. Even if the Dems take back the House in 2018, which is going to be very difficult, some of them won’t vote to impeach.
efgoldman
@Turgidson:
Always a mistake to go there
BretH
@Redshift:
Yes, today made me realize that there is no way I could be a White House reporter, because when pressed about how that was possible and we heard her gibberish I would have laughed out loud.
I mean, we all know Press Secretaries lie, but to see one caught in the middle of her lie, and squirming to find a way to lie further, well that’s theatre.
Donna K
Surprise, surprise! Maine Sen. Susan Collins is not on the list. Can we now stop calling her a “moderate” and crediting her with defying Republican party orthodoxy? She never does a damn thing to justify her reputation.
jmw
Useful list of statements that you is sortable by state (but not by response type):
https://projects.propublica.org/represent/statements/james-comey
efgoldman
@NotMax:
I heard that somewhere, from someone. Can’t recall…
hueyplong
@Eric U.: M. Caldwell Butler was my congressman, too. I was 16 at the time.
efgoldman
@NotMax:
The point is, three times presidents were impeached and tried, the senate failed the 2/3 to remove. (Tricksie, as noted, resigned prior to trial) Nobody further up the food chain than a judge has ever successfully been removed.
SatanicPanic
@Fnarf: I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I don’t know if he will or not, but I wouldn’t jump out and say it definitely won’t happen.
Jeffro
We’re not even four months past the inauguration, and the headlines are unbelievable (to say nothing of the op-eds).
We’re making great progress here…this clown will be the most reviled president ever before he’s dragged from office!
Seriously, this is collapsing around their ears at this point. Happy, Ryan? Happy, McConnell? Happy, Cruz and Perry and Carson? It was all for nothing…for less than nothing.
Once this all comes out…Trumpov being compromised for almost two decades, the money laundering, the campaign members who colluded with a hostile foreign power, the payoffs to the GOP and multiple Senators and Representatives…it’s dumb and it almost seems tame, but I want the Dems to push hard for a real ‘truth and reconciliation’ commission that focuses on
– how big money distorted our democratic processes and norms
– how Fox News (and related) created their own alternate reality for a frighteningly large portion of America
– how easy it was for Russia to compromise GOP politicians and take advantage of a misinformed, radicalized base of voters
SatanicPanic
@efgoldman: Clinton, Johnson and who’s the third?
efgoldman
@Donna K:
She gets “concerned” – it said so in the paper just yesterday.
Aleta
@NotMax: Poor hardworking Trump, must he abolish the entire disloyal FBI now? All he wanted was a simple stand-there ovation like at the CIA.
efgoldman
@SatanicPanic:
Oops. Threw Tricksie in, too. So vile that I double counted him.
SatanicPanic
@efgoldman: I’m not hopeful, but has anything gone the way we expected it to the in last year? I dunno, if anyone is every going to be impeached, Trump might very well be that man. At any rate, I think it makes him look stupid, so I say go for it.
NeenerNeener
I still think if/when Twitler feels he’s really threatened he will fake a heart attack and resign “for health reasons”. The RICO case the NY AG is building should scare the crap out of him even if he knows his fellow Republicans won’t impeach him.
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne: @SiubhanDuinne:
Did you know Souza posts photos from his archive almost every day on Instagram? It’s worth downloading the app.
gammyjill
@Cheryl Rofer: Hey, Cheryl. I’ve been meaning to say “hi”. I’m Jill from RENESAN in Santa Fe, now living in Chicago. Are you still presenting at RENESAN?
Thoughtful David
Yeah, I don’t see him being impeached and removed, either, but neither do I see him finishing his term. He’ll resign with something like “I was too good for you, and you didn’t deserve me, but the mean old Democrats wouldn’t let me do my job and you losers didn’t help me.”
Then he’ll spend the rest of his life defending himself from lawsuits.
debbie
@debbie:
In fact, Souza’s posted that he’s publishing a book of photographs he took during Obama’s administration, which might interest you.
Suffragette City
Saw somewhere earlier today Grassley believes another vacancy sometime this year on SC. This is another reason I don’t see the R’s abandoning Donny unless he actually shoots someone on 5th Ave.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
I didn’t know that! Thanks! I did see somewhere that he has a book coming out later this year, and I will, of course, be acquiring a copy :-)
TenguPhule
@Thoughtful David:
Trump isn’t resigning. He loves power too much.
Ella in New Mexico
@Cheryl Rofer: If it weren’t for the fact that Paulie Man-farts was a big player there, I’d be disappointed by the fact the raid looks like they’re digging into these damn self/family/friend enriching grifter PAC’s that claim to raise money for candidates but spend most of it on paying themselves and hiring consulting firms who employ their friends and family.
Which is a sad indicator of just how bad things have gotten: I’m disappointed the Feds are going after majorly egregious campaign finance fraud and corruption instead of going after my treasonous President, his staff and his campaign.
Still, I’m hoping there’s a Manafort angle at the bottom of this shitpile…:-D
Starfish
Look at Amash signing onto a bill to create a commission to investigate Russian interference in the election.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
Should have scrolled down a few more posts before answering your earlier :-)
(Story of my life today on BJ.)
TenguPhule
Oh yeah, the Senate Conservative Republican Death Panel will really save us.
Lucy has the football.
Again.
sigaba
@Starfish: It’s all in the details when it comes to a congressional or blue ribbon commission. It could be good but it could also just be a way of shutting down the FBI investigation and getting all the evidence into the highly leakable hands of Republican congressmen.
Mnemosyne
@clay:
Cole strikes me more as Yondu, but I can’t explain why without spoilers.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne: Cole is Drax the Destroyer and don’t you deny it.
dww44
@japa21: @Roger Moore: While an independent investigation is important and indeed necessary that doesn’t make less important a GOP controlled Congress putting country before party and acknowledging that this President is unsuited to the office to which they and his base elected him to. Only they have the power to make his removal happen sooner rather than later.
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
Maybe. I see Adam as Groot.
Not sure which of our female front-pagers gets to be Gamora. There’s a bit of a gender imbalance on the team.
SiubhanDuinne
@dww44:
Hey, sorry I missed your earlier question to me in a thread two or three levels down (the one about NPR). I did answer, but not until two or three hours had passed.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
Betty Cracker or Annie? Why not both! Sisters!!
/No I’m not going to pick which one is the cyborg assassin. I’m crazy, not suicidal.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne: Adam is Rocket. Crazy prepared and willing to put with Doug!-Groot.
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Nah, I should have gone back and added to the first one instead of adding a second one. :)
kd bart
If they lose a couple of these upcoming special elections, you’ll hear heavier rumblings from the House GOP.
Shalimar
@SiubhanDuinne: There is a White House photographer, and she apparently has at least 4 assistants. The only photos I have seen from any of them were of all the big group Oval Office meetings for signing statements or visiting dignitaries. Their access to Trump appears very limited.
geg6
@kd bart:
This.
PaulWartenberg
I don’t think trump should be impeached.
I think trump SHOULD BE ARRESTED. Obstruction of Justice is a federal crime.
dww44
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks.. I’ve been otherwise occupied as well. Back and forth between Cox and AT&T re the recent transfer of internet services where the order to “port” never happened and both have been billing. Anyways, I will go back up in that post and find your answer.
SiubhanDuinne
@dww44:
I’m afraid it’s sort of a “nil” answer :-(
SiubhanDuinne
@Shalimar:
I should have specified more clearly in my OC. I figured an official WH photog took the staged, boring group photos at signing ceremonies and the like — grip ‘n’ grin photo ops, and so on. I was thinking more of the candid moments, the fun times. But of course, now I think of it, there are no fun times in the Trump White House.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
No, no, really, it’s my fault.
(“After you, Alphonse.” “No, after you, Gaston.”)