Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

You are here: Home / Politics / Impeachment Inquiry / Whistleblower Inquiry Open Thread: How Fast Can Bill Barr Tap Dance?

Whistleblower Inquiry Open Thread: How Fast Can Bill Barr Tap Dance?

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Not quite fast enough this time, I’m hoping! He was invaluable when it came to covering up Iran-Contra, and he did yeoman service during the Great Clenis Hunt, but he was younger then. And “we” were more naive about just how irretrievably corrupt the GOP had become…


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63Comments

  3. 3.

    lamh36

    @Dan_F_Jacobson
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    Keep in mind that that, if this story is true, McMaster knew that Trump betrayed our country in that meeting and instead of telling us he lied about what happened.

  4. 4.

    Wag

    If Barr is indicted for his role in this nonsense , can we then open inquiries into his past malfeasance as well? I know the statute of limitations has long since passed on his past crimes, but can we use them to get him a harsher sentence this time around ?

  6. 6.

    Kay

    Imagine being that whistleblower. Nine pages and the floodgates open.

    I hope Barr goes to prison. He’s much worse than Giuliani. At least Giuliani admits he’s Trump’s lawyer.

  7. 7.

    Mai naem mobile

    Barr is in Italy. I am guessing Italy has an extradition treaty. Ivanka and Jared were also in Italy very recently. Steve Bannon is also apparently in Italy, Maybe they’re making a deal with the Vatican over limiting financial liability in the sex abuse stuff in exchange for asylum for the whole Famiglia Trumpov?

  9. 9.

    SFAW

    It will be a good Infrastructure Day/Week/Month/Quarter if Shill Barr resigns in disgrace, to be followed by numerous indictments.

    Would it be petty of me to hope that Barr be placed in stocks, primarily so that people can piss on him? That evil fuck.

  10. 10.

    Jeffro

    I know it’s only been 4-5 days or so (ok a week or two since first hints of whistleblower complaint started surfacing) but jesus it feels like forever. Can we just call the House vote next Friday and the Senate vote the following Monday? I want Psycho Boy out of the WH and I wanna see Barr do a perp-waddle very. badly.

  11. 11.

    John Revolta

    Starr is literally babbling. Maybe he’s in on it too! A guy can hope!

    also the revelation of a secret storehouse of all of the president’s problematic phone calls is kind of perfect

    Well it’s not a secret recording system in the Oval Office but it def gots potential……………………..

  12. 12.

    Jeffro

    @Kay:

    Nine pages and the floodgates open.

    Well, they say ‘less is more’…

    Never doubt the power of a well-done short story ;)

  13. 13.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    I hope Barr goes to prison. He’s much worse than Giuliani. At least Giuliani admits he’s Trump’s lawyer.

    Spot on, as usual.

  15. 15.

    Yarrow

    @Mai naem mobile: Steve Bannon was in Italy but they revoked his permit for using the monastery for his right wing Nazi training school. Bannon was in NYC a day ago at a dinner party that included Bill Gates and Epstein’s butler. Also, the FTC tried to serve him a subpoena a day or so before that.

    The Federal Trade Commission unsuccessfully tried to serve a civil subpoena Wednesday on Steve Bannon, the former Trump campaign CEO and chief White House strategist, over his role in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal that recently resulted in a $5 billion fine for Facebook.

    As for the others in Italy, there’s a significant relationship between Italy’s right wing and Russia. So…

  16. 16.

    Yarrow

    @Jeffro: I’m on the opposite side. I want it dragged out. Force those guys to testify. Get them to lie to Congress, then leak some more dirt that proves they lie. Do that over and over and show just how deep the corruption goes.

  17. 17.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    It feels like the dam is breaking. I guess it most likely shouldn’t surprise me, since it seems to happen this way rather often, but, damn, this is happening fast. I think that as important as the ugly shit that’s oozing out is, the shattering of this misplaced picture so many people ahd of Donald Trump as some kind of political genius is at least as important.

    I get the feeling that two things are happening: Those within Trump’s orbit are beginning to ask themselves just how badly they’d like to go to jail for this guy, and those outside his orbit are beginning to see that it might before long be worth more to turn on him than it is to stick with him.

    Once people in Congress begin peeling away, I think things are going to happen mighty fast. I wouldn’t be at all shocked if we don’t even get to impeachment. It’s going to take a month and a half to two months before there’s a vote in the House. I kind of expect senators are going to begin falling away. And when that happens, if he has any fucking brains at all, he’s going to just bail. I could easily see him not even resigning, just flying off somewhere and hiding.

  20. 20.

    Jeffro

    @Yarrow: I hear you…I guess I want trumpov out as soon as possible, AND for all the other investigations to continue until every last root of evil is ripped out (publicly)?

    I know, I know…can I have a pony too? ;)

  21. 21.

    Yarrow

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    I could easily see him not even resigning, just flying off somewhere and hiding.

    It’s not really possible. As President he can’t just decide to fly somewhere and stay there. The pilots and crew of Air Force One work for the United States, not Trump. They won’t just fly him to Russia and let him off the plane to defect. Not going to happen. He’s more trapped than he can imagine.

  22. 22.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    It IS powerfully written. I read it last night. The plain language is shocking. You get so used to everyone hedging and qualifying it’s a relief to read something so straightforward.

    In the course of my official duties, I have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election. This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President’s main domestic political rivals. The President’s personal lawyer, Mr. Rudolph Giuliani, is a central figure in this effort. Attorney General Barr appears to be involved as well.

    If Barr has a scrap of integrity left he should resign, but he doesn’t, so he won’t.

    I don’t think any of them will. They’re going to have to be dragged out of there. They are all Donald Trump now.

  23. 23.

    JGabriel

    @lamh36: Link from Will to Connecticut Post (Or Twitter? Not sure where it was supposed to go) didn’t work for me, so I’m reposting a direct link to the Post’s editorial – in case anyone else runs into the same problem I did:

    Editorial: President Trump needs to step down

    (PS – Not blaming your link, could easily be one of my browser extensions causing the problem.)

  24. 24.

    Jeffro

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I think you’re right in a way – it’s more likely that he just ups and runs than resigns.

    But I think each of those possibilities is pretty minimal. He seems to think he can do the ‘scorched earth’ thing, but the cracks are indeed showing. What will he offer Nancy on the day that the impeachment votes are being counted? What threats will he issue against GOP Senators as the ‘guilty/convict/remove’ numbers start piling up? Will it all come out in a special, 42,368-character Twitter rant?

    I still see him at that police interrogation table, trying to save his last (only?) million and the adoration of his blessed Ivanka by spilling EVERYTHING he knows…oh what a day…

  25. 25.

    Yarrow

    @Jeffro: He’s a narcissist. He will throw everyone under the bus, including Ivanka, to save himself. He has never had to face the consequences of his actions. That time is over. He will pay now. He doesn’t have any idea how to deal with that because he’s never had to.

  26. 26.

    jl

    @Yarrow: ” The pilots and crew of Air Force One work for the United States, not Trump. They won’t just fly him to Russia and let him off the plane to defect. ”

    Oh dear. Wait until poor Mr. Trump finds out. I can imagine of a sad video of Trump waddling off Air Force One and over to Marine One to see if they’ll take him some place.

  27. 27.

    psycholinguist

    Trump becomes more and more the obvious stooge and lackey to Putin with each revelation. I want to see a Democratic candidate seize that and make very clear that Russia and Putin will have a bullseye on its back from day one. Treat Trump for what he is, the useful idiot in an attack on the US by a hostile power.

  28. 28.

    Yarrow

    @jl: And it’ll be, “No, Mr. President. We can’t take you to X. We haven’t done advance security work and it’s not safe.” And then they won’t. They’d probably fly him to Mar-a-Lago or Bedminster or some other property of his in the US. You know, some place that’s easily accessible by federal agents.

  29. 29.

    cain

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    I get the feeling that two things are happening: Those within Trump’s orbit are beginning to ask themselves just how badly they’d like to go to jail for this guy, and those outside his orbit are beginning to see that it might before long be worth more to turn on him than it is to stick with him.

    It’s a stupid calculus because Trump is completely unpredictable. This entire thing being exposed was entirely his doing. There is no telling what he will do next. He’s not disciplined, he’s not on message, he’s just chaos. So either they have some weird ass loyalty to him, the money is still really good, or Russia has them by the balls.

  30. 30.

    cain

    @Yarrow:

    It’s not really possible. As President he can’t just decide to fly somewhere and stay there. The pilots and crew of Air Force One work for the United States, not Trump. They won’t just fly him to Russia and let him off the plane to defect. Not going to happen. He’s more trapped than he can imagine.

    Can you imagine our entire nation’s shame if he managed a way to defect? Never mind the Republican party would be in utter shambles as well, and there will truly be a witch hunt at that point going after everyone who is remotely connected. I’m sure it would trigger a number of other folks to leave as well.

  31. 31.

    RobMassing

    “Impeachment is about treason, it’s about bribery.”

    Problem here is not that he’s moving the goalposts, but that he can’t move them far enough.

  33. 33.

    jl

    @Kay: ” the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election. This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President’s main domestic political rivals. ”

    Note: My emphasis.

    I wonder what the ‘among other things’ refers to. I wonder if the WB was fairly recent to the WH and saw this unfolding and felt had to be reported. Or, they were there a long time and this was the first thing that was a slum dunk smoking gun that meant had to go with the WB report asap.

    People were wondering how much of the WB was related to the Biden smear attempt with Zelensky. Looks like now some of the more explosive, and still classified was not. But it all apparently had to do with soliciting foreign aid for the election. And we don’t know the big promise yet either, do we?

  34. 34.

    pattonbt

    Barr will never resign or go quietly. He is devoid of a soul. So I hope it goes down painfully for him for his past, present and, surely, future sins and treason

  35. 35.

    Another Scott

    @cain: Google Maps tells me it’s a short 6.1 mile trip from the US Capitol to the Russian Embassy. 18 minutes by car. (5.1 miles via Mass Ave., but slower.)

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  37. 37.

    psycholinguist

    interesting: the Saudi conversations were selected for the secure compartment and participants were limited,prior to the conversation taking place. That must have been the big ask for Jared.

  39. 39.

    Gvg

    Barr can’t recuse himself. Trump would go ballistic and fire him, even though that would get trump into instant bigger trouble. He hated Sessions recusing himself and got madder as time went on.
    I was worrying about someone killing the whistle blower yesterday. If Trump were rational, he would never have said that, because I think it would cause nearly instant impeachment.

  40. 40.

    kindness

    Sure we’d like to see Barr among many of this Administration in a perp walk on the evening news but it ain’t gonna happen. He won’t resign and no one currently in the Justice Dept will challenge him or Trump. We won’t be free till 1/21/21. Hold on. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

  44. 44.

    Mai naem mobile

    @Yarrow: at least he has his dad who can give him tips on surviving in prison from personal experience. I’m just being a helper here looking for silver linings in a crappy situation for Prince In Waiting Jared. Hopefully Ivanka won’t divorce him while she is doing her time in the womens penitentiary. Maybe Ivanka can design some haute couture prison fashions while she is doing time.

  45. 45.

    Yarrow

    @Mai naem mobile: Really good of you to be looking out for them like that. So thoughtful.

    I don’t think they have any idea what’s coming for them. They’re used to business corruption. Treasonous corruption on this level is something they don’t understand and certainly haven’t considered in terms of its consequences for them.

  53. 53.

    Ruckus

    @cain:
    How many of the active people in his orbit actually have anywhere else to go? Especially now. Most of them are at the end of whatever careers they may have had and they are not likely to find anywhere else to go. Even faux news has reports about them. Sure their go to boys and girls are still singing the praises of the shitgibbon but the damn has burst or is at least leaking badly. When the fan really gets going this is not going to be pretty for anyone who hasn’t already jumped out the window.

  54. 54.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Yarrow: that “the president could respond erratically and become ‘unmanageable.’

    To paraphrase the Algonquin Round Table (Mrs Parker?) response to the death of Coolidge: How will they tell?

  56. 56.

    Ruckus

    @Kent:
    She may be less exposed than the people still there but everyone brought in by trump since he started running for office should be at the very least scrutinized – given the once over. Maybe she got out early but she still knowingly told lies for his dumb ass and admitted as much.
    And she went to work for him in the first place, that doesn’t make her very smart.

  58. 58.

    Ruckus

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    Don’t know specifically how they could tell but I’d still bet it would be obvious to anyone that has been around him for any length of time. None of this is going to be pretty. There really isn’t anyone there that can or will be able to do much other than body block him if he gets too far out of line. The office really doesn’t allow anyone to stop him from doing pretty much anything. They can stop him from continuing to hurt people or himself but a first attack would be impossible. If he orders a military exercise, the military might consider it an unlawful order. That’s about the extent of it. He could actually shoot someone on 5th Ave and until the gunshot who can stop him, all he has to do is grab a gun. Now being the chickenshit that he is, that probably won’t happen. But there are a lot of ways he could do harm, unless someone just doesn’t do whatever.

  60. 60.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @lamh36:

    @Dan_F_Jacobson
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    Keep in mind that that, if this story is true, McMaster knew that Trump betrayed our country in that meeting and instead of telling us he lied about what happened.

    McMaster, and who else would be in that position of knowing and lying? Surely others. They need to be subpoenaed, and if unwilling to testify, indicted and prosecuted.

  61. 61.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Chief Oshkosh: I think you can make a case (and McMaster may have) that Trump was just telling the Russians what they wanted to hear: “I don’t think you did anything in the 2016 elections”. Trump had already said similar things publicly.

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