US Politics Thread |OT| SAD TRUMP

[Nola]

As stupid as the Christie exchange is, it helps further establish Trump was trying to put his thumb on the scale of the investigation for reason beyond executing his duties of the office. Soliciting others to try and gain influence over Comey to end the investigation(as with Christie he does similar things to multiple people). So as dumb as the attempt was, success is not a prerequisite for obstruction.

Noting this is the same day Trump went on and proceeded to clear the room in that famous meeting and ask Comey to implicitly drop the investigation....Firing him a couple weeks later.


Also, the guy already was all but confirmed to have committed felony campaign finance violations, he's been impeachable on the merits for a couple of months....Not gonna happen though.

[agrajag]

I bet if they actually started impeachment hearings, he'd refuse to testify before Congress.

[Tripon]

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1120003181914857472

Did Trump ever try to cover his lies?

[Tripon]

https://twitter.com/finneganLAT/status/1119998753136504832

[Great Rumbler]

Remember when some people were trying to push Avenatti for President?

[Yeti]

I think it was just Avenatti trying to push Avenatti for president

[Skullfuckers Anonymous]

I bet if they actually started impeachment hearings, he'd refuse to testify before Congress.

Lol, implying McConnell would hold a trial if the house voted to impeach Trump.

[team filler]

President-bae <3 looking flawless 

[Nintex]

Foreign influence you say? 
https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1120044569947779072

[Tripon]

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1120062403226624003
https://twitter.com/jbillinson/status/1119700863512129536

[agrajag]

Foreign influence you say? 
https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1120044569947779072

now that's the kind of collusion I could get behind

[agrajag]

https://www.newsweek.com/rep-ilhan-omar-legalize-marijuana-nationwide-expunge-criminal-records-those-1402110

 

[benjipwns]

https://twitter.com/jbillinson/status/1119700863512129536

wow, it's like he knows me personally

[benjipwns]

Seder needs to have my boy Dave Weigel on more.

yikes

[benjipwns]

I bet if they actually started impeachment hearings, he'd refuse to testify before Congress.

Apologies if I misread you but you mean Trump? No President has ever testified before Congress under subpoena. The general agreement is that Congress cannot subpoena the President, the only person they technically cannot. (The refusal of other executive branch offices stems from this, but I believe can be and has been legally challenged.)

Gerald Ford and Abraham Lincoln both testified before Congress on their own. (Both share last names with car brands, coincidence or conspiracy?) And I think Washington may have addressed one of the Houses of Congress a few times in what would be now equivalent circumstances but was determined by all to be such a disaster (due to his executive privilege to ignore questions) that it basically set a non-legal standard.

Did Trump ever try to cover his lies?

Donald Trump does not believe he ever lies. There is nothing to cover.

[agrajag]

my b, b. I was thinking back to Bill's false testimony under oath, but that was in front of a grand jury. Cowardly Mueller didn't even subpoena him 

[benjipwns]

Bill Clinton didn't testify under subpoena either. He agreed to testify if Starr withdrew the subpoena so it wouldn't go to court and set a legal precedent.

It's actually never been decided in court exactly if a President can refuse any subpoena and when. In Clinton's case it was technically in a civil suit against him personally, not as President, so I believe most people agreed he would have trouble with it in court. A criminal case probably wouldn't go well either. But refusing a special counsel or Congress, I think they may get away with on executive privilege grounds. I admittingly have not looked much into it beyond Clinton's situation.

Nixon avoided his subpoena by resigning which seems like an unhelpful way of resolving this legal issue. The jerk.

[EightBitNate]

Was looking at this thread when I got a call from Rasmussen polling. Very first time that happened. Neat.

[benjipwns]

Was looking at this thread when I got a call from Rasmussen polling. Very first time that happened. Neat.

My bad, hit the wrong button.

[benjipwns]

hope those rules weren't too set in stone

surely they can rush something in like "must be registered member of the Democratic Party as of January 1st"?

[Tripon]

hope those rules weren't too set in stone

surely they can rush something in like "must be registered member of the Democratic Party as of January 1st"?

If there's more than 20 Dems running (and qualified), the DNC is just going to pick the people they want at the debates.

I see that list doesn't have Mike Gravel or Maryanne Williamson, or that Wayne Massem guy or however you spell that name, so I think we're at 20 Dems running anyway.

[Mandark]

The teens who run Mike Gravel's twitter account are gonna bring him to the debates Weekend At Bernie's style.

[benjipwns]

after seeing that rock video recreation I totally support anyone requiring debate participants to establish that they are indeed alive

[Tripon]

The teens who run Mike Gravel's twitter account are gonna bring him to the debates Weekend At Bernie's style.

https://twitter.com/MikeGravel/status/1119420418320769024

[benjipwns]

Perez did indeed say only 20 candidates can make it if they meet the rules. For two groups of ten.

Democratic candidates announced or to be announced this week broken into groups of five for visual purposes:
1: Biden, Booker, Buttigieg, Castro, Delaney
2: Gabbard, Gillibrand, Gravel, Harris, Hickenlooper
3: Inslee, Klobuchar, Messam, Moulton, O'Rourke
4: Ryan, Sanders, Swalwell, Warren, Williamson
5: Yang

"Pending" candidates: Michael Bennett
Still "considering" but unlikely: Bill de Blasio, Steve Bullock

I assume Gravel will not make it, which means they will be hard pressed to keep out both Yang and Williamson unless they get all three of those pending/considering in, if only for the first debates to keep out the not serious* candidates. I assumed earlier and still do that the DNC would prefer having Williamson to Yang if they got to pick.

*source: former Senators John Edwards and Hillary Clinton

[benjipwns]

I've gone back and forth on which debate will get that tag anyway. Like if Biden and Sanders wind up in the same debate. Especially if one of Harris and Mayor Pete is also in that debate? And does going first let you off the hook for gaffes or will the second debate turn into a reaction debate to the first one? The first debate might only get a few hours of coverage because then it's time for the second debate and what if that one has everything that winds up dominating the cycle.

Though I have thought these type of debates are more than somewhat antiquated and useless, and Trump pretty much proved that other than that time he murdered Jeb! on stage. With the continuously ongoing forums and town halls and etc. ultimately mattering more with voters and their related interest groups, even if the media doesn't care because they aren't as involved. I imagine someone is gathering all this data somewhere.

[benjipwns]

I was going to include Robert Francis O'Rourke in that list of second tier candidates, imagining all five as one half of a debate, but then I remembered this story I saw earlier which I have no real information about and will pretend is devastating and means the walls are closing in:

Two top advisers to Beto O'Rourke's presidential campaign have left the former Texas representative's team.

Becky Bond and her deputy Zack Malitz, who were involved in the Democrat's failed 2018 Senate election against Republican incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, are no longer employed by the campaign, O'Rourke spokesman Chris Evans told Buzzfeed News. Evans, however, did not respond to questions about why the pair left and whether their departures were voluntarily.

...

“Launching a presidential campaign without a big staff or even a campaign manager was no easy feat and it took everyone pitching in,” Bond said in a statement. “We’re proud to have been part of the team of deeply dedicated staff and volunteers who nearly pulled off a historic upset in the 2018 Texas Senate race and broke records launching Beto’s campaign for the presidency.”

Bond, a liberal activist who co-founded the CREDO SuperPAC, and Malitz previously worked for Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign. They are credited as being the architects behind the senator's energized network of grassroots support.

[benjipwns]

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1119960541429149696

Sean Hannity responds, this is half of his 14 part tweet that he replied to incorrectly and stopped numbering after 12

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1120105761366003718

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1120106484669530115

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1120106544136359936

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1120107277032337409

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1120107994681835526

[close]

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1120108051871170566

[BIONIC]

https://www.newsweek.com/rep-ilhan-omar-legalize-marijuana-nationwide-expunge-criminal-records-those-1402110

 

Absolutely haram 

[Trent Dole]

There being a possibility that we don't get to see Bernie annihilate Biden and Buttchug is a bummer.

[Kunai With Chain]

https://twitter.com/MohsenSolhdoost/status/1119838200535498753

 

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1119960541429149696

Sean Hannity responds, this is half of his 14 part tweet that he replied to incorrectly and stopped numbering after 12

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1120105761366003718

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1120106484669530115

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1120106544136359936

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1120107277032337409

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1120107994681835526

[close]

https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1120108051871170566

Sean Hannity is the trojan horse to bring down the Russian information warfare apparatus 

[kingv]

I’m prepared for epic fuckery around the random debate setup.

It will “randomly” be like Bernie and  Warren in the land of misfit toys with Gravel, Yang, Inslee, and the other weirdos. And then the “serious” candidates in the other one.

Bernie will get called sexist for pointing. Biden will ask Kamala if he can touch her hair, and she will say yes than later have to explain that it wasn’t racist.

[benjipwns]

supoorting

[Joe Molotov]

Nate Silver annihilated.

edit: top of the page Tulsi

[Tasty]

(Image removed from quote.)

supoorting

Warren

[VomKriege]

We had a 3 hour 12 persons debate (Euro election) over here a couple of weeks ago and it was all dreadful. I know you have experience with some ridiculously large primary debates but I don't see how the Dem one could be anything less than a clown show unless they start subdividing it, with all the issues it entails.

The dudes at Pod Save... seem to believe that having major primaries now closer in the calendar to the early ones would clean up the roster pretty quick with how upfront it makes things, do you agree ?

[team filler]

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1120364513700794369

[team filler]

[Joe Molotov]

Did he literally bark at the landlord? Black Panther fans need to know.

[Nintex]

Come to think of it pollsters like Nate Silver got their fame for correctly predicting Obama would beat Romney.
Which only surprised Karl Rove and some Fox News viewers (mostly Donald Trump).

[Great Rumbler]

Did he literally bark at the landlord? Black Panther fans need to know.

Bark at the Moon, but replace "Moon" with "Landlord."

[team filler]

bark at the mods 

[agrajag]

https://twitter.com/mags_mclaugh/status/1120457759252676608

[Mandark]

internal polls, grain of salt, etc.

[agrajag]

thanks captain bringdown

[curly]

This town hall is the first time I've heard more than a soundbite from Buttigieg and man he sucks assss. It's that same old bullshit, lay the personal stories and displays of empathy on thick to conceal how empty your politics are

[curly]

It works if you have Obama level political talents but if you're not there it comes off as fake. Also on a macro level it breeds cynicism among the body politic because on some level the vapidity becomes apparent, especially when every candidate employs the same rhetorical tricks.

One of Trump's biggest advantages imo was that anytime he was on stage with somebody trying to do that act they looked totally inauthentic next to his dementia-induced performance.

[team filler]

[Kunai With Chain]

https://twitter.com/IsaacDovere/status/1120462681457287169

http://time.com/5574272/joe-biden-campaign-launch/

“I’ve never seen anything so half-assed,” a former Biden aide said. “They’re improvising and doing last-minute planning. The guy has been running for President since 1987 and can’t figure the basics out, like where to stand on his first day? This should make everyone very nervous.”

Added a second Biden insider: “The guy’s best day is the day he announces. Everything after that gets worse.”

Good lord, if he can't even get his campaign announcement right how is he going to manage running against Trump?

[BIONIC]

He can’t decide on how many women and little girls to molest during his announcement speech 

[Trent Dole]

Ooh, open borders with Mexico huh. Maybe the next Dem will sign off on that, but probably not.

[kingv]

Look curly, you're just wrong. Buttigieg does have specific policy proposals, like "people in prison shouldn't be allowed to vote".

I sometimes forget just how conservative some people in the Democratic Party are. I thought sanders comment about letting incarcerated people vote  was basically common sense, and not objectionable at all. Regardless of your opinions on the policy I think he answered it well.

It works if you have Obama level political talents but if you're not there it comes off as fake. Also on a macro level it breeds cynicism among the body politic because on some level the vapidity becomes apparent, especially when every candidate employs the same rhetorical tricks.

One of Trump's biggest advantages imo was that anytime he was on stage with somebody trying to do that act they looked totally inauthentic next to his dementia-induced performance.

One thing people seem to forget about Obama is he actually did have principles and policies. Remember the blueprint for change? He may have been somewhat noncommittal about the exact method of getting there,  it he ran on an actual platform, like universal healthcare, not privatize social security, etc..

Beto and Buttigieg seem to exist purely as a series of anecdotes.

[Nola]

This town hall is the first time I've heard more than a soundbite from Buttigieg and man he sucks assss. It's that same old bullshit, lay the personal stories and displays of empathy on thick to conceal how empty your politics are

If people actually gave as much a shit about viable lefty policy as people like to think, Elizabeth Warren would be the consensus number one in every poll and on every message board bitching about lack of policy, no offense.

I think you can parse where Buttigieg is going to govern from and that is basically a more left version of Obama:

https://www.vox.com/2019/4/1/18290849/pete-buttigieg-2020-ezra-klein-show

Which is sort of in line with that Obama strain Dem over the years. Bitch a bit about the pragmatism of the last guy to endear yourself to the lefties, while selling a slightly more left version of that same pragamaticism for the next time.

[team filler]

https://twitter.com/jules_su/status/1120514801405448193

https://twitter.com/mtdunphy/status/1120523534676180993

https://twitter.com/jessecrall/status/1120525152285016064

[Mandark]

I sometimes forget just how conservative some people in the Democratic Party are. I thought sanders comment about letting incarcerated people vote was basically common sense, and not objectionable at all.

Buddy you gotta get out more.

[team filler]

[TakingBackSunday]

 

[Boredfrom]

I've been reading about Vicente Fox's proposal to "equalize" Mexico with the US by modeling the EU with complete freedom of movement in addition to NAFTA over 20 years (that'd be just about now if it had happened!) and the White House basically said please stop calling this number. I like the idea nonetheless.

Good luck with that.

[BIONIC]

(Image removed from quote.)