Category: #ImpeachTrumpNow

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Speaker Pelosi Says Trump’s Impeachment Is All About Russia

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a Dec 5 press conference

At a press conference Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi instructed the House to commence drafting formal articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States.

In a response to a reporter’s question, Speaker Pelosi gave a rarely used but quite powerful justification for Trump’s impeachment and that is, from the beginning of his Presidency, Trump has taken actions that directly benefit Putin’s Russia, adding that Ukrainegate was not an isolated incident but rather, yet another favor in a long line of favors Trump appears to be doing for Russia.

Specifically, Speaker Pelosi said, “It’s about Russia. Russia invading eastern Ukraine. Over 10,000 people died, now maybe 13,000 some of them in the absence of our conveying that military assistance that was voted in a bipartisan way by the congress of the United States. So sometimes people say, ‘well I don’t know that much about Ukraine.’ Well, our adversary in this is Russia. All roads lead to Putin. Understand that.”

Speaker Pelosi’s powerful justification for Trump’s impeachment–all about Russia– is rarely used by congressional Democrats and cable tv pundits but is certainly one that needs to be made with more frequency to the American public. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has repeatedly illustrated on her show how Trump’s presidency has essentially boiled down to a series of favors to Putin’s Russia. On her Thursday night show, Maddow again brilliantly illustrated how Trump keeps doing favors to Putin up to and including Ukrainegate—holding back much needed military aid to Ukraine, which is under attack by Russia.

Maddow went into great detail illustrating how Trump has essentially given Russia, our sworn enemy, everything they’ve asked for and then brilliantly closed the segment with this poignant message tying the current impeachment saga to the troubling Trump-Putin bromance. “We are at this moment now, this historic moment where we’ve got all these arrows all pointing in the same direction consistently and none of them ever pointing in the other direction. All these actions, all pointing in the same direction all pointing towards exonerating Russia, advancing Russian claims, spreading disinformation that is of Russian origin, that is designed to serve the Kremlin’s interests…That is where this impeachment scandal comes from. And even if he is going to get impeached for this stuff, and it looks like he is, kind of makes you wonder if he stays in office, what comes next? This is an escalating pattern…What else might they[Russia] possibly want given everything they’ve gotten thus far? “

In other words, Democrats cannot afford to make Ukrainegate an isolated, out of the blue incident in which Trump somehow got caught up in. Instead, they must adopt the powerful case laid out by Speaker Pelosi and brilliantly illustrated by Maddow that Ukrainegate is just the latest example of what Trump has been doing ever since he became President and that is, consistently making decisions that go against America’s national security interest and seemingly aligned with the Kremlin. Then and only then, can Dems make a forceful case that impeachment is a necessity—that the Russian thing has gone too far if you will.

Bottom line folks, Trump’s strange daliance with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, a murderous dictator hostile to the United States and who meddled in our 2016 elections, is now way beyond the specularory phase. Any reasonable person presented with the fact pattern Rachel Maddow laid out would conclude that Trump has been doing Russia’s bidding all along up to and including Ukrainegate. Therefore tying Trump’s impeachment over Ukrainegate with his other actions vis-a-vis Russia is a brilliant move by Speaker Pelosi which will put the 53 GOP Senators in the very uncomfortable position of publicly defending Trump’s favors towards Putin.

More importantly, it will give Democrats an upper hand in the 2020 U.S. Senate contests because it will hand them the very simple but powerful campaign message, “If you are okay with Putin taking over the U.S., vote for Republican X“–the perfect Xs of course being Maine’s Susan Collins, Colorado’s Gardner and Arizona’s McSally.

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You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com

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American Hero Fiona Hill Eviscerates “Ukraine Did It” Conspiracy Theory

Former Trump Adviser on Russia Dr Fiona Hill arriving for her impeachment inquiry testimony

In newly released transcripts from an October 14, 2019 impeachment inquiry deposition, former Trump adviser on Russia and newly minted American hero Dr Fiona Hill, eviscerated the “Ukraine did it” conspiracy theory advanced by a GOP staff lawyer who works for Rep Jim Jordan. Ever since Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded his investigation into Russian interference in our 2016 elections, there have been concerted efforts by President Trump and key Republicans to advance a counter narrative–that it was Ukraine, not Russia who interfered in our 2016 election to help Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

There is consensus among U.S. intelligence agencies not only that Russia interfered in our 2016 elections but more importantly, that they are poised to do it again in 2020 if we don’t get our act together. This is the pointed message Special Counsel Mueller emphasized when he made his final address to the American public on May 29, 2019. Specifically, Mueller left us with this message, “I will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments, that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election. And that allegation deserves the attention of every American.”

One would think that given Mueller’s dire warning about Russia, the U.S. government would commit massive resources to not only eviscerate Russia’s cyber offensive capabilities, but also to shore up our defenses against any future cyber attack by Russia or any other foreign nation for that matter. Instead, and shockingly, the Trump administration has embarked on a totally opposite tangent of highlighting and then setting out to investigate the conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, who interfered in our 2016 elections.

What’s even more troubling about this Ukraine conspiracy theory is that there is evidence suggesting that it is Putin’s Russia who manufactured the theory and then fed it to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Yes, as crazy as this sounds, the Trump administration is committing taxpayer funds to promulgate a conspiracy theory manufactured by Putin’s Russia in an effort to hide its interference in our 2016 elections–an absolute travesty. As usual , Yours Truly has called out this travesty on twitter.

With the impeachment inquiry into Trump now in progress, it appears one of the tactics the Trump administration has settled on is muddying the waters by injecting the Ukraine conspiracy theory into the proceedings. At a closed door deposition on October 14, 2019, this is precisely what a Republican staff attorney attempted to bombard Dr Fiona Hill with. In one of the best take downs Yours Truly has seen in a while (second only to Rep Gutierrez on Kirstjen Nielsen), and for which Yours Truly considers Fiona Hill an American hero, she did not give the GOP staff lawyer’s attempts to inject the Ukraine conspiracy theory into the impeachment proceedings any light of day.

Dr Hill sternly rebuked the GOP staff attorney for spreading a debunked conspiracy theory and to his face, told him he was doing Russia’s work. Folks, we need more Dr Hills!! Dr Hill should be hailed as an American hero for giving members of congress a blueprint on how to deal with the Russia-manufactured “Ukraine did it” conspiracy theory. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show did a segment featuring Dr Fiona Hill’s heroic take down of GOP staff attorney Lee Zeldin.

The exchange between Dr Hill and the GOP lawyer is long, but these are some of the responses Dr Hill used to take down the Republican staff lawyer peddling the Ukraine conspiracy theory.

“…I am very confident based on all of the analysis that has been done and again, I don’t want to start getting into intelligence matters. But the Ukrainian government did not interfere in our election in 2016……[There is no] Ukrainian government effort to subvert our elections which is comparable to anything that the Russians did in 2016. And if we start down this path, not discounting what one individual or a couple of individuals might have done, ahead of our 2020 elections, we are setting ourselves up for the same kind of failures and intelligence failures that we had before…. I feel very strongly about this….and so you[GOP lawyer] should too, in terms of our national security….It is a fiction that the Ukrainian government was launching an effort to upend our election, upend our election to mess with our Democratic systems….I’m not sure where we are going with this line of inquiry…Because if you’re also trying to peddle an alternative variation of whether the Ukrainians subverted our election, I don’t want to be part of that, I will not be part of it.”

It also bears pointing out that Dr Fiona Hill took a lot of risks in testifying at the impeachment inquiry against Trump’s wishes. There are media reports that prior to her testimony she received death threats and was the victim of other despicable forms of intimidation, all aimed at silencing her. The despicable intimidation tactics however did not deter Dr Hill from doing what she believed was in the best interest of the country. This is very significant because there remains a lot of congressional Republicans who from their reported private interactions with reporters appear to indicate that they are troubled by the Ukraine scandal, yet still choose to remain silent for fear of Trump’s twitter attacks.

Hopefully the fearful Republican members of congress can take some cues from the heroic Dr Hill testimony and begin speaking up for what they know is right and that is, that a U.S. President should not enlist foreign help in our elections. More importantly, the fearful Republican members of congress should insist that it is in our national security interest that we get to the bottom of what happened in Ukraine instead of turning the upcoming televised impeachment hearings into another podium for Russia to promulgate its debunked “Ukraine did it” conspiracy theory.

Bottom line as we approach public impeachment hearings, members of congress must adopt Dr Fiona Hill’s tough approach towards Republicans trying to muddle the impeachment proceedings using the “Ukraine did it” conspiracy theory. If and when Republicans deploy this deplorable tactic, members of congress should not hesitate to do what Dr Hill did and call them out for working for Putin’s Russia. It would be great if the 53 Senate Republicans would be moved by Dr Hill’s courage to grow a spine but don’t bet the house on it. Dr Hill’s heroic actions further cements the argument Yours Truly has repeatedly stated, that by not taking an aggressive stance and insisting that we get to the truth of what Trump did in Ukraine, these 53 GOP Senators are essentially destroying America. Simply put, if Dr Fiona Hill can stand up and do what is right for the country without fear of Trump’s twitter attacks, so can the 53 GOP Senators.

For those of you very happy with @Emolclause’s activism don’t shy away from the “tip jar” below on your way out.

You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com

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Why Won’t Dems Seek Fast-Tracked SCOTUS Ruling On Trump’s Tax Returns?

A federal appeals court today dismissed Trump’s appeal holding that the district court ruling ordering Trump to release his tax returns to the Manhattan DA was proper–essentially that Trump wasn’t immune from New York state prosecution. Moments after that ruling, one of Trump’s lawyers Jay Sekulow said they are going to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is very well known however that the arguments Trump’s lawyers are advancing in federal court to keep his tax returns hidden are frivolous and that the whole reason for their court challenges is delay.

The question then becomes, why haven’t Democrats ever filed a motion with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to intervene in the tax return and quite frankly other obstruction of congress cases that are at this juncture throwing the country into a constitutional crisis. Yours Truly broached this subject in an earlier tweet.

The U.S. Supreme court did indeed fast-track one of Trump’s immigration cases, handing down a decision even before the appellate courts could decide on the case. If it was good for the Roberts Supreme Court to honor Trump’s fast-track motion and short circuit his case, then why can’t the Roberts Supreme Court do the same for the co-equal U.S. Congress especially where, as here, there appears to be a constitutional crisis? Why won’t the U.S. Supreme Court do what’s best for the country and just hand down rulings on Trump’s tax returns, executive priviledge, whether a president can be criminally prosecuted, and many other cases that confront the country at this moment thus saving the country from Trump’s abuse of the court process for delay? Doesn’t the threat of a constitutional crisis far exceed the “extraordinary circumstances” bar the U.S. Supreme Court sets before it takes up extraordinary writ petitions?

Except from Scotusblog post

Reasonable people will agree that Trump is not mounting these court challenges because he has meritorious legal arguments that will prevail in federal court. His only reason for these challenges is delay. The question for the Roberts Supreme Court therefore becomes whether they are comfortable being viewed by the public as being complicit in Trump’s stalling tactics by standing idly by as the country teeters into a constitutional crisis.

Bottom line folks, the Trump administration is like no other U.S. administration we have witnessed before. We are witnessing things right before our very eyes we’d never have thought possible in the United States. Equally troubling, the guard rails we thought we had in place to address some of these eventualities, especially the U.S. Senate, appear to have either fallen by the wayside or are actively helping Trump in his lawlessness. The only question remaining is whether the Roberts Supreme Court will step in and hand down the much needed legal decisions that are within its power to do, or like the U.S. Senate, they will just sit idly by and either watch or abet Trump’s lawlessness.

For those of you very happy with @Emolclause’s activism don’t shy away from the “tip jar” below on your way out.

You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com

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Manafort Is Proof Of #YesCollusion

With Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe concluded, President Trump and Congressional Republicans have latched on to the “time to move on” mantra incorrectly suggesting that Mueller was hired to investigate TrumpRussia collusion and found no evidence of such collusion. This is a very clever argument, which Republicans have calculated will be widely accepted by their voting base. From a factual basis however, the argument that Mueller never found any evidence of collusion is as deceptive as it gets.

It is a well established fact that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had multiple contacts (while chairman), with Russians tied to the country’s military intelligence. It is also a well established fact that Manafort as Trump campaign chairman, shared Trump campaign’s internal polling data with a Russian military intelligence aide(Konstantin Kilimnik). It is also a well established fact that Manafort fought tooth and nail to keep his communications with the said Russians away from Mueller’s team, even risking spending the rest of his life in prison to that end. In his recent press briefing, Robert Mueller concluded by saying this about Russian meddling, “There were multiple systematic efforts to interfere in our election and that allegation deserves the attention of every American.”

Any reasonable presented with these set of facts will inevitably arrive at the conclusion that Manafort’s obfuscation/refusal to fully cooperate was the reason Mueller failed to establish a clear cut TrumpRussia collusion case. In other words, Mueller had evidence of TrumpRussia collusion but without cooperation from Manafort, could not make an an iron-clad case. You don’t have to take Yours Truly’s word for it, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow did an excellent segment on this very topic.

Bottom line, there cannot be a conclusive determination as to whether Trump campaign colluded with Russians without getting to the bottom of Manafort’s well documented contacts with Russian military intelligence. What was the content of his communications with them? Why did he share polling data with a Russian with close ties to Russian military intelligence? What exactly was the polling data he shared with them? What discussions did Trump’s lawyers have with Manafort regarding his cooperation with Mueller? These and many more, are questions that must be posed to Mueller and Manafort if they ever testify before Congress. Preferably, the Manafort question should be a key aspect of Trump’s impeachment hearings because it would force Manafort, Trump and his lawyers to testify about this incident under oath. Simply put folks, #YesCollusion!!

For those of you very happy with @Emolclause’s activism don’t shy away from the “tip jar” below on your way out.

You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com

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Trump Says Ignoring Congressional Subpoenas Is Criminal

CNN’s OutFront with Erin Burnett yesterday aired a video clip of then presidential candidate Trump railing about the potential consequences of Hillary Clinton ignoring Congressional subpoenas. Trump is apparently on record saying, “You know when you delete something or when you don’t provide the documents requested after you get a subpoena from the United States Congress, that’s a criminal act.” This is shockingly the same conduct President Trump’s administration is currently engaged in, with seemingly not enough outrage from congressional Democrats and the mainstream media.

Bottom line House Democrats need to counter much harder Trump administration’s stone-walling or even outright rejection of congressional subpoenas and this eye-opening video from OutFront CNN showing Trump saying such conduct is criminal should feature prominently in the Dem counter message.

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You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com

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McConnell, Graham Impeachment Hypocrisy

In case you missed it, CNN recently dug up video footage(1999) of GOP Senators Mitch McConnell(KY), Lindsey Graham(SC), and Chuck Grassley(IA) explaining their reasons for supporting President Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Listening to the explanations given by Senators McConnell, Graham and Grassley in support of Clinton’s impeachment in 1999 and considering the fact that all of them are now staunch defenders, even abetters of President Trump who is accused of doing far worse, it is hard to avoid the shocking hypocrisy displayed by these three senior U.S. Senators.

Senator Mitch McConnell for example said on February 10, 1999, “The problem is lying under oath and obstructing justice. The subject matter[Monica Lewinsky] is not what is significant here. It is lying under oath and obstructing justice.”

Senator Lindsey Graham said on January 16, 1999, “The point I’m trying to make is you don’t even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic. Impeachment is not about punishment, impeachment is about cleansing the office.”

Senator Chuck Grassley said on January 9, 1999, “We are miraculously transformed from politicians to people who leave their Republican and Democrat labels at the door. We’re there to seek the truth and to find out whether the president is guilty or not guilty, and no stone should be left unturned to make that determination.”

From what we have seen so far, I think it is fair to conclude that Mitch McConnell will never vote to impeach Trump even if evidence was produced proving that Trump obstructed and is still obstructing justice. It is also fair to conclude that Senator Graham will never vote to impeach Trump without a conviction in an effort to “cleanse the office” even if a mountain of evidence was presented showing Trump has defiled/is still defiling the office. As for Senator Grassley, it is likewise fair to conclude that he will never shed his Republican label and vote to impeach Trump even if a determination was made that he was guilty of a crime.

Bottom line, it is not uncommon for politicians from both sides of the aisle to be caught in hypocritical stances. The Trump presidency however has brought political hypocrisy to a whole new alarming level. Simply put, no self-respecting individual who took issue with President Clinton’s lying and obstruction of justice would ever fervently defend Trump, a far worse and serial offender, as Senators Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Chuck Grassley have. It is such sickening hypocrisy that turns a lot of young impressionable people away from politics–a sad state of affairs indeed.

For those of you very happy with @Emolclause’s activism don’t shy away from the “tip jar” below on your way out. 

You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com