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BY BRIAN BEUTLER & CROOKED MEDIA Monday, March 4, 2019 |
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| —Donald Trump, protesting too much, again |
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| IMPEACHY KEEN |
| House Democrats have dramatically escalated their oversight inquiries in what could be an effort to lay the groundwork for impeachment hearings. But they are still holding President Trump to a standard that will probably allow him to dodge accountability.
The House Judiciary Committee—which would also manage impeachment proceedings—has launched the most significant new investigation. Chairman Jerrold Nadler has issued document requests to more than 80 witnesses and entities, ranging from Wikileaks to the Department of Justice to the Trump Organization, seeking information about Trump’s wide-ranging corruption, abuses of power, and obstruction of justice.
The House Foreign Affairs, intelligence, and oversight committees have also demanded that the White House and State Department turn over all documents that can shed light on Trump’s private, in-person meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff will take the lead on investigating Trump’s real-estate negotiations with the Kremlin during the election, and the question of whether the Trump Organization laundered Russian money—both of which are examples of conduct that has left the president compromised.
This is an important step in the right direction, but it may not be enough. Among the Trump confidantes who have so far been spared document requests are Ivanka Trump, former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, and the people at the center of Trump’s corrupt order to give his heavily conflicted son-in-law a security clearance.
Likewise, the House Ways and Means Committee will soon issue a request for Trump’s tax returns, to which it is entitled by law, but has disappointingly decided not to request returns from the opaque web of LLCs that comprise the Trump Organization.
And Democrats continue to suggest that they will not impeach Trump unless a meaningful portion of his base breaks away from him. “Before you impeach somebody, you have to persuade the American public that it ought to happen,” Nadler told ABC. “You have to persuade enough of the—of the opposition party voters, Trump voters, that you’re not just trying to…reverse the results of the last election.”
Under that standard, Nadler may find evidence of impeachable conduct, but Fox News and other conservative propaganda channels will protect Trump and Nadler will not actually launch impeachment hearings. |
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| An explosive new report by the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer, details how completely Fox News has morphed into a propaganda arm of the Trump White House. Fox reportedly knew about Trump’s criminal hush money payments before the election and buried the story.
The existence of this propaganda apparatus is perhaps the main reason Trump keeps abusing his power with impunity. (See above!) Mayer reveals that he ordered his then-economic adviser Gary Cohn and then-Chief of Staff John Kelly to step in and block the AT&T-Time Warner merger because CNN doesn’t provide him enough glowing coverage. This very weekend, Trump publicly threatened to undermine the U.S.-U.K. relationship because his golf course in Scotland lost a lawsuit.
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| Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has acknowledged that a resolution terminating President Trump’s emergency declaration—a pretext for raiding public funds to build border wall on seized private land—will pass the Senate, but he does not anticipate that Congress will have enough votes to override Trump’s veto.
Saudi diplomats built a large oven on the grounds of their consulate in Istanbul for the purposes of incinerating Jamal Khashoggi’s body. Your regular reminder that Trump is helping the Saudi royal family cover up this murder for what are very likely corrupt reasons.
President Trump gave an unhinged, two-plus hour speech at CPAC this weekend, and it was incredibly dishonest and bizarre.
The House will vote on a resolution condemning Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MI), who suggested that lawmakers who support Israel have dual loyalties. Ok, but next do Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, and Steve King. If you want to combat antisemitism, you can’t ignore the right wing, where it’s far more pervasive.
Venezuela’s opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, has returned to Venezuela, where he faces the threat of arrest.
North Carolina’s State Board of Elections has scheduled a new election for the state’s ninth House district, after tossing out November’s results because the Republican candidate engaged in widespread ballot tampering. The primary will be held on May 14, and the general election on September 10.
Former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker has left the Justice Department, presumably to spend more time on his oversized toilet.
A tornado outbreak in Alabama has killed over 20 people.
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| Former Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) will run for president, bringing the number of candidates in the Democratic presidential primary field to 12. Hickenlooper says he’s the right man for the job because he could make Mitch McConnell not be a cynical operator hell bent on destroying Democrats. "I would go to Mitch McConnell, to his office, and I would sit down with him and say, 'Now, what is the issue again?' and we would talk...Sounds silly right? But this works."
No, this does not work. Just ask Barack Obama, or anyone who lived through his presidency. |
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| “Even if Congress never touches the health care issue again, almost everyone who is satisfied with their current health-insurance plans will lose them at some point. They will change employers, get promotions, lose jobs, or they will do nothing at all and their carriers will simply stop offering the plans they like. Inevitably, thousands if not millions of those people will find themselves in bureaucratic nightmares like the one I’m dealing with when their new insurers try to exploit the churn in the market for profit… Democrats should home in on this. Will you have to switch plans? Yes. But you will have to switch plans at some point anyhow, and when you do, you will be at the mercy of a system that will try to milk your changing circumstances, for profit, at your expense. Let’s deny them that power. Let’s switch, together, all at once, and then never again.”
Read → |
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| Conservatives want the Democratic National Committee to allow Fox News to host a Democratic primary debate. LOL. Let’s reup that Jane Mayer piece instead. |
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| Not-so-fun fact: You’re probably paying too much for your student loans. It’s okay—we’ve been there too—but now there’s a way to trade in your expensive student loans and potentially save thousands. See your savings in two minutes with CommonBond. |
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