What A Day: Impeachin' to the choir

BY PRIYANKA ARIBINDI & CROOKED MEDIA

Thursday, May 30, 2019

—Donald Trump giving the game away…

PAPA DO IMPEACH

Today, President Trump handled Robert Mueller’s quasi-impeachment referral about as well as you’d expect:

On Twitter, while attempting to proclaim his innocence, Trump made the following admission: “I had nothing to do with Russia helping me get elected.” He quickly backtracked, even though U.S. intelligence and law enforcement long ago concluded that Russia tried to get Trump elected.

Trump later told reporters that impeachment is a “dirty, filthy, disgusting word,” and said he “can’t imagine the courts allowing” it to happen, revealing that perhaps he is not the constitutional scholar we thought he was (Congress, not the courts, handles impeachment). We can also think of much filthier words Trump has used in the past.

The President also went after Mueller himself, calling him a “Never Trumper” and his team “some of the worst human beings on Earth.” Quite a journey from Trump’s initial reaction to the Special Counsel’s findings: “The Mueller report was great. It could not have been better.”

Just wondering: Do these seem like the musings of someone who believes that impeachment would be a political win for him?

Democrats, meanwhile, are still divided over whether to begin impeachment proceedings. While Nancy Pelosi and most House Democrats are either opposed or undecided, at least 50 members of the House are now supportive. This includes a growing number of Committee chairs and 11 members of the House Judiciary Committee, which is where the inquiry would begin. Just 19 more members are needed before America can collectively exclaim “NICE.”

If you think your representative should vote to open an impeachment inquiry into Trump, don’t just tweet about it! Your representatives work for you—give them a call! → (202) 224-3121

And if you’d like to know how Democrats can make the most of what is admittedly a politically risky move, read Dan Pfeiffer’s plan for how Democrats can win the impeachment fight →

Newly revealed documents show that the Trump administration’s push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census was meant to benefit “Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites” while “clearly” disadvantaging Democrats. So their original claim about wanting to add this question to supposedly improve enforcement of the Voting Rights Act was—you won’t believe this—a total lie.

Why the census is important: The results of the 2020 census determine your community’s representation in Congress and share of federal tax dollars. Experts believe that adding a citizenship question will discourage immigrants from responding to the census, for fear that their personal information will be used by law enforcement to deport them. The census is supposed to count every U.S. person, regardless of citizenship status, and an undercount would lead to less representation and fewer resources for immigrant-heavy communities.

The Supreme Court is currently considering a case about the citizenship question’s origins, and this new discovery by the ACLU suggests that witnesses from the Trump administration intentionally misled the Court.

Think gerrymandering sucks? So do we. Donate to the F*ck Gerry(mandering) Fund to stop Republicans from continuing to draw their own gerrymandered districts, and to get fair maps →

Louisiana’s Democratic governor signed a bill to ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected—as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Of the recent abortion bans, this one stands out because of its support from the state’s Democratic governor and Democratic state senator who wrote the bill. Not great, Louisiana Democrats. Not great.

This law has not gone into effect, and abortion is still legal in Louisiana and across the U.S. Donate to the New Orleans Abortion fund to support access to this care →

The Trump administration is considering a new proposal that would essentially deny asylum to all Central American migrants. The plan would do this by prohibiting entry to people who lived in another country other than their own before coming to the U.S., which bars people who traveled through Mexico to reach the southern border.

The White House military office reportedly wanted the Navy to keep the USS John McCain war ship out of view during Trump’s recent visit to Japan. Though the ship was not ultimately moved, Navy officials did give the ship’s sailors the day off when Trump visited the base. When some of them tried to attend Trump’s remarks, they were turned away. This is an utterly ridiculous thing to ask on behalf of your thin-skinned boss, and an utterly shameful thing to do to U.S. service members. Hey remember when Obama saluted with a coffee and it was news for three years?

Disney CEO Bob Iger said Georgia’s recently-passed abortion restrictions would make it “very difficult” for the company to continue filming in the state. Netflix executives voiced similar concerns earlier this week.

Sixteen women sued the FBI for discriminating against women, minorities, and people with disabilities at its training academy in Quantico, VA. They allege that male instructors created a hostile work environment that was rife with sexual harassment. Named in the suit is former FBI Director James Comey, as well as Trump’s nominee to lead ICE, Mark Morgan, who previously oversaw the training academy.

Serial sexual predator R. Kelly was indicted on 11 additional counts of sexual assault and abuse charges, all related to a single allegedly underage victim. Kelly was previously arrested in February on 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse involving four other women, and served time in jail briefly for failure to pay child support and to post bond.

The U.S. Department of Energy has started calling carbon dioxide “molecules of U.S. freedom” and natural gas “freedom gas.” What, and I can’t stress this enough, the fuck?

What could possibly bring AOC and Ted Cruz together? The pair tweeted about teaming up on a bill to impose a lifetime ban on members of Congress becoming lobbyists. It’s certainly a strange collab, but sounds like a good one to us!

The World Health Organization officially recognized ‘burnout’ as a medical condition characterized by exhaustion, increased mental distance or cynical feelings about work, and weakened performance. *Laughs nervously*

J.K. Rowling will release four more Harry Potter stories online this summer. Rejoice, you Hufflepuffs.