Withheld from Congress: US Intelligence Community’s IG Report on Whistle-blower’s Complaint

Frank Underwood

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Pelosi’s Disastrous Impeachment-Lite Has Given Trump an Election Boost

As the most powerful Democrat in America, Nancy Pelosi has a singular responsibility to lead effective opposition to an increasingly lawless and extremist Republican Party. She has failed spectacularly and should be replaced as Speaker.

The evidence of her failure — and that of the entire Democratic Party leadership in the 21st century — stares us in the face every day. Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Stephen Miller, Bill Barr, Kellyanne Conway, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Brett Kavanaugh, Mike Pompeo, Devin Nunes, and their extremist ilk are conducting a full-scale assault on our checks and balances, on the rule of law, on women’s rights, on immigrant families, on basic human values. A motley assemblage of GOP crooks, theocrats, and authoritarians runs the country, emboldening white supremacists and torturing migrants with impunity.

If Pelosi and her fellow Democratic leaders are “master tacticians” playing a “long game,” as her cheerleaders insist, it’s unclear what the objective is. Since the early 2000s (when Pelosi admittedly gave Bush a free pass for a war based on lies), that “long game” has led to the rise of a Republican autocrat, the empowerment of oligarchs, and the wholesale pillaging of the working class. But you wouldn’t know it if you perused the corporate media’s coverage of the Speaker. Pelosi’s round-the-clock press operation ensures a steady stream of fawning corporate media fluff pieces about her ‘7-dimensional chess.’

A blaring “Trust Pelosi” brigade greets any online criticism. Her fans swarm Twitter threads, crowing about her “brilliant strategy” and “perfect timing.” She “gets under Trump’s skin” they declare gleefully, as though a racist autocrat who kidnaps migrant children cares about who points fingers or claps sideways at him. Pelosi takes full advantage of the glorification of her empty gestures, with a full panoply of merchandise for sale on her official website.

The dichotomy between the glowing perceptions of Pelosi and her real world actions is perfectly illustrated by her now-iconic clap during Trump’s 2019 State of the Union speech. To this day, that gesture is put forth as incontrovertible proof that Pelosi alone has the power to “rattle” Trump. In reality, Pelosi confirmed that she was clapping for Trump. “It wasn’t sarcastic,” Pelosi explained. The Democratic Speaker — the party leader — felt it was appropriate to applaud a president who has stoked neo-Nazi terrorism, abused migrant families, incited violence against the free press, coddled dictators, alienated allies, and who poses (according to her) a “threat” to the Constitution.

To add insult to injury, Pelosi has willingly given Trump legislative wins that will boost his reelection chances, including extending the Patriot Act, passing a massive military budget with a “Space Force,” and bizarrely, announcing a trade bill an hour after Democratic leaders unveiled Articles of Impeachment. Perhaps most egregiously, as Trump was torturing asylum-seeking families in the spring of 2019, Pelosi said she was praying for him and that she and Chuck Schumer “had hoped to give him a signature infrastructure achievement.”

In stark contrast to her gentle prayers for Trump, Pelosi has displayed dripping scorn for the left, eagerly reprimanding and marginalizing progressive members of Congress, calling the Green New Deal the “green dream or whatever” and rushing to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar even after Omar apologized for insensitive comments.

Pelosi has long been a central figure in the Democratic establishment’s performative opposition to the GOP, feigning outrage and sending strongly-worded letters while caving to Republicans on a wish list of monstrous policies. And media elites continue to praise her as she upholds a corrupt establishment that enriches billionaire plutocrats.

But Pelosi isn’t alone in preserving the toxic status quo. Barack Obama has recently gone after progressive activists, while Michelle Obama has said she shares values with George W. Bush — the former president whose horrendous policies caused untold death and suffering. Joe Biden has indicated that he doesn’t want to defeat the GOP too badly, because he thinks we need radical Republicans as a “countervailing force.” Chuck Schumer has rolled over for Mitch McConnell’s court-packing. And Hillary Clinton appeared on Howard Stern’s show to ridicule Bernie Sanders.

Pelosi recently admitted knowing that Bush lied America into war, but didn’t think war crimes were an impeachable offense. And her strategy on Trump’s impeachment has been nothing short of disastrous. She rejected month after month of relentless grassroots pressure, scoffing at progressive activists and members of Congress, including Al Green, Maxine Waters, AOC, and Rashida Tlaib, who were adamant that Trump should be impeached when Democrats took control of the House.

While her fans gushed over her “patience” and “wisdom,” Pelosi refused to impeach Trump as he trampled rights, obstructed justice, ignored the law, disgraced his office, enriched his family, abused migrant children, and incited racist violence. When the grassroots pressure became overwhelming, she seized on a whistleblower complaint that Trump was pulling another foreign interference scheme and gunning for Joe Biden, immediately ditching all her arguments against impeachment.

The reversal was stunning. Pelosi quickly wrapped herself in the mantle of the Founders, stole all the progressive arguments for impeachment that she had derided all year, and claimed credit as the champion of constitutional oversight and accountability. And of course the elite media and her social media fans heaped praise on her for playing the “long game,” invisibilizing the tireless activists who had spent years pushing for Trump’s impeachment.

Unfortunately for America and the world, Pelosi’s impeachment-lite approach — where Trump is effectively exonerated for every heinous abuse of power except trying to cheat to beat Joe Biden — is an epic failure, with a slim majority of Americans in a recent USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll opposing conviction and removal in the Senate. The impeachment hearings came far too late and were far too narrowly-focused, probing the intricacies of Ukraine policy for weeks as polls flatlined and the public lost interest. “The level of readers’ social media engagement on stories about impeachment has steeply declined since September,” reported Axios.

For most of 2019, Pelosi’s supporters vehemently argued that the Democratic leadership’s decision to ignore the progressive grassroots and wait for a whistleblower would lead to massive public support and GOP defections. The reverse is now the case: Democratic defections and waning public interest. None of Trump’s cronies were held to account for defying subpoenas, nor was impeaching Kavanaugh or Barr even considered. To top it off, Mitch McConnell now has free rein to make a big show of acquitting Trump.

The worst moral lapse of all is that if Democrats knew the inevitable outcome of impeachment was Senate acquittal, why would they avoid impeaching Trump for crimes against humanity at the border, not to mention all his other hideous abuses, at least to make a point for history that we don’t tolerate child torture? Their explanation for absolving Trump of atrocities at the border defies logic: ‘It’s easier to explain Ukraine policy to the public than caging children.’ Really? In what world? The ugly fact is that although Trump’s “family separation” policy is unique to his administration, Democrats are also culpable for caging children.

In the end, we must face the truth that the Democratic Party leadership is comfortable and complicit. Trump has been a boon to their fundraising. We cannot look to them for true accountability. They are part of the broken system that must be overhauled. To those who incessantly repeat “trust Pelosi, she knows what she’s doing, she’s playing the long game,” this isn’t a game. It’s people’s lives. And now more people will pay the price for this disastrous impeachment-lite.

Source: https://medium.com/@Peter.Daou/pelo...s-given-trump-an-election-boost-aa379d9fe57f?
 

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The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote today at 10am EST (in less than 3 1/2 hrs) on the articles of impeachment. The voting was postponed from yesterday, after some 14 hours of heated debate.
On the 1,058th day of the Donald J Trump administration, all members of the House Judiciary Committee, bar one member who was on medical leave, met to vote on 2 articles of impeachment against Prez Trump. Each article of impeachment was carried 23 Ayes to 17 Nays.


The vote on the 2 articles of impeachment on the floor of the full House of Representatives is expected to take place on Wednesday, Dec 18th.
 

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Meanwhile,….

(Some) Trump Supporters Threaten Violence If He's Impeached | TYT


Back in 2017, a series of rallies held nationwide between July 2 and July 4, known as The Impeachment March, saw folk coming together to demand that Congress begin the impeachment process against Prez Trump.

The Nobody is Above the Law Network was born from those rallies. The network is now galvanising its efforts around the Impeach & Remove movement.

It has called for a family-friendly Impeach & Remove “event” to take place on the eve of the historic Dec 18th full House of Representatives vote. It’s proposed that at 5.30pm local time on Tuesday, folk “head to every congressional office and public square to declare that Nobody Is Above the Law”.

Refer: https://www.impeach.org/event/impeach-and-remove-attend/search/ The site indicates that the network has organised 607 -- a figure ever increasing by the hour -- different Impeach & Remove events throughout the length and breadth of the United States, with each event occurring at multiple locations.


'Devastating Numbers' For The President | Morning Joe | MSNBC | Dec 16th
 
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In anticipation that the Senate will be presented with the articles of impeachment….

McConnell: 'No chance' Trump will be removed from office | Hannity | Dec 12th


My gut feel is that the Senate Majority Leader was in reality floating trial balloons to see how much public support there was for his plans.


Joe: Sen. Lindsey Graham Is Bragging That He Won't Be Fair | Morning Joe | MSNBC | Dec 16th




Sen. Schumer on Impeachment: "Trials have witnesses!" | Dec 16th

 

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McConnell made it clear that what Trump wants, he gets | Chris Cuomo | CNN | Dec 16th




Shamelessly Partisan Senators McConnell And Graham Pledge Not To Remove President Trump From Office | Dec 16th

 

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_The Giuliani Connection

Criminal Case Overlaps Uncomfortably With Trump Impeachment Probe
Meanwhile, Rudy G is counting his chickens before they’re hatched:


Giuliani admits to forcing out Yovanovitch: 'She's corrupt' | Dec 16th





Butler: Rudy Saying He Wanted Ukraine Envoy Out Of The Way Is A 'Confession' | The 11th Hour | MSNBC | Dec 16th




The Decline and Fall of Rudy Giuliani
The former New York City mayor once polled as the most popular politician in America—of either party. Today, he’s at the center of the scandal that threatens to bring down a presidency.

By Jay Willis | GQ | Oct 21st 2019

Excerpt:

As part of his sleuthing, Giuliani also compiled a dossier of disinformation about the Bidens and Yovanovitch, the then U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and says he delivered it to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in March. Pompeo, Giuliani claimed, promised to investigate. When the State Department inspector general handed that file over to Congress, lawmakers were baffled by what it contained. “The whole thing looks rather amateurish to me,” Maryland Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin told NBC News. “It looks like a collection of some newspaper articles that appear to have been coordinated, some e-mails, and then basically a lot of conspiracy theories.”

Source: https://www.gq.com/story/fall-of-rudy-giuliani
 
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[The Nobody is above the Law Network] has called for a family-friendly Impeach & Remove “event” to take place on the eve of the historic Dec 18th full House of Representatives vote.
Americans Plan Demonstrations In Support Of Impeaching Trump | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | Dec 16th

 

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McConnell backs Trump. CNN's Erin Burnett isn't buying it | Dec 17th



ETA: Meanwhile, Brian Tyler Cohen isn’t buying White House special adviser Pam Bondi’s arguments during her appearance on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.

Chris Wallace demands top Trump official answer about rigged Senate trial | Dec 16th

 
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Read President Trump’s Unhinged Letter to Nancy Pelosi on Impeachment

By Matt Stieb | Intelligencer | Dec 17th

On Tuesday afternoon, the day before the House votes on the fourth impeachment in U.S. history, Trump sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi claiming that Democrats are “declaring open war on American Democracy” by pursuing the constitutional process to remove the president for abusing his power and obstructing justice. In a six-page example of projection, Trump claimed that Democrats:

Are the ones interfering in America’s elections. You are the ones subverting America’s Democracy. You are the ones Obstructing Justice. You are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our Republic for your own selfish personal, political, and partisan gain.

Trump also condemned the FBI for its “horrifying abuses of power,” referring to the agency’s decision to open an investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia, which was recently determined by the Department of Justice Inspector General to be justified. He also personally insulted the House Speaker over her claim that she “prays for the president all the time." Trump wrote: Even worse than offending the Founding Fathers, your are offending Americans of faith by continually saying, 'I pray for the President,' when you know that this statement is not true, unless it is meant in a negative sense.

The letter is an intriguing artifact of Trump administration language: While sections of it are clear transcriptions, it also betrays the influence White House social media director Dan Scavino and senior adviser Stephen Miller. Like many presidential missives, it wasn’t fact checked: When the president cites his electoral college victory as something Democrats “will never get over,” he says he won 306 to 227. His count is off, as two electoral college defectors did not vote for him.

Source: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019...-to-nancy-pelosi-on-impeachment.html#comments

Note: Prez Trump’s letter can be read in full without downloading at the above link, or visit https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Letter-from-President-Trump-final.pdf
 
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Dec 18th, 2019: President Donald J. Trump has been impeached for abuse of power & obstruction of Congress.

Each article of impeachment needed 216 “Ayes” to be adopted. Members of the House of Representatives were asked to use their voting cards to register an electronic vote. All who voted --some chose not to vote at all – complied, with the exception of the Republicans who chose to register their vote with the clerks in person.

The results:

Article I: 230 voted “Aye”; 197 voted “Nay”

Article II: 229 voted “Aye”; 198 voted “Nay”.

Tulsi Gabbard was the only rep to vote “Present” during the vote for both articles.
 

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It's funny to me that everybody's pouncing on Tulsi's present vote, yet she's making the same argument against impeachment that Jerry Nadler made in 1998.

Tulsi Gabbard on Trump impeachment: 'I could not in good conscience vote either yes or no'

The only Democrat or Republican to vote "present" to impeach President Donald Trump in the House on Tuesday on both articles of impeachment was Hawaiian Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

In a statement after her vote, Gabbard, who is also running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, released a statement, claiming that after doing her "due diligence in reviewing the 658-page impeachment report, I came to the conclusion that I could not in good conscience vote either yes or no.”

“I am standing in the center and have decided to vote Present. I could not in good conscience vote against impeachment because I believe President Trump is guilty of wrongdoing. I also could not in good conscience vote for impeachment because removal of a sitting President must not be the culmination of a partisan process, fueled by tribal animosities that have so gravely divided our country,” Gabbard said.

Earlier Wednesday, she introduced a resolution to instead censure Trump, which expresses strong disapproval of conduct, whereas impeachment could result in removal from office.

Gabbard said she worked for the best interests of the country whether in the military or in Congress.

Hawaiian State Sen. Kai Kahele, who is running mostly uncontested to replace Gabbard in the U.S. House, slammed her “present” votes.

“Clearly her vote is unacceptable. It’s disappointing,” he told USA TODAY on a call. “The two most consequential votes a member of Congress will ever take are to send our troops into harm’s way...and a vote to impeach the president of the United States”

“That’s not what the taxpayers of Hawaii sent her here for,” Kahele added.

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...-tulsi-gabbard-vote-present-house/2695437001/
 

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The Democratic Leadership Strategy on Impeachment Is Doomed and Dangerous
It’s hard to take the charge that Trump is a threat to national security seriously when Democrats in Congress are happy to help him shovel more money at the military.

House Democrats’ vote to impeach President Donald Trump may offer immediate feelings of satisfaction, but it should not be mistaken for a path forward. Behind their lofty rhetoric, Democrats have presented the public with a weak impeachment case and doubled down on a Cold Warrior inflected, failure-ridden political playbook.

Article I of Impeachment asserts that Trump “compromised the national security of the United States” by freezing military funding to Ukraine as it fought Russian-backed forces. Congressional Democrats and their impeachment witnesses repeatedly promoted the theme. “When the President weakens a partner who advances American security interests, the President weakens America,” the final House impeachment report proclaims. “We used to stand up to Putin and Russia. I know the party of Ronald Reagan used to,” Rep. Adam Schiff intoned in closing remarks before the impeachment vote. “Their [Ukraine’s] fight is our fight. Their defense is our defense.”

This rhetoric is not only transparently disingenuous, but dangerous. By the Democrats’ own logic, President Obama is guilty of a far worse offense than his newly impeached successor. Whereas Trump briefly paused military funding that was ultimately delivered to Ukraine, Obama refused to send that same military funding at all. This was, in my view, a welcome decision: in resisting Beltway pressure, Obama avoided further inflaming a deadly proxy war. At the time, Bill Taylor, the veteran U.S. diplomat who would go on to become one of the Democrats’ star witnesses, described Obama’s approach as “appeasement.” Apparently today’s Democratic leadership resoundingly agrees.

Equally disingenuous is Article I’s denunciation of Trump’s “invitations of foreign interference in United States elections.” As the newly completed Department of Justice Inspector General’s investigation reminds us, the Clinton campaign and DNC paid a British ex-spy, Christopher Steele, to obtain dirt on Trump from Russia. This act of foreign interference was so consequential that it led to the unwarranted surveillance of a U.S. citizen, Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page, and played a major role in fueling three years of baseless, all-consuming speculation that Trump is compromised by the Kremlin and that his campaign conspired with it. And when Ukrainians leaked documents that led to the resignation of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, Democrats had no qualms with benefiting from that foreign meddling.

It also does not help the Democrats’ case that the Ukrainian government continues to refute the notion that Trump used the military funding to coerce Ukraine into launching the investigations he sought. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly denied a quid pro quo attempt from Washington. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said last month that he “never [saw] a direct link between investigations and security assistance… there was no clear connection.” Andriy Yermak, the only Ukrainian official thought to have been told by a US official (Gordon Sondland, the key Democratic fact witness) of a linkage between the military funding and the opening of investigations, said this month that he doesn’t even remember receiving such a message.

For anyone who managed to follow the convoluted impeachment hearings, the Ukrainian disavowals are no surprise. Contrary to widespread hype about his role on Trump’s behalf, Sondland testified that he had in fact told Yermak, in “a very, very brief pull-aside conversation,” that he “didn’t know exactly why” the military funding had been frozen, and that its linkage to opening an investigation was only his “personal presumption” in the absence of an explanation from Trump. Given that Sondland was the only U.S. official believed to have communicated the alleged quid pro quo to the Ukrainian side, the fact that he did so in passing, and based on a “presumption,” opened a major hole in the Democrats’ case. The prevailing Democratic and media response has simply been to ignore it.

The second article, obstruction of Congress, also faces a hurdle. Even if Democrats do have a credible case, they face the same quandary as after the Mueller probe: a legalistic obstruction dispute will not win broad public support unless it is established that Trump is guilty of the underlying offense. Moreover, while Democrats have every right to complain that Trump blocked key witnesses from testifying, their obstruction case is less compelling in light of their refusal to take him to court over it—unlike their ongoing legal fight to compel testimony of former White House counsel Don McGahn.

This quandary could have been avoided had Democrats opted for what seemed to me as the most practical option from the start: censure, as Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has just proposed. It is not difficult to make the case that Trump engaged in an abuse of office by asking the Ukrainian president to “look into” Joe Biden and his son Hunter. But Democrats opted instead for the maximal remedy based on a maximalist interpretation of the available facts—an interpretation that ultimately fell short when it became clear that its strongest evidence was Sondland’s mere “presumption.”

The underwhelming Democratic case to date perhaps explains why, if the latest polling is correct, support for impeachment is on the decline. Given that Democrats won the popular vote in 2016, it does not bode well that they have not only failed to move the needle, but even appear to be losing ground. The polling is particularly gloomy in the battleground states where it matters most.

It would be easier to feel optimistic if Democratic leaders were mounting any sort of political agenda or movement that could win over voters that they lost in 2016. But that is not the case. It is striking that for all the mockery of Trump’s indignant letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, few liberal media pundits and politicians took exception to his attempt to highlight what he regards as his achievements. Contrary to the letter’s self-aggrandizing revisionism, Trump has betrayed the voters who were led to believe he would “drain the swamp.” His tax scam continues to favor the wealthy, real wages continue to stagnate, shuttered factories haven’t returned, and skyrocketing healthcare costs are wreaking havoc—to take one example, half of people with diabetes are skipping their insulin. Far from ending “endless wars,” he has expanded them, even in Syria after announcing a withdrawal. Contrary to his vow to “stop racing to topple foreign regimes,” Trump has imposed murderous sanctions on Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Syria in a brazen effort to starve besieged populations into submission. Meanwhile, Trump and the GOP continue to wage their class war on the most vulnerable: Medicaid is under assault; food stamps are on the chopping block; and, according to a recently disclosed proposal, Social Security is next.

None of this is anywhere near the top of the Democratic leadership’s agenda. Instead, from the failed Trump-Russia conspiracy theory to its Ukrainegate sequel, the Democratic leadership’s resounding message to voters is that, in Pelosi’s words, “all roads lead to Putin.”

Because Pelosi’s mantra is so illogical, it makes sense that she and her cohorts routinely fail to follow it to its logical conclusion. The impeachment vote came one day after the Senate sent Trump a $738 billion Pentagon budget. The measure includes the creation of a key Trump priority, the Space Force, along with carte blanche to continue supporting Saudi mass murder in Yemen. Democrats in both chambers joined with Republicans to pass the bill in what Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna called “an astonishing act of moral cowardice” and a “complete capitulation to the White House.”

It is difficult to believe that the Democrats see Trump as a threat to national security or beholden to Russia when they capitulate to his top policy preferences, particular ones that boost the lethal military arsenal under his control. In reality, the Democratic leadership’s playbook of discredited Russia conspiracy theories, Cold Warrior jingoism, and White House capitulation results from the dynamic that they have embraced since the 2016 election: challenging Trump through any means that does not fundamentally challenge the political and economic system that grants them power and privilege.

So long as top Democratic and media figures adhere to that position, it is difficult to see how they will avoid a similar fate in 2020. If the polls are not enough of a sign, just look at the poor turnout for the protests on impeachment eve. Impeachment rallies across the country “were notably smaller than many of the other recent mass protests,” the Associated Press observed. “Some activists acknowledge that impeachment doesn’t fire up people like life-and-death issues such as health care, guns or climate change.”

It is difficult to recall a time in recent memory when liberal US politics has been centered on issues so divorced from reality and from issues that matter to people’s lives. As the apotheosis of the Democratic Party’s Trump-era playbook, Wednesday’s impeachment vote was indeed the “solemn” day that Pelosi and company claimed it to be. Unless they change course, it is hard not to anticipate an even more solemn future.

Source: https://www.thenation.com/article/impeachment-democrat-pelosi-doomed/
 

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A blast from the past....

AutumLeaff: Nancy Pelosi has inherited a load of unruly children. Good luck to her getting anything passed by her own people. ~ Nov 12th, 2018

Hear that here:

The Truth about Trumpy Bear | All In | MSNBC| November 2018

 
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So I guess the takeaway is that Pelosi is capable of rallying "her own people" to impeach a president over withholding military aid in exchange for investigating a Democrat. However, she's not willing to rally her people to impeach a president over war crimes, emoluments violations, locking immigrant children in cages, and so on. Perhaps because Dems are complicit in those activities. The Dems are patting themselves on the back for impeaching Trump, yet they also approved his military budget, his space force, his judges, and increased his spying powers.

The Democratic Party is a fraud when it comes to being an opposition party. We shouldn't be sending arms to other countries in the first place. Dems don't oppose shameful policies they're complicit in. Instead, they oppose a President targeting a fellow member of their club. There is so much to oppose Trump on, but Dems only cared about Trump targeting Biden.
 
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Frank, I’ve had more than enough of you lowering the tone of this thread with your constant Pelosi/Democratic Party drip-drip-drip hate. This thread I opened wasn’t intended to be usurped for that purpose. Please open your own thread.
 

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Democrats are making a farce of impeachment

To grasp the weakness and poverty of the Democrats' impeachment effort, you don't need to listen to the Republican responses. You simply need to read the impeachment articles themselves.

They tell the story of a party that was always planning to impeach President Trump and which has now settled on intentionally vague and airy charges. Why? Because Democrats are preemptively trying to avoid political accountability for what they are about to do.

In particular, the second article of impeachment is laughable. It alleges "obstruction of Congress." Not "obstruction of justice," an actual crime, but of Congress.

If you’ve followed the impeachment process, you know that the evidence does not support the Democrats’ charge.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has issued subpoenas. The Trump administration has argued that it is not legally bound to comply, citing the doctrine of executive privilege. This is a debatable question that should be decided in the courts, but Schiff made a decision not to wait for the courts to adjudicate these claims of executive privilege. Democrats have instead deemed Trump’s unwillingness to comply with mere requests an impeachable offense. They are choosing to see "high crimes" in the typical executive branch muscle-flexing that is as much a tradition in Washington as the National Christmas Tree.

Back in 2013, for instance, the Republican-controlled House subpoenaed former IRS official Lois Lerner to question her about the partisan weaponization of the agency. Lerner showed up, issued a statement, and then refused to take questions. The House held her in contempt of Congress, yet the Justice Department declined to prosecute her or, importantly, to impeach her boss.

Just a year earlier, in a closer parallel, the House held a cabinet member in contempt of Congress with its groundbreaking vote against Attorney General Eric Holder. He had refused to hand over documents relating to the Fast and Furious scandal because President Barack Obama asserted executive privilege. The Justice Department declined to prosecute its boss, and, more importantly, Congress refrained from impeaching Obama.

During the Clinton administration, the House Oversight Committee voted to recommend Janet Reno for contempt of Congress thanks to the attorney general’s refusal to turn over internal Justice Department memos regarding the president’s impeachment. This is the closest historical parallel to Trump’s refusal to comply with the nonlegally binding requests of Democrats. Even then, the House eventually refused to so much as vote on the contempt charge against Reno, let alone take additional measures against anyone else.

At best, Democrats have caught Trump going 70 in a 55 mile per hour zone after having cheered on Obama and Clinton for going 100.

If Schiff and House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler want to nail Trump with a legitimate obstruction charge, they could try some actual justice and see if he obstructs it. They could try to get their subpoenas upheld in court and dare Trump to defy them. That’s where impeachment would become potentially appropriate.

Impeachment, after all, is supposed to be a last resort, a remedy for Congress to employ when the president refuses to follow all the other rules. Democrats haven't reached their last resort. They are impeaching Trump just because they finally have what they consider a plausible excuse.

The public seems to be figuring this out. During the impeachment hearings, a razor-thin majority of the country supported removing Trump from office. This was, in part, due to Democrats’ arrival on a poll-tested charge of "bribery." But focus groups can be fickle, and Democrats are now trying to frame their charges using different language. It still isn't working. Now that the country has read the articles of impeachment, opposition to Trump's impeachment and removal from office has overtaken support for it.

By avoiding the courts and thus making their own effective ruling on the limits of executive privilege, Democrats are abusing their power in the same way they’ve accused Trump of doing. The public isn’t having it. Not only did they rush through their investigation, refusing to issue legally binding subpoenas, but they also created a risible, bogus charge in the process.

Democrats overstepped their mandate to check the president, and the slowly sinking support for their partisan impeachment shows it.

Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/democrats-are-making-a-farce-of-impeachment
 

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Frank, I’ve had more than enough of you lowering the tone of this thread with your constant Pelosi/Democratic Party drip-drip-drip hate. This thread I opened wasn’t intended to be usurped for that purpose. Please open your own thread.
I don't give a damn what you're tired of. I've allowed you to criticize Bernie and Tulsi in my Dem Debate thread without demanding that you create your own thread.

Pelosi and the Democrats are behind the impeachment of Trump, which this thread is dedicated to. As such, I'm allowed to express my opinion of them and how they've handled it.
 
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It's what they didn't handle that you have mostly expessed an opinion about; the impeachment being the flimsiest of hooks you've hung those opinions on, articles included. This thread was dedicated to the whistleblower's complaint and where that lead in developments.
I don't give a damn what you're tired of. I've allowed you to criticize Bernie and Tulsi in my Dem Debate thread without demanding that you create your own thread.
So quid pro quo? No.
 

Frank Underwood

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It's what they didn't handle that you have mostly expessed an opinion about; the impeachment being the flimsiest of hooks you've hung those opinions on, articles included.
Because what they didn't handle is interesting to me in relation to what they did handle. Their past views on impeachment are also interesting in light of how they view impeachment now.

This thread was dedicated to the whistleblower's complaint and where that lead in developments.
Yes, and "where that lead" was an impeachment inquiry led by hypocrites who typically support Trump's policy agenda.

So quid pro quo? No.
Funny.
 
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