‘It feels like a horror movie’: Republicans feel anxious and adrift defending Trump

[SassyIrishLass]

GOP lawmakers look aghast as they scramble to find any words to defend Donald Trump from their empty sacks of sad rhetoric.

They are done. They are doomed by the words of decent public servants compelled by subpoenas and sworn testimony which is exposing the truth of Donald Trump's misdeeds.

The GOP lawmakers tried to assemble a Trump howling mob to attack the investigators, but fell short of a quorum and disgraced themselves in the eyes of the public by a howling example of lawlessness.

GOP lawmakers are whimpering louder than Al Baghdadi.

Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, your horror and pain will be over soon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...510698-f75f-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html

‘It feels like a horror movie’: Republicans feel anxious and adrift defending Trump

By Robert Costa and Philip Rucker
Oct. 28, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. GMT+7

Republican senators are lost and adrift as the impeachment inquiry enters its second month, navigating the grave threat to President Trump largely in the dark, frustrated by the absence of a credible case to defend his conduct and anxious about the historic reckoning that likely awaits them.
Recent days have delivered the most damaging testimony yet about Trump and his advisers commandeering Ukraine policy for the president’s personal political goals, which his allies on Capitol Hill sought to undermine by storming the deposition room and condemning the inquiry as secretive and corrupt.
President Trump on Oct. 25 repeated his claim that he had a “perfect conversation” with his Ukrainian counterpart. (Reuters)
Those theatrics belie the deepening unease many Republicans now say they feel — particularly those in the Senate who are dreading having to weigh their conscience against their political calculations in deciding whether to convict or acquit Trump should the Democratic-controlled House impeach the president.
AD
In hushed conversations over the past week, GOP senators lamented that the fast-expanding probe is fraying their party, which remains completely in Trump’s grip. They voiced exasperation at the expectation that they defend the president against the troublesome picture that has been painted, with neither convincing arguments from the White House nor confidence that something worse won’t soon be discovered.
“It feels like a horror movie,” said one veteran Republican senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the consensus.
What you missed this week in the impeachment inquiry
The Republican Party’s strategy is being directed almost entirely by the frenzied impulses of Trump, who has exhibited fits of rage over the Democrats’ drive to remove him from office for abuse of power.
“I did nothing wrong,” Trump told reporters Friday. “This is a takedown of the Republican Party.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Although Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has been a loud dissenter, he has been speaking for himself as opposed to acting as a frontman for some silent caucus of like-minded Republicans, according to people familiar with the dynamic. Most GOP senators have been taking cues from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose paramount concern has been maintaining his party’s control of the chamber in next year’s election.
AD
“They’ve decided that they’re going to take it all grudgingly — and privately, perhaps, in disgust — but they’re not going to give up the farm,” said Al Cardenas, former chairman of the American Conservative Union. But, he added, “It’s been piling on, piling on, piling on, and I see defense fatigue on behalf of the Republicans in the Congress.”
Graham condemns House impeachment inquiry, slams process as ‘dangerous to the country’
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution denouncing the impeachment inquiry into President Trump in a news conference on Oct. 24. (The Washington Post)
Trump and his allies have strained to focus the debate on the process, but Republican officials have struggled to answer for the substance of the startling statements made by the growing list of credible witnesses from the national security and diplomatic realms.
Trump’s season of weakness: A president who prizes strength enters key stretch in a fragile state
“There’s frustration. It feels to everyone like they’re just digging a hole and making it worse. It just never ends. . . . It’s a total [expletive] show,” said one Republican strategist who has been advising a number of top senators and who, like several others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.
McConnell, who has shared related concerns in private conversations with other senators, has been preparing for a possible Senate impeachment trial. And earlier this month he showed a dry PowerPoint presentation to Republican senators explaining how one might unfold.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
McConnell remains engaged with Trump but has a mixed view of the president’s advisers, several Republicans said, noting that he misses his productive working relationship with former White House counsel Donald McGahn and is “less enamored” with his successor, Pat Cipollone, according to a McConnell ally. A Senate GOP aide said McConnell and Cipollone have a good working relationship.
AD
As they went about their work at the Capitol this past week, many Senate Republicans were all but mute when reporters asked questions about impeachment — a stark snapshot of a party rattled not only by the House inquiry but also by Trump’s removal of U.S. troops from northern Syria; his decision, later retracted, to host next year’s Group of Seven summit at his Florida golf resort; and his claim that the investigation into him amounted to a “lynching.”
“I’m a juror and I’m comfortable not speaking,” Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho) said. Pressed again for comment, he reiterated, “I said I’m comfortable not speaking.”
“I’d be a juror, so I have no comment,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said.
“I don’t need a strategy for impeachment because I may be a juror someday,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said.

I just read WAPO called Baghdali a conservative scholar...what a leftist rag

 

[Claudette]

ROTFLMFAO

 

[kyzr]

Republicans are defending Trump, they are saying that there is no crime, period.
They will to vote to keep him in office.
This impeachment sham is a gigantic waste of time.

 

[Denizen]

GOP lawmakers look aghast as they scramble to find any words to defend Donald Trump from their empty sacks of sad rhetoric.

They are done. They are doomed by the words of decent public servants compelled by subpoenas and sworn testimony which is exposing the truth of Donald Trump's misdeeds.

The GOP lawmakers tried to assemble a Trump howling mob to attack the investigators, but fell short of a quorum and disgraced themselves in the eyes of the public by a howling example of lawlessness.

GOP lawmakers are whimpering louder than Al Baghdadi.

Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, your horror and pain will be over soon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...510698-f75f-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html

‘It feels like a horror movie’: Republicans feel anxious and adrift defending Trump

By Robert Costa and Philip Rucker
Oct. 28, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. GMT+7

Republican senators are lost and adrift as the impeachment inquiry enters its second month, navigating the grave threat to President Trump largely in the dark, frustrated by the absence of a credible case to defend his conduct and anxious about the historic reckoning that likely awaits them.
Recent days have delivered the most damaging testimony yet about Trump and his advisers commandeering Ukraine policy for the president’s personal political goals, which his allies on Capitol Hill sought to undermine by storming the deposition room and condemning the inquiry as secretive and corrupt.
President Trump on Oct. 25 repeated his claim that he had a “perfect conversation” with his Ukrainian counterpart. (Reuters)
Those theatrics belie the deepening unease many Republicans now say they feel — particularly those in the Senate who are dreading having to weigh their conscience against their political calculations in deciding whether to convict or acquit Trump should the Democratic-controlled House impeach the president.
AD
In hushed conversations over the past week, GOP senators lamented that the fast-expanding probe is fraying their party, which remains completely in Trump’s grip. They voiced exasperation at the expectation that they defend the president against the troublesome picture that has been painted, with neither convincing arguments from the White House nor confidence that something worse won’t soon be discovered.
“It feels like a horror movie,” said one veteran Republican senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the consensus.
What you missed this week in the impeachment inquiry
The Republican Party’s strategy is being directed almost entirely by the frenzied impulses of Trump, who has exhibited fits of rage over the Democrats’ drive to remove him from office for abuse of power.
“I did nothing wrong,” Trump told reporters Friday. “This is a takedown of the Republican Party.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Although Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has been a loud dissenter, he has been speaking for himself as opposed to acting as a frontman for some silent caucus of like-minded Republicans, according to people familiar with the dynamic. Most GOP senators have been taking cues from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose paramount concern has been maintaining his party’s control of the chamber in next year’s election.
AD
“They’ve decided that they’re going to take it all grudgingly — and privately, perhaps, in disgust — but they’re not going to give up the farm,” said Al Cardenas, former chairman of the American Conservative Union. But, he added, “It’s been piling on, piling on, piling on, and I see defense fatigue on behalf of the Republicans in the Congress.”
Graham condemns House impeachment inquiry, slams process as ‘dangerous to the country’
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution denouncing the impeachment inquiry into President Trump in a news conference on Oct. 24. (The Washington Post)
Trump and his allies have strained to focus the debate on the process, but Republican officials have struggled to answer for the substance of the startling statements made by the growing list of credible witnesses from the national security and diplomatic realms.
Trump’s season of weakness: A president who prizes strength enters key stretch in a fragile state
“There’s frustration. It feels to everyone like they’re just digging a hole and making it worse. It just never ends. . . . It’s a total [expletive] show,” said one Republican strategist who has been advising a number of top senators and who, like several others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.
McConnell, who has shared related concerns in private conversations with other senators, has been preparing for a possible Senate impeachment trial. And earlier this month he showed a dry PowerPoint presentation to Republican senators explaining how one might unfold.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
McConnell remains engaged with Trump but has a mixed view of the president’s advisers, several Republicans said, noting that he misses his productive working relationship with former White House counsel Donald McGahn and is “less enamored” with his successor, Pat Cipollone, according to a McConnell ally. A Senate GOP aide said McConnell and Cipollone have a good working relationship.
AD
As they went about their work at the Capitol this past week, many Senate Republicans were all but mute when reporters asked questions about impeachment — a stark snapshot of a party rattled not only by the House inquiry but also by Trump’s removal of U.S. troops from northern Syria; his decision, later retracted, to host next year’s Group of Seven summit at his Florida golf resort; and his claim that the investigation into him amounted to a “lynching.”
“I’m a juror and I’m comfortable not speaking,” Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho) said. Pressed again for comment, he reiterated, “I said I’m comfortable not speaking.”
“I’d be a juror, so I have no comment,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said.
“I don’t need a strategy for impeachment because I may be a juror someday,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said.

I just read WAPO called Baghdali a conservative scholar...what a leftist rag

At least they didn't call him a stable genius.

 

[DOTR]

GOP lawmakers look aghast as they scramble to find any words to defend Donald Trump from their empty sacks of sad rhetoric.

They are done. They are doomed by the words of decent public servants compelled by subpoenas and sworn testimony which is exposing the truth of Donald Trump's misdeeds.

The GOP lawmakers tried to assemble a Trump howling mob to attack the investigators, but fell short of a quorum and disgraced themselves in the eyes of the public by a howling example of lawlessness.

GOP lawmakers are whimpering louder than Al Baghdadi.

Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, your horror and pain will be over soon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...510698-f75f-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html

‘It feels like a horror movie’: Republicans feel anxious and adrift defending Trump

By Robert Costa and Philip Rucker
Oct. 28, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. GMT+7

Republican senators are lost and adrift as the impeachment inquiry enters its second month, navigating the grave threat to President Trump largely in the dark, frustrated by the absence of a credible case to defend his conduct and anxious about the historic reckoning that likely awaits them.
Recent days have delivered the most damaging testimony yet about Trump and his advisers commandeering Ukraine policy for the president’s personal political goals, which his allies on Capitol Hill sought to undermine by storming the deposition room and condemning the inquiry as secretive and corrupt.
President Trump on Oct. 25 repeated his claim that he had a “perfect conversation” with his Ukrainian counterpart. (Reuters)
Those theatrics belie the deepening unease many Republicans now say they feel — particularly those in the Senate who are dreading having to weigh their conscience against their political calculations in deciding whether to convict or acquit Trump should the Democratic-controlled House impeach the president.
AD
In hushed conversations over the past week, GOP senators lamented that the fast-expanding probe is fraying their party, which remains completely in Trump’s grip. They voiced exasperation at the expectation that they defend the president against the troublesome picture that has been painted, with neither convincing arguments from the White House nor confidence that something worse won’t soon be discovered.
“It feels like a horror movie,” said one veteran Republican senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the consensus.
What you missed this week in the impeachment inquiry
The Republican Party’s strategy is being directed almost entirely by the frenzied impulses of Trump, who has exhibited fits of rage over the Democrats’ drive to remove him from office for abuse of power.
“I did nothing wrong,” Trump told reporters Friday. “This is a takedown of the Republican Party.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Although Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has been a loud dissenter, he has been speaking for himself as opposed to acting as a frontman for some silent caucus of like-minded Republicans, according to people familiar with the dynamic. Most GOP senators have been taking cues from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose paramount concern has been maintaining his party’s control of the chamber in next year’s election.
AD
“They’ve decided that they’re going to take it all grudgingly — and privately, perhaps, in disgust — but they’re not going to give up the farm,” said Al Cardenas, former chairman of the American Conservative Union. But, he added, “It’s been piling on, piling on, piling on, and I see defense fatigue on behalf of the Republicans in the Congress.”
Graham condemns House impeachment inquiry, slams process as ‘dangerous to the country’
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution denouncing the impeachment inquiry into President Trump in a news conference on Oct. 24. (The Washington Post)
Trump and his allies have strained to focus the debate on the process, but Republican officials have struggled to answer for the substance of the startling statements made by the growing list of credible witnesses from the national security and diplomatic realms.
Trump’s season of weakness: A president who prizes strength enters key stretch in a fragile state
“There’s frustration. It feels to everyone like they’re just digging a hole and making it worse. It just never ends. . . . It’s a total [expletive] show,” said one Republican strategist who has been advising a number of top senators and who, like several others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.
McConnell, who has shared related concerns in private conversations with other senators, has been preparing for a possible Senate impeachment trial. And earlier this month he showed a dry PowerPoint presentation to Republican senators explaining how one might unfold.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
McConnell remains engaged with Trump but has a mixed view of the president’s advisers, several Republicans said, noting that he misses his productive working relationship with former White House counsel Donald McGahn and is “less enamored” with his successor, Pat Cipollone, according to a McConnell ally. A Senate GOP aide said McConnell and Cipollone have a good working relationship.
AD
As they went about their work at the Capitol this past week, many Senate Republicans were all but mute when reporters asked questions about impeachment — a stark snapshot of a party rattled not only by the House inquiry but also by Trump’s removal of U.S. troops from northern Syria; his decision, later retracted, to host next year’s Group of Seven summit at his Florida golf resort; and his claim that the investigation into him amounted to a “lynching.”
“I’m a juror and I’m comfortable not speaking,” Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho) said. Pressed again for comment, he reiterated, “I said I’m comfortable not speaking.”
“I’d be a juror, so I have no comment,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said.
“I don’t need a strategy for impeachment because I may be a juror someday,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said.

Washington Post practices the occult art of “visualization”.
But we ignore the ruling elite and can’t be separated from our president.

You have superglued yourself to Donald Trump's anus?

I superglued my support for our president and no amount of celebrity, money or corporate power will take him out. That has to be frustration for you Marxists.
So continue to speak “as if”....then run take a poll...then take your Prozac. You can’t separate Americans from their president. After three years that should be sinking in to your despicable, Seville, head.

 

[dudmuck]

GOP lawmakers look aghast as they scramble to find any words to defend Donald Trump from their empty sacks of sad rhetoric.

They are done. They are doomed by the words of decent public servants compelled by subpoenas and sworn testimony which is exposing the truth of Donald Trump's misdeeds.

The GOP lawmakers tried to assemble a Trump howling mob to attack the investigators, but fell short of a quorum and disgraced themselves in the eyes of the public by a howling example of lawlessness.

GOP lawmakers are whimpering louder than Al Baghdadi.

Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, your horror and pain will be over soon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...510698-f75f-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html

‘It feels like a horror movie’: Republicans feel anxious and adrift defending Trump

By Robert Costa and Philip Rucker
Oct. 28, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. GMT+7

Republican senators are lost and adrift as the impeachment inquiry enters its second month, navigating the grave threat to President Trump largely in the dark, frustrated by the absence of a credible case to defend his conduct and anxious about the historic reckoning that likely awaits them.
Recent days have delivered the most damaging testimony yet about Trump and his advisers commandeering Ukraine policy for the president’s personal political goals, which his allies on Capitol Hill sought to undermine by storming the deposition room and condemning the inquiry as secretive and corrupt.
President Trump on Oct. 25 repeated his claim that he had a “perfect conversation” with his Ukrainian counterpart. (Reuters)
Those theatrics belie the deepening unease many Republicans now say they feel — particularly those in the Senate who are dreading having to weigh their conscience against their political calculations in deciding whether to convict or acquit Trump should the Democratic-controlled House impeach the president.
AD
In hushed conversations over the past week, GOP senators lamented that the fast-expanding probe is fraying their party, which remains completely in Trump’s grip. They voiced exasperation at the expectation that they defend the president against the troublesome picture that has been painted, with neither convincing arguments from the White House nor confidence that something worse won’t soon be discovered.
“It feels like a horror movie,” said one veteran Republican senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the consensus.
What you missed this week in the impeachment inquiry
The Republican Party’s strategy is being directed almost entirely by the frenzied impulses of Trump, who has exhibited fits of rage over the Democrats’ drive to remove him from office for abuse of power.
“I did nothing wrong,” Trump told reporters Friday. “This is a takedown of the Republican Party.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Although Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has been a loud dissenter, he has been speaking for himself as opposed to acting as a frontman for some silent caucus of like-minded Republicans, according to people familiar with the dynamic. Most GOP senators have been taking cues from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose paramount concern has been maintaining his party’s control of the chamber in next year’s election.
AD
“They’ve decided that they’re going to take it all grudgingly — and privately, perhaps, in disgust — but they’re not going to give up the farm,” said Al Cardenas, former chairman of the American Conservative Union. But, he added, “It’s been piling on, piling on, piling on, and I see defense fatigue on behalf of the Republicans in the Congress.”
Graham condemns House impeachment inquiry, slams process as ‘dangerous to the country’
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution denouncing the impeachment inquiry into President Trump in a news conference on Oct. 24. (The Washington Post)
Trump and his allies have strained to focus the debate on the process, but Republican officials have struggled to answer for the substance of the startling statements made by the growing list of credible witnesses from the national security and diplomatic realms.
Trump’s season of weakness: A president who prizes strength enters key stretch in a fragile state
“There’s frustration. It feels to everyone like they’re just digging a hole and making it worse. It just never ends. . . . It’s a total [expletive] show,” said one Republican strategist who has been advising a number of top senators and who, like several others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.
McConnell, who has shared related concerns in private conversations with other senators, has been preparing for a possible Senate impeachment trial. And earlier this month he showed a dry PowerPoint presentation to Republican senators explaining how one might unfold.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
McConnell remains engaged with Trump but has a mixed view of the president’s advisers, several Republicans said, noting that he misses his productive working relationship with former White House counsel Donald McGahn and is “less enamored” with his successor, Pat Cipollone, according to a McConnell ally. A Senate GOP aide said McConnell and Cipollone have a good working relationship.
AD
As they went about their work at the Capitol this past week, many Senate Republicans were all but mute when reporters asked questions about impeachment — a stark snapshot of a party rattled not only by the House inquiry but also by Trump’s removal of U.S. troops from northern Syria; his decision, later retracted, to host next year’s Group of Seven summit at his Florida golf resort; and his claim that the investigation into him amounted to a “lynching.”
“I’m a juror and I’m comfortable not speaking,” Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho) said. Pressed again for comment, he reiterated, “I said I’m comfortable not speaking.”
“I’d be a juror, so I have no comment,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said.
“I don’t need a strategy for impeachment because I may be a juror someday,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said.

What a pantsload of crap.

Notice that the Trump administration hasn't leaked any facts that help Trump from the closed door hearings. If there was exonerating testimony or evidence it would have been leaked and they would be crowing about it.

Just sighs and gaps.

 

[Denizen]

GOP lawmakers look aghast as they scramble to find any words to defend Donald Trump from their empty sacks of sad rhetoric.

They are done. They are doomed by the words of decent public servants compelled by subpoenas and sworn testimony which is exposing the truth of Donald Trump's misdeeds.

The GOP lawmakers tried to assemble a Trump howling mob to attack the investigators, but fell short of a quorum and disgraced themselves in the eyes of the public by a howling example of lawlessness.

GOP lawmakers are whimpering louder than Al Baghdadi.

Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, your horror and pain will be over soon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...510698-f75f-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html

‘It feels like a horror movie’: Republicans feel anxious and adrift defending Trump

By Robert Costa and Philip Rucker
Oct. 28, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. GMT+7

Republican senators are lost and adrift as the impeachment inquiry enters its second month, navigating the grave threat to President Trump largely in the dark, frustrated by the absence of a credible case to defend his conduct and anxious about the historic reckoning that likely awaits them.
Recent days have delivered the most damaging testimony yet about Trump and his advisers commandeering Ukraine policy for the president’s personal political goals, which his allies on Capitol Hill sought to undermine by storming the deposition room and condemning the inquiry as secretive and corrupt.
President Trump on Oct. 25 repeated his claim that he had a “perfect conversation” with his Ukrainian counterpart. (Reuters)
Those theatrics belie the deepening unease many Republicans now say they feel — particularly those in the Senate who are dreading having to weigh their conscience against their political calculations in deciding whether to convict or acquit Trump should the Democratic-controlled House impeach the president.
AD
In hushed conversations over the past week, GOP senators lamented that the fast-expanding probe is fraying their party, which remains completely in Trump’s grip. They voiced exasperation at the expectation that they defend the president against the troublesome picture that has been painted, with neither convincing arguments from the White House nor confidence that something worse won’t soon be discovered.
“It feels like a horror movie,” said one veteran Republican senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the consensus.
What you missed this week in the impeachment inquiry
The Republican Party’s strategy is being directed almost entirely by the frenzied impulses of Trump, who has exhibited fits of rage over the Democrats’ drive to remove him from office for abuse of power.
“I did nothing wrong,” Trump told reporters Friday. “This is a takedown of the Republican Party.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Although Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has been a loud dissenter, he has been speaking for himself as opposed to acting as a frontman for some silent caucus of like-minded Republicans, according to people familiar with the dynamic. Most GOP senators have been taking cues from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose paramount concern has been maintaining his party’s control of the chamber in next year’s election.
AD
“They’ve decided that they’re going to take it all grudgingly — and privately, perhaps, in disgust — but they’re not going to give up the farm,” said Al Cardenas, former chairman of the American Conservative Union. But, he added, “It’s been piling on, piling on, piling on, and I see defense fatigue on behalf of the Republicans in the Congress.”
Graham condemns House impeachment inquiry, slams process as ‘dangerous to the country’
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution denouncing the impeachment inquiry into President Trump in a news conference on Oct. 24. (The Washington Post)
Trump and his allies have strained to focus the debate on the process, but Republican officials have struggled to answer for the substance of the startling statements made by the growing list of credible witnesses from the national security and diplomatic realms.
Trump’s season of weakness: A president who prizes strength enters key stretch in a fragile state
“There’s frustration. It feels to everyone like they’re just digging a hole and making it worse. It just never ends. . . . It’s a total [expletive] show,” said one Republican strategist who has been advising a number of top senators and who, like several others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.
McConnell, who has shared related concerns in private conversations with other senators, has been preparing for a possible Senate impeachment trial. And earlier this month he showed a dry PowerPoint presentation to Republican senators explaining how one might unfold.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
McConnell remains engaged with Trump but has a mixed view of the president’s advisers, several Republicans said, noting that he misses his productive working relationship with former White House counsel Donald McGahn and is “less enamored” with his successor, Pat Cipollone, according to a McConnell ally. A Senate GOP aide said McConnell and Cipollone have a good working relationship.
AD
As they went about their work at the Capitol this past week, many Senate Republicans were all but mute when reporters asked questions about impeachment — a stark snapshot of a party rattled not only by the House inquiry but also by Trump’s removal of U.S. troops from northern Syria; his decision, later retracted, to host next year’s Group of Seven summit at his Florida golf resort; and his claim that the investigation into him amounted to a “lynching.”
“I’m a juror and I’m comfortable not speaking,” Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho) said. Pressed again for comment, he reiterated, “I said I’m comfortable not speaking.”
“I’d be a juror, so I have no comment,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said.
“I don’t need a strategy for impeachment because I may be a juror someday,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said.

Washington Post practices the occult art of “visualization”.
But we ignore the ruling elite and can’t be separated from our president.

You have superglued yourself to Donald Trump's anus?

I superglued my support for our president and no amount of celebrity, money or corporate power will take him out. That has to be frustration for you Marxists.
So continue to speak “as if”....then run take a poll...then take your Prozac. You can’t separate Americans from their president. After three years that should be sinking in to your despicable, Seville, head.

You are evidently deluded, distraught, and disturbed.

 

[NoVote]

You are evidently deluded, distraught, and disturbed.

Have you looked at your member picture recently?

 

[Denizen]

GOP lawmakers look aghast as they scramble to find any words to defend Donald Trump from their empty sacks of sad rhetoric.

They are done. They are doomed by the words of decent public servants compelled by subpoenas and sworn testimony which is exposing the truth of Donald Trump's misdeeds.

The GOP lawmakers tried to assemble a Trump howling mob to attack the investigators, but fell short of a quorum and disgraced themselves in the eyes of the public by a howling example of lawlessness.

GOP lawmakers are whimpering louder than Al Baghdadi.

Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, your horror and pain will be over soon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...510698-f75f-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html

‘It feels like a horror movie’: Republicans feel anxious and adrift defending Trump

By Robert Costa and Philip Rucker
Oct. 28, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. GMT+7

Republican senators are lost and adrift as the impeachment inquiry enters its second month, navigating the grave threat to President Trump largely in the dark, frustrated by the absence of a credible case to defend his conduct and anxious about the historic reckoning that likely awaits them.
Recent days have delivered the most damaging testimony yet about Trump and his advisers commandeering Ukraine policy for the president’s personal political goals, which his allies on Capitol Hill sought to undermine by storming the deposition room and condemning the inquiry as secretive and corrupt.
President Trump on Oct. 25 repeated his claim that he had a “perfect conversation” with his Ukrainian counterpart. (Reuters)
Those theatrics belie the deepening unease many Republicans now say they feel — particularly those in the Senate who are dreading having to weigh their conscience against their political calculations in deciding whether to convict or acquit Trump should the Democratic-controlled House impeach the president.
AD
In hushed conversations over the past week, GOP senators lamented that the fast-expanding probe is fraying their party, which remains completely in Trump’s grip. They voiced exasperation at the expectation that they defend the president against the troublesome picture that has been painted, with neither convincing arguments from the White House nor confidence that something worse won’t soon be discovered.
“It feels like a horror movie,” said one veteran Republican senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the consensus.
What you missed this week in the impeachment inquiry
The Republican Party’s strategy is being directed almost entirely by the frenzied impulses of Trump, who has exhibited fits of rage over the Democrats’ drive to remove him from office for abuse of power.
“I did nothing wrong,” Trump told reporters Friday. “This is a takedown of the Republican Party.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Although Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has been a loud dissenter, he has been speaking for himself as opposed to acting as a frontman for some silent caucus of like-minded Republicans, according to people familiar with the dynamic. Most GOP senators have been taking cues from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose paramount concern has been maintaining his party’s control of the chamber in next year’s election.
AD
“They’ve decided that they’re going to take it all grudgingly — and privately, perhaps, in disgust — but they’re not going to give up the farm,” said Al Cardenas, former chairman of the American Conservative Union. But, he added, “It’s been piling on, piling on, piling on, and I see defense fatigue on behalf of the Republicans in the Congress.”
Graham condemns House impeachment inquiry, slams process as ‘dangerous to the country’
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution denouncing the impeachment inquiry into President Trump in a news conference on Oct. 24. (The Washington Post)
Trump and his allies have strained to focus the debate on the process, but Republican officials have struggled to answer for the substance of the startling statements made by the growing list of credible witnesses from the national security and diplomatic realms.
Trump’s season of weakness: A president who prizes strength enters key stretch in a fragile state
“There’s frustration. It feels to everyone like they’re just digging a hole and making it worse. It just never ends. . . . It’s a total [expletive] show,” said one Republican strategist who has been advising a number of top senators and who, like several others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.
McConnell, who has shared related concerns in private conversations with other senators, has been preparing for a possible Senate impeachment trial. And earlier this month he showed a dry PowerPoint presentation to Republican senators explaining how one might unfold.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
McConnell remains engaged with Trump but has a mixed view of the president’s advisers, several Republicans said, noting that he misses his productive working relationship with former White House counsel Donald McGahn and is “less enamored” with his successor, Pat Cipollone, according to a McConnell ally. A Senate GOP aide said McConnell and Cipollone have a good working relationship.
AD
As they went about their work at the Capitol this past week, many Senate Republicans were all but mute when reporters asked questions about impeachment — a stark snapshot of a party rattled not only by the House inquiry but also by Trump’s removal of U.S. troops from northern Syria; his decision, later retracted, to host next year’s Group of Seven summit at his Florida golf resort; and his claim that the investigation into him amounted to a “lynching.”
“I’m a juror and I’m comfortable not speaking,” Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho) said. Pressed again for comment, he reiterated, “I said I’m comfortable not speaking.”
“I’d be a juror, so I have no comment,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said.
“I don’t need a strategy for impeachment because I may be a juror someday,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said.

What a pantsload of crap.

Notice that the Trump administration hasn't leaked any facts that help Trump from the closed door hearings. If there was exonerating testimony or evidence it would have been leaked and they would be crowing about it.

Just sighs and gaps.

Donald Trump is whimpering and blubbering. He begged Nancy Pelosi to stop the impeachment and she said no.

After being expunged from office Donald Trump will face the rest of his life in litigation as his castle made of sand collapses.

 

[Denizen]

You are evidently deluded, distraught, and disturbed.

Have you looked at your member picture recently?

I have not taken a picture of my member recently. Have you illegally acquired a picture of my member?

 

[Bruce_T_Laney]

It's a horror movie for the rest of America as well.

I try nightmare for you will be Trump beating a conviction and censure in the Senate and winning another term in 2020...

Now this is where you tell me he has no path to winning in 2020 ...

 

[Third Party]

Trump's reelection is in the bag. There's absolutely no viable alternative. But even if Democrat party didn't turn completely to socialism-communism, they still don't have any leader who can lead. When you're talking about Biden, Sanders and Warren and then hoping that Hillary, Michelle or Oprah will come along and rescue them, you can really grasp the depth of desperation the Ds are experiencing. As for the fake news, they'll keep pounding impeachment and when that's over they'll switch to humping the leg of the Democratic nominee, raving how she is the greatest nominee in the past 40 years. Predictable.

Trump is hated. It COULD cost him. Just hope the Dems remain clueless.

Democrats are hated as well.

You are right there, but there are more Democrats than Republicans. I wonder who the Independents hate? Being one, I hate the media.

 

[Denizen]

People are ignoring the fact that the Democrats have recently won a court decision to get the redacted grand jury testimony from the Mueller report. There may be more horrors for Trump and the GOP in that evidence.

There will be more whimpering and blubbering from Trump and the GOP as that evidence is exposed.

 

[wamose]

][/QUOTE]

I just read WAPO called Baghdali a conservative scholar...what a leftist rag[/QUOTE]

At least they didn't call him a stable genius.[/QUOTE]
Stable genius? You must be talking about Bob Baffert. Best you take that talk over to the horse racing forum, Qdog.

 

[DOTR]

GOP lawmakers look aghast as they scramble to find any words to defend Donald Trump from their empty sacks of sad rhetoric.

They are done. They are doomed by the words of decent public servants compelled by subpoenas and sworn testimony which is exposing the truth of Donald Trump's misdeeds.

The GOP lawmakers tried to assemble a Trump howling mob to attack the investigators, but fell short of a quorum and disgraced themselves in the eyes of the public by a howling example of lawlessness.

GOP lawmakers are whimpering louder than Al Baghdadi.

Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, your horror and pain will be over soon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...510698-f75f-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html

‘It feels like a horror movie’: Republicans feel anxious and adrift defending Trump

By Robert Costa and Philip Rucker
Oct. 28, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. GMT+7

Republican senators are lost and adrift as the impeachment inquiry enters its second month, navigating the grave threat to President Trump largely in the dark, frustrated by the absence of a credible case to defend his conduct and anxious about the historic reckoning that likely awaits them.
Recent days have delivered the most damaging testimony yet about Trump and his advisers commandeering Ukraine policy for the president’s personal political goals, which his allies on Capitol Hill sought to undermine by storming the deposition room and condemning the inquiry as secretive and corrupt.
President Trump on Oct. 25 repeated his claim that he had a “perfect conversation” with his Ukrainian counterpart. (Reuters)
Those theatrics belie the deepening unease many Republicans now say they feel — particularly those in the Senate who are dreading having to weigh their conscience against their political calculations in deciding whether to convict or acquit Trump should the Democratic-controlled House impeach the president.
AD
In hushed conversations over the past week, GOP senators lamented that the fast-expanding probe is fraying their party, which remains completely in Trump’s grip. They voiced exasperation at the expectation that they defend the president against the troublesome picture that has been painted, with neither convincing arguments from the White House nor confidence that something worse won’t soon be discovered.
“It feels like a horror movie,” said one veteran Republican senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the consensus.
What you missed this week in the impeachment inquiry
The Republican Party’s strategy is being directed almost entirely by the frenzied impulses of Trump, who has exhibited fits of rage over the Democrats’ drive to remove him from office for abuse of power.
“I did nothing wrong,” Trump told reporters Friday. “This is a takedown of the Republican Party.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Although Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has been a loud dissenter, he has been speaking for himself as opposed to acting as a frontman for some silent caucus of like-minded Republicans, according to people familiar with the dynamic. Most GOP senators have been taking cues from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose paramount concern has been maintaining his party’s control of the chamber in next year’s election.
AD
“They’ve decided that they’re going to take it all grudgingly — and privately, perhaps, in disgust — but they’re not going to give up the farm,” said Al Cardenas, former chairman of the American Conservative Union. But, he added, “It’s been piling on, piling on, piling on, and I see defense fatigue on behalf of the Republicans in the Congress.”
Graham condemns House impeachment inquiry, slams process as ‘dangerous to the country’
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution denouncing the impeachment inquiry into President Trump in a news conference on Oct. 24. (The Washington Post)
Trump and his allies have strained to focus the debate on the process, but Republican officials have struggled to answer for the substance of the startling statements made by the growing list of credible witnesses from the national security and diplomatic realms.
Trump’s season of weakness: A president who prizes strength enters key stretch in a fragile state
“There’s frustration. It feels to everyone like they’re just digging a hole and making it worse. It just never ends. . . . It’s a total [expletive] show,” said one Republican strategist who has been advising a number of top senators and who, like several others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.
McConnell, who has shared related concerns in private conversations with other senators, has been preparing for a possible Senate impeachment trial. And earlier this month he showed a dry PowerPoint presentation to Republican senators explaining how one might unfold.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
McConnell remains engaged with Trump but has a mixed view of the president’s advisers, several Republicans said, noting that he misses his productive working relationship with former White House counsel Donald McGahn and is “less enamored” with his successor, Pat Cipollone, according to a McConnell ally. A Senate GOP aide said McConnell and Cipollone have a good working relationship.
AD
As they went about their work at the Capitol this past week, many Senate Republicans were all but mute when reporters asked questions about impeachment — a stark snapshot of a party rattled not only by the House inquiry but also by Trump’s removal of U.S. troops from northern Syria; his decision, later retracted, to host next year’s Group of Seven summit at his Florida golf resort; and his claim that the investigation into him amounted to a “lynching.”
“I’m a juror and I’m comfortable not speaking,” Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho) said. Pressed again for comment, he reiterated, “I said I’m comfortable not speaking.”
“I’d be a juror, so I have no comment,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said.
“I don’t need a strategy for impeachment because I may be a juror someday,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said.

Washington Post practices the occult art of “visualization”.
But we ignore the ruling elite and can’t be separated from our president.

You have superglued yourself to Donald Trump's anus?

I superglued my support for our president and no amount of celebrity, money or corporate power will take him out. That has to be frustration for you Marxists.
So continue to speak “as if”....then run take a poll...then take your Prozac. You can’t separate Americans from their president. After three years that should be sinking in to your despicable, Seville, head.

You are evidently deluded, distraught, and disturbed.

Sure. The Washington Post sez so

 

[Third Party]

GOP lawmakers look aghast as they scramble to find any words to defend Donald Trump from their empty sacks of sad rhetoric.

They are done. They are doomed by the words of decent public servants compelled by subpoenas and sworn testimony which is exposing the truth of Donald Trump's misdeeds.

The GOP lawmakers tried to assemble a Trump howling mob to attack the investigators, but fell short of a quorum and disgraced themselves in the eyes of the public by a howling example of lawlessness.

GOP lawmakers are whimpering louder than Al Baghdadi.

Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, your horror and pain will be over soon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...510698-f75f-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html

‘It feels like a horror movie’: Republicans feel anxious and adrift defending Trump

By Robert Costa and Philip Rucker
Oct. 28, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. GMT+7

Republican senators are lost and adrift as the impeachment inquiry enters its second month, navigating the grave threat to President Trump largely in the dark, frustrated by the absence of a credible case to defend his conduct and anxious about the historic reckoning that likely awaits them.
Recent days have delivered the most damaging testimony yet about Trump and his advisers commandeering Ukraine policy for the president’s personal political goals, which his allies on Capitol Hill sought to undermine by storming the deposition room and condemning the inquiry as secretive and corrupt.
President Trump on Oct. 25 repeated his claim that he had a “perfect conversation” with his Ukrainian counterpart. (Reuters)
Those theatrics belie the deepening unease many Republicans now say they feel — particularly those in the Senate who are dreading having to weigh their conscience against their political calculations in deciding whether to convict or acquit Trump should the Democratic-controlled House impeach the president.
AD
In hushed conversations over the past week, GOP senators lamented that the fast-expanding probe is fraying their party, which remains completely in Trump’s grip. They voiced exasperation at the expectation that they defend the president against the troublesome picture that has been painted, with neither convincing arguments from the White House nor confidence that something worse won’t soon be discovered.
“It feels like a horror movie,” said one veteran Republican senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the consensus.
What you missed this week in the impeachment inquiry
The Republican Party’s strategy is being directed almost entirely by the frenzied impulses of Trump, who has exhibited fits of rage over the Democrats’ drive to remove him from office for abuse of power.
“I did nothing wrong,” Trump told reporters Friday. “This is a takedown of the Republican Party.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Although Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has been a loud dissenter, he has been speaking for himself as opposed to acting as a frontman for some silent caucus of like-minded Republicans, according to people familiar with the dynamic. Most GOP senators have been taking cues from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose paramount concern has been maintaining his party’s control of the chamber in next year’s election.
AD
“They’ve decided that they’re going to take it all grudgingly — and privately, perhaps, in disgust — but they’re not going to give up the farm,” said Al Cardenas, former chairman of the American Conservative Union. But, he added, “It’s been piling on, piling on, piling on, and I see defense fatigue on behalf of the Republicans in the Congress.”
Graham condemns House impeachment inquiry, slams process as ‘dangerous to the country’
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution denouncing the impeachment inquiry into President Trump in a news conference on Oct. 24. (The Washington Post)
Trump and his allies have strained to focus the debate on the process, but Republican officials have struggled to answer for the substance of the startling statements made by the growing list of credible witnesses from the national security and diplomatic realms.
Trump’s season of weakness: A president who prizes strength enters key stretch in a fragile state
“There’s frustration. It feels to everyone like they’re just digging a hole and making it worse. It just never ends. . . . It’s a total [expletive] show,” said one Republican strategist who has been advising a number of top senators and who, like several others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.
McConnell, who has shared related concerns in private conversations with other senators, has been preparing for a possible Senate impeachment trial. And earlier this month he showed a dry PowerPoint presentation to Republican senators explaining how one might unfold.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
McConnell remains engaged with Trump but has a mixed view of the president’s advisers, several Republicans said, noting that he misses his productive working relationship with former White House counsel Donald McGahn and is “less enamored” with his successor, Pat Cipollone, according to a McConnell ally. A Senate GOP aide said McConnell and Cipollone have a good working relationship.
AD
As they went about their work at the Capitol this past week, many Senate Republicans were all but mute when reporters asked questions about impeachment — a stark snapshot of a party rattled not only by the House inquiry but also by Trump’s removal of U.S. troops from northern Syria; his decision, later retracted, to host next year’s Group of Seven summit at his Florida golf resort; and his claim that the investigation into him amounted to a “lynching.”
“I’m a juror and I’m comfortable not speaking,” Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho) said. Pressed again for comment, he reiterated, “I said I’m comfortable not speaking.”
“I’d be a juror, so I have no comment,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said.
“I don’t need a strategy for impeachment because I may be a juror someday,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said.

You will look back someday and say these were the good ole days, under Trump. Enjoy them while you can.

 

[dudmuck]

People are ignoring the fact that the Democrats have recently won a court decision to get the redacted grand jury testimony from the Mueller report. There may be more horrors for Trump and the GOP in that evidence.

There will be more whimpering and blubbering from Trump and the GOP as that evidence is exposed.

Trump admin appeals order to turn over unredacted Mueller report.
Because the report totally exonerates the president?

 

[sealybobo]

And your a friggin moron and the only one who can't see it.

White House Official Who Listened To Trump Call Repeatedly Passed Concerns To Superior
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman will tell lawmakers he didn’t think it was “proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen.”

The top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council was so concerned about President Donald Trump’s demands that the country investigate former Vice President Joe Biden that he repeatedly reported his objections to a superior, he will tell lawmakers on Tuesday, according to a copy of his prepared remarks

Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a veteran of the Iraq War, plans to share his concerns when he speaks to lawmakers as part of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. Vindman is notably the first administration official to testify who listened in on the July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which sparked a whistleblower complaint that set off the impeachment inquiry.

Now imagine if this was Obama who did what Trump did. You'd be impeaching him right?

“I was concerned by the call,” Vindman, a Ukrainian American who is highly decorated, will say in his opening statement. “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine.”

The officer said he was troubled by Trump’s insistence that Ukraine open an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter, saying it would “likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained.”

Vindman’s prepared remarks contradict the testimony of Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, who spoke to House lawmakers earlier this month. The Army officer said during a meeting Sondland “emphasized the importance that Ukraine deliver the investigations into the 2016 election, the Bidens, and Burisma.” Vindman said he confronted Sondland at the time, saying such remarks were “inappropriate.”

But Sondland told lawmakers he could recall “no discussions with any State Department or White House official about Former Vice President Biden or his son, nor do I recall taking part in any effort to encourage an investigation into the Bidens.”

The difference in testimony prompted some concern among lawmakers, and House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said Monday evening he believed the ambassador committed “perjury.”

Vindman will also tell lawmakers that he is not the whistleblower who filed the complaint and that he does not know who the person is.

“I did convey certain concerns internally to National Security officials in accordance with my decades of experience and training, sense of duty, and obligation to operate within the chain of command,” Vindman will say, according to the prepared remarks. “As an active duty military officer, the command structure is extremely important to me.”


Vindman reported to Fiona Hill, the White House’s former senior director for European and Russian affairs, when he first joined the National Security Council. Hill testified before lawmakers earlier this month as well, telling investigators that her own boss, former national security adviser John Bolton, was also deeply alarmed by Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president.

What more do you need?

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

Trump's reelection is in the bag. There's absolutely no viable alternative. But even if Democrat party didn't turn completely to socialism-communism, they still don't have any leader who can lead. When you're talking about Biden, Sanders and Warren and then hoping that Hillary, Michelle or Oprah will come along and rescue them, you can really grasp the depth of desperation the Ds are experiencing. As for the fake news, they'll keep pounding impeachment and when that's over they'll switch to humping the leg of the Democratic nominee, raving how she is the greatest nominee in the past 40 years. Predictable.

Trump is hated. It COULD cost him. Just hope the Dems remain clueless.

Democrats are hated as well.

You are right there, but there are more Democrats than Republicans. I wonder who the Independents hate? Being one, I hate the media.

I used to be an independent, but I've gotten by that. I want the Democratic Party politically neutralized. MSM is the public face of the the party.

Not a big fan of Republicans either, but it's all there is to work with.

 

[Yarddog]

GOP lawmakers look aghast as they scramble to find any words to defend Donald Trump from their empty sacks of sad rhetoric.

They are done. They are doomed by the words of decent public servants compelled by subpoenas and sworn testimony which is exposing the truth of Donald Trump's misdeeds.

The GOP lawmakers tried to assemble a Trump howling mob to attack the investigators, but fell short of a quorum and disgraced themselves in the eyes of the public by a howling example of lawlessness.

GOP lawmakers are whimpering louder than Al Baghdadi.

Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, your horror and pain will be over soon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...510698-f75f-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html

‘It feels like a horror movie’: Republicans feel anxious and adrift defending Trump

By Robert Costa and Philip Rucker
Oct. 28, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. GMT+7

Republican senators are lost and adrift as the impeachment inquiry enters its second month, navigating the grave threat to President Trump largely in the dark, frustrated by the absence of a credible case to defend his conduct and anxious about the historic reckoning that likely awaits them.
Recent days have delivered the most damaging testimony yet about Trump and his advisers commandeering Ukraine policy for the president’s personal political goals, which his allies on Capitol Hill sought to undermine by storming the deposition room and condemning the inquiry as secretive and corrupt.
President Trump on Oct. 25 repeated his claim that he had a “perfect conversation” with his Ukrainian counterpart. (Reuters)
Those theatrics belie the deepening unease many Republicans now say they feel — particularly those in the Senate who are dreading having to weigh their conscience against their political calculations in deciding whether to convict or acquit Trump should the Democratic-controlled House impeach the president.
AD
In hushed conversations over the past week, GOP senators lamented that the fast-expanding probe is fraying their party, which remains completely in Trump’s grip. They voiced exasperation at the expectation that they defend the president against the troublesome picture that has been painted, with neither convincing arguments from the White House nor confidence that something worse won’t soon be discovered.
“It feels like a horror movie,” said one veteran Republican senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the consensus.
What you missed this week in the impeachment inquiry
The Republican Party’s strategy is being directed almost entirely by the frenzied impulses of Trump, who has exhibited fits of rage over the Democrats’ drive to remove him from office for abuse of power.
“I did nothing wrong,” Trump told reporters Friday. “This is a takedown of the Republican Party.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), center, talks to journalists at the Capitol on Oct. 22. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Although Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has been a loud dissenter, he has been speaking for himself as opposed to acting as a frontman for some silent caucus of like-minded Republicans, according to people familiar with the dynamic. Most GOP senators have been taking cues from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose paramount concern has been maintaining his party’s control of the chamber in next year’s election.
AD
“They’ve decided that they’re going to take it all grudgingly — and privately, perhaps, in disgust — but they’re not going to give up the farm,” said Al Cardenas, former chairman of the American Conservative Union. But, he added, “It’s been piling on, piling on, piling on, and I see defense fatigue on behalf of the Republicans in the Congress.”
Graham condemns House impeachment inquiry, slams process as ‘dangerous to the country’
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution denouncing the impeachment inquiry into President Trump in a news conference on Oct. 24. (The Washington Post)
Trump and his allies have strained to focus the debate on the process, but Republican officials have struggled to answer for the substance of the startling statements made by the growing list of credible witnesses from the national security and diplomatic realms.
Trump’s season of weakness: A president who prizes strength enters key stretch in a fragile state
“There’s frustration. It feels to everyone like they’re just digging a hole and making it worse. It just never ends. . . . It’s a total [expletive] show,” said one Republican strategist who has been advising a number of top senators and who, like several others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.
McConnell, who has shared related concerns in private conversations with other senators, has been preparing for a possible Senate impeachment trial. And earlier this month he showed a dry PowerPoint presentation to Republican senators explaining how one might unfold.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been explaining to Republican senators how a possible impeachment trial might unfold. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
McConnell remains engaged with Trump but has a mixed view of the president’s advisers, several Republicans said, noting that he misses his productive working relationship with former White House counsel Donald McGahn and is “less enamored” with his successor, Pat Cipollone, according to a McConnell ally. A Senate GOP aide said McConnell and Cipollone have a good working relationship.
AD
As they went about their work at the Capitol this past week, many Senate Republicans were all but mute when reporters asked questions about impeachment — a stark snapshot of a party rattled not only by the House inquiry but also by Trump’s removal of U.S. troops from northern Syria; his decision, later retracted, to host next year’s Group of Seven summit at his Florida golf resort; and his claim that the investigation into him amounted to a “lynching.”
“I’m a juror and I’m comfortable not speaking,” Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho) said. Pressed again for comment, he reiterated, “I said I’m comfortable not speaking.”
“I’d be a juror, so I have no comment,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said.
“I don’t need a strategy for impeachment because I may be a juror someday,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said.

Whats going to be over soon? No, the Democrats will continue to be a constant pain, as there will be no impeachment, just non stop whining right up to the next election. Then when they lose that one they will whine more,... find another reason to impeach Trump and we will do this all over again for 4 more years.
No, nothing will be over. anti depressant sales for the Left will go through the roof.