The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump

[bune]

Actually the best thing about the report is that Ivanka apparently had a personal relationship with Mr. Steele Dossier Guy.

[96583UP]

sure there is some perfectly rational Qanon explanation for it

[McParadigm]

[Strat]

He's really sticking it to us brainwashed libtards!

[McParadigm]

[img]fuuuuuuuuuuuuuckkkkkkkkkk.stickfigure[/img]

[B]

Go to 5:35.

[McParadigm]

Predictions as to whether PhatJ received, accepted, and internalized the factually summative version of this news, vs the insular propaganda version?

[verb_to_trust]

Trump is calling it an "all time political scandal", which is complete nonsense. But his cult will eat it up.

[wease]

Goddamn, I’d love to be watching this with Trump right now.

[McParadigm]

Step one: introduce articles of impeachment

Step two: immediately thereafter, give the president a huge win on a topic that moves polls

Step three: his popularity ticks upwards temporarily, thanks to the trade deal

Step four: you panic and think that impeachment has backfired

Step five: moderate Democrats then vote against impeachment, lending crucial credibility to Republican spin

[McParadigm]

Fucking master wizards

[4/5]

Step five: moderate Democrats then vote against impeachment, lending crucial credibility to Republican spin

I refuse to believe that Pelosi doesn't already have 218 guaranteed votes right this minute.

[McParadigm]

Step five: moderate Democrats then vote against impeachment, lending crucial credibility to Republican spin

I refuse to believe that Pelosi doesn't already have 218 guaranteed votes right this minute.

Nobody said “step six: fail to pass”

[4/5]

Step five: moderate Democrats then vote against impeachment, lending crucial credibility to Republican spin

I refuse to believe that Pelosi doesn't already have 218 guaranteed votes right this minute.

Nobody said “step six: fail to pass”

True. This vote needs to be basically unanimous, though. You're probably right to skeptical of Democrats' ability to do their job, but Pelosi has to be pretty certain not just of the 218 votes, but of the ability to maintain a united front on this issue right?

[McParadigm]

Yeah. Once this hits the Senate, Republicans are going to have a lot of leverage to control the messaging, the presentation, and the process. Every Democrat who votes against impeachment in the House because they worry about re-election and know it will pass without their help is sending a message to voters that not even Ds necessarily think these actions were impeachable. The political expense of that message going into the Senate trial is not insignificant....and setting it up to happen without needing to is a mistake.

Most annoying of all is that they are doing this because they naïvely think it lets them push back on Republican claims that they are getting nothing done due to impeachment. As if the entire Republican machine wasn’t built to abandon talking points on a dime, and spin whole new ones in the same breath.

[McParadigm]

I understand that they think the opposite is going to happen, and that showing how they acted in a non-partisan way on the trade deal is going to give those moderate state reps cover to vote for impeachment. I just think they’re being shortsighted, and it’s going to backfire. Trade deals move poll needles, and not for legislators. When that bump happens, those same moderate reps will break out in a fucking sweat.

[McParadigm]

It’s been fun, folks.

[PHATJ]

Democrat Rep. Jeff Van Drew (NJ) responded to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to move forward with impeaching President Donald Trump on Thursday by cautioning his party, warning them that what they are doing is tearing the United States apart.

CNN’s Manu Raju spoke with Van Drew about Pelosi’s decision, writing on Twitter: “Rep. Jeff Van Drew, one of two Democrats to vote against formalizing the impeachment inquiry, told me he plans to vote against all the articles of impeachment ‘unless there’s something that I haven’t seen, haven’t heard before.'”

Van Drew told Raju that Democrats should “be careful what [they] wish for” because impeachment “is tearing the nation apart.”

In an interview on Sunday with USA Today, Van Drew echoed similar sentiments, saying that he opposes removing the president.

“My job isn’t really to like or dislike him,” Van Drew said. “My job is to exact as much goodwill and help for my district and for this nation and for this world that I possibly can while he’s president.”

On the issue of impeachment, Van Drew said, “To some folks, that’s reminiscent of what was done to kings and queens many years ago. Everything our country doesn’t stand for.”

Van Drew is not the only Democrat to sound the alarm bells over impeachment.

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) warned his party this week that if the get Trump removed from office that it could be a bad move politically because of who the Democrats may have to face from the GOP in 2020.

“I do think that it’s the right thing to do to remove him from office. I believe he is an imminent danger to this country and to our democracy, but I was saying that the political consequences may not be very good for the Democrats,” Yarmuth said. “I will guarantee you the Republican Party would not nominate Mike Pence to succeed him. They would nominate someone like Nikki Haley who would be much more difficult for Democrats to defeat.”

“I just think it could be bad politics,” Yarmuth added.

In late November, Democrat Rep. Brenda Lawrence (MI) said that Trump should be censured but not removed from office.

“You can censure, you don’t have to remove the president,” Lawrence said. “We are so close to an election. I will tell you, sitting here, knowing how divided this country is, I don’t see the value of kicking him out of office, but I do see the value of putting down a marker saying his behavior is not acceptable.”

In a subsequent tweet, Raju noted what Democrat Rep. Collin Peterson (MN), who also is opposed to impeachment, had to say about the matter following Pelosi’s announcement: “Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, the other Democrat who also opposed the inquiry, said this when I asked if he’d vote to impeach: ‘I don’t have an idea what they’re doing.’ And he walked on the floor.”

Peterson told a local media outlet on the issue of impeachment: “What I’ve said all along is that you can’t do this with one party. It’s not smart and it’s not going to work. I think if this is handled incorrectly, it will reelect Trump. That’s what I think.”

[Captain Termite]

If the impeachment is so bad for Democrats and so good for Republicans, why are the Republicans trying to stop it each step of the way?

[PHATJ]

If the impeachment is so bad for Democrats and so good for Republicans, why are the Republicans trying to stop it each step of the way?

Because it’s ridiculous, asinine, a waste of time and energy, and a massive waste of money. That would be my guess.