“Whistleblower / Ukraine story may do two things at once:
— increase Democratic appetite for impeachment
— help Biden by underscoring Trump’s fear of his nomination.” John Harwood
- If this extortion / corruption doesn’t start impeachment then the Dems should just pack it in and go home.
- I’ve said from the start that the Monster fears Biden because, of all the Dems, he has the most credibility / gravitas in foreign policy AND he collaborated intimately in both foreign / domestic policy with the Bone Spur Draft Dodger’s worse nightmare — Barack Obama.
- The Chief Creep also fears Biden’s steadfast lead in the polls especially in key battleground states.
Please share widely!
I totally agree with your first item.
While your other two items may be true, I don’t see that as relevant to who we should nominate. Surely you agree with me that Donald Trump should not be choosing our nominee (for or against)!
We should and will nominate the candidate most suited to begin to repair the damage caused by Donald Trump and his Collaborators. That nomination should not be determined by either Donald Trump or any foreign agent(s).
Trump sent Dracula Ghouliani to Ukraine to demand they find dirt on Biden or face reprisals. That’s the larger point that goes to his fear of Biden.
“If this turns out to be what the whistleblower complaint is about & it’s accurate, Trump must leave office immediately. A president can’t offer US aid to a foreign country in exchange for prosecution of a political opponent. Heaven help us if we can’t all agree on that.” Joyce Vance
“If this actually happened, Trump should be impeached and removed from office immediately.” George Conway
We already know that Mr. Trump appears to be Russian asset and should be immediately removed from office.
I hope that this whistleblower complaint is yet another smoking gun for the collection, It appears that this yet another kind of gun control that paralyzes our government.
I see no evidence that this will make any more difference than Sandy Hook.
Oh, but it HAS made a difference.
Why does Joe Biden have credibility/gravitas on foreign policy? Because he used to be on the Senate foreign relations committee or because he’s been on the wrong side of most major foreign policy issues over the last few decades?
Is it his fervent support for the Iraq War and his current lies about his stance on the Iraq War that are credible?
What about his involvement in an administration conducting a massive drone war, extrajudicial assassinations, supporting the Saudi war in Yemen?
Is it him being one of the most unwavering supporters of Israel’s actions among 2020 candidates?
Is your criteria for credibility/gravitas just having done a lot of it or does it extend to actually being good/supporting the right things?
Biden would be better than Trump on foreign policy, but among the 2020 candidates, he would likely have the least progressive approach of any of the candidates. Trump may fear that (I doubt it), but do you really want it? Can you explain why Biden’s approach would be better than the other candidates’?
Here’s why Joe Biden has credibility on foreign policy:
Statement by Vice President Joe Biden
“If these reports are true, then there is truly no bottom to President Trump’s willingness to abuse his power and abase our country. This behavior is particularly abhorrent because it exploits the foreign policy of our country and undermines our national security for political purposes. It means that he used the power and resources of the United States to pressure a sovereign nation — a partner that is under direct assault from Russia — pushing Ukraine to subvert the rule of law in the express hope of extracting a political favor.
“Such clear – cut corruption damages and diminishes our institutions of government by making them tools of a personal political vendetta. At minimum, Donald Trump should immediately release the transcript of the call in question, so that the American people can judge for themselves, and direct the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to stop stonewalling and release the whistleblower notification to Congress.”
That’s a statement not a defense of his record.
Was this statement immediately followed by a call for impeachment?
He definitely has the most foreign policy cred of the field and if Hillary had won last time I could easily have seen him as her Secretary of State. Since foreign policy is such a huge part of a President’s job it’s a key reason he tops Sen. Warren as my choice for POTUS.
To confirm, are you saying “cred” to mean experience? Or do you mean it to mean good judgment and competence? Or do you see no difference between those things?
Mostly the former, though it sounds like I mark him much higher on the latter than you do as well.
“Impeachment could be the only remedy” if Trump asked Ukraine for dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden. Adam Schiff, House Intelligence Committee Chair
“At this point, the bigger national scandal isn’t the president’s lawbreaking behavior — it is the Democratic Party’s refusal to impeach him for it.” AOC
AOC is right. Adam Schiff is not.
Schiff gets way too much love from liberals for some decently strong statements in hearings or going on Maddow’s show to talk about the Mueller investigation. The problem is that he is incredibly cautious lawyer and won’t use the power given to him in his role.
The news reports quote it like you did with emphasis on “the only remedy” and not on the more important word in the statement.
His full quote.
The most important word in that statement is the first one. IF. Schiff is seeking the full conviction in hand before starting impeachment. He needs the “IF” proven beyond a reasonable doubt. He probably wants another investigation like Mueller’s and a year of wasting time with an absurdly conservative investigator before he will want to move forward. The impeachment process is where he can find those answers, not before. His job is to find out if an indictment is warranted, not if a conviction is guaranteed.
His statement also misses a larger point that this latest news is not what is needed for impeachment. Just like a clear conclusion of election tampering from the Mueller probe was not what is needed for impeachment.
THERE IS ALREADY ENOUGH.
The self-dealing with his hotel is impeachable (plus all his other resorts). The Muslim Ban is impeachable. The concentration camps at the border are impeachable. On and on.
The Democratic leadership is acting like they need a guaranteed conviction in the Senate before they will move. That will never happen. The GOP is too craven.
The Democrats need to start proceedings tomorrow and make the case every day against this corrupt, racist clown. Every day. Witness after witness. Coordinated talking points. Every news show. Beat the drum every day. Show the American people who this man is and force every GOP member of Congress to cast the vote that says “Yes, I support this blatantly corrupt, racist, incompetent, dangerous buffoon.”
I couldn’t agree more and have stated so publicly since the 2018 midterm election.
The NYT was excoriated on MSNBC “AM Joy” Reid today for parroting Trump’s ‘both sideism / false equivalency” debunked Hunter Biden hit job smear.
Maria Kumar pointed out that Vogel’s source, Peter Schweizer, is a neo-fascist Mercer family flak that sponsors Steve Bannon and the Breitbart Report.
Adam Schiff also just said that with this new Ukraine-related scandal there may be no choice to impeach. I for one am glad my party is not the one to go on the warpath a la the GOP c. 1998.
I might add this stuff about Hunter I’d disturbing. It’s far less relevant than Trumps misdeeds and gives him no excuses for violating laws and abusing his power over foreign policy to hurt a political rival, but Hunter messed up.
Warren and Sanders are closer to the people as are their families. Warren had her brothers serve, unlike President bone spur. They both grew up in poverty and only knew success in later adult life. Unlike Biden, they don’t hob knob with American oligarchs to get campaign cash. This is another example of how the elite like Hunter Biden play by a different set of rules than ordinary people. We should vote for the people who want Wall Street to play by the same rules as the rest of us, not the ones snorting coke off of hookers as they use their dads name to close foreign deals.
Seven Congressional freshmen national security Democrats from swing districts called for Trump’s impeachment tonight in a Washington Post OP-ED.
Momentum is building as the Speaker calls for a meeting of the Democratic Caucus tomorrow at 4 pm.
I think they’re going to do the big “I” this week.
Buckle your seatbelts cause we’re in for a bumpy ride.
Senate just voted unanimously to see the whistleblower report. The walls are closing in on the crime syndicate.
“The President of the United States has betrayed our country. That’s not a political statement — it’s a harsh reality, and we must act. He is a clear and present danger to the things that keep us strong and free. I support impeachment.” Hillary Clinton