Impeachment Megathread Part 3

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Looking at it purely from the angle of election impact moving forward, does anyone think this whole "acquit Trump quickly, with no witnesses or investigation" ploy is actually a good one?

To me, it seems like the worst thing the Republicans could possibly do. All it does is discredit them. (Actually impeaching Trump might go over worse with their base in the near future.)

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

This is all really a good example of one way the federal government is broken. There is no effective way to hold a wayward presidential accountable. At best, you can deny them major legislative accomplishments, but even that has limits, given the power of the executive branch. If they want to engage in flagrant corruption, there is little anyone can do about it, no matter how brazen it is. The fact is, politicians care more about their jobs and will fall in line if the party base backs the president, and they are the easiest group of people of all for the president to con.

Whole system needs to be burned down and redone, imo

The problem we face today is not with the system. While the Constitution, and the current version of the government that has grown from it are not perfect, they are an adequate basis for representative government. The problem is Republicans. No system could function effectively with roughly half its members (backed by around a quarter of the enfranchised public) operating in bad faith with the intent to abuse and destroy. If we can rid the nation of its Republican cancer without the nation dying in the process, we can start to heal our nation and do what we can to make it harder for the next opportunistic cancer to flourish. (And that will have more to do with an educated public and a fair and just social system, than with any technical tweaks to the basis of government.)

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I think the Democrats have one big "Achilles Heel" in this whole argument.

What Oil & Gas company on this planet would employ a chemically dependent foreigner who just got kicked out of the navy for failing a drug test with no Oil and Gas experience onto their board for US$50-80k per month?

The only situation in which this would be possible is if your father was the Vice President of the United States and he pressured Ukraine for it to happen in a Quid Pro Quo deal.

There is no other explanation for this appointment.

big claims, zero evidence

Try answering the question.

Try providing the evidences

That is exactly what Donald was asking the President of the Ukraine for.

The Hunter Biden employment contract was a massive Quid Pro Quo organised by the Vice President of the United States.

Never in the history of Oil and Gas companies has someone with such low credentials and chemical dependency been employed on such a high salary to a board.

Wow. Sounds like you're saying that an immediate relative of a high-ranking Executive Branch official shouldn't be making financial deals with foreign governments for large amounts of money would be wrong. What do you think should happen in cases like that?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Since Senator Alexander was speaking about those questions, it seems like a good point to share this:

https://twitter.com/Nuchnibi/status/1223033384127074306

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Trump is corrupt and also has no self-control. Any Republican that ties their legacy to Trump is a moron. They could acquit him next week and he'd do something corrupt or illegal that very day to be investigated all over again.

Given that's exactly what he did in response to the Mueller Report, it's more a question of what he will do, than if he will do something. Rick Wilson lays out how this vote, if it goes as now expected, will be the death knell of the GOP:
https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/1223050704329355268

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The GOP is an embarrassment and stain on this country. They’re actions today have done possibly irreversible damage to our democracy. Even though it was inevitable they would acquit the fact they won’t even allow witnesses is so transparent in its corruption that its shameless

This. I fear that many Americans (especially Republicans) won't see this, though, so Trump still has a ~50% chance of re-election. This county is really going to pieces.

Trump does have a substantial chance of re-election, but not because of any great support for him. The Republicans already have a very widespread election-subversion process, and after this Trump will be actively trying to steal the election by any means available to him.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I can't wait to see the smug attitudes of these GOP hacks get wiped out in November. That will be the greatest pleasure in the world.

If we have a free and fair election, that would quite likely happen. What was it Mr. Trump was impeached over again? Oh, right - trying to abuse his office to interfere in the 2020 election. This year's election will be as unfree and unfair as Republicans can make it.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Serious question: is there an equivalence to Double Jeopardy? Is Trump acquitted forever on this issue, or can the Dems reopen it?

I don't know the technical Constitutional answer. But if a Democratic House wants to send more articles of impeachment in the future, it is not like there's a lack of untouched material. Mr. Trump's ongoing Emoluments violations alone could probably support multiple articles of impeachment. And in addition to the past, there's always whatever laws he'll be breaking tomorrow.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

No witnesses = the end of checks and balances. The presidency is now an office with no restrictions.

Republicans have also now and forever forfeited any claim to morality and integrity they have ever had. Not just elected Republicans either.

This disgrace must never be forgotten. Republicans must be made to own this.

They're wallowing in it.

https://twitter.com/katierogers/status/1223366576566566912

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Trump administration reveals it's blocking dozens of emails about Ukraine aid freeze, including President's role

The Department of Justice revealed in a court filing late Friday that it has two dozen emails related to the President Donald Trump's involvement in the withholding of millions in security assistance to Ukraine -- a disclosure that came just hours after the Senate voted against subpoenaing additional documents and witnesses in Trump's impeachment trial, paving the way for his acquittal.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1223639128241209345

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1223727777721069569

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/JamesGleick/status/1223729018635157505

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

America is weeping at this vote.

Most of America doesn't care and doesn't even know what impeachment is.

It's actually a pretty popular topic.

Impeachment is such a popular topic that the soap operas usually get 2x higher TV ratings than the trial when shown on the broadcast networks in the afternoon. It's such a popular topic that a Democratic focus group took 80 minutes to even mention the topic, and when they did they dismissed it as partisan nonsense.

Only hyper-partisans care about impeachment.

Are you referring to the focus group on CBS, that was moderated by Frank Luntz? It was an all-female focus group, and every woman at that table, from what I've heard, both Democrats and Republicans, predicted that Trump would win reelection.

No. I'm refering to a Democratic focus group in Chicago run by David Axelrod:

"Because impeachment didn’t come up, no one volunteered it, for 80 minutes into the focus group, and we’re right in the middle of the trial."


"When it came up, they said, you know, it's terrible what he did, the case has been proven, but we know how it's going to turn out," Axelrod continued. "So we're not really that interested, we're ready to move on."

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/479876-cnns-axelrod-says-impeachment-didnt-come-up-until-80-minutes-into-focus-group

They know how it's going to go, because they know that Republican Senators are members of the Trump cult.

Democratic voters in 2006/2008/2012/2016 : we have to vote these fascist republican senators (aka moderate republican senators like Lincoln Shafee, Gordon Smith Scott Brown, Mark Kirk) out of office because they're a threat to democracy

Democratic voters now : where are all these moderate republican senators who would have once defended the rule of law and democracy ?

Speak for yourself. I've no seen zero reason to believe that any hypothetical Republican old-timers still around would behave any differently from Graham and Alexander.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

MUH BIPARTISANSHIP

https://twitter.com/business/status/1224064833412354051?s=19

The Banana Republicans are making it increasingly clear that they want a Republican dictatorship, and will allow a functioning democracy only over their dead bodies.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/JamilSmith/status/1224027495290171392

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/politico/status/1224105298627125248

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1224448028351713288

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/gabrielsherman/status/1224417266957213697

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/Grace_Segers/status/1224803887531679744

I wasn't able to watch the full clip, so I couldn't see if she added, "I'm confident we'll be able to get away with our treason more successfully next time" or "I don't think he'd be stupid enough to have so many witnesses, again".

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Trump's gamble to expose Biden payed off, the dude finished 4th in Iowa.

Alternatively, Trump got himself impeached in an attempt to politically smear an opponent who got 4th in Iowa.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Romney is up and speaking

I expect him to acquit, I don't think he is courageous enough to actually convict here. I have a slight hope that I will be proven wrong here.

Ok I was wrong here, Romney is voting to convict (on abuse of power, he didn't mention obstruction of Congress but I'd guess he wouldn't split then). Sorry for doubting him, and at least he did the right thing.

I've mocked Romney (and other Republicans senators) for their expressions of "grave concern" and the like. I didn't expect he would follow through with what I know will be a very personally costly vote to convict.  I was wrong.

Standing up to a would-be tyrant like Trump, who is backed by Romney's entire party, takes courage and commitment that is too rare these days.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/EamonJavers/status/1225136425194205184?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogl...

what a snowflake

Trump is probably throwing a tantrum.

He's probably demanding that Sen. Romney be "taken out".

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Trump immediately refuted the Republican idea he was chastened by impeachment

Minutes after the Senate vote to acquit him on Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump posted a tweet undercutting the belief a number of Republican senators expressed in recent days that getting impeached might prompt him to tone it down a little.

Trump posted a video with an edited animation of a Time magazine cover teasing that he, or at the very least someone with the same last name, will be running for president in 2020, 2024, 2028, and beyond. It ends with Trump standing being an election placard reading, “TRUMP 4EVA.”

Anyone who says they want to be 'President for Life' is also telling us exactly how he desires to leave office. (Personally, I expect he'll end up being manhandled out of the White House by some polite but firm medical personnel, prior to his being found mentally incompetent and remanded to a managed care facility for what remains of his life.)

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

From the official Trump campaign twitter:
https://twitter.com/TeamTrump/status/1225170355322531840

(I guess they find Cocaine Mitch preferable to the far more accurate MoscowMitch?)