Re: House Judiciary hearings

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Doug Collins: I will accuse the Dems of what we do!

Gym Jordan: I will trigger the libs with my lies to get on Fox News!

Louie: Here, hold my beer!
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: House Judiciary hearings

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K9s wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:03 pm Doug Collins: I will accuse the Dems of what we do!

Gym Jordan: I will trigger the libs with my lies to get on Fox News!

Louie: Here, hold my beer!
:thumbup:
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: House Judiciary hearings

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I just looked it up and the far-right press is going nuts about the Louie Gohmert whistleblower thing. Blame the "liberals" for everything - no matter how stupid it sounds.

Sample headline from RedState: "Louie Gohmert Says Name of Whistleblower During Hearing, but It's Media and Dems Screaming About It Who Are Outing Him"
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: House Judiciary hearings

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Here is evidence of on of the charges against Trump, obstruction of Congress.
The Trump administration has refused to disclose how key officials at the Department of Defense and the White House Office of Management and Budget reacted to President Trump’s decision to halt military aid to Ukraine.

On Nov. 25, federal district court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered the administration to produce records reflecting what these officials said to one another about the legality and appropriateness of Trump’s order. The Center for Public Integrity sought the information in Freedom of Information Act requests filed in late September.

On Thursday afternoon, however, as the House Judiciary Committee was voting on two articles of impeachment against Trump, Public Integrity received 146 pages of documents that had been almost completely redacted by the government. Every substantive exchange between officials at the agencies was blacked out. Public Integrity is planning to file a motion Friday challenging the government’s response.

“We are deeply disappointed that the public won’t have access to this important information at the heart of the impeachment process. But we will continue to fight to ensure that the documents see the light of day,” said Public Integrity’s chief executive officer, Susan Smith Richardson.

Access to the documents was granted by the judge after a brief but fierce court battle.

Although the Defense Department initially proposed to put the Public Integrity request at the end of a year-long queue, the judge said the documents must be provided on an urgent timetable because they were meant “to inform the public on a matter of extreme national concern,” given the continuing investigation by Congress into Trump’s aid halt and its impact. To ensure “informed public participation” in the impeachment proceedings it provoked, “the public needs access to relevant information,” the judge said.

She noted further that since the administration had failed to answer congressional requests for the information at issue, the public was unlikely to get it without Public Integrity’s help. Any hardship placed on the government, she concluded, was “minimal.”

But the two institutions, in their initial production to Public Integrity, removed key passages delineating what the officials said about Trump’s decision, arguing that the information was related to the administration’s “deliberative process” — even though it appears that much of the information withheld may simply be factual rather than deliberative. They also claimed that providing some information would violate the officials’ privacy.

Messages that officials at the White House and Pentagon exchanged shortly after the aid halt became public in late August were, for example, completely blacked out. A detailed description by the Pentagon of how the aid program was meant to be carried out — provided to OMB shortly after a whistleblower filed a complaint alleging the program had been mishandled at the White House — was redacted.

A lengthy email exchange in August between Elaine McCusker, a career employee at the Defense Department who is the deputy comptroller there, Michael Duffey, a political appointee and the associate director at OMB, and OMB General Counsel Mark Paoletta — a former legal adviser to Vice President Mike Pence — was also blacked out.

McCusker on Aug. 19 did email Duffey to say “the funds go into the system today to initiate transactions and obligate,” which set off more emails from Duffey and Paoletta. The flurry of messages between them continued into the following day, when McCusker at one point emailed to say, “Seems like we continue to talk [email] past each other a bit. We should probably have a call.”

“Any potentially interesting bits are redacted,” said Margaret Taylor, a former State Department lawyer who was deputy staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2015 through July 2018.

The FOIA response is part of a pattern of behavior by the Trump administration, which has maintained a cloud of secrecy around key aspects of the aid halt.

Although the halt has been the focus of multiple congressional hearings, key details about its origins and legality have remained murky: When did it start, who in the government knew about it, how did they react, and what did they say to one another?

Testimony by mid-level government officials during the hearings into Trump’s potential impeachment has provided only clues, while establishing without question that many inside the government were either confused or upset by Trump’s decision.

Several committees of the House of Representatives subpoenaed relevant documents from OMB and DOD on Oct. 7.

But the White House blocked the release to Congress of any documents from those institutions, and others. One of the two articles of impeachment drafted by House Democrats accusing Trump of abusing his powers specifically cites the administration’s failure to provide “a single document or record” from OMB and DOD in response to subpoenas.

Public Integrity’s efforts to obtain some of the documents began earlier, in late September, when it filed two FOIA requests for copies of emails and other communications between the OMB and DOD about the aid from April to the present, and also copies of messages passed between three top Pentagon officials about the aid, including Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.

After a short court battle, Public Integrity won a preliminary ruling in late November. The judge ordered that the documents be released on a timetable much more rapid than the government preferred. But it took a vigorous effort to obtain that order.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/trump ... raine-aid/

Of corse they government has given excuses why they can’t deliver as ordered.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: House Judiciary hearings

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I just tuned in again. It is still going on. Sounds like the GOP is trying to stretch this out with endless amendments and get Dems to shut them down. Same as the "walk into the secure area and demand to be arrested" strategy. After 12 hours, I guess maybe it isn't working? Dems say they are staying all night.

They were repeating the same "arguments" I heard four hours ago. Lisa Page & Andrew McCabe, Biden is corrupt, Dems hate America, Dems are the ones obstructing Congress (not Trump), etc.

Interesting timing, though, as UK election results are streaming in.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: House Judiciary hearings

57
The House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment against President Trump Friday, setting up a vote by the full chamber next week to make President Trump the third U.S. president to be impeached.

After 14 hours of withering debate Thursday, committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) surprised Republicans by abruptly concluding the hearing after 11 p.m. Eastern time and delaying a vote until the morning. Nadler urged members “to search their consciences before we cast our final vote.”

As expected, the committee vote Friday morning fell along party lines, 23-17 on both articles of impeachment.

The articles — for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — related to Trump’s attempt to have Ukraine investigate his political enemies, a scheme Democrats described as a threat to democracy as the United States braces for another bitter election.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/ ... ouse-floor

So now it's up to Pelosi and the Democratic majority in the House.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: House Judiciary hearings

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After the house votes and then sent to the Senate where Moscow Mitch and his senate team will coordinate with take orders from the Trump White House to see that it dies.
Mitch McConnell Says There’s ‘No Chance’ Trump Will Be Removed From Office

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that he didn’t believe any Republicans in the Senate planned to vote to remove President Donald Trump from office should the House impeach him next week, saying he even expected some Democrats to side with GOP lawmakers.

“There is no chance the president is going to be removed from office,” McConnell told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday evening. “My hope is there won’t be a single Republican who votes for either of these articles of impeachment. And Sean, it wouldn’t surprise me if we got one or two Democrats.”

The remarks came as lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee held a heated markup session on two articles of impeachment related to Trump’s demand that the leader of Ukraine announce the opening of an investigation into a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son Hunter. One article focuses on abuse of power and the other on obstruction of Congress.

The committee abruptly delayed the panel’s vote on the measures late Thursday, saying it would vote Friday morning, when the articles are expected to pass on a party-line vote. The full House will vote on the articles next week, and, if passed, the Senate will hold a trial on the case against Trump in January.

Despite a nearly three-month investigation in the House, in which a parade of current and former administration officials voiced concern over Trump’s actions, McConnell said he doubted the merits of Democrats’ evidence against Trump.

“The case is so darn weak coming over from the House,” he said.

The majority leader said Thursday he had been coordinating with Trump’s legal team throughout the impeachment process, an arrangement that would continue if the Senate begins a trial. It would take a two-thirds vote in the Senate to remove Trump from office, but the GOP holds a 53-47 majority, meaning at least 20 Republican senators would have to join every Democrat in voting to remove the president.

Such a result is highly unlikely.

McConnell also signaled that he hopes the impeachment process in the Senate will be “shorter” rather than a drawn-out effort that could detract from the 2020 election.

“There will be no difference between the president’s position and our position as to how to handle this — to the extent that we can,” McConnell said. “We have no choice but to take it up. But we’ll be working through this process, hopefully in a short period of time, in total coordination with the White House counsel’s office and the people representing the president in the well of the Senate.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mitch-mc ... cba1822a8e
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that he didn’t believe any Republicans in the Senate planned to vote to remove President Donald Trump from office should the House impeach him next week, saying he even expected some Democrats to side with GOP lawmakers.
And Donnie will be calling him every hour to make sure there are no Republican rebels.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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highdesert wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2019 11:06 am
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that he didn’t believe any Republicans in the Senate planned to vote to remove President Donald Trump from office should the House impeach him next week, saying he even expected some Democrats to side with GOP lawmakers.
And Donnie will be calling him every hour to make sure there are no Republican rebels.
You can bet the word is out you vote for impeachment and you can kiss any help for your state goodbye.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: House Judiciary hearings

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I guess this will be an interesting Xmas for Trump. If he pulls another government shutdown or messes up while Congress is on vacation, he faces possible consequences. Last year, he shut down the govt and pulled a govt trip from Pelosi and Dems.

Good way for Dems and GOP to get some vacation time.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: House Judiciary hearings

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Ethics, political, and legal experts were stunned Thursday night when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that he was effectively handing over control of the Senate’s impeachment trial of President Donald Trump to the president and the White House. One legal expert is now speaking out, explaining why this is problematic.

In short, as Lawfare founder Benjamin Wittes alludes to, all Senators become jurors in the trial of the president — impartial jurors. And Wittes reminds the Republican Majority Leader there is an actual special oath they are required to take when fulfilling this solemn constitutional duty.

It will read: “I solemnly swear ... that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald J. Trump, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: So help me God.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/legal- ... d-to-take/

"Oath? What Oath? I make the Rules here. Huh, Yes Dear, We don't need no Stinkin' Oath." -Moscow Mitch after getting orders from Putin via Trump via Elaine Chao Transportation Sec. and Mitch's real boss. :sarcasm:
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: House Judiciary hearings

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Bucolic wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2019 3:51 pm I can’t help but wonder if things would be different had John McCain not died. Maybe not at all but I can’t believe that DJT could have conscripted the entire GOP so easily.
I wonder, too. It would have been nice to hear a dissenting voice, but they probably would have tossed him out of the party anyway so it couldn't be a bipartisan impeachment and conviction. Like Justin Amash?
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: House Judiciary hearings

65
K9s wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2019 4:56 pm
Bucolic wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2019 3:51 pm I can’t help but wonder if things would be different had John McCain not died. Maybe not at all but I can’t believe that DJT could have conscripted the entire GOP so easily.
I wonder, too. It would have been nice to hear a dissenting voice, but they probably would have tossed him out of the party anyway so it couldn't be a bipartisan impeachment and conviction. Like Justin Amash?
McCain would definitely have been a player and maybe have talked sense into Lindsay Graham. McCain, Romney, Collins, Murkowski maybe a few more could have blocked McConnell's and Trump's Senate rules for running the impeachment. McCain respected the Senate. Cindy McCain his widow gave a recent interview where she spoke highly of Joe Biden. McCain and Biden were friends in the Senate and Biden spent time with McCain during his final days.


In other news.
President Donald Trump's senior aides have further restricted the number of administration officials allowed to listen to the President's phone calls with foreign leaders since his July 25 call with Ukraine's President was revealed and became the centerpiece of the impeachment inquiry, according to multiple White House sources in a new CNN report.

"Nobody is allowed on the calls," a White House official said, describing the new effort to limit those with access to the President's senior-most aides. "The barn door officially closed after the horse escaped."
The conversations will probably just get recorded because Trump will need then to write his memoirs also known as fractured history.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: House Judiciary hearings

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He probably already has a team of ghostwriters working on his memoirs. He gave them the title already, "The Greatest Man Ever".
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: House Judiciary hearings

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highdesert wrote: Sat Dec 14, 2019 8:10 am
In other news.
President Donald Trump's senior aides have further restricted the number of administration officials allowed to listen to the President's phone calls with foreign leaders since his July 25 call with Ukraine's President was revealed and became the centerpiece of the impeachment inquiry, according to multiple White House sources in a new CNN report.

"Nobody is allowed on the calls," a White House official said, describing the new effort to limit those with access to the President's senior-most aides. "The barn door officially closed after the horse escaped."
The conversations will probably just get recorded because Trump will need then to write his memoirs also known as fractured history.
This might backfire. While he can keep his mafia calls secret from most people, at some point someone else has to carry out the orders. It insulates him from being caught directly, but it doesn't mean it will work. All he cares about is being an insulated mob boss.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: House Judiciary hearings

70
Speaking in Kentucky on Friday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) blithely blew off concerns about coordinating with Donald Trump’s White House on how to handle the president’s defense in the expected impeachment trial.

One day after admitting on Fox News that he was working hand-in-hand with the White House on impeachment tactics, McConnell was very blunt about his motivations when asked about his admission.

In a clip shared by MSNBC, the Senate leader was pressed about his plans.

“You told Sean Hannity last night you were coordinating with the White House when it comes to impeachment. Why is that appropriate?” McConnell was asked.


“It was done in the Clinton impeachment as well,” McConnel replied. “Not surprisingly, President Clinton and the Democrats in the Senate were coordinating their strategy. We’re on the same side.”

“So Tom Daschle, Tom Daschle said that he didn’t coordinate with the White House, ” McConnell was pressed.

“I just read today that they did,” McConnell shot back
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/mcconn ... same-side/

Reminds me of the Soviet show trials, Moscow Mitch just following orders or even better the trials in the south where a white person found not guilty of shooting a black person, when he did it.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: House Judiciary hearings

71
Yet another Reptilian crawling out from under his rock and already violating the oath.
(CNN) — Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a close ally of President Donald Trump, said he will do everything in his power to quickly end an expected impeachment trial in the Republican-led Senate.

"This thing will come to the Senate, and it will die quickly, and I will do everything I can to make it die quickly," the South Carolina Republican said Saturday during an interview with CNN International's Becky Anderson at the Doha Forum in Qatar.

The House Judiciary Committee on Friday approved two articles of impeachment against the President, paving the way for a final vote on the House floor expected next week. That will set up the Senate trial, for which lawmakers are now gearing up.
Trump plots his defense following the historic rebuke he hopes to foil
Asked if it was appropriate for him to be voicing his opinion before impeachment reaches the Senate, Graham replied, "Well, I must think so because I'm doing it."

"I am trying to give a pretty clear signal I have made up my mind. I'm not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here," Graham said, adding, "What I see coming, happening today is just a partisan nonsense."

In his opening remarks at the forum, Graham predicted the impeachment process would be over around mid-January.

"Personally I think President Trump will come out of this stronger and the good news is that everybody in politics in America needs to prove to the American public we're not all completely crazy. So there may be a spirit of compromise coming post-impeachment, born of political necessity, if anything else," Graham said.

Anderson also asked Graham if it was appropriate for Trump to ask foreign governments for such help as when the President asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who was on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company.

"Now, Joe Biden is a dear friend. I've traveled all over the world with Joe Biden. He's running for president on the Democratic side. I think he'll do very well. The bottom line is his son was receiving $50,000 a month from a gas company run by the most corrupt guy in the Ukraine and about two months after they raided the gas company's president's home, they fired the prosecutor," Graham told Anderson. "Yeah, I think it's OK to talk about this kind of stuff."

There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens.

Graham said he does not wish to hear from the Bidens or any other witnesses. "I want to hear the House make their case based on the record they established in the House and I want to vote," he said.

He said he wants impeachment to end "for the good of the country," adding: "I think the best thing for America to do is get this behind us."

"If you don't like President Trump, you can vote against him in less than a year. It's not like a politician is unaccountable if you don't impeach them. So I think impeachment is going to end quickly in the Senate. I would prefer it to end as quickly as possible," Graham said.

A recent defender of the President, Graham was asked about his previous attacks against Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, including calling Trump a "race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot."

"I said all of those things. Clearly, I wasn't a fan of his campaign, right?" Graham said Saturday. "But here's the way it has to work. When you lose, accept it. The American people didn't believe that. They made him their president."

The House next week will consider two charges against Trump. The first article of impeachment accuses Trump of abusing his power by withholding nearly $400 million in military aid and a White House meeting while pressuring Ukraine's President to investigate a potential political rival. The second accuses Trump of obstructing Congress by thwarting the House's investigative efforts.

Trump's senior aides have restricted the number of administration officials allowed to listen to the President's phone calls with foreign leaders since his July 25 call with Zelensky was revealed and became the centerpiece of the impeachment inquiry, multiple White House sources confirmed to CNN.

Transcripts of Trump's calls with world leaders are also disseminated to a far smaller group of people inside the White House, those administration sources say, continuing an effort to limit the number of people with insight and information about the conversations.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/14/politics ... index.html

John McCain is spinning in his grave.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: House Judiciary hearings

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Someone somewhere is on these calls or listening in. Certainly recordings exist somewhere in some country. Too bad we'll never find out while we are still alive.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) accused a Republican member of his committee, Rep. Louie Gohmert (Tex.) of “spout[ing] Russian propaganda on the floor of the House.”

Gohmert asserted that one of the key reasons for impeachment was to “stop the investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and Ukraine into the corruption of Ukraine and interference into the U.S. election in 2016.” A Justice Department official denied knowledge of any such investigation in October, and while the president and his supporters have championed charges of Ukrainian election interference, current and former intelligence officials have labeled that theory a Kremlin talking point.

Gohmert also charged that “Ukraine invaded Georgia” in 2008 – it was Russia, but that could have been a slip of the tongue.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: House Judiciary hearings

74
GOP Rep compares Trump to Jesus.
GOP Rep. Claims Trump Is Being Treated Worse Than Jesus

Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk (Ga.) used his time during Wednesday’s debate on the House impeachment vote to argue that Jesus Christ received more due process when he was nailed to the cross than President Donald Trump has during the impeachment process.

“When Jesus was falsely accused of treason, Pontius Pilate gave Jesus the opportunity to face his accusers,” Loudermilk said on the House floor. “During that sham trial, Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats have afforded this president in this process.”

Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of Judaea under Emperor Tiberius, best known for presiding at the trial of Jesus. He convicted Jesus of treason and ordered his crucifixion, as described in the Bible.

The bizarre comparison between Trump and Jesus, who Christians believe to be an incarnation of God, came during the debate period Wednesday before the full House casts a historic vote on whether to impeach Trump on two charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The abuse of power charge relates to Trump pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rivals in exchange for congressionally approved military aid, and the obstruction charge relates to Trump’s blocking Congress from hearing key witnesses testify and obtaining important documents that have to do with the impeachment investigation.

The House will likely impeach Trump in a party-line vote because Democrats control the chamber. If Trump is impeached, the case will move to the GOP-controlled Senate for a trial.

The House vote ― and Loudermilk’s comment comparing Trump to Jesus ― comes a day after the president sent an unhinged letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying the people who were murdered at the Salem Witch trials received more due process than him (they didn’t).

Like Jesus, the victims of the Salem trials ― mostly women ― were objectively treated worse than Trump, as they were gruesomely killed.

Many people on Twitter reacted swiftly to Loudermilk’s remarks.

“ Let’s compare Trump to Jesus:

Jesus fed the poor
Trump cuts food stamps

Jesus clothed the naked
Trump grabs em by pussy

Jesus embraced foreigners
Trump puts them in cages

Jesus cared for the sick
Trump cuts healthcare

Jesus died for your sins
Trump embodies all 7 deadly sins”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gop-rep ... 34791a6322

No wonder Robert Jeffers wants to be seen putting his hands on Trump.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: House Judiciary hearings

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On January 16, 1999, a Southern politician with a mop of faintly graying hair stood on the floor of the United States Senate and made a striking proclamation about what it meant to impeach a president.

“You don’t even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic if this body determines that your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds in your role,” the politician said. “Impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office.”

That man was South Carolina’s own Lindsey Graham, then a 43-year-old, third-term Republican Congressman. The president in question was Bill Clinton.

Twenty years later, those words are coming back to haunt Graham, now a 63-year-old Republican senator and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, from critics who contend isn’t applying this same standard to President Donald Trump — who, like Clinton, is now being scrutinized for behaviors that many observers, including Washington lawmakers, have said dishonors the presidency.

In 1999, Graham blasted Clinton for lying under oath about whether he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, and for going to great lengths to get others to lie for him, too. In 2019, Graham is uninterested in any congressional investigation that might be able to determine Trump also went to great lengths to cover up for any misdeeds.

During Clinton’s impeachment proceedings, Graham recalled that President Richard Nixon made himself vulnerable to impeachment when he refused to comply with congressional subpoenas, effectively taking away Congress’ ability to conduct oversight.

Last week, Graham recommended Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump, Jr., ignore a subpoena from the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Democrats and Republican “Never Trumpers” are calling Graham — one of Trump’s staunchest opponents before becoming his loyal defender — out for hypocrisy. In the wake of Graham’s defense of Trump, Jr., #LindseyGrahamResign became a nationally-trending hashtag on Twitter.

A veteran lawyer who was actually one of the managers for Clinton’s impeachment trial in the Senate, Graham insists he has been entirely consistent.

“Because they want to get Trump, they’re using my words to get Trump,” Graham said in a recent interview with McClatchy. “This doesn’t bother me one bit.”
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politi ... 83449.html
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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