UPDATE:
Trump and his goons don't want Bolton to testify, and they want to stop publication of his book.
Only GUILTY, corrupt criminals act like this.
WHAT. IS. TRUMP. AFRAID. OF?
White House aides floated the possibility of filing a restraining order on Bolton to stop him from speaking. This is not what innocent people do. This is what guilty people trying to cover up their crimes do. #JohnBoltonMustTestify, raise your hand if you agree. Raise ‘em high!
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| Imgage from the Wall Street Journal |
Surprise, Mr. President. John Bolton Has the Goods.
"It’s just possible that common sense and reality have a shot at prying open the doors to the Senate chamber after all. After Republican senators claimed that it was perfectly reasonable to put a United States president on trial without hearing from any witnesses, a few of them are showing signs of recognizing that the truth matters. Or, at least, that the American people believe it does.
What’s changed? Shocking but not surprising revelations from John Bolton’s book manuscript, which The New York Times reported over the weekend, have made impossible to ignore what everyone has known for months: President Trump withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine to benefit himself politically, and against the strenuous objections of his top aides and both parties in Congress.
On Monday morning, Mitt Romney, of Utah, said, “I think it’s increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton.”
It’s refreshing to hear those words. And yet the fact that such a statement is noteworthy at all tells you how far from responsible governance Republicans have strayed."
31 comments:
Andrew McCarthy, NRO (National Review Online -- Conservative views)
Bolton Blows Up Trump Team’s Foolhardy Quid Pro Quo Defense
They advanced an argument they didn’t need to make, and now it will cost them.
Don’t build your fortress on quicksand.
That’s been my unsolicited advice for President Trump and his legal team. You always want the foundation of your defense to be something that is true, that you are sure you can prove, and that will not change.
Instead, the president and his team decided to make a stand on ground that could not be defended, on facts that were unfolding and bound to change. Last night, that ground predictably shifted. In a soon-to-be-published memoir, former White House national-security adviser John Bolton asserts that the president withheld $391 million in defense aid in order to pressure Ukraine into investigating Trump’s potential 2020 election opponent, former vice president Joe Biden.
Great editorial cartoon from Washington Post's Tom Toles yesterday...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/27/bolton-begs-differ/
Possumlady
I will not be encouraged Shaw until the rethuglican bast*rds actually allow witnesses and acknowledge their party leader is a GD traitor to our republic. PERIOD.
Now Senator Graham wants to have Senators read what Bolton has to say, wait for it... in private?
Why is that Lindsey? Is it at all possible that john Bolton is going to testify to what the Dems have said since Trump took office? That the president is a thin skinned narcissistic person who held back aid to Ukraine for solely political purposes and that he knows nothing about foreign policy?
It couldn't be that could it?
For the record, the Mothership and the crazy sites don't seem to even know who John Bolton is any more. The guy that, like FOX News, loved the guy at first.
Dave, I hadn't read that about Graham. Typical though. They're scared trumpless to have the truth come out. Bolton blew up the Trump team's defense. Bolton was in the room where Trump said he wanted dirt on the Bidens and would illegally Congressionally authorized aid until Zelensky did what he was told. Trump didn't want an investigation, he only wanted an ANNOUNCEMENT of an investigation to smear his opponent.
Trump is a dirty, lying liar. And the Republicans who continue to cover for this crook should be shunned for all eternity.
PS. The Mother Ship and all the other regular Trumpblogs are quiet because they're beginning to see the proverbial writing on the GUILTY wall!
WASHINGTON — President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens,
Upwards of 75% of the American ppl want to see witnesses in the trial of Pres Trump. The GOP has all the cards. They are in control. They can call whatever witnesses they want and need no deal, or approval from the Dems.
The question is are they willing to do so?
Don't bet on it.
Must be a reason they don't want to really hear fro witnesses Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, Adam Schiff, Bolton, Mulvaney, Pompeo and others. I just can't figure it out.
Rev, I think the polls show that 75% of Americans have totally lost interest in this charade. If bolton is called to speak on something he did not witness than hunter and uncle joe should be called because they are the ones who this started over.
Can you impeach a president retroactively because that means at least the last three should be impeached according to the new standards.
Going forward the only way to not have an impeachment brought forward is to have the president, house and senate of the same party. We have seen the disastrous consequences that can have with obamacare.
dkud: Rev, I think the polls show that 75% of Americans have totally lost interest in this charade.
SK: It's cute to read a Trumper talk about the crimes committed by a sitting president as a "charade." An NO! the American people have not lost interest.
skud: "If bolton is called to speak on something he did not witness than hunter and uncle joe should be called because they are the ones who this started over."
SK: I don't know where you get your information, skud, but it's clear you're not getting the truth. Bolton wrote a book titled "In The Room Where It Happened." HE WAS THERE WHEN TRUMP SAID HE WAS GOING TO WITHHOLD CONGRESSIONALLY AUTHORIZED MILITARY AID (an illegal act according to the GAO) TO UKRAINE UNTIL ZELENSKY GOT HIM DIRT ON THE BIDENS.
For you education, skud, THAT IS A CRIME! And Bolton was there when Trump concocted the scheme. According to Bolton, he walked out of the room when he heard Trump's illegal plan because Bolton knew it was a crime in the making and he wanted no part of what he called a "drug deal."
It's telling that when the Goopers had the House AND Senate, they DID NOT BRING ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST President Obama. Why do you think that is, skud? You and the rest of the Trumpublicans keep yawping about the "criminal" Obama, yet no charges, no indictments, no NOTHING was ever brought against him.
Please tell us why that is.
PS. Trump is a liar, a cheat, and a fraud. And a MAJORITY of Americans dislike the sniveling little whiner and crook.
Dave, the reason the Trumpublicans don't want witnesses and evidence is abudantly clear. There isn't an accused on the face of this Earth that would hold back exculpatory evidence and witnesses. And only a guilty crook would do what Trump and his gang are doing in holding back those witnesses and evidence: THEY KNOW HE'S GUILTY AND THE WITNESSES AND EVIDENCE WILL PROVE IT.
However, Bolton is a game-changer. He's put the Trump defense team and the cowardly Republican Senators in a very tough position.
One other thing: Almost daily I get trolls talking about how corrupt President Obama was while in office, yet none of those trolls, including skud, can or won't answer my question:
Why didn't the Republican House bring articles of impeachment against this so-called corrupt Obama presidency. They had the power, the money, and the means to do so.
Why didn't they?
You see, Dave, all they have is "whataboutism" and debunked and refuted lies about the Bidens and President Obama. But they're like a dog on a bone and can't let those lies go. They're all they have to hang onto.
This is relevant to your comment Dave and to skudrunner's lies about Bolton:
Jennifer Rubin (Conservative columnist) WaPo:
"If not for the foresight of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to shine a bright light on the purpose of a trial — an evaluation of evidence — and to delay sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate, the White House, Republican senators and a hapless chorus of sycophantic pundits would not be in meltdown mode.
With an assist from former national security adviser John Bolton, Pelosi cornered Senate Republicans who had hoped to escape the spectacle of a full airing of President Trump’s unconscionable conduct. They can acquit, and in all likelihood will, but they cannot facilitate Trump’s cover-up without implicating themselves and entirely discrediting the process. They face humiliation when evidence eventually comes out. If they vote to acquit without hearing from Bolton, Trump will be denied the satisfaction of exoneration by a credible process.
A senior Democratic aide working on impeachment expressed confidence to me that Trump has not been able to introduce facts to dispute that he solicited a foreign government to interfere in our election by announcing an investigation into a rival. The more Trump’s lawyers call Bolton a liar, the more evident it becomes that they have waived any executive privilege. (Besides, Bolton is testifying anyway.) “Senators face a choice — hear from witnesses like John Bolton, or help the president hide his misconduct from the American people,” the aide said. “Americans want to hear from witnesses the president has blocked — don’t senators want to hear the truth before they cast their vote?”
With even former chief of staff John Kelly rooting for Bolton to testify, it likely is now a matter of when, not if, Bolton will appear. (Democrats aren’t about to let Republicans simply read the manuscript in secret, as they’ve proposed.) No, Bolton and all his notes are almost certain to see the light of day. Republicans will have to come face to face with evidence of a dangerously unfit president."
skudrunner and the rest of the Trumpers will NEVER internalize these truths. They've hitched their political wagons to a liar, a cheat, and a fraud, and they cannot and will not admit their colossal blunder to themselves, even when the evidence in a large white moustache is staring them in the face!
BTW, just to drive home a fact: skudrunner came here and told an untruth (I'm being kind): "If bolton is called to speak on something he did not witness..."
It seems our resident Trump-apologist gets his news from other benighted Trumpers, IOW, lies:
WASHINGTON — President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens, according to an unpublished manuscript by the former adviser, John R. Bolton.
Bolton is a FIRST-HAND WITNESS TO TRUMP'S CRIME.
Why do you allow a know-nothin Trump ass kisser like skud to write lies and fairy tales?
Bolton was ordered not to testify by tRump, along with other White House/Executive Branch staff. He expressed that he wanted a court to clarify whether he should obey a subpoena or obey tRump. He did not get an answer before the House moved Articles of Impeachment to the Senate. His account is consistent with everything we know about tRump, and he is a direct witness, not a hearsay witness.
skudrunner doesn't know what he's talking about. Usual in a tRumper.
Trump belongs to the Putin - FSB - Russian mafia - Victor Shokin axis, not the Zelensky - Ukrainian reform Servant of the People party - E.U/NATO rules based governance alliance. That's because the former helped him resurrect his financial life from utter ruin and, as the scripture says: "where a man's treasure is (from), there will his heart be also" .
To skudrinner:
Are you so deeply buried in the pyroclastic flow of propaganda (there are less genteel words for what the GOP has been spewing for decades) that you cannot understand that some honest, TRUE conservative thinkers have finally reached a point of no return with this despicable mob of power-hungry politicians, and their willingness -- no, their lust to keep their wagon hitched to the tail of a man-child whose entire life has been one of self-interested, cunning, lawless, mendacious activity?
And besides that, the Dear Leader is a bully, and as coarse and as ignorant as you can get.
He makes most Mafia Dons look like princes of the realm.
Skud... as to the Bidens, have at it.
This whole idea that we must have a "deal" to get them in front of the Senate is BS. The GOP has the votes. 53 of them! They can call whomever they wish, including their dream witness Adam Schiff.
The witness list is 100% in the hands of the GOP.
Go ahead Lindsey Graham, call Joe and Hunter Biden. Call Adam Schiff. It's your right and you've got the votes.
But any statements about a deal and we really need to hear from the Bidens but the Dems are blocking it is just fantasy.
Or another lie from the GOP Backers.
There are many both in and out of the Trump administration that know the truth. They also know the truth has been and is being covered up by Trump and his sycophant party of power hungry totally self serving rethuglicans. With 75% of the public wanting the senate to allow for new witness testimony Trump's sheeple in the senate must be wondering just how their foolish handling of the trial will settle with the public at election time if they don't call for new witnesses testimony.
Frankly I'm beginning to think maybe it would be better if the rethuglican miscreants in the senate stick to their "guns"and blindly proceed with their planned course to wrap it up quick and acquit Trump without allowing for new witnesses. Maybe if they do it would lead to the deflating of a over stuffed, over pumped party of totally ignorant right wing political lightweight wannabe tyrants.
Trump is a GD disaster and so is the rethuglican party and the cons who support it.
RN USA,
White House has issued formal threat to Bolton to keep him from publishing book
This is exactly the way authoritarian thugs behave. Trump is a weak little weasel afraid of what Bolton said in his book.
What innocent person stop witnesses and evidence to exculpate him? NO innocent person does that, and now Trump and his goons are threatening Bolton and his book?
PS. I read somewhere this AM that Parnas fingered Lindsey Graham as being in on the Ukraine shakedown. Have you heard anything about this? I don't have cable news and I couldn't find anything on the net.
Here you go...
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/lev-parnas-lawyer-ties-lindsey-graham-to-corrupt-ukraine-scheme/
Thanks, Dave, So it appears Graham was in on the scheme as well?
Just heard on NPR that Bolton is ready to testify that he has first-hand knowledge of Trump's scheme to extort Zelensky for dirt on Biden. If Trump and the Republicans stop this, it is clearly a cover-up, and the country will know it.
A cursory glance at the usual rabid right wing blogs and news sites shows them whining about the Obama administration, and ignoring the corrupt Trump administration on trial for abuse of power and obstruction of justice.
The Trump administration had control of both houses of Congress from 2017 up to November of 2018. If the Obama administration was corrupt, why didn't the Trump administration immediately start investigations? Can the whiners explain that?
This is way past the "Is Trump guilty or innocent" phase. If this was a football game, the score would be Guilty 81, Innocent 0 with a full quarter remaining.
Only question is whether GOP finds its soul/conscience/backbone in the next week or simply splinters into 10,000 pieces.
When Bolton takes the stand I hope somebody asks him why he lied about Iraq's WMD. He was the principle Bushite lying us into war. He promised us Saddam had WMD.
Democrats have always (rightly) hated this warmongering Establishment Syndicate made man, and now he's their beloved star witness!
Can't make this stuff up!
No I have not. But I certainly would not be at all surprised.
Oh Lindsey, Lindsey! Is there ANYONE on the Trump train who isn't a lying, cheating, fraud???
Lindsey Graham must be getting whiplash from all the breaking news developments coming from all sides the past four days. This is the second time in two days that he’s run out on a news conference. Even Donald Trump didn’t know Graham had flown the coop as he bellowed out from the Rose Garden, “Lindsey Graham! Where is Lindsey Graham?” Apparently Graham decided to skedaddle after Lev Parnas’ attorney told the Daily Beast that Rudy Giuliani said he delivered a letter to Graham calling for sanctions on government officials — including one that headed up Burisma. This makes Senator Graham part of Guiliani’s shadow operation in Ukraine, or at the very least, complicit. Daily Beast:
Joseph Bondy, the attorney for Lev Parnas, an indicted Florida businessman involved in the U.S.-Ukraine saga, told The Daily Beast that Giuliani showed his client the letter and told him he delivered it to Sen. Graham (the letter misspelled the South Carolina Republican’s first name as “Lingsey”). Bondy said Giuliani also showed Parnas a second, similar letter addressed to Sigal Mandelker, who at the time was a top official at the Treasury Department.
To Carrot:
We Democrats don't "love" Bolton. We want him to be a witness in Trump's trial and tell the truth. That doesn't make us hypocrites, it shows we're on to Trump's lies, cheating, and fraud.
What defendant stops a witness from testifying unless he knows that witness will tell the truth about his guilt?
Shaw... you're correct. The GOP had control of the House, the Senate, the White House and even the SCOTUS.
Yet no indictments of a single Dem connected with the Exec Branch of the Obama Admin.
Now, we'd ask why was that and conclude no one was guilty. The extremists, claiming some special gnosis, would say "they know the Dems and HRC are guilty, but it's been covered up!"
Covered up... by the media, by hmmm... well, covered up. It's that dang deep state.
BTW 37 Carrots... why are you copying and pasting Silverfiddle's comments? He knows how to join in here if he wants to do so.
If trumps walks, then has the balls to brag, remember this. He is an impeached criminal,an unindicted co-conspirator and rethugs embrace that.
If their party survives it will forever be known as the party of mafia thugs who supported a criminal, who ignored the will of the people.
So of course bolton didn't change his story to sell his book. In August 2019 he said it was a cordial conversation and so did the president of ukrain. Now the president of ukrain has not changed his story but bolton, after revelations of his book coming out, changed his. Which is the truth.
Fact is this whole impeachment effort is a planned event by the democrats. They know the senate will not impeach because we are totally about partisan politics. They have a number of candidates as bad a princess -H- and they hope this will beat trump in 2020.
The whole primary for the democrats is not about serving the American people but just beat trump, which they might.
Bolton went from a goat to a hero in one million dollar book deal. He would make a great representative because he is for sale to the highest bidder.
Mitch McConnell's rare blunder
Mitch McConnell is reportedly furiously trying to whip the votes necessary to avoid calling witnesses in the Senate's impeachment trial of President Trump.
This seems like a rare case where McConnell is making a politically substantive error.
Calling witnesses, after all, could be used to legitimize the GOP's acquittal vote, in the same way the cursory "investigation" of Brett Kavanaugh was used as a shield to justify his confirmation. Plowing through this farcical trial, on the other hand, gives Democrats a permanent argument against the trial's legitimacy and, more importantly, leaves the president and all elected Republicans vulnerable to damaging, election-eve revelations.
None of this has any bearing on how Republicans will vote. Like the film version of Titanic, everyone knows how the impeachment saga will conclude. The ship sinks. The president is acquitted. And as with the film, the real question is how the audience will react." --The Week
Hopefully the audience will react with a BIGLY trouncing in November 2020. A trouncing of rethuglicans in congress,the senate, and the occupant of the Oval Office. Failing this (retaining the status quo) will signal America embracing a society not dissimilar to Orwell's dystopian novel 1984.
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