Then I'm sure your concern will be alleviated upon learning the warrant was obtained and executed by SDNY and not the special counsel.
The warrant was issued based on evidence provided by the Mueller team, but I don't see why that is such a big concern. If there was sufficient evidence of wrongdoing, there is no reason it should not be investigated.
So people know, if Mueller comes across information outside the scope of the investigation, he brings it to Rod Rosenstein (Deputy AG, and acting AG in this investigation since Sessions recused himself). Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein then has the final say on what to do with it.
Which is why Rosenstein is the one who is on the potential chopping block as we type this. Firing Rosenstein essentially allows Trump to define the scope of the investigation by installing a crony. It would be as good as firing Mueller. In fact, he will HAVE to fire Rosenstein to get to Mueller anyway, because Rosenstein probably won't do it. Which would start a slow-rolling Saturday Night Massacre, and Trump would need to find his Robert Bork.
Then I'm sure your concern will be alleviated upon learning the warrant was obtained and executed by SDNY and not the special counsel.
No, not really considering the political leanings of N.Y. If it was Texas or even Pennsylvania or Michigan I'd me more inclined to think this isn't a political witch-hunt...
The US Attorney for the SDNY is a Trump appointee and one of Rudy Guiliani's political allies. I doubt he's politically biased against the president. Though I guess its worth noting that he recused himself from this.
However, both James Comey and Preet Bharara used to head the department, and both were fired by Trump. So I'm sure there are some holdovers in that office who dislike the president.
Anyway, one of the good things about partisan politics is it actually gives people incentives to weed out corruption. This can be abused, but I don't think we should assume that it is.
Then I'm sure your concern will be alleviated upon learning the warrant was obtained and executed by SDNY and not the special counsel.
No, not really considering the political leanings of N.Y. If it was Texas or even Pennsylvania or Michigan I'd me more inclined to think this isn't a political witch-hunt...
The US DA for the SDNY is a Trump appointee and one of Rudy Guiliani's political allies. I doubt he's politically biased against the president. Though I guess its worth noting that he recused himself from this
However, both James Comey and Preet Bharara used to head the department, and both were fired by Trump. So I guess there may be some holdovers in that office who dislike the president.
I believe there is an interim US DA who was in charge of this. Guiliani's ally who Trump put in precisely because he thought it provide him cover in NY has, like Sessions, recused himself. Trump literally thinks the Attorney General and US Attorneys are his personal assets to shield him from criminal culpability.
The US DA for the SDNY is a Trump appointee and one of Rudy Guiliani's political allies. I doubt he's politically biased against the president. Though I guess its worth noting that he recused himself from this
However, both James Comey and Preet Bharara used to head the department, and both were fired by Trump. So I guess there may be some holdovers in that office who dislike the president.
I was going to point this out as well, although the last part is pretty much just conjecture. The facts are Mueller's involvement is only that he relayed information to the US DA in New York. He did *exactly* what any investigator should do.
All of this was signed off on by Rosenstein. Also a Trump Appointee. Any argument that this is some deep state political conspiracy is nonsense.
In fact, he will HAVE to fire Rosenstein to get to Mueller anyway, because Rosenstein probably won't do it.
Couldn't he fire Sessions instead?
I suppose. The reason Rosenstein is in charge is because Sessions had to recuse himself after lying to Congress about his contacts with Russians during the campaign. So Sessions simply isn't in any position to do anything about this at all unless he un-recuses himself, which would basically implicate him in obstruction. Regardless, Rosenstein is in charge of the Mueller probe. A new AG would have to fire or remove Rosenstein from that position, and it's not like the whole country is blind. Much like firing Comey was OBVIOUSLY an attempt to stop this investigation from going forward (because, as I'll say for the 100th time, Trump ADMITTED it in a live television interview), any attempt to fire Sessions or Rosenstein is an attempt to obstruct justice and define the scope the investigation into himself. And I wish on everything that someone like Sessions was NOT Attorney General, as I despise everything about him. But he can't be fired without putting the rule of law itself in peril at this point.
People need to understand that Trump picked Sessions because he thought Sessions was going to be a shield from this. Trump thinks the Attorney General's job is to serve as his personal legal cudgel. Trump was IRATE when Sessions recused himself from anything to do with the Russia investigation.
Paul Ryan is reported to not be seeking re-election this Novmeber, chased from the race by a union iron worker from his district who took him head-on starting last year. Let's just say when the Speaker of the House cries mercy, your November prospects are not very bright.
Paul Ryan is reported to not be seeking re-election this Novmeber, chased from the race by a union iron worker from his district who took him head-on starting last year. Let's just say when the Speaker of the House cries mercy, your November prospects are not very bright.
Meh. He got the job because no one else wanted the job, not because he was politically untouchable in his home turf.
It would probably be a political mercy for the Republican Party to get a reprieve from "leading" in order to get their house leadership in better order.
The GOP has seemingly sorta conceded the House of Representatives and is concentrating it's corporate donation money on retaining the Senate. As long as they retain the Senate they can continue to confirm judges and cabinet members and still continue their assault on the protections the United States of America has for regular people through its institutions and continue to tilt things towards the corporations and millionaires who are their donors.
It's not like they are passing a whole lot of laws even with control of the House of Representatives. They've got a much better shot at retaining the Senate since a lot more Democratic Senators are up for re-election than Republicans. This is why we saw Rick Scott, one of the few Republicans with a slightly positive reputation, put his hat in the ring for the Senate in Florida.
Trump has effectively crushed the Republican Party, just like I worried about.
This stuff about him losing is nonsense. He very likely would have won reelection. The reason he is quitting is because he does not want to be associated with an unstable and controversial president. If he wants it, I think he's a viable candidate in 2024 or perhaps in 2020 if Trump doesn't seek reelection.
Trump has effectively crushed the Republican Party, just like I worried about.
This stuff about him losing is nonsense. He very likely would have won reelection. The reason he is quitting is because he does not want to be associated with an unstable and controversial president. If he wants it, I think he's a viable candidate in 2024 or perhaps in 2020 if Trump doesn't seek reelection.
I suppose if he was concerned about being associated with Trump he could have done just a SINGLE thing in the last 16 months to rein him in, being that he is the leader of a co-equal branch of government. McConnell and Ryan have been walking arm and arm with him the entire time. There is no spot in the lifeboat for them.
The Republican's #1 problem is Trump, but problem #1a is all on Ryan and McConnell, which is that they spent the bulk of 2017 trying to take health insurance away from 10s of millions of people.
Do people still find Trump a viable re-election candidate
I don't, but it only matters what he believes. Considering his ego....
Though I do think he hates the job. I almost want him to build the wall if he agrees to leave after, saying he accomplished what he came to do (drained the swamp, built the wall, blah blah blah) and retires before 2020.
If Trump is such a millstone on the Republican party why the hell do they 100% support and refuse to reign him in.
It's costing them their jobs. They are seen by people as being totally spineless wimps by letting him get away with the insane things he's doing everyday. Their refusal to stand up to Cadet Bones Spurs Conman Trump will cost them and deservedly so.
Republicans would have a lot more respect from people if they lifted a finger to stop him. They haven't done that. They happily signed off on the clearly bad things he's done a couple examples being the extremely unpopular Betsy Devos as Education Secretary, Scott Pruitt, and the rest of the totally corrupt cabinet he's installed.
They won't stop his daily attacks on the first ammendment as he tries to move the country to a dictatorship. If you really cared about America and not just lipservice, Republicans would not let this nonsense and ridiculous lying and gaslighting go on.
Ostensibly, the tax cut SHOULD have benefited the GOP, because the major hits to the middle and lower class don't go into full swing for 7-8 years. There is, in the interim, still mild tax relief for them. But a recent poll showed that over 50% of people have noticed no change in their paycheck. It's probably there, but it is so insignificant on a bi-weekly basis that it could just as easily be chalked up to staying late on Wednesday night. I'm pretty sure I'm getting $15-20 more, but with direct deposit, it doesn't even register to me, which I'm sure is the case with most people.
I suppose it will be refreshing to have a Democrat back in the Oval Office so that person can entertain us with lies instead of the current resident entertaining us with tweets. All politicians lie...and we never throw them out for it.
The Republicans were in a difficult position back in 2016. At that time, no candidate in the field other than Trump had a reasonable chance to win against Hillary so they chose "let's get a win" over "let's run the best candidate". They got their win, of course, but I don't think they realized how large that bill was going to be when it arrived in the mail. Trump is going to wind up costing them both the House now (most likely scenario; there is a slim chance they retain it) and the White House in 2020.
The only person who is rightfully worried about keeping their job right now is Rosenstein. He knows what the President wants him to do but I strongly suspect he doesn't want to do that--that isn't what he wants his paragraph in the history books to say about him. His assistant already quit the job a few months ago (as far as I know no one has been hired to fill that position) so the choice is still his to make. If he says "no", then Trump will definitely want his resignation on his desk within 24 hours or he'll just fire him by tweet. After that, the fishing expedition will begin and the job interview will consist of one question: if I hire you will you do what I require of you?
But "will you do what I require of you" is a euphemism for "help me subvert the rule of law and place myself above it". If we sit back and let Donald Trump define the scope of an investigation into HIMSELF, we might as well throw in the towel.
Trump lackey Devin Nunes said on Fox News (state run media) that he is going to impeach Christopher Wray and Rod Rosenstein if they don't turn over the evidence they have today to the GOP House Intelligence Committee so they they can actively start hiding and covering up the crimes which Nunes is involved in presumably. Its stuff like this bro that should cost them.
But "will you do what I require of you" is a euphemism for "help me subvert the rule of law and place myself above it". If we sit back and let Donald Trump define the scope of an investigation into HIMSELF, we might as well throw in the towel.
I didn't say we should allow Trump to do anything; I was merely following the train of thought he is using and predicting the likely course of action he will take.
@smeagolheart I don't think Rosenstein will be around long enough for anyone to impeach him. I have already placed my chips on "fired on Friday the 13th". If it worked for Philip IV of France against the Knights Templar then it should work for Trump, as well. At that point, we might also finally get the statistically anomalous constitutional crisis I think we need in order to work out some of the stress--shake things up then settle back into normal afterwards.
Trump lackey Devin Nunes said on Fox News (state run media) that he is going to impeach Christopher Wray and Rod Rosenstein if they don't turn over the evidence they have today to the GOP House Intelligence Committee so they they can actively start hiding and covering up the crimes which Nunes is involved in presumably. Its stuff like this bro that should cost them.
Christopher Wray and Rosenstein are both Trump appointees. If Trump wants them gone he should at least have the balls to fire them himself and face the consequences. As if everyone at this point doesn't know that Devin Nunes is basically a personal operative for the White House who happens to chair the House Intelligence Committee.
But "will you do what I require of you" is a euphemism for "help me subvert the rule of law and place myself above it". If we sit back and let Donald Trump define the scope of an investigation into HIMSELF, we might as well throw in the towel.
I didn't say we should allow Trump to do anything; I was merely following the train of thought he is using and predicting the likely course of action he will take.
@smeagolheart I don't think Rosenstein will be around long enough for anyone to impeach him. I have already placed my chips on "fired on Friday the 13th". If it worked for Philip IV of France against the Knights Templar then it should work for Trump, as well. At that point, we might also finally get the statistically anomalous constitutional crisis I think we need in order to work out some of the stress--shake things up then settle back into normal afterwards.
Yep. Odds are at least one of Rosenstein, Wray, Sessions, or Mueller get fired before Saturday. Trump and his complicit Republican goons want to remain above the law and ensure past crimes don't get revealed.
The plan is to fire one or more of them and install a puppet like Nunes to run interference or completely shut things down. A Trump puppet in charge of Mueller can limit the scope to nothing and refuse to endorse any more charges. Then Trump would say see 'I'm totally innocent' after firing anyone who might hold him accountable.
Trump has effectively crushed the Republican Party, just like I worried about.
An effective GOP establishment would have pushed Trump out early in the primaries in favor of candidates like Bush, Rubio, Kasich, Cruz, etc. As such you could argue that Trump's rise, despite the establishment GOP's efforts to stop him, was merely a symptom and not the disease. On the other hand, a lot of the establishment were happy to jump on board the Trump train early.
I go back and forth about this a lot as it's difficult to untangle the threads that got us here. I'll agree with you today, and disagree tomorrow.
The Republicans were in a difficult position back in 2016. At that time, no candidate in the field other than Trump had a reasonable chance to win against Hillary so they chose "let's get a win" over "let's run the best candidate".
Kasich consistently outpolled Clinton in general election head-to-head polls--Trump never did*--and had a viable electoral path to victory due to his popularity in the rust belt and midwest.
* And before someone chimes in with 'the polls were all wrong' canard, they correctly predicted that Clinton would win the general vote by about 2-3%, which she did.
The Democratic party has had a lot of criticism for rigging the scales against their 'anti-establishment outsider' (Bernie Sanders). Republicans let their outsider bulldoze their party because they
Trump has effectively crushed the Republican Party, just like I worried about.
This stuff about him losing is nonsense. He very likely would have won reelection. The reason he is quitting is because he does not want to be associated with an unstable and controversial president. If he wants it, I think he's a viable candidate in 2024 or perhaps in 2020 if Trump doesn't seek reelection.
He very likely would have won reelection? Now we'll never know because he is taking the cowards way out. By quitting he can claim that "yeah I totally would have won my re-election bid" and not actually have to risk losing his seat in a humiliating loss. He must have seen the polls with Randy Bryce closing in and seen the other contests across the country where Republicans are losing what were thought to be safe seats.
Is he a viable candidate in 2024? He's a former vice-presidential candidate from a failed presidential run. He quit instead of facing a worthy opponent this year. He claims to be for fiscal responsibility but exploded the debt with the tax cuts. His reputation is in the toilet because he has been totally spineless when it comes to Trump. It would be surprising but I guess he'd be better than a Roy Moore or Joe Arpaio or other gonzo type that Republicans have been running lately.
An effective GOP establishment would have pushed Trump out early in the primaries in favor of candidates like Bush, Rubio, Kasich, Cruz, etc.
They tried. The base just ran away from them. Being so split between 16 candidates early on certainly didn't help. Trump sucked up all the airtime (particularly on Morning Joe where they hoped to 1. paint all Rs with the Orange Brush and 2. get Trump to win the nomination since everyone assumed he'd lose the general) leaving the other 16 candidates to fight for recognition. That hurt Rubio the most, since most were already somewhat familiar with my guy Jeb! but associated him with his family's flaws.
The traditional Reform Conservative/Traditional Conservative alliance between the Rubio/Bush camp and Ted Cruz camp failed to materialized (mainly due to Cruz being too much of a firebreather). Trump was able to win with roughly 40% (keeping in mind people in late states stayed home when it was decided) but now seems to have control over much of the party as its figurehead. It is expected that people don't openly oppose the figurehead of their party, but I hoped there would be a little more opposition to his anti-trade and anti-immigration stances.
cruz and rubio were terrible, laughable, inherently weak candidates, and kasich somehow didn't look like a real contender to a large enough number of people. kasich had a few gaffes too iirc and didn't have major strong showings; his main virtue was that he was somewhat (mediocre-ly) charismatic. trump surely beat him at that.
imho gop didn't fail - gop performed correctly. however, gop has always been more trumpian and less stately on the inside than most people imagine
Concessions in the trade dispute with China have already been won in a very small amount of time, a far cry from the sky-is-falling rhetoric heard from so many.
Do people still find Trump a viable re-election candidate
Yes, but I think he's going to get the Obama treatment and govern under a legislature that is mostly from the other party for most of his time, for the same reason why he won again Clinton: enthusiasm of the voter base. Republicans are apathetic and Democrats are excited, this will affect turnout significantly enough to matter.
...Which also means the most significant moves he could have made he will have had to have made before this time, which is very unlikely to happen. He won against all other Republicans on the issues but that sets him so far apart the other Republicans aren't falling in line, whether out of genuine disagreement or image management or what have you.
I can't be the only one who doesn't care at all about Stormy Daniels. You mean to tell me a rich celebrity engaged in sexual impropriety? Positively unheard of!
"I can't be the only one who doesn't care at all about Stormy Daniels. You mean to tell me a rich celebrity engaged in sexual impropriety? Positively unheard of! "
Tell that to Clinton. Anytime I see conservatives pretend like they don't care about this, I roll my eyes.
Comments
However, both James Comey and Preet Bharara used to head the department, and both were fired by Trump. So I'm sure there are some holdovers in that office who dislike the president.
Anyway, one of the good things about partisan politics is it actually gives people incentives to weed out corruption. This can be abused, but I don't think we should assume that it is.
I was going to point this out as well, although the last part is pretty much just conjecture. The facts are Mueller's involvement is only that he relayed information to the US DA in New York. He did *exactly* what any investigator should do.
All of this was signed off on by Rosenstein. Also a Trump Appointee. Any argument that this is some deep state political conspiracy is nonsense.
People need to understand that Trump picked Sessions because he thought Sessions was going to be a shield from this. Trump thinks the Attorney General's job is to serve as his personal legal cudgel. Trump was IRATE when Sessions recused himself from anything to do with the Russia investigation.
It would probably be a political mercy for the Republican Party to get a reprieve from "leading" in order to get their house leadership in better order.
It's not like they are passing a whole lot of laws even with control of the House of Representatives. They've got a much better shot at retaining the Senate since a lot more Democratic Senators are up for re-election than Republicans. This is why we saw Rick Scott, one of the few Republicans with a slightly positive reputation, put his hat in the ring for the Senate in Florida.
GOP increasingly fears loss of House, focuses on saving Senate majority
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-increasingly-fears-loss-of-house-focuses-on-saving-senate-majority/2018/04/08/6483ffc0-39bb-11e8-acd5-35eac230e514_story.html?utm_term=.8e7e98192651
This stuff about him losing is nonsense. He very likely would have won reelection. The reason he is quitting is because he does not want to be associated with an unstable and controversial president. If he wants it, I think he's a viable candidate in 2024 or perhaps in 2020 if Trump doesn't seek reelection.
The Republican's #1 problem is Trump, but problem #1a is all on Ryan and McConnell, which is that they spent the bulk of 2017 trying to take health insurance away from 10s of millions of people.
Though I do think he hates the job. I almost want him to build the wall if he agrees to leave after, saying he accomplished what he came to do (drained the swamp, built the wall, blah blah blah) and retires before 2020.
It's costing them their jobs. They are seen by people as being totally spineless wimps by letting him get away with the insane things he's doing everyday. Their refusal to stand up to Cadet Bones Spurs Conman Trump will cost them and deservedly so.
Republicans would have a lot more respect from people if they lifted a finger to stop him. They haven't done that. They happily signed off on the clearly bad things he's done a couple examples being the extremely unpopular Betsy Devos as Education Secretary, Scott Pruitt, and the rest of the totally corrupt cabinet he's installed.
They won't stop his daily attacks on the first ammendment as he tries to move the country to a dictatorship. If you really cared about America and not just lipservice, Republicans would not let this nonsense and ridiculous lying and gaslighting go on.
Throw them all out.
The Republicans were in a difficult position back in 2016. At that time, no candidate in the field other than Trump had a reasonable chance to win against Hillary so they chose "let's get a win" over "let's run the best candidate". They got their win, of course, but I don't think they realized how large that bill was going to be when it arrived in the mail. Trump is going to wind up costing them both the House now (most likely scenario; there is a slim chance they retain it) and the White House in 2020.
The only person who is rightfully worried about keeping their job right now is Rosenstein. He knows what the President wants him to do but I strongly suspect he doesn't want to do that--that isn't what he wants his paragraph in the history books to say about him. His assistant already quit the job a few months ago (as far as I know no one has been hired to fill that position) so the choice is still his to make. If he says "no", then Trump will definitely want his resignation on his desk within 24 hours or he'll just fire him by tweet. After that, the fishing expedition will begin and the job interview will consist of one question: if I hire you will you do what I require of you?
@smeagolheart I don't think Rosenstein will be around long enough for anyone to impeach him. I have already placed my chips on "fired on Friday the 13th". If it worked for Philip IV of France against the Knights Templar then it should work for Trump, as well. At that point, we might also finally get the statistically anomalous constitutional crisis I think we need in order to work out some of the stress--shake things up then settle back into normal afterwards.
The plan is to fire one or more of them and install a puppet like Nunes to run interference or completely shut things down. A Trump puppet in charge of Mueller can limit the scope to nothing and refuse to endorse any more charges. Then Trump would say see 'I'm totally innocent' after firing anyone who might hold him accountable.
I go back and forth about this a lot as it's difficult to untangle the threads that got us here. I'll agree with you today, and disagree tomorrow.
* And before someone chimes in with 'the polls were all wrong' canard, they correctly predicted that Clinton would win the general vote by about 2-3%, which she did.
Is he a viable candidate in 2024? He's a former vice-presidential candidate from a failed presidential run. He quit instead of facing a worthy opponent this year. He claims to be for fiscal responsibility but exploded the debt with the tax cuts. His reputation is in the toilet because he has been totally spineless when it comes to Trump. It would be surprising but I guess he'd be better than a Roy Moore or Joe Arpaio or other gonzo type that Republicans have been running lately.
The traditional Reform Conservative/Traditional Conservative alliance between the Rubio/Bush camp and Ted Cruz camp failed to materialized (mainly due to Cruz being too much of a firebreather). Trump was able to win with roughly 40% (keeping in mind people in late states stayed home when it was decided) but now seems to have control over much of the party as its figurehead. It is expected that people don't openly oppose the figurehead of their party, but I hoped there would be a little more opposition to his anti-trade and anti-immigration stances.
imho gop didn't fail - gop performed correctly. however, gop has always been more trumpian and less stately on the inside than most people imagine
https://www.apnews.com/45e28f10baa2460fb17a0b101c366067?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP Yes, but I think he's going to get the Obama treatment and govern under a legislature that is mostly from the other party for most of his time, for the same reason why he won again Clinton: enthusiasm of the voter base. Republicans are apathetic and Democrats are excited, this will affect turnout significantly enough to matter.
...Which also means the most significant moves he could have made he will have had to have made before this time, which is very unlikely to happen. He won against all other Republicans on the issues but that sets him so far apart the other Republicans aren't falling in line, whether out of genuine disagreement or image management or what have you.
I can't be the only one who doesn't care at all about Stormy Daniels. You mean to tell me a rich celebrity engaged in sexual impropriety? Positively unheard of!
Tell that to Clinton. Anytime I see conservatives pretend like they don't care about this, I roll my eyes.