How will Trump deal with a stacked deck?
Mueller’s sterling character has eased concerns about the fact that he and Comey are longtime friends. But some of the investigators and advisers he’s hired have had the opposite effect. Paul Mirengoff, a Washington lawyer and contributor to the Power Line blog, looked into the political backgrounds of some of them and found a left-winger, donors to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and a lawyer named Jeannie Rhee who “provided legal services for the Clinton Foundation.”
.. Rhee also donated $5,400 to Hillary Clinton’s campaign PAC. Mirengoff writes: “As bitter as the Clintonistas are about losing the election (or rather having it ‘stolen’ by the Russians), it seems unconscionable that Rhee would be on a team that will decide whether to prosecute President Trump at the end of a ‘Russian interference’ election.”
Trump Will Probably Be Impeached if Republicans Lose the House Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/448590/donald-trump-impeached-if-democrats-control-house-2018
no one seems to have told Trump’s team that the Democrats are every bit as committed to impeaching Trump as the GOP was to impeaching Clinton. The difference, of course, is that the Democrats don’t control the House — yet.
.. And if the Democrats take back the House in 2018, it won’t matter to most members whether the country as a whole supports impeachment, because the voters who elected them — and the donors who supported them — will be in favor of it. (A recent Public Policy Polling survey found that 47 percent of Americans support impeachment while 43 percent oppose it.)
.. So many of his current problems are the direct result of letting his ego or frustration get the better of him. What fresh troubles would he mint when faced with removal from office? What might he say under oath to the special counsel?
.. Worse, once Democrats gained the power to subpoena documents and compel testimony from members of the administration, the Hobbesian internal politics of today’s White House would look like a company picnic by comparison.
Pelosi predicts Trump will ‘self-impeach’
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi believes President Donald Trump will “self-impeach” and that Democrats should wait for the Russia investigations — especially special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe — to play out before pushing to remove him from the Oval Office.
Pelosi also believes that if Trump fired Mueller — which some Trump allies are encouraging the president to do — it would be enough to push Republicans to begin seriously considering acting against the president on their own
The California Democrat made the comments during a closed-door meeting Tuesday as part of a broader effort to discourage rank-and-file lawmakers from continuing to talk publicly about impeaching the president right now.
Never Ask if It Can Get Worse, Because It Always Can
If [FBI director James Comey’s] memo exists, then there is compelling evidence that the president committed a potentially impeachable offense. Here is the alleged chain of events: First, Trump asked Comey to drop an investigation of a close former associate and a former senior official in his administration. Second, Comey refused. Third, weeks later Trump fired Comey. Fourth, Trump then misled the American people regarding the reason for the dismissal. Each prong is important, but it’s worth noting that the fourth prong — Trump’s deception regarding the reason for Comey’s termination — is particularly problematic in context. Deception is classic evidence of malign intent.
.. But if there isn’t a taping system in the White House… Trump should stop sending out tweets suggesting there is one. We had the odd situation a few days ago of White House press secretary Sean Spicer repeatedly insisting Trump had been “clear” in his tweet about tapes of the Trump–Comey conversations… but that tweet wasn’t clear at all, and Spicer refused to confirm or deny that there was a taping system in the White House.
It’s a yes or no question. Are there tapes of these conversations or not?
If those tapes exist, and they support Trump’s account of events and not the account of anonymous sources and Comey… it means Trump has exculpatory evidence and is choosing to not release it and expose his accusers as liars and publicly humiliate them. How often do people choose to withhold evidence that clears them of accusations?
.. Trump told those present — including Mr. Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions — to leave the room except for Mr. Comey.
Boy, that doesn’t look bad, does it? Let’s remove anyone Trump trusts from the room who could verify his side of the story so he can discuss an extremely sensitive topic with a law enforcement official who is investigating his administration. What could go wrong, huh?
.. Apparently Steve Bannon was among the Trump advisors who wanted the president to hold off on firing Comey. When Bannon is calling for prudence and deliberation, you should probably slow down.
.. Notice how often lately Republicans are asked to step in and defend Trump not because of the policies he wants to enact, not because of his legislative agenda or his vision for the country, but for his own impulsive decision-making.