Trump 2017: Year Zero

[Jinsai]

Comey already got the ball rolling. Comey's release gave Trump 24hrs before the hearing even starts to tweet out some defensive shit that will incriminate Trump.

Yeah... I just read it again... it's actually pretty intense. Political analysts are saying this is like the Nixon tapes... I'm not sure if it goes that far, but it could. The real fallout will become clearer tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Trump's polls drop further, which one outlet calling it at 34% approval.

[Swykk]

Well, that sounds great. I hope I'm being too cynical, honestly.

[Wretchedest]

It mentioned the hookers, so there is that

[Jinsai]

Trump lawyer says POTUS feels completely vindicated by summary. Did he read it?!?!

[Haysey_Draws]

Trump lawyer says POTUS feels completely vindicated by summary. Did he read it?!?!

At this point i think it's safe to assume he doesn't read anything, only listens to quick soundbites on this favorite programs...and i'm not even joking.

[halo eighteen]

At this point i think it's safe to assume he doesn't read anything, only listens to quick soundbites on this favorite programs...and i'm not even joking.

CAN he even read? This is a serious question.

[theimage13]

He should have come right out and advised the President that it would be highly inappropriate to meet with him at the White House, etc.; instead, Comey just continued taking notes and met with the President, anyway, so Comey could keep his job AND cover his own ass.

From today's Comey statement, regarding the February 14th "I hope you can let this go" meeting:

Shortly afterwards, I spoke with Attorney General Sessions in person to pass along the President’s concerns about leaks. I took the opportunity to implore the Attorney General to prevent any future direct communication between the President and me. I told the AG that what had just happened – him being asked to leave while the FBI Director, who reports to the AG, remained behind – was inappropriate and should never happen. He did not reply.

[sweeterthan]

Today's the day! Remember when Trump blew Comey a kiss, mafia style, at his inauguration? I thought it was so weird at the time. I want to remind everyone of that moment before the hearing.

[Haysey_Draws]

Today's the day! Remember when Trump blew Comey a kiss, mafia style, at his inauguration? I thought it was so weird at the time. I want to remind everyone of that moment before the hearing.

Wait, REALLY? That's...really weird

[sweeterthan]

Wait, REALLY? That's...really weird

http://www.palmerreport.com/politics...ss-cheek/1098/

[Swykk]

Lindsey Graham is already calling the statement "a good day for the president."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/07/politi...mey-testimony/

I'm still standing by my previous post. Repubs are not going to do anything. Party over country.

[GulDukat]

Lindsey Graham is already calling the statement "a good day for the president."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/07/politi...mey-testimony/

I'm still standing by my previous post. Repubs are not going to do anything. Party over country.

Comey's opening statements read like a scene from The Godfather. WTF is he talking about? Trump can do anything and they (The GOP) don't care. as long as they get their fucking tax cuts and Trump remains popular with his base.

[Haysey_Draws]

http://www.palmerreport.com/politics...ss-cheek/1098/

...WOW...

[Jinsai]

watching live... this is surprisingly stressful.

Jesus, Comey doesn't look like he's slept in a month

[allegro]

Lindsey Graham is already calling the statement "a good day for the president."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/07/politi...mey-testimony/

I'm still standing by my previous post. Repubs are not going to do anything. Party over country.

Not unless they find out something HORRIBLE (Trump selling babies to Russia for human sacrifice or something) otherwise nope, nothing will happen. Lindsey Graham is right: impeachment requires a criminal act, not just a constitutional crisis.

[Baphomette]

a criminal act, not just a constitutional crisis.

Isn't obstruction of justice a criminal act? EDIT Are the suggestions that this was a case of obstruction of justice based on those "I hope" comments to Comey?

[Jinsai]

Isn't obstruction of justice a criminal act? EDIT Are the suggestions that this was a case of obstruction of justice based on those "I hope" comments to Comey?

It's how it's interpreted... and there's so much up for interpretation here... and that's because Trump talked to him in vague The Godfather language.
One thing Trump has a lot of experience with is being sued and dealing with lawyers. His language follows instinctively, especially when he knows that he's about to do something gray-area, and knows he's about to lie, and knows he has to be careful with clarity.

Taking a closer look at the impeachable definition of "obstruction of justice" allows for tons of wiggle room, and the way our government is stacked right majority, good luck... because judges don't judge politicians in impeachment proceedings... politicians do.

EDIT: fucking Rubio... Glad you got your briefing... you piece of shit.

[Baphomette]

Wanted to reach through the TV and choke the life out of Rubio.

[GulDukat]

FOX NEWS Headlines "I asked friend to give memo to reporter," "No one asked me lie."

[Jinsai]

Fox is for the toddler in the room... they aren't a legitimate news organization. They're blatantly slanted, just like HuffPo.

Trump will rely upon their spin, of course, I could have told you that a year ago.

[Louie_Cypher]

personal I think he's doing a good honest and concise, proud of my senate members, go California go Warriors!
-Louie

[Deepvoid]

Is it me or McCain sounds so freaking confused. The face he made when he was told he was out of time was priceless.

[allegro]

Isn't obstruction of justice a criminal act? EDIT Are the suggestions that this was a case of obstruction of justice based on those "I hope" comments to Comey?

Trump didn't obstruct justice, not yet from a criminal standpoint. Firing Comey doesn't stop an investigation; the FBI investigation into Flynn, et al, has continued, even Comey said that today, he verified that firing the head of the FBI does nothing to an investigation.

And no justice was obstructed; in fact, the deputy AG hired Mueller to be Special Counsel to investigate Flynn, and any possibility of the Russians and the Trump campaign colluding for money, or whatever.

Nixon's obstruction of justice charge was related to his issuing a command that the SPECIAL COUNSEL investigating NIXON be fired; his AG refused and resigned, his deputy AG refused and resigned.\

There were smoking guns with Nixon and Bill Clinton.

Comey is not a smoking gun.

[allegro]

It's how it's interpreted... and there's so much up for interpretation here... and that's because Trump talked to him in vague The Godfather language.
One thing Trump has a lot of experience with is being sued and dealing with lawyers. His language follows instinctively, especially when he knows that he's about to do something gray-area, and knows he's about to lie, and knows he has to be careful with clarity.

I disagree.

As Senator Harris said to Comey about both of them having been Prosecuting Attorneys: if a robber is holding a gun to you and says "I hope you give me all of your money and your wallet," that's not wishful thinking; it's a command enforced by a position of power.

Trump is an attorney's WORST FUCKING CLIENT. He arranges totally-inappropriate meetings, he tweets all kinds of stupid shit without running it by counsel, first, he has loose lips all the time, he's a LEGAL NIGHTMARE. Just having dinner with the head of the FBI is stupid in itself, not careful, not investigated, it's "I'm the King, all these fuckers work for ME, now, MUAAAHAHAHAHA." he's totally clueless.


But you can't convict Trump without FIRST convicting Flynn; Flynn, right now, is innocent until proven guilty. And, "hoping" (actually demanding) that Comey stops the Flynn investigation is not a lot different or more valuable than Bill Clinton stumbling into Loretta Lynch's private plane ...

And Comey made a big deal out of both.

But, nothing happened from either situation. Comey's press conference about the release of the Wiener laptop info less than two weeks before the election: MANY (most?) voters in those key Electoral states had ALREADY VOTED by that point.

Honestly, Russians interfering with the election has become the "smokescreen" at this point, seemingly to hide the real truth of there being MONETARY collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians which is at the heart of the Flynn investigation, the Kushner investigation, the Manafort investigation, and why Sessions recused himself.



I was floored by how BUMBLING AND STUPID McCain was today. Wtf.

[Bachy]

Fox is for the toddler in the room... they aren't a legitimate news organization. They're blatantly slanted, just like HuffPo.

Trump will rely upon their spin, of course, I could have told you that a year ago.

Obstruction?

[Jinsai]

Is it me or McCain sounds so freaking confused. The face he made when he was told he was out of time was priceless.

The moment with McCain was the most surprising moment of the whole thing... in the lead-up to this, he's sounded like the rational voice in the Republican room. Suddenly, he sounds like he can't get his thoughts together. In addition, he brings up the non-sequitur ad hominem attack on Comey.

Maybe he was trying to regain traction with his base after they felt they were losing him? I get this must be a "non-partisan" inquiry, lol lol lol, we all could see where everyone was landing... but what the fuck was that?

Also, Kamela Harris, way to fuck up your moment in the spotlight there. She throws that sucker punch insinuation at him with the whole "and you don't need to answer this" and watch the look in his eyes darken. From that point on, he is a blank tragedy mask... he realizes he just got tricked into showing a moment of light-hearted levity, and then got side-swiped by a "and now that we're all agreeing, he held a gun to your head, didn't he? But don't answer that..." She threw it at him after a "comedy relief" joke moment meant to absolve tension! That was sneaky and fucked up, and it backfired.

And then question after question that she (hopefully) knows he cannot answer...
What the FUCK was that mess?!

[allegro]

And then question after question that [Harris] (hopefully) knows he cannot answer...
What the FUCK was that mess?!

She was totally being the show-off lawyer, there, it was totally self-serving, "yes, I used to be a prosecuting attorney, now I am going to pretend you are on the witness stand at a trial and show how good I am" except it was total fucking waste of time; it's obvious that she wrote those questions from a "lawyer" standpoint and NONE from the venue and context of the hearing standpoint.

[Jinsai]

As one of the Senators said to Comey, about both of them having been Prosecuting Attorneys, if a robber is holding a gun to you and says "I hope you give me all of your money and your wallet," that's not wishful thinking; it's a command enforced by a position of power.

Yes, but if that language can parse the floor and be enough for Republicans to admit is enough?
no.

I agree, but this is semantic manipulation of language, and Trump will not be judged by regular courts, but by his political peers, who in majority right now are finding that course of action acceptable.

Trump is an attorney's WORST FUCKING CLIENT. He arranges totally-inappropriate meetings, he tweets all kinds of stupid shit without running it by counsel, first, he has loose lips all the time, he's a LEGAL NIGHTMARE. Just having dinner with the head of the FBI is stupid in itself, not careful, not investigated, it's "I'm the King, all these fuckers work for ME, now, MUAAAHAHAHAHA." he's totally clueless.

Apparently Trump's lawyer's convinced him (as I assumed they would) to NOT tweet during this... Trump Sr sent Trump Jr to do it instead...

But you can't convict Trump without FIRST convicting Flynn; Flynn, right now, is innocent until proven guilty. And, "hoping" (actually demanding) that Comey stops the Flynn investigation is not a lot different or more valuable than Bill Clinton stumbling into Loretta Lynch's private plane ...

I'm not sure about this... You can, but it's a looser accusation. Then it comes back to the intent, and with a liar... a serial liar that everyone is allowing to lie because, hey, politics!

At least someone finally called him a liar... and I think everyone with a functioning brain realizes who is at least the bigger liar here.
And for all Comey's faults, I don't think he's lying about a goddamn thing. I think he's being as honest as his memory allows.

I was floored by how BUMBLING AND STUPID McCain was today. Wtf.

What the fuck indeed...

[Jinsai]

Trump didn't obstruct justice, not yet from a criminal standpoint. Firing Comey doesn't stop an investigation; the FBI investigation into Flynn, et al, has continued, even Comey said that today, he verified that firing the head of the FBI does nothing to an investigation.

And no justice was obstructed; in fact, the deputy AG hired Mueller to be Special Counsel to investigate Flynn, and any possibility of the Russians and the Trump campaign colluding for money, or whatever.

Nixon's obstruction of justice charge was related to his issuing a command that the SPECIAL COUNSEL investigating NIXON be fired; his AG refused and resigned, his deputy AG refused and resigned.\

There were smoking guns with Nixon and Bill Clinton.

Comey is not a smoking gun.

I'm curious though... does ignorance work the opposite way of the right wing spin here, where pundits are claiming "oh, that was just Trump not understanding presidential decorum!"

?

Where his language and behavior (typical of con men and business men of the shittier ilk) actually imparts an intention to willfully control the investigation? Isn't that a larger issue in this particular case? This is a side issue to collusion or really anything tying to Russia.

At that point, wouldn't it matter more if it was considered apparent that Trump was blatantly attempting to coerce a non-partisan judicial branch to become a sycophant, with the promise of retaining his job, and that perhaps he might, y'know, wriggle out of this whole Flynn thing if I stuff a few hundred dollars in your g-string, officer?

[allegro]

Where his language and behavior (typical of con men and business men of the shittier ilk) actually imparts an intention to willfully control the investigation? Isn't that a larger issue in this particular case? This is a side issue to collusion or really anything tying to Russia.

At that point, wouldn't it matter more if it was considered apparent that Trump was blatantly coerce a non-partisan judicial branch to become a sycophant, with the promise of retaining his job, and that perhaps he might, y'know, wriggle out of this whole Flynn thing if I stuff a few hundred dollars in your g-string, officer?

You have to look at the entire context, and this isn't in defense of Trump it's just the way the law looks at things:

When Trump said that to Comey about letting up on Flynn, it was, like, the day after Flynn had been let go; and Trump told Comey that he hoped that Comey would go easy on Flynn because Flynn is really a "good guy," and THAT is really no different than Trump claiming, during his campaign, that he would "go after" Hillary Clinton, but then stating, after he won, that he'd totally drop the Clinton issue because he "didn't want to hurt her."

Trump fired Flynn, but he didn't really want to see any harm come to him; but that in itself isn't going to STOP or PREVENT any harm from coming to Flynn, or the cessation of any criminal investigation into Flynn's conduct.

And firing Comey doesn't do anything, either, to stop the Russia investigation or the Flynn investigation.

None of what Trump has done, so far, has "wilfully controlled" an investigation. Not from a legal standpoint. Not YET, anyway. Trump is SO stupid that he doesn't even know HOW to willfully control these things.

I'm affording Trump the very same bumbling that I afforded Bill Clinton when he did something so stupid as to step onto the plane of the ATTORNEY GENERAL, although it was understood that the investigation into Hillary had been CONCLUDED by that point. But, shit happens, I don't think that Bill Clinton tried to stop an investigation, and I don't know that Trump was trying to play Vito Corleone and put a stop to any investigations.

Trump told Lester Holt that he fired Comey "because of Russia" but I believe THAT is a total lie.

Trump fired Comey because Comey didn't back Trump up on the "Obama was wiretapping my phones" loyalty shit during his prior testimony. Because Trump did not understand that the FBI Director position:

1) Does NOT report to the President
2) Is a 10-year appointment DELIBERATELY to NOT involve partisanship and/or loyalty
3) Pretty much always stays on throughout his/her appointment through various Presidents

So MANY of the Trump people are so fucking scared of him (and Bannon), it appears that none of them (except maybe Chris Christie) are trying to set him straight about the Constitution, about anything.