Impeachment of Trump is "inevitable" ~ Mitch McConnell
From the New York Times;In response to:
As Inquiry Widens, McConnell Sees Impeachment Trial as Inevitable
Carl Hulse
The New York Times•October 19, 2019
WASHINGTON — It was only a few weeks ago that the top Senate Republican was hinting that his chamber would make short work of impeachment.
But this week, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, sat his colleagues down over lunch in the Capitol and warned them to prepare for an extended impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
According to people who were there, he came equipped with a PowerPoint presentation, complete with quotes from the Constitution, as he schooled fellow senators on the intricacies of a process he portrayed as all but inevitable.
Few Republicans are inclined to convict Trump on charges that he abused his power to enlist Ukraine in an effort to smear his political rivals. Instead, McConnell, R-Ky., sees the proceedings as necessary to protect a half-dozen moderates in states like Maine, Colorado and North Carolina who face reelection next year and must show voters they are giving the House impeachment charges a serious review.
It’s people like Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who will be under immense political pressure as they decide the president’s fate.
“To overturn an election, to decide whether or not to convict a president is about as serious as it gets,” Collins said.
McConnell is walking a careful line of his own in managing the fast-moving impeachment process. On Friday, the senator wrote a scathing op-ed criticizing the president’s decision to pull back troops from northern Syria, calling it a “grave strategic mistake,” without naming Trump. But McConnell, who is known for his ruthless partisan maneuvering, also views it as his role to protect a president of his own party from impeachment, and in a recent fundraising video, he vowed to stop it.
The mood among Republicans on Capitol Hill has shifted from indignant to anxious as a parade of administration witnesses has submitted to closed-door questioning by impeachment investigators and corroborated central elements of the whistleblower complaint that sparked the inquiry.
They grew more worried still Thursday, after Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, undercut the president’s defense by saying that Trump had indeed withheld security aid from Ukraine in order to spur an investigation of his political rivals. Mulvaney later backtracked, but the damage was done.
“I couldn’t believe it — I was very surprised that he said that,” said Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., who mocked Mulvaney’s attempts to take back comments, that had been broadcast live from the White House briefing room.
“It’s not an Etch-A-Sketch,” Rooney said, miming the tipping movement that erases the toy drawing board. “There were a lot of Republicans looking at that headline yesterday when it came up, I certainly was.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who is seen as potentially open to removing Trump from office — told reporters that a president should never engage in the kinds of actions that Mulvaney appeared to acknowledge.
“You don’t hold up foreign aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative,” she said. “Period.”...
As Inquiry Widens, McConnell Sees Impeachment Trial as Inevitable
Carl Hulse
The New York Times•October 19, 2019
WASHINGTON — It was only a few weeks ago that the top Senate Republican was hinting that his chamber would make short work of impeachment.
But this week, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, sat his colleagues down over lunch in the Capitol and warned them to prepare for an extended impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
According to people who were there, he came equipped with a PowerPoint presentation, complete with quotes from the Constitution, as he schooled fellow senators on the intricacies of a process he portrayed as all but inevitable.
Few Republicans are inclined to convict Trump on charges that he abused his power to enlist Ukraine in an effort to smear his political rivals. Instead, McConnell, R-Ky., sees the proceedings as necessary to protect a half-dozen moderates in states like Maine, Colorado and North Carolina who face reelection next year and must show voters they are giving the House impeachment charges a serious review.
It’s people like Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who will be under immense political pressure as they decide the president’s fate.
“To overturn an election, to decide whether or not to convict a president is about as serious as it gets,” Collins said.
McConnell is walking a careful line of his own in managing the fast-moving impeachment process. On Friday, the senator wrote a scathing op-ed criticizing the president’s decision to pull back troops from northern Syria, calling it a “grave strategic mistake,” without naming Trump. But McConnell, who is known for his ruthless partisan maneuvering, also views it as his role to protect a president of his own party from impeachment, and in a recent fundraising video, he vowed to stop it.
The mood among Republicans on Capitol Hill has shifted from indignant to anxious as a parade of administration witnesses has submitted to closed-door questioning by impeachment investigators and corroborated central elements of the whistleblower complaint that sparked the inquiry.
They grew more worried still Thursday, after Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, undercut the president’s defense by saying that Trump had indeed withheld security aid from Ukraine in order to spur an investigation of his political rivals. Mulvaney later backtracked, but the damage was done.
“I couldn’t believe it — I was very surprised that he said that,” said Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., who mocked Mulvaney’s attempts to take back comments, that had been broadcast live from the White House briefing room.
“It’s not an Etch-A-Sketch,” Rooney said, miming the tipping movement that erases the toy drawing board. “There were a lot of Republicans looking at that headline yesterday when it came up, I certainly was.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who is seen as potentially open to removing Trump from office — told reporters that a president should never engage in the kinds of actions that Mulvaney appeared to acknowledge.
“You don’t hold up foreign aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative,” she said. “Period.”...
The more evidence that is seen by the Senators and the public, the more difficult it will be to allow Trump to remain in office and the more likely Senate seats will be flipped from Republican to Democrat and/or Independent, if they do not remove him.
While I do not claim to be Nostradamous, I also will not hold my breath to hear the apologies from Trump rah rahers, who called me every name imaginable, because I predicted early on, that Trump would eventually be impeached. For me, the prediction was simple. Trump is a life long criminal and screw up. He's failed at just about everything he's ever done. If not for his father's money he would be deeply in debt. It was just a matter of time
Comments (83)
Veselnitskaya, Russian in Trump Tower Meeting, Is Charged in Case That Shows Kremlin Ties
ImageNatalia V. Veselnitskaya was charged on Tuesday with seeking to thwart a Justice Department investigation into money laundering
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By Benjamin Weiser and Sharon LaFraniere
Jan. 8, 2019
Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who in 2016 met with Trump campaign officials in Trump Tower, was charged on Tuesday in a separate case that showed her close ties to the Kremlin.
Ms. Veselnitskaya, a pivotal figure in the investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election, was charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan with seeking to thwart an earlier investigation into money laundering that involved an influential Russian businessman and his investment firm.
The money-laundering case was not directly related to the Trump Tower meeting. But a federal indictment returned in Manhattan seemed to confirm that Ms. Veselnitskaya had deep ties to senior Russian government officials and rekindled questions about whether the Kremlin tried to use her as an intermediary to Donald J. Trump’s campaign.
She was accused of submitting an intentionally misleading statement to the court – a report exonerating her client Katsyv which she claimed was the result of an investigation by the Russian government, when in fact she had helped to draft the report
let them try String , let them try
Your a New Zealander...Jim is from the States and knows Trump better than you...he is a crook...
Trump IS getting impeached, and nothing you or I say, is going to prevent that.
Love your blogs...your keeping it real...
It seems they prefer to hear what they want to BELIEVE, which is inaccurate propaganda.
Your a New Zealander...Jim is from the States and knows Trump better than you...he is a crook
Jimmy knows very little , shows it weekly . Trouble for Jimmy is he can't shut up adults like he can students .
and here's an inglisssh lesson for you Lou Lou , the word is " you're ," you use the word "you" and add "re" which represents the word are , drop the "a" and replace with " ' " , sorted for you aye
Perhaps she didn't mean.....you are. Her dots..... indicate a pause into a slightly different direction.
Perhaps she meant the way or how I keep it real (your keeping it real) rather than you are keeping it real. Indeed, that's the way I interpreted it.
I would suggest ASKING how someone meant it, before lecturing simple grammar.
Armchair warrior...where is Crayons when you need him....is that all you got?...lol...
Oh by the way...like many here I am visially impaired...so what...
My eyesight is not great but thanks for backing me up...
condescending a little Jimmy , or looking at your self ?
again you show you are not too smart Jimmy
Comey commented on this.
Guzzling more alcohol is not going to help you Dopey.
Canadians are more left thinking than Americans...all that communist talk gets American's nervous...socialism is not a crime...lol...but Trump is...
jezzzzzzz I'd say so to , the whole world would be in the dark ages if the "embodiment of corruption" had won in 2016 .
Dopey does have multiple mental disorders. It's a sad situation. He was a troll on another site too. It appears, that he is simply too stupid to learn normalcy. At least he's somewhat accepted within the misfit basket of deplorables. To be so, one would just have to lack a working brain.
He picked the wrong day to mess with you...I am here...lol...
The truth is certainly not the propaganda you read.
Let us not get hostile...lol...Trump is nothing but chaos...the whole world is shaking its head at the USA...so please dont act like you are the one with the truth...Trump is a criminal...
The real criminals are the ones trying to cover their butts and others with lies and cover ups.
Trump has done nothing. Many records of the overlords trash. You can actually see their crimes then watch them try pinning them on Trump.