I admit that I’m a very impatient person, but this is absurd. Maybe it’s because I view the Republican party as the greatest internal threat to our democracy since the civil war, and I consider them to be Putin fascists. It’s been 27 days and the Democrats can’t call a single person to a public hearing about Russia’s attack on our election system, Trump’s and possibly other Republicans complicity in that attack, and the Republican cover-up and stonewalling an investigation in Congress into the attack? Not the Judiciary committee, not the Oversight committee...
We keep hearing that Oh, we have to wait for Mueller. Wait for Mueller?! Democrats have introduced legislation, that is being blocked by the Republicans, to protect Mueller because psychopath Trump could fire him and block the investigation at any moment. Acting attorney general Whitaker just said he’s been fully briefed on the investigation, which means Trump knows almost everything about the investigation, Mueller knows everything, and the public knows almost nothing. Soon to be Attorney General Barr has said he might edit or not even release a report by Mueller, which has caused Democrats to introduce legislation, which Republicans will block, forcing Mueller to release the report. We don’t even know when Mueller will finish or if he will even issue a report.
In the mean time, Republicans are blocking the formation of the Intelligence committee:
Adam Schiff, the new Democratic chairman of the committee, has said for months that an early order of business for the panel is to provide Mueller with every transcript of every witness before its Russia inquiry, which may lead to additional indictments. That hasn’t happened yet—and until the Republicans formally join the committee, it can’t. Schiff, in a Friday statement following Stone’s indictment, called the transcript provision “the first order of business” facing the panel—when it can get down to business, that is.
Really?! We’re supposed to wait for Mueller to complete his investigation while Republicans in Congress continue to block him from completing his investigation? Is there anyone alive today that believes if the roles were reversed and the Democrats refused to put their people on the committee that Republicans would take about 2 hours before they found a way to proceed without the Democrats?
Democrats don’t have to call Flynn, or Manafort, or Donny Jr. as the first witnesses, but how about a Papadopoulos, or Comey, or Hope Hicks, or Spicer, or Carter page, or the network people from the DNC that can describe the hack… Get somebody in front of the Public so people can understand what happened.
Time on the impeachment clock is running out fast. Last year Pelosi and Democrats decided they shouldn’t run on impeachment and they should run on bread and butter issues like healthcare and better jobs… Fine, I agreed with that because we couldn’t do anything about impeachment anyway unless we won. But now if Pelosi and Dems drag their feet on impeachment until the 2020 campaign gets roaring and talk of impeachment becomes impossible, they will have allowed Republicans to impeach Bill Clinton over a stupid lie about an affair, and declined to impeach a treasonous crime syndicate.
Nancy Pelosi is sending messages to other Democrats to tone down talk of impeachment.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is keeping her troops in line on one of the most divisive issues facing Democrats internally and the country more broadly: the impeachment of President Trump.
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Yet in the weeks since taking the Speaker’s gavel, Pelosi has tamped down the impeachment talk in her ranks, according to multiple lawmakers, arguing it is important to allow special counsel Robert Mueller to wrap up his investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 election.
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“I’m in Speaker Pelosi’s camp. I think we have to see the report,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
“Every week Mueller gives us something else to be aware of. And so most people think he’s doing a very good job. And we ought to let him finish.”
Nobody is saying that impeachment hearings have to start tomorrow, in fact that’s not the way to do it. But standing house committees should have started public hearings informing and preparing the public as to what happened. The Congress is a co-equal branch of government with responsibilities to the public, and deferring to Mueller who is in the Executive branch and under attack from Republicans, in the hope he will finish very soon and that everything he has learned is going to make it to Congress, is a real gamble.
Remember, impeachment is going to take a looong time. There will be court fights over executive privilege about witnesses, and then evidence. Republicans in the Senate will hold counter impeachment hearings, maybe about Clinton’s emails, to muddy the waters and confuse the public. Republicans in the house will fight tooth and nail to obstruct and delay. There is absolutely no reason why Democrats couldn’t have already started public hearings to inform the public without stepping on Mueller’s investigation or without releasing national security info.
Democrats are setting a precedent here. If they can’t muster the courage and fighting spirit to impeach someone who is being investigated as a possible agent of a hostile foreign power, than the impeachment clause of the constitution might as well be reserved for Republican use only, or simply ripped out of the constitution.
I’m a firm believer in this 2020 campaign of, any Democrat over any Republican and everyone has to get out and vote! I have criticized Democrats for decades for being weak, timid, and gutless when it comes to confronting ruthless Republicans. But this is the ball game. I know I’m impatient but I think now is the time to put pressure on Democrats to do SOMETHING, and do it NOW!
RESIST!