The Democrats have shown us who they are this week.
The Democrats have shown us who *we* are this week.
We are Hakeem Jeffries calling a cover up, a cover up, and demanding justice for America.
We are Val Demings pointing out Trump’s witness intimidation as a form of obstruction.
We are Jerry Nadler laying bare the hypocrisy of Republicans ignoring the constitution.
We are Sylvia Garcia explaining how Trump's charges against Biden are politically, and only politically, motivated.
We are Zoe Lofgren bravely pointing out that not only did Trump break the law, but that he didn’t care about the law.
We are Jason Crow teaching us that actual combat veterans take Trump's betrayal of fighting troops personally, even if they are from another country.
And best of all, we are Adam Schiff, reminding America that right matters. And truth matters. And without right and truth, we are lost.
Will any of this convince the Senate Republicans? Probably not. In all honestly, there is very little chance that they will vote to allow witnesses or evidence and even less chance that they will vote for conviction.
Not only that, but over the next few days, as they lay out their pathetic, dishonest, and disingenuous defense, we will see the worst of them: the lying, the yelling, the “righteous” indignation of the presidents’s people, the refusal to get more evidence, all leading up to the quick acquittal.
And I know that some people will be shaken and upset by their performance. They will be distressed by the view of a Republican party that has completely lost any semblance of moral code or ethical responsibility.
But I welcome it. I invite it. I can’t wait for it.
Show us your souls, Senate republicans. Show us your lack of character, you enabling, cowardly, craven, sycophants. Bring all your monstrous , disgusting, and shameful flaws right out in the open. I dare you.
Allow us to see, in the full light of day, the fear, cowardliness, and cravenness of anyone who blindly stands by trump’s side.
Oh, your bright White faces will turn red, ugly, and angry with fake indignation when you yell at the cameras.
And when it is over, you will smile and celebrate as you acquit the traitor you are too selfish and too afraid to abandon.
But be warned: you will not bring the vindication that Trump dreamed of when he imagined the senate trial. This will be nothing he can brag about. Your acquittal will not be a talisman he can bandy about as proof of his innocence.
Your ultimate acquittal will be shameful and obvious and empty and ultimately very damaging to your loathsome leader.
Because this trial is not really about removing the President. Oh no. We know you won’t do that. You should; but you are too weak, craven, pathetic, and morally bankrupt to do the right thing.
And frankly, removing *this* president is something WE want a hand in. Removing this president is something we will do -- every single one of us reading this -- in November.
Instead, this trial is now about showing America and the world who we really are. It is about showing that there is a party -- and a people who embody that party -— who care about truth and who care about justice and who care about our constitution. It is about showing that America still exists and even though we only hold a half of one branch of the government right now, we will be back. And that matters.
Because with our hard work, we will win in November. We will bring down this monster and as many of his enablers as possible.
We will make them eat their cowardly and craven behavior in just a few short months. This weak, pathetic betrayal will be the end of many of their careers and their “good” names.
They thought we were fired up in ‘18? Oh sweetie, they haven’t seen anything yet.
This will bite them in their lying, weak, pathetic asses
Trump cares about no one but trump. No one. These pathetic losers in the Senate will let him off the hook because they are terrified of his tweets and the money McConnell controls.
But in the end they will pay for this.
Former GOP Senator Jeff Flake on impeachment: Republicans are on trial with Trump
"This president won't be there forever," Flake, a CBS News contributor, said on "CBS This Morning" on Monday. "He'll either be gone by this time next year or four years from now. Then what happens to the Republican Party? My fear is people out there know that, even if this is not an impeachable offense, that the president did something wrong, and for Republicans to maintain that he didn't is just wrong, and this has long-term ramifications for the party if we act as if we are just devoted to the president no matter what, and this cult of personality that we've seen, we certainly saw it in the House."
Yes. We saw it in the House. Remember when we saw them stand with him to try to take healthcare from all Americans? Remember what the House democrats chanted at them after the vote where they showed how little they cared about our county:
Some people thought it was immature but I thought it was beautiful. You show you don’t care about America? Goodbye! And guess what? We were right. We flipped 42 seats and took the most gerrymandered House ever.
There are a lot of vulnerable Republican Senators this term, and they are handing us lots of tools to get rid of them too:
All the anti-Republican Senate ads Democrats could possibly want
The impeachment trial will not result in President Trump’s removal, but it could well result in Republicans’ removal from the Senate majority. A slew of Republican incumbents were below 45 percent approval even before the trial began, including Susan Collins (Maine), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Martha McSally (Ariz.), Cory Gardner (Colo.) and John Cornyn (Tex.). In their refusal to allow new witnesses and documents, their determination to acquit even before the trial began and their conduct during the trial, they are creating a plethora of opportunities for opponents’ ad makers.
Here is one of those ads that is already running by the the Lincoln Project (Rs who hate trump):
They really should be worried because their votes will look worse and worse with time:
Republican Senators May Save Trump, but Trump has Already F*cked Them
Facts about the Ukraine deal will come out, drip drip drip, for the rest of this election year and beyond. That’s been the entire history of this administration. Susan Collins, Cory Gardner, Thom Tillis, Martha McSally, and the rest are making a terrible, stupid bet if they think that once they acquit Trump in the Senate, the story is over.
In Trumpworld, it never gets better. It never produces exoneration, only more evidence of guilt. The only easy day was yesterday. There will always be another story, another scandal, another member of the weird group of Trump clingers and hangers-on involved in grand and petit scams, lawbreaking, and scumbaggery.
They may let Trump skate, but they’ll take the hit for covering up his guilt and joining his ongoing criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice. He won’t give half a damn about any of them.
How do we know this? History:
History doesn’t just operate with a kind of karmic justice, but also with a kind of profound ironic sensibility. Defending Donald Trump’s corruption and criminality will lead the GOP to a place in history as footnotes, as patsies, as stooges laughably committed to a man who they damn well knew was guilty. No one remembers the defenders of Nixon, or Grant, or any other corrupt leader as anything but petty henches.
Trump may avoid the judgment he deserves, but the senators will not.
I’ve taught this lesson a hundred times, but it’s going to take more, apparently, for it to sink in. Nixon’s Republican defenders were blown out in 1974. Why? They defended what the public rightly saw as corruption. In 1994, a Democratic speaker of the House lost his seat and his majority when it was clear he was a party to a scandal with the House Bank and House Post Office. Corruption kills, and it kills its defenders as thoroughly as the ones engaged in it.
These assholes will have no way to defend what they are surely about to do:
How are Senate Republicans supposed to defend their impeachment vote?
You see, Trump’s attorneys can blather all they like, knowing the right-wing media will treat their nonsense as a legitimate defense. Republican senators can pretend to be persuaded and vote to acquit. But then what happens when the senators themselves are asked about the crackpot arguments and defenses by voters outside the Trump cult, by local media and by their opponents in debates?
It is hard to imagine Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) saying with a straight face that abuse of power is not impeachable. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) will find it mighty uncomfortable to insist to independent voters in Colorado that it is fine to extort a foreign country to force it to announce it was investigating an American. Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) will likely get grilled in a debate (unless she runs away from those) about why she refused even to hear from key witnesses. How does she explain a trial with no witnesses?
In sum, the “nothing matters, just lie” mode of politics only applies within the Trump cult. As soon as you leave the bubble to encounter voters, the media or opponents who know better, your talking points make you sound dumb or corrupt or both.
That is what Republicans should contemplate: How the heck am I going to defend this to the people back home? Trump’s attorneys are giving them no fig leaves or explanations that can pass the laugh test.
and it isn’t just how they vote, we already have video of them showing how little they care about offenses the majority of Americans (I’ll get to this later) see as totally out of line:
Memo to vulnerable GOP senators: You’re already on video, and it’s bad
three Senators -- Cory Gardner of Colorado, Martha McSally of Arizona, and Joni Ernst of Iowa -- all face tough races, though Gardner and McSally are probably more vulnerable than Ernst.
A reporter directly asked Gardner whether it was appropriate for Trump to press a foreign leader to investigate a domestic political rival, and Gardner pulled an extensive homina homina homina, mumbling something about how the Senate would examine the whole matter.
Similarly, an Arizona reporter cornered McSally and asked her point blank: Would you ask a foreign power to dish dirt on a political opponent? McSally angrily brushed off the question, claiming the Senate is focused on “what matters,” thus suggesting this scandal doesn’t matter at all. You can watch video of that here.
And a CNN reporter pressed Ernst on this same question, and she repeatedly refused to answer, saying that the process underway in Congress would supply all the “facts.” Ernst also laughably claimed that we don’t know whether Trump actually did this. Video of that is here.
all of this video of vulnerable GOP Senators refusing to answer the most basic questions about Trump’s misconduct, and about their own willingness to hold him accountable for it, will come back to haunt them.
And in their hurry to do this as quickly as Trump requires for his tiny fragile ego, they are only making it worse for themselves — Why Democrats owe a debt to Mitch McConnell
The fear was that Trump would inevitably tout acquittal in the Senate as vindication
But #MidnightMitch, as the Senate leader was labeled by his Twitter critics, rode to the rescue. By working with Trump to rig the trial by admitting as little evidence as possible, McConnell robbed the proceeding of any legitimacy as a fair adjudication of Trump’s behavior.
Instead of being able to claim that Trump was “cleared” by a searching and serious process, Republican senators will now be on the defensive for their complicity in the Trump coverup.
And even those in the Fox News bubble will be forced to occasionally hear the truth:
from FoxNews.com → Judge Andrew Napolitano: Trump's Senate impeachment trial -- What does it take to remove a president?
If the request for the announcement of an investigation of the Bidens manifested "nothing wrong" as Trump has claimed, why did he whisper it in secret, rather than order it of the Department of Justice?
We know that obstruction of Congress is a crime. Just ask former New York Yankees pitching great Roger Clemens, who was tried for it and acquitted. We also know that obstruction of Congress -- by ordering subordinates not to comply with House impeachment subpoenas -- is an impeachable offense. We know that because the House Judiciary Committee voted to charge President Nixon with obstruction of Congress when he refused to comply with subpoenas. And the full House voted for an article of impeachment against President Clinton when he refused to surrender subpoenaed evidence.
What is required for removal of the president? A demonstration of presidential commission of high crimes and misdemeanors, of which in Trump's case the evidence is ample and uncontradicted.
And an ADDITIONAL problem for them is that because trump is clearly guilty of all this fuckery, evidence is going to keep coming out and their craven defense of the indefensible will be clearer and clearer. For example, just this week this happened:
It Sure Does Sound Like Trump Just Bragged About Obstructing Congress
“Honestly, we have all the material," said the President of the United States. "They don't have the material." It was some typical New York real-estate bluster: I've got it, you don't, fuck you. Except Donald Trump isn't in real estate anymore, or even in the branding business he pivoted towards later on. He's been the president for three years, and he's been impeached, and the trial is underway in the Senate, and he just appeared to admit to one of the charges against him. He just bragged about obstructing Congress, the second of two articles along with abuse of power
and then this → Damning new audio of Trump illuminates the Ukraine scandal’s back alleys
this new scoop from ABC News is remarkable, and raises questions about what’s going on in this scandal’s subterranean passageways that might not be evident at first
Most superficially, this contradicts the president’s repeated denials that he knew Parnas, who was recently charged with campaign finance crimes and has since flipped, spilling potentially incriminating new information on Trump’s Ukraine scheme.
If it’s true, as ABC News reports, that this audio recorded Trump in spring 2018, that might suggest the scheme to oust Yovanovitch had been in the works for longer than we thought.
“The president can say, ‘I’m recalling this ambassador,’ ” former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner told me. “Why in the world instead of doing that do you yell to two underworld characters like Parnas and Fruman, ‘get rid of her,’ going around the entire machinery of government?”
That’s why it’s extremely suggestive, as ABC reports, that the audio was made by Fruman.
Remember, they are (most likely) going to vote to acquit a guy that the majority of Americans think is guilty.
Yes, 51% is just barely half. But 2/3 of people said he did illegal/ unethical things. And voting to not convict isn’t just saying “don’t remove him” it is not just keeping him in office it is ALSO letting him off the hook for those things. And they have to own that vote.
AND 51% is actually shockingly high. Remember, most people only want presidents removed by a VOTE no matter what they did:
I don’t know why more isn’t being made of this, because this number SHOCKED me — One in 3 Republicans think Trump has probably acted illegally
The survey shows that 47 percent of Republicans say Trump has definitely or probably done things that are unethical since launching his 2016 campaign. Another 34 percent say Trump has “probably not” behaved unethically, and just 18 percent say he’s “definitely” not.
On a separate question in the survey, 32 percent of Republicans say they think Trump has definitely or probably done things that broke the law.
those are dismal numbers from his own party. There are a lot of people out there who may think trump is fine and may have voted for him, but who see this for what it is and are TIRED of the bullshit from him on some real and fundamental level. And if only 3% of those people either stay home or vote for our candidate: LANDSLIDE.
Trump knows all this (or as much as his tiny mind can understand) and he is losing it about this:
Trump sets record for tweets as president on day House makes impeachment case
President Trump on Wednesday shattered his previous record for most tweets in a day since taking office, tweeting more than 130 times while House Democrats made their opening arguments in his impeachment trial.
The president had tweeted 132 times as of 6:20 p.m., according to Factbase Feed, a data firm that tracks Trump's tweets, speeches and daily activities. That number tops his previous personal high of 123 tweets in a day.
Trump tweeted 54 times before noon yesterday
The large majority of the tweets and retweets today are on impeachment and criticizing Democrats.
Panicking much, Donny?
and it is not just Donny who is panicking. Pompeo seems to be losing his shit too (remember, insiders say he knew what was up and will be totally F-ed when this all comes out):
Mike Pompeo Cursed, Yelled At NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly For Asking About Ukraine
Kelly said Pompeo used the “F-word” and asked her to find Ukraine on a map after she urged him to answer her questions during an interview.
just like a totally innocent, non-panicking person would do… LOL.
11/3/20 11/3/20 11/3/20 11/3/20
Trump's reelection looks more like a long shot than a slam dunk
Although many financial analysts and political forecasters contend that President Donald Trump is likely to be reelected in November because incumbents typically win reelection when the economy is strong, Trump is not a typical incumbent. These are not typical times.
At the outset, Trump will be the only impeached president to have run for reelection.
Aside from Trump’s approval rating being the lowest of any president to run for reelection since Gerald Ford (who lost), according to my analysis of Gallup’s approval data in my forthcoming book, Trump’s third year net approval rating of -11.6 percent (mean approval minus mean disapproval) was nearly identical to Jimmy Carter’s net approval rating of -11.5 percent (he also lost). The only other president since Carter to have a negative net approval rating for his third year in office was Barack Obama — and Obama’s net approval rating was just -2.9, more than 8.5 percentage points higher than either Carter or Trump.
but but, you may think. What about Obama? Didn’t he have weak numbers before he ran for reelection and he still won??
Although some Trump supporters may be hopeful since Obama’s numbers were not strong and he still won reelection, it should be recalled that Obama earned about 3.5 million fewer popular votes in 2012 than in 2008. Obama also was the first president since Woodrow Wilson to win reelection with fewer electoral votes than in his first election. Trump cannot afford to lose another 3.5 million votes. He was down in 2016 by nearly 3 million votes already.
But the electoral college!
And while some have suggested that Trump may be able to lose up to 5 million votes and still win an electoral vote majority, they are overlooking how the Electoral College has worked in the past. Popular vote inversions rarely occur when one candidate earns a majority of the popular vote. Since 1860, there have been 26 presidential elections in which a candidate earned a majority of the popular vote. In 25 of these elections, the candidate who earned the popular vote majority also won the Electoral College. There was only one inversion. In 1876, Samuel Tilden earned 50.92 percent of the popular vote, but lost the election to Rutherford Hayes.
And if you think this election will favor Trump, ask yourself this question: When was the last time his approval rating was above 45 percent and his disapproval was below 45 percent? Answer: not since his inauguration. Simply put, this fact does not bode well for this incumbent — no matter how strong the economy or his campaign’s success in turning out his voters. Trump is not a majority president. It’s unlikely he can be a majority candidate.
Boom.
And about that “Dems in disarray!’’ narrative we have spent two weeks hearing about… Lets look at the actual numbers (and not some twitter feed or comment section of a DK diary):
hmmm…. seems like twitter and the pie fights in the comments of DK diaries may not ACTUALLY reflect what Americans think. Shocker! /s
And some more good news for 2020 . Remember, we know we are the majority, so to win they have to finds ways to vote suppress or cheat:
Tech Companies Volunteer to Beef Up Presidential Campaigns’ Cybersecurity
Nearly a dozen technology companies said they will provide free or reduced-cost cybersecurity services to presidential campaigns, which experts and intelligence officials have warned are ripe targets for intrusion and disinformation.
and this:
Stacey Abrams’ voting rights group raises $14.6 million in six months
The political action committee for Fair Fight, the voting rights group that Democrat Stacey Abrams started after losing the governor’s race in 2018 raised $14.6 million in the last six months of 2019 from across the country.
The haul left the group, which advocates for fair elections, with $11 million on hand at the end of the year.
Overall, the group has raised nearly $19 million since being formed in the wake of Abrams’ narrow loss to Gov. Brian Kemp.
and want him for president or not, this guy is running like we want our candidates to run: by targeting Trump and not other Ds:
Bloomberg gets under Trump’s skin as he ramps up spending on 2020 ads
The former New York mayor has attracted the obsessive attention of President Trump, who is annoyed by Bloomberg’s constant ads targeting him, concerned about the billionaire’s outsize spending, focused on his growing numbers in the polls and seemingly fixated on his TV appearances.
Wolfson said to expect more blistering ads against the president in coming months. So far, Bloomberg’s spots have targeted Trump over impeachment, his position on vaping, his health-care-policy decisions and his relationship with the military.
But NONE of this will happen without our hard work. We need each and every one of us to work for our upcoming victories.
Ways You Can Make Us Win
Here are some ideas of ways to donate your time from the comfort of your own home (click on the links):
- Get involved with Postcards to voters. Postcards to Voters are friendly, handwritten reminders from volunteers to targeted voters giving Democrats a winning edge in close, key races coast to coast.
- register voters in key battleground states. Vote Forward has active campaigns going in 8 key states to encourage under-represented (potential) voters to register. In 6 of them, the packet you send to each potential voter will include the actual voter registration forms and instructions with pre-paid postage for that state. The folks at Vote Forward have collected data on this technique and determined that it does, indeed, appear to increase voter registration.
- Contact the campaign of your favorite presidential candidate(s) and find out how to make phone calls to other states. You dial an 800 number once, and the computer will connect you to Democratic voters. No arguments necessary. And it is free (options 1 and 2 aren’t expensive, but do require that you pay for postage)
Here are some ways to get involved outside your house:
- Find volunteer opportunities at Vote Save America Every election matters, even the ones that aren't as sexy as those Iowa caucuses. Rawr. (Too much? Maybe. But get out there and help right now!)
- Get involved with Stacey Abrams Fair Fight which is fighting voter suppression — and already helped us with two huge victories in the south!! Fair Fight is Fighting Back. Fair Fight built and engages a robust network of grassroots activists that works to strengthen democracy at all levels.
- Get involved with your local democratic party
- People who live in or near a state with strict voter ID requirements might wish to help by volunteering with Voteriders. They provide hands-on assistance with getting voter registration and ID, “including obtaining documents (such as birth certificates, change of name records) and arranging rides to and from ID-issuing offices.”
- Sign up to go door to door in your district It’s time we start talking with everybody about the progressive change our country needs. To do this effectively we’ll have to take the time to listen to voters who may not agree with us, but could be persuaded to our cause through civil conversations about what matters most in our lives. #KnockEveryDoor is a volunteer-led organization created in the wake of the disastrous 2016 election.
- Sign up to drive people to the polls Do you have a spare seat to help get somebody to the polls or voter I.D. office? Click the link to let Carpool Vote know when and where you'll be driving, and they will match you with riders!
Here are some ideas for donating:
- Donate to a fund for Democratic candidates that run in the 2020 Senate elections This fund is devoted to the Democratic candidates that run in the 2020 Senate elections against Susan Collins in Maine, Cory Gardner in Colorado, Martha McSally in Arizona, Thom Tillis in North Carolina, Pat Roberts in Kansas, and David Perdue in Georgia.
- Donate to the Unify or Die fund for WHOMEVER our nominee will be 100% of your donation to the Unify or Die Fund will go to the eventual Democratic nominee for President, exactly when they need it most: right after the convention in July 2020, as they enter the general election.
- Donate to Swing Left Swing Left connects you with the most effective actions you can take to help Democrats defeat Trump and the GOP in 2020. Enter your zip code and find out what you can do, right now.
- Donate to the ACLU Donate to the ACLU today to help protect the rights and liberties of people across the country. Right now, they're: Protecting free speech and the right to protest; Defending reproductive freedom; Fighting anti-LGBTQ discrimination; & Safeguarding the rights of refugees and immigrants.
Let’s close with this amazing 9 minutes of Adam Schiff. If you haven’t watched it then, Good lord! Watch it right now. If you have, maybe enjoy it again.
I am so proud and so lucky to be in this with all of you!!
❤️ ✊ ❤️