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    'The mess right in front of us': Impeachment hearings reveal as much about dishonest congressional GOPers as Trump

    Terry H. Schwadron, DCReport @ RawStory
    November 13, 2019

    Thanks for your support!

    This article was paid for by reader donations to Raw Story Investigates.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Terry H. Schwadron, DCReport @ RawStory

    If the point of Wednesday's public testimony opening impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump were meant to show off credible accounts from straight-laced, super-patriotic, service-oriented diplomats, they were bulls-eyes.


    If the point of Republican questionings was to make a mockery of the proceedings, they may have boomeranged—the Republicans are the ones who come across as partisan nitpickers intentionally trying to misdirect the point, underlying meaning and urgency of these proceedings.

    If the overall tone, as Democratic leaders insist, was supposed to reflect somber, serious, sober consideration, well, they did that and more. Indeed, they made it downright scary to learn that Donald Trump and his team are running around in ways that show little respect for other nations, no understanding of diplomacy and no ability to actually handle appropriate communications within his team.

    The testimony popped with moments such as when seasoned diplomat Bill Taylor learning almost by happenstance that Trump, Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland and personal attorney Rudy Giuliani were holding up military aid for public commitments to seek political dirt on political foe Joe Biden. The testimony reflected that Taylor, the official liaison to Ukraine, was finding out about the entire Team Trump lobbying of Ukrainians and the multiple details from repeated legations almost by accident.

    It made any citizen watching the proceedings wonder why Trump shouldn’t be removed from office because he is incompetent even apart from abuse of office.

    A New Phone Call

    An hour in, we learned of a new phone call between Trump and Sondland, loud enough on a cell phone for a diplomatic aide to overhear, in which the president personally expressed interest only in an arrangement to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to go public with a promise to investigate the Bidens. After the call, the aide asked Sondland what the president thought of Ukraine. The ambassador “responded that President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pressing for.”

    What? Sondland, whose ambassadorship does not even include Ukraine, can call the president directly, on an open cell phone, in a restaurant in Kyiv, where the Russians are listening in? Is this how these people operate?

    The message was clear and chilling: Whatever else comes out of these hearings, Trump should not be the president of the United States because he doesn’t understand what the job is. Further, it shows that Republicans are so fixated on protecting Trump that they cannot see the forest for the procedural trees.

    In addition, there were loads of underlying questions, including why Trump would pursue—and his enablers help achieve—political advantage for himself from a nation at war, but also a policy that would help fan Russian aggression against a European ally.

    See Nothing Republican Defense

    By contrast with the prim dryness of Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) offered us a sarcastic, flailing and politically partisan rebuttal that led me, as a listener here, to conclude that he, speaking for other Republicans, simply doesn’t want to hear that Trump abused his office.

    Instead, we got the sideshow of trying to call the original whistleblower, whose report had gone to Congress via the intelligence community’s Inspector General Michael Atkinson after having been held up by the White House. Whatever you think of the “fairness” of the committee impeachment inquiry, it seems fairly obvious that unveiling the name of the whistleblower at this point, when we have actual fact witnesses before us, is useless as a practical matter. Calling the whistleblower is a deflection.

    Nunes and Republicans are correct about one thing: This impeachment process is another in a series of investigations and threats of impeachment by Democrats frustrated by Republican opposition. But what Nunes did not acknowledge is that the series of investigations is directly related to the continuing series of words and deeds by Trump himself.

    Trump Brought It On Himself

    Let’s be clear that whatever is pursued against Trump is because Trump conducts himself in ways that try to put himself beyond Constitutional review, oversight or law.

    The questions from Republicans were odd to my ear, working hard to establish that these two witnesses should have known that Trump had longstanding concerns about Ukraine and political concerns from 2016, based mostly on what the rest of the world has come to see as conspiracy theories or on events years before any of the current players were in office in either country. Rather than attack the credibility of these witnesses, the questions then were aimed at legitimizing Trump's concerns about Ukraine.

    Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the designated bulldog, scored a couple of points in questioning the details of when Taylor learned the bulk of his details, but they were details and they were, well, confusing, which may have been the point.

    Meanwhile, Republican committee members festooned the hearing room with signs meant to draw attention to unfair Democratic handling of the hearings and general process to this point.

    From a concentrated start, the hearings diffused and attention among viewers I talked with dissipated.

    The hearing accomplished two things: It re-established that seeing the witnesses publicly can be a powerful persuasion, more than some kind of show. And it makes it obvious that Republicans on the committee, in the House, and especially in the Senate, are sticking their heads in the sand to avoid looking at the mess right in front of them.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

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    Trump pardoned Steve Bannon -- Arizona should prosecute him anyway: columnist

    Bob Brigham
    January 23, 2021

    Steve Bannon's pardon by Donald Trump was blasted by an Arizona newspaper columnist -- who is urging local prosecutors to correct the wrong.

    "This wasn't about correcting an injustice, which is the reason presidents have pardon power. Like so many of Trump's pardons, this one intended to excuse a friend or ally from responsibility for his actions," Arizona Daily Star's Tim Steller wrote. "Further, it could potentially protect Trump himself. Without pending criminal charges against Bannon, federal prosecutors have no leverage to convince him to supply any incriminating evidence he might have against Trump."

    "All in all, it was another abuse of the pardon power, which the founders intended to be corrected through impeachment of the president. Of course it is too late for that," he explained. "But justice for Bannon remains plausible, because the acts he is accused of are also considered state crimes, and state prosecutions aren't covered by the pardon. It only excuses him from prosecution under federal law."

    He urged the Arizona Attorney General's Office or the Pima County Attorney's Office to "step in."

    "You see, the conspiracy that federal prosecutors alleged has strong links to Arizona. You could almost say it started in Pima County. On Feb. 8, 2019, Bannon, Kolfage and others hosted an event at Quail Creek in Sahuarita that kicked off a new fundraising effort for We Build the Wall. About 300 members and guests of the Quail Creek Republican Club attended, applauding and donating enthusiastically," he explained.

    "That night, Bannon told Star reporter Curt Prendergast "100% of this money is going to build the wall and the legal fight" to get the wall built. It was a pledge that the project repeated in online posts and in emailed appeals for donations," Steller continued. "But, if the indictment is correct, Bannon appears to have known that same night in Quail Creek that he and the others planned to siphon off money, through a nonprofit that Bannon controlled, to pay Kolfage and others."

    Read his full case for prosecution.


    Capitol rioter charged with threat to assassinate AOC does not seem too smart

    Ray Hartmann
    January 23, 2021

    A Dallas man who brilliantly posted a Facebook selfie from the Capitol riot -- fully five days after the fact and while bantering, "just wanted to incriminate myself a little lol" -- has been arrested on a list of federal charges that somehow don't seem to include mention of "abject stupidity."

    But the feds' complaint against Garret Miller, 34, of Richardson, Texas does include a count for threatening to assassinate Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a Capitol police officer. It also includes charges related to obstructing an official proceeding, interfering with law enforcement, illegal entry and the like.

    Here's the original filing.

    The criminal complaint hasn't been fully aired in the media, which is too bad: It's one entertaining read. In it, Miller leaves a robust trail of breadcrumbs for authorities. Here's some of its text:

    "In examining Miller's Facebook account, there are many posts relating to his involvement in criminal activities at the Capitol. For example, on January 2, 2021, Miller posted to Facebook, "I am about to drive across the country for this trump shit. On Monday . . . Some crazy shit going to happen this week. Dollar might collapse. . . . civil war could start . . . not sure what to do in DC." He also stated on January 3, 2021, that he was bring with him "a grappling hook and rope and a level 3 vest. Helmets mouth guard and bump cap," but last time he came to D.C. for a pro-Trump rally he "had a lot of guns" with him."

    So there was that. Also, to support the Facebook activity in which Miller joked about incriminating himself, there was this activity on Miller's Twitter account:

    "On January 6, 2021, Miller repeatedly posted comments on Twitter using his Twitter account (@garretamiller). In one tweet, an individual posted, "The people storming The Capitol are not Patriots. They are PAID INFILTRATORS," to which Miller responded, "Nah we stormed it. We where [sic] gentle. We where [sic] unarmed. We knew what had to be done. A beautiful soul was lost today. We must know her name. She will not be forgotten." That's a reference to the protester killed by a Capitol police officer.

    Also noted in the complaint was this tweet: "They are right next time we bring the guns."

    Miller's now-deleted tweets to AOC were captured as well: "In a string of tweets (to Ocasio-Cortez), Miller first claims, "We acted with honor and we where [sic] not armed. We where [sic] gentle with the police. They murdered a child." He then further directed, "Assassinate AOC."

    Here's some more of Miller's Facebook prose that was captured by the feds:

    "On January 15, 2021, Miller admitted in a Facebook chat that he is "happy to make death threats so I been just off the rails tonight lol," and is "happy to be banned now [from Twitter]." When asked whether the police know his name, he responded, "[I]t might be time for me to .... Be hard to locate."

    And this from the next day: "On January 16, 2021, Miller again got into a discussion on Facebook, about the USCP officer and said that the officer is "not going to survive long." Miller claimed that "millions" of people agree with him that the officer "deserve[s] to die" "so its [sic] huntin season." He then says that the woman who was killed "was a sister in battle were bravery achieve victory and she paid the ultimate price. . . . Dead serious she fought fir [sic] me, now I fight fir [sic] her[.]" He later claimed, "Well we got the traitor cop as a target and as long as we don't shoot him we don't get accused of firing the first shot. He shot first. His death prevents civil war by liberal history teller arguments."

    As one might imagine, Miller's lawyer doesn't have the easiest task ahead of him, as suggested by this reporting in the New York Times:

    "Mr. Miller's lawyer, F. Clinton Broden, said his client's "social media comments reflect very ill-considered political hyperbole in very divided times and will certainly not be repeated in the future. He accepts responsibility for his actions," he said.

    "He said that Mr. Miller had not been asked to enter a plea yet and that his detention hearing was set for Monday.

    "Mr. Miller regrets the acts he took in a misguided effort to show his support for former President Trump,' Mr. Broden said. "He has the full support of his family and has always been a law-abiding citizen."

    "A spokeswoman for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond to a message on Saturday night," the Times reported. "Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has said previously that she often receives death threats."

    AOC did tweet about Miller:

    “Just wanted to incriminate myself a little” Well, you did! https://t.co/Y0MbtHwsUr
    — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez)1611359933.0









    Cindy McCain belittles the Arizona GOP after receiving official censure

    Bob Brigham
    January 23, 2021

    The infighting among members of the Arizona Republican Party boiled over on Saturday during a contentious meeting.

    "Kelli Ward, the fractious leader of the Arizona Republican Party, narrowly beat back significant competition on Saturday to win another two-year term as the organization's chairwoman despite the endorsement of former President Donald Trump," the Arizona Republic reported Saturday. "The closely watched result offers an early, state-level indication that Trump retains sway over the activist base of the GOP, though it is more tenuous. The election also suggests the longstanding divisions in the state party in the Trump era have not abated."

    "The party members later passed three resolutions censuring high-profile Republicans: Gov. Doug Ducey, former Sen. Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain. It was another sign of the party's move to the right," the newspaper noted.

    McCain, for her part, shrugged off the vote.

    "It is a high honor to be included in a group of Arizonans who have served our state and our nation so well...and who, like my late husband John, have been censured by the AZGOP. I'll wear this as a badge of honor," McCain posted to Twitter.

    It is a high honor to be included in a group of Arizonans who have served our state and our nation so well...and wh… https://t.co/U1TSSrEDSJ
    — Cindy McCain (@Cindy McCain)1611455872.0


     
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