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    World to the US: 'What the hell is going on' with Trump's 'shady cast of characters?'

    Dana Kennedy, DCReport @ RawStory
    December 02, 2019

    Thanks for your support!

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

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    World to the US: 'What the hell is going on' with Trump's 'shady cast of characters?'
    Dana Kennedy, DCReport @ RawStory

    It may be the biggest story in Washington and one that’s further polarized an already bitterly divided nation but does the rest of the world care about the effort to impeach Donald Trump?


    If you scanned the biggest global media outlets during the first two weeks of the proceedings, the answer would be no–except for the Kyiv (Ukraine) Post, which admittedly has a vested interest in the case.“SHADY CAST OF CHARACTERS” read a recent headline over photos of Trump and Rudy Giuliani and others they called “engineers of the Trump-Ukraine scandal.”

    Most of the EU is focused on this week’s NATO summit in London following French President Emmanuel Macron’s blunt pronouncement last month that Europe can no longer rely on the U.S. to defend its allies given Trump’s abrupt pullout from northeastern Syria in October.

    Also, what’s happening in Washington doesn’t translate well overseas.

    What’s happening in Washington doesn’t translate well overseas.

    At the start of the impeachment hearings last month, Le Monde wrote that the “United States is engaged in the unknown.” One problem abroad is confusion over the entire procedure or as Le Monde put it, “Qu’est-ce que l’impeachment?”

    “The average person overseas either doesn’t really understand what’s going on or doesn’t care,” said Berit Poska, 28, an Estonian who works at an international music startup based in Brooklyn.

    “My parents only pay attention because they know it’ll be easier for me to get a visa to stay here if Trump is removed from office. But they don’t really get how it works. They just know it’s a possibility. There’s not much about it in the news in Estonia.”

    The state-run People’s Daily in China, the fourth most-read newspaper in the world, is furious about the U.S.-China trade war and what it calls “Washington’s hegemonic thuggery on Hong Kong” but it’s been difficult to find much on America’s historic attempt at removing Trump from office.

    China Likes Trump the Businessman

    According to the Washington Post, China’s leaders hope Trump survives the impeachment to win another term.

    “Trump is a businessman. We can just pay him money and the problems will be solved,” said a politically connected person in Beijing, speaking on the condition of anonymity to the Post about sensitive international issues. “As long as we have money, we can buy him. That’s the reason why we prefer him to Democrats.”

    The People’s Daily ran a piece from Agence France Presse in effect criticizing Democrats for deflecting from the presidential race.

    “Joe Biden faces scrutiny over Ukraine, Elizabeth Warren is surging and Bernie Sanders had a heart attack, but recent developments in the US Democratic presidential battle are getting minimal attention, swamped by Washington's impeachment obsession,” AFP wrote.

    “Most Democratic candidates are pounding the pavement in early voting states but they are finding little oxygen for the nomination race.”

    Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung took on a similarly scolding tone, saying: “The Democrats have only a small chance to win the 2020 presidential election. With an impeachment procedure against Trump, they risk everything.”

    Stephan Bierling, an international politics professor at the University of Regensburg in Germany told the Washington Post that “all parties apart from the (far-right) AfD party would be jolly glad if the Trump presidency was over.”

    Bierling added, though, that some of the reasons he believes some of Europe wants Trump impeached are “debatable.” Some of Trump’s criticism of Europe—particularly his attacks on Germany for its low defense spending—has been backed by analysts, the Post said.

    A Changing Image of America

    European intelligentsia may get it–and the impeachment proceedings could well be a turning point in the U.S. image abroad, according to Jochen Bittner, of the German weekly Die Zeit writing in The New York Times Friday.

    “To European eyes, what is on display there is more than just a controversy over whether Donald Trump abused his presidential powers,” he wrote. “Rather, it looks like the defining battle between two ideas of America: America as a partner and America as a bully. The bigger question hanging over the entire impeachment question is whether a majority of Americans believe that coercing a country like Ukraine into cooperation for the sake of the Republican Party is acceptable foreign policy.”

    For the rank and file around the world, though, it’s a green vegetable story when they prefer pizza.

    Like many other big-circulation foreign newspapers, the Times of India and South Africa’s The Sun mostly rely on European or American wire services for news about the impeachment. They often prefer stories about Trump’s latest tweet or his recent pardoning of the turkeys Bread and Butter on Thanksgiving.

    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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    Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
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    'You wailed about Benghazi for FIVE YEARS': Lindsey Graham ripped for demand impeachment be set aside

    Tom Boggioni
    January 17, 2021

    Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was hammered on Twitter in Sunday morning after posting a letter he sent to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) asking that there be no impeachment trial of Donald Trump for sedition, saying the country needs to "heal."

    According to the South Carolina Republican who is now a part of the minority party in the U.S. Senate," after the 2020 election, "The Senate should vote to dismiss the article of impeachment once it is received in the Senate. We will be delaying indefinitely, if not forever, the healing of this great Nation if we do otherwise."

    As might be expected, critics of Trump and Graham were in no mood for Graham dictating what happens next -- as you can see below:


    @LindseyGrahamSC Oh look, the cancer has thoughts about healing.
    — Jamison Foser (@Jamison Foser)1610901766.0


    @LindseyGrahamSC We don’t negotiate with cowards and terrorists
    — MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch.com)1610900611.0


    @LindseyGrahamSC Hey Lindsey Graham, you didn't give a shit about "HEALING" when you and your GOP comrades were rus… https://t.co/tLFDn9tWMF
    — BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@BrooklynDad_Defiant!)1610900860.0


    @LindseyGrahamSC What do they have on you? https://t.co/JXrjPgzYBR
    — 🦦Marie-Caroline🦥🏴‍☠️ (@🦦Marie-Caroline🦥🏴‍☠️)1610900785.0


    @LindseyGrahamSC 🙃 https://t.co/fY7rq8dLnm
    — 🌊 R Saddler (@🌊 R Saddler)1610902351.0



    @LindseyGrahamSC The Senate should censure and consider expelling you for your role in undermining our democracy.… https://t.co/VBNH28Lawk
    — Christy "just say 'no' to insurrection" Ferguson (@Christy "just say 'no' to insurrection" Ferguson)1610899834.0


    @LindseyGrahamSC You wailed about Benghazi for FIVE YEARS but you're ready to dismiss more deaths on American soil after two weeks?
    — Grey_Obelisk (@Grey_Obelisk)1610899732.0


    @LindseyGrahamSC You helped incite the right wing attack on the Capitol. You put everyone's life in danger. Resign.… https://t.co/mAhRTCGKOf
    — Aaron Huertas (@Aaron Huertas)1610909264.0


    @MingGao26 @LindseyGrahamSC I can’t wait for your indictment.
    — RoboRob (@RoboRob)1610900091.0


    @LindseyGrahamSC No.
    — Patricia Arquette (@Patricia Arquette)1610900976.0


    'He's irrelevant': MSNBC panel laughs at 'minority member' Lindsey Graham's whine about Trump impeachment

    Tom Boggioni
    January 17, 2021

    A panel discussion on MSNBC's "The Sunday Show" erupted into laughter on Sunday morning after journalist Connie Schultz -- wife of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) -- dismissed any discussion about Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) as "irrelevant" now that he lost power after being relegated to the minority party in the Senate.

    Joined by fellow panelists Donna Edwards and Naval College professor Tom Nichols, the Pulitzer Prize winner and the other two guests were asked by host Jonathan Capehart about Graham's recent comments about a post-Trump America.

    "Donna, to talk about your reaction to what Senator Graham had to say about proceeding with the impeachment trial," Capehart asked.

    "Well, I think Senator Graham is actually in the least position to declare what the Congress, the Senate should do or not," the former Democratic lawmaker replied. "The reality is that this president was impeached by the House of Representatives already and it's the obligation of the United States Senate to hold him to account and to push for a conviction so that they can make sure that he never again holds public office."

    Chiming in, Nichols added, "I think we shouldn't spend a lot of time worrying about what Lindsey Graham thinks because that seems to change based on the time of day. This is the same Lindsey Graham who had said he had enough, it was over, he couldn't do it anymore. Then the next day he was on Air Force One with the president. So, other than that he's obviously voting against conviction, I'm not sure that we get very far trying to parse the inner logic of Lindsey Graham's position on anything."

    Presses for a comment, Schultz stated, "I think Lindsey Graham changes his viewpoint quite regularly at this point. The people he needs to be talking to are people that can help him with this disorder."

    "He's irrelevant, he's in the minority and I'm done listening to him," she added to laughter from the host and her fellow panelists.

    Watch below:


    MSNBC 01 17 2021 11 38 00 www.youtube.com

    Hogan Gidley: Trump 'can’t' denounce Capitol attack because he doesn’t have Twitter

    David Edwards
    January 17, 2021

    Trump campaign spokesperson Hogan Gidley on Sunday said that President Donald Trump does not have the ability to denounce the riot he incited on Capitol Hill because his Twitter account has been revoked.

    During an interview on Fox News, Gidley defended Trump by insisting that his false election claims had come from "attorneys and advisers."

    "And so he's going to go out and say, here's what I know and here's what I've been told," Gidley explained. "The president doesn't make these things up, whether it be, you know, advice relating to the coronavirus that he got from Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx or whether it be related to the way the election was conducted. This information is out there."

    "But as it related to the attack on the Capitol, the president called it out in real time -- beforehand!" he continued. "He said we're going to go to the Capitol and march peacefully. And we're going to be patriots, we're going to do this the right way and make our voices heard."

    According to Gidley, "the media are trying to have it both ways" by calling on Trump to condemn the violence while saying he doesn't deserve the right to access to social media.

    "On the one hand, [media says] he should be censored by big tech and not be allowed to talk," Gidley said. "He also shouldn't say anything because it's divisive. And then when he doesn't say anything and can't say anything because the platform have removed him, they says, 'Where's the president? Why aren't we hearing from him?'"

    "The whole thing is disingenuous," he added before launching an attack on Democrats.

    Watch the video below from Fox News.

     
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