I think one thing is very clear. After 2020 when I believe it is likely we will be rid of this unspeakable man, we simply must change the way the powers of government work. I know that it goes back farther than Mitch McConnell’s statement that’s he would never pass anything Obama had his name on. But for me, that was the defining moment. It is why, I believe, our Congress has a lower approval rate than eating Pooh!
6
IT'S HIGH TIME THAT SOMETHING SHOULD Awaken the moral consciences individually and as a group, of the GOP. If it took the suggestions about the disclosures in John Bolton's soon-to-be-published book, then I'm glad something woke them up from the morally bankrupt and defunct. If the GOP is angered by Bolton, they should also be angered at themselves for having been played for fools by the most corrupt president in US history, as well as by his enabler, McConnell. Bolton's words the other week were ominous: Asked when he would speak out about what had happened that involved Trump's alleged illegal, unethical, anarchic and anti-constitutional acts, he said that he'd have his say when the right time came. Well that time is here and now. Trump can hurry and settle the case overnight by getting a note from his doctor that he is medically incapable of continuing in office and unable to withstand the stresses of a trial. Whatever it takes to get him gone! Pence, obviously, having been a party to the criminal acts of Trump, will be forced to resign post haste. Then we will be led by the capable, determined, scrupulously moral and ethical President Nancy Pelosi.
3
The speeches from 21 years ago from both parties look a bit silly today seeing them reversed. That is for sure. I don't like Clinton for what he did but the perjury was to cover it up from his wife basically. I am not fond of him at all for what he did.
There is (though) no equivalence in terms of danger to the country.There are many serious national security issues around Trump's; don't forget he committed adultery too and wa an indicted co-conspirator for his prophylactic free dalliance with poor Stormy.
This extortion scam don't forget was only one of dozens of things he could have been impeached for; he has turned the USA into a vassal state for Russia. I don't like Clinton but at least he did not do that.
5
We all know that this senate will acquit. At this point, neither the prosecution (House managers) or the defense (Trumpie’s lawyers) are working to convince a super-majority of Senators to convict. What they are trying to do is sway public opinion, with an eye towards the elections in November.
I hope more revelations keep coming and make the GOP’s travesty of denials untenable, or at least, baldly transparent.
3
When politicians are drunk on power, or a president is on a mega over the top a beautiful, big, bestest over the top, oozing drunk on power did I say over the top? There will be no justice.
3
Well folks, this is the result you get when you put a complete amateur and lifetime con artist into the highest office in the land. Our only hope is Trump pulls a Fotis Dulos.
1
you call witness that either substantial your position or refute that of the other side. a hunter Biden vs Bolton trade could benefit democrats. Without witness to say hunter did something, and no evidence so far produced to the contrary, the republicans with just seem like their trying to do what trump wanted. On the other hand, Bolton is a material witness, backing the dems case. I wouldn't want to be a republican now.
Too bad Romney isn't more Machiavellian. He could play this Bolton issue into a broader call for witnesses that could finally drive the Republicans into removing Trump.
Then he would have the field clear for making another run at the presidency as I suspect no one on that side of the aisle wants Pence.
But so far he has been quite timid. Maybe the Bolton revelations work him up. Still, there is no leadership being exhibited by Romney, so this scenario is not likely to happen.
1
If the GOP is intent on short-circuiting the trial, it is because they know that providing adequate time for facts to be presented, examined and contextualized does not serve their interests, or that of their leader, which is keeping the "base" on board in November. The trial actually presents the ideal opportunity for them to rid themselves of Trump - though they can't seem to see that. Given the slate of remaining Democratic contenders, there are a number of GOP candidates (Weld, Kasich, Romney) who give any of them but maybe Biden a run for her money.
1
I'm a former trial lawyer. The Republicans defense boils down to what is typically argued (before a trial even starts) in a Motion for Summary Judgement, which is a contention that even if every allegation made by the prosecution were true, they have not pled a case that would support a verdict as a matter of law. This is a high standard, which asks a court to rule that there are no facts alleged that would support a finding of 'guilty' even if everything alleged were true.
What this boils down to is a decision to conduct a trial or not. I believe that the Senate should conduct a trial, hear evidence, and make findings of fact and conclusions of law like a court does. For instance, they could find Trump did in fact hold up aid to Ukraine to pressure an investigation of an opponent (a finding of fact), but this did not amount to an impeachable offense (a conclusion of law).
Such an outcome is likely. It would, however, set a clear legal precedent to guide future Presidents in the conduct of their office.
This terrible precedent is what the Republicans are trying to avoid by not holding a trial at all. Yet, by avoiding a trial, the Senate will risk loss of respect for their own institution, disclaim their own constitutional power, and weaken the rule of law in this country.
Let the trial proceed. The Senate could always censure the President for his conduct (should the facts warrant this), and then let the voters decide about removal in November.
9
@Ross Hostetter: There are no contested facts in motions for summary judgment.
1
A president who attempts to assume untoward powers is not a president, he is a dictator. It seems possible that Senator Romney will emerge from this dramatic impeachment as a 21st Century version of Jimmy Stewart's "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington." The long term careers of Senators who remain crippled by dtrumps poisonous rhetoric would be far better served by removing him from office. And the world would be best served by drumps disappearance within the quicksand of history.
8
I wonder if Roberts is weeping.
3
More like sleeping...
1
@chris: He's probably praying. I don't know how he concluded that this activity is welcomed by the putative recipient, but it is sacrosanct in the US.
2
The truth hurts, right Donald? Too bad, too sad.
What a disgrace you are!
We deserve so much better than the likes of you.
Do the right thing, resign and go away, quickly; for your own sake and for the sake of all the rest of us.
We want so much more than what you have to offer.
We love our country, you obviously don’t. Be gone.
9
@Doremus Jessup ... Best comment ever!
2
And suddenly, after decades of well-deserved scorn, democrats trust Bolton.
Fascinating.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
2
@Rev. E. M. Camarena, PhD; You don't believe in redemption, Reverend?
3
And suddenly after decades of democratic scorn, Bolton realizes he’s been supporting a lunatic, Trump, and profusely apologizes to the American people.
2
@JM: Right. He didn't see that about "W" and Cheney, you think it happened now?
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
1
If I had my druthers, Chief Justice Roberts be given the opportunity to rule with finality on subpoenas for any witnesses or documents either side requests. Given the apparent inability to agree on a single thing, a hallmark of today's congress, perhaps agreement could be reached on the sole issue of giving someone with gravitas, putative authority and some serious skin in the game to call the necessary balls and strikes associated with the process?
1
It is unfortunate that Trump will ultimately be saved by people turning their backs on their oath of office as well as their oath of impartiality.
6
@Grove
And everyone was so upset when Hillary Clinton called these people deplorables. Go figure.
This country is now standing at the gates of hell.
Trump has, and is, killing the country. Only the deplorables, (read stupid people) can’t comprehend that.
It was nice while it lasted. Not perfect, but sure as hell better than what we’re looking at now with the coward Trump.
3
Trump could hold a press conference and brag he 100% did everything he's accused of and more, extortion, witness intimidation, obstruction, the whole nine yards, then dare the Senate to convict him. They still wouldn't do it.
9
It's a reality show.
Unfortunately, it's real.
5
Mitt Romney signaled his willingness to break ranks with fellow Republicans by using the little known "Chocolate Milk Maneuver."
2
Friday: Democratic House Managers complete their case claiming Trump abused his power as president and obstructed the congressional investigation into this abuse.
Saturday: Trump’s legal team begins a tepid defense, probably recognizing their case is thin to nonexistent.
Sunday: A day of rest, except the NYT publishes a bombshell story saying John Bolton’s book transcript says Trump told him directly that he was withholding aid in order to secure a political favor.
Monday: Mitt Romney says the Bolton revelations make his testimony even more important than before.
Tuesday: Former chief of staff, John Kelly, says he believes Bolton’s account of this story.
So today is Tuesday. Any word from Mattis? McMaster? or Tillerson? — the previous other “adults in the room”.
Monday’s Fox News poll says 50% of the electorate want Trump removed, while 44% want him acquitted. Among Independents, 53% favor removal vs 34% for acquittal. These are the numbers McConnell is watching.
Fully two-thirds of the electorate now believe this trial should include the witnesses and documentary evidence the House Managers have already identified.
It was a bad idea in the first place for the Senate Republicans to continue a partisan power play in one of its most important Constitutional responsibilities.
They can now redeem themselves. Call all relevant witnesses and require all relevant documents.
Then let the chips fall where they may.
6
Yes, exactly!
I’m a registered Republican and I want everyone to testify so I can determine the truth!
3
Blackmail is a crime. Donald Trump offered aid to the Ukrainian President in exchange for a "favor". Lives were at stake. There is a transcript and taped evidence. Criminal "like" actions on the part of a president are impeachable.
6
“It’s like choppy waters, but the boat is not going to sink,” the official said,
Republicans are sinking the boat named “America”. along with the precious load of Americans,
A very serious treachery !
John Bolton - a well known senior Republican, a conservative came to rescue the Americans from the treacherous mutiny by the Elected Republicans !
John Bolton, already announced that he was not going to be part of the “Drug Deal” , why the Elected Republicans making a big deal now ? Because the Elected Republicans decided to sink the Republic with her patriotic population - Republicans and Democrats to save the pirate trump ?
1
Poor Bolton...he once was a highly respected contributor and friend of those Foxy news people.
Now Sean, Laura, Tucker and angry Judge Jeannine are putting him through the wood chipper.
That’s what you get for telling the truth, Mr Bolton.
2
One guy is willing to swear a statement under oath at risk of imprisonment if he lies. Chicken-hawk or not- and I underline the chicken part of the word because it fortifies my point that he does not want to go to jail- he is a first hand witness.
One guy is willing to talk under oath.
The other guy refuses to go under oath and because he can't help lying his lawyers won't let him anyway.
Which one are you going to believe (if you are not suffering TCS or Trump Coma Syndrome)?
The answer is as obvious as the minor matter of the President being a prevaricating criminal AKA DJT AKA Individual 1 AKA un-indicted co-conspirator whose distinctive signature magically appears on Stormy's check. Nothing to see here according to his supporters.
7
Under oath!
Let’s get the guy who knows everything, to tell his side of the Ukraine story... under oath.
Yes, Donald J Trump.
Such a chicken, this guy.
1
Bolton has nothing new to share. We know this corrupt Pres should be impeached. Bolton can only confirm facts we know. Shouldn’t affect the outcome. And the GOP will ignore all the info anyway. Bolton should hold his own press conf and share what he knows.
Hey Bolton time to put up. If they don’t vote for witnesses Friday, go give public, under oath, testimony in the house. Dare the senate to pretend they didn’t hear it.
2
Otherwise Bolton you have sold out your country.
Every time Republicans cite a piece of evidence that’s missing in order to justify removing Trump from office, the Democrats have provided that piece of evidence only to have Republicans impose an additional requirement.  at some point they must realize that when you go to the mattresses to defend a sleazebag you become one yourself. I don’t know if Republicans will pay a price in November but the price they deserve to pay would be a total wipeout.
6
A trial with witnesses and evidence?! Republicans must be furious!
2
Two ways to look at it:
Trump on one hand, Bolton on the other.
— or —
The guy who is documented to have told over 16,000 lies in 3 years, or the guy who doesn’t get caught lying much if at all....
My stars and garters... who to believe, who to believe, who to believe....
5
Really?! They're "mad?!" Try being a frustrated citizen watching this farce of a GOP "defense" of the most impeachable "president" ever.
6
@Sheila
They are mad that it leaked.
2
It's do-or-die time for rule of law and democracy. The foundations of a fair trial include witnesses, evidence and testimony. This is no time for passivity -- WE are their bosses, after all.
United States Capitol switchboard (202) 224-3121
5
We’ve gone from, “articles of impeachment based on second hand sources”, to, “testimony from somebody who was actually in the room...0h my god, not that”.
4
I would like to offer a different view on the proceedings. It is very fortunate that we have a live recording of Trump ordering the firing Marie Yovanovitch in a thug-like fashion. “Get rid of her! Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK? Do it.” Sounds like a mafia hit man. Usually in Trump events, everything is staged, but not here. We hear President Trump raw and unvarnished.” Marie Yovanovitch was a career State Department employee with near 40 years’ service, a graduate of Princeton university with a BA in History and Russian Studies. She was granted the State Department’s Superior Honor Award on five occasions and the Presidential Distinguished Service Award I believe any previous President would have invited her appearance, congratulated her on many years of outstanding service to our country and explained her termination. In contrast, the Russian Ambassador, our covert enemy is always welcomed to the White House with special consideration by Trump for their lengthy Meeting.
This brings me up to my major point, why would anyone with even the tiniest belief in Christian values or common decency want this thug person as president? “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” I do know all the Senators heard the same tape of Trump thug talk as I did. I wonder just how low are the Republican Senators’ morals and sense of decency? Remember “What goes around, comes around.”
6
If I didn't dislike Kenneth Starr and Alan M. Dershowitz so fervently, I'd feel sorry for them in their pathetic attempts to stay relevant.
4
Pathetic, insulting and revolting pretty much sums
up their “scintillating” testimony up for me.
I wonder how much they got paid by Trump and Vladimir?
NDA?
1
I see - the same people who didn't want to see Bolton become our ambassador to the United Nations, on the grounds that he is a roaring right wing maniac, are now touting anything that he wrote in his "For Profit" book, as gospel truth.
No wonder the prospect of John Bolton's public testimony scares the pants off Trump and his political enablers. Under oath he's got a whole new level of credibility. People will believe him.
More than they believe the president.
4
So, what the Trump Defense Team aka The Perv Parade (thanks Mo Dowd) said was —
“A president can bribe a foreign power to interfere in our elections so that he can cheat and steal the presidency. And this is not an impeachable offense.”
And not one senator in the chamber laughed at this stupid statement. Not one.
The emperor has no clothes.
The sooner one laughs, the faster the emperor can cover his nakedness.
Looks like we all want to see a naked emperor.
We are all part of the perversion.
2
Ken Sttarr has got to be one of the most loathesome, unprincipaled scoundrels in American history.
8
Have we crossed over the border into Banana Republic territory?
9
A trial without witnesses - shows how ignorant the republicans think we are - after all - all but 3 million voted for herr trump.
3
Wait! Let me get this straight.
1) Trump blocks first-hand witnesses in House impeachment hearings.
2) And Republicans Senators complain “no first-hand” witnesses in this trial.
and then, wait for it...
3) Republicans BLOCK first-hand witnesses in the Senate trial.
Listen up Republicans!
Stop insulting American voters.
You will pay dearly at the polls in November.
4
Cipollone argued we must end this age of impeachment.
Yeah, right after this one!
It’s like Melania asking us to Be Best! Sure, as soon as hubby does, or better yet, as soon as he is gone.
3
Melanie to America: Be Best!
America to Trumps: Be Gone!
4
Republican Anger? How dare they be Angry? We should be Angry and they should be ashamed for propping up a tin pot dictator.
5
Mr. Trump has destroyed America's prestige & standing in the world so much that the world is no longer looking to the US for leadership or anything at all! That's what we get when we elect moronic, unintelligent and incurious people into high offices!
4
Remember the old story about Bre’r Rabbit? The Democrats had better think about the fact calling Bolton might well blow up in their faces. The Democrats and the liberal-leaning media outlets have been denigrating Bolton for years and he probably remembers all of that.
1
What does Pence know?
3
The NYT should put up a column asking readers to submit their questions for the Senate.
3
'Honest Donny' would never tell a lie like, “I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens,” President Trump wrote just after midnight.
Not Honest Donny!!
But if he did...
I was wondering how Alan Dershowitz was going to make his speech all about himself. And sure enough, he spent quite some time explaining how his position “evolved” (aka he flip-flopped). He even had to admit his position is in the minority within legal scholars. Because think about how ridiculous his position is: that the President has to commit a crime to get impeached. How absurd is that?
Think about it. He would be the only person who has to commit a crime to get fired. He could be drunk on the job, or play golf for a year without doing his job, or (even as Dershowitz argued in his book) give Alaska to Russia, and yet, since these are not crimes, could not be impeached. It is so ridiculous it’s actually dishonest to argue that with any seriousness.
Folks, don’t be fooled. Dershowitz fancies himself as a non-partisan Constitutional scholar and academic. He is neither. He’s a fraud, a partisan hack craving for relevance and attention. The only person more fraudulent than Dershowitz these days is his corrupt and immoral orange client.
8
I was wondering how Alan Dershowitz was going to make his speech all about himself. And sure enough, he spent quite some time explaining how his position “evolved” (aka he flip-flopped). He even had to admit his position is in the minority within legal scholars. Because think about how ridiculous his position is: that the President has to commit a crime to get impeached. How absurd is that?
Think about it. He would be the only person who has to commit a crime to get fired. He could be drunk on the job, or play golf for a year without doing his job, or (even as Dershowitz argued in his book) give Alaska to Russia, and yet, since these are not crimes, could not be impeached. It is so ridiculous it’s actually dishonest to argue that with any seriousness.
Folks, don’t be fooled. Dershowitz fancies himself as a non-partisan Constitutional scholar and academic. He is neither. He’s a fraud, a partisan hack craving for relevance and attention. The only person more fraudulent than Dershowitz these days is his corrupt and immoral orange client.
Dershowitz was Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer and loyal friend.
What more do you need to know.
Hmm, who is the liar here ? Is it John Bolton or the Don ? How to figure this out ?
1
No one has ever seen or heard of a man more unfit for the office of President than Trump.
All G-d's children among Trump's fervent fan base know this.
Mitch McConnell knows this, Ted Cruz knows this, Lindsey Graham knows this
And all of them will be admitting this in their forthcoming confessional autobiographies, excusing their actions as the work of men desperate to (1) maintain some influence over a totally out-of-his-mind President and (2) keep hold of their jobs.
America -- they will be telling us -- was in a desperate state of affairs after Pearl Harbor, but the important thing to do back then was to prepare for future battles, like the November 2020 election, and muddle through the next 9 months with Trump as best they could.
2
Republicans know the Bidens have nothing to do with Trump's Bribery and obstruction of Congress.
However, if they continue to pursue this
Democrats should require Jared Kushner be a witness to explain how he was able to get financing to bail out his 666 Park Avenue property because of his father in law, Donald J. Trumps name and presidency.
In addition, then call Ivanka Trump to explain how she received patents from China while her father was negotiating Trade deals with China.
Conflicts of interest and possible criminal actions by the Trump Crime Family.
12
@Buzz D
Yes, and Ivanka and Jared stand accused of using their e-mail accounts improperly, just like Hilary. LOCK THEM UP!
4
I wonder if Republicans are whispering the following in hushed voices, "Never underestimated a disgruntled former employee."
2
@Marge Keller
Bolton is indeed a warmongering chicken-hawk but he is self-interested enough not to go to jail for perjury. He is smarter than Trump and at least the moustache is genuine unlike a certain stitched on toupee.
2
Not sure if Trump's legal team are just not that sharp or if they are that naive to not have a back up plan in case John Bolton started to talk about what's in his forthcoming book during the impeachment trial.
I mean good grief, he's been hinting since December about wanting to talk about his time as national security adviser. He even supplied the White House with a copy of his book. So for Trump's legal team and even the other Republicans to be shocked and dismayed and angered about Bolton's revelations, how could they NOT know this was coming?
After all, Trump did fire the guy. If he was willing to write about a book his experiences, did anyone really think he would be sharing tales of tea and crumpets in the Rose Garden?
I don't know if Bolton will be the John Dean of the Trump Administration. But I have more reason to believe HIM and John Flynn than all of the other Republicans, legal team, and anyone else who claims that Bolton is lying.
Funny how the truth just seems to make its way into the light of day.
5
Talk about a failed system and a failed trial. These are elected representatives , many of them lawyers, who prefer not to have witnesses called. They use partisan politics to block a course of constitutional action that they are sworn to uphold. They block access to evidence and defer blame to anyone other than the person on trial. These are people we elected that are in DC to protect and monitor our democracy and serve the people as it representatives and "role models". Whether Trump is convicted or not, has almost become secondary to the corrupted process of this impeachment and senate trial. I do believe he is guilty and a miserable example of a corrupt business man gone political and failed. What is at least as shameful is the behavior of the congressional branch of our government and especially the Republicans who blindly follow DJT in fear of his wrath, and the the loss of their positions in congress. They are forgetting the reasons they are in DC....too busy keeping their jobs and have forgotten what their title and responsibilities are to the electorate they are supposed to represent.
9
@Jhs: It is amazing that they will place the necks of future senators on the chopping block for renegade presidents conspiring with or corrupting foreign nations.
I don't know which is sadder--that these GOP Senators would betray the country, the constitution and their oath out of craven fear of the President's clueless "base" or that most of us now trust and respect the GOP so little that we fully expect them to betray us and are not even faintly surprised.
11
Why keep talking about "swapping witnesses". Republicans have 53 votes. Let them vote for the witnesses they want. Claire McKaskill reminded us that the Republicans don't need to make a deal for witnesses. They can call whomever they want. Think about it!
4
@Susan Audrey
Obviously the GOP gambit will be "we couldn't call Bolton because the Democrats refused to allow the Bidens."
Of course as you say they don't need permission from the Dems to call Biden. I think that is their game.
1
@Bob Guthrie Right, Bob. More lies and misdirection. When Claire McCaskil brought up the 53 Republican votes, many people are saying, why aren't we emphasizing this fact? Republicans blaming Demos again when it is the R's call. Shameful
1
GET TO THE TRUTH
then take the vote
or we no longer can claim to honor the constitutional process, or the whistleblower, who obviously was NOT blowing smoke.
It will otherwise stand as a cover-up.
That Should Matter. It does to many U.S citizens. We could never duck under the radar like this president has, time and time again. with the approval, make no mistake, the APPROVAL of his party.
Not what the founders had in mind. This is about protections for the people, not the president.
5
Wasn't it only a few weeks ago the Republicans argued that all the evidence was hearsay. So now they have the opportunity to hear a first-hand account, but claim there's no new information. Seems like hypocritical advancement of their argument, no? Clearly, Republicans must do everything they can to hide the truth.
5
Bolton's remarks blow the whole Republican case wide open. The public knows it. Republican Senators know it. Even that dogged forever-Trumper Mitch McConnell knows it. Now is the time for Republican Senators to extricate themselves from these men who engage in hucksterism, back-stabbing and gross and unjust use of power.
3
Just as an analogy and without making an equivalence between murdering and extorting. Though Trumpistas are likely to seize on the analogy to miss the point entirely, I will use it for illustration.
If someone accused of serial killing (a public health hazard) is about to go on trial and a witness comes forward with a video of someone else committing the crime, do we say thanks but no thanks. Ridiculous right?. If it is just before the trial and inconvenient for the lawyers who want to close the case on the books, do we allow the evidence or do we allow the real killer to roam unchecked?
Witnesses and evidence of the truth should obviously be permitted. Its common sense and most Americans can see it is common sense in the extortion case currently being tried.
2
Did Republicans honestly believe anything Trump had to say about his "perfect call" before now? And it took Bolton to make them woke?!
Give me a break. Now it's just in their face hardcore and they know history will be the one that doubles down on their unconstitutionality should they refuse to make this an impartial trial with no witnesses or documentary evidence.
3
The image of Mitt Romney bringing chocolate milk onto the senate floor put me in mind of "All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten." Among the things the author recalls learning? Play fair i.e. hear from witnesses with relevant information (respect due process).
Instead, there's an endless republican video loop of past supposed grievances -- "lock her up", the "corrupt Bidens" from a prior admin, THEY ran the last impeachment and IT wasn't fair.
Is that endless dwelling supposed to justify the endless stonewalling? Don't be led by a big unruly baby who tantrums "take her out" if he doesn't see mom giving him his way.
Senators, you're the grownups now, and with a lot of grown up powers. Be at least as fair minded in the playground of life as we would want our toddlers to be on the playground.
So now lawyers lying in court is okay? We lock up citizens for mistakenly registering to vote and casting their vote. They are sent to prison for lying when really, they made a mistake. But now, our government representatives can lie under oath and get away with it. How much lower will we sink?
7
Hello? Yes, this is History calling. May I speak to Justice Roberts please?
6
all presidents abuse power to a greater or lesser extent.
@sebastian : Stop with the false-equivalencies nonsense.
1. No, not every president. Obama, for example, was scandal free; if there had been a *hint* of impropriety, the GOP would have bleated about it endlessly.
2. Just as there's a massive difference between, say, stealing $10 from petty cash and toppling a global financial system, there's a massive difference between djt's self-interest and that of any US president previously deemed "most corrupt."
3. djt has behaved like no other president, in egregious ways that have demeaned the office, antagonized crucial longtime allies, and threatened to upend democracy itself.
Educate yourself. Below, just the tip of the iceberg:
Donald Trump vs. the United States of America
Just the facts, in 40 sentences
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/22/opinion/trump-ukraine-whistle-blower.html
2
At this juncture, any honest Republican who truly believes in the President's innocence should surely welcome further witnesses and testimony. One might be deemed cynical to conclude that Republican's know the President is guilty as charged, the evidence is overwhelming, and they just do not care.
If that is so, then it is a public avowal of a cynical disregard for the Constitutional order and the rule of law, and an open embrace of an authoritarian Leader Principle under which the strongman rules for life, and is only removed by death in office or a successful coup.
Such would be a sad end indeed for the noble dream of an American Republic with liberty and justice for all. We must now, while we still have civil society and the purge of the institutions of governance and the military is yet incomplete, seize this day to tell our elected officials, enough!
End the corrupt pandering of American aid and influence abroad for manufactured political dirt on Joe Biden. Enough! Vamoose! Begone!
Representative Shiff and his colleagues, notably Representatives Demings and Jeffries, have done yeoman service to the Republic in these, perhaps the twilight years of our American Dream. Let it not be so.
To quote Percy Shelly:
`Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you --
Ye are many -- they are few.
7
@Henry Edward Hardy
Percy's wife Mary Shelley created a monster though not as monstrous as the one created by the GOP.
Here is a quote from her:
“When falsehood can look so like the truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness?”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
3
Spoiler alert: Even if they allow Bolton to testify, Trump’s Senate cabal will immediately and categorically condemn his testimony, the trial will abruptly end, and the GOP will publicly congratulate itself for providing such a fair trial. Stop waiting for a turning point. There won’t be one.
The Senate as currently configured will never remove a Republican President, no matter how corrupt. And in 2040, 70% of Americans will be living in 15 states. That means 70% of Americans will be represented by 30% of the U.S. Senate. Our system is perfectly designed to support a conservative fascist state.
2
Think about how this scheme was concocted.
One night in 2017 over cigars, giuliani and trump dreamed about how they could gin up another “lock her up” chant at his rallies.
Throughout this spring, summer and autumn, imagine this chant every night, “lock him up.” This time pinning it on Joe Biden. A simple 3 word chant works because it’s easy and they know their constituents dont understand the real truth or don’t care to learn.
They thought it was going to be simple- Wooops!
America still has patriots.
1
51 Republican senators can choose to call witnesses in the Trump impeachment trial at any time. There are 53 Republican senators. If they want to call Joe and/or Hunter Biden, all they have to do is vote. No "deal" with Democrats is needed. The "deal" a Republican ruse to make them appear "fair" and the media needs to pretending that it isn't.
11
@Leslie
Brilliant comment. They are using it to avoid calling Bolton.
You do understand that neither Biden is a witness to the articles of impeachment, correct? They were not on phone calls, in the oval office, part of the administration, or associates of “trump”. You can’t deflect one set of crimes based on some presumption that other crimes occurred. Even if the Bidens were guilty of anything it would NOT be a valid reason for abuse of power, breaking the law in withholding congressionally-approved funding and then obstructing justice.
Next you will say they should have Hillary being called to testify cuz emails.
2
@Leslie but they don't want to have any witnesses, its only if the democrats get Bolton etc, they don't want to be left out. the Republican idea is to get the trial over before trump has to give the State of the Union speech, on Feb. 4th. The fun part of that night is he will be in the House Chamber that IMPEACHED him, that's going to give him chills, I bet.
1
It's important to classify as a "benchmark" the description of the elements and persons presented as evidence of wrongdoing in the Impeachment Trial. This is a crucial determination because it will be Impeachment legal precedent.
The President established a conspiracy and directed its execution over several months. It was not one call. He acted with impunity and was not driven by a national interest. He set up a separate channel because the diplomatic channel was obligated by norms and traditions not to extort a new president in a perilous situation. The America diplomats in charge were anti-corruption specialists that were working to clean up years of Russian-style corruption. Trump sought a path around these diplomatic efforts.
The evidence on the timeline shows that President Trump was blinded by his goal, disregarded the war and need for USA backing, and doubled down on his demand for an investigation.
So the benchmark that must be classified is a conspiracy by President Trump to countermand diplomatic processes and norms that Americans believe are crucial in our world role. President Trump orchestrated a corrupt act. He argued false conspiracy theories, recruited Rudy Giuliani as his henchman, and got Mick Mulvaney, Mike Pompeo, Rick Perry, Gordon Sondland, Attorney General Bill Barr, VP Pence and others to participate as co-conspirators. They were all "in the loop." This was wrong and is a colossal precedent. This is the benchmark that has to be voted on.
11
The new call by Trump’s attorneys and some Senate Republican to see Bolton’s manuscript is clearly a desperate move designed to avoid his actual testimony under oath. Bolton is a material witness who needs to testify under penalty of perjury. It’s been easy for Pence, Pompeo, Mulvaney and others to deny everything in the press, but none certainly has wanted to testify to such under oath. The reason is transparent for all to see.
11
This entire process is a complete fraud. Republicans own the senate 53-47, they can call any witnesses they want, they do not need the permission of the Democrats. The media is falling for this game McConnell is playing about witnesses. If they want to call Hunter Biden, or John Bolton or Adam Schiff, they can call them. Lindsey Graham is the chairman of the judiciary committee, he can call whoever he wants. The Democrats would be foolish to agree to any witness deal. Republicans have the votes, they do not need one Democratic vote to call a witness. They do not want witnesses and are intent on clearing Trump.
8
Former Sen. Claire McCaskell is making the following very cogent point on MSNBC:
The Republicans have 53 votes. Therefore they can vote to summon ANYONE to come and testify before the Senate in the Impeachment Trial, all by themselves.
They could vote to summon Hunter Biden, without regard to whether any Democrats would agree to that.
They could equally vote to have Santa Claus or Donald Duck testify.
The idea of a "fair deal" of one witness for the Democrats in return for one witness for the Republicans is pure misdirection, because the Republicans could demand to have anyone show up, while the Democrats alone, with all 47 votes that they have, would be shut out if they want someone that the Republicans will not agree to hear from, for example Col. Nathan R. Jessup ... er ... make that Donald Trump.
9
The unsaid argument that Mitch McConnell and GOP are asking the American public to swallow is this: "We all KNOW Donald Trump has committed treason, but his actions are helping us stay in power and you can't stop us, so let's move on." That's it. There is no legal argument for keeping Donald Trump in the White House.
10
1. The whole "witness deal" that some GOP are pushing boils down to this: The GOP are bluffing. they have the majority and can call any witness they want, including Bidens and Schiff. They just hate to look as anti-truth as they really are.
2. Some GOP are now threatening that if they are forced (by public pressure) to have a "fair trial" by including witnesses like Bolton, then they will call H Biden and smear him and his father--just what Trump has wanted all along. (which the public might see is not really a "fair trial" bc whether HB did anything wrong does not justify Trump's withholding aid and Oval Office meeting to extort another country (a) to push Putin's propaganda that Russia did not manipulate our 2016 election, so sanctions can be dropped and Putin can restart his nefarious business here, and (b) to cheat in the 2020 election by using Putin's 2014 debunked propaganda about HB.
3. We should have Trump's sworn statement about what he did.
3
So if the Democrats cannot find 51 Senators to demand witnesses, what happens?
What happens if there is a 50-50 tie as appears likely?
1
Pence probably swings it.
1
@Janak
Then McConnell and the other destroyers of democracy on the R Team will have their way and think this will all blow away. Fat chance of us forgetting, I say.
2
This resembles the Kavanaugh nomination hearings. Darn, they have to make a semblance of 'impartiality' by having a witness or 2. Except this time we won't have to watch their ugliness on TV since they can only pass questions through Roberts. Heck if Graham has his way, they'll only subpoena Bolton's manuscript. They'll push for the "gang of 4" to vote with the Democrats, even if it "sacrifices" Collins who is probably going to loose her race anyway. It's Individual #1's party now and shows just inept they and their "grim reaper" Moscow Mitch really are as politicians (there isn't a statesman amongst them). It's going to take much more than Trump to kill off the Republican party. I hope Americans show up to vote and choose wisely.
5
Every time I consider just not voting for President Trump, I see something like this and become energized. I will walk across coals to vote Trump now.
15
What?! I don’t understand how, in the face of the evidence, anyone could feel this way. What about our country and our constitution?
35
You have very strange opinions. The more evidence that comes out against Trump, the more determined you are to vote for him? Why such an irrational response?
53
@RMM
I don't think you were ever not going to vote against Trump. Apologies and with respect but I just do not believe you on that point. What would enrage you in the article? If you are enraged by it IMHO you are a Trump loyalist and will vote for I'm regardless of any emerging facts.
41
Guilty of obstruction of justice yes, weak argument on abuse of power especially how it’s painted that Trump asking for Biden investigation constitutes to cheating the next election. No direct evidence that if information was discovered will be used to cheat the election. It’s all perception that he will cheat the election. I think it’s important to see what’s Biden’s involvement are. And it’s important to know why Trump’s decision to hold the aid. We should hear what Trump’s inner circles’ testimony.
1
If he had gotten even an announcement of an investigation, he would have accomplished his desired cheat. Tarnishing Joe Biden’s name is the cheat he was after.
3
@CD
Please don't play naive. If you were honest with yourself, you'd put two and two together. Trump has said that he would welcome foreign help to win an election. He is crazy with obsession about his legacy and position. He knows Russian interference gave him an edge. And Trump has a long underhand history of smearing his opposition. COME ON!
4
@CD: Don’t repeat Fox News. You should have watched the testimonies in the House instead.
1
No one should buy into the "Wait for the election argument."
We've voted for representatives to handle this today, because tomorrow may be too late.
21
@Mike B
Excellent point. It is the Senate’s duty and their responsibility to decide this now with a fair trial.
Isn’t it ironic that the GOP is arguing “don’t erase Trump’s name from the ballot,” yet they have shut down GOP primaries in a number of states?
6
@Mike B,
Correct.
An acquittal by Friday night could very well mean Martial Law by Saturday morning.
It can’t happen here, of course.
The way someone who hasn’t read the constitution and know the words to The Star Spangled Banner can’t become the president.
1
I think Trump’s tweet saying he did not say this quid-quo-pro to John Bolton, is essentially a waiver of Executive Privilege.
If Trump can tweet about his conversations with John Bolton, then he can’t prohibit Bolton from testifying about those same discussions because Trump says they are privileged.
15
@Mike M:Good point!
Americans need to look in the mirror. 75% of the electorate want to hear the truth via witnesses and documents in this impeachment trial. The will of the American populace is being subverted by the Senate republicans. That the USA would try to project the appearance of a healthy democracy under these circumstances is a total farce.
23
@Karen
How is that 75 percent distributed by electoral college vote. My guess is that the pro-Russia, theocratic states will be overwhelmingly for no witnesses to testify against Trump.
2
"A handful of Republicans appeared to be moving closer to joining Democrats in a vote to subpoena Mr. Bolton, even as their leaders insisted that doing so would only delay his inevitable acquittal."
On what planet are trial witnesses rejected because a verdict of 'not guilty' is "inevitable"?
18
I am overjoyed that McConnell views Trump as betraying him, by keeping the Bolton manuscript hidden. In his column yesterday, Jonathan Bernstein pointed out that the Watergate smoking gun tape ended Nixon because the GOP felt betrayed by Nixon, who lied to them about his innocence, as proven by the tape. McConnell likely is the tip of the iceberg about how the the rest of the GOP feels betrayed by Trump. While Trump can expect lots from the GOP, he can’t expect, and he won’t receive, forgiveness after betraying them on the Bolton manuscript. With a little luck, and another leak or two to help, this betrayal may end Trump, as a similar betrayal ended Nixon.
5
@dt This is all too perfect. Trump and his White House minions betray McConnell and the Senate leadership, while Rudy betrays Trump and lines his pockets in Ukraine while ostensibly representing Trump's interests, and Parnas betrays both Trump and Rudy after being thrown under the bus.
1
Sekulow seems not able to understand something. It’s not Trump’s role that is on trial here. It’s Trump the person who is on trial.
8
As a Canadian, I am not indifferent to what happens in the US as we are in many respects too closely intertwined to remain neutral. The current state of US affairs is bewildering and nerve-wracking even to those outside your country. The level of discord and the resultant stress and anguish currently evident in American society as a result of POTUS’s dirty deeds are surely wreaking havoc with the mental health of your citizens, not to mention the apparent assault on and fraying of your constitution. The President needs to be held accountable; he is not above the law. This travesty needs to be curtailed and sanity needs to be restored.
19
@Jazzie
I wonder how many Americans would seek asylum in Canada if current occupant of the WH is re-elected. I have considered it. When I read today about him praising our top "diplomat" for verbally abusing nationally recognized and highly esteemed journalists, saying he did a "good job on her" I saw my country sinking into an abyss like I don't even know what to compare to. Maybe Duterte, whom trump admires for his unfettered violence and lawlessness. When vulgarity and ignorance and bullying are highest marks of the moral character of these self-labelled "Christians" we are surely doomed.
2
The view being currently reported is that trump will be acquitted because of the republican majority in the senate; and according to a number of reader's comments, the great experiment called America, will come to an end. We will no longer be an example for other countries to emulate or to aspire to.
This won't be the first time that America hasn't failed to disappoint (Slavery, Trail of Tears, McCarthy hearings, Vietnam), but because of the aspirational nature of the principles rooted in our Constitution, the remedy of redress is always possible.
It appears that Nixon has desensitized us; we appear to be more tolerant of corrupt behavior in our Presidents.
Sure, Clinton lied under oath about cheating on his wife, but was it a high crime and misdemeanor worthy of removal from office? I believe that If not for the fact that Hilary didn't leave him and didn't file for divorce, Bill would have been removed by the Senate.
Even if trump is acquitted by the Senate but later defeated this November, where is the redress if the guy gets away with corruption in plain sight. Just like rust, the corrosive effect on the principle that we are a nation of laws may prove to be irreparable.
If trump skates on this, then what? Will we look the other way when the next president is accused of behavior that is even more corrupt than that as we have witnessed from trump?
12
When the history of this period is written many proud names will be lying in the dust.
11
@Mike Murray MD
They already are. Graham, McConnell, etc. Pride before the fall that history will send them on.
1
This just illustrates why witnesses are required.
Why deprive Senators of pertinent testimony from third parties that were in the President's inner circle?
8
Why so many Americans wanted to remove Trump from the White House? Is he really that bad? As a resident of DC since Truman era, I don't remember any president was perfect. So why bother? Just wait until the election day later this year. Remove him from voting booths. We have more important things to do now than impeachment, Is Pence a better and more honest president? Why we trust Bolton so much, a whistle blower. Honest American doesn't work in the White House.
1
@McLean
I doubt the sincerity of your questions, but the reasons it should be dealt with now, no matter how it ends in the senate, are multiple:
Mainly because, unless proven otherwise, trump broke the law, violated his oath of office and the Constitution, jeopardized the integrity of our election process and threatened our national security, all for personal gain. He is a dangerous and unlawful president.
4
When on earth did “whistleblower” become a dirty word?
2
@McLean123
You just answered your own question when you said "Honest American doesn't work in the White House."
We should not allow a corrupt POTUS to act in our name for even one day. Once we know he is breaking the law, he should be removed.
Tell me why you think a criminal should be allowed to remain in office, especially the most powerful office in the world.
2
So, what bothers Republicans is not Trump's abuses of power but the fact that someone squealed on him.
19
Americans should be totally appalled that the Senate will subvert the will of 75% of the American electorate by not calling witnesses and documents in this impeachment trial.
11
Let me see... criminal is indicted for crimes (based on evidence the prosecutor has been provided) and goes to trial. At this point the jury convicts the accused based on what the prosecutor says in the indictment. Off to jail or the executioner, and that's that. Oh wait a minute the accused gets a defense and the prosecutor has to present the facts/evidence of the case and witnesses thereto. Then the evidence and witnesses are challenged under cross examination. The jury then evaluates the facts and evidence both pro and con and reaches a decision.
Should this charade be any different?
4
Republican Senators presently mirroring 12 Angry Men juror (Jack Warden) ,angry over possibly missing ballgame, more concerned with getting deliberations over swiftly. But juror eventually shamed into diligently performing civic duty; ideally, but most unlikely,Republican Senators doing likewise.
4
Wait? What!?
The President may have done something wrong? Why is this the first time we’re hearing about this??
Can we say the Democrats were trying to hide this information from their Republican colleagues? If there was something hinky going on at the White House, Republican lawmakers should have been informed.
5
Joe, the last time I checked the White House was Republican. The Republicans in the Administration kept that hidden from the Republican Senate. Democrats have been telling Republicans in the Senate, but Republicans have not been listening while they have been playing with their spinners and dozing off.
No we can’t. What we can say is that Trump hid it and Democrats moved in it as soon as they knew. Do you really think Trump openly shares information?
If Trump and the Republicans are so afraid of what Bolton might say, why doesn't Trump testify under oath? That should clear up everything.
15
Do you really expect that something as watery as an “oath” is going to make the narcissistic philandering lying liar sudden have new and truthful stripes??
Really?
When the impeachment trial began I did not think Republicans could sink any lower in my estimation than they already had.
I was wrong.
38
How dare people push for witnesses and evidence in a trial. This is America!
Please let Mitch stand up and say that out loud. I'd watch C-SPAN to hear him clearly admit it.
23
At this point in time, the USA lacks credibility
as a democracy. 70% of Americans want documents and witnesses in this impeachment trial, yet the WH and the Republicans are obstructing.
21
The most effective advocate for the defense was the former Dream Team member, the venerable Professor Alan Dershowitz, who crafted a version of the “if the glove don’t fit, you must acquit” defense that worked so well for OJ. As wise lawyers like to say “if the facts are against you, argue the law; if the law is against you, argue the facts; if the facts and the law are against you, do your best double talk imitation of Professor Irwin Corey.
Dershowitz argued that Trump’s diminutive hands did not fit in the the glove of impeachable offense because on the left hand, abuse of power is not impeachable; and on the other hand Trump’s ask “for a favor, though,” was not an abuse of power. No
matter what Bolton would testify to, Trump was in the good company every other President politically accused of abuse of power but not impeached. Quid pro quid is
the sine qua non of international relations.
Republican Senators have likely been persuaded; the glove didn’t fit, but Dershowitz’s argument fit their political agenda.
His pedantic, droning doublespeak was designed to provide a legalistic excuse to acquit. He obscured the true nature of Trump’s betrayal of our Democracy. Trump bartered our official policy, backed up by millions of dollars, for his personal gain. He evaded official channels and the counsel of government experts,relied on Rudy, and concealed his schemes and tactics.
In all of his presentation Professor Dershowitz avoided these uncontested facts.
7
@Asher Fried
Agreed -millions of TAXPAYER dollars. Trump loves to use and lose other people’s money for his individual benefit.
Money already allocated by Congress is not the president’s. Theft is the crime here.
He’s hiding behind “ principles,” which he apparently believed the opposite of in 1998. He wants to go to parties at Mar A Lago, and he thinks he has a better shot of a coverup of his Epstein behavior by allying with Trump.
@Asher Fried: At least Dershowitz learned that incarcerating the jury is a good way for prosecutors to lose criminal cases.
Republican Senators understand what we understand. They are going to acquit the placeholder POTUS no matter what. They spit on the Constitution, AND betray both their oath of office and the oath of impartiality they took upon entering into this impeachment trial.
Additional witnesses will only bolster the case of the House Managers against the sitting placeholder. There hasn't been one witness to testify Trump isn't the kind of person who would do such a thing; because it's clear to all but the willfully ignorant he did. No such person exists.
I want additional witnesses because I want the GOP Senators to stare at themselves, their betrayal of the oath of office, and their hypocrisy. Their momentary betrayal of the Constitution of the United States will have lasting consequences, not the least rendering Article I of the Constitution moot, a self-neutering exercise.
11
@LaPine: Pence has publicly declared that he is a Christian first, a Republican second, and an American third.
Give me a break!” declared Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, referring to Jay Sekulow, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer. “He has the nerve and the gall to get up there and say that there is no eyewitness testimony when we know that John Bolton has eyewitness testimony and is willing to testify?”
But if the New York Times’ account is correct, Bolton did not say Trump told him Ukraine would not get aid unless it publicly announce an investigation of the Bidens and 2016 election. According to the New York Times, "Bolton’s manuscript allegedly says Trump told him that “he preferred sending no assistance to Ukraine until officials had turned over all materials they had about the Russia investigation related to Mr. Biden and supporters of Hillary Clinton in Ukraine, referencing unfounded theories and other assertions that Rudolph W. Giuliani, his personal lawyer, had promoted about any Ukrainian efforts to damage Mr. Trump politically.”
Trump may have preferred not to release the aid, but he did release the aid a few days later. Not a single witness—including Bolton—has said Trump conditioned aid or a presidential on a public announcement, which is what Article 1 asserts. At the time of the Trump-Bolton conversation in late August, Trump and Zelensky was scheduled to meet in Warsaw. This is the meeting that had rho be rescheduled die to a hurricane.
@William Case: How many Javelin missiles do you think Ukraine was down to when Trump asked Zelensky for the favor?
He released the aid only after he got caught red-handed. Everybody knows that.
1
@ William Case
Do we need to rehash the timeline and facts again because of your gaslighting?
The millions of dollars was released ONLY after a lot of bipartisan Congressional leaders, their aides, and members of key committees, including the Appropriations, Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees spent weeks scrambling to figure out why money that had been appropriated by Congress months before still hadn't released. Those senators trying to figure out what was going on included Senators Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham. A desperate subcommittee on Ukraine assistance proposed, and was ready to introduce in congress, an amendment to the 2020 defense spending bill attaching the previously approved Ukraine aide to it. The WH had been stonewalling everybody, including the senators. And the aide money was released after word about the Whistleblower was out. “The jig was up” because of these two things. The aide was withheld for MONTHS while Ukraine was fighting a hot war with Russia.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/
ncna1082256
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/09/30/politics/ukraine-military-aid-congress/index.html
1
Have to wonder if Trump thought this plot up by himself. If you follow the bio of Putin it sounds very much like something Vladimir might have suggested to Don in one of their friendly talks. Trump is Boris Yeltsin.
6
@Llewis: Hardly anyone mentions that Ukraine was the breadbasket of the USSR before that entity dissolved.
2
Re the Bolton manuscript, what did McConnell know and when did he know it? Was he blindsided, or just blind?
9
@Vicki
And deaf?
Republican Senators understand what we understand. They are going to acquit the placeholder POTUS no matter what. They spit on the Constitution, AND betray both their oath of office and the oath of impartiality they took upon entering into this impeachment trial.
Additional witnesses will only bolster the case of the House Managers against the sitting placeholder. There hasn't been one witness to testify Trump isn't the kind of person who would do such a thing; because it's clear to all but the willfully ignorant he did. No such person exists.
I want additional witnesses because I want the GOP Senators to stare at themselves, their betrayal of the oath of office, and their hypocrisy. Their momentary betrayal of the Constitution of the United States will have lasting consequences, not the least of rendering Article I of the Constitution moot, a self-neutering exercise.
5
The Senate, specifically the GOP members, are as much on trial here as Trump is. The question of possible acquittal remains premature. As voters, we need to force all members of the Senate to be on record with all actions during their time as alleged nonpartisan jurors in this impeachment case. Make each of them be clear about what they are doing. Make each be on record with the reasons behind all actions in impeachment proceedings. And the rest of us must hold them accountable for those actions and underlying reasons -- forever.
6
Looks like some Republicans are beginning to see through Emperor Trumps new clothes.
3
So these poor Republicans are angry, Guess what, senators, so are we for a different reason.
21
January 28, 2020
The Bolton cauldron has arrived with thunder and fire to bringing the force of truth to the Impeachment castle and so goes off Trump into the abyss of a fall chosen finality. All is right with America as Lady Liberty is forever truth when great men of honor know what to say and stand by perfection for democracy’ honor.
Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble!
William Shakespeare
2
I thought it was telling that John Kelly, Trump's former chief of staff for 18 months, said that 'If John Bolton says (it)...I believe John.'
Don't we all?
173
@E. Cripe
You read my mind. Could not agree more.
3
@E. Cripe I'm willing to give Bolton the benefit of the doubt on this--because there's a mountain of corroborating evidence. However, let's not forget, Bolton is one of the primary architects of our war against Iraq, which was predicated on lies and false evidence. He's no hero.
3
Senate Question #1:
We have heard the opening statements from both sides.
Opening statements are merely previews of what the parties expect that the evidence will show.
Evidence is presented by witnesses under oath.
Evidence is presented through relevant and complete documents.
One side has consistently referred to statements from witnesses who were not under oath.
Opening statements are not evidence.
When will evidence be presented to the Senate in the form of testimony under oath and documents moved into evidence?
5
“All you need is the Constitution and your common sense.” - Pat Cipollone
Yet Trump’s lead lawyer’s parting shot combined a string of videos as a cheap political shot, and then he gave a plea to the Senate to ignore their obligation to conduct a fair trial and to just “let it up to the voters.”
Alan Dershowitz didn’t write the Constitution and his interpretation of it is a minority stance among Constitutional scholars. And my common sense tells me he’s wrong.
11
@Vicki: These fakes can't even give a straight answer to "what is an establishment of religion according to the Establishment Clause of the first amendment?"
1
@Vicki
Trump only hires the best criminal defense attorneys.
If you think Ukraine is bad, suggest you read up on Millard Fillmore.
1
What in the world is wrong with these middle aged white adults. they are an embarrassment to watch and listen to. They are killing democracy and are afraid of one deranged old white man.
I say white because they are the party of white people not the party of America. How scary are these people? very scary
All of the GOP Admin people should testify and tell what they know. No books but stand up like Americans and tell the truth.
Pompeo wakeup because your not going back to these cozy jobs because you don't represent America
8
If a majority of Repub senators refused to give this thug,—the most most corrupt president in US history—a pass, what would his base do? Get so infuriated that they’d...they’d... haul off and vote for Democrats? It’s too late to primary every one of them. How much power does this weakling have? How much power does this monstrous “base” have? Do the math: 70% is greater than 30%. We are better, stronger, and right-er than they are. Quit flinching, Repubs! At long last, stand up for someone worth your “sacred honor.”
13
@Bluebeliever41
Trump can't last anymore than 5 years. After that, the GOP will endure an eternity of recrimination...
1
@Susan: We share a name, and a hope that the trump stain will endure. I’m wishing lots of regret on those who have betrayed our country—from trump on down to langford. They will live to rue the day....
2
Liking Bolton is not the issue……..
Getting to the truth is the issue……….
Bolton at least has patriotic, defend the Constitution genes………
Something sorely missing in Trump, McConnell and most of the Republican Senators…….
And yes, Washington is a "swamp" but a still yet undrained "swamp" in addition to a rat's nest full of cowardly Senators……...
11
As an aside, the room where it happened in "Hamilton" had Madison, Jefferson and Hamilton. And the room in this book had whom? I'm presuming Trump, Pompeo, maybe Pence and Bolton. Ha, Ha, Ha, and many more Ha's. Poetic license much?
5
Not an impeachable offense? Let's change the facts a bit. A hurricane hits Galveston and Texas desperately needs FEMA and financial assistance. Trump is on the phone with the Governor of Texas, the Mayor of Galveston, take your pick. "Sure, I'd love to send you FEMA and financial aid, but first I need a favor. I want you to schedule your state's next leadership retreat at Mar-a-Lago. Send a couple of hundred government employees and contractors there at $300 per night. And, I want you to use my daughter's catering business to feed everyone. Agree to that, and I'll send you FEMA and financial aid. Do we have a deal. I do the best deals." Not impeachable?
25
@CS
Sure, to a normal person, IMPEACHABLE. Sounds like using the power of the office to ask for a bribe to me. (Actually, make that about $345 a night, if you check their web site.)
To Alan Dershowitz, first show me the explicit codified law that has been violated, and then we will talk about it.
Does that about sum up the position of the White House lawyers?
Figures that Romney would be the ring leader in all of this. He is a RINO if there ever was one. Thank you.
2
@Southern Boy
That is with respect ridiculous. Romney is a genuine Republican. Trump is an aberration who breaks GOP orthodoxies like free trade.
I don't agree with Mitt but he is a decent man. How I long for the good old days when Republicans were authentic conservatives. Amazing how Trump has turned "never Trumper" into a pejorative. What is a never Trumper? Someone who went for the exits when they heard Trump boasting about and confessing to sexual assault?
Never Trumpers are GOOD decent conservatives.
1
@Southern Boy
Seems to me Romney is a real Republican of the Lamar Alexander, Jeff Flake, John McCain sort.
Trump is the imposter. He was a major Democratic donor for decades. Now he’s just on a power trip and riding a populist base.
Contact your Republican Senators and ask them to call for testimony from John Bolton.
16
“You cannot impeach a president on an unsourced allegation”
Jay Sekulow’s call for John Bolton to testify. Gee thanks, Jay.
16
No witnesses, no documents = coverup.
"Trial" should always print with quotation marks.
19
Evidence offered by the House consisted of excerpts taken from testimony and authenticated documents that were obtained by witnesses who were under oath during the House investigation. Trumps tweets were statements that he made against his own interests and were therefore not subject to oath.
The Trump defense hasn't offered any sworn testimony. They haven't brought in a witness. Their case has been strings of platitudes, regurgitation of right wing conspiracy theories, and arguments about events that have nothing to do with Trumps conduct.
Considering parts of John Bolton's book without the benefit of his sworn testimony just makes the proceeding into more of a circus than the Trump defense team and former judge, Senator Mitch McConnell, have created. The Trump defense team and the Republican senators are undermining what little faith that Americans still have in yet another institution. Bolton should testify, under oath, an be subject to both direct and cross-examination. Let Americans see and hear for themselves.
20
Watching from europe it has become very clear that the american democracy has erroded and this is the most clear manifestation thus far. Of course the republicans in the senate know trump is guilty and corrupt, but personal interest is more important to these people than the principles put forward by the founders of your union. I think the system is such in the u.s. now that only politicians of this type of character and amorality are funneled through the political system. Therefore it is almost impossible to win a seat for someone uncorrupted by special or personal interests.
I feel this is a historic event. The question is can the great american democracy, the shining city of light on the hill, be saved or is it heading irrevocably towards autocracy?
19
@Eirik Havnen Bruun
It will be an oligarchy.
So if I were a Republican Senator crossing the street who got suddenly hit by a car that just sped on, I would be the first person to ask "who was that and what is their name?" Essentially, that is all that House members and a majority of Americans are asking. Who hit us and what was their name.
2
If Bolton is not subpoenaed, along with others in the White House administration who have direct knowledge relating to the impeachment charges, then the concept of transparency is dead. The founding fathers did not mean for the Senate to hide trial evidence for any reason. It is our constitutional right to hear the testimony.
17
"Two Republican senators are backing a proposal to make the manuscript of John Bolton’s forthcoming book available in a classified setting to all members of the Senate."
A "classified setting" for something that will be available to the general public in Kindle, Audible, audio CD, and hardcover formats for anywhere from $16.99 to $32.50 as of March 17? How weird is that?
The presumption relative to one's status as a jury member (in this case the US Senate) is a level of judgement falling within a range of what is normally considered the upper and lower limits of sanity. This is no longer partisan bickering. This is clear cut insanity. These folks could be clinically described as having drifted into the Twilight Zone of "bonkers".
10
@Garrett
Classic money-grubbing GOP. Everything's for sale, even our country.
1
This is it folks, two worlds colliding. The alternative reality where facts are made as they go against depiction of facts that are firmly firmly footed in reality. The alternative world where testimonies are misrepresented at will, against 17 testimonies under oath.
The defense has no witnesses testifying under oath. Not a single one! There are at least 50 potential witnesses that could be called and settle the trial for good. Why aren’t they called? Because none of them would defend Trump and commit perjury. Not a single one!
20
The Dershowitz arguments are specious. He cherry-picks quotations from Madison, Hamilton, other founders, judges, and justices from prior impeachment trials in order to claim that the abuse of power article is too vague to be an impeachable charge. He uses arcane legal doctrines (mostly from 19th century jurisprudence), contrasts the U.S. system with Britain's in murky ways. He argues in contradiction to his own points made just minutes earlier. He is another con man. "He didn't do it; but if he did, it wasn't illegal; but if it was, it isn't impeachable." Come on. I think your average high school student could see through all the smoke and mirrors here.
13
Former Chief of Staff John Kelly says Americans should hear the whole story. "If there are other people that could contribute to this, either innocence or guilt ... I think they should be heard." He added, "I think some of the conversations seem to me to be very inappropriate."
John Kelly continued that John Bolton "always gave the President the unvarnished truth ... John's an honest guy. He's a man of integrity and great character, so we'll see what happens."
Yes, we'll see what happens; we'll see whether Senate Republicans decide to hide proof of Trump's innocence or guilt, his "inappropriate conversations", and whether they will conceal the testimony of an honest man of integrity and great character.
7
The White House lawyers opened the trial by accusing the House Managers of withholding evidence and the House majority of violating due process by preventing cross examination of witnesses.
They closed with sound clips, from the Clinton impeachment, of Democrats predicting that the low bar Republicans were setting would come back to haunt them.
Noted.
4
Biden should feel better now that he is in good company, Trump and Fox are NOW smearing their administration’s National Security Director and Acting Chief of Staff. How many more patriots’ reputations will they allow to be smeared before the Senate does the right thing. Justice will be served. The day of reckoning will come.
10
Joe and Hunter Biden will be called also. Bolton will do nothing for the case against President Trump but it will be interesting to hear from Joe and Hunter Biden when they have to testify under oath.
Interesting information:
Responding to reports that former national security adviser John Bolton has written in his forthcoming book that Trump told him he wanted to link Ukraine aid to an investigation of the Bidens, Dershowitz argued that even an explicit "quid pro quo" would not constitute an impeachable "abuse of power."
"Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power, or an impeachable offense," Dershowitz said. "That is clear from the history. That is clear from the language of the Constitution. You cannot turn conduct that is not impeachable into impeachable conduct simply by using terms like 'quid pro quo' and 'personal benefit.'"
@Jonathan
You keep repeating that Jonathon.
He is not being impeached because they use the term quid pro quo. Like the word collusion, Trump had never heard of quid pro quo before (not being a reader); so he seized on it as a hook and kept denying it. He knows how to market simplistic advertising points.
They are using overwhelming EVIDENCE to impeach him and could do so without ever using the term quid pro quo.
Quid pro quo is not a magic word like abracadabra and it is not always illegal
Legal Quid pro quo: My wife says if I cook the dinner she will wash the dishes
Illegal Trump-esque quid pro quo: My wife says she will not do the dishes unless I rob the bank.
2
It seems the GOP wants to play tit for tat witness exchange if Bolton's revelations lead to witness appearances. Hunter Biden is accused of being paid by a Ukrainian company $83k (x 18 mo.) as an undeserving ceremonial figure using the Biden surname.
A large part of Trump's income stems from ceremoniously licensing the Trump surname to buildings/projects he didn't build and doesn't own. Just one example is a deal Trump's family has with an Indonesian developer to put the Trump name on a resort project.
In 2018, 72 hours after the Chinese government agreed to provide $500 million for that project, Trump ordered bipartisan sanctions be rescinded against ZTE, a major Chinese telecom company accused of shipping goods to Iran and North Korea against US sanctions. Quid Pro Quo.
Another obvious example is Ivanka Trump's golden pathway for hard to get Chinese patents worth millions.
Yet, even when Trump familial emolument corruption is staring the Senate in the face, their voracious concern is Hunter Biden's $1.5 million? Heck, Trump spends that in one day when he flies on Air Force 1 to play golf and advertise one of his golf courses.
Hopefully, the trial will get witnesses, but the distorted values and ethics of the GOP Senate will probably twist any truthful testimony into a bizarre spin for acquittal.
Yet, many will see the truth, and if Trump is acquitted, and the elections are not compromised, there still remains hope the American vote will oust him and the remaining swamp.
10
Why do they reject the sworn testimony of people who have absolutely nothing to gain and much to lose by testifying? Why are they so afraid of sworn testimony from those that could conceivably exculpate trump? Why don’t trump supporters see this?
9
What are the republicans scared of? Clearly, they care nothing about truth and honesty. I want to know what really happened and their stonewalling is forcing me to believe everything the Democrats are saying.
11
This began with “The call was perfect”. Of course, it wasn’t.
Then it became “No quid pro quo”. But there was.
Which turned into ‘The whistle blower report was based on hearsay’. Then seventeen witnesses came forth.
So it moved to ‘None are FIRST HAND witnesses’. Now we have one, and he has impeccable conservative credentials.
So the primary argument that is left is that Trump’s actions don’t rise to the level of impeachment. Which is patently absurd. And if it was true, why hasn’t that been the defense from the outset?
The facts are that Trump was willing to illegally (according to the GAO) withhold aid, and risk the security of an ally (not to mention NATO’s and our own) for the sole purpose of digging up dirt on a formidable political opponent (thereby soliciting foreign interference in a U.S. election).
To the Republican Senators willing to participate in this cover-up: If you ignore your sworn duty by ignoring Trump’s behavior here, one thing you can be absolutely certain of is that this will become Trump’s new baseline, and he will force you to debase yourselves even further at the next opportunity. Prepare for total subservience.
14
Who can feel sorry for the Republicans, Trump is both untrustworthy and unqualified, and the Republicans must either became a permanent Trump property or toss him off.
5
When Donald Trump in his euphoric threat to the Iranian people saying he had picked out 52 cultural (sacred) sites to destroy should they retaliate for killing their general, he committed a war crime. The threat was a crime, and that threat led directly to the downing of a passenger plane. He and his enablers are murders. And no one is shocked ? Throw in the towel, we have been defeated.
5
The Democrats presented an airtight case - even without Bolton. Trump is guilty of trying to extort a political hatchet job by withholding military assistance. Every fair minded person understands that he's guilty of an action that is exactly what impeachment is for.
But, he's entitled to a defense. It can't be taken seriously, because Trump is so obviously guilty as charged. It's entertainment. We're watching a bunch of hired guns try to defend Trump even though they all very likely understand that he has earned removal from office.
Dershawitz loves an argument and never more than when he's making other heads explode by taking an outrageous position. I remember him on TV haranguing us about why OJ should be acquitted after comitting a double murder.
Sekulow comes out of the Evangelical movement through Jews For Jesus (google him) and has been sued for fraud.
Ken Starr persecuted Clinton for a lot less than Trump has done and subsequently lost his job for some kind of misconduct.
14
The last time I didn't beieve a word the President of the USA said was George W's claims of WMD's; prior to that, it was Reagan's evasions during his Iran Contra deposition. Before that, it was NIxon's lies and cover up during watergate. These were, of course, Republican Presidents. Now, we have the Arch Liar of All, Trump, who sees no virtue in honesty, nor do his gang of senators. Surely, this country deserves better than this?
6
Earth to Republicans... were Bolton’s “revelations” really a surprise to warrant anger?
It’s not like you all didn’t already know this information.
Government employees have already testified in the congressional House impeachment trial and a WH whistleblower reported it last year.
That’s why we are all in this moment.
Humanity is on the verge of a potential pandemic and the GOP are performing a pantomime.
8
Does the average American really care about Ukraine? Does it impact their daily lives? Is this their core issue for the election?
1
@SmileyBurnette
Americans didn't care about the gruesome fates of Middle Eastern victims of the Taliban, either, until after 9/11. They didn't care about horrific beheadings, until Americans were beheaded. When our enemies gain control of all the important places around the world that are vital to our interests, then Americans will start to care about "Ukraines."
By then it may be too late...
2
@ Smiley
If you don’t care about Russian aggression on an allied country, maybe you should care about our Constitution? Maybe you should be concerned about whether government employees are being true to the oath they took when they signed on for service. Maybe you should care about whether we will have a free and fair election process, unsullied by foreign interference solicited by people running for office. Maybe you should care about whether those working in our government have our country’s best interests in mind when they are making decisions that will effect all of its citizens.
2
We need the whistleblower, Adam Schiff, Hunter and Joe Biden to testify. After Biden's testimony his chances of the winning the nomination will be nil. Bernie Sanders will be the Democrat nominee and he deserves it.
Question #1:
We have heard the opening statements from both sides. Each referred to potential evidence, some under oath, some statements made not under oath.
Opening statements are merely previews of what the parties expect the evidence will show.
When will evidence be presented to the Senate in the form of testimony under oath and documents moved into evidence?
2
Trump proclaims that the presentation by his defense team is "boring." And there it is. He'll say what excites his base (or excites him first, and his base second). Truth is convenient but not necessary. The consummate showman; he "won" the election and has been crowing about it ever since, not realizing until later that winning meant that he had to be president. So now, like a third-grader caught in a lie, he's accusing everyone else of lying but himself, but he can't get his stories straight. Some Republic senators, at least, are beginning to realize that their continued support of Trump and his no-witness defense strategy may backfire in their more moderate districts. But Trump is wily and he is banking on the Democrats overplaying their hand, which they tend to do. Hold steady, Democrats, stay disciplined, be patient, rein in the progressives, and Trump will self-destruct.
28
The purpose of a trial is to have witnesses and documentations participate with the goal of getting to the truth in the matter. This trial? How many ways to twist and turn away from witnesses and documents participating with the goal of hiding the truth in the matter from the American people. How much lower can America sink to under this (R) "leadership" when the POTUS prefers oligarchs and dictators?
18
@An Independent American: Everybody knows that Trump coerced Ukraine to assassinate the character of a domestic political opponent. The Republicans evidently believe they have no character to lose this way themselves.
2
Bolton needs to testify live for everyone to hear. If the GOP succeeds in its ploy to have him testify in secret, then we'll always have two versions of what he said: 1) the GOP version, and 2) the Truth.
21
Everyone should testify. Every piece of subpoenaed evidence should be submitted.
Chief Justice Roberts can only defend the Constitution at this point by forcing the Senate to hold an actual trial.
Failing to do so will harm the Supreme Court, the Congress, and the Executive Branch.
24
Keep tweeting, Mr. Trump; your tweets will be entered as evidence at some point.
18
Like so many others, I doubt that the Bolton revelations will move the Senate Republicans to any action against Trump, even as mild an action as calling witnesses.
But as yet more evidence of Trump's outrageous behavior comes to light, I can only wonder what will finally be a moral "tipping Point" for McConnell & Co. if the actions of the past years have not.
7
President Trump's impeachment trial defense team -- in providing the Republican senators with what one Democratic senator referred to as "rickety off-ramps" -- is counting on the frantic hopes of those same Republican senators.
The defense team is providing a one-half "explanation" of the laws and the facts -- leaving out the relevant and pertinent half in all instances.
Maybe the defense team is counting on the Republican senators' belief or frantic hope that the Trump supporters are too ignorant of the laws and the facts to realize they are being deceived.
How else can the defense team excuse the fact that -- for the first time in American history -- no witnesses and no documents will be permitted" at an impeachment trial by the defendant: President Trump?
7
Mmm. Whom to believe. The man who has lied over 13,000 in the past 3 years , or the one go wants to testify under oath?
Not a difficult call.
24
Again I ask "Why are these Senators so afraid of Mr. Trump?" Bullying only works if the receivers fail to respond. At some point, I hope these Senators find their courage.
9
Amazing to think that Bolton and Romney et al are the voice of sanity and reason.
15
I think that a witness trade, though likely improper, might not be a bad idea. The GOP can subpoena Hunter Biden, and the Dems can subpoena Ivanka, to find out about all of the patents she has gotten from the Chinese during her father's Presidency. Seems like a fair trade.
9
If Trump really wanted a fair investigation of the Biden’s, he could have ordered the Justice Department to begin on day one of his Presidency, and he also can order a criminal investigation this afternoon. None of this has anything to do with the impeachment, which is needed only for the President, who cannot be indicted by Justice.
This whole exercise was only begun after Biden became the Democrat front runner, and Senate Republican’s developed a desire to attack Biden for the Fox News show. This is how Trump runs a campaign, with accusations of criminal behavior leveled against his competitors, and will end with exactly the same charges that were leveled against “Crooked Hillary.” Absolutely none.
9
@Howard Kessler: Trump puts everyone else on trial in self defense.
4
Trumps runs around with the gun in his hands and some people want to know where is the smoking gun.
12
The poor, poor gop, having to deal with people telling the truth.
15
“Increasing likely...strengthen the case...curious.” These are the words of microphone-seeking opportunists. Collins, especially, is Lucy holding the football and the press is hapless Charlie Brown, just hoping that maybe this time he’ll get to kick it. Where does he end up every time?
8
Sometime around July, polls will reveal Trump's weakness. This will scare Republican incumbents facing reelection.
Then Trump will get caught on a hot microphone saying someone's baby is ugly. Then, and only then...they will turn on him.
1
The Republican Party has been exposed for all time as a collection of corrupt, venal, lying, greedy and unprincipled people. I won't believe one thing that any Republican says ever again. They will literally do and say anything just to defend Trump over their oath of office. When they say, "so help me God," or talk about faith, they are lying through their teeth. They have no beliefs or principles of any kind.
15
You'd have to be a newborn baby not to see Trump's motives and his absolute guilt in trying to bribe a foreign power to seek dirt on his political enemies.
It is so terribly embarrassing to witness supposedly intelligent men and women try to obfuscate, openly lie and dance around the truth to defend this terrible, dictatorial president--all while trying to keep the most important witnesses from testifying.
In my memory, no patriotic American would sign on to defend such a weak, dull-minded, self-centered criminal of a president--and they never have, until now.
May they wear the shame of their anti-American deceit for all of history--if we do indeed have any 'history' as a country left when they are through.
13
As with the Bolton revelations Republicans no longer even try to put out the fires President Trump constantly sets. This White House is the Australia of administrations.
6
Nothing will bring Trump down, not Bolton, not anyone. Trump said it himself, shooting someone on 5th Avenue would not matter. As for the Republican party propping him up, it just doesn’t get any easier for them does it? They are bullet-proof too as long as they tow and tout Trump's lies.
Next up, stealing the 2020 election should Trump lose, but that'll be a piece of cake for Trump and his party because you will be well-established banana republic by then.
As Schiff said so eloquently, you will be lost if this Impeachment
fails and just falls away to be filed under ‘phoney witch-hunt’. This is all such a travesty, but I pray that the truth really does matter and justice will be served, but it seems so unlikely to happen.
5
A significant number of Republican senators privately admit that DJT is nuts, a pathological liar, a moral disgrace, a danger to the world and our democracy, and otherwise unfit to govern. Wouldn't it be great if they all voted to hear Bolton and other witnesses. Like a herd of zebras, they might have safety in numbers.
12
Though I've basically made my point about/to Justice Roberts several times (basically: The "Checks & Balances" responsibility placed on the Chief Justice to ***Preside*** over this trial, in everything from taking & administering the ***Oath*** to ensuring propriety & thoroughness in the finding of fact & determination of law, permits no passive "wallflower" or "rubber stamp" approach; such an approach is an abdication of responsibility & betrayal of the Constitution & the country), I would invoke this point one last time in light of the latest developments & comments, particularly those concerning Republican career considerations.
The Republicans took a scared oath, *administered by Justice Roberts, himself under oath* do do fair and impartial justice in this case.
It is becoming clearer and clearer that Trump's hold on the Republican party and its voting base creates very real fears among Republican Senators that honoring their oath will hurt or ruin their careers. Given the demagogic dynamic we've witnessed, they are clearly being pressured to kowtow.
In this circumstance, it is all the more important for /justice Roberts to counteract this festering, escalating calamity of a miscarriage of justice and falsehood triumphing over truth, by ***stepping up*** as the Constitution requires, thus fulfilling the "checks and balances" role the Judicial Branch, though the Chief Justice, plays, and **must** play, in this process. We (& the Constitution) are all counting on you!
4
@anon
"sacred oath" that is, of course. (But obviously some typos/misspellings/autospell events reveal their own wisdom)
Cowards of the first order.
12
Though I've basically made my point about/to Justice Roberts several times (basically: The "Checks & Balances" responsibility placed on the Chief Justice to ***Preside*** over this trial, in everything from taking & administering the ***Oath*** to ensuring propriety & thoroughness in the finding of fact & determination of law, permits no passive "wallflower" or "rubber stamp" approach; such an approach is an abdication of responsibility & betrayal of the Constitution & the country), I would invoke this point one last time in light of the latest developments & comments, particularly those concerning Republican career considerations.
The Republicans took a scared oath, *administered by Justice Roberts, himself under oath* do do fair and impartial justice in this case.
It is becoming clearer and clearer that Trump's hold on the Republican party and its voting base creates very real fears among Republican Senators that honoring their oath will hurt or ruin their careers. Given the demagogic dynamic we've witnessed, they are clearly being pressured to kowtow.
In this circumstance, it is all the more important for Justice Roberts to counteract this festering, escalating calamity of a miscarriage of justice and falsehood triumphing over truth, by ***stepping up*** as the Constitution requires, thus fulfilling the "checks and balances" role the Judicial Branch, through the Chief Justice, plays, and **must** play, in this process. We (& the Constitution) are all counting on you!
1
I'm laughing now to read the latest GOP scheme - to have each senator read the Bolton manuscript. The GOP critics of impeachment - and the president's legal team - have made it clear that only sworn testimony in the face of everyone could possibly be relied upon. Now they want to read a manuscript before deciding (or in lieu of deciding) whether to depose John Bolton. They're just pathetic - or would be, if their actions weren't so damning to every American.
11
Is it possible that this late breaking Bolton revelation is an inside job timed by Republicans who are looking for an off ramp. Now they can agree to witnesses and documents because they “have no other choice.” They can throw Hunter Binden in the mix and under the bus too. On direct, Trump's lawyers can torture him for an hour or two until the Chief Justice says, “Asked and answered already for god’s sake let’s move this along.” On cross, the Democratic Manager rises to ask: “Mr. Biden, do you have any direct knowledge of Mr. Trump’s scheme to withhold release of military funding until the Ukraine announced a plan to investigate you, your father, Burisma and some mythical server somewhere?” Mr. Biden: “Gosh no.” Democratic Manager: “Thank you I have no other questions.”
In this way, they throw some red meat to their base and protect their own jobs. Just wondering.
I guess I’m hoping that there are enough Senators that would like a Trump exit strategy and be happy to have a predictable, religious zealot, adult assume the presidency and return things in their party “normal" just in time for an election.
Just wondering.
4
The silver lining in this situation for America is that Republicans are defending the indefensible
Ultimately, the Republicans are damned no matter what they do.
If they call witnesses, the truth will come out.
If they don’t call witnesses, they will have betrayed their oaths, and the truth will still come out eventually.
They can support Trump, or they can support the country.
They don’t seem to like either choice.
9
All of this leads me to ask all of you, how do we citizens go about holding accountable all the members of congress who abdicated their responsibilities and betrayed their oaths of office and their constituents? Waiting to vote them out is inadequate and allows them to continue to do damage until then. And they should NOT get the lifetime benefits ordinarily given to former members of congress. Do we need to pass new laws? I'm not confident we could get enough members of congress to go along with that, all fearing "it could happen to me." So how do we citizens wrest power from those who are obviously not working for us? I'm serious.
24
@ARNP: Every congressperson stands for election every two years. The Senate is on the one third every two years rotation.
6
@ ARNP
We all should be calling and emailing our representatives and senators. And call the WH.
2
Let them call Hunter Biden. Sitting with marginal qualifications on a corporate board, attending a few posh meetings a year in return for a hefty payment, is as American as apple pie. Look up the record of the composition and compensation on corporate and foundation boards. It's unseemly to working stiffs, but so is most corporate CEO compensation.
To my knowledge the Republicans have not produced a single piece of evidence of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden as a corporate director, only that he was paid a lot of money for doing very little. What else is new in the world of the 1%?
25
@Bruce
They all know how corporate boards work—many will be serving on them after they are through with government. Hunter Biden is not relevant to this trial.
I’ll try to think of a suitable analogy—someone tries to rob a bank because he thinks the bank’s policies are unfair. When the robber goes on trial, are the bank’s good or bad policies going to be part of his defense? It’s ridiculous.
8
@Bruce: Somebody was needed to guide the Ukrainians in western business practices they didn't know after splitting from the USSR, and every board wants name people on their proxies for people who actually vote proxies to see who is on boards. Unlike what Trump does, it is normal, including the high pay for working at a hardship location.
8
@kwan. If Republicans wanted to hear from the Biden’s they could do so any time the’d want to. They have 53 votes in the senate, they don’t need the permission from the Democrats. Yet, they prefer not to do it because they know it won’t help their case at all. If they thought it would be beneficial they would have done it already.
I don't understand everyone's thinking about this. If Bolton's revelations are that significant, it would discourage - rather than encourage - having witnesses. The stronger the case against Trump that can be made by witnesses, the LESS likely will the Republicans allow witnesses. How can anyone think otherwise? The Republicans are not looking for the truth in this matter. On the contrary.
14
Chief Justice Roberts is doing nothing that a good WalMart clerk cannot do, which is standard operating skills among him and his Supreme Court team. The last thing he wants is to handle a situation wherein he may have to make a decision, like whether to call witnesses. That would be just an over the top ability the SC has shirked for years, certainly since he became CJ. The whole gaggle of them are afraid to assert themselves should a decision be made that would be attributed more than 50% to them. It's been happening all the time; they push virtually everything down to states and districts by their lame, so-called decisions. I believe the SC does not have the courage to have a real role in this trial, so don't expect them to do anything beyond sending us the bill for all this.
11
@Dan Holton
Now seems like a good time to keep in mind that it would only have taken FOUR Republicans to keep Moscow Mitch from running a sham trial in collusion with the WH. And if by keeping silent Chief Justice Roberts allows Bolton's testimony to be suppressed, we have to wonder why he’s even there.
8
@Dan Holton :
A good Walmart clerk might have the personal courage to not allow his or her name to be attached to this travesty.
But, then, Chief Justice Roberts is a Republican, with a Republican's courage.
4
@John Townsend Exactly! They could have piped him in via teleconference and voip, then turn him off until the close each day or for the whole trial as far as I’m concerned. My suspicion is he is claiming per diem costs for a taxi from his building to the other one and for meals and incidentals. My solution would solve this problem.
2
If the republicans want to end the impeachment trial of Trump ASAP, there is a sure way to do so. Allow witnesses and ducuments to be included like every other trial, and if Trump is innocent, this will prove his innocence without a doubt. If Trump is guilty, keep on fighting to keep witnesses and documents out of the trial. The solution is really quite simple and very transparent.
13
"almost certain to be an acquittal." Should it be a foregone conclusion that the president is acquitted? The media seems to advance a rush to judgment that clears a president when all the facts have not come to light.
The fact that Trump called for Ukraine to dig up dirt on the Bidens in order to release military aid has been established. John Bolton's testimony, with his supposed deep commitment to our Constitution, may convince the senate and ordinary Americans that our president cannot invite foreign powers to meddle in our elections or do our elected officials want foreign countries to play a role in our national elections?
3
Why is Washington backing military aid to Ukraine in the first place? Obama resisted direct military aid to the ultra right nationalists who were prosecuting a ruinous civil war against eastern Ukraine at the time. This new military aid may reignite that civil war.
1
America has obligations to preserve the territorial integrity of Ukraine under a treaty in which Ukraine (stupidly) gave up its nuclear weapons. And it’s not a civil war since Russia invaded and annexed Crimea.
8
@Andy Russia did not invade Crimea. The people that live there voted overwhelmingly to return to Russian rule.
Washington staged a military coup that ushered in fascist rule and over threw a democratically elected government in Ukraine.
It seems Democrats stand to benefit from the Bolton issue no matter which way it goes. For the sake of the fairest possible trial, it is of course better to hear all relevant witnesses and see all relevant documents. But whether it comes from official testimony or from what we've already heard from Bolton's book draft, we already have the gist of the message: a first hand account of Trump's intentions and actions. Even if Bolton doesn't testify, the impression and doubt in people's minds has already been created. And it he isn't allowed to testify (along with the other relevant witnesses) it only furthers the belief - evidently of most Americans - that this is a sham trial that will make the term "acquittal" a very bad and damaging joke.
6
Every day of this sham trial convinces me more and more that the best solution to all of this is to break the country up.
Democrats are for the rule of law while Republicans are arguing for a monarchy.
I don’t see how you reconcile the two.
8
Sheer nonsense--read this:
Responding to reports that former national security adviser John Bolton has written in his forthcoming book that Trump told him he wanted to link Ukraine aid to an investigation of the Bidens, Dershowitz argued that even an explicit "quid pro quo" would not constitute an impeachable "abuse of power."
"Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power, or an impeachable offense," Dershowitz said. "That is clear from the history. That is clear from the language of the Constitution. You cannot turn conduct that is not impeachable into impeachable conduct simply by using terms like 'quid pro quo' and 'personal benefit.'"
3
@Jonathan
Hi Jonathan. We got your erroneous and ill-advised endorsement of the Dershowitz about face of opinion from 1999; we got your point the first few times you have repeated it.
The vast majority of legal experts contradict him.
Again they do not need to use the words quid pro quo, to impeach him. The term is not required at all. He held back the congress approved funds illegally, to incite a foreign country to meddle in U.S. elections.
Dubious Dershowitz who has a mutual friend with Trump does not have credibility. Just because he says it does not make it true
Elsewhere in this edition, an editorial explores the antifederalists who opposed the structure of the Senate. Prophetically, they believed “the Senate ‘loomed as a conspiratorial den’ that could collude with the executive against the rest of the government. It could use its legislative powers to strike down House legislation and its executive powers — treaty-making and confirmation of presidential nominations — to govern without the direct consent of the people.” Cincinnatus said, “One thing at least is certain, that by making one branch of the legislature participant in the executive, you not only prevent the legislature from being a check upon the executive, but you inevitably prevent its being checked or controuled by the other branch.”
McConnell is the principal leader of the said “conspiratorial den.”
12
@HamiltonAZ
Found it -- Jamelle Bouie. Thanks for the reference. Remarkable that it took this long for this dire prediction to come true, to the very letter. The Founders predicted the rise of trump and they predicted the aid of such as mconnell in his rise to despotism. The corruption of the R party is complete and absolute. The pusillanimous murmurings of a handful of quisling senators is not intended to have any true effect on the mocking of the Senate's duty to be an impartial body. If any of these co-conspirators remains in office after their next election, it will spell the end of democracy and the beginning of autocracy.
5
It's only impeachable if your political rivals do it, and it's not against the law if you can get away with it. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness using any means possible just so long as you don't get caught.
9
@Andrew
Uh, he got caught.
8
@Kally ... He was "caught" having a "perfect phone call"? He was "caught" asking for foreign nations to investigate his rivals in front of news cameras? While the majority of the US population thinks it's a violation of oath of office and impeachable, and even a government entity has labeled such behavior as criminal, is he "caught" if the Senate declares no crime occurred?
1
Why won't the GOP take this golden off-ramp to get rid of Trump and install team player Pence? The base has them quaking in their shoes.
10
There comes a moment when we have to be ethical, and this is the moment. Bring Bolton, and any other witness to show that this Senate trial can be ethically run.
6
Republicans are rather averse to people who know relevant things about the case for impeachment. In this proceeding, the Bidens are totally irrelevant deliberate distractions. Not so for Bolton, Mulvaney, Pompeo and Giuliani.
It i remains true that the Republican case, articulated officially at the trial or off-the-cuff to the press, focuses no attention whatsoever on the substance of the charges. It is all deflection.
9
If through some Machiavellian machinations, Trump and his Republican partners succeed in preventing witness testimony in this trial, and because of their actions, Trump is wrongly acquitted, then it will be crystal clear to all Americans and the population of the planet, that the government of the United States of America is as corrupt as any and all dictatorship / authoritarian governments which have ever existed, and currently exist.
Should this occur, the once widely held idea that the United States of America could be depended on, to always do that which is right and just, is dead.
This charade has already done irreparable damage to our nation, and if Trump walks away from this, America will lose the little respect it still enjoys, and people like Trump, especially other such leaders, will see his acquittal as approval to continue their tyranny.
11
It's not about the Bidens. The impeachment is all about trump, his aides and appointees and what they know. Let them speak.
Many in the senate are lawyers. Their behavior and attitudes makes me very happy I'm not one of their clients. I'd never consider any attorney who is not willing to seek the truth and who readily dismisses accusations without knowing and understanding the facts.
Electing lawyers to hold office gets them off the streets only to have them do more harm in those offices. We are now witnessing people smart enough to scam the educational system and pass bar exams, yet not so smart when it comes to matters of law.
This is all beyond belief. Senate Republicans continue setting poor examples for our children and grandchildren.
7
As usual, Adam Schiff hit the nail on the head: No witnesses equals no trial.
Difficult to believe our representatives who have sworn to defend the country and our Constitution, would permit a sham, Russian-styly show trial.
10
I suppose we now know the answer to 'how far will Republicans go to hold onto power'. As far as need be; any means justify the ends.
This is what happens when you think only your party knows best and therefore anyone else running the government would be a total disaster. It's arrogance and hubris of the worst sort.
I think I speak for most Americans when I say that we don't want extremists on either side in charge. We want both sides to work together for the common good. Until Trump is gone, I don't think that's ever going to happen.
6
It’s beyond Trump. The GOP took the leap over morals and ethics quite awhile ago. With Trump, they are showing there is no limit to how low they will go to save their soulless selves.
7
Most of the country now recognizes that the Republicans are engaged in a cover-up. The cover-up includes Chief Justice John Roberts, who is preventing Congress from viewing the President's tax returns and who himself could call witnesses.
It is clear to me (I am alleging) a criminal conspiracy that is more broad and deep than any that the democratic republic of the United States of America has ever faced.
Complete with a corrupted Attorney General, in my view.
What a tragedy!
If it were not for Fox news continuously broadcasting propaganda in clear violation of its public license and economic prosperity built on massive borrowing from China, this President would be toast!
6
Why wouldn’t congress investigate all of the Biden’s getting rich on relationships and government access based on Joe? If any of the accusations are true, and even legal, asking for an investigation was called for. Biden says he is not on trial, and is not part of the impeachment trial. He is a key part of the trial. If Trump thought, as he said in the famous call, recent public accounts of the Biden’s looked very bad, he had every right to ask the Ukraine to investigate the Biden’s, even if Joe was running for president. I’ve read, and heard many anti Trump talking heads claim the accusations have been debunked. By who, and when? I’d like to see the results of any investigations that took place. As far as I can tell, it is based on diplomats confidence Joe wouldn’t do such a thing. Really? If so, why has Joe and Hunter vowed it won’t happen again, if he is elected. Why would it be wrong in the future, but it was appropriate before Trump, and now Peter Sweitzer have exposed 5 Biden’s who got rich while Joe was Vice President?
If Biden is to be investigated we have out own justice department to handle that. The President conditioning congressionally mandated military aid on a quid pro quo using a personal lawyer as a go-between is nothing but pure abuse of power and a clear case or extortion. That extortion is the issue at hand, and no level of possible corruption by the Bidens changes the fact that Trump used his power to extort the president of a foreign country and ally!
6
It was debunked in the Ukrainian investigation that took place several years ago. Biden was carrying out the Obama administration’s policy to root out corruption in Ukraine, a goal shared by every European ally and by our famously anti-corruption ambassador, Marie Yovanovich.
Trump’s only interest in corruption is how to weaken anti-corruption laws in the United States. He demanded that Tillerson get rid of the Foreign Corrupt Practices law, which makes it a crime for American companies to bribe foreign officials.
Anyway, if you really still believe that Trump wasn’t using taxpayer money to coerce a foreign government to investigate his most feared political rival, demand that Bolton testify.
6
They must acquit! There is just too great an amount of money to be paid by corporations to the Republican senators for their following through on acquittal. Republican senators will not allow that money and continued power to be taken from them.
Trump in his deregulatory chaos of governance is just too important to the cadre of the true wealthy oligarchs that guide our nation toward trillion dollar deficits.
6
Republicans have sort of backed themselves into a corner here. They really don't want to convict the President, as he is their last, best chance to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg with someone more conservative, but it is hard to acquit someone out of hand who is so very clearly guilty.
6
An inconvenient truth. Absent in the Rep pre-Bolton reveation is a public position that there is no seed of truth in the House (Dem) case.
The Reps have been declaring the House case as a whitewash. But another view is that a whitewash covers a dirty stonewall(ing). The Senate needs to call witnesses or tell the House to get better information before the Senate can proceed further.
The Republicans shouted that the House impeachment was a farce because there were no first hand witnesses, only heresay ( not true! ) from 2nd hand and 3rd hand witnesses. And all because the Trump White House explicitly ordered them to defy subpoenas and testify nor hand over documents. Now we have John Bolton's unsurprising bombshell. What do the Republicans shout about now? Bolton is a staunch Republican, a war hawk, a Trumpster, a seasoned, shrewd, wily political operative. Now the Trump team, Democrats and the rest of the country cannot ignore him. Because no matter all the negativity surrounding Bolton, his allegiance to the country is beyond doubt. If the Senate Republicans don't call this die-hard Republican as witness, then their own party loyalty can be questioned.
5
These Republican Senators need to make the jump together. I don’t anticipate many of the Trump-aligned whackos to join in, but these more tenured Senators need to remember that their legacies hang in the balance. Their inaction across myriad important issues could be mitigated by removing Donald Trump from office. Failure to impeach will result in the mother-of-all-shellackings in November. Conversely, if you get rid of Trump, you take a lot of steam away from potentially Trump-aligned primary challengers. “If you elect me I promise to continue on the legacy of the impeached President” is not a great campaign slogan.
2
"“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop" according to Stein's Law. With its reaction to the grim fairy tale of Donald John Trump, the Republican Party is sewing the seeds of its destruction.
3
" ... the White House team is doubling down on a defense that is directly contradicted by the account in Mr. Bolton’s book ... They say the investigations were requested out of a concern for corruption in Ukraine ... "
Don't confuse them with the facts. "That's our story and we're stickin' to it."
2
I have not seen any good rebuttal on the merits to Professor Dershowitz’s points.
1
That’s because he is the only idiot lawyer making those ridiculous arguments. There isn’t another constitutional lawyer who agrees with him, not even Jon Turley who argued for the defense in the House.
4
Have you heard his take on the Clinton impeachment? He preemptively rebutted his argument himself twenty years ago.
7
Wow. Republicans are ANGRY that they might be FORCED to do a little bit of the right thing. Says it all.
5
Have these GOP senators ever stopped to think recently as to just how and why they now find themselves in this very awkward and uncomfortable position, i.e.,having to bury or otherwise avoid the truth? The obvious answer: Because they backed a career criminal, making their current painful situation inevitable. Trump is the deranged commander, holed-up in the bunker, muttering to the sandbags, after ordering the grunt senators to go over-the-top to face the fire. Not the sharpest tools, shall we say...
3
Isn't it funny and ironic that Trump's main defense is that he was trying to crack down on corruption? One of the most corrupt people in government trying to stop corruption?? If that isn't evidence enough that he's guilty, then I don't know what is. ;)
6
During his presentation yesterday, Alan Dershowitz took time out from his presentation to dismiss it, saying, Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power, or an impeachable offense.” The New York Times reported that Bolton’s draft manuscript says Trump told Bolton “he preferred sending no assistance to Ukraine until officials had turned over all materials they had about the Russia investigation related to Mr. Biden and supporters of Hillary Clinton in Ukraine, referencing unfounded theories and other assertions that Rudolph W. Giuliani, his personal lawyer, had promoted about any Ukrainian efforts to damage Mr. Trump politically.”
However the articles of impeachment do not allege Trump told Bolton he preferred sending no assistance. They allege that “President Trump—acting through his agents—told Ukraine it would get no aid unless President Zelensky publicly announced an investigation of the Biden and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2010.
Even if the New York Times report is accurate, it does not support the articles of impeachment. Trump may have preferred to extend the freeze, but he listened to his aides and ended the freeze before the September 31 deadline.
2
He only released the aid because he got caught. The aid was released right after the whistleblower report was issued.
4
@Bill
No witness has testified that Trump released the aid because he “got caught.” In a letter entered into evidence, Sen. Ron Johnson testified that he and Vice President Mike Pence persuaded Trump to released the aid after they returned from meeting with Zelensky in Warsaw. The told Trump they though Zelensky was committed to ending corruption.
Trump has been impeached. He will always be an impeached president. The Republicans have decided, in order to save their careers, his actions do not meet the criteria for removal. Hence, no need for witnesses and documents. Unfortunately, right does not matter - even when their constituents are uninformed and wrong. As the Republican Senators and House Representatives continue to do the bidding for this president over what is truly right for the country, they’ll soon come to realize they’re mere puppets of the process - powerless, useless and a just a body in a seat. Honor & integrity is lost.
3
No witnesses or documents. Trump and his allies have learned how to run a Soviet-style show trial from Putin.
7
No way Bolton will testify. More likely that the "compromise" will be that something from his book will be read into the record behind closed doors so that the American people will not be able to hear him answer questions etc. Bolton and all the other Republicans will get off the hook and he'll still make millions with his book. Just another rich white guy rigging the system.
Could someone please tell me if it's illegal for lawyers to outright lie? Are there any consequences for Cipollone lying when he said that no republicans were allowed in the SCIF? Or when Pam Bondi goes on and on about a conspiracy theory that has been utterly debunked? Can they get disbarred? Would a judge in a normal trial allow lying like that? I'd love to know, I'm not a lawyer.
I've tried to be even-handed towards Republicans, in deference to my father. I suspect he's now rolling in his grave along with the founders. Lying, self-serving, bunch.
5
@CKats
Right—it’s a circus and what purpose is John Roberts serving?
1
If not now, when? Will the next call be to the Saudi Prince to hack the democratic party leader phones and publish private texts from stolen data? The criminality of this current administration will never cease until we have a president upon whom we can rely to tell the nation the TRUTH. This man can not mount that simple need.
3
We may have to wait another week or two before the GOP pulls off their coup d'etat by placing Donald Trump above the law.
4
Can a defense really be called a defense when is so incompetently made up?
These lawyers should be disbarred just for so badly embarrassing the law profession.
1
Let’s see, the religious right which has a stranglehold on a large majority of Trump voters who are being cajoled into an argument that selling your soul to the devil is actually the path to Godliness. The neo-nazi’s who were fringe and largely unheard of and now have loud mouthpieces in the entire hierarchy of this republican government. The republican farmers, who are greedy for all the subsidies of the immediate moment, don’t care about long term impacts. The deluded veterans of fossil fuels who want an old economy back even if it kills the idea of healthy, educated children. The very wealthy companies who believe in profits and don’t care if their future includes living in mansions surrounded by slums, with air and water and earth, that’s thick with pollution.
For the senate, who is in this last group, why should they care about fairness? Truth in this time, is what the people in power decide it is. We my friends are walking into a new age. The age of Deceit. We will indeed be lonely voices.
John Roberts presides over this internal war of brother against brother like Dhritarashtra, the blind king in the epic Mahabharata, who knowingly and mutely watched his evil sons fight their good cousins for the kingdom. John Roberts, destiny has placed you in the same seat of judgement. What you choose to do or not do, will change the future of this entire world we live in.
2
Heck, it's as simple as it is easy.
Since every Republican lawmaker in Washington is scared to death of Trump, what better political cover than the one Republican who isn't?
1
John Bolton's book may indeed be a best seller like Michelle Obama's, "Becoming". What is the name of Bolton's book? How about "Trump Card"?
1
The White House Legal team are behaving like traitors to The Constitution, not defenders of The Constitution. They are desperately bending its intent and meaning and long, boring, convoluted arguments that at the end of the day have little merit and less honesty.
We all know that these fellows are hired mouths for a corrupt president and administration. They would argue just as hard for impeachment if they were hired to argue in favor of impeachment.
The Great Liar is corrupt and needs to be removed from public office. Let him return to network television. Maybe then he can get his 'Big Boy Pants' on. He'll never pull them up while in public office.
3
It was good to need to be driving for an hour or so yesterday while I listened to the corrupt Ms Bondi deliver her "ooooh scary" diatribe about the Bidens, good becasue I kept yelling about what she was conveniently omitting from her painfully skewed and incomplete narrative. What a charade the entire Trump team has turned out to be! As Biden might say, a load of malarkey.
4
What a waste. The President will be acquitted no matter how long this drags out. Bolton's account is one not even
the Times really knows because the manuscript has not been seen. All those he claims were involved somehow deny it. If what Bolton has to offer is claims that Trump indicated in a private conversation that he wanted Ukraine to conduct an investigation and can't claim he categorically said 'no investigation, no aid,' and Trump denies any conversation about it, the story will not advance one bit. Once the Biden's are called then all of Sleepy Joe's family will be exposed as questions naturally arise about the millions they have all made riding his coattails. His communications with Ukraine will be subpoenaed. Obama officials will be asked whether in requesting the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor he was actually carrying out Obama's request, etc. This thing will go on until April or May, the nation will tire of it, and my guess is that Democrats will pay a much bigger price than Republicans for this ridiculous circua.
Just checked the Fox News website and even THEY concede a majority of Americans want to hear from Bolton. THEY are US! Time for the Senate to act accordingly and bring the country together by calling the man who was in the room, who spoke with and heard from the President on whether he sought a political favor from an ally at war AND, concocted a plan to pressure the ally to do this by withholding congressionally approved taxpayer dollars knowing there was no legitimate basis for doing so (i.e., POTUS was aware of the interagency finding that the funds would not be misused). #rightmatters
Simon and Schuster....please do not place profit over the stability of our country. Release immediately the Bolton manuscript.
To be clear, republicans are "angry" because the lie everyone knew about was uncovered for all to see.
3
Tell us again, senators how the man who lies about just about everything that can be lied about was only interested in corruption in Ukraine.. After all, his reputation as the worlds foremost truth teller isn't exactly having monuments built in the name of truth.
2
Dershowitz logic leads one to imagine him saying that even if he and trump are found to have been involved with Epstein's exploitation of underage girls, it wouldn't be a crime since Epstein is deceased.
2
They have to have the base - it's ridiculous. Do they really think the base will vote for Democrats in the election? Get rid of him!
1
Republicans misplaced their moral compass long ago. Evidence is their refusal to hold Trump accountable for a litany of egregious offenses. He should also be removed for what he is not being impeached for. Consider...
1) 10 counts of obstruction identified in the Mueller investigation and conspiracy to encourage Russian election intervention
2) Election financial fraud related to payoffs to two mistresses
3) Cases of about 20 women covering sexual harassment and rape
4) Publicly verified lies numbering over 15,000
5) Hundreds of millions in tax fraud pertaining to his real estate scams.
6) Emoluments violations including Jared's $1.2 billion quid pro quo real estate bailout by Qatar.
These are the potentially impeachable. The unimpeachable debilitating the body politic, governance and institutions are even more egregious, inter alia: divisiveness, support for authoritarians, environment outrages, treatment of poor, health care roll back, damage to public media, threats to NATO and allies, appointments, racism, misogyny, religious bias.
The first things a new Democratic president must do are (i) assess damage in every sector--just like a natural disaster or pandemic, (ii) enumerate and move to undo everything Trump has done, and (iii) put in place laws and regulations to ensure that if this ever happens again America's integrity will be safeguarded.
...a great debate question: the first 100 days...
2
Only the guilty don't want witnesses because they have something to hide. The cowards in the senate cover up are showing their true colors for all to see.
3
Overheard in the Trump war room after Bolton throws a spanner: “Quick, let’s try to solve peace in the Middle East”.
5
Perhaps I’ve read too many Ludlum novels but could this fuss from the gop not wanting Bolton to testify “me thinks thou dost protest too much?” He IS a republican and it’s possible he could testify in such a way that would exonerate herr trump in spite of what his book states. Stranger things have happened- I pray I’m wrong but....
3
This morning while listening to a morning public radio program one of the guest speakers said the senators don’t want to hear any more evidence. I chuckled thinking how would that play out in a court? So, the defence attorney tells the prosecutor “sorry we don’t want to hear about any more evidence you may have that could prove my client’s guilt”. Basically take your burden of proof and shove it.
Unbelievable.
17
You know you've hit rock bottom when you find yourself counting on the likes of Bolton and Romney to speak truth to power and obtain justice.
18
@KC Yankee I wish I could recommend that 1000 times.
3
@KC Yankee
Strange bedfellows indeed. Romney would be a better majority leader too.
1
To consider for a nanosecond that Bolton moved the GOP Senate a millimeter away from Trump is hilarious and inconceivable. How could anyone think Trump innocent is beyond neurobiology or sticking your head into a lit oven. Nothing, or nobody is that dumb or disconnected. However, if Romney needs this cover then so be it, as well with Collins and the few others.
6
So, Trump denies Bolton's allegations. Durshowitz claims that Bolton's allegations don't rise to "impeachable offenses"
BUT
Neither Trump nor Dershowitz want to have Bolton testify under oath. Does that make sense? Of course not. But then, the Republican defense of Trump can be reduced to: obstruct, obstruct, deflect, deny, do anything but defend Trump's actions, and most of all, fool the MAGA-head rubes.
Looking at the Trump supporters, they seem to believe that if Hunter Biden did something, that completely excuses Trump's actions. Where did our education system go so wrong that people could ever come to this kind of conclusion?
But Trump's lawyers are counting on the low-information, Fox News besotted "base" to buy their ridiculous garbage.l
17
Bolton may be the answer for some Republican senators. So far the country has seen nothing but cowardly subservience to a narcissistic liar who they believe holds their very lives in his hands. Bolton's first and witness will present the opportunity for the honest senator to cast a vote according to face not fiction.
5
"Bolton Revelations Anger Republicans"
Because plausible deniability is off the table for them?
16
I was a Republican once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away...and will never go back. It's pathetic to see them latch themselves to a man who does not deserve their loyalty, and behave the way they have this last three years. I find myself shaking my head every day at the "ridiculosity' of it all. They're so afraid of losing his base that they are putting our country, and their own party at risk. Isn't it time they cut loose, admit they made a mistake backing Trump, and try to repair their party, and more importantly work to repair the great divide that Trump has created in our country? Enough is enough.
23
I'm troubled by the incongruity between my sudden interest in Bolton's testimony and my long-held belief that he is one the craziest, most dangerous nuts around. If someone is Dr. Strangelove in Washington, it's not Trump. Bolton, though, is a very good candidate. He's mad, folks. He's practically a walking apocalypse.
4
@Eric S
Thinking of Slim Pickens riding the nuke to the ground, are you?
Kaboom!
1
What is so ironic about this is that Bolton - for all his truly ugly tub-thumping - has clearly always been his own man. Time and time again he’s shown his unwillingness to consider that anyone else is right, and a total willingness to be impolitic. So why did Trump or anyone ever think he’d shut up about them?
4
John Bolton will not let Trump continue to hand out apples and tell recipients that they are bananas. I may not agree with Mr. Bolton about what to do with the apples, but they are apples, and being told that they are bananas gets really old. Especially since his base thinks that they are the best bananas ever. They are apples. It's time we all start recognizing them as apples. If John Bolton can accomplish that then he is a hero.
11
Trumps trial is following the Kavanaugh hearing game plan. Loudly complain about the unfairness of it all, establish an arbitrary date on a ridiculously short time line at which at final vote must be taken, handcuff investigators and refuse to interview available witnesses who come forward. I guess the question of Trump's guilt and Republican's complicity in it will be settled during the election, just as soon as Republicans give Trump the green light to continue trying to steal it. Trump and the current Republican party are a criminal enterprise, so we should expect no less from them.
10
Bolton is no fool. This is all intentional.
He said he would let courts decide on him testifying while Democrats were deliberating the articles of impeachment so he wouldn't be responsible for the impeachment and be hated by Republicans.
Now that it's in the Senate, he is offering to do so, because it'll rely on Republicans to call him.
I'm not a fan of Bolton, but I must say he is brilliantly walking the line of putting country first and staying true to his Republican Party. He's covering himself for the history books while not offending his party too much.
3
Getting Bolton under oath is critical. He knows that lying under oath in front of the senate trial means prison in all likelihood.
This is why he had the book leaked. He gets called in and gets to spill under oath, essentially daring anyone else in the administration to come in under oath to call him a liar.
It certainly gives any GOP senator cover if they vote to allow testimony. Let him testify, but still acquit Trump.
It's chess match stuff to be sure. It is also a scandal that this is what this country has come to at this moment in time.
Shamelessness rules the roost. Truth? What's that? Dignity? Forget it. We are in the age of mafia government, where former allies are now enemies, clear-cut enemies are pals (Putin) and every morally deficient person imaginable is running all over the place making bank.
4
@John Harrington
Who would put him in prison for lying to congress? William Barr's DOJ?
In related news, DJT promises robust manufacturing trend in pipe manufacturing industry.
2
@Justvisitingthisplanet - Pipe manufacturing is big business here in Seattle. Mostly glass.
What is it with all of the oppositional-defiant weirdos coming out of the woodwork to defend the indefensible?
Dershowitz claims, in a pathetically weak and brief letter, that he has done “ original and extensive research” that proves that the Founders wouldn’t have approved of Trump’s impeachment because what he has been accused of doesn’t rise to the level of a crime.
Au contraire, Mr. D—they’d be appalled by what Trump has done. He is what would have been their worst nightmare; a man who is openly siding with tyrants, who offends the good will of our allies and whose venality knows no bounds. For the Founders, these would be his crimes, even if they may not exist in the legal codes.
Worst of all for them, he is trashing their handiwork with his ceaseless assaults upon the Constitution.
8
Starr's sing-song argument was bizarre.
It's truly 1984 going on in real life here in the United States of America.
8
@J
I don't know what you're talking about. We've always been at war with Eastasia.
"The leader put out a statement saying that he “did not have any advance notice” of Mr. Bolton’s account." Oh my goodness. Xmas is coming Very early this year. I love the look on his face heading back into the chamber. Priceless.
2
How can Dershowitz argue that extortion is not "criminal-like" behavior? Extortion is illegal in every state in the union, punishable in most cases with prison time.
Any mayor or city councilperson in this country found to have coerced a cement contractor holding a government contract to pour him a patio in his backyard or else lose his government contract would serve jail time.
8
If Trump says he was interested in "corruption in Ukraine," what specifically was the "government corruption" connection to Biden/Burisma? Is Hunter Biden's involvement with Burisma the very most corrupt thing that the "government of Ukraine" was doing? Was the government of Ukraine "corruptly doing" anything at all in this regard? And will it have been Trump's most legitimately pressing "Ukrainian government corruption" concern?
With John Bolton confirming that Secretary of State Pompeo told him that Marie Yovanovitch had done nothing wrong, it sounds as though the only person legitimately interested in Ukrainian government corruption was the person who got fired by Trump.
The smell of quid pro quo is obvious. And it now emanates most strongly from the chambers of the United States Senate.
6
@Mark - Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell along with at least 4 other Republican senators knew all about Burisma, Hunter, and Joe, when they voted to allocate money to Ukraine in the first place. Why are Republican Senators giving money to a "corrupt" nation in the first place is the question. And why would Trump just go back to them and say, "Hey, I smell corruption, hold up the money legally so I don't have to break the law" ?
Well, everyone (including his base) knows the answer.
2
If Mr. Trump’s lawyers argued "....that Mr. Trump demanded investigations of them because there was significant evidence that they were corrupt..." did they not just admit to the offense that Trump has been denying? This is called moving the goal post. So what if he did it? It wasn't a crime.
4
Regardless of the dastardly manner that Trump and the GOP act to discredit Bolton, the repercussions of the senate not subpoenaing him would be staggering. History will not treat Dershowitz well but Bolton may be on the cusp of a Richardson, Ruckelshaus type of historic moment.
2
Pic of Starr. All hat, no cowboy!
4
I think Lebron James should be a witness and they should donate impeachment trial television syndication rights to Planned Parenthood.
3
"Anyone who spoke with the president said that the president made clear that there was no linkage between security assistance and investigations..."
Not true though is it, Republican lawyer?
I believe I just heard this cry coming from the Republican-led Senate: "Abandon ship!"
4
John kelly is showing some spine. Time for patriots to stand up against this unAmerica president.
7
Are they angered that Bolton's revelations expose Trump as a liar, or that the revelations became public? Because GOP senators would have to be pretty naive or stupid to believe from the start that Trump did nothing wrong.
5
Sending them my thoughts and prayers.
Lol.
8
The truth hurts.
5
In 1933, Shortly after the Reichstag burned down, Hitler, who led the Nazi Party to a 43% plurality, was made Chancellor. He asked for a change in the German constitution that would give him 4 years of essentially a dictatorship. A change in the constitution required a 2/3 majority. Only the Social Democrats resisted the threats, promises, or fear of reprisals from Hitler and his Party and "brown shirts". Hitler became a dictator and the rest is history.
Trump is asking for the Constitution to be suspended for himself. His threats to his own Party, opposition, minorities, and journalists and seeking friendship with authoritarian leaders in the world should alarm every American, including Republicans, that do not want a fascist authoritarian state replacing a representative democracy.
16
I share your alarm, but I think Trump takes the enabling by his soulless party as license to up the ante of his abuse of power. If, heaven forbid, he is re-elected, I believe he will go so off the rails that Republicans will impeach him.
@Newman1979: Social democracy advocates don't seem to go viral in the US. It seems to be barren ground for that segment of the political spectrum.
@Newman1979 - He is also openly talking about still being president 5, 7, 11, or even 21 years from now. And not a single comment from any Republican. And his base cheers at this.
1
Bolton should testify. Mulvaney should testify. Pompeo should testify. Guilani should testify. Frankly, I don’t care if the Bidens testify because I don’t think they have anything to offer about Trumps actions. But, whatever you think, anything that brings us closer to the truth is good.
The way the Senate has chosen to proceed is a joke. I think the House made their case with or without Bolton. Although they limited the Impeachment to Ukraine, there is three years of examples of Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress with respect to Trump’s actions on a variety of matters. It’s pretty clear he has obstructed Justice as it pertains to The Mueller investigation as well.
The GOP would be wise to convict and remove Trump. It may save their Party and the country. America is watching and the world is watching. To not turn over a few more stones in search of truth would be wrong and politically damaging.
805
@Tom Backus
Nor sure they can save the party. From losing. Demographics point the other way. So from maximizing probability of winning, gop might be doing the right thing. It's all game theory, my coworker likes to say. Somebody smart can study when that threshold was crossed.
9
@Tom Backus "Bolton should testify. Mulvaney should testify. Pompeo should testify. Guilani should testify."
And Trump should testify. And if he lies under oath, oh well, that's the kind of guy they put in office. Someone who simply cannot stop lying for a moment.
135
Agree. The faster they pull off the bandaid and start a new the better they’ll be by November.
42
One thing bothering me in The Times' reporting of the impeachment trial is that it's never pointed out that if trump really believed that corruption by Biden and his son ought to be investigated there are proper and effective ways to investigate - and none of these involves any announcement of investigations. Real investigations are never announced in advance because it would warn the suspects. It's clear that trump wanted a repeat of Comey's presser announcing the finding of new Clinton emails because it's likely that trump "won" the election mostly because of that one event.
503
@InvestAndProsper
What has the appointment of Hunter anything to do with Ukraine corruption? If anything it's about US corruption. And you are OK with trump asking Ukraine to investigate US corruption.
15
@InvestAndProsper
Our president's request was that the Ukraine government **make an announcement** about an investigation, not just that they investigate. And Ukraine's receipt of aid was made dependent on that **announcement**, not on the investigation itself. Our president's concern was to get the "news" out as quickly as possible, "fake news" created by himself.
29
@InvestAndProsper
we are to ignore the extortion/quid pro quo part?
10
Republicans are angry.
Not because there is now more proof that Trump lied, but because they can no longer deny it.
This entire time Republican congressional members have been at the very least in willful denial, and some. like Devin Nunes are likely wholly complicit. And it still won't matter in the end.
8
Republicans are "angry" about Bolton revelations only because it makes their cover up look worse than it already is. They really couldn't care less about the truth or the appropriateness of Trump's actions. The depths to which the Republican Party has fallen is sad.
11
One would think running a fraudulent charity would be enough to impeach a president, let alone the current scandal.
In a functioning Republic.
17
@MikeyR - along with a sealed indictment as Individual #1 in a campaign finance scheme where is cohort is currently serving time. Perhaps it is time for the DOJ to do away with the memo of not indicting a sitting president.
2
@MikeyR - I would think that handing a porn star a photo of your family and saying, "Spank me mommy" would have been enough. It certainly Trumps a blue stained dress.
1
Q. Why will Bolton's book be much lighter than "The Art of the Deal"?
A. It will have only one Chapter 11.
10
A handful of Republicans?????? I remain stunned that the stodgy, anti-communist, pro military, budget deficit hating, censorious Republican Party that I always thought you could count on at least to follow th(some) rules and respect (some) laws (not voting rights laws or employment fairness laws, etc.) but they did march around proclaiming how upright and god fearing they were, are now reduced to defending and protecting a president who is as undeserving of this as anyone who has ever lived. The Senators have no pride, no shame, no courage, no backbone as my mother would have said. Weak men and women who have sold themselves out for the promise of reelection. As more evidence is revealed, may be not in the Senate but everywhere else, between now and November, I doubt as many Republicans will win their seats back in Congress. They will live in infamy for nothing.
14
Whatever his motive, if his testimony puts the final nail in the coffin, Bolton be praised.
5
Why would any true American, including each and every GOP senator [yup, this includes you, Mitch] be angry about actually knowing all the facts? The trial is not, after all, some sort of request for a flag that flew over the Capital; it is about the most serious issue facing America. Get with it, GOP senators, and start having witnesses called.
13
No words of Mr. Trump's should be proffered by his defense counsel unless they were spoken under oath. He lies too much.
8
Look at the sources and asked yourself if you believe anonymity and creditability ?
2
Imagine for a moment the incredible nerve and condescension of the GOP, to force this kind of corruption upon this country. Never in my life would I have ever imagined an administration basically saying “Get over it!” to the American people, as continuous streams of its malfeasance are brought to light.
Are you angry? I am furious.
15
It seems strange that McConnell feels entitled to "advance notice" of evidence of criminality from the White House. And now he's in a tizzy. He is a an impartial juror is he not?
Why is he acting as lead Defense council and everyone pretends not to notice?
12
We always had party politics in our country. They were politicians all, in the House and Senate. But there was a time when those politicians ascribed to something higher! Statesmanship!
Statesmanship...when serious issues had these people put the good of the country ahead of party politics, ahead of their personal political views and certainly ahead of their job security. They did it because it was the right thing to do and perhaps it allowed them to sleep at night.
If impeachment of a President is not an issue that calls for statesmanship in its jurors, then I don’t know what is!!
A statesman would want to hear what all the witnesses have to say before making up his/her mind on how to vote on an issue of monumental importance to our country.
So step up Senators. You were sent to Washington to do right by the people and by the country. Show some integrity! Show some class! Show some backbone and hear all the evidence and the vote your conscience!
13
Abuse of power is not an impeachable act, Bolton’s reference tying Trump directly to the case isn’t impeachable act then, Mr Dershowitz tell us what is impeachable act.
6
An impeachable offense is whatever the Congress says it is!!! Holding up aid in order to force a foreign country to help smear your political adversary is prime BS.
Do you think the members of the Gang of Plutocratic puppets care one bit about truth, freedom, justice, the American way or anything vaguely associated with the aspirations of the framers of the Constitutions of the United States?
In my view, the GOP members areas in lockstep with their leader, who serves the dark forces of the tyrannical agenda of those who are aligned with the people in back of the Federalist Society, to which 5 members of SCOTUS are associated and their master administrator the Knight of Malta, the sovereign nation and militant branch of the Roman Catholic Church.
From what I can see of their behavior and read of their decisions at every level, the dark side of the DAVOS members is closely aligned with the long term agendas of Vladamir, Xi and the most amoral plutocratic neocons and major proponents of greed as the driving force for dominance.
These people would be happy to see women lose the right to vote, much the right to their bodies and with "Justice" Robert has spent most of his career working to destroy the voting rights bill, and GOP legislatures trying to find every way possible to stop people from voting if they happen to be people of color, students, women who don't like Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, and anyone who won't vote for their corrupted agenda and their divisive wedge issue-based whistle tactics.
McConnel may not be Sheev Palpatine but the forces he and the Gang of Plutocratic puppets he leads serve the dark side. Right matters/
6
Bolton’s revaluations should gladden Republicans. Now they can rid their party of a very rotten apple and clear the way for a qualified leader and make the world a better place. That’s the Twilight Zone version of the headline.
5
Republicans don't want to hear evidence that Trump extorted Ukraine to poison our election, just like they didn't want to hear about how he invited Russia to hack the Democrats, and evidently said China should, too.
Why are Republicans dead set against getting rid of Trump who blatantly invites foreign leaders to hack Democratic computers, extorts them to help him, and otherwise interfere on his behalf in our election? Why do they turn a blind eye to how he is abusing the power of his office and kowtowing to autocrats for his own personal and financial gain?
Perhaps it's because they know that unless Trump gets some help from somewhere he's dead in the water come November. Perhaps they know he won't win unless he cheats.
9
We know one thing for sure Bolton is not a habitual liar so he has Trump beat tight there.
The real shame is the Republican Party has simply sold out. It is no longer even remotely ethical.
I watched part of Sean Hannity last night, to see what the spin might be and I think he and others may live in an alternate universe.
His spin was so convoluted that I only lasted about 2 minutes, if that long. But the fact that the Republican Party has embraced this type of thinking and counts on Fox to cover their behavior with their current line of idiocy simply slows how pathetic the Party has become.
I am sure before long Fox and Trump will start the demonization of Bolton if it hasn't started already.
What is ironic Bolton may be the last real conservative left in the country.
10
@John H - Actually, watch something else on FOX besides Hannity and you will see things like Judge Napolitano calling for impeachment and laying out the Constitutional reasons for it. You will see Chris Wallace hammer Derschowitz on his hypocrisy. And last night, Bret Baier had to step in and quite things down when Wallace told a co-host to "get your facts straight!"
The only folks on FOX spinning for Trump are Hannity, Carlson (who has already warned Republicans about Trump in the election), and Pirro. But the news section and legal analysts make Rachel Maddow look like she is playing softball. Even Trump has commented in his rallies that FOX is turning against him.
Responding to reports that former national security adviser John Bolton has written in his forthcoming book that Trump told him he wanted to link Ukraine aid to an investigation of the Bidens, Dershowitz argued that even an explicit "quid pro quo" would not constitute an impeachable "abuse of power."
"Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power, or an impeachable offense," Dershowitz said. "That is clear from the history. That is clear from the language of the Constitution. You cannot turn conduct that is not impeachable into impeachable conduct simply by using terms like 'quid pro quo' and 'personal benefit.'"
3
They say optimists live longer. It is more fun to be optimistic than pessimistic. And I prefer to try to retain faith in the goodness of my fellow man. For those reasons, I hold out hope (faint, perhaps), that some republicans will uphold their oath of office and vote to follow normal trial procedure in which witnesses are called and evidence is not allowed to be concealed.
This is a defining moment for our nation. I pray we get it right.
God help us if we don't.
9
If witnesses are allowed, what sort of Pandora's Box is opened? If the Senate approves witnesses, then don't they (i.e., the majority) get to control who is called, and if Justice Roberts asks for witnesses doesn't he control the agenda?
There is an incentive for the GOP vs Roberts to allow witnesses, but do they in fact have the ability to limit the list if they do so? That could mean big trouble if Roberts then requires a "fair and balanced" list. It could be a very big mess.
1
If GOP Senators feel "blinsided" by the Bolton book announcement, they only have themselves to blame. Relying on the silence of witnesses caused by the stonewalling of an ever lying President as an excuse to reject the obvious truth is hardly the best way to prepare for unwelcome revelations.
Moreover, McConnell's strategy of delaying the trial to distance the vote on witnesses from the Bolton incident is probably ill-judged, since recent events make it very likely that more damaging news may well come out in the interval.
10
@Yves Leclerc - Any day now, I expect the author of "Anonymous" to step forward and reveal themselves and there will be even more Trump craziness to deal with. It almost appears as though one side of the Republican Party is trying to gain back control from the other side that seems to have gone rogue when they went with Trump.
This should be covered better by the newspapers that claim to be fair--note very little coverage on the defense presentation.
Responding to reports that former national security adviser John Bolton has written in his forthcoming book that Trump told him he wanted to link Ukraine aid to an investigation of the Bidens, Dershowitz argued that even an explicit "quid pro quo" would not constitute an impeachable "abuse of power."
"Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power, or an impeachable offense," Dershowitz said. "That is clear from the history. That is clear from the language of the Constitution. You cannot turn conduct that is not impeachable into impeachable conduct simply by using terms like 'quid pro quo' and 'personal benefit.'"
1
@Jonathan
So, violating the Impoundment Control Act, and going around Congress to withhold aid in secret is not an abuse of power? How about conducting a shadow foreign policy through your personal attorney? How about conducting relentless smear campaigns against the parts of our government whose oversight works to keep us protected from such malfeasance?
These things are definitely examples of serious abuse of power, and they are only a part of the larger pattern of abuse perpetrated by Trump.
A path forward is for Republican senators to meet with Vice President Pence and arrange for him to grant a full pardon to Trump after he resigns. Trump could thereby avoid indictment and conviction for the numerous alleged crimes being investigated by prosecutors. Instead of bargaining about witnesses, the bargaining should be about resignation in exchange for a pardon. This quid pro quo would be in the national interest and might give the Republican Party a chance to avoid cataclysm.
2
@Dave - But Pence is just as implicated and might be impeached on his first day in office before he can even sit down at the desk in the Oval Office. They would need to find someone in their own party who has not been a Trumpster to take over the party and Mitt Romney is not the most riveting person.
They are gambling, they are listening to Trump, and he lost big time in casinos even though he was the owner.
“Anyone who spoke with the president said that the president made clear that there was no linkage between security assistance and investigations,” said Michael Purpura, the deputy White House counsel.
Because Trump *always* tells the truth.
7
Are you saying Republican senators actually are surprised? That’s can’t be true. It must simply be they can’t ignore Bolton like they’ve ignored every shred of evidence proving Trump guilty. That’s what they’re angry about. They’re caught.
11
If the Senate does not now authorize the participation of witnesses, then the impeachment “trial” is not a real trial, but rather a series of long speeches, which will conclude with essentially a roll call, in which each senator, instead of declaring their party affiliation, simply declares guilty or not guilty, in lockstep with their party affiliation.
3
@Richard Fuhr
Yes, it wil be as unfair and partisan as was the House Democrat process.....
1
@Jorge - As I recall, not only did the House invite the president to provide any exculpatory evidence, they even explained the term to him on national television. What more do you want? KellyAnne Conway flash-cards?
Sen. Cornyn is right: there is nothing new in Bolton's revelations. I presume that means he and his colleagues have known all along that the president was lying, and the only question is whether his actions constitute an impeachable offence. Which they do, obviously.
10
@ss
No they do not. Read this:
Responding to reports that former national security adviser John Bolton has written in his forthcoming book that Trump told him he wanted to link Ukraine aid to an investigation of the Bidens, Dershowitz argued that even an explicit "quid pro quo" would not constitute an impeachable "abuse of power."
"Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power, or an impeachable offense," Dershowitz said. "That is clear from the history. That is clear from the language of the Constitution. You cannot turn conduct that is not impeachable into impeachable conduct simply by using terms like 'quid pro quo' and 'personal benefit.'"
@Jonathan points to an assertion that will be made often by the defense team, but Dershowitz himself has changed his mind on this since the Clinton trial. Clearly this is not settled law, and we are in for an interesting and important debate. As for the other article of impeachment, it involves conduct that the GAO has already ruled unlawful.
One of the most telling aspects for me in the Trump defense is a bit subtle, easy to be overlooked: the sneering, derisive way Dershowitz intones the phrase "parliamentary democracy."
Not that I would claim the founders/framers *did* seek to establish a "parliamentary democracy," the "mixed government" famously featuring elements of democracy (extremely liberal, inclusive voting rights; proportional representation in the House, etc.), aristocracy (the Senate), and monarchy (the presidency; albeit in this case wide disagreement among framers about presidential power, obviously), but the framers clearly did not share Dershowitz's only slightly muted sneer at the concept of "parliamentary democracy."
Though ostensibly a Democrat, Dershowitz is as pro-hierarchy as they come. No one glorifies power, status, and authority more that Dershowitz. During the admissions bribery scandal, he decried the dilution of "meritocratic" ideals, which quickly revealed itself to mean a raw traditional "social Darwinism," which obviously in his mind places Harvard at the apex of the apex (& his own status there as the apex of that). Dershowitz is a faux-aristocrat grossly exaggerating/fetishizing his own stature & Harvard's. Anything purporting to be "regal" or "royal" naturally delights him. In his heart, he is a monarchist. Trump's he-man autocrat persona & governing style viscerally appeal to Dershowitz's power adoration.
Listen to how he intones "parliamentary democracy"; it speaks volumes.
10
Sorry for the ambiguity: I was claiming the framers pursued a "mixed government" scheme trying to activate/harness the 3 traditional schemes' (democracy, aristocracy, monarchy) strengths, using checks & balances to counteract/offset the drawbacks of each.
But what I was saying the founders/framers did *not* share with Dershowitz is the disdain implied his sneering intonation of "parliamentary democracy"; the founders were all adherents of a "civic republicanism" that, with the exception of Hamilton (who basically worshiped banks, money, & the haute bourgeoisie), was quite anti-monarchist; their "mixed government" 3-branch (Legislative, Judicial, Executive) scheme clearly considered Legislative "Primus inter Pares," first among equals. This is because no other branch is nearly as connected to our founding principle: the establishment of liberty & "rule of law" through the deliberative-legislative process of framing a Constitution.
The weight they gave to the Legislature, even in their divided government, checks-&-balances scheme attests to their "parliamentary democracy" leanings, that Dershowitz seeks to deny & suppress.
If Dershowitz wanted to be fair, & faithful to that tradition, he would reserve the sneering he lavishes on "parliamentary democracy" (as if they only grudgingly admitted elements of it in their scheme, rather than enthusiastically as they did) for monarchy, which like Hamilton (& Trump all too obviously) Dershowitz admires & the founders mostly loathed.
3
Sorry for the ambiguity: I was claiming the framers pursued a "mixed government" scheme trying to activate/harness the 3 traditional schemes' (democracy, aristocracy, monarchy) strengths, using checks & balances to counteract/offset the drawbacks of each.
But what I was saying the founders/framers did *not* share with Dershowitz the disdain implied his sneering intonation of "parliamentary democracy"; the founders were all adherents of a "civic republicanism" that, with the exception of Hamilton (who basically worshiped banks, money, & the haute bourgeoisie), was quite anti-monarchist & in their "mixed government" 3-branch (Legislative, Judicial, Executive) scheme clearly considered Legislative "Primus inter Pares, first among equals). This is because no other branch is nearly as connected to our founding principle: the establishment of liberty & "rule of law" though the deliberative-legislative process of framing a Constitution.
The weight they gave to the Legislature, even in their divided government, checks-&-balances scheme attests to their "parliamentary democracy" leanings, that Dershowitz seeks to deny & suppress.
If Dershowitz wanted to be fair, & faithful to that tradition, he would reserve the sneering he lavishes on "parliamentary democracy" (as if they only grudgingly admitted elements of it in their scheme, rather than enthusiastically as they did) for monarchy, which like Hamilton (& Trump all too obviously) Dershowitz admires & the founders mostly loathed.
1
A sad aspect of the GOP party-line resistance is that school children in the US are witnessing the corrupt state of much of their national legislators. Don't they, many of them parents and granparents, realize that they are encouraging cynicism in youth?
Plato's words echo down 2.4 thousand years: 'especially, what effect will this have on the smarter youth, those most talented and able?'
8
"The newly disclosed revelations by Mr. Bolton, whose forthcoming book details how Mr. Trump conditioned military aid for Ukraine on the country’s willingness to furnish information on his political rivals, angered key Republicans"....Seems like Republicans don't like facts. What a surprise.
5
Just like Adam Schiff predicted last week - Trump plays everyone and the Republican Senators who should have known better are the latest victims. Too bad, no one feels sorry for them.
7
Now the Republicans are falling back on the defense of "Well, assuming the facts are true, it does not amount to an impeachable offense" according to professor Dershowitz as it is "too vague" and the Founders never would have found Trump's conduct as impeachable, intending it only for violation of a criminal statute. He is in the minority. The majority of scholars, including Lawrence Tribe of Harvard and Chief Justice Roberts' Constitutional Law prof, says it is clearly impeachable, no statutory crime is needed and it was this type of conduct the Founders were worried about when they included the impeachment procedure.
The most universal adjective used among lawyers is the word "reasonable", which lawyers all agree is vague but it used all the time. The resolution of what that word means in a given context is decided by common sense, which everyone is born with. No problem there. Which is worse - Bill Clinton's lying under oath (a crime - perjury) about sex with an intern or shaking down a foreign leader to investigate Trump's political rival - Biden - to smear him in the 2020 election to Trump's political advantage? According to Dershowitz, Bill Clinton's conduct is impeachable but Trump's is not. I would give Dershowitz an "F" if he turned in an answer like that in an exam.
8
Mr. Bolton: Please be the John Dean and testify before the senate and tell us what you witnessed during your time at this administration.
5
Bread and Circuses
Mondale-Ferraro Is Coming
1
Do Republicans want to know whether they are led down a primrose path that they can't defend or not? If Trump withheld knowledge of the Bolton narrative from McConnell, then they have every reason --if reason is their guide--not to trust "the Great Divider" Trump. Of course, all reasonable people know not to trust him at face value about anything, so it's debatable whether his party is dealing with something close to a full deck of reality.
This article describes the White House defense as "methodically" trying to "undermine the [House] case" and speaks of Giuliani as a "distraction". In what way did this team address the primary contention presented by the House, that Trump was motivated by personal gain, and isn't that the biggest "distraction" in a defense strategy filled with them?
14
@Tom: Theses mindless spectators watch Trump's lawyers flay one of their number, a former senator, every step of this process.
@Tom
The biggest distraction is ignoring all the Democratic votes the Koch network is currently purging while allowing ourselves to be fooled into thinking this criminal Senate will convict a criminal President overseen by a SCOTUS that created this mess 10 years ago with unlimited campaign bribes from the decision to auction our Democratic Republic with Citizens United.
The Saudi harem of Republicans in the Senate wouldn’t convict Trump if we found out he paid for all their mothers’ abortions.
Go to Greg Palast dot com and click on “How Trump will steal the 2020 election” and then scroll down to click on “STOP the Purge”
The Koch network stole the 2016 election for Trump and the GOP. And if we don’t restore these votes they’ll do it again.
3
@Tom: The Republicans can jump sharks by sheer force of will.
"Abuse of power, Obstruction of justice" are vague terms. Alan Dershowitz, really? These are facts not open to contradiction. These are terms unequivocally meaning criminality. And therefore guilty. Questioning the terms itself is acknowledging Trump committed them and therefore guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Reminds me of Mulvaney who confirmed quis pro quo on national TV.
23
@NNI
How do we know Dershowitz is not a constitutional scholar? Because he fails to realize there was no federal criminal code when the constitution was written.
4
If the Senate does not vote hear from witnesses, they will cement a general distrust of government in half (or possibly more) of the population, and further widen the already gaping political divide in the country. It will amount to a declaration that they govern only for their own base, and everyone else can pound salt. They don't seem to care, or perhaps the depths of their political cowardice won't allow them to. That the majority party in a key branch of our government seems so willing to abandon of any semblance of integrity may be the saddest part of this sordid national ordeal.
27
@Derek Martin: These are the eagle-eye sentinels who watch out for the potholes of the future of the US.
2
@Derek Martin Regardless of whether the Senate allows witnesses to testify, the distrust is already there. The fact that they had to be pulled there, kicking and screaming, plus the years of defense of trump as he continuously lied, decided on muddled at best and probably dangerous actions regarding North Korea, trade, Iran and all his ridiculous conspiracy theories all contributed to at least half the country’s disgust with the republicans.
3
The Republicans are not afraid of popular reaction to their sneaky and illegal tactics because they have three powerful secret weapons to maintain their vicelike grip on power:
1) their proven ability to hoodwink almost half the people who bother to vote
B) cheating in the election process
3) control of state houses and thereby the Electors
4
President Trump today stunningly admitted that he did indeed hold up the aide to Ukraine, all for his personal benefit.....
"That's right, I did hold up the money for some dirt on Sleepy Joe. I did it for myself, and I don't apologize."
When asked to comment on the President's revelation, GOP leaders said, "this proves that witnesses are unnecessary to this impeachment hearing. The President's honesty shows he is to be trusted and couldn't possibly be guilty of the accusations in the articles of impeachment".
15
Don’t get caught up in the spin
Or else Trump is gonna win
While everyone is taking bait
They’ll acquit him with a grin
To begin,
The Koch net is stealing everything
Their purging all our votes
While we comment on the sin
But we miss the solu-shin;
The truth is here within:
Greg Palast dot com
Find the fund and link it in
A Trump supporter, border ranchin
Court order took his land then
Built a wall where he was standin
Wasn’t that what he’s demandin?
It’s sad to see white men
Get raced into deception
But kinda funny when the money
That they’re stealin’ gets stolen
See racism is a crime ring
That leads to acquisition
Of property and freedom
Through division and deception
But we won’t be bribed again
Depurge the votes they’ve taken
Stacy Abrams has a plan
That will not be forsaken:
Google:
Stop the Purge
2020 Actions & Reports
(They won’t post my links!)
6
The need for witnesses including Bolton becomes more compelling with each day's new revelations. Justice demands that all the evidence be heard. A rush by GOP Senators to acquit without hearing witnesses will rightfully be seen as a cover up by cynical politicians who put party ahead of country.
We will soon learn if anyone in today's GOP has a conscience. Will Romney's concern foreshadow a trickle of GOP defections, allowing witnesses to testify, or will McConnell, Graham, Cornyn, & Co. aid and abet the worst assault on our democracy in modern history? For the sake of the nation and the world, I hope so.
10
Justice does not seem to deserve a say in the proceedings.
Neither does Justice Roberts, it seems.
What does “presiding” mean?
2
"He [Ken Starr] argued that the president committed no impeachable offense and urged senators to “restore our constitutional and historical traditions,” in which impeachment was rare."
Using the office and powers of the president is the hallmark of corruption. I ask, if this isn't an impeachable offense, then what is? I ask you, Mr. Starr, what would you consider an impeachable offense? Do we have to wait for trump to shoot someone in the middle of 5th Ave. Would that be enough of an impeachable offense, or would you argue that it is a criminal offense, but not impeachable?
I am saddened and disheartened that trump and his legal team make absurd legal arguments that Republican senators, who don't want to remove trump from office anyway, can hold on to so that they can somewhat comfortably acquit him. It's called the doctrine of "credible" deniability. Otherwise known as "hear no evil. See no evil. Speak no evil."
13
@GR You wrote: I ask, if this isn't an impeachable offense, then what is? Answer: Evidence of an actual crime. Not some vague accusation for which there is no underlying crime identified. Innocent until proven guilty of an actual crime, not an imaginary one, is not an absurd legal argument. It is the basis of our entire legal system.
1
@JW First, JW, this isn't a criminal trial, so lets's not confuse matters. Second, there is a mountain of evidence that indicates that trump withheld military aid and a White House meeting for an investigation into the Bidens. In trump's defense, his surrogates claimed that the aid was released without an announcement of the investigations. So there was no quid pro quo. But what about the desperately sought White House meeting???? Where is that???? Simple - no announcement, no meeting.
Moreover, our intelligence services (11, I believe) as well as the special consul all concluded that Russia was behind the meddling in our 2016 election and not Ukraine. Further, our intelligence services concluded that the theory that Ukraine was behind the hacking in 2016 and that the DNC server was being protected in Ukraine have no merit. Further our intelligence services concluded that these theories were concocted by Russian intelligence. Therefore, for us to accept trump's lawyers' arguments that trump actually believed these theories, is to condone accepting Russian intelligence over US intelligence. Moreover, if we accept that trump actually believed these theories, then we have to conclude that trump is decidedly paranoid. Moreover, when trump called on China to investigate THE BIDENS, even in joke, he called for an investigation into the Bidens - not Ukrainian corruption. To believe that trump was actually fighting corruption is lying to ourselves. I can't do it.
Senate Republicans witnessed Trump shoot a protester on 5th Avenue. They each had an excuse. It was not trump, or some other lie. The rest of the world saw that there was a video, and know from the facts what is the truth.
11
Republicans would claim: Trump did shoot someone, so what? All President’s do that from time to time.
Trump is allowed because of the unitary presidency gobbledygook up is down he can do anything because I say so.
The guy had it coming so it’s okay. Give him a mulligan.
2
@Hugh
More likely judging by their and their lawyers arguments (and especially if he is not impeached) it would be:
"So what! All good with us, the lawyers back us up even if the Constitution doesn't"
1
It is laughable that Trump is focused on eliminating corruption. Just look at the cast of characters he has surrounded himself with. Some of his closest advisers are either in jail, are going to jail, have completed their sentences or left the administration in shame. Why is Jared still around after his relatives were selling access to the Whitehouse? Trump has not drained the swamp he has just repopulated it with different kinds of creatures. If acquitted he will go on to his next scheme, that in all likelihood, will be more dangerous. He can’t stop himself, there will be no pivot. He is who he is.
19
The Republican Party is no longer the party of Lincoln, but the party of Trump. Since his personality has been stamped on the party, it should now be called the Vulgarian Party. All the possible personality traits of a vulgarian can be seen throughout the party's representatives.
12
Giuliani was significant only in that Trump directed him, as his private attorney, to carry out foreign policy on behalf of Trump, rather than on behalf of the country. There is some evidence that he may have used his status as the president's personal representative to act on behalf of other clients, but that is a matter for the Justice Department, not the House of Representatives.
As for McConnell's anger at being blindsided by the White House regarding the Bolton revelations, McConnell can refer to the poem "The Snake" that Trump has recited a number of times.
6
The publicist for John Bolton’s book is a genius.
10
@Corinne S. I hope it's Bolton who holding the reins, he's the genius, perhaps.
What is Mitch McConnell's message to the American people?
"We will rig elections, and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"We will destroy the environment, and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"We allow mass-murderers access to assault weapons, and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"We are trying to take away your healthcare, and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"We have stacked the courts, and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"We will lie to you constantly, and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"We are the minority, but we have all the power, and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"We cannot be held accountable for anything, and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"We are going to break the law, and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"We are going to remain in power by any means necessary, and there's is nothing you can do about it!"
That's Mitch McConnell and the GOP's message to all of us. So, I hope you like it, because... there's nothing you can do about it.
26
Keep writing and phoning your Republican Senators, folks. We have to maintain the pressure.
7
@Allison I've been calling the Republican senators non-stop today, but guess which two have full mailboxes: Ted Cruz and John Cornyn. I guess sticking their heads in the sand is the M.O. du jour.
@Susan: I've been resorting to email. Those two always rig it so that nobody can call them when it's really urgent.
1
This same story has been on the website for 3 days already. I don't understand the significance since Bolton is not going to testify. Has he even confirmed that what he wrote is true? Not a word from him.
1
@joe
In early January Bolton’s lawyer said he is willing to testify if the Senate subpoenas him. He is willing to talk — under oath.
He submitted his manuscript to the NSC at the end of December, and is awaiting their comments if anything contains classified information. The White House knew what was in the book, and was trying to run out the clock before the trial was over.
6
When does Trump reach 16,000 lies?
3
“ At the White House, Mr. Trump raged throughout the morning at Mr. Bolton, accusing him of lying.”
My only remaining hope is that Trump will get so fed up that he’ll quit.
6
@Karen Lee
Or blow up and die.
Republican senators can call Joe and Hunter Biden as witnesses before this impeachment trial any time they want with their 53 - 47 majority over the Democrats.
So what is there to negotiate with the Democrats?
Democratic senators should stand firm on calling Bolten and the other witnesses and documents they want, and if Republicans want to call the Bidens they can do so over any objections that Democrats may have.
Republicans will pay a politically mortal price if they fail to call for Bolten to testify.
If they call the Bidens, they guarantee that Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States come next January.
5
Republicans should be worried about John Bolton. He is a credible member of the Republican establishment and he will make their support of Donald Trump look like a travesty worthy of ridicule for the next 10 years.
In the end sometimes the right thing needs to be done because it is the right thing. The Republican Party has forgotten this very basic fact . In fact they’ve forgotten the truth all together,trading it for an alliance with a monster.
In making a deal with the devil, you always pay with interest in the end.
14
Simon and Schuster should release the ebook/kindle version of Bolton’s book immediately for the sake of all Americans.
6
This is what every defense lawyer in the nation would love to see. A trial where no witnesses are called, no evidence is reviewed, subpoenas are ignored, the defendant says he will not participate and orders other witnesses in the case not to cooperate, and a majority of the jurors say, "Fine with us!".
To top it off, the judge, from the highest court in the land no less, sits idly by rendering no decisions whatsoever. A slam dunk win for the defense every single time! Mr. Dershowitz would take cases like this every single day.
15
With respect to the Bolton-Trump conflict I am reminded of the Jamaican saying of my wife's family:
Tief tief from tief, God laugh.
That is, "thief steals from thief, God laughs", for those who have no friends from the British West Indies.
Michael
5
I fear for my country.
What will we do if this despicable man is acquitted of the crimes he so obviously committed?
What will we do if Republican Senators, in lockstep with a corrupt, criminal, treasonous, hateful and vindictive bully, choose to put power and greed before the welfare of the Constitution and their country?
The future of our country is hanging in the balance.
11
Call Trump, call Biden. Let’s have a caged ring and settle this once and for all.
1
"How low can the GOP possibly go?"
In the words of Al Jolson;. "You ain't seen nothing yet"
10
This sham will be wrapped up soon enough. Mitt "hey look at me" Romney needs to slip in obscurity along with Adam Schiff, Gerry Nadler, and the other flame throwers whom have tarnished the entire impeachment precedent.
Mitt is doing the right thing. Trumps going to get away without being thrown out of office. But it’s not ok to ignore his misdeeds.
1
@Nature We weep for Democracy
2
I haven’t read all the comments so this may be redundant, but an observation: The level of acceptable dishonesty in our country is so very high. So many have been “beaten” into submission, burned out into apathy or otherwise willing to pay no heed.
One can only hope some decency arises.
8
Well said, Romney is trying to create space for honest people.
1
But even Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and usually a reliable Trump ally, said that Mr. Bolton “may be a relevant witness” and that he would like to see a copy of Mr. Bolton’s manuscript.
Sorry Lindsey Graham but you'll have to wait until March to pay the $32 in order to get to read Bolton's book. But Bolton is willing to come to your place of business and give you a free pre-publication interview under oath that will disclose its most juicy portions regarding his dealings with President Trump. All you need to do is show your interest by voting to have the interview take place.
What do you say? Do we have your vote?!?
10
Why is a mass murderer who lied the US into war being given so much credibility by Democrats?
2
Of course, I'm not listening to one minute of Republican defense of this idiot, but if Bolton's "revelations" (of something presumably other than his upper lip) keep this trial alive during the idiot's State of the Union Address, them I'm all for hearing them.
6
Ok , so who is paying for these idiots , Trump personally?
Tax payers?
5
Trump Attorneys: We won't address those rumors about Bolton's book.
(continuing on) Now, we will address rumors about Hunter Biden and other flase narratives spread by Vladmir Putin in March 2019.
10
I do not get why Bolton means anything.
Do facts suddenly matter to MAGA America? I think not.
3
"Revelations?
The only reality is the one made up on Fox News.
One wonders if the real threat to the Republican Senators is not the loss of a base that is not in the majority, but the withholding of campaign funds from the Republican Party and Republican PACs. After Citizens United, money is what talks to these men and women.
I wouldn't have been surprised if Collins voted for witnesses before this revelation because there were enough senators to vote it down and McConnell probably gave her permission to do so in light of her tenuous prospects for reelection.Let's see if enough Republican senators are willing to put the truth and Constitution before $$.
9
There's that word "hope" again. It springs eternal. Yet the situation is hopeless for the Dems. Susan and Mitt are just showing a bit of ankle; they will vote strictly along party lines. It is to no Republican's advantage to jump ship. The likelihood that Trump will be re-elected has grown; his popularity has, too.
Even if Bolton should, by some miracle, testify, his evidence is of the he/said, he/said variety, AND, even if true, doesn't rise to the level of removal. No Republican will vote to remove his/her own president. All will understand that the election should make that determination. Trial is over in a few days.
2
@David "The likelihood that Trump will be re-elected has grown; his popularity has, too."
What polls are you looking at? The ones I see show Trump at 45%. He's stuck there and even if he's not impeached so many voters will now be aware of his malfeasance that he will be defeated in a landslide.
1
The impeachment process is at best a neutral issue for the Dems. Put differently, whatever damage the President has suffered politically, if any, he has already suffered. If they're smart, his opponents will attempt to change the conversation to the many clear winners on the table: health care and social security topping the list.
1
But gee, that would mean Trump would have to finally give credit to President Obama.
1
How does any of this affect Impeachment Article II? It was touched on by Schiff, but should really be driven home, that there may be a democratic president someday, who might enjoy a majority in congress- does the GOP really want to give that president the authority to unilaterally decide whether or not an investigation of him/her can be conducted?
Grand ol' Plutocracy be careful what you wish for.
8
Is Starr’s analogy that presidential impeachment is like war? Apparently Starr has never seen a friend die in his arm’s on the battlefield in a foreign conflict initiated by questionable motives from the political elite.
10
I have seen some postings predicting this may erode his base.
Perhaps.
But the tough question is this:
What will it take all of those who detest Trump to get out and vote for the Democratic nominee, no matter if the nominee isn't their favorite?
There are still far too many left of center voters who simply refuse to grow up and recognize political reality.
6
"Democrats said they were newly optimistic that the momentum of the trial was pushing toward a vote for witnesses and documents"
So utterly deluded. Collins, Murkowski, Romney and other Republicans are debating as I write who will be the ones to vote for witnesses as a feint to fairness while actually being careful that the vote will always be one short of the required.
1
What happens if one or two of the elderly Republican Senators becomes incapacitated or dies?
1
Now the Senators again know how it feels to be betrayed by the President. Apparently the White House had read the book but did not let McConnell know that it might be coming loose.
This is the Republicans’ best chance to get rid of Trump. Not that that would solve all their problems.
4
In a democracy worthy of the name, a president must defend himself IN THE impeachment procedure and not FROM THE impeachment procedure.
So, Mr. Trump, don't keep hiding everything (tax returns, phone calls, etc.). Let Bolton testify. For once in your life, be brave.
6
Having just watched the NYT's "Highlights from the trial on Monday" I wondered if I'd dreamed up the detailed and sordid attack by two lawyers on the Bidens, pére et fils. It was a damaging attack, addressed to the American public, that lasted nearly an hour, and that made Trump's self-serving interference in Ukraine seem benign in comparison.
What I find somewhat scandalous, if not downright scary, is that there's almost no mention of that pointed attack anywhere in the Times or on MSNBC /CNN. This kind of organized denial is likely to lead us into putting forward a candidate that Trump and his forces will mock, and destroy. Hiding our heads in the sand over the Biden "pecadillos" is not simply unwise. In these dramatic times, it is tantamount to criminal negligence.
I wonder if Alan Dershowitz has read the Declaration of Independence lately. In that great document, the founding fathers justified rebellion with the King's "abuses" and "ursuptations" enumerated in it.
Does anyone believe that the King's "abuses" and "ursuptations" giving rise to the Revolutionary War were so easily forgotten as Mr. Dershowitz would have it? Or that they would not have thought abuses and ursuptations of power were grounds for impeachment and removal from office?
I don't.
1
Ok, so I’m not a lawyer - maybe that’s why I don’t understand the nuance involved when some Republicans claim they would be in favor of allowing evidence and witnesses (what novelty!) in President Trump’s Senate trial... as long as they could call witnesses they believe would be favorable to the President’s case, such as Hunter Biden.
Isn’t it always the case that witnesses for the prosecution and witnesses for the defense may be called in a trial?
Why would they believe Hunter Biden would be favorable to the President? Clearly, they want to make him look bad (he doesn’t seem to need much help in that area), but even if VP Biden did something to help him years ago - or if he didn’t - how is that relevant to the charges against the president? Does the defense mean that it’s ok to commit high crimes and misdemeanors, and then cover it up, if presidential actions are directed against someone bad, but not against someone good? That Biden’s hypothetical guilt exempts someone else from judgement for wrongdoings?
Would the prosecution be able to inquire of witness Biden why the President didn’t get exercised about the Burisma gig until Joe Biden announced his candidacy and rose to the top of the polls but was silent about it for years prior?
What kind of upside down world would admit that screwy logic: a crime isn’t a crime if the victim had it coming? That’s truly like the mafia and, I would hope, would work against the President’s defense.
Expatiate.
5
@Pottree: The lawyers you saw yesterday gave witness to the minds of the dead.
2
@Pottree Its like the bank robber argued in court that the bank had a lot of money
3
Dershowitz's defense of "quid pro quid" using the settlements on the West Bank is totally irrelevant to the accusations against Trump of attempting to bribe the Ukraine to interfere with American domestic elections. It was an irrelevant and absurd analogy. It calls into question Dershowitz's judgement on the entire issue of his defense of Trump. It makes it seem that Dershowitz doesn't understand the issues and/or he is not honest.
5
@David: Withholding promised essential weapons to a nation defending itself against invasion by tank warfare is not bribery. Trump is an original, so there are no established words for what he is.
His point is QPQ is common when the POTUS negotiates. And POTUS are always asking for something that will help them politically. All presidents use QPQ it’s standard practice.
There are plenty of words to describe The Donald but they are not permitted in a high-minded family newspaper.
1
With all of this it still just comes down to the democratic nomination and how that person appeals to 3 states in the rust belt. This proceeding is really relevant as it relates to those 3 states and whether independents decide to move back into the blue territory. That of course relates simply back to who the democrats nominate, as it will be less about the impeachment process than the potential direction the country could take economically.
2
@Glen You are missing the big picture. It comes down to 'do we have a democratic republic or a corrupt dictatorship?' We have one election left on November 3rd to get that answer right and Trump is already threatening to cheat in it. This is national crisis of the highest order.
9
Americans by now know that if Trump runs, he cheats.
The issue is Democrats care and Republicans just shrug, like Atlas.
2
The best we can hope for is to delay the acquittal beyond the State of the Union address so we don't have to put up with his bragging and gloating.
Other than that, Bolton will have no impact. He could testify that Trump shot someone on Fifth Avenue, and Trump wouldn't lose a single vote in his base or among the Republicans in the Senate.
7
Short of evidence in writing Republican Senators and Trump will always claim lies, even if coming from the Pope, or God himself.
3
This is beyond politics. If Obama had done even 1/2 of what Trump is proven to have done, I'd demand his removal. Country before politics always!
14
This wont change the Senate vote to impeach since the Senate is GOP controlled. The Senate will acquit no matter who appears as witness.
2
trump GOP patsies must be feeling the heat, particularly prominent GOP senators McConnell, Graham, Cruz, Cornyn, Burr, Johnson, and Thune ... all in lock-step support of trump’s desperate efforts to cowardly shirk responsibility and escape accountability. Their unflinching support is growing more and more untenable each and every day. GOP senators defending trump’s malfeasance (extortion, bribery) are accomplices not dupes.
12
Top of the accomplices list: Pence and McConnell. Can’t they be impeached as well based on evidence that comes out during Trump’s trial? If so, Nancy Pelosi becomes president.
So you can see why the GOP takes the most extreme positions on blocking disclosure of the truth in favor of their concocted lies.
4
Wonder why there’s no call from the White House to know the identity of the manuscript whistleblower? And no outrage about the leak?
6
There are no words for how this makes me feel....disbelief, outrage, shock, disgust - speechless.
I contrast the calumny with the soaring words of the House's Congressman Adam Schiff last week. My thoughts then - this speech, so clear, ringing, measured and true, will be a highlight in our history books...
From the very low marker set by these Republicans to the soaring words of the Democrats....what a chapter it will be, no matter the outcome of all of fhis.
This president should be convicted and thrown out of office.
16
I'm still trying to figure out when Dershowitz became a Constitutional scholar. All his famous cases (Claus von Bulow, O.J., Jeffrey Epstein) were criminal ones not ones that dealt with Constitutional issues.
And despite his claiming how even handed he is, if he truly was Fox News wouldn't have had him on repeatedly although I have to admit that it was so little enamored with what he had to say last night it didn't even carry most of it.
4
Alan Dershowitz’s tedious and specious theory of “abuse of power” ignored the obvious fact that it is not some empty black box, but contains at least four specific criminal acts. First, there is seeking political aid from a foreign entity which is a “crime” as Special Counsel Robert Mueller said in his testimony last summer. In this case, Donald Trump asked Ukraine for “a favor, though” in helping his re-election by investigating a political opponent. Second, the infamous “quid pro quo” was defined as the Constitutional offense of “bribery” in withholding both military aid and an Oval Office meeting unless the investigation was publicly announced. Third, the hold on military aid was a crime according to the Government Accountability Office in violation of the Impoundment Control Act. And fourth, withholding the whistleblower’s complaint from Congress was unlawful once it was deemed “urgent.” These four crimes both define and give legitimate substance to the charge of “abuse of power.”
13
don't be fooled. they already knew that trump's accusers were telling the truth.
the evidence was already overwhelming, it's just harder for them to lie now.
17
@Ashley B. :"
Since when is "harder to lie" any kind of barrier for these White Christian Senators? The Constitution means nothing. the Bible means nothing. Their oaths mean nothing.
4
@gratis well, that's exactly why i said don't be fooled...
Can someone please ask Nancy Pelosi to postpone the state of the union address so that the senate has more time to question relevant witnesses directly involved in Trump’s misconduct. We need to hear from John Bolton mick Mulvaney Rudy Giuliani, none of them should be exempt from testifying. Under oath so help our country, god.
10
The GOP is angry the Bolton revelations will string-out the process which will end an acquittal anyway. Yawn.
2
anger Republicans??? What about American citizens who vote- WE are really angry at this Mitch Mcconnel charade. And we all vote
16
The WH defense a la Mr. Dershowitz and Mr. Starr seems to be "if the President does it, it's not illegal." Where have we heard a defense like that before.....?
8
Trumps lawyer refers to Giuliani being a shiny object brandished by the House prosecutors to distract. Then in the next instant she brings up their cause against Hunter Biden. Yes... truly a shiny object if there ever was one.
Sometimes I just have to laugh at the hypocrisy.
9
Trump accuses Bolton of lying. Who’s telling the truth? Will this be a “He said - he said” situation? ... at least it won’t be a “He said- she said” situation ....
3
As a global history teacher, the Fall of Rome is fully upon us. But even I am dumbfounded at the complicity and treasonous behavior of the Republican party. Russia must have a whole treasure trove of dirty pictures on all of these folks, racism and raw greed cannot be the only reasons.
15
If anything, this will push Senate Republicans to end this trial even sooner...
3
Call your Senators and insist on witnesses.
8
Trump's base doesn't care. They see anyone who is not just like them as a traitor. Trump says and does the things he does because it gets him votes.
6
As David Foster Wallace said, the truth will set you free, but not until it’s finished with you. Bolton’s book will come out whether the Senate wants to hear from him or not. It’s just a question of how foolish and cynical they want to look.
4
Stop deluding yourselves.
Nothing is going to change this, short of the president himself admitting it AND resigning.
The quisling Republicans have all made it very clear that there are zero circumstances under which any 4 of them will vote with Democrats to hear witnesses. It will not happen.
He will be acquitted and then re-elected. The American Experiment has cone to an end.
6
About time to come clean, wouldn't you say, Republicans? A rotten tooth stops hurting only when you pull it out. Open wide...
7
......”At the White House, Mr. Trump raged throughout the morning at Mr. Bolton, accusing him of lying. Hosting Israeli leaders, the president told reporters that he had not seen the manuscript of the former adviser’s book but disputed its claims as “false.””
Do they have a picture book version of Bolton’s manuscript? Trump would not be willing or able to read the published version.
5
It is hilarious to hear Bondi (corruptly bought by Trump) criticize Hunter Biden of holding an "inappropriate" position at Burisma, while nepotism runs amuck at the White House with Jared, Ivanka, Erik and Don Jr. profiting from their connections. Where is the the investigation of them for corruption?
19
As an academic, I've long warned about the dangers of grade inflation. It does double damage. On the one hand, it devalues the merit of real excellence; on the other hand, it also makes students think a B is, in their words, "a failing grade." When the system of valuation is flawed, grades no longer have any real meaning. Eventually nothing has meaning.
By the same token, Bolton --who has behaved abysmally by any standard--now has the potential to vault to sainthood for simply telling the truth. I refuse to partake of the new hagiography. A true patriot would have gone directly to the House with what he knew. While it's great that he has *finally* shared what he knew, it's too little too late. He earns a D for effort. A real one.
This is why I've warned repeatedly about the dangers of normalizing this administration. We're being savaged from both ends. Clowns and criminals are crowned as kings, while those who've labored long and hard in the fields of true diplomacy are assaulted (the trashing of reputations IS an assault) demoted, fired, and threatened with actual physical harm. By any measure, it's all flatout crazy.
We are living in a nation with no meaningful system of valuation. Bannon's threat to "blow the whole thing up" was a promise, one kept and executed with peculiar skill and cunning.
If this is what we now consider normal, I fear what comes next.
13
@AhBrightWings
I see your point, but I actually think this timing is really great. Here the GOP Senate thought they could skate on through a fast acquittal, then this comes along. The House defense went big on the “no first person knowledge” and that has blown up. It’s causing disarray. It’s making them look bad. They are having to change gears to a “okay he’s guilty, but it’s not impeachable“ strategy (which has already started thanks to Dershowitz). If he had testified in the House, they would have gone big on that strategy back then and indeed this would have been over quicker. Now they are faced with constituents calling and saying, why on earth would you not call a relevant witness. They’ll still acquit but will look worse doing it.
“I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens,” President Trump wrote just after midnight.
Every comment like this from DJT during exchanges with the press should be immediately followed with the follow-up question “Will you repeat that under oath?”
7
Read my double chin: no witnesses. What do you think this is, a trial?
6
Republicans don't need Hunter Biden. Rudy Giuliani has all the "dirt" and is airing it on Lunatic Fringe TV because it is too loony even for Hannity and Hannity had "General Macinerney" straight out of central casting who had "inside information" as to the wherabouts of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Obviously Giuliani is not a distraction. Donald Trump said "work with Rudy he knows what is going on". By all means bring Rudy Giuliani in and let him show off his work. The Senate could use a good laugh right about now.
3
Witnesses would pose new dangers for the President? What new dangers? Everyone with a brain knows he's guilty. Even the corrupt traitorous Congressional Republicans know he's guilty. New witnesses pose dangers not to the President, but to his enabling Senators. If they don't call these witnesses, everyone will see that they're traitors as well and deserve to be tried for treason.
18
Guilty of what? Asking about Hunter's fantastic job?
@Eugene Windchy
Abuse of power of the office of the Presidency and obstruction of Congress. It's been on TV the last few days, and has been headline news Do try to keep up. If you're having trouble, try this:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/22/us/politics/impeachment-articles-arguments.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=STYLN_menu_tap&variant=1_menu_tap®ion=header&context=menu
By the way, the link is right at the top of the page. Anything else we can do for you?
1
Close down this political impeachment sham now before the Democrats turn it into another Kavanaugh circus!
2
I can only look back and compare this to the vitriol of the Republican party when impeaching Bill Clinton because he lied about having sex.
10
@bud
Somehow I missed the part where Trump testified under oath. When did that happen?
5
@ bud
If President Trump would sit for questioning, we’d be way past a single episode of perjury. And I have to add that I do not excuse President Clinton for his lie. No President should lie. But this current holder of the office refuses to testify under oath, and worse, refuses to allow anyone who works for the executive branch to testify. Saying President Trump hasn’t perjured himself under oath is disingenuous.
3
Why did I even go to law school??!! Witnesses, evidence - who needs 'em?
10
You forgot to mention due process, which has been absent here. Most people think it’s important. You must have come across it somewhere in law school. But you’re free to select only the things that support your case... the Democrats do it all the time. In law school, they didn’t learn the part about “ ... the WHOLE truth and nothing but the truth,” and neither, it appears, did you.
1
Headline is perfect. He will be acquitted, and this is am only a delay: a body on 5th Ave.
Romney/Bolton vs. Biden/Warren in 2020?
Maybe I'm just dreaming. The chance of Trump being removed by the Senate is thin, but it exists. If Bolton is allowed to testify, it would show that the Senate is not rock solid, and if his testimony is damning enough, it's possible that the Senate could flip.
Then the Republicans would have to scramble to find a team to run in the general election. Why not run the pair who lead the flip. Meanwhile, the Democrats could split the difference and pair a far left candidate with a moderate. Warren/Biden or Biden/Warren would be my guess.
Whichever team wins, it would show the world that we can salvage our Republic using the mechanisms that the founders built into the Constitution.
One big loser- the American people.
3
Bolton has always been a loose cannon. Democrats never liked him or believed him until now. Trump fires him and then he writes a book condemning Trump? That’s not surprising and not very credible. Even if the Senate opens the trial to witnesses, Bolton will never testify. Trump will exert executive privilege to protect national security issues. And there is no recourse for the Democrats to reverse that. The Republicans will call Joe and Hunter Biden and they have no recourse but to testify.
I don’t understand what Joe and Hunter Biden have to do with the articles of impeachment. I can’t see what relevance they would have to either confirming or refuting the charges of obstruction and abuse of office. What relevant information could they possibly provide?
However, I do understand that it would provide a nice deflection and circus act for republicans and their propaganda machine at Fox News. The base would love it, I’m sure.
2
@B. T. -- The Republicans are the party where the Sun is the Moon, the sky is the ocean deep, an the Bidens' whiff of impropriety equal or exceed this president's egregious corruption and malfeasance. And where Obama should have been impeached in 2014.
1
It is time for the Senate to stand up against House impeachment articles alleging no crimes and without bipartisan support. If the Senate fails to exonerate Pres. Trump, on these two grounds alone, it will create the precedent for future partisan impeachment attempts from the House when governed by opposing parties.
We want the truth out in the public, where all can examine and determine. We elected the house of representatives to do our will. The senate needs to acknowledge the whole truth.
4
If Bolton's revelations don't move the needle of opinion among Republicans, isn't it more likely to move the needle of Independents and Democrats? Rare among Republicans, Bolton doesn't have a history of changing his opinions to suit the political wind. He's been a consistent hawk for as long as virtually anyone can remember, Romney knows that. So the 'get rid of trump needle' is moving and in the direction that Americans (especially electors on the cusp of deciding whether voting is worth their time), Canadians, and the world at large needs it to move.
6
If in fact there is evidence in the Executive Branch's possession that contradicts statements by the President's lawyers, and those lawyers have been made aware of that evidence, they have an ethical duty to the tribunal (the Senate and Chief Justice John Roberts) to notify the tribunal that their statements may in fact be incorrect.
They cannot outright lie without violating the Cannon of Ethics.
See Rule 3.3 -Candor
" A lawyer acting as an advocate in an adjudicative proceeding has an obligation to present the client's case with persuasive force. Performance of that duty while maintaining confidences of the client, however, is qualified by the advocate's duty of candor to the tribunal. Consequently, although a lawyer in an adversary proceeding is not required to present an impartial exposition of the law or to vouch for the evidence submitted in a cause, the lawyer must not allow the tribunal to be misled by false statements of law or fact or evidence that the lawyer knows to be false."
The President's lawyers are now on inquiry notice as to the quid pro quo issue.
Of course it is important to hear Bolton's testimony.
Won't change the outcome but perhaps the American voters will remember all the ways this "president" has downgraded our country's standing and vote accordingly in November.
It is up to our national conscience to decide the kind of country we want to be in coming years!
4
What I find kind of ironic about this "revelation" is the timing. Democrats slam Trump because they say he uses his position to play politics. Tell me "trusted" major media outlets the public naively puts their trust in to shape their world perception don't do exactly the same thing. These last three years of each side throwing stones at each other only proves that each side is no different than the other.
@John Doe : You may look at the stone throwing.
Me, I have been looking at evidence.
One side stands for the Constitution and Rule of Law.
The other side stands for power for itself. (GOP)
But... that's only if one looks at evidence.
3
Regarding the distracting claim that trials should not produce new evidence, it's apparent that Republican Senators never watch TV courtroom justice stories, because in ALL OF THEM new evidence discovered during the trial is the key to finding the truth. Ask Judge Judy.
2
It is both hilarious and sad to see the drama unfolding about the calling of witnesses by some of the Republican senators. Their vote to acquit Donald Trump is already a done deal but this way they get to show the world, especially the voters back home, how "concerned" they are at getting at the "truth". And they are eating up all the news coverage they are getting, showing their "statesmanship" at a crucial moment in our country's history. If there is still time please submit these "concerned" senators names for best actor awards in a dramatic role at the upcoming Academy Awards. With how phony their acts are they are sure to win.
1
If there was significant evidence that [Bidens] were corrupt”, why didn’t the FBI think it’s worth investigating? DOJ and FBI are headed by Trump appointees. DOJ does investigate wrongdoing by Americans abroad. So why didn’t Trump go to the DOJ? Because they wouldn’t _announce_ an investigation (Comey broke that rule), and so wouldn’t help Trump politically.
4
Dershowitz’s speech is a sad coda to his career. His arguments boiled down to two: deriding references to what was in the President’s mind, and a litany of past charges of abuse of power. But any criminal lawyer (which he once was) knows that state of mind is central to, say, the difference between homicide and an accident; and ten unjustified charges do not invalidate an eleventh. It is a poor defense that can take an hour to make but a minute to refute.
The real question is the basis for the specific charges in question; and the specifics ( e. g., the criminal withholding of funds to extort cooperation) have been conspicuously absent on the part of the defense. Instead there is the rhetoric of distraction: the (constitutionally mandated) remedy of conviction would overturn an election, the House did not call witnesses Trump had blocked, Trump had a supposed concern about corruption, and so.
This last argument is particular bogus for several reasons.
1. It pretends Trump had a concern about corruption in the same way that, say, Jimmy Carter had about human rights, something that does not even come close to passing the straight face test.
2. For some reason this supposed concern just happened to be focused on a single individual, a political opponent Trump particularly fears.
3. And of course the obvious point that any concrete evidence of wrongdoing on the part of a US citizen should be referred to the FBI, not a foreign power.
6
What are GOP Senators angered about? Whether it is before the Senate, or directly to the American public in interviews, public forums, or in other direct statements, Bolton Will Testify.
And, testimony from Pompeo, Mulvaney, Duffey from OMB, and McCusker from DOD would fill out the picture as well, with questioning from both republicans and democrats illuminating and informative. Some or all of these folks will talk, now or later, as well.
It Is Inevitable.
3
Republican Senators,
I've written to many of you recently. I'll repeat your role now is whether to prolong the American Experiment or return humanity to an electrified Dark Ages ruled by monarchies and strongmen. If you rely on the American people to do your jobs, which they will in November, you'll have dishonored your office and your family name in front of the World.
I'm sorry to put it so bluntly. Your lack of courage is discouraging those seeking truth and those inspired by what America represents to the Planet. Demonstrate you have the strength of character to step above the herd, shed your fear of the wolves that howl, you'll discover freedom from fear.
We're all wishing you the best!
7
Funny thing about the truth, it persists and has a way of creeping up on you. Trump has this idea that he can abuse whoever he so chooses when and where he chooses including former allies and there are no repercussions. You cross a guy like Bolton and he seeks revenge.
3
I think that the Republicans are too corrupt to care. I am quickly coming to the point of believing that if they saw video of Trump gunning someone down on 5th Avenue they would deny that the person in the video was Trump. Even if there was a body and the gun was registered to Trump and had his fingerprints on it.
For all of their talk about being strong believers in the Constitution they appear to believe only in the second amendment.
The lot of them needs to be voted out this coming November....assuming the US is still a functioning Democracy at that time.
5
I don’t have much hope in that Bolton’s testimony would change any Republican senator’s votes, but I think it is valuable to let history look back at how corrupt they were in spite of all of the evidence. When history looks back at these times, I’m afraid we will go down as seeing how fragile our democracy really is. I just want to go on record that I was against Trump and his blind followers from the start.
1
As reported here, "Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, told colleagues that he might be willing to support calling witnesses as long as the roster would include someone friendlier to Mr. Trump’s case, like Hunter Biden.... The idea appeared to be gaining broader currency among Republicans."
Fine. The Republicans want to blow smoke to deflect attention from Mr. Trump. Whatever alleged corruption by the Bidens, it would be irrelevant to Mr. Trump calling in favors from a foreign head of state to meddle with our national election, illegally block Congressionally approved funding of military aid, and obstruct Congressional subpoenas.
4
@Victor Mark
I disagree. Hunter Biden has nothing to do with this case.
It is a ruse to get free media time for Trump’s campaign in case Joe Biden were to be his opponent in November if Trump is not impeached.
Team Trump can launch their own separate investigation into the Biden’s if he really think there is something there, but we all know there isn’t.
Then we should also launch an investigation into Trump’s nepotistic appointments os Jared Kuschner and Ivanka.
5
I watched much of the defense lawyers. Alan Dershowitz droned on and on, about whether obstruction of justice could be impeachable, taking a position which he admitted is a change for him. Eric Herschmann argued about Hunter Biden, which isn't really the point. I agree that Hunter Biden should not have been on the Board of Burisma at that time, but that does not excuse the President's behavior. The Republicans in the Senate are defending the indefensible, and their arguments are ridiculous.
3
Mitch knew about this. He tried his best to ram through an acquittal before the Bolton truths leaked.
5
Getting the "whistle-blower" to testify.
Many commenters would like to get Hunter and
the whistle-blower" on the stand as witnesses in exchange for Bolton.
I have a vague sense of what they might learn from Hunter (he traded on Dad's name and may have given a bad gas company some reputational cover they did not deserve)/
But what will they learn from the "whistle-blpwer"?
Yes, they will put his name more squarely in public view.
Yes, he will testify to saying and writing what he said and wrote.
But then what? He can be asked to identify his source. He would probably refuse.
He would be asked if he was a Democrat? S Biden supporter? A critic of the President?
Where would any of this get us in answering the basic question: Did the President do the things alleged in the articles of impeachment?
Calling Hunter and the Whistle-blower would damage the Biden campaign and endanger the WB.
Other than this, what is the logic of calling either one as a witness?
Play it out. Let’s just say that Romney, Alexander, Collins, and Murkowski support a vote on calling Bolton as a witness, and Bolton actually takes the stand. How can anyone believe that hearing him say what everyone already knows will have any impact? If anything, it will be anticlimactic. It’d be as meaningless as the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape, with Trump plainly admitting he grabbed women’s whatevers. No act is below Trump, and, in the unspoken backroom rallying cry that’s understood by all 53 Republican senators, “For the sake of our Twit, we must acquit!” Testimony from Bolton won’t change a thing.
1
@TM
If Bolton is as convincing as Fiona Hill, I would disagree that Bolton’s testimony would be anticlimactic.
I think getting Fiona Hill back on the stand would be an excellent idea. She was riveting
5
I remember when some republicans warned us in 2016, “it’s no longer the Republican Party, it’s Trump’s party now “. Very strange and depressing to see how true this has become. We are in unknown, dangerous waters now.
3
Trumps legal maneuvers are the same, past or present. He simply bullies his way to achieve his outcome.
It would be nice to see when this self righteous man and his supporters are finally put down and we get back to living like sane citizens.
Vote please go out and vote.
2
These are interesting times especially for my son who is 12. He remembers Obama but not in any tangible sense or how he related to issues that affect his future. For the last two years my son has taken a larger interest in politics and this impeachment process as well as the results of 2020 will likely have a strong impact on his future view of the American political system. It doesn't of course that I am honest (subjectively of course) that I think the system as a whole is beyond fixing and is getting worse, not better. He gets enough of the fairy tale representative democracy in school!
6
Now Bolton is the necessary piece. Warmonger without parallel. The warmonger's warmonger. What a colossal mess. The primary goal of this is bury the fact that the US helped instigate the ethnic war in Ukraine. They have no interest in ending it anytime soon. There are no good people in this. There is no justice. Just who will run the US empire.
4
@c harris
Just how did you come up with that conclusion?
5
@c harris: Deterrence of war is a necessary element of public policy. The age of the "warrior" is over. Killing machines rule battlefields now.
2
What happened to Lev Parnas? Yesterday he was the talk of the town. Today it’s all about Bolton, and you wouldn’t know Parnas exists. Every day there’s a new smoking gun which turns out to be a pop gun. If the case against Trump is so strong why does the coverage lurch from one thing to another as if the latest revelation is anything but another installment of reality TV? Wasn’t the case solid before?
9
I am sorry for you that you are unable to see or hear the drip, drip, drip of damning evidence that is turning into a flood of historic proportions. But, that is the inevitable result of having complete faith in someone completely free of principles or ethics. You are doomed to be disappointed.
28
@Edward Because new evidence is being uncovered everyday linking Trump directly to withholding aid in exchange for personal political favors.
20
Next, you're going to try to convince us that 45 deserves to be president for the rest of his life and then you'll try to convince us that Ivanka should be president.
23
Bolton's testimony is not necessary. Bolton said whatever he had to say in his book which was leaked to the NYT. What Bolton said has no bearing on the trial. Just pay particular attention to what Alan Dershowitz said yesterday and you will realize that the Democrat's could bring out thousands of "witnesses" and it will not make any difference to the fact that the charges that the Democrats have levelled against Trump are not even close to being impeachable offenses. However, if several really stupid GOP Senators fall for this "rope-a- dope" by the Democrats and want witnesses, so be it. Trump will be acquitted and Joe Biden and his son and the entire Biden family that profited from Joe's vice-presidency quid pro quo activity will be exposed. What they did may not be a crime, but it needs to see the light of day. We will also likely hear from several other Democrat witnesses who don't have impeachment activity against Trump but the good part is we get to also hear from Adam Schiff and crew as well as their "non" Whistleblower.
8
What’s the non-whistleblower? You mean the one who’s complaint was buried by White House lawyers and the justice department? That’s why a representative was sent to the Intelligence committee. Thank goodness!
16
@NYChap If you believe that this is not abuse of power, then what about the fact that Trump keeps denying it in the face of mounting evidence? You consider Trump’s lies and cover up perfectly acceptable? Or do you also believe that Trump did not withhold aid in exchange for personal political favors?
13
@NYChap
You really need to quit watching right wing news outlets. Also most of all constitutional lawyers if not all disagree with Mr. Dershowitz and do not forget he had another take back on 1998.
And what about Ivanka getting all those trademarks from China after having dinner with their leader? Sure sounds funny to me.
As far of the Bidens if there was even a hint of them doing something wrong our FBI would be the one to investigate not a foreign country and it would have started long ago. No, trump wanted it after Joe Biden was beating him in the polls.
26
I don't believe, in the long run, Bolton's revelations will move the GOP needle one bit. These Senators know, far better than most us, what sort of man Trump his; they're familiar with his astounding vulgarities, his ignorance, his complete lack of morals. But it doesn't matter to them, because he has captured the base of the party, and to cross him is to ruin both your Congressional career and your value as a lobbyist after.
Perhaps that's what's so infuriating about all of this. It's pure, venal self-interest that will determine the outcome.
2254
@Steven You are right that Bolton's testimony won't affect the outcome in terms of the GOP acquitting Trump. But it will change the optics for those people on the fence about whether or not Trump actually did something that warranted impeachment in the first place, and that sort of visibility of the facts, especially with this President, is important in 2020.
311
@Steven By all accounts, the base, as you reference, although steadfast in their delusions, constitutes roughly 40% of the electorate, and after these undeniable revelations, there will be some attrition to that base. If John Bolton makes it to the witness stand, this whole process is going to come to a screeching halt.
86
@Steven
The senate may not convict Trump, but if the whole truth is laid out in public testimony then the people of the United States and the world will see and hear it. What the voters of the United States do with that information will determine if we continue to be a free nation of the people, for the people and by the people. What other countries do with that information will determine our place in the pantheon of nations.
193
This Presidential Impeachment trial reminds me of Han's Christian Anderson's children's story, "The Emperor's New Clothes" published in 1837. 'Two weavers who promise an emperor a new suit of clothes that they say is invisible to those who are unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent – while in reality, they make no clothes at all, making everyone believe the clothes are invisible to them'.- (Wikipedia) We can all see Donald J. Trump is unfit for his office and incompetent and corrupt and is wearing no clothes. Only the President and Senate Republicans believe he is not naked!
11
Bolton's revelation just proves what we all know about Trump....that he is corrupt and a chronic liar. The most incompetent, divisive and corrupt President in the history of the United States. A disgrace to America.
16
Trump's attorneys aren't even giving Republican Senators a fig leaf to justify voting against calling Bolton as a witness. Instead, they are making false statements to the Senators' faces.
"Mr. Trump’s lawyers told senators that no evidence existed tying the president’s decision to withhold security aid from Ukraine to his insistence on the investigations."
And the accused is denying what Bolton wrote in his book.
“I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens,” Mr. Trump wrote just after midnight."
Senators would ignore such blatant contradictions at their peril. They have now been informed that direct evidence is available for the asking. If they now vote to suppress this evidence and vote to acquit Trump, they will not be able to say later, who knew and then change the subject. They are on notice now, and will forever taint their legacies if they suppress evidence known to exist.
10
Oh Mitt. Once I was convinced that you'd be just another Orin Hatch, another yes-man for the party of Trump, but you're not. I was expecting you to flip as soon as the impeachment went to trial, but you haven't. And as the only Republican Senator committed to vote in favor of new witnesses, and as a Senator of my state, I applaud you. You've shattered my expectations. If the Republican party has any hope of redemption, they'd be wise to follow your lead. Thank you Senator Mitt Romney for retaining your integrity and doing the right thing. Your remonstrance is exactly what the Republican Party needs.
6
This is working toward another Kavanaugh situation.
A credible witness in that case, Christine Ford, told her story, but accepting it would have been a disaster for any Republicans with the party, Mitch, and Trump.
So they made up an alternate reality and simply dismissed anything that didn’t fit
Same situation will play out here.
7
@Baba
I don’t think so this time. Graham already had his indignant meltdown a couple days ago. It didn’t work. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Well I’m not fooled twice.
2
"The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is."
- Winston Churchill
6
The best chance of getting this "handful of Republicans" to vote along with Democrats to subpoena Mr. Bolton, is to get media attention in their home states. And the best way to get media attention is with protests and sit-ins. Murkowski and Collins need to see on the news in Alaska and Maine that their constituents are out there screaming and yelling for witnesses. It is up to the Democratic Party in these states to organize these protests... and they need to do it NOW.
7
"Bolton Revelations Anger Republicans. Fueling Push for Impeachment Witnesses". Is it not too late for the Republicans to be angry about. Why wait for Bolton's book to come out, if they find their feelings have been disturbed? Was there not the conscience factor?
All of the GOP members may be grappling right now, how they should all decide. Instead of creating too much stress for themselves, the best they should all do, is to RESIGN from their positions enmasse. That will help them save face in November.
2
Democrats are going to hit a wall - Bolton or no Bolton. Just think of everything that awaits him if he is removed from office. Ok, forget everything, just think of his tax situation and from there to the foreign connections and transactions. Think end of the so called Trump dynasty.
3
How convenient for Dems that selected content from Bolton's book is coming out at this point in the Senate hearings. It makes their case look stronger but will in the end prove nothing substantive just like all the other ploys they have tried during the last three years.
1
@Kenneth Cowan
Ploy? Try truth! It is much easier. No lies to have to remember.
p.s. the White House had the book for a month, guess the leaker values our Constitution. You?
6
Bolton, Mitt Romney are noteworthy for putting country above politics....
What does it mean for the country if it is so admirable, so unusual, so radically different, to support the Rule of Law?
4
The GOP is so angry that facts are coming out?
Is that how America becomes Great Again?
Apparently so....
6
GOP will be judged on whether they impartially judge based on all of the available facts, or if they are going to continue to tribalize, legal wiggle word, obfuscate, and outright lie about the case against DJT.
Starr went for (4) years chasing false leads only to push impeachment over a lie about a sex scandal.
This president* has lied 16,000 times, including about his motivation for illegally withholding aid to an ally, obstructed the investigation, and now Mitch is colluding with the accused party and the GOP is violating their oath to be impartial.
5
If the Democrats want witnesses, the House can hold a new impeachment inquiry and interview all the witnesses they want. But that's not what they want. What they want is to damage the prospects of reelection of Republican Senators this November. And they're using the impeachment process to do that.
I recall Senator Dick Durban arguing to end the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton because there was not enough votes to convict, arguing that it was a waste of time to continue the trial.
I'm disgusted.
@johnlo
Do you lie at your job? Do you jeopardize our national security when you lie at your job? Do you brazenly and viciously attack those who have different viewpoints?
Aren't you tired of the guy in the White House thumbing his nose at us? Do you value our system of government and our dedication to the truth and law?
The disgust should be directed towards the guy in the White House. Let's not forget the phone call, and the machinations before hand. We should be grateful for the whistleblower. A true patriot.
7
@johnlo
What Democrats want is that the current President of the United States is held accountable for abuse of power of the office he holds and for obstructing a Congressional investigation. That's what the impeachment is about. It's about valuing our system of government and wanting elected officials to be held accountable for their actions while in office. Republicans should want those things too, but don't. Their only interest is staying in power at any cost. If that is the primary concern of the Republicans in Congress, then they need to be removed from office at the polls. The United States is not an autocracy - yet.
1
Republicans aren't trying to defend Trump. They don't believe they have to because they have a Senate majority.
They're trying to damage Joe Biden. They think Biden is the only one of the Democratic frontrunners who has a chance to beat Trump in the election.
That's why Joni Ernst said Republicans are curious to see how Biden does in the Iowa caucuses. It further shows Republicans are conducting a sham Senate trial.
2
Thank you Prof. Dershowitz. We Democrats have been barking up a tree trying to bring down a president with High Crimes and Misdemeanors which according to the professor are not crimes. Obviously we should be going after the low ones that are. Sniffing out sexual assault, tax dodging, and fraudulent schemes shouldn't be so hard. Ken Starr understands the low approach as do much of the electorate.
2
This may well derail Trump's hope for acquittal period.
1
The truth just keeps getting in the way of this coverup.
I remember the Nixon impeachment leading up to his resignation. Of course, the narcissist in chief would never dream of resigning.
I bet he has plans to become a Russian Oligarch if things get too dicey for him here. Unfortunately, Putin is too smart to let him do that.
2
I notice that McConnell is not smirking today. I think that's good.
5
The major stain on Bolton's career as a malcontent is Trump firing him; I'd call it vengeance and a very weak piece of evidence, since the entire Ukraine fiasco goes back beyond Trump's election and into the Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton foreign policy era.
This is where the Pandora's box must be opened; it should have been triggered in 2014 when U.K.'s SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE withheld $23 m. in aid because of corruption charges. The U.S. has spent many times that and Obama/Biden let Russia take back Crimea......it is this era where we've squandered millions influencing corrupt Ukrainian 'officials' only to find the Vice President's son protecting one of the most notorious ones.
Wake up America; Trump got stuck with this stinking part of the swamp; investigate and clean it up.
@Cali Sol
Change the channel. You might be surprised.
5
So Trump's offer to provide military assistance to a foreign government is not an impeachable offense, but Clinton's extramarital affair was! Why do I think that Alexander Hamilton is spinning in his grave!
5
The only sociopath I've known was involved in criminal acts that landed him in jail for some years. So far as I can tell, many sociopaths are criminals because they know they are smarter and more privileged than everyone else. This "knowledge" is what gets them into trouble and, sadly, also ends up hurting a lot of people around them. We have here a sociopathic criminal with real power and that is why we are in this mess. It's not going to get better until he is gone.
4
Going after Hunter for trading on his father's name? Hm ... I wonder if the defense has really thought this through: Ivanka, Donald Jr., Eric seem at least as culpable on that score.
9
The Republicans are leading us over a cliff.
5
Dear Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans,
I'm ready to testify what I meant by Rudy's "drug deal". I can detail why I instructed White House and NSC staffers to explain their concerns to the White house lawyers.
It looks like Americans understand that not calling witnesses and not allowing new evidence is not part of a fair, honest and transparent impeachment trial. Mitch McConnell telling the press that he would be "working with the White House" before the trial even started was probably a bad idea.
Best regards,
John Bolton
5
Do not rely on unwilling witnesses. Demand documents!
2
Trump is a crook and it was a well established fact even before he was elected. George W. Bush is a very nice guy. Trump killed perhaps a hundred Americans or so. George W. Bush killed thousands of Americans. So what’s the big deal that Trump does what Trump is expected to do. Even more than that. Trump does exactly for what he was elected.
@PaulN
So you voted for a lawless, immoral, lying guy? And you knew he stood for those "values" and still support him? What does W have to do with this? This is 2020, not 2001-2008.
3
"But Mr. Trump later complained to associates that the presentations from his defense team were boring."
What a petty, vulgar human being. Can't believe we elected this guy to be president.
2
Im calling on Harvard to part ways with Mr. Dershowitz. Free speech and opinion are one thing but he's employed as a law professor who seems to know little about constitutional or common law. Just another opinion bloviating talking head with an agenda. Plenty of room for that on cable news just not in what is supposedly a premiere law school.
6
@Citizen
I wish the American Bar Association would start paying attention to Dershowitz's nonsense as well. His ridiculous comments about the legality of intent should not go unnoticed by the ABA. A practicing lawyer and law professor should not be making such spurious claims; he should know better.
3
Giuliani a "shiny object" meant to distract you - that's their defense?! This farce is getting more absurd everyday and it makes me wonder just how stupid the GOP believes the average American to be. Two thirds of us have been demanding that new witnesses and evidence be presented. Bolton is the "smoking gun" and not just about Ukraine but also apparently concern that Donald Trump was catering to autocrats, ya think?! Kim Jon Un is "a beautiful person" and "how soon can I meet him" Vladimir Putin has been one of Trump's idols: Helsinki anyone? I have never witnessed such ridiculous and disingenuous arguments put forward in an attempt to excuse serious misconduct by a sitting president of the United States. (And if the Republicans insist Hunter Biden testify, then it's time to put Ivanka and Jared on the stand. Tit for tat.) Trump has poisoned everything he has touched. The Republican Party has zero credibility. The U.S. Senate "the world's most deliberative body" - not a chance folks. McConnell has seen to that. The man, like Trump, has no scruples and together they have trashed the integrity of our constitution and democracy. Hold them accountable and vote them out!
4
Many of Trump's defense team, holding Derscowitz and Starr constant, seem to come from tv advertisements. So unimpressive, unprepared for Prime Time, and unwilling to attack the House Managers' claims. Every claim can be challenged to a degree. But all of these "defense" lawyers are claiming that Trump "did nothing wrong." Alrighty, then prove it ... still waiting. Starr is an embarrassing loser, whose career post-Clinton impeachment was getting fired from Baylor over the covering up and mishandling of a sexual scandal. You can't make this up. Derscowitz is the only credible lawyer and his defense that the said claims don't rise to an impeachable offense was really weak; I guess he believes that if he says it, it must be true. The other defense team is made up of bar exam repeating losers who graduated at the bottom of their law schools. I believe Trump is guilty. I am still waiting for this defense team to prove that the. claims are wrong. Oh, I guess we will be enlightened by brilliant attorneys like Pam Bondi? Give me a break, as this defense team is Donald Trump's "hoax."
4
"Bolton Revelations Anger Republicans, Fueling Push for Impeachment Witnesses"
I believe what angers Republicans is that they're thinking 'how could I have been so stupid to believe the best words that were coming out of DJT's mouth.'
With the obligatory self forehead slap, of course.
5
Bolton has been writing a book from the time he got there !
1
@Hoyle
Yes. This is true.
On the day he arrived at the NSC, John Bolton went home in the evening and put his first words on paper.
He did not yet know what the plot-line might be. Although he may have imagined what a few of the plot-points might be.
Now, with 550 pages of words on paper, the President has provided the plot-line and scores of plot-points.
It will be a juicy read. Even if it does not meaningfully impact the course of the Senate impeachment "trial".
1
In view of Trump’s vehement denials, he should be willing to take the oath and testify at the trial under penalty of perjury.
10
Nancy Pelosi was criticized for sitting on the Articles of Impeachment during the holidays.Republicans mocked her for saying that Trump’s Impeachment was urgent and then not rushing the House results to the Senate.Trump’s cohorts were so eager for a speedy trial-how many secretly knew about the manuscript that arrived at the White House the end of December.Nancy might have known or had an inkling-brilliant move on her part!
11
With the Bolton revelations and corroborations, there is no excuse for the senate not to at least hear from witnesses and get documentary evidence. After they do, in a full and fair hearing, let's see how the Republicans react in the face of all available facts: will it be pure political venality or might they put actual patriotism above party? I think it's harder to predict the outcome today - I don't see acquittal as guaranteed, although still probable - but we didn't have Bolton's writings until a few days ago, so anything can happen.
4
Many of the comments here are about Bolton's testimony changing the outcome of the Impeachment. It wont happen, but that is not the point.
The Republican's have a choice: block Bolton from testifying and appear to be running a cover-up, or have him testify and have the revelations in a bipartisan trial and in the news a whole lot longer.
Its the dead cat strategy, deftly played (thank you NYT reader comment for explaining this term).
The point of course is the November election.
1
It is disturbing that acquittal is inevitable regardless of evidence. Perhaps more disturbing is that President Trump will probably be re-elected in November. As far as I know, even were he to be removed from office now there are no Constitutional barriers to prevent him vying for the presidency in November anyway - and probably win.
Americans complain about the venality of our elected leaders but let’s face it, Americans put them there. The American political system is a reflection of the choices of American citizens. If it’s corrupt and dysfunctional then they (including me) are responsible for it.
America is a very divided nation at present, on display for all the world to see. One person who noticed that divide was Vladimir Putin. With a few empty phone calls and hacker shenanigans the split was greatly widened. No matter who had been elected in 2016 our enemies won the big prize - that of American tearing itself apart.
In the morning we American citizens/voters need to look at ourselves in the mirror and remember that the childish, amoral display on the senate floor is a concentrated version of us. We must make it better.
3
@John Vance
Putin didn’t notice the divide - he was PART OF the divide with his social media campaigns by the GRU as outlined in the Mueller report.
I experienced it myself on FB and have since deleted *all* of my social media accounts.
2
If Republicans can make the case that reducing corruption in Ukraine was in the benefit of both Ukraine and the US that leveraging it getting cleaned up on receiving military aid seems like the most important point. If Joe Biden gets caught up in that same net, too bad. Unlike Trump It seems to me that all Democrats care about is Joe and their own election and not a wit for Ukrainians who have to live with corrupt oligarchs every day. Talk about putting politics over people. And maybe next time Joe won't be so blase about Hunter's putting him in a compromised situation. Where is the sound judgement we search for in our leaders in that?
@ John Doe
Then you take umbrage also with trump putting his costume clothing company daughter, and back- channel Jared in top security clearance jobs, right? (BTW: Top security clearance which they could not pass standard vetting for, so daddy had to demand it be given to them.)
And Barr’s son, and Guiliani’s son, their jobs in the administration, that looks bad, too, right?
5
@ John Doe
And maybe you won’t mind if the public demands an inquiry into doors opened for the Trump Organization and Don Jr and Eric and Ivanka and the Kushners and Secretary Chao’s family shipping business? I’d say doors have been opened for them. They have traded on the name and power of the Presidency.
4
@Semper Fi, honestly I have no idea what anybody else’s kids have to do with Trump’s impeachment unless you’re pressing a case for why it’s so important to hear from Hunter then. In which case I’m with you.
Sen. Romney, as a resident of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who went to school with your sons at Belmont Hill, I'm urging you in the name of the late Rep. Pete Stark to gather your three other colleagues and call for witnesses. You are not up for reelection, so it's a matter of conscience and constitutional probity. The sham legalistic gyrations I heard earlier this morning on CNN, especially the recitations of news clips by Pam Bondi, should convince all Americans at home and abroad that the case and evidence of 44's successor's removal is incontrovertible. Still, the higher plane in this process is for all senators NOT let constitutional principles be washed away in the gutter of crass GOP impunity and betrayal of the rule of law.
3
To summarize this impeachment ending in acquittal is it is alright to ask a foreign government to investigate domestic corruption and pressure them by withholding aid and it is not a crime to abuse the powers of political office.
3
People will often think that the best defense is an offense. Trump and his legal supporters are certainly offensive.
4
It depends on the definition of what a trial is. Even if you've never been to court, you know a trial consists of witnesses and documents.
I wouldn't give Republicans advice. But in this case I'll make an exception: At least make it look good because if you block a trial, you will carry it for the rest of your political career, just like George W. Bush has to live with his decisions for war on Iraq. McConnell wants a sure thing, no trial. Remember: You can run but you can't hide. The Republicans who go on record blocking the trial will have to live with that decision for the rest of their political careers.
By the way, Dershowitz, who held one position on the law 20 years ago, has changed it, saying he researched the matter himself and decided he was wrong 20 years ago. So now he's right? His speech in the trial, by the way, could be a remedy for insomniacs.
9
@ Underdog
I especially like your clintonesque reference . Funny. “It depends on your definition of is...”
1
Republican senators refusing to respect their oath of office is not an acquittal, it is Republican senators refusing to respect their oath of office.
Republicans act like they are in the seventh grade attending their first homecoming pep rally with cheerleaders egging them on with ever increasing absurd conspiracy cheers.
triumphs has been doing this all of his life— creates chaos, blames it on others and steals investors money. His idol putin stole $5billion from the dying USSR, for trump that is a benchmark.
4
Just based on the comments today, anger in this nation is now off the charts!
Dems are enraged at the GOP bozos who’ve kowtowed to Trump and are ruining this nation.
GOP are enraged that anyone should have the temerity to question them.
I think we’ve reached the proverbial tipping point. Because the Tide is turning. It’s coming in! Like a Tsunami. And enraged GOP are on the shore telling it to go back where it came from. As it creeps ever higher on those GOP feet.
6
Republicans know he is guilty.
Can someone like NYT get on the inside of Republicans’ reasoning, especially McConnell, on their blind support for the indefensible?
Is it a complete power grab so they may line their pockets? Is it fear of their own re-election campaign? Their willingness to completely undermine the constitution and rule of law in defense of the indefensible has been jaw dropping.
They all know he is guilty.
2
What are Republicans trying to hide ?
Bolton is a hard core Republican with a distinguished history and credibility. Is it even worse than what we think ?
1
Whether or not witnesses are called, I believe that Bondi and Herschman did some real damage to the impeachment case yesterday. The clip of Biden bragging and cracking wise about withholding 1 billion unless Shokin was fired ("this for that"?) does show some hypocrisy.
I've heard it argued that "Hunter Biden's inexperience is irrelevant." But would we be saying the same thing if Don jr. was working in Ukraine while Don Sr was involved in "sorting out" corruption? We would all be apoplectic about the self-dealing nepotism and corruption. I agree with Bill Maher who said that "Hunter Biden should get a real job."
1
@Anderson
Hey, if you really believe there is something nefarious about Biden, you can’t feel free not to vote for Biden should he get the nomination. But he is not on trial here, Trump is. It is laughable that she says Giuliani is a shiny distraction and then throws a Biden smoke bomb into the audience. Only the gullible would think this does damage to the case against Trump. He wasn’t rooting out corruption, he was trying to smear a rival.
The insulting part is that nothing Bolten says isn't already sufficiently known and documented...yet Trumpists discount all of it. Now they act like they will be swayed if they hear it out of the mouth of Bolten.
If there was any integrity among the Trumpist GOP, the man-child in chief would have been impeached and removed a long time ago.
Swamp creatures...all of them.
28
@HereToday Well said!
2
DJT and the toadies in the GOP are showing the way for the rest of us to succeed. Forget about honesty and work ethic. Lie cheat and tow the party line. Claw your way to the top on the backs of the poor suckers who actually follow the rules and try to make an honest living. Thanks a lot GOP for leading the way.
24
Dershowitz: “Let me repeat: Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power, or an impeachable offense.”
Dershowitz’ unimpeachability-theory has been debunked by most constitutional scholars, just like Trump’s Ukrainian debunked-conspiracies.
Nevertheless, the Republicans repeat them as gospel!
24
Good God! We want the truth!! Call the witnesses, hear the truth whatever it is, and come to a fair vote based on facts!l.
Is that too much for Americans to ask?
21
Where's Rudy? Why isn't he in jail already?
21
@pkbormes Rudy Giuliani is the singular agent in this impeachment story. The senate should subpoena him, from Taylor to Volker to Dr Fiona Hill to Sondland, each witness has pointed towards Giuliani. A personal lawyer who uses highly placed foreign policy ambassadors to do his dirty work, has to be called by the senate. We the public demand answers.
4
How is the impeachment trial of Hunter Biden going?
3
@Blue in Green
How can you impeach a private citizen, pray tell?
Miles Davis wouldn't have been proud of you.
2
@Blue in Green Hunter is not your president.
2
@ Blue in Green
Uhmm. Hunter Biden is not an elected official.
1
Republicans who were summoned to Moscow by their boss on the 4th of July:
Sens. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.)
Steve Daines (Mont.)
John Hoeven (N.D.)
John Neely Kennedy (La.)
Jerry Moran (Kan.)
John Thune (S.D.)
Ron Johnson (Wisc.)
plus Rep. Kay Granger (Tex.)
25
@th
And Don Trump has been seriously considering visiting Russia on May Day (U.S President)
3
@Bob Guthrie
Sure, he wants to visit on May Day because they have a YUUUUGE parade in Red Square that day, you know, tanks, missiles, flyovers, lots of soldiers marching, and then he will come home and demand a BIGGER parade in Washington.
Besides, getting his orders in person beats having to READ THOSE ORDERS, especially in Russian. After all, Cyrillic letters look funny, "H" is an N, "P" is an R, "C" is an S, but some letters like M and T are the same. Very confusing. Extra confusing when even reading English is a chore, right?
1
Where are the Bushes in any of this? Or McCains? Schwarzenegger? Are there any leading Republicans anywhere who will stand up for not impeaching Trump per se but for an investigation?
I would like to see these elected officials right the ship, not for their party only but because that's what the country needs. Has everyone given up on or forgotten that educators have to make sense of all of this with young people while trying to instill or develop a sense of civic responsibility?
11
I would think that the timing of Boltons information is nothing more than a preemptive strike to remove any debate later in the year. For now it's just so much sound and fury in a debate divided on partisan lines where everyone knows the outcome. This is regardless of whether he (or others) testify or not. Bolton's book wasn't due out till March after the conclusion of the impeachment trial. At that point the last thing the Republicans want is a debate over the trial process and additional questions about Trumps guilt or innocence. That just drags the entire process closer to the election. I honestly believe the Democrats are getting played once again by the President. Regardless of your position on Trump he is masterful in using the media for his own gains. He did it self promoting in New York, again presenting himself as a supposedly successful businessman on the Apprentice and he continues to do it in the Presidency. The Whitehouse has known about the content of Bolton's book for a month. That some of it's most pertinent contents got leaked now should surprise no one.
1
he's not masterful at anything
1
having no skin in the game per se, and looking in from another country, the world is also discussing and because reality dictates that the US President does impact our own Democracy especially trade and yes entertainment, Medical due to fundings, etc. but the one conclusion that many of us have, knowing our own governments are imperfect is this idea that this present Government including Senators and Congressmen seem to favor themselves and not their constituents, my question why not get Hunter Biden in a private session since he seems to be the root of some of this though he can't attest to the call, he may once and for all shed light on these disturbing events and should his father become the Democratic nominee this whole issue will not reign above Joe Biden's candidacy, and why is it the Republicans do not want Bolton, Pompeo, Mulvaney, fear of what? getting rid of the one thing that consumes them and that is the power of being with the Governing Administration and the Power they have as a majority Senate, now is their pride in having a Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Joni Ernst (who by the way has with her recent comment regarding IOWA shown the good people of IOWA they don't matter just her, this is what it's about-her)Cruz, really a guy who seems to be such a follower, these and many more are the pride of the Senate?, what you are fighting for is your CONSTITUTION, your freedom off the battlefield, this will forever change your rights and give the swamp your power
5
Hunter Biden has nothing to do with this...
If they were all so concerned about Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, when BIDEN WAS THE VICE PRESIDENT, why didn’t t they investigate???
The Republicans had both the House and the Senate in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.
If Biden, Hunter Biden and Burisma was such a concern re corruption, where was the investigation?
5 years and nothing??? They could have conducted oversight when Biden was IN office...why didn’t they if there was such a concern?
We have months of Benghazi, so we know oversight took place...
3
@DM maybe they didn't investigate because it did not come out, but how can you really say Hunter Biden had nothing to do with this, of course, he does, denying the fact that had Biden who was not qualified not had this job which clearly he was not qualified for any more than Trump's children and Kushner are not qualified does not mean there was something either way. did you have insight into everything going on in all administrations, trust me, I wish I knew more about what goes on behind the scenes in Canada. there is no evidence of wrongdoing, therefore, I am stating logic, why not take the time for your Democracy and if that means digging up ugly so be it, remember, once you give power away you don't get it back, regardless if it is a Democrat, Republican or Independent, use your voice as well as your vote
The Whitewater investigation was about Clinton's personal finances before he was president.
It cost $100 Million in today's dollars.
I'd go for that for Trump.
5
don't forget: clinton was impeached and he served out his term
@bills
However that doesn't address the fact that Trump is scared to death to show his tax returns.
And Clinton was impeached for lying about sex.
Trump is being impeached for withholding aid to get help from a foreign entity with his political campaign which illegal (unless his campaign paid for that help).
Plus withholding aid helps the Russians who are one of our greatest adversaries.
I am old enough to remember when Republicans were pro-FBI and anti-Putin.
That seems so quaint and a long time ago.
Circa 2016.
3
When the dust settles, can we please pass a law requiring candidates for President release their taxes? We need to know who our President is working for, especially as it becomes more and more apparent that character in the person of the President is not guaranteed.
20
@S
And a law requiring candidates to pass a civic and a spelling test.
4
Getting Bolton to testify is not going to get 20 Republicans to change their mind and convict.
What it will do, however, is at a minimum, get Hunter Biden and the whistleblower on the stand. Dont think for a second that Republicans will allow Bolton and not demand Hunter and the Whistle blower.
That will lead to Joe Biden and Adam Schiff.
It will become very clear that Trump was completely justified in asking Zelensky to look into them. Its not just Trump who said what they were doing is corrupt. Every major media outlet, including this one, has written articles in some form or another declaring this whole Ukraine fiasco a big problem for the Bidens - both of them. Dont forget, Biden is on video bragging about strong arming the Ukranians by holding back that 1 billion to fire that prosecutor. It is simply not believable that that had nothing to do with protecting his son. Just the appearance of impropriety will be enough to exonerate Trump.
Not to mention, Schiff and the whistleblower will be under oath, and have to spill the beans on their relationship. That will drag down the entire party, considering what they put the country through.
Dragging this through the mud will be bad for Democrats.
It will destroy Bidens candidacy and even keep Bernie off the campaign trail.
Just think a few steps ahead.
Not a road we want to go down.
15
Much smoke and mirrors. Biden was in the open about Ukraine when stating established Government policy in concert with the Obama Administration and Congress. Trump went against stated US policy and Congress behind the scenes to make political hay to use for his own purposes. That’s a big difference. Hunter Biden should not have been on that board. It was a poor choice that made him money and gave a terrible appearance. That said it is a drop in the bucket compared to having Ivanka and Jarred working in The White House.
99
@InvestAndProsper
Yes, corruption has been important to Trump since he was young. He has left a clear trail: with fraud allegations; lawsuits for stiffing contractors; abuse of his Foundation, forcing it to be closed; several bankruptcies; using another charitable entity to make an illegal campaign contribution to Ms. Bondi's campaign for Florida Attorney General (she is now one his attorneys in this trial); Trump University being shut down; several sexual assault allegations, with women paid in settlements including NDAs. Yes, he is very concerned about corruption, generally.
83
@InvestAndProsper your understanding of the matter is seriously flawed. Victor Shokin was the prosecutor that the US, the EU and the IMF were insisting needed to be fired. Shokin was a Putin lackey and hold-over from the Victor Yanokovych administration. Yanokovych fled Ukraine and now is living in Russia.
The reason the West wanted Shokin out was that he was a major blockage in getting the Ukraine government cleared by acceptance into NATO.
The West wanted Ukraine in NATO. Russia obviously didn't. When Putin began to think that Ukraine would succeed in getting into NATO, he invaded.
49
I heard Trump saying that yeah, he'd like to hear Bolton testify and Mulvaney and Rick Perry and, all of them, but unfortunately it cannot be done, you see, that pesky issue, "national security"...
Oh, isn't that rich! Just to think that we have a sociopath in the Oval Office, and he might have access to the red button...?!
America must secure access to the Oval Office; no sociopaths, no crooks, no perjuring senators, no seditionists must enter!
9
@Nicholas
Yapping away on his unsecured cell phone. Oh, but Hillary’s emails...
If Trump is still there after November, life will be increasingly miserable for Republicans. The impeachment and trial is just a precursor to what they could expect to live through. Every day they would face a country that is willing to put up with them less and less, and that respects them less, and less, and less.
7
@Joe I reckon, in that case, that you will have a change in temperature concerning the current cold civil war.
1
I think it's a misperception that Republican senators are resistant to calling witnesses because they are kowtowing to or afraid of Trump. While there may be a few exceptions, many, if not most, of them are just as self-serving and morally specious as he is. They represent and cater to a segment of this country that cares far less about doing the right thing than they do about doing what furthers their ideological, religious, and material agendas. Maybe most Democrats are no better, but just happen benefit by being on the right side of this particular fight.
Ultimately, this impeachment is not about Donald Trump, but about the identity of America. Whatever Bolton might say, were he to testify, it would simply be spun to mean less than it does by Trump's lawyers, whose fantasy will likely be greedily lapped up by the Republican senators and those they represent.
5
@Michael
Identity of America:
Are we a Republic or not?
Do we have a Constitution or not?
Do we have the Bill or Rights or not?
Do we have free and fair elections or not?
There’s a start!
1
@TheraP
In an age where EVERYTHING is open to interpretation, manipulation, and spin, those things may no longer be enough. Without a fundamental agreement on and acceptance of basic right and wrong, our identity will always be amorphous.
1
Bolton is clearly on record as to his response to a subpoena: NO. He was not part of the House process.
No individual, even an ersatz patriotic witness getting billion$ in free publicity for his forthcoming tome , should be allowed to game Congress.
The House chose not to have the Judicial branch adjudicate the Constitutional legality and enforceability of its subpoenas, but to place its Constitutional authority over the other two branches.
The Senate must deal both with reality and perception.
The reality is there is nothing sworn on the record by Bolton.
The perception is he is gaming the system.
Bolton as a witness? If, and only if, the whistleblower, the crux of the case, testifies. Bolton wants to testify in open court only when it is good for him and the Whistleblower never wants to testify in open court and can be used to game the system by anonymity by politicians.
If a witness did not testify in the House, they don't testify in the Senate. Period.
2
I just filed my income taxes, and I'm newly outraged at the apparent confirmation by John Bolton that Donald Trump withheld my tax dollars to gain leverage on Ukraine for information about one of his political rivals.
Had I wanted to contribute to Trump's campaign, I would have done so. I don't support him, and I'll be darned if he's going to violate the law (in the case the Impoundment Control Act) to help his reelection campaign. It's unconscionable and deserves removal from office now.
17
The Trump "It's all a hoax" defense has been abandoned.
The American people know that the GOP defense of Donald J.Trump is now officially: "So what."
So What if the evidence presented demands witnesses, investigation and records.
So what if Trump asked foreign nations to interfere in American elections;
So what if he did not faithfully execute the law passed by congress to supply Ukraine with military aid and so diminished America's security;
So what if he lied and abused his power by obstructing the evidence of his plot and actions to subvert the next election.
His Republican defenders now claim that the nation's Founders would not have judged these acts to be impeachable. They are wrong.
The Framers expressly prohibited receipt of aid from foreigners in elections, and especially so in the case of the president. They knew the danger that a president might become a dictator with the corrupting support of foreign dictators and kings. They may not have foreseen the complicity of the current GOP Senate majority, nor the rise of powerful propaganda media in service to one man, but their intent was plainly that Americans elect their government without foreign meddling.
Trump was recorded ordering the "take out" of Ambassador Yovanovitch after receiving advice from Lev Parnas, associate of the indicted Russian Dimitro Firtash.
If the GOP Senators do not investigate this, and believe more evidence will not surface, they are both incompetent and traitorous.
11
If the Democrats weren’t in such a hurry in the House, perhaps we would have heard from Bolton.
Bolton has nothing to add of any relevance. Whether or not Trump ever discussed tying aid to an investigation as a possible policy choice, that choice was not chosen.
The Ukrainians were never pushed to do anything at the direction of Trump as stated by the Ukrainians. Bolton is irrelevant.
Trump has forced the deep state’s hand.
The Democrats need to take him down before their corruption of the last election is fully understood by the public.
Politicians of both sides are petrified that this Ukrainian nightmare is going to expose the institutionalized fleecing of US government funds by corrupt politicians, their cronies and corrupt foreign governments. Trump may interrupt their game.
Bolton is a representative of the MIC that can’t stand the fact that Trump keeps talking about pulling out of Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. possibly stymying the theft of more trillions.
It’s a fight to the death for our nation.
2
Bringing in witnesses makes this all more complex than it already is. The average person, Republican or not, can’t handle the complex. Things have to be neatly tied up with a bow (ie digestible). Otherwise it creates undue stress through we have to sort or refuse to sort, creating more stress. As we’ve heard cinematically, You can’t handle the truth. The body physically can’t handle it. Research bears this out. That science piece may be the only thing to save us. We’d literally have to give people a pass for being too weak and then tell them, Buddy, “it’s not your fault you’re weak. We’re wired like this.” Then MAYBE they can calm themselves down enough to do the right thing.
Professor Michael Gerhardt said it so simply:"If (this) is not impeachable, then nothing is impeachable." Is this the precedent we want to set for future presidents? If yes, our democracy is dead.
8
When new evidence is ‘angering’ the jurors, we need new jurors. I recommend we elect an all new jury in November.
9
I hope the GOP sees this for what it is.
I keep picturing scenes from Harry Potter where Voldemort lashes out and kills people around him in his anger that Harry Potter still lives. People fall all around him, cut down by his anger.
Mr. Trump doesn’t have a wand and a killing curse, thankfully, but he is lashing out and people are certainly falling under the bus! He is an angry and scared man who also holds an immensely powerful position.
“Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one that rises against them and strikes back!” —Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2
Bolton is just promoting his book. He is nothing and he has nothing. Romney is also nothing. The Democrats are pushing for Bolton only because they want to turn the trial into a circus similar to the one they had in the House. This is not going to happen, not with this team of lawyers for defense. If Bolton comes, then the Bidens will come too. Otherwise, the President's team will use the switch and end this nonsense. They have this choice. The Dems are losing.
1
Russia, if you're listening, I hope you are able to find incriminating evidence on Sanders, Biden, Warren, Buttigieg,
Klobuchar, Yang , Steyer, and Bloomberg. The Senate claims I've done nothing wrong, so you have carte blanche to
help me WIN in November. You can be sure that I will never
contest your seizure of Crimea and subsequent war to occupy
more of Ukraine.
2
Are there enough Republicans with backbones to stand up against Trump and his quest for Autocracy?
How long until Trump denies even knowing Bolton, like he denies knowing Parnas?
2
John Bolton has wanted to testify so let him testify. Let the Bidens testify. Let Adam Schiff testify. John Bolton will not change anything. There was not an impeachable offense committed by President Trump. He has done nothing wrong.
1
I feel that we are just a few steps away from WW2 types of terror and division in the USA. History tells us that leaders who act like Trump and the GOP push a country to a level of fear and terror, gradually. Which path will we follow? The one the Germans did into the brink of genocide or the Japanese extremism of atrocities, or Soviet Union of fear, hate, antisemitism? Will the American Replublic survive the insanity in the GOP and the White House right now? I just don't know.
If Bolton testifies, it is he said versus he said. The President should be compelled to testify under oath.
2
I remain amazed how the judicial process is executed so differently among the electorate. News flash- democracy died along time ago.
Perhaps a side issue, but I’d like to know why Obama didn’t intervene to resolve Joe Biden’s conflict of interest in Ukraine after Hunter Biden was hired by Burisma. And Joe has done a poor job of defending himself on all this.
If there is one alleged human being in Washington who is more contemptible than Donald Trump, it is John Bolton. No matter the situation, Bolton's answer is war.
There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that Bolton would easily lie as revenge for Trump not starting one or more of his cherished wars.
I do not want Trump to remain in office, but the Senate should ignore this evil, evil, EVIL man.
1
Why should revealing the truth create anger? Only if the reason you are in the Senate is to enrich yourself rather than your country. If you are in the Senate (or the House) to "make America great", then you want the truth and the truth is that Mr. Trump has been cheating and lying his entire life. His career has been based upon mendacity. It's time to get him out of Washington; let him move to Moscow, where he can pal around with his buddy, Vladimir!
1
Mitt Romney has got to be just loving this. Can't say that I blame him. I am too.
1
Now that John Bolton has produced a "Tell All" book that is likely stuff that can't be proven or substantiated and seems to want to disclose confidential conversations between him and the President that are not connected to crimes of any kind or impeachable offenses it makes things very hard for any President to speak his or her mind with the people who they would otherwise rely on as trusted confidants that could help them with difficult decisions. From now on Trump or any President has to go it alone and never, ever, speak his mind in front of any other person regardless of who it is. The Presidency by necessity is going to be an even more difficult and lonely job and decisions going forward will likely be made without vital input from people who Presidents would normally count on to bounce things off of. These people are not to be trusted. No one can be trusted. That is the new rule after Bolton.
2
It’s clear at this point that there is no chance the Senate will vote to convict, so current maneuvering relates to the election in the fall. Having Bolton testify would be likely to do political damage to Trump, but if the cost to the Democrats would be to have Biden or his son testify, that seems a very high cost because the political damage to Biden could easily be fatal, just as Trump schemed when he began this process by withholding the aide.
If noting else, this current fiasco should make clear that Congress must act to close the so-called Executive Privilege. The Constitution has no such provision to allow the Executive branch to keep secret anything the President wants, so there really is no such legal entity. Congress must make this clear to future generations.
1
I still think it's unlikely enough Senate Republicans will vote to call witnesses. Even Democrat Joe Manchin seems to be wavering and could vote no.
However, if John Bolton is called as a witness and Trump claims executive privilege, my hope is Bolton will defy the imperial Donald and appear anyway.
If Bolton's revelations were revelations, this would be news.
But they aren't.
There's no new information here.
Just new interpretations of the president's actions and an effort to ascribe motivation that may or may not be correct but in the end is also simply opinion.
Yawn.
2
This trial was never about getting to the truth so Bolton's testimony won't change any Republicans minds on the voting outcome. The trial is about the 2020 election and making Trump look better and about giving the Republican Senators and Congressmen cover for the upcoming election.
This is precisely why Joe Biden should take them up on the one-for-one witness swap. If Biden is innocent of any wrong doing and I believe he is, then it's a chance for him to knock it out of the park. He should be able to refute all allegations one for one against himself and Hunter and will put him heads above Trump and all the other Democratic candidates. My guess is that that Trump will be afraid to bring him in as a witness. If so, another win for Biden.
This is an opportunity that only comes once in an election year so Biden should take advantage of it.
2
Yes, Bolton's testimony would drag this out and reinforce trump's guilt in the minds of most Americans, which would be a good thing.
But the evidence of guilt without Bolton's testimony is already overwhelming, with absolutely no sign of trump's expulsion on the horizon. To get one's hopes up that this may spell the end for his former boss is completely unrealistic.
Especially unrealistic in light of Dershowitz's brilliant bit of oration yesterday, in which he laid out a compelling case that Bolton's testimony is moot because what he would be testifying TO isn't even an impeachable offense. Whether or not we agree with this point, he's now strongly buttressed Republicans' predispositions not to expel, giving them another reason-- one with with a Harvard law professor emeritus' imprimatur-- to vote for acquittal.
1
“Mr. Trump’s lawyers largely ignored the revelations from Mr. Bolton...”
His lawyers quickly dismissed Bolton’s revelations, calling them media accounts that don’t meet evidentiary standards. They then proceeded to slander Joe Biden with hours of selectively quoted media reports related to Burisma.
Hoping for consistency from lawyers and politicians is apparently far too much to expect.
1
It's comforting to know that hidden among all the right wing sycophants serving in the Trump administration, there are people with enough integrity to honor the oath they took to support and defend the Constitution when they were sworn into office. I salute Mr. Bolton for taking a stand.
I think it's a misperception that Republican senators are resistant to calling witnesses because they are kowtowing to or afraid of Trump. While there may be a few exceptions, many, if not most, of them are just as self-serving and morally specious as he is. They represent and cater to a segment of this country that cares far less about doing the right thing than they do about doing what furthers their ideological, religious, and material agendas.
Ultimately, this impeachment is not about Donald Trump, but about the identity of America. Whatever Bolton might say, were he to testify, it would simply be spun to mean less than it does by Trump's lawyers, whose fantasy will likely be greedily lapped up by the Republican senators and those they represent.
1
It is quite fun to see the left's sudden enthusiasm for John Bolton.
Bolton is a man known for starting wars. And for wanting to start many more wars than he was able to start.
That is what got him fired, since Trump is all for display of overwhelming force, for economic sanctions, but no wars.
1
It's enthusiasm for the truth.
1
"Bolton Revelations Anger Republicans, Fueling Push for Impeachment Witnesses"
Based on what we have seen in the last four weeks, there are more revelations to come. In fact the release of the last two revelations - by Lev Parnas and John Bolton - to the media were not driven by top Democrats in the Congress.
So, one has to expect that the "Big One" is still to come! Chances are that the Democrats are waiting for the Senate to exonerate Trump and then they reveal their biggest Trump covfefe, in order to totally humiliate the Republicans.
Is it the case that given trump's public comment asserting he told Mr. Bolton nothing should eliminate any claim to executive privilege since he has brought the matter into the open? Would the same apply to mr Mulvaney after his open press conference?
Given the moral rot consuming the GOP, Trump’s acquittal is a foregone conclusion. But the calling of witnesses, particularly Bolton, is still in the best interests of both the Democrats and the country at large, as every Republican senator who votes to acquit will have to face the voters in one of the next three elections with this blatant dereliction of duty on his or her record. The stronger the case for conviction, the more votes this will (hopefully) cost each of them.
4