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Impeachment Today: Forecasting the GOP’s ‘Perfect’ Storm
Live televised coverage of the House Intelligence Committee hearings will start on Wednesday. Tomorrow's column will feature a cheat sheet on who said what in the closed depositions, offering insight into the testimony likely to be heard.
In the meantime, forces aligned with President trump are preparing their messages. Given the overwhelming evidence contained in the depositions from various administration officials already in the public domain, two responses from Republicans on Capitol Hill are in the works.
President Trump is tweeting. I don’t know if the GOP strategists are listening, since his claims are borderline delusional. The already released testimony, according to his rantings, has been “doctored,” and his team isn’t allowed to participate.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1193615188311912449?s=20
Like so much of what the President says, his claims are intended for the faithful, who haven’t bothered to study up on the impeachment process and think about what's about to happen as akin to the trials they’ve seen on Judge Judy or Perry Mason.
Here’s Nancy Cook at POLITICO:
But Trump’s tactics of speaking directly to supporters, branding catchphrases and casting critical information as fake may not work as well on impeachment as Democrats gather testimony and evidence from top officials not beholden to the Trump orbit. Even Trump himself is not sure he can beat impeachment, said a person close to the White House.
“This is a lot different than doing ‘Low Energy Jeb.’ When it does not involve smearing and innuendo, and it does not play solely on people’s emotions, then he is in trouble,” said Timothy O’Brien, author of the biography “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald.” “He doesn’t argue well when there is an obvious fact pattern at play. That is his Achilles’ heel.”
Republican congressional lawmakers have a slightly better grip on reality, though their plans could easily blow up. Essentially it comes down to “when they go high, we go low.” The only unresolved question is how low will they go.
Here’s Laura Clawson at Daily Kos:
Republicans are also setting up their cast of characters carefully. They’ve moved a key staffer from the House Oversight Committee to be shared with the Intelligence Committee so that he can participate in questioning. And, of course, they’ve also moved Rep. Jim Jordan from Oversight, because rather than thinking it’s a liability that Jordan shrugged off reports of a team doctor’s sexual abuse of college wrestlers he was coaching, they see it as valuable experience for dismissing Trump’s abuses of power.
“You want your best contributors for ‘showtime.’ Driving public opinion is key to many—on both sides of the aisle,” a Republican lawmaker told Politico. “Jordan is definitely a showman.” That’s one way of putting it. “Sweaty creep who’s not as smart as he thinks he is” is another, but it’s instructive that Jordan’s style of aggressive but dense questioning plays well with the Republican base.
The Republican plan, then: try to go on the counterattack by outing the whistleblower and continuing Trump’s attacks on the Bidens. Scream “sham” whenever possible. Pivot from complaining that the first stage of the inquiry was held behind closed doors to following Trump’s Friday complaint that “They shouldn’t be having public hearings. This is a hoax.” Pin their hopes on Gym Jordan’s appeal to the public. And presumably they’re planning more storm-the-SCIF type of stunts.
The other part of the Republican defense will involve trying to weave their favorite conspiracy theories into testimony.
Here’s a snip from an article at Politico:
Republicans may also try to argue Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory pushed by Trump and his allies. During the impeachment depositions, Nunes focused some of his questioning on the so-called Steele dossier from the Russia probe — a largely unverified document containing salacious accusations against the president.
And the GOP's witness list includes Nellie Ohr, who is married to Justice Department official Bruce Ohr. Her husband's relationship with former British spy Christopher Steele has been raised repeatedly by Republicans.
“The Democrats disagree that the Steele dossier, I’m assuming, has anything to do with Ukraine or originations in Ukraine. However, in the Steele dossier itself, it does source information from Ukraine. Were you aware of that, ambassador?” Nunes asked Gordon Sondland, Trump's ambassador to the European Union.
“Only recently, based on media reports,” Sondland replied.
Above all, their defense will involve saying Joe Biden’s name on TV as much as possible, along with trying to paint the whistleblower as some sort of lying boogieman.
From the Washington Post:
On “Fox News Sunday,” Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, said the impeachment inquiry “has been a partisan exercise from the very beginning.” He said Republicans want to hear testimony from Hunter Biden.
“I think we should just turn over every rock and pursue every lead to ultimately get to the truth,” Hurd said.
Hurd also argued that Schiff should be forced to testify about his office’s contacts with the whistleblower, claiming that the committee chairman “misled the American public earlier in the year about what he knew about the contact with the whistleblower.”
Schiff said in September that his committee had “not spoken directly with the whistleblower.” He later said he “should have been much more clear.”
https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1193720478592049152?s=20
This obsession with the individual who “called the cops” is especially nutty when you consider, as NPR showed with their fact checked mark up of the original, that there are multiple witnesses willing to testify to just about everything said in the complaint.
Here’s a snip of the NPR work:
The Ukrainian side was the first to publicly acknowledge the phone call. On the evening of 25 July, a readout was posted on the website of the Ukrainian President that contained the following line (translation from original Russian-language readout):
“Donald Trump expressed his conviction that the new Ukrainian government will be able to quickly improve Ukraine’s image and complete the investigation of corruption cases that have held back cooperation between Ukraine and the United States.”
Aside from the above-mentioned “cases” purportedly dealing with the Biden family and the 2016 U.S. election, I was told by White House officials that no other “cases” were discussed.
Based on my understanding, there were approximately a dozen White House officials who listened to the call – a mixture of policy officials and duty officers in the White House Situation Room, as is customary. The officials I spoke with told me that participation in the call had not been restricted in advance because everyone expected it would be a “routine” call with a foreign leader. I do not know whether anyone was physically present with the President during the call.
In addition to White House personnel, I was told that a State Department official, Mr. T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, also listened in on the call.
I was not the only non-White House official to receive a readout of the call. Based on my understanding, multiple State Department and Intelligence Community officials were also briefed on the contents of the call as outlined above.
Democrats, on the other hand, will seek to keep the focus of the hearings on the July 25 phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president and the testimony of various State Department officials who have been brave enough to step forward. I’ll have more on that tomorrow.
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The Trump administration has decided to sort of walk back their dismissal of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, given public reaction to it being announced on CBS’ Face the Nation.
Now it’s just a normal ‘rotation.’ He’ll be sitting at desk with nothing to do until next July.
https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1193642351970963457?s=20
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HAHAHAHAHA
https://twitter.com/farhip/status/1193883475599929345?s=20
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A San Diego-based writer keeping up with the progress in progressive politics