It was only eight days ago that I wrote Trump Will Be Brought Down By His Own People. In that piece, I made the point that witnesses like Rick Gates and Michael Flynn will be providing the most compelling evidence against President Trump. I noted that the Office of Special Counsel has interviewed virtually everyone in the Trump’s inner circle, and that most of them probably told the truth while others were compelled to sign cooperation agreements. Susan Glasser provides another example of what I am talking about in a new piece in The New Yorker:
“Largely overlooked in the daily flood of Trump-era news, a week ago, his former Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, said in an interview that Trump had repeatedly pressed him to violate the law… The coverage of Tillerson’s interview with the journalist Bob Schieffer focussed more on Trump’s outraged response than on the underlying revelation… But Tillerson’s allegation was more than just another bout of Trump-era name-calling between a former Secretary of State who once called his boss a “fucking moron” and the President who fired him by tweet. Imagine Tillerson before Congress come January, testifying under oath and live on television, about which laws Trump told him to break.”
This morning, Michael Cohen appeared on ABC News with George Stephanopolous and made two important points. First, he reiterated that he did nothing unless directed to do it by Donald Trump, and that Trump was fully aware that he was requesting that Cohen commit crimes. Second, when asked whether Trump has been telling the truth about his collusion with the Russians, Cohen responded, “No.”
So, to make my original point again, what you should anticipate is a parade of witnesses against Trump. But those witnesses won’t be tell-all mistresses or victims of sexual harassment or victims of fraud and aggrieved contractors or pissed off members of the intelligence community. They will be people from Trump’s inner circle who are often testifying reluctantly and under duress. In some cases, like with Rex Tillerson, the testimony may not be all that reluctant, but it will still come from members of the campaign or administration who were firsthand witnesses to a conspiracy or crimes or grossly unethical behavior. I’m thinking of people like Reince Priebus and Don McGahn.
These are the kinds of people who Republican senators are supposed to dismiss if they’re going to hold the line for Donald Trump.
Anything is possible with this generation of Republicans, but I have confidence that this line will not hold.
Thanks to Cohen’s documentation and Pecker’s affirmation Cohen is proceeding to blow holes in any pebble of defense Trump has in the half dozen ongoing investigations.
May Tillerson and other witnesses have documentation to bring to the next round.
The Sunday shows must be all clamoring for Cohen’s attendance, just might be worth the watch this weekend. If nothing else it sounds like this could be a moment of a lot of witnesses rushing to the mics.
I guess I had assumed Cohen would begin serving his sentence immediately, so his continued freedom til March is a nice bonus!
He doesn’t report until March.
No thinking person at this point doubts that Der Trumper was and is a political criminal, or that he believes only chumps and losers comply with the law. Unfortunately, after 30+ years of dining exclusively on “conservative” sewage, the degradation of American culture and society has reached such a point that fully 40% of the electorate can only be described as enthusiastic cultists–spiteful zombies whose minds are beyond the grasp of reason. And those are the imbeciles the criminal Repub party must cater to or else face political suicide. That a demented monster like Trumper could so easily build a coterie of complicit criminals from our nation’s moneyed elite also demonstrates how rotten our mindless “capitalist” society has become.
With the LOL comic possibility of son-in-law Jared as Chief of Staff, we are reaching a TrumperBunker situation. Unfortunately, however, there’s no Red Army encircling Berlin to put the nation out of its misery. But as it becomes harder and harder for Team Conservative coaches like John Corndog and Lindsey G to defend their lawbreaking prez–what kind of words can even come out of their mouths?–it will be surprising if political violence does not break out across the country in the coming year.
On a more positive note, we might some day be treated to an American version of the engrossing film “Downfall”–certainly essential viewing at this point, highly recommended!
Wow,
Right down to the request for most to leave the room, followed by an insane rant, while people cringe in the hallway.
Make the movie, please…and then everyone can turn it into memes, forever.
I’m impressed euzoius. VERY good observation.
.
I tried in vain yesterday to remember how to embed a YouTube clip, because the bunker scene was exactly what I was envisioning, and I wanted to put it in the comments of the post about Jared.
It is simply impossible to watch that movie clip and not see something so clearly parallel to this playing out in the White House. The delusion, the rage, the anger at perceived disloyalties. The two men share so many of the same core personality flaws, that you cannot help but wonder if this scene is not a precursor that what could well happen in the near future.
you cannot help but wonder if this scene is not a precursor that what could well happen in the near future.
The ranting, without the associated world war, I hope.
Yeah. The ranting and not the war.
“The coverage of Tillerson’s interview with the journalist Bob Schieffer focussed more on Trump’s outraged response than on the underlying revelation…”
And this will probably be an issue with new witnesses coming forward. Understanding this, as I am sure he does, Trump will debase each of these witnesses with a slew of juvenile name calling and outrageously dumb tweets, layered over a bed of lies, and the MSM will chase after these shiny objects and ignore the more important, relevant details, as they did with Tillerson. They focused on Trump calling Tillerson “dumb” ignoring not only the absurdity of that, but also the real news, of Trump asking Tillerson to break the law.
We knew Trump’s ~32% of true believers have the sentience of Barney Frank’s table leg, but in my travels I find that there are those outside of that group, though not as slavishly beholden to Trump, still have difficulty grasping some of the reasons why Trump is a crook. If all they’re hearing is Trump calling someone names in response to them saying Trump asked them to break they law or their witness to him doing that, without any real discussion or analysis of the latter, then that could neutralize somewhat the impact of the importance and relevance of what these witnesses know and share with the general public. That certainly was the case with Tillerson.
As the truth spills out, and subsequent corroboration of it comes forward, this is the only effective strategy Trump has, to divert the attention of the press and as much of the public’s as well, and thereby minimize the seriousness of his illegal activity.
I don’t think there has ever been a time when its been as important for the media to live up to its constitutional mandate.
. . . to the Worse-than-Useless Corporate Media.
Merely “useless” does not suffice, given how often the outcome is not merely a failure to adequately inform, but the result is actively mis-/dis-informing, including by misplaced focus and emphasis, as in this example. Rendering them often, in fact, quite the opposite of “useless” to those with an interest in keeping the people distracted, ignorant, and/or stupid. To them, the Corporate Media frequently prove very useful indeed.
Not just the corporate media. Go over to Josh Marshall’s TPM. His “Livewire” is almost solely devoted to retweeting Trump…. literally just posting his tweets without any context or comment.
There will always be a rump who believe Trump was driven out of office by a cabal of insidious insiders. Just as there’s always been a rump who questioned why HUAC was shut down. The question is when does that rump become small enough that even Republicans in red states realize they’re fucked.
Certainly the 2018 election made clear to all politically insightful folks, a title which fits most Senators and Congressman, that it’s not safe to cling to Trump except in the reddest of districts/states. The question is what does it take for the scales to drop in places like Wyoming, North Dakota, Montana, Mississippi, Alabama. Of course before we get to those places, Trump has to contend with Ohio, Indiana, even Pennsylvania.
The likelihood of his reelection is fast approaching zero. The remaining question is whether he can survive in an incapacitated form (a sort of fetal position) until January 2021.
While Watergate and “All The Presidents Men” – both the book and the movie – were major inflection points in my understanding of US politics from where I was born and growing up in my early years – India, I had not fully appreciated some of the associated parallel issues – like the resignation of Spiro Agnew.
In the excellent Rachel Maddow podcast – The Bagman – I learnt the extent to which the criminal mindset had penetrated in the Republican Party in the 70s.
Even during the last days of Watergate, there were several Republican senators who were on Nixon’s side.
Jesse Helms said:
http://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/5/12/15630372/watergate-impeachment-conservative-public-opinion
-trump-history
Given that the criminal party has traveled far from those days, it is not hard to imagine that many of the current R senators will stay with the sinking ship. The MAGA crowd and Faux Noise will see to that!
I’ve been a committed lurker for years, but I can’t sit back when I see my state slandered like this. Montana isn’t the deep red state that people constantly make it out to be.
Glad to hear that.
. . . Tester won, with an actual (bare) majority for the first time out of his three elections, despite four (count ’em, 4) Trump visits/campaign rallies against him (plus multiple others by Pence and DonnieJr). And make no mistake, Trump rallied his rubes against Tester (it was personal, intensely so!) barely paying lip service to being “for” Giantasshole (aside from his reporter-assaulting, that is) and Rosendale. Which made Tester winning with his biggest margin ever sweeter still.
With announcement that Chris Christie has declined to be in the running for the COS position and the now long list of fellow decliners it’s one of the most telling turns of how even Trump’s believers recognize the house of cards is falling over and best to stay far far away.
“…I have confidence that this line will not hold.”
You keep saying this, but you never say why.
Doubtless you believe that the preceding matter in your post is the explanation why, and we are talking past each other.
But unless my cognitive abilities have completely deserted me, including any grasp of the English language, the last sentence of your post is a non sequitur with respect to what came before it.
BooMan has written that the evidence of the president having committed multiple crimes will be so damning and irrefutable that there were be electoral consequences for Republican Senators and Congressmembers if they try to look the other way and help Trump brazen it out to November 2020.
“I have confidence that this line will not hold.”
I’m not as sanguine.