Impeach

Fox News Legal Analyst: Trump Will Testify at Senate Impeachment Trial

Posted by on December 5, 2019 at 1:59 pm. 6 Comments :

On Thursday morning House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it official that the House would draft Articles of Impeachment against Donald Trump. It isn’t known yet what specific charges will be included, but it’s fairly certain that they will focus on Trump’s extortion of the President of Ukraine and obstruction of justice. However, the possibilities for additional charges are numerous, including perjury, campaign finance violations, witness intimidation, and self-dealing.

Donald Trump, Impeach

It is almost a bygone conclusion that the House will vote to impeach Trump. His fate in the Senate is more difficult to predict. While most Republican senators have been marching lock-step with Trump, his flagrant breaches of law and obstruction could produce a public backlash that makes them think twice about supporting him.

How the Senate trial unfolds will have a significant impact on the final vote. But there is one particular potential event that could be groundbreaking. While Trump has done everything imaginable to throw obstacles in front of the impeachment inquiry, there is some speculation that he might show up to testify on his own behalf.

One of those predicting that is Andrew Napolitano, the Fox News Senior Legal Analyst. Napolitano, who said last month that “the evidence of his impeachable behavior is overwhelming,” also recently said that if he were a member of Congress he would vote to impeach Trump. His is virtually alone at Fox taking that position. And now he is predicting that Trump will testify under oath at his Senate impeachment trial. Napolitano was asked by Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer “If you go to a Senate trial, who testifies on behalf of the president?” Napolitano replied…

“Himself … I think it will be the most dramatic legal political event in the history of our era. With the president of the United States testifying under oath in front of the chief justice, and the full Senate and 200 million people watching on television.”

Is Napolitano right? It’s hard to tell. There two distinct paths for Trump going forward.

PATH #1: Trump will testify because he believes that he is his own best spokesperson. He is a malignant narcissist who is convinced that everything does is “perfect” and that it is impossible for him to fail at anything he attempts. He believes he is better than all of his critics and could outsmart them on the Senate debate field. So of course he’ll testify.

PATH #2: Trump will never testify because he’s scared witless of being cross-examined by the aggressive and hostile Democratic lawyers prosecuting his impeachment. He knows that he is prone to lying in order to achieve his goals, but that in this forum that would only subject him to additional charges of perjury. And he can’t remember his past lies well enough to be consistent. What’s more, he knows the truth. He knows what he’s done and that he will be asked about his activities in detail. How could he respond? If he tells the truth he’s incriminating himself. But if he lies he’s perjuring himself.

So it remains to be seen which of Trump’s psychoses will prevail. Will it be his narcissistic confidence and delusions of grandeur? Or will it be his fear and consciousness of guilt. Either way it’s clear that Trump doesn’t have any good options. In the meantime he’s assuming a brave face on Twitter and asking that congress move quickly to the Senate trial:

This is the typical childish name-calling strategy that Trump employs when under pressure. He can’t respond substantively to the charges against him, so he calls his critics “crazy.” That wouldn’t cut it in a court of law, or in the Senate. But if he’s so keen on compelling the testimony of Adam Schiff and the Bidens, maybe he should be patronized, so long as he also agrees to allow the testimony of Mick Mulvaney, and Mike Pompeo, and John Bolton, and Dan McGahn,, and Rudy Giuliani. Then he might actually be right about the Senate trial “reveal[ing], for the first time, how corrupt our system really is.”

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

SRSLY? Trump Cites Fox News Shills as ‘Legal Scholars’ to Dismiss Impeachment Report

Posted by on December 4, 2019 at 2:51 pm. 3 Comments :

The impeachment of Donald Trump has now moved from the House Intelligence Committee to the House Judiciary Committee. And with that the legal arguments for the constitutional grounds for impeachment are coming to the forefront of the public discourse. A panel of law professors are the first witnesses to appear before this committee. But Trump has his own laughably obtuse ideas on the matter.

Donald Trump, Constitution

Trump held several press avails with foreign leaders during his trip to London for the NATO summit. In each of them he managed to deliver blatantly political screeds that exalted himself and maligned his critics. But on one occasion he offered his opinion of the report written at the conclusion of the House impeachment hearings. Not surprising, he was less than impressed. He had the following exchange with a reporter (video below):

REPORTER: Do you want to comment on the House Democrats impeachment report that came out last night and the hearing today?

TRUMP: Well, I saw it and it’s a joke. Everybody is saying it. I watched reviews. I watched Sean Hannity. I watched Laura Ingraham. I watched Tucker Carlson. I watched a lot of other legal scholars.

REALLY? So now Trump is passing off right-wing hacks on Fox News as the “legal scholars” he relies on to shape his views of impeachment. That’s even worse than his actual lawyers (i.e. Rudy Giuliani) and the other TV attorneys that he depends on for advice. And he’s admitting to watching an awful lot of TV while he’s at this international summit. He went on to site his longtime friend Alan Dershowitz and the Bill Clinton special prosecutor, Ken Starr, as additional sources of his legal opinions.

For some reason Trump failed to note that Fox News’ Senior Legal Analyst, Andrew Napolitano, concluded that the evidence of Trump’s impeachable behavior is overwhelming. He also left out the commentaries by Napolitano and staunch pro-Trump sycophant Andrew McCarthy, who both disputed the anti-impeachment arguments of committee witness Jonathan Turley. However, Trump did go on to repeat some of his recent lies relating to his popularity:

“I will tell you it’s a uniform statement pretty much right down the road. What they’re doing is a bad thing for the country. It’s of no merit. And the Republican Party has never been more unified, ever. They have never been as unified as they are right now.

“I’ve never seen anything like it where you have 197-0 where the Senate is very angry about it. I think the Senate I can say is angry. The Republican Party is angry. A recent poll came out 95% approval rating for me in the Republican Party which is a record. “

“197-0?” There are only 100 senators and about half of them are Democrats. And never mind that it is entirely irrelevant whether the Republican Party is unified. They are expected to be united in defense of their president. That doesn’t have any bearing on his guilt. And more to the point, Trump’s assertions as to the unity of the GOP being uniformly in favor of Trump is simply false. He has never been able to provide a source for 95% approval, but a recent poll put the number at 74%. And majorities of the American people are solidly in favor of impeaching Trump and removing him from office.

Trump is living in a fantasy world where he is beloved by all and everyone agrees with him on everything. The truth is that he is the most unpopular president in modern times who has never even hit 50% approval. And it’s downright pathetic that he has to resort to partisan hacks like Hannity to justify his delusions on the legality of impeachment. He might as well be citing Lionel Hutz.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

WRONG! Trump Lies that Ukraine President Said He Did Nothing Wrong

Posted by on December 2, 2019 at 1:18 pm. 6 Comments :

On Monday morning Donald Trump whisked off to London for a summit with NATO, the international alliance that he repeatedly disparages. That is, at least, when he isn’t shilling for Vladimir Putin and Russia to be admitted into the group that was formed to counter the hostile intentions of Russia.

Donald Trump Impeach Fearful

Prior to his departure, Trump felt it was necessary to whine some more about the impeachment proceedings in Congress. These are the proceedings that he said were unfair because they weren’t public. Then he complained when they became public. And he was furious that he wasn’t allowed to participate. But he is now refusing to accept an invitation to participate.

Trump is obviously afraid to appear under oath before the Judiciary Committee because he knows that if he tells the truth he is likely to further incriminate himself. But if he lies he’s committing perjury. So his only recourse is to tweet from the safety of his bedroom. And that’s what he did several times, addressing a new interview by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Trump said exonerates him:

It will not surprise most people that Trump is lying. He simply made up this assertion that Zelensky said he “has done nothing wrong.” In fact, Zelensky said quite the opposite:

“Look, I never talked to the president from the position of a quid pro quo,” Zelenskiy told Time and a handful of European publications in an interview published Monday. “That’s not my thing. … I don’t want us to look like beggars. But you have to understand. We’re at war. If you’re our strategic partner, then you can’t go blocking anything for us. I think that’s just about fairness. It’s not about a quid pro quo. It just goes without saying.”

Trump zoned in on Zelensky’s comment that he never talked about a quid pro quo. But it’s clear that his meaning was that he didn’t want to portray his dealings with Trump as subservient. His complete statement in context shows that he was plainly concerned about Trump’s threat to “block” critical military aid, and that it doesn’t matter what you call the arrangement, it “goes without saying” that the aid and Ukraine’s concessions to Trump were inextricably intertwined.

However, that didn’t stop Trump from lying about Zelensky’s comments. He has been saying for months that there was no quid pro quo. Which is odd considering that his chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said there was. Even more damning, Trump actually admitted that there was indeed a quid pro quo on national television:

REPORTER: Mr. President, what exactly did you hope Zelensky would do about the Bidens after your phone call? Exactly.

TRUMP: I would think that if they’re honest about it they’d start a major investigation into the Bidens. It’s a very simple answer. They should investigate the Bidens.

It is truly mind boggling that there is anyone who still believes anything that Trump says. He lies with the reckless abandon of sociopathic con man. He even lies about the lies he told a few days, or even hours, before. Even one of his staunchest defenders on Fox News, Tucker Carlson, recently called Trump “a full-blown BS artist.” And that’s coming from someone who knows Trump well, and whose job relies on intimate knowledge of bullshitting.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Where in the World is Donald Trump? The Tweeter-in-Chief Has Been AWOL for 4 Days

Posted by on November 30, 2019 at 12:13 pm. 6 Comments :

This Thanksgiving holiday weekend Donald Trump has been mysteriously missing from the platform that has been his primary communications medium for years. The president has long insisted that Twitter is the “Only way for me to get the truth out!” without what he says is the bias of the mainstream media. But lately he has been conspicuously absent from his social media megaphone.

Donald Trump

On Wednesday Trump tweeted a grand total of four tweets. On Thursday there only three tweets by Trump. On Friday his tweeting dropped down to a single tweet all day. And, so far, on Saturday there have been no tweets by Trump at all. (Note: these numbers are counting only Trump tweets, not retweets).

Update: Trump finally showed up late Saturday for some tweet action. He posted ten of his own, plus some retweets. That’s still far below his 20 tweet per day average.

Trump has an alibi of sorts for Thursday that could be seen as marginally plausible. He turned up in Afghanistan for a surprise visit with American troops stationed there. The White House claimed that Trump had tasked members of his staff to post some tweets while he was traveling to hide the fact that he was on a secret mission. But that doesn’t really explain the dearth of tweets. For one thing, Trump could tweet from Air Force One. For another, why were there still so few tweets? That hardly serves the purpose of making Trump’s Twitter activity appear normal. And Trump was back in the U.S. the next day, but his tweeting was still way below his average activity.

The average number of tweets by Trump for 2019 to date is about 20 tweets per day. Earlier this month Trump achieved a milestone by blasting out a record 82 tweets in a single day. Most of them were frantic responses to the impeachment inquiry in Congress. The majority of the remainder were clips of his favorite Fox News bootlickers. But the peculiarity of fewer than four tweets per day for the past four days is hard to ignore.

Trump has had nothing else on his schedule that would account for this silence. He isn’t on the road for one of his cult rallies. There’s no evidence that he’s meeting with staff on matters of import. He isn’t attending an international summit. If he’s lounging around in the White House residence with his family, he isn’t sharing any of the tender moments that other American families share on social media. There hasn’t been a single picture posted of Trump with Melania and her son, Barron.

The speculation as to Trump’s whereabouts, therefore, has to include his health. A couple of weeks ago he was suddenly whisked off to Walter Reed Hospital without prior notice to the press or even to the hospital. The explanation given for the trip was hardly credible. The White House said he was having routine tests in advance of his annual physical – which isn’t until next February. And those tests could easily have been done in the well-equipped medical office at the White House. What’s more, there have been observations that Trump’s speech and movement have been hampered since that hospital visit.

To be sure, there are other reasons why Trump could be laying low. The impeachment hearings revealed abundant evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. Career diplomats and national security professionals testified that he did extort the president of Ukraine by threatening to withhold critical military aid unless they help Trump dig up dirt on Joe Biden. Even the senior legal analyst of Fox News weighed in on the likelihood of Trump’s guilt.

Consequently, Trump may just be nervous about making any public comments for fear of making things worse and getting into even more trouble. That, of course, has been the result of much of his previous public comments. During the testimony of Marie Yovanovitch Trump’s tweeting might have put him in legal jeopardy for witness intimidation. Trump may even have been counseled to keep his mouth shut by his lawyers as the House Judiciary Committee prepares to take up the formal impeachment hearings. Committee Chairman Jerold Nadler has invited Trump and his attorneys to participate, but it appears that he’s going to decline.

On the one hand, Trump’s refusal to participate is odd considering that he has been whining about not being able to participate thus far. But on the other hand, it makes perfect sense. After all, Trump would be facing a difficult choice were he to testify under oath. If he tells the truth he likely incriminates himself further. If he lies he’s committing perjury. These options may also be on his mind as he decides whether or not to tweet. Or maybe he’s on secret mission to Ukraine, North Korea, or Moscow.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

IMPEACH NOW! Why Trump Cannot Be Allowed to Stay in Office Until the 2020 Election

Posted by on November 25, 2019 at 12:44 pm. 4 Comments :

The impeachment inquiry hearings held last week by the House Intelligence Committee revealed a case for the impeachment of Donald Trump that is – in the words of the Senior Legal Analyst at Fox News – “OVERWHELMING!” Career diplomats and national security professionals provided first-hand testimony affirming Trump’s efforts to extort the president of Ukraine in order to help him smear a potential political rival.

Donald Trump

Nevertheless, Trump continues to insist that he’s done nothing wrong. And Republicans in Congress, along with Trump cultists in the press, refuse to give any ground or to acknowledge the piles of evidence against the President. In fact, in their zeal to defend Trump, they are brazenly advancing conspiracy theories concocted by Russia intended to harm the U.S.

When their reserve of talking points and slander against Trump critics run out, the Trumpian brigades resort to the pitifully weak backup argument that efforts to impeach Trump should be abandoned because there is an election next year. However, when that proposal is explored in detail it makes no sense whatsoever. So in the interest of providing a concise and logical rebuttal, what follows are three principle reasons for why it would be unthinkable to allow Trump to remain in office until the election of 2020:

REASON NUMBER 1: Cheaters Gonna Cheat
The offenses that Trump is being charged with are specifically related to his attempts to undermine a fair election. By abusing his power of the presidency in a plot to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, with the forced assistance of a foreign country, Trump has shown that he cannot be trusted to run an honest campaign. No one would play a round of golf for money with someone who has been proven to cheat at golf (as Trump has also done). And no one should expect Trump to conduct a fair campaign in 2020. What’s more, with what we know about his unsavory connections to Russia and Wikileaks, it’s clear that he cheated in 2016 as well. That’s not someone to whom you give the benefit of a doubt for an upcoming election.

REASON NUMBER 2: No Free Pass
Were we wait until 2020 for Trump to be voted out of office, that would not suffice as punishment. Any president who runs for reelection is subject to voters choosing someone else for the next four years. It might be due to dissatisfaction with his performance in his first term, or rejection of political policies, or even a personal dislike. Or it could be be simply because voters liked the other candidate better. But there is nothing associated with an electoral loss that can be strictly designated as punishment. However, when a president commits offenses that warrant impeachment, it is imperative that a historical record show what happened and why. Impeachment is the only way way to insure that the president is punished and that a deterrent is established for future presidents.

REASON NUMBER 3: You Can’t Trust a Con Man
The argument that we should all just a wait patiently because the next election is only a year away is an argument to be blindfolded for a year. In this context a year is quite a long time. A president inclined to breach ethical and legal standards can do a lot of damage in a year. He can issue executive orders, appoint judges and other powerful political allies, and engage in vengeful retaliation against critics. Someone under the kind of cloud that impeachment presents – particularly when it’s related to unlawful or corrupt acts – cannot be trusted to behave honorably for another twelve months in an office that they shouldn’t occupy to begin with. That time could be spent obstructing justice, maligning opponents, or just feathering his nest financially.

CONCLUSION
Those who say we should wait and let the voters decide are forgetting that the voters already decided. In 2016 they chose Hillary Clinton by a 3,000,000 vote margin. In 2018 they handed the power of the majority to Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in the House of Representatives. And all of the polling today indicates that most Americans favor impeaching Trump and removing him from office. Given that endorsement, and the reasons stated above, there really is no other path forward than impeachment. The arguments to the contrary are impotent, devoid of logic, and steeped in the cult worship of glassy-eyed disciples whose only interest is in appeasing Dear Leader.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Fox News Senior Legal Analyst: Evidence of Impeachable Behavior is Overwhelming

Posted by on November 24, 2019 at 1:21 pm. 7 Comments :

The consensus opinion following last week’s marathon impeachment hearings is that Donald Trump was badly hurt by the testimony from credible career diplomats and national security professionals. He was shown to have committed something on the order of bribery or extortion by withholding congressionally appropriated military aid from Ukraine unless they agreed to help him smear Joe Biden.

Donald Trump, Andrew Napolitano

That consensus was manifest in much of the media, including among some Republican pundits and expert analysts. The one outpost that stubbornly refused to see reality was, not surprisingly, Fox News. They obediently carried out their mission to protect and defend Dear Leader Donald Trump, and to dismiss and malign his critics. Along with misrepresenting what witnesses like Dr. Fiona Hill and Alexander Vindman told the House Intelligence Committee, Fox News shills gleefully propagated ludicrous conspiracy theories that were concocted by Russia and intended to harm the United States.

It’s one thing for Fox News – the Ministry of Propaganda for the Trump regime – to advance conservative political positions and promote Republican officeholders and candidates. It’s another thing entirely for them to help a hostile foreign country to undermine the interests and welfare of America. But that is precisely what they and many GOP politicians have been doing.

One exception to the wingnut groupthink on Fox News is Andrew Napolitano. He’s a former judge, a stalwart Republican, and Fox’s senior legal analyst. And after paying close attention to the testimony delivered throughout the past week, he enumerated what he believes the Democrats will put forth in Articles of Impeachment in an interview with ReasonTV:

“One is bribery…The second charge will be high crimes and misdemeanors, election law violation. The third crime will be obstruction of justice. The fourth will be interference with a witness, and the fifth may be lying under oath.

Napolitano was not just speculating as to how Democrats might proceed. He gave his own opinion of Trump’s legal jeopardy going forward saying that “The evidence of his impeachable behavior at this point, in my view, is overwhelming.” He further noted that Trump has failed to offer any coherent defense. The President, in fact, is prohibiting those he claims would exonerate him from testifying. They include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and Vice-President Mike Pence. You can be certain that if those people could help Trump prove his innocence he would drive them to the Capitol himself.

However, before anyone gets the idea that Fox News is cracking the door open to the possibility that Trump is guilty and deserving of impeachment, it needs to be pointed out that Napolitano has not been allowed to offer this assessment on Fox News. He had to go to ReasonTV to present these views. His absence on Fox following the hearings has been profoundly conspicuous. It’s almost as if Fox News doesn’t want their viewers to hear the opinion that Trump’s actions warrant impeachment. Ya think?

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Trump Keeps Whining About Impeachment, So Why Doesn’t He Offer a Defense?

Posted by on November 21, 2019 at 12:29 pm. 5 Comments :

One of Donald Trump’s most frequently articulated complaints is that the impeachment hearings are being conducted in a manner that is unfair to him. He grumbles daily (hourly) about due process and wonders why his attorney isn’t allowed to cross-examine the witnesses. Nevermind that everyone knows that “defendants” are not permitted legal representation during an investigation. That right kicks in at trial.

Donald Trump, Impeach

Apparently Trump believes that police detectives must drag the suspect’s lawyer around with them when they conduct interviews. He has surely been told that that isn’t true, but he clings to this absurdity anyway. He also must know that Congress is in an investigatory phase of impeachment. His perspective is already being presented by the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee. But if he is concerned that fact witnesses who support his positions aren’t being heard, it’s only because he has refused to allow them to testify. What’s more, there is nothing preventing him from testifying himself. He often says that he is his own best spokesman. However, on this matter he is clearly afraid to speak on his own behalf under oath.

Consequently, Trump resorts to his favored mode of communication: his Twitter machine. On Thursday morning he pounded out seventeen (17!) tweets mostly obsessing about impeachment and the raw deal he thinks he’s been dealt. And the one thing they all have in common is that they completely avoid any substantive defense for his actions. Not a single time does he provide any exculpatory evidence or even an argument that contains some rational account of his innocence.

For the most part, Trump’s tweets focus on attacking either the press or his perceived enemies in Congress. Chief among his targets is Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who Trump, in his infantile way, likes to call Adam “Schitt.” But more to the point, his rage-tweeting included this lament that his fantasies aren’t aligned with the real world:

Anyone paying attention has heard Trump’s tiresome and repetitive declarations that his phone calls with Ukrainian President Zelensky were “perfect,” whatever that means. However, the “transcripts” (actually summary memos) explicitly reveal that Trump did link U.S. military aid to Ukraine digging up dirt on Joe Biden (aka quid pro quo/bribery/extortion). And Trump’s hostility and fear of Schiff was just getting warmed up:

It’s important to note that Trump never details what he thinks makes Schiff corrupt. It’s simply an ad hominem attack intended to rile up his base and salve his tender ego. That’s why he lashes out with blanket insults that malign anyone who dares to criticize him as “human scum.” And yet, somehow he he still has the audacity to contend that he’s “winning big” which, were it true, you would expect him to stop crying over it so much. When has an actual winner ever been so obsessed with all the evidence of him being a loser? But Trump’s angst-ridden anxiety was still just getting started. He still needed to parrot something utterly false that he had just seen on Fox News:

First of all, the man who has been documented as having told more than 13,000 lies ought not to be maligning the honesty of anyone else. Particularly when he can’t cite a single falsehood. Furthermore, the comments Trump quoted from Fox News are easily debunked. The Committee rules are public information. There is nothing in them that gives Schiff the power “unilaterally to release edited transcripts.” All transcripts are reviewed for accuracy by both parties and even the witnesses.

As for the Committee jurisdiction, that is entirely the purview of the majority Democrats and the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who also scares the bejesus out of Trump. For the record, Schiff’s committee has been designated as one of several investigating committees. Eventually, the Judiciary Committee will preside over impeachment, if there is one.

The fact that Trump communicates so frequently, and with such vigor, however never bothers to offer a substantive defense, is indicative of one thing: He has no defense. That is affirmed by the questioning by Republicans during the impeachment hearings wherein they completely avoid substance in favor of innuendo, conspiracy theories, and baseless, tabloid-style accusations. If Trump had a coherent defense he would use it. And he would allow those he claims are his supporters to present their case before the committee. That’s the big question. Why would an innocent man prohibit the testimony of those he says would exonerate him? Hmmm?

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

PROOF: Trump Flagrantly Lied About the Quid Pro Quo He Already Publicly Admitted

Posted by on November 20, 2019 at 11:27 am. 8 Comments :

The testimony of Ambassador Gordon Sondland during Wednesday’s impeachment hearing is already being described as a “bombshell.” Sondland not only further incriminated Donald Trump, he also implicated senior members of Trump’s team including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and even Vice-President Mike Pence. Be careful Trumpsters. The bus is running over everyone.

Donald Trump, Chopper Talk

However, perhaps the most damning comments of the morning came from Trump himself as he staged his latest performance of “Chopper Talk” on the White House lawn. Trump stopped to read from his hand-written notes a portion of what he characterized as exonerating testimony by Sondland. It was a mere two sentences, out of context, from over two hours of questioning. But Trump presented it as if it wrapped up the whole case against him. It surely did not.

Trump was allegedly quoting Sondland’s recollection of a conversation they had. Sondland said that he asked Trump what he wanted from Ukrainian President Zelensky. And Trump says he replied that…

“I say to the Ambassador in response, ‘I want nothing, I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell Zelensky, President Zelensky, to do the right thing.'”

First of all, saying that “I want nothing,” immediately followed by an order to “do the right thing,” is by definition a quid pro quo whether you say so or not. Particularly when “the right thing” was previously established as a demand that Zelensky make a public statement that he would investigate the 2016 election and Burisma/Biden, if he wanted U.S. aid. To deny the obvious conditionality of that is like denying that water is wet.

What’s more, in a previous episode of “Chopper Talk,” Trump himself told a national television audience exactly what he wanted from Zelensky:

REPORTER: Mr. President, what exactly did you hope Zelensky would do about the Bidens after your phone call? Exactly.

TRUMP: I would think that if they’re honest about it they’d start a major investigation into the Bidens. It’s a very simple answer. They should investigate the Bidens.

The bottom line here is that Trump did seek Zelensky’s agreement to investigate the Biden’s, and he did make U.S. aid contingent on that. But now Trump wants people to believe Sondland’s out of context soundbite, rather than what he plainly said himself. If we accept Trump’s presentation of Sondland’s testimony as complete and factual, then we have to conclude that he’s calling himself a liar. Which, ironically, would be the first truthful thing that Trump has said in a very long time.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Self-Gaslighting? Frightened by Reality, Trump Keeps Posting Fake Approval Ratings

Posted by on November 18, 2019 at 2:23 pm. 9 Comments :

The walls are closing in around Donald Trump as the impeachment hearings proceed. More witnesses from within his own administration are coming forward this week to provide incriminating testimony. Consequently, Trump is frantically tweeting attacks on non-partisan career public servants, along with testimonials from disreputable congressional supporters and Fox News shills.

Flaming Trump

Trump’s ego won’t allow him to face the reality that his presidency is coming apart at the seams. In what appears to be an effort to persuade himself, as well as his glassy-eyed cult followers, that he is uncommonly popular, Trump repeatedly posts that he has an approval rating of 95% among Republicans. While he has tweeted this at least 29 times this year, he has never once provided a source for that wildly implausible number. Recent polling from the real world shows that his Republican support is at a career low of 74 percent. Nevertheless, Trump tweeted this bizarre commentary Monday morning:

Let’s set aside the awkwardly comical phrasing in this tweet wherein he appears to say that his own claim of party unity “is a great fraud.” Trump is clinging desperately to a delusion of wide scale GOP adoration. Even if it were true, it would represent a tiny sliver of the electorate which is only about 29% Republican, compared to 31% Democratic and 38% independent. There is no rational argument that he is well-liked by any constituency beyond his worshipful Deplorables. So he resorts to some tiresome sloganeering about the “fake” this and the “do nothing” that.

Trump was recently humiliated by the loss of Republican gubernatorial candidates in the bright red states of Kentucky and Louisiana. And that was after he had campaigned vigorously for them, rallied for them, and even tied his personal reputation to their electoral fates, begging voters to elect the GOP candidates for his sake. And subsequent to those embarrassing defeats, Trump boldly ignores objective truth to tweet that “we are winning.”

A new ABC News/Ipsos poll has even more bad news for Trump. They found that a majority of 51% of the American people favor his impeachment and removal from office. That number goes up to 67% when asked just of those following the hearings closely. So the better informed one is, the more they want Trump out. Plus, an overwhelming 70% think Trump’s extortion of Ukraine’s President Zelensky to dig up dirt on Biden was wrong. These results are consistent with other recent polls on the impeachment question.

Trump Delusional Impeach Polls

Trump’s misrepresentation of the public mood is nothing new. The question is: Does he know his claims are false and he’s brazenly lying to the American people, or has he managed to fool himself into believing that he’s the nation’s most beloved hero? Either way, Trump’s fear of the future has pushed him into ever more noxious assaults on his perceived foes.

Last week he blasted House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff with a profane warping of his name as Adam “Schitt.” Even worse, he failed to defend America’s honor after North Korea launched an attack on Joe Biden that included an overt death threat. Which affirms what has been obvious for far too long. The only person Trump will ever defend is himself, even if it means neglecting the welfare of the nation and purposefully ignoring reality.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

It’s a Crime! Fox News Anchors Tell the Truth About Trump’s Witness Intimidation

Posted by on November 15, 2019 at 11:39 am. 7 Comments :

On Friday the Congressional hearing on Donald Trump’s impeachment continued with the testimony of Marie Yovanovitch, the former Ambassador of the United States to Ukraine. Most observers have noted that Yovanovitch is a respected diplomat whose decades of service to the country reflect her honor and honesty. That opinion, however, is not shared by the President, whose nasty animosity is starkly contrary to the consensus of those who know her and her work.

Fox News, Impeach Trump

While the hearing was in progress, Trump demonstrated his deep-seated fear of the consequences of Yovanovitch’s truthful and credible testimony. True to form, Trump grabbed his Twitter machine and lashed out savagely at her in a loathsome attempt to discredit an honorable public servant. Trump tweeted that…

First of all, the fact that Yovanovitch voluntarily served in “hardship” posts (or what Trump might call “shithole countries“) is evidence of her patriotism and commitment to the advancement of our national interests. She was not responsible for the adversity in those countries. To the contrary, she could be credited with mitigating the chaos and suffering they endured over many years prior to her tenure.

Trump’s tweets can only be interpreted as intending to intimidate this witness and discourage other witnesses from coming forward. It is a corrupt and potentially illegal act that exposes his consciousness of guilt and further incriminates him. That view is surprisingly shared by the principle “news” anchors at Fox News. Bret Baier was asked for his assessment immediately following the first session on the hearing. He said that…

“This whole hearing turned on a dime when the President tweeted about her real time. And during the questioning Adam Schiff stopped the Democratic questioning to read the President’s tweet to her and get her response. That enabled Schiff to then characterize that tweet as intimidating the witness, or tampering with the witness, which is a crime. Adding, essentially, an article of impeachment real time as this hearing is going on.

https://twitter.com/BretBaier/status/1195370139623010307

Not only did Baier identify the potential criminality embedded in Trump’s disparaging and threatening tweet, but he recognized that having tweeted while the hearing was still in progress was an unusual interruption that had a profound and improper impact. And he wasn’t alone. Fox’s Chris Wallace also commented on Yovanovitch’s testimony saying that “if you are not moved… by the testimony of Marie Yovanovich, you don’t have a pulse.” He went on to deliver a brief history of her sterling career with the State Department. And then he added that…

“I agree with Bret here that the really dramatic moment is that this wasn’t just testimony about the past. This played out in real time with the president attacking her and saying that every place that she served went bad. And she was asked by Adam Schiff, ‘Do you see that as an effort to intimidate you and other witnesses?’ And she said that ‘I feel that is quite intimidating.’ And that does raise the possibility of witness intimidation and witness tampering as a new charge here.”

It was not, however, all hearts and flowers at Fox News. Yovanovitch has been bitterly attacked by the usual suspects during Fox’s primetime (Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham) and their morning propaganda block (Fox and Friends, Outnumbered). Wallace alluded to this when he spoke of the “smear campaign that came from Rudy Giuliani and some of his cohorts and was repeated in some of the outlets in right-wing media.” What Wallace didn’t acknowledge is that Fox News is the most prominent of those right-wing media outlets that smeared her. And we can expect that to continue despite these rare and candid comments from Baier and Wallace.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

UPDATE: As Fox took a break from the hearing, their senior Capitol Hill producer made the utterly irrelevant observation that “When we look at the U.S. Constitution and look at Article 2, Section 4, it doesn’t say anything about witness intimidation.” Of course it doesn’t. It also doesn’t say anything about murder, rape, bank fraud, perjury (see Bill Clinton), tax evasion, child pornography, cannibalism, etc. The Constitution never intended to itemize every possible illegal act that would warrant impeachment.