Kaitlan Collins

The Supreme Court Immunity Case is Even Scarier Knowing Trump Threatened to Execute His Critics

Posted by on April 28, 2024 at 2:03 pm. 0 Comments :

Last week the Supreme Court heard arguments on whether a president is entitled to immunity for any crimes he or she may commit while in office. Donald Trump has been frantically posting dozens of utterly ludicrous demands for such immunity because he’s currently facing 88 felony charges for violating laws ranging from campaign finance, to election interference, to inciting an insurrection, and even the Espionage Act.

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Donald Trump

Trump’s signature whining consists entirely of his ridiculous belief that a president cannot function if he has to worry about being prosecuted for unlawful activities. But worrying about being held accountable for criminal acts (e.g. deterrence) is one of the main reasons we have laws. What’s more, not a single president prior to Trump has ever asked for or needed immunity in order to make the difficult decisions required of them.

SEE THIS: Trump Says All Presidents Must Have ‘Total Immunity’ from Crimes – Except for President Biden

The Court specifically addressed certain ghastly hypotheticals in their questioning of Trump’s attorney. And his answers were troubling in the extreme. For instance…

Justice Sonia Sotomayor: If the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person and he orders the military to assassinate him, is that within his official acts for which he can give immunity?
Sauer: It would depend on the hypothetical, but we can see that could well be an official act.

Other equally disturbing scenarios that Trump’s lawyer sanctioned as deserving of immunity were staging a coup, fabricating false slates of electors, and selling nuclear secrets to foreign adversaries. Apparently no act of treason was too much for Trump or the right-wing Justices he appointed.

MORE HERE: Here’s a Summary of the Crimes Trump’s Lawyer Tells the Supreme Court He Has Immunity to Commit

What makes all of this ever more frightening is that it transcends the realm of the hypothetical. In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Trump’s former Attorney General, Bill Barr, was asked about a report that he was present when Trump suggested executing an actual person who was suspected of leaking information. Which led to the following exchange…

Collins: Do you remember that?
Barr: I remember him being very mad about that. I actually don’t remember him saying, executing. But I wouldn’t dispute it, you know? I mean, it doesn’t sound — I mean, the President would lose his temper and say things like that. I doubt he would have actually carried it out. I don’t, you know.
Collins: But he would say that on other occasions? You said he would lose his temper.
Barr: The President, you know, the President had a — I think people sometimes took him too literally. And he would say things like, similar to that on occasions, to blow off steam. But I wouldn’t take him literally every time he did it.
Collins: Why not?
Barr: Because at the end of the day, it wouldn’t be carried out, and you could talk sense into him.
Collins: But just because it’s not carried out, and you could talk sense into him, doesn’t that still mean that the threat is there?

So Trump has actually considered assassinating Americans who he regards as political foes. This is no longer just fanciful musing. And Barr’s dismissal of Trump’s overt threats is pitifully weak. What would happen in another Trump administration wherein there was no one to talk him out of his murderous intentions? Which, by the way, is precisely the sort of administration that Trump is already planning, should he be reelected. It’s one that would be populated by unflinching loyalists vetted by his family and cult confederates.

Putting together Trump’s already articulated desire to rule as a brutal tyrant in the mold of his hero, Vladimir Putin, with the acceptance by the conservative Justices on the Supreme Court of such barbaric acts, paints a dire picture of what the United States would become under another Trump regime.

It would effectively make Trump an untouchable dictator, capable of monstrous savagery. Or, as he puts it, “retribution” for the wrongs he believes have been inflicted on him. But it would not be anything remotely recognizable as the America described by its Founders, its Constitution, or the aspirations of its citizens. And it must not be permitted to occur. If the Courts will not prevent it, the people must do so by voting overwhelmingly for democracy and liberty and justice.

Which means voting for Democrats up and down the ballot. Because Republicans like Barr, and Lindsey Graham, and Ted Cruz, and Mike Johnson, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, et al, ad infinitum, are all committed to Trump even if he’s convicted of felonious crimes. They’ve said so. Believe them.

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RNC Chair is ‘Very Disconcerted’ that Biden Can’t Get Republicans to Support Trump’s Indictments

Posted by on June 17, 2023 at 11:28 am. 3 Comments :

The Cult of Donald Trump – aka the Republican Party – is proving once again how devoted they are to their Dear Leader despite the voluminous record of his legal and ethical misconduct. The party is signaling that it will remain loyal to Trump no matter what crimes he has committed, even if he is convicted by a jury of his peers.

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Donald Trump, GOP

Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), was interviewed by Kaitlan Collins on CNN Friday. The topics of conversation naturally included the recent indictments of Trump on 37 felony counts ranging from obstruction of justice to violations of the Espionage Act. Trump’s response to being indicted was a predictable emotional meltdown attacking President Biden and the the special counsel, Jack Smith.

SEE ALSO: Utterly Deranged Trump Calls Special Counsel a ‘Radical Right Lunatic’ Who ‘Planted’ Evidence

Somewhat less predictable was the position McDaniel took when Collins asked her about whether the GOP would still insist that all of their candidates pledge to support the eventual nominee, if that person had been convicted of felonies. At first, McDaniel shamelessly dodged…

Collins: Why should Republicans be asked to support someone who could potentially be convicted of a felony?
McDaniel: There is no convicted felon in the Republican field right now

That’s technically true. There is just a candidate that has been indicted on 71 counts in two different cases. Nevertheless, McDaniel is adamant that the loyalty oath be enforced if candidates want to participate in GOP primary debates. That doctrine is in effect even though there is little hope that Trump would comply with it. Why should he? He never did before.

RELATED: RNC Chair Thinks Trump Would Honor a Pledge to Support the GOP Nominee if it Isn’t Him

The interview actually went downhill from there. Collins sought to press McDaniel on the issue of Trump’s indictments and the GOP’s gutless and amoral toleration of his lawlessness and corruption. But her justifications were pitifully weak and disassociated…

McDaniel: Republicans feel like there’s one system of justice for them and a different for Democrats. There’s one standard for Hillary Clinton and a different for Donald Trump.
Collins: But the allegations are not the same for Hillary Clinton.
McDaniel: Because she never was investigated.
Collins: She was investigated.
McDaniel: She had a BleachBit server. She destroyed phones.

McDaniel has apparently BleachBitted her brain. Clinton may be the most investigated public official in modern times. Republicans held dozens of hearings about everything from her emails to Benghazi and back. FBI director James Comey was investigating her in the final days of the 2016 campaign, which was a significant factor in her loss. And failing in that argument, McDaniel decides to draw a comparison between Clinton and Trump, asserting falsely that she had 22 classified documents to his 17. In reality, Clinton had zero documents that were classified when she obtained them, and Trump had hundreds.

Collins points out that Trump had taken documents with nuclear secrets and confidential information about our allies. To which McDaniel replied that “He hasn’t had a chance to defend himself.” Seriously? He has been ranting non-stop about his indictment since even before it was announced. The problem is that his rants have all been incoherent tirades filled with lies and insults. He deliberately avoids any factual refutation of the charges against him. He has had plenty of opportunities to defend himself, he just never does so. Perhaps because he has no defense. Which may be one reason why his defense attorneys keep quitting. Along with his noxious personality and refusal to pay them.

RELATED: Crybaby Trump is Panicking Over the Likelihood that He is About to Be Criminally Indicted

McDaniel then complains that Clinton didn’t get indicted or have her home raided, but Trump did. That’s only because Clinton always cooperated with law enforcement. And every investigation, including those by Republicans, concluded that she had not broken any laws. McDaniel closed by whining that…

“We also know we have a President in Joe Biden who isn’t addressing the American people in a time of crisis. A deeply divided country. I think a former president being indicted is a time of crisis. And to not hear from our president, to have Joe Biden hiding again and not bringing people together is very disconcerting.”

Indeed, it is a time of crisis when a former president is indicted. But that’s Trump’s fault for being such an unrepentant criminal. It isn’t Biden’s responsibility to salve the tender feelings of Trump’s cult followers. To the contrary, it would be wholly inappropriate for Biden to comment on the pending charges against Trump. He respects the wall between the White House and the Justice Department. Unlike Trump, whose virtual campaign slogan, referring to Clinton, was “Lock Her Up,” And Trump recently promised to appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” Biden and his family. What’s “very disconcerting” is that after all this time, Trump is still so ignorant that he thinks a president has that authority.

McDaniel spent most of her time in this interview talking over Collins. She deflected with irrelevant detours to the Nothingburger Durham Report, and the Steele dossier. Just like every other Republican who has commented on this, including Trump himself, she clearly doesn’t have a rational response to the facts that led to Trump’s indictment.

Consequently, it is now official Republican policy that candidates and office holders who have committed felonies, including breaches of the Espionage Act, are acceptable and even welcome. In fact, it mandatory to support them in order to be a Party member in good standing. That’s something that all citizens should consider when they vote.

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FAILING UP: CNN Boss Chris Licht Promotes Trump Town Hall Host, Kaitlan Collins, to Primetime

Posted by on May 17, 2023 at 12:50 pm. 5 Comments :

Last week CNN aired a town hall with Donald Trump, the twice-impeached leader of a seditionist conspiracy who was recently found liable for rape and defamation, and is currently being investigated for a multitude of crimes, including financial and tax fraud, hush money payments, hoarding classified materials, election interference, and plotting a violent coup.

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Donald Trump, CNN

The town hall was broadly disparaged as an infomercial for Trump’s aspirations to return to the White House in 2024. He was given wide latitude to lie, with only paltry pushback by the moderator, Kaitlan Collins. The audience was stacked with Trump supporters who applauded his most heinous remarks and laughed when he insulted the victim of his sexual assault. The program was so awful that many insiders at CNN were among the harshest critics…

SEE THIS: How Horrible Was CNN’s Lie-Riddled Trump Town Hall? Let’s See What CNN Has to Say About It

In the days following the town hall, CNN’s ratings plummeted to fourth place, below the ultra-rightist gadfly network, Newsmax. So naturally, this week CNN is rewarding Collins for her hosting of the debacle with a new primetime show:

“On the heels of her performance moderating a town hall with former President Donald Trump, CNN CEO Chris Licht named Kaitlan Collins the new host of the network’s 9 p.m. hour starting in June.”

This schedule change was actually rumored to be in the works prior to the town hall, which was to serve as both an introduction and an advertisement for Collins in her new role. Which, in retrospect, doesn’t seem like it was a very good idea.

CNN appears to be making good on the journalistically inappropriate promise of its CEO, Chris Licht, to make the network “more Republican friendly.” They are replacing the more left-leaning journalist, Don Lemon, with Collins, a former correspondent with the Tucker Carlson founded “Daily Caller.” Never mind that Collins’ primetime debut has garnered mostly criticism and ridicule. One of the few people to praise the show was Trump himself (of course), who credited it with moving Fox News more to the right.

REALTED: Ratings Envy? Trump Says that His CNN Town Hall Spurred Fox News to Cover His Iowa Cult Rally

Perhaps Licht thinks that he can scoop up the disaffected Fox News viewers who are rapidly abandoning the network for having fired their High Priest of White Nationalism, Tucker Carlson. If so, then Licht is even dumber than Carlson looks. Fox’s audience has been trained to despise CNN, and they won’t be de-programmed by a one-night special broadcast.

As for Fox News, they are implementing some program changes as well. They just announced that Sean Hannity will be moved into Carlson’s earlier timeslot. And insiders are saying that Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld are also going to be given shows in primetime.

This presents a dilemma for Fox. There aren’t enough hours in primetime for everyone currently being talked about to have a show there. Since Hannity isn’t going anywhere, if Watters and Gutfeld get promoted, then Laura Ingraham is either fired or moved out of primetime.

All of these changes are going to inject some chaos into the cable news wars. CNN is driving viewers away by sucking up to the right. Fox News is alienating their followers by terminating their heroes. And all of that is going to create opportunities for MSNBC, whose schedule is remaining relatively stable.

It may take several weeks for all of this to shake out. But if CNN and Fox News continue to battle it out for the wingnut demographic, they will both continue to lose audience share to MSNBC and the various incarnations of “Bachelors” and “Idols” that are being served up on the broadcast networks. Stay tuned.

SEE ALSO: Trump Spills that CNN Made Him ‘a Deal I Couldn’t Refuse’ to Get Him to Do Their Town Hall

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How Horrible Was CNN’s Lie-Riddled Trump Town Hall? Let’s See What CNN Has to Say About It

Posted by on May 11, 2023 at 11:03 am. 10 Comments :

The aftermath of the ill-conceived CNN town hall with Donald Trump affirmed the most pessimistic projections offered beforehand. Trump was himself. That is to say, he was a dishonest, hostile, bloviating bully. Is there any reason that CNN should have expected anything else?

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Trump Lies

The town hall was bad idea from the start. A reputable news enterprise would never provide such a forum to a candidate credibly charged with sexual abuse, tax fraud, election interference, and seditious conspiracy. Yet somehow CNN was comfortable with presenting this televised Trump rally, complete with an audience of “Republicans and undeclared voters who plan to vote in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.” You have to wonder precisely what CNN offered Trump to get him to agree to appear on a network that he regards as “fake news” and insists that nobody watches.

SEE THIS: Trump Spills that CNN Made Him ‘a Deal I Couldn’t Refuse’ to Get Him to Do Their Town Hall

Predictably, the program failed on every level. It was neither informative on Trump’s policies, nor revealing of his principles. It merely rehashed everything that everyone already knows about him. The moderator, Kaitlan Collins, made some attempts to fact-check Trump, but not nearly enough. It was so useless that even some of CNN’s anchors and analysts were repulsed. Immediately following the town hall, Jake Tapper gave a scathing summation that concluded that “We don’t have enough time to fact-check every lie he told.” So why air it in the first place?

CNN’s media correspondent, Oliver Darcy, tweeted that “It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening.” And that was just the beginning. CNN published an article enumerating “8 takeaways from Trump’s CNN town hall.” And each one affirmed Trump’s unfitness for office. The article began by noting that Trump…

“…showed on Wednesday night that he is very much the same person Americans came to know in 2016, throughout his four years in office, and in the aftermath of his 2020 election defeat. […] When he wasn’t calling women names, airing old grievances or attempting to rewrite history, the former president largely dodged questions and follow-up inquiries [and that] Unsurprisingly, the mostly Trump-loyal audience lapped it up.”

Considering that analysis from CNN itself, what was the point of the whole thing? It didn’t advance the public’s knowledge or ability to assess Trump’s candidacy. The 8 takeaways were all examples of Trump’s ignorance and artifice. Let’s explore them little deeper…

  • “Trump makes dismissive comments about [E. Jean] Carroll.”
    Trump “denied the accusations and again said he had never met Carroll. [and the audience] laughed at his jokes and other dismissive comments about Carroll.” He also called her a “whack job,” defaming her anew.
  • “Trump says GOP should be willing to blow up debt ceiling.”
    Trump “insisted that default would be preferable to a result that doesn’t stop the government ‘spending money like drunken sailors.'” He also laughed off his hypocrisy about opposing using the debt ceiling as a negotiating wedge while he was president.
  • “Trump is vague on federal abortion ban.”
    “Trump repeatedly ducked questions about whether he would sign into law a federal abortion ban, as well as after how many weeks into a pregnancy abortion should be made illegal.” He also lied that Democrats support infanticide.
  • “Trump doesn’t say if he would back Ukraine in war with Russia.”
    “Trump refused to say whether he wanted Ukraine to prevail in its war with invading Russia.” He also refused to criticize his BFF, Vladimir Putin, for the war crimes of slaughtering civilians.
  • “Trump says he’d pardon January 6 rioters.”
    “Trump demonstrated no remorse for his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol [and] said he was ‘inclined to pardon’ many of the pro-Trump rioters who were convicted for their roles in the attack on the Capitol.” He also insulted law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol as “thugs.”
  • “Trump suggests family separation immigration policy could return.”
    Trump said “When you say to a family that if you come, we’re going to break you up, they don’t come.” He also declined to take responsibility for destroying families.
  • “Trump repeats election fraud lies.”
    “Trump repeated his lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election [and] would not commit to accepting the results of the 2024 presidential election.” He also hyped debunked conspiracy theories about stuffed ballot boxes and fraudulent votes.
  • “Trump uses same name-calling tactics.”
    “When Collins pressed Trump about documents he took from the White House, he said: ‘You’re a nasty person.'” He also repeated his infantile “crazy” Nancy Pelosi insult.

Not mentioned in the article was a particularly disturbing response by Trump with regard the classified documents that he stole and hoarded at Mar-a-Lago. He offered ludicrous misrepresentations of the Presidential Records Act to justify his security breach. Responding to Collins’ inquiry as to whether he had shown the documents to anyone, Trump replied, “Not really.” Which is a long ways from “No.” He elaborated that he “had the right” to show them to anyone he wanted to. This is a near confession to criminal espionage.

RELATED: On Fox News Trump Confesses that He Stole Classified Documents, Despite Hannity’s Coaching

A good indicator of how awful the town hall was is who celebrated the event afterwards. Media Matters collected the rave reviews from elated right-wingers. And on his floundering Twitter scam, Truth Social, Trump himself expressed his delight with the appearance, along with 18 posts from his ecstatic supporters who all considered it a triumph. Congratulations, CNN.

However, it wasn’t only CNN who thought that this noxious affair was a disgraceful embarrassment to journalism. The Hollywood Reported compiled reactions from a broad array of media analysts who concurred that the network “failed journalism and our country.” And there are more critiques here via Media Matters. Even President Biden weighed in saying pointedly that “It’s simple, folks. Do you want four more years of that?”

UPDATE: CNN’s ratings for the town hall were unimpressive. They drew about 3 million viewers, which would be an average night for Fox News primetime, and not uncommon or a special news event on CNN. But those viewers are unlikely to stick around. If they came for Trump they are predisposed to hate CNN, and will be further put off by Collins’ questioning of him.

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Questions that CNN Should – But Probably Won’t – Ask Trump During His Town Hall Charade

Posted by on May 2, 2023 at 1:22 pm. 6 Comments :

CNN appears to be making good on the promise of its new CEO, Chris Licht, to make the network “more Republican friendly.” As if that were a credible goal of any alleged journalistic enterprise. What Licht meant was that he wants to try to soak up some of the ratings glow of the ultra-rightist propaganda outlet, Fox News.

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Donald Trump, CNN

CNN’s newly adopted editorial position of patronizing the GOP is not only unethical, it’s doomed to failure. Fox News viewers have been trained to despise CNN. And why would they watch a weak pretender when they have the real Fox News to satisfy their appetite for crackpot conspiracy theories and lies? Especially considering that even Fox News is struggling to satiate their cravings for conservative delusions.

RELATED: With Lawsuits, Lost Hosts, and Lying Pundits, the Future of Fox News Has Never Been Weaker

In that environment, CNN just announced that they will be gifting Donald Trump with an hour of valuable airtime to conduct what they are calling a “town hall.” but is actually a televised Trump rally. The announcement said that the network…

“…will feature the former president taking questions from New Hampshire Republicans and undeclared voters who plan to vote in the 2024 GOP presidential primary. […] This will be Trump’s first appearance on CNN since the 2016 presidential campaign.”

Among the absurdities of this event is that CNN is bizarrely defining “undeclared voters” as those who “plan to vote in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.” But that’s just for starters. It’s preposterous that CNN would invite someone to hold a purely political event who is currently being probed for his efforts to steal an election and stage a violent coup against the government of the United States. And it’s equally preposterous that Trump would accept that invitation, considering that he repeatedly disparaged CNN as “fake news” that nobody watches. Not to mention his lawsuits against the network.

SEE THIS: After Goofy Lawsuit Against CNN, Trump Threatens More Suits, Including the January 6th Committee

It’s unlikely that CNN’s moderator, Kaitlan Collins (previously with the Tucker Carlson founded Daily Caller), will pose any challenging questions to Trump, or make any effort to refute his predictable lies. And the gimmick of throwing the questions to the Republican members of the audience doesn’t bode too well either for this affair providing any useful information for the television viewers.

However, if Collins were interested in some relevant and probing inquiries, and CNN allowed them, here are just a few that they could – but won’t – consider.

What about…

  • Indictments in the Stormy Daniels “hush money” case.
  • Indictments for financial and tax fraud against the Trump Organization.
  • Trial for rape and defamation of E. Jean Carroll.
  • Appointment of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who has accepted gifts and cash from a right-wing billionaire.
  • Condemnation of his own top administration appointees at the Departments of Justice, Defense, State, the FBI, and several of his Chiefs of Staff.
  • Son-in-law Jared Kushner’s $2 billion deal with Saudi Arabia.
  • Proven false allegations that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and stolen.
  • Promises to pardon January 6th rioters.
  • Georgia District Attorney Investigation for election interference and intimidation.
  • Special Counsel Investigation for taking and hoarding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
  • Special Counsel Investigation for inciting the January 6th insurrection and attempted coup.

If CNN were to tackle these subjects it would require a lot more than an hour. But not to worry. CNN will probably just let Trump ramble on incoherently on his response to the potential candidacy of Florida governor Ron DeSantis; or his ever changing views on abortion; or his whining about imaginary “witch hunts”; or Hunter Biden’s laptop; or his self-exalting claims to be the only human alive with simple solutions to every domestic and international problem; and, of course, how terribly the radical, communist, incompetent, albeit mastermind, of evil, President Biden, has destroyed the country that Trump had previously made great again.

RELATED: Trump Floats the Stupidest Lie About Biden and Intel Documents: ‘Maybe He Was the Leaker’

It is wholly irresponsible for CNN to host this farce. The media has no obligation to hand over its air to traitors whose past behavior has resulted in violence. and who has shown no indication of altering that behavior. Even if such a despicable person were running for president. CNN is proving that they learned nothing from their mistakes in covering Trump in 2016 or 2020. In fact, with everything they know now, they are just making things much, much worse. and they have no excuse for it anymore.

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