Category Archives: Donald Trump

President Donald Trump on Friday cleared three military service members of war crimes, even after being reportedly advised against doing so by Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. Mr. Trump interceded on behalf of Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, who had been charged with murdering an Afghan man; Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was convicted in connection with posing for a photo with the corpse of a fighter in Iraq; and Army First Lt. Clint Lorance, who, after nine fellow unit members testified against him, had been convicted of murdering two civilians in Afghanistan.

Mr. Trump may believe that intervening pays respect to those who have served in uniform, that it shows hes pro-military. But if this is his view, hes wrong. In reality, Mr. Trumps meddling undermines the militarys institutional values, risks endangering American service members, and disrespects the honorable service of the overwhelming majority of veterans.

The military strives to ensure that its members adhere to the laws of war and respect human rights. Service members are trained, for example, to avoid civilian casualties by understanding rules of engagement and following the proper steps for escalation of force. They also learn the appropriate ways to treat detainees, and interrogators are trained to employ only the approved, legal methods.

During my two deployments to Afghanistan, my intelligence work helped lead to the capture of insurgent leaders. Sharing responsibility for their capture and as a recipient of the intelligence produced by their interrogations, I had a sense of moral reassurance in the understanding that my colleagues handled and interrogated the detainees humanely just as they had been trained.

The lessons service members learn about the laws of war are not an afterthought. Rather, they are central, emphasized time and again from training sessions and exercises, to military ethics discussions, to actual combat deployments. The Armys official values, after all, demand that soldiers do whats right, legally and morally and treat others with dignity and respect, making no exceptions for civilians or even enemies.

The military requires its members to operate in accordance with the laws of war for good reason. Disregarding the laws of war which Mr. Trump has done by intervening in these cases jeopardizes mission accomplishment and the safety of service members; excessive civilian casualties, for example, can stimulate further violence, turn local populations against American forces, and discourage allies from collaborating with the United States. Mr. Trump should realize that the laws of war actually serve to benefit our armed forces.

Against this backdrop, Mr. Trumps intervention on behalf of those convicted or accused of conduct falling short of the militarys crucial legal requirements and moral expectations undermines the training in which the military rightly invests so much effort. It trivializes the values the military spends so much time fostering. He could be endangering United States service members deployed to combat zones by handing their enemies propaganda and recruitment material and by degrading support among local populations.

To be sure, war is complex, and service members accordingly face difficult moral choices under extraordinary pressure. But their preparation helps them make sound decisions in these tough situations, and the military justice system considers the factual circumstances of each case and the intent of the actor.

Mr. Trump appears to be following in the unfortunate footsteps of President Richard Nixon. In the wake of Lt. William Calleys murder conviction in connection with the Vietnam Wars My Lai Massacre, President Richard Nixon intervened on behalf of Mr. Calley. In a response that rings true today, Capt. Aubrey Daniel, the military prosecutor in the case, wrote the president:

Your intervention has, in my opinion, damaged the military judicial system. I would expect that the president of the United States, a man whom I believed should and would provide the moral leadership for this nation, would stand fully behind the law of this land on a moral issue which is so clear and about which there can be no compromise.

Mr. Trump, to the detriment of the United States Armed Forces, remains fixated on condoning the aberrant conduct of those convicted or accused of flouting the laws of war. He should have left the military justice system to do its job. But perhaps this is not surprising, considering that Mr. Trump himself has recently advocated a war crime the appropriation of oil in Syria.

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Trump Betrays the Military - The New York Times

Apple CEO Tim Cook is about to take a victory lap, and President Donald Trump will be following along.

Cook and Trump are expected to soon tour a factory in Texas where Apple will be assembling the new Mac Pro, Reuters reported Tuesday. The tour will cap an incredible couple of years where Cook has proven he's the only major tech executive who can squeeze what he wants out of Trump without compromising too much.

Apple shifted its Mac Pro assembly to a facility in Austin, Texas, in September after a round of tariff exemptions for computer parts the company won from trade regulators. The decision came after Cook went on a charm offensive against Trump in one-on-one meetings and private dinners as Apple grappled with the reality that its products could be subjected to tariffs this year. That would mean the company would either have to charge customers more for its products or eat the extra costs itself.

So Cook played the game. Since Trump took office in 2017, Apple has boasted often without much clarity or detail about a planned $350 billion "contribution" to the U.S. economy. It claimed its "job footprint" has grown to 2.4 million in the U.S. (Apple actually only has about 130,000 employees.) It's promised to open new offices in San Diego and invest $1 billion in an Austin office. And more.

Each announcement could be read as a giant nod toward the Trump administration and its aggressive goals to expand manufacturing and job growth in the U.S. And Trump and his administration has slurped it all up, cutting Apple a break on tariffs while giving Big Tech rivals like Amazon and Google a tough time on everything from antitrust probes to making threats regarding the minimal corporate taxes they pay.

The same goes with Trump's tour of the Mac Pro factory. It doesn't matter that the Mac Pro is a minor product for Apple. Trump gets his headline that Apple is building stuff in the U.S. He gets a glitzy tour of the Austin factory. He gets to brag about manufacturing jobs for American companies coming back home.

But Cook gets a lot more: He won tariff exemptions for most of the Mac Pro's parts, and Apple will continue to make its most profitable and popular products cheaply in China and ship them back to the U.S. with minimal impact from the tariffs.

A few targeted press releases and some chummy meetings go a long way with this president. Apple has mastered this political art, while Google, Amazon, Facebook and others continue to struggle to appeal to Trump's unique nature.

Cook has been playing chess with the president since the trade war with China began. Trump has been playing Candy Land.

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Apple's CEO is about to take a victory lap after charming Trump over tariffs - CNBC

A sitting president is facing impeachment, accused of collusion and abusing his power. Support falls along political lines: The opposition party is determined to remove him, while his allies maintain he did nothing wrong.

But this impeachment inquiry is taking place far from Washington even though a football stadium known as The Swamp looms nearby.

Student representatives at the University of Florida introduced a bill on Tuesday to impeach Michael Murphy, the student body president, accusing him of improperly using student fees to pay one of President Trumps sons to speak on campus.

It all began when Mr. Murphy, a senior, invited Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host and adviser to the presidents campaign, to speak on campus and paid them $50,000 with university funds. Some students say the payment was a violation of the Student Senate code and possibly the law.

The backlash intensified after the campus newspaper, The Independent Florida Alligator, published emails showing that Mr. Murphy had spoken with a consultant for President Trumps re-election committee to set up the visit and that Mr. Murphy had attended Mr. Trumps inauguration.

Students who drafted the impeachment bill personally handed Mr. Murphy a copy of it on Tuesday night. They argue in the bill that Mr. Murphys use of the student funds violated the Student Senate code, which forbids spending student fees to support a political party. State law, they add, forbids using state funds, which cover some students fees, to support a political campaign.

Although they are sometimes in charge of allocating millions of dollars, student governments garner relatively little interest from students and their inner workings are rarely covered outside of campus newspapers. But on Wednesday, students in Gainesville seemed to know more about the controversy engulfing Mr. Murphy than who was testifying in Washington.

The visit from the younger Mr. Trump and Ms. Guilfoyle, and the furor surrounding Mr. Murphy, have led to a sour split on campus.

Jarrod Rodriguez, a junior and the treasurer for the University of Florida College Republicans, said the impeachment move was a mirror image of the partisan politics at the national level.

He said he had attended the talk and never viewed it as a campaign event. The drive to oust Mr. Murphy, he said, showed that the opposition party would look for anything to remove the elected president.

I think that they have no cigar in both cases, he said.

Theresa Chapman, a senior who was handing out fliers and pins for Planned Parenthood on campus, saw things differently. She said the funds Mr. Murphy had spent to bring the presidents son to town could have been better spent on something more beneficial and less divisive.

Clearly hes just not fit, Ms. Chapman said of Mr. Murphy, adding that the same applied to President Trump. Hes not here to support the entire student body. Only a portion of it.

The visit by the presidents son filled a campus auditorium on Oct. 10, but he was frequently interrupted and many protested outside, The Alligator reported. Before Mr. Trumps speech with Ms. Guilfoyle, whom he is dating, some students had called for Mr. Murphy and several other student leaders to resign.

But the correspondence between Mr. Murphy and Caroline Wren, a Republican operative who is now a fund-raising consultant with a re-election committee for the president, was the last straw for the student representatives who filed the impeachment bill. They said the emails, which were obtained through a public records request by Mariana Castro, an alumna, and shared with the student newspaper, were proof that the speech was a campaign event.

Impeachment became the only option, said Ben Lima, a senior and one of the student representatives who sponsored the bill.

Ms. Wren said in a statement that she was not representing the Trump campaign when she emailed Mr. Murphy about inviting Mr. Trump to campus and that she had forgotten to remove her Trump Victory signature.

After an initial call to discuss a potential visit, University of Florida representatives were connected to Donald Trump Jr.s office, she said.

Mr. Murphy did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But he told the campus newspaper that he had also tried to bring Senator Bernie Sanders, the Democratic presidential candidate, to campus, but that Mr. Sanderss staff had turned the request down.

Beth Rotman, the director of money in politics and ethics for the good-government group Common Cause, said the payment appeared to cross the line, and warranted a thorough investigation.

Were talking about significant dollars, and public dollars, for a representative of a national political campaign to talk to adults on campus, Ms. Rotman said, adding that she was glad young people were paying as close attention to their local representatives as federal watchdogs are for the president.

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reported from New York and Hannah Phillips from Gainesville, Fla.

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He Invited Donald Trump Jr. to Campus. Now Hes Facing Impeachment. - The New York Times

If you were on trial on national television, facing the possible loss of your job and the probable loss of what remains of your reputation, you might not place your fate in the hands of Devin Nunes.

Nunes is a one-time dairy farmer who now milks the bursting udders of an entire herd of conspiracy-minded cows.

Mad cow disease had the rare power to leap across species through an unusually mysterious vector known as a prion. Mad Devin disease appears similarly devastating to the human brain through an unusually mysterious vector known as Vladimir Putin.

Nunes led the herd in arguing that this is a victimless crime the Ukraine president got his stupid missiles anyhow

The California congressman who somehow qualified as the most senior Republican on the House intelligence committee opened his defense of Donald Trump with a long moo about Moscow and the Democrats interest in the Mueller investigation.

After the spectacular implosion of their Russia hoax on July 24, in which they spent years denouncing any Republican who ever shook hands with a Russian, Nunes explained, on July 25 they turned on a dime and now claim the real malfeasance is Republicans dealings with Ukraine.

This was a curious turn, even for the nonsensical Nunes. In the court of American public opinion (where were told this impeachment thing will really play out), the concept of innocent Russian handshaking is not entirely obvious.

It also seemed like a rookie mistake to suggest that the impeachment of the president was an indictment of all Republican dealings with the former Soviet Union.

In the blink of an eye, were asked to simply forget about Democrats on this committee falsely claiming they had more than circumstantial evidence of collusion between President Trump and the Russians, Nunes said, reviving the Democrats case against Donald Trump in ways that didnt seem entirely helpful to Donald Trump.

Among the things Nunes wanted us never to forget was them trying to obtain nude pictures of Trump from Russian pranksters who pretended to be Ukrainian officials and something about fabrications of Trump-Russia collusion from the Steele dossier.

Thanks to Nunes, these nude Trump pictures are now seared into our collective minds.

Lest we forget, when Nunes was actually running the intelligence committee, he used its resources to turn on the USs intelligence community for having the temerity to investigate Russias interference in the 2016 election.

Less the cream of the cream, Nunes is more like the curd of the absurd. This sadly is the bovine bedlam were all committed to for the next 12 months of American politics.

Its a place where the best defense of Trump exhorting a foreign leader is that he was somehow rooting out corruption; where he was supposedly investigating foreign interference in the 2016 election when he was bribing a foreign government to interfere in the 2020 election; where the FBI and CIA have undermined themselves; and where the Democrats have been colluding with the Russians.

Nunes led the herd in arguing that this is a victimless crime the Ukraine president got his stupid missiles anyhow. In fact Nunes was really arguing that impeachment is the criminal victimization of a poor helpless crusader for truth, justice and good government, who happens to live in the peoples house on Pennsylvania Avenue.

By some miracle of telekinesis, Nuness brain created a White House video featuring our humble hero, who insisted that his own impeachment wasnt all it seemed on live television.

Whats going on now is the single greatest scam in the history of American politics, said the real estate guy who is something of an expert in scams.

Trump placed impeachment at the heart of the mother of all big government conspiracies involving Democrats taking away everyones guns, healthcare, votes, freedom and judges. The Democrats currently control the House of Representatives, which is an awesome branch of government, but not quite that awesome.

Its all very simple, said our very simple president. Theyre trying to stop me because Im fighting for you.

This may come as news for anyone who is not circling the barnyard. Trump was apparently fighting for regular Americans when he was extorting the Ukraine president to smear Joe Biden.

Trump and Nunes are obviously hoping that voters cannot see through the fog on this farm. These hearings are so darn complicated and foreign, maybe Americans will never remember whether four legs are good or bad.

This is the latest in a long line of so-called defense strategies that have run the gamut from unlikely to unbelievable. First came the wild fabrications: Trumps phone call with Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was supposedly perfect, and the whistleblower doesnt exist. Then came the wild conspiracies: the Democrats were themselves fabricating evidence in secret hearings that somehow included Republicans. We spent an epoch or two debating Latin tit-for-tats. Now we have arrived at the stage of debate that involves hurling turds at a wall in the hope of finding something adhesive.

As with most TV shows, the impeachment hearings are less about substance and more about style. The Democrats carefully cast as their first witnesses a pair of diplomats who seemed to have stepped out of a kinder, gentler era of American values.

William Taylor, the US ambassador to Ukraine, is a Vietnam veteran who previously served in the same position under President George W Bush. Taylor looks like he was chiseled whole out of granite, and he tolerated no end of Republican stupidities with a stony certitude. It was frustratingly hard for Trumps allies to chip away at his central revelation that Trump himself was personally interested only in the Bidens, not Ukraine.

George Kent, a bow-tied foreign service official in charge of the entire European and Eurasian region, was so steadfastly committed to old-fashioned American democracy that he was happy to express his unease with Hunter Bidens business interests in Ukraine. Sadly for Trump, these good government types take a seriously dim view of a president corruptly using American military aid to manipulate American elections.

The first day of the public impeachment hearings was not a fair fight. Against these diehard diplomats, the GOP relied on Jim Jordan, who just cant seem to shake off the stench of sex abuse at Ohio State University, where he used to coach wrestling.

Then there was the flustered questioning from John Ratcliffe, a Texas Republican who was briefly Trumps nominee for director of national intelligence until he was overwhelmed by his own problematic relationship with the truth on his personal rsum.

Are either of you here today to assert there was an impeachable offense in that call? Ratcliffe barked at the two unimpeachable witnesses. Shout it out anyone?

As Taylor tried to explain that its for congressmen to answer, Ratcliffe withdrew his own question.

This is your job, said Taylor, speaking on behalf of us all. If only Republican members of Congress understood the strange foreign language these career diplomats speak.

Richard Wolffe is a Guardian US columnist

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Devin Nunes is bravely defending Trump. That's bad news for the president - The Guardian

Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden responds to a question from moderator Craig Melvin during a forum held by gun safety organizations the Giffords group and March For Our Lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 2, 2019.

Steve Marcus | Reuters

Joe Biden released a plan Thursday to pile $1.3 trillion into a U.S. infrastructure refresh as part of a push to boost the economy and curb climate change.

The Democratic presidential candidate's campaign said it would invest in restoring highways, roads and bridges, while trying to spur further adoption of electric vehicles and trains. The former vice president's plan also calls for replacing water pipes, building out rural broadband access and updating schools, among other measures.

In unveiling the proposal, the Biden campaign targeted President Donald Trump for a lack of progress on renewing American infrastructure. During his 2016 campaign, Trump promised an overhaul of roads, bridges and airports to spark economic growth, but he has not made progress in passing a plan despite bipartisan interest in doing so.

"President Trump campaigned on repairing our nation's crumbling infrastructure," the Democrat's campaign wrote in a tweet. "But after countless 'Infrastructure Weeks,' he has failed to deliver results. It has to change."

The leading contenders for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination have put forward at least pieces of infrastructure plans. Most see the proposals as a way to spur economic renewal, particularly in communities struggling to keep up with nationwide economic gains.

The top congressional Democrats House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer met with Trump in April and emerged saying they agreed the country needed $2 trillion in infrastructure spending. But the president walked out of a subsequent meeting in May, saying he would not work on an infrastructure plan while Democrats investigated his conduct in office.

In a statement responding to Biden's criticism, Trump campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany contended Biden "appears to have forgotten that his party has rejected multiple overtures from President Trump on infrastructure." She also argued the roughly $800 billion Obama administration stimulus package in response to the 2008 financial crisis did "nothing to fix our infrastructure or spur our economy."

The Biden campaign said it would pay for "every cent" of the $1.3 trillion plan through tax increases on corporations and the wealthy. It plans to fund the infrastructure overhaul through what it called "reversing the excesses of the Trump tax cuts for corporations; reducing incentives for tax havens, evasion, and outsourcing; ensuring corporations pay their fair share; closing other loopholes in our tax code that reward wealth, not work; and ending subsidies for fossil fuels."

Biden has specifically called for raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%. It stood at 35% before Republicans passed tax cuts in 2017.

The former vice president is one of the top Democratic contenders to face Trump in 2020. He has enjoyed a consistent lead in national polling averages, though rivals have cut into his polling edge in two of the first four nominating states, Iowa and New Hampshire.

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Joe Biden proposes $1.3 trillion infrastructure overhaul and swipes at Trump for inaction - CNBC

Kirk commanded a seven-figure budget, counted a presence at 800 high schools and colleges, sponsored a huge delegation at the Conservative Political Action Conference, and appeared regularly on cable news. Then Donald Trump upended the GOP.

Suddenly, the Republican Partys standard-bearer was promising big deficit spending and protectionist tariffs rather than small government and free markets. Like Mike Pence, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Ted Cruz, Hugh Hewitt, Rand Paul, and many other older Republican partisans, Kirk sought to maintain his influence on the Trumpist rightthe only right young people now entering college have really knownby setting qualms aside, obscuring divisive contradictions, offering absurd praise (Turning Point once posted to social media that Trump is on track to be Americas greatest president!), and emphasizing common enemies, especially social justice warrior activists and leftist college professors.

As surely as the most illiberal leftists divided the Democratic coalition, they helped unite Republicans, as did propagandistic coverage that fabricated some leftist excesses.

You cant watch Fox News without seeing five or six segments a day about the nuttiness on college campuses, Kirk told Politico. You pair that nuttiness up with people in their 60s and 70s who are beginning to map out where they want a significant portion of their wealth to go, and theyre saying, I dont want my money to go to my university. Its not representing my values. Then we come along.

Kirk cultivates an image of himself as a clean-cut, respectable man of reasona man who can laugh it off when leftists try to discredit him with provocative labels, knowing white supremacist or bigot or anti-Semite wont stick to him.

When we do these events together, Dave Rubin, the right-wing YouTube personality, once told Kirk, you always make a point of saying to the audience, if youve got questions and you disagree with us, come up first. So we always take questions from people who disagree with us first. And we treat them as respectfully as humanly possible, or at least as respectfully as they treat us. But also me and you have some disagreements and we go up there and talk them out. So how is it that so many people on Twitter see you as a fascist?

Kirk replied: What a strange concept, to hear the other side, to give people a platform that you totally might fundamentally disagree with, then have a conversation about it, see where you might be able to build consensus, find the disagreements, then find why you disagree, which is super important! Do you disagree because you have different data inputs or because you have different philosophical inputs?

That is the image he wants to project: calm and cool. Never mind that he is often less charitable in practice and seldom engages the strongest views on the other side.

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Why the Trolls Booed at Don Jr.s Event - The Atlantic

Donald Trump Jr. reacted to the first day of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry against his father on Wednesday saying, Ive never seen anything more ridiculous.

The first day of public hearings wrapped up with no major revelations-- but he said it also highlighted weaknesses in Democrats' key witnesses, who relied primarily on second-hand information.

Speaking on Hannity on Wednesday night, Trump was quick to pointthat out.

DAY ONE OF PUBLIC IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS PUTS PRESSURE ON MODERATE DEMS

"You see exactly what America voted against in 2016, career government bureaucrats doing their thing, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization said.

Everything was hearsay, I heard it from a friend, who heard it from a friend, how heard it from a friend. Im saying, this is a joke.

At one point in Wednesday'shearing, Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., even appeared to embrace hearsay testimony,claiming that "hearsay can be much better evidence than direct" and that "countless people have been convicted on hearsay because the courts have routinely allowed and created, needed exceptions tohearsay."It was unclear which of those limited exceptions would apply to Wednesday's testimony -- and whether Quigley's argument would persuade critical swing-vote Democrats.

Trump commented on Quigleys statements telling Sean Hannity, Then I heard the Democrats, and this is when you realize how bad or, frankly, nonexistent their case is, well hearsay is often times much better than regular evidence. Im saying, did that guy say that with a straight face?

Trump then compared Quigleys comments to the telephone game we learned about in Kindergarten.

So its better to have heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend than to have heard it with your own ears?I mean thats the level of insanity that youre seeing from these bureaucrats whove taken an anti-Trump position, he said.

Earlier Wednesday Trump Jr. also tweeted about Quigleys comments writing, Can you believe this insanity? Heresay [sic] can be much better evidence than DIRECT EVIDENCE according to Democrat Mike Quigley. Are you fricken kidding me? 3rd and 4th party info better than hearing it yourself?

On "Hannity" Trump said, When Republicans start questioning, [House Intelligence Committee Chairman] Adam Schiff changes the rules, changes the goal posts, pretends they cant even ask that question anymore. Its never ending. Its a comedy at this point.

WATCH: SCHIFF CUTS OFF GOP CONGRESSWOMAN WHO BRINGS UP HIS 'PARODY' CALL

The House is now comprised of 431 members, meaning Democratsneed 217 yeas to impeach Trump. There are currently 233 Democrats, so Democrats can only lose 16 of their own and still impeach the president. 31 House Democrats represent more moderate districts that Trump carried in 2016.

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Trump Jr. told Hannity on Wednesday that the left is not looking to govern, theyre not looking to do anything, they are looking to try to resist. Because they know they cant beat Trump in the polls, theyre going to try to impeach and its not going to work in the long run and the American people see through it. They are sick of this garbage.

Fox News Gregg Re contributed to this report.

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Donald Trump Jr. on day one of public impeachment hearings: 'I've never seen anything more ridiculous' - Fox News

What makes the Trump era so unusual isnt partisanship and political tribalism, which have been around for much of human existence. It is the degree to which the transgressive nature of Trumphis willingness to go places no other president has gone, to say and do things that no president before him has donehas exposed the Republican Party. There is hardly a pretense anymore regarding what the party, and the right-wing media complex, are doing. They are driven by a single, all-consuming commitment: Defend Donald Trump at all costs. That is the end they seek, and they will pursue virtually any means necessary to achieve it. This from the party that once said it stood for objective truth, for honor and integrity, and against moral relativism.

We are facing a profound political crisis. What the Republican Party is saying and signaling isnt simply that rationality and truth are subordinate to partisanship; it is that they have to be obliterated for the sake of partisanship and the survival of the Trump presidency. As best I can tell, based on some fairly intense interactions with Trump supporters, there is no limiting principlealmost nothing he can dothat will forfeit their support. Members of Congress clearly believe Trump is all that stands between them and the loss of power, while many Trump voters believe the president is all that stands between them and national ruin. In either case, it has led them into the shadowlands.

For those of us who are still conservative and have devoted a large part of our lives to the Republican Party, it is quite painful to watch all of this unfold. Perhaps too many of us were blind to things we should have seen, or perhaps the GOP is significantly different now than it was in the past, when it was led by estimable (if imperfect) individuals such as Ronald Reagan. Whatever the case, we are where we arein a very precarious and worrisome place.

You can be critical of the Democratic Party and believe, as I do, that it is becoming increasingly radicalized while also believing this: The Republican Party under Donald Trump is a party built largely on lies, and it is now maintained by politicians and supporters who are willing to live within the lie, to quote the great Czech dissident (and later president) Vclav Havel. Many congressional Republicans privately admit this but, with very rare exceptionsSenator Mitt Romney of Utah is the most conspicuous examplerefuse to publicly acknowledge it.

For what purpose? they respond point-blank when asked why they dont speak out with moral urgency against the presidents moral transgressions, his cruelty, his daily assault on reality, and his ongoing destruction of our civic and political culture. Trump is more powerful and more popular than they are, they will say, and they will be targeted by him and his supporters and perhaps even voted out of office.

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The Exposure of the Republican Party - The Atlantic

Late-night hosts looked back on the first day of Donald Trumps impeachment hearings and what it all means for Republicans.

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert expressed excitement over the day. Its what weve been praying for from the beginning of the Trump presidency: the end of the Trump presidency, he said.

Colbert said the day was as dramatic as it was historic before discussing the new Republican strategy: throwing Giuliani under the bus. You cannot throw Rudy Giuliani under the bus! Colbert said. He already lives under the bridge.

Reportedly, Trump wanted Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to go on record about an investigation being launched into Hunter Biden. Trumps kinda sounding like a needy girlfriend right there, Colbert said.

One explanation floated for Trumps behaviour is that he is a businessman and this is how a businessman would deal with such a situation, which Colbert rejected. Theres only one thing Trump cuts a cheque for, he said. Oh my God, did he have sex with Ukraine?

On Late Night, Seth Meyers talked about all of the evidence that has already been made public and the guilty behaviour from those involved. He played footage of Rudy Giuliani during various TV appearances, showing off text conversations on his iPhone and iPad.

You know youre a bad criminal when you keep the evidence against you on multiple devices, he joked.

As part of the Republican defense, Meyers said they just resort to lies before playing footage of the California congressman Devin Nunes claiming that Democrats were trying to obtain naked pictures of the president from Russian sources. Hey man, I guarantee you, no one wants nude pics of Donald Trump. Im not crazy about clothed pics of Donald Trump, Meyers said.

In recounting Trumps behaviour, Meyers noted: Every time Trump has a choice between doing the sane thing and the crazy thing, he picks the crazy thing.

He then spoke about the days biggest bombshell from Bill Taylor, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine, who claimed that an aide of his had heard Trump implicate himself on an overheard phone call in a restaurant. Once again, these guys are the worst criminals in history, he said.

The Republican defence during the day was that the situation was not as outlandish as it could be. Trump should just run all the way with that and start holding his rallies in front of a giant banner that says: Not as guilty as I could be, Meyers said.

He continued: Its almost inevitable that Trump will be the third president in history to get impeached.

On Full Frontal, Samantha Bee showed Trump claiming he wouldnt be watching the hearings as it was theatrical and all being done for drama. Yes, if theres one thing the Democrats are known for, its dazzling spectacles, she joked.

The day showed that Trump did know about the attempt to pressure Ukraine, which Bee said was the first time weve got hard confirmation of that since Trump himself.

She continued: Every bombshell will just be confirming things we already know. Itll be like instead of a secret taping operation, Nixon had a TikTok.

She summed the day up: Today was not a good start for the Republicans.

On The Daily Show, Trevor Noah started with George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, who talked through his family lineage, with three generations of his family in public service indeed, there has been a George Kent sworn to defend the constitution continuously for nearly 60 years.

It almost sounds like the only reason America keeps running is because of George Kents, Noah said. If America is an office, George Kent is the only guy who can fix the printer.

He said that Trump has clearly done some messed-up shit before showing Bill Taylor refer to Trumps actions as unexplainable, illogical, crazy, which Noah quipped was also the title of Trumps new autobiography.

He also spoke about the implicating call that Trump had with an aide, who was in a restaurant, that was so loud that everyone could hear.

First of all, thats rude, youre in a restaurant, you put your phone away, you engage, he said. Second of all, why is Trump talking so loudly on the phone that people can hear him on the other side? He reminds me of every immigrant father ever talking on the phone.

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Colbert on Trump's behaviour: Oh my God, did he have sex with Ukraine? - The Guardian

According to direct testimony and dozens of email and text messages introduced over the last week, the Trump campaign got its first heads up about Julian Assanges ability to upend U.S. politics as far back as April 2016. The timing is months earlier than any Trump aide has previously described, and months before WikiLeaks published its first cache of damaging materials that would go on to cripple Hillary Clintons White House bid.

Additionally, a wider cast of Trump aides participated in WikiLeaks strategy sessions than previously known as they mapped out an attack plan to take advantage of the hacked Democratic emails. Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, campaign CEO Steve Bannon and senior adviser Stephen Miller were all part of those broader discussions about how to best turn the WikiLeaks surprises into political gold.

Perhaps most politically damning, Trump himself discussed the matter with Stone during a phone call in the heat of the summertime general election campaign, according to testimony from former-Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates, who witnessed the call while riding with the GOP nominee from his namesake tower in Manhattan to LaGuardia Airport. While the testimony might not put Trump in any fresh legal peril, it has highlighted a potential contradiction in Trumps written responses to Muellers team.

I do not recall discussing WikiLeaks with [Stone], nor do I recall being aware of Mr. Stone having discussed WikiLeaks with individuals associated with my campaign, Trump wrote.

Of course, Mueller and his Justice Department supervisors had their reasons for holding back on the public release of so much WikiLeaks-related information before the Stone trial, which didnt start until more than six months after the conclusion of the special counsels Russia probe. Namely, they didnt want to damage the governments case against the longtime GOP operative, meaning any references to their evidence were blacked out in the final Russia report.

I do not recall discussing WikiLeaks with [Stone], nor do I recall being aware of Mr. Stone having discussed WikiLeaks with individuals associated with my campaign."

- President Donald Trump

But that was a mistake, said several legal experts. The decision to keep private such information left the public confused and more susceptible to the presidents no collusion, no obstruction spin, they argued.

He did miss a chance to get the public behind him as he told the story of what he had uncovered, said David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor from South Florida.

While that may be frustrating to a wider audience, the information could still find a home in the congressional impeachment proceedings that are only now advancing to the public hearings stage.

Huge, Philippe Reines, the former top Clinton 2016 campaign aide, wrote on Twitter after Gates testimony on Tuesday revealed the extent to which Trump played a role in his campaigns efforts to follow the document dumps. First person to confirm trump knew what Wikileaks was planning.

Its why collusion/obstruction shouldnt be on the back burner, Reines added.

Muellers final report the byproduct of 18 months of investigation, 500 witness interviews and more than 2,800 subpoenas concluded that there was insufficient evidence to file charges involving a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russian hackers. It only hinted at the Trump campaigns eagerness to profit off WikiLeaks disclosures.

For instance, the report simply recounted Trump campaign officials talking about the WikiLeaks dumps during the summer of 2016. Even then, the report blacked out any specifics of those conversations, citing a warning that revealing those details would cause a harm to ongoing matter presumably the Stone case.

Those details were filled in as a procession of government witnesses helped make the case against Stone.

Gates, formerly Manaforts No. 2 on the campaign, testified on Tuesday that he heard from Stone in April 2016 about the potential Assange-orchestrated assistance two months before Trump secured the GOP presidential nomination.

"Mr. Stone indicated that WikiLeaks would be submitting or dropping information but no information on dates or anything of that nature," Gates said.

Two months later, Gates testified that he got a text message from Stone asking for contact information for Kushner, whom he wanted to debrief about the WikiLeaks hacks. Also that month, Gates said the Trump campaign became elated as it learned more information from Stone about the WikiLeaks founders plans to publish damaging information about Clinton and her campaign.

By July, Trump senior aides including Manafort, Gates, Miller and campaign communications adviser Jason Miller were meeting to discuss how they could map out a press strategy allowing them to take advantage of the WikiLeaks dumps.

Trump himself entered the picture that month, too. According to Gates, Stone and Trump spoke by phone about the WikiLeaks document dumps en route to the airport. Gates testified that he couldnt overhear the exact conversation, but Trump signaled aloud what theyd been talking about moments after the call ended.

He indicated that more information would be coming out, Gates said.

Rick Gates, former Trump campaign official. | Susan Walsh, File/AP Photo

Senior Trump aides were hearing more and more about WikiLeaks as the summer progressed.

On Aug. 3, Stone sent an email to Manafort about the prospect of more damaging documents released about the Clinton campaign. I have an idea to save Trumps ass, Stone wrote to Manafort, his former 80s-era lobbying partner whom he helped land a job atop the Trump campaign.

Less than two weeks later, Stone reached out to Bannon. I do know how to win this but it aint pretty, he wrote Bannon, who had just been announced that day as the campaigns newly hired CEO.

In his testimony last Friday, Bannon explained that hed been hearing from Stone about his access to WikiLeaks going back to his time atop the conservative media outlet Breitbart, long before he joined the Trump campaign. Once he was working on the Trump campaign, Bannon said his team saw Stone as its connection to WikiLeaks and Assange even while maintaining they had no official access.

Stone kept on relaying information about WikiLeaks damaging materials through the late summer and early fall, helping the Trump campaign assess alternate strategies at a time when it was down significantly in public polls.

Roger is an agent provocateur, Bannon explained. Hes an expert in opposition research. Hes an expert in the tougher side of politics. When youre this far behind, youre going to have to use every tool in the toolbox.

WikiLeaks stayed front and center in Stones communications with other top Trump campaign associates.

On Oct. 3, Stone discussed the document dumps with Erik Prince, an informal 2016 adviser whom he called in an email a great American. One day later, Stone and Bannon were exchanging messages about a much-hyped Assange news conference that ultimately revealed little about the activists' plans.

What was that this morning? Bannon wrote Stone in an email prosecutors had read in court.

Stone replied: Fear. Serious security concerns. He thinks they are going to kill him and the London police are standing done [sic]. However - a load every week going forward.

Bannon replied: He didnt cut deal w/ clintons???

The Trump campaigns effort to respond to and capitalize on the WikiLeaks disclosures may have swept in more officials than previously realized.

During cross-examination of Bannon last week, Stone lawyer Robert Buschel suggested that Bannon had previously identified a diverse set of people including Brad Parscale, David Bossie, Michael Flynn, Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump Jr. as having taken credit for the key October WikiLeaks dump . But that claim remained murky, since Bannon said he didnt recall.

In all, Stones phone records showed more than 150 calls between Stone and Manafort from February to November 2016. During that same time period, Stone contacted Gates more than 120 times and connected with Trump 60 times, according to the federal prosecutors trying the case against Stone.

To Mueller watchers, the Stone trial has offered belatedly the granular picture that the Russia special counsel described only in broad strokes.

Muellers failure to lay out this testimony in the detail in which it is emerging at the Stone trial allowed Trump and [Attorney General William] Barr to distort the narrative by proclaiming No Collusion, said Philip Allen Lacovara, a former top counsel to two Watergate special prosecutors.

He added that Mueller could have made a clearer distinction between collusion and the limited reach of existing law that prohibits such conduct but opted to wear blinders on the issue in which the country was really interested.

Barbara McQuade, a former Obama-era U.S. attorney from Michigan, said Stones trial reaffirms her view Mueller took a very conservative approach in deciding whether a conspiracy existed.

All of the details coming out of the Stone trial has also added to a long-standing mystery around the wider Mueller probe. Why did it close shop back in April when a trial loomed later in the year?

If he had waited until these facts became public, McQuade said, the reaction to the report would have been very different.

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What Roger Stone's trial revealed about Donald Trump and WikiLeaks - POLITICO