Topic: Typhoid Trump: the not-smart, corrupt, coward, loser, thread

[Chakan]

I know, but it's just so disheartening how my country has gone to shit.

It's all cycles though, right now it's sliding towards the dark ages, just have to hope in a couple of years time people realize what's happening and turn it around.

It sucks for the right now though, I agree.

[Giono]

Why would they? Republicans don't give a fuck as much as trump does.

I find it amazing how quickly never Trumpers are abandoning the GOP altogether. I could see them trying to form a new party to run candidates for legislatures and governorships eventually in the West and North. Current GOP senators and congresspeople are baking in the toxicity of the Republican brand.

[12C]

Can the decent states not just fuck off these backwards ones and create United States of New America? 

They fought a civil war with the backwards states, they were the ones who believed slavery was ordained by heaven.
Not much has changed

[WhereAngelsPlay]

They fought a civil war with the backwards states, they were the ones who believed slavery was ordained by heaven.
Not much has changed

Yeah but that was the Democrats 

[Giono]

It's all cycles though, right now it's sliding towards the dark ages, just have to hope in a couple of years time people realize what's happening and turn it around.

It sucks for the right now though, I agree.

Agree, but it has been a 40 year cycle culminating in Trump. That followed a 40 year cycle after the great depression that swung America to the left.

[Red-Soldier]

Just to put the United States into context.....

[jambutty]

Blame Canada

[Giono]

Just to put the United States into context.....

Basically the Taliban.

[Giono]

Blame Canada

They're not even a real country anyway.

[Red-Soldier]

Blame Canada

 

Basically the Taliban.

 

[Red-Soldier]

I wonder what percentage of people that said false are GOP supporters 

[Chakan]

I wonder what percentage of people that said false are GOP supporters 

100%?

They know we’re all created from Adam and Eve

If we evolved from monkeys why are there still monkeys?? Huh huh??

[Red-Soldier]

100%?

They know we’re all created from Adam and Eve

If we evolved from monkeys why are there still monkeys?? Huh huh??

60 percent of the US population are either unsure, or disagree with the Theory of Evolution.

How do you reach out to a populous like that.......

Trump knows how 

[soxfan]

60 percent of the US population are either unsure, or disagree with the Theory of Evolution.

How do you reach out to a populous like that.......

Trump knows how 

It's ironic that the ones who don't believe we evolved from monkeys are the ones who are nearest in intelligence to them.

[Chakan]

60 percent of the US population are either unsure, or disagree with the Theory of Evolution.

How do you reach out to a populous like that.......

Trump knows how 

You can’t reach them though, that’s the issue.

Half the population don’t know South Carolina is below North Carolina.

Keep them stupid and you can easily manipulate them, it’s something the GOP knows.

[Giono]

You can’t reach them though, that’s the issue.

Half the population don’t know South Carolina is below North Carolina.

Keep them stupid and you can easily manipulate them, it’s something the GOP knows.

And keep sending them code they pick up on. Lee Atwater leads to Trump, as this recording of Atwater spells out...

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/X_8E3ENrKrQ&amp;feature=share" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/X_8E3ENrKrQ&amp;feature=share</a>

[thejbs]

You can’t reach them though, that’s the issue.

Half the population don’t know South Carolina is below North Carolina.

Keep them stupid and you can easily manipulate them, it’s something the GOP knows.

Only on a conventional map. So 50/50 is a good technical answer as North is an arbitrary 'up.'

[Not that Gareth]

Not strictly about trump but NK have called Bolton a "defective human product" 

Can't say I like the NK regime but credit where it due, they have their insults down.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-korea-john-bolton-war-monger-defective-human-product-missile-tests/

[Giono]

Not strictly about trump but NK have called Bolton a "defective human product" 

Can't say I like the NK regime but credit where it due, they have their insults down.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-korea-john-bolton-war-monger-defective-human-product-missile-tests/

That's up there with the line from Star Trek when the alien addresses humans as "ugly bags of mostly water".

[Banquo's Ghost]

You can’t reach them though, that’s the issue.

Half the population don’t know South Carolina is below North Carolina.

Keep them stupid and you can easily manipulate them, it’s something the GOP knows.

Only on a conventional map. So 50/50 is a good technical answer as North is an arbitrary 'up.'

From the context, maybe he meant by intelligence. South Carolina is significantly stupider than North Carolina*



* By educational attainment rankings. Also, they started the Civil War, which certainly qualifies as significantly stupid, given it was a guaranteed loss and a blunder only slightly less well known than "never start a land war in Asia."

[jambutty]

Reuters
For battles with Congress, Trump reshapes legal defense team
 By Jan Wolfe 
2 hrs ago

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is restructuring his legal team with lawyers more at home in a courtroom than a television studio as he shifts from dealing with Special Counsel Robert Mueller to battling Democratic-led investigations in the U.S. Congress.

The long-time leaders of Trump's team — Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani — remain in place. But other attorneys, known for their litigation skills, are taking on larger roles on the team: William Consovoy, Patrick Strawbridge, Marc Mukasey and Stefan Passantino.

The first legal offensive from Consovoy and Strawbridge has encountered early setbacks. Their law firm, Consovoy McCarthy, filed two lawsuits in April on behalf of Trump intended to block congressional subpoenas seeking the Republican president's personal financial records, but both were rejected last week by federal judges. Trump is appealing those decisions, and House Democrats agreed not to enforce the subpoenas during that process.

Some lawyers scoffed at Consovoy's handling of the litigation, particularly a courtroom moment when he sought to cast doubt on the authority of Congress to investigate presidential corruption because it is not a "law enforcement" agency.

"Kudos to the judge if he managed not to burst out laughing in open court at this," George Conway, a prominent conservative lawyer and frequent Trump critic, wrote on Twitter. Conway is married to Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.

Others said Consovoy and Strawbridge are losing simply because the law is against them as they advocate for executive branch protection from congressional scrutiny.

"They were hired to do an impossible job," said Paul Rosenzweig, a Washington lawyer who worked on the independent counsel investigation into President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

Trump is defying congressional investigations into his administration, his family, his business interests and his finances, calling them "presidential harassment." His administration has ignored subpoenas, refused to let current and former aides testify and declined to hand over documents in the aftermath of the April release of a redacted version of Mueller's report that detailed Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election to boost Trump's candidacy.

The Trump Organization, the president's company, has its own lawyers in the subpoena fights. They include Mukasey, a criminal defense lawyer in Manhattan and former Giuliani law partner whose father, Michael Mukasey, served as U.S. attorney general from 2007 to 2009 under Republican President George W. Bush, and Passantino, a former lawyer in Trump's White House who is now at a law firm.

Consovoy and Strawbridge both served as clerks in 2008 for Clarence Thomas, one of the most conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices. The firm Consovoy McCarthy, with offices in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia, and in Boston, is known for arguing against affirmative action policies that benefit racial minority groups that have faced discrimination and for battling women's healthcare and abortion provider Planned Parenthood.

The firm also is defending Trump in a lawsuit by the Democratic attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia accusing him of violating a U.S. Constitution anti-corruption provision, called the emoluments clause, barring U.S. officials from accepting gifts or payments from foreign governments. The suit cites Trump's refusal to disentangle himself from his businesses including a Washington hotel blocks from the White House.

Consovoy, Strawbridge, Mukasey and Passantino declined to provide comment for this story.

EFFECTIVE ADVOCATES

Early in Trump's presidency, several high-profile lawyers turned down invitations to represent Trump, according to people familiar with the discussions. They included Ted Olson, a prominent Republican lawyer who served as U.S. solicitor general under Bush, and Dan Webb, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago.

Consovoy and Strawbridge lack the experience and name recognition of such veterans. But people who have worked with them said they will be effective advocates for Trump.

"I don't think Trump ended up with a tier-two type of lawyer," said Jay Edelson, a liberal-leaning attorney in Chicago who is friendly with Consovoy.

University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias said Trump has hired an unusually large number of personal lawyers compared to some other presidents. Clinton, a Democrat, also retained some high-profile attorneys to handle impeachment proceedings launched in 1998 by congressional Republicans in a failed bid to remove him from office.

Trump's predecessor, Democrat Barack Obama, hired a personal lawyer, Judith Corley, to release his birth certificate and quell false rumors he was not born in the United States. But for legal advice he relied on government lawyers at the Justice Department and the White House counsel's office who did not have a direct lawyer-client relationship with him, Tobias said.

"I don't think Obama had any lawyer who was doing what a number of lawyers seem to be doing for Trump," Tobias said, noting that Trump's need for outside legal help stems in part from the issues faced by a businessman who serves as president.

Before representing Trump, Consovoy and Strawbridge's most high-profile case was a lawsuit accusing Harvard University of discriminating against Asian-American applicants, part of a conservative campaign against racial preferences in university admissions that are aimed at increasing the number of black and Hispanic students on campuses. A judge has not yet ruled on the Harvard claims, which the university denies.

"Consovoy McCarthy has a strong reputation for doing good work, but it takes on what many members of the bar might think are very controversial cases — conservative cases, politically," Tobias said.

Firm partner Tom McCarthy said in a statement that "politically oriented litigation" is only part of Consovoy McCarthy's work and that it is "best described as a boutique law firm with a traditional D.C. practice."

SEKULOW AND GIULIANI

For almost two years, Trump's team negotiated with Mueller's team over whether the president should sit for an interview with the special counsel. Ultimately, Trump declined, instead providing written responses to questions from the special counsel. Mueller finished his inquiry in March.

Trump also engaged in a public relations campaign featuring Sekulow and Giuliani — both experienced in television appearances — to influence public opinion of Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign's contacts with Moscow and the president's attempts to impede the inquiry.

Giuliani is a former New York City mayor and federal prosecutor. Sekulow is chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a non-profit organization that advocates for religious and constitutional freedoms and is known for supporting Christian causes.

Trump was also represented during the Mueller probe by Emmet Flood, an experienced Washington lawyer who holds the job of special counsel to the president. Both Flood and Pat Cipollone, who holds the post of White House counsel, represent the presidency as an institution, not Trump as an individual.

Similarly, the U.S. attorney general, a post held by William Barr, is the top U.S. law enforcement official, not the president's personal lawyer. Some Democrats have accused Barr of simply serving Trump's political and personal interests.

With Mueller's probe concluded, Trump has turned his attention to fending off congressional investigations. That battle will require more courtroom arguments and may ultimately be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a 5-4 conservative majority that includes two Trump appointees.

The shift from dealing with Mueller to coping with Congress necessitates a reshuffling of the president's legal team, said Alan Dershowitz, a criminal defense lawyer and prominent on-air defender of Trump.

"It would be wise to shift his legal team," said Dershowitz, adding "you always add to your legal team based on the realities you face."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/for-battles-with-congress-trump-reshapes-legal-defense-team/ar-AAC1QQ6


Uncle Tom's Cabin(et).

[jambutty]

NBC News
House investigations of Trump and his administration: The full list
 Alex Moe and Dareh Gregorian 
22 hrs ago

WASHINGTON — He's making investigations great again — at least in number.

At least 14 Democratic-led House committees have been investigating various aspects of President Donald Trump's businesses, campaign and his presidency since the beginning of this year, an NBC News review shows. In all, those committees have launched at least 50 probes into Trump world.

The investigations include whether Trump obstructed justice in the Russia probes, whether his businesses inflated their assets, how his daughter and son-in-law obtained their security clearances, whether he used his power to interfere with mergers, how his actions might have slowed aid to Puerto Rico, and conflict of interest allegations involving cabinet members.

The NBC review shows the busiest committees appear to be the Judiciary and Oversight panels. Some of the inquiries might have gone dormant, and some are cross-committee — meaning they're being investigated jointly by more than one committee — so they are listed under those committees, but are only counted once in the NBC investigation total.

Here's a look at the probes that have been made public, organized by committee:

HOUSE INVESTIGATIONS
JUDICIARY: Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.

Oversight of the administration's family separation policy
Former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker’s appointment, his involvement in the Mueller investigation, and his conversations with Trump and involvement with World Patent Marketing
Voting rights and Department of Justice actions on voter ID, census cases
Easing of sanctions on companies linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska
Trump's national emergency declaration
The president's "threats to the rule of law," covering three main areas:
Obstruction of justice, including the possibility of interference by Trump and others in a number of criminal investigations and other official proceedings, as well as the alleged cover-up of violations of the law;
Public corruption, including potential violations of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution, conspiracy to violate federal campaign and financial reporting laws, and other criminal misuses of official positions for personal gain;
Abuses of power, including attacks on the press, the judiciary, and law enforcement agencies; misuse of the pardon power and other presidential authorities; and attempts to misuse the power of the office of the presidency.
Trump's interference in Time Warner merger
Threats to relocate migrants to sanctuary cities
Reports that the president said he would pardon acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan if he illegally closed the southern border to migrants
Firings of senior leadership at DHS
The administration's decision to stop defending the Affordable Care Act in court

OVERSIGHT AND REFORM: Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md.

Oversight of the Trump administration’s family separation policy
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker's involvement with World Patent Marketing
Reports that the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman was failing failing to carry out statutory duties to help those applying for legal immigration programs
White House security clearances
Inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 census
Easing of sanctions on companies linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska
Delayed back pay for federal workers impacted by the government shutdown
Michael Cohen hush-money payments
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' efforts to replace her agency's acting inspector general
Transfer of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia
Child separation actions at DOJ, DHS and Health and Human Services
Communications between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump
Michael Cohen's claims that Trump was improperly inflating financial statements
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt's schedules
Trump's threats to relocate migrants to sanctuary cities
Use of private email accounts by Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and other White House officials, and use of messaging apps like WhatsApp
Gag orders on White House staff
Title X gag rule regulatory review process
Potential lobbying conflicts of interest involving Environmental Protection Agency head Andrew Wheeler
Interior Department's handling of FOIA requests
Abandoning plan to move FBI HQ building from Washington to suburban location
Firings of senior leadership at DHS
Trump Administration’s response to hurricanes in Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands
Trump Administration’s decision to stop defending ACA

INTELLIGENCE: Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

Russia investigation, including the scope and scale of the Russian government's operations to influence the U.S. political process, and the U.S. government's response, the extent of any links and/or coordination between the Russian government, or related foreign actors, and individuals associated with Trump's campaign, transition, administration or business interests, whether any foreign actor has sought to compromise or holds leverage, financial or otherwise, over Trump, his family, his business, or his associates; whether Trump, his family, or his associates are or were at any time at heightened risk of, or vulnerable to, foreign exploitation; and whether any actors — foreign or domestic — sought or are seeking to impede, obstruct, and/or mislead authorized investigations into these matters
Whether lawyers for Trump and his family obstructed committee's Russia probe
Trump's personal finances, including loans from Deutsche Bank
Use of intelligence to justify building a wall at the southern border
Easing of sanctions on companies linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska
Communications between Putin and Trump

WAYS AND MEANS: Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass.

Easing of sanctions on companies linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska
Trump administration's use of user fees generated by the Affordable Care Act
Rule on short-term insurance plans
Trump administration’s decision to stop defending ACA
The president's personal and business tax returns

ENERGY & COMMERCE: Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J.

Short-term insurance plans
How the administration is spending user fees generated by the ACA
How HHS is caring for children impacted by the Trump family separation policy
EPA clean air rollbacks
EPA political appointees blocking release of a chemical study
EPA rollback of policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions to address climate change
EPA political appointee steering litigation to benefit former client
EPA Officials ties to Utility Air Regulator Group
Trump Administration’s decision to stop defending ACA

FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.

Communications between Putin and Trump
Trump administration's failure to produce Russian sanctions report

FINANCIAL SERVICES: Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif.

Easing of sanctions on companies linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska
Trump's personal finances, including loans from Deutsche Bank
Trump administration's failure to produce Russian sanctions report
Reported ransom demand from North Korean government related to Otto Warmbier

HOMELAND SECURITY: Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.

Easing of sanctions on companies linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska
Administration's border security policies
Investigation into Trump threats to relocate migrants to sanctuary cities
HUD disbursement of Puerto Rico disaster relief funds
Firings of senior leadership at DHS
Reports of ICE tracking Trump protesters

NATURAL RESOURCES: Chairman Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz.

HUD disbursement of Puerto Rico disaster relief funds
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt's schedules
Agriculture/Interior Department decisions to further construction of a copper sulfite mine in Minnesota

VETERANS' AFFAIRS: Chairman Mark Takano, D-Calif.

Travel expenses of a political appointee in the Department of Veterans Affairs
Potential influence of several Mar-a-Lago members on VA decisions
EDUCATION AND LABOR: Chairman Bobby Scott, D-Va.

DeVos's efforts to replace the acting inspector general
Administration's decision to rescind Obama-era guidance on school discipline
Trump administration’s use of user fees generated by the Affordable Care Act
Trump administration’s decision to stop defending ACA

TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE: Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.

Trump Hotel lease of Old Post Office building
Abandoning plan to move FBI headquarters from Washington to suburban location

APPROPRIATIONS: Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.

Use of Pentagon funds for border wall
National emergency declaration and border wall funds

BUDGET: Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky.

National emergency declaration and border wall funds

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-investigations-of-trump-and-his-administration-the-full-list/ar-AABZjiT




That should keep Trunt's clowns stepping and fetching for awhile.

[Giono]

In other legal news:


https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/445720-supreme-court-allows-pennsylvania-transgender-bathroom-policy-to-go


The transgender bathroom law in Pennsylvania was llowed to go ahead by Scotus. They will not hear an appeal. 

[jambutty]

POLITICO
‘My Rudy’: Trump’s lawyer wants to be the campaign’s No. 1 hatchet man
 By Darren Samuelsohn 
1 hr ago

 Rudy Giuliani has long served as an all-purpose attack dog for President Donald Trump.
Get ready for more Rudy.

Done sparring with Robert Mueller, Donald Trump’s personal attorney is now training his attacks on the president’s reelection rivals. Giuliani plans to meet with the president and his campaign in the coming weeks to discuss pivoting to this new role, which he expects will also include making policy and political connections for the 2020 effort.

“We’ll see where they have holes and where they need help,” Giuliani told POLITICO. “I’m available to do a lot of it.”

Giuliani has long served as an all-purpose attack dog for Trump — to mixed results. The president and some of his top aides have occasionally cringed at the lawyer’s frequent off-script messaging and rambling TV appearances that can spark one or more unexpected news cycles. “Handling Rudy’s f--- ups takes more than one man,” a White House staffer told POLITICO in January.

But while even people around Trump say Giuliani’s freelancing can be problematic, they’re also willing to look the other way if it helps the president win another four years in office. After all, Giuliani is a name brand and gets credit from the president’s base for helping Trump survive the Mueller investigation. What’s more, Giuliani is one of the few Trump peers with national political and legal experience, someone who has known him for decades. He can even provide a calming presence — Giuliani said the president sometimes calls him “My Rudy” — to the famously uncalm president.

“The president is most effective when he’s in a great mood and he’s having fun on the campaign trail and Rudy adds to that,” said a Trump campaign adviser who also readily admitted that Giuliani’s faults can cause problems for others around the president. “I think he has the potential to be very effective in certain circumstances. He also has the potential to be unhelpful at times.”

“I imagine not all of Rudy’s ideas are brilliant ones, but the vast majority are and I’ll take the good with the bad,” added Michael Caputo, a longtime Trump adviser go-fer and golf caddy who met with the president last month in Washington, D.C.

Campaign pugilist isn’t exactly a new position for the former New York mayor, who will mark his 75th birthday on Tuesday with a celebration in a Yankee Stadium luxury suite. Starting in early 2016, Giuliani arranged some of Trump’s first policy briefings and later accepted an invitation to ride alongside the rookie candidate on the campaign plane, enjoying exclusive access to key advisers like Brad Parscale, Stephen Miller and Jeff Sessions. His speech at the Republican National Convention that summer in Cleveland captured the double-edged benefits of putting Giuliani front and center — the bellicose ex-mayor pumped up the conservative crowd with attacks on Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration, though some in the hall also murmured that Giuliani seemed “unhinged.”

As Trump’s attorney, Giuliani talks to the president two or three times a week and makes twice-a-month White House visits. He’s also a regular media presence defending the president, an act he’s continued since the end of the Mueller probe last month. Giuliani has launched fusillades on Trump’s potential Democratic rivals, including Joe Biden and Bill de Blasio, and swung away at the expanding congressional investigations that are threatening to morph into impeachment proceedings.

Now, Giuliani is being cast as someone who can reprise the “jack-of-all-trades” role he played during the 2016 presidential campaign, helping senior aides brainstorm policy ideas and mark up speeches, introducing Trump at rallies and serving as the president’s private sounding board. It also means letting Giuliani be Giuliani during his media hits, drawing eye-rolling fact checks from reporters but giving the president a megaphone for whatever he wants to say, however politically incorrect it may be.

“I think he can be a great warm up act,” said the Trump campaign adviser. “Having him on the plane is a great idea. As a core messenger he can get sloppy with details and also leave a lot of shrapnel on the ground.”

A second member of the president’s close circle of advisers agreed with the assessment that it’s worth taking the bad Giuliani in order to get the good Giuliani.

“We view him as a necessary component to the overall picture, because there are frequently messages that the president absolutely needs and wants to get out and he serves that role ably and cheerfully,” the source said. “That’s the best way to characterize him. If there wasn’t a Rudy Giuliani, we’d have to invent one.”

Former White House aides say they cringed when Giuliani entered the public stage about midway through the Russia probe. His messaging and behavior didn’t seem to hold a legitimate legal or political purpose. After some of his worst performances on TV, Giuliani went notably quiet. Just weeks into his assignment, an Associated Press story noted Trump was asking around whether he should sideline his lawyer from making so many questionable media appearances. The New Yorker last fall labeled him “Trump’s clown.”

Giuliani acknowledged the gripes at the start of 2019 but said no one would complain directly to him. “They just do it behind my back,” he told POLITICO.

Looking toward 2020, Giuliani said he’s ready to get back on the campaign plane (or bus). He said he can be a helpful surrogate for Trump in blue collar portions of expected battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as in places that seem to be on the edge of the 2020 fight, like Indiana and Minnesota. He’s also eager to connect with Trump supporters and wavering independents in western states like Arizona and Nevada and wherever large numbers of New Yorkers live, including Florida and both Carolinas.

Caputo, who worked as one of Trump’s early 2016 advisers, offered gushing praise for Giuliani coming out of the Mueller investigation, namely for the role the lawyer played in keeping the president out of a sit-down interview with the special counsel that Trump allies viewed as a “perjury trap” for the free-speaking Trump. Caputo has urged the Trump campaign to think of Giuliani as “surrogate No. 1” for the president after his immediate family and Vice President Mike Pence.

“Because so many people realize the vital role he played in defending the president through the Russia hoax, I think his surrogacy would appeal across the entire base,” he said. “And I think everybody wants to hear from him. In fact, I can’t think of one demographic in the column of the president that would not want to hear from him.”

Putting Giuliani on the campaign trail would also give Trump’s campaign someone who can speak freely about a Russia probe that the president sees as a rallying cry to his base — his campaign has been raising money and building email lists off the issue.

“Having spent so much time at the elbow of the president, he knows what happened better than most so he can explain it better than most,” Caputo said.

Trump has elevated Giuliani back to national prominence in a way he hadn’t experienced since 2008, when Giuliani was an early front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. It was a moment that didn’t last. Giuliani’s nascent campaign fell apart amid conflict of interest concerns over his lucrative international lobbying and consulting businesses, as well as GOP base voters who questioned his more liberal views on abortion and same-sex marriage.

All of the exposure connected to his work for Trump hasn’t exactly helped Giuliani’s wider public image, which soared after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when Giuliani became “America’s Mayor.” He was seen as a national leader who united the country and who could encourage the nation to laugh again on Saturday Night Live.

But a Gallup poll last June had Giuliani’s favorable ratings at their lowest point since measuring started in 2004, a dip that longtime aides chalked up to his association with the president. Giuliani’s only SNL presence these days is as the butt of jokes.

“He’s always been willing to throw away some of his own popularity to help his friends,” said Mike DuHaime, a New Jersey-based political operative who managed Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign.

But going forward, Giuliani is primed to serve a useful purpose for the president by taking aim at the Democratic field, said DuHaime.

“He’s an expert at dissecting and honing in on the weaknesses of the other candidates,” he said. “He takes that prosecutorial style. No matter who the nominee is on the other side, Rudy will be good at finding a weakness and being able to explain that weakness, almost like he’s talking to a jury.”

Giuliani’s broadsides haven’t spared anyone, including Democrats at the back of the pack.

“America will find out what New Yorkers know. When you call him Big Bird, it's a compliment," Giuliani said recently about Bill de Blasio, the Democratic New York mayor who recently launched a presidential bid.

Perhaps his biggest focus, though, has been Biden, who leads several early Democratic primary polls. Earlier this month, Giuliani said he was planning to travel to the Ukraine to urge the country’s president-elect to investigate Hunter Biden, the former vice president’s son, over his involvement in a Ukrainian energy company. Giuliani also insinuated that Joe Biden had somehow nefariously used his position as vice president to squash an investigation, without offering any evidence.

Giuliani later backed out of the trip as Democrats accused him of openly trying to encourage a foreign country to meddle in an American election. The country’s lead prosecutor also told reporters he’d found no evidence of wrongdoing by either Hunter or Joe Biden, and media reports have further poked holes in Giuliani’s theories.

But Trump allies said Giuliani’s mission was nonetheless accomplished — even if it was just to raise suspicions about Trump’s potential opponent next fall.

“The information is now out there,” Duhaime said. “He’s about getting the job done and not about what other people may think about him.”

Democrats openly mock Giuliani. They deride him as a conflicted lobbyist whose comments during the course of the Russia probe — “Truth isn’t truth,” the president’s lawyer famously said last summer — belie his reliability.

“He’s a figure who is discredited in terms of speaking to the facts, by his own tongue,” said Sidney Blumenthal, the longtime associate of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Julian Epstein, a former top House Democratic aide during the Clinton impeachment effort, said Giuliani is ineffective because of his miscues.

“The rule about a junkyard dog is you don’t want to make yourself the issue. That’s what Rudy does,” Epstein said. “For the base, you get a good dopamine hit for him. But for swing voters [and] independents, I think he underscores the lack of credibility he has.”

But Ellen Qualls, who ran the Obama 2012 surrogate operation, said Giuliani fits all the criteria for an effective Trump proxy, including his ability to attack opponents.

“Stylistically, that won’t work for Caroline Kennedy. But it will work for Rudy Giuliani,” she said.

“You might think that the job of a surrogate is to remain on message and not distract from the words of the candidate, but I’d throw the rulebook out with regard to President Trump,” she added. “He’s more likely to want to see Giuliani on TV speaking because that’s a minute taken away from Kamala Harris or another Democrat on TV.”

What he says doesn’t really matter.

“Even if it’s not on message,” Qualls said, “it’s a good minute for the Trump campaign in their eyes.

”https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/my-rudy-trumps-lawyer-wants-to-be-the-campaigns-no-1-hatchet-man/ar-AAC1HFF?ocid=spartanntp

Hatchet face for hatchet man.

I know Trunt has lied to him about a VP spot.

Only the best people.

[Giono]

To be honest...who cares what Rudy has to say? He has lost all credibility and respect being Trump's TV lawyer. Nobody takes that guy seriously anymore.

[Giono]

Congressman Justin Amash is the new star of the never Trumpers. He lit up twitter by calling for Trump to be impeached. Now he has a thread detailing his criticisms of Barr. None of it news, but it's a gop congressman that is saying it.


 

	Justin Amash (@justinamash)
	2019-05-28, 1:30 PM Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented key aspects of Mueller’s report and decisions in the investigation, which has helped further the president’s false narrative about the investigation.

[Red Beret]

Warren calls for impeachment.  It's a mistake.

Trump could literally have shot someone and the Senate wont convict him.  Impeachment might be morally correct but it would be a political disaster for the Dems.  Trump knows this.  He's acting increasingly erratic and I think some of it is deliberate.  He's daring Congress to impeach, because he knows he's safe.  It's calculated to undermine the Democrats from their base.  Impeachment is populist, but it's not practical.

[jambutty]

To be honest...who cares what Rudy has to say? He has lost all credibility and respect being Trump's TV lawyer. Nobody takes that guy seriously anymore.

He'll be the character assassin to all Trunt opposition.

His lies and innuendo will do damage.

[Giono]

He'll be the character assassin to all Trunt opposition.

His lies and innuendo will do damage.

The media does not take him seriously anymore. Any slack he got from past lives and 911 is finished. He's a joke.

[Jiminy Cricket]

Warren calls for impeachment.  It's a mistake.

Trump could literally have shot someone and the Senate wont convict him.  Impeachment might be morally correct but it would be a political disaster for the Dems.  Trump knows this.  He's acting increasingly erratic and I think some of it is deliberate.  He's daring Congress to impeach, because he knows he's safe.  It's calculated to undermine the Democrats from their base.  Impeachment is populist, but it's not practical.

I don't think this situation is comparable to Clinton. Clinton lied under oath. Although bad, the lie was over a personal matter. Now, compare that to what Trump has done and how transparent it should be after Congressional hearings, which will be 'must watch' TV! I am not suggesting there are no risks involved (as the Senate almost certainly will not convict). But if Trump is demonstrably and transparently guilty, the greater risk might be the backlash against Senators who fail to vote for conviction of Trump.

The other reason why there should be impeachment hearings is because it is congressional duty to do so - it is the Constitution for good reason.

Even if Nancy Pelosi is correct in her political assessment (and I accept that she may be), this does not negate congressional duty to act. Nor does it take into account the expectation by a large number of Democrats (and a growing number of Republicans) for Congress to press for impeachment (there could be backlash for that failure too).

There are no easy answers here. But I am of the (growing) opinion that Congress and the Senate should perform their duties and let they chips fall where they may. Much as Robert Mueller did.

[Giono]

Nicole Wallace on the money:

“Trump just returned to the White House after a Tour de Farce in Japan, proving once again that you can take the grievance-obsessed dictator-loving president out of America, but you can’t take the grievance-obsessed dictator-lover out of the American president”

[jambutty]

The media does not take him seriously anymore. Any slack he got from past lives and 911 is finished. He's a joke.

The media love him.

He's a polarising asshat.  With very good connections.  He gives great innuendo and has nothing to lose. If it comes out of his mouth it will get airtime.

[Giono]

I don't think this situation is comparable to Clinton. Clinton lied under oath. Although bad, the lie was over a personal matter. Now, compare that to what Trump has done and how transparent it should be after Congressional hearings, which will be 'must watch' TV! I am not suggesting there are no risks involved (as the Senate almost certainly will not convict). But if Trump is demonstrably and transparently guilty, the greater risk might be the backlash against Senators who fail to vote for conviction of Trump.

The other reason why there should be impeachment hearings is because it is congressional duty to do so - it is the Constitution for good reason.

Even if Nancy Pelosi is correct in her political assessment (and I accept that she may be), this does not negate congressional duty to act. Nor does it take into account the expectation by a large number of Democrats (and a growing number of Republicans) for Congress to press for impeachment (there could be backlash for that failure too).

There are no easy answers here. But I am of the (growing) opinion that Congress and the Senate should perform their duties and let they chips fall where they may. Much as Robert Mueller did.

I agree there are no easy answers. But isn't impeachment an easy answer? Doing something out of duty is by its nature an easy answer.  It is also in the constitution that the VP and cabinet can remove an unstable president. They are not doing their duty out of a political calculation. No, they are fawning over him. Even those who he has fired or quit are silent. Where is their duty?

The purpose of impeachment is to remove the president from office for just cause. The Dems can initiate it, but McConnell and his crew of grey vultures in the Senate will not impeach. They won't investigate properly either. They are not debating this at all. And they don't need Congress to act before starting a discussion. The evidence is clear today and...nothing. Just a chorus of support. Impeachment won't Happen because the judges (senate) won't hear the case.

So the answer is to keep investigations ongoing in Congress. Then take the case to the true supreme court, the people in 2020. Have them clean house armed with the information of congressional investigations, Mueller, and the knowledge that Repugs in the Senate, House and elsewhere enabled this man to avoid justice for 4 years.

The best way to make sure that Trump gets what he deserves , and his enablers too, is to take down the whole criminal organisation by having the Dems win Congress, the Senate and the Presidency with a strong mandate from "We the people". Then their duty will be to rid the body of the cancer, not just treat the symptoms (impeachment hearings) and pretend that the job is done and go back to McConnell playing political games, suppressing voters, allowing Russians to interfere, etc.

[Zeb]

DOJ have put out a press release saying Mueller's making a statement on his investigation at 11 am EDT. Which is peculiar.

[telekon]

DOJ have put out a press release saying Mueller's making a statement on his investigation at 11 am EDT. Which is peculiar.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/29/politics/robert-mueller-special-counsel-investigation/index.html

Yeah, strange that the DOJ announced it.

[Zeb]

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/29/politics/robert-mueller-special-counsel-investigation/index.html

Yeah, strange that the DOJ announced it.

When does he stop being an employee? Or has he already? Was meant to be in April but it turned out he was still on the payroll just a couple of weeks back.

edit: (NB: not implying anything more than the issues, as a DOJ employee, which were meant to have been holding up him appearing before congress)

[Not that Gareth]

Don't really know what to make of Mueller announcement, not expecting much though if it is being announced by the DOJ. The WH got the heads up last night: https://twitter.com/EamonJavers/status/1133731474685997058

[telekon]

Live https://edition.cnn.com/

[CraigDS]

Mueller covering his own arse to be honest.

[Gerry Attrick]

What a waste of time, but that's in line with the last however many months it's been ongoing. A colossal waste of time and money for the US if we're honest.