We are six full months into the Trump administration, and to all of those Americans and Russians who voted for him: you get what you pay for. Emperor Baby Fists is already facing a wide-ranging probe by independent counsel Robert Mueller, and many believe that Mueller’s probe grows by the day. We’ve already heard that Mueller is looking at Donald Trump’s business ties to Russia, Jared Kushner’s business ties to Russia, Donald Trump Jr.’s many ties to Russia, Paul Manafort and Mike Flynn’s ties to Russia and much, much more. I fully believe that when the hammer comes down – please let it be this year – it will be the most massive investigation in American history. So, obviously, Bigly is looking for ways to shut it down. After insinuating in his NYT interview this week that e’s considering firing Mueller, there are two new reports in the NYT and Washington Post about what is going through Bigly’s mind these days.
Bigly wants to discredit the investigation. Because certain investigators working with Mueller might have donated to some Democratic candidates, Bigly thinks that’s enough to “discredit” the entire probe as a partisan investigation. Just FYI: federal employees’ donations to political candidates have never been seen as a conflict of interest.
Robert Mueller left Trump National Golf Club in 2011. Trump plans to claim that Mueller left the club in 2011 over exorbitant membership fees, and Mueller has been harboring a secret grudge against Trump personally ever since.
Mueller has access to Trump’s tax returns. Release them, Mueller! Apparently, Trump is “particularly disturbed” and “irritated” by the fact that Mueller has access to the past six years of his tax returns. A close adviser to Trump told WaPo: “If you’re looking at Russian collusion, the president’s tax returns would be outside that investigation.” O RLY?
Trump thinks he can pardon himself. From WaPo: “Trump has asked his advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with the probe, according to one of those people. A second person said Trump’s lawyers have been discussing the president’s pardoning powers among themselves.”
A president can’t pardon himself. Right? I realize that I actually don’t know the law on that, but I’m pretty sure a president can’t pardon himself. He can pardon his entire family though. He can pardon Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort. And let’s just take a moment and realize that we’re only six months into this mess and Bigly is already talking about pardons. In case you’re wondering, Bloomberg war-gamed what it would look like if Trump really did go on a firing spree at DoJ, if he attempts to shut down Mueller that way – go here to read.
Also: the spokesman for Trump’s legal team has resigned after two months.
Update: Hahaha Sean Spicer just resigned as press secretary!!!
Photos courtesy of Getty.
what a cluster@@@@
Has anyone noticed the troll ramping on all social media? On nearly every interesting new’s posts, there are a dozen attacking trolls per every one viable response. It appears the RussianBot infiltration is really increasing, and or, the conservatives are feeling the heat and saturating all liberal sites. It’s an insult-a-thon out there. Cyber bullying is really intense as this Russian investigation unfolds. It feels like trying to focus on the most interesting era of history during an intermediate sh*t storm.
Basic Point: If Baby Fists is innocent, why is he frantically trying to stop / undermine the investigation? The harder he tries, the guiltier he looks.
Did you see the way Trump greeted Putin? He was practically kissing his ring. Somebody PLEASE get the pee-pee tapes!!!
PLEASE tell me he can’t pardon family members. As for pardoning himself — good God, the man has the mind of a toddler, he truly does.
Bill Clinton pardoned his brother, among other associates. An unfortunate precedent.
Clinton was actually a great president.
Lord, I’d forgotten about the Roger Clinton pardon. The last day of pardons was a bit much.
But at least he waited until the last day of his presidency. Where Trump looks like he’s trying to do all this 6 months into his.
I’d rather have BC back in office any day. A half-brother who had a years-old drug possession charge is quaint by comparison.
George H W Bush pardoned many of the Iran Contra people and some people in his and Reagan’s administrations that had not been charged with anything.
Did Bill Clinton’s brother sold the country to a foreign enemy to line his pockets and the pockets of his family and friends,
All presidents pardon people the end of every year but none of them has sold their country to the enemy for monitory gains as far as I can remember.
I just looked up why Roger was pardon. He served a year in jail for cocane possession. He was pardon at the end of clintons term to take the conviction from his record. He served his time for his crime. 45 is talking about pardoning before anyone has served anytime in jail for their crime. Hopefully it will be proven they all had colluded and did commit crimes of money laundering, ect, ect.
Yes anytime we are talking of Trump’s criminal behaviour, let’s just say “But Hillary, but Bill…but Chelsea…did this!”
This in my mind is going to be the most devastating legacy of this cluster-f*cking, dumpster fire of a president. The terrible precedents. Soooooo much rubbish happening, becoming legitimized and baked into your system at the moment. Erasing decades, if not centuries of the worlds best democratic customs & best practices in a few short months.
At this rate, even by 2018, American politics will be no different from Russia, having been heavily and systematically directed and polluted by Putin’s agenda. Worst of all, I foresee an exhausted populace, completely worn down and de-fanged by the never-ending effort of combating gargantuan, industrial scale lies, deceit and corruption on an hourly basis, everyday, every week, every month….on and on and on.
It’s not like pardoning someone for treason.
He can probably pardon anyone..however there’s a clause that says you can’t pardon someone who’s been impeached, and requesting a pardon is an admission of guilt.
Accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt concerning federal crimes, not state crimes and one could no longer plead the 5th in regard to those crimes, but would be compelled to testify fully as to one’s actions.
Remember that Ford pardoned Nixon (who resigned before being impeached.) If worst comes to worst for our Trumpster Fire, he can always resign and then get President Pence to pardon him.
He would not resign. He will consider it an admission of defeat.
His hubris will bring him down.
But if Trump gets impeached or resigns (more likely IMO), Pence would be president. And I could see Pence pardoning Trump. Yuck.
Trump can only pardon if he’s POTUS, right? Maybe they need to solve that problem first!
There was a think-piece on this in the (I want to say) Daily News this morning. The president can pardon anyone, with the exception of in cases of impeachment. The pardon doctrine follows the British rule of law and since Britain was/is a monarchy and the king can commit no crime under the law, there is no rule as to whether the president can pardon himself or not. In theory, he can.
he cannot pardon himself; that would effectively make him a dictator. I’m pretty sure the law is clear on that one…otherwise, wouldn’t Nixon have stuck around and pardoned himself?…
Seth Abramson has a twitter thread that explains what will/might happen if he tries.
Technically it’s not against the law for him to pardon himself, the legality of it would be determined by subsequent court rulings. The difference with Nixon is that he actually cared about the party and the country more than himself. He had the integrity to admit his mistakes (once the writing was on the wall and he realized there was NO getting away with it) and resign. Trump has none of those qualities.
@KB……the turds of American presidential history that are being burnished by Trumps tenure…..George W Bush, Nixon…….lol……it’s a wonder to behold.
Yea he can pardon everyone. The key is to impeach before he gets the chance
I think someone on Rachel Maddox’s show said he can’t pardon himself. However that won’t stop him from trying. I’ve also read he can outright pardon his goons before they are indicted. That’s depressing.
I hope he leaves the Manafort and Flynn indictments alone. Someone has to pay for this.
I guess this is sour grapes, but I NEED to see him AND his family in jail for their continued lies and selling Democracy to the russian thugs. I’d rather a pardon to manafort or that conspiracy nut Flynn.
He can pardon everybody for federal crimes, but they’re on their own for state level crimes. There is apparently a limit on the number of pardons.
The whole nonsense of pardoning himself has never come up because no President has been doofus enough to even consider it. The next President can pardon the outgoing one and that is what happened before. So be nice to Mike Pence, Donald.
POTUS can pardon as many people as he likes, but only for federal crimes, as he is the head of the federal government. The power of the pardon for state crimes is reserved solely to the governors of the respective states, as the heads of the state governments.
Oh lawd….
Pardoned or not, an impeachable offense is still an impeachable offense. But I don’t think he can pardon himself. The screaming about “don’t touch my stuff” would be hilarious if this wasn’t so serious and frightening. Don’t look into your family and finances? Hello! Please explain how Monica Lewinsky was associated with Whitewater?
I just want this to be over.
And I now have a girl crush on the Japanese First Lady who pretended she didn’t speak English to avoid him.
I AM English and I’d certainly pretend not to speak English to avoid him!
He could pardon himself, but he could still be prosecuted. Someone simply has to take it before the courts, since there is no precedent. There would then be rulings as to whether the case can proceed. It would probably go all the way up to the Supreme Court.
Also, if someone receives a pardon they can be compelled to testify. They no longer have any kind of immunity so pardoning Tom Malevolo Riddle Kushner could harm Orange Voldy more than help.
There were theories floating around that if his goons were pardoned. The State can go after them for state violations/crimes. And yes they would be compelled to testify.
Ohhh, that’s interesting, LP and Holly.
Holly Hobby, do you REALLY think that they’d tell the truth? Or that being “under oath” would mean ANYTHING to them? They’d STILL lie their a$$es off, IMO.
It’s only been 6 mos. and it feels like 6 years. Will we *ever* be rid of this nightmare, and will we truly recover as a country??
They can try and lie under oath and if a really good atty general was prosecuting them they would nail them for perjury. I believe in karma and fate. For someone that evil eventually the furies will catch up to them.
Lightpurple- Shhh. Don’t let Donald know that. Let him pardon the crew and then they have to sing like little birdies.
I was working on the Hill and in law school there at the time. I have zero idea. We’d see Starr on campus a lot.
About the Japanese First Lady pretending she couldn’t speak English; I wouldn’t put it past Trump to have ignored her during dinner because she wasn’t some young hot thing he was interested in. And then blurting out she didn’t speak English once he realized he had ignored her. Either way he’s made an idiot out of himself. Again.
Exxon just got fines for contravening Russian sanctions while our pal Rex Tillerson was CEO…but this is all fake news, a media ploy to hurt Trump. Also, emails.
If you have time, find the Guardian series on Trump voters in PA. Their views have not changed. I believe every single person interviewed last week indicated they would vote for him again. People have fallen for the ‘fake news’ and ‘whole Russia thing is designed by bitter media/democrats’ narrative, hook line and sinker.
But god forbid we throw them all into the same basket. They had REASONS! And yeah, emails. Never forget the emails.
I’m over it. I’m ignoring this sh*t for the summer because I’m afraid for my health. It’s a luxury I’m going to indulge in because I can. This relentless barrage of flying turds is too much.
The worst bit is – we will not get rid of him. His followers continue to believe his narrative.
And he has now started laying the foundation for the ‘Mueller had conflict of interest’ narrative, which people with eat with a spoon.
I continue to be horrified by the amount of people who follow him and his crazy. I was never under the illusion that he wouldn’t appeal to a large group. But I didn’t know how large that group was. And how much women hate themselves and other women. It’s depressing.
Let’s hope Mueller is prepared to deal with what’s coming.
There are a lot of people who are in denial and don’t want to admit they were wrong, in addition to those who are delusional.
He could make a full on-camera confession of all of his crimes and ethical misconduct and his rabid supporters would still find ways to justify his actions if it meant they weren’t wrong in supporting him, and were still the “winners.” Like Trump said, even if he shot someone in the middle of Times Square…
This is why I believe only two issues would make his supporters ragey:
1) gun control or ban
2) pro choice
That’s right. Murder and treason are alright to them.
I blame Fox News for so much of this.
@Alexandria
What I can’t figure out is why his supporters still think he’s pro life? I mean come on he bragged that his sexual exploits in the 70s were his personal Vietnam. Do they think none of these women got pregnant? I’d bet the farm he payed off more than one to have an abortion. And supposedly he pressured Marla to have one when she got pregnant. But to them it’s all about punishing the woman (never the man) for having sex.
He has previously ranted about punishing women for getting an abortion. Also, don’t forget the charming clause for Melania to have a baby. She had to promise to get her body back.
@mermaid, you can’t figure it out because his supporters Holy Trinity are not Reason, Sanity and Science. Also, because he’s not a Clinton.
I had dinner w a guy from yoga who is convinced the “deep state media” is out to get trump w said “fake news”. My point in admitting my poor choice in an evening’s companion is that Russia has brainwashed the masses. Even some yoga people. Ugh.
Every day I hope that that we will finally, finally be free of this treasonous traitor. I was very happy to see his lawyers leaving the case yesterday. What was it they said? Oh-the guy won’t pay and he won’t listen. It just gets worse and worse and I’m worried for 2018 that he is trying to make a deal for a cyber unit with Russia so him and his cronies can stay in power.
deleted – posted on wrong thread.
I read that the new atty he hired. The guy who actually knows how to work a federal case, Ty Cobb, was irritated about his verbal diarrhea with NYT. this man will not listen to any good advice coming from an outsider. People should just quit.
Oh yeah I think the $ci scheme of discrediting Mueller’s team is all on Jared. Sounds like his MO. if they weren’t so cheap, they would be $cibots.
Seriously, he’s not paying his current batch of lawyers? Oh I get it, it’s a bigly honour to rep him, money shouldn’t matter.
In reading this last night, I believe somewhere I read that it’s never been fully examined, if he can pardon himself. There is no precedent, of course.
So considering up is down for this president, it would not surprise me at all that he pardons himself and continues as president.
And his personal attorney quit! This is getting much worse, but part of me wants it to continue to worsen so that this sham Presidency will finally be over.
I don’t know what you guys have done to deserve this. When I read that headline I actually burst into a near hysterical fit of the giggles – this has devolved into genuine farce. If a scriptwriter came out with the stuff this family are doing they would get fired for a total lack of authenticity. I hope for your sakes it’s all over soon (we have a shit storm of our own going on over here so I do sympathise)
It reads like an Onion or Borowitz Report headline, right?
‘Onion’ headline, yes absolutely, you nailed it.
Shitstorms are everywhere. I cannot deal with world news cos it hurts.
As for people of the USA, there have been so many warning signs but they were overlooked. So nope , no one deserves this but the silver lining is that people are awake and there is no more blurry lines between those who want free world and the others.
The Veep writers actually said something to that effect, when people kept comparing this year & 2016 to a Veep storyline. “None of our writers would script something like this. It’s just bad writing.” It really is, too. Too removed from reality to be a feasible *fictional* story, yet it’s real.
Our national, poorly scripted nightmare.
Accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt. Foolius even inquiring about pardon authority is essentially him admitting that he and his band of thieves are guilty as hell. If he didn’t do anything illegal or treasonous like he has claimed, why would you want to preemptively pardon anyone?
The articles and comments that I have read so far about this are confusing. Some say he can’t pardon himself, some say he can but it could lead to his impeachment, some say he can self-pardon but they will lead to civil suits, either way he moves he is F-CKED. If he pardons himself and his team it only applies to federal laws, not state laws, so state AGs would go after all of them. The Dumps would more than likely be getting sued from Democratic states like Hawaii, California, New York, etc. are more than happy to sue him if he tries it. If the latter happens, I think I may start embracing the term “state’s rights” more warmly than I have ever before.
The Rethugs better think real hard about this party over country motto is worth it anymore. If they keep this up, they will get caught up in this storm too. Actually, let them sit there on their thumbs. Those corrupt hypocritical thugs were more than willing to let millions of people rot so that a few thousand rich people could stay rich. I hope Evil Turtle and Eddie Munster get taken out first. I wonder what John Boehner and Eric Cantor are thinking right now.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey probably has the Complaint drafted already. She has vowed to hold him accountable for everything, got one of the first decisions overturning the travel ban, has joined Massachusetts into all the other travel ban cases and is the lead on the lawsuit against Betsy DeVoes.
Good!
@AT: “Accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt.”
SPOT ON A BILLION x A BILLION TIMES !
Great post, thanks for all the pertinent info.
The loophole is that, if it comes to it, he can resign and then have President Pence pardon him (a la Nixon/Ford.) He should then live out the rest of his life in disgrace, but he’s Trump so we know that won’t happen.
No I hope all their businesses tank because once he leaves In Disgrace the Russians will pull out of his businesses. He is after all no use to them anymore.
I hope you’re right!! That would be delicious.
John Boehner was interviewed earlier this year and he said he was happy he left when he did. I’m sure GOP who left are relieved they are not a part of this shit show.
NY would be the logical venue to pursue this since they all reside there.
Trump won’t release his taxes and is very vocally upset by thought of Mueller looking into his finances. This is pretty much begging for an investigation into Trump’s financial dealings.
This is like a child who has hidden something they don’t want found, and panics as they realize the parents are getting close to discovering it.
The more that happens, the more I realize how stupid this guy is. Thinking one is above the law may have worked in the past, but his dealings are now under a bright spotlight. If things are above board, why worry?
All this talk about meetings with Russians etc, reminded me of a story a few months ago. How the White House was going to keep the visitor logs private, where as in the previous Obama administration it was not. A group was going to take the government to court over the change.
I have not heard anything else on that story. That might be another pile of crap waiting to hit the fan
A non-profit group just got hold of the right to access the the Maralago visitor logs. They’re due to be published later this year:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-mar-a-lago-visitor-logs-crew-lawsuit-court-order-a7845816.html
That might be an interesting read to see who visited
But they don’t get them till September 8th. Time to scrub or falsify. Also, ongoing visits might not be logged now. They should’ve been seized immediately.
That was a red flag from the start. I see no reason to privatize the logs unless they had something to hide. If it was a national security concern, I’m sure it could be hidden as needed, but overall should have been left public.
Mueller left the trump golf club in 2011. trump started birtherism in 2011. Maybe coincidence, maybe appropriate disgust. Mueller is an honorable man. Honor is just one more word trump doesn’t know the meaning of.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/us/politics/donald-trump-obama-birther.html
He’s not a f@€£ing king! Why should he be able to pardon himself? These people!
The congress has to write some new laws. There should not be a dictator in this country. We cannot live through this @&$$ again. I’m more mad at the people who voted for this Baffoon than I am with him at this time. They all knew what kind of a person he was long before Election Day.
Thanks kaiser for giving us news on what’s happening in our country. Some people wants to stick their heads in the sand, I hope when they come up for air it not too late. Some of us are looking out for everyone. There is a saying, god takes care of fools and baby. I’m not a fool or a baby so I’m watching what’s happening to my country, ❤️.
What worries me so much about this (from afar, I’m English) is that the reaction against/for Trump seems so tribal. Staunch Trump supporters won’t listen to a thing said about him because it’s all ‘liberals/emails/fake news’. Even if Trump was to be removed or whatever, I imagine there will be howls of rage from his supporters that all charges were false, and surely that’s going to lead to such an ongoing split of opinion which surely is going to be damaging long term.
As I say, I’m not American but it’s a worry for us all.
There were some comments on the Donald Jr thread yesterday that celebitchy is now too politicised – I don’t agree with that at all. This is one of my go to sites for gossip, yes, but also for commentary about the political situation as it’s one of the few sites where the comment section doesn’t make me want to hang my head in despair. It’s a great site!
I agree. As an American, I am grateful for the CB political threads. As I have mentioned before, the comments are far more thoughtful than those on a site like POLITICO. Everything there is literally name calling. I have a difficult time understanding the “gossip only” position.
I agree as well, this is the only safe space for me when I want to hear about politics but not feel over-the-top extreme anxiety. Don’t get me wrong, the anxiety is there, but this is a more supportive forum than delving into WaPo.
I come here every morning. This is the only site where 99% of the people see this political situation like I do. Everywhere else, there’s naive people who don’t want to see the obviously dangerous truth about Trump. Those ladies yesterday proved that so many Trumpsters still refuse to admit they were conned and don’t like hearing people talk about how easy it is to see the truth about the criminal Trump family. They’ll unfortunately stand by him and the Republicans no matter what.
This site definitely needs to keep the political articles
The talk about CB getting to political isn’t really new, it occasionally got mentioned even before Trump ran for president. But then the same complaint was made about Kardashian coverage, etc. There are multiple posts per day, so if you don’t want to deal with Affleck/Trump/Kardashians don’t click on those posts.
I am grateful that Kaiser gives us the opportunity to express ourselves on these topics.
The day has just started and there are already seven “celeb” threads I have no intention of clicking on. Before the day is over, I’m sure there will be five or six more of no interest to me. I read the #felontrump threads and a couple of celeb ones. Why don’t the protesters understand they aren’t forced to read the political threads? There’s enough celebrity stuff to go around.
If people aren’t happy with the content, they can skip those posts or go elsewhere. CB is not required reading.
I’m happy to have an outlet to discuss it too.
Exactly!
@lucy2: CB should be required reading 🙂
Excellent writing and uber fun and informative comments 🙂
And a place of sanity 🙂
IMO 🙂
There is division here, of course, but please know his staunch supporters are only about 1/3 of the population. Those people bought into his television persona, his cult of personality. His approval ratings are somewhere around 36% currently, and will continue to drop until it mirrors the size of his base. Those people will not budge, because they are either willfully ignorant like him, or unhinged conspiracy theorists ( like him).
CB is a fantastic and much appreciated forum.
And remember that Trump only got about 1/4 of the total possible votes from registered voters. Close to half of the registered voters didn’t or couldn’t vote (due to voter suppression tactics). Not all adults are registered voters and quite a few people close to the minimum voting age in 2016 are now legally adults but couldn’t vote then.
Plus we really don’t know if the vote counts were accurate because those machines mostly don’t have paper backup and attempts to have recounts in just three states (paid for by donations raised quickly across the country, called for by one of the third party candidates who had standing to do it) were blocked. Trump’s lawyers scampered into court in particular as fast as their little legs could carry them to stop the recounts. About 80,000 votes total spread over a handful of states made the difference between President Tweeter and President Hillary Clinton.
So the number of voters for Trump represent a distinct minority even if we believe the vote counts.
+1,000 to your last paragraph. This site gives me, most importantly hope, also a lot of short, cogent rebuttals for the few unseeing baby fist supporters I still talk with.
I agree with all of the above, as a Brit I wouldn’t be able to make head or tail of what’s going on your side of the pond without this site, I depend on commentators like Lightpurple et al for cool, rational commentary on the utter madness of it all because really, I find it all too overwhelming to wade through via the more ‘traditional’ channels of information. This is a place where we can hear what real, intelligent, non-rabid Americans really think and I personally believe we could do with a lot more of that in the world.
Trumps out of control paranoia makes it look like he’s got a lot of bad things to hide. He’s making himself look more guilty every day
He does have a lot of bad things to hide. He is guilty.
Trump has been a crook for decades, he was taught by his dad. The stupidest thing he ever did was run for President. Just being a candidate exposed him to scrutiny, it is far worse now that he is President. His brand has been deteriorating since his campaign started in earnest because the hateful and crazy things he was saying turned many people off. He could have lived out his life being crooked in his own little world with hardly a blip on most radars, if he had not run for President and actually (and bafflingly) won.
Dumbest human on earth 😂😂😂
Correction: his voters are.
I am honestly surprised that nobody’s tried to take this turd out yet.
I fervently hope that nonviolence prevails. It’s the key to handling Trump. He is a violent man, who is part of a violent criminal underworld. Fighting fire with fire in his case would only inspire him to institute martial law.
One does not simply tick off MOSSAD.
Putin’s not through with him. Yet.
Three breaches in security thus far: http://www.wcsh6.com/news/2-men-arrested-outside-white-house-within-12-hours/423921943
Also, do not forget the unhinged gunman who gravely injured Scalise.
Don’t worry ice cream and fried greasy food will terminate him.
The next person I hear saying that House Of Cards jumped the shark, is ridiculous, unrealistic and soapy I’me ready to punch them in the face.
Yes. Even our goddess Antiope, Princess Buttercup, President Clare says all the show’s ideas are outdone by the real administration.
which is why is so frustrating when people keep saying that the show is now boring, outdone by reality and so and so. Is crazy how every single thing people said it was ridiculous on the show, then it actually happened or something really close to it! Russia manipulating US politicians? Done. A relative becoming VP and/or influential in international meeting? Done. Corruption, lies, ….Done! I’m here sitting waiting for the day a Zoe Barns gets thrown under a train. Is more relevant than ever, they wrote about Frank closing the borders months before this clown was even a candidate!
Want to bet EBF would believe it if we told him yes, all you have to do to pardon yourself is click your heels together 6 times and say “I pardon thee! I pardon thee! I pardon thee!”
God the comments section on Politico. It’s shocking. I’m not sure if it’s blatant trollery or people who are knuckleheaded enough to believe the nonsense they say.
Sad, isn’t it?
There’s knuckleheads heads everywhere. I never read about Trump or the comments on Daily Mail. It’s so shocking how much nonsense is there too
There are still Trump voters out there who think the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is great but Obamacare is a disaster. They really don’t get that those are two names for the same thing and that Trump has been sabotaging their ACA since his first day in office.
All this and it’s only July. What kind of headlines will we be getting by December?? Instead of asking if he can pardon himself, maybe he should take a turn at actually running the country.
Trump can’t run the country. He is incapable of governing. He really doesn’t understand how things work and has no intention of learning (or is incapable of learning new things now).
So it’s pointless to tell him to get back to work. He can’t do the work. People need to tell him to resign and enjoy what’s left of his life.
I believe the congress must pass some laws when the votes out the liars and thieves that all presidents must provident their tax returns for the last 10 years. Also, there must be a law that a president can’t pardon the self. a president cannot fire the person who is investigating the president through another person. Only the house and congress should be able to do that by at least 65 votes. This whole President Power is too broad and this conman is taking advantage of our system. Bill Clinton did not pardon himself or the special prosecutor. , Nixon did not pardon himself or fired the special prosecutor. This man is trying to tear the country apart to hide his illegal business dealings and his collusion with Putin.
I agree. We’ve found out that much of governing has been based on the honor system. But the that requires honorable people, so… More laws needed now.
It doesn’t matter if he pardons himself, his family, or his aides.
NY AG Eric Schniederman will bring state charges in NY State of money laundering, racketeering, espionage, etc and file them there.
State charges are unpardonable.
Boom, Orange Bitch
May his prison jumpsuit match his skin tone…
hehehehe!
I totally agree with most here that the political commentary is welcome, as there is no fluff and links are always given to what is reported. In one article here, you can access all that has happened instead of searching around. The other news sites are trolled so heavily it brings me down and i have no more room for that in my life. EVERY FREAKING DAY the news is just so unreal that all my adjectives have been worn out. Thank you Kaiser for all that you do on this, and you do an excellent job. Its gotten to the point where I read my political news here first and watch PBS Newshour every night for non fluff reporting. Thank you!
Trump seems guilty as sin and how handy there will likely be a vacancy in OJ’s cell.
Trump has always interrupted anyone asking him tough questions with “excuse me, excuse me” and I’ve always hoped someone would say, “no, I won’t excuse you, please answer the question”. Now I’m hoping the GOP a least can squeak in enough patriotism to say, “no, we won’t excuse you OR PARDON you either”.
Well somebody sure is guilty and panicky. I love it!
My predictions:
1. DeustcheBank will be Trump’s undoing.
2. Putin will turn when he doesn’t get sanctions lifted or compounds returned… Then real dirt will drop (pee tape)
3. Trump will not go quietly, unless he can manage to flee the country in the middle of the night.
4. He will mention Hillary and Obama on the stand when he goes to trial.
5. He’d better watch himself– very powerful folks are getting exposed cause of him… I’d be unsurprised if he gets mysteriously poisoned.
To point #1 – since receipt-keeping is (generally) a point of German cultural pride, I’d say that’s a safe bet.
The president cannot pardon himself, but just like Ford, I am sure Pence will pardon him should he be tried criminally (impeachment carries no other punishment aside from removal from office).
The president can pardon people ONLY if the United States is the plaintiff (federal crimes).
So, say New York files criminal charges against a Trump colleague and it’s not federal, but state charges, the President has no power to pardon anyone in that scenario.
Pence would do it, he would absolutely do it.
^^ Yes, came here to say exactly this. I suspect there’s a reason Pence is keeping his head down and his nose clean, and it’s so that he can pardon Trump when the sh-t finally hits the fan. Trump will resign rather than be impeached, Pence will pardon him in the name of “putting this all behind us,” state lawsuits will fizzle, and the Trumps will skip on their merry way.
I can see pardon as an outcome. Basically Trump and his cohorts getting away with every harmful act to the constitution, to democracy and the Americans he so vigorously happily insulted. Sad!
One little hitch to that plan … perhaps Pence is involved in dubious dealings more than we yet know.
Fingers crossed.
I would hope however it ends this family will be in financial ruins. After all the trump heads aren’t in the same tax bracket to buy what they are selling. Maybe they can buy some China made ivanka shit but the other businesses, nope. His use to Russia would be over and they will pull out. Hello bankruptcy.
But once Pence has power, what incentive would he possibly have to pardon trump? The repubs won’t give a crap about trump once he no longer sits on the thrown and he’d get better polls by not pardoning the former criminal-in-chief
Spicer has resigned. Just reported on MSNBC. Plastic Barbie and Ball-less Ken’s man is now Dir. of Comm.
Barbie and Ken better be careful. If Barbie didn’t truthfully reveal her husband’s foreign contacts (as well as her father’s, mother’s, siblings’ and in-laws’) on her application for a security clearance, then she is in deep trouble also. Really, people who have to fill out that form regularly have to keep asking everybody in the family for details and updates.
I don’t know why the two of them still have clearance. Anybody else would have it revoked long before this.
Spicer just resigned
Good for him! Jump ship when you can. I think the constant lying must have gotten to him. I can’t imagine his weekly confession with the priest!
Hope his healthcare covers PTSD
Sean Spicer resigned ,who will be the next to go?
I’d love to see the arrogant, cocky, bully Sebastian Gorka gone. He’s even worse than Kellyann
Quite possibly, Rancid Penis. He and Spicer were allies and Penis was sidelined on this little debacle.
LOLOLOL love that “Rancid Penis”… actually had me laugh out loud! What a perfect name! Kudos!!
Love love love!
“…Penis is sidelined…”
Courtesy of Alabama’s Jerusha!
Cheers!
one can only pray that the vampire barbie is next.
Just saw on CNN that Spicy resigned. Nobody is sticking around with Trump! SNL will never be the same .
Just her that too. trump already hire some Wall Street hedge fund guy. I guess spicer was fired. Wil miss Melissa M on SNL
It’s Anthony Scaramucci, a slick talking, jared pick.
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango.
I hear that he’s very similar to trump
He’s a trumpette. He compared Ball-less Ken doll to Alexander Hamilton.
See my comment in #40-maybe this will hurt trump.
@Jerusha
He actually compared blank eyed Jared to Alexander Hamilton?! My God the arrogance and overreaching of these people never fails to astound me. Jared is such a slick little weasel. He’s as dirty and despicable as Trump. The Funny or Die clips of Ivanka and Jared are one of my favorite things to watch.
Yep, he did.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-adviser-anthony-scaramucci-jared-kushner-is-like-alexander-hamilton/article/2619818
Check out Funny or Die – The Kellyanne Story.😂😂😂😂
Spicy is out?!?! No!!!! No more Melissa McCarthy!!! That was the only fun part. I loathe the Huckabee woman and her pearls. Also, there is a great article today on The Daily Beast called “When Will Republicans Realize Trump Hates Them?”
Spicer lasted longer than I would. Was kind of sad the way he was always shaking and nervous while trying to keep track of Trumps lies.
I wonder if anyone will ever hire him after his WH fiasco. I still think of his first press conference when he lied screaming through his teeth about the inauguration being the biggest ever SMH. I guess he couldn’t live with himself working at th WH any longer.
As a staunch Catholic, can you imagine his weekly confessionals??
“Ok Father, here’s the list, newest sins on top; I said a silent “Hail Mary” for each one right after the press conference… Are we good until next Sunday?”
And – Spicey has quit! Complete and utter sh$t show
One more example of trump’s one way loyalty. Spicer ruins his reputation for him, then fvck off!
Interesting discussion on MSNBC that with Spicer, and possibly Priebus, gone, trump is now surrounded by nobody except trumpettes. Spicer and Priebus were the links to the Republicans in Congress. Now, there will be no one, possibly lessening trump’s protection by the quislings in Congress. That would be good.
Spicy never really did his job. All he ever said was “I haven’t had a chance to talk to the president. ” Suckabee is just as bad
I keep hearing people say over and over, “No one is above the law–not even the President!” But, actually, what it looks like to me is that our President actually holds the powers of an emperor or king if he (or she) chooses to act that way. He can pardon everyone and even weasel out of any trouble he is in. It seems to me that he is absolutely above the law. Am I wrong? (Someone tell me I’m wrong!)
He can’t pardon people for state crimes, only federal ones. Only states’ governors can issue pardons for crimes in their respective states (e.g., only NY governor can pardon a conviction under NY law for money laundering).
I would (will, I hope!) dance for joy if every man Jack of them is disgraced, discredited, imprisoned, and left destitute. But am I alone I fearing that we truly would be facing an armed uprising if that happens? I’m genuinely terrified that his true believers would start an armed insurrection.
I still can’t believe we’ve come to this.
The threat of violent reaction will depend on how far Trump has gotten in trashing programs that his followers actually like. (Once they figure out that Obamacare is actually the ACA or whatever their state calls it…) Trump is not just “letting Obamacare die” – he has been actively attacking it since Day One, starting with ordering non-enforcement of the individual mandate and now by threatening to no longer pay the promised subsidies. The insurance companies have said quite clearly that the problem is Trump’s actions, not the ACA. Sabotaging the ACA as Trump has been doing will not only cream people with much higher premiums to cover the insurance companies’ increased risks due to Trump. Small non-urban hospitals are at risk of closing, because the ACA actually has provisions that help support them. That means in an emergency, it will take longer to get medical attention and people will die in circumstances when every minute counts. For less life-threatening emergencies, people will have much longer rides to the nearest hospital.
What the Trump disaster has shown us is that the ACA actually is a pretty good bill and covers a lot of things besides individual subsidies. It wasn’t just cobbled together – they had dozens of hearings and discussions over the course of a year with people actually affected. And it was based on a program in Massachusetts that already had a good track record.
The Republican chaotic “let’s make this as terrible as possible to get ultraconservative votes” approach is appalling. They really need to just fix the problems that have surfaced in the ACA and offer Medicare for All as another option if they’re not ready to toss out the insurance company racketeers. But that would require extending the ACA, not tearing it down, so I doubt that many Republicans will be seriously be interested in doing that. They haven’t realized yet that modern healthcare has nothing to do with the primitive treatments available in the 1700s and doctors don’t take chickens any more in return for their services. It has to be treated as a complex public need that requires fair distribution of the costs according to income (meaning tax-based), just as we do with other things such as police and fire protection, roads, schools, and military defense. Too many Republicans see health care instead as a product that will magically be properly handled by “the market”. They have the same delusion about Social Security. Hence all the ridiculous talk about privatizing everything. They want to dismantle government programs that actually help people through tough times and when they can no longer get paying jobs due to age or other circumstances. I wish such Republicans would just go and form their own little privatized country somewhere and leave the rest of us alone.
If Ryan pushes more against Medicare and Social Security (as he wants to do) – that will definitely backfire on Trump. Those are programs that are important for people who aren’t considered poor also.
Although Trump is the worst of the worst, I sincerely think he hasnt done anything that Mueller could use against him. Nobody with a big skeleton in his closet would run for president. That would just be beyond stupid. He cant be that stupid can he? He is in love with the man in the mirror, but you dont need Mueller to see that.
Money laundering, follow the money. After the investigation starts they Follow any illegal activity, or activities. Remember Bill Clinton they started with a land deal and ended up with the stain on the blue dress. He lied that he did not have sex with that woman and he was caught lying. 45 will be caught, that’s why he’s looking to see if he can pardon himself.
The Bill Clinton thing is why I think Its going to be so interesting when jr speaks next week. Will be be honest? Lying there is so much worse than his constant lying to the media. We dont know yet if Trump has lied about Russia- but we know jr lied.
He is a stupid, stupid man. Yes, he can be that stupid.
I admire your pessimism ❤️
Not pessimism at all. trump is a profoundly stupid man. He boasts that he doesn’t read, he can barely manage an intelligible sentence. He has spent his life lying, cheating partners and workers, stealing from charity. He has bluffed and blustered people up to this point. Now that he is on a larger stage, more people see what he is. I can’t believe anyone is so unaware not to know that. It’s been covered extensively.
Did you see what The King of Lies and Fake News said about Frederick Douglas, Andrew Jackson, Neopolian, Hitler, and the Civil War? The King of Lies and Fake News is stupid. The major problem is that The King of Lies and Fake News is surrounded by an army of complicit people. He does what he does because he knows that there aren’t going to be any consequences of his actions. The King of Lies and Fake News has committed several offenses that Muller can use against him, but the question becomes is Muller going to fall into the same trap as McMaster, Spicer, Rosenstein, McCabe, and Niki Haley? These people all went into the WH as qualified and shave be converted into incompetent and complicit people.
Mueller has been to this rodeo before. He was FBI Director under Bush and Obama. He was also the US Attorney of Northern California. The man has met many criminals from all walks of life. He has also nailed them. I have complete faith that Mueller will turn this around.
You’re right. I have faith in Mueller though, I think he is very qualified and will do the right thing. Just not sure what there is to find. I may have more faith in human intelligence than Trumpski deserves..
Trump doesn’t think of them as skeletons but as just normal business activity. He also is arrogant to the max and overconfident, which is a narcissistic trait. He also thinks that as President, he can’t be charged with a crime and that he can pardon himself and his minions. This isn’t speculation, he really has used the argument that nothing he does as President can be considered criminal.
Remember that Trump didn’t expect to win. He just wanted leverage for more tv money. So he and his associates never really thought through all the implications. They didn’t even bother with the ethics session the ethics office provides for a new Administration. They really don’t know much about government, which explains the constant chaos in the White House.
Spicer has quit. After humiliating himself time and time again by faithfully repeating the lies that The King of Lies and Fake News and Bannon fed to him before the press briefing, The King of Lies and Fake News(under the advice of Jared) decided to give a job that Spicer wanted to Scaramucci. I don’t feel sorry for Spicer. I thought the time for him to quit would have been when The King of Lies and Fake News sent him out on the first day to defend his inauguration crowd size, but no, he faithfully showed up to every briefing with an outrageous lie.
The Scaramucci guy is a bigger liar than Spicer. If you thought that Spicer was bad, this guy is 10 times worse. Some of the MSNBC hosts have had Scaramucci on their shows and all he did was shift the blame(when he couldn’t defend The King of Lies and Fake News actions, he would bring up Obama or Hillary), over talk the hosts(Chris Hayes just sat there and let him do it), and deflect(when they asked him a question about The King of Lies and Fake News that he couldn’t defend he would often respond by bringing up lies about Obama and Hillary). Some reporters were praising Scaramucci, but many are pointing out that he doesn’t have any experience in communications. So all that he brings is his ability to over talk people and blame Hillary and Obama.
Something has definitely changed in the TrumpBannonJaredPutin WH. It’s like they are running scared and Jared seems to be more scared than Trump because based on The King of Lies and Fake News interview with “failing NYT” in which he trash talks and threatens Mueller, Jared is making all of the decisions.
He sounds like Kelly Ann Conjob. Sounds perfect for this administration.
Scaramucci is one of the people responsible for getting those 3 reporters fired from CNN. CNN had written a story about how Scaramucci had met with the Russians. Scramucci was a part of The King of Lies and Fake News’ campaign. So far how many people from the campaign have met with the Russians? Jared, Manafort, Roger Stone, Sessions, Donald Jr. How long before the article that CNN retracted about Scaramucci is revealed to be true?
The story retracted probably was accurate. It just hadn’t gone through the required process for verification to CNN’s satisfaction. They never said it wasn’t true. My bet is that it will show up eventually.
The King of Lies and Fake News seems to think that he is above the law. It’s easy how he would come to this conclusion seeing how complicit the GOP have been. When is enough going to be enough for the GOP? They are too afraid of the dirt that the Russians collected on them do anything about the King of Lies and Fake News. The King of Lies and Fake News, Jared, and Bannon are ruining this country and the GOP are standing by letting it happen.
We can’t just fault the GOP, the press are also to blame. After being called fake news and the “failing NYT”, NYT does an interview with The King of Lies and Fake News where 3 of their reporters attempt to normalize him. The Russians hacked out 2016 election so that The King of Lies and Fake News would be president, so how can the press trust those polls that state the the GOP and his base are still loyal? The NPR Declaration of Independence incident revealed that the majority of his supporters are Russians.
These attacks on Mueller are coming from Jared(just like it was Jared’s idea to fire Comey) because this is what he wanted to do when Rosenstein hired Mueller. Mueller must have learned something very damaging on Mueller for him to step up the attacks against him using The King of Lies and Fake News.
This is interesting. I guess we’ll hear more about scaramucci’s links to Mother Russia soon.
http://twitter.com/sethabramson/status/888452407247511553
Scaramucci starts his first day with a lie and then implying that he is going have the Russians increase their activity on the polls. He stated that everyone in this country loves The King of Lies and Fake News and that soon the polls will start to reflect that.
Sarah is going to be the new WH Press Sec. I don’t understand why the reporters keep going to the WH press briefings because they never learn anything new. Sarah lies. Spicer lied. Now you have Scaramucci who is kicked off his first day with a lie.
Just watched the new guy speak at the press briefing. How many times can he say he loves the president? Trump must be excited to hear all this love and admiration. Jesus! What an ass kisser
@Beth
Just great!!! I can’t bring myself to watch it. I used to enjoy watching Spicy squirm and deflect because he looked so uncomfortable and awkward doing it. I’ll watch late night’s take on it. Trump is such a bloviating narcissist. And that Scarmucci guy looks like a mobster. It’s a perfect fit.
Building up the military and hiring a spokesperson who speaks repeatedly of his love, love, love for an authoritarian president. America is sounding more and more like North Korea and also Russia. Why on earth are the GOP okay with this!!? They are purposely blind and history will not be kind to Trump supporters one day!!
He didn’t always love Trump. The news has been playing a video of this guy 2 years ago during a Faux News interview saying Trump was un-American and a hack . He’s gotta keep kissing Trumps ass. Trump never forgives an insult
But Hillary’s the corrupt one, right? Unbelievable.
Stephanie Ruhle has quite the crush on Scaramucci. She was acting like she was his appointed spokesperson.
Remember how McMaster tried to defend Trump when he gave classified information to the Russians about Israel? Lavrov gave an interview and he said that Trump told him that the information wasn’t top secret.
trump can pardon anybody he wants to including himself. but he can’t be president anymore and he creates a massive scandal.
More fake news, I’m surprised Celebitchy keeps on using this stuff for their site z. I do love their great take on non-political stories tho!!!
This isn’t fake news. Don’t read the political stories if you don’t like them
If you want fake news read the 10 gossip thread on page 1. Some of us wants real news because this is our lives we are worried about. Some people like to keep their head buried in the sand. Let’s hope when they come up for air the country was not sold out to the Russians.
Faux News misses you, Beth.
Beth – why do you keep reading these articles? You’ve said before that you don’t like them. Just skip them and read only the ones you enjoy. You’re not going to shut them down or stop others from reading and talking about them.
Breaking news yet again:
I didn’t believe Trump would actually have the gall to try and get rid of Mueller but now I see he is on that path. First, he must get rid of Sessions and he tried to get him to resign with his latest interview in the New York Times. That didn’t work, however, so now it is obvious to me that Russia is trying to help Trump by saying Sessions did, indeed, talk campaign issues during a meeting. Hope people see through this latest Trump scheme to get rid of Sessions and calling him a liar. Trump is hand and glove with Russia. Sadly, Fox and the GOP are enabling Trump which is very bad for democracy in America.
It could be a set up to get rid of Sessions. I am ok with that. Trump seems to be circling the wagons big time. By shoving out Sessions, he alienates his rock solid Alabama voter base–if Sessions goes, they will weaken. Anything to get his poll numbers lower, I am all for.
You underestimate the stupidity of Alabama voters.
A problem is that the former Russian ambassador has a history of accurately reporting the details of such meetings. It might be too convoluted to assume that back then the Russians were scheming to falsely discredit Sessions for some odd reason. Not sure what they really would get out of that. Trump doesn’t need any help creating chaos.
Oh my, I just saw the breaking news. Lawd, they’re coming for KKKeebler aren’t they.
Just saw a headline where spicer says Melissa McCarthy’s impression went over the line and not funny. These people are so thin skinned, and whiney. Look at all the jokes and impressions of HRC and not once did she complain.
He just promoted one of his own to run Ethics, temporarily so no confirmation hearings will happen. The scheduled on-record, under oath questioning of son-in-law and son will now not take place.
Jared and Ivanka are leaking information about Sessions to WaPo just like they did to Flynn. The King of Lies and Fake News was on twitter trashing WaPo and who leaked the story to WaPo about Sessions, yet he is in close contact with WaPo via Robert/Bob Costa. The King of Fake News claims that it was a intelligence leak. Don’t Jared and Ivanka have top security clearance? This is why Jared’s security clearance needs to be removed, he is leaking intelligence information about WH staff to benefit himself. Jared really wants Mueller gone.
Every time The King of Lies and Fake News does this, the press need to call out his relationship with Robert Costa. When the MSNBC hosts have Robert Costa on their shows what’s the common thing they are always saying? “You know the president well” because The King of Lies and Fake News is always giving Robert Costa from WaPo exclusive interviews, like when he called up Robert Costa to tell him that he, not Paul Ryan, decided to postpone the vote on TrumpRyancare.
The King of Lies and Fake News is still spreading fake news and lies. According to the The King of Lies and Fake News, Obamacare is dead; the Democrats are obstructionists despite the fact that the GOP purposely excluded them from process; he has the complete power to pardon; Spicer was abused by the press(how dare the press call Spicer out his ridiculous lies and how low he would sink to please Trump); and usual the news is fake.
The King of Lies and Fake News wasn’t content to just spread fake news and lies, he also had a rant about Hillary Clinton. The King of Lies and Fake News also verbally attacked NYT and after they did that piece trying to normalize him. He is blaming the NYT for “ruining” their plan to kill a terrorist.
Some shows played the rest of Scaramucci’s press release and it very disturbing. Remember the time that The King of Lies and Fake News made his cabinet go around the table and say something nice about him, well The King of Lies and Fake News did the same thing to Scaramucci. How don’t understand why the reporters continue to go the WH briefings because after seeing how much Scaramucci praised The King of Lies and Fake News yesterday, it’s clear that the WH briefings are solely for The King of Lies and Fake News.
. How don’t understand why the reporters continue to go the WH briefings because after seeing how much Scaramucci praised The King of Lies and Fake News yesterday, it’s clear that the WH briefings are solely for The King of Lies and Fake News.
I don’t understand either. I wish there was more reporters/journalists that would really do their job.
Why is Robert Costas that trump goes to?
The GOP are such a disgrace. Senator Grassley has “postponed” Donald Jr and Manafort’s testimony (they are going to let them submit documents)so that he could launch an investigation into the dossier. The King of Lies and Fake News accused Comey of trying to use the dossier to blackmail him in the NYT interview and the next thing we see, Grassley is trying to start an investigation into the origin and authenticity of the dossier. The GOP have one job to do and they just keep letting us down. The press should be asking what do the Russians have on the GOP because this is the one and only reason they keep looking the other way while The King of Lies and Fake News ruins this country. It’s not 85% of “GOP” base supports The King of Lies and Fake News. It’s because just like they The King of Lies and Fake News they are afraid of the dirt that the Russians have on them.
They are also going to let Jared testify in closed sessions, without the press. Jared’s testimony should be public.
America, I have to say this, you’ve got a stupid constitution. To put so much power in the hands of one person, to make that person virtually above the law, to give them the power to nuke the entire planet earth and all its lifeforms into oblivion, sorry, but your constitution is crazy and needs to be fixed. Maybe it was good for its time, but it was written before nuclear weapons, before the drug epidemic, before corporate psychopaths ruled the world – it needs a freshen up. It also needs to be updated to better reflect gender, racial and socioeconomic equality while you’re at it… before your current psychopath-in-chief is able to do too much damage to voting rights.
Best wishes,
Roz from Oz.