In the course of the impeachment hearings, many Democratic members repeatedly accused President Donald Trump of intimidating witnesses with tweets. Indeed, many of us have criticized Trump for his attacks on Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch. Yet, not a single Democratic member objected to the call of Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) for a boycott of the hotels owned by Gordon Sondland to pressure him in testifying before Congress. The tweet by Blumenauer was wildly inappropriate, particularly in a process with pressure on witnesses is a central theme. Yet, when asked, members like Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) simply dismissed the criticism by saying that Trump does worse things. It was a signature moment in our age of rage. There is no self-evaluation or self-awareness in engaging in the very acts that you are objecting to by the other side. The reason is that you are right so any means is viewed as righteous.
In October, Blumenauer called for a boycott of Provenance Hotels, the chain that was once headed by Sondland as CEO. Blumenauer taunted in a tweet “Gordon Sondland, welcome to the resistance.” Blumenauer later dropped the call for retaliating against the hotels, a boycott that obviously impacts many employees in Oregon who became pawns in an effort to force Sondland to testify.
U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) called out Blumenauer for a boycott directed at a potential witness. The boycott could be read as saying that, if you do not testify and support the impeachment, you will be punished for your position.
It should have been easy for Chairman Adam Schiff and others to simply say that they strongly oppose such boycotts directed at witnesses as a form of intimidation. Instead, there was only a conspicuous silence.
Sounds like Blumenauer is tampering with a sworn witness.
Bill and Hillary Clinton are laughing in devilish delight over this fiasco, which they initiated. They, those two, are responsible for generating this entire debacle. They pulled the strings behind the scenes to set in motion 3 plus years of insanity. They are tickled pink as America chases its tail while the Chinese take the lead in AI development. As a result, they, the Chinese, are, right now, overcoming us as the greatest military power on earth.
they are not overcoming us as the greatest military power. big army which lacks combat experience for starters. PLA hasnt been in a shooting war since 1980 when the Viets gave them a bloody nose on the border
however they are advancing fast and their navy is growing and as aggressive in so china sea as ever
and certainly they are going hard implementing information into all battle-spaces and plans
and developing more AI and going for the brass ring of who gets to artificial general intelligence first
their foreign influence operations are a thousand times more sophisticated than Russia’s but the stupid US press has everybody looking at that instead
At least in WA, criminal intimidation requires that the victim view the threat to be credible, including that the belief the actor is capable of exacting that threat.
You have to wonder how formidable a man is who wears a pink bicycle pin on his jacket. A good chinook wind would probably wreck him.
Trump’s critical Tweets of Yovanovitch were petty, and distracting. They are also entirely usual for President Trump. Nothing out of the ordinary. He should focus on broadcasting how the allegations have crumbled into falsities, yet again.
Witness intimidation is an attempt to get a witness not to testify out of fear of reprisal.
Trump was just telling Yovanovitch that she did a bad job. This was during her testimony. As she didn’t have a phone, no one would think this was designed to stop her from testifying, for fear of getting a “you suck” email. Rather, the only way she found out was when Schiff stopped her testimony to read it to her.
That is not witness intimidation. That’s criticizing a witness, and it goes on outside every courthouse in America. Find me a courthouse where one side isn’t denigrating the witnesses on the other.
On the other hand, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) Tweeted a threat to boycott Sondland’s hotels in a direct effort to impact his testimony. That is witness intimidation.
The fact that Democrats stay silent speaks volumes on the fact that this has nothing to do with justice.
“In October, Blumenauer called for a boycott of Provenance Hotels, the chain that was once headed by Sondland as CEO.”
So he called for a boycott of businesses that used to be headed by Sondland? Used to be.
How can you intimidate someone through boycotting a business they aren’t even associated with anymore?
Sounds to me like it was just going to tick off current employees and the current leadership, not to mention anyone who is sick of partisanship and vindictiveness.
Prairie, Sondland stepped down from his executive position when appointed Ambassador but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have ownership in the company. I assume he still has ownership and that at the very least Blumenauer thought that as well.
You may not be interested in the gleichschaltung, but the gleichschaltung is interested in you.
DSS – are you using gleichschaltung in the legal or scientific definition? Your sentence makes sense both ways.
He was employed by Portland State Univ as Assistant to the President right after graduating from college (1970-77) while a member of the Oregon State House of Representatives (1973-78).
There is a phrase for that in Pig Latin:
Idquay Opray Uoquay
🐷
BLUMENAUER, Earl, a Representative from Oregon; born in Portland, Multnomah County, Oreg., August 16, 1948; graduated from Centennial High School, Portland, Oreg., 1966; B.A., Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oreg., 1970; J.D., Lewis and Clark Law School, Portland, Oreg., 1976; assistant to the president of Portland State University, Portland, Oreg., 1970-1977; member of the Oregon state house of representatives, 1973-1978; member of the board of directors, Portland Community College, 1975-1981; Multnomah County, Oreg., commissioner, 1978-1985; Portland, Oreg., city commissioner, 1986-1996; served on the Governor’s commission on higher education, 1990-1991; elected as a Democrat, by special election, to the One Hundred Fourth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of United States Representative Ronald Lee Wyden, and reelected to the twelve succeeding Congresses (May 21, 1996-present).
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=b000574
The bowtie, the bicycle lapel pin and Sondland blowing quid pro quo out of the water has pushed our legislative snowflake into apoplectic shock.
Exactly. Pink bicycle…liberals should chastise him for not making it a girl’s bike.
It will be very interesting to see how the resistance will respond to the evidence expected to be exposed in the IG and Durham reports.
the rather large difference, was that Trump’s tweet of Ambassador Voyanovitch was during her testimony which she never would’ve learned about until after her testimony BUT Schiff decided to read it during her testimony…
while Blumenauer was done BEFORE he testified and was clearly an attempt to intimidate…
could explain all the waffling Sondland did today…
Witness intimidation!!!!
How nice to see Turley validating my comment about Blumenauer in the earlier post involving Sondland.
these democrats are really mentally unstable