Below is my column in the Hill on second Trump trial and how core values quickly became the extraneous to the purpose of this constitutional process. The final chaos triggered by Rep. Jaime Raskin (D., Md) only highlighted the procedural and legal irregularities in a trial that seem increasingly detached from values like due process.
Here is the column:
In the 1946 movie “Gilda,” Rita Hayworth delivered perhaps the ultimate film noir line. Looking at her former lover, she declared, “I hate you so much that I would destroy myself to take you down with me.” Hayworth made self-destruction sound positively alluring. That line came to mind as I watched House impeachment managers and Democratic senators systematically discard basic values that once defined fair trials — and American values — under the Constitution.
When Donald Trump’s defense counsel objected that he was not afforded due process in the House, the managers shrugged and said due process was not required. When the defense objected that Trump’s Jan. 6 speech was protected under the First Amendment, the House scoffed that free speech is not only inapplicable but “frivolous” in an impeachment. Nothing, it seems, is so sacred that it cannot be discarded in pursuit of Trump. Over and over, it was made clear that his trial is about the verdict, not about our constitutional values.
Even with acquittal all but ensured, there was no room for constitutional niceties like free speech or due process. There was only one issue — the same one that has driven our media and politics for four years: Trump. Through that time, some of us have objected that extreme legal interpretations and biased coverage destroy our legal and journalistic values. It was not done out of love for Trump: I voted against him in two elections and have regularly denounced his actions and rhetoric, including his Jan. 6 speech. However, I cherish our values more than I dislike him.
That is why the second Trump impeachment trial played out with a film noir flourish, featuring the same “lost innocence,” “hard-edged cynicism” and “desperate desire” of that movie genre — most obviously when House managers dismissed any due process in an impeachment proceeding. Indisputably, the House could have held at least a couple days of hearings and still impeached Trump before he left office. It knew the Senate would not hold a trial before the end of his term, so it had until Jan. 20 to impeach him. It did so on Jan. 13.
A hearing would have given Trump a formal opportunity to respond to the allegation against him; no one has ever been impeached without such an opportunity. It would have allowed witnesses to be called (including many who already were speaking publicly), to create even a minimal record for the trial. Yet the House refused, and then declined for more than four weeks to call a dozen witnesses with direct evidence to create a record even after its snap impeachment.
So the House could have afforded basic due process but chose not to do so simply because it does not have to. When confronted about this in the Senate, one House manager scoffed at the notion that Trump should be afforded more due process. Representative Ted Lieu said, “Trump is receiving any and all process that he is due.” A chilling answer, since Trump received none in the House. There was a time when denying due process would have been shocking. Even if you believe that due process is not required in an impeachment, it is expected. We do not afford due process to people simply because we have to.
It is like decency, civility and other values. They are not observed because they are mandatory but because they are right. It is a value that defines us and our actions. Moreover, this is a process dedicated to upholding the Constitution. To deny a basic constitutional value in its defense is akin to burning down a house in the name of fire safety. Yet, the House’s position is that a president can be impeached and tried without any record of a hearing, an investigation or witnesses.
Then came the matter of free speech. Trump’s defense argued that it is inherently wrong to impeach a president for speech that is protected under the First Amendment. The House managers cited a letter from law professors declaring the argument “frivolous” even though some of those professors believe Trump’s speech may indeed be protected under cases like Brandenburg versus Ohio.
Understanding how such language would be considered protected by the courts is relevant in whether it should be treated as a constitutional violation for the purpose of impeachment. Just as courts balance the value of criminal prosecution against the impact on free speech, the Senate can strike that same balance in an impeachment trial. Even if you believe the First Amendment does not apply in a case of incitement, you still must decide if this represented incitement or an exercise of free speech. Yet in a letter that spun with circular logic, the professors declared that “the First Amendment does not apply” to impeachment proceedings. At least not in a trial of Trump.
House managers were asked why they did not present a case with specific elements of incitement set forth by the Supreme Court. Lead manager Representative Jamie Raskin said blissfully this case and Trump are a one-time instance of “presidential incitement” with its own ill-defined elements. In other words, it doesn’t have to meet the definition of incitement. Under such logic, the House could have impeached Trump for Endangered Species Act violations and said it need not involve any endangered species.
This impeachment trial captures our age of rage. For four years, people claimed total impunity in discarding legal or journalistic standards. They claimed that attacks on free speech, due process, or media objectivity are noble in pursuit of Trump. You can be lionized for tossing aside such values in order to get him. A few years ago, a trial would have been viewed as wrong without direct evidence, due process, or clear standards. Yet this is a trial of Trump, and many have allowed Trump to define them more than their values. Like “Gilda,” they are willing to destroy their values to destroy him.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law for George Washington University and served as the last lead counsel during a Senate impeachment trial. He was called by House Republicans as a witness with the impeachment hearings of Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, and has also consulted Senate Republicans on the legal precedents of impeachment in advance of the current trial. You can find him on Twitter @JonathanTurley.
This is but one instance of the abuse of power, new evidence on the FBI along with democrats clearly and knowingly lied to the FISA court about the Steele Dossier. Illegal warrants, the Mueller investigation based on falsehoods and constitutional violations.
Trump may be the most unsympathetic victim but he, Flynn, Page and others were all victims of pure abuse of power. Will Durham’s report see the light of day or will it be classified into oblivion. I’ll be shocked if it’s not the latter and We The People are not outraged because many don’t like Trump. It will continue because We the People have situational ethics.
The fact that we are seeing these things – means that the most egregious abuse of power in US history will go unpunished.
One of my favorite posts so far although it stops short of stating the obvious which is that all this nose-thumbing at the Constitution is coming from the left. 20 years ago, everybody knew that your rights did not depend on whether or not people liked you. I remember my high school sociology teacher, a fervent liberal, trying unsuccessfully to convince us, a bunch of white farm kids, that the KKK had the right to assembly and police protection. Let me say that again. We, a group that might normally be assumed to be soft on the KKK (we weren’t), did not believe individually or as a group that the KKK should have any rights at all and it took our very liberal teacher to try and explain to us why they did. This was mid-eighties. I still wasn’t convinced, personally, and it wasn’t until maybe 10 or 15 years later that I realized that when you have someone sitting in a room deciding who has rights and who doesn’t, then nobody is safe. The real tragedy is not what they did to Trump. It is what they did to the law. We are already seeing a terrifying erosion of our constitutional rights and if you follow the trail of gluten-free bread crumbs, it all comes back to Trump. This is not new. Germany was a nice, normal place that was just recovering from WWI. Germany wasn’t some vortex of evil. They just had one problem – a group of people so loathsome (according to the mainstream media of the time) that they didn’t deserve to be part of wonderful Germany. We all know how that went. Now, Trump and his voters have become that “loathsome” group with no rights. The problem is, we’re the majority. You can’t manipulate reality with a voting machine. How’s it going to go? I don’t know. But we are on a very slippery slope that leads right off the cliff.
I would suggest something else.
Lets assume that the vote was lawful and fraud free.
But that Trump voters are angry enough to take up arms.
Who is going to stop them – a bunch of couch potatoes who could not be bothered to drive to a polling place ?
The American revolution took place as a result of about 17% of the country that was ADAMANT about independence.
If – BIG IF, the election was fraud free. Biden voters “phoned it in”. that is not a recipe for long term success.
I would like Prof. Turley to explain how, if he reveres the values that Democrats have deliberately trashed in their obsession with finding some way, any way, any excuse to remove an elected President for four years, he could justify voting for the Democratic ticket in 2020 (or did he just not vote?).
He stated in his article that he voted against Trump twice.
Yeah, and I voted for Wendell Wilkie.
Wilke ran in 1940 – that was 80 years ago. You had to be 21 at the time to vote – so you are 101 now ?
Does anybody think it’s odd that a congressman with Chinese spy issues would be on both the committee that oversees the FBI (Judiciary committee) and the entire intelligence community (Intelligence committee)?
https://swalwell.house.gov/about/committees-and-caucuses
He doesn’t have “spy issues.” He cooperated with the FBI.
Of course he has “spy issues” – he was sleeping with a chinese spy.
He was? He didn’t say that, the FBI didn’t say that, and you haven’t presented any evidence of that. You and others are assuming it.
Moreover, even if he had unwittingly done so, it would have been past tense. Your claim is present tense.
So your “of course” is simply another one of your baseless assumptions.
DOJ/FBI are not supposed to discuss anything about investigations – unless they lead to prosecutions.
Continuing the Shakespearian themes – From Julius Ceasar.
“But If Swallwell Says he did not sleep with Fang – then he must not have slept with her – for Swallwell is an honorable man. “
Thanks for confirming that your “of course” is simply another one of your baseless assumptions.
Do you mean like your assumption that Trump raped Carroll ?
Axios Reported that Fang had a very close relationship to Swallwell over several years.
That prior to that she had a similar relationship with several mayors, and that she slept with them.
Regardless, we know Fang worked for Swallwell and that she raised money for his campaigns.
We also know that the FBI investigated her for spying, That they contacted Swallwell and warned him about Fang
and that she subsequently fled the country for China.
More than one media outlet has claimed that sources in the FBI confirmed the relationship was sexual.
The FBI properly refuses to cormment.
Swallwell also refuses to comment. Neither confirming nor denying a sexual relationship.
Frankly the “sex” part of the story is little more than a Hook. As compared to the Sex part of t.he Carroll/Trump story which is the entire story
Even if Swallwell “did not have sex with that woman” he had a close relationship with a chinese spy while on the House intelligence committee. That is an established fact. The sex is just icing.
“Do you mean like your assumption that Trump raped Carroll ?”
I didn’t assume that. I said that she alleged it, and the court case about it is active. YOU are the one who falsely inferred that I’d assumed it. You draw a lot of false inferences. You should work more consciously to avoid them.
“More than one media outlet has claimed that sources in the FBI confirmed the relationship was sexual.”
You haven’t cited any. Based on my past experience with you, you will now attempt to shift your own burden of proof onto me, and I will refuse and point out that it’s YOUR claim, so YOU are the one who has the burden of proving it.
“Even if Swallwell “did not have sex with that woman” …”
If he didn’t, then you lied when you insisted “he was sleeping with a chinese spy.”
Thanks for AGAIN confirming that your “of course” is simply another one of your baseless assumptions.
“he had a close relationship with a chinese spy while on the House intelligence committee.”
Yes, and as soon as the FBI informed him, he cooperated with their investigation. You claimed “Of course he has “spy issues”” as if it’s a present tense concern. Now you admit that you’re talking about something that’s past tense.
Without assuming it – you do not have a basis for a DNA test.
The standard is not – the courts can DNA test anyone who has been accused of doing something 20+ years ago.
“Without assuming it – you do not have a basis for a DNA test.”
I didn’t request a DNA test, so the fact that I haven’t assumed that Trump raped Carroll is entirely irrelevant to HER having requested a DNA test based on the entire set of evidence that SHE submitted. SHE is alleging it.
Do you often confuse someone commenting here and the person in the news that’s being discussed? You should work to avoid that.
“The term “spy issues” has no tense.”
Correct, but your statement was “he HAS ‘spy issues,’” and that DOES have a tense. It is present tense.
“Having cavorted with a spy in the past is a PRESENT issue with respect to whether he can be trusted with classified intelligence.”
Once again, you go back to assuming that they “cavorted.”
The relevant issue is whether he revealed any classified info. You haven’t presented any evidence that he did.
You say that you have not assumed that Trump raped Carroll – then why are you still arguing.
” your statement was “he HAS ‘spy issues,’” and that DOES have a tense. It is present tense.”
Again Having cavorted with a spy in the past is a PRESENT issue with respect to whether he can be trusted with classified intelligence.”
“Once again, you go back to assuming that they “cavorted.””
Look up Cavort.
“The relevant issue is whether he revealed any classified info. ”
Nope. You might be able to find an SFQ-86 on line somewhere – that is the questionaire one must fill out to get a security clearance.
There are myriads of reasons that you can be denied a security clearance. Bad choices in life, debt, criminal record, alcoholism, drug abuse, contacts with foreign nationals.
I have a cousin that has a security clearance today. Every year she must note one here clearance update whether she has seen my daughter and son. Why ? Because my daughter was born in China, and my son in Korea. Both are US citizens Both came tot he US as infants. But my cousin will be denied clearance if she fails to list all contacts with them when she updates her clearance each year.
There is no right to a security clearance. There is no right to access to classified data. There are myriads of reasons you can be denied a clearance – Bad judgement alone is sufficient
“You say that you have not assumed that Trump raped Carroll – then why are you still arguing.”
I don’t have to assume that Trump raped Carroll in order for her suit to interest me.
You also say that you have not assumed that Trump raped Carroll. So answer your own question: why are YOU still arguing?
“There are myriads of reasons that you can be denied a security clearance.”
According to the CIA, “All Members of Congress have access to intelligence by virtue of their elected positions. They do not receive security clearances per se” (https://web.archive.org/web/20201209010405/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sharing-secrets-with-lawmakers-congress-as-a-user-of-intelligence/3.htm) so it’s not really central whether he can receive one.
If Trump did not rape Carroll the suit ends. PERIOD.
The burden of proof in a defamation claim is on the person who claims they were defamed.
I am arguing because Carroll has not met that burden.
If you make an accusation and the other party denies it, YOU are obligated to prove your accusation.
I have made an assessment of Carroll based on here public statements.
I am persuadable should she strengthen here claim.
But I have not seen anything to change my perception.
Nor anything that would justify violating the rights of another to seek further evidence.
Lets invert some of this. Lets assume we agree to allow Trump to be DNA tested.
What should the conseqeunce be should that DNA not match ?
Are you prepared to see the case dismissed with predjudice and Carroll pay all Trump’s legal costs ?
Courts are not for fishing expeditions.
All members of congress do not have access to classified information BY LAW.
Absolutely it is central to this debate.
Members of congress receive access to material that is not public, but not classified.
Members of various committees and their staff, apply for clearances and are vetted by the FBI.
They are granted clearances based on their need to know based on their committee and passing the FBI clearance.
All of this and more was dealt with over the Clinton Email mess.
Handling of classified information is rigorously defined by law in the US.
There is only one person in the US government that can access whatever they want without a clearance and who can share information regardless of clearance – that is the current president.
Swallwell is on the Intelligence committee – he must either meet the requirements for access to the marterial that committee receives or be removed from the committee.
Swallwell has “spy issues”.
The term “spy issues” has no tense.
Having cavorted with a spy in the past is a PRESENT issue with respect to whether he can be trusted with classified intelligence.
I held a TS/SCI clearance at one time. If I had an ongoing relationship with a foreign spy – sexual or not, I would have lost that clearance.
Probably permanently .
I “admit” that TODAY I would not trust someone who has cavorted with foriegn spies in the past.
Nor would I be trusted by others TODAY if i had cavorted with a foriegn spy in the past.
Is English your primary language ?
You are having lots of problems with it.
In this case you are confused about Tense.
President Donald J. Trump
We love you President Trump!
I wonder if JT reads the comments; if he does, how does he live with himself for supporting such irrationality?
Is it irrational to conduct an unconstitutional trial of a former president, presided over by an unconstitutional entity other than the required Chief Justice, after a frivolous, snap impeachment?
Is it irrational to import illegal aliens as democrat voters, to request of your communist ally, China, that it release a biological weapon just months before the most important presidential election in the world, vote by mail rather than in person, vote illegally on days other than the prescribed Tuesday, censor and deny freedom of speech to a President seeking reflection, violate clear state election laws, ballot harvest, tamper with vote counts, conduct solemn election counts with inane and eminently vulnerable computers and software, and is it irrational for democrats to steal an election?
Are you irrational; out of your ——- mind?
France Might Yet Lead the West Against Wokeism
By CONRAD BLACK, Special to the Sun | February 15, 2021
President Macron of France has now warned his countrymen of the menace of American academic and media “woke” thinking and of identity politics as a formula for social oppression and disunity.
https://www.nysun.com/foreign/france-may-yet-lead-the-west-against-woke-ism/91422/
This is a man who should be prosecuted.
——-
Smoking gun: Comey told Clapper FBI unable to ‘sufficiently corroborate’ Steele — then signed FISA
In January 2017 email to intel chief coughed up under court order, the former FBI director contradicted sworn avowal to FISA court that Steele dossier was verified.
https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/comey-told-intel-chief-steele-dossier-was-not?utm_source=daily-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter#article
Article and copies of documents providing proof at above site.
Wasn’t it Anonymous the Stupid that claimed John Solomon didn’t have proof?
BIDEN FAILING AS GLOBAL LEADER – ALLIES SHUNNING BIDEN
It hasn’t been the most promising start. Less than a month into Joe Biden’s presidency, and his administration is already engaged in spats with China, Russia and Iran. It is also discovering that U.S. allies are not quite as happy with Mr. Biden’s Feb. 4 announcement that “America is back” as many Democrats might have hoped.
In Asia the administration’s Myanmar policy—imposing sanctions that signal displeasure without materially affecting the army’s ability to rule—has attracted little enthusiasm. On Feb 15, India’s foreign minister hailed Indo-Japanese cooperation on regional infrastructure projects that link Myanmar with its neighbors, a not-so-subtle signal that India intends to go on cooperating with Myanmar no matter what Washington wants. Simultaneously, the large portion of the Indian press that supports the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is aflame with resentment that Vice President Kamala Harris’s niece, Meena Harris, seems to be siding with protesters against BJP policies.
European leaders are also dismissive of American moralism. French President Emmanuel Macron denounced the importation of U.S.-academic and cultural wokeness as a threat to the French way of life, while pragmatists on the Continent are pushing to strengthen economic relations with Russia and China—virtually ignoring the Biden administration’s efforts to raise the pressure on human-rights abusers in Moscow and Beijing. With the U.S. trade representative’s recent announcement that Trump-era retaliatory tariffs on European wine, cheese and food imports aren’t going away soon, this has been one of the shortest and coldest diplomatic honeymoons on record.
In the Middle East, Iran is showing no eagerness to ease the administration’s path back into the 2015 nuclear deal. And both Israel and the conservative Arab states resent the American shift in that direction. As for restless NATO ally Turkey, Mr. Biden promised during the campaign to help President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s opposition. The new administration has so far criticized a crackdown on pro-LGBTQ student demonstrators and called on Ankara to release the dissident Osman Kavala.
Closer to home, the unceremonious cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline miffed Canadians. The Biden administration appears headed for a fight with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro over deforestation in the Amazon basin—a sensitive issue for the Brazilian right.
Washington Post
That is a strangely good article from the normally useless Wa Po.
Increasingly obvious that the American people did not elect this demented old man.
The election was stolen.
You starry-eyed residents of Trumpville live in a dream world. Trump lost the popular vote in 2016. In 4 years’ time, Trump never reached 50% approval rating, which is a record. He cost Republicans seats in the House in 2018. He cost Republicans the Senate in 2020. Every single poll predicted he would lose. He destroyed the successful economy inherited from Obama. He constantly lied about the pandemic, intentionally, as the Woodward tapes proved and his lack of leadership cost lives. The trade war with China backfired badly. He praised White Supremacists, called brown people “animals, criminals, murderers and rapists”. Yet, somehow, you keep believing that he really won over the American people.
MINSTRY ROCKS
THIS IS AN ORANGE
What would cause you to change your world view ?
How well would Trump have had to have succeeded or how badly will Biden have to fail for you to rethink your values ?
As an example about 1/6 of all american Covid Deaths have occured under Biden.
You could try to claim those are lingering Trump effects, but that would require Biden to have done something different.
So far despite a year of the left bitching about Trump’s C19 policies and a year to come up with better ones, Biden has not changed anything of consequence.
He issued a federal Masking EO – which he and his staff promptly violated. Which really changes nothing – when is the last time you want into ANY public building that did not say “masks required” ? We have fought over masks for a year. The data is in – they are ineffective. But everyone is wearing them anyway. For a few moments Biden was pushing double masking. But that fizzled.
The CDC is still recomending opening schools. The data/Science has ALWAYS said open schools. Now progressive parents are fighting teachers unions to get Schools opened. Even democrat governors have essentially given up – infection rates are near as high as ever and there is no significant move to lockdown the country again.
Everyone’s hope is pinned on the vaccines. They can be little doubt Trump is responsible for clearing the way to bring them to us in record time. Kudos to those who developed them, but absent tremendous preasure to slash red tape – it still would have taken atleas
t another year to get approvals. Vaccines arrived barely in Time for Trump to have anything to do with rolling them out. But he Still managed to ramp up to 1M vaccinations/day. The Same Rate Biden is hoping to acheive through march.
There were vaccine distribution problems under Trump, there are vaccine distribution problems under Biden.
Regardless, my POINT is that we listened to YOU the LEFT Democrats and the Press all tell us Trump was killing people.
So what are you doing different ? There is no excuse for not having meaningful changes on day 1. After all PEOPLE ARE DYING!!!
So far I have seen nothing from Biden on Covid that is not inconsequential tweaks at the margins.
So why aren’t you screaming that Biden is killing people ?
You promised that things would be different under Biden.
These are the differences I see:
Covid – almost no difference at all.
Immigration – Biden is disasterous and there will be serious blowback.
Energy – Biden is a disaster that is having blowback even amoung democrats. Worse his energy policies are causing foreign policy problems.
Foreign relations – Biden appears to be getting a serious cold shoulder from world leaders.
All the world leaders that the LEFT has claimed Trump alienated are not happy with US Big Tech Censorship.
The nation that has lead the world in the fight for free speech is now being looked down on By Europe over censorship of political speech
The nation that has lead the world in election integrity has just had an election that is no better than a banana Republic.
These things undermine the credibility of the US, in foreign affairs.
Regardless, despite the ranting of the left – Trump did in credibly well in foreign relations and Biden is getting blowback from foreign leaders all over the world for trying to undo Trump policies.
In Asia Xi has decided that he will be able to walk all over Biden. we are already seeing China militarily threatening Japan over Pacific Islands. We can expect Chinese military threats to Tiawan, Vietnam, Philipines shortly. We can expect China to attempt to close down navigation through the South China Seas. And it is clear that Xi expects Biden to roll over and take it.
The only good news is that Trump left Other Asian nations better able to defend themselves than when he took office.
We have an economy that is threatening to go into recession. It might have if Trump was president, but it is more likely with Biden.
We have all listened to the left rant about the purported inexperience of the Trump staff.
Many WERE light on government experience. But they were very experienced in how things work in the real world.
These were the people you would want if you were facing a recession. Not Obama retreads who massively botched a recovery.
And not the children that Biden is bringing in who have been badly educated and do not grasp that you can not command the economy.
Like it or not – now that you control the government, you will be expected to deliver.
And when you blow it you will be held accountable.
What would cause you to change your world view ?
Just spit-balling here, but an exorcism might do the trick for her.
Why does any of this surprise you ?
Democrats in general, and Biden in particular are inept.
But what is most damning is that Europe is concerned about the decline of free speech in the US ?
There is no nation in the world where free speech is so firmly entrenched as an immutable right than in the US.
Yet the beacon of freedom is very dim.
I would also suggest that other countries in the world know what free, fair and lawful elections look like.
And we did not have one. Europe had elections in the midst of Covid too – and did not resort to mailin elections.
In fact we are increasingly finding that though much of Europe did not quite so far as Sweden, that their response to Covid was LESS draconian than the US.
It should not surprise that the US reputation – both as a beacon of liberty and as an honest broker suffers under Biden
Much of the world has seen Biden before. Democrats may not grasp how self serving and corrupt the Biden’s are – but some in the world do.
Bother to look into Biden’s conduct – and tell me why foreign leaders are supposed to trust him ?
You have never understood how important Trump’s actual earned credibility was.
You constantly ranted about this false “Liar, Liar” nonsense.
But not merely Trump voters but world leaders understood that they may not Like Trump but they could trust him.
“It should not surprise that the US reputation – both as a beacon of liberty and as an honest broker suffers under Biden
Much of the world has seen Biden before. Democrats may not grasp how self serving and corrupt the Biden’s are – but some in the world do.”
Yes. Now if only we had an honest media holding our elected officials accountable. But alas….we do not.
“may not grasp how self serving and corrupt the Biden’s are…”
1000% correct and worth repeating over and over again. Now where is our news media and our DOJ? Corrupt thru and thru, they are NOWHERE to be found…
Surprisingly WaPo pissed on Biden.
Regardless, market presures will eventually turn the media arround.
People do not watch news that is the jabbering of sycophants.
“Bother to look into Biden’s conduct – and tell me why foreign leaders are supposed to trust him ?”
Correct. And they do not trust Biden. They know better. Israel especially knows where it stands. To date, President Biden has not made a call to Netanyahu. Shameful Joe Biden, just shameful.
Biden admin is prioritizing IRAN over our ally Israel. Shameful beyond words Joe Biden. Make the call to Netanyahu, it’s only been a month into your administration! What’s the delay Joe Biden? Just shameful foreign policy on behalf of Biden so far. Grotesque.
Obama and Biden have Pissed over Is
Further Biden and the Bidenettes are angry with Israel – because reality is in the way of returning to the Iran deal.
That of course to the Biden crew MUST somehow be israels fault.
I do not know what Biden will do in FP. but Trump has handcuffed him.
Trump restructured relations in the mideast (and the world)
The Abraham accords are extremely important – they formalize something that has been obvious for several decades.
Much of the Arab nations are better off working with Israel than with Iran.
Trump’s foreign policy was incredible.
It was not the multilateral nonsense of Obama (and Bush).
It was america LEADING.
It was america looking after its own self interests.
The result was LESS endless negotiating. and more OTHER countries looking to THEIR self interests – and discovering common ground.
RIGHT NOW the Japanese are standing up to Xi – without US support. Trump has improved their ability to do so.
And the likely hood other asian countries will have their back.
The same is essentialy true in Europe. The Europeans are containing Russia.
Other mideastern nations are containing iran.
Israel is threatening to take out the Iranian Nuclear program. And is in a poistion that other arab countries would at worst turn a blind eye, and at best quietly help.
Trump did these things – Biden undoes them at his peril.
“RIGHT NOW the Japanese are standing up to Xi “
Does that mean the Japanese weren’t bought off by the Chinese like Biden and the leading Democrats?
“You have never understood how important Trump’s actual earned credibility was.”
Correct again.
“But not merely Trump voters but world leaders understood that they may not Like Trump but they could trust him.”
Correct again and worth repeating: world leaders could trust Trump when he gave them his word. Joe Biden’s word means absolutely nothing. Not to voters here at home, not to unions, not to literally anyone here or around the world. Joe Biden’s “word” is completely worthless. And it is only three weeks into his brand new administration.
DEMOCRATS OBSTRUCTING INVESTIGATION INTO ANDREW CUOMO MURDERING THOUSANDS OF COVID ELDERLY
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s cover-up of nursing home deaths from COVID-19 hid nearly 1,900 fatalities in New York City alone — with new figures sending the tally at one Queens facility skyrocketing more than 1,000 percent.
A Post analysis of the latest state Health Department data shows that 5,443 nursing home residents have been killed by the coronavirus in the Big Apple.
That statistic includes 1,885 seniors who died in hospitals and weren’t included in the official DOH count of nursing home deaths until the Cuomo administration finally began releasing their numbers, under duress, in the wake of a damning report last month from state Attorney General Letitia James.
In New York City, the new figures push the total nursing home death count up by 53 percent, according to the analysis of DOH data current as of Saturday.
That’s just shy of the 56 percent undercount that James estimated in her report.
The Post analysis also revealed that nearly all of the 162 city nursing homes that reported COVID-19 deaths inside their walls — 152 — had residents die after being sent to hospitals for treatment.
They include the Park Terrace Care Center in Corona, where only three residents were actually killed by the virus at the facility.
But another 31 residents died at hospitals, pushing the true death toll there to 34 — a staggering, 1,033 percent increase.
NYT
Cuomo killed thousands and Democrats covering for him!
CUOMO is a murderer!
Fox News: The Associated Press found that nearly 15,000 long-term care patients died of COVID-19 at nursing homes, up from the roughly 8,500 deaths previously disclosed.
Criticism intensified after Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa admitted during a private call that the administration withheld data requested by New York State legislatures because they worried it could be “used against us” by the Justice Department under then-President Donald Trump.
DeRosa later clarified that she “was explaining that when we received the DOJ inquiry, we needed to temporarily set aside the Legislature’s request to deal with the federal request first.”
“We informed the houses of this at the time,” the Cuomo aide said in a statement. “We were comprehensive and transparent in our responses to the DOJ, and then had to immediately focus our resources on the second wave and vaccine rollout.”
Revelations regarding the withheld data triggered a bipartisan outcry, with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio among the local lawmakers who have called for Cuomo to be stripped of his emergency powers. Lawmakers granted Cuomo sweeping authority to enact orders and alter laws without legislative approval at the pandemic’s onset last March.
When asked about the push to remove his emergency powers, Cuomo noted the state legislature could overrule any of his executive actions by vote, but had yet to do so since the pandemic began.
Cuomo argued a “toxic political environment” has contributed to the backlash against his administration in recent days. The governor said his team “paused” a state request for data in order to focus on fulfilling the Justice Department’s request.
The governor said his team informed staffers at the New York State Assembly and Senate that their request for data was on hold until the DOJ request was fulfilled last August.
“We gave precedence to the DOJ. We told the assembly that, we told the Senate that and that’s what we did. We were also in the midst of managing a pandemic,” Cuomo said.
New York State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, a Democrat, was among the lawmakers who pushed back on that claim.
“No, @NYGovCuomo, you did not tell the *entire* Senate or Assembly that there was a DOJ investigation, as the reason why you didn’t share the nursing home numbers,” Biaggi said in a statement. “I found out about a DOJ investigation with the rest of NY’ers in the @nypost story Thursday night.”
Democratic New York State Sen. Gustavo Rivera also pushed back on Cuomo’s claim.
Cuomo also addressed the backlash against his March 25 order calling on nursing homes to accept recovering COVID-19 patients. The governor said the memo was based on federal guidance and asserted that patients were only discharged to facilities that had agreed and had acknowledged they were equipped to accept them.
The Democrat added that of the 365 nursing homes that received a recovering COVID_19 patient from a hospital, 98% of the facilities had already reported COVID-19 exposure prior to the patient’s re-entry. Cuomo said nursing home staffers, not the returning patients, likely brought the virus into the facilities.
Another good article from a troll. What’s going on?
Maybe reality is creeping in.
I have argued – and I will continue to argue – FOR NOW, that republicans should mostly get out of the way.
Allow democrats and Biden and the left to F’up on their own which they are definitely doing.
Apparently border crossings are up to 4.000/day – that is 1/3 higher than the peak under Trump. Maybe higher than ever.
That is about 1.4M people per year – and that does not count another 1M legal immigrants
There is some reporting that the number of unaccompanied children is the highest it has been since the crises with Obama.
But children are not being “put in cages” – because the chain link has been replaced with plexiglass.
One wonders if the democratic party will survive a biden presidency.
Though I expect the WaPo writer to be sacked.
How dare they report the truth ?
Exactly, the reporter who goes against the approved ‘party’ narrative will be cancelled and disappeared. Heil!
Mostly True – but news outlets need to make money, and people do not pay to watch sycophants in a love fest.
TURLEY’S KNEE-JERK TENDENCY TO PLAY VICTIM CARD
5 people died and 146 cops were injured. Yet Professor Turley’s only concern is ‘due process’ for Trump.
Does anyone honestly think Donald Trump would have subjected himself to questioning under threat of perjury?? Such testimony would have been suicide for Trump! Especially the sections concerning the time Trump spent during the actual riots. Could Trump have admitted to watching coverage on TV while making no effort to stop the violence?
Testimony by Trump would have revealed the mindless conspiracies behind his false election claims. Trump would have been forced to admit, over and over, that 60 different courts rejected these claims. That would not have made good theatre for Trump supporters. They would have seen their leader continually flustered.
Yet here Professor Turley pretends that poor Donald Trump was maligned by this impeachment. Like Trump should have been allowed to ‘speak for himself’. Trump can only speak for himself when allowed to shout-down every questioner.
You omit one very small fact….a true fact…a reality….a point of law….and an ignorance of legal jurisprudence…..the Defendant is not obliged to testify in a Senate Impeachment Trial….or any Trial for that matter.
Get over it and move on with your life.
A good question for you….the House Managers stand accused of falsifying evidence….making false statements to the Senate during the Trial.
What liability do they have for that….can they be punished for lying to Congress?
Trump’s lawyers have also been accused of making false statements to the Senate during the trial.
None of them will be punished for an accusation of lying. It actually has to be proved that they knowingly and willfully made materially false statements,
“Trump’s lawyers have also been accused of making false statements to the Senate during the trial.”
Being accused means the accusation could have been a lie, the statement could be true, the statement could be an error, the statement might not be definable.
Swalwell lied, but Anonymous the Stupid is too Stupid to recognize that fact so he tries to hide it under a rug.
Allan the Abusive continues to respond with insults.
From now on, whenever Allan responds with insults, perhaps I will just point out his inclination to abuse. Abusers shouldn’t be indulged as if they’re trying to engage in good faith.
The accusations against the House have been proven. The WaPo story was tripple hearsay, Tweets were forged, and video’s deceptively edited.
The burden is ALWAYS higher on prosecutors – they represent government.
Dishonesty in government is far more problematic than dishonesty in defense lawyers.
5 people died
1 died of a heart attack
1 died of a stroke
1. one suffered some combination of cardiac event and accidental injury
1 one was a police officer whose cause of death is unknown because the authorities are sitting on the autopsy report. It’s a reasonable inference the reason for that is that it’s inconvenient to the prosecutor who wants to pursue a murder case.
1 was shot dead by a Capitol police officer, a propos of nothing in particular. Pretty amazing the name of the officer remains a secret.
As the democrats wrap themselves in the constitution, all 50 of them without John Roberts presiding, without due process and dismissing the first amendment vote to convict. And the founding fathers roll over in there graves.
so here’s the question of the “hour”…
what WOULD cause you to step out of the law and ignore it…trample it ..take a big shat on it?
because thousands of lawflair anarchists want to know…/s
now lets change that around.
lets talk about what the riots were REALLY about (which was NOT TRUMP!).
when a central corrupt government has FAILED AT EVERY LEVEL to represent the will of the people, who abide by the law, who have seen their votes sabotaged AND taken for granted and representatives ignore them…even MOCK them. And re-arrange priorities to select non-us citizens over them…to CREATE crisis and INFLAME violent anarchists…who claim moral and ethical authority but who instead live in special privilege in the most hostile hypocrisy….and showboat about it..boast about it…when these same corrupt central actors create a two tier system of justice…when the lawmakers demonstrate they do not actually care to follow the very laws they create…only to weaponize the power of the office ..
is THIS the line that gets crossed to refuse to comply with the law?
what ARE the options, but to ignore the law?
asking for a nation!
the answer to this question is very simple equation in the mind of poor folks or those who have had to struggle for existence in a difficult circumstance
you follow the law WHEN YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW IT
otherwise you do what you must to survive
all other debates come from those with the luxury to entertain the subject.
now sometimes other people undertake to violate the law intentionally with full acceptance of the outcomes, as a matter of civil disobedience
that question may come for us and we should contemplate the Indian salt tax rebellion of Gandhi while we still can
https://www.history.com/topics/india/salt-march#:~:text=The%20Salt%20March%2C%20which%20took,distance%20of%20some%20240%20miles.
Sal Sar
Manifest Despotism, Tyranny and Oppression
Irrefutably and absolutely unconstitutional pure Marxism as affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, rent control, social services, forced busing, minimum wage, utility subsidies, WIC, TANF, SNAP, HAMP,
HARP, TARP, Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non
Discrimination” laws, illegal immigration, student debt forgiveness, etc., is not what the Founders gave Americans.
The Founders gave Americans the one and only thing they could: Freedom.
Look around you.
Do you see any freedom; anywhere amongst all the “free stuff” showered on the parasites?
________________________________________________________________________
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government,
and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
– Declaration of Independence, 1776
Dude, the riots were done in full Trump regalia. GTF out of here with it not being about him. He lost the election and was such a small timer he couldn’t admit it and convinced some true believers that he was robbed.
You treasonous Marxists have purchased with welfare and imported 50 million illegal Mexican voters. That’s where election theft starts. LBJ bought the black vote with welfare, “I’ll have those ——s voting democrat for the next 200 years” when, by the Naturalization Act of 1802, they must have been deported as illegal aliens upon the issuance of the illegal emancipation proclamation in 1863. That’s where election theft starts. You collectivists have diluted American-American voters out of America through abortion and “feminist” indoctrination. That’s where election theft starts. We got a whole lotta “fundamental transformin'” to do; all the way back to the original words and intent of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
You can not win or lose a lawless election.
This is not about Trump.
It is not about his supporters.
It is about the left.
As Bret Weinstein – a lefty said of the Time election article. This is not an expose, this is publicly bragging about a conspiracy, and taking steps that are if not illegal so close as to be indistinguishable. And this is about grasping that if this is what the conspirators admit – what is it they did they are not admitting ? And this is about do you beleive those who are admitting all of the things in the time article would stop short of fraud.
If Weinstein is not sure – then the election was a failure. It failed to get the consent of the governed.
It is hard to take seriously your lament that Trump was a sore loser – given the open admissions of the left regarding the election.
You’ve been had John. By a pretty obvious conman. You’re a sucker. His mark.
You seem to think I pay alot of attention to what Trump or other SAY.
I focus primarily on reality.
The election was lawless – because the election laws and state constitutions, and to a lessor extent the federal constitution were not followed.
Facts, not some talking heads words.
I do not know why you are unable to see reality.
I not know if you are gullible, or have been conned or are just stupid
But I do know that you have lost any grip on reality.
One single issue alone should have you questioning whoever you trust.
That is how badly the collusion delusion turned out.
Not only was there no Trump campaign collusion with Russia – but the source of that claim was russian disinformation,
And the CIA, FBI, DOJ all knew that BEFORE they received Steel’s information.
Reality has proven worse than any Right wing conspiracy theory.
You can not ignore the law.
You can challenge it
You can obey it
You can be punished for violating it.
But the real issue is not “the law” it is lawless government.
When government is lawless – violence against government is justified.
Lets assume for the sake of argument that we determine at a later date there were hundreds of
thousands of fraudulent votes and that Trump won the election and Republicans won the house and senate.
How would you view the capital protests then ?
Is Violence justified against a government that came to power illegally ?
Next I would note – our founders did not claim that King George was a fraud.
They did not claim for the most part that he was a criminal.
They claimed that he was lawless.
In arguably the 2020 election was lawless.
Our Founders killed 73 British soldiers for lawlessly trying to take their guns.
There is a point at which political violence is justified.
We are either there or far too close.
Killer Cuomo thinks that Democrat and Republican calls for investigations into his decision to send plague infected patients into nursing homes causing thousands of deaths is extortion and even criminal.
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/cuomo-accuses-ny-lawmakers-of-extortion-over-calls-to-investigate-nursing-home-deaths/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=breaking&utm_campaign=newstrack&utm_term=22951563
Others think that recklessly infecting vulnerable patients with the current plague might be criminal, as I said on this blog about 8 months ago along with copies of the relevant New York criminal statutes that may apply.
Only Cuomo [and Fredo, his CNN brother] would claim that investigating a possible crime is itself a crime. No wonder New York [the State and the City] are going to rat [rodent and human] infested perdition.
From Legal Insurrection legal blog by another law professor.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/02/trump-lawyer-criticizes-cbs-reporter-after-she-brushes-aside-doctored-evidence/
This is an example of why the media is terrible. This ignorant talking head [or the one in her earpiece] frivolously tries to dismiss alteration of evidence in a prominent legal proceeding. This excellent and principled lawyer is having none of it. Talk to juries. Cases can turn on tiny things like this, and that is why dishonest people present them.
Both impeachment proceedings were fiascoes that made the Congress look like Third World loons.
They are already wrapped in concentration camp razor wire and surrounded by military guards. All the guards have to do when it is proven that Trump won is turn around and lock the gates.
That, of course, is what they are afraid of and why they keep screening the boys in uniform.
What a disgraceful performance Pelosi and her gang of radicals, morons and grifters has given us.
When you lie – actually lie, not this spin nonsense that the left uses when claiming Trump lies.
When you alter evidence,
When you do these things i the context of courts.
Especiailly when you do these as prosecutor
You are evil, and untrustworthy.
We saw the lives of Flynn, Papadoulis, Vand Der Zandt, Manafort, and Stone torn appart, destroyed.
Over inconsequential or even non-existant errors as targets of malicious politically motrivated prosecutions with no foundation.
While those who lied to the courts to get those prosecutions get a slap on the wrists or nothing at all, or a never better job,.
Professor Turley remarked that Democrats were willing to destroy their own values in order to get at Trump.
But how long has it been since free speech and due process been a Democrat value, specifically?
There is a growing body of evidence that the Democrat Party has a firm trend in denying free speech and due process to conservatives, and males in general. One should consider the lack of due process provided to men accused of sexual misconduct at university campuses. This is a direct result of not only the Democrat politics of said universities, but the pressure given by Democrat politicians in the age of all women must be believed (unless they are conservative.)
I have never received an answer from any Democrat I know to the following question. They either change the subject or don’t want to talk about it. Which is an answer in and of itself.
It is indisputable that Democrats used rhetoric including “I don’t know why there aren’t uprisings…perhaps there will be”, “I want to punch Trump in the face,” “for all you soldiers out there, make Trump voters pay”, “where does it say that a protest has to be peaceful”, “beware…because this will continue and it should continue” referring to the riots, and if you “see them at a restaurant or a gas station, I want you to make a crowd, get in their face, and make sure they know they aren’t welcome anywhere anymore.” The examples are myriad.
OK, so that is the widespread Democrat rhetoric on record. It is normalized. Acceptable. Mainstream. This isn’t the wild talk of a crazy person in a subway, but prominent politicians and pundits.
Democrats are also on record challenging Electoral College results, as well as saying Trump stole the election, worked for the Russians, and otherwise criticizing election integrity.
Therefore, how can one impeach President Trump who called for “peaceful protest?” How can it be sedition or an impeachable offense to criticize election integrity, the EC results, or to claim an election was stolen?
Exactly zero Democrats have answered this question.
On the contrary. They did show us. They did it. That is the only answer power offers. it does what it does and ignores claims of right when they are not required.
Sal Sar
Wasn’t it Gilda who couldn’t manage a zipper? Quite the metaphor for the Democrat party at this sad point in time.
And which party is it that shrugs off due process and free speech?
Democrats.
Which party worships a fat, narcissist chronic lying pig that kills everything he touches?
You talking about Cuomo?
Biden is not Fat – take that back!
Yet this is a trial of Trump, and many have allowed Trump to define them more…..
Michael Tracey
@mtracey
Corporate media desperately needs some kind of drawn-out “9/11-type commission” with Trump as the main character — their entire business model is in severe jeopardy with him out of the picture
Wolf Blitzer
@wolfblitzer
· 5h
The Trump trial is over but local, state & federal investigations continue. There might be a 9/11-type commission. News organizations continue to investigate. And @realBobWoodward is working on a book on Trump’s final days in office. Bottom line: we are going to learn a lot more.
Democrats / MSM to Donald Trump: I Don’t Want to Live Without You!!! Foreigner