Thought that "impeach the mother****er" woman was interesting today. She called Mark Meadows a racist and got away with it...
So your opinion of the president is.....? It would seem that one is in a pickle if they make such a statement and still support the president, I mean the president essentially made the exact same lies, he just hasn't admitted to lying like Cohen, nor done so under oath. You need a rundown?
My opinion of Trump hasn't changed over this dog and pony show. Cohen went beyond just telling simple falsehoods to putting forth outlandish claims as "truth". Without corroborating evidence (witnesses), he's free to claim that Trump had him "threaten" over 500 people? So bring forth those people. I mean they're gonna need more chairs, and with 500 "witnesses" it's going to take awhile. Oh, and the doozy about saying that if Trump wins in 2020 "there will not be a peaceful transition of power." I'm not sure if that should be taken as a threat, or an indictment of the left and how they're likely to react if Trump wins again. There is certainly precedent for the latter after the way they reacted after the 2016 election. But that's rising to the level of those on the right that said Obama would never give up the presidency when his second term was over.
Cohen should testify under oath, with corroborating evidence if he is to be taken seriously.
Havn't had time to watch this latest circus. Is Cohen really not under oath?
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Apparently House ethics rules only apply to Republicans. Bat **** crazy democrats are free to say whatever they want as long as it's not against a Democrat.
Cohen is under oath for this testimony... or is at least supposed to be.
As a lawyer, when he answers the "have you threatened people" question, there's some nuance to it. Sending a letter threatening legal action when there isn't really a basis for it is still a threat. So, those letters Cohen wrote to Trump's schools threatening litigation if they released his grades would count as a "threat" to him. Of course, they aren't allowed to release his grades anyway, so it was a pre-emptive dick move to send it as a threat.
And yeah, yeah, yeah, Trump has said some offensive things in private. He's said offensive things in public.
I think Cohen was most believable when he was not interrupting himself with his own opinion. The factual things. Trump did this; Trump did that. It is plain to see his "Hell hath no fury to that of a [fixer] scorned" bit but put it aside. We get it. You feel betrayed. No honor among thieves and all that.
Here's the ultimate problem: it does look like the payments to the slam pieces would be considered campaign finance violations for any other candidate. Not a technical violation, a real we'd-better-not-get-caught violation. That is a potentially impeachable offense. Which would suck.
The Russian connection, though, is basically limited to Manafort. Yeah, Trump's people should've known better than to hire Manafort, but that's collusion by proxy.
The wikileaks thing is odd, and Stone's an idiot, but indirect collusion with a private leakification group probably doesn't get all the way to Trump.
Now, today may bring something different, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of new substance coming from Cohen.
This is what seems like a potential reality with at least as much evidence as the reality leftists want to believe. Cohen said Trump never believe he'd win, and was just exploiting it (my words). Trump continued to work on the Russian Trump Tower deal during the election because after the election he thought he'd be working on that project, not becoming the POTUS. That would explain Trump's Russia-friendly attitude as much as election collusion would. I think his own popularity really surprised him and he really enjoyed the ego pump the rallies provided. And you know, then you actually WIN the election, and holy ****! Then you think, oh well, to hell with Trump Tower Moscow. You can always try to put that deal together again after you're done pumping your ego doing the POTUS gig.
Uhhhhh, I'm not sure. Matt Gaetz threatened Cohen before the hearing. And it does not appear House Ethics has taken action on that either.
The stuff about Trump tower and some quid pro quo could be damaging, except I don't see any credible dots connecting quid to anyone or the pro quo to anyone. It seems more like an alternate reality concocted rather than being the real thing. About all that part of the testimony does is confirm in the minds of delusional people that there must be something there.
This is what seems like a potential reality with at least as much evidence as the reality leftists want to believe. Cohen said Trump never believe he'd win, and was just exploiting it (my words). Trump continued to work on the Russian Trump Tower deal during the election because after the election he thought he'd be working on that project, not becoming the POTUS. That would explain Trump's Russia-friendly attitude as much as election collusion would. I think his own popularity really surprised him and he really enjoyed the ego pump the rallies provided. And you know, then you actually WIN the election, and holy ****! Then you think, oh well, to hell with Trump Tower Moscow. You can always try to put that deal together again after you're done pumping your ego doing the POTUS gig.
Yeah, my opinion is a variation of that. The Russian oligarchs were courting favor with a wealthy, powerful American who happened to be running for POTUS. Being on his good side had no downside.
Then the deal just fell through. Probably neither side really had the appetite for it. As you say, Trump may have realized he could win during that same timeframe, so the real estate deal would be a distraction. So he lost interest.
From the Russian side, it was probably a longshot to begin with. But it provided a pretext to do their own perception-is-reality influencing in Russia. An oligarch courting Trump would probably win favor from Putin and jealousy from the other lapdogs.
Trump lied about the whole thing in the campaign, but the only people who believe Trump are the true believers.
All that said, part of the goal is to make his path to 2020 more difficult. I still think he'll bow out before then.
Cohen participates in a hearing designed to function as a show trial for Trump in which he is tasked to repeat unsubstantiated rumors and self-serving versions of the facts
Gaetz reminded him that that knife cuts both ways, that there are plenty of areas of unsavoriness about him that have yet to be plumbed. He proffered no quid pro quo. By the standards of truth and conduct underpinning this whole farce Gaetz is on solid ground
Overall, a cogent position. One quibble, however, with Trump being as surprised as anyone when he won. I don't think the Russians reaction to the internal polling data Manafort gave them and their subsequent actions actually support the idea that no one thought he could win. I can see them wishing to damage Hitlery to the extent possible by stoking our internal divisions, but to me it just doesn't track like their usual sort of end game if they thought she would win anyway. I can see that they might want to weaken the US in a diffuse, general way but Putin seems more goal oriented than that and I think he would want a more definite and immediate payoff. My estimation is that if he expected her to win, at some point he would have sought some sort of realpolitik rapprochement
I had to google the Gaetz thing.
That was a dick move.