It must be an incredible feeling to stage these political stunts, knowing that your base will buy it hook, line and sinker. We saw three shameless displays the past two days, starting with the House Republicans staging what I guess can be called a sit-in at the secure room of the impeachment inquiry taking place. They blatantly defied all the rules of protocol, afterward proudly crowing before cameras of their effort to make the inquiry public.
As CNN and other mainstream news networks pointed out, there is nothing new about these secure hearings. The Republicans did the exact same thing when putting together their case against Hillary Clinton over her role in Benghazi. But, these Radical Republicans led by the blockhead Representative of Florida, Matt Gaetz, either weren't around then or simply didn't care. CNN tried to corner one of them, Mo Brooks of Alabama, only to get a senseless diatribe on due process.
Trump badly wants to know what is going on in these closed-door sessions, and Republicans are hoping to break the secrecy. It's not like Republicans weren't invited. At least twelve of these buffoons had permission to attend the closed-door hearings. It's just that they were not entitled to divulge information afterward. The aim is to allow government officials with knowledge of the Ukrainian affair to speak in privacy without the glare of media cameras and recorders. But, don't tell that to Matt Gaetz, he was hoping to break open the doors of the inquiry for all to hear, namely the President.
Of course, this has been eaten up by the rabid conservative airwaves and passed along to the rabid conservative base, who see this inquiry as a "lynching," to use the Donald's terminology. He's gone beyond "witch hunt" to use terms particularly painful to the Black community in America, which he no longer appears to have any interest in. But, woe be it for anyone to call him a racist. Tim Scott, the sole Black Republican Congressman, was on hand to defend the President's poor choice of words, which were echoed by other GOP Congressmen.
The President has made it known in no uncertain terms that he thinks this impeachment inquiry is a sham, even "unconstitutional," as he and his staunch supporters believe the Democrats are staging a political coup. They've been crying about the lack of due process, not understanding how impeachment works. One can understand the President's ignorance, as he has repeatedly shown himself to be poorly versed on the Constitution, but GOP Representatives and Senators should know better, given they set these rules in 2015.
Impeachment is a two-prong procedure. The House puts together its Articles of Impeachment, roughly a 3-4 month process in which they conduct private and public hearings before voting on impeachment, then the senate holds a trial (due process) whereby it determines whether to approve or disapprove impeachment.
Trump should be feeling pretty good about himself as it is highly doubtful the Republican-led Senate will approve the House impeachment. But, that's not good enough. He appears so taken aback that the House would even consider impeachment that he has launched his most vitriolic attack yet on House Democrats and the Constitution, which only serves to add more articles to the impeachment. He has called for the heads of Pelosi, Schiff and other top Democrats in the House, acting more like a petulant tyrant than a US President.
Congressional Republicans staged a retreat this past weekend, hoping to all get on the same page and find some way to mollify Trump and tamp down this impeachment inquiry at the same time. They were also deeply concerned with the events in Syria, which only served to bring more scrutiny on the President, as this "quid pro quo" thing seems to extend to Turkey and Russia as well, only in this case Trump was on the receiving end.
After a tumultuous week that saw a partial cease-fire in Northern Syria and negotiations between Turkey and Russia as to how to divide the region, Trump appeared before the press yesterday to read a prepared speech declaring victory. This was met by guffaws from the mainstream media and officials with knowledge of the region, past and present. Surprisingly, not Lindsey Graham, who now approves of the withdrawal after vehemently speaking out against it this past week. Obviously, this statement was agreed upon at the Camp David conference in an effort to give Trump a "retreat with dignity." Trump claims this "peace deal" between Turkey, Russia and Syria couldn't have happened without the US withdrawal from the region, slapping himself on the back for this grand gesture.
His laborious speech may satisfy the Republican base, and it appears even NATO leader, Jens Stoltenberg, who is hoping to avoid any further conflict in the region, but few others. It is a bad deal all the way around, but Republicans are accepting it because the alternative is to go against their own President, which it seems only a handful of "human scum" want to do.
Having failed to clear the air, a new strategy appears to have emerged where the White House is going against professional sports teams yet again. Republicans got a lot of mileage out of their endless attack against a handful of NFL players kneeling for the national anthem, and now we see Mike Pence portraying the NBA as unpatriotic by "kowtowing" to Beijing. This comes after the NBA was banned on Chinese television after comments made by the Houston Rockets owner in regard to the protests in Hong Kong.
It is true that China tried to muzzle the NBA but it failed. Not only did the NBA not "fire" the Houston Rockets owner, which it couldn't do anyway, but Adam Silver, the commissioner, spoke out strongly on free speech for all to hear. It seems Pence is hoping that the American public missed that.
This gaslighting is part and parcel of the Breitbart strategy that Bannon effectively used to get Trump elected in 2016. Bannon is back in America after his failed effort to woo more European countries to the dark side. He has set up a "war room" in the basement of his Georgetown townhouse, and hopes to revive the same smear campaign that won it for Trump three years ago. He's even set up a facebook page. Bannon was able to keep his mole in the White House, to stay abreast of events, not that they aren't out in the open for all of us to see.
The most amazing thing about the Trump White House has been its transparency. From day one it has failed to keep its best laid plans and the president's temper-tantrums secret, with information leaking out on a daily basis. Its communications department has had to constantly tamp down all these rumors only to discover that most of them are true because Trump admits to them himself on twitter. His press secretaries are then forced into the uncomfortable position of having to mitigate these claims as best they can, dismissing them as jokes usually.
Yep, we truly have a Joker in the White House, but not the kind you would invite to children's birthday parties. One can only guess the psychological state of the President, but right now "deranged" seems like an understatement.
Trump has lost control of the narrative. He had been effectively able to tamp down all the charges coming out of the Mueller investigation, because they were directed at his former campaign staff and White House advisers. But, this impeachment inquiry puts him front and center. He has no one to hide behind, not even Rick Perry, who has since resigned rather than take anymore heat for this ill-advised Ukraine phone call.
So, it is now up to the Republican party to try to deflect attention away from the self-immolating White House by staging stunts like we saw in the House. They may have earned the praise of Lou Dobbs, but Judge Nap pointed out just how duplicitous and self-defeating this act was. Adam Schiff is following a protocol set by House Republicans during the Benghazi hearings.
None of this is helping Trump or Republicans in 2020. They would have been wise to let the House Democrats carry out their inquiry and impeachment then vote it down in the Senate. End of story. Instead, they try in vain to defend a President who has absolutely no shame, who can't stick to any political game plan, instead hoping that he can generate enough chaos that impeachment will just be one of many stories swirlng around the 2020 campaign, turning voters off and hopefully resulting in the lowest turnout ever next November.
Fact is Americans are tired of this neverending display of kindergarten antics and want some normalcy to return. If the Democrats can keep the impeachment inquiry focused on this one highly abusive act, and not get distracted by all the Republican attempts at subterfuge and obfuscation then they will emerge as the adults in the room, which is what most voters desperately want to see.
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