The Swamp

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Fri Sep 27, 2019 6:07 pm And then there's this...

Trump Meets With LaPierre to Discuss How N.R.A. Could Support Political Defense

President Trump met in the Oval Office on Friday with Wayne LaPierre, the chief executive of the National Rifle Association, and discussed prospective gun legislation and whether the N.R.A. could provide support for the president as he faces impeachment and a more difficult re-election campaign, according to two people familiar with the meeting.

It was not clear whether Mr. Trump asked Mr. LaPierre for his support, or if the idea was pitched by the N.R.A. During the meeting, Mr. LaPierre asked that the White House “stop the games” over gun control legislation, people familiar with the meeting said.

Umm....wouldn't that qualify as a 'bribe'?

degenerasian wrote: ↑Fri Sep 27, 2019 9:12 pm I have probably a stupid question.

Why wasn't this in the Mueller Report?

A memorandum summarizing the meeting was limited to all but a few officials with the highest security clearances in an attempt to keep the president’s comments from being disclosed publicly, according to the former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

the former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity

This is accelerating rapidly. So far today:

~Tulsi Gabbard flips to yes on impeachment and Rudy cancels attendance at a Kremlin backed think tank event. [note: In addition, the Kremlin expressed concern about their convos w/Trump being disclosed like this one with Zelensky…hmmm.].This is the Kremlin going dark on Trump. They did this at least once before from Dec 2015-Jan 2016 and again from Feb 2016 to mid March 2016 when Trump was shopping for Trump Tower. ABC News did a feature on Felix Sater that tied him to the Russian mob, and the Kremlin laid low until Trump took over the GOP primary. If Putin quits on Trump, Trump is done. I can understand why Vlad is upset. They clumsily outed themselves, were forced to give up the aid to Zelensky and have now made the US Congress much more pro-Ukraine and anti-Russian. It seems pretty serious. Putin’s crusade against the west started with the takeover of Crimea. It’s blowing up in his face. He and Trump had a plan to weaken Zelensky and let Russia take more territory. Those days are done now. Vlad is pissed.

~The House Dems are dishing out the subpoenas to Barr, Rudy and Pompeo. They’re going right at the targets. Mulvaney needs a subpoena too. They’ve also said that refusal to comply will constitute obstruction of justice. That will be the 2nd article of impeachment.

~Kurt Volker resigned as State Dept envoy after Rudy flashed all those text messages on Fox after being called out and embarrassed by Kamala Harris. Volker is not going down with this ship. He will likely testify.

~House Dems will have the Inspector General of the IC, Atkinson, will testify before House Intel. He appears to be a hero of sorts here.

~William Barr is in Italy on an unannounced trip. Not the type of thing you see from a dark lord of the Sith, except when he’s caught. Barr might not be the guy to stick his neck out for Trump as people think. I had read something from Carl Bernstein that Barr was planning to unleash ‘evidence’ supporting the phony notion that the ‘origins of the investigation’ into the Russia matter were flawed. I think with Rudy basically shitting the bed on national tv, the whole thing is getting exposed and Barr may be thinking that these are risks he can’t take. The WB complaint named him as a co-conspirator, in effect. He’s badly damaged. Nothing he does will be considered legitimate.

~WH sources are now admitting that Trump convos with MBS and Putin are on that secret server. Everyone is focused on that secret server. That’s the 800 lb elephant in the room. It’s why the GOP defense of Trump is so muted. They don’t know what’s on that thing. But we on TPM do know. Trump’s record and trail of treason is on that server. You know who else is gonna get caught up on that server? Javanka. This is the leverage to get Trump out.

~Speaker Pelosi came right out and said that in her view Russia had a hand in this UKR thing. She’s absolutely right, but here’s the thing, I believe Nancy actually knows of evidence that will prove this connection. That secret server is a source, but I don’t believe it’s the only source because these crooks are dumb s**ts. This is the leverage to get Trump out of office. The chances of resignation have gone up from 18% to 25% in my own ad hoc 538 like probability scale.

~Oh, btw, Deutsche Bank has told the court they have tax returns from 2 Trump family members. Trump is facing a mountain of criminal liability exposure. The only thing of value he has to trade for leniency is the office he holds. He has a narrow window to resign. Otherwise, Pelosi is going to keep him bogged down for the next year and send him to jail when he is defeated at the ballot box. Tellin all y’all, the possibility of resignation is on the radar.

Ukraine is a nice, pretty little Christmas gift that you can put a cool wrapper and bow on and use to impeach this POTUS. But that WB did more than that. He has provided us the key to unlock the door of treason. Everyone in DC knows that secret server houses all of Trump’s treasonous convos with Putin, MBS, Kim and others. His operational policies of restricting access and transferring data to limited key word access system is how he has both stayed aligned with the Kremlin agenda and kept it secret from USIC. It’s getting exposed now. If you step back and just looked at that scenario, no one would survive it. If the laws of politics apply to Trump, he won’t survive this.

Johnnie wrote: ↑Sat Sep 28, 2019 10:01 am An elephant weighs more than 800 pounds.

brian wrote: ↑Sat Sep 28, 2019 12:29 pm Am I the only one who wishes I could mainline some kind of breaking news feed at this point. Everything is moving so fast and the schadenfreude is going to be so sweet when the house of cards comes tumbling down.

brian wrote: ↑Sat Sep 28, 2019 1:44 pm Absolute worst case there’s enough here for the media to chew on up until the election. If you thought Hillary’s emails were over covered you haven’t seen anything yet. The House Judiciary committee will be handing out subpoenas like candy for the next 12 months with no political repercussions.

brian wrote: ↑Sat Sep 28, 2019 12:29 pm Am I the only one who wishes I could mainline some kind of breaking news feed at this point. Everything is moving so fast and the schadenfreude is going to be so sweet when the house of cards comes tumbling down.

“As many as 130 officials have been contacted in recent weeks by State Department investigators — a list that includes senior officials who reported directly to Clinton as well as others in lower-level jobs whose emails were at some point relayed to her inbox, said current and former State Department officials,” the paper noted. “Those targeted were notified that emails they sent years ago have been retroactively classified and now constitute potential security violations, according to letters reviewed by The Washington Post.”State Department investigators began contacting the former officials about 18 months ago, after President Trump’s election, and then seemed to drop the effort before picking it up in August, officials said.”

Pruitt wrote: ↑Sun Sep 29, 2019 7:20 am If nothing else, the impeachment inquiry should make his statements even crazier.

Did you know that the GOP is the party of health care? Must be, because the Democrats are trying to take it away...

Bossert resigned as the top homeland security official in the White House in April 2018 at the request of John Bolton, one day after Bolton took over as national security adviser. On ABC, where he has a contributor contract, Bossert also criticized Giuliani for pushing conspiracy theories on the president because “it sticks in his mind when he hears it over and over again.”

Giuliani said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Pompeo told him he was aware of his shadow diplomacy to prod Ukraine's government to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his family. “I did not do this on my own,” he said. “I did it at the request of the State Department, and I have all of the text messages to prove it. And I also have a thank you from them from doing a good job. … When I talked to the secretary last week, he said he was aware of it.”

Pruitt wrote: ↑Mon Sep 30, 2019 12:53 pm

Giuliani said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Pompeo told him he was aware of his shadow diplomacy to prod Ukraine's government to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his family. “I did not do this on my own,” he said. “I did it at the request of the State Department, and I have all of the text messages to prove it. And I also have a thank you from them from doing a good job. … When I talked to the secretary last week, he said he was aware of it.”

So Rudy is trying to prove that he isn't a rogue employee of Trump? That he's acting on behalf of the government? Is this significant as far as you guys are concerned?

brian wrote: ↑Mon Sep 30, 2019 12:47 pm Another R congresscritter (HT: CP) in Texas announced his retirement before the 2020 election. The GOP is keeping a good lid on it, but reports are that internal polling by the GOP in Texas is insanely dismal. Like, Texas is actually very, very, very much in play dismal and Cornyn is very much in danger dismal.

Joe K wrote: ↑Tue Oct 01, 2019 10:35 am New York politics is famously corrupt. Trump and Rudy are both megalomaniacal products of that environment who, given their respective ages may well be experiencing cognitive decline. I think it really is as simple as that.

Joe K wrote: ↑Tue Oct 01, 2019 10:35 am New York politics is famously corrupt. Trump and Rudy are both megalomaniacal products of that environment who, given their respective ages may well be experiencing cognitive decline. I think it really is as simple as that.