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Bemoans Biden's "witch hunt" and his politically-motivated persecution of political opponents and now apparently driving the bus on impeachment attempt of a political rival.

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-privately-encouraging-gop-lawmakers-122026494.html

Quote

On a sweeping patio overlooking the golf course at his private club in Bedminster, New Jersey, former President Donald Trump dined Sunday night with a close political ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

It was a chance for the former president to catch up with the hard-right Georgia congresswoman. But over halibut and Diet Cokes, Greene brought up an issue of considerable interest to Trump — the push by House Republicans to impeach his likely opponent in next year’s election.

“I did brief him on the strategy that I want to see laid out with impeachment,” Greene said in a brief phone interview.

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Trump’s dinner with Greene came just two nights before House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced his decision Tuesday to order the opening of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, under intense pressure from his right flank.

Over the past several months, Trump has kept a close watch on House Republicans’ momentum toward impeaching Biden. Trump has talked regularly by phone with members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and other congressional Republicans who pushed for impeachment, according to a person close to Trump who was not authorized to publicly discuss the conversations. Trump has encouraged the effort both privately and publicly.

Greene, who has introduced articles of impeachment against Biden, said she told Trump she wanted the impeachment inquiry to be “long and excruciatingly painful for Joe Biden.”

She would not say what Trump said in response, but she said her ultimate goal was to have a “long list of names” — people whom she claimed were co-conspirators involved in Biden family crimes. She said she was confident Trump would win back the White House in 2024 and that she wanted “to go after every single one of them and use the Department of Justice to prosecute them.”

While Biden’s son Hunter Biden was charged in June with two misdemeanor tax offenses and a felony firearm offense, Republicans have not shown that Joe Biden committed any crimes. House Republicans are proceeding with the impeachment inquiry without proof that Biden took official actions as vice president to benefit his son’s financial interests or that he directly profited from his son’s foreign deals.

Trump has also spoken weekly over the past month to Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the third-ranking House Republican, according to a person familiar with the conversations who was not authorized to discuss them publicly. During those conversations, Stefanik also briefed Trump on the impeachment inquiry strategy, this person said.

The former president thanked Stefanik for publicly backing the impeachment inquiry in July, the person added. Stefanik, who talked to Trump again Tuesday after McCarthy ordered the impeachment inquiry, had been the first member of House Republican leadership to publicly call for taking the first step in the process of impeaching Biden.

A person familiar with Trump’s thinking said that despite his eagerness to see an inquiry move forward, the former president has not been twisting McCarthy’s arm. Trump has been far more aggressive in pushing several members to wipe his own impeachment record clean, the person said, potentially by getting Congress to take the unprecedented step of expunging his two impeachments from the House record.

Trump has not been expressing concern about the possibility that the McCarthy impeachment effort might backfire and benefit Biden, according to two people with direct knowledge of his private statements over several months. Instead, he wondered to an ally why there had been no movement on impeaching Biden once he learned that the House was back in session.

A spokesperson for McCarthy did not respond to a question about his interactions with the former president regarding impeachment.

When asked for comment, Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, pointed to Trump’s public statements about impeaching Biden.

The former president’s public commentary on the possibility of a Biden impeachment has escalated from wistful musings about the Justice Department’s supposed inaction to explicit demands.

“They persecuted us and yet Joe Biden is a stone-cold criminal, caught dead to right, and nothing happens to him. Forget the family. Nothing happens to him,” the former president said at a rally in March.

In a June town hall with the Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump lamented what happened after authorities found boxes of classified documents in both his Mar-a-Lago estate and the Bidens’ Delaware residence.

“It is a dual system of government,” Trump said. “You talk about law and order. You can’t have law and order in a country where you have such corruption.”

That same month, after Trump was arraigned on charges that he had improperly retained sensitive national security documents and obstructed investigators, he declared that if reelected he would appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” Biden and his family.

By July, Trump had begun suggesting that Republicans should impeach the president, and as the summer wore on, he conveyed his desire with greater urgency.

“So, they impeach me over a ‘perfect’ phone call, and they don’t impeach Biden for being the most corrupt president in the history of the United States???” Trump wrote in all caps on his social media platform, Truth Social.

In yet another nearly all-cap Truth Social post in late August, the former president wrote, referring to congressional Republicans: “Either impeach the bum, or fade into oblivion. They did it to us!”

 

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Been meaning to post this since Sunday. My apologies if this isn’t as brief and succinct as I’d like it to be. Please bear with me.

Trump held a rally in South Dakota on Friday, picking up an endorsement from Kristi Noem. Most of the articles about it talk about Noem’s potential as a possible running mate. But there’s part of Trump’s speech that’s not getting a lot of coverage. They opened with it on Meet the Press on Sunday. Trump was ranting on about how his legal troubles are all about Biden attacking his political opponent, how he’s done nothing wrong, he has the right to say there was election fraud and it was stolen because everyone knows that’s true and “free speech!” No doubt his lawyers encouraged him to keep saying “free speech!” And there was a little bit of a vibe that he knows he’s lying about election fraud but he has the right to keep saying it because “free speech!”

Anyway, and this is where they started on MTP, Trump goes on to say, “That means if I’m elected and somebody wants to run against me, I call my Attorney General and say, ‘Listen, indict him!’”

Okay, sure, Trump is saying he’ll continue to try to use his Attorney General to lock up his opponents just like he did when he was in office. But if he wins, why would anyone be running against him again? He’d be in his 2nd term. He couldn’t run again. You could just dismiss it and say he means any of his political enemies, and certainly you’d be right that he’ll do that too. But I believe he’s saying out loud that if he gets back into office again he has no intention of leaving. He thinks he should be treated like Putin and Kim. He’s said that out loud too.

That was all they covered on Meet the Press. In his speech he continued, first speaking for his imaginary AG. “Well, he hasn’t done anything that we know…” To which imaginary Trump interrupts, “I don’t know…Indict him on income tax evasion! You’ll figure it out.”

Again, Trump apologists will dismiss it as just talk and he won’t try to “run” for a 3rd term. I say that’s ridiculous and he’s telling us. You know he hasn’t gone to the trouble to endorse Republicans all over the country who will help him do it just so they can wind up helping someone else. And you know he’ll make the argument that he deserves another term because of the one that was stolen from him. No way in hell that wouldn’t happen.

Anyway, here’s the full episode of Meet the Press (Chuck Todd’s last, btw). The relevant part is right at the beginning.

You can find the full speech and some other stuff from the South Dakota rally, in case you have the stomach for it, below. The quote in question begins at 1:09:56.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?530237-1/president-trump-speaks-south-dakota-monumental-leaders-rally

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21 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Been meaning to post this since Sunday. My apologies if this isn’t as brief and succinct as I’d like it to be. Please bear with me.

Trump held a rally in South Dakota on Friday, picking up an endorsement from Kristi Noem. Most of the articles about it talk about Noem’s potential as a possible running mate. But there’s part of Trump’s speech that’s not getting a lot of coverage. They opened with it on Meet the Press on Sunday. Trump was ranting on about how his legal troubles are all about Biden attacking his political opponent, how he’s done nothing wrong, he has the right to say there was election fraud and it was stolen because everyone knows that’s true and “free speech!” No doubt his lawyers encouraged him to keep saying “free speech!” And there was a little bit of a vibe that he knows he’s lying about election fraud but he has the right to keep saying it because “free speech!”

Anyway, and this is where they started on MTP, Trump goes on to say, “That means if I’m elected and somebody wants to run against me, I call my Attorney General and say, ‘Listen, indict him!’”

Okay, sure, Trump is saying he’ll continue to try to use his Attorney General to lock up his opponents just like he did when he was in office. But if he wins, why would anyone be running against him again? He’d be in his 2nd term. He couldn’t run again. You could just dismiss it and say he means any of his political enemies, and certainly you’d be right that he’ll do that too. But I believe he’s saying out loud that if he gets back into office again he has no intention of leaving. He thinks he should be treated like Putin and Kim. He’s said that out loud too.

That was all they covered on Meet the Press. In his speech he continued, first speaking for his imaginary AG. “Well, he hasn’t done anything that we know…” To which imaginary Trump interrupts, “I don’t know…Indict him on income tax evasion! You’ll figure it out.”

Again, Trump apologists will dismiss it as just talk and he won’t try to “run” for a 3rd term. I say that’s ridiculous and he’s telling us. You know he hasn’t gone to the trouble to endorse Republicans all over the country who will help him do it just so they can wind up helping someone else. And you know he’ll make the argument that he deserves another term because of the one that was stolen from him. No way in hell that wouldn’t happen.

Anyway, here’s the full episode of Meet the Press (Chuck Todd’s last, btw). The relevant part is right at the beginning.

You can find the full speech and some other stuff from the South Dakota rally, in case you have the stomach for it, below. The quote in question begins at 1:09:56.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?530237-1/president-trump-speaks-south-dakota-monumental-leaders-rally

Perhaps -- and it's a scary thought, no doubt. And I could see lots of folks who vote for him going along with the idea of leaving Trump in past a 2nd term without seeing the long-term ramifications or blatant pissing on the Constitution that would represent. By the time they come around, Trump would be entrenched in office -- like cancer.

Or, this is simply so he can get in office to pardon himself and all of his cronies of their myriad crimes and he'll serve out the four years and be done. I can't imagine he'd live to far beyond a second term anyways.

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I don't believe a third term is possible simply because there aren't enough states that would allow him on the ballot a third time because he doesn't meet the qualifications for office in that state.  One of the qualifications to run for president is that you can't have served 2 full terms, and there are enough blue/purple states that would respect that enough that they would wholly disqualify him from even being on the ballot.  If he's only running in the deep red states, he has no ability to get to 270, and therefore no shot at a 3rd term.

I can be an optimistic dumbass though, so I could be wrong.

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1 hour ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

I don't believe a third term is possible simply because there aren't enough states that would allow him on the ballot a third time because he doesn't meet the qualifications for office in that state.  One of the qualifications to run for president is that you can't have served 2 full terms, and there are enough blue/purple states that would respect that enough that they would wholly disqualify him from even being on the ballot.  If he's only running in the deep red states, he has no ability to get to 270, and therefore no shot at a 3rd term.

I can be an optimistic dumbass though, so I could be wrong.

Your maths are correct.  However, there is already a plan in place where he resigns office a tad bit early so as not to have served two full terms.  The date varies from state to state in terms of when the deadline is to be placed atop the ballot.  But a willing VP (looking at you MIKE!) and some calendar massaging, and he's good to go in all but a handful of states.  

the best strategy, aside from the shitshow intraparty gossip from the Democrats, is to run Trump ragged for the next 14 months and just have him die already.  We'll deal with his 25mm psychotic base after that.  We've lots of land and lots of empty train cars in "red States." 

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1 hour ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

I don't believe a third term is possible simply because there aren't enough states that would allow him on the ballot a third time because he doesn't meet the qualifications for office in that state.  One of the qualifications to run for president is that you can't have served 2 full terms, and there are enough blue/purple states that would respect that enough that they would wholly disqualify him from even being on the ballot.  If he's only running in the deep red states, he has no ability to get to 270, and therefore no shot at a 3rd term.

I can be an optimistic dumbass though, so I could be wrong.

You're assuming that things don't go sideways, wonky and get all fucked up.

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In random thoughts... 

On Dec. 20, 2019, the President signed legislation amending the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and raising the federal minimum age for sale of tobacco products from 18 to 21 years. This legislation (known as “Tobacco 21” or “T21”) became effective immediately, and it is now illegal for a retailer to sell any tobacco product—including cigarettes, cigars, and e-cigarettes—to anyone under 21.

I had no idea that happened under Trump. Glad to see it.

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18 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

I've been wondering why the old adage of "Can fight for his country, but can't buy a beer" didn't morph into "Cigarettes are dangerous, give the 18 year old an AR-15 instead"? 

It's baffling that an 18 yo can buy an assault rifle but not a pack of Kools.

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16 hours ago, SilasCoade said:

I find it hard to believe that all the true patriots in this land would allow this bag of goo three terms as president.

I find it hard to believe they allowed him one. I find it hard to believe he’s allowed to run again after Jan 6. I find it hard to believe he’s not dangling from the end of a rope.

One thing you can never safely assume when it comes to Trump: “That can’t happen here.”

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17 hours ago, SilasCoade said:

I find it hard to believe that all the true patriots in this land would allow this bag of goo three terms as president.

all the true patriots in this land have as much influence on Donald Trump as the concrete around Camp Mabry has on the weather.

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
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His followers are so fucking stupid, they think Jan 6 is a conspiracy where Nancy risked her life to make Donny look bad, as long as these people live in the conspiracy bubble there is no reasoning with them all peaceful interactions are a complete waste of time, they need prison time to A) break from the bubble (aka no Fox News) and B) ample time to think over their lives. Since prison without a crime is a dark path, we can still have zero pity in sentencing.

Jan 6 grandma served a bit and reformed, Jan 6 shaman served a bit and lied about recanting and is back to his old Qanon ways.

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13 hours ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

Yeah, nothing is more Trumpy than to simultaneously shout "I'm the most powerful person in the world with supreme command" with "but Nancy should have fixed it" and not do a thing to diffuse the situation as it happened because "you don't really know what's happening until much, much later."

“I alone can fix it” and “I don’t take responsibility at all.”

Bonus points for “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.”

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20 minutes ago, SmokeyTheBear said:

 

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"... expand Holocaust awareness and create websites with curriculum tools for teachers nationwide!"

MAGA conspiracy contingent:

wut-what.gif

Of course, he's probably assuming that MAGA won't read past the first line, which is pretty much assured.

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