If Trump is defeated, he may very well not release the reins of power in a peaceful transition. It is conceivable that he will reject the results and claim that the election was rigged. He prepared to make that claim in the 2016 election and even continues to claim that he didn't loss the popular vote because the results were rigged. I think it will up to that our elected representatives, however, it will be up to the Democrats to resist.

The Republicans representatives have demonstrated that they won't challenge Trump and his rabid constituency. I believe that it is fair and indeed necessary that our candidates express throughout the election the indispensability for a honorable transition as a warning of the possibility of Trump instigating resistance. We are not dealing with an honorable man, but a liar with a gangster mentality whose is demonstrably mentally deranged. He doesn't have honest bone in his body and has the same egomaniacal personality as some of the most destructive people in history. This is a man cut from the same rotten bolt of cloth as Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin who were amoral bastards who would stoop to the any means to dominate. The nation could be in for a tumultuous era. We are experiencing a massive transition throughout society. The rise of authoritarianism is gaining ground throughout Europe and Asia as the world struggles to cope with globalization and automation that is decimating low skill jobs.

Demagogues are finding a fertile ground in which the prey on ignorance and prejudices and offer up scapegoats. Rather than working to provide solutions, Trump has actively embraced the worse if the authoritarian leaders while attacking our allies who are supporters of democratic principles. It is easier to sell false promises than to provide difficult but effective solutions and during such times of transition to desperate people are prone to sacrifice hard won freedoms for a false promise.

He needs to be impeached before the election, imo.

should not be a political decision. The House needs to fulfill its Constitutional responsibility.
Rosenstein was a wimp who joined team Trump. Mueller underestimated the lengths that Republicans will go to undermine our democracy. Mueller isn't known for his public speaking, but he needs to think long and hard about what he is going to say to Congress but more importantly what he is going to say to the American people.

Think back to when Colin Powell spoke before the U.N. about mushroom clouds. Colin Powell was one of the people in the Bush administration who was respected by everyone. He let the world down when he gave that speech.

It's time for Robert Mueller to give his speech, hopefully he will not follow in Powell's footsteps.

The House investigations are going on now. They are the investigations that could lead to impeachment. The majority of the country does not believe trump should be impeached. Don't forget there are other investigations going on in New York by their prosecutors and the SDNY court. Personally I want the House investigations to play out. It will be much easier running against a trump in office than not. We aren't there yet until the majority of the country is on board.

The case needs to be made. I, otoh, knew he was guilty when he hired Gen. Flynn then wouldn’t fire the dude.

Investigate and get Don Mcgahn testifying on national TV. The investigation might lead to impeachment then. The investigation will go on for more than a year so no one will forget.

AND WE DO NOT.

in broad daylight on a crowded New York street...he’s getting away with the murder of the U.S. in broad daylight.

and found not guilty by the Senate, the public will think he is innocent and that impeachment was a partisan witch-hunt.

Let the House investigate, lay out the evidence for the people and see where it leads.

The Senate won't find trump not guilty. The current Senate will vote to not even try trump. That's what happened with Bill Clinton.

There was a full trial in the Senate, presided over by the Chief Justice and 50 Senators voted to remove him, well short of the 67 votes needed, and therefore, he was acquitted.

of Trump’s crimes.

Right now the people are against impeachment. Every poll says so.

Let the House investigations proceed and public opinion should shift.

...

or...

...if the Congress doesn't impeach, voters will think they're guilty...

...I will...

“Catch 22:” ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t.’ I say let House investigations go forward. Call on Mueller, Rosenstein & McGahan to testify, on TV and in prime time. That, my good friends,, would most definitely be “Must see TV!” Whadda ya think? 🤔

He will celebrate as having been found “Innocent.” Since 1797 when the first federal official was impeached (a Senator) only 8 federal officials have ever been removed from office and of course no presidents.
Its practically impossible to get 2/3rds of the Senate to convict. Today that would require every Democrat/Independent plus 20 Republicans.

...okay, but in the end, let's impeach...

...Dems have mouths; impeachment wouldn't be taking place in a vacuum or in a trump tweet...convince a majority of the American people of the validity, importance and outright necessity of impeachment based upon the Constitution...people may not want the distraction of impeachment at the moment, let's convince them otherwise...

...with all the impeachable shit trump has done are we that unwilling, incapable and impotent that we can't make an ironclad case for impeachment to the American people with the mountain of impeachable evidence already on record?

...if not, that will say more about us than trump...

...the Russians, trump and the current republican party are serious threats to our democracy...we should treat them as such...

...impeach...

... then those same people will take that to mean he's innocent. People either have the wherewithal to see for themselves what's happening, or they don't. What Democrats need to do is to keep talking about the facts in the Mueller report (rather than impeachment per se) until they get through to low-information voters that Trump's spin is BS.

Uncensored evidence through the House impeachment process provides us a better "seeing" than a redacted report.

Not all voters see the redacted version as a document to distrust.

But. Those who do are being spun.

The redacted report is already being "spun" as a failed coup report. Media will hammer away at that spin.

The political spinning of what we already know must not stand.

Spinning must be disproved. Unequivocally.

That simple.

Remember, Barr stated he would release the grand jury testimony for an impeachment hearing. Without impeachment we (Congress) will never see that grand jury information. That is where all of the juicy stuff is.

Just sayin'. But I do absolutely hold that your major point is most important here.

inquiry. That's the best chance of not only for building support for impeachment but also possibly getting enough votes in the Senate to remove him - or at least make it close enough that it's clear he is unfit for office.

... all 3 times impeachment was raised.

The facts politically support impeachment

It would be the right thing to do politically, lawfully and morally

Not only is it the constitutional responsibility of Congress to do so, but I think a lot of voters felt empowered in the midterms to really turn out and hold him and his administration accountable for the corruption and crimes they've committed. Doing nothing takes something away from that, in my opinion. It leaves a sense of feeling defeated, which is quite the opposite of empowered, and not the way we want people feeling leading up to the election.

I think there needs to be public hearings, lots of them, timed perfectly to correspond throughout the entire election cycle, with a clear message that it is headed toward impeachment. I'm tired of hearing representatives say "we're not there yet" when it comes to impeaching him. I want to hear them unified saying 'what he's done is grounds for impeachment and that's exactly what we're working toward.'

We need to have this being heard, nonstop before 2020. There is no comparison with the Clinton impeachment. The Republicans were so obviously grasping at straws to make their case in that situation. How much wreckage occurred to those around Clinton, in actuality? Agreed that some were harassed due to Republican partisan zeal. Arguably some had a forum to profit from. In little over two years, Trump has DESTROYED many around him, yet seems to just keep rolling on.

they simply voted.

brought in Barr to act as an Al Haig fixer. Because this is exactly the kind of political maneuvering that the system was meant to prevent. So, yes, the House needs to investigate, if for no reason, to write a proper post mortem.

without investigating via an impeachment hearing, hearings?

No one is turning over documents and people are defying subpoenas. What new information have we learned by waiting?

If the shoe was on the other foot, their people would be in the streets, protesting the White House.

move. It’s a policy of caution that’s like taking a knife to a gunfight. Discouraging to the nth degree.

What you say is spot on. On the day the redacted report came out, a strategist said we
needed to strike FAST for maximum impact. Every day we wait disconnects us from the report.
And he knows that. He is emboldened. We are not dealing with a normal person who changes behavior when they see danger ahead.

What is the status of getting the unredacted report and tax returns anyway?

without holding impeachment hearings. Trump/Barr have no intention of winning their court challenges, they just want to delay everything until after the election.

As I said on another entry here, a marketing campaign must take place to expose all those crook, their lack of patriotism.

This is how Venezuela became what it is today, by people turning their heads the other way, "It CAN happen here".

The dems gave up the narrative four decades ago. Forty years of hate radio is why you see American citizens wearing tee-shirts that read, "I'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat."

And you are right, it can happen here. Too many have fallen for the "American exceptionalism" crap & think that our country is so much stronger & better than other countries that have fallen into fascism.

Is that supposed to mean that a Republican president should never be impeached? Is that what our founders intended?

of a democracy.

They must beat down sellouts at the ballot box, as much for regaining the Senate as winning the presidency.

If the majority of the "people" who claim to be undecideds (let's face it, they are undecided because they're too lazy, too apathetic or too stupid to follow or even TRY to understand what's happening to them and the nation with this administration) then they need to be enlightened!

Impeachment hearings will take information to the "undecideds" if only through spotlight 6 o'clock news media circus coverage and hopefully Democratic Ads, pressure and mailings to inform them.

As to the "undecideds" have you ever NOT heard of or from an Undecided NOT complain about how government is run or taxes are too high or prices or health care are too high or myriad other little "inconveniences" they have no idea they can help prevent, yet bitch about?

Impeachment hearings will open many eyes if only because of the grudging coverage by the media.
Investigations only by the House will go largely unnoticed because...the MSM and their bosses.

The "undecideds" must be informed how keeping this POS will affect them and their children regardless of how many are really left over yuppies, yippies, hippies, rednecks et. al. who have been fortunate enough to be born white and at least semi-affluent or moderately financially comfortable (or at least think they are or were).

Impeach and let the people know what's going on. If we don't, do you really think the MSM will cover "investigations" by a "partisan" House of Democrats (not with the actions of the Trump BS machine and Facebook and Twitter)?

but if we impeach they will be forced to cover it and it will draw large audiences.

If we don't impeach, Barr is going to investigate the FBI, and Democrats (Hillary) who have carried on a witch hunt against Donald Trump. That will be the M$M narrative leading up to the election.

By the way, our group of candidates is way too silent in attacking Trump. Biden did a good beginning, I give him credit for that.

... not that far off.

Red Don's approval ratings avg around 38 ... that's horrible seeing FAUX News is giving him a 10 - 20 point spike

The Republican Senate can be exposed for the corruption and lack of patriotism, for putting party before country, a great marketing campaign can be put together to expose them, to show their contempt for the rule of law, their allegiance to a corrupt man and to power...Expose all of their corruption with an aggressive campaign, billboards, TV, News papers, etc. Make sure that information reaches every corner in the USA, the World. I am sure the World outside of the USA will gladly contribute to expose the crooks.

I am so mad, Adam Schiff with his "we beat them in 2020" crap has made me loose a lot of hope the Dems will do the right thing, he was one of those people I thought would go the extra mile to do the right thing and now he comes with that crap.

Take the time to tweet him and tell him that we expect action, I did.

It would certainly give the Democratic opponents of any Republican who voted against impeachment and instead for corruption, a strong boost in fundraising. How motivating would that be for Democrats, to be able to oust the people who voted to keep Trump.

The (unnamed) impeachment subpoenas and hearings have begun, part of an impeachment investigation. Shhh

Who cares what the Senate does later? I don't. Start dragging the corrupt Republicans through the mud now and see how clean they look to voters in 2020.

Why not drag them out until we expose every vile, evil thing Trump has done?

... is exactly what we should have.

It would

- Allow more than that 5 minute bullshit we see in a lot of hearings
- Allow for access to GJ information
- Curtail to Red Don's ability to pardon in some situations.

There's not good argument right now against impeachment but impeachment hearings there's even less.

Those numbers will go up as Democrats continue to press for the truth and trump continues to obstruct. Only his cult followers believe he was exonerated.

And always will.

But the rest already know. That number gets larger everyday.

I trust Pelosi to do what they have in mind.

Thank you.

The Constitution can't wait until 2020.

For additional rationale for impeaching Trump, see links in my sig line.

But it was the Senate Watergate committee hearings in 73 that turned public opinion.

What are they supposed to say about drumpf and russia? What are the supposed to say if there are warning signs russia is going to tamper with 2020? (AND THEY WILL)

"Hey guys! Russia is at it again!"

"At what? That thing you didn't even impeach the president over? you had the mueller report and couldn't come with a reason to impeach so why should we believe there is anything wrong now?"

Last edited Mon Apr 29, 2019, 07:33 AM - Edit history (1)

And the Republican's unfavorable INCREASED 10%.

It entirely revolved around the Lewinsky affair, something which, by itself, had no impact on the affairs of the nation. Even the "wag the dog" allegations about military strikes Clinton ordered were baseless, considering they targeted Al Queda at a time when Republicans were conspicuously dismissive of it.

Clinton's numbers rose because outside the RW echo chamber the charges were clearly bullshit.

Trump's actions fall squarely under the heading "impact the affairs of the nation".