Politics Impeaching Trump Would Let American People Off The Hook

Both sides are going into full spin cycle. I pretty much don't believe jack anybody from DC says anymore. That said, about the closest I'm seeing the transcript come to really being a gotcha for Trump is that the Ukrainian President says that his government is about ready to order up some Javelin missiles from the US. In the next sentence, Trump is ignoring that and saying, hey, we've got this little favor to ask of you. Given that his administration had put a hold on foreign aid the week before, the Dems will undoubtedly make a case that the subtext is a quid pro quo. OTOH, there's nothing in the transcript that makes that case solid.

My best guess is that this ends up just being more political theater.

 

It probably takes a really long time for translators to figure out what the hell Trump said and put that into Ukrainian. Google does a poor job with disjointed bullshit to Ukrainian.

 

"CAUTION: A Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation.· (TELCON) is not a verbatim transcript of a
discussion. The text in this document records the notes and recollections of Situation Room Duty
"Officers and-NSC policy staff assigned t_o listen.and memorialize the conversation in written form
as the conversation takes place. A number of factors can affect 'the accuracy of the record,
including poor telecommunications connections and variations in accent and/or interpretation.
The word "inaudible" is used to indicate portions of a conversation that the notetaker was unable
to hear."

 

Congress may get that eventually, but there's no way that they make that public.

 

Asking for help while dangling a billion in aid and using it as leverage....tell me the dirt on Joe or I'll hold back the money....payola is payola...this is pure mobster mentality...I'd think even the Trumpette conservatives would see this as throwing the Constitution out the window.

 

All I'm saying is that there's nothing in the transcript that directly makes the case that that happened.

Using aid for leverage is nothing new and isn't even illegal. That's just politics. Using it for political gain by asking for help in discrediting a political opponent would certainly be illegal. Trump's team is saying that there was never a quid pro quo offered. They'll also say that requesting information on Biden and his son was for the purpose of determining if a crime was committed. The Dems in the House are going to have to find something pretty damning in order to get a Republican Senate to agree to impeach Trump on this. That's why I think it ends up as nothing more than political theater. It'll make really good campaign fodder on both sides.

 

yeah....Trump's team is a revolving door of yes men.....when caught they are going with the tried and true #fakewhatever defense....Barr isn't transparent...he censors anything that will shed light on Trump's shady dealings. Being a politician and going with..."they all do it" as an excuse is sort of ridiculous at this point...if you're claiming to drain a swamp you need to stop filling it back up with swamp muck

 

Not a transcript

 

You know he's on record admitting he did this right?

 

They talk and are translated in real time.

 

Lanny, it was a joke.

 

He admitted freezing the aid. He admitted asking for the Ukrainians to dig into the Biden matter. I don’t believe that he’s admitted to any quid pro qui connecting those things. That last part is the important one. If you have a link that says he admitted that, I would like to see it.

 

Bad analogy. I'd figure the pirate did it. The dog is too well behaved.

 

Barfo, it was a joke.

 

Just to make this clear, I think Trump is guilty as hell. I don't however, think that there's this clear "gotcha" path that's going to lead to a quick move to impeachment. I stand by my statement that I think this ends up being more about political theater than it does about removing Trump from office. I'm still hoping for a stray asteroid to accomplish that. I think that has a better chance than Pelosi & Co.