Saturday, January 25, 2020

Why do Sekulow & Purpura keep acting like Democrats hid part of the impeachment witnesses testimony? It was live on national tv for everyone to see & House Dems posted transcripts on their website.


Schiff, in reference to @latimes reporting: Was only act of Congress that saved $35m of Ukraine aid https://t.co/LX1zjhpE8T "He was caught yes and he was forced to release the aid-that does not mitigate his wrongdoing or lead us to have any confidence he wouldn’t do it again"


Sen. Chris Murphy on the lie that Ukraine interfered in the election: "I was shocked that [Sekulow] previewed that apparently they are going to spend a big portion of their testimony peddling Russian propaganda. I kind of figured they would just sidestep that question."


.@SenSchumer: "The president's counsel did something that they did not intend; they made a really compelling case for why the senate should call witnesses and documents." Full video here


White House claim: Using the WH meeting as leverage doesn't matter, because Trump met Zelensky at the UN. Reality: Witnesses testified to the significance of an Oval Office meeting, especially for a new leader of a vulnerable nation. It still hasn't happened.


White House claim: Ukraine did not know about the withheld aid until public reporting. Fact Check: Two witnesses testified Ukraine knew of the hold before it was public. Ukraine’s former deputy foreign minister confirmed to the press that the Ukrainians knew.


Amazing that Trump lawyer Seukulow starts w/complaint Mueller cost $34mil& holds up Vol 1 of Report concluding Trump didn't collude Sekulow must have forgot to tell us about vol 2, which found 10 instances of Trump obstructing justice. Those allegations v similar to those here


.@USDA 's pork inspection rule will endanger public health and put both consumers and workers at risk. That's why @UFCW filed a lawsuit to stop this dangerous rule. Our families' health and safety MUST come FIRST.


Schiff prefaces his reading of Trump's call with "this is the essence" and Deputy Counsel Mike Purpura shows the Schiff video clip and says: "That's fake. That's not the real call. That's not the evidence here." Note: no one claimed it was evidence


I could fact-check Cipollone, because he's completely wrong about burden-sharing, but there's no point in it. He's not trying to exculpate his client, he's setting up the evening's talking points for Sean Hannity.


This is right but the Johnson precedent is even less helpful to the Trump defense than @AlanDersh pretends. It proves nothing like what he says it does.


There’s roughly a zero percent chance that a national security reporter of Mary Louise Kelly’s caliber misidentified Ukraine on a map. Pompeo is a petulant child.


HOLY MOTHER OF GOD - the new coronavirus is a 3.8!!! How bad is that reproductive R0 value? It is thermonuclear pandemic level bad - never seen an actual virality coefficient outside of Twitter in my entire career. I’m not exaggerating.


"Take her out" means KILLED. Not FIRED


Healthcare workers in the Chinese city of Wuhan say hospitals are running low on supplies as they struggle to cope with the outbreak of the deadly Wuhan coronavirus.


The impeachment trial will not result in Trump’s removal, but it could well result in Republicans’ removal from the Senate majority,


Washington Post Editorial Board Issues Ominous Impeachment Warning To GOP Senators, Trump


Keep thinking about this. The whole point of what POTUS did to Ukraine conspiracy was creating an environment easier for the Kremlin. And what that outrageous map interaction between Pompeo and @NPRKelly shows is that POTUS now has a SecState that is aiding him in this.


He sounds like a hostage


“Senators really dislike Trump and are tired of having to go to the mat for him on crazy, batshit stuff,” a source said.


‼️"A source close to Trump" said, "We know if senators took a secret vote today he'd be removed." Could Dems get 4 Republicans to agree to create a rule for a secret vote?


Spent four years at the State Department. Circled the world twice over with Hillary Clinton. It’s not daycare. We didn’t carry blank maps. If Pompeo’s staff carry blank maps it’s because he pulls this stunt often. Give him a blank anatomy chart. See if he can find his balls.


I trust the voters. After all, they got it right in the 2018 Arizona senate race. But I don’t trust the foreign governments @realDonaldTrump invites to interfere.


Source on Trump's legal team, on conference call with reporters, said they will be going after the Bidens during the Trump defense presentation.


I care about Ukraine. And while it’s true I’m not American, after Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014 I wrote why Americans should care, and act. Ukraine is on the front line of a global war between liberty and tyranny.


Having YEARS of experience developing an #Ebola treatment, I was concerned about this #CoronavirusOutbreak from the outset, because this #coronavirus strain is very contagious, causes severe illness, and NO treatments or vaccines are available.


Vice Officers Fired Over Stormy Daniels’s 2018 Arrest at Ohio Strip Club


Lord help us if one reference to a @CBSNews report was the most offensive thing my colleagues heard over the last three days.


That literally looks like the United Federation of Planets logo with a Star Trek communicator badge on top of it.


Impeachment isn’t about the pike comment. It’s about the evidence against the president on abuse of power & obstruction of Congress. The Senator doth protest too much, methinks.


This is Putin’s plan to keep running Russia without being president


A reporter asks Sekulow if he expects to use all 24 hours and he replies: "I did an oral argument in Supreme Court once where my argument was 8 minutes. Worked out pretty well... sometimes less is more."


"Wuhan to recruit another 10,000 beds in 24 hospitals for fever patients" If they need another 10,000 beds in one city, then how many people are infected across China? Tens of thousands - some of whom have already travelled to the rest of the world!


During a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, #Ukraine's President Zelensky told the story of his grandfather’s brothers and parents, who were all murdered by the Nazis.


Schiff: ‘If right doesn’t matter, we’re lost’


Make no mistake: Pompeo's meltdown, Trump's rants, the continuous "outrage" of Trump's lawyers, the Kavanaugh whinefest - it's all the same trick: using explosive male rage to intimidate people asking smart questions about their crimes.


.@VFWHQ: “The VFW expects an apology from the president to our service men and women for his misguided remarks. And, we ask that he and the White House join with us in our efforts to educate Americans of the dangers TBI has on these heroes as they protect our great nation...”


So senate republicans have listened to days of overwhelming evidence of the Presidents guilt which they’re happy to ignore. And now they’re in high dugeon because Adam Schiff quoted a press report. Gimme a break. Murkowski and the rest are on trial. It’s clear where she stands.


Audio appears to show Trump ordering removal of Amb. Yovanovitch


Recording appears to show Trump interest in value of Ukraine aid


Audio appears to bolster Parnas claims about dinner with Trump


Audio on this. Pompeo at 7 min mark. Oh yeah, and the essence of a bully is a coward.


After he said he's considering cutting Social Security, Trump now says the Democrats who want to "destroy" the program.


Here are some Fox News sponsors. Lets "Put them through some things".


"If I had been in the White House today, I'd be underneath my desk in the fetal position. That's how poorly I think particularly Jay Sekulow did," says former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart on President Trump's Senate trial impeachment team.


Shortly after 3 pm eastern yesterday, #GeorgeStephanopoulos was shown on camera making the slit-the-throat "kill" gesture to cut away from #PresidentTrump’s lead counsel and lawyer #JaySekulow taking press questions.


Every time an administration has tried to invoke absolute privilege, they have been laughed out of court. Trump's claims are no less laughable.


Supreme Court Poised to Overturn 38 State Constitutional Amendments on Church-State Separation


Have had Pompeo’s people call my boss to try and embarrass me and kill my stories while he was CIA Director, have heard others about him throwing things in anger etc. Shocking he’d do this to @NPRKelly and think it was a good idea or it would teach her a lesson. It’s a pattern.


If Schiff saying out loud something that many of these senators have already been asked about was going to sway their votes, those senators were never going to vote with Democrats anyway.


When the president’s side has its opportunity, it would be useful to put eight minutes of rebuttal up against this to help people decide.


Hong Kong closes schools till Feb. 17, raises response level to “emergency” to stem spread of coronavirus


TAPE — Listen to the recording that appears to capture a conversation between Giuliani associate Lev Parnas and Pres. Trump in April 2018 about firing the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine


Very easy for Republican senators to show they’re not intimidated: Stop acting intimidated.


Can fact triumph? That's the real question of impeachment


Barr ignoring judges. “The “board flatly refused to implement our decision,” the appeals court said. “We have never before encountered defiance of a remand order, and we hope never to see it again.”


If you have an audio recording or other evidence of @realDonaldTrump’s corruption, today would be a good day to share it. There’s no need to protect him any longer. This is the last year he will be president.


"The reason I'm about to do a cowardly contemptible thing is that I am so offended at Adam Schiff for predicting that I would do a cowardly contemptible thing."


"The creation of a new form of American government, where the executive branch is permanently and utterly above the law, oversight, and accountability is upon us," writes @theRickWilson


I’m gonna let you in on a secret. Republicans who don’t want to defend Trump’s corruption on the merits are instead going to complain about how mean the House managers are. — Chris Murphy


Oh ffs no one owes anyone an apology. It’s way too late for that. Mike Pompeo owes all of us a resignation. Then exile.


.@harrisonjaime is running against Lindsey. You can donate here


Putin will be thrilled.


Adam Schiff did not lose any Republican senators tonight. They were never going to change their minds, and he knew it. His goal was to expose them as cowards, and he succeeded.


Mike Pompeo Does in fact owe Yovanovitch an apology


NEW: He’s defended narcos, mobsters, and hit men. He’s a reptile enthusiast and schedules calls with reporters at 4:20—a nod to his work in cannabis law. And his newest client has pitted him against the president of the United States. Meet @josephabondy:


Joseph Bondy, an attorney for Lev Parnas, tells @maddow that the recording is one hour and 24 minutes long. It is of a dinner in the Trump Hotel. Trump is there. Parnas is there. Fruman is there. And about 40 minutes into the recording, the subject of the Yovanovitch comes up.


Schiff is preemptively stripping the bark off Dershowitz and Ken Starr, and it is glorious


Chris Murphy pushes back: “it's just ridiculous to think that these republicans are going to make a decision on impeachment based upon anybody saying something which they feel to be mean.”


It was neither unforced nor an error.


More interesting than his profanity is the instant tremor in Pompeo's voice the second Kelly mentions Yovanovitch. He's shook. What does he fear emerging?


Very significant move just now by @RepAdamSchiff to say executive privilege determination should be made by Chief Justice. He is absolutely right. He has called Trump on his bluff. If Republicans so worried about exec p, let Trump actually assert it & see how strong that claim is


Bondy ain’t no fool. He wouldn’t bet this big unless he’s got jacks or better.


In response to Senator Boo Boo's comment that Rep. Schiff was just too mean in his closing, I explained on @CuomoPrimeTime that the second article of impeachment isn't about her, or even about Trump -- but about Congress' ability, as an institution, to do its damn job


Then prove you’re not. Period.


"But she wouldn't put my picture up" said the actual president of the actual United States as if this were actually a rational thing to say outloud to other actual non-cult humans


Wow. After pressing him on Ukraine, NPR's Mary Louise Kelly says he "shouted" at her for longer than the interview lasted, asked if she thought Americans cared about Ukraine, used the word fuck & had her point to Ukraine on an unmarked map. He said, "People will hear about this."


The Constitution always needs defenders. @RepAdamSchiff is so far the greatest defender of the Constitution in the 21st century.


Every American should watch @RepAdamSchiff’s closing at Thursday’s session.