Republican: You Can't Impeach Trump for a Crime He Does 'All the Time'

[babylonsister]

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/republican-thornberry-impeachment-ukraine-trump-he-does-this-all-the-time.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=fb&fbclid=IwAR1q2UaIAfCMiqpA1opa_GroJk_I7MAAfZ_6BOjrxCifyJPofVOV6SL38ng&fbclid=IwAR3KTbpg8nhNyRTCiNawbz6nzZQ8VYZuJn-PP86CEyvFl34rxi9xKPv-I2g


the national interest 9:29 A.M.
Republican: You Can’t Impeach Trump for a Crime He Does ‘All the Time’
By Jonathan Chait

snip//

Even more amazingly, Thornberry proceeded to argue that Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is not impeachable because there is also so much other public evidence:

Link to tweet

There’s not anything that the president said in that phone call that’s different than he says in public all the time. So, is there some sort of abuse of power that rises to that threshold that is different than the American people have been hearing for three years? I don’t hear that.

Let’s back up. One of the key Republican messaging points throughout this scandal has been to pretend that Trump’s phone call with Zelensky is the only piece of evidence against him. In fact, as has been obvious from the outset, the call is merely one small element of a monthslong campaign to leverage Ukraine’s desire for a meeting and military aid to force it to investigate Trump’s domestic rivals. Numerous figures, both inside and outside the government, applied this pressure. The normal Republican game is first to ignore all the evidence except the phone call, and then to interpret the edited transcript of the call in a wildly obtuse fashion so as to pretend that it does not also incriminate Trump. (As long as he does not use the words quid pro quo over the phone, there’s no trade being implied.)

Thornberry tries to use this defense. He treats the phone call as if it’s the entirety of the case. But then, rather than insist the phone call was “perfect,” he concedes it was kinda bad. At that point, though, Thornberry pivots to pointing out that the call is no different than things Trump “says in public all the time.”

That’s true! Trump does solicit foreign countries to investigate his rivals in public all the time. He’s even declared that he has an “absolute right” to do the very thing he’s being accused of. Of course he pressured Ukraine to smear his opponents. The sane interpretation of this fact pattern is to wonder what we are even debating here.

Instead, Thornberry works from the premise that the phone call is the entirety of the evidence, then argues that since there’s also so much other evidence against Trump, we have to let him go.

Maybe if somebody was caught on tape ordering a murder, but also went around in public ordering his henchmen to commit murders, Thornberry believes they need to be set free. Or maybe he’s merely the latest Republican to prove Trump’s boast that he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and wouldn’t lose any support.

[Eyeball_Kid]

2. Thornberry readily admits that he's got no moral compass. How nice.

But then, he's defending the Trumpy. Amorality is a prerequisite.

[patricia92243]

3. Serial murderers are now excused.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Thornberry actually has a law degree, which suggests that

even though law school is a shit-ton of work, you can be galactically stupid and still manage to graduate. If he ever leaves Congress and goes into private law practice, and you need a lawyer to defend you in a criminal trial, do not hire him if his proposed defense of you is to the effect that you shouldn't be convicted because you commit crimes all the time.

[blogslut]

10. He is leaving congress.

He's got a family ranch and a full congressional pension. I'm glad to see the back of him.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. Oh, FFS!

OF COURSE WE CAN IMPEACH HIM, AND WE WILL.

Yes, I'm shouting. This idiot is absolutely wrong.

[Takket]

6. perhaps he'd like to give an example of drumpf saying the same thing in public?

I remember him asking Russia to help hack into the Clinton e-mails, but he wasn't really "holding anything over" Russia's head at that request.

At what point in public has he called for something to be withheld from a foreign nation in exchange for them attacking a political rival? *Hint: this is a trick question. Proving he committed extortion twice isn't "better" than having only done it once*

[SWBTATTReg]

7. So a murderer is able to get away w/ murder because they do 'it' all of the time? What a..

moron. Thornberry should be kicked in the a&& and never given another TV spot for an interview or such. He's too stupid.

[KentuckyWoman]

9. How stupid can they get?

Well yes he is guilty but this is just every day Don the Con so who cares.

Mulvaney said the same.

Basically, this Ukraine thing is nothing compared to all the crap we don't know about yet.

[tanyev]

11. What next? Banks calling the police when their regular robbers don't show up one day?

“We were concerned something was wrong with him,” said a bank spokesman.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. First time I saw this headline, I assumed it was satire

because it's so goddamn fucking stupid.

Scroll to the end of the NY mag article, and the next one looks like satire too: "Trump Deletes Tweet Supporting Sean Spicer After His Dancing With The Stars Loss". There's no act of pettiness and cowardice he won't stoop to.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

13. we need a sane CDC to find the brainsucker that is infecting the GOP