Day: November 12, 2019

Republicans Creating a Smokescreen on Impeachment

Buck Banks

“Republicans started out saying he didn’t do it. Then he said he did it, but there is no quid pro quo. But then they said there might be quid pro quo, but it’s not an impeachable offense They are just trying to provide enough of smokescreen, so when the Senate doesn’t convict they can say he shouldn’t have been impeached in the first place.”

— Political strategist Robert Shrum, quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

Trump Had at Least 10 Interactions with Giuliani Henchmen

Buck Banks

10

President Trump has had at least 10 encounters with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, the indicted associates of Rudy Giuliani the President has adamantly claimed not to know, CNN reports. “The interactions, of which many new details are being reported here for the first time, include VIP photos at campaign events, attendance at high-dollar fundraisers and a retreat. They also include a pre-inauguration gala for high-dollar donors, an intimate dinner with the President and photos at the White House Hanukkah dinner with the President, Vice President and Giuliani.”

Haley Demonstrates Her Lying Bona Fides

Buck Banks

“I think it’s never a good practice for us to ask a foreign country to investigate an American. It’s just not a good practice. Having said that, there’s no insistence on that call. There are no demands on that call. It is a conversation between two Presidents that’s casual in nature.”

— Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, in an interview on the Today Show.

Federal Health Department Contract Funneled Money to Trump Allies

Buck Banks

8

“At least eight former White House, presidential transition and campaign officials for President Donald Trump were hired as outside contractors to the federal health department at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year,” Politico reports. “They were among at least 40 consultants who worked on a one-year, $2.25 million contract directed by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma. The contractors were hired to burnish Verma’s personal brand and provide ‘strategic communications’ support.”

Late-Entry Candidates Never Win

Buck Banks

“Bloomberg’s surprise late entry into the 2020 race is a familiar story: The candidate who casts himself in the role of The Savior Who Is Waiting in the Wings is a quadrennial feature of presidential campaigns. For decades, Democrats and Republicans alike have persisted in looking beyond the field of those desperate few who have spent months, if not years, racking up frequent flier miles; eating indigestible food; begging for money; and crowding into coffee shops, union halls and living rooms trying to build a constituency. Right around this time of the cycle, these voters and pundits and party operatives reliably hit the panic button, certain that somewhere above the fray stands a candidate free of the now-obvious flaws that burden the rest of the field. … There’s one pesky fact about these late-entry candidacies: They never succeed. Only once have they even materially affected the outcome of a fight for the nomination.”

— Jeff Greenfield