Fast forward to 2020, the attorneys for president Donald Trump appear to be resurrecting that line of thinking.

Responding to a question from Texas senator Ted Cruz, Trump lawyer Alan Dershowitz said there is nothing wrong with a president seeking foreign help for his reelection.

His reasoning? Well, the president is above the law, sort of. He said if the president thinks his reelection is in the best interest of the country, then he can rightfully do anything to get reelected.

Huh?

“If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment. Every public official I know believes that his election is in the public interest,” Dershowitz said.

Constitutional scholars were quick to condemn that line of reasoning, arguing that means presidents are free to break any laws as long as they believe that by breaking the laws they are acting in the national interest.

Dean of the University of California, Berkeley, law school Erwin Chemerinsky said he thought Dershowitz’s argument was “absurd and outrageous.”

“It means that a president could break any law or abuse any power and say that it was for the public interest because the public interest would be served by his or her election,” he said.

Meanwhile Sanford Levinson, a University of Texas law professor, said that line of argument was “on its face, preposterous.”

He said that while officials “make a variety of deals that they would prefer not to in behalf of the good cause…we rely on a certain moral compass that will stop at, say, outright bribery” and “suggesting assassinations.”

President Trump’s senate trial continues.

The post Trump’s Lawyer: The President is Above the law appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

They believe the best way to do that is to refuse to call any witnesses or request additional documents.

Their argument is simple – it is a waste of time.

Last week, The New York Times published that former national security adviser John Bolton, in his upcoming book, wrote that Trump told him that releasing aid to Ukraine hinged on that nation investigating his political opponent, former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

But Republican senators said this week, that notwithstanding, their votes won’t change, their minds are already made up and to hell with the truth.

Pennsylvania Republican senator Pat Toomey said he was “very, very skeptical” that hearing from witnesses would change his mind, even if that witness were to provide proof of quid pro quo.
For Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, president Trump can never be convicted, no matter what he has done.

“For the sake of argument, one could assume everything attributable to John Bolton is accurate and still the House case would fall well below the standards to remove a president from office,” Sen. Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement this week.

Other GOP senators have taken similar position in recent days.

Take for instance Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) who said this week that he does not “believe we need to hear from an 18th witness.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said the House of Representatives had already made its case and “additional witnesses are not necessary” while Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) warned is colleagues that calling witnesses would lead to a lot of people testifying, and that may be beneficial to Democrats.

Missouri senator Roy Blunt, a staunch Trump ally was even more, well blunt. “Unless there’s a witness that’s going to change the outcome, I can’t imagine why we’d want to stretch this out for weeks and months,” he said earlier this week.

The post Republicans Argue Against Witnesses in Trump Trial, Calling it a Waste of Time appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

Bolton who was fired by Trump last year after a disagreement is said to be coming out with a book.

New York Times reports that a draft of that book reveals Trump not only knew about the dealings with Ukraine, he linked releasing aid to Ukraine to investigations into former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

Trump’s legal team resume their defense of the president on Tuesday by simply choosing to ignore the new Bolton revelation or simply dismissing it as nothing new.

Republican senate leadership led by Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) downplayed the Bolton bombshell, even going as far as dismissing it altogether.

But a few GOP senators including Mitch Romney (R-Utah) said the new revelations changes the dynamics of the trial.

“I think it’s important for us to hear from John Bolton,” the senator from Utah said.

He said it is increasingly likely that he will vote to subpoena witnesses and documents, including calling John Bolton to testify.

I think it’s important for us to hear from John Bolton for us to be able to make an impartial judgment,” Romney told reporters.

Maine senator Susan Collins also issued a statement saying she was likely to vote for witnesses to be called to testify.

“The reports about John Bolton’s book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues,” she said.

Meanwhile Republican Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski reiterated her earlier statement that she was “curious” to learn what Bolton has to say.

Other Republican senators like John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) were quick to dismiss the whole development.

“Truly, there’s nothing new here. It does seem to be an effort to sell books,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told reporters on Monday.

“I want to know what’s in the manuscript, yeah, I think that’s important,” said Sen. Graham, adding “It could. I don’t know yet. The White House said there was no direct evidence of communications, maybe this suggests that one person said there might be.”

“What I’ve said all along is if you’re going to add to the record, we’re going to do it in a balanced way. So let’s see what’s in the manuscript, let’s see if it’s relevant, and if it is, then I’ll make a decision about Bolton,” said Graham. “But I promise you this— if we add to the record, then we’re going to call Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, all these other people,” Graham continued.

But Democrats say it is an uphill battle to convince Republicans to vote in favor of calling witnesses and more documents because of the enormous pressure exerted by Trump and GOP leaders.

“We know the pressure they’re under. President Trump does not brook criticism, dissent kindly among Republicans. But we’re hoping in this kind of solemn, serious, historic and constitutional proceeding that the weight of doing what’s right, the weight of getting all of the facts, will weigh heavily on the shoulders of enough Republicans so we can get a fair trial,” Schumer said.

The post Bolton Bombshell Upends Trump Senate Trial, GOP Continues Denial appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

The Republican Party is damaged but is it damaged beyond repair?

From healthcare and tax reform to climate change, Republicans are either in denial, unwilling or too scared, to do anything.

They can’t claim credit for the economy or job growth. Yes, I know Donald Trump will try to, but any claim falls in the face of reality. The economy recovered before Trump assumed office and he has done nothing to alter the course of the economy in any meaningful way.

Taking credit for good job numbers also appears hypocritical since the party on several occasions, accused Obama administration of manipulating the numbers when job growth picked up a few years ago.

To now turn around and accept the new job numbers just because a Republican is in the White House is disingenuous, to say the least. Perhaps Trump is manipulating the numbers now? Just thinking out loud.

Even Republicans know there is something fundamentally wrong with their party.

I am not a Republican. As you can probably tell, I am a Liberal so go ahead and scream at me all you want but even you have to admit something is terribly wrong with the Republican Party.

Republicans control the White House and U.S. Senate. They control most state houses and local government offices, yet can’t get anything done.

Granted, Trump is incompetent and it is easy to argue that he is a businessman and not a politician, so he may not fully appreciate how the U.S. government works.

That’s fine. Argue that if it makes you happy.

I’m even willing to grudgingly grant you that perhaps that is why he is flailing. But what do you say about the Mitch McConnell led Senate?

Can you argue that Sen. McConnell (R-KY) lack experience too?

Against Barack Obama, it was easy to be in opposition. All the GOP had to do was stand firm and say ‘No” to everything, just like they did.

Sen. McConnell was famously quoted during a National Review interview with Major Garrett on Oct. 29, 2010 as saying: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

And it worked amazingly well for them too, even though he failed in that singular mission.

What is clearly harder is figuring out a way to govern.

Today, I’d like to delve into what I believe is really going on with the party and why it seems impossible for them to get their footing on major issues of importance to Americans.

In his analysis of the Republican Party, Michael Grunwald published a Time Magazine article about the “reality-defying extremism and chronic obstructionism and borderline surrealism of the modern Republican Party,”

He wrote that the party was on a “journey to wackadoodleland.”

OK. I will not be that hard on the GOP but he was right.

He stated aptly that the biggest problem facing the party was that America had moved on from the GOP.

“The party can adapt to an electorate that is getting less demographically Republican (more diverse, less rural, more educated, less evangelical) as well as less ideologically Republican (less hostile to gays, gun control, and government),” he continued.

He concluded that “the main problem is the product. It’s outdated and it’s bogus.”

Before you light your pants on fire, consider this: Republicans control everything.

Everything!

Over the years the Republican Party has gone from a party with solid principles to a party of excuses.

Go back a few years and you will see how the excuses have evolved…but they are excuses all the same.

In 2009, they complained that they were handicapped because they were not in control of the House of Representatives. They argued that given the opportunity, they could do better than Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare.

Americans believed them and gave them control of the House. They then said they needed to control the U.S. Senate to accomplish anything. So voters gave them control of the U.S. Senate as well.

Still they could not accomplish anything meaningful besides stopping women from having control over their bodies and what to do with them, and casting over sixty five meaningless votes to repeal Obamacare.

In 2016, voters not only gave them the House and Senate, they gave them the White House. And what did they accomplished ? Nothing.

Yes. Nada.

So the voters took away the House of Representatives from them.

What is their excuse now? The said they need filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Does that look like an excuse to you? You are right. It is just an excuse, a way to cover their inability to move legislation through Congress dominated by their caucus.

Are Republican voters being conned by their leaders? You bet.

The Republican Party of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell has become a party afraid to tell the truth. They have become a party willing to lie, call everything fake news, look the other way and act as if reality isn’t reality, just to win elections.

Earlier when it became obvious that Trump may not be up to the job he was elected to do, GOP leaders refused to admit the truth.

Go back to after Michael Flynn was fired by Trump for “lying” to Vice President Pence, who himself has been found to have lied about not knowing anything about Michael Flynn despite being told about Flynn numerous times, House Speaker Paul Ryan said he was not interested in the truth.

“I don’t worry about things that are outside my control,” he was quoted as saying when reporters confronted him about Flynn.

After former FBI director James Comey was unceremoniously dismissed by President Trump, Republican leaders again punted on taking action.

“We need to wait to get all the facts,” was their response even when it was obvious that Trump’s action may have obstructed justice.

It is easy to dismiss all these as inconsequential.

What is painfully clear watching Republicans bury their heads in the sand is that they are either unable, unwilling or worse, afraid, to perform their constitutional duties in the face of Trump’s apparent cognitive issues and the president’s willingness to subject the country to the will and control of a foreign hostile power – Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

As a Republican, I know you can’t wait to scream at me or call me all kinds of names. Good. Consider this: If Barack Obama were half as stupid, incompetent and moronic as Trump, can you honestly tell me you will not be screaming for his head?

Be honest. Or is that too far above you?

Do you honestly believe Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell, Devin Nunes or other Republican elected officials would stand by and not attempt to impeach him?

If you are honest, you know the answer to that question.

Trump is a liar. He lies about anything and everything. He was even caught lying about the Boys Scout.

What was the reaction of GOP leaders? Yawn!

The Republican Party can’t move healthcare bill, have not done the infrastructure bill they promised Americans. All they have done is give away billions of tax payer dollars to the rich.

Trump does not have accomplishments in office besides thousands of useless tweets.

Should American be worried that a party that can’t seem to get its bearing controls levers of U.S. government? You bet. At this rate, nothing will get done and Americans will be worse for it.

Don’t let anyone fool you. The Republican Party is irreparably damaged. But that is not the scariest part.

The Party has not idea how to fix itself. Now, that is scary!

Let’s hope they wake up soon.

You may not agree with the opinion stated here. That is fine. Just state your opinion below and tell me why you disagree. Be civil about it. We are all adults, after all.

The post Is The Republican Party Damaged Beyond Repair? appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

Asked by the media if Trump committed a crime, Ohio senator Rob Portman said he believed what Trump did in regards to withholding aid to Ukraine and asking that country to investigate his political opponent, was wrong but he could not see why he should be removed from office.

“Some of the things that were done were not appropriate… but that’s a very different question than removing someone from office who was duly elected in the middle of a presidential election,” Sen. Portman said.

Other Republican senators simply want to end the trial as quickly as possible. Texas senator John Cornyn said extending the trial will stall everything else in the U.S. Senate.

“There’d be nothing else we could do in the interim. It would basically hijack the senate. In the meantime, the Senate can’t do anything else; we can’t confirm judges, we can’t have hearings, we can’t even introduce legislation.”

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming argued that he would hear it from his constituents at home if he allows the trial to continue.

“Every day we spend doing this, we’re not doing — I’m a doctor. I want to lower the cost of insulin. I want to deal with this surprise medical billings issue. … But because we’re stuck with this, and the longer you are going, and the longer you’re dealing with witnesses, the harder it is to get to the things that I hear about in Wyoming.”

But Democrat House Manager Adam Schiff of California reminded the Republican senators what is at stake in the trial.

Truth. And right.

“If right doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter how good the Constitution is. It doesn’t matter how brilliant the framers were. It doesn’t matter how good or bad our advocacy in this trial is,” Schiff said. “If right doesn’t matter, we’re lost. If the truth doesn’t matter, we’re lost.”

The post GOP Senators: Yes, What Trump Did was Wrong. So What? appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

Take the trial of president Donald Trump. To say Sen. Graham has flip-flopped is to be kind to him.

He has become Trump’s lap dog.

He said last month that he had made up his mind on the impeachment proceedings and he did not want to see any witnesses. But in 1999 during the impeachment and trial of president Bill Clinton, Sen. Graham wanted every witness to get the chance to testify.

Speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation” in December, Graham said “I think what’s best for the country is to get this thing over with. I have clearly made up my mind. I’m not trying to hide the fact that I have disdain for the accusations in the process.”

“What you’re doing in the House is bad for the presidency. You’re impeaching the president of the United States in a matter of weeks, not months. I want to end it. I don’t want to legitimize it. I hate what they’re doing.”

“I want to end it. I have nothing but disdain for this.”

That was Graham in 2019.

This was Graham in 1999. He was a House Manager during the trial of president Bill Clinton.

“In every trial that there’s ever been in the Senate regarding impeachment, witnesses were called.”

He told the nation that if witnesses were prevented from testifying in 1999, it would leave all the work up to the House Judiciary Committee prior to the trial in the senate.

Graham said the “big problem” with that was that “impeachment in the House is not the trial. The trial takes place in the Senate, and without witnesses, the House won’t be able to present its case.”

“That would be bad for impeachment law, that would be against precedent and I hope that doesn’t happen here,” he said in 1999.

He characterized witness-free impeachment as “three days of lawyers talking to each other.”

“When you have a witness who was there, who was engaged in it, who was in the middle of it, telling you about what they were doing and why, that’s a totally different case ― and it’s the difference between getting the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

He added that “the process is just as important as the result.”

What changed? Two things. In 1999 it was a Democrat being impeached by the Republicans. In 2020 it is a Republican being impeached and tried, and Lindsey Graham has become a lap dog to Donald Trump, incapable of telling the truth.

The post With Lindsey Graham in Charge, Who Gives a Damn About the Truth? appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.