The Trump Presidency - how I stopped worrying and learned to love the Hair

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/31/trump-impeachment-senators-donor-062084

Trump lures GOP senators on impeachment with cold cash

President Donald Trump is rewarding senators who have his back on impeachment — and sending a message to those who don't to get on board.
Trump is tapping his vast fundraising network for a handful of loyal senators facing tough reelection bids in 2020. Each of them has signed onto a Republican-backed resolution condemning the inquiry as “unprecedented and undemocratic.”

Conspicuously absent from the group is Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a politically vulnerable Republican who’s refused to support the resolution and avoided taking a stance on impeachment. With his new push, Trump is exerting leverage over a group he badly needs in his corner with an impeachment trial likely coming soon to the Senate — but that also needs him.

Republican senators on the ballot next year are lagging in fundraising, stoking uncertainty about the GOP’s hold on the chamber, and could use the fundraising might of the president. Trump’s political operation has raked in over $300 million this year.
On Wednesday, the Trump reelection campaign sent a fundraising appeal to its massive email list urging donors to provide a contribution that would be divided between the president and Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis. Each of the senators are supporting the anti-impeachment resolution despite being endangered in 2020.
“If we don’t post strong fundraising numbers,” the message warned, “we won't be able to defend the President from this baseless Impeachment WITCH HUNT.”
Next week, Trump will lend a hand to Georgia Sen. David Perdue, a staunch ally who has also spoken out against impeachment. On Nov. 8, the president will host an Atlanta fundraising lunch that will jointly benefit his campaign, the Republican National Committee, and Perdue’s reelection effort. Attendees are being asked to give up to $100,000, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO.

Trump is also set to appear next week at a reception for Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC closely aligned with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and party leadership.

The offensive comes as Trump presses Republicans to remain united behind him. During a cabinet meeting last week, the president implored Republicans to “get tougher and fight” while lamenting that Democrats “stick together. You never see them break off.”

The president is looking to buck up senators coming under mounting pressure on impeachment. Gardner, who is widely seen as the most jeopardized Republican incumbent up for reelection, faced criticism earlier this month after he dodged questions about Trump’s conduct. Ernst was confronted at a town hall over her support for the president. This week, a liberal group began a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign pushing both Republican senators to support impeachment.

The new online fundraising drive bypassed Collins, an occasional Trump critic who called on the president to retract his tweet comparing the impeachment investigation to a “lynching.” Collins also said Trump made a “ big mistake” in asking China to investigate the Biden family.

The Maine senator has avoided taking a position on impeachment because, she says, as a juror in a prospective Senate trial she doesn't want to "prejudge" the proceedings.

Arizona Sen. Martha McSally, another vulnerable Republican facing reelection, was also omitted, though apparently for a different reason. While McSally signed onto the anti-impeachment resolution, she has frustrated Republican officials over her reluctance to exclusively use WinRed, a Trump-endorsed online fundraising tool. Party officials are trying to turn WinRed into a centralized hub of small-donor giving ahead of the 2020 election and used the platform to send out Trump’s appeal for the three senators.

Collins and McSally are missing out on a potential windfall after they were both outraised by their Democratic rivals during the third quarter of the year. McSally's Democratic opponent, former astronaut Mark Kelly, has raked in $5 million more than her over the course of the year.

McSally's campaign declined to comment, and a spokesperson for Collins did not respond.

Mike Reed, a Republican National Committee spokesman, said Wednesday’s appeal from the Trump campaign brought in "six figures" over the course of the day. "Our supporters stand totally behind President Trump and are eager to support down-ballot candidates who do the same," he said.

Party officials said there are likely to be additional Trump-led digital fundraising efforts for senators and that those who weren't included in this wave could be in a later one.

The president has been a fundraising boon for Republican senators. Earlier this month, Texas Sen. John Cornyn sent out an appeal to donors that prominently featured an image of Trump flashing a thumbs-up. The plea asked givers to “Show President Trump you have his back!” and invited them to split their donations between the president and Cornyn’s reelection campaigns.

The Texas senator tweeted afterward that his campaign “had its biggest online fundraising day ever."

“The donors listen to the president, and he has the most capacity to energize small-dollar contributions by making the case that he needs a Senate majority to be successful,” said Scott Jennings, a former political aide in the George W. Bush White House.

Trump’s interest in assisting down-ballot candidates has heartened Republican strategists who worry that the 2020 election is turning out to be a re-run of the disastrous 2018 midterms, when GOP candidates were vastly out-raised. The hope is that Trump can harness his massive small-donor network to help Republican senators, who are trying to protect a narrow majority.

“The hard lessons from 2018 were that elections have consequences and it is the president’s party now,” said Scott Reed, the senior political strategist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Trump, Reed added, “has the ability to turn on the money spigot like no one else.”

"Support me or you don't get RNC backing" Huh, sounds pretty similar to "Read this script about investigating my political rival or no military aid."

Anyone else notice the irony of bitching about Republicans not sticking together while also carving off Republicans to not get support?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabel...fending-him-against-impeachment/#2c7082d53eb5

Trump Accused Of Bribery After Urging Donors To Support Senators Defending Him Against Impeachment

Topline: President Donald Trump—who is facing a formal impeachment inquiry in the House—has leveraged his fundraising network to boost the campaigns of struggling Republican senators who have signed a resolution condemning impeachment proceedings, in a move that one former White House lawyer has suggested is “felony bribery.”
  • Politico reported that on Wednesday, Trump’s reelection campaign contacted its long email list of donors to ask for contribution that would be divvied up between him and senators Cory Gardner, Joni Ernst, and Tom Tillis.
  • The message, on Republican fundraising platform Winred, reads: “If we don’t post strong fundraising numbers, we won’t be able to defend the president from the baseless Impeachment WITCH HUNT!”
  • Trump is also set to attend and support fundraising events for Republican senators seeking reelection, including a fundraising lunch for Senator David Perdue in Atlanta next week, at which those attending are asked to donate up to $100,000, according to Politico.
  • Some 36 senators, including Perdue, Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell, signed the resolution, which can be read here.
Chief critic: Richard Painter, who served as George Bush’s top ethics lawyer, accused Trump of bribery. He tweeted, along with a link to the Politico story: “Any other American who offered cash to the jury before a trial would go to prison for felony bribery. But he can get away with it? Criminal.”

Key background: Senators facing tough reelection bids—and lagging funds—are looking to Trump, whose 2020 campaign has raised $308 million so far this year, for help to boost their fortunes. Trump has been calling on those in his party to put up a united front against impeachment efforts, telling his cabinet earlier this month that Republicans should “get tougher and fight.” Using the Democrats and outspoken Republican critic Mitt Romney as an example, he added: “[The Democrats] don’t have Mitt Romney in their midst. They don’t have people like that. They stick together. You never see them break off.”

Tangent: Lawmakers in the House have passed a resolution to proceed with the impeachment inquiry against Trump, meaning it will now progress to public hearings. Whereas House speakers do not usually vote, Nancy Pelosi cast a vote, while Trump struck a consistent tone, tweeting soon after the result: “The greatest witch hunt in American history.”
 
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Trump's thoughts for the day.



 
He sounds like a 4th grader whining about getting grounded. He keeps saying it's the "greatest witch hunt in American history", I'm guessing he doesn't know that we had actual witch hunts.
 
Curious where @LeVeL and @Prizak are these days?

Do you feel the process is now legitimate?

Has any of the new information changed your minds?

Has any information swayed you in the slightest?
 
Curious where @LeVeL and @Prizak are these days?

Do you feel the process is now legitimate?

Has any of the new information changed your minds?

Has any information swayed you in the slightest?
I’m waiting for all the info to come out, at this point it’s all very partisan and up in the air
 
Vindman: Trump-Ukraine Call Record Omitted Biden-Related Mentions


This nuts!!!

Parnas Associations Range From Russian Mob To Trump Legal Team | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC


More Signs Of A Slow Economy Emerge This Week
 
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Curious where @LeVeL and @Prizak are these days?

Do you feel the process is now legitimate?

Has any of the new information changed your minds?

Has any information swayed you in the slightest?
It was never illegitimate. The GOP position that there needed to be a vote before an investigation is bullshit, the inquiry is following the rules the GOP set when they had the majority. The false cries of "no due process" are meaningless, it would be the same as saying that a person who is being investigated but has not been arraigned is not getting due process - see haven't even had the arraignment, let alone a trial.

Trump will get his due process, what he and the GOP want is to circumvent due process and go straight to a "not guilty" verdict without a trial.
 
I think you need to be looking at some different news sources and not the cherry picked stuff Fox tells you about.
 
I’m waiting for all the info to come out, at this point it’s all very partisan and up in the air

This is a bit weak. I am not asking for a verdict, just a thought or two on where things are.

Avoiding this dumpster fire. We've been at this for years now and it's gotten downright nasty and we're never going to agree on anything, so why even bother anymore? I'd rather sit back and laugh my ass off at the mainstream media losing their shit over a dog meme :roflmao:

I mean your thoughts, not where you've been.


It was never illegitimate. The GOP position that there needed to be a vote before an investigation is bullshit, the inquiry is following the rules the GOP set when they had the majority. The false cries of "no due process" are meaningless, it would be the same as saying that a person who is being investigated but has not been arraigned is not getting due process - see haven't even had the arraignment, let alone a trial.

Trump will get his due process, what he and the GOP want is to circumvent due process and go straight to a "not guilty" verdict without a trial.

I know what the GOP thinks. They have a one track mind that they were given a script to memorize. The problem is that the White House keeps sending the email to Democrats too, so everyone knows what they think before they say it.
 
This is a bit weak. I am not asking for a verdict, just a thought or two on where things are.
Honestly I haven't been following it that much, however...
Do you feel the process is now legitimate?
I didn't think it was illegitimate before, the House hasn't actually broken any rules as far as I understand. I don't think that starting an inquiry without a vote is a right thing, but then I can say the same about a lot of things that go on in government.
Has any of the new information changed your minds?

Has any information swayed you in the slightest?
To those two the answer is above:
I haven't been following much and I will wait for what is actually determined.

P.S. I also generally don't know what normal conduct for foreign policy is.
 
Typically foreign policy is between states and not being conducted for the benefit of a particular person or party. We have to keep reminding ourselves that this is not normal, Trump's presidency is unprecedented in so many ways I've honestly lost track; if we allow ourselves to believe that this is normal or acceptable, we will end up doing this again and again (this isn't a party-specific prediction, not holding Trump accountable will open the door to an equally corrupt opponent in the future).
 
 
 
 
Apparently in a bid to normalize his behavior, Trump has frozen military aid to Lebanon against the wishes of Congress and the Pentagon.

Either it's another quid pro quo, or Trump's team is trying to show this is "business as usual" after the fact.
 
The big, strong, beautiful wall is being cut up by the bad guys...

 
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