WTF Community

Day 666

General Discussion
#1

Updated 11/16/2018 11:54 AM PST

1/ Trump said he answered Robert Mueller's written questions himself "very easily," but he hasn't submitted them because "you have to always be careful when you answer questions with people that probably have bad intentions." Rudy Giuliani said there are at least two dozen questions that relate to activities and episodes from before Trump's election. Trump spent more than five hours in meeting over three days this week with his attorneys working out written answers for Mueller about alleged collusion between his campaign and Russia in the 2016 campaign. Despite telling reporters that "the questions were very routinely answered by me," Trump's temper boiled during all three meetings. Seemingly out of nowhere, Trump targeted Mueller on Twitter yesterday, calling the special counsel team "thugs" and the investigation a "witch hunt." (Associated Press / Reuters / CNN / Washington Post)

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/11/16/day-666/
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#2

The conclusion of that piece was notable.

A third of white evangelicals who support Trump, Mr. Jones said, indicated there was virtually nothing the president could do to shake their trust — which theoretically includes selecting a new running mate.

“At the end of the day evangelicals have become sold not just on Pence but on Trump himself,” Mr. Jones said.

The better question to ask — is Trump loyal to Mike Pence? If Trump no longer needs Pence to win the Christian Right, would he keep him on the 2020 Ticket? My gut reaction is no. What do you guys think?

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#3

The Republican party, once again, poses the question, “How low can you go?”

The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, in its final days in power, is planning to issue subpoenas to former FBI Director James Comey and President Barack Obama’s attorney general Loretta Lynch, according to a source with knowledge of the subpoenas.

The source said the committee chairman, Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, plans to issue the subpoenas on Monday for Comey to appear for a closed-door deposition on November 29 and for Lynch to appear on December 5. The interviews are part of the House Republican investigation into the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email probe and the Russia investigation.

Comey’s lawyer, David Kelley, told CNN on Friday that, “We have not heard from them since October 1 when we advised the Committees (Judiciary and Oversight and Reform) that, while we respectfully declined their invitation for a closed door interview, we would welcome the opportunity to testify in a public hearing.”

Comey has previously rejected the committee’s request for him to appear privately before the GOP-led inquiry, saying he would rather testify publicly instead.

Pure grandstanding by the GOP. Comey has already told them he’d be happy to testify in an open hearing. Why are they so afraid of public testimony?

If it’s raining on Nov. 29, I think Comey should follow Trump’s precedent and stay home. :wink:

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#7

These are the breadcrumbs that we ARE LOOKING for…sealed indictments. We know that the press are watching all court filings like hawks, and they have noted that there are many DOZEN unknown sealed indictments.

They may rain down soon… H e r e ’ s T o H o p i n g! :man_dancing::statue_of_liberty::boom:

More than three dozen sealed criminal indictments have been added to the federal court docket in Washington, D.C. since the start of 2018.

Sealed criminal court files are assigned a case number, but do not indicate the identity of the parties or the nature of the charges, so it is impossible for the public to discern what those sealed cases contain.

But several legal experts told ABC News the number of sealed cases awaiting action right now is unusual. Fourteen were added to the docket since late August alone, a review by ABC News has found, just as the midterm elections were drawing near and longstanding Justice Department policy precluded prosecutors from taking any public action that could appear to be aimed at influencing political outcomes.

And the inadvertent discovery on Thursday night of what appear to be secret charges pending against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has drawn fresh attention to the mystery. Legal experts told ABC News that the sealed cases could be tied to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and possibly part of a quiet effort to protect his investigation from any premature effort to shut it down.

“I assume that Mueller knew that once the election was over, there could be an existential threat to his investigation,” said Matthew Miller, a former senior Justice official under former Attorney General Eric Holder. “He knew the best thing to do was act before that.”

…

Mueller has used a sealed indictment before. The case against unpaid Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos remained a secret for three months before charges of lying to investigators were eventually made public in October 2017. Only then, after Mueller’s team secured a cooperation agreement, did the public learn the one-time foreign policy advisor would be the first from Trump’s campaign to plead guilty in the probe.

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#8

@Pet_Proletariat and @dragonfly9
Hi. I’m finding this discussion very interesting but I’m not sure why T would be asking about Mike Pence’s loyalty. IMHO Trump is only loyal to himself, so from his perspective he must doubt everyone else.
As an aside Mike Pence has just been to the ASEAN conference in Singapore which represents about 1/3 of the world’s population… and there he asked to sit next to our PM at the formal dinner! Which raised eyebrows here :wink: - but in fact it ended up your 2nd Lady sat next to Jacinda.


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#9

I agree with your humble opinion and in fact, I think you nailed it. :dart:

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#10

Of course there might also be a completely different reason - today being 666 days of his “presidency” - and in which case who the devil knows what it is all about.:smiling_imp:

#11

He even wrote the answers himself and didn’t have his lawyers write it!


I suppose just like he wrote his doctor’s report! :slight_smile:
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#12

WTF

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#14

Quite true, he doesn’t seem to show any interest in expanding that base either. After all the horrible policy and rhetoric directed at liberals I’m not sure he could expand his base even if he wanted.

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#15

We don’t have any direct proof, but there is strong circumstantial evidence that Pence, while head of Trump’s Transition Team, participated in covering up Flynn’s secret payments from Turkey – and then despite his knowledge of Flynn’s crimes, vetted him for an appointment as National Security Advisor, the highest security post in the land. That would make Pence an accessory. If Flynn has flipped on Pence, Pence in turn, may flip on the President. At least this is one possible explanation for Trump’s sudden concern for Pence’s loyalty.

Here’s an article from March, 2017, explaining the allegations that were somehow swept under the carpet.

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#16

Everyone of these guys in the Admin. hand dirty hands with Russian involvement; back channels, wanting a back channel, working for Russian’s in Cyprus - Wilbur Ross… I don’t know if they thought much about getting caught. Also, when we remember summer and fall of this year and the Congressional weirdness going after the FBI and others, I think there are are quite a few GOP taking Russian money.
How about the Paul Ryan’s statement"of being a family, we don’t leak" in response to who was taking Russian money and how there should be no “leaking” response to Kevin McCarthy’s statement that he thought “the Kremlin was paying Trump & Rohrabacher”. A joke? Or more about taking care of leaking?
**(NYT 11/21/17)" For two decades, Representative Dana Rohrabacher has been of value to the Kremlin, so valuable in recent years that the F.B.I. warned him in 2012 that Russia regarded him as an intelligence source worthy of a Kremlin code name. " Thank goodness he is gone. Still after SCOTUS ruling of Citizens United…and PAC money from Russians to McConnell of $2.5M/2016 election (Dallas news source) makes you wonder how many are really dirty and how easy is it has been to lie in plan sight.

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#17

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#4

My wishful thinking is that there will be some kind of shake up regarding Mueller’s investigation and maybe there could be some indictments coming up for many of the T’s, and/or Pence. Wishful I say.

But the reality of it is, I believe T will continue to play his base as he has, and if T/Pence is the winning ticket, then keep it that way. If they both as a team get to keep the evangelicals, then they will lock that down.

I do think you are right about T’s sense of loyalty. Pence is only in the operation I believe to be put into the #1 spot and to keep Mother happy. :persevere:

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#5

If evangelicals are voting in lock step with Trump regardless of his running mate, I think it’s quite possible for Trump to change the ticket in 2020. Clearly this man is willing to do anything to remain president. Maybe Trump is just nervous about the investigation. It’s so hard to tell if Trump is acting extra weird since he’s such a fringe character to begin with.

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#6

Yes, he could change it up.
But Pence is from rock-solid conservative, RELIGIOUS Indiana…and an asset.

IMHO
His instability and his boiling-over-rage of the last few days relate to being painted into a corner (by Mueller’s questions, loss in the midterms) I believe. T having to deal with the fact-finding press who the pundits are calling his ‘hate objects’ gets at his craw…(One former prosecutor said that a mob-type bosses gets truly indignant when asked even the smallest question, and that’s a tell to their guilt.)

I believe T’s fantasy running mate would be Ivanka. She can do anything!

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#13

There are at least 20-25% of evangelicals that did not want Trump/Pence…might have to check out VICE news to learn about that but just like the movement of blues and the votes achieved in the last elections I think Trump has reached the peak of his popularity. I doubt he will get the ticket for 2020 and I believe either a primary from GOP or a third party is possible. He could not win with his current approval and I do not see a resurgency possible.

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