Yes, it was a bad few days for the Trump White House late this past week.
First of all, Roger Stone, a former member of the Trump campaign, and a man who actually has a tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back, is heading to jail. It is ironic, in many levels, as some have jokingly speculated that, in that regard, Nixon is finally heading to jail, through Stone. Also, Stone was one of those who enthusiastically championed the cause of Hillary Clinton being locked up. Now, he is the one being locked up.
Of course, Trump expressed outrage in typical fashion, claiming this was a travesty of justice unlike anything this country has ever seen before.
Right.
Moving right along…
Former Ukrainian diplomat Marie Yovanovitch testified before Congress on Friday. By the time she was done, she was given a standing ovation by just about everyone present, including Republicans. She was even praised by many Republicans present, even though it was widely known that Trump himself would be watching.
And of course, none of what she discussed was friendly to Donald Trump and his style of ruling. She stated that she was forced out of her position as American diplomat for the Ukraine earlier this year as a result of a smear campaign orchestrated by none other than Rudy Giuliani.
Of course, Trump could not keep his big fat mouth shut for a minute regarding this, either, and he tweeted an attack of Ms. Yovanovitch which did not fail to get wide notice, of course. Yovanovitch herself felt that these tweets were very intimidating, and Democrats blasted the president for trying to tampering with a witness. Even some political allies of Trump were very critical, including FOX News host Bret Baier and former head of the Clinton investigation Kenneth Starr, who suggested that Trump showed “extraordinarily poor judgement.” Here is more of what he said:
“The president was not advised by counsel in deciding to do this tweet,” Mr Starr said. “Extraordinarily poor judgment… Obviously this was quite injurious.”
As for Baier, he stated:
“This whole hearing turned on a dime when the president tweeted about her real-time, and during the questioning Adam Schiff stopped the Democratic questioning to read the president’s tweet to her, and get her response,” Mr Baier said. “Now that enabled Schiff to then characterise that tweet as intimidating the witness or tampering the witness, which is a crime. Adding, essentially, an article of impeachment real-time as this hearing was going on.
“That changed this entire dynamic of this first part of this hearing and Republicans now are going to have to take the rest of this hearing to probably try to clean that up.”
Trump defended himself, claiming that he can say what he likes because, like everybody else, he has freedom of speech. Yet, even many Republicans are blasting his decision to attack via tweet someone in such a way that it amounts to witness tampering. There are things that people can get away with and things that they cannot get away with. It really is rather extraordinary that this particular president cannot help himself but to continually engage in behavior where he shoots himself in the foot, and hurts his own credibility.
But not as extraordinary as the fact that, to this point, he keeps getting away with it.
Here is just a little bit more from the article (see link below):
Donald Trump’s tweets attacking Marie Yovanovitch during her powerful testimony before the House impeachment inquiry has turned into a lightning rod of the hearings — and even some prominent conservative sources have slammed the president’s comments.
The tweet was highlighted by House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, who asked Ms Yovanovitch what she thought of him saying that “everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad”, before attacking her decades of experience.
“Very intimidating,” Ms Yovanovitch said of the tweet.
Here is the link to the article that I used in writing this particular blog entry:
'He essentially added an article of impeachment in real-time': Trump criticised by Fox News and Ken Starr for attacking Yovanovitch during hearing 'This whole hearing turned on a dime when the president tweeted about her real-time' By Clark Mindock, November 15, 2019:
I wonder if anyone ever attempted to explain to Highly Stable Genius that freedom of speech and freedom from consequences are two distinct things? Not that it would make a difference – nothing he doesn't want to hear ever gets through anyway.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot riding on this. Either he'll finally get his long overdue comeuppance, or the rule of law in this country will feel like even more of a museum piece than it already does.
Good commentary. This pretty much sums up what's at stake for the country. Let's hope he finally get what's coming to him. Otherwise, the democracy that everyone keeps claiming is so strong proved not to be strong enough to stand the test when the first real tyrant came to power. If nothing comes of this, he will feel more emboldened to abuse power than ever before and - an even more frightening thought - so will his supporters.
DeleteGood article who show Trump just can stop being stupid even for a minute, he needs to make it loudly clear so we all can understand it.
ReplyDeleteWell, hopefully this will finally work against him, even if it has only gone in his favor to this point. Maybe with the weight of his momentum, he simply will go too far and will not be able to stop himself, and fall on his own sword. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Let us hope that, at the very least, he loses his presidency, and that his legacy is forever afterward tainted.
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