The Big Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –
WASHINGTON, D.C. — It’s been obvious for two years that Donald Trump had no business being president of the United States. He’s clearly corrupt, an autocratic character who aspires to be an anti-democratic dictator like Russia’s Putin.
But I guess in this crazy world, you have to say it over and over again and keep piling up the evidence against him to convince more and more of the American people to get onboard the #Impeach45 train.
Two significant developments came down on Tuesday that should begin to overcome Trump’s lies on the campaign trail where he is still calling the special counsel’s investigation a “witch hunt” with no proof of “collusion.”
First, the guy who ran Trump’s campaign for president, Paul Manafort, was convicted by a Virginia jury of eight counts of financial wrongdoing, giving Special Counsel Robert Mueller a court victory in the first trial arising from his investigation of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.
Then, Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen testified that Trump had directed him to commit a crime by arranging payments ahead of the 2016 presidential election to silence two women who said they had affairs with Trump.
“The president of the United States has been accused of felony campaign finance violations by his former personal attorney,” Berkeley professor Robert Reich said on Facebook. “Let that sink in.”
According to NBC News, out of all the news from Tuesday, “this development could prove to be the most damning for Trump.”
Cohen admitting he paid off two women in order to keep them quiet about their affairs with Trump and said explicitly that Trump directed him to make the payments — during the presidential campaign, a conspiracy and a coverup that continues with Trump in the White House.
“Is this the beginning the end? Cohen’s plea is significant because it is the first allegation of criminal activity against Trump made by one of his associates,” Reich said. “If this isn’t grounds for impeachment, I don’t know what is.”
NBC says there “hasn’t been a darker moment for a president — or for the presidency — since Richard Nixon resigned on the verge of impeachment in 1974.”
Even conservative New York Times columnist Bret Stephens said that Michael Cohen’s guilty plea indicates that President Trump is “clearly guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors,” and “should resign his office or be impeached and removed from office.”
Of course I’ve been saying that for a very long time. Maybe more people will listen now and Trump’s public support will begin to dissipate. One can only hope. Trump is the worst president by far in my lifetime, even worse than George W. Bush by a long-shot.
His character is so low he deserves to be called a “low-life,” like he said recently about a former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman who wrote a book about her time in the White House and claimed to have heard tapes in which Trump used the N-word.
Some white men who vote Republican on the basis of the economy and low taxes will continue to support Trump. I’ve had conversations with two in the past week who will still say things like: “But he is good for the economy. Does that not count for anything anymore?”
But former Republican Congressman and MSNBC talk show host Joe Scarborough says the credit for the good news on the economy should go to former President Barack Obama, not Trump.
Job growth has been strong under Trump, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent in July, according to government numbers released on Friday.
“Yeah, it’s a strong economy,” Scarborough told “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski. “But Mika, this is not an economy that Donald Trump gave us. This is an economy that’s part of the seven year ongoing recovery.”
Scarborough also said this “isn’t the greatest economy ever,” it “isn’t close to the greatest economy ever.”
“Barack Obama had more people getting jobs his last 16 or 18 months than they had jobs during Donald Trump’s first 16 or 18 months,” he said.
I’ve already said that too, but maybe it takes someone with conservative, Republican credentials saying it on TV for people to get it.
Trump has to go. Let’s get on with it.
Let the reality show begin. Let’s put Trump on trial for real in the U.S. Senate. Now that’s a show I would love to cover — and watch.
I’ve got my Senate Gallery Passes. You?
Talk about the “trial of the century.” That’s what all the news outfits will call it. It will be great for TV news ratings, and maybe even newspaper circulation. Almost as good as them colluding to get him elected in the first place.
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Are ALL republicans on the take, or what? Nixon was impeached by his own party for much less damaging crimes than the serial, treasonous misdeeds of the orange tweeter.
Rowland: I think today’s Republicans are essentially cowards. No matter what you thought of Barry Goldwater’s politics, he was not a coward or dishonest. No one like him among GOP senators today. Goldwater was one of the senators who went over and told Nixon to get out. Can you imagine McConnell doing that? I can’t either.
I am currently in AZ where many Trumpies turned on John McCain and now support Sheriff Joe “the toughest lawman in America” (Arpaio’s own words) to be appointed to the now vacant senate seat. The vast majority of people I have spoken to here know little to nothing about the special council-except that he is a DEMOCRATIC hack (where do they come up with these “facts”) and that The Donald has made America “great” again. “Everybody in American has benefited from the Trump presidency” a man told me at a local supermarket…when I asked what he did, he actually told me “well at the current time I am homeless…” And this is Trump’s America 2018.