Chuck Todd mentioned the two realities at play right now, what sixty percent of the country believes to be the facts versus what the other forty percent believes. No matter how you slice that up, one thing is overwhelmingly evident.. ah, true, and that is that Donald Trump is unfit to be president of the United States.
O. Kay Henderson, News Director at Radio Iowa, said that Republican voters went through the entire Russia investigation and there were no consequences for the president for his asking Russia for help in the election and then the obstruction that followed, and now what's happening with the president and his surrogates pressuring Ukraine, leaves them asking, "this again?"
Yes, this again...
And why? Because Donald Trump knows that the Republican-controlled Senate will let him get away with it by looking the other way, remaining silent, or dismissing it as "Trump being Trump." That last bit is most dangerous for U.S. democracy then people realize and today's panel trivialized it because if Trump loses the election next year but refuses to leave office because he says it is rigged, is that just Trump being Trump? If the president uses information that China provided him to win the election, is that Trump just being Trump?
The president, being transactional by nature, is putting up the for sale sign on American democracy. He's sent his sales people - Rudy Giuliani, William Barr and Mike Pompeo - out to solicit purchases of the president's corrupt intent. His statements this week on the south lawn asking Ukraine and China to investigate Joe Biden are impeachable. When you see a video clip of Marco Rubio (R-FL) saying that the president may just be trying to get a 'rise' out of the press for saying what he said, what he's really telling you is that the president's words don't matter.
But here's the rub, they do. When the president makes a statement about the trade war with China, which is causing a global recession by the way, the markets move. When the president says that he believes Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence community, you get idiot Senators like Ron Johnson (R-WI) being unwilling to confirm as to whether he trusts CIA or the FBI.
Speaking of Mr. Johnson, his appearance today on "Meet The Press" was disgraceful and unworthy of the office he holds. From the outset he was defensive and practically yelling at Mr. Todd. He denigrated the FBI, CIA, the press and fmr. CIA Director John Brennan, personally. He said he wasn't defending the president nor criticizing him and that he just wanted to get to the truth, but that is is the farthest thing from what he wants. What he really wants is to hold onto his office, and speaking out against this president will cost him his seat. Mr. Brennan was correct when he said that the Wisconsin senator was running scared. Mr. Johnson said that when he confronted the president about the Ukraine call, Mr. Trump denied it and he believed him. Vladimir Putin denied it too. As fmr. under-secretary of state, Rick Stengel, explained, every answer that Mr. Johnson gave was a classic Russian disinformation tactic of 'whataboutism.'
Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) called what the president did this week appalling, and Mr. Trump tweeted that Mr. Romney should be impeached. That's how little the president knows about the law, Senators can not be impeached. And then you have people like Rich Lowry, who is not a conservative but a shill whose magazine relies on Republican contributions to maintain itself, not caring about the law. He said that it is wrong for the president to solicit a foreign government to investigate a political opponent but that it's not an impeachable offense. It's against the law so of course it's impeachable.
If Republicans do not step, which they won't we're going to continue to see the eroding of our democratic principles, as Mr. Brennan put it. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said it was a 'green light' to solicit interference, but in Trump parlance, it's a FOR SALE sign.
Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC; O. Kay Henderson, Radio Iowa; Rick Stengel, fmr. under-secretary of state; Rich Lowry, The National Review
One more thing...
Kristen Welker mentioned that another whistleblower may be coming forward about conversations and information about what the administration did with regard to Ukraine. That is going to happen so look out for it this week.
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