Tag: impeachment

Posted on

House Will Vote Thursday To Formalize Impeachment Inquiry

There are reports Donald Trump made a 'promise' to a foreign leader that concerned a U.S. intelligence official

There are reports Donald Trump made a 'promise' to a foreign leader that concerned a U.S. intelligence official
Donald Trump (image via public domain)
From the Washington Post:

House Democrats said Monday that the House will vote Thursday to formalize procedures for the next phase of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Democrats said the move would “ensure transparency and provide a clear path forward” as the inquiry continues.

The text of the resolution was not immediately available, but House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said it would “ensure transparency and provide a clear path forward” as the investigation continues. “This is the right thing to do for the institution and the American people,” he said.

p.s. In a sign of how well House Republicans think things are going, the 16th GOP congressman announced today he will not run for reelection.

Posted on

Judge Rules House Impeachment Investigation Legal, Orders Mueller Evidence Released

Donald Trump (image via Flickr/WhiteHouse)
House Democrats received a major win today when a federal judge not only ordered the secret grand jury evidence from the Robert Mueller investigation be turned over to the House Judiciary Committee but also declared that the current impeachment inquiry is a legal investigation. From the New York Times:

The House Judiciary Committee is entitled to view secret grand jury evidence gathered by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, Judge Beryl A. Howell of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in a 75-page opinion. Attorney General William P. Barr had withheld the material from lawmakers.

Typically, Congress has no right to view secret evidence gathered by a grand jury. But in 1974, the courts permitted the committee weighing whether to impeach President Richard M. Nixon to see such materials — and, Judge Howell ruled, the House is now engaged in the same process focused on Mr. Trump.

“Tipping the scale even further toward disclosure is the public’s interest in a diligent and thorough investigation into, and in a final determination about, potentially impeachable conduct by the president described in the Mueller report,” she wrote.

In reaching her decision, Judge Howell rejected the contention by Mr. Trump and his allies that the investigation Democrats are pursuing, which has since expanded to encompass the Ukraine scandal, is not a legitimate impeachment inquiry.

Posted on

Fox News Host: Democrats Are Following The Rules

Judge Andrew Napolitano

Judge Andrew Napolitano
Judge Andrew Napolitano (screen capture)
Fox News’ Judge Andrew Napolitano gave the Fox & Friends crew a lesson in how impeachment inquiries work on Thursday morning including this little nugget they didn’t want to hear: Democrats are “following the rules.” “I read the House rules,” said Napolitano. “And as frustrating as it may be to have these hearings going on behind closed doors — the hearings over which Congressman Schiff is presiding — they are consistent with the rules.” “They can make up any rules they want?!” asked perpetually dopey Brian Kilmeade. Napolitano told him, “Well, they can’t change the rules, they follow the rules.” Napolitano added that those rules were written in January 2015 when Republicans held the majority and the Speaker of the House was John Boehner. Because they don’t want to go on the record actually defending Donald Trump on the Ukraine scandal, Republicans are whining about the process Democrats are using in questioning witnesses. As with a grand jury, witnesses are questioned behind closed doors so that they can’t collaborate or ‘get their stories straight’ with other witnesses.

Posted on

House Republicans Attempt To Disrupt Impeachment Inquiry Testimony

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) speaks to reporters (screen capture)
NBC News reports that some two dozen House Republicans staged a publicity stunt in which they attempted to storm the doors of the House Intelligence Committee as they hold the Trump impeachment inquiry. The attempt to squelch the negative news about quid pro quo occurred as Laura Cooper, deputy assistant to the Secretary of Defense, was scheduled to testify in the inquiry on Wednesday.

Led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., the GOP members — who don’t sit on the committees that are questioning witnesses in the impeachment inquiry — entered the secure room, known as a SCIF, in the basement of the Capitol Visitor’s Center. Before entering, they protested Democrats’ handling of the probe, arguing that the process was not fair to Republicans or the president.

House rules only allow members to participate in depositions if they serve on the committees.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., told reporters that there were approximately 20 GOP members in the room who refused to leave, and said that they came into the secure room yelling that they be allowed inside. Some of these members brought their cellphones, which are not permitted.

Posted on

Trump Equates Constitutional Process With ‘Lynching’

Donald Trump
Donald Trump took to Twitter today to rant (again) about the ongoing impeachment inquiry. In this edition of Trump Twitter Tantrum, the Donald equates the current Constitutional process of impeachment with “lynching.”

Trump’s buddy, Sen. Lindsey Graham, jumped on the “lynch” wagon as well calling the impeachment inquiry a “lynching in every sense.”

Others had different thoughts on the use of the word “lynching.”

Posted on

Trump Rages At Republicans Not Defending Him Enough

Donald Trump threw another bitter tantrum Monday saying that Republicans in Congress were not united enough in defending him against his “vicious” political enemies. From the New York Times:

Mr. Trump lashed out at Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, the only member of his party who has signaled he may be open to impeaching Mr. Trump, arguing that the senator’s defection showed weakness in the party.

Launching into a series of attacks on Democrats, Mr. Trump said approvingly that they were “vicious and they stick together. They don’t have Mitt Romney in their midst — they don’t have people like that.”

“They stick together,” Mr. Trump added, during a lengthy question-and-answer session with reporters at a cabinet meeting. “You never see them break off.”

It was the second time in as many days that Mr. Trump — coming to terms with the fact that he will most likely be impeached by the Democratic-led House within weeks and face a Senate trial immediately after — has complained about a lack of support from Republicans as he faces the greatest threat yet to his presidency.

On Sunday night, Trump tweeted, “When do the Do Nothing Democrats pay a price for what they are doing to our Country, & when do the Republicans finally fight back?”

Posted on

Gallup Polls: Majority Supports Impeachment Of Donald Trump

Trump walks past reporters with no comment

Donald Trump (image via Flickr/WhiteHouse – public domain)
Another poll shows a majority of Americans are done with Donald Trump. The latest polling from Gallup shows 52% of Americans believe Trump should be impeached and removed from office while 46% do not support impeachment. This is almost the inverse of polling results in June which showed support for impeachment at 45% and 53% opposing.
(screen capture via Gallup)
Gallup also looked back at the impeachment polling for Presidents Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon. Support for removing Clinton from office never got higher than 35%, while 58% of Americans wanted Nixon gone right before he saw the writing on the wall and resigned.

Posted on

News Round-Up: October 11, 2019

InstaHunk Dan Tai enjoys a Texas sunset (image via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Randy Report favorite Dan Tai (above) is doing a photoshoot with Box Menswear in my native state of Texas – and I’m not there! Dan shares this pic saying no filter was used, it was just the gorgeous Texas sunset (and hottie model). • KIT212: Kenneth rounds up the what’s what in gay magazines across the country. • Outsports: Two-time Olympic champion Kerron Clement came out publicly today at a Nike event celebrating a new rainbow-inspired track and field at Los Angeles City College. He told Outsports, “I was tired of loving in the dark and being in the dark by myself.” • Fox News: With Shep Smith’s departure at the conservative news outlet, Chris Wallace is one of the few journalists there trying to be sane. Check out his response to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for calling the current impeachment effort against President Trump “unconstitutional:”

• Newsweek: It took much less time for a majority of Americans to signal their support for impeaching Donald Trump than it did Richard Nixon. • NewNowNext: Homosexuality is already punishable by up to seven years in prison in Uganda, and the government is now trying to resurrect its ‘kill the gays’ law instituting the death penalty for anyone engaged in same-sex sexual activity, as well as punishing anyone found advocating for LGBTQ people. • INTO: In an earlier post, I shared my own coming out story. Now check out the ‘Old Gays’ from INTO as they talk on their own coming out. “If I would’ve told anyone I was gay… that would be the end of me.”

Posted on

National Security Officials Raised Concerns Before & After Trump Call With Ukraine President

President Zelensky of Ukraine with Donald Trump
President Zelensky of Ukraine with Donald Trump (image via Flickr/WhiteHouse – public domain)

The Washington Post is reporting at least four national security officials found the Trump administration’s attempts to pressure Ukraine for political purposes so disconcerting that they raised concerns with a White House lawyer both before and immediately after Donald Trump’s July 25 call with Ukraine President Zelensky.

The nature and timing of the previously undisclosed discussions with National Security Council legal adviser John Eisenberg indicate that officials were delivering warnings through official White House channels earlier than previously understood — including before the call that precipitated a whistleblower complaint and the impeachment inquiry of the president.

At the time, the officials were unnerved by the removal in May of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine; subsequent efforts by Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to promote Ukraine-related conspiracies; as well as signals in meetings at the White House that Trump wanted the new government in Kiev to deliver material that might be politically damaging to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Those concerns soared in the call’s aftermath, officials said. Within minutes, senior officials including national security adviser John Bolton were being pinged by subordinates about problems with what the president had said to his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. Bolton and others scrambled to obtain a rough transcript that was already being “locked down” on a highly classified computer network.

So, basically, the ‘transcript’ of the call released by the White House is the PG-13 rated version.

And the Justice Department refused to pursue the whistleblower complaint even though security officials had already sounded urgent alarms…?

In related news, NBC News reports that Fiona Hill, Trump’s former top aide on Russia and Europe, plans to tell Congress that Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland circumvented the National Security Council and the normal White House process to pursue a shadow policy on Ukraine.

Posted on

News Round-Up: October 9, 2019

Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: The Griffopotamus dropped his phone and it still takes great snaps (above). Maybe if I drop MY phone my pics will come out this good, too…? • OUT: Mey Rude wonders aloud, “Ellen DeGeneres was a lesbian hero – but who is she now?  She broke ground 20 years ago, but her recent actions and words have me rethinking her lesbian icon status.” • Bloomberg: Donald Trump pressed then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to help persuade the Justice Department to drop a criminal case against an Iranian-Turkish gold trader who was a client of Rudy Giuliani, according to three people familiar with the 2017 meeting in the Oval Office. Tillerson refused. The report adds others present in the Oval Office were shocked by the request. • ABC News: Montgomery, Alabama, once known as the cradle of the Confederacy and later the birthplace of the civil rights movement, has elected Steven Reed as its first African American mayor in the city’s 200-year history.

• Facebook: Evangelist Franklin Graham recently opined about a CNN article that reported how three particular STIs – gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis – are at all-time highs in the U.S. in 2018, according to numbers from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Graham wrote that the solution to preventing STIs is heterosexual monogamy: “God made us male and female and gave sex for us to enjoy inside a marriage relationship between a man and a woman — not two men, not two women.” • Fox News: According to a new Fox News poll (FOX NEWS y’all), 51 percent wants Trump impeached and removed from office, 4 percent want him impeached but not removed, and 40 percent oppose impeachment altogether. In July, just 42 percent favored impeachment and removal. • Queerty: Indie movie maven and sometime drag performer Tyler Perry has announced the opening of a 12-sound stage 330-acre movie studio complex in Atlanta that will also feature a shelter for victims of sex trafficking and displaced LGBTQ youth.