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How can anyone think Trump's not a wannabe fascist now we know he asked McGahn about prosecuting Hillary & Comey?

posted 6 years ago by eYeDEF (5050)
20 replies | jump to latest

The Times story out tonight was alarming and reminder of the peril the US is in so long as Trump remains president. Prosecuting political enemies is what tinpot dictators in banana republics do.

The Times cited 2 sources familiar with the conversation last spring of Trump asking his White House counsel about prosecuting Hillary and Comey. Trump had no theory for what crimes they should be indicted for. He just wanted the state to attack them.

McGahn “rebuffed the president,” the Times reported, saying he lacked the authority to order prosecutions.

This is just more evidence that Trump routinely asks aides to commit on his behalf the most brazen and unconstitutional abuses of power. Why shouldn't we assume they most often comply? But sometimes what he pushes for is so extreme they either refuse or find some way to divert his attention. He wanted Comey prosecuted. He wanted Mueller fired. He wanted Hillary prosecuted. We can only imagine what other things he pressed for.

The scariest part is now we have Matt Whitaker.

If we didn’t know the history and the facts, we might assume Trump learned Whitaker was the ultimate loyalist and didn’t need to be told what Trump expected of him. Clearly that is not how Trump works. He asks and he tells.

We now know how Whitaker made it into Trump's orbit. He was friends with Sam Clovis, an early Trump supporter, co-chair of Trump’s campaign and the guy who put together the foreign policy team with Carter Page and Papadopoulos. Clovis told Cam Joseph that he used Whitaker as a sounding board for campaign ideas in 2016. Whitaker also pulled in 900k as director of a pro-Trump dark money group just before his appointment. This plush position started in 2014.

Clovis was the one who told Whitaker to get on TV as a pro-Trump pundit to get Trump’s attention. It worked. Whitaker was later installed as Jeff Sessions’ Chief of Staff at DoJ, in order to keep tabs on Sessions since Sessions had already fallen out of favor with Trump. He then campaigned for Sessions’ job while serving as his Chief of Staff. That included numerous conversations with Trump, some with Sessions, some without.

Given what we know it is all but impossible that Whitaker and Trump didn’t have all manner of inappropriate and possibly criminal conversations. This isn’t a big leap AT ALL. He asked these things of his White House Counsel Don McGahn, a guy who for all his faults, had a reputation for resisting Trump’s more illegal ideas. Trump’s biggest regret of his Presidency, expressed openly ad infinitum, was making Jeff Sessions AG. Because Sessions failed to protect him from the Russia probe and failed to hunt Trump’s enemies.

You only get so many shots to appoint who is going to be in charge of the Department of Justice. Unlike Sessions, McGahn, Rosenstein, Wray ... Whitaker is a nobody. He’s not someone who has independent standing or legitimacy. The path to his appointment was paved by sucking Trump's ass. What Trump wants, Whitaker gives.

There’s just no way Trump didn’t demand from Whitaker his absolute loyalty and spell out exactly what he expected of him before appointing him. He wasn't going to make the mistake he made appointing another Jeff Sessions where his expectations weren't spelled out crystal clear as the condition of his appointment. And it's just extremely unlikely, I'd say close to impossible, Whitaker refused his requests. Because if he did, he wouldn’t be acting AG.

This is a ticking time bomb, a major scandal unfolding before us. All stemming ultimately from trying to kill the Russia investigation by any means necessary. What we don't know yet is who will do what when the moment of truth arrives.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/us/politics/president-trump-justice-department.html

[–] Thrillhouse (1509) 6 years ago

Fascism is the merger of corporation and state, i.e. government forcing people to buy health insurance from a private corporation. Not "stuff you don't like".

Calm down.

There's nothing "scary" about this. NYT isn't a reliable source either. They said Iraq had WMDs. Now that was scary.

[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

Yeah but you think Infowars is a reliable source, so your opinion on what a "reliable source" is doesn't mean a whole lot.

I'm talking about how a fascist dictator acts, not the form of government itself genius.

[–] TJLamb0518 (3316) 6 years ago

Boy...you’re a whole bag full of stupid, aren’t you?

[–] Xenopharb (617) 6 years ago

Are you talking about the banks, insurance companies, and big pharma written bill that was first introduced by the Republicans during the early days of the Clinton administration but was withdrawn when they found their propaganda campaign against socialized medicine was working?

As apposed to declaring that corporations are people that can give as much cash as they want to political campaigns in exchange for favorable regulations or lack of them?

How about media that has consolidated to six corporations from fifty in just a few decades and cable ISPs which have agreed to not compete and are monopolies in most markets?

Perhaps you are referencing a few large corporations that monitor much of what we do on the internet and the government that records everything we say and what we write in our emails.

And yes ... Iraq had no WMD, but who was responsible for that disinformation, and who was responsible for the felonious outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame?

[–] Martoto (5024) 6 years ago

Or forcing them to buy more arms?

Or forcing them to buy walls?

Or forcing them to pay soldiers to stand around doing nothing for weeks?

[–] FishGottoSwim (473) 6 years ago

Is condoning the murder of journalists not scary?

Is calling them 'the enemy of the people " not scary?

Is having an ENEMIES list not scary?

How about fanning flames of hate out of ignorance about gays, immigrants, Jews & people of color? Does that not scare you?

How about destroying the norms of decency, destroying our relationship with our allies, catering to the whims of oligarchs & authoritarians & dictators? None of that scares you?

I guess those aren't as scary as rain.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 6 years ago

More bullshit from Trollhouse.

"Fascism is a form of radical authoritarian ultranationalism, characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition and strong regimentation of society and of the economy, which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe."

[–] brux (14724) 6 years ago

He needs to be gone, out of the White House, ASAP! For all those reasons and more.

I would not put it past Trump to make a deal with Putin and/or MBS to murder each other's enemies. The man has no humanity or understanding of what the USA is.

[–] dteam6 (5073) 6 years ago

Not that I doubt he might do that, but is Trump even SMART enough to carry that out? The idiot doesn't even know how to conduct himself regarding the Mueller probe and keeps obstructing justice on a daily basis. He seems far too loud, erratic and unhinged to ever pull something like that off.

[–] brux (14724) 6 years ago

The point of the Republicans is to discredit and ruin government, to show contempt for it at every opportunity, and that is what I think Trump's mission is, his purpose. There are people who believe that and respond to it, or there are enough trolls and sock-puppets out there that post as if they were real people that are fooled into thinking there are.

[–] dteam6 (5073) 6 years ago

I agree on both counts but let's not forget that plenty of people really ARE stupid enough to buy into Trump's nonsense. I've witnessed people like this in PERSON and it's embarrassing, to say the least. Some of my family support this buffoon, even. I do agree, though, that there are trolls out there just trying to get a rise out of people by pretending to support Trump and probably Russian trolls as well. It's like the Flat Earth Movement--there ARE some real members of it but many online are just trolls riding that bandwagon, trying to antagonize people for fun with their flat earth crap.

Trump wants a completely overhaul of our government, really. The man seems to attack every facet of it. He either thinks himself a king or desperately hopes to become one. The way he admires Putin and Kim is alarming and shows us a taste of the inner workings of his mind and what his idea of government should be.

It reminds me of how he praised Kim Jong-Un's policies: "When he speaks his people immediately sit up and listen. I wish we had more of that over here.". Says it all right there, really.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

McGhan played “ superhero” back then and warned T-rump this would be an impeachable offense, as history has proved. This scared T-rump so he backed off.

Why didn’t he just let him do it, and let him get impeached? Then he’d really be a superhero in the history books.

[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

Impeach? This congress!? Pffft.

Actually, in this case I think Trump might have underplayed his hand here by following McGahn's advice. No way that rabid Republican House was ever going to vote on articles of impeachment nor was Ryan going to even allow it by bringing it to a floor vote.

Just like no way the current or next Republican Senate comes up with 18 or 20 GOP Senators that will vote to impeach. Trump TV would play its part pushing 24/7 all the Comey and Hillary conspiracies to create an environment that would be politically safe for congressional Republicans. They'd be free to say Trump was making a perfectly legitimate request given the serious questions surrounding Hillary and Comey "criminality".

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Interesting. For some reason, I guess I'm too optimistic thinking if his situation so closely mirrors Nixon's, then Congress must follow precedent and honor history. I guess I'm too optimistic for still having faith in our crooked Congress.

[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

Well there's the Fox News factor that keeps at least 30% of the country insulated from facts. That plays a significant role in the way congress acts, plus the corrupting influence unlimited money in politics has had on our system that wasn't around in 1973. If Nixon had Fox News, I don't think he would have resigned because the Republican minority in congress at the time would never have abandoned him.

[–] dteam6 (5073) 6 years ago

I never put much stock in Dump's impeachment, to be honest. I've HOPED for it and even had an increase in hope when Dems took the House but, ultimately, I still think one of two things will happen: Mueller will find something damning enough or Dump simply loses in 2020.

I don't even want to THINK about a scenario where Dump wins 2020. I'm honestly concerned about the future of our country if that should happen. I've spent my whole life largely uninterested in politics, presidents--any of that stuff. It never mattered to me. This is the first time in my three and a half decades of life where I can say without hesitation: I'm scared of the upcoming presidential election. Maybe it's just that Dump is that crazy or that getting older makes you start thinking about these things more...I don't know...but I'm actually afraid of the prospect of Trump winning again in 2020.

[–] 3840x2160 (359) 6 years ago

He was trying to fulfill a campaign promise.

[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

I'm sure if that works for you it would work with his base.

[–] dteam6 (5073) 6 years ago

Buddy...I'm still at square one, trying to figure out HOW it's possible this psychopathic buffoon has the millions of supporters he has.

This is all twilight zone stuff. I feel like we're watching bad Tom Clancy/John Grisham fanfiction stories playing out in real time before our very eyes...

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

LOL!