Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[postman1782]

He didn't seem to say why. This doesn't seem to be resigning in protest or disgust. And yet, he wants another job. Hmm.

Honestly anywhere else would be glad to have him.

He is probably getting pushed out because he isn't Trumpy enough, and the Murdoch's don't like that.

[Kaleredar]

They got anyone left over there now that isn't completely bottom barrel?

Bottom barrel is too generous; I'd go for "cockroaches skulking beneath the barrel"

[Paranoid Android]

So, the Trump thread seems to just be a catch-all for anything remotely leaning to the right of whatever news people find, so I'll put this here.

Chris Wallace's big surprise at the end of today's FoxNewsSunday: He's leaving, effective immediately.

Pretty much seems to have just decided to not renew his contract. Any bets on where he'll end up?

One of the last things on his Sunday show:

Chris Wallace is obviously too liberal for Fox. That liberal bastion of MSNBC might pick him up. Honestly he was good on Sunday and should replace Chuck Todd on Meet the Press. If the Lefties get mad it honestly not like Todd was some liberal bastion. He was really a hack.

[Masark]

Bottom barrel is too generous; I'd go for "cockroaches skulking beneath the barrel"

"This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels."

[Paranoid Android]

New: Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sent an email about Jan. 6 — apparently on his personal account — saying National Guard would “protect pro Trump people”, per his contempt report: https://t.co/8tqvPzdlU0

https://twitter.com/hugolowell/statu...f3o2qutdQ&s=19

Personal email huh?

Meadows promising military aid to help the coup, is'How to start a coup 101'. Meadows should be in deep shit.

[Breccia]

Personal email huh?

Which is why this is a big deal.

Even if privileges were applicable to some aspects of Mr. Meadows’s testimony, he was required to appear before the Select Committee for his deposition, answer any questions concerning non-privileged information, and assert any such privilege on a question-by-question basis

His personal email is not privileged. Yeah, remember all that talk we had about Clinton using a private email and why that was bad. Followed by alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll (deep breath) llllllllllllllllllllllll that talk we had about Team Trump using personal emails purely to avoid a record of all that stuff they were doing? Well, this is why you should never do that. By virtue of it being personal, and not WH, Meadows has admitted it's not privileged. The end.

"But Breccia! Surely he could argue that his personal email was being used for official business."

So, just admit there's a shitload of stuff he didn't turn over to the archives as promised? Plus whatever else is illegal about that? I mean, he can do that. And immediately after admitting he used his personal communications for official business, immediately have all his phones and all his emails subpoena'd instantly. Which, considering he'll have to admit he committed a crime, could be done immediately.

- - - Updated - - -

Despite claiming over and over that he still has a good relationship with Trump, Pence hints at 2024 run.

Which means, he knows he'll never get Trump's VP spot. Trump is done with the Republican Party -- they still follow things like "laws" and "the Constitution" and "basic human dignity". He needs people who will sacrifice their lives for QAnon conspiracies.

- - - Updated - - -

We have more information turned over by Meadows, specifically, people texting him begging him to have Trump stop the riot.

The list is...

(checks article)

...everyone.

But when Trump still did not act, his eldest son reached out again to Trump’s chief of staff, according to Jan. 6 Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who read the series of texts during a hearing Monday night.

“We need an Oval Office address. He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand,” Trump Jr. texted.

Around the same time, a trio of Fox News hosts were also bombarding Meadows with text messages, trying to get Trump to call off the attack.

“Mark, president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy,” Ingraham texted.

“Please get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished,” added Kilmeade.

“Can he make a statement? Ask people to leave the Capitol,” texted Hannity.

Meadows also received dozens of texts from GOP lawmakers, staffers and members of the press trapped inside the Capitol during the assault, Cheney said.

“We are under siege here at the Capitol,” read one text. “They have breached the Capitol,” read another.

A third person texted: “Mark, protesters are literally storming the Capitol. Breaking windows on doors, rushing in. Is Trump going to say something?”

A fourth person told Meadows: “There's an armed standoff at the House chamber door.”

A fifth person inside the Capitol wrote: “We are all helpless.”

Others pleading for help wrote messages like: “Someone is going to get killed” and “POTUS needs to calm this shit down.”

The shocking messages, coming from some of Trump’s closest conservative allies and a family member, were revealed during Monday’s hearing to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about the documents he provided to the committee.

Yeah the part about Meadows saying "yes I'm trying to get Trump to stop this" feels flat-out false. I believe the evidence we've seen, like that powerpoint we've been talking about, say that this was exactly what Meadows wanted.

Also, yeah, FOX News was trying to text Trump and failed, so Meadows was their second choice. Is there a counterpoint to this? Like, did CNN call Obama begging him to stop creating jobs and lowering the deficit?

Of course, when "dozens" of lawmakers text Trump's staff, begging for their lives, and Trump does nothing, you really have to admire their lack of spine when they continued to support Trump every single second of the rest of his tenure. Very few people would support their own attempted murderer.

- - - Updated - - -

House panel votes to hold Meadows in comtempt.

"Another partisan show trial, no doubt."

The vote was 9-0.

"...the panel was filled with RINOs."

A Democrat on the panel did say

It comes down to this: Mr. Meadows started by doing the right thing—cooperating. He handed over records that he didn’t try to shield behind some excuse. But in an investigation like ours, that’s just a first step. "When the records raise questions—as these most certainly do—you have to come in and answer those questions. And when it was time for him to follow the law, come in, and testify on those questions, he changed his mind and told us to pound sand. He didn’t even show up."

"You're making the bolded up."

I am in fact not. Why would you even Question that?

As a reminder, Meadows is pleading the 5th, claiming Executive Time, refusing to testify, suing the committee, and basically going full AoE because he can't be asked to focus.

Schiff in particular noted that Meadows wrote a book on the topic. I think that's a valid point, too. Meadows is not only trying to have his case in the court of public opinion, but also to profit off it. Oh, and "I was the only sane bla bla bla" etc.

I cannot think of a single reason why the full House won't vote to send this to the DoJ and even fewer reasons why Biden's DoJ won't immediately savage the fucker in broad daylight.

[Templar 331]

We have more information turned over by Meadows, specifically, people texting him begging him to have Trump stop the riot.

The list is...

(checks article)

...everyone.



Yeah the part about Meadows saying "yes I'm trying to get Trump to stop this" feels flat-out false. I believe the evidence we've seen, like that powerpoint we've been talking about, say that this was exactly what Meadows wanted.

Also, yeah, FOX News was trying to text Trump and failed, so Meadows was their second choice. Is there a counterpoint to this? Like, did CNN call Obama begging him to stop creating jobs and lowering the deficit?

Of course, when "dozens" of lawmakers text Trump's staff, begging for their lives, and Trump does nothing, you really have to admire their lack of spine when they continued to support Trump every single second of the rest of his tenure. Very few people would support their own attempted murderer.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...xAw?li=BBnb7Kz

Fox News host Laura Ingraham mocked police officers who testified about what they faced from a pro-Trump mob on January 6, suggesting they should win awards for "best performances" after recounting fears they would be killed or maimed.

But in a text message the day of the attack, released Monday by the House select committee probing the attack, Ingraham herself expressed shock at the images coming from Capitol Hill.

"Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home," Laura Ingraham texted Mark Meadows, former President Trump's chief of staff. "This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy."

These asshats keep pushing the big lie and know it's hurting this nation by emboldening fascists. As long as they are paid to do it and aren't punished for it, it will never end. Every one of these Fox News anchors and Congressmen who push it should be in prison for sedition.

[Breccia]

These asshats keep pushing the big lie and know it's hurting this nation by emboldening fascists.

This actually plays into Ingraham's "He is destroying his legacy". Not "he's damaging the country". Not "people will get hurt or die". Trump was tarnishing his legacy. Quick, hit his buddy up on his cellie.

[Paranoid Android]

This actually plays into Ingraham's "He is destroying his legacy". Not "he's damaging the country". Not "people will get hurt or die". Trump was tarnishing his legacy. Quick, hit his buddy up on his cellie.

In a move I hope these spineless Dems do is call the Fox News talking heads to testify.

The oh btw, Ingraham accused Antifa and others that night. While knowing and having direct communication with Meadows.

[Gorsameth]

We've all knows how two faced the Republicans/'Conservatives' are. But its still depressing to see such clear evidence of it.

They are not delusional, they know what their doing and that just makes it worse. And that is why they are beyond saving or redemption.

[s_bushido]

We have more information turned over by Meadows, specifically, people texting him begging him to have Trump stop the riot.

The list is...

(checks article)

...everyone.

What's the venn diagram depicting "people who texted to beg Trump to put a stop to those events" and "people who unequivocally declared that Trump had no influence in those events" look like, I wonder. A perfect circle? Or maybe a couple pixels off, allowing for one or two to have some shred of integrity?

[PrimiOne]

We've all knows how two faced the Republicans/'Conservatives' are. But its still depressing to see such clear evidence of it.

They are not delusional, they know what their doing and that just makes it worse. And that is why they are beyond saving or redemption.

First rule of a narc:"Never get high on your own supply".

They have a market, the customer want their product,they supply it....but they don't buy their own bullshit.

[Breccia]

This is basically mob tactics on display. Everyone text Meadows because they know not to text Trump.

We don't know that. We don't have Trump's records.

[Machismo]

Laura Ingraham was wrong. Trump wasn't destroying his legacy, he was solidifying it.

He will always be known as a traitorous narcissist who tried to undermine the entire democracy we're founded on, because he was too fragile and weak to accept defeat.

[Breccia]

Laura Ingraham was wrong. Trump wasn't destroying his legacy, he was solidifying it.

Kind of hard to tell. Trump failed almost everything he tried and was literally laughed off the world stage. What Ingraham meant by "legacy" is likely what the rest of the rabid fanbase claims it is: Trump being bigly and yuge and no evidence at all to back that up.

[Machismo]

Kind of hard to tell. Trump failed almost everything he tried and was literally laughed off the world stage. What Ingraham meant by "legacy" is likely what the rest of the rabid fanbase claims it is: Trump being bigly and yuge and no evidence at all to back that up.

Well, she's an ignorant twit, and a shitty fascist. I'm glad people like her have been revealed for the despicable wretches that they are.

[Breccia]

In the spotlight and the prime target, Meadows goes to his safe space -- Hannity's show.

In what I'm sure was a coincidental oversight, neither Hannity nor Meadows talked about how Hannity texted Meadows. Hmm.

But this happened:

At the end of the day, they’re going to find that not only did the president act, but he acted quickly

Yeah, Meadows tried to spin the narrative that the murderous insurrection having hours to themselves breaking into the Capitol was Trump taking quick action. Despite, you know, the fact that we saw it happen live. Oh, and we have Pentagon officials saying the opposite. Such as in this official timeline of their actions. But even this running timeline made on Jan 6 itself has 1:10PM as the time the murderous insurrectionists started physically attacking Capitol police, 1:26PM the evacuation order by Capitol police, 2:11PM the fence is breached, shots fired 2:44PM, Trump tweeting "WE are the party of law and order" 3:13PM no really he said that, and 3:51PM the National Guard is mobilized.

At the absolute best, you could claim the delay was between "shots fired" and "NG mobilized" and that was over an hour.

This was not fast.

"But Breccia! What about all those tweets Trump sent?"

Oh, you mean this one?

Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!

-- 2:24PM

"No asshole, I meant the ones about supporting the police! Clearly you're cherry-picking!"

No, cherry-picking would be ignoring Trump's direct words supporting the murderous insurrection. If you intentionally cite only Trump saying "the police are our friend" and leave out the part where he doesn't say "so stop attacking them", plus leave out all his attacks on Pence and his objectively false claims of voter fraud, that is cherry picking.

A timeline of Trump's likely now-deleted tweets is here. Here's one from 6PM:

These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.

Hannity also said this:

This is a waste of your time and money. They have a predetermined outcome and, by the way, it lacks any serious investigation.

This, of course, is also objectively false. The investigation is so serious that Team Trump are trying to block it all the way to SCOTUS.

[jonnysensible]

This is basically mob tactics on display. Everyone text Meadows because they know not to text Trump. He gets to keep his grubby little fingers clean by having a middleman. Otherwise you'd have Jr. actually texting his dad directly, if he even has his dad's number in this case.

I thought trump famously doesn't read texts or emails.

[Breccia]

So let's talk about Dustin Stockton and Jennifer Lynn Lawrence.

"They're fucked?"

I mean, I think they're a couple and I know they shared hotel rooms and an RV so...probably? You can read more about them in this pre-Jan-6th article here. But if you mean metaphorically no, they're taking large public steps to unfuck themselves.

Funny story, we don't know exatly why they're just giving everything they have to the Jan 6th committee. It's most likely (a) they were subpoena'd and (b) they saw what happened to Bannon. These two have been working with Bannon since 2014, including, yes, "We Build The Wall" for which Bannon was arrested but pardoned by Trump. I speculate that, because these two were in on that but never charged, defying a subpoena would end what goodwill remained.

We’ve seen what’s happened with Bannon, and we don’t have the resources that a Steve Bannon has. Our options are, in a lot of ways, limited.

They were also Trump activists who--

"Don't you usually call such people members of the rabid fanbase?"

Yeah...see here's where it gets tricky. According to them -- yeah I have my doubts, we'll get to those shortly -- they got Trump's attention with their rallies, and this included a bus rally all the way up to the Jan 6th Trump speech. At which, according to them, they gave Trump his very last chance, Trump gave no evidence and said march on the Capitol, and they got disgusted, went to their shared hotel room, and passed out.

Since then, they've lost most of their friends (who are 100% rabid fanbase members) and have been on the run in fear for their lives, because they would of course know how, well, murderously these insurrectionists can be. They're set to testify shortly, and are going to give full cooperation, including handing over documents that detail which WH and Congress members were directly involved in the planning of the pre-murderous-insurrection gathering, how much they knew violence could be a result, and how little they cared.


-- Gosar posing with “people I have never met.” on Jan 6

If any of this sounds familiar, it should. As I posted in this very thread, Rolling Stone talked to them earlier anonymously. Now we know who they are, and based on their names being very public, we know what they've done. There is every reason to believe they're turning on Team Trump for realsies, whether out of self-preservation or telling the truth about losing faith in Trump's repeated objectively false claims.

"Sounds like you don't believe them."

I mean...no, but it's a hell of a practiced lie if it is a lie. They weren't arrested at the Capitol. Phones can be tracked, so it'd be stupid to say "we went back to our hotel" if they at least didn't drop their phones off there for an alibi. And since they're being hunted by the people they used to work with, and because Gosar never came through with that blanket pardon he promised, I at least believe their cooperation is genuine. I have...doubts...that a couple like I believe these two to be would spend days, weeks maybe, leading up to this big momentous bigly yuge Trump rally, hear him speak in person then go back to their hotel room and...fall asleep.

But, whatever. I don't see anything in either of their histories to (a) believe they're false flag Deep State commie librul socialists undercover this whole time (b) smart enough to fake a smart phone text message that will fool Congress. I believe the testimony they give about others' actions will be real, I believe the communications they share are real, I think they're downplaying their own involvement and possibly actions at the time but since they weren't caught red-handed committing violence I have little choice but to give them the benefit of the doubt. And even if they're lying about how they felt, their testimony isn't being called for that. Much. Maybe a little.

Be it fear or disgust, the two were clearly in on the pre-murderous-insurrection rally and clearly in on who was involved. And they're clearly motivated to testify honestly.

We assumed that him sitting with all the access to all the agencies of government and classified information he … had access to vastly more information than we did. We trusted when he told us that it was black and white and that there was clear evidence over, and over, and over again. We trusted that it would be there, and it ended up being a bluff, and he finally got caught in it.

-- Stockton

As this was unfolding on the television, I was asking, ‘Where is Trump? Why hasn’t he come out and made a statement?’ It was way too long before he came out and made a statement. Like, why are we waiting? This is so opposite of what we represent. You should want to denounce this immediately.

-- Lawrence

It's also worth noting that much of what these two have said has been backed up by others, in a similiar crossroads of "testify and be a traitor to the rabid fanbase I intentionally worked with for years and in fear for my life forever" vs "get arrested, go to prison, probably lose everything".

"It sounds like you still don't 100% trust them."

Well, to be fair, I do believe everyone has a line they won't cross but I don't see from their past history how Trump once again saying "I claim the election was stolen but have no evidence to back it up" one final time was that line. Rolling Stone shares those doubts.

But whether or not you believe their journey from firebrands to whistleblowers is genuine, Stockton and Lawrence’s tumultuous path sheds light on how the country reached this fraught, violent moment — and perhaps — how we might come back from the brink. For his most hardcore supporters, Trump had a unique pull. Breaking that personal bond may be the only way to get them to question the things they thought they knew.

But Jan. 6 was different. Stockton says the attack and its aftermath was “finally the thing that broke that false reality we had created about who he was.”

“At the end of the day, there is no excuse and the words came out of his mouth. It was the call of the president of the United States,” Stockton says.

I guess, believe what you want about their feelings. In the end, it's the objective evidence they can provide which matters. Mob informants squeal. Junkies give up their dealers. Whores give up their pimps and sometimes even Donald Trump. Their motives might be questionable, but it's whether or not their info is true that matters in the end. And unless these two Trump supporters have enough training to hack an iPhone, I'm willing to believe the texts from Meadows, Gosar, and/or whoever are legit.

As for the rest, well, actions have consequences. You're free to jump off the crazy train before it derails, but even if you tuck and roll it's going to at least hurt.

We’re turning it all over and we’ll let the cards fall where they may

Hitting @cubby because I know he also posted the Oct 23 Rolling Stone article, so he'll want to see this one.

[Zan15]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...?ocid=msedgntp

Beginning to think maybe there does need to be an audit in some locations, just the opposite locations that the GOP want to audit





Three Central Florida residents who have expressed support for former president Donald Trump were recently arrested following reports that they cast more than one vote during the 2020 election, according to various Florida news media outlets.

Jay Ketcik, John Rider and Joan Halstead, who all live in The Villages in Sumter County, Fla., face felony charges and up to five years in prison for allegedly casting more than one ballot in the most recent presidential contest, according to county arrest records.