Cohen in his guilty plea today said Trump directed him to commit the crimes he was charged with.

Ironically these charges have nothing to do with Russian collusion

If Trump was a private citizen he likely would have been charged with conspiracy and other things (IANAL)

Cohens lawyer put this statement out:

8/21/2018 6:42:08 PM

Lock this.

Won’t happen. At least the conviction part.

8/21/2018 6:44:55 PM

My personal conspiracy theory too is that Melania's solo trip to Africa is just a cover for her to meet with Mueller

8/21/2018 8:54:01 PM

IBTL

8/21/2018 9:12:03 PM

This is all silly. As much as I despise the man, you could dig up shit like this on everybody in Washington. He just pissed off too many people. I'd be willing to bet every president since campaign finance laws were enacted has violated them.

8/22/2018 10:35:24 AM

Weak trolling or just plain stupid?

8/22/2018 10:45:05 AM

I guess I'm just stupid. What am I missing?

8/22/2018 10:45:42 AM

brains

8/22/2018 10:52:38 AM

So you don't actually know, you just say something is stupid because you don't like it?

8/22/2018 10:54:50 AM

yep, stupid

8/22/2018 11:00:53 AM

I’m pretty sure not every campaign in history has illegally conspired to “funnel” (as trump’s lawyer put it) payments to multiple mistresses in an attempt to shut them up for the purposes of keeping voters in the dark about relevant information they need to make a electoral choice.

This is very illegal, and extremely corrosive to democracy.

This is a more harmful crime to society than crossing a border illegally, stealing potato chips, selling loose cigarettes, playing with an air soft gun in public, any many other infractions other people have lost their life for.

8/22/2018 11:08:16 AM

ya'll are silly. He won't get impeached for this.

^Good points, but I just have a more cynical view of everybody in that town.

[Edited on August 22, 2018 at 11:11 AM. Reason : a]

8/22/2018 11:08:59 AM

look man. Trump has mob connections(NY and Russian) going back to the 70's. That's not something you can "dig up" on anyone in Washington.

8/22/2018 11:09:18 AM

Quote :

"I’m pretty sure not every campaign in history has illegally conspired to “funnel” (as trump’s lawyer put it) payments to multiple mistresses in an attempt to shut them up for the purposes of keeping voters in the dark about relevant information they need to make a electoral choice."

Yeah, traditionally they've used blackmail.

8/22/2018 11:11:56 AM

First President with Mob connections.

8/22/2018 11:12:29 AM

k

8/22/2018 11:13:34 AM

JFK came from a mobbed up family, and Reagan was way too comfy with the IBT to not have mob ties.

Is all this discussion for show, or do you all seriously believe there are 67 senators either now or after 2018 willing to impeach a president over alleged campaign finance violations? John Edwards walked on more serious charges than these.

8/22/2018 11:17:02 AM

I mean even if many people others HAVE committed those crimes, it's an irrelevant point. Crimes don't become not crimes bc other people do them do. Also, an important distinction, Trump got caught!

It's just like UNC fake classes argument all over again

8/22/2018 11:17:32 AM

It’s going to be hard to impeach him for this, especially as long as Republicans are in office

But this is definitely the type of thing a president should be impeached for

8/22/2018 11:18:45 AM

Trump is on tape talking about these crimes, trump agreed to pay these women years ago but didn’t until very close to the election, these are 2 key items that make this different than the Edwards case

Also, this issue ended Edward's political career permanently, so it’s not accurate to say he skated.

8/22/2018 11:21:34 AM

Quote :

"Is all this discussion for show, or do you all seriously believe there are 67 senators either now or after 2018 willing to impeach a president over alleged campaign finance violations?"

This. And there wouldn’t be 67 who would convict if he and Vlad were on tape admitting they worked together for him to win.

8/22/2018 11:23:51 AM

Hey on the plus side, Dems can use this to push for campaign finance reform (lol)

8/22/2018 11:24:10 AM

^ umm Elizabeth Warren has a bill doing exactly this she just released??

She’s considered a front runner now for the DNC nom for pres

8/22/2018 11:26:40 AM

lol come on dude. Policy-wise, Elizabeth Warren has never been a voice of the party. She's only a front-runner because the people are demanding a shift to the left.

Don't be complacent, hold their feet to the fire.

[Edited on August 22, 2018 at 11:49 AM. Reason : .]

8/22/2018 11:45:17 AM

I dunno, if you ask me the risk of Pence being an effective administrator of the executive branch is too great for me to really love the idea of impeaching Trump. I understand the desire to even symbolically "nullify" his election, but wouldn't 2 more years of the havoc he's wreaking on the Republican party be better? I will never buy the argument Trump beating Hillary was somehow better in the long run for the country or the Democrats, but now that we've gone this far I say let chaos reign.

8/22/2018 12:40:39 PM

Quote :

"Also, this issue ended Edward's political career permanently, so it’s not accurate to say he skated."

The news that he had a bastard child with a staffer while his wife was dying from cancer is what ended his political career, not the campaign finance issue.

8/22/2018 12:49:28 PM

^^
hell yeah

8/22/2018 12:50:20 PM

Quote :

"Is all this discussion for show, or do you all seriously believe there are 67 senators either now or after 2018 willing to impeach a president over alleged campaign finance violations? John Edwards walked on more serious charges than these. "

Hell there isn't even a simple majority in the House that would vote to even let it get to the Senate.

8/22/2018 12:51:34 PM

The entire House could theoretically change after this coming election, but I don't see any way possible for that many Senate seats to get flipped in November.

8/22/2018 1:30:54 PM

Dems could theoretically gain up to 9 seats, so not sure enough

8/22/2018 2:21:25 PM

it will come down to how bad the mueller report is for trump

8/22/2018 2:27:23 PM

^this.

I think everyone is correct that impeachment will be difficult, if not impossible, but its pathetic to me we are asking “can Dems win enough seats???” Instead of “Can a handful of GOP senators put country over party???” Its not just TWW either, thats basically where the pundits et al are too. The GOP choosing self-interest over actual governing is basically an assumption everyone just accepts.

8/22/2018 3:01:26 PM

Likely the senate is not going to flip, and certainly not to a dem majority. If the house does and impeachment makes it to a split senate, which is the likely outcome, it all hinges on polls at that point.

How many republican senators from states with a Trump floor of under 50% are there? (I don't know)

^ none of the people in question are going to not only pick country over party, but do so when that will lose them reelection

[Edited on August 22, 2018 at 4:32 PM. Reason : asdf]

8/22/2018 4:29:54 PM

Mitt Romney, currently running for senate in Utah, called for trump to be impeached on twitter today

I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion there’s not enough gop senators willing to act ethically.

8/22/2018 4:32:30 PM

I mean, Trump's approval rating in Utah was just barely north of 50% a couple months ago and Romney has been mostly critical of him from the beginning...I'm not saying Mitt isn't an ethical man, but it's not exactly going out a limb for him the way it would be for somebody from a state with 65% Trump approval

Look I hope you're right, but I've yet to really see it

[Edited on August 22, 2018 at 5:03 PM. Reason : asdf]

8/22/2018 4:49:08 PM

moron's been wishfully thinking for the past 2 years and has constantly been wrong

8/22/2018 5:01:48 PM

^ demonstably false, just being pragmatic

I was pointing out, before most people, trump was looking better than pundits were suggesting
https://www.brentroad.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=647492&page=8#16369695

The fact of the matter is Trump is historically unpopular, no president has gone this long and never had a positive approval rating, and he’s committing actual, legitimate crimes. Swing voters aren’t going to let blatant criminality slide by, and the politicians know this. If their choice is to look exactly like the swamp trump promised to drain, or work under a president mike pence, there’s a good chance they’ll choose pence, that fallout is going to be easier to deal with than ignoring obvious criminality.

[Edited on August 22, 2018 at 5:37 PM. Reason : ]

8/22/2018 5:35:58 PM

^^

According to July's Morning Consult poll, Donald Trump only had greater than 60% approval, including margin of error, in six states:

Alabama (63% appro., 2% MoE)
West Virginia (63% appro., 3% MoE)
Wyoming (63% appro., 4% MoE)
Mississippi (60% appro., 3% MoE)
Louisiana (59% appro., 2% MoE)
Idaho (56% appro., 3% MoE)

Only three of those states top 65% approval, including margin of error.

https://morningconsult.com/tracking-trump/

According to the same poll, the following twenty-two current Republican senators belong to states where Trump has an approval below 50%, including margin of error:

John McCain (AZ, 48% appro., 1% MoE)
Jeff Flake (AZ, 48% appro., 1% MoE)
Cory Gardner (CO, 43% appro., 2% MoE)
Marco Rubio (FL, 50% appro., 1% MoE)
Johnny Isakson (GA, 50% appro., 1% MoE)
David Perdue (GA, 50% appro., 1% MoE)
Chuck Grassley (IA, 45% appro., 2% MoE)
Joni Ernst (IA, 45% appro., 2% MoE)
Todd Young (IN, 51% appro., 2% MoE)
Susan Collins (ME, 45% appro., 2% MoE)
Steve Daines (MT, 51% appro., 2% MoE)
Richard Burr (NC, 48% appro., 1% MoE)
Thom Tillis (NC, 48% appro., 1% MoE)
John Hoeven (ND, 50% appro., 3% MoE)
Deb Fischer (NE, 51% appro., 3% MoE)
Ben Sasse (NE, 51% appro., 3% MoE)
Dean Heller (NV, 45% appro., 2% MoE)
Rob Portman (OH, 48% appro., 1% MoE)
Patrick Toomey (PA, 45% appro., 1% MoE)
Orrin Hatch (UT, 47% appro., 3% MoE)
Mike Lee (UT, 47% appro., 3% MoE)
Ron Johnson (WI, 41% appro., 1% MoE)

[Edited on August 22, 2018 at 6:13 PM. Reason : ]

8/22/2018 5:46:53 PM

Quote :

"Mitt Romney, currently running for senate in Utah, called for trump to be impeached on twitter today"

Mitt Romney got shit on so hard by Trump during the election that he's begging for a chance to get back at him. I'm sure McCain would come off of his deathbed for an impeachment vote too. That's a long ways from flipping several other Republicans that don't have personal vendettas over their failed presidential campaigns, and there will be a few Democrats who won't vote for impeachment either knowing it will be an election death sentence on their end too. Politicians understand that Trump was elected to office, and there will be some outraged individuals if this gets pushed to impeachment on anything short of Mueller providing proof that Rosneft money went Trump's way post-election. Paying off porn stars and playboy bunnies to keep them quiet about consensual sex isn't going to cut it, unless Trump goes full retard like Bill Clinton and lies under oath about it.

8/22/2018 6:34:50 PM

If/when the time comes, not voting to impeach is going to be a huge liability for any Senator regardless of party

8/22/2018 7:09:33 PM

Quote :

"I think everyone is correct that impeachment will be difficult, if not impossible, but its pathetic to me we are asking “can Dems win enough seats???” Instead of “Can a handful of GOP senators put country over party???” Its not just TWW either, thats basically where the pundits et al are too. The GOP choosing self-interest over actual governing is basically an assumption everyone just accepts."

Yep, and that is disgusting.

Regarding "can the Dems win enough seats", I mean...that's an element. It's not like seats going from red to blue has no impact on this, but the bottom line is that the answer is "no." The Dems cannot win enough seats. The whole notion is asinine. There can be an impeachment, but there's no way in hell there will ever be a Senate conviction along party lines or anywhere close to it. There will have to be a meaningful number of GOP defections in the Senate. There will probably be a few who will do it because it's the right thing to do, but as you just said, we've firmly established that such behavior is by far the exception, particularly within the current GOP (i.e., the Dems are hardly innocent, but there's no way that Sen Franken would have gotten run out of town the way he did if he'd been a Republican, never mind how the current GOP largely defends the utterly indefensible vis-à-vis Trump.) Impeachment could very well happen; conviction isn't out of the question, but it will absolutely require that a significant number of Republicans make a judgment, driven by naked self-interest, that Trump is toxic to them politically to the point that they are made more uncomfortable by harboring him than by hanging him. You already see the seeds of the Dem strategy here, with talk of working a deal wit Mueller to offer carrots to Cohen in exchange for open testimony in the House. The Dems won't take the House (or even the House and the Senate) in November, and then impeach the next day--not unless some dynamics somehow change wildly between now and then. They will, amazingly, still need to conduct some more character assassination and try Trump even further in the court of public opinion before they might have the votes to convict him in the Senate.



[Edited on August 22, 2018 at 8:26 PM. Reason : and yeah, how bad the Mueller report is will be critical]

8/22/2018 8:21:12 PM

A lot of lawyers are already speculating there’s a handful more indictments coming out of the Cohen thing. Reporters are saying trump was upset because the last crowd at his weird rally was too subdued.

Trumpists are trying to dismiss this is routine politicking but it’s clear this was a complex, coordinated effort involving many people and lots of money to cover all this up.

When you have Trump’s long time personal lawyer going all over TV saying “trump committed crimes” this isn’t going to fall on deaf ears. Unlike “russian collusion”, this is a clear, concise statement from someone who would know, who isn’t a nevertrumper.

The biggest wild card is Trump. There’s no telling what he’s going to do to try and get out of this.

8/22/2018 9:13:30 PM

Concur with all of that.

8/22/2018 9:37:59 PM

Funny video of trump from April:

https://youtu.be/tE2XHYxkJgw

8/22/2018 10:08:02 PM

So news out now the ceo is national enquirer got immunity and is spilling his guts

And some other high up person at national enquirer was known to record conversations in his office where some of this takes place

Seems like this could get a lot worse for trump beyond what Cohen might even have/know

Also, is anyone else’s social media completely quiet about this issue? I seem to recall during the Lewinsky scandal this is all people talked about IRL...

8/23/2018 2:52:20 PM

it was a lot easier to keep up back when there was only a few scandals at a time, now we have a few things each day. it's fatigue.


(and related to the clinton comparison- clinton's impeachment was due to perjury in a civil suit even thoughthough the original special investigation was about whitewater)

8/23/2018 2:56:28 PM

^^How old were you moron during the Lewinsky issue? 16, 17? You wouldn't have kept up with the news back then the way you do now.

8/23/2018 3:19:59 PM

Bttt

12/7/2018 11:22:07 PM

3 years for Cohen

12/12/2018 12:16:06 PM

12/12/2018 12:17:09 PM