Trump's Real Time, Slow Motion Self-Destruction Was Always Inevitable, Wasn't It?

Underwater by Nancy Ohanian

Aaron Zitner reported on yet another poll-- this one always a lagging indicator with a very conservative bias, and done over the weekend for the Wall Street Journal and NBC News-- shows that a majority of Americans back the impeachment probe. What normal Americans are undying around is that is that "Trump's actions regarding Ukraine are a serious matter and merit an impeachment inquiry by Congress." Most want to wait and see before backing removal from office. "Presented in a separate question with just two options-- impeaching Mr. Trump and removing him from office, or doing neither-- some 43% said lawmakers should push Mr. Trump from office, while 49% said they shouldn’t do so, based on what the public knows now... Independents view the accusations more as serious than politically motivated, 51% to 42%. But asked about impeachment, some 45% of independents oppose removing Mr. Trump from office, with 39% backing impeachment and removal."

A poll with a less conservative bias, Morning Consult's-- which was conductedMonday and Tuesday, which were terrible news days for Trump-- show a larger number of registered voters want Trump impeached and removed from office-- 50% to 43%. Those numbers for impeachment-- particularly among independent voters-- is about to rise.

The unserious letter of non-cooperation Trump's laughing stock legal team sent Congress was a semi-intellectual version of TRump's twitter strategy. It will appeal to the 30-some odd percent of voters who have been brainwashed by Fox and Hate Talk Radio into worshiping Trump. And no one else. Americans see right through the kangaroo court defense and Trump's ongoing attempt to delegitimize democracy, just as any authoritarian pig try to do. Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer: "OK, so now we see for sure what the White House strategy is. It’s not only to refuse to cooperate in the impeachment probe, but it’s also practically to deny that Congress has any legitimate right to impeach" Señor Trumpanzee "period. This shouldn’t be surprising. We’ve been headed in this direction for a while now. It basically ensures the president will be impeached for interfering with the work of Congress."

The Washington Post was of the same mind: "The White House letter, which lacked substantive legal arguments and echoed Trump’s political broadsides, capped a day of defiance and challenges as House Democrats have tried to force recalcitrant administration officials to divulge potentially incriminating information over Republican objections." But the Trumpist strategy isn't meant to appeal to them, just to his moron base. That base is fracturing a tiny bit over the disgrace of abandoning the Kurds to the tender mercies of Erdogan who will be butchering them by the time you read this post.

South Carolina sycophant and closet queen Lindsey Graham was fighting two battles at once-- bashing Trump for betraying the Kurds ("I think he's putting the nation at risk, and I think he's putting his presidency at risk") on the one hand, while mouthing the White House's anti-impeachment talking points on the other. On Fox & Friends yesterday, Graham blamed impeachment on House Democrats instead of Trump's lawless behavior. "They're about to destroy the nation for no good reason," he drawled. "And I want Nancy Pelosi to know that Republican senators are not going to impeach this president based on this transcript, so she can stop now before she destroys the country." Willie DeVille had a perfect description of Lindsey back in the late 1970s when Graham was still licking his wounds after being rejected by every good law school he applied to.





In any case, Jonathan Swan described the Trumpist strategy to stay in office as a burn-down-the-House plan. One would expect nothing less from the contemptible lowlife in the White House. This country, patriotism, country-above-self... no abstract concepts have ever crossed his rigid, calculating mind. It's always been about him, him, him... "Trump," wrote Swan, "while nervous about the historic stain of impeachment, is throwing everything he has into this fight: refusing all cooperation, running ads to profit politically, and torching every person who stands in opposition to him. When it all boils down, Trump really only trusts his own instincts. And his instincts here are the same as they were with the Mueller investigation: Fight like hell."

• No nuance or apology-- not a hint of it.
• Turn the leader of the investigation (in this case, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff) into a conservative media villain.
• Condemn Trump enemies in the most incendiary and exaggerated language possible (treason, traitors, coup, etc.).

Lindsey with his amigo, Dutch fascist Geert Wilders

In 1998 when Lindsey Graham, then a member of the House from a backward region in up-country South Carolina and an impeachment floor manager against Bill Clinton, was arguing for impeachment, he brought up the Nixon case. "The day Richard Nixon failed to answer that subpoena is the day he was subject to impeachment because he took the power from Congress over the impeachment process away from Congress, and he became the judge and jury." Has he now changed his mind so as to get in synch with Trump, who insists the Nixon decision was flawed and wrong?