How Much Do Voters Care About Honesty And Trustworthiness? We'll Soon Find Out

Me The People by Nancy Ohanian

In his Washington Post column yesterday, Greg Sargent explained why evidence that Trump knew of the whistleblower complaint when he unfroze military aid to Ukraine is devastating evidence against him, reducing his absurd "I want nothing-- no quid pro quo" defense to smoking ruins. No doubt the Judiciary Committee members-- think Ted Lieu, Jamie Raskin, Pramila Jayapal, David Cicilline, Joe Neguse...-- were thinking about this yesterday as they prepared for next week's impeachment hearings. Those are some of the sharpest mind's in Congress. Will the eyes of the country be focused on the hearings? Yesterday, the L.A. Times reported that "more than 70 million viewers watched some portion of the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment inquiry."

Trump likes screeching at his bund rallies that no one was watching. He wishes! "Both Fox News Channel and MSNBC saw significant year-over-year increases in audience levels for November. MSNBC’s daytime viewing levels for November were the highest in its 23-year history."

Viewing of live gavel-to-gavel coverage that aired on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and the three major broadcast networks peaked on its opening day, Nov. 13, when it reached an average of 13.1 million viewers. By the fifth session on Nov. 21, the audience leveled off to 11.3 million, comparable to what a top-rated non-sports entertainment program draws in prime time. Fox News was the most-watched network each day.

Gym Jordan by Nancy Ohanian

The figures reflect the average number of people who watched the coverage at any time. The total number of viewers who tuned in-- determined by Nielsen as those who watched at least six minutes of coverage over five days-- came in at 70.8 million. The number does not include C-SPAN or PBS stations that carried the coverage.

The daytime impeachment hearings also gave a boost to cable news opinion shows in prime time. Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson Tonight averaged 3.4 million viewers in November, a record high for the program. Hannity also reached an all-time high with 3.6 million viewers. Fox News averaged 2.7 million viewers in prime time, up 15% from November 2018, a high-rated month that included coverage of the midterm elections. MSNBC was up 12% to 2.06 million viewers as The Rachel Maddow Show had its best month since January with an average of 3.3 million viewers. CNN was down 11% to 999,000 viewers.

Many more people also watched some portion of the impeachment hearings online, with all the networks citing a lift in traffic. NBC News counted 9.6 million video “starts” for impeachment coverage across its streaming platforms, which include Twitter and Facebook. CNN said digital viewing boosted its November audience by 3.4%, the largest lift the network has ever seen.

The new SSRS poll released yesterday by CNN asked voted how important the impeachment inquiry be in their vote for president:

• extremely important- 27%
• very important- 19%
• moderately important- 12%
• not that important- 39%

Along with the 2% who have no opinion, that 39% is the pool from which concentration camp guards could be drawn were Trump to win a second term.

That same poll asked all voters regardless of party if Trump is honest and trustworthy. 36% said he is, 62% say he isn't. On top of that, Pro-Publica just published a devastating exposé on Trump's tax swindling. "Documents," wrote Heather Vogell, "show the president’s company reported different numbers-- higher ones to lenders, lower ones to tax officials-- for Trump’s signature building," part of a pattern Trump has long engaged in.

Donald Trump’s business reported conflicting information about a key metric to New York City property tax officials and a lender who arranged financing for his signature building, Trump Tower in Manhattan, according to tax and loan documents obtained by ProPublica. The findings add a third major Trump property to two for which ProPublica revealed similar discrepancies last month.

In the latest case, the occupancy rate of the Trump Tower’s commercial space was listed, over three consecutive years, as 11, 16 and 16 percentage points higher in filings to a lender than in reports to city tax officials, records show.

For example, as of December 2011 and June 2012, respectively, Trump’s business told the lender that 99% and 98.7% of the tower’s commercial space was occupied, according to a prospectus for the loan. The figures were taken from “borrower financials,” the prospectus stated.

In tax filings, however, Trump’s business said the building’s occupancy was 83% in January 2012 and the same a year later. The 16 percentage point gap between the loan and tax filings is a “very significant difference,” said Susan Mancuso, an attorney who specializes in New York property tax.

...Trump had much to gain by showing a high occupancy rate to lenders in 2012: He refinanced his share of Trump Tower that year and obtained a $100 million loan on favorable terms.

...Those discrepancies were “versions of fraud,” according to Nancy Wallace, a professor of finance and real estate at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley. The penalties for false filings can include fines or criminal charges.

The diverging numbers match a pattern described by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, in congressional testimony this year. Cohen said Trump at times inflated assets’ value in documents submitted to lenders in an effort to secure loans. In reports to tax officials, Cohen testified, Trump would lower the value to reduce what he owed.

The focus on Trump’s business and personal financial records has been particularly intense of late. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has subpoenaed a wide array of Trump financial records to investigate claims that the Trump Organization falsified records of hush-money payments to pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels, who said she and Trump had a sexual encounter. (He has denied the affair.)

Congressional lawmakers are seeking Trump’s personal tax returns, as well as other financial information, as part of their investigation into potential foreign influence on the presidency. Two federal courts have affirmed lawmakers’ right to enforce the subpoenas, and Trump has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jail to the chief? What do you think? So far, no former American president has ever been thrown in prison. Of course, we've never had one as crooked as Trump, have we? I think it's time, primarily because he deserves it-- but also as a warning to future presidents. We don't elect kings... and we won't accept candidates conspiring with foreign powers to meddle in our elections.