Sunday, December 16, 2018

A Rudy awakening

The trouble with maintaining a blog in the Trump era is that news tends to break while one writes a post. As I composed the preceding entry (which I hope you'll read, even though it's rather discursive), Rudy Giuliani's flapping lips made all sorts of headlines. This guy's a lawyer? If Giuliani had defended O.J. Simpson, not only would O.J. have gone to prison, he would have been charged with the murders of Marilyn Sheppard, JFK, RFK and Sharon Tate.

Giuliani told ABC News that Trump was pursuing a Moscow deal in November of 2016. Cohen was the go-between, but obviously he was acting at Trump's behest. In other words, Trump's lawyer admits that Trump lied his ass off when he told the electorate that he had no business interests and no potential interests in Russia.

Rudy also said "Collusion is not a crime. It was over with before the election." This, after innumerable tweets in which Trump screamed "NO COLLUSION!"

Meanwhile, Trump accuses Saturday Night Live of "collusion" because they broadcast an It's a Wonderful Life parody about Trump. Personally, I thought the skit was below-par; nevertheless, Trump's tweet is terrifyingly insane. (The tweet would be funnier than the skit if Trump were not president.)

Are Trump's lies gross enough to fall under the heading "High crimes and misdemeanors"? As many experts have pointed out, the founders did not restrict that phrase to actual transgressions of the U.S. Code. One may fairly ask: If we impeach Trump for lying on the campaign trial, where does it end? Pretty much every candidate stretches the truth at one point or another. But it's another thing entirely for a candidate to lie about a major investment in an adversarial country -- a country headed by a dictator who wants us divided, derided and dead. Lying on that level is an extremely serious business, even if the lie is not told under oath.

4 comments:

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n.y.k. said...

- Rudy also said "Collusion is not a crime. It was over with before the election."

So they admit it now. Cool.

miroker said...

The republican'ts are so power mad/hungry that they would rather subvert the Constitution and ignore the rule of law to maintain their ability to tell women what to do with their vaginas, along with establishment of a state religion. And to tell the rest of us how we need to life our lives.

Aylmer said...

It has to be this or nothing: There are lawful ways to remove Trump and Pence at the same moment, and it should be done. Then Pelosi appoints Clinton as V.P., and then Kavanaugh's conspiracy theory becomes a prophecy. It's win-win.