‘I believe that he will be much more cautious in the future…’
Susan Collins/Photo by Medill DC (CC)
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) President Donald Trump reportedly pushed back on a claim by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that impeachment had taught him a lesson, reaffirming that he had done nothing to feel bad about.
“It was a perfect call,” he told reporters during a private lunch, referencing his July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Collins has vocally expressed concern about Trump’s phone call with Zelenskiy, saying it was “wrong” to pressure a foreign ally to investigate a domestic political rival. But Trump reiterated that he had done no such thing, according to The Hill.
Earlier this week, Collins said she would vote to acquit Trump during the Senate’s vote, arguing that the House Democrats had not met the “burden of showing that the president’s conduct, however flawed, warrants the extreme step of immediate removal from office.”
“I believe that the president has learned from this case,” she told CBS News. “The president has been impeached. That’s a pretty big lesson. I believe that he will be much more cautious in the future.”
CBS NEWS EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) tells @NorahODonnell she will vote to acquit Pres. Trump in the Senate impeachment trial, adding that she believes “the president has learned from this case.”
I hope Republicans & the American people realize that the totally partisan Impeachment Hoax is exacty that, a Hoax. Read the Transcripts, listen to what the President & Foreign Minister of Ukraine said (“No Pressure”). Nothing will ever satisfy the Do Nothing, Radical Left Dems!
‘Ninety-one percent of the voters in Iowa are white….’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) MSNBC analyst Zerlina Maxwell argued that the Iowa primary caucus should be done away with — not because the Democratic Party is unable to efficiently organize it, but because the caucus schedule is front-loaded for caucasians.
“The Iowa caucus is essentially the perfect example of systemic racism,” Maxwell said on Tuesday. “Ninety-one percent of the voters in Iowa are white.”
MSNBC’s @ZerlinaMaxwell: “The Iowa caucus is essentially the perfect example of systemic racism. 91% of the voters in Iowa are white.”
Unlike “white children,” minorities “feel a sense of urgency because their kids are being put in cages, right?” pic.twitter.com/YkMlw3Qqub
When asked if the Democratic Party should be concerned about Iowa’s low voter turnout, Maxwell claimed that the drop in turnout numbers is the result of a lower “sense of urgency” among white voters.
“The reason why you see a drop in turnout, I’m just speculating here, it could be perhaps that white children are not in the cages,” she said. “So when you’re talking about the tangible pain that black and brown people are feeling, they feel a sense of urgency because their kids are being put in cages, right?”
Maxwell wasn’t the only one who suggested ditching the Iowa caucus because of racial issues.
Our first contests must be representative of the American people as a whole. People of color have been loyal to the Democratic Party and deserve more of a voice in our primaries from the start. We can accomplish this by multiple states holding primaries the first day of voting.
‘I’ve never seen such disgraceful behavior from any other speaker of the house. I was ashamed of you. I used to admire you. No more…’
Nancy Pelosi rips up the speech during the State of the Union Address by President Donald Trump / IMAGE: Today
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) In the culmination of a series of devastating recent political setbacks for Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., may have been wise to follow the lead of her congressional colleagues like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-NY, who opted to stay home during Tuesday’s State of the Union address.
Last year, the newly-reinstated speaker had used her position on an elevated dais above the president to mock Trump, asserting what Democrats and media allies sought to frame as a co-equal counterbalance and check on his executive authority.
But Trump’s policy successes, in spite of the unprecedented adversity he has encountered in Congress, relegated a more subdued Pelosi to the background for much of his speech Tuesday—until the end.
Pelosi, who seemed during the delivery to be intently studying the pages set before her by the president, made a late show of tearing up her copy of the speech.
Much like the recent House impeachment efforts, however, that action seemed to be a grave miscalculation on her part—at least according to social media.
Most significantly, according to one of Congress’s newest additions, Rep. Dan Bishop, R-NC, it may have been illegal.
Delivered into her custody pursuant to Article II, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution. Its destruction appears to be a crime punishable by, among other things, removal from office. 18 U.S.C. 2071(b). https://t.co/w3Hz0XQbNB
Regardless of whether Pelosi faces accountability for her actions, they underscored a common theme of the night that the Left’s priorities ran largely counter to the country’s best interests.
The president subtly conveyed the message while never directly mentioning the partisan impeachment process, set to conclude Wednesday with a likely acquittal.
“Members of Congress, we must never forget that the only victories that matter in Washington are victories that deliver for the American people,” Trump said in the speech.
The failure to achieve what many presume to be Democrats’ desired outcome—the removal of the president—was accented this week by a disastrous Iowa primary debacle to formally kick off the Democratic presidential nominating contest.
The fallout resulted in some of the most heated intra-party quibbling thus far of the campaign season, with a quick and decisive resolution to Democrats’ candidate woes seeming like a distant dream in its wake.
Moreover, a recent Gallup poll prior to the State of the Union revealed that Trump was enjoying his highest approval numbers to date, with his flawlessly delivered, emotionally poignant speech likely to further sell his case.
Pelosi, by contrast, drew decisive backlash on the Wednesday talk-show circuit and on social media for her reaction, which yielded the trending hashtag #PettyPelosi.
I’m 62, an independent, have seen every SOTU as an adult. I’ve never seen such disgraceful behavior from any other speaker of the house. I was ashamed of you. I used to admire you. No more.
Some, on both sides of the aisle, noted that her symbolic snark was inconsistent with her capitulation to Trump on several of his agenda items.
Ripping up Trump’s speech doesn’t impress me. Want to impress me? Stop approving his military budget increases. Stop extending his domestic spying powers. Stop giving him every goddamn thing he wants.#PelosiTantrum#PettyPelosi#PelosiRocks
Did Pelosi rip up Trump’s military budgets?
No! She signed them.
Did Pelosi rip up Trump’s Patriot Act extension?
No! She signed it.
Did Pelosi rip up Trump’s court appointees?
No! She fast tracked them.
But she ripped up his speech.
So, Yass Kween!#PettyPelosi#PelosiMeltdown
Conservatives, meanwhile, made sure to have their say. The White House led the way by noting that Pelosi’s action was not an insult to Trump but to the American people he invoked in the speech who had fought and sacrificed for their country.
Speaker Pelosi just ripped up:
One of our last surviving Tuskegee Airmen.
The survival of a child born at 21 weeks.
The mourning families of Rocky Jones and Kayla Mueller.
The radical Left eventually scrambled to circulate some of its own trending hashtags defending the move. But the clear undercurrent was that the action—albeit cathartic to Pelosi’s radicalized base—was, at best, sinking to the level of their reviled Oval Office nemesis.
Although many tried to deflect the action back onto Trump, the optics seemed destined to place the San Francisco liberal and her supporters on the wrong side of this momentous and historic juncture.
‘When we’re talking about the safety of a child, there’s no room to play political games…’
Charlottesville’s former Lee Park/PHOTO: Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) The left-wing leaders in Charlottesville, Virginia, were so determined to vanquish the menace of Confederate monuments that they spurred a riotous 2017 clash, which resulted in three lost lives and brought worldwide media attention down upon the picturesque college town.
But went it comes to child-rapists, the sanctuary city seems to be in much less of a hurry to protect its citizens from the imminent threat in its midst.
Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Wednesday that the Albemarle–Charlottesville Regional Jail had ignored a detainer request in releasing 29-year-old Guatemalan national Marissa Martinez, who is accused of multiple counts involving indecent liberties with a child.
Additionally, although Martinez has resided in the area for less than a year, someone going by names similar to an alias of hers has racked up an array of charges for public intoxication and disorderly conduct, according to the Virginia Judiciary Online Case Information website.
“When detainers are ignored, and criminal aliens are released back in the community, our greatest fear is that they will reoffend,” said Russell Hott, Washington, D.C. field office director for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, in a press statement.
Hott said that was the case with Martinez, who is alleged to have abused a child for a second time after her initial arrest.
“The Albemarle–Charlottesville Regional Jail chose to ignore a lawful detainer which would have kept this individual off the street and instead made a bad-faith attempt with one-hour notice, not just once, but twice,” Hott said.
According to the release, Martinez arrived in the U.S. in 2018 after crossing illegally at the San Ysidro Port of Entry near San Diego, Calif. and underwent an ankle-monitoring process for roughly half a year before being fully released into the population.
Shortly thereafter, she made her way east, and her first charges in the Charlottesville courts appeared around September 2019. In late November, she was arrested for misdemeanor sexual assault on a child.
PHOTO: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Despite an ICE detainer, the local law-enforcement gave the federal agency only an hour’s notice and Martinez was released on bond.
In early January, she was re-arrested on charges of indecent liberties—this time a felony—but was again re-released 17 days later.
ICE finally was able to arrest her and initiate deportation proceedings on Feb. 3, said the press release.
In his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump called on Congress to support legislation sponsored by Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, that would allow the victims or families of victims who suffered as the result of negligence from sanctuary jurisdictions to sue the local or state government that allowed the violations to occur.
Hott said supporting the safety and well-being of citizens should be paramount, regardless of whether one likes the president’s policies.
“When we’re talking about the safety of a child, there’s no room to play political games,” he said.
‘Unlike so many who came before me, I keep my promises. We did our job…’
President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union Address as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reacts. / IMAGE: The Guardian via Youtube
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) To imply that President Donald Trump ever conveyed anything short of confidence would be a mischaracterization unworthy even of CNN’s fake-news reportage.
Yet, a year ago, Trump took the podium to deliver the State of the Union battle-wearied and uncertain, having just ceded the control of the House of Representatives to a vicious, radicalized and hostile force.
His first showdown—the budget impasse that led to a government shutdown—had cast into question even the SOTU address itself as seasoned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., determined to undermine his legitimacy.
On Tuesday, Trump re-ascended the platform and—much like the state of the union itself, as he reported—seemed to have regained his former steadfast footing.
Wiser to the threat of his enemies domestic and abroad, more aware of their idiosyncratic tells and bluffs, Trump—a day away from his impeachment acquittal on actions yet unforeseen a year ago—seemed not only confident but fearless.
He came, of course, well-armed with a string of unprecedented policy successes, most notably the economic prosperity like none ever before witnessed in U.S. history.
“The years of economic decay are over,” Trump began. “The days of our country being used, taken advantage of and even scorned by other nations are long behind us.”
He highlighted the “unbridled optimism” that has now silenced even the most insistent of economic alarmists, including not only job growth, unemployment reductions and a booming stock market, but also the specific ways his economy has benefited middle-class workers.
“This is a blue-collar boom,” he said, touting a 16 percent rise in median pay.
He noted, in one of many contrasts with the previous Obama administration, that with record numbers of veterans, minorities and people with disabilities rejoining the workforce, 7 million Americans had been weaned off food stamps and 10 million off welfare.
He credited Sen. Tim Scott, R-SC, with promoting “opportunity zones” in which wealthy Americans had been able to invest in lower-income areas to revitalize downtrodden sectors of the country.
Along with the bipartisan criminal-justice reform Trump helped to spearhead, he said, “the roaring economy has, for the first time ever, given many former prisoners a chance.”
Trump also was able to highlight the bipartisan success of replacing the NAFTA free-trade agreement with the USMCA deal, one that will reassert “fairness and reciprocity” among U.S. neighbors for the first time in many years.
“Unfair trade is perhaps the single biggest reason that I decided to run for president,” he said.
But whereas countless politicians had promised reform that went nowhere, he delivered.
“Unlike so many who came before me, I keep my promises,” he said. “We did our job.”
Not only in dealings with Mexico and Canada, but also other major players on the global stage, Trump said his firm and resolute negotiations had paid off.
He said not only had the trade war with China yielded positive results, but it had improved the relationship between the two countries.
“They respect what we’ve done, because quite frankly they could never really believe that they were able to get away with what they were doing,” Trump said.
From newly reasserted economic strength, he transitioned into the ways that the U.S. was advancing the principles of freedom by standing up to socialist tyrants like Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
Among Trump’s invited guests to the speech, he said, was the “true and legitimate” Venezuelan president, Juan Guaido.
“Socialism destroys nations, but always remember freedom unifies the soul,” Trump said, expressing American solidarity with Guaido’s cause, a moment clearly structured to put Congress’s own socialist delegation ill at ease.
Not surprisingly, it appeared that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio—Cortez, D-NY, and other ‘Squad’ members were noticeably missing from the audience. Their absence seemed yet another victory in the war of attrition Trump has been locked in with the lower legislative chamber.
Shockingly, of the radical Democrats who were in attendance, some seemed so determined not to cede any ground to Trump that they refused a standing ovation to 100-year-old Charles McGee, one of the original Tuskegee airmen, who came with his 13-year-old great-grandson, an aspiring astronaut, in tow.
“From the pilgrims to the founders, from the soldiers at Valley Forge to the marchers at Selma—and from President Lincoln to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Americans have always rejected limits on our children’s future,” Trump said.
“Members of Congress, we must never forget that the only victories that matter in Washington are victories that deliver for the American people,” he continued, seemingly the only subtle nod of the night to House Democrats’ failed impeachment attempts.
Trump challenged Congress to step to the plate on several educational initiatives, including “opportunity scholarships” to allow greater school choice, as well as vocational and technical education in every high school.
In addition to trumpeting his reforms to the Obamacare system, the president highlighted what he said was an even bigger development: an executive order mandating price transparency, which will take effect next year.
Trump laid into the Medicare-for-All proposals and other government-run health plans that have been embraced by nearly all of his prospective Democratic opponents in this year’s presidential election.
“One hundred and thirty-two lawmakers in this room have endorsed legislation to impose a socialist takeover of our healthcare system,” he said to jeers from the Republican wing.
“To those watching at home tonight, I want you to know, we will never let socialism destroy American healthcare,” he added.
He excoriated those who had endorsed free healthcare for illegal immigrants, which would “raid the Medicare benefits … that our seniors depend on while acting as a powerful lure for illegal immigration.”
Along with the the firewall of congressional legislation, he continued, a “long, tall and very powerful wall” was physically being built on the southern U.S. border with 100 miles laid down already and 500 miles expected in a year’s time.
Trump touched briefly on a series of health-related issues—including the ongoing fights against opioid addiction, HIV and the new Coronavirus—before arriving at a very special guest, conservative host Rush Limbaugh, who was seated next to First Lady Melania Trump.
Rush Limbaugh / IMAGE: The Guardian via Youtube
The president praised the cancer-stricken radio icon as a fighter and awarded Limbaugh a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in recognition of the millions of people he inspired and his longstanding commitment to charity work.
Trump called on Congress to approve $50 million for neonatal research, drawing ovations from across the aisle, before hitting them with a right hook: a call to ban late-term abortions as several blue states have recently sought to expand the reach of abortion laws.
“Whether we are Republican, Democrat or Independent, surely we must all agree that every human life is a sacred gift from God,” he said.
He again struck a conciliatory tone touting paid family leave—a popular Democratic cause—the “one-trillion trees” environmental initiative and a call to rebuild infrastructure—once considered the cornerstone of bipartisan cooperation, which fell by the wayside as the acrimonious impeachment proceedings and other personal disputes arose between Trump and Democratic leaders.
Trump then hammered the Left again with a searing attack on sanctuary cities that allowed criminal aliens to be re-released into the public in defiance of ICE detainers.
He promoted legislation introduced by Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, that would allow victims to sue sanctuary jurisdictions when a loved one was injured or killed as a result of their negligence to comply with federal law.
Trump also proudly declared the end of “catch and release” policies after a hard-fought legal battle in which activist left-wing judges repeatedly sought to impose injunctions.
He said illegal border crossings were down more than 70 percent since May, dropping steadily for the past eight months.
Trump noted his success in confirming a record number of judges with “many more in the pipeline” before launching into the “siege” against constitutional rights—addressing his embrace of both First Amendment religious liberties and Second Amendment gun rights.
He highlighted the war against Islamic terrorism, including the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, with the heart-rending story of a 26-year-old humanitarian worker who was tortured and murdered by the ISIS leader.
He introduced the parents of Kayla Mueller, as well as the mother and son of Sgt. Chris Hake, who was killed by a roadside bombing orchestrated by the late Iranian Qud general Qassem Soleimani.
Trump had another surprise in store while addressing the need to end America’s longest-running war in Afghanistan, introducing Amy Williams, a military wife and mother of two from Fort Bragg, NC, before reuniting her with husband, Townsend, recently returned from his fourth deployment.
“America’s the place where anything can happen,” he said. “America’s the place where anyone can rise—and here, on this land, on this soil, on this continent, the most incredible dreams come true. This nation is our canvas, and this country is our masterpiece.”
Trump closed on a note of hope and optimism for the future, infused with the sense of rugged perseverance inherited from America’s past that paralleled his own bumpy presidential narrative.
In spite of it all, he said, “our grandest journeys are not yet made. … Our spirit is still young. The sun is still rising. God’s grace is still shining—and, my fellow Americans, the best is yet to come.”
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) After claiming that a “coding” error in an untested app had caused a crash Monday, delaying results in the party’s Iowa caucus, Democrats in the Hawkeye State released partial results late Tuesday showing a neck-and-neck race between former mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
The results reflected just over 60 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Des Moines Register, and had Buttigieg at 27 percent with Sanders trailing at 25 percent.
“I apologize deeply for this,” said state party chair Troy Price. “We hit a stumbling block on the reporting of the back end of the data, but we know this data is accurate.”
The teaser was unlikely to quell the inter-party acrimony that had sprung up around the two candidates after Buttigieg prematurely declared victory and Sanders supporters took to social media to express their displeasure.
Fellow front-runners Elizabeth Warren (18 percent) and Joe Biden (15 percent) trailed behind—perhaps signaling the most noteworthy developments thus far after Biden’s name repeatedly surfaced in recent Senate impeachment hearings.
Both Sanders and Warren also were waylaid by the hearings, which all senators were constitutionally obligated to attend.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire whose advertising blitz has seen him fast ascending in the polls, strategically chose not to compete in the early states, which he claimed were a waste of resources.
The technical glitch exposed some of the increasing fractures in the veneer of a unified Democratic party that candidates have sought to maintain as they approach the no-holds-barred general election battle against incumbent President Donald Trump. Trump’s approval rating on Tuesday reached a new high of 49 percent, according to Gallup, surpassing his predecessor, Barack Obama.
Recently, as the far-left Sanders has risen in the polls, he has faced attacks from establishment Democrats—including members of the Obama administration, 2016 candidate Hillary Clinton and Warren, whose policies closely mirror those of her socialist Senate colleague.
Even longtime liberal mouthpiece Chris Matthews, the host of MSNBC’s “Hardball” who notoriously felt a “tingle” up his leg for Obama, was visibly distraught over a late run for Sanders, whom many consider to be too far to the left to win.
“I’m not happy,” said Matthews during a panel appearance on his network’s “Morning Joe.” “I’m not happy with this field.”
‘The door of impeachable whatever has been opened…’
Joni Ernst/Photo by Gage Skidmore (CC)
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, clarified her recent statement that former Vice President Joe Biden could face impeachment charges if elected president, saying her comments had been distorted by the media.
“That was taken entirely out of context,” Ernst told reporters on Tuesday.
“The point is that the Democrats have lowered the bar so far that … regardless of who it is, if you have a different party in the House than that of an elected president, you can have just random comments thrown out there with folks saying we’re going to impeach,” she continued.
Ernst said over the weekend that because of the Democrats’ efforts to impeach President Donald Trump, “the door of impeachable whatever has been opened.” And given the many allegations of corruption Biden has faced, it’s likely he could face charges from Congress if elected, she said.
“Joe Biden should be very careful what he’s asking for because, you know, we can have a situation where if it should ever be President Biden, that immediately, people, right the day after he would be elected would be saying, ‘Well, we’re going to impeach him,’” she told Bloomberg News.
Democrats immediately slammed Ernst, claiming she was already calling for Biden’s impeachment.
JONI ERNST: We can’t impeach Trump because ELECTIONS.
Also JONI ERNST: If America elects Joe Biden, we’re impeaching his ass IMMEDIATELY.
But Ernst clarified that she was not trying to comment on Biden, the allegations against him, or whether he should be impeached.
“I didn’t say what the headlines said, but simply that we’ve lowered the bar so much,” she explained. “Is this really what the American people want? And I would say no, it’s not.”
‘This is why we lose elections, because we’re zeroing in on s*** like that….’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) A campaign staffer for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., trashed the presidential candidate’s attempts to pander to the LGBT community in a new video released by Project Veritas, arguing that “no one gives a f*** about a godd**n pronoun.”
Warren has gone out of her way to win the LGBT vote, vowing to nominate a Cabinet-level secretary of education chosen by transgender kids, and promising to expand government-provided healthcare so that it covers all transgender-related treatments.
But the Warren campaign’s Iowa field organizer, Angel Alicea, blasted these initiatives as a waste of time that will result in an election loss.
“At the end of the day if we’re gonna prioritize pronouns over making sure people have a decent standard of living, that’s wrong,” he said in the video released on Monday. “When you come from where I come from, no one gives a f*** about a godd**n pronoun. They want to know how you’re gonna create a job.”
BREAKING: #Expose2020 Part 5: @ewarren Field Organizer @Los_ANGELes2 Blasts Campaign; Caught on Tape Saying They are Self-Destructing on Gender Issues.
“No One Gives a F**k About a G** D**n Pronoun…People Want to Know How to Create a Job” pic.twitter.com/DmM5PNjwSa
Alicea added that he’s been chastised by the Warren campaign in the past for bringing up concerns about gender pronouns.
“I’m like here for the pronoun thing, but I feel like I shouldn’t have to say ‘he, him, his,” Alicea explained. “Like shouldn’t it just be implied? … I’ve been called out for saying something like that, but this is why we lose elections, because we’re zeroing in on s*** like that.”
Warren’s woke message is the reason the Democratic Party is falling behind among middle-class and blue-collar voters, Alicea continued.
“At the end of the day we’ve become the party that has prioritized that rather than putting food on the table for working families, and it’s like, that’s why we lose,” Alicea said. “It’s a f***ing no-brainer why we’re going to godd**n lose an election.”
‘This is a blatant and intentional violation The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) After vowing last week that he would “insist” on acknowledging publicly the identity of presumed whistleblower Eric Ciaramella, Sen. Rand Paul finally got his 15 minutes on Tuesday.
With all senators allotted speaking time on the Senate floor prior to Wednesday’s scheduled impeachment vote, Paul read the question that Chief Justice John Roberts had refused to read, naming Ciaramella.
Rand Paul is currently speaking on the Senate floor next to a large placard emblazoned with the name of the whistleblower
Paul, however, indicated that since he does not have any privileged information to confirm the whistleblower’s identity and was operating purely on speculation, it does not violate the law.
That would leave open the possibility, perhaps, of a defamation lawsuit if Ciaramella could prove in court that it was false and that he suffered damages as a result of the alleged slander, although different rules govern the statements government officials make in the course of their public duties.
Notwithstanding, Ciaramella’s name has been circulated for months since the whistleblower complaint was filed with the inspector general of the intelligence community.
Despite acknowledging at times—and perjuriously denying at others—that he knew the identity of the whistleblower and that his staff had met with the individual, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the lead House impeachment manager, used the whistleblower protections as pretense to suppress testimony that was damaging to Democrats’ politically motivated efforts during the House investigation.
Republicans said that if additional witnesses were subpoenaed in the Senate trial, the whistleblower would be one of the first among them and questioned why classified testimony from Inspector General Michael Atkinson had been withheld from them despite all having security clearances.
Schiff and others coyly maintained that there was a fear of leaking the name, but Paul’s argument upended that line of defense, using it to give himself plausible deniability while spreading the widely circulated name.
Although Senate Democrats’ attempt to call additional witnesses during the trial was ultimately defeated, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that it would be launching an investigation into its House counterpart, headed by Schiff, and the role the congressman played in orchestrating the whistleblower complaint.
‘If you screw Bernie like you did in 2016 I’ll be voting for Trump again…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) As the disastrous Iowa caucus brought more chaos than clarity to the Democratic nominating contest, calls began to grow in the public sphere for Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez to step down in disgrace, just as his recent predecessor, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, did during the 2016 election.
@DNC You are the f***ing worst. If you screw Bernie like you did in 2016 I’ll be voting for Trump again. Just as bad as Debbie WS. #TomPerezResign#DNC
Schultz resigned after leaked emails revealed that she had colluded with the Hillary Clinton campaign to throw the primary and freeze out dark-horse candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Some of those leading the charge appeared to be indignant and outraged Bernie Sanders supporters who felt the socialism-spouting front-runner was deprived of a night of victory and celebration after recently surging ahead in the polls.
Regardless who won at the #IowaCaucus, I’m deeply upset that caucusgoers were robbed of a night of joyful celebration or shared disappointment.
35% have never caucused before. What message are we sending them about an already frail belief in American democracy? #TomPerezResignhttps://t.co/JlkTBzFDaS
But others decried the general lack of preparation for the highly touted caucus to kick off the 2020 election.
Particularly after Democrats seemed to be hoisted with their own petard in the recent effort to impeach President Donald Trump, the failure to reach any sort of decisive outcome in their own nominating contest cast the party in a light of disarray and brought questions about where its priorities lay.
Others also noted the tone-deaf approach that Perez and the DNC had taken early Monday in failing to address the lingering concerns over technology issues while trumpeting their flashy new reforms.
For three years, we’ve been preparing for the process that officially kicks off tonight in Iowa: the Democratic presidential primary. Today our chair, @TomPerez, reflects on the reforms we’ve made to make this the most transparent primary in our history: https://t.co/8w7gtSfqil
Regardless who won at the #IowaCaucus, I’m deeply upset that caucusgoers were robbed of a night of joyful celebration or shared disappointment.
35% have never caucused before. What message are we sending them about an already frail belief in American democracy? #TomPerezResignhttps://t.co/JlkTBzFDaS
