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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longnshort who wrote (1169591)	10/9/2019 8:02:10 AM
From: Fiscally Conservative	1 Recommendation Recommended By pocotrader Respond to of 1573088

I've see Chimpanzees show more Intelligence than you.

To: longnshort who wrote (1169591)	10/9/2019 8:31:56 AM
From: sylvester80	1 Recommendation Recommended By Celtictrader Respond to of 1573088

OOPS! Trump’s dam might be about to burst By Karen Tumulty Columnist October 8 at 3:46 PM washingtonpost.com The dam is beginning to crumble. A new Washington Post-Schar School poll shows a startling shift in public sentiment in favor of the decision by House Democrats to open an impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s blatantly improper request that the Ukraine government help him dig up dirt on his leading presidential rival, former vice president Joe Biden. The poll found nearly 6 in 10 of those surveyed support the investigation. About half of the public wants to see Trump removed from office over the “favor” he requested during that now-infamous July 25 telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The impropriety is far clearer than the allegations of collusion and obstruction that fueled the investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 election, when large majorities said even considering impeachment would be an overreach. The conversation with Zelensky occurred when the Trump administration was withholding $391 million in badly needed military aid from Ukraine. Americans know a shakedown when they see one. What is surely most worrisome for Trump in the poll is its indication that his once-impregnable base could be giving way. It found that 28 percent of Republicans support the inquiry and 18 percent would like to see him removed from office. Yes, those who back the idea of a congressional investigation are still a minority within the president’s party, but a rapidly growing one, their numbers up by 21 points since a Post-ABC poll from July, when the issue at hand was the findings of the special counsel’s Russia investigation. The revelation of Trump’s Ukraine call has shifted the dynamic across the political spectrum. The increase in support for an impeachment probe has been roughly the same among Democrats, Republicans and independents. Even Trump’s supporters, it would appear, can see with their own eyes that his request of Zelensky was out of bounds — no matter how many times the president tells them the call was “perfect” — and that the whistleblower who reported it offered an accurate rendering of what transpired. A trove of text messages turned over by Kurt Volker, who resigned last month as Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, have revealed that diplomats recognized in real time what was going on, irrespective of whether there was an explicit quid pro quo on the table. No doubt, Republican misgivings have only been deepened by the president’s unhinged behavior since then. He throws around words like “treason” and warns of an impending civil war. He suggests that those who talked to the whistleblower deserve to be executed, and he publicly hints that trade negotiations with China might go more smoothly if that country also investigated Biden and his son Hunter. There comes a time — and it might be arriving — when even Republicans can no longer dismiss these rantings as merely “Trump being Trump,” or, as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) put it, “just needling the press, knowing that you guys were going to get outraged by it.” Could it be that the GOP base has finally grown exhausted with having to defend the indefensible? Or that impeachment might be the only brake on the impulses that have taken Trump further and further over the line? Of course, this is only one poll, and no other has shown this kind of movement within the Republican base. But the overall trend line of support for the inquiry is confirmed by other surveys that have come out recently. As sentiment builds in favor of what House Democrats are doing, the president is not helping his case — or his credibility — by standing in the way of lawmakers’ efforts to gather the facts from firsthand sources. The question is not if but when they will hear from people such as Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union and a central figure in the impeachment inquiry, whose deposition Tuesday was blocked by the administration. Still, impeachment is a historic step, and Democrats must proceed cautiously and soberly. Republicans are now demanding a vote on the House floor to authorize the inquiry to begin. That is not something required by the Constitution or any congressional rule. But it is probably a concession that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should make. It would not increase the political exposure of her own members, given that 227 of them have already come out in favor of the inquiry. And it would force Republicans to answer questions that many of them have been ducking: Do they condone Trump’s behavior? Do they really think there is nothing to see here?

To: longnshort who wrote (1169591)	10/9/2019 8:33:24 AM
From: sylvester80	1 Recommendation Recommended By Celtictrader Respond to of 1573088

OOPS! Few left in White House to help Trump with key decisions, former aides say. cbsnews.com Few left in White House to help Trump with key decisions, former aides say BY FIN GOMEZ, SARA COOK OCTOBER 8, 2019 / 8:04 PM / CBS NEWS Washington — Former senior administration officials say they're worried the White House lacks senior advisers who are able to help President Trump avoid missteps that could threaten his presidency. Recently, two sources close to Mr. Trump's reelection campaign expressed frustration with the current White House response to Democrats' impeachment inquiry over the absence of a unified Republican message. Former senior White House sources are unhappy with the lack of a designated spokesperson to handle the impeachment inquiry. They would like to see someone take charge of the messaging, similar to the role played by former Arizona Senator Jon Kyl in the contentious Senate hearing process for Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination. Now, former South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy, a former prosecutor, is one person the president's outside counsel is considering adding to the team. Trending News White House won't comply with impeachment inquiry — live updates Warren stands by account of being pushed out of her first teaching job Supreme Court appears split over LGBTQ rights White House says it will not cooperate with impeachment inquiry When President Bill Clinton was impeached, he had a war room of defenders, and some Trump confidants are concerned that the Trump White House has not created a similar operation. Instead, the president has been serving as his own defender, on Twitter and in impromptu gaggles with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House as he leaves Washington. Some of these confidants believe the campaign is evolving to serve that role, either amplifying or attacking depending on the president's message — and battle — of the day. The Trump campaign has already spent millions on ads mentioning impeachment. As one former senior official noted, Mr. Trump's go-it-alone approach to possible impeachment is very different than Clinton's, a former senior official said, and the official fears that strategy might hurt Mr. Trump with groups he needs in 2020. Clinton "very much kept a business as usual feel to his presidency during impeachment," the source said. "The president's approach seems likely to stoke up his base further, but it may come at the cost of more centrist voters." Another issue that has caused these officials concern is the handling of president's phone call this summer with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the administration's decision to release a summary of that call and the lack of a cohesive message from within the White House to counter the impeachment inquiry as recent examples of White House officials failing to intervene. "There is no one really left who can say, 'that's a bad idea,'" a former senior White House official said. Several former senior administration aides said that while the president still has good staff surrounding him, there are no longer enough senior aides who possess either the standing or willingness to talk him out of questionable decisions. One such decision was the sudden announcement Sunday night that Mr. Trump had approved the pullback of about two dozen troops from northeast Syria, which met with condemnation by some of the president's staunchest supporters on Capitol Hill because it is considered to be an outright betrayal of Kurdish allies who have been crucial to defeating ISIS. The move leaves them vulnerable to Turkish forces that may invade Syria, creates an opening for the reemergence of ISIS, and sends a troubling message to other allies about the dependability of the U.S. "I think it's pretty obvious that we are no longer with the 'A-team' or even the 'B-team,'" one former senior administration official told CBS News. "The leadership team which is now in place was chosen with the full intent that they would not counter or try to dissuade the president in any way. Their job is simply to implement the president's wishes, period." The decision to release the Ukraine call transcript — which the president praised as "perfect" but was the basis for a whistleblower complaint that is at the heart of House impeachment proceedings — is especially perplexing to not only former senior White House officials, but to some current senior administration officials. Two current senior administration officials tell CBS News they tried to stop the summary from being released to the public because they feared doing so would be tactically shortsighted and could result in a negative outcome for the White House. There was a collective push against the call summary's release by many others in the White House who shared similar sentiments with CBS News. There is not complete agreement on this, however. Some of the former senior White House officials CBS spoke with believe Mr. Trump did the right thing in releasing the log of the call. "I actually think it was smart," a former senior White House official said. The official added, "I think it would have gotten out anyway for sure, and I think it shows that they truly believe that they have nothing to hide." Another former senior White House official went as far as to call it "brilliant," arguing that otherwise, "it only would have been the whistleblower's account. The president cleared the air." And a third former official agreed, suggesting that it was better for the White House to control the release of the information. Congress, the official said, "would have just made it a slower and more painful trickle-out process otherwise." Many have advocated for a more aggressive push against the attacks on the president over his missteps. As a former aide points out, this is easier said than done. He trusts his own instincts over those of even his top advisers. According to the former aide, that self-assurance has only increased over his time in office. "He's been on the job now for a while," the former aide explained. A former administration official claimed Mr. Trump solicits advice from lower- to mid-level staffers and taps outside sources including Fox News hosts. The former senior White House aide imitated the president, saying "'Look at all this stuff I have done ... I can't talk about this? I have done a great job! This all is B.S. What do you mean I can't say that?'" Weijia Jiang and Major Garrett contributed to this report.