Posted on 01/08/2022 7:40:19 AM PST by RandFan
...
They were making very clear to him explicitly clear Republican senators like Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio and Mitch McConnell that if you do any of those things that you are considering doing, pardoning Assange and Snowden, declassifying JFK files, declassifying other secrets that should have been declassified long ago because they're from decades old treachery on the part of the US government, we will vote to impeach you. They had this leverage the sword of Damocles hanging over his head, and I am not saying this to justify Trump's cowardly refusal to do what he should have done in pardoning Edward Snowden, then Julian Assange. Candace Owens was right in that video that he should have and that if she were in his position, she would have. I'm just
I'm explaining what I know happened, which is that all signs are pointing in the direction of him pardoning Snowden, for sure. And maybe Assange. And then suddenly this preposterous impeachment proceeding to impeach a president who was on his way out anyway, emerged precisely because it gave them the leverage to threaten Trump and say that they would convict him if he did any of those things.
And that is why he left office without doing what you can tell from that video he knows he should have done. He's very sheepish, very uncharacteristically timid about explaining why he didn't. "Oh, I was just too nice. I was just too nice. I'm known for being too nice."
That wasn't the reason. The reason was, because he was afraid of those Republican threats to convict him.
(Excerpt) Read more at systemupdate.substack.com ...
Not sure if Glenn is speculating or if he knows this.
Specifically McConnell I think but Glenn mentions Rubio and Graham...
I heard this a while back and I believe it to be true. Pathetic. Assange needs to freed now.
The three pieces of sheit mentioned here need to be removed for good. None of them worth a tinkers damn.
I read that Snowden didn’t want a pardon from Trump; he hates Trump. Said something like Trump buys love. Very odd. Snowden is odd — but sure opened our eyes on surveillance.
Whenever you wonder why corruption is not exposed, the answer always is: “because the deep state protects itself”.
Every few days I’m reminded why I left the GOP shortly after J6 and registered Independent.
Then, declassify and pardon, then dare McConnell, Graham and Rubio to convict.
This was always my guess too.
Based on GOP treachery and backstabbing over the decades why wouldn’t we believe it?
Yes I heard this before too..
Trump was teasing the pardons and was definitely weighing them up.
It is possible that he continued to hold onto hopes that there was a path to claiming his second term and imagined that burning these bridges would make it so that the resulting second term would make the first term look like a love-in.
GOP leadership, RINOs and others in the party despised Trump — and his supporters. Of course they would have impeached him. I don’t doubt that for a second.
I am not surprised at all. I think Trump would have loved to poke the deep-state in the eye, and it would have been a wise political move to pardon Assange.
Like so much of his Presidency, he was blocked/threatened and otherwise prevented from doing the right thing.
If we had a dozen Glenn Greenwalds covering DC, the nation would be well served.
I received a text last week from Don Jr. asking to donate to Marco. I don’t understand why the Trumps support him. He only appeared on the jumbotron at the 2016 RNC Convention.
I find this very hard to believe.
Mr. Trump could have easily pardoned these people on Jan. 7 or even on Jan. 18th and the assclowns in the senate could suck canal water all day.
Republicans better comes with someone to primary Rubio because he doesn’t have a chance against a cuban democrat. My prediction.
Of course he knows. Do the math - the largest standing army in the world, just on numbers, is eclipsed by a mere 4% of Trump voters.
“It’s a big club, and you(and Trump)ain’t in it”
McConnell threatened Trump with removal as early as May 2017 if he tried to use his authority to prevent the Mueller investigation.
Lost in the fog of war at the time, this did not get as much notice as it should have.
Looking back, we can see that McConnell (and Ryan until January 2019) must have known on the day Schumer demanded Jeff Sessions's recusal from the "investigation" that the whole thing was a fraud. THEY ALL KNEW, yet they USED it as a tool to bell the cat, to remind Trump who really had the power - and it worked.
From what I heard he was close to pardoning them.
He even said it at a rally if I recall and may have had the attorney’s office responsible draw up the paperwork..
Then something changed.
I dont think Greenwald would publish this if there wasn’t a grain of truth to it..
Maybe not direct threats to the president but a nod and a wink coming from McConnell.
That would explain a lot.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.