Posted on 08/24/2018 6:09:30 PM PDT by SMGFan
Republicans say confirming a replacement would be a problem
Republican senators grew increasingly vocal in their warnings to President Donald Trump if he fires Attorney General Jeff Sessions, including threats not to vote for a replacement.
Sen. Ben Sasse came to the floor Thursday afternoon to read into the Congressional Record the statement that Sessions, a former Alabama senator well-liked by his former colleagues, issued in response to criticism from Trump.
Sessions was highlighting the independence of the Justice Department, and Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, wanted it to be perfectly clear that he would have the attorney general’s back.
“Bizarrely, there are people in this body now talking like the attorney general will be fired, should be fired, I’m not sure how to interpret the comments of the last couple of hours,” Sasse said. “I would just like to say, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, and as a member of this body, I find it really difficult to envision any circumstance where I would vote to confirm a successor to Jeff Sessions if he is fired because he is executing his job, rather than choosing to act in a partisan hack.”
(Excerpt) Read more at rollcall.com ...
Session is done. he has not followed presidential leadership, he has followed the leadership of the still-Obama DOJ.In short , Sessions is a disaster.
Not entirely correct. Because Mueller is seriously slowing down Trump’s MAGA agenda. Trump would love to get rid of Sessions, Rosenstein & Mueller. But there are too many CAREER republican senators who NEVER LIKED Trump, and want Trump found guilty of something. Mueller is their best tool right now.
Why they despise Trump? Because he is proving they have been wrong all along. They never made MAGA with their methodology. Trump threatens their demise and rise of a new breed of republicans in his mold if Trump succeeds in MAGA (He already has to a large extent, and that only makes them more nervous).
They both can #### my Italian ####.
I should probably not post with a fifth in me :)
I’m not going to tell you your comments in post 134 don’t make sense, because they do. Sadly, this nation is being harmed by the deep state swamp creatures right now. It isn’t stopping.
Right now major papers are beginning to talk seriously about impeachment. Laugh all you want to, I remember laughing about Woodward and Bernstein taking down Nixon too.
No, Trump hasn’t done anything wrong, but that doesn’t matter. Cohen plead guilty to a crime that didn’t exist, but in so doing he implicated the president in that crime, and the media and the Left are going to run with it.
The media is going to blow this out to make it look like something big, and since they control the narrative, this will cause Trump problems.
His own party is against him. They don’t help him do anything. It’s downright amazing that he got the tax cuts through. It’s running on two years now, that is the only major legislation McConnell and Ryan WOULD send over. They simply refused to take advantage of the situation they have been gifted with.
Why? In part it’s because they have had to deal with the swamp all these many years. The media is against them. They just don’t have the guts to go postal against the Left. And frankly, they are a part of the Left now. They ARE NOT on Trump’s team.
Is anyone suffering from the delusion that the deep state has ceased it’s anti-American activity?
It’s all well and good to talk about Trump spending all his time on positive projects to MAGA. It’s entirely another to address what happens when he leaves.
Folks, we either clean out the deep state, or when Trump leaves office, that deep state will reverse every single thing he did.
How will they do that? They will do it using Executive Orders. The next Leftist will not operate as Trump has, and the media will give them cover to do it. Twisted Leftist talking heads will explain how all the criminality, is in fact the best thing ever to happen to our nation.
It will be the trashing of Trump, only in reverse.
When Trump does something good, he gets no credit. When Obama and folks on the Left do something bad, it is praised.
If we don’t empty the swamp, we’re doomed. The nation will be doomed.
If Trump and Sessions wish to play this little game as they have over the last year, our nation will cease to exist within 15-20 years.
There is an absolute mountain of known felonious activity. None of it is being addressed. What comes next is the Left building on that criminal activity. And without a strong man in the White House, all bets are off.
Look at what they have already done and gotten away with. There is no limit to what they will do.
National security, murders, our military,... seriously folks, justice is part of the job for both Trump and Sessions.
If someone thinks our nation survives allowing the top level criminals to get away with what they have done, remain in place, and network from here, they’re kidding themselves.
“I remember laughing about Woodward and Bernstein taking down Nixon too.”
I’m not denying the threat exists - what I’m saying is that Trump is playing it right - what the Sessions blamers are advocating is exactly what cooked Nixon’s Goose.
There is a blame Sessions bandwagon that wants Trump to fire Jeff Sessions and replace him with an aggressive AG who will fire RR and Mueller, and start indicting high level Obama era officials for treason.
Don’t you see that this is exactly what Richard Nixon did - it was a trap then and it is a trap today. If Trump were to follow the advice of these Sessions haters and started doing all of the things Sessions is supposedly “failing” to do - firing and improsoning his political enemies - he’d be handing them their modern day Watergate scandal on a silver platter.
Trump is not stupid enough to fall for it. If you really care about destroying the deep state, let Trump handle this his own way.
Obviously, President Trump will first have to DECLASSIFY several documents to PROVE his case.
The interior parts of Maine are a mixed bag, however We go camping up in the Rangeley Lake area. Sometimes I don’t know whether there are more Land For Sale signs, blue tarps or mosquitoes around.
As for Senators, our entire Northeast region could use an enema 😈
+2
“If we don’t empty the swamp, we’re doomed. The nation will be doomed.
If Trump and Sessions wish to play this little game as they have over the last year, our nation will cease to exist within 15-20 years.”
I read your post again because it is a really good summary of the dire straits we face. I wanted to assure you that I agree completely with your assessment of how pervasive the deep state infestation is, and how critical it is that Trump succeeds now - it may well be the last chance for the Republic. I understand the stakes.
My difference with you is not a matter of WHAT, it is a matter of HOW.
Impeachment and removal of a POTUS is not a legal process - it is 100% a political process. With sufficient votes combined with sufficient MSM propaganda and brainwashing, it can be done.
So, how was Richard Nixon forced to resign?
Well, just as today, the MSM, his enemies in the legislature, and the deep state bureaucracy conspired to convince the public through a 24/7 blitzkrieg that Nixon was an evil tyrant that abused his Presidential power to achieve political ends - they conspired to frame him with the fabricated Watergate narrative - to get the people to believe Nixon was an over reaching anti-democratic authoritarian - an enemy of the people. Exactly as they are conspiring to do with Trump today.
But there was another part of the deep state strategy both then and now: they set traps for Richard Nixon and he fell right into them, one by one. They began challenging Nixon’s authority from within the bureaucracy and the legislature, knowing that as President, Nixon had the power to squish them like bugs. They were essentially sacrificing their pawns to draw the King out into the open.
Nixon fell for it again and again. He let them get under his skin, he showed anger, he showed fear, he fired people he thought were betraying him, he holed up in the White House and set up a war room, he drew up “enemy lists”, he demanded the resignations of AGs and acting AGs until he got to one who would fire the special prosecutor, he denied being a crook. His vindictive rage became known as The Saturday Night Massacre.
So, in the end, it wasn’t the concocted Watergate scandal, but rather Nixon’s own behavior in response to Watergate, that turned the people against him. Once he lost the support of the people, the weak-kneed legislature - always holding a finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing - now had political cover to turn against him.
The deep state is working the same strategy now against Trump - I am truly amazed that more people on FR don’t see it. They are OBVIOUSLY trying to bait Trump into a Saturday Night Massacre. They would love it if Trump would fire Sessions and or RR, and use his Executive to shut down the Mueller investigation. That’s what they have been after all along. That’s why Mueller’s choice of prosecutors was so blatantly anti Trump. That’s why everything he does is blatantly unfair - he’s been trying to bait Trump. Obviously.
And (this part may be a stretch) I have to wonder if the group of rabid Sessions haters that have plagued FR for the last year are trolls for the deep state. They have been pounding away relentlessly at this narrative that Trump must fired Sessions so that Rosenstien can be fired so that Mueller can be fired. Sessions must be fired to make way and so for a machete wielding AG that will do a purge, locking up (or hanging) Trump’s deep state enemies, including most of Obama era officials - maybe Obama himself, for treason.
It’s unbelievable that people here on FR would want Trump to follow that course - EXACTLY what they are hoping he’ll do and EXACTLY what Nixon did.
Trump did fire Comey, at the recommendation of deep state RR. In retrospect, isn’t that a little suspicious? Could it be that was a set up, intended to frame Trump as a Nixon-like tyrant? We’re there more people Trump was suppose to fire, so the people would see him as another Nixon?
Right now, what Trump has going for him is that the public does NOT see him as a tyrant, they do NOT see him using his executive powers to purging the government of his political enemies. They do NOT see him angry or obsessed with ending this unfair witch hunt - they see him patiently submitting to it and staying uninvolved. They do NOT see him strong arming his AG into being a political hack. They do NOT see him throwing his political enemies in jail.
Let’s keep it that way.
This is a political fight - not a legal fight. Perception is everything. Trump is playing this just right. He’s not going to be guilty of what Obama did - weaponizing his entire executive branch for political purposes.
I
Republican voters in Maine and Nebraska should be ashamed of themselves for electing such garbage.
I really get a kick out of you admitting all the dangers to stick with the plan that is already destroying our nation.
I appreciate the nice response.
I have played the wait and see game for 26 years now.
Not gonna play it any longer.
Our leaders can either put up or shut up.
I’m not being hood-winked again.
This nation is on the verge of splintering, in a number of ways, both physically and for lack of a better word, emotionally.
We don’t have one day to lose. It’s time to launch the offensive. Fire the broadsides against Clinton and Company.
Do it today.
We have universities that might as well be foreign territory right now. We have cities out of control, operating as if a member of an insurrection. We have a media that is completely out of control demanding and end to Constitutional governance and even the presidency. We have people openly demanding a military coup.
Yes, lets just wait a few more years...
“Yes, lets just wait a few more years...”
I did NOT say we should wait!
I’m saying that the broadside attack you are advocating would be walking right into an obvious ambush.
Luckily, Trump is not going to make that mistake. Instead, he has painstakingly cooperated with the Russian collusion witch hunt, and thus deprived the deep state of any grounds for claiming obstruction. The result of his passive approach is that the public is generally on Trump’s side. He is increasingly being seen as the innocent victim of a political witch hunt. The deep state is provoking him from every direction trying to get him to overreact so they can make an issue of it. He doesn’t over react.
Yes, there are a lot of very strong Trump supporters whose number one priority was locking up (or hanging) HRC and other “SES” types - they are some of Trump’s strongest supporters and they are angry about his AG’s passivity.
But for every one of those, there are a hundred more voters - conservatives, moderates, independants, and crossover Democrats - who will vote for Trump because a) he puts Anerica and American workers first, and b) they are relieved that he’s NOT the petty, power grabbing, obstructionist war mongering, politically vindictive tyrant that the Left tried to make him out to be.
Again, I’m not saying wait - I’m saying full steam ahead - Trumpmshould continue to win hearts and minds - firing people and locking people up is not the way to do it.
“So yes, denying this needs to be done, is advocating we wait.”
Just because I don’t agree with the course of action you are advocating, does not mean I want to wait. It just means I don’t want Trump to rush into an ambush.
There are many actions that I would encourage Trump to take decisively, without delay - replacing Jeff Sessions with a more aggressive AG is just not one of them.
Fortunately, it is all moot, because Trump agrees with me.
If he had wanted a machete weilding AG to protect him from witch hunts and lock up Obama era co-conspirators, he wouldn’t have chosen mild mannered Jeff Sessions in the first place. If he was that dissatisfied, he would have replaced him a year ago, Senators be damned.
He is not itching to fire Jeff Sessions, and even if Sessions resigns, I doubt the new AG will be ruthless enough to satisfy the Sessions haters.
It’s sad how deluded you are.
As this nation goes under for the third time, you’ll be patting yourself on the back just certain as you can be, that you were right and others were wrong.
Pitiful...
I don’t hate Sessions. I don’t have to. He has outed himself for the lackluster idiot he is from nearly day one of his tenure.
Excuse me, but Maine’s Second Congressional District, 80% of the state, went for Trump by 10 points, giving him one electoral vote.
The First Congressional District was won by Hitlery, giving her one EC vote.
Her thighness won the state-wide popular vote by 2.9%, giving her two more EC votes. She ran far more ads here than Trump. A bit more ads buys and Trump could have taken the whole state. Ms. Rodham starting running ads in August 2016. Donald Trump....late September into October.
I lived in California a long time and in Maine a long time. Maine has far more freedom, even though the winter climate sucks and California has more job opportunities. So, it’s a trade off.
As for Collins, I always write in someone else’s name. She keeps getting re-elected because the RATS always run an obscure ultra-left female state senator to oppose her, and Collins ends up looking good in comparison, which she is not.
“It’s sad how deluded you are.”
Go ahead and think what you want.
Fortunately, Trump is not taking your bad advice.
Sessions is still AG.
Mueller is still on his silly witch hunt.
Hillary Clinton is still not in jail.
Trump is still smiling.
His numbers are still improving.
Winning with deregulation.
Winning with tax cuts.
Winning with trade deals.
Winning with energy.
Winning with jobs.
Winning with judges.
Winning with ISIS.
Winning with midterms.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
So in your illustrious opinion, this nation isn’t broke.
LMAO
We have an FBI that is so discredited people actually advocate for doing away with it.
We have a Department of Justice that will not prosecute top level Political Felons.
We have our schools teaching the Transgender and Homosexual agenda even before kids hit the first grade.
We have university campuses where someone who believes as we do are prevented from speaking, and their followers outside are bludgeoned.
We have a Speaker of the House and the Majority leader of the Senate that can’t come up with a single bill to send to Trump to roll back 70 years of disgusting Leftist encroachment.
Meanwhile illegal aliens are still picking off the beautiful White women just ripe for the picking.
Our border wall remains unfunded. Our Attorney General might just as well be on safari in Africa, and nimrods are proposing we do away with the U. S. Constitution and the presidency.
ANTIFA shows up where ever it likes and seldom gets so much an evil glance from a policing agency.
It appears Soros and his organizations run adds to hire more people to be anarchists. He clearly funds multiple Leftist enterprises bordering on sedition. And all this is done with cover from the United States Department of Justice.
We have an ex first lady who has openly committed a number of felonies, with her aids, and at least one spouse in tow.
We have a special prosecutor who has knowingly used fraudulent documents to get FISA Warrants.
Perhaps you can tell me what the Attorney General is for, since you don’t think any of this is his business.
Think what I want?
Yeah, nothing broke here. /s
Listen up. We are one administration away from each of these good things you listed from being undone. The only way to prevent that, is to start prosecuting the Clintons, the Soroses, the ANTIFA folks en mass, the rioting BLM folks en mass, start taking down the riff raff in the FBI.
We have to get our universities back under control. We need to stop the indoctrination of our children.
We need to get the border under control, and start deporting the people are committing crimes here. I don’t care if they committed crimes or not, they don’t belong here.
Not broke?
What the F are you doing here, if you don’t have the slightest clue about this stuff by now?
I support Trump, but he needs help and he is getting very very little.
Sessions needs to put up or shut up and go home.
I fill out surveys all the time for the president, and I wrote a note early yesterday essentially explaining important parts of this to him.
If Sessions doesn’t take action soon, it’s going to hurt Trump. The unaddressed flagrant lawlessness has to be addressed, whether you think it’s all okay or not.
I understand your frustration and I know you are a strong Trump supporter, a true patriot and want what is best for this republic.
I agree with every single thing you just said regarding the dire state of the nation.
My disagreement with you is over political strategy - that’s all.
Trump has proven to be an agile adversary for the left - but he’s not out of the woods yet. After failing to create a sex scandal over pussygate, failing to paint him as a racist and white supremacist over Charlottesville, failing to prove Russian collusion - the Left is pinning their impeachment hopes on proving obstruction - it’s all they have left, so they are constantly baiting him into taking an action that they could construe as obstruction.
Much to the Left’s chagrin, Trump has been the poster boy for non-obstructionism - for almost two years he has been above reproach. He has allowed his own DOJ to investigate him relentlessly and he’s never lifted a finger to stop it. His AG is recused, his deputy AG is downright adversarial, Mueller and his entire team clearly hate him, and yet Trump has completely kept his promise to stay uninvolved.
I believe this has been a deliberate strategy by the President to deprive the Left of what they need to build an obstruction case against him. I believe Sessions’ passivity is not a failing but a manifestation of Trump’s own strategic decision to remain passive so as to deprive the Left of their Watergate.
So, from a strategic standpoint, I think firing Jeff Sessions, replacing him with an aggressive AG who will fire Mueller, fire RR and throw HRC in jail would be exactly the wrong move. I think Trump has been purposely avoiding such a course of action, much to the chagrin of the Impeach Trump movement, but also (ironically) it’s been a big disappointment to some of his most enthusiastic supporters, who are sick and tired of this witch hunt and want to see some real justice and some Obama era co conspirators doing hard time.
You can disagree with that opinion - I’m fine with that.
I just want you to know that, other than strategy, I agree with everything you said about the dire problems we face.
I think we can agree that any hope of solving these difficult challenges that you have laid out so eloquently depends on Trump surviving this current impeachment threat so that he can remain in the Oval Office long enough to MAGA.
We both want to protect the President - we just disagree on how best to do that.
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