Vidal
Vidal's JournalPelosi Tweet: "Congress has a clear, urgent duty to uncover the truth for the American people"
Go Nancy!
https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1131364265917669377
"Unity Gives Me Leverage" -- Pelosi Explains Why She Has Power Over Trump
A new article in the Daily Beast called "Pelosi to Impatient Dems: We’ve Got Trump on the Ropes" gives a good explanation for Pelosi's strategy and the source of her strength.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was asked to speculate why she, more than others, seemed to fluster President Trump. “He recognizes the unity of our caucus and that is a very big deal,” she told the crowd at the Center for American Progress’ annual Ideas Festival. “I think he sees the fact that we are united as something he has to contend with, to deal with… That unity gives me leverage.”
The comment drew knowing applause from those in attendance—a mix of policy types and party donors who uniformly worship at the altar of Pelosi. But the intended audience was not them. It was her fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill. In recent weeks, the party unity that Pelosi prizes internally and deploys politically has come under immense strain as a growing number of lawmakers have demanded more aggressive oversight of the Trump administration, including the consideration of articles of impeachment. The pressure had grown acute enough in recent days that Pelosi’s staff decided to convene a caucus meeting on Wednesday morning to address it.
According to those in attendance, the chairs did an effective job. Though lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spoke up afterward to relay fears that the party may look back and realize it did vanishingly little at a political crisis point, others encouraged lawmakers to trust Pelosi’s more deliberate process. Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) stressed that while the House Judiciary Committee had been “dissed” by the administration, other committees had seen success. More than one speaker argued that impeachment would not prove to be the elixir that its supporters envisioned.
“Even this impeachment inquiry is the same fucking process,” said one senior Democratic aide. “You will still end up in the courts.”
In Nancy we trust. She knows what she's doing, and she will win this battle over Trump.
Do you agree?
Read More: https://www.thedailybeast.com/nancy-pelosi-to-impatient-democrats-weve-got-trump-on-the-ropes?ref=home
What today's court ruling against Trump means
As numerous people have posted in this forum, Trump lost a big court case today.
According to CNBC:
A federal judge in New York City on Wednesday said Deutsche Bank and Capitol One can turn over financial documents related to President Donald Trump and his businesses in response to subpoenas from House Democrats.
Judge Edgardo Ramos’s ruling came after a hearing at which lawyers for Trump, his three older children, and the Trump Organization argued that the subpoenas should be quashed.
His decision came two days after another federal judge, in Washington, D.C., said Trump’s accountants at the firm Mazars LLP had to comply with a congressional subpoena for his financial records.
Trump will appeal this ruling, so Democrats won't get Trump's financial records right away.
What this really means is that the chances of Trump winning on appeal are very low, and also that things are moving very fast.
The delaying tactics being used by Trump and Barr and Mnuchin won't work, and it won't be long before Democrats get what they want.
Because Deutsche Bank and Capitol One, in order to give Trump loans, had to get ALL his financial information.
Including his tax returns.
And they've said they'll give House Democrats everything they have, once the court says it's OK for them to do so.
And that day is coming soon.
Donnie is so screwed.
Read More: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/22/judge-says-deutsche-bank-can-give-trump-financial-records-to-democrats.html
Judge tells Deutsche Bank and Capital One to turn over Trump's financial records to Democrats
President Donald Trump lost another lawsuit Wednesday. This time it was the battle to try and block Deutsche Bank and Capital One from turning over financial documents to investigative committees.
According to CNBC, New York City federal Judge Edgardo Ramos made the ruling after hearing concerns Trump’s lawyers and his three older children had about the issue.
Read More: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/22/judge-says-deutsche-bank-can-give-trump-financial-records-to-democrats.html
Wilson: Democrats need to be patient, and Trump will be completely "f*cked."
Trump-hating former GOP strategist Rick Wilson says Democrats need to be patient and let Nancy Pelosi’s strategy of slow-rolling impeachment play out — and he says that the end result is that Trump will still be completely “f*cked.” In the Daily Beast, Wilson said he sympathizes with Democrats who are frustrated that the Trump administration is stonewalling their requests. He said that holding impeachment hearings right now, before they’ve exhausted all their legal options to obtain information from the White House, would be a huge mistake. Wilson thinks that Democrats are definitely going to be able to get their hands on Trump’s tax returns without starting up impeachment proceedings.
“This is a matter of black-letter law, with almost no serious legal scholars making even the most superficial defense of the current contempt with which Secretary Steve Mnuchin and the Treasury Department are behaving,” Wilson wrote. “Judge Amit Mehta made it quite clear in his 14-page ruling that the rights of Congress to conduct oversight are not founded by the moods and whims of the man-child engaged in stompy-foot time in the Oval Office or in the novel legal theories of his legal team.”
Wilson then argues that getting Trump’s taxes alone will give Democrats everything they need to crush Trump politically. “That smell? It’s Trump’s panicked flopsweat,” Wilson writes. “Trump’s taxes are his kryptonite, and you can expect him to fight harder on this point than any other.”
Read More: https://www.thedailybeast.com/pelosis-strategy-is-working-and-trump-is-one-step-closer-to-being-fcked
Blue Tsunami! Massive Democratic Voter Turnout Expected in 2020!!
An expert is predicting that the 2020 presidential election will have the highest voter turnout since at least 1916, Axios reports. Michael McDonald, a political science associate professor at the University of Florida said 2020 voter turnout could be as high as 67 percent. McDonald said the prediction partially comes from Trump, who is driving unhappy voters to the polls. He also said that the number of Trump voters is not increasing.
"It doesn’t seem to be the candidates who were running in 2018; there wasn’t hyper competition driving turnout; some states made it easier to vote, but that can’t explain it because the increase was happening in every state," McDonald said. “So, the only explanation is Donald Trump because he’s the only major factor that’s changed in our politics since 2014."
McDonald predicted that young people, people of color and low-income people, who typically vote Democratic, will likely vote in larger numbers next year.
BAM!! Trump is going down in 2020, bigly.
Read More: https://www.axios.com/2020-presidential-election-turnout-predictions-democrats-143cced4-cda7-4665-9fc3-911387416119.html
Three New Polls Prove the Biden Bump is Real and Lasting -- and Republicans are Nervous
I just looked at the RealClearPolitics "latest polls" section and it jumped out at me how large Biden's lead over Sanders (and all the others) still is.
After his formal announcement, Biden got a big bump in the polls, and many pundits said it wouldn't last. But it seems to be lasting. It seems to be solidifying.
Over the last few days here is the Biden lead in three top polls:
1. Quinnipiac: Biden leads by 19 over Sanders. (https://poll.qu.edu/images/polling/us/us05212019_uhlw22.pdf/)
2. Morning Consult: Biden leads by 20 over Sanders. (https://morningconsult.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/8394672.pdf)
3. Fox News: Biden leads by 18 over Sanders (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-biden-up-by-double-digits-in-democratic-race)
Also, last week, the Quinnipiac Pennsylvania poll showed Biden with a 26 point lead over Sanders. (https://poll.qu.edu/pennsylvania/release-detail?ReleaseID=2620)
I think it is safe to say that Biden's lead is not deteriorating. He was helped by the very positive, upbeat speech he gave at his kickoff in Philly.
Biden has been very successfully criticizing Trump, and Trump is getting very nervous. In fact, the GOP in general is acting very nervous as the look at a possible big Blue Tsunami in 2020.
Most of the other candidates at this point realize that attacking Biden will not help them win any Democratic primaries, and this will help Biden even more over time.
Maine House votes to expand number of medical professions allowed to perform abortions
The Maine House on Tuesday passed a bill to expand the types of medical professionals who can perform abortions in the state.
If it becomes law, the bill would allow nurse practitioners, physician assistants and certified nurse-midwives to perform abortion procedures if they receive proper training, according to the Associated Press.
Maine would become the second state following California to allow medical professionals who are not doctors to perform abortion operations.
Under Maine’s bill, advanced clinicians who are not doctor could perform in-clinic surgical operations and offer medication abortions with the proper training.
Read More: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/444934-maine-house-votes-to-expand-number-of-medical-professions-allowed-to
Biden: Congress should protect abortion rights, if necessary
From the AP:
Joe Biden would support Congress enshrining abortion rights into federal law “should it become necessary,” his presidential campaign said Tuesday, following several other Democratic candidates in promising to take that step if elected president.
The hot-button issue has shot to the forefront of the Democratic primary following a spate of new Republican-backed state laws curbing access to abortion. With all the two dozen Democratic White House hopefuls supportive of abortion rights, the debate in the party has centered on how aggressive they should be if the Supreme Court were to eventually overturn legalized abortion nationwide.
Biden released a video on Thursday blasting the GOP-backed state laws as “pernicious” and “wrong.” He stopped short in the video of endorsing congressional action and offered no specifics on how he would defend Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that is now potentially threatened with new legal challenges.
Asked by The Associated Press whether Biden believed the high court decision should be codified in law, the campaign initially pointed to the video, then later added that the former vice president would support legislation “should it become necessary.” A campaign aide then clarified that Biden would support action immediately, regardless of whether the Supreme Court overturned Roe.
This clarifies that Biden is fully supportive of abortion rights.
IRS legal memo on Trump's taxes just got leaked to the Washington Post
This could be big:
President Donald Trump’s efforts to conceal his tax returns from Congress are undermined by a legal memo from his own administration, The Washington Post reported Tuesday after they obtaining the document.
“A confidential Internal Revenue Service legal memo says tax returns must be given to Congress unless the president takes the rare step of asserting executive privilege,” the newspaper reported. “The memo contradicts the Trump administration’s justification for denying lawmakers’ request for President Trump’s tax returns, exposing fissures in the executive branch.”
Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/confidential-draft-irs-memo-says-tax-returns-must-be-given-to-congress-unless-president-invokes-executive-privilege/2019/05/21/8ed41834-7b1c-11e9-8bb7-0fc796cf2ec0_story.html
