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David Marcus:National Review’s Dangerous Third Way On Impeachment

Posted By on January 23rd, 2020

https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/23/national-reviews-dangerous-third-way-on-impeachment/

An editorial at National Review badly misunderstands the Republican position on impeachment and the future of the conservative movement.

The editors at National Review published a baffling editorial today on the impeachment saga, one which, if its advice is taken, could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

The article makes three basic points. One, Republican senators actually think what Trump did was wrong and want a way to say so; two, the GOP ought to admit what Trump did was wrong but does not justify removal; and three, the argument that without a crime a president can’t be removed is legally unsound.

Let’s take each in their turn and then examine the effect that taking on this entire suite of positions would have on impeachment and the general political climate.

The first assertion is that “Senate Republicans, by and large, have reached an unspoken consensus about President Trump and Ukraine,” namely that he should not have delayed aid, or dared suggest investigations that might impact potential political rival Joe Biden, and should not have kept insisting that his call was perfect. Frankly, there is no evidence of such a consensus among Republican senators, and much to suggest that it simply does not exist.

Since the beginning of this recent unpleasantness we have been hearing that behind closed doors Republicans in Congress are very worried. Prominent members of the Never Trump movement had assured us that their intel promised more than a few GOP votes to impeach Trump in the House existed. In reality, there were none. Now National Review, without any proof, appears to be making the same calculation for the Senate.

There is sparse evidence of this. Take Sen. Ted Cruz, for example, who said this week that what Trump did didn’t amount to a speeding ticket. He went on to say that what came out of the House was an abuse of the Constitution for political purposes. This does not sound like somebody waffling on whether Trump committed some foul act. And let’s face it, Cruz is far more representative of the GOP Senate caucus and the voters they represent as opposed to a Susan Collins or Mitt Romney, who sometimes take the bold stance of hinting at being troubled.

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Trump draws battle lines against Democrats and ‘prophets of doom’ at Davos By Rupert Darwall

Posted By on January 23rd, 2020

https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/479422-trump-draws-battle-lines-against-democrats-and-prophets-of-doom-at?rnd=1579723727

It is not hard to see why Democrats are desperate to use any means to prevent President Trump from standing for reelection. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump defined the battle lines between himself and the eventual Democratic nominee. The president has a compelling story to tell on what he calls America’s blue-collar boom: 7 million jobs gained; record-low 3.5 percent unemployment; more women in employment than men; record low unemployment of African Americans, Hispanics, Asian-Americans and veterans; the return of U.S. manufacturing jobs; accelerating wage growth for the bottom 10 percent of wage-earners and for millennials.

It’s not only the numbers that should turn Democrats’ blood cold. Trump is going after the core voting blocs that make up the Democratic coalition — middle-class Americans, African-Americans and Hispanics. His priority is their priority: The wellbeing of the American worker. Democrats can’t say the same. Trump talks about living standards, while Democrats are obsessed with climate emergencies and saving the planet.

Cutting taxes and deregulation might sound like standard Republican fare. But no previous Republican president has tackled America’s perverse, uncompetitive corporate tax rates. After eight years of Barack Obama, the Trump administration’s record of one new regulation enacted for every eight rescinded marks a major reversal in the growth of the administrative state. 

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Dangerous Historical Precedent’: 21 State AGs Send Letter Asking Senate To Reject Impeachment By Ashe Schow

Posted By on January 23rd, 2020

https://www.dailywire.com/news/dangerous-historical-precedent-

The attorneys general of 21 states — predictably all Republicans — have sent a letter to the Senate opposing the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

Fox News exclusively reported on the letter, which was submitted to the Senate on Wednesday morning and called the impeachment “a dangerous historical precedent.”

“If not expressly repudiated by the Senate, the theories animating both Articles will set a precedent that is entirely contrary to the Framers’ design and ruinous to the most important governmental structure protections contained in our Constitution: the separation of powers,” the attorneys general wrote.

“Impeachment should never be a partisan response to one party losing a presidential election. If successful, an impeachment proceeding nullifies the votes of millions of citizens. The Democrat-controlled House passing of these constitutionally-deficient articles of impeachment amounts, at bottom, to a partisan political effort that undermines the democratic process itself. Even an unsuccessful effort to impeach the President undermines the integrity of the 2020 presidential election because it weaponizes a process that should only be initiated in exceedingly rare circumstances and should never be used for partisan purposes,” they continued.

The attorneys general added: “This body should never permit impeachment proceedings to proceed where they are permeated with the clearly partisan objective of energizing a political party’s base to, ultimately, influence a presidential election. Such a raw political and unconstitutional use of the impeachment power should not be countenanced by the Senate.”

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Here’s A Tipping Point The Left Wants You To Ignore by John Merline

Posted By on January 23rd, 2020

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/01/23/heres-a-tipping-point-the-left-wants-you-to-ignore/

Recently, the majority of the world became middle class or rich thanks to capitalism.

In an interview this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez complained that the Democratic Party wasn’t sufficiently leftist because it hasn’t embraced her style of socialism. “There are a lot of true believers that we can ‘capitalism’ our way out of poverty,” she complained. 

We doubt there are very many such believers remaining in the Democratic Party, given that 70% of those who identify as Democrats now have a positive view of socialism.

To the extent that there are any free market capitalists left in the Democratic Party, it’s possible that they are true believers because they’ve seen the data, which make it abundantly clear that capitalism has been the greatest anti-poverty program ever conceived by mankind.

The Brookings Institution, a centrist think tank in Washington, D.C., found that, “for the first time since agriculture-based civilization began 10,000 years ago, the majority of humankind is no longer poor or vulnerable to falling into poverty.”

The report – which came out more than a year ago – showed that more than 50% of the world’s population lived in households with enough discretionary income to be considered middle class or rich.

More specifically, it found that there were 3.59 billion people in the middle class in 2017, and 200 million who are rich. At the other end, there are 3.2 billion they classify as “vulnerable” and 630 million who are poor.

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Erdogan’s Bold Plan for a New Muslim Brotherhood Regime in Libya by Con Coughlin

Posted By on January 23rd, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15474/libya-erdogan-muslim-brotherhood

The concern now is that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will use the failure of international mediators to end the fighting to intensify his support for the GNA, thereby strengthening the position of the numerous Islamist militias that are backing the UN-backed body.

Mr Erdogan was an ardent supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood when it held power in Cairo, and there is mounting concern, especially in Europe, that the Turkish leader has now set his sights on establishing a similar regime in Libya.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to intervene militarily in the Libyan conflict not only raises the prospect of the conflict entering a new and more dangerous phase; it also promises to provide a significant boost for the Islamist militias that are vying to take control of the country and establish a Muslim Brotherhood-style government in Tripoli.

Mr Erdogan’s justification for sending Turkish troops to Libya, which has the backing of the Turkish parliament, is to provide support for Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, the head of the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA).

The GNA is under enormous pressure as a result of the offensive being undertaken by General Khalifa Haftar, the rebel Libyan leader who, with the backing of Russia, France and the United Arab Emirates, has overrun large swathes of the country and is now attempting to seize control of the Libyan capital.

The strength of Gen. Haftar’s position was graphically demonstrated earlier this week when Haftar’s forces seized control of Libya’s vital oil production facilities on the outskirts of Tripoli, a move that has cut output to almost zero.

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The EU Needs to Take Tougher Stance Towards Iran’s Mullahs by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on January 23rd, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15467/eu-stance-iran-mullahs

It is worth noting that, the EU did announce a positive step. In light of the revelations concerning Iran’s assassinations plots, minor sanctions were imposed on sectors of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, as well as on Saeid Hashemi Moghadan, the deputy intelligence minister.

However, these do not go nearly far enough, particularly if the EU is inclined to continue its support for the JCPOA.

It is incumbent upon the EU to stop softening its tone toward the Islamic Republic, and instead join the Trump administration in imposing maximum pressure on the ruling mullahs of Iran. The more the EU appeases the Iranian government, the more it empowers it to pursue aggressive and terrorist activities.

The European Union really needs to do two things as soon as possible: stop criticizing the Trump administration for its Iran policy, and halt its appeasement policies toward the ruling mullahs of Iran who have committed some of the worst crimes against humanity, not only in Iran but abroad.

On January 19, 2020, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated their commitment to keep Iran nuclear deal alive. Europe has been working to implement a special purpose vehicle that will allow countries to continue trading with Iran, despite US sanctions, known as INSTEX.

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The US Must Facilitate Regime Change in Iran by Peter Huessy

Posted By on January 23rd, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15475/us-regime-change-iran

Aiding the Iranian people to oust the regime does not, however, require the US to launch a full-fledged war with the Islamic Republic.

On the contrary, a four-pronged strategy of maximum pressure — involving continued financial pressure on the mullahs; helping local forces expel Iranian proxy groups from Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen; supporting the Iranian protesters through a robust social-media campaign promising a future without repression and terror, and using appropriate military force to deter and protect our interests — would get the job done without troops on the ground.

The goal of US policy on Iran, really to exert “maximum pressure,” should be the change of the mullah-led regime in Tehran before it is armed with nuclear weapons, becomes the hegemon of the Persian Gulf and commands much of the world’s oil and gas. Iran is already seeking to take over Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest crude oil producer, with the fifth-largest oil reserves, in the world.

But helping to spur the end of the Iranian empire — or, at least, keeping its power in check — cannot be accomplished without a clear knowledge and understanding of the nature of the regime.

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‘Whistleblower’ Heard Discussing Need to ‘Take Out’ Trump 2 Weeks into His Presidency Debra Heine

Posted By on January 23rd, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/01/22/report-anti-trump-whistleblower-heard-discussing-need-to-take-out-trump-2-weeks-into-his-presidency/

Just two weeks into Donald J. Trump’s presidency, Eric Ciaramella—the CIA operative widely believed to be the anti-Trump “whistleblower”— was overheard discussing with another White House staffer the need to remove the president from office, Paul Sperry of RealClearInvestigations reported on Wednesday.

Ciaramella was at the time on loan to the White House as a top Ukrainian analyst in the National Security Council (NSC).  He had previously served as an adviser on Ukraine to then-Vice President Biden.

“Just days after he was sworn in they were already talking about trying to get rid of him,” a White House colleague who overheard their conversation told RCI. “They weren’t just bent on subverting his agenda,” the former official added. “They were plotting to actually have him removed from office.”

According to RCI’s sources, Ciaramella made the anti-Trump remarks to Sean Misko, another Obama administration holdover who was working at the NSC as an analyst in the Trump White House. Previously, he had assisted Biden’s top national security aide Jake Sullivan. It is no wonder then, that the two leapt to attention when they heard that Trump’s wanted to have the Bidens’ corruption in Ukraine investigated.

Misko went on to join House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff’s staff where  he reportedly offered “guidance” to the “whistleblower”  (widely believed to be Ciaramella) about how to handle the complaint (which sparked the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry). After coordinating with the so-called whistleblower (Ciaramella), Misko became a top investigator in the Dems’ impeachment inquiry.

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On the Bidens, Schiff Opened the Door By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on January 23rd, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/trump-impeachment-trial-adam-schiff-opened-door-on-biden-witness-testimony/

If they have to testify, they have the Democrats’ chief impeachment manager to thank.

You opened the door.

Trial lawyers live in fear of that phrase.

When a trial starts, both sides know what the allegations are. Both have had enough discovery to know what the adversary will try to prove. Just as significantly, both know what their own vulnerabilities are. A litigator spends his pretrial time not just laying the groundwork for getting his own evidence admitted by the court; each side works just as hard on motions to exclude embarrassing or incriminating testimony — evidence that would be damaging to that side’s position but that a court may be persuaded to exclude because it is not clearly relevant.

For an advocate, it is a coup when the judge rules that harmful testimony is excluded. But such rulings always come with a warning label: Don’t open the door. That is, don’t do anything that makes the otherwise irrelevant evidence relevant.

President Trump’s impeachment trial has a Biden door. Adam Schiff has thrown it wide open.

The first full day of President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial was consumed by legal arguments over whether witnesses who did not testify in the House impeachment inquiry should now be subpoenaed. One proposal has surface appeal because it is reciprocal: The House managers get to call John Bolton (the president’s former national-security adviser), but then the president’s lawyers get to call former vice president Joe Biden or his son, Hunter.

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Highlights (or lowlights) of the impeachment so far By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on January 23rd, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/highlights_or_lowlights_of_the_impeachment_so_far.html

On Tuesday afternoon, CBS pulled the plug on covering the impeachment hearing taking place in the Senate. It was getting more revenue running the daytime soaps. This reflects a general feeling that most Americans don’t want to sit there and be insulted. And by “insulted,” we mean things like Adam Schiff saying something that translates to “You, the People, are too dumb to be trusted with the vote, lest you vote again for Trump”:

Americans understand what’s going on: Democrats said the evidence they’d gathered in a handful of secret basement hearings established that it was urgent to impeach Trump. They then frantically came up with two Articles of Impeachment.

The first says “We, the House Democrats, find Trump guilty of practicing foreign policy in a way the foreign policy establishment finds offensive.” The second says, “We, the House Democrats, won’t do the normal practice of asking a court to rule upon Trump’s claims of executive privilege; we’ll just accuse him of abuse of power.”

Then, contrary to their claims or urgency, the House Democrats sat on the Articles for a month. It was only after Mitch McConnell forced her hand that Nancy Pelosi presided over a mock solemn ceremony, complete with souvenir pens, before walking the Articles over to the Senate.

On Tuesday, the first day of Senate hearings, Democrats insisted that, although they had overwhelming proof that Trump had done bad things, they still needed to call an endless parade of witnesses without whom they could not prove that Trump had done bad things. This led to fiery speeches and a remonstrance from Chief Justice Roberts for those speeches.