White House Impeachment Response Strategy

[Addie]

Thread title changed

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CNN

Lewandowski may lead White House impeachment team

Corey Lewandowski, the political operative who helped elect President Trump, has had conversations with White House officials in recent days about potentially taking a position inside the administration to help Trump confront a looming impeachment fight.

The discussions, including a Thursday afternoon meeting at the White House, reflect the growing recognition among Trump’s allies and advisers that he is without a clear strategy for managing the crisis, which exploded in stunning fashion this week.

Trump's 2016 campaign manager would be in a crisis management type role, and the idea as it currently stands would be for Lewandowski to assemble a team that mirrors the one that existed in Bill Clinton’s White House when he was facing his own impeachment.

The list of potential players on the team includes David Bossie, his former deputy campaign manager who angered the President earlier this year by soliciting funds using Trump’s name. Bossie served as the chief investigator of the House Oversight Committee in 1997, helping scrutinize Clinton.

[Volkonski]

[AndyinPA]

He can get more unmanageable?



On second thought, this could get really ugly.

[Kendra]

Who is going to pay their salaries, office space, comms, etc?

[tek]

No sympathy.

They knew what he was when they signed on.

[AndyinPA]

Who is going to pay their salaries, office space, comms, etc?

I understand he’s already sent our fund-raising emails, asking for $45.

[Kendra]

Who is going to pay their salaries, office space, comms, etc?

I understand he’s already sent our fund-raising emails, asking for $45.

So, no medical and dental? No 401k?

[Whatever4]

He can get more unmanageable?



On second thought, this could get really ugly.

Too bad, so sad.

[Dave at Sea]

He can get more unmanageable?



On second thought, this could get really ugly.

Too bad, so sad.

There is no cut out between Donnieand the big red button.

[busterbunker]

CNN srote a bad title. They meant Anti-Impeachment team. I'd love to join a team that wants to impeach the White House. Bummer.

[Dave at Sea]

[tek]

CNN srote a bad title. They meant Anti-Impeachment team. I'd love to join a team that wants to impeach the White House. Bummer.

If Lewandowsky ends up running it, it very well may be an Impeachment Team ...

[pipistrelle]

Impeachment Response Team would be good.

The way things are going I wouldn’t want my reputation affected by association with it.

[Maybenaut]

The talking heads on MSNBC last night were all talking about know how unprepared the White House is for this. They were making some comparisons with Bill Clinton, saying that the Clinton White House had long known that impeachment was coming, and was well prepared for it. I remember reading an article a couple of months ago (I can’t remember whether I saw it linked here or somewhere else), but that article said that Clinton’s impeachment team did all of the lifting, and the day-to-day White House operations were completely separate from it. Clinton didn’t want to be distracted by it, and he didn’t want anyone on his staff distracted by it.

[TexasFilly]

The talking heads on MSNBC last night were all talking about know how unprepared the White House is for this. They were making some comparisons with Bill Clinton, saying that the Clinton White House had long known that impeachment was coming, and was well prepared for it. I remember reading an article a couple of months ago (I can’t remember whether I saw it linked here or somewhere else), but that article said that Clinton’s impeachment team did all of the lifting, and the day-to-day White House operations were completely separate from it. Clinton didn’t want to be distracted by it, and he didn’t want anyone on his staff distracted by it.

Well, Gregg Craig's calendar is probably open.

[Azastan]

The talking heads on MSNBC last night were all talking about know how unprepared the White House is for this. They were making some comparisons with Bill Clinton, saying that the Clinton White House had long known that impeachment was coming, and was well prepared for it. I remember reading an article a couple of months ago (I can’t remember whether I saw it linked here or somewhere else), but that article said that Clinton’s impeachment team did all of the lifting, and the day-to-day White House operations were completely separate from it. Clinton didn’t want to be distracted by it, and he didn’t want anyone on his staff distracted by it.

Trump gets distracted because it's all about him, all the time. That means his staff will be distracted.

Even if they'd known impeachment was coming, Trump's staff still need to deal with the unpleasant truth that Trump is a big whinging baby, likely to have temper tantrums which are followed by stupid and rash decisions on Trump's part.

[Addie]

WaPo - Robert Costa and Phillip Rucker

Trump writes the GOP impeachment playbook: Scorched earth. But will it work? ...

Trump has acted impulsively and indignantly as he wages an all-out political war to defend himself from allegations that he abused his power to solicit foreign interference in his 2020 reelection bid. ...

The coming weeks will test whether Trump’s familiar blame-the-accuser-and-counterattack playbook — while floating dark conspiracies to divert attention — will be successful in the face of mounting evidence that he asked Ukraine to dig up dirt on potential 2020 Democratic opponent Joe Biden. ...

Long indifferent to the norms that restrained his predecessors, Trump shattered another one Thursday by alluding to violence and possible death for the whistleblower’s sources in an apparent warning to witnesses inside the government who might be asked to testify against him. ...

Trump has been setting the tone for his party, driving news coverage as ever with a blizzard of provocative comments and dashing any hopes Republican leaders may have had for a more measured impeachment strategy. ...

Trump’s advisers said they envision a “split screen” strategy in the coming weeks. The president is considering stepping up his fall schedule of campaign rallies at arenas across the country to galvanize his supporters outside of Washington and portray House Democrats as liberal insiders who are focused on impeachment instead of governing. ...

Trump is single-handedly shaping his party’s emerging impeachment response strategy, reflecting the calculation among Republicans on Capitol Hill that his political base is required to carry the party through the 2020 elections, even if some lawmakers privately disapprove of his conduct.

[Maybenaut]

The talking heads on MSNBC last night were all talking about know how unprepared the White House is for this. They were making some comparisons with Bill Clinton, saying that the Clinton White House had long known that impeachment was coming, and was well prepared for it. I remember reading an article a couple of months ago (I can’t remember whether I saw it linked here or somewhere else), but that article said that Clinton’s impeachment team did all of the lifting, and the day-to-day White House operations were completely separate from it. Clinton didn’t want to be distracted by it, and he didn’t want anyone on his staff distracted by it.

Trump gets distracted because it's all about him, all the time. That means his staff will be distracted.

Even if they'd known impeachment was coming, Trump's staff still need to deal with the unpleasant truth that Trump is a big whinging baby, likely to have temper tantrums which are followed by stupid and rash decisions on Trump's part.

Yeah. And sadly, it's all just so much political theater. He'll be impeached in the House. And unless the House investigation uncovers more than we've already seen, I think the Senate will not vote to remove him from office, and he'll say that the Senate trial exonerated him when it did nothing of the sort.

It's nauseating.

[Chilidog]

What's the over/under on how many days before Trump tries to pull a "Boris" and forcibly adjourn Congress in citing Article II, section 3 of the Constitution?

[voxpopuluxe]

Yeah. And sadly, it's all just so much political theater. He'll be impeached in the House. And unless the House investigation uncovers more than we've already seen, I think the Senate will not vote to remove him from office, and he'll say that the Senate trial exonerated him when it did nothing of the sort.

I think it's almost a foregone conclusion that the Senate will exonerate him, even if the House uncovers more than we've already seen. Believing that, the impeachment investigation is as much, if not more so, part of the 2020 Presidential campaign as it is an exercise of Congressional oversight authority. It's one front in the war on Trump.

[Maybenaut]

What's the over/under on how many days before Trump tries to pull a "Boris" and forcibly adjourn Congress in citing Article II, section 3 of the Constitution?

He can only adjourn Congress if both houses cannot agree on a time of adjournment. I doubt the Republicans would cede that much power to the executive, even in an attempt to stave off impeachment.

[AndyinPA]

There was a talking head on MSNBC the other night (Mike Murphy?) who said that if there were a secret vote in the Senate, there would be 30 republican votes against him.

[Foggy]

The answer is to put on so much evidence, and make it all so public, that if the Republicans in the Senate vote not to convict, they'll be tainted forever. I don't have a problem making this contribute to the end of the Republican Party.

[Dan1100]

The answer is to put on so much evidence, and make it all so public, that if the Republicans in the Senate vote not to convict, they'll be tainted forever. I don't have a problem making this contribute to the end of the Republican Party.

"Exonerated" isn't really the word I'd use, unless you would consider O.J. to have been "exonerated".

[AndyinPA]

The answer is to put on so much evidence, and make it all so public, that if the Republicans in the Senate vote not to convict, they'll be tainted forever. I don't have a problem making this contribute to the end of the Republican Party.