Regarding the vice presidency and the prospects of Pence going down, in a world where Trump goes down first and Pence’s demise is on deck, the GOP will just insist on Pence being able to appoint a VP before they hold his trial. They’d probably have some three-step deal where Senate Republican leadership gets to pick a handful of candidates, House Dem leadership gets to pick one off the list, and Pence nominates him.
It’d end up being someone recently retired (or soon to retire) moderate who has no interest in running for re-election who never really had presidential ambitions. A Bill Weld, Charlie Dent, Claire McCaskill, Bill Nelson type. Someone generally respected by both establishments, neither loved nor feared by either base, and seen as capable of holding down the fort for a year.
But this is extremely unlikely to happen, because the GOP is going to do its best to insulate Pence as much as possible if Trump goes down. He’ll have to have done something blatantly criminal to go down.
Also, lol @ Tulsi Gabbard. She decided to try to Hail Mary and set herself apart from the rest of the ‘D’ presidential field by coming out against impeachment, and now she’s getting primaries for her congressional seat and looks like she might lose it.
No deal that doesn’t include an ironclad guarantee of no pardons. Also, Garland gets nominated for any open Supreme Court seat and Moscow Mitch doesn’t block a vote.
Dear Cuse, this is not advocacy of violence, but given how conservatives feel about antifa, wouldn’t the conservative justices be living in sheer terror that they might be assassinated with a liberal replacement almost guaranteed. Wouldn’t dream of killing them, but would be happy to see them sweat with fear and would oppose saying anything to try and make them less fearful.
In the midst of all the impeachment talk, just a reminder that a bunch of funding bills are still working their way through Congress and will need Trump’s signature to avoid a gov’t shutdown. I think there could be some interesting dynamics in this arena as both sides could plausibly try to leverage agency funding for different purposes. Legislative appropriations, DHS, and State Dept could be especially spicy.
But this is extremely unlikely to happen, because the GOP is going to do its best to insulate Pence as much as possible if Trump goes down. He’ll have to have done something blatantly criminal to go down.
Based on nothing but feels, I agree with this - he seems too dim to be a criminal, nevermind the religious maniac part of his personality that would at least in theory make that sort of behavior less likely (not ruled out, but less likely)
I continue to think Drudge is a huge deal. Matt Drudge knows which way the wind is blowing. He was one of the first to jump on the trump bandwagon in ‘15 and ‘16, back when foxnews and even breitbart were not there yet.
He’s a politician and religious - probably 90%+ to be a criminal. But not the sort of criminal that does something bad enough to get him disqualified from being prez. That’s a pretty high bar to clear.
Let them shut down the government. That won’t do wonders for them at the ballot box. No deals for anyone. They all go to prison for the maximum amount of time we can get from the courts. If that doesn’t happen the incentives against someone doing this shit again won’t be strong enough.
To put this in poker terms we have quads so we want to get all the money in and see a showdown. They had the opportunity to do a deal for years now. Now it’s obvious they are well and truly hosed. They don’t have any credibility or stuff to offer we won’t get anyway.
Pence stepped in to meet w/ the Ukranian President in Poland on September 1 when Trump cancelled his trip to Europe in order to “monitor the hurricane.” If you were setting odds, what odds would you place on him being sent into that meeting w/o being briefed on the Biden issue?
Sourcing seems a little sketchy, but CNN reporting that Volker (US Special Envoy to the Ukraine, who apparently set up some of the meetings between Rudy and Ukraine officials) has resigned.
Sources: Special envoy to Ukraine resigns one day after whistleblower report released
