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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
I find him very experience light, he’d make a solid VP choice or a good senate candidate, but I’m not sold on him topping a ticket. Honestly I find him pretty interchangeable with Beto, they’re both good younge candidates from Texas who would make solid choices for VP/senate but probably shouldn’t be a presidential candidate due to a lack fo serious experience.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyranhttps://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/02/27/day-769/
Day 769: Spin this
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-cohen-idUSKCN1QG0IZ
✏️ LIVE BLOGS: New York Times (Video + Chat / Live Blog)/ Washington Post / The Guardian / NBC News / CNN / Wall Street Journal
📚 READ: Cohen's opening statement to Congress (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/27/politics/cohen-testimony-read/index.html
📝 ANNOTATED: Cohen's opening statement about Trump (Washington Post)
📄 KEY EXCERPTS: From Cohen's testimony on the "truth about Trump." (The Guardian)
1/ Cohen said Trump knew that Roger Stone was communicating with Wiki Leaks during the 2016 election and had advance knowledge that Wiki Leaks planned to publish the hacked Democratic National Committee emails intended to damage Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. In his prepared written testimony, Cohen alleged that, in July 2016, he witnessed Trump taking a phone call from Roger Stone, who was on speakerphone. During the call, Stone told Trump that "he had just gotten off the phone with [Wiki Leaks founder] Julian Assange and that …within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton's campaign." Stone pushed back against Cohen's claim, saying in a text message to Buzz Feed News: "Mr. Cohen's statement is not true." Stone, however, is under a gag order not to publicly comment on his case, Mueller's investigation, or any "participants" in his case or the investigation. (Washington Post / CNN / Buzz Feed News)
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/27/politics/michael-cohen-testimony/index.html
[Perspective] Why it Matters if Trump Knew About Stone’s Contacts with Wiki Leaks. It matters because Wiki Leaks has a long and documented history of engaging in activities damaging to U.S. national security. (Lawfare)
2/ Cohen said he doesn't "know of direct evidence" that "Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia" during the 2016 election, "but I have my suspicions." Cohen said that he was in the room with Trump, "probably in early June 2016," when Trump Jr. "came into the room and walked behind his father's desk," leaned over "to his father and speaking in a low voice, which I could clearly hear, and saying: 'The meeting is all set.' I remember Mr. Trump saying, 'Ok good…let me know.'" Cohen added that "Trump had frequently told me and others that his son Don Jr. had the worst judgment of anyone in the world." (Daily Beast)
📌 Day 544: Michael Cohen says Trump knew in advance about Trump Jr.'s meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. Cohen doesn't have evidence to back up his claim, but he is reportedly willing to make the assertion as part of his testimony to Robert Mueller. Cohen claims that he, along with several others, were in the room when Trump Jr. told Trump about the Russian's offer. According to Cohen, Trump approved the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. Cohen's claim contradicts Trump, Trump Jr., their lawyers, and administration officials who have repeatedly said Trump didn't know about the meeting until he was asked about it in July 2017. Trump's response at the time was: "No. That I didn't know. Until a couple of days ago, when I heard about this. No I didn't know about that." A few days later, Trump was again asked whether he knew about the meeting. His response: "No, I didn't know anything about the meeting…. must have been a very unimportant meeting, because I never even heard about it … nobody told me."(CNN / NBC News / Washington Post)
📌 Day 554: Trump tweeted that he "did NOT know" in advance about Trump Jr.'s Trump Tower meeting , disputing Michael Cohen's assertion that he did and accusing him of "trying to make up stories." Cohen said he's willing to testify that then-candidate Trump knew in advance about the 2016 meeting in Trump Tower. In July 2017, it was reported that Trump personally dictated Trump Jr.'s statement about the latter's meeting with the Russian lawyer, claiming they had "primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children." (Washington Post / CNN)
3/ Cohen suggested that federal prosecutors in New York are investigating an unspecified crime involving Trump that has not been made public yet. Cohen said he has "been asked by them not to discuss, and not to talk about these issues." Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York recently issued a request for documents related to donations and spending by Trump's inaugural committee. Cohen also said prosecutors in New York are investigating conversations that Trump or his advisers had with Cohen after his hotel room was raided by the FBI in April 2018. (Washington Post / Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/96a0af56e8e14c1a8956a3b484ef0c52
4/ Cohen provided a copy of a $35,000 check that was personally signed by Trump in 2017 to reimburse him for paying off Stormy Daniels, who had alleged having an affair with Trump. Cohen also submitted copies of additional $35,000 checks that Trump Jr. and the COO of the Trump Organization made "to reimburse me for the hush money payments." Cohen said that Trump directed him to lie about the hush payments to Stormy Daniels by telling Congress that Trump had no knowledge of payments. Trump was president when this happened. (Washington Post / Axios / The Guardian)
5/ Cohen: "I've never been to Prague. I've never been to the Czech Republic."
📌Day 450: Robert Mueller has evidence that Michael Cohen made a secret trip to Prague during the 2016 presidential campaign, entering through Germany in "August or early September." Confirmation of the trip corroborates part of the Christopher Steele dossier that Cohen met with an ally of Putin. Cohen has denied that he has ever been in Prague and that he colluded with Russia during the campaign. (Mc Clatchy DC)
6/ In October 2016, Cohen said he received a call from Hope Hicks asking for help dealing with the "Access Hollywood" tape, where Trump had bragged about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women, saying he'd "grab them by the p—y. You can do anything," because "when you're a star, they let you do it." Hicks told Cohen: "We want you to just spin this." (Washington Post)
7/ Cohen claimed that Trump asked him to threaten people "probably" 500 different people and entities over a decade.
8/ Cohen said he never saw proof that Trump's tax returns were being audited, which was Trump's reasoning for not releasing his tax filings during the 2016 campaign. Cohen said he presumed that Trump did not want to release his tax returns because he "didn't want an entire group of think tanks, who are tax experts, to run through his returns and start ripping it to pieces" out of fear that he would then "end up in an audit and he'll ultimately have taxable consequences, penalties, and so on." (NBC News / The Guardian)
https://www.nbcnews.com/card/cohen-says-he-hasn-t-seen-proof-trump-s-tax-n977341
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-lawyer-exclusive-idUSKCN1QG1WZ
Trump met with Kim Jong-Un in Vietnam for the first day of his second summit with the North Korean dictator. Trump called Kim a "great leader" and promised to help North Korea to become a "great economic power." At a dinner between the two men, Trump said he believes the summit will "lead to a wonderful, really a wonderful situation long term." (Daily Beast / Associated Press / Washington Post)
https://apnews.com/59ce7efa8b9f4dfa9fcf366c9cb607e3
The White House banned four U.S. journalists from covering Trump's dinner with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un after they shouted questions earlier in the day. Reporters from the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, the Los Angeles Times and Reuters were excluded because of what White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said were "sensitivities over shouted questions in the previous sprays." (Washington Post / Politico)
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/27/trump-kim-summit-2019-journalists-1190214
The House passed legislation mandating federal criminal background checks on all gun sales – the most significant gun control measure in more than two decades. The Senate, however, is unlikely to take up the measure and, even if it does, Trump has already said he would veto it because they impose unreasonable requirements on gun owners. (Politico / NPR / Buzz Feed News)
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/27/698512397/house-passes-most-significant-gun-bill-in-2-decades
Former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker has agreed to return to Congress and meet with lawmakers behind closed doors to "clarify" parts of his previous public testimony, during which he claimed he never made "any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel's investigation or any other investigation" to Trump. The House Judiciary Committee, however, believes it has evidence that Trump asked Whitaker while he was acting AG whether he could install a Trump ally to oversee the investigation into Michael Cohen. (Wall Street Journal)
Pence's new chief of staff disparaged people with HIV and AIDS in an early '90s college newspaper column, claiming that the transmission of the disease was largely the result of "repugnant" homosexual intercourse. The column was published in The Spectator, a conservative student newspaper that Marc Short started as an undergraduate in 1989. Short served as an editor for the publication until he graduated in 1992. (Daily Beast)
68% of Americans say they want the Robert Mueller report to be made public, while 10% say it shouldn’t be made public, and 22% are undecided. (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/27/mueller-report-release-public-support-poll-1188068
I was stunned by how frank Cohen was in his testimony.
He confirmed that Trump didn't actually want to be president, was aware of Rodger Stone's Negotiation with Wikileaks, and that his lawyers went over Cohen's Statement to Congress about Trump Tower Moscow.
A few other things worth noting (not a through list)
- "I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is. He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat. He was a presidential candidate who knew that Roger Stone was talking with Julian Assange about a Wiki Leaks drop of Democratic National Committee emails."
- "A copy of an article with Mr. Trump’s handwriting on it that reported on the auction of a portrait of himself – he arranged for the bidder ahead of time and then reimbursed the bidder from the account of his non-profit charitable foundation"
- " Copies of letters I wrote at Mr. Trump’s direction that threatened his high school, colleges, and the College Board not to release his grades or SAT scores."
and perhaps most notably:
"Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. .In conversations we had during the campaign, at the same time I was actively negotiating in Russia for him, he would look me in the eye and tell me there’s no business in Russia and go out and lie to the American people"
"last fall I pled guilty in federal court to felonies for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in coordination with Individual #1. For the record: Individual #1 is President Donald J. Trump."
Edited by megaeliz on Feb 27th 2019 at 12:57:01 PM
Greatest negotiator in history, folks.
Trump would probably do better if he just chose not to run for re-election and spent his money saving up for better lawyers.
Man, wouldn't that be awesome?
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Feb 28th 2019 at 12:21:44 PM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.That has been discussed a number of times. Trump has difficulties at getting lawyers because:
- He has a reputation of not listening to them.
- He has a reputation of not always paying them.
- It's a hazard for your credibility.
- Trump's tendency to say demonstrably untrue things can land a lawyer in trouble.

Dallas morning News sources say O'Rourke will not challenge Cornyn for Senate seat.
"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."