If I were a political journalist, I'd be embarrassed that an actress has done a better job of explaining a major candidate's foundational platform in 5 minutes then I and all of my colleagues have done in the last year.
Dear
@MSNBC
I have questions:
1. Has anything Jim Himes said or done before today ever been "breaking news"?
2. Why should anybody care what Jim Himes thinks about anything?
3. Who TF is Jim Himes?
Whew. Some heavy hitting local and national names on this list β> 1,400 Black women sign letter of support for Biden, condemn lack of Democratic unity
Question for white "Biden's gotta go" Dems:
Y'all couldn't even bring yourselves to get behind Hillary Clinton, but you expect us to believe you'll support Kamala Harris in greater numbers than you support the white man you're throwing under the bus?
Democratic insider here ... When journalists tell you they're talking to "jittery Democratic insiders," they're not telling you the truth.
TRUE insiders don't jump on the phone in the middle of interviews with the nominee to tell reporters how "jittery" they are about them.
This is a moment of truth for white progressives.
Are you with Black and brown voters and our allies fighting for the soul of America and standing firmly behind Biden and Harris?
Or are you with a movement led almost exclusively by white men working against us?
You decide.
,
@KatyTurNBC
just called Adam Schiff, "one of the most prominent voices in the Republican Party."
Katy's really been struggling lately. She needs to step down.
Everyone needs to get prepared for Trump's post-convention bump.
We don't need y'all falling apart because Trump's numbers go up next week. This happens to every nominee after their convention.
Please stay calm, because I don't have time to talk you off the ledge next week.
Remember this next time White House tries to claim Trump really wanted to visit the WWI cemetery in the rain, but "Secret Service wouldn't let him."
If Secret Service had that kind of power over a president's movements, this idiotic ego-ride would NOT have happened today.
I am and will forever be grateful that President Joe Biden is willing to serve this country despite the fact that we have conclusively demonstrated that we don't deserve him.
Press: MAKE A DECISION!
Biden: I'm staying
Press: No, not that. MAKE A DECISION!
Biden: I'm staying
Press: We can't hear you. MAKE A DECISION!
Biden: I'll say it slower so you will understand: I ... AM ... STAYING!
Press: BIDEN TALKS TOO SLOW! HE NEEDS TO GO!
Can anyone explain why, if DOJ isn't seriously investigating Trump and his associates, and the Attorney General truly doesn't intend to hold him accountable, as some claim, no one on the inside has blown the whistle (either on the record or anonymously) or resigned in protest?
ABC has every right to air whatever it wants. I have every right to not watch - and to urge others to not watch, as well.
I will not watch any show featuring Rosanne and hope you won't, either.
#BoycottRoseanne
Recently, some legal analysts have been ginning up their audiences by claiming the five-year statute of limitations for indicting Trump for the obstruction identified in the Mueller report will run out in a few days.
1/19 (or just read my blogpost)
"Insiders" talk directly to the candidate or the people in their inner circle, not reporters.
Reporters are talking to their friends who worked on the Hill a couple of decades ago and occasionally get invited to briefings at the DNC.
@abbydphillip
After his nomination, noted attorney Charles Bowser said "Not one of the senators who voted to confirm Clarence Thomas would hire him as their lawyer."
His legal skills have not improved in the last 32 years.
When I did advance for the Clinton White House and asked the WH Medical Unit for something to help me sleep on an overseas trip, the doc told me to take Melatonin and a Benadryl.
And I had to go out and get it myself ...
This is a list of prescription medication that was ordered by the White House Medical Unit over just a 9 month period in 2019.
Thousands of Ambien pills, but more importantly there were 7, yes 7 different orders of either Fentanyl, Morphine, or Ketamine.
Note that this was just
@msnbc
I and many others expect an explanation for your firing
@joanwalsh
. I also expect you to reconsider and keep her on the air. She's one of the smartest, most eloquent people on your network. Why are you jettisoning this outstanding woman?
#keepjoanwalsh
π¨ BREAKING: New Bloomberg/Morning Consult Battleground Poll Shows Biden Leading in Michigan and Wisconsin After Debate
The battleground poll also reveals the president gaining ground in six of the seven states surveyed.
**Michigan**
Biden: 48%
Trump: 43%
**Wisconsin**
Biden:
@peterdaou
@HardballChris
just said it would be a mistake for Jones to vote solidly w/Dems. No, Chris - given that black Dems are responsible for his win, it would be a mistake for him NOT to vote solidly w/them. No more "get us elected but then be quiet while we chase after white voters."
@tomperriello
@POTUS
Yes, he certainly did.
They fell right into his trap.
If they try to gut Social Security now, the clip of MTG yelling "LIAR!" at President Biden after he said some Republicans want to do just that will come in handy.
.
@nytimes
' normalization of a former WH press secretary who insulted, attacked, and undermined them and their colleagues at every turn, lied to us every time she opened her mouth, and was complicit in the constitutional crisis we now face, is disgusting.
#SarahSandersIsALiar
The grand jury that indicted Enrique Tarrio was convened on 2/14/22 making it at least the 5th GJ impaneled in this investigation).
The grand jury indicted Tarrio yesterday.
We didn't know any of this until today when the indictment was unsealed.
@CapehartJ
Like that moment when a white man accosted me for parking in the space reserved for the senior official, not realizing that *I* was that senior official ... And that he was parking in one of the spaces I'd authorized his office to use.
@harrylitman
Thanks for the great breakdown of this historic case.
But to clarify - this ruling didn't only apply to Swalwell's case. It involved three separate civil cases against Trump. The first of those was brought by several Members of Congress, who are represented by the
@NAACP
Or, do you think Black voters - especially Black women - will once again step up and do all the work while you sit around nitpicking and whining about how annoying Harris' voice is or something ... And then blame HER if we aren't able to save the country from you this time?
The fact that Republicans won't admit that this man is deeply disturbed is bad enough.
But the fact that they actually want to return this deeply disturbed person to the pinnacle of power is inexplicable, despicable, and unforgivable.
@joelockhart
@maggieNYT
The First Amendment has no relevance to this discussion since no one is suggesting the government infringe on Haberman's freedoms as a journalist.
We're saying that as a journalist, Haberman had certain responsibilities and she consistently shirks them for personal gain.
@LindseyGrahamSC
The porn stars have lawyers because the president of the United States had sex with them, paid them off to keep it quiet, and he and his felon lawyer tried to bully them into silence.
Yet you attack these women and the men who stand with them, not the guy who started it all.
the statute of limitations on Trumpβs Russia probe obstruction isn't expiring any time soon.
Fortunately, DOJ lawyers seem to know this and aren't letting misplaced concern about the statute of limitations goad them into an unforced and irremediable prosecutorial error.
19/19
A common tactic of fascists is to frighten people into believing our democratic system can't be trusted, so we'll panic and demand the system be skirted and processes ignored, thereby accelerating the rise of the very authoritarianism we think we're preventing
Don't fall for it!
This is Exhibit A for the problem with cable news turning their legal "experts" into celebrities.
Andrew Weissmann now thinks he's a political strategist.
Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads/Insta)π»
This has been fun! Thanks for the replies and retweets. And special thanks to
@therealroseanne
for all the new followers I got after she reported me for harassment because I said I wonβt watch her tv show.
#BoycottRoseanne
Iβm checking out now, but keep talking among yourselves!
@JoyceWhiteVance
Not just the GOP went into a frenzy. The media joined right in, hounding Lynch 24-7 until she stepped back from the investigation, leaving it in Comey's supposedly capable hands.
I look forward to seeing a similar reaction on their part over this incident.
@tribelaw
Except they weren't fooled. Trump lies about many things, but he's breathtakingly honest about his racism. He doesn't pretend to have benevolent views about racial and religious minorities, immigrants, etc. People who vote for him know they're voting for a straight up bigot.
@SusanBe35980777
@LAppiah
@snmrrw
@Scaramucci
@POTUS
@realDonaldTrump
The six stages of a Trump defense:
1. He didn't do it.
2. The people who say he did it are bad people.
3. He may have done it but it wasn't really that bad.
4. You think Obama/Hillary/JFK didn't do the same thing?
5. Oh come on. EVERYBODY does it!
6. Get over it, already!
The statute of limitations for crimes that are "continuing violations" - i.e., carried out in a series of acts over a period of time - isn't triggered upon commission of the first act, but only begins to run upon the completion of the last act in furtherance of the crime.
4/19
@nytimes
I wonder how many of these executives contributed and voted for Trump and the Republicans who are directly responsible for giving this judge power to disrupt their industry.
@Acyn
I helped arrange military jet travel for the previous DOT Secretary. There are so many hoops that must be jumped through at so many levels, every "i" dotted, "t" crossed. If Pete's husband went, his travel was vetted and approved by multiple officials, including military brass.
Not only is the statute of limitations not going to expire next week β it wonβt expire until early 2024 β bringing charges now based on these early acts of obstruction would be a gross prosecutorial misstep.
Here are the facts and the law:
3/19
Roseanne Barr calling me βCensor,β reporting me for βtargeted harassmentβ and blocking me from reading her tweets because I said I would not watch her show contains so many layers of irony, I canβt even ...
But at least now I donβt have to
#BoycottRoseanne
- she did it for me!
And now social media and the airwaves are flooded with people fearfully lamenting that, if DOJ doesnβt act before next week, it will be forever barred from bringing obstruction charges against Trump for those crimes.
This is false.
2/19
@jasonhaber
@JoyAnnReid
@JeffFlake
Trump's Stalinist approach to the media has one purpose: to manipulate the public to make it easier for him to achieve his agenda.
@JeffFlake
votes in lockstep with his agenda. So what good does calling out Trump's approach do if Flake is willing to help him achieve his ends?
Oh, good Lord. Biden gives a strong, tight speech, and now the MSNBC chatterers, while acknowledging his comments were good, are complaining he didn't go far enough, because he should have been more political and thrown a lot of juicy red meat at them.
They really need to STFU.
@elianayjohnson
I was one of President Clinton's advance people in the 1990s and early 2000s.
I always prepared detailed diagrams and instructions for him for every event I helped organize.
This is done for EVERY president.
Axios reporters know this.
No,
@HallieJackson
and
@GarrettHaake
, the photo of Trump pumping his fist in the air is not an "iconic image."
And no, Trump didn't "confirm" he was shot and not grazed by a bullet fragment or shard of glass. He SAID it, but he's a liar.
You guys are really bad at your jobs.
@MollyJongFast
@HC_Richardson
Fox News stopped reporting it, but not before they implanted that lie in the heads of their viewers, who will continue to repeat and spread it for all time.
Think of the DOJ investigation like baking a cake.
Garland and his team picked the recipe, bought the ingredients, mixed the batter, poured it in the pan, put it in the oven and, while it baked, made the icing.
Jack Smith took it out of the oven and is getting ready to ice it.
The Mara-a-Lago documents case is a big deal. Given the aggressiveness of the special prosecutorβs investigation, this case runs much deeper than people appreciate. See
Trump clearly engaged in a conspiracy to obstruct the Russia investigation beginning in early 2017 with a series of acts that continued until the investigation ended in early 2019. Thus, the statute of limitations for this conspiracy started to run in 2019, not 2017.
6/19
@MuellerSheWrote
I've been waiting for someone to bring that up. The media never mentions it.
It was also an excuse that McConnell gave for voting to acquit in the impeachment trial.
@SCOTUSblog
So, the Court can strike down Congress' efforts to protect black voters' right to vote but won't touch state legislatures' drive to suppress the black vote?
@No_I_in_Team_
@prime_bee
He was talking to "jittery Democrats."
Riiiight.
Because rank-and-file Democrats representing the party's base are on Jonathan Karl's speed dial.
Therefore, the statute of limitations only began to run upon completion of the last act of his ongoing obstruction, which occurred in 2019, when the Mueller probe ended
This means the five-year statute of limitations on obstruction will expire in 2024, not next week.
8/19
@ron_fournier
Kids are trained in active shooter drills to use whatever they have available to them to fight off a gunman.
But a jury just told us that if they do that, they make the gunman a victim who has a right to kill them in self-defense.
@steve_vladeck
@JoyceWhiteVance
Also, 18 of the 44 justices confirmed in the last 100 years had NO judicial experience before going to the Supreme Court.
So nobody had better come at this nominee with any bs about her qualifications ...
Conspiracy is a continuing violation. Other crimes, such as obstruction (when not part of a conspiracy) are also continuing crimes if committed as a series of acts. As such, the first of a series of acts of obstruction doesnβt start the statute of limitations running.
5/19
Because those early acts of obstruction are inextricably linked to Trump's other, more serious criminal activity, prosecutors would be forced to turn over to Trump sensitive and critical evidence related to the larger investigation.
17/19
@FoxNews
@AlanDersh
1. He didn't do it.
2. He may have a done it, but it's not a crime.
3. He may have done it and it may be a crime, but everybody does it.
When you're reduced to claiming
#3
, you've lost the argument.
So, please just stop and try to preserve some dignity.
Moreover, if prosecutors were to charge Trump with a crime now before the investigation is over, he'd be entitled by law to access all exculpatory evidence related to that charge.
16/19
ability to charge him with more serious offenses later.
For example, if Trump were indicted and acquitted of obstruction for the early acts, prosecutors would be barred from including them as predicate acts to prove a more serious charge of obstruction in a RICO case.
15/19
@Variety
Her comment is tone-deaf.
No doubt that she worked hard, but starting off wealthy and connected gave her a great head start - and also allowed her to take risks that many people without those advantages can't afford to do.
This kind of honesty - the calling out of bigotry in his midst, including, most importantly, his own - is a primary reason for the hate and vitriol aimed at Harry.
That, and marrying a WOC and supporting her refusal to give up her identity, shut up and assimilate.
βI went into this incredibly naive. I had no idea the British press was so bigoted. Hell, I was probably bigoted before the relationship with Meghanβ¦I didnβt see what I now see.β
#PrinceHarry
βs awakening as part of an interracial couple isnβt uncommon.
@timjacobwise
@therealroseanne
A few months ago, I tweeted that I planned to
#BoycottRoseanne
and she went berserk. Alerted me for harassment, blocked me and then sicced her fans on me. The upside is that, thanks to her bullying temper tantrum, I went from 150 followers to more than 1000. But it was bizarre...
I joined Twitter in 2016 and, as of 10 days ago, had just 150 followers. Then I tweeted I wouldn't watch Roseanne Barr's new show. She reported me for harassment and sicced her fans on me. Today, I hit 700 followers. Thanks for the boost, Roseanne!
Will still
#BoycottRoseanne
And even if it could be argued that he wasnβt part of a conspiracy, but acted alone, his obstructive behavior still constitutes a continuing crime that can only be viewed as criminal when taken together as a whole.
7/19
The last thing the prosecutors need is for Trump to get his eyes and hands on such information while the investigation is still underway.
The bottom line is that, contrary to the misinformation being spread by some legal commentators (many of whom certainly know better)
18/19
And even if the statute had started to run upon completion of those early individual acts (which it didnβt), prosecutors can still use those actions as βpredicate actsβ to prove a pattern of criminal activity that continued into 2019 and beyond.
9/19
@VanityFair
Why are folks so upset? This is no different than when you told McCain, Romney and Gore to go volunteer or take up knitting after they lost.
Whatβs that you say? You DIDNβT tell them - or any other male presidential candidate - to do that?
Never mind.
#CancelVanityFair
Anyone else notice the substantial drop in anti-Democrat "I am a loyal Democrat, but if Dems don't (fill in the blank), I'm not voting" tweets in the past few days?
Please take note of how dramatically Twitter has changed since the freezing of Russian assets. Suddenly all those anti-Biden βAmerican patriotsβ have disappeared.
Some people, including several Blue Checkers and those who don't seem to have actually read
@BarbMcQuade
's excellent analysis, are grossly mischaracterizing her conclusions.
While prosecutors could conceivably indict Trump now for his initial act of obstruction in February 2017 β asking FBI Director Comey to stop investigating Michael Flynn β doing so would be counterproductive and beyond foolish.
10/19
@JimLaPorta
@MalcolmNance
He could have retired comfortably after a distinguished career that culminated at the White House.
Instead, he followed the siren call of a man who leaves nothing but disaster in his wake.
Sad.
Listening to pundits on
@Morning_Joe
beating up on President Biden for not hammering home his message about the great work he's doing.
As if the press actually covers what Biden says and if he just said it louder and more often, they would communicate it to the public.
@JoeNBC
Can anyone insisting DOJ isn't investigating Trump or the coup because if it were, "we'd see signs of it," share for the good of the order what signs they see of ANY criminal investigation DOJ is conducting?
And if they can't, does that mean no one will ever be indicted again?
No competent prosecutor would jump the gun to indict on the earlier acts at this point in an ongoing investigation. Itβs not necessary to do so in order to avoid the statute of limitations that isnβt close to expiring, and the case would likely get thrown out of court.
13/19
it would be impossible to prove that that one single act constituted obstruction of justice. Only when tied in with later acts of obstruction, involving several incidents and co-conspirators, can it be proven that those early actions were an effort to obstruct justice.
12/19
I don't know why folks are getting so worked up over Trump promising to pardon anyone who riots on his behalf.
If ANY Republican is elected president in 2024, the same pardons would be forthcoming.
@kamaufranklin
How is a bystander supposed to "help" police during an altercation?
Seems to me that if the police are doing their job correctly, filming the incident in order to document that they did it right is the perfect way to "help" them.
SOOO glad to see Mary McCord just school
@NicolleDWallace
on the fact that her not knowing what DOJ was doing prior to Jack Smith's appointment as special counsel is not in any way proof that DOJ's investigation into Trump only began when Smith came on board.
@DeadlineWH
SO tired of people who know better claiming Garland was "doing nothing" in his first year on the job because there was no sign that anyone was testifying before the grand jury until recently.
Grand jury testimony isn't the start of an investigation. It comes toward the end.
Here is Dr. Birx's reaction when President Trump asks his science advisor to study using UV light on the human body and injecting disinfectant to fight the coronavirus.
And if it did somehow make it to trial, a sure and fast acquittal would be the result.
Not only is an immediate charge unnecessary to avoid the statute of limitations, but indicting Trump now on one or two obstruction counts could severely undermine and likely destroy the
14/19
@MollyJongFast
@HC_Richardson
According to this, Democrats also supported the bill, with some are saying they misunderstood what it was.
C'mon, Florida Dems. Your state is hurtling toward disaster and you're just riding along because you're not paying attention?
Read the damned bills you're voting on!
@JillWineBanks
@Justice3204
Jill - you, of all people, know exactly where they are. Doing their jobs, but doing them the way they're supposed to be done and not in public for the entertainment and satisfaction of pundits and legal commentators.
Tonight
@BarbMcQuade
discussed her prosecutor's memo on
@TheLastWord
.
Excerpts of her comments follow. Pertinent transcript attached.
Remember, McQuade isn't just any "former federal prosecutor" but was the U.S. Attorney and is now a law professor at the University of Michigan
Some people, including several Blue Checkers and those who don't seem to have actually read
@BarbMcQuade
's excellent analysis, are grossly mischaracterizing her conclusions.
Waiting for the
@nytimes
to run an editorial from a Black celebrity in support of President Biden and calling for George Clooney to go somewhere and take a seat.
@PeachesJenkins4
@Toure
@MichaelRapaport
Is there a reason a former vice president who is running to be president of the United States has any obligation to discuss anything with Ice Cube?
Now that President Biden will be free to focus all of his attention on his "official" duties, his last six months should be lit.
Amirite, Justice Roberts?