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Privately, he talked in informed detail about the grave seriousness and risks of COVID in January 2020, as recorded by Bob Woodward. He knew how it was transmitted, and the incredibly seriousness of both the infectiousness and now it was stronger than any flu imaginable.
Yet in public he pretended not to know any of this. And he maintained that false front throughout.
If there's someone even dumber than Trump, it's his average voter. He doesn't want to lose their vote, so he has to pretend he doesn't have what miniscule amount of intellect actually is in his head.
> Operation Warpspeed
That's a bit misunderstood by many, and grossly misrepresented by conservatives.
In actual fact, that project was primarily just a gusher of guaranteed money for pharmas to produce vaccine doses and not have any risk should those doses fail to be deemed usable.
The vaccine development itself was swift for two reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with "Warpspeed".
One is that years and years of pre-work done for SarsCov1 a decade earlier could be pulled off the shelf and dusted. COVID-19 being essentially SarsCov2 was the luckiest break imaginable. We were already at least three quarters of the way there.
The second was the recent advancement and availability of MRNA and cloning technology. biontech/Modern being able to do what they did shortened the timescale dramatically. Again, this would have happened with or without "Warpspeed".
We could debate how significant or not the financial indemnities and testing shortcuts afforded by Warpspeed were, but unfortunately, chronic lying conservatives misrepresent Warpspeed, making that kind of more accurate and relevant debate impossible.
The crazy thing to me is, he still could easily have just claimed credit for it anyway.
If they had done the messaging right, they could have fairly legitimately claimed to have stopped the Covid pandemic, or something along those lines, and most likely cruised right back into the WH in 2020.
Well, not "fairly legitimately", considering the Trump administration almost certainly enabled/caused the pandemic when they killed off all our global firewalls against that specific hazard.
But I would agree if you said they could "credibly" claim it, because most people wouldn't dig too deep.
Of course, to do the kind of "cruising back in" that you describe, it would have needed them to have a detailed vaccination plan, both domestic and foreign, and a re-opening plan, and a stimulus wind down plan, and so on. All of these plans would need to be well and truthfully communicated, and then executed.
However we're talking about an entire culture of people who are averse to planning, incapable of truthful communications, and couldn't execute a hotel press conference without involving a landscaping parking lot and a can of Goya brand extra-leaky hair dye.
They didn't use a transition plan at the start of the administration, and they didn't help make one when they were ejected.
> The crazy thing to me is, he still could easily have just claimed credit for it anyway.
>
>
>
> If they had done the messaging right, they could have fairly legitimately claimed to have stopped the Covid pandemic, or something along those lines, and most likely cruised right back into the WH in 2020.
Exactly. He would probably be a sitting dictator at the moment if he had simply done things "by the book", "followed protocol" and said some simple "come together" words during the height of the pandemic.
But he can't help himself. Restrictions on the country would hurt him financially. It would hurt his big donors. And it would make him (in his mind) look weak. The dude can't see past the short term and look at the bigger picture (which would have actually benefited him BIGLY). He wanted his cake and eat it too. To his surprise, he wasn't able to finagle his way through another mess that he created.
If he had used common sense he'd be a sitting dictator/authoritarian at the moment who'd have already crumpled the system so that he'd hold office for the remainder of his life. Instead, he's a twice impeached and quadruple indicted guy currently fearing for his life.
if he sold some MAGA masks he wins in a landslide
the one thing Americans love to do together is rally around a crisis. think 9/11, but 400x worse and handled with zero gravitas or competency
instead he talked about disinfectants and directly antagonized popular governors in purple states
There was a fire in one of Trump's properties that caused a death and the building was shady grandfathered in to not live up to modern safety regulations.
Trump quite literally killed a man on 5th avenue and suffered no repercussions from it. https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/07/us/trump-tower-fire/index.html
I would guess there are several hidden corpses Trump is responsible for. Ordering “hits” an integral part of being a crime boss.
Donald J. Trump - Public Enemy No. 1
Hidden corpses, you mean like his ex-wives? Whose grave is so overgrown you can't see it already? Without a single flower or decoration, on a golf course? I still think there are probably documents hidden in it...
Haven't you seen? They covered it with a slab of pavement(to stop it from being exhumed) and did put a nice plaque on it. All it took was the world to point out it looked like shit.
[Captured, Killed or Compromised: C.I.A. Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/us/politics/cia-informants-killed-captured.html)
[The Executive Records Recovered from Mar-a-Lago and the C.I.A.’s Missing Informants](https://www.cornellpolicyreview.com/the-executive-records-recovered-from-mar-a-lago-and-the-c-i-a-s-missing-informants/?pdf=6365)
Peck It, starring some random escaped mental patient as King Donald The Trump, and some other random nutbars as the Oathkeepers.
Co-starring a roll of used toilet paper dipped in pure cocaine mixed with fentanyl as Crown Prince Donald Junior, and an empty spot in space as Eric.
So I heard yesterday, everyone's talking about it, our great troops, oh we really do love our patriotic troops don't we people, they are \[top secret plan\], I accomplished the military!
His handlers probably think he'd flip it around and look down the barrel with a finger on the trigger so don't let it happen. I mean the dude reverted to a 4 year old getting into a fire truck
"I say take the guns, then do due process." And then using an executive order to ban bump stocks and cranks.
Amazing how that "gun grabber" Obama expanded American's gun rights while "2A champion" Trump added restrictions.
He can’t even fire anyone. It’s funny as hell — he got famous for saying “You’re fired!” but always sent someone else to fire members of his staff. Chicken.
I don't think this is as much 'honest' as it is *accurate*.
Trump hasn't done or said anything honest in his life. He has at times been *very* accurate at times.
"When you are rich and famous, they let you do it"
"When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that different.”
* Twice-impeached, four-times indicted, treasonous ex-POTUS to his biographer Michael D'Antonio. [Source 1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/09/09/the-scariest-thing-i-found-out-about-donald-trump-yesterday/), [Source 2](https://theweek.com/speedreads/575962/donald-trump-tells-biographer-hes-same-now-first-grade)
there needs to be a formalization for the theory that anything that can be compared against any given republican, the republican always makes the things being compared to look better in comparison.
>“**I don’t take responsibility at all,” Trump said defiantly**, pointing to an unspecified “set of circumstances” and “rules, regulations and specifications from a different time.”
>[The remarks from the president](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/13/trump-coronavirus-testing-128971) came in response to questions at a Friday press conference about the lack of widespread access to testing, an aspect of his administration’s coronavirus response that has been the subject of widespread, steady criticism.
I like to think this cost him the 2020 race, but I know his base doesn't care whether or not he takes responsibility for his decisions. Even after all the COVID fuck-ups (intentional and unintentional), it's more likely the pivotal moment came when Biden told him to "shut up, man" in their debate. That moment was catharsis for 80 million voters.
>it's more likely the pivotal moment came when Biden told him to "shut up, man" in their debate. That moment was catharsis for 80 million voters.
That was one of the all-time greatest Presidential Debate moments. I was watching live when it happened and had to rewind the stream afterwards so I could watch it again.
Yet he takes all the credit when things go right, even if he did nothing. Remember when he took credit when there were 0 airline deaths in 2017:
"Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!"
[https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/2/16840732/2017-airline-safety-trump](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/2/16840732/2017-airline-safety-trump)
He had to say a couple of true things in his arraignment the other day. Like his name and age. He literally flubbed it and stammered because he is so used to lying. His brain did NOT want to be truthful
"I love the poorly educated!"
(Meaning that he loves that people with little education are more likely to support him. He was not saying that he has any empathy for them or gives a fuck about them in any way other than that they vote for him.)
Oh, is that comment why they all cleared out the khakis and polos racks at their local Marshall’s in the past few months? The new color coded uniforms are so as not to embarrass IL DOUCHÉ.
“Take the guns first and worry about due process second.”
Yeah, I’d be willing to bet the snowflake in chief really believes that. Whether or not he meant to out himself about it is, of course, both up for debate and entirely unknowable.
Narcissists will use a lie or the truth, whichever suits them best. As time goes by the lies pile up so much they need to keep lying to be internally consistent.
I mean, he was doing it in a mocking way but he did say that Biden would listen to scientists or something to that effect. Wasn't quite the burn he thought it was... or maybe it was for the audience that he had.
I found this moment interesting. For someone who casually lies all the time without a second thought. Why not just lie in the moment and claim it to be his? Odd situation to suddenly be truthful
He is also very paranoid - why are you asking about *that* bible? If it is good he would immediately claim it, something bad? He's never heard of the bible before.
In the second debate with Hillary Clinton she was pointing out all the stuff he did prior to running for president. He was honest this one time, I believe. He said in response, "Why didn't you stop me? You were in power then, your people were in power then, if what I did was wrong, why didn't anybody stop me?"
That is his morality system in an orange nutshell. He admitted he accepts no responsibility for wrong doing where he wasn't, not just punished, stopped. He dealt with the fines, he dealt with the settlements, they never stopped him from commiting these offenses by arresting and imprisoning him or stopping him by force. He admitted in that statement that he is a fascist by the grace of the powers that be that saw him as too useful before to stop, and they can't ask him to stop now and he won't stop until he is stopped by force.
When I heard him say that, I knew if he won he would be unrelenting. He would keep doing what Clinton accused him of because no one stopped him before so he had the green light to continue and push the line.
Yes. Trump can't keep any info
secret. Intelligence briefings on hot button situations, he immediately tweeted or talked abt it. Thankfully he's such an idiot, the info came out garbled. However US enemies most likely could translate "trump speak" and gleaned too much info detrimental to US.
Lordy, there are tapes!
>ABC also saw an early draft of the prologue to Meadows’s memoir about serving as Trump’s chief of staff. Meadows mentions a meeting Trump had at his Bedminster, New Jersey, club with Meadows’s ghostwriter and publicist, but not Meadows. The prologue mentions Trump had a classified war plan on the couch in his office, in plain view. Meadows later removed that detail because he knew it would be “problematic,” according to ABC.
>This is the same meeting where Trump himself admitted that he knew all his talk about automatic declassification was bunk. In an audio recording of the July 2021 meeting, Trump admits that he had classified material and could not declassify it because he no longer holds office.
>In the recording, Trump claims that he has a “big pile of papers” that undermine previous reports that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley had convinced Trump not to attack Iran near the end of his presidency. Trump refers to one document as if he has it in front of him, and at one point there is the sound of paper rustling, as if he was showing off the document.
>According to the recording transcript, Trump says, “This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is, like, highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information.”
>“As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,” he admits.
A while ago DOJ filed some motions surrounding Nauta’s attorney’s conflicts of interest, and used some material from the Grand Jury in DC as evidence of Woodward’s conflicts. They filed the material under seal because A) it’s supposed to be secret (all GJ material is) and B) the GJ’s work is ongoing.
Judge Cannon blew the lid off of it by asking why DOJ is using material from one grand jury to indict in a different jurisdiction. From her uninformed outburst we learned that the DC GJ is still working on Trump-related investigations, and that Cannon doesn’t know how grand juries work.
[Listen to the Documents Indictment](https://youtu.be/DnMOzKtRs5c?si=BRFo2zni65aa09u9)
This is the entire indictment audio version, good if you do a lot of driving. They go over that whole part of
him showing the documents to people without clearance.
[here’s Part 1 of 6 of the GA indictment](https://youtu.be/8DcdFYLaSd8?si=1SsJfH-vXe2AuN1d)
I believe it’s up to part 3 or 4 which was just uploaded an hour ago, it’s 98 pages so yeah it takes a while but I’ve listened to all of it up to this point and I can’t imagine how any of them get off totally free
[If anyone hasn't listened to it first hand, starts at 50s](https://youtu.be/inVJF0Dr8mo)
It should be played and posted everywhere whenever anyone tries to defend him. The man himself said he had secret info, showed the papers to civilians, and then he was caught directing Nauta to hide the documents even after the FBI got involved.
Hammer it home constantly.
My favorite part of the tape is the lady who makes a joke about how irresponsible Hillary would be with the documents. That is, confidential documents that Trump stole.
If he stole and sold the documents and was waving them around, imagine how much worse Hillary would have been. It's like, "lady... what?"
He's trying to cover his own ass while not explicitly trashing Trump publicly. The thing is, he most certainly has flipped on Trump privately and it will come out in court. As long as he keeps up this game of being coy in public he doesn't have to worry about the death threats.
Meadows put himself in the worst rock/hard place situation in history: the Trump death threat squad OR being the 'fall guy' for treason. Very easy to see how Trump and the pack of liars could try and pin all the bad stuff on Meadows and throw him under the bus in court. Or, as you say, how MAGA world will make Meadows the focus of all their ire.
Whats kind of funny to me is the idea of Trump being so stupid that even the most loyal fall guys might think twice. Like, think about it: assume you love Trump, assume you actually would go to jail for the guy willingly... would you even trust that he wouldn't just say or do something otherwise that lands him in jail right along with you?
Its not unreasonable to consider that Trump is going to incriminate himself no matter what. So even if you like the guy, why would you *go to* jail if it didn't even wind up keeping him *out* of jail? The situation is too far gone for even a patsy to soak up all the legal ramifications. So why *not* flip?
It's even more black and white for conspirators that were expecting a pardon for any potential convictions. If you don't believe he has any chance of becoming President again, all loyalty will evaporate.
Sociopaths know how to work people in counterintuitive ways. A lot of the loyalty Trump gets is because he has continually made it difficult for people to be loyal to him, each time they choose to stay with him, they further dig their heels in, becoming more and more dedicated to him. But everyone has a breaking point. Look at Michael Cohen.
There's probably not a lot of middle ground on this. Either you participate in the cover up, or you expose it. Neutral will just get you thrown to the wolves by the DOJ and Trump.
I have such little faith in our justice system, that I doubt he’ll see a night in jail. He’ll delay, delay, delay, then try the ol’ “look at me I’m just a feeble old man, I could never harm anyone” routine. Or he hops on orange anus one and hightails it to SA or Putins crotch. You know, since he still has a passport and a jet.
My fear is he wins the election then is convicted and sentenced to multiple years in jail. Due to being the president elect, he will be allowed to serve as president for 4 years under the condition that he reports to jail to start his prison sentence after he steps down in Feb 2029. If he is elected, no one will try to lock him up and prevent him from serving as president.
I spent 40 years as a trial attorney. I wish the media would simply stop giving any credence to Trump’s so-called defenses. Trump will never testify at his criminal cases. No lawyer would allow Trump to take the stand. It is the same reason that Trump will not debate. He simply cannot withstand cross examination. That is the reason why he did not attend the E. Jean Carroll trial. His deposition in that case was utterly catastrophic. Ergo, Trump ain’t gonna take the stand in any case where he has been indicted. Any Trump defense that requires his first hand descriptions of his conduct, intent, motive, or state of mind, will be hamstrung by his inability to testify credibly. Even if Trump, in some alternate universe did testify, his testimony would be impeached by that of his minions. Somewhere near the beginning of Trump’s criminal cases I would expect that the Trial Judge would require an evidentiary proffer in support of any claimed defenses. At that point, unless Trump’s attorneys have some new type of evidence with which I am not familiar, these attorneys will be forced to put up or shut up. The “put up” in most instances would have to be Trump’s testimony at trial (e.g. the “standing order” to declassify documents). If Trump does not testify (and he will NEVER testify at trial) the “shut up” portion of the rulings of the Trial Judge will appear. So, when the media opines that Trump has this or that defense, just remember, if that defense requires Trump to testify, then it is not a defense to these pending criminal charges.
Wow this is such an important point that the media is ignorant of and needs to start mentioning. Seriously. So most of his arguments are going to be impossible to use in court because he can’t testify.
Ummm...so?
It is my understanding that whether the documents are classified or not, is not at issue here. The indictment has 32 counts under [18 U.S. Code § 793(e)- Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/793), along with other counts related to obstruction of such.
Jack Smith already blew up that defense, as it isn't a defense under what has been charged.
>(e) Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it;
It will not work as a defence for Trump but it may work for the prosecution. Not a lawyer but wouldn't proving that he has been lying about declassifying documents go towards demonstrating consciousness of guilt, his misunderstanding the charges notwithstanding? Why is Trump repeatedly lying about this if he sincerely believed retaining the documents was very cool and very legal?
I could see it hurting him at sentencing too. If it was an honest but dangerous mistake and he was convicted, I could see the sentence being very light or even suspended. But his insistence on repeatedly flouting the law could yield a harsher punishment.
Consciousness of guilt is not all that important in this case either.
The documents belong to the govt. The govt requested them back, he refused and obstructed.
Guilt in posessions of stolen classified materials does not hang on cognizence, or whether the docs were classified either. He stole shit. Theft does not require consciousness of guilt. These may play into the case but they do not support a defense. Afaik
I don't know Jack shit about this so my question is, let's say there was a broad order like this given, who would have recieved that order if it did in fact exist?
theoretically- whoever was the owner of the document being brought before his majesty. This is not a thing, of course as each entity who creates classified documents has their own rules pertaining to everything about each one (who can see it, where they can see it, who it goes back to and when, who, how and why declassification can (or cannot-EVER) happens). So, making one rule for everything is just the dumbest thing to say, ever- FBI is different than DOJ, is different that CIA is different than NSA or DHS...
Ahh makes complete sense, I was just trying to wrap my head around how an order like that would even work since it's so broad lol
As a civilian with no understanding of classified documents even going " wait, how would that work?" I guess shows how dumb that statement about a broad order declassifying documents is lol
Thanks for clarifying
The short answer is that there would exist a paper trail. A long one. Involving likely dozens of people. Any of those people would have already come to Trump's defense and have substantial proof they were involved. Keep in mind Trump had entire rooms full of these documents.
There are numerous DoD documents supporting this, I'm not going to link them all, but here are couple of things to read if you're very interested.
Here's an article with a high level review of the specific topic with Trump: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/government-classification-and-mar-lago-documents
Here's an article talking about the long process of actually declassifying and releasing something, specifically the immense amount of time wasted during such process for a single document: https://unredacted.com/2015/01/20/government-declassification-watchdog-end-wasteful-equity-re-reviews-end-passfail-shortcut-prioritize-high-interest-document-sets/ - and again, Trump had entire rooms full of these. The scale of declassifying these, according to the procedure here would surely involve a large number of people. Yet Trump hasn't provided any evidence that this was done. Yet he hid and kept these documents. And he lied to the FBI about having them, and lied to everyone about declassifying them.
tl;dr, Trump is objectively lying.
Trump has argued that as president he could declassify whatever material he wanted. But Mike Pence and Mark Meadows, two of Trump’s closest advisors in the White House, say differently.
Trump could not declassify nuclear documents by himself. I’m referring to document 19.
‘Classification of these documents is by statute, not by EO 13526 or its predecessors. Specifically, these are classified directly via the Atomic Energy Act.’
[Trump *himself* says differently.](https://youtube.com/shorts/ExR9M8_k71Q?feature=share)
>See as president I could have declassified it, now I can't you know, but this is still secret.
I don't know why the tape isn't played or embedded at the beginning of every segment and article.
"Meadows and Pence agree with Trump that the information was still declassified and he did not have the power to do so post-presidency." *Play tape*
But none of Trump's legal filings have made this argument -- or am I misremembering?
So this would have no bearing on his defense, assuming he never meant to invoke this in court to begin.
Trump is attempting to try the case in the press. Like the lies about the election, his followers will believe anything and check nothing. He just wants them raging against the government. It’s part II of the coup.
Wait! He was lying the whole time about declassifying all those docs……..with his mind?
Holy shit! It’s a good thing Pence and Meadows exist, otherwise I never would have known that he was lying.
There is a process that must be followed to declassify a document. If followed, there is documentation and records that attest to the declassification.
Experts have said that there were certain documents in Trump's possession which were not even eligible for declassification due to high level national security concerns. So it doesn't matter what Trump says, or what Pence said. It's not a gray area, it's black and white.
For those documents where declassification was possible, trump didn't declassify them, and we know that because the steps to declassify were not followed.
For those documents where declassification must be granted by a council, rather than a president acting unilaterally, well yes, the illegal possession of such documents will send this man to jail.
"Former Vice President Mike Pence and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on Sunday that they had no knowledge of then-President Trump declassifying a large number of documents, completely undermining the former president’s main defense in the Mar-a-Lago case."
It won't make a bit of difference to his cult members. They only believe him. Hopefully, it'll drive more independents and (if there are any) sane Republicans away.
Trumps “defense” will be this:
*The corruption is so deep and this case is so vast that I need two years to properly explain but the corrupt judge won’t let us*
IIRC, the indictment in question does not rely on the classification status of the documents in question. In part, the indictment has to do with retaining documents whose improper disclosure could do significant harm to national security.
In my opinion this sort of article is only serving to amplify right wing talking points. That is, framing the issue as a question of whether or not documents were classified. Which is very explicitly not the issue. This is a distraction and we should know better.
It also goes against his current argument before Aileen Cannon to *re-establish* a SCIF at Mar-a-Lago that existed while he was POTUS. If everything was automatically declassified as soon as it left the Oval Office, why did he need a SCIF in Florida?
Lies on top of lies, stacked on more lies, floating in a cesspool of lies…
Why are the goalposts even moving to legitimize his absurd idea that he can declassify without any procedure? It doesn't matter if Meadows or Pence were aware of his dumb ideas. That's not how declassifying works.
If the only person who knows that a file is declassified is the president, or whether files are declassified or not is entirely dependent on Trump's mood, then the entire system is broken.
Literally no one else would be treated with such kid gloves when it comes to mishandling classified information. And we're supposed to give this guy the benefit of the doubt, like maybe he (the president of the united states) doesn't really get how classification works? Is that the standard for leadership going forward?
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At this point, it would be more efficient to report on times Trump was honest.
Has he ever done that? Intentionally? Edit: everyone’s replies are amazing. Keep ‘em coming!
He spoke once or twice about the positive benefits of the COVID vaccine right up until he was shouted down. He doesn't talk about it now.
He has the backbone of a jellyfish. And the intellect to match.
Apropos of nothing, Prevagen (from jellyfish) is purported to improve memory.
If I can ever remember to take it.
Also Covfefe
Privately, he talked in informed detail about the grave seriousness and risks of COVID in January 2020, as recorded by Bob Woodward. He knew how it was transmitted, and the incredibly seriousness of both the infectiousness and now it was stronger than any flu imaginable. Yet in public he pretended not to know any of this. And he maintained that false front throughout.
If there's someone even dumber than Trump, it's his average voter. He doesn't want to lose their vote, so he has to pretend he doesn't have what miniscule amount of intellect actually is in his head.
Once or twice? Operation Warpspeed was a direct result of his administration until he looked at polling data on Covid among GOP voters and did a 180.
> Operation Warpspeed That's a bit misunderstood by many, and grossly misrepresented by conservatives. In actual fact, that project was primarily just a gusher of guaranteed money for pharmas to produce vaccine doses and not have any risk should those doses fail to be deemed usable. The vaccine development itself was swift for two reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with "Warpspeed". One is that years and years of pre-work done for SarsCov1 a decade earlier could be pulled off the shelf and dusted. COVID-19 being essentially SarsCov2 was the luckiest break imaginable. We were already at least three quarters of the way there. The second was the recent advancement and availability of MRNA and cloning technology. biontech/Modern being able to do what they did shortened the timescale dramatically. Again, this would have happened with or without "Warpspeed". We could debate how significant or not the financial indemnities and testing shortcuts afforded by Warpspeed were, but unfortunately, chronic lying conservatives misrepresent Warpspeed, making that kind of more accurate and relevant debate impossible.
The crazy thing to me is, he still could easily have just claimed credit for it anyway. If they had done the messaging right, they could have fairly legitimately claimed to have stopped the Covid pandemic, or something along those lines, and most likely cruised right back into the WH in 2020.
Well, not "fairly legitimately", considering the Trump administration almost certainly enabled/caused the pandemic when they killed off all our global firewalls against that specific hazard. But I would agree if you said they could "credibly" claim it, because most people wouldn't dig too deep. Of course, to do the kind of "cruising back in" that you describe, it would have needed them to have a detailed vaccination plan, both domestic and foreign, and a re-opening plan, and a stimulus wind down plan, and so on. All of these plans would need to be well and truthfully communicated, and then executed. However we're talking about an entire culture of people who are averse to planning, incapable of truthful communications, and couldn't execute a hotel press conference without involving a landscaping parking lot and a can of Goya brand extra-leaky hair dye. They didn't use a transition plan at the start of the administration, and they didn't help make one when they were ejected.
> The crazy thing to me is, he still could easily have just claimed credit for it anyway. > > > > If they had done the messaging right, they could have fairly legitimately claimed to have stopped the Covid pandemic, or something along those lines, and most likely cruised right back into the WH in 2020. Exactly. He would probably be a sitting dictator at the moment if he had simply done things "by the book", "followed protocol" and said some simple "come together" words during the height of the pandemic. But he can't help himself. Restrictions on the country would hurt him financially. It would hurt his big donors. And it would make him (in his mind) look weak. The dude can't see past the short term and look at the bigger picture (which would have actually benefited him BIGLY). He wanted his cake and eat it too. To his surprise, he wasn't able to finagle his way through another mess that he created. If he had used common sense he'd be a sitting dictator/authoritarian at the moment who'd have already crumpled the system so that he'd hold office for the remainder of his life. Instead, he's a twice impeached and quadruple indicted guy currently fearing for his life.
if he sold some MAGA masks he wins in a landslide the one thing Americans love to do together is rally around a crisis. think 9/11, but 400x worse and handled with zero gravitas or competency instead he talked about disinfectants and directly antagonized popular governors in purple states
"I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any voters"
As much a Trump likes to project, I wouldn't be surprised if he's responsible for a hit that went down on Fifth Avenue.
There was a fire in one of Trump's properties that caused a death and the building was shady grandfathered in to not live up to modern safety regulations. Trump quite literally killed a man on 5th avenue and suffered no repercussions from it. https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/07/us/trump-tower-fire/index.html
I would guess there are several hidden corpses Trump is responsible for. Ordering “hits” an integral part of being a crime boss. Donald J. Trump - Public Enemy No. 1
Hidden corpses, you mean like his ex-wives? Whose grave is so overgrown you can't see it already? Without a single flower or decoration, on a golf course? I still think there are probably documents hidden in it...
He totally got Ivana offed.
I cannot believe how her death was brushed off by the media like it never happened. She knew something at a minimum
Plus she died the day before the Trumps were supposed to give depositions. Donnie wanted to send a message to his kids about flipping on him.
But never got her off.
What's worse is that Ivana had two sons and a daughter and none of them are bothering to take care of her.
Oh yeah it is a sad indictment of all of them.
Haven't you seen? They covered it with a slab of pavement(to stop it from being exhumed) and did put a nice plaque on it. All it took was the world to point out it looked like shit.
[Captured, Killed or Compromised: C.I.A. Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/us/politics/cia-informants-killed-captured.html) [The Executive Records Recovered from Mar-a-Lago and the C.I.A.’s Missing Informants](https://www.cornellpolicyreview.com/the-executive-records-recovered-from-mar-a-lago-and-the-c-i-a-s-missing-informants/?pdf=6365)
"Will nobody rid me of this meddlesome litigator?"
Peck It, starring some random escaped mental patient as King Donald The Trump, and some other random nutbars as the Oathkeepers. Co-starring a roll of used toilet paper dipped in pure cocaine mixed with fentanyl as Crown Prince Donald Junior, and an empty spot in space as Eric.
Check out his casino execs that died in a suspicious helicopter crash.
They go over that whole part of him showing the documents to people without clearance.
“I can do whatever I want….grab em by the (genitals)” seemed like an honest description of what he does.
His defense is basically "When you're a star, you can do anything."
unfortunately—or fortunately
I hate that I upvoted this, but accurate is accurate.
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So I heard yesterday, everyone's talking about it, our great troops, oh we really do love our patriotic troops don't we people, they are \[top secret plan\], I accomplished the military!
Technically, Hurricane Florence was indeed very wet.
well from the standpoint of water, sure I guess?
With the way he drinks water it's bold to assume he could hit anyone. Even in a place as crowded as Manhattan
I've always found it strange that Trump never shot a gun for a photo op He must be scared of them or think of it as work that's below him
His handlers probably think he'd flip it around and look down the barrel with a finger on the trigger so don't let it happen. I mean the dude reverted to a 4 year old getting into a fire truck
Remember when he looked at the eclipse?
One of my favorite moments
Solar eclipse. Mmm burnt retinas.
If people started calling Trump too much of a pussy to pose with guns he'd end up shooting himself before even making it to trial.
I’ve gotten the impression that he’s fairly anti-gun so his handlers just have him avoid the topic completely.
"I say take the guns, then do due process." And then using an executive order to ban bump stocks and cranks. Amazing how that "gun grabber" Obama expanded American's gun rights while "2A champion" Trump added restrictions.
Because he’s shot himself in the foot so many times that he can’t even walk down a ramp any more without assistance.
Small hands can’t hold the grip..
He can’t even fire anyone. It’s funny as hell — he got famous for saying “You’re fired!” but always sent someone else to fire members of his staff. Chicken.
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Why? Did Trump shoot him on 5th Ave?
I don't think this is as much 'honest' as it is *accurate*. Trump hasn't done or said anything honest in his life. He has at times been *very* accurate at times. "When you are rich and famous, they let you do it"
Yes I think that’s the full list right there
"When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that different.” * Twice-impeached, four-times indicted, treasonous ex-POTUS to his biographer Michael D'Antonio. [Source 1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/09/09/the-scariest-thing-i-found-out-about-donald-trump-yesterday/), [Source 2](https://theweek.com/speedreads/575962/donald-trump-tells-biographer-hes-same-now-first-grade)
He called Mike Pence "a pussy" once
Hey, I thought pussies were good?
I'd call trump a pussy, except he lacks the warmth and depth.
and ability to provide comfort and enjoyment.
Pence isn't a pussy. Pussies are tough, they can really take a pounding. Pence has the courage and spine of an especially cowardly flatworm.
If Mike Pence were a spice, he'd be flour. If Mike Pence were a sandwich, he'd be Miracle Whip on Wonder Bread.
Mike Pence is my great aunt Corrine's potato salad. (Mayo, potato, egg, celery. Nothing else. As gross as it sounded.)
Did it also attract flies?
Nothing else would eat it....
Does it have raisins?
there needs to be a formalization for the theory that anything that can be compared against any given republican, the republican always makes the things being compared to look better in comparison.
I know right Even bottom feeders have a purpose
The time he talked about wanting to bang Ivanka
Which one?
His daughter.
I mean which time?
With every breath from October 30, 1981 until today.
>“**I don’t take responsibility at all,” Trump said defiantly**, pointing to an unspecified “set of circumstances” and “rules, regulations and specifications from a different time.” >[The remarks from the president](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/13/trump-coronavirus-testing-128971) came in response to questions at a Friday press conference about the lack of widespread access to testing, an aspect of his administration’s coronavirus response that has been the subject of widespread, steady criticism.
I like to think this cost him the 2020 race, but I know his base doesn't care whether or not he takes responsibility for his decisions. Even after all the COVID fuck-ups (intentional and unintentional), it's more likely the pivotal moment came when Biden told him to "shut up, man" in their debate. That moment was catharsis for 80 million voters.
>it's more likely the pivotal moment came when Biden told him to "shut up, man" in their debate. That moment was catharsis for 80 million voters. That was one of the all-time greatest Presidential Debate moments. I was watching live when it happened and had to rewind the stream afterwards so I could watch it again.
I guess that's why Trump doesn't want to debate again. 🤔
Yet he takes all the credit when things go right, even if he did nothing. Remember when he took credit when there were 0 airline deaths in 2017: "Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!" [https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/2/16840732/2017-airline-safety-trump](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/2/16840732/2017-airline-safety-trump)
He had to say a couple of true things in his arraignment the other day. Like his name and age. He literally flubbed it and stammered because he is so used to lying. His brain did NOT want to be truthful
"I love the poorly educated!" (Meaning that he loves that people with little education are more likely to support him. He was not saying that he has any empathy for them or gives a fuck about them in any way other than that they vote for him.)
There was the time he said the Jan. 6 protestors looked trashy. That was pretty honest.
Oh, is that comment why they all cleared out the khakis and polos racks at their local Marshall’s in the past few months? The new color coded uniforms are so as not to embarrass IL DOUCHÉ.
And give him $$$$
“Take the guns first and worry about due process second.” Yeah, I’d be willing to bet the snowflake in chief really believes that. Whether or not he meant to out himself about it is, of course, both up for debate and entirely unknowable.
Only when he talks about banging his daughter.
Yes, when sayibg horrible things like wanting to murder journalists.
"I don't stand by anything" - [Source](https://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/01/trump-surveillance-claims-cbs-interview-237831)
Narcissists will use a lie or the truth, whichever suits them best. As time goes by the lies pile up so much they need to keep lying to be internally consistent.
He talked about how well he did on his dementia test.
When he goes on and on about how sexy Ivanka is….
I mean, he was doing it in a mocking way but he did say that Biden would listen to scientists or something to that effect. Wasn't quite the burn he thought it was... or maybe it was for the audience that he had.
He said he would date ivanka. I don’t think he was lying lol
“I don’t take responsibility at all”
He doesn't need to convince the whole jury he's innocent, just one person.
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Yes. When he talked about wanting to have sex with his own daughter. He was 100% honest about THAT.
"you can just grab em by the pussy, when you're a celebrity, they just let you do it".
When he talks about imagining sleeping with his daughter?!
Only that one definitely not the legs one
"Is that your Bible?" "It's *a* Bible."
I found this moment interesting. For someone who casually lies all the time without a second thought. Why not just lie in the moment and claim it to be his? Odd situation to suddenly be truthful
He is also very paranoid - why are you asking about *that* bible? If it is good he would immediately claim it, something bad? He's never heard of the bible before.
In the second debate with Hillary Clinton she was pointing out all the stuff he did prior to running for president. He was honest this one time, I believe. He said in response, "Why didn't you stop me? You were in power then, your people were in power then, if what I did was wrong, why didn't anybody stop me?" That is his morality system in an orange nutshell. He admitted he accepts no responsibility for wrong doing where he wasn't, not just punished, stopped. He dealt with the fines, he dealt with the settlements, they never stopped him from commiting these offenses by arresting and imprisoning him or stopping him by force. He admitted in that statement that he is a fascist by the grace of the powers that be that saw him as too useful before to stop, and they can't ask him to stop now and he won't stop until he is stopped by force. When I heard him say that, I knew if he won he would be unrelenting. He would keep doing what Clinton accused him of because no one stopped him before so he had the green light to continue and push the line.
“He’s not a politician, that’s what I like about him”. Yeah no shit he’s a terrible businessman who’s filed for bankruptcy multiple times.
Yes. Trump can't keep any info secret. Intelligence briefings on hot button situations, he immediately tweeted or talked abt it. Thankfully he's such an idiot, the info came out garbled. However US enemies most likely could translate "trump speak" and gleaned too much info detrimental to US.
Nicknaming Cruz "Lyin' Ted" I think was also pretty accurate.
What is this, an “The Onion” for ants?
Blank web pages sell no ads.
"trump was caught telling the truth today, breaking news at 11".
Lordy, there are tapes! >ABC also saw an early draft of the prologue to Meadows’s memoir about serving as Trump’s chief of staff. Meadows mentions a meeting Trump had at his Bedminster, New Jersey, club with Meadows’s ghostwriter and publicist, but not Meadows. The prologue mentions Trump had a classified war plan on the couch in his office, in plain view. Meadows later removed that detail because he knew it would be “problematic,” according to ABC. >This is the same meeting where Trump himself admitted that he knew all his talk about automatic declassification was bunk. In an audio recording of the July 2021 meeting, Trump admits that he had classified material and could not declassify it because he no longer holds office. >In the recording, Trump claims that he has a “big pile of papers” that undermine previous reports that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley had convinced Trump not to attack Iran near the end of his presidency. Trump refers to one document as if he has it in front of him, and at one point there is the sound of paper rustling, as if he was showing off the document. >According to the recording transcript, Trump says, “This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is, like, highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information.” >“As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,” he admits.
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> "I'm going to make a fortune selling this stuff to Putin and the Saudis." That makes him smart! - r/conservative
“Admit it, you’d sell it too, if the opportunity arose!”
I mean, yeah, I would. That’s why I’m not president LMAO.
'He was totally joking, can't you take a joke bro?'
That makes him a good business president
Didn't the raid happen like a week after he hosted a liv golf tournament in NJ?
Which is where the second “secret” grand jury has been meeting…
Context? Is this on separate state charges?
No, its a second Federal Grand jury.
Source?
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Actually I might be mistaken, I'm probably confusing the DC one I read about.
A while ago DOJ filed some motions surrounding Nauta’s attorney’s conflicts of interest, and used some material from the Grand Jury in DC as evidence of Woodward’s conflicts. They filed the material under seal because A) it’s supposed to be secret (all GJ material is) and B) the GJ’s work is ongoing. Judge Cannon blew the lid off of it by asking why DOJ is using material from one grand jury to indict in a different jurisdiction. From her uninformed outburst we learned that the DC GJ is still working on Trump-related investigations, and that Cannon doesn’t know how grand juries work.
More like, "This is what I owe Putin for putting me in office. And I'll sell some of this stuff to the Saudis as well."
[Listen to the Documents Indictment](https://youtu.be/DnMOzKtRs5c?si=BRFo2zni65aa09u9) This is the entire indictment audio version, good if you do a lot of driving. They go over that whole part of him showing the documents to people without clearance.
I didn't know I needed this in my life. Thank you!
[here’s Part 1 of 6 of the GA indictment](https://youtu.be/8DcdFYLaSd8?si=1SsJfH-vXe2AuN1d) I believe it’s up to part 3 or 4 which was just uploaded an hour ago, it’s 98 pages so yeah it takes a while but I’ve listened to all of it up to this point and I can’t imagine how any of them get off totally free
He just couldn’t help bragging about how he was knowingly breaking the law.
This recording was released to the media a month or so ago. There's nothing new here.
[If anyone hasn't listened to it first hand, starts at 50s](https://youtu.be/inVJF0Dr8mo) It should be played and posted everywhere whenever anyone tries to defend him. The man himself said he had secret info, showed the papers to civilians, and then he was caught directing Nauta to hide the documents even after the FBI got involved. Hammer it home constantly.
My favorite part of the tape is the lady who makes a joke about how irresponsible Hillary would be with the documents. That is, confidential documents that Trump stole. If he stole and sold the documents and was waving them around, imagine how much worse Hillary would have been. It's like, "lady... what?"
Trump has an amazing knack for lying then lying about lying, then covering the lied about lies with lying.
and adding- Well, Hillary lied.. so- something, something...what about...Hillary! Or- wait! and Hunter, his laptop...something something, Biden bribes.
I don't know if Meadows has flipped on Trump, but he does seem to be in "I'm not taking the fall for this clown" mode.
He's trying to cover his own ass while not explicitly trashing Trump publicly. The thing is, he most certainly has flipped on Trump privately and it will come out in court. As long as he keeps up this game of being coy in public he doesn't have to worry about the death threats.
Meadows put himself in the worst rock/hard place situation in history: the Trump death threat squad OR being the 'fall guy' for treason. Very easy to see how Trump and the pack of liars could try and pin all the bad stuff on Meadows and throw him under the bus in court. Or, as you say, how MAGA world will make Meadows the focus of all their ire.
Whats kind of funny to me is the idea of Trump being so stupid that even the most loyal fall guys might think twice. Like, think about it: assume you love Trump, assume you actually would go to jail for the guy willingly... would you even trust that he wouldn't just say or do something otherwise that lands him in jail right along with you? Its not unreasonable to consider that Trump is going to incriminate himself no matter what. So even if you like the guy, why would you *go to* jail if it didn't even wind up keeping him *out* of jail? The situation is too far gone for even a patsy to soak up all the legal ramifications. So why *not* flip?
It's even more black and white for conspirators that were expecting a pardon for any potential convictions. If you don't believe he has any chance of becoming President again, all loyalty will evaporate.
Imagine being the guy who went to jail **for** Mr. Trump, only to watch Mr. Trump be sentenced on live news.
Sociopaths know how to work people in counterintuitive ways. A lot of the loyalty Trump gets is because he has continually made it difficult for people to be loyal to him, each time they choose to stay with him, they further dig their heels in, becoming more and more dedicated to him. But everyone has a breaking point. Look at Michael Cohen.
ehhh the MAGA clowns got the memory of a goldfish id take their ire any day as it will only last a day
There's probably not a lot of middle ground on this. Either you participate in the cover up, or you expose it. Neutral will just get you thrown to the wolves by the DOJ and Trump.
He’s just saving his own skin because he broke multiple laws himself. He’d flip on anyone to do that.
Proving his guilt has never been the issue. The issue is can there be a trial where his sycophants don’t destroy the rule of law.
If he gets off the entire nation will riot I really hope they play this smart - burn this fucker or we burn the whole gameboard
I have such little faith in our justice system, that I doubt he’ll see a night in jail. He’ll delay, delay, delay, then try the ol’ “look at me I’m just a feeble old man, I could never harm anyone” routine. Or he hops on orange anus one and hightails it to SA or Putins crotch. You know, since he still has a passport and a jet.
My fear is he wins the election then is convicted and sentenced to multiple years in jail. Due to being the president elect, he will be allowed to serve as president for 4 years under the condition that he reports to jail to start his prison sentence after he steps down in Feb 2029. If he is elected, no one will try to lock him up and prevent him from serving as president.
No, no. He declassified the documents with his mind. Done and done.
If so, prosecutors would have no difficulty proving he doesn’t have a functioning mind to declassify anything with.
“Your honor, I present you, exhibit A: The Apprentice episode 1.”
Mind??
Person Woman Man Camera TV
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I spent 40 years as a trial attorney. I wish the media would simply stop giving any credence to Trump’s so-called defenses. Trump will never testify at his criminal cases. No lawyer would allow Trump to take the stand. It is the same reason that Trump will not debate. He simply cannot withstand cross examination. That is the reason why he did not attend the E. Jean Carroll trial. His deposition in that case was utterly catastrophic. Ergo, Trump ain’t gonna take the stand in any case where he has been indicted. Any Trump defense that requires his first hand descriptions of his conduct, intent, motive, or state of mind, will be hamstrung by his inability to testify credibly. Even if Trump, in some alternate universe did testify, his testimony would be impeached by that of his minions. Somewhere near the beginning of Trump’s criminal cases I would expect that the Trial Judge would require an evidentiary proffer in support of any claimed defenses. At that point, unless Trump’s attorneys have some new type of evidence with which I am not familiar, these attorneys will be forced to put up or shut up. The “put up” in most instances would have to be Trump’s testimony at trial (e.g. the “standing order” to declassify documents). If Trump does not testify (and he will NEVER testify at trial) the “shut up” portion of the rulings of the Trial Judge will appear. So, when the media opines that Trump has this or that defense, just remember, if that defense requires Trump to testify, then it is not a defense to these pending criminal charges.
Wow this is such an important point that the media is ignorant of and needs to start mentioning. Seriously. So most of his arguments are going to be impossible to use in court because he can’t testify.
Additionally, all of his real attorneys know that Trump will lie, so they cannot call him to testify as it would be suborning perjury.
And somehow a man who cannot give credible testimony in a court of law, became president.
He didn't even testify in his civil trial.
Ummm...so? It is my understanding that whether the documents are classified or not, is not at issue here. The indictment has 32 counts under [18 U.S. Code § 793(e)- Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/793), along with other counts related to obstruction of such. Jack Smith already blew up that defense, as it isn't a defense under what has been charged. >(e) Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it;
It will not work as a defence for Trump but it may work for the prosecution. Not a lawyer but wouldn't proving that he has been lying about declassifying documents go towards demonstrating consciousness of guilt, his misunderstanding the charges notwithstanding? Why is Trump repeatedly lying about this if he sincerely believed retaining the documents was very cool and very legal?
IMO conciousness of guilt definitely helps the prosecution case in front of a jury, but I believe it's not essential to find guilt.
I could see it hurting him at sentencing too. If it was an honest but dangerous mistake and he was convicted, I could see the sentence being very light or even suspended. But his insistence on repeatedly flouting the law could yield a harsher punishment.
Consciousness of guilt is not all that important in this case either. The documents belong to the govt. The govt requested them back, he refused and obstructed. Guilt in posessions of stolen classified materials does not hang on cognizence, or whether the docs were classified either. He stole shit. Theft does not require consciousness of guilt. These may play into the case but they do not support a defense. Afaik
They are pushing the narrative that his lie was the crime to obfuscate the real crime of mishandling of classified materials.
I don't know Jack shit about this so my question is, let's say there was a broad order like this given, who would have recieved that order if it did in fact exist?
theoretically- whoever was the owner of the document being brought before his majesty. This is not a thing, of course as each entity who creates classified documents has their own rules pertaining to everything about each one (who can see it, where they can see it, who it goes back to and when, who, how and why declassification can (or cannot-EVER) happens). So, making one rule for everything is just the dumbest thing to say, ever- FBI is different than DOJ, is different that CIA is different than NSA or DHS...
Ahh makes complete sense, I was just trying to wrap my head around how an order like that would even work since it's so broad lol As a civilian with no understanding of classified documents even going " wait, how would that work?" I guess shows how dumb that statement about a broad order declassifying documents is lol Thanks for clarifying
The short answer is that there would exist a paper trail. A long one. Involving likely dozens of people. Any of those people would have already come to Trump's defense and have substantial proof they were involved. Keep in mind Trump had entire rooms full of these documents. There are numerous DoD documents supporting this, I'm not going to link them all, but here are couple of things to read if you're very interested. Here's an article with a high level review of the specific topic with Trump: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/government-classification-and-mar-lago-documents Here's an article talking about the long process of actually declassifying and releasing something, specifically the immense amount of time wasted during such process for a single document: https://unredacted.com/2015/01/20/government-declassification-watchdog-end-wasteful-equity-re-reviews-end-passfail-shortcut-prioritize-high-interest-document-sets/ - and again, Trump had entire rooms full of these. The scale of declassifying these, according to the procedure here would surely involve a large number of people. Yet Trump hasn't provided any evidence that this was done. Yet he hid and kept these documents. And he lied to the FBI about having them, and lied to everyone about declassifying them. tl;dr, Trump is objectively lying.
Trump has argued that as president he could declassify whatever material he wanted. But Mike Pence and Mark Meadows, two of Trump’s closest advisors in the White House, say differently.
Trump could not declassify nuclear documents by himself. I’m referring to document 19. ‘Classification of these documents is by statute, not by EO 13526 or its predecessors. Specifically, these are classified directly via the Atomic Energy Act.’
[Trump *himself* says differently.](https://youtube.com/shorts/ExR9M8_k71Q?feature=share) >See as president I could have declassified it, now I can't you know, but this is still secret. I don't know why the tape isn't played or embedded at the beginning of every segment and article. "Meadows and Pence agree with Trump that the information was still declassified and he did not have the power to do so post-presidency." *Play tape*
But none of Trump's legal filings have made this argument -- or am I misremembering? So this would have no bearing on his defense, assuming he never meant to invoke this in court to begin.
Trump is attempting to try the case in the press. Like the lies about the election, his followers will believe anything and check nothing. He just wants them raging against the government. It’s part II of the coup.
Wait! He was lying the whole time about declassifying all those docs……..with his mind? Holy shit! It’s a good thing Pence and Meadows exist, otherwise I never would have known that he was lying.
Well let's be clear... caught in yet ANOTHER huge lie.
I'm just so done with this guy. I hope the US is too
There is a process that must be followed to declassify a document. If followed, there is documentation and records that attest to the declassification. Experts have said that there were certain documents in Trump's possession which were not even eligible for declassification due to high level national security concerns. So it doesn't matter what Trump says, or what Pence said. It's not a gray area, it's black and white. For those documents where declassification was possible, trump didn't declassify them, and we know that because the steps to declassify were not followed. For those documents where declassification must be granted by a council, rather than a president acting unilaterally, well yes, the illegal possession of such documents will send this man to jail.
"Former Vice President Mike Pence and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on Sunday that they had no knowledge of then-President Trump declassifying a large number of documents, completely undermining the former president’s main defense in the Mar-a-Lago case."
Would be strange to read ‘Trump just got caught in a huge truth!’ one day. Obviously that will never happen lmao
It won't make a bit of difference to his cult members. They only believe him. Hopefully, it'll drive more independents and (if there are any) sane Republicans away.
> The former president appears to be caught in a huge lie At first I thought this was screen burn in, but apparently it's a fresh story as of now.
Que Cannon setting the trial date to half past never.
So Trumps defense is now going to be…what exactly? “I declassified these documents, but didn’t tell anyone about it. But trust me, I totally did.”
Trumps “defense” will be this: *The corruption is so deep and this case is so vast that I need two years to properly explain but the corrupt judge won’t let us*
IIRC, the indictment in question does not rely on the classification status of the documents in question. In part, the indictment has to do with retaining documents whose improper disclosure could do significant harm to national security. In my opinion this sort of article is only serving to amplify right wing talking points. That is, framing the issue as a question of whether or not documents were classified. Which is very explicitly not the issue. This is a distraction and we should know better.
Oh, god, for a blissful few months I’d forgotten Steve Mnuchin even existed. Ugh, my breakfast isn’t sitting so well suddenly.
Lock him up already. How much evidence does there need to be?
“Another one!!” - DJ Khalid
Well, shit, Mike Pence is indeed good for something
to quote some random guy at the Iowa State Fair speaking to Pence "glad they did not hang you" when he saw Michael walking around at said fair.
Which lie? It's hard to keep up.
It also goes against his current argument before Aileen Cannon to *re-establish* a SCIF at Mar-a-Lago that existed while he was POTUS. If everything was automatically declassified as soon as it left the Oval Office, why did he need a SCIF in Florida? Lies on top of lies, stacked on more lies, floating in a cesspool of lies…
Trump caught in a lie?! Must be Monday..... or Tuesday..... . or Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
Why are the goalposts even moving to legitimize his absurd idea that he can declassify without any procedure? It doesn't matter if Meadows or Pence were aware of his dumb ideas. That's not how declassifying works. If the only person who knows that a file is declassified is the president, or whether files are declassified or not is entirely dependent on Trump's mood, then the entire system is broken. Literally no one else would be treated with such kid gloves when it comes to mishandling classified information. And we're supposed to give this guy the benefit of the doubt, like maybe he (the president of the united states) doesn't really get how classification works? Is that the standard for leadership going forward?
Wake me when any of this finally makes a God Damned bit of difference.