WASHINGTON - Donald Trump lashed out on Sunday (May 19) at the first Republican congressman to call the US president's behavior impeachable, while Democrats warned Trump's stonewalling of congressional probes is strengthening the case for an impeachment inquiry.
Trump blasts Republican lawmaker Amash over impeachment remarks
Trump blasts Republican lawmaker Amash over impeachment remarks
US President Donald Trump called Republican Representative Justin Amash “a total lightweight” and “a loser” on Twitter, a day after the Michigan conservative said the Mueller report showed that the Republican president “engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment.” PHOTO: AFP
Trump called Republican Representative Justin Amash "a total lightweight" and "a loser" on Twitter, a day after the Michigan conservative said the Mueller report showed that the Republican president "engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment."
Amash's criticism made calls in the US Congress for Trump's impeachment bipartisan, though just barely, with most Republicans still standing by the president at a time of economic growth, turbulent markets and global trade tensions.
Saying most lawmakers have not read it, Amash cited Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 448-page report on Russian meddling in Trump's favour in the 2016 US election.
On Twitter on Saturday, Amash said the report showed Trump had obstructed justice and added, "President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct."
A frequent Trump critic, Amash is a part of the House Freedom Caucus, a conservative faction. He has also signaled he would consider running as a libertarian against Trump in 2020.
Counter-punching in his usual style, Trump tweeted: "Never a fan of @justinamash, a total lightweight who opposes me and some of our great Republican ideas and policies just for the sake of getting his name out there through controversy ... Justin is a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents hands!" Trump will have a chance to make his case to supporters on Monday at a rally planned for Montoursville, Pa.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that Trump was moving closer to impeachment with his stonewalling of numerous congressional investigations of him and his presidency.
Still, Democrats are divided about impeachment. With 2020 election campaigns heating up, Pelosi said impeachment proceedings would be "divisive" for the country.
IMPEACHMENT PROCESS
No US president has ever been removed from office as a direct result of the US Constitution's impeachment process.
The House of Representatives has impeached two presidents. Both were acquitted by the Senate.
The Mueller report, now at the center of an escalating oversight battle between Trump and House Democrats, detailed extensive contacts between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia, but did not find that there was a conspiracy with Moscow. The report also described actions Trump took to try to impede Mueller's investigation, but made no formal finding on the question of obstruction, leaving the matter to Congress.
Amash also said on Twitter that Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, "deliberately misrepresented" Mueller's report when he oversaw the roll-out of a redacted version.
There were no signs on Sunday of other Republicans following Amash's lead. Another Trump critic, Republican Senator Mitt Romney, said on Sunday that Amash made "a courageous statement," yet also told CNN's "State of the Union" program that he did not believe Mueller's findings supported impeachment.
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s trip to the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi last week brought nothing for Washington, a senior Russian official said.
May 19, 2019 - Pompeo Got Nothing New on Iran in Sochi Visit: Russian Official
Pompeo Got Nothing New on Iran in Sochi Visit: Russian Official - Politics news - Tasnim News Agency
Distrust between Moscow and Washington is so great that no separate deal is possible on Iran, said another person close to the Kremlin.
“We’ve studied (US President Donald) Trump’s approach and tactics pretty well over the past two and a half years; he’s not a military man, he doesn’t like to fight,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, which advises the Kremlin. “He likes to make a show of strength and use economic levers. His idea is that sanctions will force Tehran in the end to negotiate.”
The report added that Pompeo’s trip to Brussels also yielded little support for the US position, with Europe doubling down on its commitment to the deal that Trump abandoned last year.
In Berlin, officials view Trump as the main force to halt the spiral toward conflict, primarily due to his well-known resistance to foreign interventions, said a senior lawmaker from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition.
Germany has no choice but to maintain a certain level of cooperation with Iran, the lawmaker said.
One French government official said Trump and senior aides such as National Security Adviser John Bolton are wrong to think that tightening the screws on Iran’s economy would convince its leaders to bend.
US Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego said the intelligence information bent to justify war in the Middle East against Iran “does not show threats to US interests”.
May, 19, 2019 - Iran Threat Exaggerated by GOP Hawks: US Congressman
Iran Threat Exaggerated by GOP Hawks: US Congressman - Politics news - Tasnim News Agency
Gallego, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, called for restraint among lawmakers and the White House in dealing with intelligence manipulated into exaggerating the threat that Iran poses to the United States and its allies.
Gallego said he received a classified briefing Friday. "What I saw was a lot of misinterpretation and wanting conflict coming from the administration and intelligence community," Gallego told The Washington Post by phone Saturday.
"Intel doesn't show existential threats. Even what it shows, it doesn't show threats to US interests."
Gallego said
the two main drivers of what he described as a false narrative are national security advisor John Bolton and Sen. Tom Cotton. Both men have been lobbying for a military escalation against Iran, in media appearances and behind closed doors. Cotton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, appeared on cable news discussing “multiple and credible sources of increased threats” from Iran.
“I get the same intel as Cotton,” Gallego wrote Saturday on Twitter. “He is greatly exaggerating the situation to spur us to war. Don’t fall for it.”
A spokesman for Cotton, who is himself a veteran of Iraq as well as Afghanistan, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the National Security Council did not immediately respond to a similar request.
Gallego said both committees get similar, if not the same, briefings from military and State Department officials.
US President Donald Trump has reportedly grown frustrated with Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for what appears to be an escalation beyond his own preference for diplomatic talks and harsh sanctions. And during the presidential campaign, he promised to keep the United States out of costly foreign wars.
Gallego said the
temperature has lowered in recent days after skepticism with the American public and in Congress over the credibility of a threat from Iran. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, frequent Trump defender, said this week that he felt lawmakers had not been “well-informed” or thoroughly briefed on Iran.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff told the Atlantic, “We may be creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of conflict with Iran — and without any endgame in mind.”
Gallego voiced similar concerns about miscalculations or willful misrepresentations of intelligence to justify military strikes against Iran.
This month, a US aircraft carrier deployment was expedited and bombers were dispatched to the region in response to alleged reports of increased activity by Iranian military forces.
US President Donald Trump is frustrated with some of his top advisers, who he thinks could rush the United States into a military confrontation with Iran and shatter his long-standing pledge to withdraw from costly foreign wars, according to several US officials.
May, 16, 2019 - Trump Frustrated by Top Advisers over Iran, Wants Talks: Report
Trump Frustrated by Top Advisers over Iran, Wants Talks: Report - Politics news - Tasnim News Agency
Trump prefers a diplomatic approach to resolving tensions and wants to speak directly with Iran’s leaders, the officials said, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
Trump grew angry last week and over the weekend about warlike planning that is getting ahead of his own thinking, said a senior administration official with knowledge of conversations Trump had regarding national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“They are getting way out ahead of themselves, and Trump is annoyed,” the official said. “There was a scramble for Bolton and Pompeo and others to get on the same page.”
Bolton is “just in a different place” from Trump, although the president has been a fierce critic of Iran since long before he hired Bolton. Trump “wants to talk to the Iranians; he wants a deal” and is open to negotiation with the Iranian government, the official said.
When asked about the accounts of Trump’s frustration with Bolton, National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis said, “This reporting doesn’t accurately reflect reality.”
Trump is not inclined to respond forcefully unless there is a “big move” from the Iranians, a senior White House official said. Still, the president is willing to respond forcefully if there are American deaths or a dramatic escalation, the official said.
While Trump grumbles about Bolton somewhat regularly, his discontent with his national security adviser is not near the levels it reached with Rex Tillerson when he served as Trump’s secretary of state, the official added.
Trump denied any “infighting” related to his Middle East policies in a tweet on Wednesday. “There is no infighting whatsoever,” Trump said. “Different opinions are expressed and I make a decisive and final decision — it is a very simple process. All sides, views, and policies are covered. I’m sure that Iran will want to talk soon.”
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei underlined earlier this week that there will be no military confrontation between Iran and the US as Washington is aware that it won’t be in its interest, adding that negotiation with the US is not on the Islamic Republic’s agenda either.
The Leader said on Tuesday that any confrontation between the US and Iran would not be “a military one,” and that “there was not going to be any war.”
“The Iranian nation’s definite option will be resistance in the face of the US, and in this confrontation, the US would be forced into a retreat,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “Neither we nor they, who know war will not be in their interest, are after war.”
Last week saw what was supposed to be a
hyperpower point fingers for its embarrassing defeat not only at Venezuela, which
successfully defeated Uncle Shmuel’s coup plans, but also at a list of other countries
including Cuba, Russia, China and Iran. It’s is rather pathetic and, frankly, bordering on the comically ridiculous.
The Saker • May 17, 2019 - The AngloZionist Empire: a Hyperpower with Microbrains and No Cred Left
The AngloZionist Empire: a hyperpower with microbrains and no cred left
Uncle Shmuel clearly did not appreciate being the laughingstock of the planet. And as Uncle Shmuel always does, he decided to flex some muscle and show the world “who is boss” by…
…
blockading the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC.
But even that was too much for the MAGA Admin, so they also denied doing so (how lame is that!?) Which did not prevent
US activists of entering the embassy (legally, they were invited in and
confirm it all).
Now the US Secret Service wants to evict the people inside the building. So much for the CIA’s beloved “plausible deniability” which now has morphed into “comical deniability”.
If you think that all this sounds incredibly amateurish and stupid – you are 100% correct.
In the
wonderful words of Sergei Lavrov, the US diplomats have “
lost the taste for diplomacy“. But that was not all.
In an act of incredible courage the US, which was told (
by the Israelis, of course!), that the Iranians were about to attack “somewhere”, Uncle Shmuel sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the Middle-East. In a “daring” operation, the brilliant
USAF pilots B-52 bombers over the Persian Gulf to “send a message” to the “Mollahs”: don’t f*ck with us or else…
The “Mollahs” apparently were unimpressed as they simply declared that “
the US carriers were not a threat, only a target“. The AngloZionists apparently
have also executed a false flag operation to get a pretext to strike Iran, but so far this seems to have gotten rather little traction in the region (so far – this might change).
Lavrov reacting to the latest U.S. threats.
Now let’s leave this “Kindergarten level of operations” and try to make some sense from this nonsense.
First, while the American can pour scorn on the Iranians, call them ragheads, terrorists, Mollahs, sand-niggers or confuse them with Iraqis or even think that Iranian are Arabs (as, apparently, are the Turks, at least by the US common standard of ignorance), the truth is that the Iranians are world-class and most sophisticated players, especially their
superb analytical community. They fully understand that a B-52 anywhere near the Iranian airspace is a sitting duck and that if the Americans were planning to strike Iran, they would pull their aircraft carrier far away from any possible Iranian strikes. As for the B-52, they have long range cruise missiles and they don’t need to get near Iran to deliver they payloads.
In fact, I think that the proper way to really make the Iranians believe that Uncle Shmuel means business would be to flush any and all US ships out of the Persian Gulf, to position the B-52s in Diego Garcia and to place the carriers as far away as possible to still be able to support a missile/bomb attack on Iranian targets. And you can bet that the Iranians keep very close tabs on exactly what CENTCOM aircraft are deployed and where. To attack Iran the US would need to achieve a specific concentration of forces and support elements which are all trackable by the Iranians. My guess is that the Iranians already have a full list of all CENTCOM officers down to the colonel level (and possibly even lower for airmen) and that they already know exactly which individual USAF/USN aircraft are ready to strike. One could be excused to think that this is difficult to do, but in reality is is not. I have personally seen it done.
Second, the Americans know that the Iranians know that (well, maybe not Mr MAGA, but folks at the DIA, ONI, NSA, etc. do know that). So all this sabre-rattling is designed to show that Mr MAGA has tons of hair on his chest, it’s all for internal US consumption. As for the Iranians, they have already heard any and all imaginable US threats, they have been attacked many times by both the US and Israel (directly or by proxy), and they have been preparing for a US attack ever since the glorious days of
Operation Eagle Claw: they are as ready as they can be, you can take that to the bank. Finally, the terrorist attack by the USN on a
civilian Iranian airliner certainly convinced the Iranians that the leaders of the AngloZionist Empire lack even basic decency, nevermind honor. Nevermind the use of chemical warfare by Iraq against Iran with chemicals helpfully provided by various US and EU companies (with the full blessing of their governments). No – the Iranians truly have no illusions whatsoever about what the
Shaytân-e Bozorg (Devil) is capable of in his rage.
Third, “attacking embassies” is a glaring admission of terminal weakness. That was true for the seizure of Russian consular buildings, and this is true for the Venezuelan embassy. In the real (supra-Kindergarten) world when country A has a beef with country B, it does not vent its frustration against its embassy. Such actions are not only an admission of weakness, but also a sign of a fundamental lack of civilization.
By the way, the US is hardly unique in having had degenerate imbeciles in power. Does anybody remember what Chernenko looked like when he became the Secretary General of the CPSU? What about folks like
Jean-Bédel Bokassa or Mikheil Saakashvili (this latter case is especially distressing since it happened in a country with a truly ancient and extremely rich culture!). And while we can dislike folks like George Bush Senior or James Baker – these were superbly educated and extremely intelligent people. Compare them to such psychopathic ignoramuses like Pompeo, Bolton or Trump himself!
So this latest US “attack” on the Venezuela is truly a most telling symptom of the wholesale collapse of US power and of the moral and intellectual bankruptcy and lack of civilization of the Neocon ruling elites.
The big question is obvious: will they attack Venezuela or Iran next?
In the very first article I ever wrote for my blog, as far back as 2007, I predicted that the US would attack Iran. I still believe that the Israelis will never cease to try to get the US to do their dirty work for them (and let the
goyim pay the price!). What I am not sure about is whether the Israelis truly will have the power to push the US into such a suicidal war (remember, if Iran cannot “win” against the US, neither can the US “win” against Iran – thus Iran will win simply by surviving and not caving in – which they will and they won’t). The good news is that US power has been in sharp (and accelerating!) decline at least since Clinton and his gang. I would even add that the last two idiots (Obama and Trump) did more damage to the US power than all their predecessors combined. The bad news is that the collective IQ of US leaders has been falling even faster than US power. We can hope that the first will hit zero long before the second, but there is no guarantee.
Truly, nobody knows if the US will or will not attack Iran and/or Venezuela next. The Neocons sure want that, but whether they will make it happen this time around or not depends on so many variables that even the folks in the White House and the Pentagon probably don’t really know what will happen next.
What is certain is that the US reputation worldwide is basically roadkill. The fact that most folks inside the US are never told about that does not make it less real. The Obama-Trump tag team has truly inflicted irreparable damage on the reputation of the US (in both cases because they were hopelessly infected and corrupted by the Neocons). The current US leaders appear to understand that, at least to some degree, this is why they are mostly lashing out at “easy” targets like free speech (on the Internet and
elsewhere), Assange, the Venezuelan Embassy, etc. The real danger comes from either one of two factors:
- The Neocons will feel humiliated by the fact that all their threats are only met with indifference, disgust or laughter
- The Neocons will feel buoyed by the fact that nothing terrible happened (so far) when they attacked a defenseless target
Either way, in both cases the outcome is the same:
each “click!” brings us closer to the inevitable “bang!”.
