The impeachment inquiry that is now barreling toward its public phase is tearing two of President Trump’s senior aides apart.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1260915
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1260915
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Just more background noise in this process.
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" On Tuesday, the House committees overseeing the impeachment inquiry requested deposition from Mulvaney, writing in a letter sent Tuesday that they believe the acting chief of staff has “first-hand knowledge” of Trump’s Ukraine pressure campaign."
Perhaps the only reason Mulvaney remains where he is.
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Mulvaney reportedly disagrees with Cipollone’s approach in offering guidance to White House staffers on their rights when hit by a House subpoena and how he’s supposedly failed to explicitly say whether they should testify in the first place.
That’s because it’s his job to lay out the risks in order for them to decide their own course of action, not tell them what to do.
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A Confederacy of Dunces!
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If they weren’t all engaged in illegal activities, cover-ups, lying and obstruction this wouldn’t even be an issue.
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Of course, if the White House had a leader, that leader could resolve this quite simply, saying “Mick (or Pat), Pat (or Mick) is going to take the lead on this. Follow or get out of the way”. But there is no leader in the White House. Sad.
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“Trump had been quietly mulling a Mulvaney replacement in the weeks leading up to the same presser.”
“Can’t do it, Mickey.”
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“The impeachment inquiry that is now barreling toward its public phase is tearing two of President Trump’s senior aides apart.”
Mulvaney:
“Our response should be to fold our arms and look manly while getting staffers to make up stuff!”
Cipollone:
“That’s stupid. Our response should be to pout real hard - and then stomp our feet some.”
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Mulvaney has struggled to get back into the President’s good graces following his messy attempt at cleaning up his quid pro quo admission
Not to mention his, ugh, coughing.
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That whole interview, with scenes cut from the piece that aired, is quite informative. Trump doesn’t care what he says as along as he thinks it makes him look like a leader.
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Like a power-struggle between Goebbels and Bormann in the Fuhrerbunker.
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This is actually kind of consequential and definitely telling.
The Ukraine scandal has been gripping the WH for what…a month now?
And they still can’t decide who is charge of the response. Or what the response should be.
Its like Trump’s management style of having everyone at everyone else’s throats, might have a flaw or two in it.
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Please, let the idiot Mulvaney lead the response
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3, 2, 1… FIGHT!
Isn’t Mulvaney supposed to be canned any day now? Maybe that’s why he wants to “lead” the impeachment defense. Harder to can him then.
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" According to a Bloomberg report Thursday, acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone are in disagreement over who should be put in charge of Trump’s impeachment inquiry response."
I have and idea
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You know how every now and then the horses drawing those royal carriages in England start pulling in opposite directions while on parade? Well, from inside the carriage all one sees is a couple of unruly horses’ asses going astray. Meet the horses…
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The impeachment inquiry that is now barreling toward its public phase is tearing two of President Trump’s senior aides apart.
If only.
(Personally, I’d favor starving wolverines to do the tearing apart, but other animals or pieces of heavy machinery would do the trick, too.)
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Gerbils.
With blunt teeth.
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Trump likes it when his subordinates fight.
From https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/18/politics/john-bolton-john-kelly-trump/index.html
“They all want a piece of that Oval Office, they want a piece of the West Wing,” Trump said in March [2018] amid one of the unending bevies of stories about chaos and dissension in the West Wing. “It’s tough. I like conflict, I like having two people with different points of view, and I certainly have that. And then I make a decision. But I like watching it, I like seeing it, and I think it’s the best way to go.”
“I like watching it, I like seeing it, and I think it’s the best way to go.” So, yeah.
This desire to watch people who work for him fight it out for his attention and approval is not a new character trait for Trump. Remember that he created a reality TV show that was literally built around this idea: He, the big boss, would assign a task to people desperate to have a chance to work for and learn under him. They would complete the task, at which point he would assess how well they performed. Then he would bring three of the lowest performers into a boardroom where they would savage one another in front of him, all vying to avoid being fired.
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