The Official Former President Trump thread

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, welshbairn said:

CNN is unwatchable with its Biden empathy fest. Going to find a Fox feed. 

P.S. Fox were going on about how trumpets would be deprogrammed in camps by the new administration and ignored the memorial for the Covid deaths. American TV is so shite, hope Andrew Neil and co don't destroy ours.

I’ll disagree, simply because you are taking only the macro/cablenews view. Granted that MSNBC/CNN/CNBC/FOX/OAN are predictably positioned from left to right, however ABC/CBS/NBC (and FOX, to a lesser extent) terrestrial broadcast coverage is actually pretty decent, and reasonably balanced. Even more fun is the local news broadcasts, with the sniping and infighting that happens with co-workers that have varying viewpoints.

Now, if we could just stop the predictable make a spinoff of anything that’s even randomly successful, or perhaps copy whatever was hot on British TV two seasons ago method of show creation, we might get viewable prime time shows again!

But, back on topic, it will be interesting to see how Donnie tries to upstage the show tomorrow.

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, GordonS said:

They're not going to have to drag him out, and even if the insurrection had been successful it still wouldn't have had any chance of preventing the transition.

Not completely true. If a few Senate aides hadn’t secured the Electoral Vote tally’s and certifications, the likely destruction of them would have prevented the completion of the tally on January 6th. If that happened, it is an open question of what would occur, and how the House would act.

[GordonS]

29 minutes ago, TxRover said:

Not completely true. If a few Senate aides hadn’t secured the Electoral Vote tally’s and certifications, the likely destruction of them would have prevented the completion of the tally on January 6th. If that happened, it is an open question of what would occur, and how the House would act.

I'm sure they would just have certified it the following day at worst. A few of those who said they wouldn't vote to certify changed their position after the attack.

When Trump started to put together a federal domestic army made up of bampots from agencies like ICE and the DEA I really feared he would use them to hold power. But apart from directing the mob to the Capitol on 6 January, he never really managed to pull off anything dictator-y. He's basically shite at everything he does and he didn't screw up US democracy a fraction as much as he could have if he'd put his back into it. The ghosts of Tammany Hall are pissing themselves at his pathetic attempts.

[TxRover]

4 hours ago, GordonS said:

I'm sure they would just have certified it the following day at worst. A few of those who said they wouldn't vote to certify changed their position after the attack.

The hitch is the procedure (12th Amendment) is clear that the certification shall occur in a session starting upon Jan 6th, period, and ending after all States reports have been accepted or rejected. With a number of objections, the final decision could be days later, but the inability to immediately present the next alphabetical report would potentially kill the process in a way that an objection debate rolling into Jan 7th would not. In that case it may fall as a convergent election, which tosses it to the House, under one vote per State, based upon the majority vote of the Representatives of each State. There was no “backup” tally reports and certifications, something I suspect will be rectified going forward.

[LongTimeLurker]

6 hours ago, TxRover said:

...But, back on topic, it will be interesting to see how Donnie tries to upstage the show tomorrow.

No pardons for Joe Exotic and Julian Assange so far. Dropping a last minute bombshell on that might do it.

[RiG]

What time is chucking out time tomorrow? 
 
 

According to Trump's schedule he will be leaving the White House at 8 am (1pm for us).

[madwullie]

Think Bannon got one though? 

[madwullie]

Here's the full list. 

Doesn't look as dodge as people thought it would

 Did see some analysis suggesting any family pardons or pardons for insurrectionists /GOP members who aided the riots, would make him look extremely guilty and not go down at all well with the GOP senators who will ultimately decide whether or not he's guilty at impeachment. 

Edited January 20, 2021 by madwullie

[LongTimeLurker]

9 minutes ago, madwullie said:

Think Bannon got one though? 

Yes, but Mitch McConnell seems to have blocked more controversial ones than that by threatening him with what would happen over his impeachment trial according to Tucker Carlson anyway.

[Forest_Fifer]

The hitch is the procedure (12th Amendment) is clear that the certification shall occur in a session starting upon Jan 6th, period, and ending after all States reports have been accepted or rejected. With a number of objections, the final decision could be days later, but the inability to immediately present the next alphabetical report would potentially kill the process in a way that an objection debate rolling into Jan 7th would not. In that case it may fall as a convergent election, which tosses it to the House, under one vote per State, based upon the majority vote of the Representatives of each State. There was no “backup” tally reports and certifications, something I suspect will be rectified going forward.

There are more copies of the electoral votes, not just the one sent to the senate

[welshbairn]

57 minutes ago, Forest_Fifer said:

4 hours ago, TxRover said:

The hitch is the procedure (12th Amendment) is clear that the certification shall occur in a session starting upon Jan 6th, period, and ending after all States reports have been accepted or rejected. With a number of objections, the final decision could be days later, but the inability to immediately present the next alphabetical report would potentially kill the process in a way that an objection debate rolling into Jan 7th would not. In that case it may fall as a convergent election, which tosses it to the House, under one vote per State, based upon the majority vote of the Representatives of each State. There was no “backup” tally reports and certifications, something I suspect will be rectified going forward.

There are more copies of the electoral votes, not just the one sent to the senate

Yeah, 6 in total including the National Archives.

[RiG]

Trump apparently planning to start a new political party, the Patriot Party (), which would almost certainly split the Republican vote and be a win for the Democrats.

https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/trump-impeachment-biden-inauguration/card/90pPMzFPqr5fMzg1Bkbs

[welshbairn]

8 hours ago, GordonS said:

I'm sure they would just have certified it the following day at worst. A few of those who said they wouldn't vote to certify changed their position after the attack.

When Trump started to put together a federal domestic army made up of bampots from agencies like ICE and the DEA I really feared he would use them to hold power. But apart from directing the mob to the Capitol on 6 January, he never really managed to pull off anything dictator-y. He's basically shite at everything he does and he didn't screw up US democracy a fraction as much as he could have if he'd put his back into it. The ghosts of Tammany Hall are pissing themselves at his pathetic attempts.

If it turns out he told his placemen to hold off reinforcements from federal agencies and National Guards it's a bit more serious, but agreed, it wouldn't have got anywhere without military back up.

[btb]

Unless Trump gets a pardon you'd imagine he'll be spending a whole lotta time with his lawyers.

It's obviously in the Republican's interests for him to fade away and if Biden could use it as leverage against the GOP not be too arseholey in Congress it would be worth it for him too.

I'm sure many Americans would like to make it like season 9 of Dallas (a bad dream) the problems are whether Trump would agree to any such deal to remain in the background and if so for how long once the pardon had been granted.

[Forest_Fifer]

Unless Trump gets a pardon you'd imagine he'll be spending a whole lotta time with his lawyers.
It's obviously in the Republican's interests for him to fade away and if Biden could use it as leverage against the GOP not be too arseholey in Congress it would be worth it for him too.
I'm sure many Americans would like to make it like season 9 of Dallas (a bad dream) the problems are whether Trump would agree to any such deal to remain in the background and if so for how long once the pardon had been granted.

Even if he gets a pardon, hell still have to deal with NY state lawyers, and possibly other states as well.

[carpetmonster]

3 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

Yes, but Mitch McConnell seems to have blocked more controversial ones than that by threatening him with what would happen over his impeachment trial according to Tucker Carlson anyway.

McConnell has no power to block anything; Trump will be aware (or will have been told, at least) that acceptance of a pardon means you can be compelled to testify and can’t plead the 5th Amendment, so any witnesses at his impeachment who’ve gotten one is obliged to spill their guts. Bannon can likely be trusted to successfully lie his arse off under cross examination without dropping Trump into a volcano of shite; the same likely couldn’t be said for say, Eric or Giuliani. 

[GordonS]

2 hours ago, welshbairn said:

If it turns out he told his placemen to hold off reinforcements from federal agencies and National Guards it's a bit more serious, but agreed, it wouldn't have got anywhere without military back up.

Even that was half-hearted. He could have federalised the National Guard and then used them to form a perimeter around the Capitol while those inside ran riot. If Trump had had a plan for 6 January he could achieved so much more. And did they shoot their bolt by going big that day, costing themselves the chance to do something today?

[HTG]

1 minute ago, GordonS said:

Even that was half-hearted. He could have federalised the National Guard and then used them to form a perimeter around the Capitol while those inside ran riot. If Trump had had a plan for 6 January he could achieved so much more. And did they shoot their bolt by going big that day, costing themselves the chance to do something today?

Like the rest of his presidency, Jan 6 was a half arsed effort which was high on emotion but low on everything else. 

[DeeTillEhDeh]

I'm sure they would just have certified it the following day at worst. A few of those who said they wouldn't vote to certify changed their position after the attack.
When Trump started to put together a federal domestic army made up of bampots from agencies like ICE and the DEA I really feared he would use them to hold power. But apart from directing the mob to the Capitol on 6 January, he never really managed to pull off anything dictator-y. He's basically shite at everything he does and he didn't screw up US democracy a fraction as much as he could have if he'd put his back into it. The ghosts of Tammany Hall are pissing themselves at his pathetic attempts.

What do you expect from a man who has had so many business failures?

He has this undeserved reputation of being a business guru - he has less wealth now than he inherited from his father.

[welshbairn]

Just now, GordonS said:

Even that was half-hearted. He could have federalised the National Guard and then used them to form a perimeter around the Capitol while those inside ran riot. If Trump had had a plan for 6 January he could achieved so much more. And did they shoot their bolt by going big that day, costing themselves the chance to do something today?

Only thing I can think is he was hoping for his nutcases to take a load of Congressmen including Pence and Pelosi hostage, giving time for some of the police and military to take sides. More likely he just wanted a bit of havoc as revenge against McConnell for not backing him on stealing the election, and something for him to watch on TV. Apparently the only time he got annoyed was when the QAnon guy with the cow horns appeared, not even wearing a Maga hat.