Republicans in the Senate are set to acquit Donald Trump without holding an actual trial with witnesses so, at least they won’t be on the president’s Nixonesque enemies list. Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair reports that, according to his sources, Trump wants revenge over his impeachment. The impeachment inquiry was launched following the revelations that Trump’s “perfect phone call” with Ukraine’s leader was actually the president dangling a quid pro quo over a foreign government’s metaphorical head to dig up dirt on his political rival, Joe Biden.
Trump, a raging narcissist, isn’t one to take responsibility for his own actions, apparently. “It’s payback time,” a prominent Republican told Sherman last week. “He has an enemies list that is growing by the day,” another source said. Included in Trump’s list are Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, Mitt Romney, and John Bolton. “Trump’s playbook is simple: go after people who crossed him during impeachment,” a source said.
Former National Security adviser JohnBolton is reportedly at the top of the list.
“Trump wants Bolton to be criminally investigated,” Sherman reported. “A person familiar with Trump’s thinking told Sherman that Trump believes Bolton might have mishandled classified information. A former official said the White House has plans to leak White House emails from Bolton that allege Bolton ‘abused his position at the National Security Council,'” Sherman reports.
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Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, tweeted that Trump is escalating “abuses of power.”
McConnell hasn’t even held the final vote to launch the post checks and balances era, and already the would-be authoritarian is escalating his abuses of power. https://t.co/XLnR5tb2xu
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) February 4, 2020
“Trump has been calling people and telling them to go after Bolton,” a source briefed on the private conversations told Sherman. The official added that West Wing officials have discussed releasing emails “showing [Bolton] was doing pay-to-play,” but an individual close to Bolton dismissed the story. “John plays things straight,” the person said.
Bolton may be a rancid piece of warmongering shit, but he’s not stupid enough to commit the aforementioned alleged acts, nor would he leave a trail that leads right back to him. Republicans who admitted that what Trump did with Ukraine was wrong, but not an impeachable act, adding that the president would change his behavior, might want to rethink their views right now.
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