It depends on what the meaning of "really bad" is

It depends on what the meaning of "really bad" is

by digby




TPM reports:

President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said Sunday that he was “confident” there would “be no evidence of anything really bad” in special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report.

But, in an interview with CBS News’ Margaret Brennan, Giuliani stopped short of saying there would be no evidence of obstruction of justice in the report, a question that Attorney General William Barr’s four-page summary of the expansive document left open.

“Are you confident there will be no evidence of obstruction of justice in these 400 pages?” Brennan asked Giuliani.

“I’m going to tell you why I’m confident there will be no evidence of anything really bad,” Giuliani said, before pivoting to a separate point and accusing Mueller’s team of leaking to reporters “all along” during the investigation.

He said later that Trump did nothing "wrong" which is truly a bridge too far. We already know that he's the most immoral, unethical, corrupt president in history. And we also know that the government has determined that the only thing that can be done about that is to impeach him.

Now it's a matter of whether or not the US Congress, charged with reining in such an unfit despot has the political will to do it. With the Republicans having a majority in the Senate, and acting like followers of Jim Jones and the People's Temple, it look as if removing him that way will be impossible. (I'm for doing it anyway and letting the Republicans run on defending him but I think I'm in a minority.)


SCHIFF: "If the fact that POTUS called on the Russians to hack Hillary's emails, if the fact that Don Jr said he'd love to get the Russians' help... if Republicans think that's perfectly fine because it doesn't amount to the crime of conspiracy, then we are going to part company" pic.twitter.com/lhH78JTNOx
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 7, 2019


When a President lacks character, strong oversight is essential.

House Republicans seem to think as long as you can't prove a crime, all is fair in love and war, and what the Trump campaign did is all okay.

I don't feel that way. And I don't think most Americans feel that way. pic.twitter.com/KZpLkIvshx

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) April 7, 2019



But did he "do anything wrong?" Yes. That was wrong. He also committed dozens of other impeachable crimes as far as I'm concerned. The abuse of power and financial corruption alone should do it. But unfortunately, we have a thoroughly unethical, nihilistic political party and tens of millions of its cult followers who are just fine with all of that.

Barring some news that is so overwhelming that it snaps the cult out of its trance, that probably means the rest of the country has to mobilize and vote them out --- while the mechanism to do that is still available.