US Politics, October 2019 — I guess statement you could say with thread. I made a thread. The thread was PERFECT.

Washington (CNN)Former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Tuesday said she left office because "saying no" and refusing to do things that others in the administration wanted was "not going to be enough."

"There were a lot of things that, there were those in the administration who thought that we should do, and just as I spoke truth to power from the very beginning, it became clear that saying no, and refusing to do it myself was not going to be enough, so it was time for me to offer my resignation," she said at FORTUNE Most Powerful Women Summit.

Her comments came towards the end of an intense and brief interview with Amna Nawaz, national correspondent for "PBS NewsHour," which focused primarily on Nielsen's controversial role in the separation of families at the border.

Nielsen, who resigned in April, was pressed multiple times on whether she regretted signing a memo that enforced separating families.

"I don't regret enforcing the law, because I took an oath to do that," Nielsen said, adding that her decision was to "enforce the law, not to separate families."

However, she said she wished the coordination and information flow had "worked a lot better."

"What I regret is that we haven't solved it and what I regret that that information flow and coordination to quickly reunite the families was clearly not in place and that's why the practice was stopped through an executive order," she said.

"It clearly wasn't working, so we stopped it during an executive order," she added.

When asked if anyone raised concerns that children would be traumatized as a result of the policy, Nielsen said, "not from staff, no."

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced that he was going to nominate Nielsen to the National Infrastructure Advisory Council. Nielsen told the audience Tuesday that the position is unpaid and she would be advising the government on cyber and critical infrastructure needs.

Nawaz pressed her on why she was currently advising the White House, prompting a retort from Nielsen.

"Are you telling every CEO in here that they should never advise the government," she said to applause.

This was Nielsen's first public interview since her forced resignation in April. She had been scheduled to appear at the Atlantic Festival last month, but later dropped out amid backlash. She canceled due to a family situation, not the criticism over her attendance, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile dropped out of the Fortune event earlier this week, citing the "atrocity of family separation."

"Respectfully, I absolutely cannot support Kirstjen Nielsen having a voice among the most powerful and inspiring women in America," she tweeted.

Nielsen became the face of the Trump administration zero-tolerance policy that led to the separation of thousands of families who were apprehended crossing the southern border.

At the end of the contentious interview, Nielsen said, "I wish we had gotten to cyber, because that's why I was originally here."

whoa Kirstjen ok then

oh sorry cut off the last bit

"Cyber is the biggest threat that we face in the homeland today," she said.

"Are you telling every CEO in here that they should never advise the government," she said to applause.

Well, you know.

And "truth to power," you say.

"Are you telling every CEO in here that they should never advise the government," she said to applause.

srsly pls fucking die

room full of monsters

brandi carlile otm

foh with this image rehab let her spend the rest of her days on the milo circuit

Secretary Nielsen's office moments after the interview
https://i.pinimg.com/474x/05/e5/c8/05e5c88a3015cbbd9ae40cd42370aa4b--doctor-who-companions-posts.jpg

Saw that Roger Stone lost his appeal to post on social media. Jut noticed that ... I had not noticed him lately. Which is a good sign that these assholes a) can be silenced and b) when they're gone you can feel a sliver of normalcy return.

Man, I just read that Taylor statement and it is something else. What an amazing document. There are times all of this is just so entertaining that I have to remember it's also and mostly terrible. But that thing is like a Le Carre book in miniature. Except in Le Carre books only a small group of people would get to read it and it would be buried and the ambassador would be disappeared somehow.

otm
it was fitting that it was initially released as a series of phone pictures of the printed pages

So was the idea to get Ukraine to announce its investigation, and then a while later try to get China to do the same thing? That would have made political sense, build this idea that the Bidens have corrupt dealings all over the world. It would explain why Trump just blurted out "China should do it too" once the cover was blown.

Hooray, finally clears that up!

🚨 Trump's attorney Consovoy just agreed that Trump could NOT be criminally investigated while in office if he shot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue, when pressed by Judge Chin.

— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) October 23, 2019

lol good morning

Not if you're on Fifth Avenue.

I mean this point has been worn down to a nub by now but CAN YOU IMAGINE the gop reaction if a representative of a dem president asserted that the president can do literally anything he/she wants with zero legal repercussions

CAN YOU IMAGINE

good morning!

Nancy Pelosi should assert the same immunity and start walking around with a sawed-off shotgun

https://thekingdominsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/figment-character-imagination-epcot-disney-world.jpg

Why would the toughest guy on the planet bow to the pressure of crazed irrational Dems and Media?? If Doral was hands-down the best venue, why you gonna let some whiny bitches ruin things?? They'll criticize you no matter what you do! Right?? Does this mean if they foam at the mouth about something else in the future, big bad Donny will cave just as easily? Why did he not cave to their pressure on other matters? Why would the most popular President in history, elected by a huge majority in the most fantastic election ever held, have to acquiesce to a bunch of deranged socialists who hate America???

my guess is some lawyer got in his ear and actually managed to successfully convince him that this was a very very bad idea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbC1Ygqzgnw
https://chriswatsonreleases.bandcamp.com/track/cracking-viscera

somewhat tangential but feels pertinent to this thread

also:
https://patch.com/new-york/parkslope/angry-trump-statue-found-floating-gowanus-canal
http://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/23145371/20191022/010719/styles/patch_image/public/img-0080___22122547494.jpg

GOP lawmakers are now storming the secure room (called a SCIF) trying to gain entry into impeachment hearings. https://t.co/3HTcUXdQ4e

— Sheryl Gay Stolberg (@SherylNYT) October 23, 2019

Good luck getting in, hope y'all fall and break hips

Their gold star insurance plans will heal'em!

Asshole Version of The Area 51 Raid.

rigor mortis of the soul will aid in the naruto arms running technique

Intel Dem @RepMikeQuigley said it would be up to leadership to consider whether to file ethics complaints against R’s who “pushed their way in” to scif — says they took photos/filmed in the House’s secure classified spaces

“They have no respect for” the process.

— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) October 23, 2019

This is great. McConnell is a) conceding that they cannot effectively defend the President's behavior, and is b) playing a weak hand that a) most of the American people don't understand (lol even Congressional members don't understand the process!) or care about. What's more, hard evidence - which the Dems are clearly gathering - is more eye-popping/attention and will trump complaints about process. And what's more, process complaints can be circumvented by simply holding public hearings, holding a floor vote, etc. which will likely happen within the next few months. They have nothing.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is urging Republicans to focus on Democrats and their tactics in seeking to mount an effective defense of President Trump on impeachment.

One GOP lawmaker, summing up McConnell’s message to Republicans at a private lunch meeting Tuesday, quoted the GOP leader as saying, “This is going to be about process.”

McConnell recognizes that some members of his conference are uncomfortable defending Trump on charges his administration linked aid to Ukraine to that country’s government running politically motivated investigations meant to help the White House.

As a result, he’s telling his members they have plenty of reason to offer a vigorous defense of Trump, as the president publicly urged them to do Monday, by focusing on Democratic tactics that McConnell and Trump view as unfair.

Senate Republicans also privately make the point that it’s difficult to defend Trump on the substance of the charges against him because so much remains unknown.

GOP lawmakers don’t know the identity of the whistleblower who filed a complaint against Trump or what exactly House Democrats have discovered in their investigation, which has been conducted largely behind closed doors.

There are also outstanding questions about the nature of interactions between Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Ukrainian officials over an investigation of Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden.

At the private lunch, McConnell and Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) drew a contrast between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and past Speaker Carl Albert (D-Okla.), who served during the impeachment of President Nixon.

Albert in 1973 and 1974 gave Republicans much more of an opportunity to participate in the process, they said.

McConnell also said Democrats in the minority were treated better by former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) during the impeachment of President Clinton than today’s Republicans.

“What is clear and not in dispute, as Sen. Blunt has pointed out, is the process in the House to which the president is being subjected is totally unprecedented and totally unfair,” McConnell told reporters after the lunch.

“Speaker Albert laid out procedural guidelines during the Nixon episode — Speaker Gingrich during the Clinton impeachment episode — all of which included the kind of basic procedural safeguards that one associates in our country with being treated fairly,” he said.

A Republican senator who spoke on condition of anonymity said McConnell gave his colleagues leeway to express opposition to various Trump actions, such as pulling U.S. troops out of northern Syria, but urged them to stick together on process.

“He feels everybody is free to talk about issues like Ukraine or maybe the Kurds, but to try to conduct an impeachment without any process is very contrary to what happened before,” the lawmaker said. “That pretty much sums it up.”

A second Republican senator said McConnell and Blunt thought it made sense to give the Senate GOP conference a primer on past impeachment proceedings.

“It was a logical second place to go after the informational hearing on how impeachment will work in the Senate so members will know when they are talking about this process why it’s different than the way this has been done before,” the lawmaker said. “It’s one thing to say it’s unfair. It’s another thing to say here are all the boxes that were checked for Clinton and Nixon, and none of these boxes have been checked for this president.”

McConnell’s effort came a day after Trump, at a Cabinet meeting, complained that Democrats are much more unified than Republicans on impeachment.

I feel that Trump’s ‘shoot someone on 5th Ave.’ comment is Chekhov’s gun in this insane drama that will include, or conclude with, that very event. He’s a bit of a Marlo Stanfield type and I could see a similar end (alone on the corner in a bloodied suit, gun in hand).

Or not.

yeah but then what do they do next season?

He's gonna shoot Biden.

we can but hope

in other fantasy-violence news:

Rick Wiles warns that if Trump is removed from office, veterans, cowboys, mountain men, and "guys that know how to fight" will hunt down Democrats and kill them. https://t.co/jhIWqIiLIP pic.twitter.com/oQDCJVZ6Jg

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) October 23, 2019

GOP lawmakers ought to be arrested like every other protestor who tries to storm a hearing

yeah but then what do they do next season?

re-runs of Red Dawn iirc

Every republican complaint about unfairness should be met with at least one solid slap across the face.

office, veterans, cowboys, mountain men, and "guys that know how to fight" will hunt down Democrats and kill them

The Village People were def known for their fisticuffs

Maybe fight is a misprint.

veterans, cowboys, mountain men, and "guys that know how to fight" will hunt down Democrats and kill them.

On their rascal scooters?

fisticuffs, good sir, are not how we solve the problems of our great Republic

― Pierre Delecto

That was quick.

Trump taking victory lap for Turkey-Syria on TV rn.

it's too late to complain about process anyway:

Support for the impeachment inquiry into President Trump has reached a new high, a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday found.

Pollsters discovered that 55 percent of respondents approved of the inquiry, while 43 percent opposed it. Last week, 51 percent supported it while 45 percent did not.

Meantime

Giuliani’s associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman just pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutor said there are subpoenas for **50** bank accounts.

Parnas attorney said there may be concerns about executive privilege due to relationship with Giuliani.

More soon, @CourthouseNews.

— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) October 23, 2019

😳 pic.twitter.com/0EVP5adhUJ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 23, 2019

executive privilege is a hell of a drug

Re: the McConnell strategy, sure, but I don't think "They're being mean to Donald Trump" has a lot of resonance beyond the base.

Can all evidence of one's criminal activities be protected by "executive privilege", if one, say, bakes a cake for Giuliani? Asking for a friend.

This is the new party line I guess?

"I'll take Quid Pro Quos for $1,000 Alex"
"U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of Mississippi river for $15 million."
"What is Seward's Folly?"
"Sorry @Steelers fans, it is 'What is the Louisiana Purchase, the Louisiana Purchase.'" #QuidProQuoJeopardy

— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) October 23, 2019