As Calls Grow to Impeach Trump, John Dean Sees "Echoes of Watergate"

[FORD]

I think you are seeing two pathetic corrupt political parties on their way out and a dysfunctional and corrupt federal government in the early stages of devolution. Half the country hates the other half and all this is bigger than the politicians in Washington. It's going to eventually devolve to the state level and some states might want to pair up and leave the union. The west coast and New England very well could go their own way. The whole Russian collaborator story is BS. Generals and Senators communicate with the Russians. Nothing new. It's the Democrats and media making mountains out of nothing.

Just like it was "nothing" in 1968 when the BCE undermined LBJ's efforts to end the Vietnam War and leave his pal Hubert Humphrey with a clean slate, but then the BCE promised the VC a "better deal" if they held out for Nixon to be elected.

Just like it was nothing in 1980, when Poppy and his friend Bill Casey ran a virtual rerun of that same play - only with Iran playing the part of Vietnam, and a hostage crisis instead of a war.

Acts of treason on both counts. And Carter probably would have been re-elected, had the Iranian mess been ended before election day. Which means every fucked up thing that has happened in this country (and elsewhere as a result) for the past 36 years could have been avoided if not for that one act of treason.

I don't know if Humphrey would have won in 1968. But Bobby Kennedy would have..... of course an entirely different sort of treasonous act made that impossible

[Terry]

That's definitely very possible but if that is the case why do they keep lying about it?

Exactly.

If there wasn't anything inherently wrong with the conversations, then why bother denying they took place?

It's the lie that gets you.

Then again, Trump told so many lies during the campaign and wound up being President for his troubles: perhaps his underlings felt they could lie too without any consequences.

[Nitro Express]

Just like it was "nothing" in 1968 when the BCE undermined LBJ's efforts to end the Vietnam War and leave his pal Hubert Humphrey with a clean slate, but then the BCE promised the VC a "better deal" if they held out for Nixon to be elected.

Just like it was nothing in 1980, when Poppy and his friend Bill Casey ran a virtual rerun of that same play - only with Iran playing the part of Vietnam, and a hostage crisis instead of a war.

Acts of treason on both counts. And Carter probably would have been re-elected, had the Iranian mess been ended before election day. Which means every fucked up thing that has happened in this country (and elsewhere as a result) for the past 36 years could have been avoided if not for that one act of treason.

I don't know if Humphrey would have won in 1968. But Bobby Kennedy would have..... of course an entirely different sort of treasonous act made that impossible

This has nothing to do with the current situation. Everyone and their mistress talked with the Russians. This is just partisan politicians and yeah I'm well aware of Henry Kissinger extending the Vietnam war but that has nothing to do with what's going on now. Both parties are corrupt. It cracks me up that we had Eric Holder as an attorney general who was nothing but a crook and nothing happens to him but the Democrats have their panties in a bind that Sessions talked to a Russian ambassador when everyone in the Senate pretty much did the same or more. They are trying to spin he committed perjury. If this was a regular court case it would be thrown out of court because there is no meat to the case. This is just more partisan politics because the Democrat Party can't accept they lost the election and the crooks in it are scared to death they are going to be prosecuted and there has been plenty of worse things done than talking to a Russian ambassador at the Heritage Foundation. Try stealing billions of dollars from Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac to shore up the Affordable Care Act. It's not just the Dems there are Republicans who are shitting bricks. They are worried there is going to be an Attorney General who won't look the other way. People are scared of going to jail and if we still hung people for treason they really would be shitting themselves. Why would a guy like Trump run for the presidency? Doing so hurt his business. It put his family and himself through a lot of shit. His quality of life would be better if he never ran. This is why rich people rarely run for public office. It's much easier to just buy the politicians. Trump could just give people like Schumer money and have them suck his cock. Maybe he was concerned if the Washington establishment kept going the way they were we were going hit the wall. Yeah the guy has a big ego and he ran and won. Ben Carson said he ran because he saw the country going over a cliff. He didn't think he would win but he gave it a shot. There probably are more people who ran thinking the same. Trump won. Get over it. The Democrats are just going to continue to look stupid going on witch hunt after witch hunt and do you really think things are going to change if Pence becomes president? It will just be Pence bashing nonstop.

[Nickdfresh]

this has nothing to do with the current situation. Everyone and their mistress talked with the russians.....

So why lie about it under oath? FFS...

[Terry]

This has nothing to do with the current situation. Everyone and their mistress talked with the Russians. This is just partisan politicians and yeah I'm well aware of Henry Kissinger extending the Vietnam war but that has nothing to do with what's going on now. Both parties are corrupt. It cracks me up that we had Eric Holder as an attorney general who was nothing but a crook and nothing happens to him but the Democrats have their panties in a bind that Sessions talked to a Russian ambassador when everyone in the Senate pretty much did the same or more. They are trying to spin he committed perjury. If this was a regular court case it would be thrown out of court because there is no meat to the case. This is just more partisan politics because the Democrat Party can't accept they lost the election and the crooks in it are scared to death they are going to be prosecuted and there has been plenty of worse things done than talking to a Russian ambassador at the Heritage Foundation. Try stealing billions of dollars from Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac to shore up the Affordable Care Act. It's not just the Dems there are Republicans who are shitting bricks. They are worried there is going to be an Attorney General who won't look the other way. People are scared of going to jail and if we still hung people for treason they really would be shitting themselves. Why would a guy like Trump run for the presidency? Doing so hurt his business. It put his family and himself through a lot of shit. His quality of life would be better if he never ran. This is why rich people rarely run for public office. It's much easier to just buy the politicians. Trump could just give people like Schumer money and have them suck his cock. Maybe he was concerned if the Washington establishment kept going the way they were we were going hit the wall. Yeah the guy has a big ego and he ran and won. Ben Carson said he ran because he saw the country going over a cliff. He didn't think he would win but he gave it a shot. There probably are more people who ran thinking the same. Trump won. Get over it. The Democrats are just going to continue to look stupid going on witch hunt after witch hunt and do you really think things are going to change if Pence becomes president? It will just be Pence bashing nonstop.

I'd agree that trying to make wide-sweeping comparisons between this and Watergate, or the 2 Nixon Administrations and their conduct in the Vietnam war probably miss the mark. There are some shared patterns of behavior between the two different circumstances (one current, one historic).

What Eric Holder, Obama, Kissinger, Ben Carson did in regard to previous DoD/DoJ matters and money-shifting of federal outlays between various government agencies (along with the truth that various Democratic officials - both past and present - have engaged in plenty of shenanigans)...ALL of that is largely irrelevant to determining the specifics of these contacts between Trump Campaign/Incoming Administration officials. If the idea is "the Democrats have also done shady stuff so therefore these Russian contacts shouldn't be investigated"...well, no sale on that one from me. If there turns out not to have been any collusion between said Trump Campaign/Transition officials and various Russian contacts in regard to undermining the outcome of the election or undercutting Obama's sanctions, and the Democrats pushing for an investigation KNOW this already and persist anyway, THAT would be despicable on the part of the Democrats.

Are Democrats hoping that Trump will be removed from office? Yep. Are they spinning something out of nothing regarding these Russian contacts to achieve that goal? I'd like to think not, although right now NOBODY can determine that for sure one way or the other. Logic tends to dictate if there really is nothing there, then Dems wouldn't want to continue investigating. However, that same logic would also tend to dictate that Trump officials wouldn't be lying about the contacts having been made in the first place (much less the frequency...or, more importantly, the nature).

Why would a guy like Trump run for the presidency, indeed? We don't know for certain that doing so hurt his various businesses because WE STILL DON'T KNOW THE EXACT NATURE of where Trump stood financially in the years leading up to the run...and we still don't know today.