Newt Gingrich and Brian Kilmeade floated impeachment defense strategies for Donald Trump that depended on persuading the public that Trump developed a sudden noble concern about corruption that seems to apply to the Bidens only. UPDATED: Apparently, this is the Republicans' strategy, too.
During a Fox & Friends appearance this morning, Gingrich presented his defense ideas first. “In the president’s mind, I think he believes that he was asking for help in getting to the truth,” he said. He was referring to Trump’s request for “a favor though” in response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s desire for military aid. That favor, which is now at the heart of the impeachment inquiry, was to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son as well as to delegitimize the Russia investigation.
Of course, that seems to be the only corruption that Trump has ever cared about, but each of the three Fox & Friends sycophants hosting Gingrich seemed not to notice.
“I suspect the president on one level is sort of frustrated with this idea that Hunter Biden can go off and make three or four million dollars, and nobody’s supposed to be allowed to find out whether or not it was corrupt,” Gingrich continued. “And that Joe Biden can go off and threaten to take away a billion dollars in aid to Ukraine, and nobody’s allowed to question whether or not it was corrupt. But any word that President Trump uses is somehow suspect.”
Gingrich went to call it “garbage” that Democrats are now saying Trump committed bribery and extortion rather than a quid pro quo.
“When did the New York Times and The Washington Post suddenly decide that covering up the truth is a good idea? This is crazy,” Gingrich claimed, while trying to deny the obvious truth of Trump’s behavior. He predicted historians “are going to say this whole case was totally made up.”
“What you have is a coup being orchestrated by left wingers in the bureaucracy, left wingers in the news media, and left wingers in the House Democrats,” Gingrich continued whining. The guy who was gaga to impeach President Bill Clinton for lying about extramarital sex now said the Trump impeachment inquiry was “literally like the Salem witch trials.”
“This is about the right of a president of the United States to seek the truth,” Gingrich said.
Like Trump’s sudden concern about corruption, the Ukraine extortion may well be the only time the Liar-in-Chief ever cared about the truth. But again, the three lickspittles didn’t seem to notice.
Then it was Kilmeade’s turn to suggest strategy to the show's Number One Fan in the White House:
KILMEADE: The key is, which you just said, is that a lot of people think the president should be saying: This is about what happened in 2016, not 2020. I’m not going after the candidate, I’m going after the former vice president who was in charge of the Ukraine. But the president doesn’t want them to have that tactic. He said stick to the transcript and it was perfect.
So you’re saying, bring up the fact that there were problems in 2016. That’s different from the president.
Kilmeade's theory is about as believable as Gingrich’s, especially given that Trump has publicly stated he’d welcome foreign interference again – and even asked China to do so last month.
But Gingrich seemed to take Kilmeade’s remarks as a critique of his Trump loyalty. “OK, so I differ from the president,” Gingrich said, with a tad of pique. “The point is about the right of a president of the United States to seek the truth. There’s nothing in any of these transcripts where Trump is saying please make up something phony. So what’s the beef?”
Cohost Steve Doocy finally had something to say on the subject. “Right,” he agreed.
These impeachment-strategy pointers on Fox followed those from Hannity last night.
Watch the latest bogus excuse for Trump’s blatant abuse of power below, from the November 12, 2019 Fox & Friends.
UPDATE: Axios obtained a copy of the House Republicans' strategy memo and noted, "House Republicans plan to argue that 'the President's state of mind' was exculpatory."
This peaked my interest so I looked it up on NBC’s website since they broke the story:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/private-speech-bolton-suggests-some-trump-s-foreign-policy-decisions-n1080651
It appears Bolton’s comments were limited to Turkey regarding self-dealing (plus widely criticizing Trump as totally incompetent overall in foreign policy). Still, it’s hard to imagine Trump only caring about business deals in Turkey in light of him lying during his campaign that he wasn’t doing business deals with Russia.
Back to the point. Trump is corrupt, Newt. If you hadn’t trashed your political career to the stage all you have left is pitiful Trump apologetics on Fox News for whatever pittance they pay you would stop lying like a complete sycophant.
And one has to wonder – with 55% of Trump’s supporters saying nothing will cause their support to waver – if Fox News needs to even bother with whitewashing segments like Newt’s. As I pointed out, Martha indicated she could care less about Trump’s self-dealing in foreign policy.
Is that it? It that really the last ditch these desperate dicks will lay down their lives to defend? That Trump is not guilty by reason of insanity/diminished responsibility?