They thought it might look bad
Gee, how impressive: a few Republican senators tried to talk Trump out of firing Sondland. Not Vindman, mind you, oh no no, just Sondland.
A handful of Republican senators attempted to stop President Donald Trump from firing the US Ambassador to the European Union, who was a key impeachment witness, the New York Times reported Saturday.
People briefed on the discussion told the Times that the Republican senators were concerned it would look bad for Trump to fire Gordon Sondland, and told White House officials that Sondland should be allowed to leave on his own terms.
Look bad? Pffff, how silly, he’s the president, he can do whatever he wants. He says so himself.
An adviser to Trump said the firings of the major impeachment witnesses was meant to send a message that siding against the President will not be tolerated.
We know that.
We also know that that’s not a legitimate message to send, and that the Republicans are criminally allowing this criminal pretend-president to commit crime after crime and get away with it. The firings of the major impeachment witnesses were meant to send the same message any gang murder is meant to send: leave us alone to do whatever we want or we will kill you and everyone you know in the most painful and degrading way we can think of.
Sondland’s ties to the White House and Trump had deteriorated since his impeachment testimony. Sondland once had Trump effectively on speed-dial, or the presidential equivalent of it, but since his appearance before Congress he hadn’t spoken with Trump, according to a person familiar with the situation. He was also pulled from overseeing the Ukraine portfolio, which wasn’t directly related to his position as EU ambassador.
My sympathy dial is at zero. He bought the ambassador post, he had no qualifications for it, he never should have been allowed anywhere near it, and he helped Trump and Giuliani extort Ukraine. He’s just another Trump stooge.
We’re at the mercy of a criminal for at least the next 11 months.
We’re a hamburger republic.
No, we’re in a hamberder republic.
If it wasn’t so tragic, it’d be funny.
Sorry, but IMHO the US is fucked unless you cab burn the GOP to the ground. It needs to be dissolved in a vat of acid.
Oh, in my opinion too. We’re hanging naked in the wind, with all that bullshit about checks and balances exposed as so much hot air.
They really don’t get it, do they? At this point, Trump’s base is going to expect and demand such loyalty to be punished publicly. This is exactly the sort of red meat his fans want. He’ll be joking about it at his next rally. How long before Trump incites his followers to go after his enemies in society at large?
Now perhaps some of these Senators are beginning to realize that there are people beyond Trump’s base who might find his behaviour somewhat extreme and a little bit illegal, and these Senators are now feeling some unease and discomfort at this completely predictable (and predicted) turn of events. Only now, they’re waking up to find they’re on Trump’s “It’s A Small Reich After All” ride, with no easy way off. Day late and a dollar short. It makes the days when people were claiming Obama was “a secret Muslim” or The Antichrist quaint by comparison.
The Republicans knew Trump was a vindictive, corrupt child-monster going into this mess. I can’t seriously believe that any of them would have thought he would not fire people who crossed him? Remember? “Heads on pikes” for Senators who voted against him? They hitched their wagon to a flaming gargage scow and now don’t like how their food tastes and their clothing smell? They willingly traded whatever personal integity they might have had, along with the reputation, safety and security of the country and Constitution they swore to protect, in the service of a man who desecrates any standard of behaviour or legality that stands between him and his engorged, grotesque, ego-gratification. Whatever it is they think they’ve gained in return, it can’t possibly be worth the price. If any of them had any sense of shame, decency or actual duty to country, they would have died years ago from massive, lethal embarassment. At this point anything less than public seppuku or self-immolation would be totally insincere.
America is broken, and they enthusiastically helped to break it.