Trump's Fall: The End Game

[babylonsister]

http://prospect.org/article/trumps-fall-end-game

Trump's Fall: The End Game
Robert Kuttner
August 22, 2018
This was the week when history finally began to turn. And it’s just the beginning.

snip//


Trump’s final fall could occur in a matter of weeks, or it could slop over into 2019.

I have been writing and saying for several months that Trump will not be the Republican nominee in 2020 because his presidency will end long before his scheduled term. Many of my colleagues, friends, and readers have skeptically indulged my naïve optimism. But that fate is now inevitable.

The end game could unfold in one of two ways. Democrats could take back the House, begin an impeachment, pile up overwhelming evidence of impeachable offenses, and put intolerable political pressure on Republican senators to vote to convict.

More likely, it seems to me, is that when the next round of Mueller’s findings of collusion with the Russians, longstanding business fraud, and obstruction of justice comes out, senior Republicans will decide that enough is enough and that it’s time to cut their losses.

Leaders will broker a deal in which Trump resigns in exchange for himself and members of his family being spared criminal conviction. Trump will take the deal. In the same way that the Nixon end game came abruptly when Republicans concluded that they could no longer defend him, Trump’s will come abruptly, too.

Looking back on the Republican affair with Trump, one appreciates the old saw that there is no honor among thieves. Trump ran for president as an anti-party figure, trashing Republicans one and all. Their expedient tolerance for his antics extended only as long as he was useful to them. Trump is no longer useful; he has become a liability, and there is little personal loyalty to him.

This was the week when history finally began to turn. Future historians will wonder why it took so long.

[Raven]

1. I'd love to believe this but I'm not so sure...nobody

is dead in the middle of 5th Avenue yet.

[Ponietz]

2. Nope, we can't allow traitors to walk away this time

They must be held accountable under the law. I still believe we are in this mess, in part, because Confederate traitors were not held to account after the Civil War. This ideology must be discredited and extinguished.

[PatSeg]

6. I agree

I look back and see all the corrupt public servants who walked away with a slap on the wrist, if that. The lack of accountability over the years has brought us to this point.

Public servants who violate the trust of the people, should pay a higher price than the average person. Consequences should be severe and unwavering. We have seen that if treated with leniency, they keep coming back to cause more damage and it only encourages others to commit crimes against the American people and democracy. Who went to jail during the Bush years? So much for "moving forward".

The Civil War was an excellent example. Look at what a difference accountability made in Germany after World War II. Federal troops should have stayed in the south for many years and there would have been no damn statues to traitors.

[shanny]

3. I think this is the most likely:

"Leaders will broker a deal in which Trump resigns in exchange for himself and members of his family being spared criminal conviction."

Or it would be if tRump had sufficient awareness and grasp of the situation. When it takes Angela Merkel telling him 11 timesthat he can't make a trade deal with Germany alone before he gets it....(and who knows if that stuck anyway).

That said, worst possible outcome would be to let tRump, family, GOP et alduck the consequences in favor of "ending our long national nightmare." Look how well that worked last time.

[Scurrilous]

4. K&R

[global1]

5. If Trump Were Offered A Deal To Save Himself & His Family.....

he will not just slink into obscurity. He will be vocal and raise all kinds of 'holy hell' just because he's Trump.

No deals for Trump. I want to make sure he learned his lesson. He should be jailed along with most of his criminal family. They should lose the Trump business and be rendered penniless.

Otherwise - Trump will continue in his trouble making and lying ways.

[central scrutinizer]

7. Drumpf and Putin could

Roast puppies and kittens on a stick over a burning copy of the Constitution in the middle of Fifth Avenue and his supporters would still stick with him because he has them terrified of brown people taking away their white privilege.

[Squinch]

8. I give him till March of 19.

[D23MIURG23]

9. GOP congress people are too afraid of "the base"

They are too spineless to risk losing elections, even if it means allowing a russian plant to undermine our institutions. Trump is still useful to them as long as he can play pied piper and keep the crazies in line. We need to defeat them in two months or impeachment will never be on the table, no matter how much evidence there is of corruption and treason.

Trump needs to be convicted in the senate to be removed. He will not accept a deal - he would most likely pre-emptively pardon himself and tell congress that he doesn't need their deal. In his mind the fact that he is president makes him above the law and beyond reproach. He's even suggested he could run the Mueller investigation if he wanted. He seems to think he is being magnanimous by "allowing" himself to be investigated at all.

[DetlefK]

10. Trump will only resign if he believes that it counts as some sort of victory.