Trump loyalists are working hard defend the president. It isn't going well.

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.vox.com/2019/9/29/20889765/trump-whistleblower-fox-news-sunday-stephen-miller-giuliani-stephanopoulos

Stephen Miller struggles on Fox News, and other lowlights from the Sunday morning efforts to defend the president.

By Aaron Rupar @atrupar Sep 29, 2019, 1:30pm EDT

Following a week in which an abuse of power scandal about President Donald Trump’s Ukraine dealings pushed Democrats toward impeachment, and a weekend in which Trump’s dismissiveness about Russian election interference came under new scrutiny, a number of Trump loyalists joined the Sunday morning news talk shows to try and defend the president. Their efforts did not go well, and produced a number of cringeworthy moments.

In fairness, Trump defenders faced an uphill battle. The whistleblower complaint at the center of the growing Ukraine scandal about Trump trying to strongarm the Ukrainian government into investigating Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has already been corroborated in key respects by the White House. The whistleblower accused Trump of using a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “advance his personal interests” by pushing for an investigation of Biden, and a memo about the call released by the White House indicates that did in fact happen. The whistleblower also alleged that officials went to extraordinary lengths to restrict the dissemination of information about that call, and the White House has acknowledged that happened as well.

But even granting the difficulty of their task, Trump loyalists were still remarkably unequipped to make a case for their president.

Notably, White House adviser Stephen Miller was taken to task by Chris Wallace, host of Fox News Sunday. In stark contrast to the way Trump loyalists are usually treated by Wallace’s network, the Fox News Sunday host wouldn’t let Miller get away with the deflections he tried to use to twist Trump’s Ukraine scandal in one about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

“This is an exercise in obfuscation,” Wallace said at one point, after Miller repeatedly refused to answer questions about why Trump would ever think it was appropriate to use his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to push for investigations of Biden, and about why Trump went against the guidance of his own Pentagon and State Department and decided to temporarily withhold aid to the country — aid that Trump appears to have used as leverage to get the Ukrainian government to investigate Biden.

</snip>

[C_U_L8R]

1. The emperor's fresh bullshit.

People are seeing Trump for what he is. A lying-ass crook.

[vlyons]

2. The party's over

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Nothing they can say or do will ever excuse the actions of this illegal president. ...

Hands got caught in the Cookie Jar and there's nothing else to say. Impeachment is on the way and pound you all into the ground as it should. I don't feel sorry one bit as you had to know that eventually, these blatantly illegal acts would be found out.

These particular attempt by rump to enlist the aid of a foreign entity to solidify his election standings makes me wonder just what else did he promise to others (such as the Russians etc.) that is blatantly illegal? Is this why he's kept all others out of pocket while meeting w/ these people/countries?

[moondust]

4. When all you have is

comical hyperbole and finger pointing, you should probably think about joining the circus. Get on those stilts and convince everyone you're the biggest person that ever lived!

Dumpy the Clown has claimed the impeachment inquiry is the "single greatest scam in the history of American politics." Why would anyone take that seriously from a habitual liar when so many honorable military and IC veterans in Congress and countless attorneys across the land have publicly expressed their support for it?

[ffr]

5. Trumpism loyalists, like all tyrant followers are bound to fall on their swords

as their empires, their world-views come crumbling down. People, even MAGAs have a limit to how much bullshit they are willing to eat.

[underpants]

6. Great recap. So "brain trust" Miller doesn't realize he's unelected AND part of a bureaucracy?

Rec'd

Rudy's "framed by the Democrats" is a hoot.

[Demovictory9]

7. k&r

[spanone]

8. We HAVE the transcript, we HAVE the president's own words, we HAVE the whistleblowers complaint....

they all say the same thing....trump coordinated with a foreign government to influence our elections...plain & simple. C O L L U S I O N

[RainCaster]

9. And we have the POPCORN

It's time to sit back and watch the shit show.

[Stuart G]

11. Is there enough popcorn for everyone? That is the question...

[spanone]

16. Popcornucopia!

[dalton99a]

14. +1

[QED]

10. Legit news sources are finally tired of 45 loyalists' bullshit

and are at last confronting them. It's about time!

[Botany]

12. Can't defend the indefensible

In 2017 Trump told the Russian Ambassador to America and the Russian Foreign Minster
that:

1) He knew that Russia fucked w/the elections

2) He didn't care that Russia fucked w/the elections

Trump did that in the Oval Office too.

BTW the very some of the same players from 2016 were in part working in and Ukraine 2019
and some of these were the people Trump was reaching out to.

Fuck 'em.

[subana]

13. yes they are working hard to try to deny reality!

& it's likely that it will get much worse as time goes on!

The notes from the call didn't make clear what kind of assistance Ukraine would get whether or not they provided the dirt Trump wanted about Biden but I've always had doubts about that. In a recent dkos article it says:

Ukrainians understood Biden probe was condition for Trump-Zelenskiy phone call: Ukrainian adviser

by Patrick Reevell and Lucein Bruggeman, abcnews — Sep 25, 2019

When Ukrainians voted to elect comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy as their next president in the spring of 2019, the fledgling administration was eager to coordinate a phone call with Kyiv’s most important benefactor -- the United States, according to an adviser to Zelenskiy.

But after weeks of discussions with American officials, Ukrainian officials came to recognize a precondition to any executive correspondence, the adviser said.

"It was clear that [President Donald] Trump will only have communications if they will discuss the Biden case," said Serhiy Leshchenko, an anti-corruption advocate and former member of Ukraine's Parliament, who now acts as an adviser to Zelenskiy. "This issue was raised many times. I know that Ukrainian officials understood."

That Ukrainian-adviser disclosure kind of put this Trump Ask in the light, in which it was originally conveyed:

No Biden dirt, No Trump help.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/9/25/1887950/-Ukraine-Official-now-lets-it-be-known-Trump-had-his-Conditions-No-Biden-dirt-No-Trump-help

[lindysalsagal]

15. I did myself a favor and skipped it all. I painted my stairs. No regrets.

We've got another year of lies ahead of us. Missing a few won't change anything except give me a nice stairway.