Trump is cornered, and his 'civil war' threat stinks of panic

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/09/30/trump-is-cornered-his-civil-war-threat-stinks-panic/

By Greg Sargent Opinion writer

September 30, 2019 at 10:12 a.m. EDT

President Trump has now approvingly quoted a top supporter raising the prospect of “civil war." He accused unnamed national security officials in his own government of “spying” on him. He just called for a top Democrat in Congress to be arrested for “treason.”

And that was all in the last 24 hours.

All of this has many observers warning that Trump is lurching in an increasingly authoritarian direction, as the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry ratchets up.

But all of this is better seen as an expression of deep panic and self-incrimination -- not just because the latest revelations have Trump on the defensive, but also because of meaningful shift in the power dynamics shaping the standoff between the White House and Democrats.

There’s been a very fundamental change in the way House Democrats are going about holding Trump accountable: They’re no longer in the position of demanding cooperation from the White House and then waiting for a court to compel it.

Instead, Democrats now can threaten immediate consequences for the failure to comply: Impeachment for that very act of stonewalling.

This pattern, and the force of this new dynamic, become clear when you pull together multiple new statements from Democrats. On ABC News, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said that if the White House doesn’t meet its demands as part of their impeachment inquiry, “they will be strengthening the case for an article of impeachment based on obstruction of the lawful functions of Congress.”

Schiff issued a similar warning on NBC News. And Democrats on three committees just subpoenaed the State Department for a raft of documents designed to shed more light on Trump’s pressure on the Ukrainian president. They added the pointed warning that failure to comply “shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House’s impeachment inquiry.”

This came with a hard deadline of one week. And this fundamentally upends the dynamic that held sway for months.

</snip>

Trapped like the rat he is...

[malaise]

1. Don the Con is a clueless cornered rat

The vast majority of Americans and citizens of the planet detest his fucking fat ass.
He will learn.

[Mike 03]

2. Excellent:

There’s been a very fundamental change in the way House Democrats are going about holding Trump accountable: They’re no longer in the position of demanding cooperation from the White House and then waiting for a court to compel it.

Instead, Democrats now can threaten immediate consequences for the failure to comply: Impeachment for that very act of stonewalling.

[RAB910]

3. It also stinks of sedition