Trump's plan to make Biden into Clinton

[brooklynite]

President Trump is reviving his 2016 playbook, trying to sully or smear the Biden family reputation, like he did with the Clintons during his last campaign.

The big picture: When Trump was running against Hillary Clinton, he seized on her email servers and past scandals. He hammered her on the issue, and used it to define her with many voters. Clinton couldn't put it to rest early, and it dragged her down through the end.

Axios

Now, Trump wants to use questions about Hunter Biden's work in Ukraine, and any alleged involvement by his father, Joe Biden, as the 2020 sequel to the email servers. In both cases, he twists reality to make it seem like everyone’s dirty.

Once again, Trump is trying to paint his opponent as shady, hoping it will be an early, definitional wound.

Here's Trump's six-part playbook to make Ukraine 2016's sequel:
- Argue that your opponent is guilty of something as bad or worse than the accusations against you.
- Create constant fog, amplified by Twitter. Allege the media is guilty, too.
- Convince party leaders and Fox News to fall instantly in line, focused solely on your opponent's supposed transgressions.
- Demand documents and testimony, fostering an "everyone's dirty and hiding something" atmosphere.
- Stymie anyone on your side who's thinking of dissenting by torching them on Twitter, like he did to Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).
- Bet that your own standing, while getting no better, gets no worse.

What's next: Biden, learning the lessons of 2016, seems determined not to let Trump pin him into a corner.
- He put out a statement saying Congress should do its thing, and he will focus on campaigning. He tried to go after Trump on health care, to shift back to a policy argument.
- Biden said last night on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!": "It's such a blatant abuse of power that I don't think it can stand. Based on the material that they acknowledged today, it seems to me it's awfully hard to avoid the conclusion that it is an impeachable offense and a violation of constitutional responsibility."

[still_one]

1. What will be revealing will be who those on the far left side with

[Demsrule86]

3. Any that do that are dead to me now and in the future. You side with the GOP,

you are the GOP

[still_one]

5. I agree

[Demsrule86]

15. The old we stand together or we will hang separately...metaphorically speaking.

Although Trump has fascist leanings and is perfectly capable of jailing and/or executing his political enemies. He is trying to prosecute McCabe and Comey as we speak.

[blue-wave]

12. Spot on!!

And for me I will add if you help divide the Democratic Party you are dead to me now and in the future.

[Demsrule86]

14. Exactly right...Hillary was attacked by those supposedly on our side...and that is why she lost the

EC...if she in fact did lose...close elections are easy to steal.

[oldsoftie]

2. Bu I think he would do this regardless of WHO the nominee is. He STILL talks about HRC

And the election has been over for almost 3 yrs

[BlueMississippi]

4. Unfortunately, the extreme left gives Trump the ammunition

by making ridiculous claims against Biden. It all comes from operatives of one candidate in particular.

[DownriverDem]

8. Sadly

yes. It's like they don't understand how politics work. It's like they only want their "like" and don't care about the Dems winning. I don't understand where they are coming from.

[DownriverDem]

6. Exactly why

left leaners need to not let trump do it.

[Gothmog]

7. Boom

Link to tweet

[treestar]

9. The Clintons did have a lot of baggage

So far nothing the equivalent of the emails seems to be there. The emails were a mistake. I think it may be a lot harder in this case.

[onetexan]

11. it's not the baggage. Remember Dumpster enlisted foreign help him cheat to win. He is a fraud, not a

real POTUS. Hillary should have been the rightful president. Otherwise we will not be in the dire straits we are now.

[highplainsdem]

10. Democrats, and honest people in the media, either stop this NOW and rebut it every time it's brought

up, or it's guaranteed Trump will do something similar to any other Democrat he feels threatens his re-election.

[peggysue2]

13. You're exactly right

This isn't simply an attack against Joe Biden. It's an attack against all Democrats, particularly those running for 2020.

An attack on one is an attack on all, period. We need a united front to fight this barrage of propaganda and lies.

Or we all lose.

[Gothmog]

16. Former Ukraine prosecutor says Hunter Biden "did not violate anything"

Link to tweet

A former top Ukrainian prosecutor, whose allegations were at the heart of the dirt-digging effort by Rudolph W. Giuliani, said Thursday he believed that Hunter Biden did not run afoul of any laws in Ukraine.

“From the perspective of Ukrainian legislation, he did not violate anything,” former Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuri Lutsenko told The Washington Post in his first interview since the disclosure of a whistleblower complaint alleging pressure by President Trump on Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelensky.

Lutsenko’s comments about Hunter Biden — which echo what he told Bloomberg News in May — were significant, because Trump and his personal attorney Giuliani have sought to stir up suspicions about both Hunter and former vice president Joe Biden’s conduct in Ukraine in recent weeks. Joe Biden is leading Trump in many opinion polls ahead of the 2020 election.

Hunter Biden has denied any wrongdoing, and there is no evidence he was involved in any lawbreaking in his work in Ukraine with the country’s largest private gas company.