Profile picture
Teri Kanefield
@Teri_Kanefield
, 11 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
(Thread) @LindseyGrahamSC's Absurd Argument
Graham says that the checks Trump signed reimbursing Cohen for hush money shows that Trump didn’t think he was doing anything wrong because “People don’t write checks” if they think it’s a crime.
1/ Graham’s rationalization overlooks a few facts:

💠Trump is not afraid to openly and brazenly break the law (and lie) in plain sight.

💠Trump carefully structured the transaction to hide the purpose of the payment, which is what we call consciousness of guilt.
2/

💠Given what is emerging about TrumpRussia, writing that check to Cohen was really the least of Trump’s lawbreaking. See: russia-investigation-summary.com/crimes/

💠As of February 2017, when Cohen met Trump in the oval office and Trump reassured him that his payments were coming. . .
3/ . . . Trump believed he’d get away with everything.

Why did he think he’d get away with it?

He’d just won an election which put him at the head of the executive branch (DOJ, FBI, etc).
4/ Shutting down any investigations must have seemed entirely doable.

In fact, he acted as if he’d easily shut down the investigations—which of course means getting away with everything.

Take his Feb. 2017 meeting with Comey.
latimes.com/politics/washi…
5/ Two things happened in Feb. 2017: Trump, in the oval office, assured Cohen he'd get paid.
Also that was the month he met with Comey and said “I hope you can see your way . . . to letting Flynn go.”
IOW, he thought shutting it all down would be easy.
latimes.com/politics/washi…
6/ When shutting down the investigation wasn’t so easy, Trump began obstructing the probe in plain sight.

In fact, he openly vowed to “fight back” against the Mueller probe (the legal term of course is obstructing justice—and it is a crime)
politico.com/story/2018/04/…
7/ This is not a man worried about getting caught or facing consequences.

Cohen told the committee on Wednesday that Trump was not joking when he said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.

c-span.org/video/?458125-…
8/ If Trump thought he could get away with shooting a person on Fifth Avenue, silly for Graham to suggest that he wouldn’t have written a check if he knew it was illegal.
9/ Adding:

I don't believe Lindsey Graham expects anyone to actually believe his arguments👇

He knows they're absurd and so do the more intelligent members of the Trump-Fox-GOP.

Part of a right wing authoritarian uprising is this: "I say absurd things and you believe them."
People are making so many good comments, I wish I could add them all to the thread itself, like this one:
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to Teri Kanefield
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Teri_Kanefield see all

Profile picture
Teri Kanefield
@Teri_Kanefield
(Thread) Weekly Roundup

Here are this weeks threads, if you missed any.

#1 The Manafort Memo and Iron Triangles, or, a better title:
Looking for Collusion in all the Wrong Places
#2 In his testimony before Congress on Wednesday, Cohen offers illustrations as to how the Trump Leadership Cult operates

#3. Before Cohen’s hearing, I posted a thread on Twitter outlining possible crimes in which Cohen implicated Trump in his written statement.
Here is an updated account after the hearing.
terikanefield-blog.com/crimes-suggest…
Read 5 tweets
Profile picture
Teri Kanefield
@Teri_Kanefield
(Thread)

I am going to answer this question because I believe it is sincere, and because I think the question goes to the heart of the problem.

By problem I mean this: How it was that “her emails” sank so deeply into the public consciousness . . .
1/ . . . that a large percentage of the population—even those who knew that no crime was involved—came to feel a nagging doubt.

At the same time, multiple federal felonies for which there is overwhelming evidence can slide under the radar.
2/ This is because a simple lie is easier to spread than a complex truth, and crimes involving fraud and deception are always a bit complicated.

The hush payment felonies are a relatively simple crimes compared, say to the TrumpRussia conspiracy.
Read 9 tweets
Profile picture
Teri Kanefield
@Teri_Kanefield
(Thread) Michael Cohen, the GOP, and the Cult of Leadership

Michael Cohen, in his riveting testimony Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight, illustrated how Trump’s Cult of Leadership operates.

The classic definition of a leadership cult comes from Robert O. Paxton👇
1/ In a leadership cult the followers look for a strong authority (always male) culminating in a national chieftain who alone is capable of incarnating the group’s historical destiny.

This is what Trump was getting at when he said, “I alone can fix it”
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
2/ Lies are an integral part of a leadership cult.

The leader’s utterances don’t have to be factually true—as long as they advance the group’s agenda.

The agenda always includes consolidating power. Truth is “whatever permits” the Leader to dominate others.
Read 21 tweets

Related threads

Profile picture
John Stoehr's Editorial Board
@johnastoehr
1. I didn’t watch the entire time Michael Cohen testified before the House Oversight Committee, but I watched a lot of it. Here are some initial thoughts.
2. First, the Republicans did not rebut anything Cohen said. House Republicans instead did whatever they could to discredit, demean, and smear the president’s former attorney. This is not unexpected or unreasonable.
3. GOP legislators have incentive to protect Donald Trump. Cohen is a liar, and whatever he says must be vetted according to the facts as we have them. What’s shocking, however, is that none of them—and I mean not one—disputed the merits of Cohen’s long and remarkable testimony.
Read 30 tweets
Profile picture
NotMyPresident
@ironstowe
THREAD

#Cohen Opening Statement
1.This is #MichaelCohen´s opening statement

politico.com/f/?id=00000169 …

#MichaelCohenTestimony
2.Chairman @RepCummings, Ranking Member @Jim_Jordan , and Members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me here today. I have asked this Committee to ensure that my family be protected from Presidential threats

#MichaelCohenTestimony
Read 98 tweets
Profile picture
✡️ Josh Shahryar ☪️
@JShahryar
This tweet is so accurate that I want to retweet it and share a painful story that pertains to this. #ConvingtonBoys

TW: bullying, ableism
From when I was about 6 to when I was about 14, we lived in a neighborhood with lots of other families in close proximity. Most of the families had kids who ranged in age to a few years younger than me or a few years older. We played together a lot. (This is 1990s Pakistan).
Over time, we turned into a sort of band of brothers if you will. We hung out together a lot, some of us went to school together, we played sports together, and basically, spent most of our free time in each other's company. We were "normal" by any standards.
Read 30 tweets
Profile picture
NotMyPresident
@ironstowe
THREAD

#Trump #BorderWall #Congress #ImpoundmentAct
1. In the last spending bill #Congress didn’t give #Trump money for his border wall #Mexico will never pay for it
He has since been asking his administration to use #DOD funds and other to fund it.

#Trump #BorderWall #Congress #ImpoundmentAct
2.#Trump has spoken at length during the year with outgoing Sec of Defense #Mattis using #DOD money for the #Wall
#Trump said that #Pentagon was getting 700 million some of it could be used for the wall.

#Trump #BorderWall #Congress #ImpoundmentAct
Read 14 tweets
Profile picture
NotMyPresident
@ironstowe
#THREAD

#Trump #Russia #SovietUnion #Treason
1. In 1987 it is believed that #Trump was recruited by #SovietUnion, specifically recruited by Kryuchkov head of First Chief Directorate, a division within the #KGB who's primary responsibility was to gather foreign intelligence

#Trump #Russia #SovietUnion #Treason
2.Both Kryuchkov and #Gorbachev faced #Reagan as #President, and he was in the #SovietUnion´s eyes regarded as a very strong leader, the opposite of #Carter of #Ford, when dealing with them.

#Trump #Russia #SovietUnion #Treason
Read 47 tweets
Profile picture
Alec Muffett
@AlecMuffett
Cross-referencing @mjranum's recent post about using Google Maps to identify CIA "Black" sites in Djibouti, with the #Strava heat-map, appears to offer corroboration freethoughtblogs.com/stderr/2018/01…
Also there are more drones on the (but older?) DigitalGlobe/Mapbox imagery (Strava) imagery of Chabelly airport, than the (more recent?) equivalent GoogleMaps: google.com/maps/place/11%…
Seems like this is the exercise ground:
Read 33 tweets

Trending hashtags

#Christian #battle #PAMFAM #LVS #Kushner #transphobic #NeverForget #SaudiLobby #news #Khashoggy #Vietnam #TrumpLies #TrumpRacist #million #PrimeMinister #VoteLeaveBrokeTheLaw #VoteThemOut #Maddow #Scaramucci #NewYork #SuudiBaharı #Kashoggi #MAGA #USA #Therapy
Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!