Thread by @sarahposner

1. I just watched the video of Giuliani from last night.

talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/here-we…

Beyond the obvious madness (or not madness? more on that below) there's a strategy worth paying attention to.

2. Giuliani is hinting, or possibly saying aloud, hard to tell amid all the yelling, something that underlies other defenses of Trump with regard to the intelligence whistleblower: that Trump was just conducting normal foreign policy, and he's allowed to because he's POTUS.

3. Giuliani says it at one point with Cuomo: that it's ok for US government to withhold aid from a country if it's not living up to rule of law, civil society, democratic norms. He says it's well within Trump's lane to push Ukraine to fight corruption.

4. In theory, of course, this is true; but Trump's regime--notably with the help and/or acquiescence of the GOP--has completely undermined the official US channels for accomplishing this, and has propped up other regimes who have eviscerated these norms.

newrepublic.com/article/153276…

5. So Giuliani says, essentially, what would be wrong with Trump pressuring Ukraine to fight corruption within its own borders?

In theory, nothing. In reality, what Giuliani is talking about is not what he wants you to think it is.

6. By Giuliani's own admission, this is about the Bidens--i.e., Trump is trying to use this pressure of withholding the Ukrainian aid to get Ukraine to help him gather dirt on/damage his potential political adversary.

Sound familiar??

7. But I really want to zero in on an additional nefarious strategy by Giuliani--which is easy to lose because of the performative aspects of last night's interview with Cuomo, the eye-blinking, the yelling, the hostility.

8. And that is how he is trying to make this seem like normal presidential/diplomatic pressure on a country to adhere to democratic/civil society/rule of law norms.

It is not.

9. It is not because Trump's motives are his own political gain (or his political adversary's loss).

It is not because Trump not only does not care about other countries cleaning up political corruption, he has actively supported corrupt and even murderous regimes.

10. It is not because Trump has eviscerated the structure for promoting democracy/civil society/rule of law/anti-corruption abroad (an evisceration the GOP shares responsibility for).

11. And it is not because Trump has engaged in his own, unprecedented political corruption and evisceration of the rule of law--this entire spectacle being just one example of it.

12. If you think Giuliani was just being unhinged/senile/crazy last night, think again. The right loved his performance. And part of his performance was creating the false impression that Trump was merely engaging in the normal foreign policy of a US president.

13. The word "normalization" is used a lot--this is what it looks like, if you let it.

/fin