“For years, [Manchin] has been casually voting for bloated defense budgets many times the size of the Biden agenda. His squalling about overspending is dishonest nonsense, and he is utterly wrong about what America can afford.”
theweek.com/democrats/1005… “So on one level, all this operatic moaning about $3.5 trillion is ridiculous hypocrisy. Manchin has casually voted for nearly three times that for defense spending — money that killed hundreds of thousands of people and turned half the Middle East into a smoking crater.”

“If there has been a consistent thread in the erratic administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, it is the marriage of white nationalism with plutocracy.”
foreignpolicy.com/2020/08/20/dem… “His populist political trick—from that first speech after descending the escalator... has been to blame Black and brown people for the economic and social dislocations that were, in fact, the product of Reaganite economic policies and the costs of a misbegotten war.”

“Again and again, the story that emerged is of a president who ignored increasingly urgent intelligence warnings from January, dismisses anyone who claims to know more than him and trusts no one outside a tiny coterie, led by [Ivanka and Jared]...”
ft.com/content/97dc7d… “Jared [Kushner] had been arguing that testing too many people, or ordering too many ventilators, would spook the markets and so we just shouldn’t do it... That advice worked far more powerfully on him than what the scientists were saying. He thinks they always exaggerate.”

CNN isn’t having any of it today. So here’s to you CNN chryon guy.

Sen. Graham: “Abuse of power is so poorly defined here, I don't know how presidents in the future can conform their conduct. It’s the first impeachment in history where there’s no allegation of a crime by the president.” Chris Wallace: “...you say there is no need to hear from witnesses in this trial, but, sir, that directly contradicts what you said as a Republican House impeachment manager in 1999 during the Clinton impeachment trial.”

Schiff: “...that’s the argument I suppose you have to make if the facts are so dead set against you, if the pres. has admitted to the wrongdoing, his chief of staff has confessed to the wrongdoing, his [E.U.] amb. has confessed to the same quid pro quo...” “...you have to rely on an argument that even if he abused his office in this horrendous way, that it’s not impeachable, you had to go so far out of the mainstream... to leave the realm of constitutional law scholars and go to criminal defense lawyers.”

Pelosi: “When crafting the Constitution, the founders feared the return of a monarchy in America.” “The facts are uncontested: the president abused his power for his own personal political benefit at the expense of our national security.”

Nadler: “Did you totally exonerate the President?”
Mueller: “No.” Nadler: “Did the President refuse to be interviewed by you and your team?”
Mueller: “Yes.”

Remember when then Senator Ben Nelson got $100M in Medicaid funding for Nebraska in exchange for his ACA vote? And the GOP went nuts? “Republicans also slammed the Nebraska deal, saying it was an example of Reid's secretive, backroom negotiation style that violated President Obama's call for transparency during the healthcare debate.”