Last Chance<\/p>\n
Yesterday Michael Cohen, former personal attorney to Donald Trump, pled guilty to eight charges in federal court.\u00a0 He is facing several years in prison.\u00a0 Six of the counts involved his personal actions: failing to pay income taxes and giving false information to attain loans from banks.\u00a0 But the last two counts are the ones that involve more than just him.<\/p>\n
Cohen admitted to making \u00a0two counts of illegal campaign contributions, one for making an illegal corporate contribution, and one for exceeding the personal contribution limits.\u00a0In the elocution phase of the plea, when Cohen admitted to the crimes and outlined his actions, he stated that he was told to make payments to silence two women, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, by then candidate Donald J. Trump.<\/p>\n
In open court, the President was accused of committing a felony.\u00a0 He was accused of influencing the 2016 election by paying hush money.\u00a0 He was accused of overseeing elaborate financial arrangements to hide the transactions.\u00a0 And we know that much of this is true, as Cohen taped his conversations with him.<\/p>\n
Had these two \u201caffairs\u201d come to light, they may well have altered the outcome of an election that hinged on 77,744 votes (out of over 120 million.)<\/p>\n
No, this isn\u2019t the \u201cRussia\u201d investigation.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t even the Mueller team, it\u2019s just the regular US attorneys from the Southern District of New York.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t some fancy, spy-laden story of\u00a0 \u201ccollusion\u201d or conspiracy. That\u2019s all still to come.\u00a0 This is just straight-up corruption: \u00a0paying people to keep quiet about unacceptable behavior, and using campaign funds to do it.<\/p>\n
The Republican Party is faced with another inflection point, another choice to be made.\u00a0 The first chance was when it became clear that Trump\u2019s candidacy was real, and effective.\u00a0 Republicans could have coalesced around another candidate, making a true one-on-one competition where Trump\u2019s 40% of the vote wasn\u2019t dominant.\u00a0They didn\u2019t do it, allowing the vote to remain split until far too late in the process.<\/p>\n
The second chance was between the end of the primaries and the Republican convention.\u00a0 The party leaders could have chosen to back a traditional candidate, perhaps Ohio Governor John Kasich, and risk a split convention and Trump as an independent.\u00a0 It probably would have cost the general election, a three-way race, and the outcome would have been a Clinton win.\u00a0 But it would have kept the core values of the party intact.<\/p>\n
The third chance was October 6th\u00a0<\/sup>2016, the day the \u201cAccess Hollywood Tape\u201d broke.\u00a0 Trump used vulgar and profane terms, and more importantly, made it clear he treated women as objects for his own sexual gratification.\u00a0 The party clearly thought about it; about removing Trump from the ticket and replacing him with Pence or someone else.\u00a0 Again, it probably would have thrown the election to Clinton.\u00a0 But at that point the leadership of the GOP chose to accept Trump\u2019s behavior.\u00a0 They did not turn away from him; they actually watched the polls, and decided to stay \u201con board.\u201d\u00a0 And soon the carefully worded statements about \u201chaving wives and daughters\u201d didn\u2019t matter, the party rallied behind Trump, and, through \u201chook or Russian crook,\u201d he became President of the United States.<\/p>\n We can argue about the Affordable Care Act, or the Tax Cut Cut, or the Supreme Court nominees.\u00a0 We can talk about the deregulation of environmental protections, and national conservation.\u00a0 We can discuss immigration policy.<\/p>\n But what cannot be argued anymore is that the President of the United States is an immoral man, who will do anything to get what he wants.\u00a0 He degrades women, and minorities, and has shown his admiration for authoritarians.\u00a0 Expect him to continue to use the powers of his office to try to silence critics and investigators.<\/p>\n What comes next?\u00a0 We can anticipate that the Mueller investigation will have more indictments for those close to the President.\u00a0 We can expect that, while Mueller won\u2019t indict the President himself, he will make it clear that he was involved, just a Cohen made it clear yesterday.\u00a0 We can expect the President to fight back, with more firings, pardons, removal of security clearances, and suppression of the investigations.<\/p>\n The Republican Party has not just stood silent; they have actively defended and supported the President.\u00a0The Republican House of Representatives has served as the strongest bastion of Presidential support.\u00a0 The Senate Republicans, with a few retiring exceptions, have at best remained silent.<\/p>\n The last chance to save their party is approaching. \u00a0They have made the choice to stand with Trump and \u201cMake America Great Again,\u201d time and time again.\u00a0 They have placed an immoral man in the Presidency, one who has no concept of American history or tradition, one who may well be using the Presidency for his own financial gain, and one who illegally conspired to achieve office.\u00a0 History will judge what they did, and what they do now: \u00a0Last Chance.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"