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U.S. Politics: The Jeff Sessions: The Killing of a Keebler Elf


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I don't think so.  He has shown incredible loyalty to Trump, his endorsement early in the 2016 campaign was huge.  Then he gave up an his Senate seat for this job.  He has sacrificed too much for this job to just quit and make things easier for Trump.  If Trump wants him gone, he'll have to fire him. 

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14 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

I don't think so.  He has shown incredible loyalty to Trump, his endorsement early in the 2016 campaign was huge.  Then he gave up an his Senate seat for this job.  He has sacrificed too much for this job to just quit and make things easier for Trump.  If Trump wants him gone, he'll have to fire him. 

Yeah, I can buy that he probably won't step down, but I think he's done regardless.

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@Maithanet,

You're right that Sessions won't quit out of politeness and that's he got a lot to lose. My argument is that he might quit because he's in a toxic work environment with no recourse to resolve the issues other than to quit. It's also being reported that he and Trump aren't speaking to each other anymore. However, sources close to him are saying that he has no intentions to quit at the present time:

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions has no plans to leave office, as friends say he’s grown angry with President Donald Trump following a series of attacks meant to marginalize his power and, potentially, encourage his resignation.

“Sessions is totally pissed off about it,” said a Sessions ally familiar with his thinking. “It’s beyond insane. It’s cruel and it’s insane and it’s stupid.”

...........

Rather than quit, Sessions insiders predict the attorney general will call Trump’s bluff. And unlike other members of Trump’s Cabinet, he has political wiggle room to do so. Trump’s base of support—immigration restrictionists, rank-and-file law-enforcement officials, and states’ rights conservatives—were Sessions’ fans before they flocked to the president. They may very well scoff at the idea that the administration would be better off without its AG. Sessions also enjoys continued support in the Senate, where he served for a decade. On Tuesday morning, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) pushed back on Trump’s attacks and called the president’s encouragement that Sessions prosecute Hillary Clinton over her email use “highly inappropriate.”

Also, I found this bit to be funny:

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Sessions’ allies also point out that if the president wanted to get rid of Mueller, he could just get rid of Rosenstein. The fact that he hasn’t done so and is, instead, fixated on his attorney general, is treated as evidence that he’s behaving irrationally.

Really, ya think?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/jeff-sessions-is-growing-pissed-at-trump-his-allies-say-and-he-doesnt-plan-to-quit

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I'd strongly encourage everyone to listen to the 35 minute NPR podcast I'm linking below. It's an excellent insight into the Russians' motivations for having the meeting with Don Jr., and it provides a lot of information about how the Magnitsky Act affects Putin and the Russian oligarchs:

http://the1a.org/shows/2017-07-25/magnitsky-act-supporter-bill-browder-on-russia-putin-and-american-security

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I don't like Sessions one bit and yeah, he should stand tight and not fold. Let the crazy man fire him if he really has the nerve.  

Sessions should make Trump reap the backlash of firing one of his most loyal men.

What a f'in shit show. 

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Responding from the last thread, Trump forcing Sessions to quit is functionally the same as firing him. Also, it turns out there already won't be any recess appointments; Democrats have already announced they will filibuster all motions to recess, forcing McConnell to keep the senate in pro forma session. And if Trump does fire Sessions, I don't think there's anyone he can nominate for AG who would get 50 votes in the Senate.

 

On healthcare, the motion to proceed to debate was approved; in the end Collins and Murkowski were the only Republicans to vote against it, and with McCain coming back there needed to be a third. No one knows what happens now, but I continue to think that there won't be a bill that gets 50 votes. There's too many divisions among Republicans on what they want, and with Collins and Murkowski likely to vote no on all the bills Republicans can't lose a single other vote.

There is the chance that Republicans pass a bill that repeals the individual mandate and does nothing else, just so they can kick the can down the road and get to a conference with the House. But that just drags out the process even longer, further delays tax reform, and doesn't solve any of the underlying issues.

 

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That *&^%$#$ McCain did it, by the way.  The Kill Bill has been passed, thanks to his vote and thus the the tie-breaking by the Speaker.  He's being thanked fulsomely by the romeritler in his presser.  Wish to vomit now.

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12 minutes ago, Zorral said:

That *&^%$#$ McCain did it, by the way.  The Kill Bill has been passed, thanks to his vote and thus the the tie-breaking by the Speaker.  He's being thanked fulsomely by the romeritler in his presser.  Wish to vomit now.

No. The motion to debate a bill has been passed, no bill has been passed yet. And McCain did say he would not vote for the current bill, and sounded like he wouldn't vote for any bill.

Words are wind of course, its the action that matters. But McCain always votes on the initial motion to debate legislation, so he's not necessarily being a hypocrite with his rousing speech after the vote. We'll see what happens later in the week.

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The Senate is so weird and archaic.  Why is the motion to proceed with voting one way or the other is a milestone to be celebrated?  There isn't even a bill yet, nobody knows what bill (if any) will actually come up for a vote.  If Health Care Reform were your dinner, then the Senate just agreed that we should have dinner, but not what we should have, who should make it, or anything. 

Maybe I'm just hungry.

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2 hours ago, Maithanet said:

The Senate is so weird and archaic.  Why is the motion to proceed with voting one way or the other is a milestone to be celebrated?  There isn't even a bill yet, nobody knows what bill (if any) will actually come up for a vote.  If Health Care Reform were your dinner, then the Senate just agreed that we should have dinner, but not what we should have, who should make it, or anything. 

Maybe I'm just hungry.

It's a milestone because it is INSANE.

They're proceeding with debating a bill that doesn't exist in any actual form. That has had zero public hearings, markup, amendments or anything of the sort. This is so far beyond the norms of the senate that it makes McConnell ahead in the race of norm-breakers over Trump. 

To continue the analogy about dinner, it's like agreeing to dinner without knowing whether or not anyone's hungry, whether or not anyone can afford to have dinner out, any dietary restrictions or even whether or not food actually exists in any form. 

That this is not about something fairly minor but is instead about the once-per-year reconciliation that requires a CBO, Byrd rule buyoff and also happens to affect 1/6th of the US economy is kind of even more insane. 

And 50 Republicans decided 'yeah, I'm cool with moving onto debate something that doesn't exist'. 

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As to the @dmc515 argument from the prior thread about whether or not firing Sessions/Mueller would be a line in the sand - I side with the others. The next time that Republicans stand up to Trump will be the first time. They've said repeatedly how disturbing things are, how they're troubled, and occasionally say that he's wrong - but they continue to vote with him and have taken precisely zero steps against him. They're openly campaigning with him and caring about him. I get that they're saying that Sessions being fired would be bad, but the real issue is that they have no leverage unless they work together - and there is little sign of them working together against Trump. 

And it still remains the case that a volatile, shitty Trump that rubber stamps their bullshit is still a stronger play than them distancing themselves from him or openly opposing him. They saw what happened to Ryan's numbers when Ryan spoke out. They saw what happened to McCain's numbers. There are a few that are in safe enough spots that can do so without too much fear, but they also happen to be pretty happy with Trump's policies. 

I think Sessions is gone, Mueller will be gone soon, and Republican congresspeople will do fuck all. My prediction is not based on their public statements of outrage but instead is based on pragmatism and their continued desire to keep their jobs and toe the party line as well as the continued history of them doing nothing at all. 

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3 hours ago, Fez said:

Words are wind of course, its the action that matters. But McCain always votes on the initial motion to debate legislation, so he's not necessarily being a hypocrite with his rousing speech after the vote. We'll see what happens later in the week.

McCain has consistently been a hypocrite over the last two decades -- plenty of talk and zero action aside from being a stalwart GOP voter. The only Trump appointment that he voted against was Mulvaney because he had the gall to suggest reducing military spending.

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2 hours ago, Maithanet said:

The Senate is so weird and archaic.  Why is the motion to proceed with voting one way or the other is a milestone to be celebrated?  There isn't even a bill yet, nobody knows what bill (if any) will actually come up for a vote.  If Health Care Reform were your dinner, then the Senate just agreed that we should have dinner, but not what we should have, who should make it, or anything. 

Maybe I'm just hungry.

Its true. This is the first time I can really think of where the motion to proceed to debate was a big deal. Back in 2013, the Senate even agreed on an overwhelming vote to the eliminate the filibuster on those votes, precisely because it was a freebie for McConnell to give away to Reid. The key point of the filibuster has always been on the motion to end debate and move to the vote, which is still strongly place (just not available for reconciliation, like here). The motion to proceed to debate has always been meaningless, and the fact that Republicans had to sweat it out here shows just how divided they are on health care.

Or at least how divided around 12 of them are, there's around 40 that okay with voting for absolutely any health care bill that McConnell asks them to vote for.

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5 hours ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

I know @Myshkin rarely posts in this thread these days, but I think he's appreciate this one...

 

Have you seen our sick dance moves, bro? We'll easily raise enough dough to save the youth center. 

 

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The problem with "skinny repeal" and repealing the individual mandate is that they'd then have to own what happens to the marketplaces and they really hate personal responsibility. And that assumes it doesn't violate reconiliation rules.

This whole zombie RyanTrumpcare thing is really ruining my summer. With this and death of the AG by a thousand tweets, it really does feel like we've at one of the near future dystopias we have long been promised. Bush was just the prologue.

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But the one thing that frustrates me most about the popular conception of Senator McConnell, which has been crafted and repeated and tenderly used by the broader pundit and journalistic community, is that he is a man of the Senate and cares about the Senate and is concerned about procedures. The notion that that has ever been true is highly questionable, and the notion it has been true over the last decade is farcical. This is a guy who blew up the Senate in the Obama years and did more to blow up the norms than any three or five majority leaders before him put together. And now he has moved to blow up even more.

INTERROGATION
INTERVIEWS WITH A POINT.

What the Hell Has Happened to the Senate?

The bizarre process we just witnessed is the culmination of tribalism, the continued degradation of norms, and Mitch McConnell.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2017/07/what_republicans_have_done_to_the_senate.html

 

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