A Judge Really Had To Remind Trump That 'Presidents Are Not Kings'

It’s Thanksgiving week, and someone’s getting pardoned for sure: Bread and Butter, a pair of turkeys. President Donald Trump’s fate? That’s still up airborne, as an impeachment hearing officially looms over his meal. Tasty!


To catch you up:


While in a July 25 phone call, President Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up dirt on his potential political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden. Rumor has it that he dangled $400 million in aid to Ukraine along with a personalized meeting between the two leaders as leverage. This all led to a whistleblower complaint and an attempt by Democrats to impeach the president.


Countless White Residence staffers resigned; and Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, two associates of Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personalized lawyer who worked to dig up dirt on the Bidens, tried to leave the nation and were consequently arrested. Impeachment proceedings began in private, however didn’t stay that way for long: A bipartisan committee heard public testimony from witnesses including Ambassador Bill Taylor, the best diplomat in Ukraine; Fiona Hill, Trump’s top Russia advisor; Gordon Sondland, the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union; Laura Cooper, the Pentagon’s top Russia and Ukraine official; and more.


We’ve seen dogs, we’ve seen drag queens, and we’ve heard about Kim Kardashian and A$AP Rocky. If we’ve done our jobs right, you’ll have the ability to explain all of this and more to any great-aunt twice-removed who asks while each person else digs into their mashed potatoes. And if no one asks? You could dish it out anyway.


So what happened this (short) week?


Over the weekend (November 23 and 24):


We noticed out that Mick Mulvaney, the acting White Home Chief of Personnel, got a little bit spooked right after Trump’s now-infamous July 25 call with Ukraine. According to a New York Times report from November 24, he asked officials in the financial range office, where he used to work, if there was any categorize kind of legal reason the U.S. Should be withholding military aid.


Two separate news releases also showed that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo played a bigger role in this scandal than we previously thought, according to the Times. And Representative Devin Nunes, the best Republican on the Intelligence Committee, is also further embroiled in the full disaster, CNN reported.


Remember Lev Parnas? Well, his lawyer mentioned that he’s down to tell Congress that Nunes met with a former Ukrainian prosecutor in Vienna last year to talk about digging up dirt on Biden, according to CNN. Nunes mentioned this is “demonstrably false,” according to the Washington Post, and, since the hearings are closed, it’s unclear if Schiff would even open them back up to hear from Parnas. Nevertheless if he does, it might put Nunes in a little bit of a pickle — even if it is a Congressman’s word against that of a guy who attempted to flee the nation weeks ago.


And things got even more interesting with the President’s personalized lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who isn't an official White Residence employee however is still deeply entangled in the disaster. He told Fox News that he has insurance if Trump betrays him, because we right now apparently reside in some weird fan-fic based on The Godfather. “You can assume that I talk with him early and often and have a very, very good relationship with him, and all these comments — which are completely insulting — I mean, I've seen things written like he's going to throw me under the bus. As soon as they mention that, I mention, ‘He isn't, nevertheless I have insurance,’” Guiliani mentioned. He later tweeted that he was kidding.


Monday (November 25)


A federal judge ruled that Don McGahn, the former White Home counsel, will indeed have to testify, according to the Times. In the judges ruling, he wrote: “Stated simply, the primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not kings.” McGahn is just one of the witnesses the White Residence has blocked from cooperating with the inquiry, so this may have broader repercussions for those folks – like former National Security Adviser John Bolton.


We also noticed out that the president doesn’t seem to be backing down from supporting the former mayor of New York City, Giuliani. “Rudy is an excellent crime fighter, corruption fighter,” Trump said throughout an event with the Bulgarian Prime Minister. “Probably the perfect in 50 years. As soon as he was here, well any time as soon as he was at the U.S. Attorney in [the] Southern District, he was phenomenal. Rudy is an excellent person. And I think that perhaps the press isn’t treating Rudy very well, and I think that's unfair. Nevertheless Rudy was fantastic mayor as well as an excellent crime fighter.” And here I thought the Batman reboots couldn’t get any weirder.


Meanwhile, Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the Home Intelligence Committee, mentioned on Monday that they’ll have more data “soon” right after Thanksgiving, according to the Times. Nevertheless soon is relative, and if Schiff is anything like I am with deadlines, @we could may not desire to get our hopes up. [Editor’s note: She’s excellent with deadlines. Really.]


Right after Schiff delivers his report on the inquiry, he’ll be handing the reins off to the Judiciary Committee. Then, the Judiciary Committee will probably announce public impeachment hearings and will start drafting and debating the different impeachment articles proposed by Schiff. Eventually, Republican employees members will also put out a “minority views” report. This all happens before the Home takes an official vote.


Tuesday (November 26)


Trump just had to talk about impeachment whenever he was participating in the established, annual pardoning of a Thanksgiving turkey. None of this makes sense. “It seems the Democrats are accusing me of being also soft on turkey,” Trump mentioned, according to the Associated Press. Then he instructed them birds that, “Unlike previous witnesses, you and I have actually met. It’s very unusual.”


(He also told fans at a rally that folks are attempting to call Thanksgiving by any other name, which is false. Do activists wish to educate people on the ways in which Thanksgiving celebrates a genocide of Indigenous peoples? Yes, absolutely. Although this isn’t the next front in the showdown of Starbucks’s holiday cups. It’s just correcting revisionist history to accurately mirror what went down, which, again, was genocide.)


A bombshell report came out of the Times Tuesday night that showed Trump knew about the whistleblower report in August — before he explicitly instructed them Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland that there was no quid pro quo, and well before the frozen aid was released.


Since Congress is on break for Thanksgiving, there likely won’t be much more impeachment news this week. However we’ll keep you updated right here if there is.