"Retribution." And there you have it. The magic word spoken, for all to hear. That is the official GOP agenda now, lacking any countermanding messaging.
It should be an automatic disqualifier for any serious, legitimate aspirant for public office. I cannot remember another time when a major party candidate dared to speak so openly of wanting to tear down and destroy the loyal opposition -- not because it is right, rather simply because Trump can get away with it. It was jarring to watch the news yesterday and see lowlights of Trump's speech, calling for a party platform of grievance, anger, and destruction, at the expense of any semblance of a positive message and plan for all Americans, and then see Biden at the Pettus bridge, striving for unity and inclusion. One nation, two extremes of ideology. One builds a newer, better bridge. The other blows it up for the fun of it, with no plan to replace it.
How anyone can align with the GOP in such an obviously imbalanced either-or choice is beyond my ability to comprehend. But then we've learned: it's about the cruelty. Somehow. Their mothers must be so proud.
John Bolton may not believe in autocracy, but he is just as arrogant as Trump, if not more so. He clearly believes he is never wrong, and he will never apologize even when he is obviously mistaken. Thanks for making this clear, Charlie. Frankly, I think he and Trump deserved each other.
Bolton's a piece of shit. Trump committed an impeachable offense; he got impeached. Done. Impeachment's a wholly-legal Constitutional mechanism (as Charlie pointed out), with a broad remit for invocation (i.e., "[High] crimes and misdemeanors" can literally mean whatever the current Congress wants it to mean).
If a Democratic president had tried exactly what Trump tried to do with a foreign head-of-state (i.e., shake them down for dirt on a political opponent by withholding already Congressionally-appropriated arms shipments) and a GOP Congress had impeached him/her, I'd bet a dollar and a donut that Bolton would've been 1,000% in support of it all.
Sticking it to Bannon and Candace Owens! Nice job Charlie.
"They did it knowing, knowing that they couldn't get two-thirds in the Senate."
This is not the litmus test for Impeachment. If it were, the Republicans wouldn't have impeached Bill Clinton. If it were, there would have been no second Impeachment of Donald Trump. If the standard is, "Unless you know you can get 2/3 in the Senate, don't do it," then as long as at least 1/3 of the Senate is Republican, no Republican president would be subject to Impeachment.
It hurts my brain to think that someone like John Bolton can honestly say he has no regrets. He says the first Impeachment emboldened Trump, as though the Democrats are to blame because they tried to hold him accountable while they were saddled with colleagues who were shameless enablers. People like John Bolton, Susan Collins, Lamar Alexander. Has anyone learned a damned thing? These are supposed to be intelligent people, but they're so full of themselves they think they're incapable of error.
1) Being in DC to watch this interview live easily ranks as one of the top 5 greatest moments in my life.
2) How do you get the energy to read and prep for the interview on Saturday, hang out with us afterwards, and still have time to write “Morning Shots” so it arrives in our inbox on Monday? Red Bull? Adderall? The adenochrome from the blood of children they sell at the pizzeria in DC?
3) Not sure if less people were listening to Bannon and Daily Wire because of the Clown Packed Action Circus but seeing you ahead of them on the pod ratings is *extremely* satisfying and well deserved.
Why didn’t you ask him about his decision to eliminate the national medical stockpile? He’s partly responsible for our terrible Covid response!
He’s been wrong about everything in the course of his terrible, belligerent career.
John Bolton deserves no attention, no invitations to events, no interviews. At least you could have asked him how he continues to be so arrogant while having been wrong 100% of his useless life.
As as an attendee, I thought Bolton was treated with respect, both by the interviewer and the audience - not sure how Bolton felt about it. When people laughed, it was at him not with him (the comment about Trump’s attention span excepted), but those were spontaneous responses to some of his absurd comments.
His thoughts on Ukraine were weak compared to the earlier panel with General Hertling and Tom Nichols. Hertling, who had a reason to be boastful given his correct prediction of the Russian military’s performance, was anything but. At one point Hertling said “I don’t know,” something Bolton would never say, given that he can see not just the future but alternative timelines too.
As if any further proof were needed, CPAC has become the clear and dominant symbol of the MAGA takeover of the GOP. Far from an event featuring thoughtful, insightful conservativism on display, it has become a toxic, immature, yet consequential combination of a comic book collectors' convention and a Nazi Party rally. Even those who warned of too much fealty to a single person are afraid of speaking that individual's name, trying to have it both ways and pleasing exactly nobody in the process. The water is deep and murky, and there is no indication of how low the bottom of the cesspool is. One sees only that they are altogether willing to dig as deeply as they can to find it, and then happily take up residence there.
I have about as a much respect for Bolton as I have for Paul Ryan, maybe less. I was somewhat disappointed to see him associated with Principles First.
Granted, he has some foreign policy principles, but he seems quite willing to sacrifice a lot of other principles to work towards those (and, of course boosting his income and visibility). I also think many of his foreign policy principles are problematic at best and potentially disastrous at worst.
He comes across as someone who has played the game so long that most of it has become meaningless to him outside the context of it being a political game. Another one of those people who does not understand (or has forgotten) that the game is a game with live pieces.
In the end most of these people are no better qualified for the jobs they hold than I am--except they spent the time and effort to make the connections, kiss the appropriate bottoms, and get their tickets punched at the right time/place to get asked to do the job.
Looking at the bit that Charlie posted here I see that Bolton suffers from the same problems that a lot of the enablers suffer from:
1) I need to be in the room to make sure nothing bad happens; and
2) It isn't part of my job to worry about X. I reported it to a guy who (I should know) is a total tool (Barr) so I did my due diligence, amiright?
Glad to see the Podcast at #2!! You do excellent work Charlie and I'm a huge fan of the Podcast. Just as a personal note , my fave guests are in order; Tom Nichols, Tim Miller and AB Stoddard. Congrats on the popularity.
I have had it with these people. They p*ss and whine about "being disrespected and talked down to", and here is where I mention something...no one is doing squat to them. Most of us in the center and center-left areas don't spend much time during the day thinking about them or how to screw them or how to make them eat a certain bio-matter because we have full lives and schedules. We are not behind every tree, mailbox, and electric pole waiting to jump out out and stab them. We have much more productive things to do...like make car payments and buy cat food.
The one thing I do want to say to them is this--
"You guys would really help yourselves if you would sit down, open Google, and realize that woke and politically correct are not the same thing. Woke is about race, and it is not some odd plot to make middle aged middle class white women feel badly about themselves. Pronouns are political correctness...and not some demented plot to instill anarchy in society--that's why you Righties have Murray Rothbard and his anarcho-libertarianism . Critical Race Theory is a college level course that is not taught in elementary schools, and even in colleges, it is not widely taught. Drag entertainers do not regularly do performances where children are present since drag performers usually work in bars or clubs where persons under 18 years old are barred entrance...and Jinkx Monsoon, Bianca del Rio, and Monet X Change would agree with that. Most doctors will not do gender affirmation surgery on people until they are of legal age, and then only after extensive psychological counseling to confirm this is how they want to go--you might want to check out the movie Transamerica. It would appear that you lot spend a whole lot of time bed-wetting about things things that the majority are not really thinking about, so--and I say this with all Christian love and kindness--you folks might want to grow the F up and just get on with your day."
Bolton is a political creature masquerading as a realist. Not impeaching would have been an abdication of legislative oversight of the executive and an abdication of authority. And the Republican senate that prevented it from being carried out will likely be remembered historically for precisely that.
"Retribution." And there you have it. The magic word spoken, for all to hear. That is the official GOP agenda now, lacking any countermanding messaging.
It should be an automatic disqualifier for any serious, legitimate aspirant for public office. I cannot remember another time when a major party candidate dared to speak so openly of wanting to tear down and destroy the loyal opposition -- not because it is right, rather simply because Trump can get away with it. It was jarring to watch the news yesterday and see lowlights of Trump's speech, calling for a party platform of grievance, anger, and destruction, at the expense of any semblance of a positive message and plan for all Americans, and then see Biden at the Pettus bridge, striving for unity and inclusion. One nation, two extremes of ideology. One builds a newer, better bridge. The other blows it up for the fun of it, with no plan to replace it.
How anyone can align with the GOP in such an obviously imbalanced either-or choice is beyond my ability to comprehend. But then we've learned: it's about the cruelty. Somehow. Their mothers must be so proud.
Am I the only one who finds you talking to Bolton under a sign saying "Principles First" an absolutely ironic, iconic, not to say sarcastic placement?
John Bolton may not believe in autocracy, but he is just as arrogant as Trump, if not more so. He clearly believes he is never wrong, and he will never apologize even when he is obviously mistaken. Thanks for making this clear, Charlie. Frankly, I think he and Trump deserved each other.
Bolton's a piece of shit. Trump committed an impeachable offense; he got impeached. Done. Impeachment's a wholly-legal Constitutional mechanism (as Charlie pointed out), with a broad remit for invocation (i.e., "[High] crimes and misdemeanors" can literally mean whatever the current Congress wants it to mean).
If a Democratic president had tried exactly what Trump tried to do with a foreign head-of-state (i.e., shake them down for dirt on a political opponent by withholding already Congressionally-appropriated arms shipments) and a GOP Congress had impeached him/her, I'd bet a dollar and a donut that Bolton would've been 1,000% in support of it all.
Sticking it to Bannon and Candace Owens! Nice job Charlie.
"They did it knowing, knowing that they couldn't get two-thirds in the Senate."
This is not the litmus test for Impeachment. If it were, the Republicans wouldn't have impeached Bill Clinton. If it were, there would have been no second Impeachment of Donald Trump. If the standard is, "Unless you know you can get 2/3 in the Senate, don't do it," then as long as at least 1/3 of the Senate is Republican, no Republican president would be subject to Impeachment.
It hurts my brain to think that someone like John Bolton can honestly say he has no regrets. He says the first Impeachment emboldened Trump, as though the Democrats are to blame because they tried to hold him accountable while they were saddled with colleagues who were shameless enablers. People like John Bolton, Susan Collins, Lamar Alexander. Has anyone learned a damned thing? These are supposed to be intelligent people, but they're so full of themselves they think they're incapable of error.
"I am your retribution."
Trump makes it official. He is the anti-Christ.
1) Being in DC to watch this interview live easily ranks as one of the top 5 greatest moments in my life.
2) How do you get the energy to read and prep for the interview on Saturday, hang out with us afterwards, and still have time to write “Morning Shots” so it arrives in our inbox on Monday? Red Bull? Adderall? The adenochrome from the blood of children they sell at the pizzeria in DC?
3) Not sure if less people were listening to Bannon and Daily Wire because of the Clown Packed Action Circus but seeing you ahead of them on the pod ratings is *extremely* satisfying and well deserved.
Thanks Charlie for all that you do!
Why didn’t you ask him about his decision to eliminate the national medical stockpile? He’s partly responsible for our terrible Covid response!
He’s been wrong about everything in the course of his terrible, belligerent career.
John Bolton deserves no attention, no invitations to events, no interviews. At least you could have asked him how he continues to be so arrogant while having been wrong 100% of his useless life.
As as an attendee, I thought Bolton was treated with respect, both by the interviewer and the audience - not sure how Bolton felt about it. When people laughed, it was at him not with him (the comment about Trump’s attention span excepted), but those were spontaneous responses to some of his absurd comments.
His thoughts on Ukraine were weak compared to the earlier panel with General Hertling and Tom Nichols. Hertling, who had a reason to be boastful given his correct prediction of the Russian military’s performance, was anything but. At one point Hertling said “I don’t know,” something Bolton would never say, given that he can see not just the future but alternative timelines too.
As if any further proof were needed, CPAC has become the clear and dominant symbol of the MAGA takeover of the GOP. Far from an event featuring thoughtful, insightful conservativism on display, it has become a toxic, immature, yet consequential combination of a comic book collectors' convention and a Nazi Party rally. Even those who warned of too much fealty to a single person are afraid of speaking that individual's name, trying to have it both ways and pleasing exactly nobody in the process. The water is deep and murky, and there is no indication of how low the bottom of the cesspool is. One sees only that they are altogether willing to dig as deeply as they can to find it, and then happily take up residence there.
I have about as a much respect for Bolton as I have for Paul Ryan, maybe less. I was somewhat disappointed to see him associated with Principles First.
Granted, he has some foreign policy principles, but he seems quite willing to sacrifice a lot of other principles to work towards those (and, of course boosting his income and visibility). I also think many of his foreign policy principles are problematic at best and potentially disastrous at worst.
He comes across as someone who has played the game so long that most of it has become meaningless to him outside the context of it being a political game. Another one of those people who does not understand (or has forgotten) that the game is a game with live pieces.
In the end most of these people are no better qualified for the jobs they hold than I am--except they spent the time and effort to make the connections, kiss the appropriate bottoms, and get their tickets punched at the right time/place to get asked to do the job.
Looking at the bit that Charlie posted here I see that Bolton suffers from the same problems that a lot of the enablers suffer from:
1) I need to be in the room to make sure nothing bad happens; and
2) It isn't part of my job to worry about X. I reported it to a guy who (I should know) is a total tool (Barr) so I did my due diligence, amiright?
Glad to see the Podcast at #2!! You do excellent work Charlie and I'm a huge fan of the Podcast. Just as a personal note , my fave guests are in order; Tom Nichols, Tim Miller and AB Stoddard. Congrats on the popularity.
I have had it with these people. They p*ss and whine about "being disrespected and talked down to", and here is where I mention something...no one is doing squat to them. Most of us in the center and center-left areas don't spend much time during the day thinking about them or how to screw them or how to make them eat a certain bio-matter because we have full lives and schedules. We are not behind every tree, mailbox, and electric pole waiting to jump out out and stab them. We have much more productive things to do...like make car payments and buy cat food.
The one thing I do want to say to them is this--
"You guys would really help yourselves if you would sit down, open Google, and realize that woke and politically correct are not the same thing. Woke is about race, and it is not some odd plot to make middle aged middle class white women feel badly about themselves. Pronouns are political correctness...and not some demented plot to instill anarchy in society--that's why you Righties have Murray Rothbard and his anarcho-libertarianism . Critical Race Theory is a college level course that is not taught in elementary schools, and even in colleges, it is not widely taught. Drag entertainers do not regularly do performances where children are present since drag performers usually work in bars or clubs where persons under 18 years old are barred entrance...and Jinkx Monsoon, Bianca del Rio, and Monet X Change would agree with that. Most doctors will not do gender affirmation surgery on people until they are of legal age, and then only after extensive psychological counseling to confirm this is how they want to go--you might want to check out the movie Transamerica. It would appear that you lot spend a whole lot of time bed-wetting about things things that the majority are not really thinking about, so--and I say this with all Christian love and kindness--you folks might want to grow the F up and just get on with your day."
Bolton, like Trump, is totally consistent in his "I am never wrong" mentality. The GOP has a very terminal case of alpha male toxicity.
Bolton is a political creature masquerading as a realist. Not impeaching would have been an abdication of legislative oversight of the executive and an abdication of authority. And the Republican senate that prevented it from being carried out will likely be remembered historically for precisely that.
The Bulwark’s various political podcasts are the ones I listen most regularly. Congratulations!