President Donald Trump

[cardboardbox]

Oh well. That was another CNN reporter as well.

Are you going to answer why April Ryan should be banned? Dumb Donnie specifically brought her up today as a candidate to also be banned.

no, you'd have to ask Trump that question. I only discuss/comment on things that interest me, rather than come in here and defend everything Trump does/says.

[chancellor]

Fair enough. Legality aside, do you agree the move looks shady? What will your opinion be if Whittaker shuts down Mueller?

Shady? How can it be shady when just about every significant Democrat was calling for Sessions to be fired less than a year ago? I mean, this IS still Jeff Sessions, Scourge of the South, right? So y’all changed your mind about him in the span of about 10-11 months so now it’s shady?!?

Sorry, but no. Either he was qualified for the position less than a year ago, and the partisan hacks who were calling for him to be fired were lying through their teeth, or he was never qualified and they’re lying through their teeth now. Frankly, I think it’s the former, and I was never a big fan of a number of his views, especially on civil forfeiture.

Per Mueller, I just don’t know. I’ve lost track of how many months he’s had. I suspect it’s more than enough, but until he’s actually asked to resign, I won’t even bother evaluating.

[gcstomp]

Its shady, and its not about Sessions. Its shady because the outrage isnt about Sessions being fired.

Sessions recused so investigation could go on, becuase he was hopelessly conflicted, not as much as Whitaker though. The replacement for Sessions should be line of succession. Trump instead picked the acting AG, strictly because Mathew Whitaker extensive on the record stance on Mueller investigation, and we have this thanks to his brief career as pundit, prior to that Whitaker was a con artist, fun read we can touch on if you like but it is on the record. Anyhoo Whitaker has substantial fringe stances that Russia did not interfere with elections, that Trump is clear of any collusion or obstruction, and has even outlined a detailed plan of how to defund and end Mueller investigation without bothering Congress, simply shelve any findings. In short, Whitaker is the definition of tainted, he is hopelessly conflicted and cant hold AG position without recusing himself. In any case, AG has to be confirmed by Congress so this will just be shelved temporarily in any case.

Justice dept cannot proceed as if this is not contrary to their entire premise of existing. The basic premise of no one is above law cannot co exist with Trump being subject of an extensive investigation, and also being able to hand pick who investigates him. At least it requires Congress overlooking conflicts and being able to vet and confirm AG.

[Bernie Brewer]

Oh well. That was another CNN reporter as well.

Are you going to answer why April Ryan should be banned? Dumb Donnie specifically brought her up today as another possibility to be banned.

Talk about conspiracy theories. Trump's "hatred" of CNN has always struck me a bit odd. CNN's President, Jeff Zucker, likely knows Trump better than anyone else in media. He was the guy who asked Trump to do Celebrity Apprentice while he was with NBC. They apparently worked together for most of the run of the show, until Zucker left to join CNN. If a purported tape of Trump making racial remarks existed, wouldn't he know about and why wouldn't he have it and release it? It just seems to me as if Zucker is asking reporters like Acosta to be confrontational on purpose. Is it possible it's for the ratings? And, if so, its clearly working as CNN had one of its best financial years ever in 2017-2018.

Weeks before that exchange, Zucker was on the phone talking about why Trump sucks up so much of CNN’s oxygen. “People say all the time, ‘Oh, I don’t want to talk about Trump. I’ve had too much Trump,’ ” he told me. “And yet at the end of the day, all they want to do is talk about Trump. We’ve seen that, anytime you break away from the Trump story and cover other events in this era, the audience goes away. So we know that, right now, Donald Trump dominates.”

Zucker, the guy who first brought our president to the small screen when he green-lighted The Apprentice in 2004 while running NBC, had arguably schooled Trump in the art of reality television. Halfway through Trump’s first term, his instincts remain just as acute. If Fox News represents Trump’s base and MSNBC has become a friendly platform for the resistance, CNN is the arena where both sides show up for cantankerous battle. “On Fox, you rarely hear from people who don’t support Trump,” Zucker told me. “On MSNBC, you rarely hear from people who do support Trump. We want to be home to both those points of view.” He continued, as if rebuking a common critique of the network. “It is true some of these folks are not very good with the facts, but that’s O.K. in the sense that it’s our job then to call them out.”

The strategy is working. Even though CNN still trails Fox News and MSNBC in prime-time audience size, its ratings have never been better. The average number of people watching on a given day has been above 700,000 each year since 2016, compared to around 400,000 in the pre-Trump news cycle. That’s also considerably larger than any other time over the past 25 years, an astonishing feat given the ubiquity of news and the decline of cable. The ratings of course skew higher in the evening hours, when the most people are watching all at once. The average prime-time audience is around a million, compared to fewer than 600,000 when Zucker arrived, in 2013. According to someone with direct knowledge of the numbers, CNN is projected to turn a $1.2 billion profit on $2.5 billion in revenue this year, making 2018 its most profitable year ever. “When I came on, someone made a joke that I was starting at the best time, because things couldn’t get worse from a ratings perspective. We did not have a news cycle to ride,” said Erin Burnett, who joined CNN’s prime-time lineup in 2011. Now, she continued, “we’ve become a character in this story.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/11/inside-the-trump-gold-rush-at-cnn

[onejayhawk]

I'm happy Sessions is gone. And I don't expect them to shut down the probe because it's probably close to being wrapped up. But they weren't just innocuous statements by Whittaker let's be real. He went on CNN and directly explained how one could undermine the probe by reducing resources allotted to the investigation.

Wow. We agree on something.

Do you also expect a nothing-burger?

J

[DMT]

Wow. We agree on something.

Do you also expect a nothing-burger?

J

Nah, this won't be a Benghazi or email server redux.

[Bernie Brewer]

Nah, this won't be a Benghazi or email server redux.

Now that control of the House has changed do you think the Dems will carry on with silly investigations or will they be better than their peers from the GOP?

[DMT]

Now that control of the House has changed do you think the Dems will carry on with silly investigations or will they be better than their peers from the GOP?

I don't consider oversight of the most corrupt administration in our nation's history to be silly. Your mileage may vary.

[Bernie Brewer]

I don't consider oversight of the most corrupt administration in our nation's history to be silly. Your mileage may vary.

So you’d agree Benghazi wasn’t a worthless investigation then. I think it was. But, based on your answer I guess I am not hopeful your team will act like adults this go around.

[DMT]

So you’d agree Benghazi wasn’t a worthless investigation then. I think it was. But, based on your answer I guess I am not hopeful your team will act like adults this go around.

Of course it was worthless, no idea how you're reading my response as a defense.

[DMT]

Bernie, you've already stated you despise Trump, so why would you oppose investigations into his wrongdoings?

[cardboardbox]

So you’d agree Benghazi wasn’t a worthless investigation then. I think it was.

I dont think it was worthless at all.

But, based on your answer I guess I am not hopeful your team will act like adults this go around.

do they ever?

[DMT]

I dont think it was worthless at all.

do they ever?

Lol...so the investigation launched by Republicans that lead to nothing is worthwhile but the Democrats are the childish ones. The fact that you voted for Al Gore is truly shocking.

[cardboardbox]

Now that control of the House has changed do you think the Dems will carry on with silly investigations or will they be better than their peers from the GOP?

If they were smart, they'd only investigate when its extremely important. If they are "investigating" pretty much ever day for the next two years, I think thats a sure way to lose in 2020.

If they were smart, they'd pass every bill they can come up with that they think help earn voters trust. Abolishing ICE? Not going to earn them any trust. Passing a reasonable gun control bill? Probably will earn some trust.

[Bernie Brewer]

Bernie, you've already stated you despise Trump, so why would you oppose investigations into his wrongdoings?

Sarcasm. I think you’re confusing dislike with depise. I don’t despise Trump, or anyone else really, but I’m not a fan either. We have more than enough representation of the despise team on this board. Although I’m in the middle, I’m playing a bit of the devil’s advocate when things seem to get a little unhinged. I really want adult supervision in Congress and there are few, if any.