Im Not There at This Point: Sanders Isnt Ready to Jump on the Trump Impeachment Wagon Yet

[brooklynite]

Source: Mediaite

This evening, CNN scheduled a town hall debate between Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich. Of course, when they scheduled the thing, the news cycle hadn’t been hit by the one-two punch of President Donald Trump’s classified info sharing with the Russians and the report that Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to stop the investigation of ex-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

So, obviously, the two former presidential candidates were asked the big question that has now bubbled up to the surface — is there sufficient grounds for impeachment?

“I don’t think we’re there,” Kasich answered. “I don’t think we know exactly what happened. The Russian investigation is very, very important.”

And Sanders pretty much agreed with his conservative stagemate. While acknowledging that there a lot of questions surrounding Russian interference in the election, he doesn’t think it has risen to impeachment just yet.

Read more: http://www.mediaite.com/online/im-not-there-at-this-point-sanders-isnt-ready-to-jump-on-the-trump-impeachment-wagon-yet/

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Based on the reaction to Leader Pelosi's comments yesterday, I assume this warrants a Primary challenge?

[murielm99]

1. Primary challenge for whom?

[Frances]

2. Stuff is happening so fast

Did Sanders know that Comey wrote a memo saying Trump asked him to end Flynn probe?
Both CNN and MNBC make it sound as though impeachment could happen.

[Tiggeroshii]

10. The list tonight is going to be about a hundred times bigger tomorrow morning

And every newspaper is going crazy about all of it. Nuts.

[pnwmom]

3. He did well in general, except for his repeatedly saying the Dems shouldn't "politicize this."

Any criticism by the Dems, no matter how justified, will be viewed as politicizing. Bernie shouldn't be giving the Rethugs cover for complaints about the Dems.

[grantcart]

5. Message deleted by DU the Administrators

[Kahuna7]

32. LOL! +1 nt

[ehrnst]

43. +1000 (nt)

[SunSeeker]

7. +1

[grantcart]

4. I'm not there yet either

Ok now I am.

See that wasn't hard.

[orleans]

9. lol! love it! :) n/t

[mpcamb]

42. I'm there but maybe for now it's better to act as a Greek chorus till there's a solid majority

in congress and a bigger majority among the populace in general.
It pains me to say 'wait', but it might be prudent.
What should happen NOW is a lot of subpeonas and indictments and court cases. This is going to end with a legal process, so get that rolling asap and in as many ways as we can.

[still_one]

6. and when Nancy Pelosi effectively said the same thing, a few decided to distort what she said, and

characterized it as saying she said "impeachment was off the table

That wasn't what she said, but that didn't stop the Pelosi haters.

[WinkyDink]

21. Given her track record,.......

[Cha]

24. Nancy is doing something about this...

Link to tweet

[JI7]

36. Sanders did not support Bush impeachment either

[Cha]

49. I just happened to see that elsewhere and

Bookmarked it.

[Cha]

27. Right.. Nancy is getting the evidence together but

that's not good enough.. and yet they're crickets on this OP about BS saying even less.

[orleans]

8. "i'm not there at this point" -- really? why the hell not?

maybe i'm too quick to jump on that impeachment bandwagon

[Sunlei]

47. Message deleted by DU the Administrators

[Kablooie]

11. That's reasonable.

You don't want to start the impeachment process until you are 100% sure that enough members of Congress will join to make it successful.
Don't want to shoot your wad until you're fully loaded.

Some Republicans are beginning to sound like they may be softening but we want a full tsunami and that may take more proof.

[WinkyDink]

22. I don't agree. Republicans need to see Democratic fortitude here.

[HopeAgain]

30. Remember the Rpublican impeachment of Clinton?

Democrats know a misfire could be disastrous.

Impeachment is a legal process and the process is there for a reason.

Patience, and let's let them do it right.

[QC]

37. Thank you for pointing that out. Those of us who were around then,

and I'm thinking we must be a dying breed, remember how the Republicans blew it by being too eager, by making it too obvious that they wanted the man out and would do anything to get that.

They actually made Clinton more popular. His approval rating on the day he was impeached was well into the 60's.

[cstanleytech]

12. They are right the investigation has to happen first otherwise there is a huge risk

of someone being able to escape justice and I am not talking about Trump but rather someone in his cabinet and or someone maybe even in Congress.

[burrowowl]

13. I'm no there yet either

a through investigation must be made so that other heads will roll along with drump and immediate impeachment may cut this short.

[Cha]

25. That's what Nancy Pelosi is doing.. getting the evidence first..

[susanna]

14. I saw that.

I like Bernie, I truly do.

But at this point I'd say he's not helping himself, nor the country, with this sort of ambiguousness. Pick a side. We're there.

[Cha]

15. HA!

[ananda]

16. I'm ready to ignore Sanders now.

45 really does need to be arrested and tried for both treason
and ties to organized crime, particularly money laundering.

[oberliner]

17. He won't be impeached

Not happening with Republicans in charge of Congress.

[Maven]

18. Such courage. What a revolutionary.

Who else can Bernie debate on TV to advance the important cause of Bernie?

[bucolic_frolic]

19. No sense in jumping on board a train that's not moving (yet)

[WinkyDink]

23. In fact, that's exactly when one boards. One risks much, jumping onto a moving train.

[Demit]

39. That's how one does board a train, actually.

Unless you haven't decided yet if that's the train that will take you where you want to go.

[WinkyDink]

20. That's why impeachment. It isn't a rubber-stamp procedure AFTER guilt is well-established.

Bernie. Yeah, well.

[underthematrix]

26. Pay attention

[Renew Deal]

28. No one of any seriousness will call for impeachment until it's inevitable

They don't want it to look like a political witchhunt. And what's more important is finding a bunch of republicans that are publicly on board. It will never get serious until then.

[njhoneybadger]

29. Message deleted by DU the Administrators

[Littlered9560]

31. Of course he isn't.

He is still looking forward to working with him.

[Tom Rinaldo]

34. Very few Congressional Democrats are "Ready" yet, in public.

That is exactly how most elected Democrats in national office should position themselves. Timing is everything. This is all about the integrity of our democracy but the battlefield we fight on is overtly political.

The best, hell the only, defense the Republicans can mount for Trump is that Democrats are playing partisan politics, and are out to destroy Trump by any and all means regardless of his actual behavior in office. Their rallying cry in "Partisan Witch Hunt" Their most effective argument is that Democrats have a conclusion in search of a justification for it.

Because Congress is constitutionally called to potentially sit in judgement of a President, members have to show a little of what could be called "judicial restraint". We of course don't. A few Democratic members of Congress who are not known as national party leaders can and should be the first to introduce the premise of Impeachment into the political discourse. High profile Democrats at this stage should be (and are) demanding full non partisan aggressive investigation of the Trump Administration. When that pot starts sufficiently boiling over they can move on to demanding the start of an impeachment process.

Things are moving fast, true, that may happen sooner than we expect. But there is a political contradiction at the heart of simultaneously demanding that a Special Prosecutor head up an investigation, and calling for impeachment before that person is even appointed.

[DownriverDem]

40. With Nixon

It took 2 years for Nixon to go down. The longer it takes means that the repubs won't pass their horrible agenda. This mess needs to be kept in front of the American people. 2018 is not that far away. Keeping trump front and center can only be good for the Dems.

[Nitram]

35. WTF?

[DownriverDem]

38. Pence too

If pence doesn't go down we end up with a radical religious RWNJ repub.

[JTFrog]

41. Comparing some responses to the lies told about Pelosi yesterday.

What an interesting thread.

Revolution my ass.

[Sunlei]

44. I agree, let trumps loose lips sink the entire damn Republican ship. They deserve him.

[Honeycombe8]

45. I saw part of that townhall. It was excellent. I do think that people should be careful....

not to appear to be going after the proverbial witch hunt, and to base decisions on facts and evidence.

We out here in the public are different. We can see what's what and judge accordingly. But for any investigation to be credible, it has to be approached impartially, so the finding will be legitimate in people's minds (although Trumpers will NEVER accept that their king is flawed).

For instance, Trump loves to say that the Dems are behind this "fake" Russian investigation, just sore losers. But the investigation was going on long before the rank and file of Democrats even knew about the investigation. It also started quite by accident, because the investigation into the cyberhacking turned up all those communications with the Trump team. The W.H. may have known about the investigation (although may not have), but the rank and file Dems in the Senate and House and across the nation did not.

Trump will portray it as a witch hunt. It needs to be like a court case...both sides come to the table with evidence, and things are decided based on that alone.

But for the record, I think the public isn't stupid. We know Trump is corrupt, obstructed justice when dealing with Comey and then firing him, and has been a traitor for all intents and purposes in his dealings and communications with Russia.

[0rganism]

46. the sooner Trump is impeached, the more time Pence has to establish credibility

from a purely political perspective, i think Democrats might well try to stall the process so the hype peaks in summer 2018
make sure the shit congressional Republicans are wearing is fresh and runny just in time for the elections

of course, there are other considerations as well, such as national security...

[Demsrule86]

48. You don't primary sitting Democrats during the Trump madness...it is very very stupid.