Patterico's Pontifications

2/4/2020

Susan Collins: Trump Has “Learned” from Impeachment

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 5:58 pm



Shot:

Republican Senator Susan Collins announced Tuesday she will vote to acquit President Trump in his Senate trial, telling CBS News she believes the president has learned a “pretty big lesson” from impeachment and will be “much more cautious” about seeking foreign assistance in the future.

“I believe that the president has learned from this case,” Collins said in an exclusive interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell on Tuesday, before a speech on the Senate floor about her decision. “The president has been impeached. That’s a pretty big lesson.”

Chaser:

This must come as a shock to Susan Collins, because it’s not like Trump has said things like this before! Indeed, let’s review some of Trump’s statements to see what he has “learned” since being impeached:

Exacty! He has learned so much! Why, Senator Collins, you truly are a stateswoman and a serious human being. I cannot praise your integrity highly enough!

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

31 Responses to “Susan Collins: Trump Has “Learned” from Impeachment”

  1. Exacty!

    Patterico (115b1f)

  2. What price judges: she backed Kavanaugh.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  3. Trump will have learned his lesson when he is thrown out in November. Enough for a passing grade if the Democrats flip 20 Republican seats in the Senate and hold on to the House.

    nk (1d9030)

  4. I wonder if she realizes that no one, not on either side of the aisle, takes her seriously any more.

    Nic (896fdf)

  5. There are times when I’d like to wake up and see that I’d been wrong about this awful man-child.

    But I live in Realityville, and I’ve been right all along. He’s EXACTLY who I assessed him being.

    Ragspierre (d9bec9)

  6. 3. Trump will have learned his lesson when he is thrown out in November.

    Doubt it. There’s only one way this screenplay ends: he dies in office, face down in a bowl between two creamy white scoops of Dolly Madison Vanilla topping German chocolate cake.

    But who will play him in the film?!

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  7. Charlize Theron. She can play anybody.

    nk (1d9030)

  8. @7. Ya’know, she could work it.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  9. Best moments- post speech: the bootlickers:

    ‘Could you sign my tie for me?!’

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  10. He learned to win, even more than he did before: the President is all about winning.

    Make America Ordered Again (23f793)

  11. And relieving suffering.

    Make America Ordered Again (23f793)

  12. And relieving suffering.

    Look up what he said about why he married Melania. (Hint: it was to induce suffering.)

    As note elsewhere, some of you will suck up anything…

    like a Dyson.

    Ragspierre (d9bec9)

  13. Thanks to you never trumpkin republicans and trump derangement syndrome clinton democrats craziness trump now at 49% in polls. When your in a hole stop digging!

    asset (525029)

  14. When your in a hole stop digging!

    Excellent advice for T-rump and the other elitists who are spending us into oblivion. Be sure to let him hear from you!

    Ragspierre (d9bec9)

  15. I see we’ve heard from the mindless Trumper contingent. Thank God. That point of view was starting to feel unrepresented.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  16. “Trump will have learned his lesson when he is thrown out in November.”
    nk (1d9030) — 2/4/2020 @ 6:27 pm

    Three years of losses taught #NeverTrump nothing, so why should he be an outlier?

    Munroe (dd6b64)

  17. Contra Duh Donald, over the last three years many have learned several things.

    One is that Trump cannot learn. He cannot become anything except who he has been for decades, and that isn’t pretty. That is a real shame because he could have been a president instead of what he is.

    We learned today of the retirement of the commander of the Navy’s special operators. He could not continue to serve under T-rump. There are just so many leaders like that, and we can’t afford their continuing loss.

    Ragspierre (d9bec9)

  18. What we learned today Trump 49% in polls. Never trumpkins zero in polls. Trump won with 8% of black vote now he is at 17% (mostly black men) Same with hispanic men. Trump wins in 2020 so democrats will have to wait for AOC in 2024 when demographics are even more favorable for democrats.

    asset (525029)

  19. That’s political spin by Collins as she’s giving herself some cover for her acquittal vote.

    There are political realities here…

    whembly (fd57f6)

  20. #19 —

    Sounds like Collins is trying to justify her acquit vote to herself. Given her druthers, she would have removed him. But she needs the Trump people to come out and vote for her, particularly because the Dems are after her blood. Back in 2016, Ms. Collins wrote (when announcing she would not vote for Trump for President) “His essential character seems to be fixed, and he seems incapable of change or growth.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gop-senator-why-i-cannot-support-trump/2016/08/08/821095be-5d7e-11e6-9d2f-b1a3564181a1_story.html

    Appalled (1a17de)

  21. But she needs the Trump people to come out and vote for her

    Yes. God forbid she should respond to the will of her constituents rather than the money people or what her elitist echo chamber thinks. Not that anyone should trust her sincerity on such matters.

    PTw (894877)

  22. Ragspierre wrote:

    One is that Trump cannot learn. He cannot become anything except who he has been for decades, and that isn’t pretty. That is a real shame because he could have been a president instead of what he is.

    What he is, is President. Oh, I know, I know, you don’t like that, but President is what he is, until January 20, 2021, and, more probably, January 20, 2025.

    Mr Trump did learn. He learned that being who he is defeated sixteen more ‘standard’ Republican challengers, and defeated the guaranteed-to-win Hillary Clinton.

    What he has learned is how to win. And in politics, winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.

    The Dana in Kentucky (b49bca)

  23. Kinda makes you believe in the bell curve as something more than a contrived construct.

    nk (1d9030)

  24. What he is, is President. Oh, I know, I know, you don’t like that, but President is what he is, until January 20, 2021, and, more probably, January 20, 2025.

    Mr Trump did learn. He learned that being who he is defeated sixteen more ‘standard’ Republican challengers, and defeated the guaranteed-to-win Hillary Clinton.

    What he has learned is how to win. And in politics, winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.

    You gotta hand it to him. He won on ObamaCare, won on lowering the debt and deficit … yes I’m getting tired of all this winning.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  25. What he is, is President. Oh, I know, I know, you don’t like that, but President is what he is, until January 20, 2021, and, more probably, January 20, 2025.

    What he has learned is how to win. And in politics, winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.

    T-rump holds the office, but is not and never will be presidential. He’s incapable.

    IIRC Stalin and Mao were big winners in their time. For some of us, “winning” comes way behind higher values. I’ll keep mine and you can have yours.

    Ragspierre (d9bec9)

  26. Donald Trump wouldn’t make a pimple on Stalin’s or Mao’s butts. He is a grub who wormed his way into the American apple and is feasting on what the truly great men of American history grew, while his intestinal bacteria feed on the remnants of his digestion and think they’re in seventh heaven.

    nk (1d9030)

  27. @24

    You gotta hand it to him. He won on ObamaCare, won on lowering the debt and deficit … yes I’m getting tired of all this winning.

    Patterico (115b1f) — 2/5/2020 @ 7:26 am

    I find this criticism curious, as you’re ignoring the obvious good things that has happened under his administration.

    He ran on other things that he has completed. That’s why we don’t hear “But Gorsuch!” spiel anymore….

    Let’s play hypothetical, everything that Trump has campaigned, promised and policies that he championed in office. Yes, even the Ukraine brouhaha. Separate the man from those things.

    What would your support look like towards this “non-Trump” figure having the same Trump campaign promise and results???? If it helps, superimpose Ted Cruz onto Trump policies/results/actions (or, Rubio…I can’t remember which one you supported in ’16).

    I think you’d still bang on that government spending/deficit drum and things like that… but I doubt you’d share the same animus that you have now. You may hem & haw about the Ukraine ordeal, but I doubt you’d be calling for impeachment. I’d even dare to say that you’d be more supportive and would still consider yourself part of the Republican party.

    Am I wrong?

    You can despise the man all you want and believe that Trump shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office due to character flaws, but it’s undeniable of the good things that has happened in his first administation.

    That’s why I offer the Roger Water Pink Floyd example in the past… His music is amazing and he has done a lot of good things (charitable foundation, etc). But, he’s also a disgusting anti-semite who’s well represented by the Corbynite British Labour ideology. However, I can separate the man’s politics from his craft and purchase/enjoy is music.

    That doesn’t make me a hypocrite?

    That’s because I truly believe that we are more than just our politics.

    whembly (fd57f6)

  28. Hey, if Duh Donald would go back to crafting ways to cheat contractors or grift people out of their hopes for an education, I’d be delighted and you’d never hear another word about him from me.

    Ragspierre (d9bec9)

  29. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/us/politics/impeachment-vote.html

    Just because it will soon be over does not mean it will actually be over. Hours before the expected Senate vote ending President Trump’s trial, a senior House Democrat indicated that he will continue the investigation on his side of the Capitol, starting with a subpoena for John R. Bolton, the president’s former national security adviser.

    Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told reporters that he would “likely” subpoena Mr. Bolton, who has confirmed in an unpublished book that Mr. Trump conditioned security aid on Ukraine’s willingness to investigate the president’s Democratic rivals, the central allegation in the trial.

    Republicans, on the other hand, should they win back control of the House (unlikely unless Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren is elected and then only two years later)
    plan to expunge Trump’s impeachment. (but if Trump was no longer president, I don’t think Republicans would be interested. Unless a really pro-Trump person won the Republican nomination in 2024 or later)

    https://nypost.com/2020/02/05/republicans-planning-to-expunge-trump-impeachment-if-they-win-back-the-house

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have taunted that “impeachment lasts forever,” but GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, in line to be speaker if Republicans regain the majority in the November election, doesn’t agree….

    …McCarthy and other Republicans say that investigating how Democrats — led by Pelosi, Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) — pursued their impeachment of Trump could provide the factual basis to underpin an expungement effort.

    “I think [if] we take the majority, some of the key priorities for us are infrastructure, lowering prescription drugs and others. But I think when you look at what the Democrats have done, I also think we have to get to the bottom of it,” McCarthy said.

    “There’s still an 18th transcript that was never released about the inspector general. It’s interesting to know, in there there was 179 pages, did Adam Schiff know the whistleblower? Did he meet with the whistleblower? I think a lot of questions are raised about whether that individual, Adam Schiff, was a fact witness.”

    Of course such an “expungement wold have no legal consequences. It’s sounds futile, although it once happened with the censure of Andrew Jackson (by the Senate I think)

    Whatever it meant would depend on how people would treat that “expungement”

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  30. I suspect that the voters in Maine have learned that Ms. Collins has a learning disability.

    John B Boddie (286277)

  31. What he has learned is how to win. And in politics, winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.

    IOW, Donald Trump being the president is what matters. What he does as president doesn’t matter.
    Which correlates closely with Trump’s view of things.

    Radegunda (0e8745)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0852 secs.