A Complete Analysis Of Trump’s 149th Unpresidented Week As POTUS

As we head into another weak of impeachment developments, the Republican Party is standing firmly behind President Trump.
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by: Ahmed Baba on December 1, 2019

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., center, before the start of a meeting with House and Senate Leadership in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, June 6, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., center, before the start of a meeting with House and Senate Leadership in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, June 6, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Trump’s first major typo after winning the election was spelling Unprecedented incorrectly. He infamously tweeted “Unpresidented.” This typo is emblematic of his administration: An impulsive, frantically thrown together group of characters with virtually no oversight. After Trump was sworn in, I started writing the weekly “Unpresidented” column, analyzing every day of his presidency. This is week 149.

The Republican Party is willing to excuse outright extortion in order to defend President Trump. They’re willing to become a vehicle for Russian disinformation. They’re willing to tell blatant lies to the American people on a daily basis. Nothing is a bridge too far. They fear losing Trump’s base more than they love America.

This was a short week due to the Thanksgiving festivities, but nonetheless, the gaslighting continued.

Let’s dive into another Unpresidented week.

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Republicans Are Witting Assets Of Russia

Day 1,040: Monday, November 25

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump meeting at the G20 summit – 28 June 2019 (Source: The Kremlin), Rep. Devin Nunes (AP), and Rep. Jim Jordan (Gage Skidmore).

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump meeting at the G20 summit – 28 June 2019 (Source: The Kremlin), Rep. Devin Nunes (AP), and Rep. Jim Jordan (Gage Skidmore).

“I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests.” – Dr. Fiona Hill to House Republicans

There is only one word to describe the recent actions of the Republican Party: treacherous. Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller spent two years investigating whether the Trump Campaign wittingly conspired with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. Mueller found evidence of collusion in the Trump Campaign’s coordination of Wikileaks dumps, but not enough to charge a criminal conspiracy. At this very moment, President Trump, Republican representatives, senators, and pundits are wittingly pushing a disinformation campaign straight from the Russian government… again. Russia’s attack on American democracy never stopped.

Over the last month, President Trump and House Republicans have been pushing a conspiracy theory that tries to frame Ukraine for Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. On Friday, former Russia expert on the National Security Council Dr. Fiona Hill took House Republicans to school. Dr. Hill delivered testimony that essentially depicted the entire Republican Party as not even unwitting perpetrators of Russia’s active measures, but knowing accomplices. Dr. Hill’s testimony debunked the “harmful” Ukraine meddling conspiracy theory and sent an unmistakable message to Republicans:

“Based on questions and statements I have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country — and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.”

This was surely not the first time these lawmakers had heard that this was disinformation straight from the Kremlin. We’ve since learned, thanks to a report from The New York Times, that in recent weeks, intelligence officials briefed Senators on Russia’s yearslong disinformation campaign to frame Ukraine for interfering in the 2016 election. The New York Times article also had a bombshell detail that indicated President Trump has spoken directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin about this conspiracy theory:

That muddy brew worked its way into American information ecosystems, sloshing around until parts of it reached Mr. Trump, who has also spoken with Mr. Putin about allegations of Ukrainian interference. Mr. Trump also brought up the assertions of Ukrainian meddling in his July 25 call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, which is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry into whether he abused his power by asking for a public commitment to investigations he stood to gain from personally.

But wait, it gets worse. Lev Parnas, recently indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, is claiming that House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-CA) is implicated in the extortion plot he’s been defending. Parnas claims Nunes went to Vienna last December to meet with former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin where Nunes spoke about the need for those probes into the Bidens and this very same Ukraine meddling conspiracy theory.

Dr. Hill’s testimony and the Senate briefing did not stop President Trump and his allies from continuing to push this false narrative.

So, in a nutshell, Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly spoke to President Trump about the Ukraine meddling conspiracy theory. Trump mobilized his entire party to push this narrative. Aside from a counter-narrative to the Ukraine scandal, this can also be perceived as an extension of President Trump’s own efforts to undermine the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. This doesn’t even begin to touch on President Trump’s countless actions of capitulation towards Russia.

The party that once declared “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” is now the party of “Mr. Putin, what can we do for you?”

In other news…

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Trump Knew

Day 1,041: Tuesday, November 26

President Trump (AP), Trump’s Personal Lawyer Rudy Giuliani (Gage Skidmore/Flickr), and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (Vadim Chuprina)

President Trump (AP), Trump’s Personal Lawyer Rudy Giuliani (Gage Skidmore/Flickr), and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (Vadim Chuprina)

Tuesday’s top stories:

Trump’s Legacy Of Fraud

Day 1,042: Wednesday, November 27

Donald Trump, accompanied by his family, at news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York Wednesday Jan. 11, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Donald Trump, accompanied by his family, at news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York Wednesday Jan. 11, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Wednesday’s top stories:

Trump’s Surprise Visit To Afghanistan

Day 1,043-1,044: Thursday-Friday, November 28-29

President Trump on his surprise visit to Afghanistan – November 28, 2019 (White House)

President Trump on his surprise visit to Afghanistan – November 28, 2019 (White House)

President Trump, who is desperately seeking a foreign policy win ahead of the 2020 election, made his first trip to visit the troops in Afghanistan. But he caused some confusion. The New York Times reported:

After abruptly axing nearly a year of delicate peace talks with the Taliban in September, President Trump put the negotiations back on the front-burner this week in a similarly jolting fashion by seeming to demand a cease-fire that his negotiators had long concluded was overly ambitious.

Despite a sense of relief at the prospect of resuming talks to end the 18-year conflict, Western diplomats and Taliban leaders were scrambling to figure out whether Mr. Trump had suddenly moved the goal posts for negotiations.

They were particularly confused by his remarks, made during an unannounced Thanksgiving visit to Afghanistan, that the United States was once again meeting with the Taliban to discuss a deal, but that “we’re saying it has to be a cease-fire.”

Demanding a cease-fire would amount to a big shift in the American position and require a significant new concession from the Taliban — one that the Americans have little leverage to extract.

In other news…

Unpresidented // Donald Trump / Republican Party
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by: Ahmed Baba

Ahmed Baba is the Co-Founder and President of Rantt. Writer of Unpresidented, Ahmed documented and analyzed every day of the Trump presidency. He's also a columnist at The Independent and his work has been cited in The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC, Rolling Stone, BuzzFeed, The New York Post, The Huffington Post, Yahoo News, Blavity, Newsweek, The Telegraph, and more. He can be reached at [email protected] or found on Twitter @AhmedBaba_.

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