Louisiana Voice

“The greatest threat facing the nation was an insider threat and still is. The insider threat is sitting in the Oval Office.”

—Frank Figliuzzi, a former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence, on MSNBC network last week. [Okay, I know, the FBI doesn’t have the greatest credibility in the eyes of Trump and his crowd, but still…]

“Who needs Vladimir Putin when we have Donald Trump? If you were Vladimir Putin and you wanted to disrupt this election, what would you do? You’d spread disinformation. You’d make people doubt the legitimacy of the vote. You’d peddle conspiracy theories and you might want to mess with mail-in voting. That’s all happening without him. Our president is doing that. It’s very clear that Trump will use every lever of governmental power to stay in office. There’ll be many mail-in votes and the mail-in votes will be very different than the same-day votes. What he will do – and it will be very much on brand for Donald Trump – is declare victory on election night and then, as the mail-in votes are counted, he will insist that that they are not legitimate, that the election is being stolen from him, and I think that has the potential to create massive doubt and chaos.”

—Conservative author and broadcaster Charlie Sykes. [Trump supporters, did you get that “conservative” part?]

“The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics. Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives!”

—Idiot child Trump tweet, Aug. 22, 2020, 6:49 a.m. [The “deep state” is everywhere…and nowhere.]

“Trump has been saying mail-in ballots will bring fraud to the election but absentee ballots are legit. Which is it? It can’t be both ways. I laughed because if the campaign actually took information from other times, they have reached out to me, they’d know I won’t vote for Trump despite being a registered Republican.”

—Chandler Carranza, after receiving an absentee ballot in the mail with the Tangerine Toddler’s smiling photo on it. [Again, Trumpettes, did you catch the words “registered Republican”? And do you understand the irony of Trump’s voting by mail-in ballot?]

“The committee found that Trump’s team knew ahead of time that emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee by Russian intelligence agents would appear in Wikileaks, and worked with Wikileaks to produce an ‘October surprise’ toward winning that election. Despite Trump’s recollection, the committee assesses that Trump did, in fact, speak with (Roger) Stone about WikiLeaks and with members of his campaign about Stone’s access to WikiLeaks on multiple occasions.”

—-Republican-majority Senate Intelligence Committee report on the 2016 Trump campaign. [So, while the word “collusion” is not mentioned specifically…]

“I think you take a look at the great people President Trump has surrounded himself with, some of the brilliant women and some of the brilliant leaders. I would say that overall, the president has had a very good track record of hiring excellent people.”

—Trump adviser Jason Miller, on NBC’s Meet the Press, Aug. 23, 2020.  [Bannon, Flynn, Manafort, Gates, Cohen, Papadopoulos, Stone…]

“We don’t have any authority to do that at the department.”

—Acting Department of Homeland Security secretary Chad Wolf, on sending agents to guard polling places in the November election. [Gawd, at last someone in the administration who gets it right.]

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“[H]istory will record Mr. Trump’s presidency as a march of wanton, uninterrupted, tragic destruction.”

—The Washington Post editorial board, Aug. 22, 2020.

“You’ve been there less than a month. Wouldn’t you want to get the opinion of the unions and the mailing community on what might happen if you cut service like this? He never talked to us or sought our input.”

—Postal Service union leader Mark Dimondstein, on Louis DeJoy’s proposed slash and burn cuts to the USPS.

“We’re going to have everything,” the president said. “We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re going to have law enforcement, and we’re going to hopefully have U.S. attorneys and we’re going to have everybody, and attorney generals. But it’s very hard.”

—Trump, on his controversial plan to deploy law enforcement officials to monitor polls in the Nov. 3 election, Aug. 21, 2020. [Hey, dumbass, sheriff’s deputies, state and municipal police are commanded at the local level; you don’t have that authority, even if it does sound like something that your palls Putin or Kim Jong Un, or Hitler’s SS would do.

“This is just such an old, dirty voter suppression tactic. There is no doubt that this is about instilling fear and depressing participation in communities of color.”

–Kristen Clarke, who heads the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Aug. 21, 2020

“The reason why the Republican Party was under a consent decree for 40 years was for precisely this kind of behavior in 1981. It would be unfortunate if, having come out from under that consent decree, they now try to repeat those tactics.”

—Marc Elias, lead attorney for the Democratic Party’s voting litigation efforts., Aug. 21, 2020.

“He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this. His g**d****d tweet and lying, oh my God, The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy s**t. It’s the phoniness of it all. It’s the phoniness and this cruelty. Donald is cruel.”

—Then-federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry, watching her brother on Fox News discussing how he was handling child separations at the U.S. Southern border. [No one knows you better than family.]

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“President Trump has tried every dirty trick in the book — and a few new ones — to cast doubts about the workings of Joe Biden’s brain. But Trump has been focusing on entirely the wrong organ. Biden’s appeal is from the heart.”

—Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, Aug. 20, 2020.

“Biden goes to church so regularly that he doesn’t even need tear gas,”

—Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, emceeing the Democratic virtual convention, in reference to Trump’s Bible photo op in Lafayette Square.

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“This is yet another major win in the fight against dark money in politics. It will be much harder for donors to anonymously contribute to groups that advertise in elections. This is a great day for transparency and democracy.”

—Jordan Libowitz, spokesperson for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), on a decision by a federal appeals court that is considered a defeat for Sen. Mitch McConnell and Republican political operative Karl Rove, the man behind the exposure of CIA agent Valerie Plame and who was instrumental in the framing and imprisonment of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/obama-pardon-don-siegelman

https://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/don-siegelman-on-how-the-political-assassination-of-a-governor-threatens-the-nation/

“We are not letting people be evicted.”

—Donald Trump, on Aug. 11, upon approving executive actions after stimulus negotiations with Congress stalled.

“[W]e are very likely to see millions of renters face displacement or eviction, starting in September and October. Trump literally did nothing to stop or prevent evictions. There’s no requirement to do anything.”

–Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, on Aug. 21, 2020.

“Trump seems as drawn to QAnon conspiracy theorists as sycophants are to him. [He] consorts with knaves and fools, plays around with dumb ideas and gives little thought to the safety and welfare of 330 million Americans. He lives to indulge in cheap tricks that make him look good and thus worthy of adulation. He sickens.”

—Op-ed by Washington Post columnist Colbert King, Aug. 21, 2020.

“You said the president seemed to embrace it. I didn’t hear that. I heard the president talk about he appreciates people that support him.”

—Vice President Mike (Casper the Ghost) Pence, like the obedient milquetoast he is, denying the obvious. [Sure, Casper, and we all heard (or read) Trump’s laudatory tweets about QAnon proponent Marjorie Taylor Greene’s win in that Georgia congressional primary where he called her a “future Republican star, a real winner.” Now you can return to your appointed place somewhere behind Trump and watch in stony silence as you normally do.]

“I’ve had discussions with Marjorie Greene, she won that primary, and she recently came out and denounced the Q organization. I do not agree with their beliefs at all, and she denounced those,”

—House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R0Calif.) [Yeah, and David renounced, denounced and otherwise tried to distance himself from the KKK when it was politically expedient for him in his various political races – but once his elective ambitions ended, he returned to the fold  So, if it walks like a wingnut and quacks like a wingnut…she’s probably a wingnut.]

Have a can of wingnuts:

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“I haven’t been dealing with him for a very long period of time. I don’t like that project. I thought it was being done for showboating reasons.”

—Donald Trump, disavowing (Mission Impossible-style) any connection to the private funding project run by former adviser Steve Bannon and claiming (Donald Trump-style) that he hardly knows has had little contact with Bannon.

“[P]rivate enterprise at its finest. Doing it better, faster, cheaper than anything else,”

—Donald Trump, Jr., speaking at a symposium hosted by the group in New Mexico in 2019. [Oops. But like daddy, Donnie will try to weasel his way out of tight spots. Read on.]

“His previous praise of the group was based on what he was led to believe about their supposed intention to help build the wall on the southern border and if he and others were deceived, the group deserves to be held accountable for their actions,”

—Donald Trump, Jr. spokesperson Amanda Miller, in trying to distance Donnie from Bannon’s scheme. [Have you ever seen cockroaches scramble for cover when you turn the lights on in a room?]

“Why in the world would the president not kick Q’anon supporters’ butts? Nut jobs, rascists (sic), haters have no place in either party.”

—Jeb Bush (R-Florida) tweet, Aug. 19, 2020.

“QAnon is a dangerous lunacy that should have no place in American politics.”

—Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), on Thursday. [But don’t you see? They love Trump and that makes them “very fine people,” just like those white supremacists in Charlottesville.]

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“You don’t want to live with them either.”

—Donald Trump, in deposition during Justice Department’s 1973 lawsuit against Trump Management Co., alleging racial bias in housing. The lawsuit was later settled by consent decree signed by the Trump Management Co. [But how can that be? Trump’s “the least racist person in the world.” He said so.]

“She was over her head, and frankly she should’ve made the speech live, which she didn’t do,” Trump said during a White House event commemorating the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage. “She taped it. It was taped a long time ago because she had the wrong deaths. She didn’t even mention the vice-presidential candidate in the speech.”

—Trump, on Michelle Obama’s speech for the Democratic virtual convention. [Rather ironic that Trump would cite “the wrong deaths,” given that they all occurred on his watch.]

“Someone find me Michelle Obama’s VOTE necklace immediately please; I need to wear it every day for the rest of my life.”

—Amanda Litman tweet, Aug. 17, 2020, 9:49 p.m.

“I’ve heard these are people that love our country and they just don’t like seeing it. So I don’t know really anything about it other than they do supposedly like me and they also would like to see problems in these areas, like especially in the areas that we’re talking about, go away.”

—Donald Trump, on the fringe group QAnon’s support of his presidency after several QAnon supporters won their primary elections for congress.

“Well I haven’t heard that, but is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing?”

—Trump, on being told that QAnon’s theory that he is “secretly saving the world from a Satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals” that Democrats are a child-selling cabal, that JFK Jr. faked his death to help Trump (someone please explain that one to me), that school shootings and the 9/11 attacks were all faked (that the victims were actors), and that online retailer Wayfair sells children along with its furniture. [Have we lost all perspective in this country? These people are serious and they’re no longer wearing tin foil hats; they’re running for and winning elective office. Have we gone mad?]

“From the moment President Trump took office, he’s used his position to benefit himself rather than our country. He’s trampled the rule of law, tried to weaponize the Justice Department to attack his enemies and protect his friends.”

—Former acting attorney general Sally Yates, speaking at the virtual Democratic National Convention on Tuesday.

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