When Christians turn against you, you better start praying.
Billy Graham, Brother number one of the evangelical caper, launched the publication Christianity Today back in the 1950s and it has grown its influence since.
The Washington Post calls Christianity Today, 'evangelicalism's flagship magazine'; while The New York Times describes it as a 'mainstream evangelical magazine’.
Until recently, Trump held the evangelical vote, with 81 per cent of these so-called Christians opting for Trump’s brand of "go-get them" immorality.
But now, even for these extremists, maybe enough is enough.
The day after President Donald Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives, Christianity Today published an editorial calling for his removal. The Reverend Franklin Graham later issued a statement that his father wouldn't agree with the editorial and that he doesn't support Trump's impeachment.
Unsurprisingly, Rev. Franklin Graham is a Putin bootlicker.
Wikipedia states that:
‘Graham defended Russian President Vladimir Putin's "gay propaganda" law and has praised his leadership for "protecting children from any homosexual agenda or propaganda".'
Now Trump is impeached, this turn of events, this possible crimping of the prayer-tap, might have a part to play in what happens next.
As at the close of U.S. Congressional sittings in December 2019, there was a Mexican stand-off between the Speaker of the Democrat-controlled House Nancy Pelosi and the Republican-controlled Senate leader Mitch McConnell, a.k.a Moscow Mitch.
This was about the timing of when the House would hand over the "Articles of Impeachment" to Congress, where a trial of sorts would then be held.
When the "Articles of impeachment" passed Congress, Mitch proudly announced the Senate Republicans will do anything to protect Trump and that he intends to work in close coordination with the White House, just to make sure their stories are straight.
McConnell’s strategy seems to be to keep his majority of 53 senators (Democrats have 45, independents 2) under tight control, then whisk the trial through with a cursory dismissal of the evidence before exonerating Trump.
That Republicans are prepared to support and protect Trump in his criminal enterprise, conducted in blatant collusion with the Russian gangster state, to destroy the US.. politically by wreaking havoc at all levels of government, is baffling.
There must be a big quid in it. What's the price of betraying your country?
But things have a possibility of derailing, big time, for Moscow Mitch and his traitorous band.
Not much of a chance, though it isn't impossible.
Pelosi, rightly horrified by McConnell’s statement that the GOP would fix the trial to guarantee a Trump exoneration, is refusing to send the "Articles of Impeachment" to the Senate until a fair trial process can be agreed,
And that is where the Americans are now: at a standoff.
The GOP want a quick trial with no disturbances and they want it over and done with quickly so Trump has plenty of time to trumpet his exoneration to Fox News before the November elections.
The GOP is piling the media pressure on Pelosi to get on with it, but so far she is resisting with quiet authority, playing with Trump’s head.
The Democrats are insisting four witnesses are called – acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, former national security advisor John Bolton, Mulvaney’s chief of staff Robert Blair and Michael Duffey from the Office of Management and Budget.
All four have direct knowledge of what went on behind the Ukraine screen and all four have so far refused, illegally and under Trump’s instructions, to obey Congressional subpoenas and testify to Congress about what they know.
The Democrats, being in the minority, can’t demand witnesses are heard, but in the court of public opinion, they are making enough ground to rattle the Trump sycophants.
According to the Washington Times on 16 December:
‘More U.S. adults support House Democrats passing articles of impeachment against President Trump and his removal from office than oppose the move, according to a poll published this week.’
And, in Newsweek on 20 December:
According to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll, the majority of American voters surveyed want President Donald Trump to be removed from office via a Senate vote—and they also want the Senate trial to call witnesses.
As long as McConnell keeps a tight rein on his team, things will be hunky-dory, but if just four of his 53 slip from his grasp and side with the Democrats in demanding witnesses, then witnesses it will be.
These four witnesses would spill more than just a few beans and if they do talk it will be in public.
The airing of such filthy laundry might, just might as a long-shot with a tailwind, cause enough public alarm and electoral backlash to see the GOP finally abandon their man and turf him out.
If that happens (don’t put your house on it), then next in line for the top job is current Vice President Mike Pence.
Pence, despite pretending to be all wholesome and Christianly and calling his wife Mother, is up to his soft white neck in the Ukraine scam.
Vanity Fair wrote that:
‘If Donald Trump were to be impeached and removed from office, Vice President Mike Pence would obviously take over the Oval Office gig. That notion is alarming for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that he himself allegedly played a key role in the plot to pressure Ukraine into digging up dirt on Joe Biden. Though, if you ask Pence, he had no idea he was doing anything wrong — none whatsoever!
If witnesses are called, it is entirely possible their evidence will throw a web around Pence as well.
And, if Pence goes out with the bathwater, the next in line to be appointed President would be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
President Nancy Pelosi, how does that sound?
Investigations editor Ross Jones is a licensed private enquiry agent and the author of 'Ashbygate: The Plot to Destroy Australia's Speaker'. You can follow Ross on Twitter @RPZJones.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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