Trump's Two Biggest Mistakes

mark46 · Feb 16, 2019

FIRING COMEY
Trump was warned. But he was assured him that the Flynn investigation and others would all be over if Trump fired Cuomo. He thought that the firing of Cuomo would stop the Russian thing. He told that to the press. He told that to the Russians in person.

NOT FIRING SESSIONS AND ACCEPTING A SPECIAL COUNSEL
The current AG should have been appointed as soon as Sessions recused himself. It had to be the AG's job to run the investigations of Flynn, Manafort and others. The alternative was a Special Counsel.

So Trump had two opportunities to avoid the investigations. He failed twice. And let's be clear. Everyone involved in the investigations are Republicans appointed by Trump. If anyone in Justice or the FBI was doing anything wrong, Trump's appointees could have fired them or re-assigned them to the district that covers Montana. Certainly, many were fired.

SolomonVII · Feb 16, 2019

Cuomo is fired?

Speedwell · Feb 16, 2019

SolomonVII said:
Cuomo is fired?

LOL! How about Comey?

Ringo84 · Feb 16, 2019

Only two?

His biggest mistake of all is assuming that years cosplaying as a successful businessman means that he had the competence, intelligence and expertise to be president. All the "reality" TV makeup in the world can't cover up an incompetent part-time president.

The second one is firing Comey to get the Russia pressure off of him. Instead of settling the matter, it only served to awake a sleeping giant and make him look more guilty.
Ringo

Albion · Feb 16, 2019

mark46 said:
FIRING CUOMO
Trump was warned. But he was assured him that the Flynn investigation and others would all be over if Trump fired Cuomo. He thought that the firing of Cuomo would stop the Russian thing. He told that to the press. He told that to the Russians in person.

NOT FIRING SESSIONS AND ACCEPTING A SPECIAL COUNSEL
The current AG should have been appointed as soon as Sessions recused himself. It had to be the AG's job to run the investigations of Flynn, Manafort and others. The alternative was a Special Counsel.

So Trump had two opportunities to avoid the investigations. He failed twice. And let's be clear. Everyone involved in the investigations are Republicans appointed by Trump. If anyone in Justice or the FBI was doing anything wrong, Trump's appointees could have fired them or re-assigned them to the district that covers Montana. Certainly, many were fired.

I believe you are referring to James Comey there, but I would probably agree that, yes, these are the president's two biggest mistakes. I would be inclined to say, however, that appointing Jeff Sessions to the AG position in the first place was the mistake, probably what we would call a beginner's mistake in which he felt the need to reward the only Republican Senator who went to bat for Trump before election day.

mark46 · Feb 16, 2019

SolomonVII said:
Cuomo is fired?

ROFL

Conservatives would like to fire Coumo also.

I fixed it.

GoldenBoy89 · Feb 16, 2019

1) Coming down that escalator in Trump Tower in 2015

2) Announcing his campaign for the presidency.

mark46 · Feb 16, 2019

Sure, it would have been better not to hire Sessions in the first place. But, I don't think that it is reasonable to fault Trump for a poor choice of personnel. Many of his choices were very poor. In Sessions, he got someone who was loyal to him, and who implemented his immigration policies very well indeed (from trump's perspective). I don't expect that anyone else but Miller would have doen as much.

Albion said:
I believe you are referring to James Comey there, but I would probably agree that, yes, these are the president's two biggest mistakes. I would be inclined to say, however, that appointing Jeff Sessions to the AG position in the first place was the mistake, probably what we would call a beginner's mistake in which he felt the need to reward the only Republican Senator who went to bat for Trump before election day.

mark46 · Feb 16, 2019

I'm sure it doesn't matter to Trump that folks don't think that he has the competence, intelligence or experience to be president. He wanted to be president, he wanted to run for president. I don't think that this was a mistake, for him. The others two were clearly mistakes, from an outside, objective perspective.

Ringo84 said:
Only two?

His biggest mistake of all is assuming that years cosplaying as a successful businessman means that he had the competence, intelligence and expertise to be president. All the "reality" TV makeup in the world can't cover up an incompetent part-time president.

The second one is firing Comey to get the Russia pressure off of him. Instead of settling the matter, it only served to awake a sleeping giant and make him look more guilty.
Ringo

Albion · Feb 16, 2019

mark46 said:
Sure, it would have been better not to hire Sessions in the first place. But, I don't think that it is reasonable to fault Trump for a poor choice of personnel. Many of his choices were very poor.

I agree with that last part. I still shake my head at some of his more recent appointments, but he should have known that he had to have the very "best" (or safest or most aggressive or least easily cowed by the president's opponents, etc. etc. etc.) man as...AG! He knew that the coup plotters were after him already and he also had announced that cleaning up the deep state was to be a priority of his administration.

mark46 · Feb 16, 2019

As an aside, Trump's third error was firing Christie as head of the Transition Team, and in ignoring Christie's recommendations. From all that I've heard, Christie did a very competent job.

The 4th was to fail to have all tweets reviewed before posting. Of course, this would be impossible for Trump.
=========
Note that none of these serious errors had anything to do with Trump's actions or policies.

Albion said:
I believe you are referring to James Comey there, but I would probably agree that, yes, these are the president's two biggest mistakes. I would be inclined to say, however, that appointing Jeff Sessions to the AG position in the first place was the mistake, probably what we would call a beginner's mistake in which he felt the need to reward the only Republican Senator who went to bat for Trump before election day.

Albion · Feb 16, 2019

mark46 said:
I'm sure it doesn't matter to Trump that folks don't think that he has the competence, intelligence or experience to be president. He wanted to be president, he wanted to run for president. I don't think that this was a mistake, for him. The others two were clearly mistakes, from an outside, objective perspective.

and if we are at all objective, quite a few of the people who run for president these days
dont have much of a resume themselves. Sanders, for instance, does not. Or Ben Carson. Or Herman Cain. But all caught the limelight at one time or another.

By the way, most of the people who insist that Trump doesn't have the intelligence to be president are just reaching for the most insulting characterization they can think of. It is certain that he does have the intelligence if not necessarily the experience in government and, arguably, some other desirable qualities. But who on the scene has them all?

mark46 · Feb 16, 2019

I agree. But that isn't much of any argument in favor of Trump. IMHO, the Reagan or Tea Party folks would all have beaten Hillary. And they would likely beat any of the "progressives" is 2020, should Trump decide in mid-January not to run for a second term, a couple of weeks before the Iowa primary.

A hastily scheduled debate before the Iowa caucuses on March 3rd might include Weld, Kasich, Rubio, Hailey, Cruz and a couple of others.

Albion said:
and if we are at all objective, quite a few of the people who run for president these days don't have much of a resume themselves. Sanders, for instance, does not. Or Ben Carson. Or Herman Cain. But all caught the limelight at one time or another.

Halbhh · Feb 16, 2019

mark46 said:
FIRING COMEY
Trump was warned. But he was assured him that the Flynn investigation and others would all be over if Trump fired Cuomo. He thought that the firing of Cuomo would stop the Russian thing. He told that to the press. He told that to the Russians in person.

NOT FIRING SESSIONS AND ACCEPTING A SPECIAL COUNSEL
The current AG should have been appointed as soon as Sessions recused himself. It had to be the AG's job to run the investigations of Flynn, Manafort and others. The alternative was a Special Counsel.

So Trump had two opportunities to avoid the investigations. He failed twice. And let's be clear. Everyone involved in the investigations are Republicans appointed by Trump. If anyone in Justice or the FBI was doing anything wrong, Trump's appointees could have fired them or re-assigned them to the district that covers Montana. Certainly, many were fired.

Paul Manafort should be sentenced to up to 24 years in prison, Mueller says
Trump’s former campaign manager found guilty in August on eight counts of tax fraud, bank fraud and a foreign bank account

Paul Manafort should be sentenced to up to 24 years in prison, Mueller says

Halbhh · Feb 16, 2019

mark46 said:
FIRING COMEY
Trump was warned. But he was assured him that the Flynn investigation and others would all be over if Trump fired Cuomo. He thought that the firing of Cuomo would stop the Russian thing. He told that to the press. He told that to the Russians in person.

NOT FIRING SESSIONS AND ACCEPTING A SPECIAL COUNSEL
The current AG should have been appointed as soon as Sessions recused himself. It had to be the AG's job to run the investigations of Flynn, Manafort and others. The alternative was a Special Counsel.

So Trump had two opportunities to avoid the investigations. He failed twice. And let's be clear. Everyone involved in the investigations are Republicans appointed by Trump. If anyone in Justice or the FBI was doing anything wrong, Trump's appointees could have fired them or re-assigned them to the district that covers Montana. Certainly, many were fired.

Maybe hiring too many crooks?

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has indicted or gotten guilty pleas from 34 people and three companies that we know of — the latest being longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone.

That group is composed of six former Trump advisers, 26 Russian nationals, three Russian companies, one California man, and one London-based lawyer. Seven of these people (including five of the six former Trump advisers) have pleaded guilty.
All of Robert Mueller’s indictments and plea deals in the Russia investigation so far

mark46 · Feb 16, 2019

This recommendation is 15-24 years, with no opportunity for parole. [there is no parole in the federal system].

In addition, Manafort will be sentenced in another jurisdiction where he pleaded guilty to two election associated crimes, along with lying.
============
Mueller is clearly hoping for a pardon.

Halbhh said:
Paul Manafort should be sentenced to up to 24 years in prison, Mueller says
Trump’s former campaign manager found guilty in August on eight counts of tax fraud, bank fraud and a foreign bank account

Paul Manafort should be sentenced to up to 24 years in prison, Mueller says

Albion · Feb 16, 2019

mark46 said:
I agree. But that isn't much of any argument in favor of Trump. IMHO, the Reagan or Tea Party folks would all have beaten Hillary.

On that one, I absolutely disagree. Probably only Trump could have won in 2016. For one thing, he was tireless as a campaigner and those were Hillary's Achilles heels--laziness and complacency. He also came across as a man of the people. This was even acknowledged by the liberals when they sneered at him for being a "Populist." You know how different that profile was from the usual Republican nominee.

Ringo84 · Feb 16, 2019

mark46 said:
I'm sure it doesn't matter to Trump that folks don't think that he has the competence, intelligence or experience to be president. He wanted to be president, he wanted to run for president. I don't think that this was a mistake, for him. The others two were clearly mistakes, from an outside, objective perspective.

It should matter. It's a mistake that's costing - and will continue to cost - this country its prestige on the world stage as well as domestically.
Ringo

Albion · Feb 16, 2019

Halbhh said:
Paul Manafort should be sentenced to up to 24 years in prison, Mueller says
Trump’s former campaign manager found guilty in August on eight counts of tax fraud, bank fraud and a foreign bank account

Paul Manafort should be sentenced to up to 24 years in prison, Mueller says

None of which has anything to do with Trump, does it? Not according to the article you linked us to.

Halbhh · Feb 16, 2019

Albion said:
None of which has anything to do with Trump, does it? Not according to the article you linked us to.

If Trump hired just a couple of bad actors in a big campaign....ok.

But that's not the picture.

What is? See post #15

Trump's Two Biggest Mistakes

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Separation of Church and State expert

Facilitator

Well-Known Member

We're Still Here

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Facilitator

Well-Known Member

Facilitator

Well-Known Member

Everything You say is Life to me

Everything You say is Life to me

Well-Known Member

Facilitator

Separation of Church and State expert

Facilitator

Everything You say is Life to me

Similar threads