Lamar Alexander, Ronna ​McDaniel​ Love It When Trump Does Crimes

It's your Sunday show rundown!

After the Republican-held Senate decided to vote against allowing new witnesses at the Senate impeachment trial of Donnie Trump, it was time for Republicans to go into two modes: Justification and Gloating.

On NBC's "Meet The Press," Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander went the excuse/justification route to explain why he's letting Trump's crime train keep rolling.

ALEXANDER: Well, I mean, if you have eight witnesses who say someone left the scene of an accident, why do you need nine? I mean, the question for me was: Do I need more evidence to conclude that the president did what he did? And I concluded no. So, I voted we don't --

TODD: What do you believe he did?

ALEXANDER: What --

TODD: What do you believe he did?

ALEXANDER: What I believe he did, one, was that he called the president of Ukraine and asked him to become involved in investigating Joe Biden, who was --

TODD: You believe his wrongdoing began there, not before --

ALEXANDER: Yeah, but he --

TODD: Not before?

ALEXANDER: I don't know about that. But he admitted that. The president admitted that. He released a transcript, he said it on television. The second thing was, at least in part, he delayed the military and other assistance to Ukraine in order to encourage that investigation. Those are the two things he did. I think he shouldn't have done it. I think it was wrong. Inappropriate was the way I'd say -- improper, crossing the line. And then the only question left is who decides what to do about that.

TODD: Well, who decides what to do about that?

ALEXANDER: The people. The people is my conclusion.

So Alexander believes we don't need more witnesses because Trump really did crimes. The part where Alexander loses everyone is in "letting the people decide" while abdicating the responsibility thrust upon ALL elected officials to represent the people. This line of thinking also always conveniently forgets that the reason Trump is finally being held accountable is THE PEOPLE voting to do that in 2018! The fact the Senate is doing an impeachment trial is the will of the people, Alexander!

But Lamar Alexander tried one more excuse just in case after Chuck Todd called him out:

ALEXANDER: Well, if you hooked up with Ukraine to wage war on the United States, as the first senator from Tennessee did, you could be expelled. But this wasn't that. This was the kind -- what the president should have done was, if he was upset about Joe Biden and his son and what they were doing in Ukraine, he should have called the Attorney General and told him that and let the Attorney General handle it the way they always handle cases that involve public figures.

TODD: And why do you think he didn't do that?

ALEXANDER: Maybe he didn't know to do it.

That was an excuse so lame, Chuck Todd's small shreds of journalistic duty had to actually call it out:

TODD: Okay, this has been a rationale that I've heard from a lot of Republicans. "Well, boy, he's still new to this."

ALEXANDER: Well, a lot of people come to --

TODD: At what point, though, is he no longer new to this?

 youtu.be   

That's a real stumper. But it's okay because Alexander really thinks Trump has learned his lesson this time.

ALEXANDER: If a call like that gets you an impeachment, I would think he'd think twice before doing it again CHUCK… https://t.co/k82JNIG11f

— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1580656324.0 

That's Trump, always learning things. Like when he learned he could do what he wants ONE DAY after he got away from Robert Mueller .

On CBS's "Face The Nation," RNC Chairwoman RonnaRomneyMcDaniel was all but giddy about how the Senate letting crimes happen is good for Trump.

MCDANIEL: Well, we're already seeing it as an asset with our base [...] The American people recognize this hasn't been bipartisan. This hasn't been held to the standard we've seen with past presidents. And they really view it as Democrats pushing their agenda against the president they never wanted to see elected to begin with.

McDaniel then went on to her talking points and touting how the RNC has been fundraising off of impeachment. It was all standard softballs until the awkward moment Margaret Brennan brought up McDaniel's uncle, former Republican presidential nominee and voter for more witnesses Senator Mitt Romney. Seems former " Brooks Brother Rioter " and current Trump sycophant Matt Schlapp made a show of specifically telling Romney he WASN'T invited to his club meeting or to play any Republican reindeer games :

BREAKING: The "extreme conservative" and Junior Senator from the great state of Utah, @SenatorRomney is formally NO… https://t.co/Z1iydyuxcL

— Matt Schlapp (@Matt Schlapp) 1580511348.0 

But it seems, just like when Ronna McDaniel dropped the Romney out of her name (at Trump's request), she has no problem ignoring or encouraging the party she runs to shit on her uncle:

BRENNAN: The Conservative Political Action Conference has disinvited him from an upcoming meeting. And they're kind of- they put up this ad online. There are TV ads against him. I mean, do you think this is proper political retaliation?

MCDANIEL: I-I disagree that—

BRENNAN: Are you comfortable with that?

MCDANIEL: --the president's changed the Republican Party. I think the president's strengthened our party. And if you look at things that he's done—

BRENNAN: I don't know if you saw that ad, but it was your uncle's face there—

MCDANIEL: I haven't- I haven't seen the ad.

BRENNAN: It says "disinvited" or "not invited."

MCDANIEL: Well, that's the grassroots part of our party, and they're upset. They're upset when people aren't supporting the president and supporting our party.

CPAC is not "grass roots," McDaniel. The Schlapps have been entrenched in politics a while, including at the White House. Here is a pic of CPAC chairman, Trump's reelection press representative and Trump's former interim attorney general all in a plane to Iowa together. That's as establishment as it gets!

On our way to #IowaCaucus ⁦@mschlapp⁩ ⁦@MattWhitaker46⁩ https: //t.co/WFsPFv4sue

— Mercedes Schlapp (@Mercedes Schlapp) 1580666358.0 

Ronna McDaniel is trying to pull a Mariah Carrey.

 
 Giphy 

You can't sit there while they show you the actual tweet, then say "I didn't see it" ... only to immediately justify it! Actually scratch that: That explains perfectly how confused the GOP is about this impeachment.

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or maybe McDaniel really just has a bad memory when it comes to scumbags she hangs with ...

Politico on the new video released by the attorney for Lev Parnas: "The video shows RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel g… https://t.co/ikhddjJMdw

— Kyle Griffin (@Kyle Griffin) 1580414405.0 

After the way January went, 2020 is not awesome so far. If anyone can definitely understand, it's Puerto Rico . So that's why I'm gonna take Puerto Rico's lead and start 2020 over!

Firework in Puerto Rico tonight as people in Santurce celebrated New Year's Eve. People decided to cancel January… https: //t.co/j5YAoRZusz

— David Begnaud (@David Begnaud) 1580533007.0 

Have a Happy New Year, Again!

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