‘That’s Bribery’: Speaker Pelosi Says Trump Committed Bribery, An Impeachable Offense | MSNBC

Speaker Pelosi says Congress can impeach Trump for bribery for demanding Ukraine probe the Bidens in exchange for money. Pelosi’s striking comment comes after other top democrats outlined a bribery case against Trump. The Associated Press reports another official heard Trump make a call about “investigations” in the midst of Ukraine plotting. MSNBC’s Ari Melber wrote about why bribery makes a strong impeachment case on October 20th and continues to report on the bribery evidence on The Beat. Aired on 11/14/19.
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'That's Bribery': Speaker Pelosi Says Trump Committed Bribery, An Impeachable Offense | MSNBC

97 comments

    1. And now, really! There’s a controversy over THOSE! Omg! How can you make this up??!!🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤩🤯🤩🤯🤯🤯

    2. @Lacloidi You people weren’t smart enough to actually read the Mueller report and get anything out of it. So stop with your indignation and pretending to know what was in it. I’ve read it four times, just to be clear!

    3. @Lacloidi the russia thing is just postponed – trump couldn’t be charged for working with the russians or those 8 or 10 instances of obstruction of justice because he is a sitting president – as soon as he is no longer president those indictments can go forward – and he knows that – he is also a co-defendent in the cohen case, described as “individual one” in the documents and those charges can be brought back once he is out of office

  1. If withholding $ 400 million as a bribe to a country desperate for funds to ward of an enemy is not Big enough what is.

    $ 400 Billion ?

    1. Sammy Bolo He was doing it for the country not for himself. Big difference. He was the spokesperson doing what US and other allies approved of. Huge difference. Don’t let tRump twist your mind anymore. Turkey is killing the Kurds and yet get a meeting in the White House. That alone is disturbing.

  2. “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, *BRIBERY*, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” — The Constitution of the United States, Article II, Section 4

    1. Don’t forget tax cheat, liar, and pervert who assaults women and brags about it.
      Oh, Also be is an illiterate buffoon and bigot who separates families.

    2. Suzi Q. I can’t wait until he wins again, you’re all so ignorant you don’t even know it’s nearly impossible to impeach him based on whats been evidenced. The senate is ours, sit down dogs and obey your masters.

  3. Another Russian connection:
    “In other countries bureaucrats are bribed to break law,
    in Russia they are bribed to do their job” – from Russian classical literature.

    1. @Ilia Smirnoff they didn’t know until a full month after the call by that time the weapons were going to them once trump saw zelenski wasn’t corrupt like the previous administration was.in addition there aren’t any new probes on the Ukrainian side investigating biden and burisma holdings which hunter was a board member of.also that old investigation that Joe got the prosecutor fired into burisma was restarted prior to the July call.
      You would know this if you got your information from more than the main stream media like MSNBC.

      I’d like to add that even ABC and CNN tried canvassing potential voters in various states and they ones interviewed don’t want trump impeached.
      Like I said previously this impeachment of trump will seriously be detrimental to the ones who support it politically.

    2. @Dmitri Fukov The aid was released after Trump saw Congress was aware of his activities to get dirt on the Bidens.

    1. 15 seconds of truth There was “is” no crap…stop.believing crap and try Fact checking..Google it…go a head…learn facts not crap 👍

    2. YES NANZZI AND SHIFT FOR BRAINS AND ALL OF THE PUTIN LED DEMON RATS SHOULD B SHOT FOR TREASON STOP HOAX #5

    3. @Major Thought Ahead We have not declared war in the Middle East because we are not fighting military personnel. We are fighting farmers, the unemployed, etc. Isis, al-queda, the taiban are radical groups not armies. If that’s the case then the kkk and white nationalist are a military personnel by your definition.

  4. You all missed the shade she threw by explaining to Trump what exculpatory means 🤣🤣🤣🤣. Go Fancy Nancy
    You go girl!!!!

    1. Let me tell you!! I passed out laughing!! Those “biggly” words definitely needs to be clearly defined lol

    1. It’s not that they can’t read it. They don’t care
      That’s their guy and would burn america for him
      No matter what he does, Blind loyalty & he knows it & LOVES IT

    2. @Opa Dee in addition to your comment, he would burn America for Russia’s Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

  5. Interesting to note the Democrats are calm and speaking intelligently, while on the other hand, the Republicans are drama queens.

    1. @Johto Are you blind? The reason for this is obvious, six of Trump’s close aids have been convicted with Russian connections, then there is Moscow Mitch…

    2. @tihzho And what about Hunter Biden? How about Kamala Harris’s comments on Jewish people and Israel. Also didn’t a Dem resign after being caught giving campaign funds to a lover she abused? You’re so focused on Trump, you don’t seen the snakes in your own party. So we get rid of Trump, what then? Who goes into office afterwords and do we know they’ll be better if they’re not him?

  6. Actually, it’s extortion. Still impeachable, as well as a felony. As far as what is impeachable, Trump could be impeached simply for being discourteous and undeacorrous if the House had the votes for it. I hope it gets considered as an article of impeachment, because I don’t want the President constantly engaged in slander and insults. He’d have been fired from any job I’ve ever had if he treated his fellow workers the way he treats legislators, heads of state and the Press. I hope the Dems also pursue violations of the Emoluments Clause, because the American people certainly CAN understand self dealing and graft. Though he failed in the end to get the G7 at Doral, it doesn’t change the fact that he tried to do it live on TV. We need to see the books. He can’t keep hiding everything about his business and taxes. If he wanted privacy he picked the wrong job. The only reason not to comply with legal subpoenas is that you have something to hide.

    1. ​@Phelan Johnson The money was not Trump’s to offer and *it was perfectly legal for Zelensky to accept it.* The latter in particular is not compatible with the definition of bribery, which also involves a positive inducement and an appeal to greed.
      It matters, because if accused of bribery, he is technically innocent.

      Extortion is far worse: it involves coercion rather than persuasion.
      Analogous to a sexual assault, in lieu of a seduction.

      Pelosi is trying to shoehorn the facts into fit one of the only two terms which happen to be mentioned as instances of high c & m.
      V risky, in my view, but maybe she’s prioritising political expediency over legal validity.

    2. @Unintended Consequences I think the key differentiators are not to do with timing but with sign (negative or positive)
      Generally bribery involves positive inducements whereas extortion deals with negative deprivation. So a person being bribed gets something they want (and they become complicit in the offence) whereas a person being extorted, if they comply, avoids a negative outcome, generally being deprived of something to which they are legally entitled (which means their compliance does not make them a co-offender)
      But since I last contributed to this thread it has been pointed out to me that bribery, at the time of the Constitution being framed, was primarily a term used where an official used their delegated powers to derive personal benefit. So I may have been out of line to criticise Pelosi and Schiff for choosing that term; it may in fact be historically appropriate. There is no merit, it seems to me, in reinterpreting the Constitution using definitions of the framers’ words which still lay in the unknown future.

  7. Since the start, Nancy Peloski has conducted herself very professionally. Level headed, going after the truth, and not backing down from an obvious bully!
    We need to see Nancy’s and her Democrats actions. Shame on these Republicans for doubting our intelligence!

    1. In general I entirely agree. In one particular, I am concerned: bribery does not fit the evidence. A bribe involves a positive inducement, not a negative one. Trump was blocking a payment, and that payment was kosher Furthermore, blocking it was not an action legally available to him. A bribe is illegal to accept.
      This was flat extortion, which is way worse than bribery. Extortion involves threatening a negative outcome: in this case, denial of funding (defense funding essential to Ukraine’s sovereign survival). It is very risky to use an inapplicable category.
      The investigators are trying to “fit the facts into the framework of bribery”, presumably because it happens to be singled out for mention as one of the “high crimes of misdemeanors”. It’s not a list: it’s a description, with a couple of examples.
      They are also trying to avoid words Trump’s base may not have encountered (like “quid pro quo”). This is futile. And BTW, quid pro quo is not a charge. It’s a necessary component of any transaction. Legal or illegal. It’s the nature of the transaction which makes it illegal, but if it’s not a transaction, it can’t be a legal one.
      That’s an example of a simple truth which is nevertheless inaccessible to middle Americans of the Trumpist persuasion, and that’s why it’s futile, as well as dangerous, to tailor the charges to those people’s limited concentration span, powers of analysis, and non-existent good faith.

  8. Also i love how no-one is talking about the fact that Sondland bribed his way into a position he had no experience for. Imagine in Obama or Bush had done this!
    There is no bar to go lower anymore…all politicians have had their spines removed.

    1. Adam Gardiner … Yes. It’s mind blowing the people Trump has appointed.
      I’m not sure political appointments are a wise idea.
      Trump has shown us how vulnerable all our systems are.

    2. Adam Gardiner that’s called a “swamp.” We (people w/ common sense) already know trumps administration is larger than any swamp in Florida or Louisiana.

    3. Adam Gardiner All polititians need to get over themselves and party. They work for us and need to go BIG or go home. They work for “We the people” or “watch out for that muffler”.

    1. @Michael Bramlett Thank you sir. So, Trump has press conferences, meetings with organizations and world leaders, rallies livestreamed everyday. Will you watch?

  9. Bribery- the giving or offering of a bribe.
    Trump- I’ll give you this military aid money if you investigate my political opponents and announce it on CNN publicly.
    That’s bribery.

    1. @Gee Nahh then what was it when Joe Biden bragged about how he threatened to withhold a billion dollars in Aid to Ukraine unless the president of Ukraine fired the prosecutor investigating his son. I know that’s okay with you because he’s a Democrat.

    2. @The Wisdom of Leonard Shoestring THE PRESIDENT HELD UP THE MONEY WHILE INSISTING ON AN ANNOUNCEMENT. WISDOM IS NOT YOUR CUP OF TEA

    3. @Green Tangerine if the Ukrainian President didn’t even know the money was being withheld, how could he know he was being bribed. He never even launched an investigation and all funds were released. I don’t understand why you posted once, never mind twice.

    4. @Green Tangerine Well I suppose if we’re going for double posts, why did one of the Dems star witnesses, George Kent, even admit he thinks there should have been an investigation into Barisma Holdings and that he would “love to see” them being investigated.

    1. Funny, but there have been precedents, many elected officials down the line wouldn’t be able to stand. Hard to agree on who’s stupid.

    2. @Frans van Mook Corruption and greed do not = not stupid. If anything it only proves lack of intelligence.

    1. @generationofswine Any criticism you could give to me for doing nothing is 100x more deserved of her considering all the power she has been given. She has all that power and does nothing. She’s a pathetically weak Democrat who prides herself more on how much money she is capable of fundraising rather than how much she’s able to accomplish for the people (which again, is nothing).

      Wealthy donors love a weak democrat like Pelosi – someone who talks a good game but will never do anything on behalf of the working class.

    1. And the child in charge will pout and cry with fury because this clever and honourable woman got the better of him.

    2. Mr. Kent and Joe Biden both admitted on the record that president Obama did the exact same thing, he so called bribed Ukraine. Fire the prosecutor or you don’t get the billion. This is all a joke, impeaching the president for things that commonly happen in US policy…. unbelievable

  10. Love the way Nancy explains the definition of big words to Little Donnie.
    I hope she has better luck than his elementary school teachers did.

    1. @Pine Woods The House is not the authority on impeachment, all they can do is refer an impeachment to the Senate. I think it is you who might be a little confused. The House does not have the authority to impeach the President. The Senate has already said, what the President did, is not a crime.

    2. @Pine Woods Should I repeat this for you? The House does not have the authority to impeach the President. The Senate has the final say, and it requires a 2/3 vote. Since the Republicans are the majority of the Senate, and they’ve stated the President did not break the law, the President will not be impeached.

    3. @PK Cazadores I am not talking about your beloved prez or the impeachment, I’m talking about the police, now I’m raining down on your parade

    4. @The Wisdom of Leonard Shoestring  You’re funny!  🙂  So Trump is in the CIA, and he was in a foreign country when he tried to bribe the Ukrainian president?

      You watch too much Fux News.

    5. @PK Cazadores You’re right, only the Senate can impeach. And you’re right, the Senate under Moscow Mitch won’t impeach Trump, despite everyone seeing that he is clearly guilty. Which will do MASSIVE harm to the Republican party going forward, when the public (the normal ones, not Fux News viewers) see how spineless those Republican senators are.

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