Comment by SV_BubbleTime | Hacker News Reader

Comment by SV_BubbleTime | Hacker News Reader

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I think people on the right and the left are perhaps skipping over just how much McConnell was manipulating the admin not just over the last four years, but esp since Jan 6th.

I am fairly confident that even if Trump had specifically wanted to pardon Assange or Snowden he could not have.

Edit: lol, this will have been the most successful lie by the media and GOP... getting people to believe the GOP and Trump were friends. They never wanted him. McConnnell picked Sessions and Barr both who did little for Trump. McConnnell picked the 3 Supreme Court justices, and the federal judges who when given the chance refused trumps election fraud cases, McConnnell dropped the mask the second it was clear Trump no longer had power. Ffs, they stuck him with Reince Preibus at first.

This is the thing I’ll never understand about GOP-Haters... not understanding Trump was fighting them too. Literally everyone had to pretend that wasn’t the case including Trump if he wanted to get anything done at all.

This is an amazingly ridiculous take especially on Sessions and Barr

Sessions did everything he could for Trump just did the right thing once to avoid legal jeopardy for himself by recusing himself. In exchange he got nothing but abuse, I mean Sessions is a nasty little goblin so I don't feel to sorry for him but that's what loyalty to Trump gets you

Barr did cross ethical lines anday have broken laws in making the justice department Trump's personal defense lawyers instead of the semi independent agency it's supposed to be.

https://abovethelaw.com/2020/12/the-temptation-and-corruptio...

Barr was the ultimate lacky Attorney General. But because he declined to support overturning the results of the election illegally, he's not Trump's loyal toady?

What evidence is there of McConnel having access to Trump after Jan 6? I have the impression that their relationship cooled. McConnel stated that Tump “provoked” the mob on the senate floor.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/politics/mitch-mcconnell-riot...

"Tell him we'll convict in the Senate if he fucks around" is access, even if it's not direct face-to-face.

Mcconnell does not leak, those quotes coming out in public were pressure campaigns. It's unknown obviously what was directly said to him.

Well for one; McConnell could have gone through with an impeachment vote had Trump started to burn things down on his way out the door.

Do you think the House pushed through breakneck-speed impeachment vote, breaking almost all of the rules about witnesses, testimony, procedure all for fun? No, that was calculated to keep Trump in line I think.

Removing all platforms from him, looming impeachment or other threats, publicly denouncing him after four years of pretending to be MAGA...

Now, I don’t have a CNN article to make my case. So maybe you are right.

What you're saying here is contradictory. Sure the GOP hates Trump, and Trump also hates the GOP. And that's exactly why Trump didn't give a damn to GOP criticism of his pardons.

McConnell has no influence. That's why Stone, Kushner, and Bannon are on the list among others.

Trump decided not to pardon Snowden and Assange. Full stop.

> McConnell has no influence. That's why Stone, Kushner, and Bannon are on the list among others.

Hang on, if you’re certain about it being entirely trumps decision not to pardon Snowden or Assange... can we at least have a citation that McConnell cared at all about Stone Kushner or Bannon?

You declaring that those names put together are in any way equal to the weight of Snowden -or- Assange?

I never suggested Trump did want to. I suggested he could not.

Not quite. Trump knows they're more or less okay with him pardoning Bannon - it pisses them off, but at the end of the day it's water under the bridge. Whereas Assange getting pardoned would absolutely infuriate the "deep state" to an extent that's hard to describe.

Trump should have pardoned Assange, it's the only thing that would actually have taken a (small) chunk out of the "deep state" for real. Instead, as many of us saw coming, Trump's rhetoric about "draining the swamp" and "fighting the deep state" was always empty bluster.

Now Assange will die in prison (there's not a snowball's chance in hell that Biden pardons him, to state the obvious).

If you were waiting until now for trump to prove that he was a righteous man who keeps up on his promises then you willfully avoiding reading the story that repeats ad nauseum for the man's entire existence.

What a senselessly uncharitable comment. Blockcipher said "as many of us saw coming"; clearly Trump's nature is not a recent realization for them.

Hence the "if you were" - if you weren't, feel free to ignore this comment.

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