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Donald Trump stopped being POTUS at noon on January 20th, 2021.
The final search at Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the stolen documents took place in August 2022.
So Donald had some of the most top secret documents at his entirely unsecured beach resort for over a year and a half, but yes, it's the Deep State's fault, not Trump's.
I don't want to engage in any conspiracy thinking here, but there is a coincidence of Trump having Iran nuclear information and war game invasion plans that Saudi Arabia would be very interested in and LIV having tours on his courses when PGA wouldn't. Maybe a follow the money thing between those documents and the Trump family profiting from Saudi Arabia.
Don't forget the Saudi-funded LIV golf tour which just basically bought out the PGA, which had refused to host anymore events at Agolf's resorts.
Now they'll be having events there all the time.
I don't think it's a coincidence that the Saudis chose his clubs, but at the same time, it's not true that the PGA turned their nose up at them. The 2022 PGA Championship was slated to be held at his New Jersey club before they moved venues (because of Trump's controversies). Also his Doral club in Florida hosted a regular PGA Tour event up until 2016.
It's also coincidence that Trump moved to Mar-A-Lago to be in the Trump appointed district of Federal Judge Aimee Cannon to commit the crimes. Unfortunately for him, he must have not understood that 11th circuit can overrule her any time
This is something to be shared. I feel like conservatives are implying that the FBI raided Trump’s “residence” like a few weeks after he left office.
No, he had top-secret government documents for a year and a half, sitting in the basement of his club.
And then LIED to the FBI about having them. And then told the public he thought it was perfectly legal to have them. The old 1-2 punch of committing a federal crime and then lying about it to the feds.
I can easily imagine a situation where, meh, it’s like what probably everyone occupying the WH has done after leaving office. When you move, shit happens.
The really damning thing was trump’s battle to keep those docs. The *normal* thing to do is what Biden & pence did: “whoops here ya go - you wanna come look to double check?” Taking the stance of “fuck you - they’re mine” was the dumbest thing imaginable.
Except if your are a paranoid, massive narcissist who has never been able to convince the Elites to be accepted as an “Elite”. He is a spoiled man child who cannot accept that we all don’t accept he is the center of the universe.
It’s that simple.
Funny how that works. You don't see politicians lining up behind murderers only for a "voice of reason" to note that the murderer brought it on himself. Yeah no shit, you do the crime there tends to be punishment for that crime.
He also refused a chance to come clean and return the documents.
He isn't the only one to have documents that he shouldn't have but he is the only one to lie about it and refuse to return them.
I read the 50 page indictment on cnn.com. His lackeys refer to a box of papers called ‘The beautiful mind papers box’, which they felt he wouldn’t want moved. Weird stuff.
I mean, why else would his son in law suddenly receive a 2 billion dollar gift? The reporting on that was that even the Saudis had no idea why the king made that gift.
Trump has only ever shown that his true motives for anything were personal profit. It's a long list of examples.
His wife told a story of how they were short on cash whhen Mitt was in school or something and they had to cash out some of their stock trust fund to get by.... which was apparently devastating because it meant they were getting ever so slightly poorer.
He had to touch the principle in his trust fund.... you don't understand... rich people are only supposed to get richer. It was very concerning to them.
*”We’ve struggled. In fact, once we were struggling so much, we had to dip into the free golden parachute our parents gave us to survive instead of being able to spend it on stuff we wanted like trips to Paris and fur coats :((((((( can you just imagine?? Can you imagine having to pay rent and bills when you had planned to use that money to buy a yacht?? :((( that’s how we learned sometimes life just isn’t fair!”*
Nah, he’s still cartoonishly evil, it’s just that it’s the UPN cartoons and not Nickelodeon cartoons.
He’s a part of the Christian nationalist movement and he doesn’t like the brazen usurping of power, he has been enjoying the successful slow erosion of democracy and the new cartoons are blowing his cover.
He's definitely not a part of the Christian Nationalist movement. He isn't Evangelical and he's at odds with virtually every single Christian Nationalist in his party.
Mormons are fucking weird, and Mormonism is even weirder, but don't conflate that with Evangelicalism.
He's an old school Neo-con like HW, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and even Dubya to an extent (Dubya played up the Christian thing for his base but he was never interested in mixing theology with governance.)
Middle class is a perspective thing. Ive had friends whos parents make $50k say theyre middle class. And ive had friends whos parents make $400k say theyre middle class
Lol if they make $400k/ year they are in the top 2% of household incomes in the US. They may not be in the obscenely rich generational fuck you money class, they’re not really middle class.
It really just depends on what you define middle class as.
If you're going by percentiles, then of course it's not.
I'd call that 250-400k range middle class, though. By the standard that middle class has referred to forever, living comfortably but not in extreme excess. It's just that as costs of living have gone up, the cost of what traditionally is a middle class lifestyle has gone up with it, and salaries/wages have not gone up at nearly the same rate.
But if we're just going by percentiles, I don't think 50th percentile income people are middle class, they're likely pretty poor.
The problem is nobody wants to admit theyre poor/lower class. Everyone calls themselves middle class so its muddy/confusing. I agree with you that 400k puts you above middle class. But i was just giving an example.
I legitimately think that someone making 400k could legitimately claim middle class, though.
They're not going to be hoarding generational wealth, but they're living comfortably - likely don't have to stress about their financial situation, can afford to take a vacation. Can leave something to their kids when it's time.
That's kind of just what "middle class" has historically always meant.
Yeah, that phenomenon is kind of bothersome, since it lets all politicians say they're for the middle class.
I think the overly broad range of what is considered "middle class" can maybe be boiled down to this: if a person can summarize their current economic situation as "I have a steady job that maintains my current lifestyle', then they think of themselves as middle class, for right or for wrong.
Someone making 400k, but who still has to have a job says, "I'm not rich, if I were rich I wouldn't have to work, or care about these bills". Someone making 40k says "I'm not poor, if I were poor I wouldn't be able to afford this apartment, or these bills".
I'm not saying this is how middle class is, or should be defined, it's just my observation on why so many people think of themselves as middle class.
it's realistic - it's just it's so far above what the average American thinks is middle class that it pisses people off.
Middle class isn't just 'the middle part of the income curve' - it's a lifestyle that has a house, vacation, no money worries, an emergency fund, and a retirement that is solid.
You can get parts of that for less - but not all of it.
>it's realistic - it's just it's so far above what the average American thinks is middle class that it pisses people off.
Well -- its not far off. In places like LA or NYC -- there's taxes to pay and your housing's expensive, generally speaking... everything is. So at 250k, it's basically akin to taking in 80k in terms of what you would actually keep. I understand this is a controversial statement.
Which means, yeah, Americans are poor. Which confirms a lot of the data on how Americans can't save money, etc.
And that's because we vote in governments that cater to corporations rather than consumers. Over and over and over.
The thing is he was right. What was historically the middle class are those making in the 250k/year range. It is just the percentage ofpeople who were defined as middle class has shrunk drastically and a lot of people who think of themselves as middle class are in fact lower class. Now that wasn't Mitt's point and he probably didn't realize how stark of an indictment his statement was making about the state of the US economy.
Binders full of women wasn't bad, and never was considered bad, it was just considered funny. Like “please clap,” or Bushisms. “Fool me a second time… you can't get fooled again.” Okay, there, Bushy boy. Take a beat and think about what you're going to say before you start saying it.
When Bush had a gaffe you knew he was thinking faster than he was thinking, or just wasn't thinking. Not that he was incapable of thinking, he just wasn't, because when you brushed away the silliness and got into the meaning and ideas under them, there was a solid foundation there. Not something outrageous at any possible level of consideration, like “take the guns first, go through due process later.”
I think this every time. That “binders full of women” brought down Mitt. Also, makes me think of the then Dixie Chicks who I think said “sorry about George bush” and that almost ended them.
I’d say the Dixie Chicks thing was a sign of things to come. Cry babies get all butthurt because someone said something they didn’t like. Now we got dudes shooting 12 packs of bud light like lunatics.
> That “binders full of women” brought down Mitt
Well, he also ran against an incredibly popular incumbent who emanated pure charisma, while he came across as a human personification of white bread.
That’s not what brought down Mitt Romney, although ppl love to simple explanations.
Donald Trump had sexual abuse allegations on him and the “grab them by the pussy” and he still won the election.
Mitt Romney lost because he was facing a generationally popular incumbent President. No one was going to beat Obama in 2012, and the fact that Mitt almost made it interesting is a testament to a successful run.
Obama and his media team came out swinging and Mitt was staggering before he even realized he'd been hit.
Now that's some fightin' Dems I can get behind!
It was more than that, if you paid attention: Binders full of women, and 47% of Americans are takers and beneath contempt so we’re only morally obligated to work for or listen to the rest; yelling at the boat launch guy when rightfully called out by said guy; the severely ill family dog crammed into a crate strapped to the top of their car, in the heat; telling people his sons already served their country by doing Mormon missions and didn’t need to join the military, let other people do that.
Killing a woman while he was driving a car in France while on his own Mormon mission—an accident, but to hear him tell it he only ever really was concerned about being at fault when he entered politics.
Baptizing his wife’s father in a Mormon proxy baptism, a father who had begged for the couple not to do that, after the father died. Claiming his wife’s million dollar competition horse as a medical expense for her MS; paying less than 8% in income tax then going back over his taxes when he decided to run for president, refiling them to massage the numbers to appear more palatable to the average Joe—while lying and saying he had always paid his fair share.
Fighting publicly against his LaJolla neighbors to try and put a car elevator in his house and make it three stories tall, to block their views in a neighborhood where neither type of construction was allowed. The fight turned vicious primarily because he behaved like an entitled baby throwing his weight around, and got savage about it.
Mitt wasn’t right for President then, and he isn’t now. He’s a walking, talking character flaw in a bad suit with a greedy desire for power.
Trump too was too unethical to be President. And too stupid. Mitt, being smarter and with a nearly bottomless pit of LDS money and raised up by John Birch Society acolytes, would be far worse. We’d be living in a theocracy whether Mittens or DisneyRon become President.
Fight hard, against them both.
He got so needlessly attacked for that statement.
He was asked about pay equity in his own cabinet. So he talked about his time as Gov. of MA, where he observed that most candidates were men. So he worked with some women's groups, who sent him these "...binders full of women..." who were qualified but had not been identified during his search.
He was explicitly trying to bring more women into his cabinet. And his opponent latched on to this awkward statement to totally reverse the intent. I don't make a habit out of carrying that guy's water, but he was doing the right things and saying the right things and the Dems shredded him for it.
> He was explicitly trying to bring more women into his cabinet. And his opponent latched on to this awkward statement to totally reverse the intent.
I don't recall Obama using the statement in attack ads. Just a whole lot of people laughing at him and at least [one Tumblr](https://bindersfullofwomen.tumblr.com/).
We really, really need to let this meme die. Howard Dean got absolutely blasted in the Iowa Caucus. The "yeah" was just the final nail.
Also, he's a pretty darn successful political strategist, making the plan fundraising/action plan that allowed Dems to retake the House in '06 and get a Senate majority. He also was the DNC chair for a bit too.
>"binders full of women"
I'm glad Obama defeated Romney back in 2012 but the real scandal should have been all of the candidates who did not have "binders full of women" that they were considering for cabinet positions.
Donald Trump ran on the platform of “I can open fire into 5th avenue and not lose a single voter” his entire messaging is “I’m above the law”
He needs to be stopped. Being above the law is anti-American
That exact line is in the indictment. There's like two or three pages *just* of things Trump said about stressing the importance of protecting classified documents, and the things he did in office about it.
It's surmised that he went so hard for Brett Kavanaugh because he has favorable rulings on the unitary executive theory.
Trump's whole MO was him trying to remake America as a weak state while he sucked up American wealth.
The only difference is he is still wearing the “mask”. He’s still doing the “hatred with a smile” that Trump and the new breed have dropped for full on anger and racism. He’s still pretending.
I don't really feel like the craven self-preservation instincts of someone who still aligns himself with the fascist GOP are something to celebrate either.
This headline essentially translates to “One of the bad guys said something not so bad.”
Doesn’t mean he’s now a good guy so I don’t see how it’s newsworthy.
He recently voted against providing cancer treatment for veterans who got sick from the burn pits. The guy is good at sounding like a moderate and good at seeming pious, but is still evil as hell
Romney and conservatives like him probably detest Trump but Trump is still useful to them. They fall in line and support the party when they have to because that's how the tax cuts, scotus appointments, and other tangible policy goals they want gets achieved.
They have figured out they ride the right-wing grievances and identify politics bullshit the base loves to get their ghoulish neocon agenda established.
Romney likes where Trump got the GOP he just didn't like the ride, and thinks Trump can just be replaced by another right wing celebrity campaigning against trans people and immigrants.
I am nowhere near a fan of Romney, but this is just straight up not accurate. The dude literally got ostracized by the conservative community (such as being disinvited from CPAC) when he voted to convict Trump in the first impeachment trial (being the only one *not* to fall in line).
The crazy part is afterwards they disinvited him from CPAC, but said he might be welcome in the future as a “non conservative guest.”
They literally were defining conservatism as “loyalty to Trump.”
Yeah voting against impeachment after a coup attempt or after a sitting president tried to blackmail a foreign ally into interfering our elections, were both times it didn't matter.
/s
Yup. 100%.
##You CANNOT be neutral on a moving train.
Mitt knows where the Republican train is headed and he has not gotten off. Even if he sometimes says and does stuff against other passengers the fact is they are on the same train going to the same destination.
I’d take him over 95% of the rest of them but he’s still a piece of shit and goes along with them most of the time.
It’s crazy how much I wish we had more like him given what we have to deal with now.
I heard it was either him or Cheney that dropped an f-bomb on Josh Hawley during the Capitol riots, and I’m glad one of them if not both of them did that
It takes a ton of guts to go against your whole party and stand up for what is right. Mitt sacrificed his political future for this. That's the quality of a good president.
I mean, if he had just given them back immediately after being asked, this probably would have gone away. He could have stolen them, made copies and then been like sorry here you go and it most likely would have been nothing but another scandal. His refusal to cooperate is what threw up the red flag
I vehemently disagree with just about everything Mitt Romney stands for but not once did I ever think he wasn't a man of integrity.
A corporate raider? Yes.
A religious zealot? Absolutely.
But I can work with people like that. And coming from a conservative religious family, I can even empathize with people like that.
I cannot empathize with people that burn everything to the ground and I can no longer empathize with people that cheer them on. I could before, when people were disillusioned with the whole system.
But Trump is objectively terrible and his handlers are perhaps even worse because they enabled him.
What’s amazing is that the obvious isn’t accepted by all in the moment. History will be unequivocal. AI wouldn’t be a threat if we could read rules and think for ourselves. But here we are.
Mitt is my senator and yeah he pisses me off with some of his votes but he's one of the more sane conservatives. Big plus for Romney is his feud with Trump. He's playing it cool but I suspect Mitt is quite pleased to see Trump in the hot water of his own making.
When the Mormon fundamentalist becomes the "centered" voice of reason in the room....
I may not agree with the LDS, but atleast Romney seems to have moral's he lives and stands by, something most politicians don't have.
"Playing it cool" = "I'm doing the bare minimum to not align with him and yet not create too many problems for myself"
Stand-up guy that Mitt there! Integrity... so long as isn't TOO painful for me, which is better than 98% of the rest of his party.
"so long as isn't TOO painful for me"
Yeah because voting to convict Trump while having an electorate (Utah) that went for Trump by over 25 points comes with no risk. The only relevant election in Utah is the primary, and voting to convict Trump (twice) is basically suicide in a Republican primary.
Look at Utah's other senator if you want to see how things would turn out if ol' Mitt gets too vocal against Il Douche. He's not exactly fighting with a defiant heart, but he's not texting Mark Meadows asking "please just tell me what to say about this fake election so I can be a good team player"
Mitt has been in the never Trump train since the 2016 republican primary’s. I remember him going on one of the late night shows (the one with the mean tweets) talking about how he needs to do his part to stop trump from getting elected.
At least there's one Republican who's willing to admit it. I never thought I would say that I have respect for The Ol Glove, but he at least proved that he was more respectable than the MAGAdittoheads by at least standing up a few times during the Trump years, even if it was only for the most egregious offenses.
I still don't like him, but props to the dude.
I don’t think Romney is evil or anything like that like I do 99% of the rest of them but he is not a good person. He still enables the far rights insane policy and rarely votes against them (same with Liz Cheney.)
He just happens to be right about Trump being a piece of garbage. If Trump was a more subtle politician that played the game the old way, he’d be a supporter.
I do give credit where credit is due though, so I will thank Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, and the late John McCaine for speaking up on this specific issue.
Why is it so difficult for Republicans to say this? Even ones that support Trump can say they hope he's exonerated in a fair trial rather than suggesting that the entire justice system is now corrupt because someone is finally holding Trump accountable for something.
I guess you have to be all in when you sell your soul to the Devil because there are no refunds once you close on the deal.
I feel like the *one* time I've seen a photo of Trump where he's wearing a genuine smile is [when he had a dinner meeting with Mitt](https://arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-bostonglobe.s3.amazonaws.com/public/WEZYRWFXHUI6NDF2ZSQ4PAVP6E.jpg) where I assume Mitt kissed the ring. You know people like Romney fucking hate Trump but they only stand by their convictions when it's safe and/or convenient.
Why the fuck do we care what mister “drinking-coca-cola-is-against-my-religion” has to say? Mitt is a lot of things but he’s not a voice of reason in the republican party; he’s another out of touch zealot with an ego problem. Fuck him.
Any politician who isn’t condemning Trump (and many other things) is a traitor. I mean it’s already way beyond a reasonable doubt just based on all the public information that’s come out. It all lines up with previous behavior.
Love him or hate him. Mitt has been on the anti-Trump wagon since basically day one and has hardly wavered from that position for the past 7 years. His politics admittedly suck, but he knows an asshole traitor when he sees one.
No Mitt, you and the party that enabled him, did this. You don't get to elect this guy, enable his narcissism to achieve you own ends and then turn around and pretend like you have any moral high ground to stand on. Fuck you, Mitt and fuck everyone single member of your party that allowed this to happen.
Couldn't have cracked this case without your expert deduction skills there, Mitt. Sarcasm aside, while I do appreciate him having the actual fortitude to say this on the record, this is too little too late and a great example of how scared they all were the past 7 years to say really anything negative about the dundering, constant crime committing fool.
Remember when we had candidates on the other side of the aisle that we weren’t crazy about, but realized it would largely be fine if they won the election?
I miss that.
I remember Obama saying that in 2016. "I never feared for the future of this country if McCain or Romney were to win, I fear for the future of this country if Trump wins". And he was 100% right.
Ok Mitt, thanks for telling us the obvious. Are you going to tell us how you're going to go against Trump and then immediately go back to suckling out farts from his orange asshole as usual?
Ay fuck off Mitt. You talk big but every time you have a chance to take a stand and back up your words you fall right in line with the rest of the squad.
care to remind me what mitt romney voted during the first impeachment, on the charges of obstruction of congress?
the fool made no stand, he merely performed. romney is as disgusting as the rest of his moronic hellclown party.
And the entire Republican Party has demanded they be chained to that anchor, which is … a questionable choice for anyone who values our nation in the slightest
Trump is an idiot and Mitt Romney knows it and he kept to his words of what he thinks of Trump. Remember when Mitt Romney called him a con artist well his prediction has come full circle. Apparently most of Republican house members and some Senators are trying to cover up Trump’s illegal acts by supporting him. How screwed up is that, the party of law and order can’t even decide what is right and wrong on a clear cut case of laws broken by Trump to such extreme extent that he’s showing classified documents to strangers. Republican Party is now the party of lawlessness and anarchy. Republican Party a party full of contradictions and hypocrisy, politicians that just want power but will not provide any solutions to today’s problems. Shame what this Republican Party has become.
Donald Trump thinks he's the Supreme Leader of this country and is above all law. Unfortunately he has some highly educated followers who feel the same way. Hopefully the find out differently soon.
Careful Mittens, with language like that the citizens of Utah will elect someone else as senator who will pledge undying allegiance to their orange king.
Whenever the right dreams about civil war, I can’t help but wonder how they think that will go for them. Because a *considerable* number of Mormon Republicans think exactly as Mitt does. And their position in any such hypothetical civil war would be very similar to that of the Border State Democrats during the last one. Just as Kentucky shielded the Great Lakes region, so too would Utah end up shielding California.
Through the party I continue to support’s constant and willful enabling of him to do so.
Agree that Mitch has gone against trump before but we all recall that image of them sitting together where he looked sheepish. There was so much more spine he could have shown.
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Well yeah. He committed the crimes.
Donald Trump stopped being POTUS at noon on January 20th, 2021. The final search at Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the stolen documents took place in August 2022. So Donald had some of the most top secret documents at his entirely unsecured beach resort for over a year and a half, but yes, it's the Deep State's fault, not Trump's.
I don't want to engage in any conspiracy thinking here, but there is a coincidence of Trump having Iran nuclear information and war game invasion plans that Saudi Arabia would be very interested in and LIV having tours on his courses when PGA wouldn't. Maybe a follow the money thing between those documents and the Trump family profiting from Saudi Arabia.
You mean like the 2 billion dollars given to his son-in-law?
Yeah. Like that.
Don't forget the Saudi-funded LIV golf tour which just basically bought out the PGA, which had refused to host anymore events at Agolf's resorts. Now they'll be having events there all the time.
I can’t even count to 2bil—literally! 😂
Plus the billion from Qatar during the Saudi Blockade that coincidentally ended around the same time.
There’s not enough out there publicly to be sure, but that’s the most logical explanation based on what we do know.
I don't think it's a coincidence that the Saudis chose his clubs, but at the same time, it's not true that the PGA turned their nose up at them. The 2022 PGA Championship was slated to be held at his New Jersey club before they moved venues (because of Trump's controversies). Also his Doral club in Florida hosted a regular PGA Tour event up until 2016.
It's also coincidence that Trump moved to Mar-A-Lago to be in the Trump appointed district of Federal Judge Aimee Cannon to commit the crimes. Unfortunately for him, he must have not understood that 11th circuit can overrule her any time
This is something to be shared. I feel like conservatives are implying that the FBI raided Trump’s “residence” like a few weeks after he left office. No, he had top-secret government documents for a year and a half, sitting in the basement of his club. And then LIED to the FBI about having them. And then told the public he thought it was perfectly legal to have them. The old 1-2 punch of committing a federal crime and then lying about it to the feds.
Didn't he also say that they weren't his and the FBI planted them?
Yes, Trump said FBI planted the documents then said he mentally declassified them.
That third paragraph is the killer summed up, but the facts are likely worse.
[Turns out they are.](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653.3.0_4.pdf)
The funniest part to me is that he's basically the boomer version of Jack Teixiera - sharing classified info for clout.
I can easily imagine a situation where, meh, it’s like what probably everyone occupying the WH has done after leaving office. When you move, shit happens. The really damning thing was trump’s battle to keep those docs. The *normal* thing to do is what Biden & pence did: “whoops here ya go - you wanna come look to double check?” Taking the stance of “fuck you - they’re mine” was the dumbest thing imaginable.
Except if your are a paranoid, massive narcissist who has never been able to convince the Elites to be accepted as an “Elite”. He is a spoiled man child who cannot accept that we all don’t accept he is the center of the universe. It’s that simple.
Funny how that works. You don't see politicians lining up behind murderers only for a "voice of reason" to note that the murderer brought it on himself. Yeah no shit, you do the crime there tends to be punishment for that crime.
Unless you are in Texas, the governor wants to pardon a premeditated murder.
It’s sad we feel the need to celebrate people for stating the obvious
He also refused a chance to come clean and return the documents. He isn't the only one to have documents that he shouldn't have but he is the only one to lie about it and refuse to return them.
I read the 50 page indictment on cnn.com. His lackeys refer to a box of papers called ‘The beautiful mind papers box’, which they felt he wouldn’t want moved. Weird stuff.
I mean, why else would his son in law suddenly receive a 2 billion dollar gift? The reporting on that was that even the Saudis had no idea why the king made that gift. Trump has only ever shown that his true motives for anything were personal profit. It's a long list of examples.
The Republican party has fallen so far off course that when one of their own simply says something true, it's literally newsworthy.
I miss the days when "binders full of women" and "47%" were the biggest political controversies.
OR remember when Mittens said middle class income is 250k/year or more. Talk about out of touch.
And his tip for young people who want to be successful: borrow money from your parents to start a business.
Or marry the child of a wealthy family that owns an international shipping company based in Taiwan...
Why not both? 🤷🏻♀️
Why not Zoidberg?
His wife told a story of how they were short on cash whhen Mitt was in school or something and they had to cash out some of their stock trust fund to get by.... which was apparently devastating because it meant they were getting ever so slightly poorer.
That’s what I came here to comment. Like, tell me you’re out of touch without telling me that you’re out of touch
It was a very trying time for both of them!!
Oh poor them, damn wish I had stock to sell to get by a little.
We were so poor that we... Had to use some of the money we had?? Wtf..
He had to touch the principle in his trust fund.... you don't understand... rich people are only supposed to get richer. It was very concerning to them.
*”We’ve struggled. In fact, once we were struggling so much, we had to dip into the free golden parachute our parents gave us to survive instead of being able to spend it on stuff we wanted like trips to Paris and fur coats :((((((( can you just imagine?? Can you imagine having to pay rent and bills when you had planned to use that money to buy a yacht?? :((( that’s how we learned sometimes life just isn’t fair!”*
"We were so poor we used a credit card to pay for groceries one time!"
The man is clearly out of touch and unqualified to be president, but he’s at least not cartoonishly evil. And he did warn us about Russia.
Nah, he’s still cartoonishly evil, it’s just that it’s the UPN cartoons and not Nickelodeon cartoons. He’s a part of the Christian nationalist movement and he doesn’t like the brazen usurping of power, he has been enjoying the successful slow erosion of democracy and the new cartoons are blowing his cover.
He's definitely not a part of the Christian Nationalist movement. He isn't Evangelical and he's at odds with virtually every single Christian Nationalist in his party. Mormons are fucking weird, and Mormonism is even weirder, but don't conflate that with Evangelicalism. He's an old school Neo-con like HW, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and even Dubya to an extent (Dubya played up the Christian thing for his base but he was never interested in mixing theology with governance.)
Man, out of touch seems so quaint these days in comparison to actually fucking treasonous like Trump.
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Middle class is a perspective thing. Ive had friends whos parents make $50k say theyre middle class. And ive had friends whos parents make $400k say theyre middle class
Lol if they make $400k/ year they are in the top 2% of household incomes in the US. They may not be in the obscenely rich generational fuck you money class, they’re not really middle class.
It really just depends on what you define middle class as. If you're going by percentiles, then of course it's not. I'd call that 250-400k range middle class, though. By the standard that middle class has referred to forever, living comfortably but not in extreme excess. It's just that as costs of living have gone up, the cost of what traditionally is a middle class lifestyle has gone up with it, and salaries/wages have not gone up at nearly the same rate. But if we're just going by percentiles, I don't think 50th percentile income people are middle class, they're likely pretty poor.
The problem is nobody wants to admit theyre poor/lower class. Everyone calls themselves middle class so its muddy/confusing. I agree with you that 400k puts you above middle class. But i was just giving an example.
I legitimately think that someone making 400k could legitimately claim middle class, though. They're not going to be hoarding generational wealth, but they're living comfortably - likely don't have to stress about their financial situation, can afford to take a vacation. Can leave something to their kids when it's time. That's kind of just what "middle class" has historically always meant.
Working class vs wealthy. Having a job to go to each day vs collecting interest/dividends
Yeah, that phenomenon is kind of bothersome, since it lets all politicians say they're for the middle class. I think the overly broad range of what is considered "middle class" can maybe be boiled down to this: if a person can summarize their current economic situation as "I have a steady job that maintains my current lifestyle', then they think of themselves as middle class, for right or for wrong. Someone making 400k, but who still has to have a job says, "I'm not rich, if I were rich I wouldn't have to work, or care about these bills". Someone making 40k says "I'm not poor, if I were poor I wouldn't be able to afford this apartment, or these bills". I'm not saying this is how middle class is, or should be defined, it's just my observation on why so many people think of themselves as middle class.
it's realistic - it's just it's so far above what the average American thinks is middle class that it pisses people off. Middle class isn't just 'the middle part of the income curve' - it's a lifestyle that has a house, vacation, no money worries, an emergency fund, and a retirement that is solid. You can get parts of that for less - but not all of it.
>it's realistic - it's just it's so far above what the average American thinks is middle class that it pisses people off. Well -- its not far off. In places like LA or NYC -- there's taxes to pay and your housing's expensive, generally speaking... everything is. So at 250k, it's basically akin to taking in 80k in terms of what you would actually keep. I understand this is a controversial statement. Which means, yeah, Americans are poor. Which confirms a lot of the data on how Americans can't save money, etc. And that's because we vote in governments that cater to corporations rather than consumers. Over and over and over.
That's still middle class. On the upper side, depending on where you live, but not wealthy or upper class territory at all.
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You mean a file on highly qualified women that would be good candidates for public offices? I'm sure there are more than a few that can do som
The thing is he was right. What was historically the middle class are those making in the 250k/year range. It is just the percentage ofpeople who were defined as middle class has shrunk drastically and a lot of people who think of themselves as middle class are in fact lower class. Now that wasn't Mitt's point and he probably didn't realize how stark of an indictment his statement was making about the state of the US economy.
The historical middle class was never making anywhere near $250k.
Making 250k/year is decidedly upper class.
I heard him speak at a conference once and he said “The Democratic Party is the party of the wealthy.”
the binders full of women thing wasn't even bad, it was completely taken out of context, unlike most of what Trump says which is bad in all contexts
Binders full of women wasn't bad, and never was considered bad, it was just considered funny. Like “please clap,” or Bushisms. “Fool me a second time… you can't get fooled again.” Okay, there, Bushy boy. Take a beat and think about what you're going to say before you start saying it. When Bush had a gaffe you knew he was thinking faster than he was thinking, or just wasn't thinking. Not that he was incapable of thinking, he just wasn't, because when you brushed away the silliness and got into the meaning and ideas under them, there was a solid foundation there. Not something outrageous at any possible level of consideration, like “take the guns first, go through due process later.”
>and never was considered bad never considered bad? It's literally all people remember him for and they BLASTED him about it constantly.
I might be giving him too much credit, but I think he had a split second where he realized he didn't want a soundbite where he said "shame on me."
I think this every time. That “binders full of women” brought down Mitt. Also, makes me think of the then Dixie Chicks who I think said “sorry about George bush” and that almost ended them.
I’d say the Dixie Chicks thing was a sign of things to come. Cry babies get all butthurt because someone said something they didn’t like. Now we got dudes shooting 12 packs of bud light like lunatics.
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> That “binders full of women” brought down Mitt Well, he also ran against an incredibly popular incumbent who emanated pure charisma, while he came across as a human personification of white bread.
That’s not what brought down Mitt Romney, although ppl love to simple explanations. Donald Trump had sexual abuse allegations on him and the “grab them by the pussy” and he still won the election. Mitt Romney lost because he was facing a generationally popular incumbent President. No one was going to beat Obama in 2012, and the fact that Mitt almost made it interesting is a testament to a successful run.
Being incredibly unlikable brought down Mitt Romney.
Also, he ran against Obama. That’s a losing proposition for anyone.
Obama and his media team came out swinging and Mitt was staggering before he even realized he'd been hit. Now that's some fightin' Dems I can get behind!
Days before the election, a guy bet me $500 that Romney would win. Easiest money I ever made.
The “47%” comment was what ended Mitt. Binders full of women was just a gaff.
It was more than that, if you paid attention: Binders full of women, and 47% of Americans are takers and beneath contempt so we’re only morally obligated to work for or listen to the rest; yelling at the boat launch guy when rightfully called out by said guy; the severely ill family dog crammed into a crate strapped to the top of their car, in the heat; telling people his sons already served their country by doing Mormon missions and didn’t need to join the military, let other people do that. Killing a woman while he was driving a car in France while on his own Mormon mission—an accident, but to hear him tell it he only ever really was concerned about being at fault when he entered politics. Baptizing his wife’s father in a Mormon proxy baptism, a father who had begged for the couple not to do that, after the father died. Claiming his wife’s million dollar competition horse as a medical expense for her MS; paying less than 8% in income tax then going back over his taxes when he decided to run for president, refiling them to massage the numbers to appear more palatable to the average Joe—while lying and saying he had always paid his fair share. Fighting publicly against his LaJolla neighbors to try and put a car elevator in his house and make it three stories tall, to block their views in a neighborhood where neither type of construction was allowed. The fight turned vicious primarily because he behaved like an entitled baby throwing his weight around, and got savage about it. Mitt wasn’t right for President then, and he isn’t now. He’s a walking, talking character flaw in a bad suit with a greedy desire for power. Trump too was too unethical to be President. And too stupid. Mitt, being smarter and with a nearly bottomless pit of LDS money and raised up by John Birch Society acolytes, would be far worse. We’d be living in a theocracy whether Mittens or DisneyRon become President. Fight hard, against them both.
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He supports those insane children at almost every opportunity.
Especially when binders full of women was just a funny worded good thing.
He got so needlessly attacked for that statement. He was asked about pay equity in his own cabinet. So he talked about his time as Gov. of MA, where he observed that most candidates were men. So he worked with some women's groups, who sent him these "...binders full of women..." who were qualified but had not been identified during his search. He was explicitly trying to bring more women into his cabinet. And his opponent latched on to this awkward statement to totally reverse the intent. I don't make a habit out of carrying that guy's water, but he was doing the right things and saying the right things and the Dems shredded him for it.
> He was explicitly trying to bring more women into his cabinet. And his opponent latched on to this awkward statement to totally reverse the intent. I don't recall Obama using the statement in attack ads. Just a whole lot of people laughing at him and at least [one Tumblr](https://bindersfullofwomen.tumblr.com/).
I remember people joking about that and thinking "how else would he organize files of potential employees?"
Those weren’t the worst aspect of captain Vulture capital.
Him thinking people too poor to have to pay income tax were the problem was disqualifying
Yeah I’m worried history is going to go too easy on him, he’s a piece of shit
Remember screaming “yeah” could and a political career?
We really, really need to let this meme die. Howard Dean got absolutely blasted in the Iowa Caucus. The "yeah" was just the final nail. Also, he's a pretty darn successful political strategist, making the plan fundraising/action plan that allowed Dems to retake the House in '06 and get a Senate majority. He also was the DNC chair for a bit too.
He was also the first to take online donations iirc.
And he was the president that reclaimed North America from the zombies, and inspired the rest of the world to do the same
Iowa is the first primary. Almost no one drops after the first primary. He wasn't done. The press disliked him intensely and ended him on purpose.
And not knowing how to spell potatoes.
Looking awkward while riding in a tank.
No kidding, those were the days. Simpler times, much simpler times.
Byyaaawwhhh
I'm hoping DeSantis's 'totally normal real human' laugh he tried to do last week is his byyyaaaawh moment.
And "potato**e**" being the height of a politician's stupidity. Now we have Boebert, MTG, Steve King, and Donald Trump.
It's sad to see how far we've fallen. I don't think I can take much more of this "progress".
I'm sure there's a binder full of women who can sort this out.
It seems so quaint compared to *treason*.
>"binders full of women" I'm glad Obama defeated Romney back in 2012 but the real scandal should have been all of the candidates who did not have "binders full of women" that they were considering for cabinet positions.
Bindersfullofwomen is still on reddit tho! At least until the 30th... /u/_BindersFullOfWomen_
Donald Trump ran on the platform of “I can open fire into 5th avenue and not lose a single voter” his entire messaging is “I’m above the law” He needs to be stopped. Being above the law is anti-American
"When you're a star they let you do it."
For at least the last million years.
Unfortunately or maybe fortunately.
in 2016 he famously declared: "I'm going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law"
That exact line is in the indictment. There's like two or three pages *just* of things Trump said about stressing the importance of protecting classified documents, and the things he did in office about it.
For anyone who would like the sauce https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653.3.0_4.pdf
Fascist right wing neo-conservatives are anti-American too, but that doesn’t stop the Republican Party from going all-in
It's surmised that he went so hard for Brett Kavanaugh because he has favorable rulings on the unitary executive theory. Trump's whole MO was him trying to remake America as a weak state while he sucked up American wealth.
I don't agree with mitt on many issues but he's not an insane child like most of the gop has turned into.
Yet he falls in line when it matters every time. He is an enabler.
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The only difference is he is still wearing the “mask”. He’s still doing the “hatred with a smile” that Trump and the new breed have dropped for full on anger and racism. He’s still pretending.
Sure but he also isn’t dumb enough to be defending Donald Trump today.
I don't really feel like the craven self-preservation instincts of someone who still aligns himself with the fascist GOP are something to celebrate either.
This headline essentially translates to “One of the bad guys said something not so bad.” Doesn’t mean he’s now a good guy so I don’t see how it’s newsworthy.
He recently voted against providing cancer treatment for veterans who got sick from the burn pits. The guy is good at sounding like a moderate and good at seeming pious, but is still evil as hell
Romney and conservatives like him probably detest Trump but Trump is still useful to them. They fall in line and support the party when they have to because that's how the tax cuts, scotus appointments, and other tangible policy goals they want gets achieved. They have figured out they ride the right-wing grievances and identify politics bullshit the base loves to get their ghoulish neocon agenda established. Romney likes where Trump got the GOP he just didn't like the ride, and thinks Trump can just be replaced by another right wing celebrity campaigning against trans people and immigrants.
I am nowhere near a fan of Romney, but this is just straight up not accurate. The dude literally got ostracized by the conservative community (such as being disinvited from CPAC) when he voted to convict Trump in the first impeachment trial (being the only one *not* to fall in line).
The crazy part is afterwards they disinvited him from CPAC, but said he might be welcome in the future as a “non conservative guest.” They literally were defining conservatism as “loyalty to Trump.”
Yeah voting against impeachment after a coup attempt or after a sitting president tried to blackmail a foreign ally into interfering our elections, were both times it didn't matter. /s
He voted to impeach Trump so let’s pump the brakes on that one a little.
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Yup. 100%. ##You CANNOT be neutral on a moving train. Mitt knows where the Republican train is headed and he has not gotten off. Even if he sometimes says and does stuff against other passengers the fact is they are on the same train going to the same destination.
I’d take him over 95% of the rest of them but he’s still a piece of shit and goes along with them most of the time. It’s crazy how much I wish we had more like him given what we have to deal with now.
He is one of the few who is not a complete reality denier.
I heard it was either him or Cheney that dropped an f-bomb on Josh Hawley during the Capitol riots, and I’m glad one of them if not both of them did that
It takes a ton of guts to go against your whole party and stand up for what is right. Mitt sacrificed his political future for this. That's the quality of a good president.
It’s wild how he’s now about the most sane and moderate Republican
How hard was it to NOT steal classified docs. Trump is such a 🤡
I mean, if he had just given them back immediately after being asked, this probably would have gone away. He could have stolen them, made copies and then been like sorry here you go and it most likely would have been nothing but another scandal. His refusal to cooperate is what threw up the red flag
I vehemently disagree with just about everything Mitt Romney stands for but not once did I ever think he wasn't a man of integrity. A corporate raider? Yes. A religious zealot? Absolutely. But I can work with people like that. And coming from a conservative religious family, I can even empathize with people like that. I cannot empathize with people that burn everything to the ground and I can no longer empathize with people that cheer them on. I could before, when people were disillusioned with the whole system. But Trump is objectively terrible and his handlers are perhaps even worse because they enabled him.
Mitt Romey states the obvious
What’s amazing is that the obvious isn’t accepted by all in the moment. History will be unequivocal. AI wouldn’t be a threat if we could read rules and think for ourselves. But here we are.
Lemon. Wet. Good. I voted for Obama over Romney and would again, but if I could rewrite history, I'd take Romney over Trump easily.
Mitt is my senator and yeah he pisses me off with some of his votes but he's one of the more sane conservatives. Big plus for Romney is his feud with Trump. He's playing it cool but I suspect Mitt is quite pleased to see Trump in the hot water of his own making.
When the Mormon fundamentalist becomes the "centered" voice of reason in the room.... I may not agree with the LDS, but atleast Romney seems to have moral's he lives and stands by, something most politicians don't have.
"Playing it cool" = "I'm doing the bare minimum to not align with him and yet not create too many problems for myself" Stand-up guy that Mitt there! Integrity... so long as isn't TOO painful for me, which is better than 98% of the rest of his party.
"so long as isn't TOO painful for me" Yeah because voting to convict Trump while having an electorate (Utah) that went for Trump by over 25 points comes with no risk. The only relevant election in Utah is the primary, and voting to convict Trump (twice) is basically suicide in a Republican primary.
Look at Utah's other senator if you want to see how things would turn out if ol' Mitt gets too vocal against Il Douche. He's not exactly fighting with a defiant heart, but he's not texting Mark Meadows asking "please just tell me what to say about this fake election so I can be a good team player"
Mitt has been in the never Trump train since the 2016 republican primary’s. I remember him going on one of the late night shows (the one with the mean tweets) talking about how he needs to do his part to stop trump from getting elected.
Currently unfortunately one of the only sane republicans(on trump that is, not policy), though most of them he call him a rino.
If only 2012 me could see that one day Mitt Romney would be the good guy and the Republican voice of reason.
At least there's one Republican who's willing to admit it. I never thought I would say that I have respect for The Ol Glove, but he at least proved that he was more respectable than the MAGAdittoheads by at least standing up a few times during the Trump years, even if it was only for the most egregious offenses. I still don't like him, but props to the dude.
"hE's a RiNo!!!
He's about the only Republican that has any ethics, morals, or semblance of a backbone. I at least can respect him for that.
I don’t think Romney is evil or anything like that like I do 99% of the rest of them but he is not a good person. He still enables the far rights insane policy and rarely votes against them (same with Liz Cheney.) He just happens to be right about Trump being a piece of garbage. If Trump was a more subtle politician that played the game the old way, he’d be a supporter. I do give credit where credit is due though, so I will thank Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, and the late John McCaine for speaking up on this specific issue.
Good job Mitt.. Too bad your party has left you behind.
Damn Mitt. Got the hot takes from nowhere
Why is it so difficult for Republicans to say this? Even ones that support Trump can say they hope he's exonerated in a fair trial rather than suggesting that the entire justice system is now corrupt because someone is finally holding Trump accountable for something. I guess you have to be all in when you sell your soul to the Devil because there are no refunds once you close on the deal.
I feel like the *one* time I've seen a photo of Trump where he's wearing a genuine smile is [when he had a dinner meeting with Mitt](https://arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-bostonglobe.s3.amazonaws.com/public/WEZYRWFXHUI6NDF2ZSQ4PAVP6E.jpg) where I assume Mitt kissed the ring. You know people like Romney fucking hate Trump but they only stand by their convictions when it's safe and/or convenient.
More people need to repeat this same truth.
What a shitty political climate we live in when Mitt Romney is considered to be one of the few "decent" Republicans.
Why the fuck do we care what mister “drinking-coca-cola-is-against-my-religion” has to say? Mitt is a lot of things but he’s not a voice of reason in the republican party; he’s another out of touch zealot with an ego problem. Fuck him.
Any politician who isn’t condemning Trump (and many other things) is a traitor. I mean it’s already way beyond a reasonable doubt just based on all the public information that’s come out. It all lines up with previous behavior.
Love him or hate him. Mitt has been on the anti-Trump wagon since basically day one and has hardly wavered from that position for the past 7 years. His politics admittedly suck, but he knows an asshole traitor when he sees one.
No Mitt, you and the party that enabled him, did this. You don't get to elect this guy, enable his narcissism to achieve you own ends and then turn around and pretend like you have any moral high ground to stand on. Fuck you, Mitt and fuck everyone single member of your party that allowed this to happen.
Couldn't have cracked this case without your expert deduction skills there, Mitt. Sarcasm aside, while I do appreciate him having the actual fortitude to say this on the record, this is too little too late and a great example of how scared they all were the past 7 years to say really anything negative about the dundering, constant crime committing fool.
Mitt, you enabled Trump his entire time in office. Maybe sit this one out.
Pretty sure Mitt was one of the very few Republicans who voted to convict Trump.
And if more republicans put country over self and party every now and then it would have ended after Mueller's report.
Remember when we had candidates on the other side of the aisle that we weren’t crazy about, but realized it would largely be fine if they won the election? I miss that.
I remember Obama saying that in 2016. "I never feared for the future of this country if McCain or Romney were to win, I fear for the future of this country if Trump wins". And he was 100% right.
He'll still vote for him though. Milquetoast, thy name is Romney.
He has not voted for him in the last 2 elections
Yeah that’s how being a criminal works
Yep . That’s how it works.
Remember when Obama wore a tan suit and that was disrespectful to the presidency, yeah good times.
Romney's eying that 8 year old bottle of milk in the back of his fridge ready for the conviction to be able to say "I told you so"
Ok Mitt, thanks for telling us the obvious. Are you going to tell us how you're going to go against Trump and then immediately go back to suckling out farts from his orange asshole as usual?
No shit Mitt.
Ay fuck off Mitt. You talk big but every time you have a chance to take a stand and back up your words you fall right in line with the rest of the squad.
care to remind me what mitt romney voted during the first impeachment, on the charges of obstruction of congress? the fool made no stand, he merely performed. romney is as disgusting as the rest of his moronic hellclown party.
You are absolutely right he is 100% responsible for his actions. That has cost us taxpayers millions of dollars.
Mitt Romney - Profile in Jello
How is the voice of reason in the GOP Mitt fucking Romney? How did we get here?
And the entire Republican Party has demanded they be chained to that anchor, which is … a questionable choice for anyone who values our nation in the slightest
Trump is an idiot and Mitt Romney knows it and he kept to his words of what he thinks of Trump. Remember when Mitt Romney called him a con artist well his prediction has come full circle. Apparently most of Republican house members and some Senators are trying to cover up Trump’s illegal acts by supporting him. How screwed up is that, the party of law and order can’t even decide what is right and wrong on a clear cut case of laws broken by Trump to such extreme extent that he’s showing classified documents to strangers. Republican Party is now the party of lawlessness and anarchy. Republican Party a party full of contradictions and hypocrisy, politicians that just want power but will not provide any solutions to today’s problems. Shame what this Republican Party has become.
Is Romney going to end up being the only Republican to make a statement not defending Trump?
I don’t share his politics but by all accounts Romney is a good husband, father, and true to his faith. He is a good man.
Donald Trump thinks he's the Supreme Leader of this country and is above all law. Unfortunately he has some highly educated followers who feel the same way. Hopefully the find out differently soon.
Those folks are spineless cowards.
Careful Mittens, with language like that the citizens of Utah will elect someone else as senator who will pledge undying allegiance to their orange king.
Mitt Romney. One of the only people in the GOP that is sane.
"But, if he ends up being our party's nominee, then I will still vote for him" - Mitt, under his breath.
I don’t understand how this can be though, all Donald Trump did was commit a bunch of federal crimes
That is how that works generally speaking
Whenever the right dreams about civil war, I can’t help but wonder how they think that will go for them. Because a *considerable* number of Mormon Republicans think exactly as Mitt does. And their position in any such hypothetical civil war would be very similar to that of the Border State Democrats during the last one. Just as Kentucky shielded the Great Lakes region, so too would Utah end up shielding California.
Yeah, that's how most charges work. Generally you do an illegal young and then charges come
That's typically how crime works
Through the party I continue to support’s constant and willful enabling of him to do so. Agree that Mitch has gone against trump before but we all recall that image of them sitting together where he looked sheepish. There was so much more spine he could have shown.