Faceless group working to censure Trump
A group with hidden backers is quietly working to force Congress to formally condemn President Donald Trump.
The group took out a full page ad in The New York Times this week to makes its case for censuring the president based on 34 of his actions they believe are beneath the nation’s highest office.
“From the time Donald Trump assumed the Presidency, he has been engaging in continuing acts of misconduct requiring that he be Censured by both the Senate and House. While some of Trump’s actions may be sufficient to support his impeachment, we believe that at a minimum they require his immediate Censure by Congress,” the group said.
The New York Times didn’t reveal who took out the ad or how much it cost, but it ran in a section of the paper that usually would command upwards of $80,000 for advertising.
The American Spectator speculated about the ad’s origination as follows:
The censure petition in today’s Times was the brainchild of Jules Bernstein, the doyen of the Washington, D.C., pro-labor bar, and Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007 in the administration of President George W. Bush. Painter, a lifelong Republican, is a professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota. When they began their campaign last year, Painter said he urged “our fellow citizens to join us in our effort, and I implore every member of Congress to exercise his or her authority to censure President Trump for his gross misconduct in office as specified in our Petition.”
Here’s the full list of reasons the group gave for wanting Trump censured:
1. Firing FBI Director James Comey for his refusal to terminate the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election and his investigation of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn;2. Disclosing classified information to Russian representatives in the Oval Office on May 10, 2017;3. Disgracing the Office of President by repeatedly and knowingly making false statements to the press and public;4. Wrongfully admonishing Attorney General Sessions for recusing himself from the Russian election interference investigation;5. Continuing to receive profits and Emoluments from foreign governments in violation of Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution;6. Ridiculing women on the basis of their looks and insinuating that they lack intelligence;7. Withdrawing from the Paris climate accords;8. Refusing to release his income tax returns;9. Defending the improper effort by his son, son-in-law and Campaign Chairman to obtain damaging information from Russian sources about Hillary Clinton.10. Encouraging police misconduct;11. Adopting an unlawful immigration ban;12. Adopting an unlawful ban on transgender people serving in the military;13. Describing some violent racist protesters in Charlottesville as “very nice people”;14. Abusing the Pardon Power by pardoning flagrant law violator, Joe Arpaio;15. Callously and cruelly withdrawing the protections of DACA from 800,000 “Dreamers.”16. Recklessly and crudely urging the owners of NFL franchises to fire players who non-violently and silently protest discrimination prior to games;17. Recklessly threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea in violation of international law;18. Attacking the Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, for seeking additional federal assistance in connection with the Hurricane Maria humanitarian crisis;19. Ending ACA subsidies in the billions by Executive Order which will deprive low income citizens of desperately needed health care;20. Interfering with due process and the due administration of law by urging the Justice Department to prosecute Trump’s political opponents and adversaries, and urging capital punishment of alleged criminals before trial.21. Publishing false and inflammatory right-wing British videos allegedly depicting Muslims engaging in violence;22. Attacking the integrity and efficiency of the FBI and lamenting the results upon the life of General Michael Flynn from his guilty plea to a federal felony;23. Endorsing and campaigning for Roy Moore, a racist Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate credibly accused by several Alabama women of sexually assaulting them when he was in his thirties and they were teenagers;24. Withdrawing millions of acres of federal land from protection from mining and development;25. Uttering a racial slur against Senator Elizabeth Warren and all Native Americans;26. Declaring in a sexist manner that Senator Kirsten Gillibrand had come to his business office “begging” for political contributions and that she “would do anything for them.”27. Choosing multiple unfit and dangerous federal judicial nominees for lifetime appointments, including Brett Talley who has never tried a case in court and received an unqualified ranking by the non-partisan American Bar Association and Jeff Mateer who has previously described transgender youth as part of “Satan’s plan”.28. Claiming on December 28, 2017, that he had an “absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department,” notwithstanding the well-established independence of the Justice Department from political influence;29. Again threatening North Korea with the use of his “Nuclear Button,” on January 2,2018;30. Improperly suggesting that whether he would pardon Michael Flynn would depend on the outcome of the Mueller investigation and Flynn’s testimony;31. Threatening an author and a publisher for having published a book critical of him, in violation of the prohibition against prior restraints and the First Amendment.32. Insulted Senator Diane Feinstein for having released publicly a transcript of a witness’s testimony in connection with a Senatorial probe of Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election;33. Called our country’s libel laws a “sham” and “disgrace” and said he would consider changing them when in fact they are limited by the First Amendment’s protections of free speech;34. In a crude and racist manner insulted Haiti and certain African countries, and their citizens, at a meeting with members of Congress on January 11, 2018
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