kentuck
kentuck's JournalWhy the Committee should not call Rudy Giuliani to testify right now?
They should place him somewhere farther down the list.
Because he is very good at muddying the waters.
They don't really need his color commentating at this time, in my opinion.
Also, he appears to be trying to cover his ass. When this story broke, it did not take Rudy very long to go on TV and let everyone know that he had permission from the State Dept. It wasn't his fault, he wanted them to know.
Rudy is a distraction.
The Traitor Party
They should no longer be known as Republicans.
After all they have heard. After all they have seen. After all they have read.
They cannot now separate themselves from the betrayal now being perpetrated.
They have betrayed our country and all the people that trusted them.
"Shell shocked and total panic"?
What does that mean?
I just heard Katy Tur explaining the environment in the White House.
Have they shat themselves ?
The Bigger Picture: Trump was helping Putin in Ukraine
We should not forget that Trump remains Putin's Puppet.
Putin has troops and tanks in the eastern provinces of Ukraine as we speak. Do not be surprised if Putin moves to take over the entire area while we discuss impeachment.
Trump has been doing all he can do to give Putin's troops time to consolidate their gains. Not only did he decide to hold up funds for the Ukrainians to defend themselves, he also said he was going to hold up the funds until the countries in Europe donated more.
This was all done to benefit Vladimir Putin.
Donald Trump is still working for the interests of Russia, for whatever reason?
The First Cover-Up
The first cover-up began when the IG passed the WB complaint to the DNI and he did not follow the law.
Instead of passing it to the Intel Committee as required, he notified the White House and the DOJ. Also, it was cycled thru the OLC and the WH lawyers. They informed the DNI that it should go no further.
To his credit, the DNI did bring the WB complaint to the Committee.
This was the first cover-up.
The second cover-up began when the WH decided to move transcripts of calls between Trump and other foreign leaders to a more secret and secure server.
The whistleblower was right !!
We first heard about the whistleblower when Adam Schiff made a statement that a whistleblower had come forth.
When the news about what the whistleblower was saying swept thru the Congress, Pelosi could see the wave coming. She surprised Trump and the Republicans by calling for a formal impeachment inquiry.
They only had 135 Congressmen supporting impeachment before the whistleblower story broke. Today, on MSNBC, they showed the present count at 223. When Chris Matthews asked Maxine Waters when they would have enough votes to impeach, Maxine smiled like a Cheshire cat and said, "We got 'em".
At first, Trump was saying that he "might" release the transcript of his talk with the Ukraine president?
But when Nancy said we were going to have a formal impeachment inquiry, the number of Democrats that supported impeachment started going up and up.
Trump says he will release a redacted version of his phone call with the Ukraine president. When he released it, he admitted to just what the whistleblower had said in his complaint! He mentioned finding dirt on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. He mentioned several people that were helping him, including William Barr and Rudy Giuliani. Many Republicans could not believe what they were hearing.
So today, the House Intel Committee met with DNI Joseph Maquire, and they had the actual whistleblower complaint to work from. It was almost word for word, in some instances, of what was in the transcript released by Trump yesterday.
Trump is now threatening whistleblowers and those that aid them. He wants to go back to the old ways of treating "spies".
The truth really hurts!
There's a consistency to Trump's law-breaking.
The very next day, after Mueller finished his report, Donald Trump made the phone call to the Ukraine president. He was emboldened by the spin on the Mueller investigation. He was ready to try it again.
He didn't need the State Dept or his National Security. He had Rudy. They were a team. They were like a Mom and Pop operation being run out of their basement.
Unfortunately, they were dealing with national security issues.
The pattern of law-breaking has been a feature of the Trump White House since Day One. There is no reason to suspect that it will stop anytime soon.
There will be another incident. And another. Congress will not have to wait long before there is something else to investigate.
In order to maintain oversight, the Congress will need an open-end investigation that never stops.
Beyond the Spin and the Smoke
The President of the United States had his personal lawyer go to Ukraine to try and get Ukraine officials to find dirt on a political opponent.
He made arrangements thru those channels to have a phone conversation Trump and the President of Ukraine.
In his phone conversation with Zelensky, he was told that Ukraine may need more anti-tank missiles. The President of the United States then told him that he had a favor to ask? He wanted dirt on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. He wanted the information to use in his political campaign for next year's election.
But, a whistleblower came forward with information he had gathered from numerous senior officials of government and took the information to the IG of the Intelligence Community.
The IG deemed the information credible and urgent.
Then the system broke down.
When the IG took the whistleblower complaint to the DNI, as the rules require, the DNI took the information to the White House and the DOJ.
He did not follow the law. He was supposed to send it to the Senate and House Intel Committees. He was not supposed to make a judgement on it, just because Donald Trump and Bill Barr were mentioned in the complaint. There was no executive privilege to be claimed.
The whistleblower was also informed of a code-word level of security that was normally used to store information about covert operations and other very sensitive material. The whistleblower was told by a source that the conversation between Trump and Zelensky was taken off the normal computer system and was placed with the sensitive covert computer system. Also, he was told that other conversations with leaders were also placed in this secret system.
Thru the smoke and the spin, these are the facts that Congress must deal with.
It is an impeachment inquiry - not a formal impeachment proceeding.
Nancy will decide when to present Articles of Impeachment. But she has made this an official impeachment inquiry. There needs to be some serious investigation.
By the time they investigate this mess, there will probably be something else uncovered that is even more serious?
However, one message has been sent to the White House: You can be impeached.
That is no small matter.
Will these attacks, mainly rumors and innuendo, hurt Joe Biden?
Although there is no evidence of any wrongdoing, just rumors and innuendo, Donald Trump has been on the attack against Joe Biden as "corrupt". Perhaps another example of projection?
There is no reason to believe that he will stop these attacks against Biden, just because he was discovered working with foreigners to dig up dirt on Biden.
It's hard to argue that Trump's attacks upon Hillary, her emails, Benghazi, her health, etc., did not have a negative impact on her support in the polls.
He is attempting the very same tactic against Joe Biden. Will Biden be able to parry and counterattack?
Negative character attacks take a toll on any candidate.
It will be interesting to see how the polls go in the next three to four weeks?
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