Donald Trump Presidency discussion Thread VI

Overheal

peddlelies wrote: »

Seen this doing the rounds on twitter.

https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/1179461467894161410

Caught in a lie. Republicans will attack this.

https://twitter.com/Doranimated/status/1179477049192394752

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/464077-whistleblower-contacted-schiffs-committee-before-filing-complaint

The CIA officer whose whistleblower complaint is at the center of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump consulted the House Intelligence Committee before filing it, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The whistleblower initially had a colleague convey his concerns that Trump asked Ukraine's leader to intervene in the 2020 presidential election to the CIA's top lawyer before going to Congress, current and former officials told the Times.

After concerns about how the internal CIA process was proceeding, the whistleblower then reportedly spoke to an Intelligence Committee staff member who suggested that the person hire a lawyer and file a complaint.

The staffer shared part of the whistleblower's concerns with the committee's chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), but did not share the person's identity with anyone, according to the Times.

“When a whistleblower seeks guidance, staff advises them to get counsel and go to an IG. That’s what they’re supposed to do,” Schiff tweeted after the report was published.

“Unlike a president pressing a foreign leader to dig up dirt on a political opponent. That’s not what a president is supposed to do. And we all know it,” he added.


“Like other whistle-blowers have done before and since under Republican and Democratic-controlled committees, the whistle-blower contacted the committee for guidance on how to report possible wrongdoing within the jurisdiction of the intelligence community,” Patrick Boland, a spokesman for Schiff, told the Times.

The development will likely add to Trump's attack that the whistleblower was motivated by partisan interests.

The complaint was eventually released to the public last Thursday.

--This report was updated at 3:28 p.m.

Shiff and the whistleblower never spoke, nor does there appear to be standing to say (as trump has now alleged) that Schiff wrote the whistleblower complaint himself.

Water John

If that is what happened, Schiff played it, by the book. He acted in a professional manner.

mcmoustache

peddlelies wrote: »

Seen this doing the rounds on twitter. Trump will use this to try and discredit Schiff especially after his reading in the congressional hearing.

https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/1179461467894161410

This got squashed pretty quickly. Here's the dni guidance for whistleblowers where page 4 mentions that they can go to the Intelligence Committee.


https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/icotr/Whistleblower.PDF


And the whistleblower was sent to the IG instead of the IC listening to it in a SCIF.


The attempt to go after Schiff for this will go about as well as the whole "He only had second-hand info and they changed the forms" nonsense from yesterday.

Overheal

aloyisious

This is getting stranger and stranger. According to CNN, the State Dept's IG urgent meeting with the committees today was to give them a strange parcel delivered to Mike Pompeo in late May containing material related to Ukraine. Now is a peculiar time to decide to turn up with this parcel and present it to the congress committees, when it's importance is suddenly realised by the State Dept. Hopefully the IG will let the committees know when he became aware of the parcel's existance. I'm assuming the parcel was addressed to MP and not necessarily delivered to MP himself. The Trump phonecall was in July.

peddlelies

peddlelies wrote: »

Seen this doing the rounds on twitter. Trump will use this to try and discredit Schiff especially after his reading in the congressional hearing.

https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/1179461467894161410

I love how you made the edit and no further acknowledgement.

The Phantom Jipper

Interesting article on CNN about a poll that says 60% of Republicans dont believe Trump mentioned Biden in his call with the Ukrainian president. It'd make you worry for 2020 that such a crude and half-baked propaganda effort could be having such success.

Water John

Close to that number of Republicans believe the world was created in 7 days. Sadly, you just have to write off around one quarter of the American people.

mcmoustache

Pence seems to be getting dragged into this now.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-involved-pence-in-efforts-to-pressure-ukraines-leader-though-aides-say-vice-president-was-unaware-of-pursuit-of-dirt-on-bidens/2019/10/02/263aa9e2-e4a7-11e9-b403-f738899982d2_story.html

It would be surprising if Pence didn't know. What will be entertaining soon will be these people turning on each other. This was never a well oiled machine and now there aren't many grown-ups in there. Unless of course Trump takes charge and uses the respect that people have for him to take more leadership and unites the gang but that would be quite a pivot.

kowloon

This thread is pretty quiet lately, have we run out of people defending Trump?

Overheal

kowloon wrote: »

This thread is pretty quiet lately, have we run out of people defending Trump?

Appears that way. In CA the usual suspects are giving the impeachment thread a berth

everlast75

Bang goes the talking point of there being no quid pro quo...

https://twitter.com/SamBerger_DC/status/1179563518493908992?s=19

I wonder what Lindsey, McCarthy and what few Trump supporters here will say about that

EltonJohn69

Trump keeps mentioning Pence is involved... really wants to shift the focus to him.

duploelabs

EltonJohn69 wrote: »

Trump keeps mentioning Pence is involved... really wants to shift the focus to him.

It's more a play to the GOP that if Trump takes Pence with him then the Republicans are looking at President Pelosi

ECO_Mental

duploelabs wrote: »

It's more a play to the GOP that if Trump takes Pence with him then the Republicans are looking at President Pelosi

Whats that famous quote again.....oh yeah!

"Everything Trump Touches Dies"

hes' going to bring them all down with him, its going to be like an episode of Designated Survivor

DrumSteve

ECO_Mental wrote: »

Whats that famous quote again.....oh yeah!

"Everything Trump Touches Dies"

hes' going to bring them all down with him, its going to be like an episode of Designated Survivor

I thought the president in that was the good guy

PopePalpatine

EltonJohn69 wrote: »

He has no control of his emotions... so angry....

Nuh-uh, that's being alpha AF brah! Low-T libs wouldn't understand the art of asserting yourself!

...ugh, I need to sanitise my phone now.

Igotadose

Trump deflected to his 'WTO win' yesterday in the stormy give-and-take with the Reuters reporter (a man who probably has experience interviewing goons, as that's what Trump was during the interchange. How the reporter kept his patience is beyond me.)

Well, Irish trump fans, Trump's hitting close to home, great timing what with Brexit breathing down our collective necks: https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/1003/1080779-us-tariffs/

"Irish butter, cheese and pork among EU goods to be hit by US tariffs"

All this to retaliate on behalf of Boeing, an ineptly run company.

volchitsa

Igotadose wrote: »

Trump deflected to his 'WTO win' yesterday in the stormy give-and-take with the Reuters reporter (a man who probably has experience interviewing goons, as that's what Trump was during the interchange. How the reporter kept his patience is beyond me.)

Well, Irish trump fans, Trump's hitting close to home, great timing what with Brexit breathing down our collective necks: https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/1003/1080779-us-tariffs/

"Irish butter, cheese and pork among EU goods to be hit by US tariffs"

All this to retaliate on behalf of Boeing, an ineptly run company.

I think "inept" is being far too kind. People died because Boeing used their leverage with American air safety authorities to keep the 737 Max flying when it needed to be grounded. I'm not sure inept covers that.

B0jangles

volchitsa wrote: »

I think "inept" is being far too kind. People died because Boeing used their leverage with American air safety authorities to keep the 737 Max flying when it needed to be grounded. I'm not sure inept covers that.

Reminder for the audience: the Trump administration is working hard to remove what regulations exist across a wide range of industries and also moving to allow industries to self-regulate.


Because businesses can only thrive if they are free to do whatever they want without being bogged down by concern for their customers health and safety or the wellbeing of the environment.

everlast75

It truly is awful when two people so in love break up

Oops - thought it was a recent tweet.

(To be fair, its all that we are currently missing from matters as they stand)

Stallingrad

^ From 2017. They have made up since then.

aloyisious

A Dem member of the committee investigating Don has stated the mystery State Dept package handed over to them by the State Dept IG contains conspiracy type material with Joe Biden and the former US ambassador named in them. Rudy Giuliani has confirmed that some of the documents originated with him. The White House has apparently confirmed it received the package and handed it over to Mike Pompeo. Given that the package landed in MP's lap in late May, around the time the ambassador was recalled early to the US, it seems Don's interest in smearing his opponent was alive 50 days before the phonecall. Rudy may well have more questions to answer than he thought if he doesn't have a change of heart and refuse to appear before the committees to answer questions he has caused to rise.

Kurt Volker is appearing as the 1st witness before the committee shortly so he might be able to throw some light on what was afoot in the US embassy in Ukraine before and after the ambassador was recalled before her due time of departure from her job there. She also will probably have much which can throw light on the diplomatic relationship between both countries at top Admin level and the working relationship she had with Mike Pompeo and his boss.

EDIT: This link possibly answers some questions but raises more complicated ones highlighting the complicated relationship between Vlad, Don and Zelensky, plus the importance of the Donbass region for Russia and Ukraine [with Don referee-ing an agreement between both warring parties] as highlighted by another poster here earlier.... https://www.stalkerzone.org/what-does-the-early-dismissal-of-the-us-ambassador-to-ukraine-mean/

weisses

Will these hearings be streamed live ?

Penn

weisses wrote: »

Will these hearings be streamed live ?

Pretty sure the Volker one at least is a closed hearing.

everlast75

Penn wrote: »

Pretty sure the Volker one at least is a closed hearing.

The former Ambassador's hearing was postponed from yesterday to next week AFAIK

26000 Elephants

aloyisious wrote: »

EDIT: This link possibly answers some questions but raises more complicated ones highlighting the complicated relationship between Vlad, Don and Zelensky, plus the importance of the Donbass region for Russia and Ukraine [with Don referee-ing an agreement between both warring parties] as highlighted by another poster here earlier.... https://www.stalkerzone.org/what-does-the-early-dismissal-of-the-us-ambassador-to-ukraine-mean/

The link is basically saying that after the Mueller investigation 'failed' it was time for Trump to do the serious investigation of Hillarys emails.. something something George Soros ... something something.

Overheal

Napolitano: Trump’s Behavior is ‘Criminal and Impeachable’ — And His ‘Allusions to Violence are Palpably Dangerous’

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/napolitano-trump-committed-impeachable-offenses-allusions-to-violence-are-palpably-dangerous/

aloyisious

everlast75 wrote: »

The former Ambassador's hearing was postponed from yesterday to next week AFAIK

I'm surprised that there wasn't a strong degree of legal [court] action by the AG to stop her being allowed to testify before the committees. The postponing might be due to some pushback. I think she may still be a serving officer of the State Dept and not just an Admin political-appointee the President [Don] favoured.

everlast75

aloyisious wrote: »

I'm surprised that there wasn't a strong degree of legal [court] action by the AG to stop her being allowed to testify before the committees. The postponing might be due to some pushback. I think she may still be a serving officer of the State Dept and not just an Admin political-appointee the President [Don] favoured.

My guess is that the State Dept I.G.'s visit to congress yesterday put the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons and people needed to consider whatever docs Rudy dropped into the FBI in May that all of a sudden are relevant to the Ukraine issue.

BTW - Christopher Wray better have a good reason for holding onto those docs