also, i want everybody to read the transcript, and read the complaint.
unfortunately, Trump might have pulled a Nixon, where the coverup is gonna end up being worse than the crime.
conservatives and republicans can play games with the context of the phone call. what they cant play games with is the fact that the trump administration tried to cover up the phone call by moving the electronic records to a different server/location in order to keep it from being revealed.
the phone call itself is bad. really bad. even republicans are starting to say that.
the actions taken by the administration after the call is....ugh.
nevermind the fact that he got his personal lawyer to dig up dirt. nevermind that he tried to get his AG barr to dig up dirt. nevermind that he tossed Pence under the bus, so now we gotta see what pence has been saying to ukraine.
there's not a MAGA hatter anywhere who can look at this and go "nothing to see here" or try to play whatabout.
your president is a crook.
Nothing to see here.
The "whistle-blower's" complaint is no better than 2nd hand, in other words, hearsay. He was also an intern for Clinton and schiff, so he had political motivation to make his claim.
Are you also trying to say that Biden and his son should not be investigated? Are we to wait until after the election? It looks like Biden got his son paid drin the Ukraine and China while he was in office. That's the crime you should be looking at.
The Ukrainian president is also looking to get rid of corruption in his country, which would take both countries working together. Trump is literally the top cop in this country. Not sure how else to do this.
There was no 'quid pro quo' in Trump's call. There was in Biden's deal.
You can have joy behar throw her papers in the air, and say with one voice, 'we got him now', again.
That highlighted bit is AMAZING on your part since NOBODY EXCEPT THE IG KNOWS WHO THE WHISTLEBLOWER IS! Shame on you.
who said anything about biden not being investigated?
stop putting words in people's mouth and creating false narratives. no wonder you voted for trump, you're just as shady as him.
go ahead and look at biden. i dont care. but whatever biden may or may not have done is NO EXCUSE for what trump did. nobody cares about your whataboutism, Erik. no one.
again, more and more republicans are saying this is bad. multiple people will be in front of the committees to testify on this.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Will Hurd is as close as GOPers can come to having a decent rep.
and he's retiring.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
This makes me think that Pelosi playing 3d chess because she knew he would do something serious that give the Dems and easy rode to the white house in 2020
Bro it’s so easy to call conservatives on their BS.
What would they say if Obama called a foreign leader to investigate Mitt Romney in order to dig up dirt for 2012?
Impeachment? They would be trying to publicly hang Obama on Capitol Hill.
Now all they do is make excuses for trump.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Bro it’s so easy to call conservatives on their BS.
What would they say if Obama called a foreign leader to investigate Mitt Romney in order to dig up dirt for 2012?
Impeachment? They would be trying to publicly hang Obama on Capitol Hill.
Now all they do is make excuses for trump.
This is why I do not respect any conservatives. Screw party loyalty, it should be America first and their boy is not America first but they still support and defend him.
they personally identify with this dude. the crap they do and say in the name of trump is beyond scary.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
i hope soon they allow the whistleblower to tesitfy....in public. they probably wont but i hope it goes down like that.
this, as well as the biden nonsense, needs to be investigated. Barr is probably gonna have to recuse himself seeing as he's named in the whistleblower complaint as well as the transcript.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
also, i want everybody to read the transcript, and read the complaint.
unfortunately, Trump might have pulled a Nixon, where the coverup is gonna end up being worse than the crime.
conservatives and republicans can play games with the context of the phone call. what they cant play games with is the fact that the trump administration tried to cover up the phone call by moving the electronic records to a different server/location in order to keep it from being revealed.
the phone call itself is bad. really bad. even republicans are starting to say that.
the actions taken by the administration after the call is....ugh.
nevermind the fact that he got his personal lawyer to dig up dirt. nevermind that he tried to get his AG barr to dig up dirt. nevermind that he tossed Pence under the bus, so now we gotta see what pence has been saying to ukraine.
there's not a MAGA hatter anywhere who can look at this and go "nothing to see here" or try to play whatabout.
your president is a crook.
Nothing to see here.
The "whistle-blower's" complaint is no better than 2nd hand, in other words, hearsay. He was also an intern for Clinton and schiff, so he had political motivation to make his claim.
Are you also trying to say that Biden and his son should not be investigated? Are we to wait until after the election? It looks like Biden got his son paid drin the Ukraine and China while he was in office. That's the crime you should be looking at.
The Ukrainian president is also looking to get rid of corruption in his country, which would take both countries working together. Trump is literally the top cop in this country. Not sure how else to do this.
There was no 'quid pro quo' in Trump's call. There was in Biden's deal.
You can have joy behar throw her papers in the air, and say with one voice, 'we got him now', again.
That highlighted bit is AMAZING on your part since NOBODY EXCEPT THE IG KNOWS WHO THE WHISTLEBLOWER IS! Shame on you.
I don't have to know. Read the complaint. He states that he was informed by others, at least 6 other officials, etc. Hearsay. That's all in the first few paragraphs.
What's that have to do with the second sentence I referred to?
Where does it say, "He was also an intern for Clinton and schiff, so he had political motivation to make his claim."? Is it in the report, cover letter, or what? Or is this you putting out fake news?
After a final question about a Trump tweet attacking Schiff by a reporter covering Schiff's post hearing interview, Schiff responded, "I'm always flattered by that coming from a person of his character."
Trump Attacks Whistle-Blower’s Sources and Alludes to Punishment for Spies
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday morning told a crowd of staff from the United States Mission to the United Nations that he wants to know who provided information to a whistle-blower about his phone call with the president of Ukraine, saying that whoever did so was “close to a spy” and that “in the old days,” spies were dealt with differently.
The remark stunned people in the audience, according to a person briefed on what took place, who had notes of what the president said. Mr. Trump made the statement about several minutes into his remarks before the group of about 50 people at the event intended to honor the United States Mission. At the outset, he condemned the former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s role in Ukraine at a time when his son Hunter Biden was on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
Mr. Trump repeatedly referred to the whistle-blower and condemned the news media reporting on the complaint as “crooked.” He then said the whistle-blower never heard the call in question.
“I want to know who’s the person who gave the whistle-blower the information because that’s close to a spy,” Mr. Trump said. “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart with spies and treason, right? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”
The complaint, which was made public on Thursday morning, said that the whistle-blower obtained information about the call from multiple United States officials.
“Over the past four months, more than half a dozen U.S. officials have informed me of various facts related to this effort,” the complaint stated.
Some in the crowd laughed, the person briefed on what took place said. The event was closed to reporters, and during his remarks, the president called the news media “scum” in addition to labeling them as crooked.
Mr. Trump spoke as the director of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was testifying before Congress that the president had never asked for the identity of the whistle-blower, whose complaint was initially withheld from Congress by the Trump administration. The complaint described concerns that the president was using his phone call with the Ukrainian president in July for personal gain to fulfill a political vendetta.
The ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Knight Craft, was in the room.
A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a Twitter post later in the day, Mr. Trump referred again to the whistle-blower having “second hand information” and said it was “Another Witch Hunt!”
Lol bro trump threatening his spies with treason lmfao. Somebody is super salty he got caught.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
now, it IS a government server, but its a server used by intelligence agencies. those phone call records arent suppose to be moved there, so now we have to wonder why trump felt the need to move the electronic records of the ukrainian phone call there, and how many other records he moved there as well.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
House GOP lawmaker: Trump conversation with Ukraine leader 'not OK'
Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on Thursday that President Trump's conversation with Ukraine's leader, during which Trump urged him to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, was "not OK."
Turner openly criticized Trump as he began his questioning of acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire at a House Intelligence Committee hearing concerning a whistleblower complaint about Trump's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"I've read the complaint and I've read the transcript of the conversation with the president and the president of the Ukraine. Concerning that conversation, I want to say to the president: This is not OK. That conversation is not OK. And I think it's disappointing to the American public when they read the transcript," Turner said.
Shortly before the start of Thursday's hearing, the Intelligence Committee released a declassified version of the whistleblower complaint detailing Trump's interactions with Ukraine's president.
The complainant said "multiple White House officials with direct knowledge" described details of the phone call with Zelensky, including that "the president used the remainder of the call to advance his personal interests. Namely, he sought to pressure the Ukrainian leader to take actions to help the president’s 2020 reelection bid."
The complaint also said that White House officials were "deeply disturbed by what had transpired in the phone call."
Trump has acknowledged that he raised investigating whether Biden was involved in pressuring a Ukrainian prosecutor to drop an investigation of an energy company of which Biden's son Hunter was a board member. Biden has denied completely the allegations pushed by Trump and Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer.
Trump has denied that he withheld military aid to Ukraine as leverage in pressing for an investigation of the Bidens.
A partial transcript of the phone call released by the White House on Wednesday shows that Trump brought up Biden and said that he would have Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr call the Ukrainian leader and "get to the bottom of it."
"There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it ... It sounds horrible to me," Trump said, according to the memo.
GOP lawmakers have largely stood by Trump and dismissed Democrats' calls for impeachment in the wake of the whistleblower complaint.
But a handful have expressed concern with the allegations, including Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), another member of the Intelligence Committee.
"There is a lot in the whistleblower complaint that is concerning. We need to fully investigate all of the allegations addressed in the letter, and the first step is to talk to the whistleblower," Hurd, a former CIA officer who is not seeking reelection, tweeted at the start of Thursday's hearing.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday that “Republicans ought not to be rushing to circle the wagons to say there’s no there there when there’s obviously lots that’s very troubling there."
Oh there most certainly is no matter how much you deny it. The phone call transcripts say it all.
(A) a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or ... (1) a foreign principal, as such term is defined by section 611(b) of title 22, ... L. 107–155, set out as an Effective Date of 2002 Amendment; Regulations ...
Now unless you're trying to claim that trying to use a foreign government to investigate a political rival has no value, Trump clearly broke the law here.
And many wish to pretend there was no quid pro quo, but they are only fooling themselves. All one has to do is read the transcript of the phone call to see it was certainly implied. And to further back that up, the military funds approved by congress were being help up until after Zelenskyy agreed to help investigate Biden. It's one of those nasty little things called evidence. But let's take a look at some of that phone call, shall we?
First, Trump reminds Zelenskyy just how much we do for them and how Europe certainly doesn't. That we are the only ones backing Ukraine. Then he adds that Ukraine does not reciprocate that back to the United states....
Quote:
Trump; The President: Well it is very nice of you to say that. I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time. Much more than the European countries are doing and they should be helping you more than they are. Germany does almost nothing for you. All they do is talk and I think it's something that you should really ask them about. When I was speaking to Angela Merkel she talks Ukraine, but she ·doesn't do anything. A lot of the European countries are the same way so I think it's something you want to look at but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine. I wouldn't say that it's reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine.
Later in the conversation Trump said this about investigating Biden and said AD Barr would be involved in working to get that information from Ukraine....
Quote:
Good because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what's happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that. The other thing, There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me.
So first Trump stopped the military aid to Ukraine. Next he laid out just how much we did for Ukraine while they had given us nothing in return. He then asked them for something in return. Once Zelenskyy agreed to help Trump investigate Biden in the phone call, Trump released the military aid to Ukraine.
None of this is difficult. Trump requested for something of value to him from a foreign power. That much is quite clear.
The he certainly laid out the golden apple of military help we give them while getting nothing in return. He then asked for something in return.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
House GOP lawmaker: Trump conversation with Ukraine leader 'not OK'
Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on Thursday that President Trump's conversation with Ukraine's leader, during which Trump urged him to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, was "not OK."
Turner openly criticized Trump as he began his questioning of acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire at a House Intelligence Committee hearing concerning a whistleblower complaint about Trump's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"I've read the complaint and I've read the transcript of the conversation with the president and the president of the Ukraine. Concerning that conversation, I want to say to the president: This is not OK. That conversation is not OK. And I think it's disappointing to the American public when they read the transcript," Turner said.
Shortly before the start of Thursday's hearing, the Intelligence Committee released a declassified version of the whistleblower complaint detailing Trump's interactions with Ukraine's president.
The complainant said "multiple White House officials with direct knowledge" described details of the phone call with Zelensky, including that "the president used the remainder of the call to advance his personal interests. Namely, he sought to pressure the Ukrainian leader to take actions to help the president’s 2020 reelection bid."
The complaint also said that White House officials were "deeply disturbed by what had transpired in the phone call."
I'm getting the impression that a number of Republican members of the House and Senate realize how much trouble Trump is in.
We are beginning to see the first cracks in the GOP's support for Trump in yet another serious issue produced by Trump himself.
This time it's difficult to deny the evidence already produced. Worth noting, in yesterday's press conference, Trump named VP Pence, claiming Pence also called the Ukraine President one or two times. I'm sure Pence appreciated that.
Likening them to a spy, President Trump said Thursday that he would like to learn the identity of the person or persons in the government who provided a federal whistleblower with information that set in motion the inquiry that could lead to his impeachment.
The Los Angeles Times released audio Thursday of Trump musing over the source of the content of his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on which the whistleblower, in part, based his complaint.
“Basically, that person never saw the report, never saw the call. He never saw the call — heard something and decided that he or she or whoever the hell it is — they’re almost a spy,” Trump said in a recording of a private event on Thursday in New York. “I want to know who’s the person who gave the whistleblower, who’s the person who gave the whistleblower the information? Because that’s close to a spy. You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart, right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”
After learning of Trump’s remarks, former Vice President Joe Biden, who Trump asked Zelensky to investigate, took the president’s comments as a death threat.
“And now we know that President Trump’s response to all of this was to privately issue a thinly veiled threat this morning to execute the national security professionals who followed their oath to uphold the Constitution by bringing this to light,” Biden said in a statement.
Photo: Alex Brandon/AP Photo: Alex Brandon/AP For days, the Trump administration and many of its Republican supporters have sought to discredit the whistleblower who submitted the complaint, but acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire said during testimony before the House Intelligence Committee that the whistleblower “acted in good faith throughout” and believed he or she had “done everything by the book and followed the law.”
In the complaint, the whistleblower, whose identity has yet to be made public, alleged that Trump was “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country” in order to gain an advantage in the 2020 presidential election.
The whistleblower noted that he or she did not acquire the information regarding the call with Zelensky and the documenting of it first hand; rather, the whistleblower wrote in the complaint, it came from “multiple White House officials with direct knowledge of the call.”
If true, that means that members of Trump’s own staff likely leaked it.
_______________________
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
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