Tag: Donald Trump

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Trump Attacks Mitt ‘Pompous Ass’ Romney For Criticizing ‘Perfect’ Ukraine Call

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), one of the few Senate Republicans to openly question Donald Trump’s motivations for asking foreign governments to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, criticized the Donald on Twitter Friday.

You knew this was coming, didn’t you? The Donald took to the Twitters calling for ROMNEY’s impeachment! How about that???

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2nd Intel Official Considering Whistleblower Complaint On Trump Corruption

Trump walks past reporters with no comment

And another shoe is just about to drop… From the New York Times:

A second intelligence official who was alarmed by President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine is weighing whether to file his own formal whistle-blower complaint and testify to Congress, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The official has more direct information about the events than the first whistle-blower, whose complaint that Mr. Trump was using his power to get Ukraine to investigate his political rivals touched off an impeachment inquiry. The second official is among those interviewed by the intelligence community inspector general to corroborate the allegations of the original whistle-blower, one of the people said.

A new complaint, particularly from someone closer to the events, would potentially add further credibility to the account of the first whistle-blower, a C.I.A. officer who was detailed to the National Security Council at one point. He said that he relied on information from more than half a dozen American officials to compile his allegations about Mr. Trump’s campaign to solicit foreign election interference that could benefit him politically.

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Trade Deficit Widens To $54.9 Billion In August

There are reports Donald Trump made a 'promise' to a foreign leader that concerned a U.S. intelligence official

There are reports Donald Trump made a 'promise' to a foreign leader that concerned a U.S. intelligence official The U.S. trade deficit widened in August for the first time in three months. From The Hill: The U.S. trade deficit grew to $54.9 billion in August, a 1.6 percent increase from July, and a spike over last year. When compared to the same period last year, the overall trade deficit was up $28.3 billion, or 7.1 percent, as exports dropped slightly and imports spiked. Analysts point to President Trump’s trade war as a factor in the increased deficit, though the strong dollar and the growing budget deficit are major factors as well. Donald Trump, somehow, found a strange, circuitous route to blame Hunter Biden for the trade deficit with China:

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LIVE On TV: Trump Invites China To Investigate Biden

Yesterday, I reported on the clash between Donald Trump and Reuters reporter Jeff Mason during a White House press event wherein Mason asked Trump what it was he wanted the president of Ukraine to do in regard to investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Trump was evasive in the moment and went on a rant about European countries ‘not paying enough.’ Today, Trump was asked the question again – “What exactly did you hope the Ukrainian president would do about the Bidens?” – and this time, Trump not only said (live on TV) that Ukraine should investigate the Bidens but he also invited China to suss out dirt on the Bidens. Basically, Trump not only did what the whistleblower accused him of in his complaint to Congress, but he actually committed a second offense by inviting China, a geopolitical opponent of the U.S., to investigate his possible Democratic opponent in the 2020 presidential election.

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Trump Tries To Discredit Whistleblower For Approaching Congress

After the New York Times reported that the head of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, had been contacted regarding the outlines of the whistleblower’s concerns that Donald Trump had abused his power before it became public knowledge, Trump and his cohorts tried to spin this into a new conspiracy theory against him. Team Trump even tried to assert that Schiff helped write the whistleblower’s complaint. Nope. The thing is – this is the process when someone in government believes they’ve witnessed something gone awry. Via PBS:

The whistleblower who raised concerns about President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine spoke to staffers on the House Intelligence Committee before filing a formal complaint, giving Democrats advance warning of the accusations of wrongdoing that triggered their impeachment inquiry.

The whistleblower, a member of the intelligence community, contacted the committee for guidance on how to report “possible wrongdoing,” according to Patrick Boland, a spokesman for the Intelligence Committee’s chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. Boland said that “at no point did the committee review or receive the complaint in advance” and that it is a regular occurrence for whistleblowers to seek guidance from the committee.

“Consistent with the committee’s longstanding procedures, committee staff appropriately advised the whistleblower to contact an inspector general and to seek legal counsel,” Boland said. Other congressional committees follow a similar process.

In a news conference in the East Room of the White House after the article was published, Trump ranted, “He knew long before and helped write it, too. It’s a scam.” The NY Times states plainly: There is no evidence that Mr. Schiff did, and his spokesman said he saw no part of the complaint before it was filed.

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Stable Genius Has Meltdown At White House Press Conference

During a press conference with Donald Trump and Finland’s President Niinisto, Jeff Mason from Reuters asked Trump what he wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to do when Trump brought up the business ties to Ukraine of Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden? Trump began: “What I want is the following — Why are we the only ones that give the big money to the Ukraine?” And he never actually answered the question, which spurred Mason to followup on the question. Serious props to Jeff Mason for trying to get an answer to his question. The Donald is a bit cray-cray here. And poor President Niinisto for having to be exposed to the Trumpster’s madness.

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Trump Twitter Rant: ‘Not An Impeachment, It Is A Coup!’

Donald Trump is now calling the current impeachment inquiry a “coup.” It’s not. Via Reuters:

President Donald Trump is escalating his rhetoric against the impeachment investigation being led by House Democrats. In a tweet, Trump says he has come to the conclusion that the inquiry is not really an impeachment, “it is a COUP, intended to take away the Power of the People.”

In fact, a coup is usually defined as a sudden, violent and illegal seizure of government power. The impeachment process is laid out in the U.S. Constitution.

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WaPo: Attorney General Asked Foreign Officials To Help Discredit Mueller Report

Attorney General Bill Barr (image via Flickr/WhiteHouse – public domain)
Attorney General Bill Barr and Donald Trump worked with foreign officials to undermine the credibility of U.S. Intelligence Agencies in attempts to discredit the investigation by Robert Mueller. This is after 17 intelligence agencies agreed Russia interfered in our election. From the Washington Post:

Attorney General William P. Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence agencies’ examination of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the matter.

Barr’s personal involvement is likely to stoke further criticism from Democrats pursuing impeachment that he is helping the Trump administration use executive branch powers to augment investigations aimed primarily at the president’s adversaries.

Current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials expressed frustration and alarm Monday that the head of the Justice Department was taking such a direct role in re-examining what they view as conspiracy theories and baseless allegations of misconduct.

Barr has already made overtures to British intelligence officials, and last week the attorney general traveled to Italy, where he and Durham met senior Italian government officials and Barr asked the Italians to assist Durham, according to one person familiar with the matter.

And then, there’s this from the New York Times:

Donald Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent telephone call to help Attorney General William P. Barr gather information for a Justice Department inquiry that Mr. Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation, according to two American officials with knowledge of the call.

The White House restricted access to the call’s transcript to a small group of the president’s aides, one of the officials said, an unusual decision that is similar to the handling of a July call with the Ukrainian president that is at the heart of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump.

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Former Ukraine Prosecutor Told Giuliani ‘No Evidence Of Wrongdoing’ By Bidens

Donald Trump (screen capture)

Yuri Lutsenko, the former prosecutor general for Ukraine, says he repeatedly rebuffed demands by Rudy Giuliani to investigate Joe Biden and his son, insisting he had seen no evidence of wrongdoing that he could pursue.

From the Los Angeles Times:

In an interview, Yuri Lutsenko said while he was Ukraine’s prosecutor general he told Rudolph W. Giuliani that he would be happy to cooperate if the FBI or other U.S. authorities began their own investigation of the former vice president and his son Hunter but insisted they had not broken any Ukrainian laws to his knowledge.

Lutsenko, who was fired as prosecutor general last month, said he had urged Giuliani to launch a U.S. inquiry and go to court if he had any evidence but not to use Ukraine to conduct a political vendetta that could affect the U.S. election.

“I said, ‘Let’s put this through prosecutors, not through presidents,’ ” Lutsenko told The Times.

“I told him I could not start an investigation just for the interests of an American official,” he said.

The revelations are at the heart of the House impeachment inquiry into whether Trump improperly delayed congressionally mandated military aid to Ukraine while urging leaders there to help find dirt on his political opponents to boost his 2020 reelection bid.

Giuliani had reportedly been pushing Lutsenko to investigate the Bidens for over a year. Lutsenko described Giuliani as “obsessed” with finding dirt on the Bidens.

And then there’s this from Richard Engel, NBC News chief foreign correspondent:

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SNL Cold Open Takes On Trump’s Impeachment Woes

L-R Alec Baldwin, Kate McKinnon (screen capture)
SNL’s season premiere just HAD to include Alec Baldwin’s ‘Donald Trump’ in chaos after the announcement of an official impeachment inquiry made news this week. Says Baldwin’s Trump: “It’s the greatest presidential harassment of all time. I should know. I’m like the president of harassment.” Kate McKinnon’s ‘Rudy Giuliani,’ speaking from the set of CNN, tells Trump: “Nobody’s going to find out about our illegal side dealings with the Ukraine. Or how we tried to cover up those side dealings. Or how we planned to cover up the cover-up.” Aidy Bryant’s ‘Attorney General William Barr’ wonders who Trump can get to take the blame: “Where are you going to find a sacrificial patsy that’ll do anything you say? Not it.”
Alec Baldwin and Beck Bennett (screen capture)
Trump tells Barr not to worry, “I’ve got the perfect stooge.” Enter Mike Pence (Beck Bennett), who told him “but you’re the one who broke the law.” Pretty much everyone gets a moment in the clip. Watch below.