Tag: Gordon Sondland

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News Round-Up: February 7, 2020

Anthony Varrechia (via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Like a LOT of folks, I find designer Anthony Varrecchia (above) to be sooo sexy. I’ve been meaning to point out, by the way, that I try to feature a wide range of InstaHunks – younger, older, muscular, beefy, bear-y, all races…Someone made a remark to me a few months ago on my ‘lack of diversity’ in the choices of eye-candy and I was like…whaaaat? • NY Times: Just hours after Donald Trump had Lt. Colonel Alex Vindman escorted from the White House, Trump has fired Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union. Both testified in the House impeachment inquiry into Trump’s alleged quid pro quo with Ukraine. • New Hampshire: Two new polls show Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg leading the pack in the upcoming New Hampshire primary. A new NBC News/Marist poll finds Sanders gets support from 25 percent of likely Democratic primary voters in the Granite State, while Buttigieg gets support from 21 percent. The Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll puts the two even closer with Sanders at 24 percent and Buttigieg at 23 percent. • Courthouse News: At a record 20.4 million voters, California officials announced Thursday over 80% of the state’s eligible voters are registered to vote in next month’s Super Tuesday primary – the highest rate for a presidential primary since 1952. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla says there are currently over 3 million more registered voters compared to a similar point in the 2016 presidential election. • Washington Post: Just days after the earth saw its warmest January on record, Antarctica has broken its warmest temperature ever recorded. A reading of 65 degrees was taken at Esperanza Base along Antarctica’s Trinity Peninsula on Thursday, making it the ordinarily frigid continent’s highest measured temperature in history. • ABC News: In a rare dissent within party ranks, Republican Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont said during a news conference that he believes Donald Trump abused his power and shouldn’t be in office. He added the U.S. Senate should have been allowed to hear more from witnesses who could have provided evidence about the charges against Trump. • KIT212: Kenneth rounds up the what’s what in local gay rags across the country, like Ben McLaughlin and Lee Gonzalez on the cover of Chicago’s GRAB Magazine.

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Ambassador Confirms ‘Clear Quid Pro Quo’ Sought By Trump

Ambassador Gordon Sondland (screen capture)
Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, testified today before Congress that he worked with Rudy Giuliani to pressure Ukraine ‘at the express direction of the president’ to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. “I know that members of this committee have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: Was there a ‘quid pro quo?’” Sondland said under oath. “With regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes.”

From the New York Times:

Mr. Sondland acknowledged that he told a senior Ukrainian official that to get Mr. Trump to release the frozen American security aid, the Kyiv government would likely have to publicly commit to investigating a debunked conspiracy theory involving Democrats in the 2016 election as well as Mr. Biden and his son’s ties to Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.

But the ambassador did not attribute that linkage to any explicit direction by Mr. Trump, instead saying he came to that conclusion on his own based on the fact that the money had been held up for so long.

“In the absence of any credible explanation for the suspension of the aid,” Mr. Sondland said, “I later came to believe that the resumption of security aid would not occur until there was a public statement from Ukraine committing to the investigations of the 2016 election and Burisma, as Mr. Giuliani had demanded.”

In true Trumpian form, Trump began to distance himself from Sondland upon hearing the ambassador’s testimony.

Last month, Trump referred to Sondland, who donated $1 million to the president’s inaugural fund $1, as “a really good man and great American.”

However, this morning the tune changed: “I don’t know him very well. I have not spoken to him much. This is not a man I know well. He seems like a nice guy though.”

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Giuliani Refuses To Testify Unless Adam Schiff Is ‘Removed’ As Chairman

Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told the press today he will not appear before Congressional committee's unless Democrat Adam Schiff is removed as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Rudy Giuliani (screen capture)
Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told the Washington Post today that he would not appear before the House Intelligence Committee unless Chairman Adam Schiff is removed from his position. Not. Gonna. Happen. From the Washington Post:

Giuliani said Tuesday that he would not testify in front of the House Intelligence Committee and that he “can’t imagine” that anyone from the Trump administration would appear before the panel led by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) either.

“The position I’m stating is now the position of the administration,” Giuliani said in an interview in which he revealed that the administration has written a letter that will be released soon saying that Schiff’s committee is illegitimate.

“I wouldn’t testify in front of that committee until there is a vote of Congress and he [Schiff] is removed,” Giuliani said, referring to Republican calls for a full House vote on an impeachment inquiry and the removal of Schiff as the committee’s chairman.

That’s a little like saying, “I will play your team as long as LeBron does not play…” In related news, three House committee chairmen announced that they will issue a subpoena to compel testimony from U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, hours after learning he failed to appear for a deposition. Sondland was apparently ordered by the State Department not to appear. “We consider this interference to be obstruction of the impeachment inquiry,” the three committee chairmen said in a statement Tuesday. “We will be issuing a subpoena to Ambassador Sondland for both his testimony and documents.” Shortly before he was scheduled to appear before Congress, Trump blocked Sondland’s testimony calling the committee’s “a kangaroo court.” Although Sondland’s position does not involve Ukraine officially, recent reports of text messages indicate he was central to the conversations between the White House’s request to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and the newly-elected president of Ukraine.

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House Dems Demand EU Ambassador Resign Over Ukraine Involvement

NBC News reports that a dozen House Democrats have called for Donald Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, to resign in the aftermath of reports regarding his role in the ongoing Ukraine scandal.

The calls for his ouster come as Sondland prepares to be deposed Tuesday by House committees as part of their impeachment inquiry into the president. The list includes one presidential candidate — Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio.

Sondland, a Trump political appointee, has emerged as a central player in Trump’s bid to persuade Ukraine’s new government to commit publicly to investigate corruption and the president’s political opponents.

Text messages given to Congress show Sondland and another diplomat explicitly tying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s willingness to announce an investigation to whether he would be granted a coveted White House visit.

Sondland, a Republican megadonor, came by his ambassadorship after donating over $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee. He’s spent the bulk of his life developing high-end, luxury hotels. Because, that’s what qualifies you to be an ambassador for the United States, yes? (photo: GordonSondlandPortrait.png” by EdiTHORial is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)