Tag: Criminal Trump

Not their best ever, but still better than a poke in the eye.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR25izGfrmQ

So Trump and the trumpies knew the intelligence professionals were alarmed, so they (apparently) made haste to try to get rid of them. That’s not at all sinister or incriminating.

Three days after his now infamous phone conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Donald Trump abruptly fired his director of national intelligence in favour of an inexperienced political loyalist.

According to a New York Times report, the White House learned within days that the unorthodox call on 25 July with Zelenskiy had raised red flags among intelligence professionals and was likely to trigger an official complaint.

That timeline has raised new questions over the timing of the Trump’s dismissal by tweet of the director of national intelligence (DNI), Dan Coats, on 28 July and his insistence that the deputy DNI, Sue Gordon, a career intelligence professional, did [must] not step into the role, even in an acting capacity.

The only thing to do is get a rank amateur into the job, one who wouldn’t notice if Trump invited Putin to attend intelligence briefings.

Instead, Trump tried to install a Republican congressman, John Ratcliffe, who had minimal national security credentials but had been a fierce defender of the president in Congress. Trump had to drop the nomination after it emerged that Ratcliffe had exaggerated his national security credentials in his biography, wrongly claiming he had conducted prosecutions in terrorist financing cases.

Well it’s sad, because a guy like that would clearly be no threat to Trump.

Gordon was forced out anyway. She was holding a meeting on election security – uh oh! – when Coats interrupted it to tell her she had to resign.

The Office of the DNI (ODNI) and its inspector general has the authority to receive whistleblower complaints from across all US intelligence agencies and determine whether they should be referred to Congress.

“We all knew Coats’ departure was coming because he had clashed with the president on several issues. What was weird was the president’s forcefulness in not wanting Sue Gordon to take over as acting director,” said Katrina Mulligan, a former official who worked in the ODNI, the national security council, and the justice department.

“I was hearing at the time that Sue was getting actively excluded from things by the president that she would ordinarily have taken part in, and she was being made to feel uncomfortable,” said Mulligan, now managing director for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress.

“And then the president tried to install someone who was clearly unqualified,” she added. “Now the timeline of the whistleblower in the White House raises a lot of questions about the Sue Gordon piece of this.”

Or it answers them, and not in a good way.

From the Guardian live:

Rudy Giuliani, livid over the whistleblower complaint alleging that he improperly tried to convince Ukraine to launch an investigation of Joe Biden, vented his frustration to an Atlantic reporter.

“It is impossible that the whistleblower is a hero and I’m not. And I will be the hero! These morons – when this is over, I will be the hero,” Giuliani told the Atlantic.

He added: “I’m not acting as a lawyer. I’m acting as someone who has devoted most of his life to straightening out government. … Anything I did should be praised.”

Giuliani’s role as the president’s personal lawyer has raised concerns about a private citizen getting involved in foreign policy.

Just a tad.

Trump Twitter-screaming:

Adam Schiff has zero credibility. Another fantasy to hurt the Republican Party!

Adam Schiff has zero credibility? In what universe? Have we watched Adam Schiff tell lie after lie after lie for the past 3 or 5 or 50 years?

An hour and a half later:

Liddle’ Adam Schiff, who has worked unsuccessfully for 3 years to hurt the Republican Party and President, has just said that the Whistleblower, even though he or she only had second hand information, “is credible.” How can that be with zero info and a known bias. Democrat Scam!

Bloated’ Donald Trump is losing what’s left of his mind.

Somebody at that event this morning recorded Trump’s ravings and gave the recording to the LA Times.

Speaking at a private event in New York, Trump described reporters as “scum” and raged at the Democrats’ new impeachment proceedings, which were spurred by the whistleblower’s complaint alleging that Trump tried to strong-arm Ukraine’s leader to interfere in the 2020 election.

The still-unidentified whistleblower acknowledged that he did not listen to Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, but cited information from more than half a dozen U.S. officials over the past four months as part of “official interagency business.”

“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 they saw — they’re almost a spy,” Trump said.

“I want to know who’s the person, who’s the person who gave the whistleblower the information? Because that’s close to a spy,” he continued. “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.”

The president brought up the whistleblower almost as soon as he began his remarks on a podium in front of a blue backdrop in the low-ceilinged hotel ballroom, again claiming that the phone call with Zelensky was “perfect.”

This is how out of control he is – he can’t do the job he’s supposed to be doing for even a few seconds before ranting about his own concerns at people he’s supposed to be congratulating.

In his remarks, Trump cited his awkward meeting with Zelensky on Wednesday where both leaders were asked about the implicit quid pro quo detailed in the call summary and whistleblower complaint.

“They said, ‘Was he pressuring you?’” Trump said, describing the question to Zelensky, who responded that he hadn’t felt any “push” but also said he didn’t want to get involved in a U.S. political squabble.

“You know, these animals in the press,” Trump went on. “They’re animals, some of the worst human beings you’ll ever meet.”

Yes that’s how we want a president talking about the press.

“They’re scum,” Trump continued. “Many of them are scum, and then you have some good reporters, but not many of them, I’ll be honest with you.”

He then accused Sen. Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.), who met with Zelensky in Kyiv this month, of pressuring the Ukrainian leader to accuse Trump of improper behavior.

“Democratic senators went over there and strong-armed the guy,” Trump said, affecting Murphy’s voice for a moment. “‘You better damn well do this or you’re not going to get any money from Congress.’ Oh, I see, that’s OK?”

“And then you have Sleepy Joe Biden who’s dumb as a rock,” Trump went on. “This guy was dumb on his best day and he’s not having his best day right now. He’s dumb as a rock. So you have Sleepy Joe and his kid, who’s got a lot of problems, he got thrown out of the Navy — look, I’m not going to, it’s a problem … so we won’t get into why. He got thrown out of the Navy and now this kid goes into Ukraine, walks away with millions of dollars, he becomes a consultant for $50,000 a month and he doesn’t know anything compared to anybody at this firm. He’s a stiff. He knows nothing. He’s walking away with $50,000.”

Is it $50,000, or is it millions?

Updating to add:

He’s losing it.

He’s all but screaming as he announces that Bidens father and son walked away with “millions of dollars from Ukraine, and then millions of dollars from [pause] CHYNAH.” Which is just made up out of his own rotting head.

Somebody needs to do something to make very sure he can’t take revenge on all of us.

Updating to add: CNN put up an instant fact check as Trump screamed lies about people into the cameras.

Trump this morning (after the complaint was released):

Trump told a group of staffers from the US Mission to the United Nations this morning that he wanted to know who provided information to the whistleblower and alluded to possible retaliation, according to the New York Times.

The Times reports:

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.’