Calls for impeachment are rising on Capitol Hill as more details emerge from a call by President Donald Trump to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he repeatedly asked for the investigation of Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Now, reports indicate that Trump froze roughly $400 million in military aid shortly before the call. The timing could reinforce arguments of an implied or express quid pro quo arrangement. Update: Trump confirmed that he ordered the withholding of funds.
According to various news outlets, Trump ordered his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold back that money. Officials at the Office of Management and Budget surprised many in the Administration that the money would be held back. The Ukrainians are facing Russian insurgents and the aid is desperately needed. In addition, both Democrats and Republicans supported the aid.
Notably, former National Security Adviser John Bolton reportedly pushed Trump to release the badly needed military aid. Trump later fired him.
The call was made just after Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified in Congress. Trump may have gotten free of an impeachment for the Mueller issues only to trip a new wire with new impeachment allegations. As I have written, the allegation of self-dealing would be a viable impeachable allegation and Trump may have succeeded in forcing the hand of Nancy Pelosi who has worked hard to shutdown impeachment efforts. Even Pelosi may be unable to stop a real impeachment over this allegation of self-dealing.
Democrats have seized on these trifles to launch an unpopular strategy that by simple arithmetic in the senate will fail
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/impeaching-trump-on-russia-was-unpopular-will-ukraine-be-different/
see, you Democrats who are reading this page are not the AOC kind. You got a problem. Your party is split between radical ideologues and pragmatic people.
The problem is universities have been churning out what? Democrats yes but more of the type of Marxist indoctrinated radical ideologues. In this case, especially the ones who see in Joe biden a symbol of the hated “patriarchy” So they’re happy to stab joe in the back!
What’s ironic, one of the moderate Dem candidates, who is Pete Buttigieg, even though he’s gay and all , his dad was actually one of those university Marxists. Well at least an expert on a famous italian marxist. and yet the candidate is not a fire breathing radical like screeching harridan liz warren who sounds kookier and more rabid every month. Now I could list several positives about Mayor Pete, here but they would sail over the imaginations of intemperate youth. The key thing now is this: would the Democrat radicals get behind Pete? No, he’s too moderate — And he’s a man! strike against him.
Tulsi, antiwar, pretty far left on a lot of social issues, and a lady; but she’s got that moderate tone and pragmatic wisdom thing going. Shes on the record against impeachment. And ways back, she embarrassed Saint Hillary. So, DQ’d!!
Yang, he’s a guy. He’s an Asian and Asian doesnt count for AA purposes now does it? Smart but who cares! So, DQ’d!
Kamala, just not much for anybody to like. but she can stay in the race. Got to check the POC box right?
KLobuchar: sorry anon, too many people hate blondes.
Bernie: too old! Dems wont say it but that’s what they think. And he’s white! Yes, we know he’s Jewish, but people look at him and their category-counting mechanisms don’t give a plus for that. He’s just an old white guy to most of the young’uns, DQ’d!
The other people, can’t remember their names.
It leaves Liz Warren. lots of political experience and a name and a feminist if nothing else. Perfect!
See how that works guys? The lock is in and not a single primary vote’s been taken. Pelosi threw Biden under the bus for sure with this one. If I’m Biden I just retire now and say go on and have your fun without me kids.
this is a good example of what a sleazebag turley is. What Trump is accused of is what Biden bragged about doing. where’s the investigation into Biden? Biden has publicly admitted it. Turley is a swamp rat just like the rest of them, churning out highly partisan hit pieces over and over again.
What role will Professor Jonathan Turley serve to the US House of Representatives regarding impeaching President Trump?
they won’t hire him for this gig. he’s too fair. they need an aggressive bully with a chip on her shoulder.
they’re looking for woman lawyer for this gig right now.
hopefully none. he’s a swamp rat
TRUMP IMPLICATES A G BARR IN PHONE CALL
THINKS UKRAINE HAS HILLARY’S EMAIL SERVER!
President Trump told his Ukrainian counterpart to work with the U.S. attorney general to investigate the conduct of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and offered to meet with the foreign leader at the White House after he promised to conduct such an inquiry, according to a newly-released transcript of the call.
The call begins with Trump congratulating Zelensky on his election victory, but quickly devolves into the president pressing for an investigation of his political rivals and endorsing an apparent conspiracy theory. He seems to suggest Hillary Clinton’s private email server is in Ukraine and asserts that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation started with that country. He repeatedly says Zelensky should work with Attorney General William P. Barr or his personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani. Giuliani had separately pressed Ukrainian officials for a Biden inquiry.
“I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it,” Trump says, according to the transcript.
He adds later: “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.”
Zelensky replied that “my candidate” for the prosecutor job “will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue.”
At the outset of the call, Trump also asks for Ukraine’s help in finding the location of the Democratic National Committee server that U.S. officials say was hacked by Russian intelligence in the run-up to the 2016 election.
The transcript, in keeping with White House practice, is a memorandum of a telephone conversation and is not a verbatim account of the conversation. The text reflects the notes and memories of officials in the Situation Room. A disclaimer in the transcript warns that a number of factors “can affect the accuracy of the record, including poor telecommunications connections and variations in accent.”
Edited from: “Transcript Of Trump’s Call With Ukrainian President Shows Him Offering U.S. Assistance For Biden Investigation”
Today’s Washington Post
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
According to this, Trump would have had Attorney General Barr ‘investigate’ this matter. The same Attorney General who soft-pedaled The Mueller Report.
Incredibly Trump seemed to think Hillary’s email server was being stored in The Ukraine. Which leads one to speculate that Trump may have heard that from Alex Jones.
another idiot. Hey mouthbreather, why does it never occur to you morons that the crime you are accusing the president of is the same as what Biden did openly and even bragged about? How is anyone bu your braindead ilk supposed to take your whining seriously when even a casuqal glance indicates you’re accusing the president to cover for a democrats? You people are pathetic. You need to be gassed
this is great news. this colossal miscalculation, this blatant hypocrisy of corruption, will redound at the polls.
CUE THE VICTORY SONG set to football fight song, Hail To the Victors
Now for a cheer they are here, triumphant!
Here they come with banners flying,
In stalwart step they’re nighing,
With shouts of vict’ry crying,
We hurrah, hurrah, we greet you now,
Hail!
Far we their praises sing
For the glory and fame they’ve bro’t us
Loud let the bells them ring
For here they come with banners flying
Far we their praises tell
For the glory and fame they’ve bro’t us
Loud let the bells them ring
For here they come with banners flying
Here they come, Hurrah!
Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu’ring heroes
Hail! Hail! to TRUMPIANS
the leaders and best
Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu’ring heroes
Hail! Hail! to TRUMPIANS,
the champions of the West!
We cheer them again
We cheer and cheer again
For Michigan, we cheer for TRUMPIANS,
We cheer with might and main
We cheer, cheer, cheer
With might and main we cheer!
Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu’ring heroes
Hail! Hail! to TRUMPIANS,
The champions of the West!
Hail Victory!!!
We don’t care if Biden goes down. Thanks to Trump, Biden won’t get the nomination now.
BIden did a solid job with his assignment in the Ukraine, which was to work on ending the high level of corruption there and nothing to do with Hunter. Anyone who buys the stupid line Trump and his zombies – like here – spew and which do not hold up to the facts, deserves what they get. Democrats who abandon him over this are fools and cowards. (I’m a Klobuchar supporter)
“….Valentin Nalyvaichenko, a former head of Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency and a member of Ukraine’s parliament….
Nalyvaichenko said his country will be best served by pursuing an investigation related to Burisma’s alleged multi-million-dollar corruption deals, not because of Trump’s pressure but because Ukraine wants to know the truth about its own corruption, whether the founder of Burisma, Ukraine’s ex-minister of natural resources Mykola Zlochevsky from 2010 to 2012, had paid to quash the earlier investigations into the way he acquired gas licenses.
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, Nalyvaichenko said Ukraine’s parliament is planning to hold hearings about the various corrupt schemes. Nalyvaichenko, who is a member of the opposition Fatherland Party, serves in a parliamentary group focused on U.S.-Ukraine relations.
“I am going to support President Zelensky’s initiatives to have new investigations by a new team at the law-enforcement agency,” Nalyvaichenko said. This would include inquiries into the actions of previous prosecutor generals, Yury Lutsenko and Victor Shokhin. “I am convinced that Zelensky will say in New York that these are our domestic investigations, we are going to figure them out on our own.” He added, however, “We’d be happy to cooperate with the FBI.” ….
A major part of the Trump narrative is that in 2016 then-Vice President Biden pressed for the resignation of Shokhin in order to protect his son. That is not the way people in Ukraine remember things. Lutsenko’s reputation for corruption was infamous, and Biden supported the efforts of Ukraine’s reformers to be rid of him.
According to Nalyvaichenko, Lutsenko needs to be investigated further, not least because he has been in communication with Trump’s agents “for vindictive purposes.”
Nalyvaichenko said Ukraine should also be interested in a thorough investigation into the “black ledger” that recorded slush-fund payments to Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort. …
Nalyvaichenko says he has no ill will toward Biden. He remembers the U.S. vice president as one of the “bravest” Ukraine friends coming from Washington during the first and most violent year of war with the Kremlin-backed forces.
“Biden asked me about Russia’s aggression at the time when not many believed in it,” Nalyvaichenko said. He said Ukraine’s intelligence service shared with U.S. officials data they had at the time on Russian military forces fighting in Ukraine.
Nalyvaichenko said Biden did not shrink from denouncing corruption. “He is a man of sharp and fresh thoughts; he had no fear to turn with his face to the government, to our prime minister and top politicians and say: ‘You have corruption at a high level.’”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ukraine-likely-to-reopen-probe-of-hunter-biden-firm-sources?ref=scroll
“He is a man of sharp and fresh thoughts…” Haha!
Go back in time to when Biden withdrew from his other (1st or 2nd?) presidential campaign amid questions of his character and integrity and findings of his ‘serial’ plagiarism. A “man of sharp and fresh thoughts”? Hahahahahahahaha. No. Seriously.
“Biden did not shrink from denouncing corruption.”
Wait, what about when his son Hunter was stuffing his pockets full of corrupt Ukrainian cash to the tune of $50k a MONTH??
Wait, what about when his son flew with him on AF2 to China for official US business (and even brought along his grandaughters!!) and then a couple weeks later Hunter was rolling in what, billions? from the Bank of China? Wait, what??
So, hmmm, Biden did not shrink from denouncing corruption?? Oh yes he did. He had an ethical duty to rule out conflicts of interest with his son’s (and John Kerry Secy of State’s son’s) business interests being done while he was Obama’s VP and point person for Ukraine policy and China policy, etc.
$50k a month to sell influence!? It stinks on it’s face. Come on people.
“According to this, Trump would have had Attorney General Barr ‘investigate’ this matter.
The same Attorney General who soft-pedaled The Mueller Report.”
Peter, the same Attorney General who offered to help Mueller so the man, Mueller, that knew so little didn’t have to be humiliated.
Peter writes: “Incredibly Trump seemed to think Hillary’s email server was being stored in The Ukraine.”
This demonstrates an incredible lack in comprehension by Peter. The Washington Post said:
“At the outset of the call, Trump also asks for Ukraine’s help in finding the location of the Democratic National Committee server that U.S. officials say was hacked by Russian intelligence in the run-up to the 2016 election.”
This why nothing Peter writes can be trusted even if one wants to trust the Washington Post.
And in the best irony to date, here’s the Dims writing Ukraine to investigate President Trump in May of ’18. Crucify … er … impeach them!
https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/5-4-18%20Menendez%20joint%20letter%20to%20General%20Prosecutor%20of%20Ukraine%20on%20Mueller%20investigation.pdf
+10
“Trump: … I just want to let you know that’s 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.
President Zelenskyy: I wanted to tell you about the prosecutor. First of all, I understand and I’m knowledgeable about the situation. Since we have won the absolute majority in our Parliament; the next prosecutor general will be 100% my person, my candidate, who will be approved, by the parliament and will start as a new prosecutor in September. He or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue. The issue of the investigation of the case is actually the issue of making sure to restore the honesty so we will take care of.that and will wortk on the investigation of the case.”
Impeaching words if ever there were any! Yeesh I thought we had another XYZ Affair on our hands. It’s more like an ABC Sesame Street Affair. Another Dem fail.
Adam Schiff, Jerrold Nadler, miscellaneous tools employed by CNN, Anon1 of Gainesville, Fl.
Just never gets old:
TIA IV……….correct, sir: These nver gets old Cogent and hilarious.
Again., with corrections….These never get old, kind sir. Cogent, and hilarious.
ITS OVER JOHNNIE. YOU WRONG AGAIN. STOP THE NON SEQUITURs THAT YOU SEEM TO REVEL IN. STICK TO WHAT IS KNOWN.
Fascinating. You can investigate and indict a sitting president. You can, of course, impeach a sitting president.
But it is an impeachable offense for a sitting president to investigate a presidential candidate. But wait… There were FISA warrants to investigate this president when he was a mere candidate. So sometimes you CAN investigate a presidential candidate.
Must be that you can investigate a Republican candidate but not a Democratic one. May I see the chapter and paragraph in the US Code that spells that out, please?
+10
Uncloe Joe and his son were both exploiting Joe’s role in govermnent to gain money. How much did Uncle Joe get and how much did sonny boy floyd get? Why the BS about Trump?
No Liberty, there is zippo evidence for VP Biden enriching himself illegally.
You might want to take a break from posting after looking like such a fool again.
“No Liberty, there is zippo evidence for VP Biden enriching himself illegally.”
How do you know that? You don’t know, much like you don’t know much of anything. There is ample evidence that VP Biden was involved or even likely was involved. The only thing lacking is a conviction. To be absolutely sure one has to put both sides together along with all the evidence. Based on what we are hearing that sounds true if this same type of action were taken by a normal citizen I beleive he would have been arrested. Even Peter is beginning to have second thoughts about Biden and he is as clueless as they come.
OK. Just evidence Hunter Biden was enriching himself through Biden the VP’s influence
Hard to understand how Trump can be impeached because Hunter Biden got paid $600,000 to be a yes man on a board; and Trump wanted the people with proper jurisdiction to look into it; but, the Dems want to try and sell that theory.
GOOD LUCK!
ps ever heard of “Inter agency cooperation?” LEO ask foreign officials for help regularly. Not usually considered “abuse of office” — even if they don’t like the target! Do they usually LIKE the target of an investigation I wonder? Do we now suppose Republicans can’t investigate Democrats? What were you guys saying about that fellow McCabe?
PPS didn’t hillary ask a foreign intel officer named Steele to compile a “dossier” from Russian state sources? I thought that was supposed to be ok acc to you guys?
funny how sauce for the goose is never sauce for the gander — if the gander is a Democrat.
How do you know that?
It wasn’t in the Mueller Report.
The Donald will utter untruths because he cannot distinguish reality from fantasy.
That’s why Trump is worth Billions? If you want to see stupid look in the mirror
David, don’t put your fantasy onto Donald Trump. Leave it where it is, in your head.
Resolved: Benson is not a “professor” but a drive-by troll.
No kidding.