Friday, September 27, 2019

One top official is out. Congress is at the doorstep. And the president’s lawyer is practically taunting him on live television. What does the Secretary of State do now?


Trump met with Wayne LaPierre and asked if the NRA would finance his impeachment defense. LaPierre said he would if Trump promised not to pursue any gun legislation.


NEW: Republican Rep. Mark Amodei backs probe into Trump-Ukraine scandal


In the FBI, this is what we would call “a clue.”


Breaking: White House restricted access to Trump's calls with Putin and Saudi crown prince


US Park Police worked w/out pay during @realdonaldtrump’s shutdown. Union says: “We went 6 wks w/o a paycheck because of this admin., now you want us to have our Xmas party there? Come on.”


BREAKING: After being dragged into a political scandal by President Trump’s personal attorney, Kurt Volker, the U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, stepped down from his position


The Chairmen have notified Pompeo that the Committees have scheduled depositions for 5 State Department officials: *Amb. Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch *Amb. Kurt Volker *Deputy Asst. Secretary George Kent *Counselor T. Ulrich Brechbuhl *Amb. Gordon Sondland


Three sources confirm to CNN that Kurt Volker has resigned from his State Department post. First broken by the State Press, Arizona State University’s school paper:


No way this happened without Moscow Mitch knowing about it and enabling it. The NRA paid Republicans for years to allow gun violence to go unchecked.


Giuliani cancels paid appearance next week at Kremlin-backed conference


BREAKING: Volker's resignation comes amid reports that he was involved in the Trump-Ukraine investigation


You can't make it up: Giuliani to make paid appearance at Kremlin-backed conference next week that includes Vladimir Putin.


New: The first House Republican has announced his support for the impeachment inquiry against Trump. Republican Rep. Mark Amodei: "Let's put it through the process and see what happens."


BREAKING: According to ⁦House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff, Trump impeachment hearings may start as early as next week.


House Intel Committee chairman Adam Schiff is moving quickly to investigate allegations at the center of the impeachment inquiry into Trump by preparing for hearings, subpoenas and depositions as soon as next week and hoping to conclude everything in fall.


Doing everything to protect the White House is not your job, @LindseyGrahamSC. Your job is to work for the people of South Carolina. We need a Senator who's working for all of us.


Photo of Jared Kushner Dining Next to Ukraine's President at Diplomats Event 7 Weeks Before Trump's Call Resurfaces


Trump has long worried that America’s intelligence professionals would try to undermine him from the shadows. But all they had to do was play by the rules. My latest for @TheAtlantic


The intelligence committee is not taking part in the 2 week recess and it looks like they are kicking a$$ on getting to the bottom of things in regards to whistleblowers claims


House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff threatens subpoenas and opens door to impeachment hearings next week


The Kremlin supports the NRA for the same reason it pushes anti-vaccine rhetoric. Both strategies lead to more dead Americans.


Live updates: Intelligence Committee members to work during recess, Trump presses for Schiff’s resignation


Ukraine's president is being dubbed "Monica Zelensky" at home


If this is the way the ICE Director disrespects rules & Congressional oversight of his agency, it is no wonder that ICE has become a rogue agency. Homan did a wonderful job of proving this point. P.S. Also clear he can't stand respecting brown immigrant woman's power over him


Scoop: The ethnic Chechen murdered by a Russian assassin in Berlin last month was a Georgian spy who worked against jihadists and the FSB. My interview with his handler in Tbilisi:


Wow: Trump has lost Tulsi Gabbard.


On Fox, Chris Wallace says, "The spinning that has been done by the president's defenders over the last 24 hours ... it is astonishing and deeply misleading." Soo... Wallace is saying many of his colleagues are behaving in an "astonishing" and "deeply misleading" manner, yes?


Read and circulate: Chair of Federal Election Commission👇 Reminding Americans: The law banning contributions (such as opposition research) by foreign nationals is clear. Upshot: Something very wrong likely happened in Justice Department decision not to investigate


Giuliani, Barr likely to be called to testify in impeachment inquiry, House intel Dem says


Well, when the Kremlin says it "hopes" Trump won't release their calls, they are saying "do not release them or else... "


If Trump did nothing wrong, why is he threatening those exposing “nothing” with treason and the death penalty ?


The President of the United States smeared your Ambassador to Ukraine to the leader of a foreign country. Are you good with that? What does your workforce think?


Schumer responds: "As the disturbing truth continues to surface, the NRA’s status as a tax exempt entity needs to be thoroughly investigated."


Federal agency tries to serve Steve Bannon a subpoena The former Trump campaign CEO is part of a probe into "deceptive or unfair" use of Facebook data by the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.


The Congressman is lying in your face, and trusting that you won't bother to check the facts. This Aug 12 complaint was to the *inspector general,* not to the intelligence committees. The inspector general's role is to contact the intel committees, which he did on Sept. 9.


Here is the number-two House Republican not only ignoring the real story, but literally _making up_ a lie to try to shift focus away from @realDonaldTrump's misconduct. The complaint was _dated_ August 12; that's _not_ when @RepAdamSchiff "knew about it." So. Much. Bad. Faith.


You engaged in a shakedown to get election dirt from a foreign country. And then you tried to cover it up. But you’re right about one thing — your words need no mockery. Your own words and deeds mock themselves. But most importantly here, they endanger our country


The results of a congressional probe into the NRA's ties to Russia paints a picture of NRA officials providing Russian officials access to American elected officials in exchange for lucrative business opportunities.


You published the contents of the call and it clearly shows you shaking down Ukraine’s President for help interfering in US elections. This gaslighting is completely insane


The logic of the Trumpist position is that loyalty to Trump and loyalty to America are one and the same, therefore by definition, Trump is always acting in America’s interests and his critics and opponents are traitors.


An early look at next week’s cover, "Whack Job," by Barry Blitt


"Impeachment has infinite gravity and immense destructive power. It is a political black hole..."


Nancy Pelosi on Trump-Ukraine: "By the way, I think Russia has a hand in this, by the way."


given Trump’s long history of small-time grifting in public, it seemed impossible to imagine he wouldn’t go after bigger fish in private — including, say, extorting a foreign power into smearing a political rival


I think we all know what is truly “liddle” here


“Grandpa, why were you afraid of Donald Trump?”


A new toy for the current political climate


Trump jokes about a third term as U.S. president in closed-door remarks. "We're looking good for another four years, and then if we want to another four."


How a D.C. News Site Amplified Dubious Ukraine Claims Inside the story of how the Hill become part of the Trump whistleblower scandal


#Russia’s Fingerprints Are All Over Trump’s #Ukraine #Whistleblower Scandal Prominent figures on Russian TV have been openly putting out the same ideas that we now know the American president was privately pursuing.


Speaker Pelosi says on AG Barr: "He's gone rogue ... I think where they are going is the cover up of the cover up, and that's very really sad for them. To have a Justice Department go so rogue ... now it just makes matters worse."


Nancy Pelosi on A.G. Barr: "He's gone rogue."


BREAKING- Huge tell from Putin's spokesman showing fear of more Trump conversations being exposed. Putin & Trump plotting over Russia retaking Ukraine will come out. Expect multiple news bombs to drop while a focused impeachment investigation is happening


.@SpeakerPelosi, who helped write and pass the intelligence community #whistleblower law, says the report should have gone directly to Congress without interference from AG Barr or the White House: “This is a #CoverUpOfTheCoverUp”


If the whistleblower's understanding is correct and there's a classified server full of incriminating conversations between Trump and world leaders, then not exposing the truth keeps the president in hoc to those leaders for as long as he's president.


200 days without a press briefing.


Fact check: President Trump and Rep. Devin Nunes have said Democrats did the exact same thing the president is accused of doing: pressuring Ukraine to investigate political rivals. Here are the facts


BREAKING: With @RepConorLamb, 224 House members now support the impeachment inquiry


WSJ reports Pence argued that the White House should not release the Ukraine call transcript. Another voice who made a case against releasing it: Trump political adviser Kellyanne Conway, I’m told.


.@SpeakerPelosi on @Morning_Joe: "I pray for the President... I pray that God will illuminate him to see right from wrong."


Politics and polls be damned - “We must put country over party”


Yesterday I met the brother of Xinjiang University President TashpolatTiyip in DC and heard the shocking story of how his brother had been arrested and sentenced to death for being a Uighur. This story demands the implementation of the Magnitsky Act


Rod Blagojevich got 14 years for trying to barter a mere Senate seat for a donation. Trump tried to use 400 million in taxpayer funded aid to get a country to make up a false charge and help influence a Presidential election. 140 years, easy.


In private, there are few Trump allies who believe that the whistle-blower allegations won’t result in considerable damage—if not the complete unraveling of Trump's presidency: “This could unwind very fast, and I mean in days”


This is an all-encompassing - and the best unclassified -description of what US military equipment & training aid contributes to Ukraine’s efforts v Russia. Anytime a Trump fool says this all started w him, note much of this started in 2014. And we learn much from it as well.


"The US is dystopia, the White House is corrupt": these have been the main themes of Russia's pro-Putin media for years. Now the Trump scandal gives them all the proof they need


To be clear - the DEAD are the 20,000 Americans killed by gun violence since the House PASSED bipartisanship gun background check bills #hr8 and #hr1112 over 6 months ago - but #MoscowMitch refuses to #GiveUsAVote! If Trump wanted to save lives he could.


The man who allegedly killed 10 with his van on a Toronto street in 2018 told police he identified as an incel and that he “accomplished his mission”


“Nancy Pelosi: An Extremely Stable Genius”


New: Nearly 300 former officials call Trump’s actions concerning Ukraine "profound national security concern"


Jeremy Bash: "This is about soliciting foreign interference in a United States election. It is the most serious impeachment allegation ever against a president of the United State


MASSIVE! Tens of thousands out on the streets of Milan to demand action on the growing #climatecrisis. There is no time to waste, there is no planet B


A Kremlin spokesman says Russia hopes the U.S. doesn’t release transcripts of Donald Trump’s conversations with Vladimir Putin


Trump writes the GOP impeachment playbook: Scorched earth. But will it work?


Trump says there should be a way of stopping impeachment inquiry, perhaps through courts. More here


In gambit for Trump, Giuliani engaged parade of Ukrainian prosecutors


Who had Sean Hannity still talking about Hillary Clinton on their dystopian hellscape bingo card?


Today's #frontpage: The whistleblower complaint states that White House officials were “directed” by White House lawyers to remove the electronic transcript from the computer system where presidential call transcripts are typically stored.


Good question raised here by @MiekeEoyang : Maybe NYT reporters should double down on exposing identity of insider who penned famous Op-ed, rather than publish anonymously sourced speculation on Ukrainegate whistleblower.


The Case for Trump’s Impeachment Goes Beyond Ukraine: He has betrayed America with seven countries.


UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT SAYS TRUMP PLEDGED TO HELP HIM TAKE CRIMEA BACK FROM RUSSIA


"The events surrounding Trump’s gross misconduct toward the president of Ukraine, and the elaborate efforts to hide it from Congress, confirm that Barr has turned the DOJ into a tool for undermining the United States justice system,"


If you are a capitalist shapeshifter who is afraid of finance reform, you are probably a part of the problem of systemic wealth hoarding.


When asked if it was possible that impeachment might backfire, the Speaker of the House insisted that politics has nothing to do with it. “It doesn't matter,” she said. “He has given us no choice.”


Protesters chanting anti-government slogans trapped Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam in a stadium for hours after she held her first 'open dialogue' in a bid to end months of often violent unrest.


The president's alt-right media diet actively hurts his presidency and the public,


Of this allegation in the Intel Community whistleblower complaint, a former director on the national security council tells me: “There is no way to overstate what an egregious violation and misapplication of the codeword system this complaint highlights.


Chairman Schiff: We’ll be working through the recess.


I suspect in the coming days we'll be hearing a lot about Section 1.7 of EO 13526. Just a hunch


The WH deliberately covered up this call and others with foreign leaders. Why aren’t lawmakers asking the nation’s senior-most intelligence official about how this affects US national security?


Trevor Noah mocks "idiot" Trump for releasing "damning" Ukraine transcript


This demented old man is going to end up bringing down a presidency, it's the funniest goddam thing I've ever seen


Yesterday: I deserve a Nobel Peace Prize! Today: Murder my detractors!


Trump tapped Pete Gaynor, FEMA's acting administrator, to permanently lead the agency.


"Lawyers for the whistle-blower refused to confirm that he worked for the C.I.A. and said that publishing information about him was dangerous." He does face death threats from the authoritarian leader of a nuclear weapons state.


Several Republican lawmakers have come to President Donald Trump's defense. However, a handful have expressed concern over Trump's actions as well.


Translation: Corey Lewandowski has done criminal things with Trump and Trump needs to cover them with privilege


Opinion: Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead on impeachment.


Rpt: White House had broader secrecy effort to shield Trump phone calls


Republican Govs. Phil Scott and Charlie Baker support Trump impeachment inquiry


House Republican: Trump's Ukraine call "not O.K."


Rpt: White House had broader secrecy effort to shield Trump phone calls


Andriy Yermak, a top aide to the Ukrainian president, in July asked the State Dept for Giuliani’s number. Then he called Giuliani to ask him to tone down his TV criticism of Zelensky. Giuliani responded by suggesting Ukraine investigate Hunter Biden.


Former HHS Secretary Tom Price is throwing his hat in the ring to take over retiring Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson's seat in Georgia.


Nixon did the right thing and resigned.


Interesting. The FBI had been trying to get Firtash back to US from Austria for years, and this lawyer -- on Hannity tonight-- represents him? Since when?


Despite French, British pleas, few signs of U.S.-Iran detente


EU's Juncker says Britain will be responsible if no Brexit deal


Analysis: Inside Hawaii’s wild summer of broken high temperature records


House Democrats have warned President Donald Trump to stop his "reprehensible witness intimidation" aimed at the whistleblower whose complaint document has triggered the escalating Ukraine scandal.


Uniqueness of whistleblower complaint tests reporting system


'Total panic' as 'shell-shocked' White House struggles to find impeachment footing


"We have known who Donald Trump is for some time," Hillary Clinton says at NARAL event. "Now we know that in the course of his duties as our president, he's endangered us all by putting his personal and political interests ahead of the interests of the American people."


Yep. “The president must be called to account for his abuses of power sooner rather than later, but every decent American left in public life must immediately demand that he stop any further attacks on this whistleblower...”


My latest: Trump's new impeachable offense is threatening the life of a CIA officer


Schiff: Trump safe to be investigated


Well, well, well. What do we have here? Kushner seated next to Zelensky in June 2019.


The Washington Post is reporting that the Trump WH took “extraordinary steps over the past two years to block details of Trump phone calls with foreign leaders from becoming public.”


Whistleblower report exposes location of secret White House stash


Democracy does not mean that you can use military aid as leverage over another country to secure help in an election. In fact, it is the very negation of democracy. Oversight, accountability, protections for whistleblowers— This is the stuff of democracy.


Former GOP senator @JeffFlake at #TribFest19 - "I heard someone say if there were a private vote [on impeachment in the Senate] there would be 30 Republican votes. That's not true. There would be at least 35."


Whistleblower's safety a concern as Trump makes veiled threats


Laura Ingraham: “Is your relationship with Pompeo good?” Rudy: “I think they should all congratulate me...In fact I’m the legitimate whistleblower...His state department asked me to do this...I have no idea what Mike thinks of me. And frankly I don’t care.”


Ukraine scandal: Trump's new impeachable offense is threatening the life of a CIA officer


Wall Street Democratic donors warn the party: We'll sit out, or back Trump, if you nominate Elizabeth Warren


"They always accuse us of what they are doing," Jim Jordan tells Hannity as the they literally accuse Joe Biden of things Trump is accused of doing.


The White House has taken extraordinary steps to block details of Trump's calls with foreign leaders from becoming public, WaPo reports. The number of aides allowed to listen was slashed. The list of officials who could review the call was culled.


Jeff Flake says 'at least 35' Republican senators would privately vote to impeach Trump


You're going to laugh, but GOP members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee are calling Trump's strong-arming of the Ukrainian president "a congratulatory phone call" and argue that Trump's impeachment "is what Putin wants."


No. Enough of these apocalyptic white men deciding to end the world for the rest of us.


Wow. Rudy Giuliani is on Ingraham's show implicating the State Department in the Ukraine scandal. "The whistleblower falsely alleges that I was operating on my own. Well, I wasn't operating on my own


Two Republican governors say they support impeachment inquiry of Trump


Michael Cohen has Ukraine info he wants to reveal to Congress: Cohen attorney Lanny Davis


America is facing the reality of a new long national nightmare over a potentially corrupt presidency


IG points out counterintelligence risk of Trump's Ukraine scandal


I'm fighting for an economy and a government that works for all of us, not just the wealthy and well-connected. I'm not afraid of anonymous quotes, and wealthy donors don't get to buy this process. I won't back down from fighting for the big, structural change we need