Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Speaker Pelosi says that Trump is "scared" of the impeachment inquiry. "I think the president knows the argument that can be made against him."


I asked Raskin why the IG characterized today's briefing as "urgent," and he said: "That was one of the questions I think a lot of people present in the meeting had," saying IG had these docs for months but thought it could be "relevant" to impeachment probe.


Rick Perry says he'll cooperate with Congress on Ukraine questions


This picture sums up Trump’s performance today.. Unhinged and Paranoid.


Kellogg, Pence’s top national security adviser, listened in on the call from the Situation Room, which was the standard practice, but "did not see it as unusual or flag any concerns about it to the vice president."


Analysis: Trump’s anger boils over


Confirmed: A source familiar tells me the State Department IG briefing on the Hill is about retaliation against State Department officials who are trying to cooperate with House Democrats.


The President of Finland has a solidly Scandinavian response to physical contact from Trump.


So incredibly unpresidential.


Donald Trump is poised to hit Europe with tariffs on up to $7.5 billion of EU exports per year. It's setting the stage for an escalation of the transatlantic trade fight


Nancy Pelosi said today that it’s “essential” to protect whistleblowers: “The president probably doesn’t realize how dangerous his statements are when he says he wants to expose who the whistleblower is”h


MAGA Activist Karyn Turk Pleads Guilty to Social Security Fraud After Stealing From Her Mother | Right Wing Watch. Another republican thief bites the dust!


Trump: “there are those who think I’m a very stable genius.”


Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the dumbest person ever to occupy the Oval Office. Also I think there’s like a 40 percent chance we’re going to war with Finland.


Putin backs Trump in U.S. domestic row, jokes about election meddling


NEW: In light of the findings of my months-long investigation into the NRA and its ties to Russian nationals and mounting allegations of self-dealing, @SenSchumer and I are calling on the IRS to investigate whether the NRA should lose its tax-exempt status as a nonprofit.


BREAKING: Bernie Sanders cancels events until further notice after being hospitalized. "Sanders is conversing and in good spirits. He will be resting up over the next few days," senior adviser Jeff Weaver says.


SCHIFF: Trump’s comments on the whistleblower are “a blatant effort to intimate witnesses” and “an incitement to violence.” PELOSI: “this is a very serious challenge. This is very sad...I weighed the equities hard and long until I heard the President’s admission.”


SCHIFF: Trump’s comments on the whistleblower are “a blatant effort to intimate witnesses” and “an incitement to violence.” PELOSI: “this is a very serious challenge. This is very sad...I weighed the equities hard and long until I heard the President’s admission.”


Chairman Schiff: Any actions from the White House to "stonewall' the impeachment inquiry "will be considered further evidence of obstruction of justice."


BREAKING: Support for impeaching Trump hits new high


NEW: Trump reportedly called Boris Johnson the day after Zelensky, asking for help discrediting the Mueller Report—another hidden transcript. Also, Barr visited London and is said to have shared suspicions about UK intelligence.


Gordon Sondland described himself, Perry and the recently departed special envoy for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, as the “three amigos” on Ukrainian issues. Democrats turn eye to Rick Perry in Ukrainian probe


Why did it take Pompeo two weeks to admit he was on the Trump-Zelensky phone call if it was a "perfect call?"


Giuliani: "My other clients are paying me for the work I do for them. Nobody is paying me for a single thing I’m doing for Donald J. Trump."


Woman gives Secretary Pompeo cheese in Rome. Italian Prime Minister Conte has woman removed.


If the call was no big deal, why did it take two weeks for the Secretary of State to admit he was on it ?


Today in Italy, Mike Pompeo confirmed he listened to Trump’s call to Ukrainian President. At a news conference in Rome, he was asked if rumors are true that he was listening in on Trump’s ☎️to Ukrainian President. He responded, “I was on the phone call.”


Adam Schiff has emerged as the standard bearer for the House Democrats’ impeachment effort, putting him squarely in Donald Trump’s crosshairs


INBOX: Pelosi *and Schiff to hold a press conference at 10:45AM ET


Trump shouted 'you're making me look like a f*cking idiot' at White House staff, report claims


NARRATOR: "It was, in fact, Trump who was making himself look like an idiot."


Secretary of State Pompeo confirms he was listening to Trump's July 25th phone call with the president of Ukraine: "I was on the phone call."


NEW: House investigators are looking into an allegation that groups — including at least one foreign government — tried to ingratiate themselves to President Donald Trump by booking rooms at his hotels but never staying in them


Hearing Pompeo changing his Ukraine story today proves this administration can’t even lie right. How are we to believe their lies if they keep changing them?


“We’re looking at near raw bribery.”


DO NOT OVERLOOK THIS


Netanyahu indictment could follow as Jerusalem hearing begins to review corruption case


Newt Gingrich, 2017: president cannot obstruct justice Gingrich 1998: Clinton obstructed justice Gingrich, today: What you're watching is a coup d'etat Gingrich, 1998: led impeachment of Clinton for lying about an affair while he was...having an affair


Justice Department told to produce 500 pages of interview memos from the Mueller investigation


"Look, forget the myths the media's created about the White House -- the truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand."


Yep. Zelensky just gave Donbas to Putin on a silver platter. Trump performed his assignment from Putin well. What Zelensky doesn’t realize is that Putin wants Kyiv, and all of Ukraine, like in the Soviet days. He’s opened Ukraine up to a terrifying future.


The Trump impeachment process is a grave test


Instead of a fact-based system, says @TimothyDSnyder, "you have a personality who makes up his own reality...At first, that reality is just confusing... but after a while, the leader starts to draw people into that reality by making them defend it"


GOP to America: Exonerate This President or Else!


Here's an email in which an outside Republican operative passes on a request from a House Intel staffer that Flynn's lawyers seek access to transcripts because, even though it won't work, "Nunes says ... he wanted to get it out there on Fox tonight."


SCOOP from @lachlan & @samstein >> Oracle execs began donating to Devin Nunes' campaign shortly after Ezra Cohen-Watnick was ousted from the National Security Council & joined Oracle

ICYMI

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will mount a last-ditch appeal this week to avert graft charges that could destroy his political career


Jamal Khashoggi's murder serves as a cautionary tale, writes @samahhadid for @CNNopinion: "No matter how brutal the crime, no matter how incriminating the evidence, justice proves elusive for those who speak truth to power."


An important detail sometimes lost in the Ukraine story is that Trump and Giuliani were pushing for a Biden investigation even though the Ukrainian prosecutor had already concluded there was no evidence of any crime.


Report: Saudi crown prince says Kushner was "in his pocket"


Did William Barr break any rules? Only the most important one.


There’s another whistleblower: Federal employee warned of 'possible misconduct' with IRS presidential audit program


New: Rudy Giuliani has been looking for “corruption” in Ukraine. It’s easy to find among the very people he’s befriended


We have to fix a corrupt system that lets giant companies like Facebook engage in illegal anticompetitive practices, stomp on consumer privacy rights, and repeatedly fumble their responsibility to protect our democracy.


Are Russia and Saudi Arabia still pumping too much oil?


Given Pompeo's potential role, he should "not be making any decisions regarding witness testimony or document production in order to protect himself or the president," the lawmakers said in the letter.


Anyone who thinks that Americans won't die because of this tweet alone is fooling themselves. It's hard to imagine a more dangerous man in the White House.


North Korea fires another missile, hours after announcing resumption of talks with the U.S.


The US Attorney General running anound the world trying to get foreign countries to undercut FBI and CIA investigations and conclusions. What the h*ll is going on here? Stop doing Trump’s corrupt bidding. Stop tearing apart our country and tearing down We The People. Just stop.


Barr Went to Rome to Hear a Secret Tape from Joseph Mifsud, the Professor Who Helped Ignite the Russia Probe US Attorney General William Barr traveled to Italy to meet with Italian secret service agents—and, potentially, undermine the Mueller investigation.


In court today, a judge questioned why the administration can't give an assurance they won't destroy records about Trump's calls with foreign leaders while a lawsuit goes forward. DOJ is hesitating.


NEW: Schiff, Engel and Cummings sent a letter today to Deputy Sec. of State John Sullivan, writing that "Pompeo is now a fact witness in the impeachment inquiry. He should not be making any decisions ... to protect himself or the president.” Letter:


Ukraine agrees to election in separatist-controlled east

Poor Ukraine

Russia appears to be on the verge of settling the war with Ukraine on the exact terms Putin would want.


Russia encourages corruption in other countries not only to control the people they corrupt, but to make new allegations of corruption as a weapon against anyone who comes in contact with the corruption they created.


Sen. Murphy: Trump fundamentally weakened Zelensky's hand by telegraphing to Putin that we may be pulling up stakes. ... There is no way that Zelensky got an optimal deal with Putin because Putin saw that at this critical moment for Zelensky the United States was pulling away


Jim Jordan


President Trump is morally unfit to lead our country.


Kim Jong Un calls President Trump a 'frightened dog' and 'dotard'


‘Height of irony’: Pompeo’s subpoena pushback rankles diplomats


The specifics of the conspiracy theory that Barr is traveling the world to chase are odd. That he’s doing so, though, is squarely a function of the conspiratorial and Fox-fed universe in which the White House operates


Whoa, @facebook's Mark Zuckerberg calls @ewarren an "existential" threat to his business interests, says he'll "go to the mat" and "fight" her


NEW/Exclusive: The White House upgraded NSC’s top-secret codeword system last year to include a log of who accessed specific documents in that system. That's likely to interest Dems, who want to know who was involved in putting Trump's call records there.