The Whistleblower's Identity Doesn't Really Matter Anymore

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Lindsey Graham took some time over the weekend to rather gleefully indulge one of President Trump’s favorite means of discrediting the impeachment effort. “When you find out who is the whistleblower is, I’m confident you’re gonna find out it’s somebody from the Deep State,” he told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News. “You’re gonna find out find they had interactions with [Adam] Schiff and this thing’s gonna stink to high heaven.”

The idea that the whistleblower is some sort of Democratic operative who needs to be identified and cross-examined, identity protection laws be damned, has gathered traction as public hearings near and Republicans remain desperate to direct attention away from the substance of the inquiry. Trump has been pushing it incessantly since the complaint was first made public in September. It was only a matter of time before it seeped into Graham’s Trump mirroring routine. “The whistleblower is foundational to what they’re doing in the House,” Graham said of the process he dismissed last week as “B.S.”

The whistleblower’s complaint may have kicked off of the impeachment inquiry, but it is no longer essential to it. Nearly all of its claims have been independently corroborated, as NPR recently pointed out in an exhaustively annotated version of the complaint.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/whistleblower-identity-irrelevant-910496/

[dewsgirl]

1. But to them, the WB is to blame for kicking this whole

thing off.

[cyclonefence]

2. I've been saying this and saying this

because everything the WB alleged (and more) has been testified to under oath by many other sources.

The problem is that there are WR nutjobs who will attack the WB and the WB's family, maybe lethally, because they believe still that the WB is the only source for Trump's current troubles--because Trump keeps telling them so. I think the WB needs protection (including anonymity) now more than ever, as impeachment grows nearer.

[librechik]

3. they have their scapegoat, and it's so safe to stomp on him.

this person doesn't have any real information that could hurt Trump. And ripping this anonymous person to shreds is a solid distraction from the real evidence and witnesses produced in response to his report. As long as we are talking about the WB we aren't talking about Taylor, Vindman, Kent, Hill, Yovanovich et al. Mission Accomplished.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

4. True. If there's a fire in a theater, and someone yells "fire!",

... does it really matter who yelled it?

I'm not evacuating until I find out who yelled "fire", to discover their motive, biases, etc.