Trump ordered hold on military aid days before calling Ukrainian president, officials say



https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-ordered-hold-on-military-aid-days-before-calling-ukrainian-president-officials-say/2019/09/23/df93a6ca-de38-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html

President Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold back almost $400 million in military aid for Ukraine at least a week before a phone call in which Trump is said to have pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate the son of former vice president Joe Biden, according to three senior administration officials.

Officials at the Office of Management and Budget relayed Trump’s order to the State Department and the Pentagon during an interagency meeting in mid-July, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. They explained that the president had “concerns” and wanted to analyze whether the money needed to be spent.

Administration officials were instructed to tell lawmakers that the delays were part of an “interagency process” but to give them no additional information — a pattern that continued for nearly two months, until the White House released the funds on the night of Sept. 11.

Trump’s order to withhold aid to Ukraine a week before his July 25 call with Volodymyr Zelensky is likely to raise questions about the motivation for his decision and fuel suspicions on Capitol Hill that Trump sought to leverage congressionally approved aid to damage a political rival. The revelation comes as lawmakers clash with the White House over a related whistleblower complaint made by an intelligence official alarmed by Trump’s actions.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) was interviewed by Chris Hayes after a week of breaking news on the whistleblower allegations of wrongdoing by the president involving Ukraine.

“I sit on the Intelligence Committee and can’t speak to what we were briefed on last week by the Inspector General, but between Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani, they basically confirmed about seventy-five percent of the reporting,” Castro noted.

“And I believe that the Speaker has laid down a gauntlet and asked that the whistle-blower information be brought to Congress by Thursday. If that information is not presented on Friday we should move forward with a formal impeachment proceeding.”

“Wait a second, so you think that’s it?” Hayes asked. “That’s essentially the straw that breaks the camel’s back, which is if they don’t provide the whistle-blower complaint, it’s not a subpoena or fight in the courts, the compelling requires it moving forward formally with impeachment?”

“Right,” Castro replied.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/the-speaker-has-laid-down-the-gauntlet-joaquin-castro-predicts-impeachment-may-come-on-friday/

Hardball
@hardball

BREAKING: @washingtonpost reports that House Democratic leaders have called a caucus meeting tomorrow to discuss questions of impeachment.

#Hardball

https://twitter.com/hardball/status/1176279624499830785

Aaron Rupar
@atrupar

Trump is a shameless BSer. Listen to him pretend that he’s a big fan of the Bible in this clip when he clearly knows nothing about it. It’s an SNL skit come to life.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1164672673387094018

Joe Biden
@JoeBiden

So release the transcript of the call then.

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1176214515068887041

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump · 19h
Now the Fake News Media says I “pressured the Ukrainian President at least 8 times during my telephone call with him.” This supposedly comes from a so-called “whistleblower” who they say doesn’t even have a first hand account of what was said. More Democrat/Crooked Media con.....

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/trump-complains-at-the-un-i-would-get-a-nobel-prize-for-a-lot-of-things-if-they-gave-them-out-fairly/

President Donald Trump asserted on Monday that the Nobel Peace Prize process is unfair because he should get one “for a lot of things.”

While appearing at the UN, Trump speculated on why he had not been awarded a Nobel Prize.

“I would get a Nobel prize for a lot of things, if they give it out fairly, which they don’t,” Trump said. “They gave one to Obama immediately upon his assent to the presidency and he had no idea why he got it.”

“You know what?” the president added. “That was the only thing I agreed with him on.”

Aaron Rupar
@atrupar

Trump during bilateral meeting with Pakistani PM: "I think I would be an extremely good arbitrator. I've done it before, believe it or not. And I've never failed as an arbitrator. I've been asked to arbitrate disputes -- pretty big ones -- from ... friends."

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1176185018382770176

NowThis
@nowthisnews

If a picture is worth 1,000 words then this GIF is worth 100,000 #ClimateWeek2019

https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1176162231719014400

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

“The very thing that they are accusing President Trump of doing (which I didn’t do), was actually done by Joe Biden. Continues to be a double standard.” @RepDevinNunes @foxandfriends These people are stone cold Crooked. Also, who is this so-called “whistleblower” who doesn’t...

11:29 AM · Sep 23, 2019·Twitter for iPhone

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1176156553692536832

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

....know the correct facts. Is he on our Country’s side. Where does he come from. Is this all about Schiff & the Democrats again after years of being wrong?
11:29 AM · Sep 23, 2019·Twitter for iPhone

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1176156564274712576