CuriousAsterisk
CuriousAsterisk's JournalLindsey Graham says he's '1,000% confident' Russia meddled in 2016 US election -- not Ukraine
Source: CNN
Washington (CNN)Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on Tuesday said he is "1,000% confident" that Russia, not Ukraine, meddled in the 2016 US presidential election, breaking from President Donald Trump and others in his party who have pushed the discredited conspiracy theory.
"It was the Russians. I'm 1,000% confident that the hack of the DNC was by Russian operatives, no one else," the South Carolina senator told reporters on Capitol Hill.
He reiterated his stance to CNN saying, "I've got no doubt that it was the Russians who stole the DNC emails. It wasn't Ukraine. Russia was behind the stolen DNC emails and (John) Podesta and all that good stuff."
Graham continued later in the same interview: "So as to the Ukraine, they had zero to do with the hacking of the DNC and the stealing of the emails. Whether or not people from the Ukraine met with DNC operatives, I don't know. All I've seen is press reports that no one has validated."
His comments come as the impeachment probe into Trump and Ukraine moves into the next phase. The House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released its report detailing how the President sought political gain through his dealings with Ukraine. The House Judiciary Committee will hold its first impeachment hearing on Wednesday.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/03/politics/lindsey-graham-russia-election-meddling-ukraine-conspiracy/index.html
YEEESSSSS!!! Lindsey Graham is breaking with Trump!!! Lindsey Graham is breaking with Trump!!!!
OMG. OMG. OMG. YESSSSSSSS!!!
Come to the light side, Lindsey. It's still warm. And better than Trump.
White House won't take part in first House Judiciary impeachment hearing
Source: Politico
The White House informed House Democrats on Sunday that it will not participate in the Judiciary Committee’s first impeachment hearing, excoriating Democrats’ impeachment inquiry as a “baseless” and “partisan” exercise in scathing five-page letter to the panel’s chairman.
The decision indicates that President Donald Trump has listened to his allies and some congressional Republicans who argued that a White House presence at the hearing would validate a process they have harangued as illegitimate and partisan.
It also means Trump will lean heavily on his closest GOP allies on the panel — including Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, John Ratcliffe of Texas and Matt Gaetz of Florida — to mount an impeachment defense during the Judiciary panel’s first hearing on Wednesday featuring legal scholars.
“Under the current circumstances, we do not intend to participate in your Wednesday hearing,” White House Counsel Pat Cipollone wrote in a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), adding that “an invitation to an academic discussion with law professors does not begin to provide the president with any semblance of a fair process.”
Nadler had asked Trump to indicate by Sunday whether the president himself or a White House attorney would attend Wednesday’s hearing, an offer that Democrats said was an attempt to afford due process to Trump as he faces a likely impeachment vote before the end of the month.
Nadler has also asked Trump to reveal by the end of the week whether he intends to participate in any aspect of the Judiciary Committee’s impeachment proceedings, which are expected to continue into the following week. Notably, Cipollone left open the possibility that the White House would participate in future hearings.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/01/trump-impeachment-response-house-judiciary-074712
So...at what point do we move to arrest and jail? And activate the sergeant-at-arms? That IS what he is there for.
Another act of obstruction. So do we arrest at #5 or #15?
Why aren't all the News Stations Reporting Trump Acting in Russia's Interest in the Ukraine?
Did any of them pick up on the fact that Trump acted in Russia's and his own interests before the United States in the Ukraine situation in the hearings yesterday?
"When we don't help with the Ukraine in this manner and we withhold aid, Russia benefits because they don't have as much of a defense to remove as before." or something to that effect.
I recall the ambassador saying how critical our attention in the Ukraine is for foreign relations and international policy. And Trump was not concerned one bit about it.
Are the news stations dropping the ball?
Why aren't all the News Stations Reporting Trump Acting in Russia's Interest in the Ukraine?
Source: Ambassador Bill Taylor in the Impeachment Hearings
(my info is coming direct from the impeachment hearings themselves when Ambassador Bill Taylor discussed the Ukraine and their plight against Russia)
Read more: Link to source
Did any of them pick up on the fact that Trump acted in Russia's and his own interests before the United States in the Ukraine situation in the hearings yesterday?
"When we don't help with the Ukraine in this manner and we withhold aid, Russia benefits because they don't have as much of a defense to remove as before." or something to that effect.
I recall the ambassador saying how critical our attention in the Ukraine is for foreign relations and international policy. And Trump was not concerned one bit about it.
Are the news stations dropping the ball?
Trump ordered hold on military aid days before calling Ukrainian president, officials say
Source: Washington Post
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.
Read more: 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
Oh boy...here we go...
Trump administration poised to tap military construction funds to build wall
Source: CNN
The Trump administration is preparing to take money from military construction funds more than six months after first promising to do so in order to build sections of the wall along the US-Mexico border, according to multiple administration and defense officials.
Though it's unclear which military construction would be put on hold, the move could put at risk projects such as command and control, drone, cyber and training facilities in the US and overseas.
White House officials have held talks in the last weeks to begin planning for the move, two administration officials said, which would shift funds from the Department of Defense's military construction budget to fund the border wall. The move would rely on President Donald Trump's February emergency declaration, which has faced stiff legal challenges.
In July, however, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to use $2.5 billion in counter-drug funding from the Department of Defense to construct parts of the wall while a court battle plays out over whether the government had the authority to divert funds that were not appropriated for the wall.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/29/politics/military-construction-funds-wall/index.html
Maybe we all need to find a date to just show up at the steps of Congress, along with showing up at the White House, and refuse to leave till he's gone.
The Trump administration threatens to suspend Brian Karem's press pass
Source: CNN
There's a new battle brewing between the White House and a hard-nosed member of the media.
Brian Karem, a regular at the White House who writes for Playboy magazine, received a letter on Friday saying his "hard pass" will be suspended for 30 days starting Monday.
The letter from press secretary Stephanie Grisham cited his conduct at President Trump's event with social media allies on July 11, when Karem had a heated exchange with pro-Trump radio host Sebastian Gorka.
Grisham intended to keep the letter private, according to a source, but Karem chose to make it public in a tweet on Friday.
"I can and will appeal this decision," Karem wrote.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/03/media/brian-karem-press-pass-suspended-trump/index.html
Brilliant write up from the Baltimore Sun, and Brian Stelter's commentary is quite excellent. Total downvotes for the Trump administration for revoking his press pass for publishing true information.
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