The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump

[E.H. Ruddock]

Haha I was part of AF SPACECOM and USSPACECOM in 1997

[96583UP]

what was the badge like then?

we know the motto was 'Non quaeris, non dico'

[tragabigzanda]

Heh

[Superblood Wolfmoon]

NY Times is reporting on the contents of John Bolton's book draft, and it's pretty damning stuff. Have to wonder if this will turn the tide on witness calling.

President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens, according to an unpublished manuscript by the former adviser, John R. Bolton.

Over dozens of pages, Mr. Bolton described how the Ukraine affair unfolded over several months until he departed the White House in September. He described not only the president’s private disparagement of Ukraine but also new details about senior cabinet officials who have publicly tried to sidestep involvement.

For example, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged privately that there was no basis to claims by the president’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani that the ambassador to Ukraine was corrupt and believed Mr. Giuliani may have been acting on behalf of other clients, Mr. Bolton wrote.

Mr. Bolton also said that after the president’s July phone call with the president of Ukraine, he raised with Attorney General William P. Barr his concerns about Mr. Giuliani, who was pursuing a shadow Ukraine policy encouraged by the president, and told Mr. Barr that the president had mentioned him on the call. A spokeswoman for Mr. Barr denied that he learned of the call from Mr. Bolton; the Justice Department has said he learned about it only in mid-August.

And the acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, was present for at least one phone call where the president and Mr. Giuliani discussed the ambassador, Mr. Bolton wrote. Mr. Mulvaney has told associates he would always step away when the president spoke with his lawyer to protect their attorney-client privilege.

Key to Mr. Bolton’s account about Ukraine is an exchange during a meeting in August with the president after Mr. Trump returned from vacation at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Mr. Bolton raised the $391 million in congressionally appropriated assistance to Ukraine for its war in the country’s east against Russian-backed separatists. Officials had frozen the aid, and a deadline was looming to begin sending it to Kyiv, Mr. Bolton noted.

He, Mr. Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper had collectively pressed the president about releasing the aid nearly a dozen times in the preceding weeks after lower-level officials who worked on Ukraine issues began complaining about the holdup, Mr. Bolton wrote. Mr. Trump had effectively rebuffed them, airing his longstanding grievances about Ukraine, which mixed legitimate efforts by some Ukrainians to back his Democratic 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, with unsupported accusations and outright conspiracy theories about the country, a key American ally.

[96583UP]

Official GOP response talking points leaked:

Spoiler: show

Drill baby, Drill!

[Simple Torture]

<omg_he_admit_it_guy.jpg>

[verb_to_trust]

So insulting that the info is in Bolton's book but blocked from proceedings.

[McParadigm]

popcorn.gif

[liebzz]

How Republicans look right now:

Obama in a tan suit - disgraced the Office of the Presidency

Trump ties up congressional aide to pressure Ukraine to help him win re-election after just having been investigated for potentially utilizing foreign assistance to win the last election - nothing to see here.

[bune]

[tragabigzanda]

ABC reporting that the WH is preparing for Bolton to testify by readying to fight it in court. Sort of an obvious play for vulnerable Senate Republicans: Make a big show about calling for his testimony, then voting to acquit because the court battle over his testimony will take too long and it's time for America to move on, blah blah blah

[bune]

So they want to combat his showing up in court by fighting it in another court?

[96583UP]

NYT has an article about how Roberts can call witnesses

http://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/opini ... esses.html

[B]

I snort-laughed when Ken Start said that it is critical to protect minorities in the United States.

[McParadigm]

I snort-laughed when Ken Start said that it is critical to protect minorities in the United States.

Republicans are a minority.

[Rob]

How Republicans look right now:

Obama in a tan suit - disgraced the Office of the Presidency

Trump ties up congressional aide to pressure Ukraine to help him win re-election after just having been investigated for potentially utilizing foreign assistance to win the last election - nothing to see here.

ABC reporting that the WH is preparing for Bolton to testify by readying to fight it in court. Sort of an obvious play for vulnerable Senate Republicans: Make a big show about calling for his testimony, then voting to acquit because the court battle over his testimony will take too long and it's time for America to move on, blah blah blah

Trump’s favorability doesn’t seem to have been hurt in all this. I would love to believe that Bolton’s “revelation” matters, but I don’t think it does. This election isn’t necessarily being fought on the ground, with facts and such. It’s being fought at 30k feet.

[B]

I snort-laughed when Ken Starr said that it is critical to protect minorities in the United States.

Republicans are a minority.

That was the point he was making, but it's not what he said.

I don't know who was talking tonight, right before Dershawitz (sp?), but he said something like, it's time to stop doing whatever we can get away with and start doing what's good for the country.

I couldn't hear it, but I assume Mitch McConnell was struck by lightning when that was said.

[bune]

[96583UP]

amazing dershowitz is up there right now

he should be in jail for pedophilia

[wease]

This guy that suggested the “shoe in the other foot” argument is full of shit. If Obama had been accused of what Trump was impeached for, he would’ve been removed from office in two weeks.