The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump

[Superblood Wolfmoon]

This isn't going to end well for Republicans. The longer they wait, the worse it's going to be for them when the inevitable happens.

[tragabigzanda]

Hahaha holy shit. I figured we’d be another two months out on a headline like this.

[Superblood Wolfmoon]

I felt watching Trump today that the facade cracked. It's hard to argue by the way he behaved today wasn't entirely new, but it was different in tone. Especially notable that he would not answer the direct question about what favor he wanted from the Ukrainian president. He seems scared/cornered. Not to mention how the past two weeks in general have been. I think, behind the scenes, Republicans are very concerned about the civil war tweet, the treason accusations toward a member of Congress, the execution of spies, hence the silence.

[Bi_3]

I felt watching Trump today that the facade cracked. It's hard to argue by the way he behaved today wasn't entirely new, but it was different in tone. Especially notable that he would not answer the direct question about what favor he wanted from the Ukrainian president. He seems scared/cornered. Not to mention how the past two weeks in general have been. I think, behind the scenes, Republicans are very concerned about the civil war tweet, the treason accusations toward a member of Congress, the execution of spies, hence the silence.

The sudden revelation that Schiff knew of the compliant prior to the whistleblower filing it isn’t helping. It allows for the conspiracy narrative to have a seed of possibility in it.

[McParadigm]

It really, really doesn’t.

The whistleblower got no response at all from the CIA General Counsel. His report was not being acted on. So his lawyers reached out to intel committee staff, and they advised him to file a formal whistleblower complaint with the ICIG.

That line of events only looks scandalous for Schiff/the whistleblower (as opposed to the CIA General Counsel) if you are deeply partisan (in which case your mind was set before the story even started), or if media entities like the NYT fail to do their jobs in the name of having a horse race angle to write.

[verb_to_trust]

Trump waving around that NYT story yesterday really pissed me off. His cult ate that shit up.

[Bi_3]

It really, really doesn’t.

The whistleblower got no response at all from the CIA General Counsel. His report was not being acted on. So his lawyers reached out to intel committee staff, and they advised him to file a formal whistleblower complaint with the ICIG.

That line of events only looks scandalous for Schiff/the whistleblower (as opposed to the CIA General Counsel) if you are deeply partisan (in which case your mind was set before the story even started), or if media entities like the NYT fail to do their jobs in the name of having a horse race angle to write.

I’m curious where this came from, it’s significantly different than what most media outlets are reporting. Contradictory even.

[McParadigm]

Literally buried in the NYT story:

The C.I.A. officer approached a House Intelligence Committee aide with his concerns about Mr. Trump only after he had had a colleague first convey them to the C.I.A.’s top lawyer. Concerned about how that initial avenue for airing his allegations through the C.I.A. was unfolding, the officer then approached the House aide. In both cases, the original accusation was vague.

The House staff member, following the committee’s procedures, suggested the officer find a lawyer to advise him and meet with an inspector general, with whom he could file a whistle-blower complaint.

WaPo:

The intelligence officer whose allegations of presidential wrongdoing have sparked a full-blown impeachment inquiry sought guidance from a Democratic-led congressional committee days before filing his complaint with an inspector general, according to panel aides.
The whistleblower’s interaction with an aide for Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, reflects the officer’s sense of urgency in surfacing the allegations that President Trump had pressed the president of Ukraine to intervene in the 2020 election in a way that would harm a potential political rival. It is also fairly routine for the committee to receive an informal inquiry from a whistleblower before a formal complaint is made, according to current and former committee staffers

Chuck Grassley:

This person appears to have followed the whistleblower protection laws and ought to be heard out and protected. We should always work to respect whistleblowers’ requests for confidentiality. Any further media reports on the whistleblower’s identity don’t serve the public interest—even if the conflict sells more papers or attracts clicks.

“No one should be making judgments or pronouncements without hearing from the whistleblower first and carefully following up on the facts.

Here’s NBC’s resident security reporter:

[wease]

Fucking traitorous spies. They should all be put to death. After we all fuck the flag and stick our guns in each other’s ass, of course.

[McParadigm]

Also, let’s pretend for a moment that a whistleblower approached Adam Schiff personally and the two sat together for like a month to formulate a plan. How would that even amount to a “yeah but?” The president put out a transcript that matches the complaint and keeps ADMITTING TO ALL OF IT IN PUBLIC

[McParadigm]

Somebody analogized it as being like a spouse who starts getting really secretive, locking their phone, hiding big changes in their spending, and lying all the time about where they went today. So you follow them as they drive to their girlfriends house after work one day and their response is “you were spying on me! You’re the asshole here!”

[McParadigm]

Yeah, this.

[Bi_3]

Literally buried in the NYT story:

The C.I.A. officer approached a House Intelligence Committee aide with his concerns about Mr. Trump only after he had had a colleague first convey them to the C.I.A.’s top lawyer. Concerned about how that initial avenue for airing his allegations through the C.I.A. was unfolding, the officer then approached the House aide. In both cases, the original accusation was vague.

The House staff member, following the committee’s procedures, suggested the officer find a lawyer to advise him and meet with an inspector general, with whom he could file a whistle-blower complaint.

WaPo:

The intelligence officer whose allegations of presidential wrongdoing have sparked a full-blown impeachment inquiry sought guidance from a Democratic-led congressional committee days before filing his complaint with an inspector general, according to panel aides.
The whistleblower’s interaction with an aide for Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, reflects the officer’s sense of urgency in surfacing the allegations that President Trump had pressed the president of Ukraine to intervene in the 2020 election in a way that would harm a potential political rival. It is also fairly routine for the committee to receive an informal inquiry from a whistleblower before a formal complaint is made, according to current and former committee staffers

Chuck Grassley:

This person appears to have followed the whistleblower protection laws and ought to be heard out and protected. We should always work to respect whistleblowers’ requests for confidentiality. Any further media reports on the whistleblower’s identity don’t serve the public interest—even if the conflict sells more papers or attracts clicks.

“No one should be making judgments or pronouncements without hearing from the whistleblower first and carefully following up on the facts.

All of that is quite different from what you said, hence my confusion.

[tragabigzanda]

Volker interview is today too. I bet a few more Republicans will be more vocal in their opposition to Trump within 24 hours

[E.H. Ruddock]

Trump's meltdown is something to see.

[dimejinky99]

This seems more likely than any incompetence or meltdown

[tragabigzanda]

Dime please stop following Kevin Kruse. He’s like the Malcolm Gladwell of politics

[dimejinky99]

Dime please stop following Kevin Kruse. He’s like the Malcolm Gladwell of politics

Funny. I just heard a pod with him on it the other day.

[McParadigm]

All of that is quite different from what you said, hence my confusion.

I did mix up the DNI’s too-slow response (which came later) with the reason for the whistleblower reaching out to the committee, which was concern over the complaint being shared with the White House.

That doesn’t make the normalcy of a whistleblower reaching out or the handling of the complaint by the committee staff “quite different.” There’s literally no toe hold for conspiracy logic to grasp onto here, unless a person just flatly has to convince themselves there’s a conspiracy in order to preserve the understanding that they are part of a group of purest good guys fighting off the evil Democrats.

In which case they’ve already tried pretending that the whistleblower rules were changed, and also that the complaint (which matched the president’s transcript and admissions perfectly) is just pure hearsay....because they are going to believe that it is a conspiracy no matter what and absolutely cannot be convinced otherwise. By the end of the week they’ll think George Soros did it.

[McParadigm]

I mean he literally told a country he could revoke essential aid from and a country he started a trade war with that he wants them to investigate his presumed political opponent...on live television this morning.

What is the deep state conspiracy? That the whistleblower and Adam Schiff are doing voodoo together to force him to say these things?