"Trump incredulous after his moves on transparency failed to stop Pelosi." The story starts with this:
President Donald Trump was incredulous Tuesday as he sat in Trump Tower and watched House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announce she was launching a formal impeachment inquiry against him, sources familiar with the moment say. Sitting in the same building where he launched his long shot presidential campaign four years ago, Trump said he couldn't believe it, he later told people.
He had felt confident after phoning Pelosi earlier that morning. The drive for impeachment in her caucus had ramped up amid reports he pushed the Ukrainian President to investigate Joe Biden, and Trump was hoping to head off a clash. He figured he could de-escalate tensions by speaking with her directly.
It was after that call that Trump made the decision to release an "unredacted" version of the transcript of his July call -- against the advice of aides such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who warned him it would set a risky precedent. Trump wanted to undercut the argument from Democrats that he acted inappropriately, he said, and felt he had nothing to hide. (Read the rest of the article here.)
Back in January, in a post about when Donald would be allowed to give his State of the Union address in the House chambers, I said this about Nancy Pelosi:
It's still true. You can read that post here.
Update #1. The White House has released a record of Donald's call with the president of Ukraine. How bad is it? Talking Points Memo titled their first story about it "As Bad As It Gets: Trump Ukraine Call Records Are Explosive." This is the article in its entirety:
President Trump told the Ukrainian president to work with Attorney General Bill Barr on investigating debunked allegations around his political opponent Joe Biden, according to a White House record of a July 25 phone call between the two leaders.
The five-page record of the call has been at the center of a political firestorm over Trump’s – and his attorney Rudy Giuliani’s – efforts to pressure Ukraine into manufacturing political dirt on Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden. The Trump call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is the subject of whistleblower’s complaint from the intelligence community that has spurred House Democrats to launch an impeachment inquiry, posing a grave new threat the Trump presidency.
The White House’s version of the call appears to contain notes that constitute a “memorandum” of the telephone conversation between the two leaders.
Trump referenced “Rudy,” the memorandum shows, and asks Zelensky to “speak with him.”
Trump also references “a lot of talk about Biden’s son.” He goes on to tell Zelensky, the memorandum says, that “Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that.”
Trump goes on to say that “whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great.”
In a Wednesday statement, Barr said that he only learned of the call “several weeks” after it took place, upon receiving a criminal referral from the Intelligence Community Inspector General. Barr denied having any communications with Ukraine, and also said that neither Trump nor Giuliani had directed him to work with Ukraine on the Biden issue, or any other.
Trump also disparaged the testimony of Special Counsel Robert Mueller before Congress the day before – July 24, urging Zelensky to help with an investigation of the origins of the Russia probe which, Trump purportedly said, “started with Ukraine.” He added that Zelensky should “find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine.”
“As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller,” Trump added.
“I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it,” Trump later told Zelensky, according to the record.
Zelensky replied that the chief prosecutor he then intended to appoint would be “100% my person.” The Ukrainian president added: “He or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue.”
Zelensky also referred to former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch on the White House’s version of the call, who stepped down after lobbying from Giuliani, saying that “it was great that you were the first one who told me that she was a bad ambassador because I agree with you 100%”
Zelensky later added to Trump that last time he was in the United States, he “stayed at the Trump Tower.”
Click here to see a pdf of the call summary.
Update #2. In the "no zealot like a convert" category, our friend The Mooch takes the prize:
Update #1. The White House has released a record of Donald's call with the president of Ukraine. How bad is it? Talking Points Memo titled their first story about it "As Bad As It Gets: Trump Ukraine Call Records Are Explosive." This is the article in its entirety:
President Trump told the Ukrainian president to work with Attorney General Bill Barr on investigating debunked allegations around his political opponent Joe Biden, according to a White House record of a July 25 phone call between the two leaders.
The five-page record of the call has been at the center of a political firestorm over Trump’s – and his attorney Rudy Giuliani’s – efforts to pressure Ukraine into manufacturing political dirt on Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden. The Trump call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is the subject of whistleblower’s complaint from the intelligence community that has spurred House Democrats to launch an impeachment inquiry, posing a grave new threat the Trump presidency.
The White House’s version of the call appears to contain notes that constitute a “memorandum” of the telephone conversation between the two leaders.
Trump referenced “Rudy,” the memorandum shows, and asks Zelensky to “speak with him.”
Trump also references “a lot of talk about Biden’s son.” He goes on to tell Zelensky, the memorandum says, that “Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that.”
Trump goes on to say that “whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great.”
In a Wednesday statement, Barr said that he only learned of the call “several weeks” after it took place, upon receiving a criminal referral from the Intelligence Community Inspector General. Barr denied having any communications with Ukraine, and also said that neither Trump nor Giuliani had directed him to work with Ukraine on the Biden issue, or any other.
Trump also disparaged the testimony of Special Counsel Robert Mueller before Congress the day before – July 24, urging Zelensky to help with an investigation of the origins of the Russia probe which, Trump purportedly said, “started with Ukraine.” He added that Zelensky should “find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine.”
“As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller,” Trump added.
“I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it,” Trump later told Zelensky, according to the record.
Zelensky replied that the chief prosecutor he then intended to appoint would be “100% my person.” The Ukrainian president added: “He or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue.”
Zelensky also referred to former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch on the White House’s version of the call, who stepped down after lobbying from Giuliani, saying that “it was great that you were the first one who told me that she was a bad ambassador because I agree with you 100%”
Zelensky later added to Trump that last time he was in the United States, he “stayed at the Trump Tower.”
Click here to see a pdf of the call summary.
Update #2. In the "no zealot like a convert" category, our friend The Mooch takes the prize:
Honestly the call transcript is way more damning than I expected it to be.— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) September 25, 2019
Considering the efforts taken by Trump WH to prevent whistleblower complaint from seeing light of day, you can bet it’s going to be game, set, match.
Tony Schwartz isn't a convert; he was Trump's first biographer and he's known the truth about Donald since the beginning. Here's his take, from yesterday;
Oddsmakers say Trump Republicans senators won't vote to impeach Trump. I believe all bets are off. Most Republican senators privately hate him & his power over them. If they believe, by banding together, they can push him out, I think there is a very reasonable chance they will.— Tony Schwartz (@tonyschwartz) September 24, 2019
This is the question I've been wondering about:
This is the question of the day, and my only guess is that this is the least damaging version they could release, in hopes that the base - which will believe anything - will buy that "it's just politics" and completely normal.— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) September 25, 2019
Congress will likely, ah, disagree. https://t.co/PwQ5jOcoHv
From political scientist Jonathan Bernstein:
FWIW...it's correct to refer to a "call summary", not a "transcript" and of course Congress should see what else there might be. But what's here is 100% damning, and I'll caution not to get caught up in "what are they hiding?" instead of focus on proof of abuse of power.— Jonathan Bernstein (@jbview) September 25, 2019
Update #3. They really are incompetent:
WH accidentally emailed talking points to House Dems pic.twitter.com/M16m6TC2AJ— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) September 25, 2019
No joke: White House just emailed all Dem offices asking to “recall” the talking points email. https://t.co/4fFtVYmrPd— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 25, 2019
If it was a secret ballot...
On whether Senators would vote for impeachment, @murphymike says, "One Republican senator told me if it was a secret vote, 30 Republican senators would vote to impeach Trump." #AMRstaff— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) September 25, 2019
If anything is going to make Donald's head explode today, it's this: ("President Pence")
I think it’s impeachable but I also think the numbers won’t be there to convict based on what we know now. So no President Pence, sadly. https://t.co/jpQiUz73fU— Liz Mair (@LizMair) September 25, 2019
"They loathe Donald Trump..." An interesting comment from Joe Scarborough during his show this morning. Note that he was speaking before the call summary came out:
"Yesterday I heard in the afternoon after Nancy Pelosi’s speech, her people are already gaming this out, saying what the House is going to do, and then what the Senate was going to do and I understand that the Republicans blindly follow Donald Trump, I understand all of that but you can go back and you can look at Watergate, you can look at the Mueller Report. You see these investigations don’t always go the way the politicians or pundits planned. Nobody expected Watergate to end up where it did and here I go back to David Drucker’s story in Vanity Fair. We talked to him yesterday. And he uncovered a truth that we all know and that is Republicans on the Hill loathe, loathe, I can’t say it enough. They loathe Donald Trump personally, they blame him for the chaos that’s going on in Washington and stopping them from getting more things done. We don’t know what‘s going to happen do we? Maybe evidence comes out, we don’t know what happens when the levee breaks but that is a possibility. And the fact that nobody on the Hill is actually personally loyal to Donald Trump means we don’t know how any of this ends up."
"Yesterday I heard in the afternoon after Nancy Pelosi’s speech, her people are already gaming this out, saying what the House is going to do, and then what the Senate was going to do and I understand that the Republicans blindly follow Donald Trump, I understand all of that but you can go back and you can look at Watergate, you can look at the Mueller Report. You see these investigations don’t always go the way the politicians or pundits planned. Nobody expected Watergate to end up where it did and here I go back to David Drucker’s story in Vanity Fair. We talked to him yesterday. And he uncovered a truth that we all know and that is Republicans on the Hill loathe, loathe, I can’t say it enough. They loathe Donald Trump personally, they blame him for the chaos that’s going on in Washington and stopping them from getting more things done. We don’t know what‘s going to happen do we? Maybe evidence comes out, we don’t know what happens when the levee breaks but that is a possibility. And the fact that nobody on the Hill is actually personally loyal to Donald Trump means we don’t know how any of this ends up."
On Monday David Drucker posted a story at Vanity Fair titled "Boom or Bust: How Republicans Are Surviving Life In The Trump Vortex;" I think that's what Joe is referring to. Read it here.
Along those same lines, this is from a story at the Washington Post posted late this morning, and yes, Mittens is still troubled:
Several Senate Republicans were stunned Wednesday and questioned the White House’s judgment after it released a rough transcript of President Trump’s call with the Ukraine president that showed Trump offering the help of the U.S. attorney general to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
One Senate Republican, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly, said the transcript’s release was a “huge mistake” that the GOP now has to confront, even as they argue that House Democrats are overreaching with their impeachment effort.
A top Senate GOP aide said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is expecting Wednesday’s closed-door lunch to be eventful and possibly tense as Republicans react to the transcript and debate their next step.
“It remains troubling in the extreme. It’s deeply troubling,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told reporters Wednesday, when asked about the transcript.
...While many Republicans continue to dismiss Democrats’ impeachment efforts, cracks have begun to emerge privately as GOP lawmakers have discussed Trump’s conduct and their party’s political standing — and those fault lines could foreshadow how Senate Republicans ultimately handle a trial, should the House impeach the president, according to several lawmakers and aides. (Read the article here.)
Update #4, (probably) the last update for tonight. An interesting thought from David Rothkopf. I've stated here before my believe that the only reason Mitt Romney got himself elected to the Senate in 2018 was so he'd be in position to step up if Donald flamed out. It's also interesting that Rothkopf thinks Pence doesn't have a chance; to be clear, I don't think so either, he's too closely tied to Donald:
Along those same lines, this is from a story at the Washington Post posted late this morning, and yes, Mittens is still troubled:
Several Senate Republicans were stunned Wednesday and questioned the White House’s judgment after it released a rough transcript of President Trump’s call with the Ukraine president that showed Trump offering the help of the U.S. attorney general to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
One Senate Republican, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly, said the transcript’s release was a “huge mistake” that the GOP now has to confront, even as they argue that House Democrats are overreaching with their impeachment effort.
A top Senate GOP aide said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is expecting Wednesday’s closed-door lunch to be eventful and possibly tense as Republicans react to the transcript and debate their next step.
“It remains troubling in the extreme. It’s deeply troubling,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told reporters Wednesday, when asked about the transcript.
...While many Republicans continue to dismiss Democrats’ impeachment efforts, cracks have begun to emerge privately as GOP lawmakers have discussed Trump’s conduct and their party’s political standing — and those fault lines could foreshadow how Senate Republicans ultimately handle a trial, should the House impeach the president, according to several lawmakers and aides. (Read the article here.)
Update #4, (probably) the last update for tonight. An interesting thought from David Rothkopf. I've stated here before my believe that the only reason Mitt Romney got himself elected to the Senate in 2018 was so he'd be in position to step up if Donald flamed out. It's also interesting that Rothkopf thinks Pence doesn't have a chance; to be clear, I don't think so either, he's too closely tied to Donald:
How many Republicans right now are thinking, if Trump slips, maybe I should run in 2020? (Other than Haley, Pompeo, Pence...and the ones who are already running but, like Pence and Pompeo, don't have a chance.)— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) September 25, 2019
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