1/26/20: Sunday morning, an obviously irate president posts one of his more ominous tweets. “Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man,” he complains. “He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!”
A “sick man? Like a psychopath?
And what price?
Dean Obeidallah responds perfectly on Twitter: “Trump saying today that Adam Schiff has ‘not paid the price’ is a THREAT. Period. It’s like when a mob boss threatens prosecutors. But instead of coming from a mob boss it’s coming from the head of the Republican Party. And the rest of the GOP is silent.”
Trump’s approval rate has risen to 45.6% in an average of
all polls.
 |
Rep. Adam Schiff. |
*
HOPEFULLY, HE’LL take a hit to his ratings soon. Sunday afternoon, a draft proposal for a book by former National Security Advisor John Bolton leaks to the press. The book, titled, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, is scheduled for release March 17.
We won’t know until we see what Bolton has to offer; but he is reported to have written that President Trump told him, specifically, to hold military aid to Ukraine till our allies agreed to investigate the Democrats and Bidens.
That’s the heart of the matter. The president put Ukrainian security and U.S. interests at risk.
For….
….his own….
….self-serving
interests.
____________________
“John Bolton is a patriot and may know that I held back the money from Ukraine because it is considered a corrupt country, & I wanted to know why nearby European countries weren’t putting up money also.”
President Trump
____________________
This new development in his impeachment spurs our fearless leader to respond again on Twitter.
By the way, Trump may never hold a real press conference again. He knows, if he ever does, that members of the free press would bombard him with questions. This would force him to:
A) Lie.
B) Ramble on about toilets that are hell to flush, get confused, and tell the truth inadvertently.
C) Get mad, tell any questioner who works for CNN to shut up, and call the White House press corps “Enemies of the People.”
D) All of the above.
At any rate, Trump feels an urge to say something about the Bolton
revelations. Suddenly, he announces that his third choice to head the National
Security Council is a liar. Once again, we have to ask: How terrible is his judgment?
He had to fire his second NSC head. And his first choice got indicted.
Trump outlines his position in a series of tweets:
I NEVER told John Bolton that
the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the
Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public
termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. With that
being said, the..
..transcripts of my calls with
President Zelensky are all the proof that is needed, in addition to the fact
that President Zelensky & the Foreign Minister of Ukraine said there was no
pressure and no problems. Additionally, I met with President Zelensky at the
United Nations...
...(Democrats said I never met)
and released the military aid to Ukraine without any conditions or
investigations - and far ahead of schedule. I also allowed Ukraine to purchase
Javelin anti-tank missiles. My Administration has done far more than the
previous Administration.
There are a number of dubious claims included in those triple tweets. Let’s stick with two. First, Trump is almost surely lying. Multiple witnesses who came before the House investigators said it was their “understanding” that aid was held up until Ukraine acceded to demands for an investigation. We know Trump asked for that very favor in his “perfect” phone call. Now Bolton is saying that the other witnesses were correct.
The president told him: No investigation, no military aid for Ukraine. And Bolton would have firsthand knowledge.
Second, we know that Congress appropriated $250 million in order to provide military assistance in May 2019. The Pentagon announced plans to disburse the aid in June. That package and another $141 million earmarked for Ukraine by the State Department were placed on hold no later than June 19. The aid was delayed for weeks by subterfuge, including inserting footnotes in lengthy DOD documents. On July 25, Mr. Trump called President Zelensky and told him he would like a favor. He would like the Ukrainians to conduct investigations, including one that would target Hunter and Joe Biden.
The aid was held up through August and released only on September 11, after Congress began investigating.
It was not released “far ahead of schedule.”
*
THE CHANGE in tone from the president is nearly identical to the change we saw when he realized Michael Cohen was going to turn against him. To compare Trump’s current position to what was said about Bolton in the past, consider these tweets, from November 26:
The D.C. Wolves and Fake News
Media are reading far too much into people being forced by Courts to testify
before Congress. I am fighting for future Presidents and the Office of the
President. Other than that, I would actually like people to testify. Don
McGahn’s respected....
...lawyer has already stated
that I did nothing wrong. John Bolton is a patriot and may know that I held
back the money from Ukraine because it is considered a corrupt country, & I
wanted to know why nearby European countries weren’t putting up money also.
Likewise, I would....
...love to have Mike Pompeo,
Rick Perry, Mick Mulvaney and many others testify about the phony Impeachment
Hoax. It is a Democrat Scam that is going nowhere but, future Presidents should
in no way be compromised. What has happened to me should never happen to
another President!
Another point of order: McGahn did not state, when interviewed by Robert Mueller, that the president “did nothing wrong.”
He said under oath that Trump asked him to take actions that
he believed would constitute obstruction of justice.
*
THE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL continues. There’s not much reason to watch. Democrats keep citing facts.
Republicans keep insisting they don’t have enough facts to prove Trump is a sneaking, conniving bum.
So, he must be innocent.
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