The Trump Card...

ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
And it's not even a whistleblower. This will turn out to be just someone in the Intel community who doesn't like Trump or his policies.

As this develops, it is becoming increasingly clear that it is indeed a whistleblower. Regardless of what the whistleblower's politics may or may not be, the White House is confirming his or her credibility. The telephone transcript they released tracks well with the whistleblower's complaint. Today, the White House confirmed that the telephone call transcript was indeed moved from one computer server to another. That confirms yet another detail in whistleblower's complaint.

It is clear the whistleblower did not like the Trump's practices that are crimes. That's why he filed the complaint in the first place.

Trump's tweets today discredit the whistleblower with accusations and innuendos, even as Trump's White House staff bolsters the whistleblower's credibility with facts.
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
To me, the significance of the piece is not Napolitano's opinion. It's that Fox News chose to publish it
That's because, clearly, you don't watch Fox News very often. If you did, you'd know that they are not the same Fox News they were 3 or 4 years ago. After Trump announced he was running, and over the campaign up to the election, as the MSM became more and more blatantly partisan, Fox deliberately moved more and more to nonpartisan coverage (the ouster of Roger Ailes also played a part in them no longer being the touch bearer for the Conservative Agenda). The Prime Time opinion shows, sure, they're still homers, but even those shows routinely have Democrats (including elected officials) and anti-Trumpers on there. The 3pm news hour is strsight-up liberal slanted anti-Trump news.

Here's a fun fact... Conservatives and Independents routinely get their news from both conservative and liberal news sources, whereas liberal get their news almost exclusively from liberal sources. And isn't that interesting.
 
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Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
"As this develops, it is becoming increasingly clear that it is indeed a whistleblower."

Maybe in the broadest context of the meaning of whistleblower. But in the government, the term has very specific meaning. By definition, you can't whistleblow on someone in another agency or department. That's just leaking. In the Intelligence Community, for example, you can only blow the whistle on wrongdoing by someone in the Intelligence Community.

The whistleblower didn't get anything first hand, it was second and third hand, by his own administration. The complaint itself reeks of a coordinated conspiracy, using the same template as the Steele Dossier, to take down the president. The fact that someone with direct knowledge didn't file the complaint themselves makes it clear there was a conspiracy. The fact that the whistleblower plainly states there were multitude White House officials involved is another clue.

The fact that the complaint lines up with the phone call transcript isn't even an issue. No one is alleging the complaint was fabricated. The ICIG would have caught that right away and the complaint would have been dismissed outright. As for moving the transcript from one server to another, that's not a crime. The White House is allowed to do whatever it wants to with privileged communications. Anything beyond that for a reason requires speculation and mind reading. If you ask why they moved it to a more secure server, unless you know the answer, you can't just come up with an answer, that fits a certain narrative, and pretend that isn't what conspiracy theorists do. That's the bread and butter of conspiracy theories.

It's like the #MeToo, and the Kavanaugh thing. Rather than knee-jerk believe women, or believe men, you're much better off believing facts and evidence. And if facts are missing, don't make them up in order to get you to where you want to be.
 
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ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
If the House votes to impeach the president within a year of an election, without an overwhelming slam-dunk case, the American people will revolt, at the ballot box. And the Dems know it.

The Dems know they can shift public opinion with a coordinated effort if Trump serves up the material, which he has with the Ukraine affair. His narcissistic self is likely to serve up even more material as he makes poor choices under increasing pressure. I believe he'll either try to start a war or other major crisis to change the subject, or tweet himself into his political grave. As pressure increases, he will decompensate and make it that much easier for the Dems to make the impeachment case and for the Republicans to agree.

Two recent reports indicate the political shift the Dems are engineering.

Support for impeachment rises ...

House Democrats to tell constituents Trump "has reached a grave new level or lawlessness"

Pelosi is politically smater than Trump. She resisted impeachment until Trump reeled out enough rope to hang himself and she knew she had the votes. Now having what she needs, she's initiating a coordinated campaign to brand Trump as the lawless president and connect with the widely held American belief that no one is above the law. When Trump sees his precious base erode, he'll panic, leaving the country with no choice but to give him the boot

Many of the House Democrats going home to preach the "lawless president" message are the same ones who defeated pro-Trump republicans in the 2016 election to win back the House. Opinion has not shifted in Trump's favor since 2016. The Democrats are on the offense with a lead on the scoreboard, a sound play book in hand and a skilled coach leading the team.
 
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muttly

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
The Dems know they can shift public opinion with a coordinated effort if Trump serves up the material, which he has with the Ukraine affair. His narcissistic self is likely to serve up even more material as he makes poor choices under increasing pressure. I believe he'll either try to start a war or other major crisis to change the subject, or tweet himself into his political grave. As pressure increases, he will decompensate and make it that much easier for the Dems to make the impeachment case and for the Republicans to agree.

Two recent reports indicate the political shift the Dems are engineering.

Support for impeachment rises ...

House Democrats to tell constituents Trump "has reached a grave new level or lawlessness"

Pelosi is politically smater than Trump. She resisted impeachment until Trump reeled out enough rope to hang himself and she knew she had the votes. Now having what she needs, she's initiating a coordinated campaign to brand Trump as the lawless president and connect with the widely held American belief that no one is above the law. When Trump sees his precious base erode, he'll panic, leaving the country with no choice but to give him the boot

Many of the House Democrats going home to preach the "lawless president" message are the same ones who defeated pro-Trump republicans in the 2016 election to win back the House. Opinion has not shifted in Trump's favor since 2016. The Democrats are on the offense with a lead on the scoreboard, a sound play book in hand and a skilled coach leading the team.
Start a war huh? Sounds like another conspiracy theory from the Dems' talking points.
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
You know what I hear when I read that?

Charlie Brown's teacher.

It's the same ol' Democrat hopes-and-wishes talking points. In order for this "Ukraine affair" to be anything even remotely worthy of impeachment, you have to fold, spindle and mutilate the crap out of it and read things between the lines that isn't there, and/or, blatantly lie about it. For example, the Left and the Press keeps talking about Trump asking for a favor, as if that alone justifies impeachment. It doesn't. But them they say the favor was to investigate Biden, and if that wasn't a big enough lie, they go one step further and say it was IN ORDER TO help Trump in the 2020 election. That "in order to" conclusion is not in the phone call, and is so far an unsubstantiated allegation, refuted directly by Ukraine. The favor was about an ongoing investigation, which the US and Ukraine have an actual treaty that explicitly covers such requests, about the Crowdstrike firm that still has the DNC server. That has nothing to do with Biden.
 
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ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
They only think so because they hate Trump, not because of anything substantive.

They disliked Trump before. What's new is their willingness to now go on public record in favor of the impeachment inquiry. They would not do this if they did not have new material to work with (Ukraine) and sense a favorable shift in public opinion.
 

ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
In order for this "Ukraine affair" to be anything even remotely worthy of impeachment, ...

You are of course welcome to say what you believe is worthy of impeachment and not worthy. So are the members of the House of Representatives. In light of recent developments, they are moving toward impeachment in ways the did not before.
 

ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
As usual, they are going on a two week vacation. They meaning the house and senate. Once they digest that silliness over two weeks, then reality will set it. It will be high stakes if they try to impeach based on what we have heard so far.

The usual recess will happen but vacation it is not. Some are staying in Washington to do impeachment work. Others are heading to town meetings and local media to speak their "lawless president" message. Impeachment momentum will build during the recess, not fade.
Story here
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
In light of recent developments, they are moving toward impeachment in ways the did not before.
Yes they are. They are singularly focused, and are moving fast and furious, before things fall apart, like everything else they thought they "had" him on.
 

ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
Yes they are. They are singularly focused, and are moving fast and furious, before things fall apart, like everything else they thought they "had" him on.

They have on him what they have always had (election law violations, obstruction of justice, emoluments violations, etc.). None of that has gone away. The fact that they have not yet brought these into articles of impeachment does not preclude them from doing so at a later date. Nothing fell apart. It's all still there. Pelosi's new willingness to proceed with an impeachment inquiry puts it all on the table.

There is some discussion now about the articles. Will it be a single article of impeachment about the Ukraine items or will it be more comprehensive to include other items? I don't know how that will play out and it does not matter. The Democrats will choose the strategy they think will be most likely to produce a conviction in the Senate. If the Senate convicts, Trump is out and he loses the protection that Justice Department memo provides that prevents the president from being indicted. If Trump is impeached and convicted, a host of indictments will quickly find their way to his door as prosecutors with various cases do their thing.
 

muttly

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
All the routine stepping on rakes by the corrupt Dem news media with their erroneus reporting and various IC actors doing everything they can to deviously undermine this President. But somehow Trump is the bad guy in all of this? Some have their scruples all out of whack.
 
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Noname

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
US Navy
Turtle....
Can you provide a link/report for your comment that liberals only get info from liberal sources? Thx.
 
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Ragman

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Dear EO constitutional scholars,
If the House of Representatives votes to impeach the President (which seems inevitable), what would happen if Mr McConnell simply refused to hold hearings in the Senate like he did with Supreme Court nominee Merick Garland?
 
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ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
Dear EO constitutional scholars,
If the House of Representatives votes to impeach the President (which seems inevitable), what would happen if Mr McConnell simply refused to hold hearings in the Senate like he did with Supreme Court nominee Merick Garland?

Interesting question. I do not have an immediate answer. I do see in this article that McConnell said months ago that “if the House were to act, the Senate immediately goes into a trial.”
 
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ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
All the routine stepping on rakes by the corrupt Dem news media with their erroneus reporting and various IC actors doing everything they can to deviously undermine this President. But somehow Trump is the bad guy in all of this? Some have their scruples all out of whack.

In this case, yes, Trump is the bad guy. He committed a crime and, surprisingly to me, confessed to it.
 
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