After all the swirling news stories of the last week, what do we know about the communication between President Trump and President Zelezny of Ukraine and how the controversy is being handled?
1. We know that Trump and Zelezny spoke in late July right after Zelezny's party won control of the Ukrainian legislature in elections in that country.
2. We know that during the conversation, Trump made no threat to withhold aid from the USA to Ukraine. In fact, that aid wasn't even mentioned except that Trump said that he thought that the European countries like Germany weren't doing enough to help the Ukrainians.
3. We know that Trump asked the Ukrainian leader to help look into any Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 hacking of the DNC.
4. We know that the conversation was pleasant. Trump didn't push or threaten or cajole. Trump made no demands.
5. We know that President Zelezny has stated publically that he felt no pressure from Trump in that call.
6. We know that the two men discussed the Ukrainian state prosecutor. Zelezny said that he was appointing a new person to that post who would be very strong in fighting corruption. President Trump applauded that appointment.
7. We know that President Trump mentioned Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden and their activities in Ukraine.
8. We know that a self styled whistle blower sent a complaint to the Inspector General in which he claimed the following: s) he had no first hand knowledge about the complaint; he only knew what others (unnamed) had told hime. b) he claimed that Trump had pressured the Ukrainian leader to provide assistance to Trump in the 2020 campaign -- something we know is untrue; and c) he claimed that the transcript of the phone call was put on a special server to keep it confidential, a coverup of sorts -- something that turns out to have been standard operating procedure for all communications with foreign leaders since two such conversations were leaked early in the Trump Adminsitration.
9. We also know that the whistle blower is a CIA agent who was working temporarily in the White House.
10. We know that the IG sent the complaint to the acting Director of National Intelligence. The DNI didn't turn the complaint over to Congress immediately because it was not about an intelligence matter for which such a turn over is legally mandated. Instead the DNI sent the complaint to the Justice Department where the criminal division did a review and determined that no crimes were shown by the complaint. The DNI was not directed by anyone to withhold the complaint from Congress; he made that determination on his own.
11. That's about all there is to it except for this: since the story about this complaint first broke, there have been a whole host of media reports detailing all sorts of misinformation about what happened. In response to those media reports, the Democrats in the House decided to start an impeachment inquiry. When the actual transcript and complaint were made available the next day and they showed nothing untoward had happened, the Democrats just kept going. Today, we even got to the point where Democrat Adam Schiff just made up phony items that he falsely claimed were in the transcript. When he was called on it, he suddenly claimed that he was doing a parody. What he really meant was that he was lying.
I really don't think that most Americans are going to accept this incredible show of idiocy and anti-constitutional behavior by the Democrats. Sure, they don't like Trump. So what! Trump was elected President whether they like it or not. This attempt to try to use the Constitution to subvert American democracy is going to be rejected by the average American.
1. We know that Trump and Zelezny spoke in late July right after Zelezny's party won control of the Ukrainian legislature in elections in that country.
2. We know that during the conversation, Trump made no threat to withhold aid from the USA to Ukraine. In fact, that aid wasn't even mentioned except that Trump said that he thought that the European countries like Germany weren't doing enough to help the Ukrainians.
3. We know that Trump asked the Ukrainian leader to help look into any Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 hacking of the DNC.
4. We know that the conversation was pleasant. Trump didn't push or threaten or cajole. Trump made no demands.
5. We know that President Zelezny has stated publically that he felt no pressure from Trump in that call.
6. We know that the two men discussed the Ukrainian state prosecutor. Zelezny said that he was appointing a new person to that post who would be very strong in fighting corruption. President Trump applauded that appointment.
7. We know that President Trump mentioned Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden and their activities in Ukraine.
8. We know that a self styled whistle blower sent a complaint to the Inspector General in which he claimed the following: s) he had no first hand knowledge about the complaint; he only knew what others (unnamed) had told hime. b) he claimed that Trump had pressured the Ukrainian leader to provide assistance to Trump in the 2020 campaign -- something we know is untrue; and c) he claimed that the transcript of the phone call was put on a special server to keep it confidential, a coverup of sorts -- something that turns out to have been standard operating procedure for all communications with foreign leaders since two such conversations were leaked early in the Trump Adminsitration.
9. We also know that the whistle blower is a CIA agent who was working temporarily in the White House.
10. We know that the IG sent the complaint to the acting Director of National Intelligence. The DNI didn't turn the complaint over to Congress immediately because it was not about an intelligence matter for which such a turn over is legally mandated. Instead the DNI sent the complaint to the Justice Department where the criminal division did a review and determined that no crimes were shown by the complaint. The DNI was not directed by anyone to withhold the complaint from Congress; he made that determination on his own.
11. That's about all there is to it except for this: since the story about this complaint first broke, there have been a whole host of media reports detailing all sorts of misinformation about what happened. In response to those media reports, the Democrats in the House decided to start an impeachment inquiry. When the actual transcript and complaint were made available the next day and they showed nothing untoward had happened, the Democrats just kept going. Today, we even got to the point where Democrat Adam Schiff just made up phony items that he falsely claimed were in the transcript. When he was called on it, he suddenly claimed that he was doing a parody. What he really meant was that he was lying.
I really don't think that most Americans are going to accept this incredible show of idiocy and anti-constitutional behavior by the Democrats. Sure, they don't like Trump. So what! Trump was elected President whether they like it or not. This attempt to try to use the Constitution to subvert American democracy is going to be rejected by the average American.
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