Sunday, September 22, 2019
Rep. Perry: ‘smoke’ to Biden reports
A GOP lawmaker said as the nation’s top diplomat, the president has broad discretion regarding his conversations with foreign leaders.
Representative Scott Perry said Saturday, reports focus on the president’s effort to curb alleged corruption, not the alleged corruption itself.
He adds, with congressional oversight and aides on the line, he doesn’t believe the president would act inappropriately.
However, the Pennsylvania lawmaker said there’s at least “smoke” when it comes to accusations of self-dealing involving the Bidens that warrant a further look.
He even said Ukraine was offering the U.S. information about the incident during the prior administration, but wasn’t accepted.
Democrats blast latest Trump crisis. But what will they do?
WASHINGTON
(AP) — A whistleblower’s complaint over President Donald Trump’s
interactions with a foreign leader is testing the political and
practical power Democrats can use against a Republican in the White
House who so brazenly ignores protocol and presidential norms.
Democrats
were unanimous in their condemnation of Trump for going to
extraordinary lengths to tear down a chief political rival by asking the
new leader of Ukraine to investigate the son of former Vice President
Joe Biden. But even as calls for impeachment amplified — Elizabeth
Warren blasted Congress as “complicit” in Trump’s transgressions — there
were no signs that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would move quickly to try
to remove the president.
Allies
of Biden, the early front-runner in the Democratic presidential
primary, seized on the developments to portray him as the candidate
Trump least wants to face next fall.
But the
controversy could just as easily revive interest in the business
activities of Biden’s son, which would do little to further his
campaign. Taken together, the developments bear a striking resemblance
to the tumult of the 2016 campaign, in which Trump was accused of
enlisting a foreign power to help him win an election.
The
president on Saturday denied any wrongdoing, and his most vocal allies
and critics were energized. Political operatives in both parties
suggested that for many increasingly numb to a constant sense of crisis,
the fresh explosion of political drama may not seem so alarming.
One thing is becoming clear: Trump is more than willing to cast aside norms to gain a political advantage.
Jesse
Ferguson, a Democratic strategist and former top aide to Hillary
Clinton, said the country “has to be ready for the president to try to
weaponize the government against them in a way we’ve never seen before
in American history.”
The president on Saturday embraced the parallels to the 2016 campaign and predicted he would prevail again in 2020.
Trump
said the latest allegations from a government whistleblower are “just
as ridiculous as the others,” branding it “the Ukraine Witch Hunt” — a
nod to former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, which he
mocked as a “witch hunt.”
“Will fail again!” Trump tweeted.
The
complaint from the intelligence community whistleblower is based on a
series of events, including what sources now say is Trump’s conversation
with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The conversation happened
on July 25, just a day after Mueller wrapped up his own work by
testifying on Capitol Hill.
Trump
urged Zelenskiy to probe the activities of Biden’s son Hunter, who had
worked for a Ukrainian gas company, according to a person who was
briefed on the call.
For legal scholars and
ethics watchdogs, the interaction between Trump and the foreign leader
is seen as nothing less than a pressure campaign that cuts to the core
of the nation’s public corruption and bribery laws. It came as the White
House was holding up $250 million in military aid for Ukraine. Even if
there was no quid-pro-quo from the president, the conversation could be
seen by legal experts as improper.
“It
appears that the president might have used his official powers — in
particular, perhaps the threat of withholding a quarter-billion dollars
in military aid — to leverage a foreign government into helping him
defeat a potential political opponent in the United States,” wrote
lawyer George T. Conway III, who is married to a top Trump adviser, and
Neal Katayal, a Georgetown University law professor and former acting
solicitor general, in an op-ed in The Washington Post. “If Trump did
that, it would be the ultimate impeachable act.”
Campaigning
in Iowa on Saturday, Joe Biden said the president “deserves to be
investigated,” but he stopped short of calling for impeachment.
“He’s using the abuse of power and every element of the presidency to try to do something to smear me,” Biden told reporters.
Sen.
Chris Coons, D-Del., said Trump’s actions show “Joe Biden is correctly
perceived by President Trump as the greatest threat to his re-election.”
It’s
less clear whether the situation may ultimately hurt Biden, who has
claimed the moral high ground in his 2020 campaign. When speaking about
his experience as vice president, Biden often says he’s most proud of
the lack of scandal during his eight years in the Obama White House.
Trump’s allies hope that the focus on Biden’s involvement in Ukraine may
begin to chip away at his squeaky clean image.
“The
longer we talk about what the Bidens did in Ukraine, the better,” said
Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser, who dismissed those who
believe Trump will pay a political price for the latest controversy.
The
questions about Hunter Biden have circulated for years, particularly in
conservative circles, after he was hired in 2014 by Burisma Holdings,
whose founder had been a political ally of Russia-friendly former
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. At the time questions were raised
about whether the Ukrainian firm was seeking to gain influence with the
Obama administration through its employment of Joe Biden’s son.
This
year, Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani revived interest in the
issue and said he reached out directly to the Ukrainian government.
Joe
Biden said he’s never spoken to his son about his overseas business
dealings. Hunter Biden has denied the claims that he used his influence
with his father to aid Burisma, saying the criticism is false and stoked
by far-right political critics.
While Sen.
Warren and other Democrats say there’s no choice but to start
impeachment proceedings, other Democrats have been reluctant to launch a
process they say could scare away more moderate and centrist voters,
especially for lawmakers in Congress.
Pelosi
showed no signs of moving off her position that Congress must continue
to investigate the administration and not start impeachment proceedings
unless the American public demands it. Instead, she said that Trump
faces “repercussions” if the whistleblower’s allegations prove true and
she said it’s time to change the law to make sure future presidents can
be indicted for wrongdoing.
Democratic
strategist Jefrey Pollock, who was a pollster for former presidential
candidate Kirsten Gillibrand, suggested that the latest explosive
allegations against the Republican president would have little impact on
the broader 2020 debate.
“To date, no
scandal has seemed to impact Donald Trump on its own,” Pollock said.
“And the fact that this one involves a political rival I suspect is no
different.”
__
Associated
Press writers Alexandra Jaffe and Tom Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, and
Stephen Braun in Washington contributed to this report.
Carol Roth: Stop scaring our kids – the world is NOT about to end and we are NOT all about to die
In the last few weeks, from town halls on climate change to “climate justice” marches, I have seen scores of children – some teens, some squarely of elementary school-age – proclaim their anxiety about the world ending.
Depending on the source, children are being told that if we don’t act right now to solve one particular “crisis” or another, we will all be dead in anywhere from 18 months to 12 years. That’s not a message of hope and optimism that kids should be embracing.
More from Opinion
I recall in my own childhood celebrating Earth Day, where we raised money to help plant more trees (something that actually helps the environment, by the way) and learned about recycling, all without having the living daylights scared out of us.
Adults can deliver the message of taking care of the planet and have an impact doing so with positive language and outcomes instead of nihilistic ones.
While I am not a psychologist (and I don’t play one on TV, either), I do believe that for kids, who are developing mentally, having this fear communicated to them during this critical time of their lives is abusive. Worse, it is done by parents, schools, the media and politicians alike. Everyone needs to immediately get a grip.
I remember when adults acted like adults instead of fear-mongers. Back in the 80s, when network television ran the nuclear war movie “The Day After,” there were warnings that it wasn’t appropriate for children and our parents wouldn’t let us watch it.
Now, the adults who are supposed to be shielding kids from unlikely doomsday scenarios are forcing those beliefs upon them and using the kids as political pawns.
It’s not just the climate change fear. I am not the first one to note that school shooter drills are also an unnecessary form of fear theater that does far more harm than good.
While any school shooting is one too many and more needs to be done to ensure school safety, planting the security threat in kids’ heads with practice drills surely creates needless trauma with no evidence of better outcomes.
Negativity is all around us, from mainstream media to social media. It’s not healthy for us to be constantly consuming a negative information diet, particularly when the general outlook for life is so robust. We need more gratitude towards the abundance, opportunities and advancements that surround us.
As an adult, if you want to mire yourself in pessimism, that’s your choice. But please, leave the kids out of it.
AOC calls out Dems for caution on Trump impeachment, signaling possible renewed feud with Pelosi
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has apparently reached a boiling point over moderate House Democrats’ caution regarding the prospect of impeaching President Trump.
The go-slow approach is personified by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with whom Ocasio-Cortez has had an often contentious relationship since the freshman lawmaker arrived in Washington just eight months ago.
The New York Democrat told her more than 5 million Twitter followers late Saturday that the Democrats’ “refusal” to seek the removal of the president was a “bigger national scandal” than what she alleged was the president’s “lawbreaking behavior.”
Calls for impeachment have grown louder from some Democrats in the wake of last week’s news that a purported “whistleblower” had expressed concern about a phone call said to have taken place between President Trump and the leader of Ukraine, in which Trump allegedly sought information about 2020 Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden, whose son Hunter Biden had business dealings in Ukraine.
Soon after Ocasio-Cortez posted her Saturday comment, she received a response from James Fallows, the noted author, journalist and former speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter, who asserted that Ocasio-Cortez was overstating the case in criticizing members of her own party for exercising restraint regarding impeachment.
“IMO, this is ‘false equivalence’ of its own sort,” Fallows wrote. “What Trump is doing remains objectively the biggest threat, scandal, and problem.
“Second-ranking: the silent acquiescence of the GOP Senate.
“Then: it’s time for the House to act.”
Ocasio Cortez doubled down in her response to Fallows.
“It is one thing for a sitting president to break the law,” she wrote. “It’s another to let him.
“The integrity of our democracy isn’t threatened when a president breaks the law. It’s threatened when we do nothing about it.
“The GOP’s silence & refusal to act shouldn’t be a surprise. Ours is.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s online outburst followed remarks earlier in the day by fellow progressive and 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who took a veiled shot at Pelosi, the standard-bearer among Democrats of a “wait and see” approach regarding potential action against the president.
"Donald Trump did everything he could to obstruct justice,” Warren said at an event in Iowa. “I read all 448 pages [of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation] and when I got to the end, I called for the impeachment of Donald Trump.
“Congress failed to act,” Warren added, “and now Donald Trump has shown that he believes he is above the law. He has solicited another foreign government to attack our election system.”
Just over a week ago, Pelosi had lashed out at reporters when they repeatedly asked her about impeachment at a news conference.
“Impeachment is a very divisive measure,” a clearly frustrated Pelosi said, “but if we have to go there, we have to go there and we can't go there unless we have the facts. And we’ll follow the facts and follow the obstruction the president is making ... and make a decision when we’re ready.
“That’s the only question, that’s all I’m going to say about this subject, and there's nothing different from one day to the next,” she added.
The struggles experienced by the 79-year-old Pelosi, a three-decade member of Congress from California, have included frequent clashes with Ocasio-Cortez, 29, and other progressive – and aggressive – young lawmakers who were swept into office during last year’s midterm elections. The progressives’ push for far-left policies, including Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, as well as their vocal opposition to President Trump, have been at odds with the moderates’ typically lower-key approach to getting things done.
Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez appeared to reach a truce of sorts after a closed-door meeting in July, in which both sought to ease infighting that some Democrats viewed as counterproductive. The meeting was soon followed by the departure of Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti.
But with Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitter posts that began late Saturday, it appears the truce with Pelosi – at least regarding impeachment – may be over.
Fox News’ Sam Dorman and Adam Shaw contributed to this story.
The go-slow approach is personified by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with whom Ocasio-Cortez has had an often contentious relationship since the freshman lawmaker arrived in Washington just eight months ago.
The New York Democrat told her more than 5 million Twitter followers late Saturday that the Democrats’ “refusal” to seek the removal of the president was a “bigger national scandal” than what she alleged was the president’s “lawbreaking behavior.”
Calls for impeachment have grown louder from some Democrats in the wake of last week’s news that a purported “whistleblower” had expressed concern about a phone call said to have taken place between President Trump and the leader of Ukraine, in which Trump allegedly sought information about 2020 Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden, whose son Hunter Biden had business dealings in Ukraine.
Soon after Ocasio-Cortez posted her Saturday comment, she received a response from James Fallows, the noted author, journalist and former speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter, who asserted that Ocasio-Cortez was overstating the case in criticizing members of her own party for exercising restraint regarding impeachment.
“IMO, this is ‘false equivalence’ of its own sort,” Fallows wrote. “What Trump is doing remains objectively the biggest threat, scandal, and problem.
“Second-ranking: the silent acquiescence of the GOP Senate.
“Then: it’s time for the House to act.”
Ocasio Cortez doubled down in her response to Fallows.
“It is one thing for a sitting president to break the law,” she wrote. “It’s another to let him.
“The integrity of our democracy isn’t threatened when a president breaks the law. It’s threatened when we do nothing about it.
“The GOP’s silence & refusal to act shouldn’t be a surprise. Ours is.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s online outburst followed remarks earlier in the day by fellow progressive and 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who took a veiled shot at Pelosi, the standard-bearer among Democrats of a “wait and see” approach regarding potential action against the president.
"Donald Trump did everything he could to obstruct justice,” Warren said at an event in Iowa. “I read all 448 pages [of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation] and when I got to the end, I called for the impeachment of Donald Trump.
“Congress failed to act,” Warren added, “and now Donald Trump has shown that he believes he is above the law. He has solicited another foreign government to attack our election system.”
Just over a week ago, Pelosi had lashed out at reporters when they repeatedly asked her about impeachment at a news conference.
“Impeachment is a very divisive measure,” a clearly frustrated Pelosi said, “but if we have to go there, we have to go there and we can't go there unless we have the facts. And we’ll follow the facts and follow the obstruction the president is making ... and make a decision when we’re ready.
“That’s the only question, that’s all I’m going to say about this subject, and there's nothing different from one day to the next,” she added.
The struggles experienced by the 79-year-old Pelosi, a three-decade member of Congress from California, have included frequent clashes with Ocasio-Cortez, 29, and other progressive – and aggressive – young lawmakers who were swept into office during last year’s midterm elections. The progressives’ push for far-left policies, including Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, as well as their vocal opposition to President Trump, have been at odds with the moderates’ typically lower-key approach to getting things done.
Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez appeared to reach a truce of sorts after a closed-door meeting in July, in which both sought to ease infighting that some Democrats viewed as counterproductive. The meeting was soon followed by the departure of Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti.
But with Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitter posts that began late Saturday, it appears the truce with Pelosi – at least regarding impeachment – may be over.
Fox News’ Sam Dorman and Adam Shaw contributed to this story.
Saturday, September 21, 2019
The Latest: US to deploy more troops to Saudi Arabia, UAE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. response to attacks on the Saudi oil industry (all times local):
6:45 p.m.
The
Pentagon says the U.S. will deploy additional troops and military
equipment to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to beef up
security, as President Donald Trump has at least for now decided against
any immediate military strike on Iran in response to the attack on the
Saudi oil industry.
Defense Secretary Mark
Esper says this is a first step, and he is not ruling out additional
moves down the road. He says it’s a response to requests from the Saudis
and the UAE to help improve their air and missile defenses.
Esper
and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, say
details of the deployments will be determined over the coming days.
__
1:20 p.m.
President
Donald Trump is signaling that he’s not inclined to authorize an
immediate military strike on Iran in response to the attacks on the
Saudi oil industry, saying he believes showing restraint “shows far more
strength” and he wants to avoid an all-out war.
Trump has laid out new sanctions on the Iranian central bank.
Trump
spoke just before he gathered his national security team at the White
House to discuss how to respond to the weekend drone and missile attack
on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. He left the door open a bit for a later military response, saying people
thought he’d attack Iran “within two seconds.” But he says he has
“plenty of time.”
President Donald Trump gets heat for urging Ukraine probe
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump urged
the new leader of Ukraine this summer to investigate the son of former
Vice President Joe Biden, a person familiar with the matter said.
Democrats condemned what they saw as a clear effort to damage a
political rival, now at the heart of an explosive whistleblower
complaint against Trump.
It was the latest
revelation in an escalating controversy that has created a showdown
between congressional Democrats and the Trump administration, which has
refused to turn over the formal complaint by a national security
official or even describe its contents.
Trump
defended himself Friday against the intelligence official’s complaint,
angrily declaring it came from a “partisan whistleblower,” though he
also said he didn’t know who had made it. The complaint was based on a
series of events, one of which was a July 25 call
between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, according to
a two people familiar with the matter. The people were not authorized
to discuss the issue by name and were granted anonymity.
Trump,
in that call, urged Zelenskiy to probe the activities of potential
Democratic rival Biden’s son Hunter, who worked for a Ukrainian gas
company, according to one of the people, who was briefed on the call.
Trump did not raise the issue of U.S. aid to Ukraine, indicating there
was not an explicit quid pro quo, according to the person.
In
an interview with Ukrainian outlet Hromadske published Friday evening,
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said that his country is not
interested in taking sides in U.S. politics, but that Zelenskiy has the
right to keep the contents of his conversation with Trump secret. He
noted, however, that U.S. investigators have every right to uncover the
information at their end.
“I know what the
conversation was about and I do not think there was any pressure (from
Trump),” Prystaiko told Hromadske. “There was a conversation, different
conversation, leaders have the right to discuss any existing issues.
This was a long and friendly conversation that touched on a lot of
issues, sometimes requiring serious answers.”
Biden
reacted strongly late Friday, saying that if the reports are true,
“then there is truly no bottom to President Trump’s willingness to abuse
his power and abase our country.” He said Trump should release the
transcript of his July phone conversation with Zelenskiy “so that the
American people can judge for themselves.”
The
government’s intelligence inspector general has described the
whistleblower’s Aug. 12 complaint as “serious” and “urgent.” But Trump
dismissed it all Friday, insisting “it’s nothing.” He scolded reporters
for asking about it and said it was “just another political hack job.”
“I
have conversations with many leaders. It’s always appropriate. Always
appropriate,” Trump said. “At the highest level always appropriate. And
anything I do, I fight for this country.”
Trump, who took questions in the Oval Office alongside Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, whom he was hosting
for a state visit, was asked if he knew if the whistleblower’s
complaint centered on his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President
Zelenskiy. The president responded, “I really don’t know,” but he
continued to insist any phone call he made with a head of state was
“perfectly fine and respectful.”
Trump
was asked Friday if he brought up Biden in the call with Zelenskiy, and
he answered, “It doesn’t matter what I discussed.” But then he used the
moment to urge the media “to look into” Biden’s background with
Ukraine.
There has yet to be any evidence of any wrongdoing by Biden or his son regarding Ukraine.
Trump
and Zelenskiy are to meet on the sidelines of the United Nations next
week. The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump pressed
Zelenskiy about Biden.
The standoff with
Congress raises fresh questions about the extent to which Trump’s
appointees are protecting the Republican president from oversight and,
specifically, whether his new acting director of national intelligence,
Joseph Maguire, is working with the Justice Department to shield the
president.
Democrats say the administration
is legally required to give Congress access to the whistleblower’s
complaint, and Rep. Adam Schiff of California has said he will go to
court in an effort to get it if necessary.
The
intelligence community’s inspector general said the matter involves the
“most significant” responsibilities of intelligence leadership.
House Democrats also are fighting the administration for access to witnesses and documents in impeachment probes.
In the whistleblower
case, lawmakers are looking into whether Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani
traveled to Ukraine to pressure the government to aid the president’s
reelection effort by investigating the activities of Biden’s son.
During
a rambling interview Thursday on CNN, Giuliani was asked whether he had
asked Ukraine to look into Biden. He initially said, “No, actually I
didn’t,” but seconds later he said, “Of course I did.”
Giuliani
has spent months trying to drum up potentially damaging evidence about
Biden’s ties to Ukraine. He told CNN that Trump was unaware of his
actions.
“I did what I did on my own,” he said. “I told him about it afterward.
Still
later, Giuliani tweeted, “A President telling a Pres-elect of a well
known corrupt country he better investigate corruption that affects US
is doing his job.” Democrats have contended that Trump, in the aftermath
of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, may have
asked for foreign assistance in his upcoming reelection bid.
Trump
further stoked those concerns earlier this year in an interview when he
suggested he would be open to receiving foreign help.
The
inspector general appeared before the House intelligence committee
behind closed doors Thursday but declined, under administration orders,
to reveal to members the substance of the complaint.
Schiff,
a California Democrat, said Trump’s attack on the whistleblower was
disturbing and raised concerns that it would have a chilling effect on
other potential exposers of wrongdoing. He also said it was “deeply
disturbing” that the White House appeared to know more about the
complaint than its intended recipient -- Congress.
The information “deserves a thorough investigation,” Schiff said. “Come hell or high water, that’s what we’re going to do.”
Among
the materials Democrats have sought is a transcript of Trump’s July 25
call with Zelenskiy. The call took place one day after Mueller’s
faltering testimony to Congress effectively ended the threat his probe
posed to the White House. A readout of the call released from the
Ukrainian government said Trump believed Kyiv could complete corruptions
investigations that have hampered relations between the two nations but
did not get into specifics.
Sen. Chris
Murphy of Connecticut, who in May called for a probe of Giuliani’s
effort in Ukraine, said in an interview on Friday it’s “outrageous” the
president has been sending his political operative to talk to Ukraine’s
new president. Murphy tweeted that during his own visit it was clear to
him that Ukraine officials were “worried about the consequences of
ignoring Giuliani’s demands.”
The senator
tweeted that he told Zelenskiy during their August visit it was “best to
ignore requests from Trump’s campaign operatives. He agreed.”
House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump faces “serious repercussions” if
reports about the complaint are accurate. She said it raises “grave,
urgent concerns for our national security.”
Letters
to Congress from the inspector general make clear that Maguire
consulted with the Justice Department in deciding not to transmit the
complaint to Congress in a further departure from standard procedure.
It’s unclear whether the White House was also involved, Schiff said.
Maguire
has refused to discuss details of the whistleblower complaint, but he
has been subpoenaed by the House panel and is expected to testify
publicly next Thursday. Maguire and the inspector general, Michael
Atkinson, also are expected next week at the Senate intelligence
committee.
Atkinson wrote in letters that
Schiff released that he and Maguire had hit an “impasse” over the acting
director’s decision not to share the complaint with Congress. Atkinson
said he was told by the legal counsel for the intelligence director that
the complaint did not actually meet the definition of an “urgent
concern.” And he said the Justice Department said it did not fall under
the director’s jurisdiction because it did not involve an intelligence
professional.
Atkinson said he disagreed
with that Justice Department view. The complaint “not only falls under
DNI’s jurisdiction,” Atkinson wrote, “but relates to one of the most
significant and important of DNI’s responsibilities to the American
people.”
___
Associated
Press writers Deb Riechmann, Eric Tucker, Alan Fram and Mary Clare
Jalonick in Washington, D.C., and Matthew Bodner in Moscow contributed
to this report.
Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows, others in GOP blast 'whistleblower' case as 'highly partisan'
Republicans in Congress defended President Trump on
Friday after a report said a "whistleblower" filed a complaint over an
apparent July phone call between the president and the leader of
Ukraine, blasting the allegations as "highly partisan."
“It’s not like we haven’t seen this movie before," U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told the Washington Post. "Democrats come out, they’re all spun up, Adam Schiff makes all kinds of statements, and then when the facts come out -- Whoa, different story!
“This seems to be the same kind of deal," Jordan added.
U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., echoed the idea that such complaints hamper the president in his work.
“It would have a real chilling effect on dialogue between important leaders if they think that every time someone who overhears a conversation that wasn’t even party to the conversation is going to file a whistleblower complaint and it’ll end up on the front page of periodicals across the country,” Meadows said, according to The Post.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said private phone calls with foreign leaders are part of the president’s job.
“The fact is, the president, to quote John Marshall, is the ‘sole organ’ of U.S. external relations and has to have conversations in confidence with foreign leaders," he said. “There’s no practical way to conduct diplomacy without it.”
The administration is also taking flak for not sharing the complaint with Congress.
Most Republicans avoided commenting on the complaint, and while a few did express concerns, they were limited.
Rep. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., said it would be “wildly inappropriate” for a president to ask a foreign government to get involved in a U.S. election, but added he isn’t accusing Trump of doing that.
Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, broke with Republicans in saying some on his side of the aisle might join Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in subpoenaing the president's phone records.
“It’s certainly on the table,” he said. “When I say that I want to protect congressional oversight, I really mean that.”
Trump has denied any impropriety and in a Twitter message Friday, he called the unidentified whistleblower "highly partisan," The Post reported.
“It’s not like we haven’t seen this movie before," U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told the Washington Post. "Democrats come out, they’re all spun up, Adam Schiff makes all kinds of statements, and then when the facts come out -- Whoa, different story!
“This seems to be the same kind of deal," Jordan added.
“It’s not like we haven’t seen this movie before. Democrats come out, they’re all spun up, Adam Schiff makes all kinds of statements, and then when the facts come out -- Whoa, different story!"The complaint made by an unnamed intelligence official, reportedly involved Trump asking Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son for alleged wrongdoing while the elder Biden was vice president.
— U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio
U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., echoed the idea that such complaints hamper the president in his work.
“It would have a real chilling effect on dialogue between important leaders if they think that every time someone who overhears a conversation that wasn’t even party to the conversation is going to file a whistleblower complaint and it’ll end up on the front page of periodicals across the country,” Meadows said, according to The Post.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said private phone calls with foreign leaders are part of the president’s job.
“The fact is, the president, to quote John Marshall, is the ‘sole organ’ of U.S. external relations and has to have conversations in confidence with foreign leaders," he said. “There’s no practical way to conduct diplomacy without it.”
“The fact is, the president ... has to have conversations in confidence with foreign leaders. There’s no practical way to conduct diplomacy without it.”But he added he’s in favor of transparency.
— Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis.
The administration is also taking flak for not sharing the complaint with Congress.
Most Republicans avoided commenting on the complaint, and while a few did express concerns, they were limited.
Rep. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., said it would be “wildly inappropriate” for a president to ask a foreign government to get involved in a U.S. election, but added he isn’t accusing Trump of doing that.
Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, broke with Republicans in saying some on his side of the aisle might join Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in subpoenaing the president's phone records.
“It’s certainly on the table,” he said. “When I say that I want to protect congressional oversight, I really mean that.”
Trump has denied any impropriety and in a Twitter message Friday, he called the unidentified whistleblower "highly partisan," The Post reported.
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Tit for Tat ? ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass was ripped from its base in Rochester on the an...
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NEW YORK (AP) — As New York City faced one of its darkest days with the death toll from the coronavirus surging past 4,000 — more th...