Conway offers theory as to why Pelosi opened impeachment probe

Kellyanne Conway, the White House counselor, on Friday accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of giving in to the "men around her" when she announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump over a July 25 phone call with the newly elected president of Ukraine.
Democrats--citing a newly released whistleblower complaint-- claim that Trump withheld nearly $400 million in military aid from Kiev unless it agreed to investigate his potential 2020 rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter's business dealing in the country.
Both Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied that there was an unspoken quid pro quo. Trump insisted that the call was "perfect" and he was just doing his due diligence to make sure the country was working to weed out corruption.
Conway addressed reporters outside the White House on Friday and accused Pelosi of taking the inquiry plunge-- not because of new evidence-- but because she was taking orders from men around her. Conway said a move like that is the worst thing a "woman in power can do."
According to a Washington Examiner timeline, Pelosi attended an Atlantic festival on Tuesday and was asked about impeachment and she reportedly remained noncommittal. She had a scheduled meeting with Democrats later that day and announced the formal impeachment inquiry, citing Trump's admission that he mentioned the Bidens to Zelensky.
“The actions of the Trump presidency revealed dishonorable facts of the president’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of his national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections,” she said on Tuesday while announcing the inquiry.
The Associated Press reported that the new drive was led by a group of moderate Democratic lawmakers from political swing districts, many of them with national security backgrounds and serving in Congress for the first time.
It is no secret that Pelosi has been the source of frustration to her party’s liberal wing that has called for Trump’s impeachment for months. Political observers argued that the speaker was deliberate in her actions in order to protect Democrats in moderate districts and hedge against the possibility that the allegations fizzled.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday told an audience at Seton Hall's law school that he believed "leftists" were behind the impeachment push, according to Politico. He said the county is going to go down a "very long and unproductive" road.
"Speaker Pelosi was dealing with pressure from her caucus and, when you talk about pressure from the left, there is a highly leftist component to the Democratic Party that she was feeling pressure for,” Cuomo said. He said Pelosi is "a deliberate, responsible person. She’s not a knee-jerk person. And I think she resisted the pressure in her caucus admirably for a long period of time."
The whistleblower complaint was released on Thursday and Democrats appeared to double down on their push. Pelosi tweeted a portion of the complaint that claims Trump was seeking interference and said "it doesn't get more serious than this."
Pelosi told the New Jersey Democratic State Committee‘s convention in Atlantic City Friday night, according to Politico, that "this is not a cause for any joy that we have to go down this path. It’s a difficult decision to make. But we have that obligation because the actions that were taken undermine the constitution and the oath we take to protect and defend, including the oath that the president takes.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report

Maher blasts Hunter Biden's Ukraine ties: If Don Jr. did it, Rachel Maddow would be all over it

"Real Time" host Bill Maher slammed Hunter Biden's business ties to Ukraine, suggesting MSNBC's Rachel Maddow would be talking about it if it were one of President Trump's children.
Maher began by questioning whether former Vice President Joe Biden would benefit from the impeachment inquiry into Trump since he is "elevated" above the other 2020 candidates.
"The more I read about this- no, I don't think he was doing something terrible in Ukraine, but it's just- why can't politicians tell their f-----' kids, 'Get a job, get a godd--n job!''" Maher told the panel. "This kid was paid $600,000 because his name is Biden by a gas company in Ukraine, this super-corrupt country that just had a revolution to get rid of corruption. I just looks bad.'
The HBO star commended "genius" Republicans for "muddying the waters," predicting that their argument to defend Trump will be "You did this in Ukraine, well Joe Biden did this."
He then mentioned Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who was famously entangled in the Russia investigation after he held a meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 election.
"It does sound like something Don Jr. would do," Maher said. "And if Don Jr. did it, it would be all Rachel Maddow was talking about

Shepard Smith Cartoons

Tucker Carlson And Guest Shred Left-Wing Host Shepard Smith, Judge Napolitano

Fox News host Tucker Carlson and lawyer Joe diGenova blasted left-wing Fox News host Shepard Smith and Fox News contributor Judge Andrew Napolitano on Wednesday night over claims that they made the previous day.
The controversy started when Napolitano and Smith claimed on Tuesday that what President Donald Trump had admitted to in relation to his phone call with Ukraine was “a crime.”
DiGenova responded on Tuesday night by refuting Napolitano’s claims and saying that Napolitano was “a fool” and that what he said “was foolish.”
Smith responded to the criticisms during his program on Wednesday, saying: “A partisan guest who supports President Trump was asked about Judge Napolitano’s legal assessment. And when he was asked, he said, unchallenged, Judge Napolitano is a fool. Attacking our colleague, who is here to offer legal assessments on our air, in our work home is repugnant.”
Carlson and diGenova responded to Smith’s comments during Carlson’s Wednesday night broadcast.

Hours after Fox News anchor Shepard Smith blasted frequent network guest and Trump ally Joe diGenova for calling Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano a “fool” during Tucker Carlson’s show, Carlson devoted a Wednesday night segment to mocking Smith’s outrage and defense of their mutual colleague.
Inviting diGenova back on his program on Wednesday night, Carlson noted that the Trump-boosting lawyer’s insult of Napolitano caused “quite a firestorm,” reminding viewers that diGenova was responding to Napolitano’s assertion that Trump committed a crime with his phone call to the Ukrainian president. Carlson then took aim at Smith.
“Apparently our daytime host who hosted Judge Napolitano was watching last night and was outraged by what you said and, quite ironically, called you partisan,” Carlson exclaimed in a rather jovial manner.
The Fox News star went on to air a clip of Smith not-so-subtly calling out Carlson for letting a “partisan guest” attack Napolitano without being challenged. “Attacking our colleague, who is here to offer legal assessments on our air in our work home, is repugnant,” Smith added.
“Repugnant!” Carlson mockingly shouted. “Not clear if that was you or me, but someone was repugnant!”
Playing another clip of Napolitano reiterating his view that Trump broke the law by seeking election assistance from a foreign leader, the primetime Fox star insisted that “unlike maybe some dayside hosts, I’m not very partisan.”
After accusing Smith of being partisan, the conservative talk show host opened the floor for diGenova to continue to rail against Napolitano’s analysis. “I was very truthful last night,” diGenova said.
“So that’s why it doesn’t seem honest to me when a host, any host on any channel, including this one, pretends that the answer is obvious,” Carlson stated. “That there is ironclad consensus about what the answer is when there, in fact, isn’t, when it’s a subjective question. That’s not news, is it? That’s opinion.”
diGenova, meanwhile, insisted he was absolutely right to claim Trump has not committed any crimes because he’s a former U.S. attorney before taking some additional shots at Napolitano.
“He is entitled to feel that way,” the Trump-supporting lawyer declared. “He is a disappointed office seeker. He didn’t get the seat on the Supreme Court that he desperately wanted and he has been mad about it ever since. He showed it yesterday and he showed it so many times over the last year it’s pretty embarrassing actually for me. You know, I love the guy. God bless him.”
“I do too,” Carlson replied. “We invited him on tonight by the way. It makes people cynical when you dress up news coverage, when you dress up partisanship as news coverage and pretend that your angry political opinions are news. You know, people tune out.”
This wasn't the only time we saw friendly fire on Carlson's show Wednesday night. Earlier in the program, Fox News reporter Trace Gallagher said “most legal analysts, even on the liberal media outlets, acknowledge it would be very difficult to make a case that President Trump broke the law.” This would, however, contradict Napolitano's assessment, as well as a number of lawyers and legal analysts Smith also cited on Wednesday to show Trump broke the law.

Mark Levin slams 'rogue' CIA whistleblower, claims no first-hand source filed a complaint

Mark Levin blasted what he called a "rogue CIA agent's" whistleblower complaint against President Trump over his phone call with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.
Levin said the complaint should be taken lighter than it is, claiming Thursday on "Hannity" that no individual with first-hand knowledge of the call's contents filed the same inquiry.
"A CIA agent who is a policy guy for Ukraine can't write something like this," he said.
Levin, a constitutional law attorney by trade, claimed the complaint appeared to be written by someone with legal experience rather than a member of the intelligence community.
"I want to know who this [person] spoke to," he said. "He knew nothing... Isn't it funny -- not a single one of the people with firsthand knowledge [of the call] filed a whistleblower complaint?"
Levin then turned to the hearing on the matter chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., demanding the Burbank lawmaker release his own past phone records.
"Mr. Schiff, why don't you release 90 days of your phone calls, 90 days of your texts," he said.
In addition, he called on Senate Republicans -- in a chamber where they hold the majority -- to act in a way he called similar to Schiff and Democrats like Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and issue subpoenas on the matter.
"Where the hell are the Republican chairmen in the Senate -- why aren't they issuing subpoenas -- issue your 100 subpoenas, go after their bank accounts, go after their friends," he said.
"If they don't go for it, hold them in contempt."
He also demanded investigations into Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Richard Durbin, D-Ill, and Robert Menendez, D-N.J. for reportedly insisting the Ukrainian government not close probes seen as critical to the Russia investigation.
"You have another one, Chris Murphy from Connecticut, who insisted the Ukrainian government not investigate Biden," he added.
At a press conference in New York on Wednesday, Trump specifically called attention to a little-discussed CNN report from May, which described how Menendez, Durbin and Leahy pushed Ukraine’s top prosecutor not to close four investigations perceived as critical to then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe -- and, by Democrats' current logic, seemingly implied that their support for U.S. aid to Ukraine was at stake.
"The Democrats have done what they're accusing me of doing," Trump said.
Senator Chris Murphy literally threatened the president of Ukraine that if he doesn't do things right, they won't have Democrat support in Congress," Trump added.
That was a reference to the Connecticut Democrat's comments at a bipartisan meeting in Kiev earlier this month, when Murphy called U.S. aid the “most important asset” of Ukraine -- then issued a warning.
Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report.

Rudy Giuliani blasts 'bitter' Romney over response to Trump-Ukraine case

Want A Be Republican. (Fake)

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani slammed Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, for what he called a weak response to the Ukraine phone call whistleblower's complaint against President Trump.
Giuliani said Thursday on "The Ingraham Angle" that Romney -- the 2012 Republican presidential nominee -- is still upset he lost his election, while Trump won his own White House bid -- as he rejected the former Massachusetts' governor's reaction to the Ukraine news.
On Sunday, Romney tweeted, "If the President asked or pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate his political rival, either directly or through his personal attorney, it would be troubling in the extreme. Critical for the facts to come out."
Giuliani dismissed Romney's concern.
"I don't know, maybe he is as confused about this as he was when [CNN debate moderator] Candy Crowley contradicted him and his campaign fell apart," Giuliani said.
At a 2012 debate with then-President Barack Obama in Hempstead, N.Y., Romney questioned whether Obama had called the Benghazi attack an "act of terror" rather than "spontaneous" violence that grew out of a protest against an anti-Islam video. Crowley then intervened: "He did in fact, sir ... call it an act of terror."
However, after the debate, Crowley conceded that Mitt Romney was "right" on the broader point -- that the administration for days insisted it was a spontaneous act.
"He was right in the main. I just think he picked the wrong word," she said at the time.
On "The Ingraham Angle," Giuliani continued in his reaction to Romney's tweet.

More from Media

"I wouldn't count on him. And he's bitter about Donald Trump."
"Look, Mitt, Trump did what you couldn't do. Trump has an ability to relate to people -- you don't," he said.

Ukrainian official appears to cast doubt on quid pro quo claim

An unnamed Ukrainian official said that Kiev was not made aware that the U.S. suspended security funds until a month after President Trump's call with his counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, which calls into question the whistleblower's account and Democrats' arguments that there was a quid pro quo for the aid.
READ THE COMPLAINT
The official told the New York Times that Zelensky's government was unaware about the aid issue up until a month after Trump's July 25 phone call where he discussed Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
The whistleblower complaint—citing U.S. officials—claimed that officials in Kiev were aware that the military aid could be in jeopardy in early August, but the whistleblower admitted to not knowing "how or when they learned of it."
Republicans may seize on the apparent timeline inconsistencies and claim that if a quid pro quo was in place for the roughly $391 million in frozen aid, Ukrainian officials would know about it.
Zelensky said earlier this week that he never felt pressured by Trump to investigate the Bidens. Trump insisted that he wanted to make sure the country was weeding out corruption before providing the funds.
Democrats insist that Trump was wrong to bring up a political opponent to a foreign leader, and even if he didn't explicitly make a demand, the innuendo was there. Democrats also took issue with the complaint's claim that Trump employed his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in the matter.
The whistleblower's complaint named Giuliani and claimed diplomats were upset about by his role in pushing Kiev to open an investigation into the Bidens.
According to the whistleblower complaint, by mid-May, U.S. diplomat Kurt Volker sought to "contain the damage" from Giuliani's outreach to Ukraine.
But a July 19 text message conversation from Volker to Giuliani, provided to Fox News on Thursday, showed that Volker had in fact encouraged Giuliani to reach out to Ukraine -- even sending Giuliani a message reading, "connecting you here with Andrey Yermak, who is very close to President Zelensky."
Joseph Maguire, acting director of national intelligence, said Thursday that, "My only knowledge of what Mr. Giuliani does—I have to be honest with you—I get from the TV or the news media. I’m not aware of what he does for the president."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,  D-Calif., has started an official inquiry into whether the House should pursue impeachment proceedings, but Democrats have refused to hold a roll call vote to authorize the effort.
"Impeaching a President means nullifying the results of a presidential election, which is the core act of American democratic legitimacy," The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page wrote on Friday. "If Democrats are going to do this, they have an obligation to stand up and be counted in a way that the public can examine."
Trump noted that the whistleblower had no first-hand knowledge of alleged abuse.
“Who’s the person that gave the whistleblower the information? Because that’s close to a spy,” Trump said. “You know what we used to do in the old days, when we were smart, right? The spies and treason? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”
The Los Angeles Times obtained and released a recording of the president’s comments.
The Trump administration reportedly began placing transcripts of Trump's calls with several foreign leaders in a highly classified repository after leakers publicly divulged the contents of Trump's private calls with the leaders of Mexico and Australia in 2017.
The complaint stated that Trump made a “specific request that the Ukrainian leader locate and turn over servers used by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and examined by the U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike" -- a request that does not appear in the declassified transcript of the call released by the Trump administration on Tuesday. Trump mentioned CrowdStrike, but did not demand the server.
Additionally, the complaint said Trump "suggested that Mr. Zelensky might want to keep" his current prosecutor general, a claim not supported by the transcript.
CBS News reported late Thursday that the whistleblower complaint further inaccurately claimed that a State Department official was on the call with Zelensky.
The memo was not a "verbatim transcript" but was based on "notes and recollections" of those memorializing the call.
Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, said, “Nothing has changed with the release of this complaint.” The president “has nothing to hide."
The Associated Press contributed to this report

Analysis: After UN visit, Iran faces diminishing choices

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iran has long prided itself on its forceful defiance of the United States and Israel, a resistance that has defined the Shiite-led Islamic Republic for the 40 years since its revolution.

But the limits of Iran’s ability to go it alone were on display at the United Nations this week as it engaged in a flurry of diplomatic outreach amid increasingly crippling isolation by U.S. sanctions that are eating into its economy and its ability to sell its oil.

For months, the European nations that signed Iran’s nuclear accord have been trying — unsuccessfully — to find ways around U.S. sanctions that were imposed after President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the agreement last year. Trump argues the deal, completed under the Obama administration, fell far short of the curbs needed to block Tehran’s regional ambitions.

Addressing world leaders Wednesday, Rouhani’s message pointed a clear way toward easing tensions and resuming negotiations: “Stop the sanctions.”

But before getting to that, he opened his speech by paying homage “to all the freedom-seekers of the world who do not bow to oppression and aggression.” He also slammed “U.S.- and Zionist-imposed plans” against the Palestinians. Such language characterizes Iran’s self-styled championing of Islamic causes worldwide.

Away from the podium this week, Iran has been engaging in nothing short of a public relations blitz with America’s biggest news outlets. Rouhani met with leaders of media organizations including The Associated Press and granted an interview to Fox News, where Trump and his Iran policies enjoy vehement support.

The Tehran government’s fraught history with the U.S. has essentially locked it out of the global financial system, making it difficult to find partners, allies and countries willing or even able to do business with it.

Rouhani accused the U.S. of engaging in “merciless economic terrorism” against his country, saying America had resorted to “international piracy by misusing the international banking system” to pressure Iran.

As Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers unravels under the weight of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign, previously unimaginable alliances are emerging between Gulf Arab states and Israel, united by what they see as a common threat.

Across the Middle East, Iran’s reach is consequential in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, where proxy wars have taken on a sectarian tone that pits Iran-supported Shiites against Saudi-backed Sunnis.

On the battlefields, Tehran’s rivals see it as a menacing and destabilizing force that has exploited failed uprisings, military interventions and chaos to expand its foothold in Arab states.

Iran counters that it was the U.S. that invaded Iraq and Saudi Arabia that invaded Yemen. In his U.N. speech, Rouhani pointed to Iran’s role in fighting Sunni Muslim extremist groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaida. He described Iran as a “pioneer of freedom-seeking movements in the region.”

Iran’s elite paramilitary force has led that charge, cementing Tehran’s footprint far beyond the country’s borders.

The Revolutionary Guard Corps, created after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution in parallel to the country’s armed forces, is effectively a corps of soldiers charged with preserving and advancing the principles of the uprising that created modern Iran.

It answers only to the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and its power is not just theoretical but very real: The force directly oversees the country’s ballistic missile program.

It is the Guard Corps that has become a major sticking point in Iran’s relations, or lack thereof, with the United States under Donald Trump.

The Trump administration, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel say Iran used money from sanctions relief under the nuclear accord to increase the Revolutionary Guard’s budget.

Those nations say any new negotiations must include discussion about the Guard’s activities in the region and its missile program, and support for that notion seems to be gaining traction.

This week, Britain, France and Germany joined the U.S. and other allies in blaming Iran for an attack on Saudi oil sites earlier this month. The implication: That because missiles were involved in those attacks, so was the Guard.

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York this week, a top Saudi diplomat described Iran as being “obsessed with trying to restore the Persian Empire and trying to take over the region.”

“Their constitution calls for the export of the revolution,” Adel al-Jubeir said. “They believe that every Shiite belongs to them. They don’t respect the sovereignty of nations.”

“Iran,” he said, “has to decide: Are you a revolution or are you a nation-state?”

As Rouhani departs a city that is effectively enemy territory and goes back home this week, he and Tehran’s clerical leadership must decide which of those paths to take: Will they merely confront, as the 1979 revolution did? Or, as nation-states do, will they sit down and talk as well?

___

Aya Batrawy covers the Persian Gulf for The Associated Press and has reported from the Middle East for the past 15 years.