We can’t be sure he knew it was that damning or how strongly he encouraged Trump to release it. Remember, Trump’s team has been sequestering a whole bunch of conversations. It could be they were out of reach of Mitch’s little sparrows. And I could imagine his encouragement being along the lines of “if you’re sure it’s a nothing burger, release it because things are getting ugly.” If Mitch knew this was the first domino of 10 rather outrageous calls with foreign leaders, then ok it was a trap. I have a hard time believing he would purposely bring this down.
Every once in a while, out of morbid curiosity, I pop over to see how Fox News is handling all this. It never ceases to amaze. The latest: “Ex-Ukraine prosecutor said he was told to back off probe of Biden-linked firm, files show”.
What “files” are these, you may well ask. Remember that packet of conspiracy-theory drivel that the State Department inspector general handed over to Congress yesterday, the conspiracy theories and fabrications that were compiled by our old pal Rudy Giuliani, and which the inspector general regarded as evidence of a sleazy attempt to smear Trump’s Democratic opponents with falsehoods and conspiracy theories? Yeah, that one. Fox News is now quoting from those smear documents as if they contained God’s own truth, with no attempt to explain the dubious source. This particular story presents as fact what Giuliani claims in his notes the Ukrainian ex-prosecutor said to him, the one who was so corrupt and dishonest that a consortium of countries wanted him fired – and manages even to exaggerate what Rudy himself had claimed! According to Fox, Rudy’s lunatic rantings are “files” and thus indisputable sources of truth. Well, I suppose Rudy’s lunatic rantings were in a file folder, so I guess it’s a “file”!
And this, folks, is where the right gets all their information, except for the parts they get from Breitbart.
Corruption and criminality at the highest levels of government *are *real issues. So Brooks is not helping things if he’s promulgating the idea that Trump is a minor matter.
So they are still going forward with their attempts to defame Biden, even after all of this. This is amazing.
You are saying all sorts of bad things about Rudy. Are you witness tampering?
They have to, they need their base radicalized and distracted. Every Republican senator needs to fear a primary challenge or else they might act in America’s interests and look at the evidence.
Impeaching Trump and removing him from office requires Republicans in the Senate to go along with it. There is a non-zero chance of that happening (though still quite low) if Pence will step into office, there is an absolutely zero chance of that happening if Peolosi will step into that office.
I’m fine with a Pence presidency for the next year, compared to the destruction going on.
And, there is the added benefit that if the GOP turns on Trump he will burn the party to the ground on his way down.
I’m wondering if it would lead to the formation of a third party, a Tea Party if you will.
Is it the truth that the piece of paper with writing on it that Trump calls a ‘transcript’ and which he claims is exculpatory is actually a ‘memorandum’ and which is a clear statement of an attempt to force a foreign leader to help get dirt on Biden?
Or, are we talking about two different pieces of paper, one personally dictated and approved by Trump, and one dictated and promulgated by Schiff?
If I am not mistaken, the Memorandum is actually damning to Trump and there is no way on earth he would have released it if he had actually read it.
A new Trumpist party would be the Wigs, surely, in honor of their leader? 
I don’t know if he read the transcript of what he said, but never underestimate Trump’s obliviousness.
The 1972 election was a historic landslide. The 2016 election was won by the second-place vote-getter. If the goal is to do the People’s will, then let it be so.
Fox would do that to whoever was leading the Dem polls, and think up a basis for it later.
It may become *defendant *tampering.
It might also lead to the formation of a new party of die-hard Trump loyalists, a Pee Party if you will.
Well, considering the “taxes enough already” TEA party clearly had nothing to do with taxes and everything to do with racism, I reckon they will go with Trump and take 80% of the GOP with them.
Well, this certainly makes the Republican conspiracy theory around Biden a bit awkward.
“CNN’s KFile found a February 2016 bipartisan letter signed by several Republican senators that urged then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to “press ahead with urgent reforms to the Prosecutor General’s office and judiciary.”
The letter shows that addressing corruption in Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office had bipartisan support in the US and further undercuts a baseless attack made by President Donald Trump and his allies that Biden pressured the Ukrainian government to fire then Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin to stop investigations into a Ukrainian natural gas company that his son, Hunter Biden, sat on the board of. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either Joe or Hunter Biden, nor is it clear whether Hunter was under investigation at all.”
The Comb Overs?
Ha! Love it.
Today, Trump has rolled out his new strategy:
“If I just openly do this, perhaps I can make it seem normal”.
So, today, he just openly calls for Ukraine to continue its investigation and suggests China opens an investigation into the Bidens. The same China with whom we are in a trade war with:
"Trump at 10:37:24 a.m., talking about trade negotiations: “I have a lot of options on China, but if they don’t do what we want, we have tremendous power.”
Trump at 10:37:54 a.m., asked about Ukraine probe: “Likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens.”"
IT NEVER HAPPENED!
Trump never asked china to investigate Biden.
Trumps press conference was beautiful. The best. People are saying this. The transcripts from the lying media are fake.
We are now in an era where Republicans will simply believe what they are told by The Leader. If Trump said it was dark out at 12:00 noon, they literally would not be able to see, and stumble about trying to find a flashlight.