That aspect was also discussed previously. I can’t remember whose deposition it was, but there was a lot of back and forth over how the investigation would be staged, and the precise wording of it.
Oh, I seriously doubt that. His accusations are entirely projective reflection. It’s all “no puppet, you’re the puppet”, “Crooked Hillary”, etc.
Making the announcement commits the Ukraine to nothing at all. The ‘investigation’ could simply spin its wheels until after the next election, then quietly die.
What mattered to him and the Republicans is that a credible third party made the accusation. From that point, they could ride it to the end.
This also negates the ridiculous claim that Trump actually cared about fighting corruption.
Yes is it, thank you. Here’s the thread in one spot:
Menzo
3873
This all seems pretty damning, but it doesn’t get to the REAL heart of the matter, which is: who was the whistleblower?! That’s the most important element here and Democrats are totally ignoring it.
Yuge.
This makes it clear that POTUS wasn’t deeply interested in rooting out corruption in Ukraine. He was interested in a hit on a political opponent.
I think it is both - all three? hard to keep track :)
They obviously wanted to smear Biden with his own Benghazi. And they’ve been doing that all Fall - and it has quite plausibly contributed to Biden falling in the polls. That’s just old-fashioned dirty politics (illegally using taxpayer money as part of the scheme).
But Trump 100% believes the Russian version of 2016 - it was the Ukrainians helping Clinton, not the Russians helping Trump, and he is sure a “proper investigation” would show that.
I doubt this. Trump knows — as we all do — that he got help from the Russians.
Sondland now seems to be trying to blame Giuliani for the quid pro quo? He’s going in torturous circles to claim that he never actually heard that from Trump himself. He wants us to believe that Taylor complained explicitly about the quid pro quo, that in response he called Trump, and then he came back and told Taylor it was a quid pro quo, but that he and Trump never discussed it on the call? That’s insane.
Trump has NPD. He’s not sane. He may actually believe everything Hannity says.
He is a lifelong habitual liar for personal gain. It’s possible he’s crazy, but if he’s telling lies now, the simple explanation for it is that this is what he does.
Scrax
3882
Sounds like they have to bring Giuliani in to clear things up.
But, I was always told he “tells it like it is”.
Sondland is a genuine problem for Trump supporters, and not just on a factual level - they’ve long since stopped caring about facts - but at a deeper thematic level.
Trumpers can wave aside the testimony of State Department or intelligence officials as coming from “the swamp” or the “deep state.” The same can be done with the military: with a little recalibration, Trumpers can convince themselves the troops are just more loathed Federal employees.
But Sondland is essentially Trump: a rich white male asshole, a GOP stalwart, and someone with no pesky prior experience with government and proud of it. Since he’s dripping with money, GOP theology holds that such a person must surely be right about everything. But then how to square the fact that Sondland is the GOP ideal of ignorance and wealth given power with the fact that he just dropped a dime on Dear Leader?
There’s a path that will be deeply appealing to Trump’s supporters, the same one they’ve used to demonize Soros. Expect a lot of talk from Trump’s base about how Sondland is a rootless cosmopolitan internationalist.
Thrag
3885
Nunes left during the testimony. Given his opening statement about how the democrats were going to smear Sondland it looks like they thought he was going to toe the GOP line and were caught completely unprepared for him turning on them.
Menzo
3887
Is it possible that he left to tell Trump that the only avenue they now have is firing Sondland and accusing him of lying during the testimony today?
