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© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019.For U.S. diplomats, public impeachment hearings could be catharsis and maybe a circus
By Humeyra Pamuk, Jonathan Landay and Arshad Mohammed WASHINGTON©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
36 Comments
u_s__reamer
"As champions of American diplomacy, we are in the truth-telling business."
(Cough)!
plasticmonkey
Says it all right there.
You Trumpsters don’t have a real leg to stand on.
takeda.shingen.1991@gmail.com
Lolololol no you didn't. What you read is clearly titled memorandum, not a verbatim transcript. There's at least 10 minutes of conversation missing from the "transcript." Nice own goal.
Because this is an impeachment hearing for Trump. No one has time for dumb right-wing conspiracy theories, and you can't impeach Biden anyways. Boohoo.
CrazyJoe
If Republicans continue to call for testimony by Hunter Biden to establish that this was all about corruption, then it is fair to establish the President's -- and the country's -- criteria for corruption by demanding testimony from the Trump children along with all their financials. Do Republicans really want to go down that road? I for one would love to stack Hunter Biden's actions up against the actions of Trump's spawn.
PTownsend
I wish I could agree, but as @burningbush pointed out Trump's backed by factions of the global elite, the fossils running the fossil economy who are getting richer and more powerful each day he's in office. Those factions will protect their goose and the US gold he allows them to use for their gain. They'll continue pouring millions into his campaign coffers for him to skim, like he did with his so called 'charity'. Since Trump's election his global backers have used their collective billions and their media to ensure he stays in office.
Simon Foston
BlacklabelToday 08:55 am JST
That sounds like nothing but supposition,.
Sneezy
Ah! So you do think there are lots of things Trump has done that are even worse than putting national security in peril. Okay, which of Trump's many crimes or glaring examples of being unfit for office would you impeach him for?
Chip Star
Sure it is. If this were remotely true, why hasn't Donny done anything in the past three years to address the problem? He too busy golf, tweeting, and giving Kim photo ops?
Chip Star
Thanks to the republicans obstructing and attempting to subvert the rule of law. TEE HEE! Oh my . . . HAR!
We can't trust the polls, but we can trust an anonymous internet poster he constantly pushes falsehoods. Got it.
Yrral
It over for Trump, Google Lev Parnas
Yrral
It over for Trump and the Republican, their is different between the court of pubic opinion, and court of legal opinion, Republican brace their Burden fantasies,at their own political peril, Google Lev Parnas
Sneezy
I stopped reading here.
lincolnman
And fill with Russian spies - one's that think like Trump...you know, like Boris Badenov...
Today is Veterans Day - LTC Vindman volunteered to serve his country, went into battle, and was wounded with injuries he carries to this day. Veterans Day honors these heroes who sacrificed for their country.
That is, except Trumpers, who show how perverted they are by insulting and smearing them, on the day we hold to honor them.
Nothing can be more un-American - and shows they have no honor, no integrity, and no love of their country - except if that country is Russia...
stormcrow
It'll be a circus alright. Just bringing in the blindly obedient Republican congressional representatives and senators guarantees that this will happen.
takeda.shingen.1991@gmail.com
Totally, that's totally why Donny refuses to allow witnesses in his administration to testify. That's also why he moved the actual transcript to an encrypted department. It's all because is very innocent, the most innocent. ;)
Its funny though that you think the people who testifies under oath are lying, and the ones who refuse to testify are telling the truth.
Toasted Heretic
Completely on topic. And I'm not a Dem.
lincolnman
I see you've already judged Pence guilty in all of this too - I agree - good assumption....
lincolnman
We haven't seen a transcript, just a summary - Trump hasn't released it yet. And LTC Vindman who was on the call said there was much more troubling info that was left out of the summary.
When your own handpicked team, all Repubs, say you were shaking down a foreign government for political gain, you're in a bad way...
Convince your fellow Trumper, he was the one that said Pence was history...
What a weak excuse - and I'll say it again - the Trumpers disrespect and insults to our military heroes on Veterans just shows they have zero patriotism or love of country...just like their President...
Sneezy
Donald Trump's transcripts did that well enough. Once again, President Fatty McImbecile is too stupid to know when he's incriminating himself. This idiocy is why Trump cultists vacillate between "read the transcript" and "don't read the transcript".
Sneezy
Bernie is a straight white man, and is hugely popular. Have you considered that you should get political education in places other than alt-right YouTube?
Toasted Heretic
This is not true.
The former ambassador said she disagreed with the president over his handling of Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Helsinki in 2017. She also wrote that his comments after the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017, that there were good people on "both sides", had been "hurtful and dangerous". A counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was killed at the demonstration.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50370347
Blacklabel
Its not Veterans Day in the United States yet. Plus, being in the military doesnt automatically make someone above and beyond reproach.
Blacklabel
Yeah, the new thing is that Nikki Haley is supporting Trump so that when he blames Pence for all of this and removes him, she can be VP. Then when Trump is then removed, we have President Nikki Haley. Thanks CNN. No, she actually believes he did nothing wrong,
I look forward to the testimony when they are asked to identify the actual quid pro quo. I am sure the "feelings" part will go well, but the proof part is going to be really difficult for the public testimony. So far about the quid pro quo, we had there was none, I read it in the NY Times, I presumed there was and I heard it fourth hand from others. No one has taken the transcript and said "right there is the quid pro quo".
Serrano
maybe a circus
Oh, it's a circus all right.
Biden is a leading contender for the Democratic nomination
That's what the polls keep telling us. In reality he's finished. He's not going to be the nominee.
Blacklabel
Actually this is just a preview of the articles of impeachment though.
Dems cant stay on topic and will be adding this and that, we will end up with trying to impeach him for 100+ separate things, normal people will lose interest and that will be the end of that. I still cant believe out of all the things Trump has ever done, Dems picked this Ukraine phone call to commit political suicide with.
Blacklabel
Vindman who did you talk to after the call about this? schiff/Swalwell/his lawyer: don’t answer that its an attempt to expose the whistleblower!
us: ummm we didn’t ask if he talked to the whistleblower. But thanks for confirming you all know he did.
arrestpaul
In closed-door testimony, witnesses offered no actual proof of any quid pro quo. Only their personal "feelings" that there woulda/should/coulda been evidence, if any evidence existed. The Democrats pet media outlets immediately proclaimed that Democrats had finally/once again discovered the smoking gun that they've been claiming to have ever since they discovered that Hillary had lost her 2nd attempt to become POTUS.
arrestpaul
Or they could be Pelosi's best chance to become President of the U.S.?
Blacklabel
Nothing wrong, related to Ukraine call. Which is the topic. Come on man.
Serrano
The impeachment inquiry centers on a July 25 phone call in which Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate unsubstantiated corruption accusations against former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who was on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm.
Did you read the transcript? The Ukranian president said he didn't feel pressured by the call. No Quid Pro Quo. This is just your emotions and feelings about the call. There is nothing impeachable in that call.
It over for Trump
Yepper! This time, Drumpf is really, really, finished! haha, you guys been saying this for at least 2 years now.
I see you've already judged Pence guilty in all of this too - I agree - good assumption....
In this country you are innocent until you are proven guilty. Unless you're Kavanaugh, Trump or Pence, lol.
Wolfpack
It’s going to be a huge circus. Americans better get used to it because every president from here on out will be impeached on a technicality whenever the opposition party controls the House of Representatives.
Neither Biden nor Bloomberg have any chance at all of getting the Dem nomination. They have several huge strikes against them among the parties activist base. They are both White and they are both men. That means they are beneficiaries of the dreadful “white privilege” and they are misogynists. The only chance they have is to declare they are Native American, gay, or in the process of changing genders. Otherwise, they are just wasting their time and a whole lot of rich people’s money.
Blacklabel
Without evidence, I suspect Vindman (active duty military partisan) with ties to Russia and Ukraine didn’t like what Trump said.
he was on the call but can’t do anything. Goes to his “ethics lawyer” brother who puts him in touch with super partisan Eric who wasn’t on the call but could get IC protections.
someone leaked classified info to Eric (or the whistleblower). We aren’t finding out who that was as Vindman curiously isn’t listed for public testimony.
Blacklabel
I read the transcript myself. Which was released by the President to be transparent. Where is the transparency from the Dems? Was even 1 of the Republican witnesses approved for public? what are they hiding by preventing this testimony in public?
I dont need the opinion of others or how they "feel" about it.
Blacklabel
It’s definitely going to be a circus as these people have to answer questions in public. schiff can’t hide or block them from answering.
Can’t wait to hear from the ex-ambassador why she lied under oath about not replying when contacted by Schiff staff. Of course she did.