House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…
“I’ve said before, I do not have the medical background to analyze the president’s behavior.”
**
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president…
“People were talking about impeaching this president before he even got inaugurated. Now they are getting their wish. Nancy Pelosi finally capitulated to her angry mob.”
**
Thomas Wright, of the Brookings Institution, on the resignation of Kurt Volker, special envoy for Ukraine…
“Kurt was one of the good ones who went in to the administration to stave off disaster. They all have to speak out now about everything they know and let the chips fall where they may.”
**
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a former constitutional law professor and now a member of the House Judiciary Committee, on Attorney General William Barr…
“Just as the president is not above the law, the attorney general is not above the law. The president’s betrayal of his oath of office and the Constitution is the primary offense here, and we need to stay focused on that, but the attorney general’s prostitution of the Department of Justice for the president’s political agenda has been necessary to the president’s schemes and he will face his own reckoning.”
**
Chris Wallace of Fox News…
“To dismiss this (whistle-blower) as a political hack seems to be an effort by the president’s defenders to make nothing out of something, and there is something here.”
**
President Donald Trump on his phone call with Voldymyr Zelensky…
“If that perfect phone call with the President of Ukraine isn’t considered appropriate, then no future President can EVER again speak to another foreign leader!”
**
Roger Cohen, a New York Times opinion writer…
“The conversation was indeed perfect — as a basis for impeachment, that is.”
**
Fox News host Laura Ingraham to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who talked so long about Hunter Biden’s alleged corruption that he became hoarse…
“Sorry to cut you off. You gotta get your voice back.”
**
Giuliani…
“It is impossible that the whistle-blower is a hero and I’m not. And I will be the hero! These morons — when this is over, I will be the hero.”
I didnt see any quotes from the WSJ. Were there any that you know of?
I don’t have a subscription, and they have a hard and fast pay wall.
Let’s add this classic from this morning:
Stephen Miller on Fox News Sunday: “The president is the whistleblower here.”
And some interesting other comments:
Tom Bossert on ABC This Week said the Crowdstrike/DNC/Ukraine story is “completely false” and has “no validity.” Says he and others told Trump that, but that Rudy continues to push it.
Bossert is Trump’s former Homeland Security advisor.
What is the Republican platform these days? Here is how one senior Senate Republican aide described it to the Los Angeles Times:
“At this point, [Trump] could be caught walking out of a Federal Reserve Bank with two giant sacks of money in his hands and no Republican would impeach him for grand larceny.
“Our voters want two things from our congressmen: [dumping] on the media and blindly defending the president. That’s what being a Republican has come to.”
And on the American public viewpoint:
New CBS poll this morning: 55 percent of Americans — a solid majority — approve of the decision to open an impeachment inquiry. And a plurality, 42-36, say Trump deserves to be impeached over the Ukraine matter.
ABC also has a new poll today:
Two-thirds of Americans believe Trump’s encouragement to a foreign leader to investigate a political rival is a serious problem.
Thirty-two per cent of Republicans view Trump’s phone call as a serious/very serious problem and support an impeachment inquiry. Significant in these days of polarization.
As I wrote the other day, the momentum to at least investigate Trump for impeachment, if not to impeach him, is accelerating. Even Trump’s buddy Sean Hannity has apparently been telling people this whole thing is very bad for Trump. And Rudy appears to be incapable of and too over the edge to shut up.
Thinking of past observations of Trump’s actions, we will start seeing the bodies being thrown under the bus starting this week. Trump’s whole focus as it has been for his entire life is to save himself.
Rick Wilson, GOP strategist, said yesterday to watch closely those aides in the White House that would have access to any information. He said they have to make a decision to run and get immunity for telling what they know or face at least 6 figure legal bills.
The only thing crazier than a Trump presidency could be a Giuliani presidency.
Giuliani is crazy enough to throw himself under the bus for Trump. It’s going to be pretty easy for slick snake-oil salesman Trump to blame this on Rudy now.
The one, true kryptonite to all of Trump’s game is to publicly play the recording of the conversation between Trump and Zelenskyy. That will be the key evidence at the heart of an impeachment trial. The Supreme Court will be involved here, and they may well block that revelation. All eyes on Chief Justice Roberts, the deciding vote. If the audio airs and Republican Senators have to publicly take a side, that’s the Democrats’ best payoff in 2020. It won’t matter so much whether they convict or not, but what ammunition it gives Democratic senate candidates. Put the recorded conversation in context. Zelenskyy’s son is in the Ukrainian military on the front lines. What sort of influence would Trump be able to exert by withholding tens of millions of military aide, especially Javelin missile systems, that might mean life or death to the nation of Ukrain, and more personally, to Zelenskyy’s son?
You obviously read the whistle-blower’s report, Steve…The double “y” at the end of the Ukrainian president’s name might confuse those who haven’t read it, but that’s the official spelling — something you’d never see that on an American name ending in “y.”
SCOTUS, now filled with more GOP hacks!, may well attempt to protect Trump (certainly not the presidency; they don’t care about that), but it will too little too late. A second whistle-blower has entered the fray, this time over concerns about Trump’s taxes and the IRS.
It’s all going to come out.
Kansas Senator Jerry Moran is still a Trump supporter — this message from his current newsletter: “Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced impeachment proceedings for President Trump. Speaker Pelosi’s actions are a rush to judgement and were made before most of the facts were known. Absent concrete evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors, Congress should not use impeachment proceedings to overturn the results of an election. Since President Trump’s election, Democrats have been trying to delegitimize his presidency, and unfounded impeachment of President Trump would only further fracture our already divided country.”
This is a real stretch for Trump supporters — asserting there’s no “concrete evidence.”