Trump news: Intel chief admits Ukraine whistleblower complaint ‘unprecedented’ as details reveal White House tried to hide phone call record
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Your support makes all the difference.A whistleblower complaint alleging Donald Trump sought to pressure the president of Ukraine in an official government call to investigate a key political rival has been made public, just days after the House opened a formal impeachment hearing against the president over those claims.
A redacted version of the document – which Democrats have described as “explosive” and “deeply disturbing” – was made public Thursday morning, and claims that the White House may have regularly moved records of the president’s calls into a keyword classified database for political reasons, instead of serious national security concerns.
Acting national intelligence director Joseph Maguire has testified to the House Intelligence Committee about his handling of the complaint, and has called the situation “unprecedented”.
As the impeachment calls have grown, polls show that the American people are hearing the message, with a significant growth in the number of Americans who say they support the measure since this weekend, according to Morning Consult.
Mr Trump has maintained that the whole thing is a witch hunt intended to undermine his presidency, and it appears as though the president can rely on his Republican colleagues in the Senate to thwart any effort to remove him from office — at least for now.
Elsewhere, the offices of Bernie Sanders were evacuated on Thursday afternoon after a suspicious package was found in Vermont. It was not immediately clear what the package was.
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We have some more tweets for you, our lovely audience. Donald Trump has tweeted once again.
He's definitely not bitter about anything:
Here are some troubling numbers for the president from Rasumussen, a biased polling firm that Mr Trump loves to cite because it shows him with high approval ratings:
Here is Mike Pence, reacting to the whistleblower complaint:
“Truth is while we’re watching our nation’s capital, even today, we see many Democrats who spent the last two and a half years on baseless accusations. And keep trying to overturn the will of the American people in the last presidential election. I’m here to make you a promise — whatever the Democrats and the allies want to spend their time on, President Donald Trump and I are gonna stay focused on the issues that matter most to you…”
Julian Castro has had some hard words for the president today, here's a recent tweet of his:
The Los Angeles Times has obtained an audio recording of Donald Trump threatening to kill the whistleblower. Here it is:
https://www.facebook.com/latimes/videos/753720025057150
The New York Times is receiving some push back after reporting on who the White House whistleblower is. Here's a tweet from a former Obama speechwriter, after the Times' top editor released an explanation for publishing a story on the matter.
From the Associated Press, a first:
Vermont’s governor became the first Republican chief executive to support an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump but cautions that he wants to know more before any further actions are taken.
Gov. Phil Scott said at a news conference Thursday that he wasn’t surprised by the news that Trump repeatedly urged Ukraine’s president to “look into” Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden because he’s “watched him over the years.”
He wants Congress to see the complete whistleblower allegations.
“I think the inquiry is important, yes, and where it leads from here is going to be driven by the facts that are established,” Scott said.
Scott’s remarks are one of the few signs of Republican discomfort with the revelations. Most Republicans elected officials have defended Trump, casting the controversy as ginned-up by Democrats — although the initial concerns were raised by an anonymous whistleblower — or describing it as much ado about nothing.
Scott, a popular moderate Republican in his second term in a deeply blue state, has broken from his party before. He has been a frequent Trump critic and repeatedly called for an end to the divisiveness in American politics. In July, Scott he said felt Trump’s comments about four Democratic congresswomen of color were racist and not befitting for a world leader.
A year ago, Scott was one of a handful of GOP governors who urged the U.S. Senate to delay a confirmation vote on then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to allow time for an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations.
Scott has also opposed plans by the Trump administration to scale back climate change emissions, worked against a now-resolved trade dispute with Canada and has criticized Trump’s immigration policy.
Other moderate Republican governors have yet to weigh in on an impeachment inquiry.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine was a U.S. senator during impeachment proceedings against former Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1999 and he presided over the deposition of Monica Lewinsky. When asked by reporters what his stance on an impeachment inquiry is, he said he withheld judgment then, and he’s withholding judgment now.
“We have to wait until all the evidence is in,” said DeWine, who is among statewide officials now co-chairing Trump’s re-election campaign.
He ultimately voted guilty on both charges against Clinton.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, both moderate GOP governors, have yet to comment.
Several governors have appeared mindful of the unpredictable politics of impeachment as they weighed in from a distance this week. Democrats in swing states issued cautious endorsements of the Democrats’ decision to launch the investigation. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former congressman in a state Trump is trying to win, said he’s worried about the wisdom of Democrats’ move.
“It may not be politically good to do because I think at this point I, like many Minnesotans, am so sick and tired of the dysfunction in D.C.,” he said.
Scott spoke Thursday before details of the whistleblower complaint became known.
The complaint alleges that Trump abused the power of his office to “solicit interference from a foreign country” in next year’s U.S. election. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
In the complaint, the unnamed whistleblower acknowledges not hearing the president’s call first-hand, but says he or she received information about it from “multiple U.S. officials.”
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