{"id":43256,"date":"2019-11-11T14:10:27","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T22:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=43256"},"modified":"2019-11-14T08:25:12","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T16:25:12","slug":"impeachment-for-dummies-trump-the-whistleblower-and-quid-pro-quackery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=43256","title":{"rendered":"Impeachment for Dummies: Trump, the Whistleblower, and Quid Pro Quackery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week the House Intelligence Committee will begin holding public hearings on the impeachment of Donald Trump. They will interview witnesses who have inside knowledge of the administration&#8217;s efforts to extort the government of Ukraine into digging up dirt on Joe Biden. And the pressure this is putting on the President is evident in his frantic and fearful reactions.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-impeach.jpg\" alt=\"Donald Trump Impeach\" width=\"550\" height=\"296\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-36089\" \/><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NewsCorpse\/posts\/3091440697537371\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/Pix\/Advs\/fb-share-tn.jpg\" width=\"274\" height=\"20\" class=\"aligncenter\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On Saturday <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=43250\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Trump disgorged a record 82 tweets<\/a><\/strong>, most of which were self-exalting tributes to himself and his personal perspective of his purity and innocence. And he spent much of last week <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=43226\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">wallowing in victimhood<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=43185\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">delusional outbursts<\/a><\/strong> that, for the most part, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=43162\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">worked against him in public approval polling<\/a><\/strong>. His tantrums are continuing into this week with more tweeted whining about the impeachment hearings and his congressional nemesis, Adam Schiff, about whom <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=43134\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">he tweeted 104 times last month<\/a><\/strong>. His latest attack was dripping with animosity and fictional accusations:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The lawyer for the Whistleblower takes away all credibility from this big Impeachment Scam! It should be ended and the Whistleblower, his lawyer and Corrupt politician Schiff should be investigared for fraud!<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1193894144747429889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 11, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Shifty Adam Schiff will only release doctored transcripts. We haven\u2019t even seen the documents and are restricted from (get this) having a lawyer. Republicans should put out their own transcripts! Schiff must testify as to why he MADE UP a statement from me, and read it to all!<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1193896275093184512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 11, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Trump is now boldly calling for Schiff to be <em>&#8220;investigared,&#8221;<\/em> despite the fact that Schiff has nothing that even warrants being investigated, much less investigared. Trump is so <em>&#8220;investi-scared&#8221;<\/em> he can&#8217;t communicate coherently. Which may explain why he thinks that <em>&#8220;doctored transcripts&#8221;<\/em> are a thing. All congressional transcripts are signed off on by the witnesses for accuracy. So there is no such thing as Democratic or Republican transcripts. What Trump must be thinking of are doctored summary memos of transcripts, like the ones that he and his Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr, have disseminated.<\/p>\n<p>However, Trump&#8217;s obsession with the whistleblower is a peculiar diversion. He has been howling about it for weeks. So this might be a good time to school the Resident on whistleblowers in general, and this one in particular.<\/p>\n<p>The whistleblower statute provides for confidentiality expressly to prevent the sort of retaliation and witness intimidation that Trump is engaging in. His tactics, and those of right-wing media <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamatters.org\/trump-impeachment-inquiry\/despite-networks-rules-fox-contributor-named-alleged-whistleblower-air\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">including Fox News<\/a><\/strong>, have a very real possibility of resulting in serious harm to the whistleblower and his\/her family. That&#8217;s something that Trump and his political and press cohorts don&#8217;t appear to care about.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s more, the whistleblower&#8217;s testimony in this affair has become entirely irrelevant. Since making the first complaint, Trump released his summary memo of the phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. In it <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=43172\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Trump admitted<\/a><\/strong> that he had made foreign aid contingent on Ukraine helping him to smear the Bidens. That&#8217;s a textbook example of quid pro quo. He also admitted this on national television, as did his Chief-of-Staff, Mick Mulvaney.<\/p>\n<p>Following that, witnesses whose identities are public (National Security Council Russia advisor Fiona Hill, NSC Ukraine expert Alexander Vindman, Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sonderland, Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, and Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch) have all corroborated this attempted extortion. So why would the whistleblower &#8211; whose account was second hand &#8211; need to testify at all?<\/p>\n<p>In addition to that, there is no requirement that a quid pro quo exist for Trump&#8217;s behavior to be impeachable. It is the request itself that breaches the protocol and ethics of the presidency and constitutes an improper abuse of power, as well as conspiracy to solicit foreign interference in an election. So even if there was no promise of any reciprocal action, it would still be improper. And the attempt doesn&#8217;t have to be successful either in order to be impeachable.<\/p>\n<p>These simple facts are all that are necessary to understand the current legal jeopardy that Trump finds himself in. But they are apparently still to complex for him to grasp. So he lashes out repeatedly with the same bogus gripes as if repetition will make them true. And his enablers in Congress and the media are either equally as ignorant or deliberately dishonest when they pursue these red herrings as defenses for Trump. But the American people understand and that&#8217;s why a majority of them <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=42970\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">favor Trump&#8217;s impeachment<\/a><\/strong> and removal from office. And the sooner the better.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00QSSMOES\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=B00QSSMOES&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=newscorpsecom-20&#038;linkId=TLI6JC2OYE22MUTS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.<\/a><br \/>\nAvailable now at Amazon.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week the House Intelligence Committee will begin holding public hearings on the impeachment of Donald Trump. They will interview witnesses who have inside knowledge of the administration&#8217;s efforts to extort the government of Ukraine into digging up dirt on Joe Biden. And the pressure this is putting on the President is evident in his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,1200],"tags":[1295,554,39,377],"class_list":["post-43256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-politics","tag-adam-schiff","tag-donald-trump","tag-impeach","tag-joe-biden"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-impeach.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-bfG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":57865,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=57865","url_meta":{"origin":43256,"position":0},"title":"Trump Shows Off His Ignorance and Detachment From Reality in Rabid Rants to Impeach Biden","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/28\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"An obviously frantic Donald Trump is unleashing a stream of bile and belligerence in the wake of a court ruling that his trial on charges of subverting democracy and attempting to stage a violent coup is now scheduled to begin on March 4, 2024. That's just two months later than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Joe Biden, Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/biden-trump-baby-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/biden-trump-baby-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/biden-trump-baby-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43862,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=43862","url_meta":{"origin":43256,"position":1},"title":"HUH? Trump Agrees with Biden that He Must Be Impeached and Removed From Office","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/24\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The longer the impeachment hearings for Donald Trump go on, the more deranged he becomes. He is clearly frightened and fixated on the proceedings despite his frequent and unconvincing dismissals. On Friday morning he once again posted a frantic flurry of more than fifty tweets assailing the Democrats in congress\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump, Joe Biden","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-biden-fear.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-biden-fear.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-biden-fear.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43868,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=43868","url_meta":{"origin":43256,"position":2},"title":"Trump Admits that He&#8217;s Only Interested in a Lie-Filled Reality TV Impeachment Show","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/24\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump has been tweeting up a storm on this fourth day of his Senate impeachment trial. Most of it has been retweets of the sycophantic Trump-fluffers who vainly try to defend the indefensible criminality of Trump. But some are more puzzling than others, such as the one where he agreed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump TV Set","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-tv-set.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-tv-set.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-tv-set.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":50468,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=50468","url_meta":{"origin":43256,"position":3},"title":"Lindsey Graham Exposes His Impeachment Hypocrisies as He Attacks Biden on Fox News","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/21\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"There are few people in American politics who are more obsequious sycophants or shameless hypocrites than South Carolina's senior senator Lindsey Graham. For example, today Graham is a groveling toady for Donald Trump, but during the 2016 presidential election he referred to Trump as a \"jackass,\" and \"a race-baiting, xenophobic,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lindsey Graham, Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/graham-trump-baby.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/graham-trump-baby.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/graham-trump-baby.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43366,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=43366","url_meta":{"origin":43256,"position":4},"title":"Desperate Trump Deceives His Disciples With Ludicrous Claims Re: Impeachment Polls","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/26\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The House Intelligence Committee impeachment inquiry hearings produced abundant evidence that Donald Trump improperly abused his power and the office of the presidency. His blatant extortion of the president of Ukraine in order to smear Joe Biden was unarguably affirmed by credible testimony from non-partisan career diplomats and national security\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump Crazy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-crazy-democrats.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-crazy-democrats.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-crazy-democrats.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":58008,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=58008","url_meta":{"origin":43256,"position":5},"title":"White House Memo to Media Calls for Scrutiny of the GOP&#8217;s Baseless, Bogus Push to Impeach Biden","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/13\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The Republican Party, under the \"leadership\" of House Squeaker Kevin McCarthy, seems hell-bent on proving that they have no interest whatsoever in governing on behalf of the American people that they purport to represent. They are establishing themselves as the modern day Inquisition on a mission to smear their political\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dark Biden, Fox News","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-dark-biden.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-dark-biden.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-dark-biden.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43256"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43272,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43256\/revisions\/43272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}