A Trump-appointee whose involvement in Ukraine was completely out-of-the-norm may be a key witness for House Democrats as they pursue their impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
“I have been trying to figure out how our representative to the EU got so involved in this,” Steven Pifer a former ambassador to Ukraine told TPM.
Easy enough: when the prez’dent values loyalty to him self, and his personal agenda, above the welfare of the nation he purportedly serves, a lack of all kinds of experience is no impediment to employability.
He was routed to Ukraine because he is one of Trump’s lieutenants. He will be a hostile witness. Hope he falls apart.
Trump corrupts. Absolute Trump corrupts absolutely.
Easy. Spankee considers everyone in his maladministration to be his personal dogsbody.
You’d think a guy shifty enough to hide a million dollar donation to Trump via shell names and the plausible cover of pearl clutching at Gold Star family treatment…would be sharp enough NEVER to put anything in writing. Only talk business on burner phones.
I think the hubris of being personally selected by dur trumpeter is going to bite him in the ass.
He’ll certainly be a hostile witness, but if he realizes he could lose it all and be burned by his allegiance, he’ll flip.
All rats do, in the end.
Sondland’s EU appointment fits the mold of the longstanding, albeit slimy, practice of elevating political donors to ambassadorships under the administrations of both parties.
ahhh… the best diplomats tRump can buy. This practice may have worked when there were career state department diplomats helping out, but now we are at the point where there are fewer and fewer left in state.
I’m sure I’m not the only one to notice this, but it’s alarming to see how easy it is for a corrupt narcissist like Trump to carry out his hijacking of our country without checks and balances. From “School House Rock” on Saturday morning through high school civics, I was taught that our three branches of government would prevent these excesses. When President Obama signed executive orders (mostly because the Republicans in Congress refused to give an inch), he was accused by Republicans of acting like a king. When the courts ruled in the Democrat’s favor, the judges were accused of legislating from the bench. Now that the Republicans are in power, they are doing much worse things every day (e. g. rolling back environmental laws, separating families at the border), and our congress and courts, for the most part, seem powerless to do anything about, or at the very least, disinterested in putting on the brakes. How can Trump unilaterally, with the stroke of his Sharpee, do so much harm? Where and why did this country go off the rails? And, more importantly, will we ever get back to something in our governance that resembles normal?
Gordon Sondland’s real testimony should be, “I was just following orders.”
But really, who hatched the scheme to discredit Biden and to simultaneously try to discredit the integrity of the Russia investigation? It can not possibly be the Orange Hemorrhoid himself! Who is behind it?
I see this guy as a greenhorn who, when faced with damaging his reputation beyond that needed to run a string of hotels, will flip like a gymnast. He may show up with marching orders from the White House but I think he opts for the truth when he realizes where he is and how many other people are out there who know the truth. The texts are going to be hard to explain otherwise. I could be wrong.
My middle name is not Pollyanna, but it is so shocking that there are this many people that should know better, but don’t care about doing the right thing. They don’t question authority or try to consult with others that might point them in the right direction. This has to be a huge wake up call to the US that some rules need to be changed so this doesn’t happen again.
How long it will take us to clean up this nightmare and get rid of as many corrupt enabling Rethugs as possible makes my head hurt.
Manafort. He has the contacts in that part of the world, and Giuliani has been speaking with him. It probably started as a way to try to shift blame away from Manafort’s crimes, then away from Russia’s crimes, then onto Biden.
I suppose now would be a good time for Trump to name Steve Wynn Special Ambassador to Syria. After thorough consultations with all parties having a stake in the nomination, of course. So, let’s see, that would include Rudy Giuliani and, well, Rudy Giuliani.
They are embedded like Isis
Same kind of fanaticism
Here to stay unfortunately. You can suppress but not eliminate as long as there is a grift to be made in Washington They will kill for their god $
Hubris is the word. This is the kind of guy who enjoys feeling like a big shot and insider. That’s really the only culture Trump is familiar with or understands, so people like that move up quickly in his chaotic hierarchy. But right now he seems eager to get out from under with no worse consequences than the embarrassment of having been caught playing with fire. Pretty sure his lawyers are telling him to for Christ’s sake cooperate and don’t take Trump’s calls.
I am surprised he agreed to testify. He either is going to stonewall or flip, let’s hope it is the latter. He is inexperienced enough that a good prosecutor should be able to take him apart if he tries to get cute.
I’ve been trying to figure out his motivations in this. Sure, he supported Trump for the tax cut, and probably hoped to influence policies to his advantage, but I have to wonder how much of a naif he could have been here. The question around political corruption is always “what did POTUS know, and when did he learn it.” I want to know the same thing about this guy, and all of the other enablers in this administration. I’m not suggesting that they forsaw Mueller, et al., but I do wonder what the original plan was for reaping the rewards of having a corrupt idiot as a puppet.
No Syria withdrawal clips on TPM yet so this here.The very last bit on Fox News hosts’ thoughts hilarious!
Trump’s withdrawal announcement is in for a good bit of massaging by several people in Congress and the DoD within a day or two I predict. Erdogan knows that, hence his bombing campaign against the Kurds within minutes of Trump’s decision.
The rebirth of the No Nothing Party.