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Führer Trump’s Impeachment Inquiry Thread. Update: The Senate completes the coverup

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Republicans Insist Trump Was Just Kidding About Getting China To Investigate Biden

President Donald Trump didn't crack a single smile when he called on China and Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden last week, but his Republican colleagues on Sunday insisted he was just messing around.
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Republicans Insist Trump Was Just Kidding About Getting China To Investigate Biden

President Donald Trump didn’t crack a single smile when he called on China and Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden last week, but his Republican colleagues on Sunday insisted he was just messing around.



“Do you think it’s appropriate for President Trump to ask China and Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden?” ABC News’ “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos asked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).

“George, you really think he was serious about thinking that China’s going to investigate the Biden family?” Jordan, a staunch Trump supporter, replied.

“He said it right there in public,” Stephanopoulos pointed out.

Echoing Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) response to Trump’s comment, Jordan claimed Trump was merely “getting the press all spun up about this.”

The Ohio Republican, who serves as the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, also kept pointing to Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports as proof Trump is the “toughest president on China” while dodging Stephanopoulos’ question.

“Why can’t you answer yes or no, do you think it’s appropriate?” the ABC News host asked.

“Because I don’t think that’s what he did,” Jordan said. “I don’t think that’s what he did.”

“But it was right there on camera!” Stephanopoulos said exasperatedly.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) had a similar response that morning on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

“Well I doubt if the China comment was serious to tell you the truth,” Blunt told Margaret Brennan.

“You don’t take the President at his word?” Brennan asked.

“No the President loves to go out on the- on the White House driveway–I haven’t talked to him about this,” the GOP senator said. “I don’t know what the President was thinking. But I do know he loves to bait the press and he does that almost every day to see what you’ll talk about.”
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Graham Wants To Make Whistleblowers Publicly Testify In Impeachment Inquiry

Senate Judiciary chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) pledged on Sunday to subpoena the two whistleblowers at the heart of the House's impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump and force them to…
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Graham Wants To Make Whistleblowers Publicly Testify In Impeachment Inquiry


Senate Judiciary chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) pledged on Sunday to subpoena the two whistleblowers at the heart of the House’s impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump and force them to testify in public.

“If the whistleblower’s allegations are turned into an impeachment article, it’s imperative that the whistleblower be interviewed in public, under oath and cross-examined,” Graham told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo. “Nobody in America goes to jail or has anything done to them without confronting their accuser.”

The Republican senator, one of Trump’s most diehard loyalists in Congress, argued that the whistleblowers need to publicly testify “so the public can judge their credibility.”

“If that doesn’t happen in the House, I will make sure it happens in the Senate,” he said.

Graham confirmed he would use his subpoena power as Senate Judiciary chair to do so.

“Who are these people? Where did they come from? Are they tied to [ex-CIA director John Brennan] at all?” Graham asked. “These are questions I’d like to know.”

Graham’s comments echo Trump’s demands to “meet” the first whistleblower behind the complaint about his call with Ukraine, even though whistleblower law entitles him or her to anonymity to protect from retaliation.

“We’re trying to find out about a whistleblower,” Trump told reporters last week.

Mark Zaid, the lawyer representing both the first whistleblower and now a second (whom he says has “first-hand” information), confirmed on Sunday that the new whistleblower “made a protected disclosure under the law and cannot be retaliated against.”
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McConnell Fundraising Ad Vows To Kill Impeachment In Senate

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) campaign fundraising ads now include a promise to quash impeachment efforts against President Donald Trump.
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McConnell Fundraising Ad Promises To Kill Impeachment Efforts In The Senate

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) fundraising ads for his reelection campaign now include a promise to quash impeachment efforts against President Donald Trump.

The McConnell Senate Committee’s Facebook ad campaign, first flagged by the Courier-Journal, features a short video of McConnell telling users that a “left wing mob” has “convinced” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to launch an impeachment inquiry into Trump.

“All of you know your Constitution,” the Republican senator says. “The way that impeachment stops is a Senate majority with me as majority leader.”

McConnell then urges for supporters’ “help” in the form of contributions to his campaign.

It’s unclear if the Senate leader is indicating that he’ll stonewall a House resolution on impeachment in his chamber or if he’s merely stating the obvious: that keeping the GOP Senate majority would prevent Trump from being impeached. A request for clarification to the campaign was not immediately returned.

McConnell said last week that he wouldn’t change the Senate rules to keep an impeachment resolution off the floor, saying he would have “no choice” but to put it to a vote.
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Trump Thinks Impeachment Will Help Win House, But Doesn’t Want It On His ‘Resume’

Trump thinks that Democrats’ impeachment inquiry will help his party win back the House of Representatives, but he’s not so sure he wants to sacrifice himself in order to do so
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Trump Thinks Impeachment Will Help Win House, But Doesn’t Want It On His ‘Resume’

President Trump thinks that Democrats’ impeachment inquiry will help his party win back the House of Representatives, but he’s not so sure he wants to sacrifice himself in order to do so, Axios reported.

According to several sources on a phone call with House Republicans on Friday, President Trump lamented that impeachment is a “bad thing to have on your resume,” he said, before quickly adding, “but it’s going to make Kevin speaker,” referencing House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

Trump reportedly also believes that an impeachment vote will help him get reelected, a notion that’s been fed to him by his acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, who has speculated multiple times recently that he thinks Trump will win 45 out of 50 states in 2020 thanks to impeachment, Axios reported.
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WH Deploys Pence To Go After Pro-Impeachment Dems In Their Home Districts

The White House is sending out President Trump’s most loyal lackey to punish vulnerable Democrats for backing the impeachment inquiry
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WH Deploys Pence To Go After Pro-Impeachment Dems In Their Home Districts

The White House is sending out President Trump’s most loyal lackey to punish vulnerable Democrats for backing the impeachment inquiry, Politico reported.

Throughout this week, Pence will travel the country, making pit-stops in districts Trump comfortably won in 2016. The vice president is expected to call attention to the impeachment inquiry and paint Democrats as the party more interested in destroying Trump than meeting the needs of constituents. The stops will include the districts of Reps. Cindey Axne (D-IA), Angie Craig (D-MN), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA).

“While the ‘Do Nothing Democrats’ attempt to distract with their endless investigations, the vice president and this administration are laser focused on policies that put Americans first and make our country great,” Pence spokesperson Katie Waldman told Politico.

The news of Pence’s deployment comes the vice president’s involvement in the events surrounding the impeachment scandal become increasingly clear, including that one of his aides listened in on the now-infamous call with Ukraine and that Pence advised Trump not to release the White House’s version of the call.
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Rick Perry Says He ‘Absolutely’ Asked Trump To Talk To Ukraine In July

Energy Secretary Rick Perry confirmed on Monday President Donald Trump's reported claim that he had asked the President to make the call to the Ukrainian president in July. During a press conference…
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Rick Perry Says He ‘Absolutely’ Asked Trump To Talk To Ukraine In July


Energy Secretary Rick Perry confirmed on Monday President Donald Trump’s reported claim that he had asked the President to make the call to the Ukrainian president in July.



During a press conference in Lithuania, Perry told a reporter he “absolutely” asked Trump to call President Volodymyr Zelensky to inquire about how his government was handling corruption.

Perry said it was important to make sure Ukraine was successfully combating corruption in order for him and the U.S. to find “energy experts” who could invest in Ukraine’s oil and gas resources.

“I asked the President multiple times, ‘Mr. President, we think it is in the United States and in Ukraine’s best interests that you and the president of Ukraine have conversations, that you discuss the options that are there,'” the Energy secretary said. “So absolutely yes.”

Perry’s comments largely echo the Energy Department’s statement on Sunday, which stated that Perry “absolutely supported and encouraged the President to speak to the new President of Ukraine to discuss matters related to their energy security and economic development.”

Axios reported on Sunday that Trump had passed the buck to Perry, claiming that he “didn’t even want to make the call.”

“The only reason I made the call was because Rick asked me to,” he reportedly told House Republicans.

On Monday, Perry also denied reports of his impending resignation.

“I’m here, I’m serving,” Perry said.

“They’ve been writing the story for at least nine months now,” he continued. “One of these days they will probably get it right, but it’s not today, it’s not tomorrow, it’s not next month.”

Politico reported last week that Perry was headed for the exit amid scrutiny over his possible role in President Donald Trump’s Ukraine scandal.
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GOP Can’t Seem To Get On Same Page On Trump’s Call For China To Probe Biden

Republicans are struggling to find a unified way to spin the fact that President Trump’s public called on China to probe former Vice President Joe Biden.
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GOP Can’t Seem To Get On Same Page On Trump’s Call For China To Probe Biden


Republicans are struggling to find a unified way to spin the fact that President Trump publicly called on China to probe former Vice President Joe Biden.



The latest to contribute to the hodgepodge messaging: National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow.

During a pool spray with reporters on Monday morning, Kudlow was asked if President Trump was joking when he said in front of cameras last week that China should investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden. That narrative — that Trump was just joking, or trolling China — has emerged as the most popular Republican defense of the President’s remarks.

“I don’t honestly know, I don’t honestly know,” Kudlow said Monday.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) appeared to diverge from the joking rhetoric as well earlier Monday. When he was asked about the sarcasm defense on “Fox and Friends,” McCarthy outright denied that Trump actually asked China to investigate, pivoting to harp on the perceived importance of probing Biden.

“You watch what the President said, he’s not saying China should investigate,” McCarthy said. “But let’s get to the clear point. If I’m a member of Congress and I break the law and there should be an investigation, and I run for another office, you’d still investigate me. More people in America want to investigate what Biden has done and his son, than want to impeach this president. But somehow the Democrats want to deny that.”

Over the weekend, a handful of Republicans appeared to assemble some sort of unified response to the ordeal. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) all insisted on Sunday that Trump was joking or not being earnest with his remark, arguing instead that the President was actually just trying to get the “press all spun up about this.”

“You really think he was serious about thinking that China’s going to investigate the Biden family?” Jordan asked when questioned about the offense during an interview with ABC News.

Regardless of whether Trump was “trolling” when he said a foreign power should investigate one of his main political rivals, the President still said it. In front of reporters. While the cameras rolled.

“Well I would think if they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens. It’s a very simple answer,” Trump said of Ukraine last week before adding, “Likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens. Because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.”
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