From Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post:
Whether in TV spots or in print, respectable journalists and outlets need to stop the baseless speculation and misleading headlines.
Instead, there are a host of questions worth exploring, none having to do with Biden.
Let’s start with the basics:
- What did Trump say on the phone to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky?
- What other conversations did Trump or anyone else in the administration have regarding the Bidens with Zelensky or other Ukrainian officials? What records of those conversations exist?
- What did Rudolph W. Giuliani and the president discuss about pressuring Ukraine? What has Giuliani said to Ukraine about aid and/or the Bidens?
- Did Vice President Pence know about any of this? Secretary of State Mike Pompeo? Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin?
- Who made the decision to withhold aid and why? What other officials were aware of the decision and/or carried out the decision to withhold aid?
- Who at the Justice Department was involved in instructing acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire to suppress the whistleblower complaint? Was Attorney General William P. Barr involved?
- Who at the White House directed that the whistleblower complaint be suppressed?
When you lay out the questions, it becomes obvious that many U.S. officials might have engaged in a conspiracy to enlist a foreign power’s interference in our elections. Many officials likely were engaged in the effort to suppress the whistleblower complaint. They should all be held accountable. None enjoys immunity from prosecution while in office (although Trump’s Justice Department will obviously not pursue this).
…snip…
This is arguably the most egregious scandal in history. You would think every member of the media would want to race to figure it all out rather than wink at disproved speculation. Perhaps now they will.
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
I just shook my head when I read that Trump had pressured the Ukrainian president and, as I understand it, Trump has threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine. I should not be shocked but El Trumpo absolutely is the most brazen human walking God’s green earth. And, I really believe that he will get away with his latest illegal step as president. Nothing will be done about it and the repubs party will sweep it under the rug. They are all so hell bent about staying in power that they will stoop as low as any elected official can go.
It sickens me and I am sure many others as well, but the way I see it, we are a helpless bunch of idiots because they have the upper hand. We are in dictatorship- not too far off the mark, of how Putin controls Russia.
I am sorry to be so pessimistic but I am naturally one anyway.
I have more faith in Pelosi than most people do. I think she has a plan. Remember when everyone was screaming to impeach Chimpy and Deadeye Dick? What if Pelosi hadn’t taken it off the table? We know that the Senate never would have removed Chimpy. If there had been an impeachment then, threats of impeachment now would be meaningless, because it would be skewed and viewed as payback for the Clinton impeachment. I think the Dems are building an irrefutable case so they can bring along people in conservative districts. Pelosi and the Dems know a lot more than we do, and I am putting my faith in them,, even if it makes me impatient.
I trust Pelosi as well. I think she wants as many charges in hand as possible and I think she wants to time the show so that it is still alive and juicy right up to the 2020 election. Waiting until she can see the white supremacy in his eyes.
She remembers how Watergate went down. No Rethugs were on board at the beginning, but the prosecutors built their case, and eventually, it was the Rethugs who told Nixon he had to go. It didn’t happen overnight. It took over a year. The Dems on the Judiciary Committee got a taste of what an excellent prosecutor can do when they had Barry Berke do the questioning of Corey Lewandowski. No histrionics, no yelling, just one incriminating question after another. If they can do that in an impeachment hearing and/or trial, even some Rethugs will have to see the writing on the wall (Mexico won’t pay for that one either).
Agree with both of you. As much as I am ‘itching’ for massive forward motion from Pelosi, I believe she has a plan. A BIG plan.
If Nancy’s plan doesn’t work, have no fear, Karen. There are thousands of people on Twitter who know exactly what to do and what the consequences will be. 🙄
Nonnie, I hope you are right.
That makes 4 of us (I took the liberty of including Karen and Singe, because I’m sure they hope so, too).
Every time I see some blogger bashing Pelosi for failing to storm ahead with impeachment, I have to think, “Yeah, but she’s way smarter than you.”
They can’t seem to internalize the essential facts that (a) impeachment couldn’t remove Trump because that would take 20 Republican votes in the Senate, which is not going to happen; (b) Trump would then spend the months from impeachment to the election bellowing that he’d been exonerated and had defeated a dastardly Democratic plot to remove him; and (c) impeachment is unpopular with the voters and would probably cost us a lot of Democratic-held House seats in purple districts next November.
That is, impeachment can’t remove Trump, it would probably help him get re-elected, and it would put the House majority at risk.
At the moment, there aren’t enough votes in the House to pass articles of impeachment, and because of (c) there probably never will be. That is, Pelosi couldn’t get impeachment through the House even if she wanted to.
People need to forget this distraction and focus on the election, which is our actual chance to get rid of Trump and the rest of his gang.
The media have weirdly gotten in thrall to the fixed idea that being unbiased means framing every story to depict both sides as equally bad, no matter how much they need to warp the facts to do so. It’s a stance which is disastrous for accurately reporting on the massively-corrupt Trump regime.
It’s as if we had an Ebola outbreak in this country and the media decided they had to give equal time to the pro-disease viewpoint.
Hi Infidel,
Forgive me for responding to both of your comments in one reply.
First, I totally agree with you about the media. The bothersiderism has gotten ridiculous. They are the reason that anti-vaxxers and climate change deniers got the platforms from which they spewed their bullshit. It seems that the media no longer cares about anything but numbers—how many tweets and how much money. Conspiracies and sensationalism are more lucrative than facts.
On the impeachment front, what a difference a day makes. I wrote to my bestie last night that there is something in the wind. People very close to Pelosi were changing their rhetoric, and something is brewing. I agree with every point you made. I’ve said the same thing many times. There’s a reason why Pelosi changed her tune today. There is a lot she knows that we don’t know. I think the other yuuuuge news today is that Yertle McConnell is fast-tracking the release of the whistleblower report instead of trying to hide it. Yes, he wants a hearing behind closed doors, but we know how leaky those doors can be. There has to be something in the report that made Yertle suddenly do his job instead of covering up for Twitler. I am sure Pelosi knows what is in it, too. There is a straw in there that broke the camel’s back, and the cracks in the Rethug’s unwavering support for Twitler are starting to show.
Wanted to apologize to you for not commenting over at your place lately. I do tune in every Sunday, but usually late at night, and by the time I get through 184 or so links, I’m too tired to comment.
I have to go now. I have to pop enough popcorn for all the Raisinettes!
Hi Nonnie,
Thanks. I think Pelosi’s announcement may take some of the heat off of her for a while — she announced an impeachment inquiry, not an impeachment (there still aren’t enough votes in the House for the latter), but many people are hazy on the difference. I’ve always been in favor of an impeachment inquiry since it will give the House more tools to carry out investigations. It doesn’t mean the House is going to rush into an impeachment.
The point about Moscow Mitch is interesting, though. That guy is as calculating as they come. If the Ukraine scandal does involve something bad enough that the Senate votes for removal might actually be there, then he would certainly know, and so would Pelosi. In that case, impeachment would indeed be the way to go.
If Trump is actually removed, with the necessary 20 Republican Senate votes, then the Republicans would go into the election with Pence as the incumbent (as unpopular as Trump but with none of the charisma), and with the hard-core Trumpanzees in a state of white-hot rage at the party for, as they see it, “betraying” their messiah. We’d win supermajorities everywhere. It would be the best possible outcome. All the more reason why the Senate Republicans probably won’t go for it, though.
I perfectly understand about not always having the energy to comment. I write a comment on maybe one out of every fifty blog posts I read. If I commented on them, all, I’d have little time for anything else.
We are on the same page, Infidel. The impeachment count is up by 8 or 9 just today. Pelosi took the pot off the flame, but it’s still boiling. There is definitely something going on. Twitler called Pelosi today to ask if they could work something out on the “whole whistleblower thing” and he offered to release the transcript of the phone call with the Ukrainian president. We all know he doesn’t make offers like that unless he’s afraid something else is coming out that’s even worse. Twitler will try to throw others under the bus, but he had better beware of Yertle’s bus.
I like your vision of the future. I would take Pence-il Dick as POTUS for a few months, even if he should be impeached, too. If Nancy Pelosi becomes POTUS, even for a short time, that will light a fire under Rethuglians. Pence-il Dick can be dealt with after the election.