This morning, Donald Trump said that it would be fine with him if China investigated Joe Biden, thereby confirming that he wants other countries, including the authoritarian ones, to do his dirt-digging for him.
Here's the video: Trump is now openly urging the leaders of Ukraine and China to investigate one of his political rivals.
Via CSPAN pic.twitter.com/xKOSRosyck— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 3, 2019
Lo and behold tonight!
Trump raised Biden with Xi in June call housed in highly secure server. That was back in June. Also Elizabeth Warren. Trump isn’t taking any chances. Speaking of her, he also doubled down on his “Pocahontas” attack and said he would have to “hit her again.”
Trump returns to racist "Pocahontas" attack on @ewarren, fantasizes about how he "hit" her before pic.twitter.com/slXhxyn6be
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) October 3, 2019
Also, a conversation has surfaced between Kurt Volker and Gordon Sondland from July about a statement Sondland drafted for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to sign saying that Ukraine would investigate Joe and Hunter Biden. The conversation ends with an admonition that text message may not be the best medium for it.
And, no surprise, Trump ordered Marie Yovanovich removed as Ambassador to Ukraine because she wouldn’t play along with his games. But now what we suspected is confirmed.
NEW: Trump ordered the removal of the ambassador to Ukraine after months of complaints from allies, including Rudy Giuliani, that she was undermining him abroad and obstructing efforts to persuade Kyiv to investigate Biden. w/@MichaelCBender@vmsalama https://t.co/2yoTb1G7Ow
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) October 3, 2019
Sometimes it’s just hard to write about this stuff. It’s painful that the President of the United States is doing stuff like this. Even Chuck Todd is feeling it.
Gotta give the dude some credit here. pic.twitter.com/JoFtKwR8MO
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) October 3, 2019
Open thread!
Another Scott
Are there any “unsolved” shootings on 5th Avenue? Maybe someone at a newspaper in NYC could look into that.
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
Good for Chuck Todd. One tiny quibble: did you notice he said “the President’s party” in talking about those who will not lift a finger. Cuz he still can’t say “Republicans” in the lead of his piece.
Anyway, watching the clip of Trump: I don’t see how Hillary Clinton keeps any weight on at all. It is so goddamned sickening seeing him anywhere near the White House. He is abhorrent. And illegitimate.
zhena gogolia
Good for Chuck Todd. Finally I hear someone in the MSM who seems to be feeling the gravity of the situation.
Elizabelle
Whoa. New thread. Rick Perry allegedly resigning.
What?! The smart glasses … are working?
zzyzx
Perhaps the weirdest part of this whole insanity is the attempt to sell Joe Biden – the politically boring moderate who is mainly known for not having enough of a filter – as some sort of evil, corrupt mastermind. It’s proof that if you have control of a news source and your fans don’t watch anything else, you can prove anything.
Kent
The really sad thing about this is that he has been doing this since day one and so many people in government and the media have known about it all along. Maybe not the whole picture. But parts of it. And they have all just gone along with the “normalizing” of all of it.
The blame for Trump goes far and wide.
Yet when it all collapses just wait, all the blame will be laid on a few MAGA hat Cletuses in Wisconsin diners.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
I think the glasses are staying on as acting secretary.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: I’m good with that.
hilts
Trump may have lived in a penthouse apartment before entering the White House, but he’s always acted like someone who just crawled out of a sewer.
With each successive news cycle, he acts more and more like a mental patient. He deserves to be strapped in a straitjacket and placed in the lock down unit of a psych ward.
FelonyGovt
It feels like maybe, just maybe, things are beginning to turn. If the media stops holding back it will make a huge difference.
mad citizen
@FelonyGovt: Too bad they couldn’t have started back in “Russia if you’re listening” days.
rikyrah
I knew that there was a China call on the server ???
hilts
@Elizabelle:
Glad to hear he’ll be leaving, but his replacement will likely be either dumber or more corrupt.
Elizabelle
Maybe the FTF NYTimes glances in on Balloon Juice. Cuz here’s a headline they have up, as of 19 minutes ago.
Mistermix has them beat by hours.
joel hanes
@hilts:
Trump is a danger to _us_, not to himself.
He belongs in a prison.
But what I expect is:
– impeached and convicted and removed (the levee broke yesterday, and the water’s rising fast)
– spends about a year in court contesting state charges
– decompensates to the point that his kids have him declared, and institutionalized in a very expensive sanatorium
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: I bet there is some underhanded deal with Modi as well. Some dirt on Kamala Harris’ mother’s family perhaps?
Redshift
@joel hanes:
– Republicans run on how Democrats are so evil, their witch hunt drove an upstanding president insane
(I wish I was confident that wouldn’t work…)
Mike in NC
Fat Bastard is a very sick and twisted creature.
Ken
@joel hanes:
– Mysteriously found dead in his room, while the security cameras malfunctioned and the attendants took a smoke break
Josie
@schrodingers_cat:
That had not occurred to me, but it’s a really interesting thought. It would explain the travesty that took place in Houston.
sdhays
@schrodingers_cat: If someone tells him Kamala is half-Indian, I expect him to call her “Pocahontas 2” and be pretty satisfied with himself. At least until she starts to look like she’s going to win.
catclub
@Elizabelle:
I really want somebody to ask what he would give China if they DO come up with dirt on Biden.
chris
@catclub:
Uncle Omar
The best outcome of all this is that Trump is so distracted that he’s forgotten–at least temporarily–about the Saudi refinery fire and his plan to attack Iran. On the other hand wiser hands in the gov’t may have pointed out that such an attack would result in Iran finishing off the refinery just before closing the Straits of Hormuz. Of course the idea that “wiser hands” might have access to Trump and influence enough to persuade him of anything is improbable at best given what we’re seeing these days.
Bill Arnold
@rikyrah:
FTFY. :-) The word “server” has been deliberately conflated with “container of evidence of nefarious activity” in weak right wing minds by right wing propagandists for years. Good that we’re taking advantage of this priming.
Bill Arnold
@schrodingers_cat:
How was the Houston event treated in the Indian press/media? The parts I watched went pretty smoothly from an American point of view excepting perhaps the high hand holding as they were walking.
Jude Allen
@Kent: To be fair, there are many repugnant MAGAs in WI. I have to live by them.
Zinsky
It’s becoming more and more clear that Mike Pence and Mike (Pompous) Pompeo are in this scandal up to their warty, turkey gizzard necks and should probably be impeached as well.
By the way, whatever happened to the allegation that a Russian oligarch had co-signed one of Trump’s loans through Deutsche Bank? If that turned out to be true, that might drive a stake through the dark heart of this foul man…
karen marie
I wrote the following and sent it to my representative earlier tonight:
karen marie
@karen marie: Can you tell I am pissed off?
Fair Economist
@karen marie: And righteously!
Steeplejack
@karen marie:
Excellent letter!
Bonnie
I am an American Indian and every time he brings up Pocahantus, he offends me and many of our tribal members. I guess he isn’t trying to get the American Indian vote.
Suzanne G. (aka SG)
@chris:
This actually brought tears to my eyes. These people in Hong Kong are literally risking their lives for liberty, and they are waving American flags. There are no words to describe the depths of Trump’s betrayal. Here we are, throwing our liberty and honor down the sewer by not rising up to drag that filthy tin-pot dictator out of the White House (not to mention letting him get close enough to steal the election in the first place), while the land of the free and the home of the brave has moved to Hong Kong.
Anotherlurker
@karen marie: Wonderful! You said everything I want to say, but with far, far fewer 4 letter words.
Thanks for that.
karen marie
@Anotherlurker, @Steeplejack and @Fair Economist: Thanks. I always sign off phone calls to his office with “and one more thing – tell David Schweikert to go fuck himself.”
He is a complete nonentity except when it’s time to schmooze his sponsors.
Zinsky
@karen marie: Nicely done, Karen Marie, and thank you for writing this letter. If more Americans took the time to do this and to be more actively engaged in the political process, we wouldn’t end up with human sewage like Trump in the White House.
FLUSH HIM DOWN! FLUSH HIM DOWN! FLUSH HIM DOWN! FLUSH HIM DOWN! FLUSH HIM DOWN! FLUSH HIM DOWN!
Juju
@zhena gogolia: Just remember, Chuck Todd made the comment that Hilary seemed over prepared for the debates.