Wait No More

And So It Begins:  Trump was at the UN again yesterday where he gave another one of his speeches exhorting the value of nationalism, emphasizing his view that all nations should be looking inward, considering their own interests first. Putting aside the inappropriateness of advocating for nationalism at an address to a multinational institution created as an antidote to the dangers of nationalism, there is some humor in the timing of Trump’s speech because while he was talking about looking inward, Speaker Pelosi was putting the finishing touches on her impeachment speech, the much awaited announcement that was finally triggered by the whistleblower report about Trump reaching outward to Ukraine for election assistance.  In anticipation of Pelosi’s announcement, as the day progressed more Democratic members of the House announced that they were on the impeachment bandwagon.  Civil Rights icon John Lewis made a full throated speechlet on the House floor saying “We cannot wait….the future of our democracy is as stake.”  Including Lewis somewhere around 196 Democrats are now publicly on board and it’s fair to assume that Pelosi, who is known for her counting skills, has the additional 22 votes that she’ll need if and when she takes an impeachment vote to the whole House floor.  Before Pelosi released her statement Trump came up with still another reason for holding up the Ukraine military aid package because his Monday corruption excuse hadn’t fooled anyone.  This time he said that he’d held up the aid to push Europe to pick up their share of the burden.  For the record European countries and institutions have already provided more than three times as much aid to Ukraine than the US.  Neither Pelosi nor anyone else for that matter bought his newest excuse.  Around 5 PM the Speaker formally announced the initiation of an “impeachment inquiry” saying “The actions taken to date by the president have seriously violated the Constitution….Trump “must be held accountable — no one is above the law.”  Adding that Trump’s conduct revealed his “betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.”  Trump’s official position is that he welcomes the Democrats impeachment “witch hunt” but like most things he says, that’s just another fabrication.  He actually called Pelosi early yesterday morning to see if he could “work something” out about the whistleblower complaint that triggered the move to impeachment in order to stop her from moving forward.  As to the whistleblower report and the transcript of Trump’s call with Ukraine President Zelensky, the White House now says that both will be provided to the House and Senate by the end of the week.  While that sounds promising, don’t be fooled.  The White House is likely to release the transcript, as early as today but the term transcript is misleading, no one really takes stenographer type notes of president’s calls, instead the released transcript will be just an edited version of what was discussed on the call.  It’s fair to assume that those notes will gloss over any of the inappropriate “investigate Joe Biden and his son now or there be no aid for you” stuff that Trump said to Ukraine President Zelensky and that immediately after they are released Trump, one or more of his lawyers and Republican leadership will announce that the notes prove he said nothing wrong.  As to the whistleblower complaint, as surprising as it sounds, the Republican led Senate voted unanimously for a resolution asking the White House to release the complaint to the Intelligence Committees and the White House reports that it will do so later in the week, after they remove anything that needs to remain top secret.  It’s fair to assume that they will try to edit out lots of implicating stuff hiding behind the guise of national security though that might not work since the  whistleblower’s lawyers report that he or she is seeking permission to testify before the Intelligence Committees.  While it’s still not clear when, if ever, we will hear from the whistleblower, the acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, who under pressure from the White House, refused to turn over the whistleblower report that the Trump appointed Inspector General for intelligence determined is both “urgent and credible,” is scheduled to testify tomorrow.  

The Giuliani Connection:  He’s no James Bond, nor is he even an Austin Powers, but the Washington Post reports that Rudy Giuliani has been Trump’s designated Ukraine man for some time now.  Apparently, with Trump’s support, Giuliani was allowed to push aside national security aides, regional experts and the respected Ambassador to the Ukraine, as part of their concerted efforts to dig up “proof” that Hilary Clinton received help from various Ukrainians during the 2016 election and “dirt” on Joe and Hunter Biden’s “corrupt” activities.  WaPo reports that the sequence of events “involved the abrupt removal of the US ambassador to Ukraine, the circumvention of senior officials on the National Security Council, and the suspension of the hundreds of millions of dollars of aid administered by the Defense and State departments.  All of this was going on in plain sight, Secretary of State Pompeo knew about it, as did VP Pence and national security advisor John Bolton.  The rest of us knew too as a lot of this was in the press.  Apparently staff was so concerned about Trump trying to push Zelensky to come up with Biden implicating dirt that they tried to stop him from speaking or having a meeting with him.  Obviously they weren’t all that successful.  It’s quite possible that the whistleblower is one of those staff people who watched the Ukraine fiasco take place in real time.  By the way, Trump is due to have a face to face sit down with Zelensky, like him another former reality TV star, who is in New York for the United Nations annual meetings today. That could be awkward.       

2020:  It’s not clear what if any effect the initiation of impeachment proceedings will have on the 2020 elections.  Obviously Republicans hope that the “witch hunt” will energize their base while Democrats who will likely stick to health care and other more resonant issues on the campaign trail, hope and pray otherwise.  As to the debates, Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has earned a place on the stage for the October round bringing the total participant count to twelve: the ten who appeared in September plus Tom Steyer and Gabbard.  The DNC has raised the qualifying requirements for the November debates, as of now only VP Biden, Senators Warren, Sanders, Harris and Mayor Buttigieg have qualified. Emphasis on for now.