On Thursday evening, House Democrats released text messages turned over during a deposition of former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker.
The exchanges revealed that Volker and EU ambassador Gordon Sondland drafted a statement in August for Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky that would have committed the country to pursuing investigations of Donald Trump’s political rivals.
They also included an exchange between Volker, Sondland and Bill Taylor, the top American diplomat in Ukraine, during which Taylor said this: “I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign”.
Read the texts: Trump Envoys Volker, Sondland Drafted Statement Committing Ukraine To Biden Probe, Yovanovitch Removed At Giuliani’s Urging
After speaking to the White House, Sondland tried to do some damage control. “Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump’s intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s”, he texted to Taylor, nearly five hours later.
There was nothing “crystal clear” about Trump’s intentions, unless you mean it the other way around – that is, most people involved “clearly” believed there was, in fact, a quid pro quo.
In another exchange, from September 1, Taylor asks Sondland “Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigation?”
“Call me”, Sondland responds.
Fast forward to Friday and guess what? Trump barely knows these people!
“The one text message that I saw was just about the last tesstmessage”, Trump stammered, in remarks to reporters. “I don’t even know most of these ambassadors. I don’t even know their names”.
“But the text message that I saw from ambassador Sondland, who is highly respected, was ‘there’s no quid pro quo'”, Trump insisted, forgetting to mention that the reason Sondland had to say that was precisely because America’s top diplomat in Ukraine though that there was, in fact, a quid pro quo.
Trump also didn’t mention the five-hour gap shown in the screengrab of the texts above.
“There is no quid pro quo”, the president went on to say, his voicing rising. “Now for Biden there is!”
Read more on Volker, Sondland:
Whistle-Blower Complaint Suggests Rudy Giuliani Operates As Extra-Governmental, Trump Consigliere
Kurt Volker, US Envoy To Ukraine And Key Figure In Whistle-Blower Complaint, Resigns
It’s amazing the amount of baiting (and damage control) going on by trump gangsters today, e.g., their desire to call for an immediate House vote on impeachment. The media is very saturated with stories, as-if, this is part of the normal service/tactic of the internet, i.e., to steer an agenda for someone and push around a hockey puck. The maninstream media is in hyperactive mode, delivering anything trump says, living second-by-second, as-if we’re watching a hurricane hit Alabama. Three days ago, the Dems were ramping up their inquiry and now today, they seem behind the curve, so hopefully Pelosi will grab trump by the pussy and take him to the floor today and take the fight to next level … they have nothing to lose, essentially because they have a YUGE field of idiots running against methuselah.
On Oct. 8, 1998, the full House voted to conduct an impeachment inquiry. “All of us are pulled in many directions,” Henry Hyde, the Republican from Illinois who was chair of the Judiciary Committee, said, imploring members to listen to the “still, small voice that whispers in our ear – duty, duty, duty.” Hyde continued: “It’s an onerous, miserable, rotten duty, but we have to do it.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/editorials/ct-editorial-trump-impeach-vote-house-pelosi-clinton-20191001-yerttotrtzay7mbsntzqfkzziu-story.html
The mainstream media bound, shackled, and blind to the iron that keeps them right where they sit going through the same satisfying motions within the same range day after day. Trump got inside their head a long time ago. Stick a fork in em they are done, zombies, martyrs without a cause. Defenders of the appearance of journalistic intent; afraid to cheat the system. A dishonest crooked system that owns their souls. Range bound and easily satisfied with their role in the machine. They need to get back in the pipeline and reestablish they are nobody’s fool! They cannot fathom that however in their state as disgruntled loyalists to tyrannical spell they are under.