Alex Christoforou
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the latest attempt to derail Trump’s presidency which revolves around the US president asking Ukraine to conduct a legal investigation into former US Vice President Joe Biden, who boasted, on video, about withholding $1 billion in US loan guarantees unless Ukraine fired the man charged with investigating his son, Hunter, and his son’s company Burisma for corruption.
The Washington Post is now quietly reporting that a July 25th phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did not contain an explicit quid pro quo if Ukraine launched an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son as initially reported.
In other words, there was no quid pro quo (during that specific phone call) offered in exchange for Trump asking Ukraine officials to investigate possible crimes committed by Hunter Biden.
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Latest Trump Witch Hunt Involving Ukraine Boomerangs Towards Joe Biden by The Duran
The Duran Quick Take: Episode 309. The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the latest attempt to derail Trump’s presidency which revolves around the US president asking Ukraine to conduct a legal investigation into former US Vice President Joe Biden, who boasted, on video, about withholding $1 billion in US loan guarantees unless Ukraine fired the man charged with investigating his son, Hunter, and his son’s company Burisma for corruption.
For days we’ve been treated to MSM insinuations that President Trump may have betrayed the United States after a whistleblower lodged an ‘urgent’ complaint about something Trump promised another world leader – the details of which the White House has refused to share.
Then, we learned it was a phone call.
Then, we learned it was several phone calls.
Now, we learn it wasn’t Russia or North Korea – it was Ukraine!
Here’s the scandal; It appears that Trump, may have made promises to newly minted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – very likely involving an effort to convince Ukraine to reopen its investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter, after Biden strongarmed Ukraine’s prior government into firing its top prosecutor – something Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani have pursued for months. There are also unsupported rumors that Trump threatened to withhold $250 million in aid to help Ukraine fight Russian-backed separatists.
And while the MSM and Congressional Democrats are starting to focus on the sitting US president having a political opponent investigated, The New York Times admits that nothing Trump did would have been illegal, as “while Mr. Trump may have discussed intelligence activities with the foreign leader, he enjoys broad power as president to declassify intelligence secrets, order the intelligence community to act and otherwise direct the conduct of foreign policy as he sees fit.”
Moreover, here’s why Trump and Giuliani are going to dig their heels in; last year Biden openly bragged about threatening to hurl Ukraine into bankruptcy as Vice President if they didn’t fire their top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin – who was leading a wide-ranging corruption investigation into a natural gas firm whose board Hunter Biden sat on.
In his own words, with video cameras rolling, Biden described how he threatened Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in March 2016 that the Obama administration would pull $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees, sending the former Soviet republic toward insolvency, if it didn’t immediately fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. –The Hill
“I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” bragged Biden, recalling the conversation with Poroshenko.
“Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time,” Biden said at the Council on Foreign Relations event – while insisting that former president Obama was complicit in the threat.
In short, there’s both smoke and fire here – and what’s left of Biden’s 2020 bid for president may be the largest casualty of the entire whistleblower scandal.
And by the transitive properties of the Obama administration ‘vetting’ Trump by sending spies into his campaign, Trump can simply say he was protecting America from someone who may have used his position of power to directly benefit his own family at the expense of justice.
Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, are acting as if they’ve found the holy grail of taking Trump down. On Thursday, the House Intelligence Committee chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) interviewed inspector general Michael Atkinson, with whom the whistleblower lodged their complaint – however despite three hours of testimony, he repeatedly declined to discuss the content of the complaint.
Following the session, Schiff gave an angry speech – demanding that acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire share the complaint, and calling the decision to withhold it “unprecedented.”
“We cannot get an answer to the question about whether the White House is also involved in preventing this information from coming to Congress,” said Schiff, adding “We’re determined to do everything we can to determine what this urgent concern is to make sure that the national security is protected.”
According to Schiff, someone “is trying to manipulate the system to keep information about an urgent matter from the Congress … There certainly are a lot of indications that it was someone at a higher pay grade than the director of national intelligence,” according to the Washington Post.
Manu Raju on Twitter: “Just asked Schiff why IG couldn’t talk today about substance of whistleblower complaint or WH involvement, and he said DNI and DOJ won’t let the IG talk about it. “This shows someone is trying to manipulate the system to keep information about an urgent matter from the Congress.” pic.twitter.com/q3cyg4zt36 / Twitter”
Just asked Schiff why IG couldn’t talk today about substance of whistleblower complaint or WH involvement, and he said DNI and DOJ won’t let the IG talk about it. “This shows someone is trying to manipulate the system to keep information about an urgent matter from the Congress.” pic.twitter.com/q3cyg4zt36
On thursday, Trump denied doing anything improper – tweeting “Virtually anytime I speak on the phone to a foreign leader, I understand that there may be many people listening from various U.S. agencies, not to mention those from the other country itself.”
“Knowing all of this, is anybody dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially ‘heavily populated’ call.”
Donald J. Trump on Twitter: “….Knowing all of this, is anybody dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially “heavily populated” call. I would only do what is right anyway, and only do good for the USA! / Twitter”
Knowing all of this, is anybody dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially “heavily populated” call. I would only do what is right anyway, and only do good for the USA!
Giuliani, meanwhile, went on CNN with Chris Cuomo Thursday to defend his discussions with Ukraine about investigating alleged election interference in the 2016 election to the benefit of Hillary Clinton conducted by Ukraine’s previous government. According to Giuliani, Biden’s dealings in Ukraine were ‘tangential’ to the 2016 election interference question – in which a Ukrainian court ruled that government officials meddled for Hillary in 2016 by releasing details of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s ‘Black Book’ to Clinton campaign staffer Alexandra Chalupa.
https://twitter.com/CuomoPrimeTime/status/1174856562898128897
And so – what the MSM doesn’t appear to understand is that President Trump asking Ukraine to investigate Biden over something with legitimate underpinnings.
Which – of course, may lead to the Bidens’ adventures in China, which Giuliani referred to in his CNN interview. And just like his Ukraine scandal, it involves actions which may have helped his son Hunter – who was making hand over fist in both countries.
Journalist Peter Schweizer, the author of Clinton Cash and now Secret Empires discovered that in 2013, then-Vice President Biden and his son Hunter flew together to China on Air Force Two – and two weeks later, Hunter’s firm inked a private equity deal for $1 billion with a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China, which expanded to $1.5 billion
Meanwhile, speculation is rampant over what this hornet’s nest means for all involved..
https://twitter.com/dbongino/status/1174848749161631745
“As the 2020 election draws closer, President Trump and his personal attorney appear to have increased pressure on the Ukrainian government and its justice system in service of President Trump’s reelection campaign, and the White House and the State Department may be abetting this scheme,” wrote the chairman of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees wrote in a letter, citing media reports over the alleged threat to withhold $250 million.
House Democrats are also looking into whether Giuliani flew to Ukraine to ‘encourage’ them to investigate Hunter Biden and his involvement with Burisma.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The Democrats are now totally screwed. Their star candidate is be headed to jail but may end up in a Nursing Home first because his brain is Swiss cheese. Now all Tulsi has to do is dispense with Pocahontas and she will skate to the nomination.
“Now all Tulsi has to do is dispense with Pocahontas and she will skate to the nomination.”
Wouldn’t that be something ! The DEMS are trying really hard to prevent Tulsi from becoming the candidate , I would suspect especially the deep state involvement . The US very much needs someone of her caliber as president. A president for the American people like no other.
Of all the democratic canadages, she is the only one who [sometimes] made since.
Yea, Gabbard….but she went too far with the rough talk to Trump re Saudi…who like it or not is the “Commander in Chief” for the service she is beholden to as a soldier.
A Gabbard-Warren ticket would be interesting.
Not far enough. Too soft-spoken for my taste. The issues demand a go-for-the throat frontal approach.
Not Swiss cheese, more like Ukrainian curd cheese (or cur cheese, if you prefer).
It’s all explained in my recent article in the Harvard Law Review: ‘How to indict a ham and curd cheese sandwich.’
How would I get a copy of that to read? Just go to Harvard law review and type your name in? Also doesn’t what Biden did violate an act certain, what would that act be? That’s what I was looking for when I ended up here.
Someone should start a twitterfeed: @HaveCarpetbagWillTravel
When I was running to replace Jimmy Hoffa, I carried a carpetbag full of cash to meetings and returned with that same bag full of IOUs.
Or was it the other way around? I forget.
Related observations at: https://medium.com/@guillermo.calvo.mahe/george-orwells-novels-1984-and-animal-farm-warnings-or-how-to-manuals-735e50027c52
I don’t think Biden can beat Trump, if Trump postpones attacking Iran until next year.
But I do think Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, and Tulsi Gabbard can beat Trump either way.
Not to worry. By this time next year, Biden’ll have forgotten who he is.
Renee Jones, no way!
When MSNBC, CNN and the like slip into overtime attempting to make an impeachable case for improper foreign meddling whose purpose was to expose improper foreign meddling in the very same country and say it with a straight face, AND they expect to get away unchallenged by the obvious absurdity of it all, you know that America has crossed over into the Twilight Zone.
I got free coke, hookers galore, a security detail with swastika tattoos and a few million bucks for my no show gig and I even got to learn what LNG stands for.
Who am I?