WTF Community

Day 974

General Discussion
#1

1/ Trump pressured the leader of Ukraine eight times to investigate Joe Biden's son. Trump used a July 25th phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky to repeatedly pressure the recently elected leader to work with Rudy Giuliani on an investigation that Trump believed would deliver political dirt against Biden. Trump told Zelensky that Ukraine could improve its reputation and "interaction" with the United States by investigating a Ukrainian gas company with ties to Biden's son Hunter, who served on the board of directors. In June and August, Giuliani met with top Ukrainian officials about the prospect of an investigation. Toward the end of August, the White House considered blocking $250 million to support Ukraine's military in its war against Russian-backed separatists. On Sept. 12, however, that funding was released. Separately, lawmakers have been investigating whether Trump or Giuliani tried to pressure the Ukrainian government to pursue probes in an effort to benefit Trump's re-election bid. (Wall Street Journal / Washington Post / New York Times / Daily Beast / CNN)

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/09/20/day-974/
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The Impeachment of President Donald J. Trump
#2

From article’s writer Ashley Parker WAPO
Saying the quiet part out loud…she’s got a point. Yes, that’s how T will win people over…saying his dirty deeds were not dirty. WTF

For Trump, controversial public disclosures have became almost routine, in which president says the potentially scandalous part aloud. It is a form of shamelessness worn as a badge of protection — on the implicit theory that the president’s alleged offenses can’t be that serious if he commits them in full public view.

Less than a year after Trump’s public encouragement of Russia to meddle in the 2016 presidential elections, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and a host of congressional committees would devote months to investigating that very question — if the president or his campaign had conspired with Russia and, later, if Trump had tried to obstruct justice.

Yet Trump’s penchant for reading the stage directions almost seems to inoculate him from the kind of political damage that would devastate other politicians.

Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said Trump’s confounding public behavior — for example, she said, “he says stuff in tweets that seems blatantly illegal” — allows for two competing theories.

“Are we giving him too much credit and he’s just so undisciplined that he can’t help but say and tweet these things?” she asked. “Or is he so diabolical that putting it out there is like a jujitsu move?”

The president has a long history of broadcasting his unseemly actions and intentions to the general public. In May 2017, just two days after he fired then-FBI Director James B. Comey, Trump gave an interview with NBC News’s Lester Holt, in which he linked Comey’s dismissal to the ongoing Russia investigation.

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#3

A defensive maneuever to help our buddies in Saudi Arabia…

President Trump has approved the deployment of additional U.S. troops and air defense assets to Saudi Arabia in a muted military response to last week’s attack on Saudi oil facilities.

At a news conference late Friday following a White House meeting with Trump, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper emphasized that the deployments were defensive in nature, and in response to requests from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to help protect “critical infrastructure” from further attacks by Iran.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, said that what he characterized as a moderate deployment, numbering in the hundreds, will be in addition to any forces and equipment the United States is asking other allies to contribute.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-announces-new-sanctions-on-irans-central-bank/2019/09/20/23643

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#4

Proud parent moment: my kid’s squad was totally out in force today. These kids get it and it’s an incredible thing.

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#5

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