Open Session Thursday 9 AM ET
“The Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has agreed to testify in open session before the Committee next Thursday, September 26 at 9:00 am.”
Showdown tomorrow with acting DNI 
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@Tindwyl Thanks for this – I wasn’t aware Grassley had made a statement. Others here have done a great job of debunking what he said, but I would just like to address his first paragraph which really sticks in my craw and shows me that he is practicing “willful ignorance” like the vast majority of the Republican party.
Grassley says:
“Speaker Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry even before seeing the call transcript or hearing from the alleged whistleblower or the director of national intelligence. That says all anyone needs to know about the legitimacy of the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry: impeach now, facts later."
The accusation embedded in that last sentence certainly has a nice ring to it, “Impeach now, facts later.” It sounds like something Hannity would say and it’s something Trump’s base can really get indignant about. But it’s just a complete load of B.S.
I would just say this to Mr. Grassley: We, the Democrats, are not “impeaching now” – we are opening an impeachment inquiry (something you, in fact, just said in your preceding words). Instead of ignoring the facts, we are searching diligently for the facts. We can’t find the facts without an inquiry because Trump, Barr, and the rest of the GOP, including yourself, are all stonewalling requests for information. Trump and his enablers broke the law by refusing to release the whistleblower complaint. What other choice did we have except to announce a formal inquiry? If we hadn’t announced it, Trump would still be blocking us from seeing the complaint.
So Mr. Grassley: Won’t you help us with our inquiry? Won’t you help us find the facts instead of stonewalling us? If the facts point to an impeachable offense, then and only then would we take the next step and impeach. And if that becomes the case, we would hope, as a patriot, you would then join us. In the meantime, how dare you accuse us of impeaching before we have the facts. That is a flat out lie, sir.
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I’m a little nervous that we are in part relying on the basic competence, good judgement and honesty of the IG, a Trump-appointee.
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Good point, but part of why this is a scandal is the fact the DNI was ordered not to release this whistleblowers complaint to Congress, who has the constitutional right to see these materials in the first place. It’s obstruction.
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Remember “The Godfather”?
“I will do you this favor, but there will come a time when I ask for a favor in return.”
It’s like that, except in this case Corleone (Trump) is asking for the return favor AND holding the baker’s daughter hostage.
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Wow, these are really easily debunked even by that non-transcript memo they released. And they handed the Democrats their WHOLE playbook!
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Stand by
Full court press…
and per PBS - Whistleblower’s Report has been delivered to Senate Intelligence -
Sen Burr. 
A Press Conference due at 4p EST/1P PSt
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Ok…Senate just passed a bill to stop the diverting of military funds and stop the emergency powers so the situation down at the border is not a National Crises.
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I like seeing Benjamin Wittes’ BOOMS…illustrates such a punctuating moment.
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He’s rambling…
He’s blaming the Dems…saying there is No there there…
He’s puffing up all the great things he’s done.
He’s business as usual. 
remarks from the journalists
Follow @ddale8 (Daniel Dale - CNN Fact Checker) - he chains together a lot of links
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He’s so glum today. He sure doesn’t act like someone who says impeachment would help him win in 2020.
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Yes, wistful and just full of self-pity.
The one who doesn’t know what to do with why so many hate him…and know he’s deceitful.
But you are right…hardly pumped up for 2020.
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some reactions
sad
Too many meds
He’s sick. Very very sick.
Low Energy…deflated
Quote from psychiatrist - “T is unraveling and falling apart under stress.” Dr. Lee 
And the saddest one…but most true. Narcissist meets someone who checkmates him.
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Per NBC, AG Barr is saying he was not part of the Ukrainian situation, although T did mention his name to Zelinsky over the phone.
And with that Barr would not recuse himself if he had to work on this within the DOJ.
Attorney General William Barr and whether he views Barr as someone whose job includes advocating for him on personal matters.
Repeatedly over the course of the call, Trump told Zelenskiy that his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Barr will be contacting Ukrainian prosecutors on two investigations: one related to an email server tied to Trump’s former political rival, Hillary Clinton, and the other related to his potential future political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
“I would like to have the attorney general call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it,” Trump told Zelenskiy about an investigation he wanted into CrowdStrike, a California-based company that investigated the Russian hacking of emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee in 2016.
One of the most shocking revelations in the transcript of President Donald Trump’s phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky was that so much of what Trump had to say on the call focused just on getting Ukrainian officials to investigate Trump’s political opponents. Another surprise was the fact that President Trump said repeatedly — five times, in fact — that Attorney General William Barr would be running point, working with Trump’s private attorney Rudy Giuliani, on these matters.
Make no mistake, these facts now implicate the attorney general, the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, directly in the commission of acts that many of the country’s leading legal experts consider federal crimes — whether as election law violations, bribery or other offenses concerning public corruption.
The revelation of Barr’s possible involvement should alarm all of us concerned about the rule of law in this country. At a minimum, it’s no longer sustainable for this attorney general to oversee the Justice Department’s handling of the Ukraine scandal.
…
Even Barr seems to understand the extreme impropriety of what the transcript suggests about his using the power of his office to go after the president’s political rivals. Hence Barr’s formal statement, issued within 30 minutes of the transcript’s release, suggesting that what Trump told Ukraine’s president about the attorney general’s role was essentially false.
…
Layer onto all of these concerns another revelation in Wednesday’s news — according to The New York Times, the director of national intelligence and the inspector general of the intelligence community each referred the whistleblower’s complaint to the Justice Department for a possible criminal investigation into the president’s actions. Within a matter of days, it seems Barr’s Justice Department somehow reached the conclusion that the complaint could not even trigger an investigation because the allegations could not involve a crime. The legal reasoning that has been reported would put the administration “on very thin ice,” as Judge Napolitano might say.
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Scheduling an Inservice Training for the White House staff: “How to tell a Democrat from a Republican–and why it Matters.”
Walk-away from a nearby mental facility.
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I agree with most of what you said. Including an enormous shoutout to Matt for his incredible work.
There is one sure way to get DJT out of office and one way only: vote him out.
The low voter turnout throughout (2016, 2018 and recent NC District 9) really alarms me and is a huge issue for me.
IMO: Instead of wasting time and energy on impeachment, spend all the time, energy and money on mobilizing and energizing every single possible voter.
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