I must have missed something, could you clarify here what Obama did too? I don’t disbelieve you, I’d just like a resource to look at.
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@angrypeony
With that last question I was referring to this quote from Chuck Grassely:
I don’t remember anything about Obama asking Ukraine to investigate Trump during the last election. I feel like I have been asleep for the last three years.
Grassley is posing misinformation. The “transcript” or memo of the TELCON actually says,
The President is referring to Crowdstrike, the cyber security company the DNC used to discover the 2016 email hack. This is part of a conspiracy theory being spread on the Right, concerning Seth Rich and the hack being an “inside job”. Which was proven to be a Russian disinformation campaign in the Mueller report.
It’s bonkers that Grassley is repeating this story.
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Thank you so much for this clarification–I continue to feel like I’m living in a Twilight Zone timeline where the facts are made up and the law doesn’t matter.
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The GOP-parroted talking point is “no quid pro quo,”
This. Is the dumbest conspiracy. EVER.
White House mistakenly sends Trump-Ukraine talking points to Democrats
EVER!
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Smart move by Acting DNI head Maguire to threaten to resign unless T"N Co offered their justification for preventing him from releasing the whistleblower complaint.
He knew they were playing with fire.
****Acting director of national intelligence threatened to resign if he couldn’t speak freely before Congress
The acting Director of National Intelligence threatened to resign over concerns that the White House might attempt to force him to stonewall Congress when he testifies Thursday about an explosive whistleblower complaint about the president, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The revelation reflects the extraordinary tensions between the White House and the nation’s highest-ranking intelligence official over a matter that has triggered impeachment proceedings against President Trump.
The officials said that Joseph Maguire, who was thrust into the top intelligence post last month, warned the White House that he was not willing to withhold information from Congress, where he is scheduled to testify in open and closed hearings on Thursday.
The move was in part designed to force the White House to make an explicit legal decision on whether it was going to assert executive privilege over the whistleblower complaint, which centers on a call that Trump made with the leader of Ukraine in late July.
In essence, Maguire was serving notice that he intended to cooperate with lawmakers unless the White House moved forward with a legal case to prevent him from doing so, the officials said.
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I am through today. I have hit my stupid quota. Trump just played the “butter e-mails” card.
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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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