Gabbard reaches new low, aids Trump campaign to 'expunge' his first impeachment
By: Yahoo News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Given her dreadful record, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard never should have been nominated in the first place. Given how poorly she fared during her confirmation process, Gabbard never should have been approved by Senate Republicans. The former congresswoman was confirmed 14 months ago nevertheless, and the results have been predictable.
In light of Gabbard's many failures, controversies and embarrassments, few were surprised last week by reports that Donald Trump had considered firing the hapless DNI.
Gabbard appears to recognize, however, what she has to do to stay in the White House's good graces. The conservative Washington Times reported:
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired a broadside at congressional Democrats on Monday by saying their 2019 impeachment of President Trump over his dealings with Ukraine was based on biased evidence and slipshod work from within the intelligence community.
The CIA whistleblower whose complaint became the basis of the impeachment was an anti-Trump registered Democrat who misled investigators about collaborating with Democrats, Ms. Gabbard said.
In a statement, the DNI argued that "deep-state actors within the Intelligence Community" secretly conspired to "usurp the will of the American people and impeach the duly-elected president of the United States," whom she characterized as a poor and unsuspecting victim.
Her presentation (to the extent that one could credibly call it that) bordered on silly, which helps explain why it generated so little attention when Gabbard's office released it.
But it pleased the DNI's audience of one. On Tuesday morning, Trump used his social media platform to publish two items, both of which were built around the idea that Gabbard's latest foolishness should help the president's crusade to "expunge" his first impeachment — a priority he's pushed intermittently for years.
I can appreciate why Gabbard is engaging in such pitiful tactics, as her job likely depends on it. I can even understand why Trump wants to take full advantage of the DNI's desperation and seize on her "findings."
Reality, however, is stubborn.
In November 2019, as congressional Democrats finalized their case in Trump's impeachment, The Associated Press published a rather brutal analysis that highlighted the "mountain of evidence" that was uncontested and "beyond dispute." From the AP's article:
Trump explicitly ordered U.S. government officials to work with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on matters related to Ukraine, a country deeply dependent on Washington's help to fend off Russian aggression. The Republican president pushed Ukraine to launch investigations into political rivals, leaning on a discredited conspiracy theory his own advisers disputed. And both American and Ukrainian officials feared that Trump froze a much-needed package of military aid until Kyiv announced it was launching those probes.
Those facts were confirmed by a dozen witnesses, mostly staid career government officials who served both Democratic and Republican administrations. They relied on emails, text messages and contemporaneous notes to back up their recollections from the past year.
Around the same time, Eugene Robinson added in a Washington Post column, "After this week's impeachment testimony, if Republicans continue to insist that Dear Leader President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong — and they might do just that — then the GOP has surrendered any claim to being a political party. It would be a full-fledged cult of personality."
Gabbard's latest gambit didn't explain away what's been exposed, because she couldn't: Trump extorted a U.S. ally in the hope that it would help him cheat in an election. That's what the evidence showed in 2019, and nothing the DNI presented this week changes the facts.
While it's easy to forget years later, even several Republicans agreed that Trump did exactly what he was accused of having done. Then-Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee conceded his party's president "crossed the line"; Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska described the president's behavior as "shameful and wrong"; and then-Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said Trump was "guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust."
Gabbard is apparently eager to play her part, helping Trump rewrite the story and concoct a satisfying counternarrative. The president will no doubt make a fresh push to get GOP lawmakers to wipe the slate clean.
But for those who care about accountability and the truth, the DNI's efforts should be recognized as misguided nonsense.
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The entire "Ukraine" scandal (involving Joe Biden) was a hoax. Trump should have been impeached and removed from office at the end of 2019- beginning of 2020.
Hawaii should revoke Gabbard's citizenship
Trump should demand they produce her birth certificate.
I thought her complexion would've improved by now after her conversion to maga ...
The GOP has so failed this once great country. Their failure to hold check on Trump gone wild, cause he's a tantric 4 year old child, have so decimated so much, and they have consistently been his crutch, and due to they, our country is on it's way, out, and as lower we go, cause they've proven unwilling to say no or even admit it be so, is just where we be because of a party that can't seem to see, or is it care, cause we are failing and flailing all due to that POS in the White Power House of Pains/Panes, and Trump has a mountain of rocks, and not just in his head, we'll be so much better off, when he has passed and moved on, but now he claims he will rise again, as the Nor Easter Passover is needed to preserve US from the message he does and has done send, cause this country is rapidley approaching its end.
Why do Democrats keep falling for this crap? There is no way to expunge an impeachment.
If Democrats refuse to focus attention on real issues then they're going to lose. That's how Trump got elected in the first place.
Stop legitimizing this stupidity.
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Why does Trump want his first impeachment expunged ?
This fuckhead called his phone call to Zelensky "perfect". What was perfect about it?
Appears to be the perfect example of an impeachable offense, cause it was. If the GOP wasn't grabbed like a hussy by Trump, they'd have helped remove the POS, the partial collapse of this country rests solely on their weak asz shoulders. Pathetic.
stop enabling stupid comments like the one below yours
I still think they would win the House. Not wining the Senate, however, will become a problem if Alito and Thomas resign in time for Trump to nominate their replacements.
Democrats get caught ordering the leak of classified information and breaking whistleblower rulers in a plot to get Trump and not a word of criticism from Democrats. Yet they criticize Trump.
Amazing.
The whole scenario about Biden supposedly trying to extort the Ukrainian justice system was a hoax.
Trump tried to pressure Zelensky into announcing an investigation into Biden for the sole purpose of muddying up Biden prior to the 2020 election season. The so called "perfect" phone call is a smoking gun against him. The GOP in Congress bowed to Trump and did not support a completely justified impeachment.
They not only broke the rules, but they also changed the rules to allow illegal testimony!
Trump tried THREE times to get foreign governments involved in effecting US elections. In 2016 he encouraged the Russians to hack Clintons computer system, in 2019 he tried to extort Ukraine into announcing a non existent investigation, and in 2022 he asked Putin to release dirt on Biden with the anticipation biden would be his opponent in 2024. How many times does this have to happen for you to see it is a pattern ?