monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

President Donald Trump’s former homeland security adviser said on Sunday that he was “deeply disturbed” by his former boss’s attempts to solicit damaging information from Ukraine about Joe Biden, becoming one of the most vocal critics among ex-Trump officials.

“Yes, I’m deeply disturbed by it, as well, and this entire mess has me frustrated, George,” Tom Bossert said on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” responding to the host’s citing a whistleblower complaint that said White House officials were disturbed by a call between Trump and Ukraine’s president in July.

Bossert also said some of Trump’s backers weren’t helping matters.

“The DNC server and that conspiracy theory has got to go,” he said, referring to unfounded claims that Ukraine stole Democratic National Committee emails in 2016 and then somehow framed Russia.

“It’s not only a conspiracy theory. It is completely debunked,” said Bossert, who served as homeland security adviser from January 2017 to April 2018. He added that if Trump continues with that focus, “it’s going to bring him down.”...

(it's understandable ...)

As Democrats begin an impeachment inquiry, President Trump spent Sunday vigorously defending himself on Twitter and sharing cable news clips of his most ardent devotees insisting that he did nothing wrong in asking the Ukrainian president to investigate his political rival, former vice president Joe Biden.

Trump highlighted one quote from a longtime evangelical pastor warning of particularly dire consequences if the Democrats follow through.

“If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal,” Trump tweeted, adding his own parenthetical to a quote from Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist preacher speaking on “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday.

“I have visited nations ravaged by civil war. @realDonaldTrump I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President,” tweeted Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a decorated Air Force veteran who served as a pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan. “This is beyond repugnant.”

My fellow Republicans, it is time to risk your careers in favor of your principles. Whether you believe the president deserves impeachment, you know he does not deserve reelection.

Our country will have more presidents. But principles, well, we get just one crack at those. For those who want to put America first, it is critically important at this moment in the life of our country that we all, here and now, do just that.

Trust me when I say that you can go elsewhere for a job. But you cannot go elsewhere for a soul.

A majority of Americans believe that President Trump’s attempt to pressure Ukraine to dig up dirt on a political rival is a serious problem that merits an impeachment inquiry, but the new scandal doesn’t shock them, according to to two new polls released Sunday. An ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted September 27-28 found that 64 percent of Americans believe Trump’s call with Ukraine — which alarmed an intelligence-community whistle-blower enough that they filed a formal complaint — is either a very serious or somewhat serious problem. A CBS News/YouGov poll conducted September 26-27, meanwhile, found that 72 percent of Americans thought the call was either illegal (41 percent) or improper but legal (31 percent).

55 percent said they agreed that the act merits an impeachment inquiry.

Paul Rosenberg
@PaulHRosenberg
The institutions of American democracy do not protect us.
They are means by which we protect ourselves.... And those we care about.

The lawyers for a whistleblower whose complaint triggered a US presidential impeachment inquiry say Donald Trump's words are endangering their client.

Since the transcript of his call with the president of Ukraine was revealed, Mr Trump has called for the anonymous whistleblower to be unmasked.

Democrats say the whistleblower will testify to Congress "soon" once steps are taken to protect their identity.

Mr Trump has suggested his opponents could be arrested for treason.

A transcript of a call Mr Trump made to Ukraine's new President Volodymyr Zelensky shows he urged him to investigate discredited corruption allegations against former vice-president and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden as well as his son.

The call is now at the centre of an effort by Democrats that could see Mr Trump expelled from office, but doing so would require members of his Republican party to turn against him.

The letter from the whistleblower's legal team - in which the lawyers call attention to Mr Trump's language - was sent to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire on Saturday, and made public on Sunday.

"The events of the past week have heightened our concerns that our client's identity will be disclosed publicly and that, as a result, our client will be put in harm's way," wrote lawyer Andrew Bakaj.

The letter specifically mentions Mr Trump's call last week for the whistleblower to be identified, as well as the person that supplied the whistleblower with information about the call.

It quotes Mr Trump as saying: "I want to know who's the person that gave the whistleblower, who's the person that gave the whistleblower the information, because that's close to a spy.

"You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? With spies and treason, right? We used to handle them a little differently than we do now."

The letter also references a $50,000 (£40,600) "bounty" that two conservative Trump supporters have offered as a "reward" for information about the whistleblower.

"Unfortunately, we expect this situation to worsen, and to become even more dangerous for our client and any other whistleblowers, as Congress seeks to investigate this matter," Mr Bakaj's letter adds.

Mr Maguire faced lawmakers last week and said he believed the whistleblower acted in "good faith".

DONALD TRUMP STANDS ACCUSED OF PRESSURING Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, to investigate allegations of wrongdoing in that nation by former vice president Joe Biden, among Trump’s rivals for the election in 2020.

Adam Entous, a reporter for the New Yorker, first tackled the allegation that Biden had pressured Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who was looking into an oil and gas company, the Burisma Group—which employed Biden’s son Hunter as a board member—in a story published in July.

We asked Entous whether there was anything to the accusations, and how others might go about reporting out such a complicated and polarizing story. The following has been edited for clarity and concision...

Trump Pressed Australian Leader to Help Barr Investigate Mueller Inquiry’s Origins
The discussion was another instance of the president using American diplomacy for potential personal gain.

Fox’s Newt Gingrich: "This is not an impeachment process. This is a coup d'etat”

NEWT GINGRICH: I think everybody who is concerned about what's going on should drop the word "impeach," or "impeachment." This is not an impeachment process. This is a coup d'etat. This is a deliberate -- this goes back to election night 2016, their first trial run was the Russian conspiracy, where it was the FBI who were breaking the law.

Their second run now is this totally crazy Ukrainian problem, where it's the intelligence community breaking the law, but the patterns are so similar, I mean, nobody should kid themselves.

This has nothing to do with impeachment, it has nothing to do with the rule of law, it has nothing to do with facts.

...What you and I are living through right now is the most unconstitutional and anti-American effort to replace the president of the United States, with the choice of the left-wing bureaucracy, news media, and Democrats in the Congress. It's extraordinary that it's going on.