monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

CNN published a piece this week from four historians -- Texas A&M's Elizabeth A. Cobbs, Arizona State's Kyle Longley, Colorado School of Mines' Kenneth Osgood, and the University of Texas at Austin's Jeremi Suri -- who agreed they've "never seen anything like" this Trump scandal.

Quote:

In our numerous books on presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama, we have examined how American leaders conduct US foreign policy -- the good, bad, and ugly. Nothing really surprises us anymore.

Until now.

Trump's documentary record differs dramatically from his predecessors. A worrisome thread runs through each conversation. Trump appears laser-focused on his own fortunes to the exclusion of the national security of the United States. Unfortunately, this is part of a larger and startling pattern of Trump promoting his personal agenda ahead of the nation's interests.

It's worth emphasizing for context that the historians' piece was published on Wednesday -- the day before Trump stood on the White House's South Lawn and publicly urged two foreign governments to go after one of his domestic political rivals.

It's worth emphasizing for context that the historians' piece was published on Wednesday -- the day before Trump stood on the White House's South Lawn and publicly urged two foreign governments to go after one of his domestic political rivals.

Trump, in August Call With GOP Senator, Denied Official’s Claim on Ukraine Aid

Sen. Ron Johnson asked the president after hearing of potential pressure campaign

President Trump denied that he had linked military aid to Ukraine with a commitment by Kyiv to investigate the 2016 presidential elections when pressed on the matter by a Republican senator in August, according to the lawmaker.

In an interview, Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) said he learned of a potential quid pro quo from the US ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, who told him that aid to Ukraine was tied to the desire by Mr. Trump and his allies to have Kyiv undertake investigations related to the 2016 election...

Josh Marshall
@joshtpm
The remarkable thing here is that RonJon is actually dumber than he is corrupt. So he doesn't actually know who he is incriminating.

Bill Kristol
@BillKristol
Former NH GOP chair: We have a “president who believes he should have unfettered power to do anything he chooses without accountability. But most of all, we face great peril because the leaders of the Republican Party continue to empower” this president.

Members of the House Intelligence Committee heard closed-door testimony Friday from Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general who received the whistleblower complaint at the center of the House impeachment inquiry.

It's the first time Atkinson has testified before the committee since last week’s public release of the whistleblower complaint, which focuses on President Donald Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

Atkinson briefed the committee behind closed doors earlier last month about the complaint, without revealing details about its substance, NBC News reported...

A notorious Ukrainian oligarch fighting extradition to the United States on bribery and racketeering charges is seeking to link his defense to allegations made by U.S. President Donald Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani that former Vice President Joe Biden tried to pressure Ukrainian politicians.

The effort by Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian gas mogul described in Department of Justice court filings as an “upper-echelon [associate] of Russian organized crime,” underlines the wide-ranging consequences of Giuliani’s effort to use Ukraine as a wedge issue in U.S. politics.

In July, Firtash made a revealing change to his Washington legal team, hiring Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, a husband-and-wife duo closely associated with the Trump administration. The pair reportedly worked with Giuliani as he sought to mine damaging information on the president’s rivals in Ukraine and have been involved in Republican Party campaigns dating back to the impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998.

The hiring of diGenova and Toensing was a 180-degree pivot from Firtash’s previous Washington representation, former Clinton lawyer Lanny Davis. Ironically, Giuliani, in an interview earlier this year with the Hill.TV, criticized Davis for working for Firtash because of the latter’s alleged ties to Russian organized crime, which he has denied.

Toensing and diGenova are both frequent guests on Fox News, where they have pushed Ukraine conspiracy theories. Last year they were tipped to join Trump’s legal team in special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry alongside Giuliani, but they turned down the offer due to a conflict of interest with other clients they were representing in the investigation.

Firtash has fought a long extradition battle from Vienna, where he was first detained on a U.S. arrest warrant in 2014. His appeals appeared to reach the end of the road in June when the Austrian Supreme Court upheld a decision allowing for his extradition, but that has since been stalled after his defense team provided what the court called “extremely extensive material” in a bid to have the case reopened...

“Firtash is arguably the most odious, or one of the most odious oligarchs in Ukraine”

The President escalates his disputes with each and every one and also relies on conflict, polarisation and agitation in domestic and foreign politics.

The consequences cannot yet be foreseen.

I agree. Basically, Trump is selling the US foreign policy to the highest foreign bidder. That's evidently grossly inappropriate, and therefore I don;t think Biden should respond in kind.

Democrats in the US House of Representatives had on September 26 launched a formal impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, accusing him of seeking foreign help to smear Democratic rival Joe Biden.

The impeachment enquiry (sic) could eventually lead to Donald Trump's removal from office, although that would be a steep task for Democrats. Even if the Democratic-controlled House voted to impeach Trump, the Republican-majority Senate would have to take the next step of removing him from office after a trial. A conviction would require a two-thirds Senate majority.

Talking about viable candidates, five of the Dem front-runners beat trump in head to head matchups. Maybe it's the Reppubs who should try to find a viable candidate.