A top aide to Rep. Devin Nunes has been providing conservative
politicians and journalists with information—and misinformation—about
the anonymous whistleblower who triggered the biggest crisis of Donald
Trump’s residency, two knowledgeable sources tell The Daily Beast.
Derek
Harvey, who works for Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House
intelligence committee, has provided notes for House Republicans
identifying the whistleblower’s name ahead of the high-profile
depositions of Trump administration appointees and civil servants in the
impeachment inquiry.
The purpose of the notes, one source said, is to
get the whistleblower’s name into the record of the proceedings, which
committee chairman Adam Schiff has pledged to eventually release. In other words: it’s an attempt to out the anonymous official who helped trigger the impeachment inquiry.
On Saturday, The Washington Postreported
that GOP lawmakers and staffers have “repeatedly” used a name
purporting to be the whistleblower during the depositions. The paper
named Harvey as driving lines of questioning Democrats saw as attempting
to determine the political loyalties of witnesses before the inquiry. A
former official told the Post that Harvey “was passing notes [to GOP lawmakers] the entire time” ex-NSC Russia staffer Fiona Hill testified.
“Exposing
the identity of the whistleblower and attacking our client would do
nothing to undercut the validity of the complaint’s allegations,” said
Mark Zaid, one of the whistleblower’s attorneys. “What it would do,
however, is put that individual and their family at risk of harm.
Perhaps more important, it would deter future whistleblowers from coming
forward in subsequent administrations, Democratic or Republican.” Zaid
has represented The Daily Beast in freedom-of-information lawsuits
against the federal government.
resident Trump's low-profile appearance Sunday night at Game 5 of the World Series drew loud boos and jeers when he was introduced to the crowd.
resident
Donald Trump is introduced during the third inning of Game 5 of the
baseball World Series between the Houston Astros and the Washington
Nationals Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019, in Washington.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
Wearing a dark suit and a tie,
Mr. Trump arrived at Nationals Park just before the first pitch of the
Houston Astros-Washington Nationals matchup. Hours earlier, he had announced that U.S. forces had assaulted the hiding place of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
who was killed in the raid in northeast Syria. At the same time, a
divisive impeachment inquiry into the resident is underway in Congress.
Mr. Trump and first lady Melania Trump entered a lower-tier box to
the left of home plate as the game was beginning. At that point, his
presence hadn't yet been formally announced, but baseball fans in the
section just below his suite turned to look toward the box as he
arrived. Some waved at the resident as he smiled and gave a thumbs-up.
At
the end of the third inning, the resident stood and waved to the
crowd, and ballpark video screens carried a salute to U.S. service
members that drew cheers throughout the stadium. When the video on the
Jumbotron cut to the resident and his entourage — which included a
number of GOP lawmakers — and the loudspeakers announced the Trumps,
cheers abruptly turned into a torrent of boos and heckling from what
sounded like a majority of the crowd. Chants of "Lock him up!" broke out
in some sections, including one below where the resident was sitting.
Mr. Trump appeared unfazed and continued waving. Later, some fans
behind home plate held a sign reading "VETERANS FOR IMPEACHMENT."
Another banner appeared during the game: "IMPEACH TRUMP!"
A red banner reading "Impeach Trump!" appeared over right field during game 5 Sunday night in the World Series.
CBS News - Arden Farhi
The resident remained at the
game for seven innings before heading back to the White House. The
Astros took a 3-2 series lead with a 7-1 victory in Game 5.
Until
Sunday night, Mr. Trump hadn't attended a major league game as resident
even though the White House is a few miles northwest of Nationals Park.
A dozen or so congressional lawmakers accompanied him, according to a
list provided by the White House, including Senators Lindsey Graham of
South Carolina and David Perdue of Georgia, and Representative Steve
Scalise of Louisiana and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
"I
think everybody is excited," Nationals star pitcher Stephen Strasburg
said before the game. "It's the resident of the United States. So
there's obviously beefed-up security. So usually the dogs that are
sniffing in our clubhouse are these nice Labs that are super friendly.
And today there was a German shepherd that I didn't really feel
comfortable petting."
Nationals manager Dave Martinez said: "He's
coming to the game. He's a fan. Hopefully he cheers for the Washington
Nationals, and I hope he enjoys the game."
Mr. Trump's staff has
long tried to shield him from events where he might be loudly booed or
heckled, and he has rarely ventured into the neighborhoods of the
heavily Democratic city. He won just over 4% of the vote in the District
of Columbia in 2016.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob
Manfred said he discussed with the resident whether he'd like to throw
out the ceremonial first pitch, but the resident declined, citing the
disruption that would cause fans getting to the ballpark.
Washington Nationals principal owner Mark Lerner told the Washington
Post that Mr. Trump should be at the game, but he made clear that he did
not invite the resident to throw out the first pitch, saying there
were many other candidates who should be considered before Mr. Trump.
Jose
Andrés, a prominent local restaurant owner and humanitarian, threw out
the first pitch to a roaring, sustained ovation. He has a history with
the resident, too, both in business and in politics.
Andrés has
repeatedly opposed Mr. Trump's immigration policies and his
administration's response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Four years
ago, he withdrew from plans to open a restaurant in the Trump
International Hotel in Washington following Mr. Trump's controversial
comments about Mexican immigrants during the presidential campaign.
Legal action ensued and the dispute was settled in 2017.
Rep. Katie Hill (D-Santa Clarita) announced Sunday that she would resign from Congress after allegations that she engaged in affairs with a congressional aide and a campaign staff member became public this month.
Hill announced the resignation in a letter to constituents, saying she was stepping down “with a broken heart.”
The
letter did not specify when the resignation would take effect. Hill
will be the first female member of Congress to resign in a post-#MeToo
era. Her resignation will also be the first after a House rule banning sexual relationships with staffers was enacted last year in response to nearly a dozen male members of Congress resigning amid sexual harassment allegations.
Police officers in Ireland just received a bill from Trump’s Doonberg
resort after they were called in to provide extra security for the resident. His golf course is now billing them $100,000 for things like
tea, coffee, and packs of snacks that they “provided” to the officers
who were protecting the resident.
Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins
explains how this violates the Constitution, and why its just morally
wrong.
CNN's Poppy Harlow clashes with Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) over his tweet
claiming without evidence that former Vice President Joe Biden committed
a crime.
Dozens of Republican Representatives, led by Matt Gaetz, attempted to
storm the impeachment hearings on Wednesday, creating a massive security
breach by filming the sensitive information with their cell phones.
These Republicans are creating a spectacle of the entire impeachment
inquiry by falsely claiming that they are being shut out of the process.
Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what’s happening.
A poll released yesterday by Quinnipiac found that a full 55 percent of
respondents approve of the impeachment inquiry, while a dwindling 43
percent opposed it. Last week those numbers were 51 percent to 45
percent.
But the numbers representing the group that I believe are the most
critical in the public opinion sphere were also the ones that saw the
most dramatic movement. You see, support for Donald Trump’s Impeachment
among independents jumped 8 points (in a single week).
And here is what is very well fueling the rapid change related to how
the American people feel about Impeaching and removing this clear and
present danger from office. It is a combination of who is coming to the
defense of Donald Trump and those who seem to be running in the other
direction.
Jesus, Republicans. It's embarrassing. It's really fucking embarrassing
now. Every time one of you appears on some goddamned news network or
another, opening your mouth holes to diarrhea out some absurd defense of
Donald Trump, it's just embarrassing. As it would be if you went on TV
and literally shit out of your mouths. At least then you might get some
pity, a kind of "Oh, poor thing, he's sick" or "God, don't let that
happen to me." But in the figurative case, it's just fucking pathetic.
See, we all know what happened. We all know that Trump was extorting
Ukraine to get them to go along with weird-ass conspiracy theories he's
had skull fucked into him by a constant feed of Fox "news" and its
devolved stepchild, One American News, talk radio depravity, and
whatever hell-creature Stephen Miller is. This involved both military
aid to Ukraine, as well as a promised meeting between Trump and
Ukrainian President Zelensky. We all know that Rudy Giuliani is just a
savage ghoul in it for however much he can line his filthy pockets. And,
hell, if he can pretend he has power, too, and might be able to stick
it to Hillary? That's just a bonus. In other words, one vile,
mentally-imbalanced shit heel enabled another vile, mentally-imbalanced
shit heel, and, together with all their lickspittles and whores, they
sought to undermine the United States. All that we need to find out now
is what levels of evil, greed, stupidity, and treachery are involved.
And how much Russia needed to push anyone to do this shit.
I mean, c'mon, look at the opening statement by William Taylor, delivered today
to the House Intelligence Committee. The whole thing is Trump and
Giuliani attempting to push Ukraine to say that it was investigating the
DNC server or the oil company Hunter Biden was getting paid by,
Burisma, while Taylor and others were desperately trying to get Trump to
knock it the fuck off. Here's what Taylor said on page 7 about the
hold on the $400 million in military aid: "My understanding was that the
Secretaries of Defense and State, the CIA Director, and the National
Security Advisor sought a joint meeting with the resident to convince
him to release the hold."
You got that? Everyone who knew anything about Ukraine knew it needed
the promised funds. But they couldn't get that meeting because Trump was
too busy watching TV, tweeting, and holding his rallies of the damned.
No wonder Rick Perry was involved. He was almost the only cabinet member
who thought this was a good idea.
Then there's the whole side of this that's fucking nuts, that crazy-ass
John Bolton was the comparative voice of reason. Bolton didn't want
Trump to talk on the phone to Zelensky because he thought it "would be a
disaster." At one point in July, Bolton and the regular foreign policy
team butted right up against EU Ambassador and Trump taint sniffer
Gordon Sondland and his shadow foreign policy team, confusing the shit
out of the Ukrainians they were in talks with: "Bolton...wanted to talk
about security, energy, and reform...Sondland...wanted to talk about the
connection between a White House meeting and Ukrainian investigations."
How willfully blind do you have to be to think none of this was fucked
up? It wasn't about uncovering corruption. There's a shit-ton of
corruption involving Ukrainians and other Americans that Trump or anyone
never fucking mentioned. And the DNC server? What the hell? What the
hell? How is this even a thing anymore?
On July 20, Sondland told Taylor that "he had recommended that Zelensky
use the phrase 'I will leave no stone unturned' with regard to the
'investigations'" when Zelensky spoke to Trump. You know who else uses
that phrase? Fucking Trump. And he had done so talking about the
citizenship question on the census just nine days earlier in a pissy
little appearance
after the Supreme Court blocked it. So Sondland knows that Trump's a
goddamn child who needs to be made to feel smart and special.
The mania with which Trump demanded Zelensky knuckle under to his
lunatic conspiracy theories was brazen. Sondland told Taylor that Trump
wanted Zelensky "'in a public box' by making a public statement about
ordering such investigations." It got so ludicrous that Zelensky asked a
pair of visiting U.S. senators if we were still standing by Ukraine.
They told him that he "should not jeopardize that bipartisan support
[for Ukraine] by getting drawn into U.S. domestic politics." The poor
motherfucker went from making fart jokes on Ukrainian variety shows to
having to deal with our lunatic leader.
And the most utterly, most reprehenisble part of this? The idea that if
they say there was "no quid pro quo," if Republicans repeat "no quid pro
quo" over and over, the idiot hordes will believe there was no quid pro
quo when the quid pro quo is all there fucking is.
Goddamn, GOP. We all know what went on. Aren't you tired of looking
like asses and fools? Or has that just been your identity for so long
that you figure why bother changing?
(Note: The attempt to smear Bill Taylor as a "radical bureaucrat," as
the White House called him, is beyond laughable. The man worked for
Reagan and both Bushes, as well as for Democrats. Step the fuck off on
this "radical" and "far-left" bullshit.)
Author, activist and Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson joins us
to talk about the issues: "Plan for US Dept. of Peace", "The
Reparations Plan" and "U.S. Department of Children and Youth "The Whole
Child Plan".
Rutgers Professor Brittany Cooper says she’s ‘deeply offended’ by
Trump’s comparison of being ‘held accountable’ by the impeachment
inquiry, to the ‘spectacular violence of lynching.’
As Trump faces new
damning Ukraine evidence, he claims impeachment is like a ‘lynching.’
The comparison drawing wide rebuke from democrats, civil rights leaders
and the rare condemnation from many GOP leaders.
According to a new report by The New York Times, establishment Democrats
are in full panic mode as Joe Biden continues slipping and is no longer
the front runner for the nomination.
They are asking around to see if
there’s someone more friendly to their donors who can take the lead, but
the polls show that the public wants someone who is going to shake up
the Party and the country.
Of all of the parts of the U.S. Constitution, none have been more
trampled on by the Trump administration than the Emoluments Clause
forbidding a resident from enriching themselves while serving.
Trump
claimed on Monday that the Emoluments Clause was “phony” and then
proceeded to reveal information that he wouldn’t know unless he was
still (illegally) running his business. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins
discusses this.
Eric Trump may be the most tone-deaf person in the United States. During
a recent interview, he said that it was “sickening” to him to see the
children of politicians using their family names to get rich.
Does he
not know who he is?
Does he not understand that his entire life has been
handed to him solely because of his last name?
