[guest post by Dana]
President Trump on the first day of public testimony:
“I hear it’s a joke. I haven’t watched. I haven’t watched for one minute because I’ve been with the president, which is much more important, as far as I am concerned,” Trump said, speaking to reporters at the White House alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “This is a sham, and it shouldn’t be allowed.”
“I want to find out who is the whistleblower, and because the whistleblower gave a lot of very incorrect information, including my call with the president of Ukraine, which was a perfect call and highly appropriate,” Trump continued.
He also criticized Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community’s inspector general, or IG, for his decision to report the whistleblower’s complaint to Congress as credible. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that he had privately discussed firing Atkinson for sharing the information.
“I want to find out why the IG, why would he have presented that, when in fact, all he had to do is check the call itself and he would’ve seen it,” Trump said.
Trump said he had heard that the public testimony from Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent and the acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor, was “all third-hand information,” echoing pushback from Hill Republicans.
Trump also said he could release the record of a previous call he had with Ukraine in the spring as early as Thursday. The call at the heart of the impeachment investigation occurred over the summer, on July 25.
(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)
–Dana
[guest post by JVW]
Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick plans to enter the 2020 Democrat Sweepstakes, and will file paperwork to be in the New Hampshire Primary later this week. This, of course, coming on the heels of Michael Bloomberg’s expected entry into the race, announced last week. If you’re keeping score at home, this would bring the number of Democrats seeking the top job up to 18, after the recent departures of Tim Ryan and Robert O’Rourke had dropped the number to a dangerously low 16.
If you had forgotten about Deval Patrick, he was the former assistant attorney general during the Clinton Administration, who then won a surprise victory in 2006 over establishment Democrats and a Republican lieutenant governor to become the first Massachusetts governor from his party since Michael Dukakis had left office sixteen years earlier. He steered Massachusetts policy in a decidedly progressive direction by raising taxes, increasing spending, and embracing whatever trendy social justice policies reared their ugly heads. Mr. Patrick also courted his share of controversy. He left office on a sour note, with a two-pronged gut punch of a huge budget deficit from his progressive economic policies, coupled with the complete failure of the lavishly-funded (and money wasting) Metro Boston Transit Authority to operate during a winter snowstorm. And finally, he raised a lot of eyebrows by taking a post-governor job as a “global ambassador” to the short-lived Boston 2024 Olympic Bid Committee at the remarkable consultant rate of $7,500 per day. A group of disgruntled Bay State residents managed to organize a strong opposition group, and Boston was forced to drop its bid.
The candidate most immediately threatened by Mr. Patrick’s entry into the race would seem to be Elizabeth Warren. He likely takes away some of her local New England vote, and his pedigree is similar to hers in that both are lawyers who have made a fair amount of money in the private sector (he at Bain & Company; she at Harvard Law) yet still sing lustily from the progressive songbook, seemingly immune to thoughts of inconsistency or hypocrisy. He could conceivably cut into Joe Biden’s advantage with the Barack Obama loyalty vote, especially among African-American Democrats, due to his longtime friendship with the 44th President. But it’s difficult to see the average voter associating the ex-governor with the former President, absent a clear endorsement which it doesn’t seem likely would be forthcoming. With only eighty-two days until the Iowa Caucus it appears far-fetched to expect Mr. Patrick’s campaign to have a strong organization in the Hawkeye State, but a decent finish in the New Hampshire Primary eight days later (where My Little Aloha Sweetie is currently polling at six percent!) might make his candidacy real. Conversely, a weak showing in the state just north of his might suggest that his candidacy is as foolish as that of John Hickenlooper or Jay Inslee.
Now all that’s left is for Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, John Kerry, John Edwards, and Gavin Newsom to enter the race and we can let the real fun begin.
– JVW
[guest post by Dana]
Yet another reason Hillary Clinton does not deserve to be the President of the United States. The first woman elected as Britain’s prime minister wasn’t considered worthy to be in Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s book titled “Gutsy Women” because she didn’t really make a positive difference for other women.
What’s that you say:
When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979, many in the West had come to believe that the Cold War could not and should not be won, that anti-Communism was morally wrong, and that the future lay in détente between the superpowers and the evolution of democracy into ever-deepening state socialism. By the time she left office, the Berlin Wall had fallen and Eastern Europe was liberated. A year later, the Soviet Union crumbled into the dustbin of history. Democracy and freedom were on the advance.
Prime Minister Thatcher’s contributions to this victory were profound. Together with the firm vision of her close friend President Ronald Reagan, the inspiration of Pope John Paul II, and the determination of the oppressed peoples of Eastern Europe and Russia, her courage and leadership were instrumental to democracy’s defeat of Communism.
Even before 1979, the Soviet Union derisively described her as the Iron Lady. She proved that, for once, the Communists spoke the truth, turning what was intended as an insult into an honor hailed around the world. As the liberated nations and their friends and allies commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, her part in this great victory must be remembered with gratitude.
You can watch Hillary comment on Thatcher below. Sneering at another powerful woman who actually accomplished great things doesn’t make a positive difference for other women, Hillary. Instead it makes us remember what a small and bitter woman you continue to be. I’m glad this interview aired because now the “many, many, many people” you claim are pressuring you to consider a run in 2020 will also be reminded of the sad, failed candidate you were:
–Dana