Sunday School 11/17/19

Deval Patrick is the only Democratic presidential candidate making the rounds today; you can see what he had to say, and also what  a couple of other Dems had to say in this week's Sunday School Extra Credit.

I'm spending  time with some of the Republicans who made the classroom rounds rounds today, including Mike Turner (R-Mixed Emotions), who sat with Jake Tapper on State of the Union; Jim Jordan (R-Casual Friday), who talked with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation; and Senator Ron Johnson (R-America's Dairyland) who spoke with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press. 

First up, Tapper and Turner, who was asked if he was "alarmed" about US folks apparently telling Ukraine folks that if they want the aid money released, they have to announce they're going to investigate the Bidens and the 2016 interference (which has been attributed by the entire US intelligence community to Russia, not Ukraine). 

Well, of course, all of that is alarming, And I have said from the beginning, I think this is - -this is not OK. The president of the United States shouldn't even, in the original phone call, be on the phone with the president of another country and raise his political opponent. So no, this is -- is not OK.

Tapper next asked "Do you really think there were no Ukrainians who were under the impression that they needed to publicly announce these investigations in order to get the White House meeting or the aid, the $400 million, they so desperately need?"

The only two that I can speak to, because I'm obviously not psychic as to what Ukrainians think, but the president of Ukraine and the foreign minister...have both stated that they were not under that impression, they did not believe that it was tied, and they did not believe that there was pressure. 

And Tapper mentioned president Trump's tweet "attacking" Ambassador Yovanovitch as she was testifying, and asked, "Does it concern you at all that a witness found what president Trump tweeted to be intimidating?"

Well, I mean, Jake, I think, along with most people, I find the president's tweets generally unfortunate. But let's say this that I think is very important about all of it. And that is that Adams Schiff has been on a three-year quest to impeach this president. He replaced the staff at the Intelligence Committee with prosecutors, instead of experts in, like, nuclear weapons, terrorism and the like... So it's kind of laughable that, in the middle of the hearing, he reads a witness a tweet that she's up until that point unaware of, and then says 'shazam, eureka, I have another reason to impeach the president.' 

Good on him for that last part. Schiff was nuts to bring that tweet into things, without stating that while, it's not intimidating to Yovanovitch who was currently in the witness chair, having already been smeared by the Orange Menace, it might be intimidating to other potential witnesses who are not interested in having themselves and their families attacked by the president and his minions.

Moving on to Brennan and Jordan, who was asked if the whistleblower complaint on September 9th and the aid being released on the 11th was just the calendar, nothing else.

Well, it did and plus, remember, the aid didn't have to be released until September 30th. So it gets released on the 11th and most importantly, the Ukrainians did nothing to - as far as investigations go, to get the aid released. So there was never this quid pro quo that the Democrats all promise existed before president Trump released the phone call. 

On David Holmes, who said in his deposition that he the overheard the phone call between Ambassador Sondland and the president talking about the Bidens, is he credible?

Well, I mean look, he overheard a conversation - we don't know if the other two people are the table are going to vouch for his story. We'll see because there was four people at the table...

Brennan asked if Jordan thought Gordon Sondland was acting on his own, that 'he says he talks to the president all the time."

He's the Senate-confirmed ambassador to the European Union. Mister Volker is - is the special envoy, distinguished career serving our country in the diplomatic corps... We had Rick Perry. We have Secretary Perry, Senate confirmed, working. This whole - this whole irregular channel I find interesting because they're all Senate confirmed individuals, respected individuals, accomplished individuals working on a diplomatic mission, and somehow that's - that's - that's crazy. I just don't follow. 

Asked if he was "comfortable with the investigation that was requested," that "this is the 2020 election. Does that make you uncomfortable?"

Well, I don't think that's what took place here because there never was an investigation undertaken. There was never an announcement from President Zelensky...it didn't happen. There's - there's all kinds of talk about things, but they - it didn't happen. 

And, here's Chuck Todd and Ron Johnson, who was asked about his reaction to the president's tweet about Ambassador Yovanovitch. First, he talked about the president's comments about his own behavior.

He said, "You know, my behavior is caused by, by you. You know, the constant torment, I mean, the investigations." So, you know, listen, I would prefer he not, you know, provide that type of tweet, but you know, my concern -- and let me start out with something else here, Chuck, because I don't want to argue every point. Something we agree on. As Americans, we all share the same goal. We want a safe, prosperous, secure America. We're compassionate. We compare about each other. And generally, generally, we solve our political differences at the ballot box, not in the streets or through impeachment. I think that is really -- as we talked the other day, that's the divide that is tearing this country apart and that's what I'm primarily concerned about.

He said he had nothing against the Ambassador, that she had hosted him on one of his visits to Ukraine,

 But you know, one thing I want to point out is the damage that is being done to our country through this entire impeachment process. You know, it's going to be very difficult for future presidents to have a candid conversation with a world leader because now we've set the precedent of leaking transcripts. It’s going -- you know, the weakening of executive privilege is not good. And by the way, those individuals that leaked this, you know, if their interest was a stronger relationship with Ukraine, they didn't accomplish it. Having this all come out into public has weakened that relationship, has exposed things that didn't need to be exposed.

You know, when I was in Ukraine with Senator Murphy, one of the points I was trying to make is, as we left that meeting, let's try and minimize this. Let's talk about this is a timing difference in terms of funding. Senator Murphy's on the Appropriations Committee. We will restore the funding. I came back and I talked to Senator Durbin. He offered an amendment. That same day, the funding was released. So, this would have been far better off if we would have just taken care of this behind the scenes. We have two branches of government.

So, let's pretend that nothing's wrong, let's let the executive branch run amok and us good guys in Congress, we'll just fix everything and no one will be the wiser.  That's a plan, I guess. Not sure it's the right one, but at least it's a plan. That's more than the rest of them have put on the table.

See you around campus.