Today, The Washington Post reported that it wasn’t just Rudy Giuliani and his merry band of international criminals who were running U.S. policy in Ukraine. Instead, that role was also shared by Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, Special Envoy Kurt Volker, and—as earlier head-scratching statements had suggested—Energy Secretary Rick Perry. And all of them were apparently assigned their roles not via direct contact with Donald Trump, but by acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.
And with half a dozen layers of isolation now established, Trump is more than ready to start feeding associates to the wood chipper.
The news that Trump and Mulvaney moved control of Ukraine policy out of traditional channels was apparently provided through the testimony of one of those traditional channels, in the form of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent, who would normally have been at the center of policy planning regarding Ukraine. Instead, Kent reportedly testified on Tuesday that he was instructed to “lay low,” check out what was happening elsewhere, and just leave Ukraine to the “three amigos”—Sondland, Volker, and Perry.
When Kent—who has worked as a foreign service officer since 1992, was previously the deputy chief of the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, and is regarded as one of the top experts on Ukraine—tried to inject some reality into the situation and push back against the conspiracy-theory-based policy being imposed, he was told he was not welcome and should stay away.
All of this happened weeks before Trump was on the phone to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and it all plays into a still unfolding narrative showing that what Trump did on that phone call wasn’t an isolated incident, but part of a play that began months earlier and continued right up until the release of the whistleblower complaint and the beginning of the impeachment inquiry.
Trump continues the conspiracy theory, planted by his own people, about Clinton’s emails on a server in Ukraine today:
Trump again pushes debunked Crowdstrike conspiracy:
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) October 16, 2019
“I still ask the FBI, ‘Where is the server?’ How come the FBI never got the server from the DNC? Where is the server? I want to see the server. Let’s see what’s on the server.” pic.twitter.com/xSTKNRegmW
Trump promoted the nonsensical conspiracy theory about the DNC server, wrongly saying that it’s being “held” by a company whose “primary ownership individual is from Ukraine.” CrowdStrike’s co-founder was born in Russia, not Ukraine, and is now an American.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 16, 2019
As Trump continues his Crowdstrike/server/Ukraine conspiracy about the hacked DNC emails from 2016, the Mueller indictments make it crystal clear it was Russian intelligence + WikiLeaks responsible https://t.co/x9TUcEm966 pic.twitter.com/1ScWZRYWI2
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) October 16, 2019
UPDATE: Another press conference with Trump, where he spouts the (Kremlin) party line:
President Trump: “PKK (Kurds) are a greater threat than ISIS.” Not a single National Security adviser to the president would agree with that statement. Turkish talking point.
— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) October 16, 2019
It’s bad that Trump blindly regurgitates whatever lies and propaganda his dictator buddies tell him, like this, but he’s also doing what they tell him to do, which is far worse. https://t.co/k6t8vDgqm8
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) October 16, 2019
Trump, asked about Graham's attack on Trump's Syria pullout, snaps, "Lindsey Graham would like to stay in the Middle East for the next 1000 years."
— Jackie Calmes (@jackiekcalmes) October 16, 2019
Says Graham should pay attn to the Judiciary Committee, and investigate 'Strzok & his lover' and Obama.
Italy's POTUS looks on.
Graham will probably respond with “Thank you sir. Can I have some more?” Nobody knows better how to get thrown under a bus than Lindsay Graham.