Ok, right off the bat:
Levin says:
"Two bureaucrats thought that Ukraine should get a ton of money, get it right away, and get it with no conditions."
Ummm... [nonsense]. The money was appropriated by Congress, and that's not the end of it. The DoD also had to sign off on the release of funds, which it did back in May. Whether or not to release the aid was never the Ambassador's decision. Nunes is trying to distract you by misrepresenting the facts.
Next:
"The President of the United States is concerned about corruption."
Ummm... [nonsense]. There is zero evidence that the President had
any interest whatsoever in Ukrainian corruption unless it happened to involve the Biden-Burisma or CrowdStrike conspiracy theories. He didn't mention the endemic corruption and supposedly concerns him in either of his phone conversations with President Zelensky. In fact, Rudy Giuliani, Trump's secret point man in Ukraine, and his associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, are all under indictment for corruption. We now know that they
bribed gave campaign contribution to Pete Sessions to work behind the scenes to sour Trump on Marie Yovanovich who was, by all accounts, an excellent and highly respected career diplomat and who
actually was working against corruption. Turn on the TV right now and you can listen to sworn testimony to that effect.
And by the way, I think it's worth taking a moment to remember that all of these competent, highly respected career civil servants are offering testimony
under oath. Devin Nunes isn't under oath. Neither is Donald Trump. Neither are any of the pundits that are smearing those civil servants for obeying the law and dong their jobs.
There's just no way to spin this as nothing more than a politically motivated witch hunt. Trump did what he's being accused of, and it was a violation of his sworn oath to put our nation ahead of himself.
Byblos wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 12:05 pmListen how Ukraine was involved in a smear campaign
against Trump, paid by the DNC
I didn't hear him say that, but if it were true I'd expect to see it on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. That's the thing about these wildly inflammatory accusations - if they're true they get immediate, widespread traction.
Byblos wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 12:05 pmListen how the democrats almost over-night pivoted the narrative from Russia to Ukraine
The "Russia narrative" is ongoing. It's beginning to look like Trump lied in his written statements to Mueller. And the Mueller investigation determined that the Russians interfered in the election, which was the point, and that Trump obstructed justice continuously throughout the process.
Beyond that, the fact that Trump's behavior with regard to Ukraine is only related to Russia in that Trump's interference in the delivery of military aid was yet another instance of Trump doing things that directly benefit Russia and are detrimental to an American ally.
Byblos wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 12:05 pmListen how witnesses have absolutely nothing but hearsay and personal opinions
Some of them have second hand information. Others have direct knowledge. Nunes is misrepresenting the facts again. That's kind of his thing.
Byblos wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 12:05 pmListen how the president and the president alone sets foreign policy
Listen how it is the president's absolute right not only to hire and fire ambassadors at will, particularly those who disagree with his policy
We all know this and nobody has said otherwise. Nunes wants us to believe that impeachment is about Taylor and Yanukovich feeling sad. It's not.
Byblos wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 12:05 pmListen how it is the president's absolute right not only to hire and fire ambassadors at will, particularly those who disagree with his policy
Listen how it is the president's absolute right to use whomever he wishes to further his foreign policy, including so-called irregular channels (not the first president to do so)
Give me a break. There's just no way to spin Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas, and Igor Fruman sneaking around and undercutting American foreign policy as the President appropriately exercising his prerogative to further his foreign policy goals.
Byblos wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 12:05 pmListen how it would have been dereliction of duty for those channels (regular or otherwise) not to investigate corruption
Indeed it would. And there is no evidence that Trump actually made any effort to investigate corruption. He only cared about smearing Biden and pushing the CrowdStrike conspiracy theory. He talked to Zelensky twice and never mentioned corruption, despite the fact that it was literally on the agenda that was provided to him before the call. Trump didn't care about corruption. He just wanted to hurt Joe Biden's candidacy.
Byblos wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 12:05 pmListen how what he did with Ukraine is very consistent with his general foreign policy elsewhere to stop or severely curtail spending
There's another red herring, and I'm not even sure it's true. I'll look it up later, but at the moment I'm not inclined to take Devin Nunes' word on that or anything else.
Byblos wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 12:05 pmI'm not even asking you to think, just listen ...
And that's the problem. If I listen without thinking, or fact checking, or paying attention to everything else that's happening then yeah, maybe I'd believe Devin Nunes. But I'm not inclined to turn off my brain, and that's what it would take for me to accept all of his bold faced lies and and slippery misdirections.
Byblos wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 12:05 pmYou are so blinded by Trump hatred I wouldn't waste my time asking you to think.
I'm guided by the evidence and by the sworn testimony of a half dozen career foreign service professionals, most of whom were appointed by either Trump himself or by people that Trump appointed.
