memeorandum: House Intelligence Committee Releases Whistleblower Complaint (U.S. House of Representatives …)

10:15 AM ET, September 26, 2019

Top Items:

Phone Call Showed Only a Slice of Trump's Obsession With Ukraine — Since the 2016 campaign, the president has had an intense fixation on the country, which he believes is tied up in the origins of the special counsel's investigation. — WASHINGTON — It was not a country that would naturally …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, HuffPost, The Nation, Washington Post, Raw Story, CNN, Washington Examiner, Mediaite and The Mahablog

Patrick Reevell / ABC News:

Ukrainians understood Biden probe was condition for Trump-Zelenskiy phone call: Ukrainian official — When Ukrainians voted to elect comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy as their next president in the spring of 2019, the fledgling administration was eager to coordinate a phone call with Kyiv's …

Discussion: Lawfare, Raw Story, Palmer Report, The Nation, Washington Post, Fox News, emptywheel, American Greatness, Daily Kos, twitchy.com, PJ Media Home, Mediaite and Politico

NBC News:

Kurt Volker, Trump's part-time Ukraine envoy, played role in Giuliani outreach — The special envoy served as the facilitator for Giuliani's talks with Ukrainian officials. — WASHINGTON — After President Donald Trump asked Ukraine's president to work with his personal attorney …

Murray Waas / The New York Review of Books:

Trump, Giuliani, and Manafort: The Ukraine Scheme — The effort by President Trump to pressure the government of Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son had its origins in an earlier endeavor to obtain information that might provide a pretext and political cover …

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, New Republic, Reason, Politico, American Thinker, The Intercept, HuffPost, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, New York Times, The Week, The Bulwark, Vanity Fair, Commentary and The Atlantic

Washington Post:

Seven days: Inside Trump's frenetic response to the whistleblower complaint and the battle over impeachment — After news broke that a phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was at the center of an explosive whistleblower complaint, Trump was largely undaunted.

Discussion: Politico, Hullabaloo, The Week, Wall Street Journal, CNN, The Atlantic and Raw Story

NBC News:

Trump allies voice concerns about Rudy Giuliani's involvement in Ukraine — Giuliani's role as the president's personal attorney and his claims that the State Department asked him to contact Ukrainian officials have Trump allies concerned. — WASHINGTON — Even as they publicly insist …

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

All the president's loyalists: Impeachment net snares Trump's top advisers — Donald Trump has done it again: He's dragged some of his closest aides and advisers into a scandal packed with potentially devastating personal consequences. — That's good news for white-collar lawyers who charge by the hour.

Discussion: U.S. Senator Bob Menendez …, Washington Post and Raw Story

New York Times:
Trump's Not-So-Excellent Day — WASHINGTON — President Trump's …

Discussion: The Week, Raw Story and New York Times

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
If This Is Trump's Best Case, The Ukraine Scandal Is Looking Really Bad For Him

Discussion: New York Times, Slate, Vox and National Review

Jessica Campisi / The Hill:
Hacker changes Seattle road sign to say ‘Impeach the bastard’

Discussion: RedState

Akbar Shahid Ahmed / HuffPost:
Trump Threatened An American Serving Her Country As He Pressured Ukraine

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times and Vanity Fair

Rich Lowry / Politico:
Rudy Giuliani's Amateur Diplomacy

Discussion: Axios, Washington Post and Fox News

Washington Post:
The Trump-Zelensky readout is a devastating indictment of our president

Discussion: The Week, The Federalist, CNN, The Atlantic, The Bulwark, Just Security, Salon, BuzzFeed News and CANNONFIRE

Zachary Basu / Axios: Ex-Zelensky adviser says Biden case was precondition to Trump phone call

New York Times:

Whistle-Blower Is Said to Allege Concerns About White House Handling of Ukraine Call — New details have emerged about the intelligence officer who raised alarms about the president's pressure on Ukraine to open inquiries that could benefit him politically.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNN, New York Times, Salon, Daily Kos, Washington Post, Slate, The Week, Foreign Policy, Raw Story, Mother Jones, Vox, Hullabaloo, HuffPost and Indianapolis Star

U.S. House of Representatives Permanent …:

House Intelligence Committee Releases Whistleblower Complaint — f t # e — Washington, DC - Today, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released the declassified whistleblower complaint. The complaint can be viewed here, and the Intelligence Community Inspector General letter regarding …

Discussion: The Independent, Breitbart, Balloon Juice and Splinter

Washington Post:

Acting director of national intelligence threatened to resign if he couldn't speak freely before Congress — The acting Director of National Intelligence threatened to resign over concerns that the White House might attempt to force him to stonewall Congress when he testifies Thursday …

Anna Palmer / Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: The Democrats' impeachment gurus

Discussion: Fox News, CNN and New York Times

CNN:
Whistleblower tentatively agrees to testify, attorneys say, as long as they get appropriate clearances to attend hearing

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and KTLA

Burgess Everett / Politico:
‘Ice in his veins’: McConnell steers GOP through Trump's Ukraine scandal

Discussion: Just Security, Washington Post, Mediaite, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Slate and Breitbart

Colby Hall / Mediaite:

Pre-Transcript Release, Chris Christie Argued Trump Was Only in Trouble If He Said Something Like ‘Do Me a Favor...’ — Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie proved prescient Wednesday morning on the set of Good Morning America. Just hours before the transcript of a phone call between …

Reed Richardson / Mediaite:

Fox News Civil War: Tucker Carlson Repeatedly Mocks ‘Daytime Host’ Shepard Smith in Jawdropping Segment — The war of words between Fox News personalities over Trump's actions on Ukraine ratcheted up another notch as primetime host Tucker Carlson repeatedly mocked Shepard Smith and parodied the latter's claim calling him “repugnant.”

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Raw Story

Washington Examiner:
Trump put presidential powers to work for partisan politics

Discussion: Raw Story

New York Sun:
‘Well, Son of a Bitch’ : Ukraine Scandal Is About Biden

Discussion: LewRockwell, The Federalist, HuffPost and Instapundit

Gregg Re / Fox News:
Whistleblower complaint has been declassified and contains no ‘surprises,’ GOP lawmaker says

Discussion: RedState, Breitbart, CNSNews, PJ Media Home, Townhall and Axios

Ryan Teague Beckwith / Bloomberg:

Republicans Say Impeachment Will Backfire. History Says It Won't — Nixon's resignation boosted Democrats in the next election — Clinton impeachment helped Republicans win back White House — Citing their experience in the 1990s, Republicans warned Democrats this week …

Discussion: The Hill

Daniel Lippman / Politico: Trump's political defense: Play the victim card

Charles M. Blow / New York Times: It Has Begun — An impeachment inquiry is nothing to celebrate.

Representative Sharice Davids:
Rep. Sharice Davids Statement on House Impeachment Inquiry

Discussion: FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV, Common Dreams and Raw Story

KHON2:
Tulsi Gabbard's opposition is Kai Kahele's opportunity

Discussion: CNN

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Majority of House supports impeachment inquiry

Discussion: Shareblue Media, Common Dreams, The Guardian, The Week, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, POLITICUSUSA, Fox News, CBS Chicago and Wall Street Journal

Caroline Kelly / CNN:
Ocasio-Cortez defends impeachment inquiry as preventing 'potential meddling in the 2020 election …

Discussion: The Week, No More Mister Nice Blog and Breitbart

Ashley Feinberg / Slate:

The Pee Tape Is Real, but It's Fake — There's a video going around that no one's really talking about. What makes it most unreal is how believable it is. — There exists a video online that, considering the subject matter, astoundingly few people have seen.

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

“Do Us a Favor”: The Forty-eight Hours That Sealed Trump's Impeachment — President Trump began Wednesday in a dark place. “There has been no President in the history of our Country who has been treated so badly as I have,” he lamented on Twitter, before 8 a.m. The night before …

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Why Pelosi and her party finally embraced impeachment

Discussion: Tampa Bay Times, Washington Post, New York Times and Daily Kos

The Boston Globe:

The limits of Trump's ‘so what if I did?’ strategy — WASHINGTON — As news that he asked a foreign leader to investigate his political rivals rocked Washington, President Trump turned to a tried-and-true strategy: Embrace it.Trump took the unusual step of releasing a rough transcript Wednesday …

Pavel Polityuk / Reuters:
Ukraine president thought only U.S. side of Trump call would be published

Discussion: Washington Post, CBS News and The Week

Mike Schneider / Associated Press:

Census: Inequality grew, including in heartland states — ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The gap between the haves and have-nots in the United States grew last year to its highest level in more than 50 years of tracking income inequality, according to Census Bureau figures.

Sam Brodey / The Daily Beast:

Dems Worry Rudy Would Send Impeachment Hearing Off the Rails — Giuliani isn't really known for his staid public appearances these days, and that's exactly what gives some Democrats pause. — If Congress is to get to the bottom of President Trump's efforts to get the Ukrainian government …

Discussion: Politico and Washington Post

Erick Erickson / The Resurgent:

REPUBLICAN SOURCE: “[The whistleblower] paints a clear path to impeachment.” — Speaking on background to a Republican congressional source who has direct knowledge of the whistleblower report, he says it is really bad. He says the GOP can attack it as partisan because, in his words …

Discussion: Palmer Report, The Week and Political Wire

Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The Jolt: Tom Price joins the hunt for Georgia's Senate seat — Former Health Secretary Tom Price entered the sweepstakes to be Georgia's next U.S. Senator by submitting his resume with Gov. Brian Kemp's office for the soon-to-be-vacated seat held by Johnny Isakson.

Neal K. Katyal / New York Times:

Trump Doesn't Need to Commit a Crime to Be Kicked Out of Office — The Constitution is clear that the standard for an impeachable offense is political, not criminal. — Mr. Katyal was an acting solicitor general in the Obama administration. — An important line of defense for President Trump …

Discussion: NBC News