memeorandum: Kremlin Hopes White House Doesn't Release Putin-Trump Calls (Bloomberg)

9:15 AM ET, September 27, 2019

Top Items:

White House Knew of Whistle-Blower's Allegations Soon After Trump's Call With Ukraine Leader — The whistle-blower, a C.I.A. officer detailed to the White House at one point, first expressed his concerns anonymously to the agency's top lawyer. — WASHINGTON — The White House learned …

Peter Baker / New York Times:

In Ukraine Phone Call, Alarmed Aides Saw Trouble — WASHINGTON — No one bothered to put special limits on the number of people allowed to sit in the “listening room” in the White House to monitor the phone call because it was expected to be routine. By the time the call was over 30 minutes later …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Fox News, Raw Story, The Irish Times, Breitbart, Deadline, Slate, The Gateway Pundit, Financial Times, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo and IJR

Washington Post:

Effort to shield Trump's call with Ukrainian leader was part of broader secrecy effort — The White House has taken extraordinary steps over the past two years to block details of President Trump's phone calls with foreign leaders from becoming public, following embarrassing disclosures early …

Discussion: NBC News, The Week, HuffPost, Politico, Balloon Juice, Daily Kos and Raw Story

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:

Just How Corrupt Is Bill Barr? — Trump's attorney general is implicated in the Ukraine scandal, but refuses to recuse. — By now you have probably read the opening of the whistle-blower complaint filed by a member of the intelligence community accusing Donald Trump of manipulating American foreign policy for political gain.

Eli Stokols / Los Angeles Times:

Trump at private breakfast: 'Who gave the whistleblower the information? Because that's close to a spy' — President Trump expressed disgust Thursday morning with the explosive whistleblower complaint, slamming the intelligence officer and the White House aides who helped him or her as “almost a spy” and suggested it was treason.

Bloomberg:

Trump's Attack on Whistle-Blower in Private Meeting Was Caught on Video — President Donald Trump used a closed-door gathering with U.S. diplomats to the United Nations to attack Democratic rival Joe Biden and disparage a whistle-blower complaint over his controversial call …

Discussion: Mediaite and Raw Story

Greg Miller / Washington Post:

Whistleblower painstakingly gathered material and almost single-handedly set impeachment in motion — The whistleblower's identity remains obscured, the details of his work for the CIA cloaked in secrecy. But the document he delivered reveals almost as much about the investigative mission …

Discussion: RedState and Outside the Beltway

Associated Press:
White House dusts off Mueller playbook as pressure mounts

Discussion: The Week, Q13 FOX News, Associated Press and Fortune

Bloomberg:
Kremlin Hopes White House Doesn't Release Putin-Trump Calls

Discussion: Political Wire

Elaina Plott / The Atlantic:
Rudy Giuliani: ‘You Should Be Happy for Your Country That I Uncovered This’

Discussion: Vanity Fair, The Week, The Daily Beast, The Root, Hullabaloo, Balloon Juice, The Daily Caller, Al Jazeera, Axios, Contemptor, Mediaite, Raw Story, HuffPost, CNN, The Independent, Splinter, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Denver Post and Washington Post

HuffPost:
Democrats Show Unity On Impeachment; Republicans Show Fractures

Discussion: Washington Post, New Republic, The Guardian and Axios

Ryan Broderick / BuzzFeed News:
A Nonsense QAnon Conspiracy Theory Ended Up In Donald Trump's Call To the Ukrainian President …

Discussion: American Greatness, Washington Post and Vox

Stephen Collinson / CNN:
Four days that pitched America into an impeachment nightmare

Discussion: CNSNews, Washington Post and HuffPost

New York Times:
Why The Times Published Details of the Whistle-Blower's Identity

Discussion: Fox News, HuffPost, Mediaite, Washington Examiner, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Townhall and Los Angeles Times, more at Mediagazer »

Associated Press:
How the White House and DOJ learned about the whistleblower

Discussion: Associated Press, Mercury News and Q13 FOX News

Tom Nichols / USA Today:
Ukraine scandal: Trump's new impeachable offense is threatening the life of a CIA officer

Discussion: New York Times, HuffPost, Fox News and Bloomberg

Eli Lake / Bloomberg:
The Whistle-Blower Is Not a Traitor, Mr. President

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, Above the Law, National Review, Crikey, Common Dreams and Rolling Stone

Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:

More than 300 former officials call Trump's actions concerning Ukraine ‘profound national security concern’ — More than 300 former U.S. national security and foreign policy officials have signed a statement warning that President Trump's actions regarding Ukraine are a “profound national security concern” …

Discussion: Raw Story

New York Times:

Trump Said His Ukraine Envoy Would ‘Go Through Some Things.’ She Has Already. — WASHINGTON — President Trump's words about Marie L. Yovanovitch, his former ambassador to Ukraine, were ominous. In a telephone conversation that has set off a political crisis for Mr. Trump, he told Volodymyr Zelensky …

Discussion: Politico

John Solomon / The Hill:

These once-secret memos cast doubt on Joe Biden's Ukraine story — Former Vice President Joe Biden, now a 2020 Democratic presidential contender, has locked into a specific story about the controversy in Ukraine. — He insists that, in spring 2016, he strong-armed Ukraine to fire …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, American Greatness and Breitbart

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
How a conservative columnist helped push a flawed Ukraine narrative

Discussion: Foreign Policy, more at Mediagazer »

Wall Street Journal:
Giuliani Sits at the Center of the Ukraine Controversy

Discussion: Mediaite

David Harsanyi / New York Post: Wherever Joe Biden went, son Hunter cashed in

Axios:
Ukraine controversy spotlights Joe Biden's family problem as the 2020 race heats up

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post and New York Post

Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:

“It's Management Bedlam”: Madness at Fox News as Trump Faces Impeachment — The Republicans mounting primary challenges to __Donald Trump__ are not exactly the Never Trump movement's top draft picks. With little hope of defeating an incumbent president dependably popular inside his party …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Breitbart, The Week, Raw Story, Splinter, Palmer Report and Talking Points Memo, more at Mediagazer »

Matthew Chapman / Raw Story:
Fox News in ‘management bedlam’ as top brass fights and frets over Trump's future: report

Discussion: Slate and POLITICUSUSA

Reis Thebault / Washington Post:

Two Republican governors say they support impeachment inquiry of Trump — For the first time, two Republican governors have publicly supported the impeachment inquiry of President Trump, a new development in an intensifying political fracas that has so far been largely partisan.

Discussion: NPR, Daily Kos, Palmer Report, Breitbart, Shareblue Media and The National Interest

New York Times:
Why the Trump Impeachment Inquiry Is the Only Option

Discussion: Daily Kos

Steven Shepard / Politico:
Support for impeachment jumps in new poll

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Outside the Beltway, Raw Story, Associated Press, Fox News, The Week, One America News Network, Washington Post and Vox

Clifford Michel / The City:
Rep. Max Rose in Hot Seat as Holdout on Trump Impeachment Inquiry

Discussion: Detroit Free Press and Hot Air

Maggie Astor / New York Times:
Phil Scott Is First G.O.P. Governor to Back Impeachment Inquiry

Discussion: Vox

Axios:

Pelosi: Attorney General Bill Barr has “gone rogue” — Speaker Nancy Pelosi told MSNBC's “Morning Joe” on Friday that she believes Attorney General Bill Barr has “gone rogue” with his handling of the controversy regarding the Trump administration's interactions with Ukraine.

Discussion: Political Wire, One America News Network, CNN, Politico and Breitbart

Evan Perez / CNN: Justice Department knew about whistleblower complaint involving Trump more than a week before referral

Timothy L. O'Brien / Bloomberg:
Barr and Giuliani's Excellent Trump Adventure

Discussion: Rolling Stone, New York Times, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo and The Independent

Carol Hunter / Des Moines Register:

We hear you. You're angry. Here's what we are doing about it. — We took appropriate action because there is nothing more important in journalism than having readers' trust. — CONNECT — The Des Moines Register staff has heard from hundreds of people in the past few days upset …

Discussion: Washington Post, WHOTV, Reason, Instapundit, NB Blog, The American Conservative, PJ Media Home, The Daily Caller, Althouse, Cernovich and Washington Examiner

David Brooks / New York Times:

Yes, Trump Is Guilty, but Impeachment Is a Mistake — This political brawl will leave Trump victorious. — Donald Trump committed an impeachable offense on that call with the Ukrainian president. But that doesn't mean Democrats are right to start an impeachment process.

Discussion: The Federalist, The American Conservative and Washington Post

Amy Walter / The Cook Political Report: Will Impeachment Reshape the 2020 Race?

David Remnick / New Yorker:

Nancy Pelosi: An Extremely Stable Genius —=-=-=- One evening in early September, the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C., hosted a debate between Sohrab Ahmari, the op-ed editor of the New York *Post,* and David French, a constitutional lawyer and a staff writer for *National Review* …

Gabriel T. Rubin / Wall Street Journal:

Pence Advised Against Releasing Rough Transcript of Ukraine Call — Vice president raised concerns release would set precedent, but eventually backed Trump decision — MIKE PENCE privately counseled President Trump against releasing the rough transcript of the president's call …

Discussion: Political Wire

Lindsay Wise / Wall Street Journal:
Everyone In Washington Is Reading the Whistleblower Complaint — Except Senate Republicans

Discussion: CNSNews

Jeff Stein / Washington Post:

Biden advisers weigh new Wall Street tax as Warren, Sanders pitch aggressive levies on wealthy — Advisers to presidential candidate Joe Biden are weighing the introduction of a new tax on Wall Street, according to people familiar with the discussions, as the former vice president …

Brian Schwartz / CNBC:
Wall Street Democratic donors warn the party: We'll sit out, or back Trump, if you nominate Elizabeth Warren

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Root, The First Street Journal, RedState, Occupy Democrats, USA Today, Breitbart, The Week, National Review, VodkaPundit, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Daily Caller

Joseph Wulfsohn / Fox News:

Jeff Flake says ‘at least 35’ Republican senators would privately vote to impeach Trump — Former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake made a bold claim on Thursday when he said “at least 35” GOP senators would privately vote for President Trump's impeachment. — Appearing at the 2019 Texas Tribune Festival …

Discussion: Mediaite

Eli Yokley / Morning Consult:

Voter Support for Impeachment Grows Amid Ukraine Scandal — Backing for impeachment increases by 13 net points since the weekend — President Donald Trump pauses during a press conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 25 in New York City.

Discussion: Washington Times, Mediaite, Axios, POLITICUSUSA, BuzzFeed News, The Week, Hullabaloo, Palmer Report, Shareblue Media and Political Wire

Fred Fleitz / New York Post:

Former CIA official on whistleblower: ‘How could this be an intelligence matter?’ — I am troubled by the complaint and wonder how an intelligence officer could file it over something a president said to a foreign leader. How could this be an intelligence matter?

Discussion: Issues & Insights