House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-CA) called the whistleblower complaint involving President Trump and Ukraine “another Steele dossier” and accused House Democrats of running an information warfare operation against the president.
“I want to congratulate the Democrats on the rollout of their latest information warfare operation against the President, and their extraordinary ability once again to enlist the mainstream media in their campaign,” he said in an opening statement at a hearing on Thursday focused on the whistleblower’s complaints.
He noted that the latest “operation” began with media reports that a whistleblower is claiming Trump made a nefarious “promise” to a foreign leader.
That assertion was debunked after the White House released the phone call in which Trump was alleged to have made that “promise” but did not, he said.
“But that didn’t matter. The Democrats simply moved the goalposts and began claiming that there doesn’t need to be a quid pro quo for this conversation to serve as the basis for impeaching the president,” he said.
Nunes continued:
And what other information has come to light since the original false report of a ‘promise’ being made? We’ve learned the following:
The complaint relied on hearsay evidence provided by the whistleblower.
The Inspector General did not know the contents of the phone call at issue.
The Inspector General found that the whistleblower displayed ‘arguable political bias’ against Trump.
The Department of Justice investigated the complaint and determined no action was warranted.
The Ukrainian President denies being pressured by President Trump.
“So, once again, this supposed scandal ends up being nothing like what we were told,” he said.
And once again, the Democrats, their media mouthpieces, and a cabal of leakers are ginning up a fake story, with no regard to the monumental damage they’re causing to our public institutions and to trust in government, and without acknowledging all the false stories they propagated in the past, including countless allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to hack the 2016 election.
We’re supposed to forget about all those stories but believe this one. In short, what we have with this storyline is another Steele dossier.
The whistleblower complaint, released by the White House on Wednesday, alleged that Trump sought “interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election” by alleging seeking dirt from Ukraine on Joe Biden, who called for the firing of a prosecutor investigating a company his son Hunter Biden sat on the board of.
Nunes argued, as with the Russian collusion allegations, Democrats appeared to be accusing Trump of doing something they themselves have done:
Back then, they accused the Trump campaign of colluding with Russians when the Democrats themselves were colluding with Russians in preparing the Steele dossier. Today, they accuse the president of pressuring Ukrainians to take actions that would help himself or hurt his political opponents. And yet, there are numerous examples of Democrats doing the exact same thing.
He said for example:
Joe Biden bragged that he extorted the Ukrainians into firing a prosecutor, who happened to be investigating Biden’s own son.
Three Democrat senators wrote a letter pressuring the Ukrainian general prosecutor to reopen investigations it reportedly froze on former Trump campaign officials.
Another Democratic senator went to Ukraine and pressured the Ukrainian President not to investigate corruption allegations involving Biden’s son.
According to Ukrainian officials, Democratic National Committee contractor Alexandra Chalupa tried to get Ukrainian officials to provide dirt on Trump associates and tried to get the former Ukrainian President to comment publicly on their alleged ties to Russia.
Ukrainian official Serhiy Leshchenko was a source for Nellie Ohr, wife of Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr, as she worked on the anti-Trump operation conducted by Fusion GPS and funded by the Democrats.
Nunes also noted the time Schiff was prank-called and believed he was talking to a Ukrainian parliamentarian and tried to obtain nude pictures of Trump.
And of course, Democrats on this very committee negotiated with people they thought were Ukrainians in order to obtain nude pictures of Trump.
As you see, it’s a reliable rule of thumb in these information operations that whatever the Democrats accuse you of doing, they’re doing themselves.
Nunes said Democrats were determined to impeach Trump despite Americans having the chance to vote him out in a year if they want:
Yes, winning elections is hard, and when you compete you have no guarantee you’ll win. But the American people should have a say in all this, and they made their voices heard in the election. This latest gambit by the Democrats to overturn the people’s mandate is unhinged and dangerous.
“They should end this entire dishonest, grotesque spectacle and get back to solving problems, which is what every member of this committee was sent here to do. Judging by today’s charade, however, the chances of that happening anytime soon are zero to none,” Nunes added.
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Kristina Wong
Breitbart News 2019-09-26T13:53:42Z
