{"id":128883,"date":"2019-09-30T14:38:42","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T18:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=128883"},"modified":"2019-09-30T14:38:58","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T18:38:58","slug":"whistleblower-has-no-credibility-republican-caucus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=128883","title":{"rendered":"‘Whistleblower has no credibility’ — Republican Senate caucus"},"content":{"rendered":"

GOP senators attack whistleblower’s credibility<\/strong><\/h1>\n

BY ALEXANDER BOLTON
\nThe Hill<\/p>\n

Republican senators scrambling to protect\u00a0President Trump<\/a><\/span>\u00a0from a formal impeachment inquiry are attacking the credibility of the whistleblower who filed a complaint.<\/p>\n

GOP lawmakers are asserting the whistleblower did not have firsthand knowledge of the actions detailed in the complaint and question whether the person had a political agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t come from a person with personal knowledge. It\u2019s like I heard these people say this, and now I\u2019m reporting it. I think that is pretty bizarre,\u201d said Sen.\u00a0John Cornyn<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-Texas).<\/p>\n

\u201cSecondly, after a certain point, it doesn\u2019t just allege facts, it really is kind of a dossier or political diatribe, so I think there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical. Having said that, we are in the process of talking to the director of national intelligence and the inspector general.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen.\u00a0Chuck Grassley<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-Iowa), who has had a reputation for protecting whistleblowers, said the one at the center of the Trump impeachment inquiry didn\u2019t necessarily deserve protections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they are not really a whistleblower, they don\u2019t get the protection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The remarks from Grassley, Cornyn and other senators echo arguments coming from Trump, but stand in stark contrast to the testimony last week from acting Director of National Intelligence\u00a0Joseph Maguire<\/a><\/span>, who said the whistleblower acted in good faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the whistleblower did the right thing,\u201d Maguire told the House Intelligence Committee.<\/p>\n

But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman\u00a0Lindsey Graham<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-S.C.) said reading the whistleblower\u2019s complaint \u201cmakes me more suspicious about how all this happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to know who was the person that went to the whistleblower,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Graham said that whistleblowers typically report witnessing basic facts and firsthand evidence and raised concern about what some Republicans see as a not-so-subtle attempt to draw up a criminal indictment of Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a fairly sophisticated effort to write a narrative rather than blow a whistle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A Senate Republican aide predicted that the whistleblower\u2019s name will likely become public either because that person will agree to testify publicly or the name will leak to the press.<\/p>\n

The attacks on the whistleblower come with high stakes, as GOP leaders see their political fate as closely tied to Trump\u2019s in next year\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n

Several Republican lawmakers publicly and privately acknowledged over the past week that the content of the transcript of a July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump urged Ukrainian officials to investigate Democratic presidential candidate\u00a0Joe Biden<\/a><\/span>, was damaging.<\/p>\n

Sen.\u00a0Mitt Romney<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-Utah) called the transcript \u201ctroubling in the extreme\u201d while Sen.\u00a0Ben Sasse<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-Neb.), who recently secured Trump\u2019s endorsement for reelection, warned \u201cthere\u2019s obviously lots that\u2019s very troubling here.\u201d<\/p>\n

A handful of Republicans have expressed shock that Trump released the transcript of the president\u2019s conversation with Zelensky and an unredacted version of the whistleblower complaint, fearing it gave Democrats ammunition.<\/p>\n

A GOP senator who requested anonymity to discuss party strategy said that White House officials and GOP leaders decided the damaging information was likely to become public anyway and thought the best strategy was to get it out early so Republicans could then have a chance to wage a counteroffensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was all going to become public. The thought was the sooner it does, the better. Get it all out quickly,\u201d the lawmaker said.<\/p>\n

And other Republicans offered other surprise defenses of Trump.<\/p>\n

Sen.\u00a0John Kennedy<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-La.) compared Trump\u2019s conduct to a police officer who beats up a suspect while arresting them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the way I analyze this\u00a0… I look at this like a guy robs a bank and on the way to jail the cops beat the bejesus out of him.\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cShould cops beat the bejesus out of suspects? No. Should it be investigated? Yes. But you can\u2019t ignore the alleged bank robbery either.”<\/p>\n

As part of that counteroffensive strategy, Republican lawmakers have sought to shift the public focus off of Trump and onto Biden.<\/p>\n

\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

House Minority Leader\u00a0Kevin McCarthy<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-Calif.) told reporters Thursday that it was perfectly acceptable for Trump to ask Zelensky to participate in a Department of Justice investigation of what role Biden and his son Hunter Biden, a paid board member to a Ukrainian gas company, might have had in quashing a Ukrainian corruption investigation.<\/p>\n

Sen.\u00a0Ron Johnson<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-Wis.) said Trump has a responsibility \u201cas the head law enforcement official of the nation\u201d to delve into efforts by U.S. officials to interfere in foreign corruption investigations and to probe efforts from abroad to interfere in U.S. elections.<\/p>\n

One of the controversial subjects Trump alluded to in his conversation with Zelensky was an allegation that a Russia-orchestrated hacking of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 was conducted in Ukraine. There has been little evidence to substantiate that claim.<\/p>\n

Johnson sees Trump\u2019s interest in Biden\u2019s Ukraine connections and Ukraine\u2019s alleged role in meddling in the 2016 election as legitimate law enforcement interests.<\/p>\n

GOP leaders have sought to tamp down criticism of Trump from their ranks, mindful that that unity among rank-and-file members is crucial to maintaining their political strength, a point that Senate Majority Leader\u00a0Mitch McConnell<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-Ky.) frequently makes to colleagues.<\/p>\n

Graham, one of Trump\u2019s staunchest allies, told reporters on Wednesday that Romney was the only senator to voice concerns about Trump\u2019s conduct at a private lunch meeting of the Senate\u00a0Republican Steering Committee.<\/p>\n

And Sen.\u00a0James Inhofe<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-Okla.), another Trump ally, sought to portray Romney as a disgruntled outlier. \u201cMitt Romney doesn\u2019t like the president and he\u2019s going to say a lot of things I don\u2019t agree with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The White House in recent days has worked closely to coordinate its defense with allies on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

A White House aide accidentally sent a copy of its talking point for Republican lawmakers to Democratic offices on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The document argued that Trump made no quid-pro-quo request to Zelensky and discussed Biden only after Zelensky initiated the conversation about corruption-related issues.<\/p>\n

The talking points also shifted scrutiny to the whistleblower by arguing the \u201creal scandal\u201d was that Trump\u2019s confidential conversation with a foreign leader was leaked to the press.<\/p>\n

The document reflected Johnson\u2019s argument that it was proper for Trump to ask a foreign leader to investigate any connection between his country and attempted interference in the 2016 election.<\/p>\n

Republicans strategists acknowledge their prospects in the 2020 election, when control of the Senate as well as the White House and House will be up for grabs, are closely tied to Trump\u2019s.<\/p>\n

A Republican strategist working on a congressional campaign in Iowa said that, for example, while Sen.\u00a0Joni Ernst<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-Iowa), who is up for reelection, has a strong independent brand and could outperform Trump by a few points, she would likely lose if Trump lost her state by\u00a05 points or more.<\/p>\n

Ernst has said the investigation of the whistleblower\u2019s complaint should be handled on a bipartisan basis by the Senate Intelligence Committee.<\/p>\n

Another GOP tactic has been to portray the Democrats as dead-set on impeachment regardless of what any investigation of the whistleblower\u2019s complaint turns up.<\/p>\n

This line of argument has been spearheaded by McConnell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that House Democrats have been indulging in their impeachment obsession for nearly three years now, a never-ending impeachment parade in search of a rationale,\u201d he said on the Senate floor the morning after Speaker\u00a0Nancy Pelosi<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(D-Calif.) announced the launch of a formal impeachment inquiry.<\/p>\n

McConnell pointed out that on the day of Trump\u2019s inauguration, The Washington Post ran a headline stating, \u201cThe campaign to impeach President Trump has begun.\u201d<\/p>\n

___
\nhttps:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/463466-gop-senators-attack-whistleblowers-credibility<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GOP senators attack whistleblower’s credibility<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}