As declassified by the President, a transcript of the July 25, 2019 telecon between Mr. Trump and the President of Ukraine:
President Zelenskyy: … I’m very grateful to you for that because the United States is doing quite a lot for Ukraine. Much more than the European Union especially when we are talking about sanctions against the Russian Federation. I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost. ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes.
The President: I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike… I guess you have one of your wealthy people… The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you’re surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible.
Entire transcript here.
I find it interesting to think of a counterfactual wherein Mr. Trump had not engaged in a policy of appeasing the expansionist ambitions of Mr. Putin. However, we are in the world we are in, and so our policymakers have to best chart a course wherein we can best support the people of Ukraine and deter further Russian expansion, without grievously harming the economic outlook (although as we say in economics, tradeoffs exist, and enduring some pain will be necessary in order to inflict pain).
Trump’s shakedown of ukraine defense support is a blackeye for all republicans right now. We are seeing the consequences of that feckless leader.
My wife shook down the salesman for a free automatic starter when we made our most recent new car purchase.
Is his dealership now being invaded, ransacked, and potentially destroyed by another dealer who wants to take over his business?
T.Shaw wants to play comedian as thousands of Ukrainians are giving their lives for their nation. T.Shaw is a disgusting little troll.
Thanks for the input.
Putin attacked no one under Trump.
Under Biden, Ukraine is being “invaded, ransacked, and potentially destroyed.”
Likely Taiwan is next.
Many of us [say 70%] would love again to see $1.43 gasoline and peace.
Biden did not need to invade under Trump as your boy Trump gave his master want ever he wanted. Fanboys of Putin like you have blood on your hands. Chirp and make jokes as you are one disgusting troll,
Putin did not need to invade anyone while trump was in office. Trump never did anything to deny putins goals. You think lack of war under trump was from deterrence. No, it was from appeasement.
If you exclude cyber attacks —and waging war on numerous countries in that manner—while Trump extolled Putin at the expense of U.S. intelligence agencies (while happily leaving visible imprints on Putin’s buttocks), Putin was quite satisfied to prevail without shots being fired.
Trump willingly played Charlie McCarthy to Putin’s Edgar Bergen (younger posters may have to Google). He was definitely Putin’s favorite dummy. Obviously, yours too.
Wouldn’t the better analogy be that she bullied the car salesman to create fake audio of you cheating on her so she could take you for your car, house, last dime in the divorce?? If she F**ked you over with fake evidence for a better divorce settlement would you call that “the American way”?? You’re not very good at this analogy stuff are you??
Indeed and for her own personal benefit.
Had she demanded a personal bribe while using the leverage of a government position, she would or should be in jail.
I guess Bruce Hall and Rick Stryker were busy watching FOX news and missed this part of donald trump’s “mafia-style protection racket shakedown” of Zelensky. I guess poser Neil Cavuto had the very early symptoms of Covid and couldn’t be bothered with the Jewish leader of Ukraine being bullied for fabricated dirt on American politicians. Cavuto should go back to pumping up garbage stocks on CNBC so hedge fund managers can dump their trash on retail investors, or whoever will enjoy his cheeseball humor and leave politics to the adults.
The Democrats will be buried in Kyiv’s Ashes
My latest in The American Thinker. Link below.
I argue that Putin is essentially taking advantage of the Biden Doctrine, which the President laid down at Arlington Cemetery last April. In effect, Biden declared his intent to elevate the prevention of military deaths in the field over national interest or honor. This essentially laid open Ukraine as a target for invasion by Putin’s Russia. Former President Trump was spot on in his analysis, saying “This is genius. Putin declares a big portion of Ukraine … as independent. How smart is that! And he’s going to go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s pretty savvy. And you know what the response was from Biden? There was no response.”
Trump holds that the invasion of Ukraine would never have happened on his watch, and I think the evidence suggests this to be true. First, although Trump talked a lot about pulling out of Afghanistan, in four years, he never actually did it. Biden did withdraw, and the method chosen demonstrated that the Biden administration had no stomach to hold its ground. Moreover, Trump would never have given the Arlington speech. Further, Trump showed a willingness to put it to the enemy with the assassination of Iranian General Soleimani. But most importantly, Trump shares a common characteristic with Putin and Xi: an absolute fear of being seen as a loser. Trump could not sit by and do nothing, and Putin knows that. Putin knows Trump would have called his bluff.
What’s more, the American public agrees with this view. According to a Harvard-Harris poll released Friday, 62 percent of those responding believed Putin would not be moving against Ukraine if Trump had been president. That is a huge problem for President Biden and the Democrats. If Ukraine falls, those two of every three voters will blame the Biden administration, and that blame will manifest itself come the November elections. I had earlier stated the Democrats should put themselves on suicide watch over the Open Borders policy. If Ukraine falls, forget suicide watch. The Democrats should bite their cyanide capsules and say goodbye, because the party will be pegged as unfit to protect America. Voters can forgive much, but not national humiliation at the hands of America’s chief rival, and a two-bit one at that.
So what can Democrats do? I am no military expert, but what I can find on the internet (here and here and here, for example) suggests that the US could beat the Russians with comparative ease:
The Russians cannot fight a modern war and their bullying capability is limited and would be ineffective against NATO’s air power alone[.] … A US-Russian war would look like Iraq ’91, both by overwhelming asymmetry and by multilateral coalition backing.
If Biden wants to save the Democratic Party, he has virtually no choice but to let US airpower off the leash. Based on the 9/11 precedent, if Biden succeeds, it is worth +35% net approval points:
Interestingly, the Republican Party, currently wavering over the position it should take, would also benefit from a hard line against Putin. If Republicans call for military intervention and Biden fails to act, then the right can say that Biden betrayed both Ukraine and the US. That would be the expected case outcome. If Biden fights and the US wins, then at least the Republicans will have limited the damage to their own party by being on the bandwagon. (There is nothing worse for a conservative than being pegged as a coward.) Finally, if the US fights and Ukraine falls anyway, Republicans can blame Biden for having chosen the wrong method. The Republicans would seem to benefit from taking a hard line in most outcomes.
My personal view: Let US airpower into the game. We have paid a boatload (more like an aircraft carrier load) of money to Boeing, Northrop Grumman and other vendors for state of the art airpower. Let’s call Putin’s bluff and see what our equipment can do.
https://www.princetonpolicy.com/ppa-blog/2022/2/26/the-democrats-will-be-buried-in-kyivs-ashes
The conversation got even worse here:
“The President: Good because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that’s really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that. The other thing, There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.”
Shake Down 101
But where is Menzie’s pain for inflicting incoherent chart crime upon the world?
More incoherent babble from the finance guy who got taken to the cleaners by mr market, but is sure its somebody elses fault.
You should thank him for allowing you to continue posting incoherent babble here. (I know. “Incoherent babble” is redundant. Like all of your posts)
《White House Asks Congress For $6.4 Billion For Ukraine Crisis》
《Musk’s Starlink Service Now Active In Ukraine After Russia Invasion Causes Internet Disruptions》
Is it incoherent to connect these two zerohedge headlines into “drop Fed dollar-denominated CBDC invasion stimmies on innocent citizens”?
If you gave Russians a dollar basic income, would they even need to fight Putin’s wars for him, eh?
Do YOU even have slightest idea what you’re talking about?