3 Stories You Should Read 10-4-2019: Text Messages, Mitt Romney, Joe Bidden
Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know.
In the category of: The things you can’t delete
The newly released texts show a quid pro quo offer between Trump and Ukraine.
The texts are ugly. They reveal that top State Department diplomats worked with the president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to try to get Ukraine to commit to politicized investigations demanded by President Trump into the gas company Hunter Biden served on the board of — Burisma — as well as into Ukraine’s role in the 2016 election. Trump has been trying to drum up phony scandals on both topics, to hurt Biden’s presidential run and discredit the Mueller investigation.
The texts reveal that the pressure campaign was presented this July as a quid pro quo — if Ukraine committed to these investigations, the US would agree to a White House meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky. For weeks, these State officials tried to get Zelensky to publicly announce he was conducting these investigations, in exchange for the meeting — but Zelensky apparently refused. (The Bidens are never mentioned by name in these texts, “Burisma” is used instead, but Trump was not so careful when talking to Zelensky on the phone in July.)
In the category of: How do you really feel?
Mitt Romney Calls Trump’s Ukraine Call, China Comments ‘Brazen And Unprecedented’
The Republican senator from Utah doubled down on his criticisms of Trump in a series of tweets Friday morning.
When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China’s investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated.
In the category of: Uncle Joe
Nominating Joe Biden would be a disaster for Democrats’ messaging
Joe Biden is horribly unsuited to be the Democratic standard-bearer in this election. Biden and his family have been at least peripherally involved in scummy, corrupt stuff across the world. Nominating him would seriously foul up Democratic messaging about Trump.
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