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It has been interesting and instructive to watch the goalposts move on the story of Donald Trump, Ukraine, and impeachment. Interesting because the kind of gaslighting that normally takes place over the course of weeks has occurred over the course of days. Instructive because it shows how few of the defenses of Trump are made in good faith.
The Ukraine story did not emerge as a public concern until late September. The whistleblower complaint was filed to Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson on August 12. Congress did not subpoena the whistleblower’s complaint until September 13. By September 18, press reports were suggesting—still only vaguely—that President Trump had made some sort of promise to some foreign leader during a phone call.
On the same day he tweeted that polling shows no support for his impeachment.
Donald J. Trump
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@realDonaldTrump
All Polls, and some brand new Polls, show very little support for impeachment. Such a waste of time, especially with sooo much good that could be done, including prescription drug price reduction, healthcare, infrastructure etc.
93.4K
9:42 PM - Sep 18, 2019
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Interesting that his mind would go there. Because this was before the public knew anything substantive about his call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The next day, September 19, Trump called the initial reports about the existence of a whistleblower report a “Fake News story” and asked “is anybody dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader.”
By September 20, Trump’s story was evolving. He now admitted that the whistleblower report was not fake but was, in fact, real. And he charged that the whistleblower should not be trusted because he/she was “highly partisan.”
Donald J. Trump
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@realDonaldTrump
The Radical Left Democrats and their Fake News Media partners, headed up again by Little Adam Schiff, and batting Zero for 21 against me, are at it again! They think I may have had a “dicey” conversation with a certain foreign leader based on a “highly partisan” whistleblowers..
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8:27 AM - Sep 20, 2019
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The next day, September 21, Trump’s story shifted again. First, he alleged—parroting a Fox News personality—that the whistleblower was actually a secret spy who was not even allowed to be on the call in question.
Donald J. Trump
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@realDonaldTrump
· Sep 21, 2019
“It appears that an American spy in one of our intelligence agencies may have been spying on our own president. The complaint suggests that this intel agent was listening in on Trump’s conversation....
Donald J. Trump
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@realDonaldTrump
....with a foreign leader. Was this person officially asked to listen to the conversation or was he or she secretly listening in?” @GreggJarrett
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5:47 PM - Sep 21, 2019
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Then he admitted that the whistleblower report concerned a call with the president of Ukraine. And for the first time, Trump brought up Joe Biden, positing that the real story was about Biden’s corruption.
Donald J. Trump
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@realDonaldTrump
· Sep 21, 2019
The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, want to stay as far away as possible from the Joe Biden demand that the Ukrainian Government fire a prosecutor who was investigating his son, or they won’t get a very large amount of U.S. money, so they fabricate a.....
Donald J. Trump
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@realDonaldTrump
....story about me and a perfectly fine and routine conversation I had with the new President of the Ukraine. Nothing was said that was in any way wrong, but Biden’s demand, on the other hand, was a complete and total disaster. The Fake News knows this but doesn’t want to report!
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8:31 AM - Sep 21, 2019
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For good measure, Trump also claimed that the “Fake News Media” “knowingly make up the facts.”
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