WHY DID DEMS GIVE ADAM SCHIFF THE MIKE AT THE IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS?
IN 2017, ADAM SCHIFF SAID HE HAD EVIDENCE OF DONALD TRUMP COLLUDING WITH RUSSIA. "DIRECT" AND "AMPLE" EVIDENCE, IN CASE ANYONE FORGOT HIS CLAIM.
HE LIED WHEN HE SAID THAT THE "FBI AND DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE OFFICIALS DID NOT ABUSE THE FISA (FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT) COURTS OR HIDE INFORMATION FROM JUDGES."
THERE'S ALSO HIS LIE OF "WE HAVE NOT SPOKEN DIRECTLY WITH THE WHISTLE-BLOWER." AND ON 'THE WHISTLE-BLOWER:'
The public also needs the truth about the so-called whistleblower. Real whistleblowers deserve to be treated like heroes. But the man identified as the whistleblower by Judicial Watch and many media accounts — Eric Ciaramella — is no hero.
To dignify Ciaramella with the term “whistleblower” misrepresents what he allegedly did. Let’s say he filed what is technically called a whistleblower complaint. He had no firsthand knowledge of Trump’s controversial July 25 phone call or motivations. Every allegation in the complaint begins with “I learned from multiple U.S. officials,” or “multiple officials told me” or “officials with direct knowledge informed me.” Just gossip. He never names any sources. Ciaramella acted as the anti-Trumpers’ frontman. As for courage, there’s not an ounce. He’s cowering from public view.
Compare him to real whistleblowers. Kansas’ top Transportation Safety Administration official, Jay Brainard, blew the whistle this month, warning the TSA is lowering metal detector sensitivity levels to shorten airport lines. He went on TV to warn against sacrificing safety for expedience.
Similarly, Boeing ex-employee Ed Pierson is blowing the whistle against the company for overworking assembly line employees, leading to production errors that could cause 737 Max planes to malfunction or crash.
Real whistleblowers speak from firsthand knowledge and don’t hide their identities. They muster the courage to expose dangers or abuses that would otherwise go unreported.
During hearings, Schiff cracked his gavel repeatedly to silence questions from Republicans about the whistleblower. Truth is, Schiff was protecting himself. Even now, if the whistleblower talks, details of Schiff’s role in launching the complaint may come out.
What is already known is that on July 26, one day after Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president, Schiff hired Sean Misko to join his staff. Shortly after that hire, Schiff’s staff met with Ciaramella, who is a friend and co-worker of Misko’s in the intelligence community. Schiff’s staff gave Ciaramella “guidance” on how to make a complaint. A cozy arrangement. The emails will likely divulge more.
Schiff concealed these dealings until The New York Times caught him in the lie. Schiff also withheld documents about aiding the whistleblower to House investigators.
The whistleblower filed his complaint with the Inspector General Michael Atkinson on Aug. 12, also concealing that he had met with Schiff’s staff. When the complaint became public in September, Schiff feigned surprise.
Even worse, Schiff obscured how the whistleblower complaint ever saw the light of day. The big question is why Atkinson deemed the complaint “credible” enough to be reported to Congress — the trigger required for Schiff to launch an impeachment investigation.
REACHED FOR COMMENT BY THESE REPORTERS, ADAM SCHIFF INSISTED ALL THE ABOVE DOCUMENTED LIES WERE NEVER UTTERED BY HIM AND THAT HE WAS THE VICTIM OF A "WELL PLOTTED SOCIAL MEDIA SCHEME CARRIED OUT BY THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT. IT IS BECAUSE THEY SEE ME AS A THREAT -- LET'S BE HONEST -- A SEXUAL THREAT, THAT THEY ARE SO DETERMINED TO DESTROY ME. LIKE JOEY HEATHERTON, I AM A SEX BOMB AND, AS A RESULT, MANY FEAR ME."
INSISTING HE WAS NEEDED FOR A NUDE PHOTO SHOOT, ADAM THEN RUSHED OFF.
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
In the US, the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues. War Hawk Joe Biden tries to endure the long slog but with his sobbing on TV this week and his bizarre attack on a CBS NEWS reporter (Ed O'Keefe) which included Joe touching the man, it's obvious that Joe's nearing his breaking point.
This precisely how I would ask @JoeBiden WHY he keeps lying about his decades-long support for the Iraq War + cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid:
More bad news for Joe as Bernie Sanders leads in New Hampshire. Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) reports Bernie is in the lead and that the Vermont Senator has a double digit lead -- 14%. At SLATE, Jim Newell observes:
It’s not just that Sanders had another strong polling week, with a CNN poll showing him overtaking Biden nationally and a New Hampshire survey showing him blowing out the competition there. It’s what’s buried in the crosstabs that’s so promising. The rap on Sanders has been that he’s a “high floor, low ceiling” candidate whose position at the left pole of the party limits his ability to grow. But in the CNN poll, 77 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said they would be either enthusiastic or satisfied with Sanders as the nominee, versus 23 percent who would be either dissatisfied or upset. That was the best spread of any candidate, and Sanders was also leading Biden among both white and nonwhite voters. In the New Hampshire poll, Sanders had easily the widest favorability of the top contenders, too. These numbers suggest that Democratic voters don’t view him as the disastrous, niche outlier who would automatically lose the general election that party officials (and certain former rivals) believe him to be. If Sanders can win the first two contests, Democratic voters might fall in line quicker than the party apparatus would hope.
This reality hasn't led to better coverage in the corporate media. In fact, Benjamin Wallace-Wells has just turned in a piece at THE NEW YORKER that announces he's the new Peggy Noonan with garbage 'reporting' like this: "Watching him watch Finkenauer, I had the fleeting sense that his gaze was essentially paternal, that is all somehow had to do with the death of Beau Biden . . . " Benjamin hasn't begun channeling dead Presidents and First Ladies for his bad writing but, at this rate, it's just a matter of time.
At THE NATION, Zephyr Teachout endorses Bernie and explains:
Forget the 2016 stereotype: Bernie has developed an extraordinary cross-race and cross-class coalition. He is leading in the polls among Latino voters (a recent poll showed him winning 32 percent of Latino support in California); his support among African Americans is second only to Joe Biden’s; and he is leading Biden by 12 percentage points among African Americans under 35. The top Sanders donors are teachers, Walmart workers, and Amazon workers. Among people under 50, he is the clear leader. And his supporters are very enthusiastic. This broad, committed coalition will matter enormously in the fall, when Facebook is infested with lies, Trump’s campaign is pushing misinformation, and foreign and corporate actors are trying to twist people into nihilism and hatred.
Some of the hardest people to convince on Sanders are those who believe in his policies the most -- older progressive voters. Because they are so heartbroken and beaten down by decades of fearful politics, they have decided they should settle for something less. Sanders is impossible, they think. Unelectable. They remember the Cold War and fear the word “socialism.” Young people (by the way, under 40 isn’t that young) don’t have the same reaction. The truth is that if we settle for something less, too many people may stay home. Sanders is giving people a vision to fight for, and though they know it won’t be easy, they are ready for the fight.
So if you’re on the fence, I want you to feel confident that if you support Bernie, he will not let you down in a fierce general election. I have watched him over the last 30 years, and his political abilities are among the most underrated in the country. In 2006 he won a Senate seat, held by Republicans for generations, with a whopping 65 percent of the vote, the same year a Republican won the governor’s race with 57 percent. When I ran for Congress, a professional communications adviser made me watch Sanders answer questions on Fox News over and over because of his unique ability to refocus questions on what matters to listeners and not get distracted.
This campaign is not just about me. It is about building a movement of human solidarity and saying that when one of us hurts, all of us hurt.
Bernie surges and Joe sags. So much baggage Joe has to carry. Henry J. Gomez (BUZZFEED) reports;
Anita Hill said Thursday that it’s too late for a proper apology from Joe Biden, reopening a decades-old conflict that has followed Biden into his third run for president.
“The statute of limitations for his apology is up,” Hill said in response to a question from the audience at the University of Iowa, where she gave a lecture on ending sexual harassment.
Hill, a law professor, accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his 1991 confirmation hearings. Biden, then the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, presided over the hearings and has faced persistent criticism since for how he and the all-white, all-male panel treated Hill during her nationally televised testimony.
Her appearance was part of the school’s MLK Human Rights Week program, but also came 11 days before Iowa holds the nation’s first presidential caucuses. Biden is among the frontrunners.
Anita's right, the day has passed. It is far too late for Joe to offer a sincere apology for what he did to her -- what he did to her in the hearing, what he did privately as he told various Republicans that she was lying. It's too late. Joe loves to lie.
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