Regarding the "why" trump released the information, I was wondering the same thing. I read an article in the Washinton Post this morning that suggests Mnuchin and Pompeo did not want trump to provide either the transcript of the phone call or the whistleblower's complaint. Barr, trump's legislator buddies, his Fox buddies, and trump himself thought releasing the info would diffuse the situation and make it go away more quickly. Even more, trump thought he could deflect attention to the "corrupt" Bidens, schmooze the public, and pull it off (like he has so many times before). The author of the article said the American public has absolutely no idea how much bad advice trump gets on a routine basis.
I read that in reference to the complaint letter of the whistleblower. Half a dozen people told him what was said during phone calls Presdent Trump had with the President of Ukraine. So he was not there during the calls. My suspicion is that Trump and the Ratpack GOP will try to use that one fact and say it's all hearsay and political theater. I hope the dems have a lot of other facts to back up more than just what the Orange dictator will try to swing.
I truly believe Moron thinks he can deflect the attention away from himself by trying to accuse Biden of somethng that isn't true. I don't watch the news but it was recorded on twitter that MSNBC interupted his news conference yesterday to report that Moron was lying in his comments! I think Moron gets bad advice from all fronts but doesn't listen to anyone and just does what he wants no matter how stupid. He is a genius afterall. The only peole who will believe what he says are his minions who would believe anything he says (remember pizzagate). Evedently the President of the Ukraine is upset that they released the transcripts too. Now he is caught inthe middle and if he does or doesn't back up Moron he is in hot water. Evedently there were some comments on Merkle and Macron in the transcript which werenot flattering and now he has to explain to them what was said.
TriciaCT as far the Downton movie it mightbe confusing as to who the characters are if you didn't follow the series. It is enjoyable none the less. The senery and the close are spectactular. You can probably find a summary on the internet to explain who is who. If I was anywhere near you I would go with and explain!
As far as why Trump released the "transcript", he felt that it wasnt a smoking gun and if he releases it, he gives the image of transparency to Fox News, who can spin it and keep his support in place. He knew he couldnt release the complaint. It probably was his best option at that point. Manifort is definitely coming back, as is Sessions, because the motivation here was 2 fold. He not only wanted to extort dirt made up on Biden but also weaken the country Putin wants to take over. This is all connected stsrt to finish.
In response to Bidens son passing and that allowing Trump into the WH, Im glad it happened (Trump elected, not Bidens son passing)because now laws will ultimately changed to prevent it from happening again. If a mentally deficient imbecile can get this much accomplished, think about how bad it wouldve gotten if a great intellect decided to pull this.
Interesting he is threatening the whistle blower as a spy...
President Trump on Thursday morning told a crowd of staff from the United States Mission to the United Nations that he wants to know who provided information to a whistle-blower about his phone call with the president of Ukraine, saying that whoever did so was “close to a spy” and that “in the old days,” spies were dealt with differently.
The remark stunned people in the audience, according to a person briefed on what took place, who had notes of what the president said. Mr. Trump made the statement several minutes into his remarks before the group of about 50 people at the event intended to honor the United States Mission. At the outset, he condemned the former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s role in Ukraine at a time when his son Hunter Biden was on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
Mr. Trump repeatedly referred to the whistle-blower and condemned the news media reporting on the complaint as “crooked.” He then said the whistle-blower never heard the call in question.
“I want to know who’s the person who gave the whistle-blower the information because that’s close to a spy,” Mr. Trump said. “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart with spies and treason, right? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”
The whistle blower is a C.I.A. Officer who was detailed to work at the White House but has since returned to the C.I.A
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/us/politics/who-is-whistleblower.amp.html
The most alarming part of the whistle blower report is what is missing (....) The time stamp showed it to be a 30 minute call. But, if you read the back and forth, there isn't 30 minutes of conversation there. In the whistle blower report, it stated that the WH officials acted to move the transcript out of the electronic storage system where these reports are normally kept and moved to a different system that typically holds national security secrets. The WH officials acknowledged that nothing in this call warranted that treatment.
Thus the "best case" scenario was for the WH to release this "cleaned up" version of the report. Where there are ellipses (....) is where there is data missing. When Trump is talking about the company that did the research, the wealthy Ukrainian, and that Ukraine may have the server, there are all sorts of ellipses. THIS IS WHERE THE ALARMING STUFF IS....and we don't know what it is.
This is the cover-up.
"In the days following the phone call, I learned from multiple U.S. officials that senior White House officials had intervened to "lock down" all records of the phone call, especially the official word-for-word transcript of the call that was produced -- as is customary -- by the White House Situation Room. This set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call.
White House officials told me that they were "directed" by White House lawyers to remove the electronic transcript from the computer system in which such transcripts are typically stored for coordination, finalization, and distribution to Cabinet-level officials.
Instead, the transcript was loaded into a separate electronic system that is otherwise used to store and handle classified information of an especially sensitive nature. One White House official described this act as an abuse of this electronic system because the call did not contain anything remotely sensitive from a national security perspective."
I heard a suggestion that the discrepancy in time could be attributed to the time involved in translators' back and forth translating, from English to Ukrainian and vice versa. Perhaps that's a legit explanation for some of the unrepresented time, although that doesn't mean I also don't believe that portions were purposefully revised/deleted