Month: September 2019

Let’s preface all of the information going to be addressed by making sure everyone understands the legal definitions of what is being currently discussed.

However, despite being found to have “urgent concern” Maguire refused to turn over the whistleblower’s complaint over to the House Committee because the complaint appeared to have “matters of executive privilege.”

This caused House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff to issue a subpoena to Maguire to forward the whistleblower complaint to Congress. In a letter to Maguire that accompanied the subpoena, Schiff wrote that if Maguire didn’t forward the complaint to Congress by Sept 17 that he would have to appear in a public hearing on Sept 19.

As news was spreading over his alleged inappropriate phone call with Zelensky, Trump began tweeting while at United Nations for the General Assembly on Sept 24, 2019 that the call between the two leaders was “totally appropriate.” The phone call comes after the holding of $391 million dollars in aid that Ukraine is using to fight the conflict it has been embroiled in with Russia since 2014. This withholding of funds prompts the accusations that Trump was involved in a “Quid Pro Quo” situation.

….You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call. No pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo! This is nothing more than a continuation of the Greatest and most Destructive Witch Hunt of all time!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2019

The phone call shows that Trump wanted to force Ukraine officials to

• investigate Joe Biden “stopping the prosecution” of Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma. This comes when the U.S. government threatened to withhold a 1 billion dollar loan guarantee unless Victor Shokin, then Ukrainian Prosecutor General, was removed from office. Hunter Biden’s appointment to the board of directors of Burisma Holdings raised questions of a conflict of interest and whether Joe Biden had any involvement in his appointment. This was likely an effort to dig up dirt on the former-Vice President and 2020 opponent, Joe Biden.

However, at the time of Hunter Biden’s appointment, White House spokesperson Jay Carney absolved the idea of it being a conflict of interest saying, “Hunter Biden and other members of the Biden family are obviously private citizens, and where they work does not reflect an endorsement by the administration or by the vice president or president. “

Trump has continued to press for information regarding whether or not Shokin was removed from office due to Hunter Biden taking a position with Barisma Holdings. He tweeted on Sept 25 “insisting on transparency from Joe Biden and his son Hunter.”

….taken out of Ukraine and China. Additionally, I demand transparency from Democrats that went to Ukraine and attempted to force the new President to do things that they wanted under the form of political threat.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 25, 2019

This prompted Biden to take to Twitter to denounce the allegations and claim that Trump wanted Ukraine to “manufacture a smear” against him because they were running against each other in the 2020 presidential race.

• to work with personal lawyer, Mr. Giuliani, and Attorney General Mr. Barr

• wanting Ukrainian officials to further investigate Crowdstrike. Crowdstrike was the cybersecurity firm that the Democratic National Convention used to investigate the 2016 hacks. They are based in Sunnydale, Calif. and also have an office in Arlington, Va. and was founded by George Hurtz (current CEO) and Dmitri Alperovitch (current CTO).

Nancy Pelosi responded by announcing that the House of Representatives were launching an impeachment inquiry into Trump’s actions and statements regarding the call.

The times have found us. The actions taken to date by the President have seriously violated the Constitution. It is for this reason that the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. pic.twitter.com/cHq7zgKJ1g

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) September 24, 2019

This impeachment inquiry held by the House of Representatives will assess whether or not Trump has violated his oath of office and has enough evidence of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors to write up the impeachment articles. If the Democrat controlled House decides to impeach Trump then the Senate would have to hold a trial to either convict or acquit him. However, it’s important to note that the Republican controlled Senate could possibly just decide to refuse to hold the impeachment trial.

• When they set a date to testify in front of Congress

Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court Justice confirmation was postponed due to the allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford that he drunkenly attempted to sexually assault her at a high school party. This confirmation was postponed because many in the Senate weren’t comfortable with moving forward if they hadn’t heard Ford’s side of the story and either confirmed Kavanaugh’s guilt or absolved him of the accusations.

• Ford is denied an FBI investigation

Christine Blasey Ford requests a FBI investigation in her case against Kavanaugh to further investigate her allegations against him and is denied. The hearing remained set for Monday.

Two of the reasonings for denial is that the responsibility of investigating the accusations fall on the Senate and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley says that “nothing the FBI or anything other investigator does would have any bearing on what Dr. Ford tells the committee, so there is no reason for any further delay.”

• Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley gives Ford an Ultimatum

After being given an ultimatum to respond by 10 p.m. ET on Friday, Sept 19., 2019 or the committee would move forward with Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court Justice confirmation hearing on the following Monday, Ford’s attorneys requested an additional day for Ford to weigh her options. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley granted Ford the extension before tweeting:

Five times now we hv granted extension for Dr Ford to decide if she wants to proceed w her desire stated one wk ago that she wants to tell senate her story Dr Ford if u changed ur mind say so so we can move on I want to hear ur testimony. Come to us or we to u

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) September 22, 2018

Two of the reasonings for denial is that the responsibility of investigating the accusations fall on the Senate and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley says that “nothing the FBI or anything other investigator does would have any bearing on what Dr. Ford tells the committee, so there is no reason for any further delay.”

• The hearing

The hearing Kavanaugh’s hearing lasted four whole days and concluded on Sept 7, 2019 and consisted of testimonies from witnesses. In the week following, there were further questions from senators before they voted 50-49 to confirm him on October 6th. Kavanaugh replaced the former Justice Anthony Kennedy.

• Kavanaugh’s classmates that have accused him of lying

Kavanaugh’s classmates accused him of lying after being left out of hearing After Kavanaugh’s confirmation, former classmates were published in an article by The Cut saying that he was often a sloppy, aggressive drunk.

 These classmates were: 

Kit Winter: lived in the same dorm hall as Kavanaugh at Yale. 

Liz Swisher: a college friend of Kavanaugh

Lynn Brookes: the roommate of Deborah Ramirez

Kavanaugh’s former college roommate, James Roche completely disputed a phrase that Kavanaugh claimed meant “farting” when it was actually a sexual reference and claimed he lied under oath. Also, another allegation corroborating the behavior that Ford described of Kavanaugh were left off of the trial even though coming forward before the trial. 

Max Stier: who claims he witnessed Kavanaugh exposing himself to a different female classmate at a party their freshman year. The female classmate has came forward to deny the story but according to Stier’s account she may have been too intoxicated to recall the event. Even so, these people had important stories on Kavanaugh and may not have affected the outcome of the hearing but should’ve been called on to present their testimonies. 

• Trump tweets about new information surfacing

“The New York Times walks back report on Kavanaugh assault claim.” @foxandfriends The one who is actually being assaulted is Justice Kavanaugh – Assaulted by lies and Fake News! This is all about the LameStream Media working with their partner, the Dems.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 16, 2019

Just Out: “Kavanaugh accuser doesn’t recall incident.” @foxandfriends DO YOU BELIEVE WHAT THESE HORRIBLE PEOPLE WILL DO OR SAY. They are looking to destroy, and influence his opinions – but played the game badly. They should be sued!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 16, 2019

 President Trump hits out at the NYT for publishing the book excerpt that is negative for Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh.

• People are calling for Kavanaugh’s Impeachment

 The NYT posted an adapted version from a book in its opinion section titled “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation,” by two Times reporters, Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, that detailed an account from Deborah Ramirez that riled up Democratic Presidential Candidates calling for Kavanaugh’s Impeachment. The NYT reported that Ramirez had Kavanaugh’s penis exposed and thrust towards her face which trying to protect herself caused her to touch it.  

I said it last year and I’ll say it again: the process that resulted in the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh was a sham. pic.twitter.com/SjJ9zaR1RC

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 17, 2019

• Did Kavanaugh perjure himself during his confirmation and can a Supreme Court Justice be impeached?

A Republican from Louisiana, John Kennedy, asked Kavanaugh during the hearing if Deborah Ramirez’s allegations against him were true with to which he responded that “none of the witnesses in this room support that.” Kavanaugh had said if the allegations made by Ramirez “had happened it would’ve been the talk” of his freshman dorm.

This isn’t exactly an answer and comes across as him saying that because there are no witnesses to help support the allegations that the allegations therefore cannot be true. This is why many want an investigation to see if Kavanaugh can be tried for perjury due to willingly misleading a Senator during an investigation into allegations made about his own behavior.

If you’re wondering yes a Supreme Court Justice can be impeached. According to Eliana Block, a justice can be impeached if the majority of the House of Representatives votes for impeachment and is then convicted with a vote of 2/3 or 67 votes in the Senate.

An overall consensus on the blogs and accounts that I follow is that coverage on the President and the decisions of the executive branch is important to the people that follow them. This is my target audience. WHDH is posting on what’s happening in Congress and CBS Boston is posting about Presidential hopefuls policies. East Bay Times is posting about Trump’s policies, specifically they were posting about his policy on asylum recently. Inforrm is posting about media in politics and how a simple algorithm can affect an outcome as large as becoming president. Jeff Mason’s blog for Reuters is posting about statements from President Donald Trump about his former national security advisor and what they disagreed on. Altogether my audience finds Congressional actions, the Presidents policies and statements, and how media affects politics important.

The twitters that I follow mostly get in the hundreds regarding engagement (favorites and retweets). This is a smaller community and are very similar in the content they post. They all post about press conferences and press briefings and President Trump. These are alike the blogs that I follow in the fact that their audience is interested in the same type of news.

Here are five timely topics that they are covering right now that would make a good post on my blog:

1. Trump discussing former national security advisor John Bolton. This would be a good topic to write about on my blog because a lot of my community would want to know why Trump and Bolton disagreed on certain decisions and why Bolton resigned. I would focus on his tweets and the news coverage of him speaking during an interview about Bolton.
2. 135 House Democrats calling for an impeachment inquiry on Donald Trump. This would be beneficial because Trump will probably respond to the news of this making this a more timely piece and if this goes ahead, there will be more news to cover as it proceeds. I would focus on statements from House members of specific states and focus on how Trump performed in the 2016 election in that state while also keeping in mind how they lean in their own politics.
3. Democrat candidates and Republican candidates and their policies as we approach the 2020 Presidential election. This would look more like an explainer post and talk about why stating their policies are important and what policies are most important for the American people.
4. Trump’s asylum policies are resurfacing as refugees from the Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian are denied entry into the U.S. I would also focus on the Supreme Court decision that reinforced that Trump was allowed to maintain such a strict asylum ruling.
5. With the media facing such backlash from the 2016 election and Facebook taking severe heat for helping the Russians influence the 2016 election, they are “tightening” rules for political advertisers to prepare for the 2020 election. I would also focus on how that works considering Russia has accused them and Google of interfering in their elections.

CBS Boston: I chose to follow this website because it covers the local aspect as well as the Executive Branch politics.

East Bay Times: This one was interesting to me because of the layout and the timeliness of the news it covered and how it directed broader issues to a specific target audience alike my own target audience.

Inforrm: This blog is a forum for those who write responsible journalism on different issues that are global issues and reason with the reader on why they should care. I would like to write for the people who seek responsible journalism.

WHDH 7News: I enjoy the reporting of national issues as something to effect the community locally and the discussion it brings from viewers.

Natasha Bertrand: She is a National Security correspondent which overlaps with a lot of the issues that my blog will be covering and also writes for MSNBC.

Jonathan Lemire: He is a White House correspondent for the Associated Press where Fake News is often being declared so it makes sense to follow him and his reporting.

Jill Colvin: She is another White House correspondent for the Associated Press because she has a high engagement rate on her twitter account.

Jeff Mason (Blog and Twitter): A White House correspondent from Reuters and has his own blog through Reuters. I follow both because of his coverage of President Trump and how it effects foreign relations.

Anita Kumar: Another White House correspondent but this time from POLITICO. Her live tweets of press briefings are really current to follow and they get low engagements even though she has amassed a large amount of followers.