President Trump Holds Cabinet Meeting – Video and Transcript…


Earlier today President Trump held a cabinet meeting while allowing a press availability for comments to media. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, I want to start by saying that, Rick, you’ve been very special. You’re my friend. You’ve been an incredible representative of this country and this administration. What you’ve done on energy is unsurpassed. I don’t know if anybody has done it better. And you have a fabulous man, at your recommendation, following you up.

SECRETARY PERRY: Indeed.

THE PRESIDENT: And he is going to be very, very outstanding. I have no doubt about it. I know him also. But he was your choice. And what you’ve done, really, would be hard to duplicate.

So you were a great governor of Texas and you were a great Secretary of Energy. And I’m not sure what you were better at, but I can tell you, as far as energy is concerned, we couldn’t have asked for anything better. And I want to thank you for your work. We’re going to be friends for a long time.

SECRETARY PERRY: Yes, indeed. Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: So, I want to just thank you for the outstanding job.

SECRETARY PERRY: Well, thank you, Mr. President. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you also for the prayer.

Also, I want to wish Chad — you’re going to be in a very non-controversial position. (Laughter.) And I have no doubt you’re going to do incredibly well. Our numbers on the border have gone down at record levels. People haven’t seen anything. I want to thank Mexico for that, to a large extent.

We have loopholes that are all over the place. They could be changed in, as I say, 15 minutes if the Democrats did something, but they don’t want to do anything. They’re either bad people or incompetent people — one or the other — because it can only be one of those two.

We have three or four loopholes that would make it so easy, but they don’t want to do anything about it. But we’ll get it done. We probably have to wait until 2020 to get it done, so we can control things.

But I just want to thank you very much. It was great meeting your family the other day. And have fun as Acting, and let’s see how things work out.

But the numbers that are being produced at the border now, the decline is record-setting. It’s incredible what’s happened. So — and there are a lot of reasons for it. Mexico has helped. Mexico, as of today, has 27,000 soldiers on our southern border guarding. And they also have soldiers on their — on what they call their southern border. And we call it a different name, but they call it their southern border.

But we have a tremendous amount of help. I think they have about five or six thousand soldiers there. Plus, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, we have agreements signed with them that nobody thought it would even be possible to get. And now, when people come from those countries, we bring them right back. And they’ve been very receptive. They’ve been great. All three countries have been very good.

So there have been tremendous changes made on our border, and I just want to wish you — you’ve been there for a long time, and you’ve seen it in good times and bad times. But right now, it’s been really very strong.

Despite our good economy, we have the greatest economy we’ve ever had. And a lot of people want to come up and take advantage of the economy. And we want them to come up and we want them to be a part of this country, but they have to do it through a legal process. They have to do it legally and they have to do it through merit too. We want people with skill that can come in and help our companies and make us even greater.

But we’re having the greatest economic year we’ve ever had and, I guess you could say, the greatest employment year, because at this moment, we’re close to 160 million people. That’s more people than have ever worked in the history of our country. And African American employment, Asian American employment, and unemployment, by the way — both — because it’s — they are slightly different terms, if you think about it.

But I can talk to our great Secretary of — our new Secretary and very talented Secretary of Labor.

But unemployment and — and employment for African American, for Asian American, for Hispanic American is the best in the history of our country. For women, best in 71 years. I mean, we’re doing numbers that we’ve never done before.

I saw this morning on — it was just announced that Nasdaq, for just this year, is up 27 percent. And, to me, I don’t view it as 27 percent; I view it as jobs. It’s just jobs. Very simple.

The overall stock market is through the roof from the time of the election. It probably — I guess it’s now going to be — it’s to be bordering really on 70 percent from the time of the election. That’s something that nobody would have thought possible.

And they announced another number this morning. That was a number that was very warm to my heart. Since the election, we’ve created $11 trillion in worth. Now, China has gone down by double that number, and we’ve gone up by $11 trillion. So when — whoever it was that was going to be President, they said, “Within two years, China would overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy.” We’re so far ahead of them right now, it’s not even close. And if you have smart people in this position, they’ll never catch us. They’ll never catch us.

So we’ve accumulated — we’ve picked up 11 trillion — not billion, not million — trillion dollars in wealth, in worth, since the time of the election.

And as you probably know, I think the number I saw was $24 trillion down — I think it’s higher than that — for China and for a lot of other countries. If you look at Europe — and that’s despite the fact that Europe is not doing well; despite the fact that China is doing poorly. They’re having the worst year in 57 years. And other things are happening.

The other thing: We’re taking in tremendous — billions and billions of dollars in tariffs. We’re giving some of those to the targeted farmers because China targeted our farmers. So we’re giving some of those tariffs, like — Sonny, I guess we gave $16 billion for last year, $12 billion for the year before, because that’s the amount of money that China took from our farmers in targeting them. And they got it back, and I think the farmers are very, very happy. Now China is buying again.

We just signed a tremendous trade deal with Japan; it’s $40 billion. It’s a tremendous — $40 billion a year. That’s a tremendous trade deal. And a lot of that goes to the farmers and manufacturers and tech companies.

We just signed a deal recently with South Korea, and that’s been a beauty too.

So we have a lot of good things happening. We have to get USMCA signed. Nancy Pelosi can’t get it off her desk. Just can’t do it. The Democrats want to have it. The unions want it. The farmers want it. The manufacturers want it. I think the woman is grossly incompetent.

And we’re having a problem, because Mexico and Canada are calling, saying, “What’s going on?” And it’s sitting on her desk. She doesn’t need Democrats, because the Democrats are going to vote for it. All she has to do is put it up for a vote. She’s said, for months now, “Oh, well, no.” She likes it, she wants it, she likes it, she wants it.

The woman is grossly incompetent. All she wants to do is focus on impeachment, which is just a little pipe dream she’s got. And she can keep playing that game.

And I’ve been told — and who knows if this is so, but I think it’s so; I have pretty good authority on it — that’s she’s using USMCA, because she doesn’t have the impeach — impeachment votes. So she’s using USMCA to get the impeachment vote. And it doesn’t matter, because right now you have a kangaroo court headed by little Shifty Schiff, where we don’t have lawyers, we don’t have witnesses, we don’t have anything.

And yet, I just got to watch — and the Republicans are absolutely killing it. They are doing so well. Because it’s a scam. It’s a big scam. They’re doing something that the Founders never thought possible and the Founders didn’t want.

And they’re using this impeachment hoax for their own political gain to try and damage the Republican Party and damage the President, but it’s had the opposite effect. Because you’ve seen the polls and we’re now the highest — I’m the highest I’ve ever I’ve ever been in the polls. You don’t hear that on television because the news and the Democrats are one and the same. But that’s the story.

One other thing, I thought I’d bring it up while we’re here: I went for a physical on Saturday. My wife said, “Oh, darling, that’s wonderful.” Because I had some extra time. Because it looks like January could be a busy month, if she is able to get the vote, which she should be able to. The woman is highly overrated. The woman is highly incompetent. And if she’s able to get the votes — or maybe she’ll get it by using USMCA.

But I went for a physical. And I came back, my wife said, “Darling, are you okay?” “What’s wrong?” “Oh, they’re reporting you may have had a heart attack.” I said, “Why did I have a heart attack?” “Because you went to Walter Reed Medical Center.” That’s where we go when we get the physicals.

I said, “I was only there for a very short period of time.” I went — did a very routine — just a piece of it; the rest of it takes place in January — did a very routine physical. Visited the family — visited a couple of groups, but visited the family of a young soldier who was very badly injured, who was in the operating room. I toured the hospital for a little while. I was out of there very quickly.

I got back home. And I get greeted with the news that, “We understand you had a heart attack.” I was called by our people in public relations. “Sir, are you okay?” I said, “Okay from what?” “The word is you had a heart attack. CNN said you may have had a heart attack. You had massive chest pains. You went to the hospital.”

These people are sick. They’re sick. And the press really, in this country, is dangerous. We don’t have freedom of the press in this country; we have the opposite. We have a very corrupt media. And I hope they can get their act straightened out because it’s very, very bad and very, very dangerous for our country.

Thank you very much. Go ahead. Please. Thank you. Thank you. Please, go.

Q Mr. President, do believe Lieutenant Colonel Vindman is credible, sir?

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know him. I don’t know, as he says, “Lieutenant Colonel.” I understand somebody had the misfortune of calling him “Mister,” and he corrected them.

I never saw the man. I understand now he wears his uniform when goes in. No, I don’t know Vindman at all.

What I do know is that even he said that the transcript was correct. And if anybody reads the transcripts — I had two calls with the President of Ukraine, who, by the way, said there was no pressure whatsoever, there was no anything. They don’t — they probably think — they can’t — they probably can’t even understand what’s going on with this country.

But Vindman — I watched him for a little while this morning and I think he — I’m going to let people make their own determination. But I don’t know Vindman. I never heard of him. I don’t know any of these people, other than I have seen one or two a couple of times; they’re ambassadors.

But these are names that are — like Taylor; like Kent, with the nice bowtie. Wonderful bowtie. Maybe I’ll get one for myself someday. I don’t know who Kent is. I don’t know who Taylor is. All of these people are talking about — they heard a conversation of a conversation of another conversation that was had by the President.

What’s going on is a disgrace and it’s an embarrassment to our nation. And, in the meantime, we can’t get USMCA approved because Nancy Pelosi is grossly incompetent. She is incompetent. And you’re about to find that out.

Thank you all very much. Thank you.

Q The China deal. It’s been a month since the agreement in principle —

THE PRESIDENT: Say it?

Q It’s been a month since you had an agreement in principle. I was wondering if you can explain what the holdup is.

THE PRESIDENT: Look, China is going to have to make a deal that I like. If they don’t, that’s it. Okay? I’m very happy with China right now. They’re paying us billions and billions. We’ll be over a hundred billion dollars in the not-too-distant future. China — they never gave us 10 cents.

And I’ve told you: I gave a lot of money to the farmers. I’m helping people that need help because China is paying us tremendous — and they’re paying for it. Those tariffs are not paid by us. Those tariffs are paid because they’re devaluing their currency and pouring cash into their economy. Their supply chains are being killed. And I said it: They had their worst year in 57 years.

Now, with that being said, I have a good relationship with China. We’ll see what happens, but I’m very happy right now. If we don’t make a deal with China, I’ll just raise the tariffs even higher. Thank you very much.

END 12:04 P.M. EST

Afternoon Impeachment Session – Kurt Volker and Tim Morrison – 2:30pm Livestream…


This afternoon at 2:30pm ET, Kurt Volker, former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine and Timothy Morrison, special assistant to the president and senior director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council will testify to the impeachment committee.

Fox News Livestream – Fox Business Livestream – PBS Livestream Link

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Inspector General Horowitz Releases IG Report Critical of FBI Confidential Human Resources Program…


Dept of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz publishes a report critical of how the FBI evaluates their Confidential Human Sources (CHSs) [Full pdf below].  This is the phase-1 OIG report the “Trust the Plan” crowd said was going to be explosive. It ain’t.

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Report Below

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Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman Outs Himself as Source for CIA Whistleblower Complaint (Video)….


HPSCI Ranking Member Devin Nunes questioned NSC official Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman about whether he had shared the contents of the phone call between President Trump and Ukraine President Zelensky with anyone outside the White House.

In responding Vindman stated “two people”, and then named State Dept George Kent, and a person from the intelligence community.  Then things get interesting.  Vindman refused to name the intelligence agency because it would likely expose the CIA “whistle-blower”.

This non-answer makes Alexander Vindman the source for the CIA “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella.

House Impeachment Hearings – Day Three – 9:00am Vindman and Williams / 2:30pm Volker and Morrison – Livestream Links…


Today the House Impeachment Committee (HPSCI) begins day three of public hearings toward their goal of removing U.S. President Donald J Trump from office.

The first hearing begins at 9 a.m ET with Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, the Ukraine usurper on the National Security Council who leaked to Eric Ciaramella for the construction of a fraudulent ‘whistle-blower’ complaint; and Jennifer Williams, the executive usurper/aide to Vice President Mike Pence.  Both were on the phone call between President Trump and Ukraine President Zelensky.

Then at 2:30pm ET Kurt D. Volker, the former United States special envoy to Ukraine, and Timothy Morrison, a Europe and Russia expert for the NatSec Council will testify.

CSPAN Livestream Link – PBS Livestream Link – Fox News Livestream Link

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Bad News/Good News – Bulk Metadata (FISA) Reauthorization Hidden in Short Term CR / Extended to March 15th, 2020…


All Your Data Are Belong To Us…

The House and Senate are doing what the deep state does so well.  Buried in the final pages of a short term Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund government, the controversial bulk metadata (Call Detail Records) within the FISA program, due to expire on December 15th, is being extended to March 15th, 2020.

(pdf link – House)

As we suspected the intelligence community -and most of congress- wants the reauthorization, even if temporary, prior to the release of a critical IG report on FISA abuse.  That said, a short term extension is the best case scenario when we consider the goal of the intelligence apparatus -writ large- was a permanent reauthorization.

The “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], parts of the Patriot Act, are going to be revisited *AFTER* the report by IG Horowitz.  The new deadline for terminal expiration will be March 15th, 2020.

FISA Court judges Rosemary Collyer (declassified 2017) and James Boasberg (declassified 2019) both identified issues with the NSA database being exploited for unauthorized reasons.  The sketchy programs, and abuse therein, needs more public attention.

(GO DEEP)

Key Dates Highlight Pre-planning of Impeachment Agenda – Pelosi, Schiff, and The Hand-off To Nadler…


There is a lot of rapid information about events worth putting into a calendar context to see the democrat mapping.   David Holmes has just been added to Thursday’s public impeachment testimony (Nov 21st); he will join Fiona Hill.  In essence this rapid addition highlights Schiff on a tight schedule, and his portion ends November 21st, this week.

Additionally today, as expected, it is now reported that Pelosi will take up a short-term continuing resolution (CR) tomorrow to fund government; that will push govt funding to December 20th aligning with the mid-December budget vote plans: Impeach, USMCA and budget).  This intentionally designed delay aligns with Pelosi and House counsel Doug Letter requesting a delay in SCOTUS review of arguments for Trump Taxes.  Everything gets punted to after Thanksgiving; then mid-December they will flood the zone.

However, outside of the House control, Lindsey Graham has announced Dec 11th as the date for Horowitz to testify, which makes the likely FISA report on/around Dec. 2nd.

It’s worth putting it all into a calendar to see how the end of the year is shaping up.

♦Tuesday November 19th – 9 a.m ET: Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, the Ukraine usurper on the National Security Council, and Jennifer Williams, the executive usurper/aide to Vice President Mike Pence will testify.  Then at 2:30pm ET Kurt D. Volker, the former United States special envoy to Ukraine, and Timothy Morrison, a Europe and Russia expert for the National Security Council will testify.

♦Tuesday November 19th – Unknown time, the House will vote a short-term CR funding government until December 20th.  This pushes the budget vote into mid-december. This is all by careful design.

♦Wednesday November 20th – 9am ET:  Ambassador Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, will deliver testimony.  At 2:30pm ET Laura K. Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian affairs, and David Hale, the under secretary of state for political affairs will deliver public testimony.

♦Thursday November 21st – 9am ET: Ms. Fiona Hill, the National Security Council’s former senior director for Europe and Russia (originally thought Vindman was sketchy leaker); and David Holmes, a political counselor at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv (just added), will give their public testimony.

Unless something changes, Thursday ends the Adam Schiff public hearing part of the impeachment inquiry; and everything is transferred to the House Judiciary Committee for “official impeachment proceedings”.   This also ends the House legislative session until after Thanksgiving (return Monday, December 2nd).

♦Friday November 22nd –  The DOJ Inspector General closes the “principal review phase” for interests to review the upcoming IG FISA report and provide their feedback for consideration within the report.   The IG then begins to put the finishing details on the report…. we enter Thanksgiving week.

♦Monday December 2nd – Congress returns for the final two legislative weeks of the year.

♦Monday December 2nd – The most likely date for the release of the IG report on FISA abuse, though it potentially could be released on Thanksgiving week.

♦December 3rd – 6th: The House Judiciary Committee, Chairman Jerry Nadler, likely takes over the impeachment hearing agenda. [In the period between November 22nd and December 2nd, the HPSCI will be sending over the Lawfare impeachment report and underlying evidence.]

♦December 9th through December 12th – The final week of the year for the House of Representatives to vote on all of the strategically punted issues.  There will likely be an official impeachment vote in this period; and the “inquiry” will end.  The vote will be to authorize the House Judiciary Committee to begin the “official” impeachment hearings.

In this final legislative week there are currently three key issues Pelosi will have scheduled as priorities:  (1) The full house impeachment vote to authorize the HJC to conduct the “official” impeachment investigation.  (2) A full house budget vote to fund government through the end of the 2020 election year; and (3) Likely a full house vote for the USMCA.

The USMCA and Budget will be pushed as bipartisan chaff and countermeasures to hide the impeachment authorization vote.  It’s not a final vote to impeach, it is a full House vote to initiate the House Judiciary Committee phase.

♦Wednesday December 11th – Right in the middle of the last House legislative week, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be hearing from DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Given that the House Judiciary Committee will be tied up with the House impeachment process; and given the nature of the report they would prefer did not have exposure; Jerry Nadler will likely not hear any testimony in the House from Horowitz.

♦Thursday December 12th – the House recesses for the Christmas Holiday.

This is the way things look now…. things can/could change… but that’s the broad outline.

Senator Ron Johnson Outlines Concerns With Lt. Col. Vindman Running Rogue Policy Group Against President Trump…


Senator Ron Johnson, in a letter to Devin Nunes, has provided a lengthy outline of his contacts, discussions and perspectives surrounding U.S-Ukraine foreign policy as it relates to the current democrat impeachment narrative. [Cloud Link to Johnson letter]

Senator Johnson, attended the inauguration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky along with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and shared his concerns that National Security Council official Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was running a rogue and independent foreign policy toward Ukraine expressly against the intents of President Trump.

CTH readers will note we identify Vindman as a very sketchy character within the entire construct of the impeachment fiasco.  It is virtually certain Vindman is the primary source for the CIA ‘whistleblower’ dossier (complaint).  Beyond the rogue Vindman foreign policy, there is an even more sketchy affiliated network that surround him. First, here’s the letter:

Lt. Col Alexander Vindman is likely a central character within the entire impeachment hoax.  As Diana West points out, his connective tissue to the U.S. intelligence apparatus and their rogue efforts to remove President Trump cannot be ignored:

[…] The questions begin with Vindman’s activities as a staffer on the president’s National Security Council. Alarming reports indicate Vindman served as a source for the Ukrainian government inside the White House. This news may be padded by his protectors and muted by our general ignorance of the intelligence wars waged against this country, typically masterminded by the Kremlin, but it’s nonetheless deeply concerning.

Further, given the sophisticated penetration talents of the Russian intelligence services, it’s the height of foolhardiness to assume that Vindman’s Ukrainian connections end in Kyiv.

[…] We need more information about Vindman, his relationship to the Ukrainian government, and whatever “advice” he may have offered it, whether “typically communicated” in English or any other language. That’s because, if The New York Times is accurate, Vindman’s loyalties are divided between two governments. At a minimum, this disqualifies Vindman from serving the American people in the sensitive field of national security ever again.  (read more)

Over time it has become clear the first confidential human source for the CIA Ukraine dossier, written by CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella and also known as the “Whistleblower report”, is Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman a Ukraine expert inside the National Security Council on assignment from the Dept of Defense intelligence unit.

Within his deposition the ideology of Lt. Col Vindman is clear. Vindman’s mission focus was/is to shape U.S. policy toward Ukraine (and by extension NATO) regardless of the actual policy view of President Trump.  Within his deposition Vindman admitted to giving countermanding instructions to his Ukraine counterpart two weeks after understanding opposite policy objectives from his commander-in-chief.

During his deposition Lt Col Vindman also admitted -with considerable angst and attempts to deflect from his legal advisors provided by the Dept. of Defense- that he was intentionally usurping the chain of command in an effort to follow his own ideological agenda; and perhaps that of his DoD leadership.

By itself that level of admitted and direct insubordination should be alarming for many reasons; not the least of which is his lineage within the U.S. Military.  Indeed Vindman’s intent and purpose explains why he appeared for his deposition in full military uniform.

When we consider that Lt. Col. Vindman was carrying out what he believed to be his role; and when you overlay his military purpose; and when we accept Vindman was assisting CIA agent Eric Ciaramella in constructing his dossier to remove President Trump; and when we stand back and look at the aggregate interests involved, including Vindman’s divided loyalties toward a foreign power; and when we consider there was ZERO push-back from the ranks of military leadership, specifically the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and when you accept Vindman was simply allowed to return to his post inside the White House – where he remains today; well, the alarming aspect increases in direct proportion to the definition of the word: “coup”.

I would encourage all readers to think long and hard those factual data-points.

CIA Agent Eric Ciaramella never delivered his dossier briefing to the upward chain-of-command within the CIA.  Instead Ciaramella subverted the formal process and transmitted his hearsay complaint, derived from material provided by Vindman, directly to principal officials who could assist in the removal of the President.  Again, often we get caught in the weeds, but think long-and-hard about this impeachment process as it is being discovered.

President Trump released the call transcript from an April 21st conversation with Ukraine President Zelensky.  Reporters noted there was a disconnect between the call transcript and a separate summary of the call sent to reporters in April.

[…]  In response to questions from reporters, the White House said in a Friday statement that “the NSC’s Ukraine expert” prepared the April summary.

“The president continues to push for transparency in light of these baseless accusations and has taken the unprecedented steps to release the transcripts of both phone calls with President Zelensky so that every American can see he did nothing wrong. It is standard operating procedure for the National Security Council to provide readouts of the president’s phone calls with foreign leaders,” deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley said. “This one was prepared by the NSC’s Ukraine expert,” he added. (link)

That “NSC Ukraine expert” was Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.

For emphasis let me repeat a current fact that is being entirely overlooked.  Despite his admitted usurpation of President Trump policy, Vindman was sent back to his post in the NSC with the full support of the United States Department of Defense.

The onus of action to remove Vindman from the NSC does not lay at the feet of the White House and National Security advisor Robert O’Brien; and upon whose action the removal of Vindman could be positioned as political; the necessary obligation to remove Lt. Col Vindman resides purposefully with the Dept. of Defense.

The Pentagon could easily withdraw Vindman from his position at the National Security Council; yet, it does not…. and it has not.   WHY?

There is a code within the military whereby you never put your leadership into a position of compromise; ie. “never compromise your leadership”.

In this example, President Trump cannot remove Vindman from the White House NSC advisory group due to political ramifications and appearances… The Joint Chiefs certainly recognize this issue; it is the very type of compromise they are trained to remove.  Yet they do nothing to remove the compromise.  They do nothing to assist.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was the majority (#1) source for the material CIA operative Eric Ciaramella used in a collaborative effort to remove President Trump from office.  Let me make this implication crystal clear:

The United States Military appears to be collaborating with the CIA to remove a U.S. President from office.

The Pentagon has done nothing, absolutely nothing, to countermand this implication. The Secretary of Defense has done nothing to remove the conflict that Vindman represents within the National Security Council.  The Joint Chiefs of Staff have done nothing, absolutely nothing, to diminish the appearance of an agenda toward the removal of President Trump.

This is not a complex issue.

No-one in the foreign policy group is going to take any advice or opinion from Vindman.  No-one is going to allow him to engage in material of a sensitive or confidential nature.  Lt. Col. Vindman has compromised himself; and therefore eliminated any usefulness to his prior assignment.  Yet his command does nothing?

This statement by Defense Secretary Mark Esper doesn’t make a lick of sense.

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday that an Army officer has no reason to fear retribution for testifying before Congress in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.

Esper was asked about potential retribution for Lt. Col. Alexander Vindmanduring a trip to New York City. The defense secretary said the Pentagon “has protections for whistleblowers” who report waste, fraud or abuse.

He said Vindman or any other whistleblower “shouldn’t have any fear of retaliation.”  (read more)

Keep in mind congressman John Ratcliffe questioned Vindman from the perspective of an Article 92 violation {READ IT}, coupled with an Article 88 violation {READ IT}. President Trump, is Lt. Col Vindman’s superior. President Trump sets the foreign policy.

Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct. [Article 88, UCMJ]

Two weeks after President Trump has established an agreement with Ukraine President Zelenskyy, and established the policy direction therein, Lt. Col. Vindman is now giving contrary instructions to the Ukranian government. Vindman’s lawyer recognizes where the questioning is going and goes absolutely bananas:

Here’s the Full Transcript

At 9 a.m. Eastern, tomorrow Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, will be testifying publicly in front of the impeachment committee.

This is one set of Questions and Answers that no-one should miss.

TheLastRefuge@TheLastRefuge2

I would not dismiss this as entirely “fake news”, it’s likely only about 80% inaccurate – and that’s mostly through spin and media shaping.

There’s a solid argument to be made that POTUS is increasingly aware Pompeo is strategically handling him.

[At least attempting to] https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1196502845790597125 

NBC News

@NBCNews

The impeachment inquiry has created the first rift between President Trump and Sec. Pompeo, according to four current and former senior administration officials. https://nbcnews.to/2QuvkZF 

103 people are talking about this

IG Michael Horowitz Will Testify About FISA Report to Senate on December 11th…


Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham has announced that Inspector General Michael Horowitz will testify About the 500+ page FISA report on Wednesday December 11th, 2019.

WASHINGTON – Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today announced that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz will testify before the Committee on Wednesday, December 11, 2019.

The Inspector General will discuss the findings of his investigation into DOJ and FBI’s conduct during the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant process as it relates to the 2016 presidential election. (link)

Considering the end of the principal review phase on Friday November 22nd; and considering the Thanksgiving holiday of November 28th; this likely puts the publication date for the report on/around Monday December 2nd, with testimony the following week.

It is possible the FISA report release, and the 12/11 Horowitz senate testimony will come at the same time the House of Representatives moves the impeachment inquiry into the House Judiciary Committee.  According to the Pelosi calendar the last day for the House of Representative is Thursday December 12th.

Pelosi December Schedule

Jim Jordan Highlights Four Unwavering Facts That Dispute Impeachment Construct….


Jim Jordan appears on Fox News to highlight four central and unwavering facts that run counter to the Democrat impeachment narrative:

  1. We have the call transcript, there’s no discussion of linking aid to any investigation.
  2. The two principals on the call, President Trump and President Zelenskyy, have both stated there was no linkage of any aid to Ukraine dependent on any investigation.
  3. The Ukraine government had no idea that aid was being held-back pending confirmation of the stable intent -no corruption- within the new Ukraine administration.
  4. President Zelenskyy didn’t announce, didn’t start, and didn’t acknowledge he was going to start any investigation to get the aid released; and it was released without contingencies.