House GOP looks to protect Trump by offering up deputies as fall guys

[Eugene]

Note: "House GOP looks to protect Trump by offering up deputies as fall guys" is the headline on the WaPo's home page.

______________________________________________________________________

Source: Washington Post

House GOP looks to protect Trump by raising doubts about motives of his deputies

By Karoun Demirjian and Rachael Bade
11/7/2019, 8:06:28 p.m.

House Republicans’ latest plan to shield President Trump from impeachment is to focus on at least three deputies — U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, and possibly acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney — who they say could have acted on their own to influence Ukraine policy.

All three occupy a special place in the Ukraine narrative as the people in most direct contact with Trump. As Republicans argue that most of the testimony against Trump is based on faulty secondhand information, they are sowing doubts about whether Sondland, Giuliani and Mulvaney were actually representing the president or freelancing to pursue their own agendas. The GOP is effectively offering up the three to be fall guys.

Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) initiated the impeachment inquiry Sept. 24, congressional Republicans have struggled to come up with a consistent and coherent explanation for why Trump tried to coerce a foreign leader to investigate the president’s domestic political rivals.

Their evolving strategy comes as House Democrats settle on their argument that Trump tried to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to undertake two politically advantageous investigations as a precondition for U.S. military aid and a White House meeting between the two heads of state.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/house-gop-looks-to-protect-trump-by-raising-doubts-about-motives-of-his-deputies/2019/11/07/aaa14efa-0173-11ea-8bab-0fc209e065a8_story.html

[mopinko]

1. go ahead and try, you fools. that presser they were asking for could only

have come from donald john trump.

[SonofDonald]

2. He really is thick isn't he?

He will never take the blame for anything, it's just another attempt to get out of accountability for what he's done

It's always somebody else's fault

This is last ditch desperation, I can smell the flop sweat from the left coast

He's been caught and it's time to pay up mothe%fu(kr

If our situation wasn't so bad this would be funny as hell

But I'm going to laugh my ass off when it all comes down, and I hope when he loses his shit it's in public

[crickets]

3. Trump can rev up the bus as loud as he likes. We can read the hearing transcripts just fine. nt

[ooky]

4. Every day of testimony they have to change their story.

They are running out of lies that even stupid people would believe.

[tulipsandroses]

5. Funny how all these people just go rogue for Trump

Michael Cohen just decided to pay off porn stars on his own -even though Trump is the one that got the benefit

Now the three stooges try to shake down a Ukrainian president all on their own. Even though again, Trump is the one who would benefit.

He is such a charismatic guy that all these people can't help themselves.

[TheBlackAdder]

7. Shit just happens! It's not his fault!

.



.

[GulfCoast66]

6. Hah! Good luck with that. No honor among thieves!

The second they think trump is offering them up they will sing like canaries.