depends on how you re counting. in the impeachment investigation of president trump. three, actually. maybe it s three. you ll decide at the end of this hour. and we are going to have to spread out these three smoking guns throughout the hour. we have to find room in this hour also to discuss a new whistle-blower emerging at the irs who may be reporting something about the president s tax returns. and at the end of the hour we ll take a look at how vice president mike pence s week is going as he is now sinking deeper and deeper into the mud of the impeachment investigation of his boss. we begin tonight with the president s solicitation of re-election campaign help from ukraine. the smoking guns are really piling up in this case. we already have a smoking gun in the president s phone call to the president of ukraine, the rough transcript of that, in which the president solicited ukraine s help in his re-election campaign by asking ukraine to investigate joe
hour also to discuss a new whistle-blower emerging at the irs who may be reporting something about the president s tax returns. and at the end of the hour we ll take a look at how vice president mike pence s week is going as he is now sinking deeper and deeper into the mud of the investigation of his boss. we begin tonight with the president s solicitation of re-election campaign help from ukraine. the smoking guns are really piling up in that case. we already have a smoking gun in the president s phone call to the president of ukraine, the rough transcript of that in which the president solicited ukraine s help in his re-election campaign by asking ukraine to investigate joe biden. once again today, again the president publicly solicited help from ukraine by publicly asking ukraine to investigate joe biden. so that s a second smoking gun on the ukraine case. but each time the president
the attorney general of the united states is acting for all practical purposes like the president s personal attorney? yes, i think that s a really big question here. the attorney general has thus far escaped some of the scrutiny that i think is going to fall upon him in the coming weeks, which is that why did the doj in the first place construct the acting director joseph maguire not to direct the complaint to congress, and when this was deferred to the criminal department, why did they decline to pursue this, why did they decide this wasn t worth any sort of campaign finance violation? because the president was soliciting campaign help from a foreign government, which is a campaign finance violation. if he gave the directive on the criminal department to get rid of this charge.
much was made over the question did donald trump pressure the president of ukraine. in other words no pressure. the problem for donald trump is, pressure is legally irrelevant. the law the inspector general cited said it is unlawful for a person to solicit help from a foreign country for an american political campaign. the word pressure does not appear in that law. the word in the law is solicit. unfortunately, most of the news media is falling for the trump frail of the issue and using the word pressure in their coverage of the phone call as if pressure matters. that is the wrong frame for the crime that the inspector general is concerned about. it is a crime to ask for campaign help from a foreign person or a foreign country. even if you ask politely, even if you ask respectfully. and the record of the phone call shows donald trump asked. i would like you to do us a favor though.
donald trump that, in other words, no pressure. the problem for donald trump is, pressure is legally irrelevant. the law the inspector general cited said it is unlawful for a person to solicit help from a foreign country for an american political campaign. the word pressure does not appear in that law. the word in the law is solicit. unfortunately, most of the news media is falling for the trump frail of the issue and using the word pressure in their coverage of the phone call as if pressure matters. that is the wrong frame for the crime that the inspector general is concerned about. it is a crime to ask for campaign help from a foreign person or a foreign country. even if you ask politely, even if you ask respectfully. and the record of the phone call shows donald trump asked. i would like you to do us a favor though. those words have now become the most famous words of the trump