Trump Fires Warning Shot At Intelligence IG After First Public Impeachment Hearing

President Donald Trump (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

President Donald Trump made his displeasure toward his hand-picked intelligence community inspector general known on Wednesday after the first public hearing in the impeachment investigation wrapped up.

When asked for his response to the testimonies of Ukraine diplomat Bill Taylor and State Department official George Kent, Trump complained that the investigation was a “situation that was caused by people that shouldn’t have allowed it to happen.”

One of those “people” was the whistleblower, who Trump accused of giving “a lot of very incorrect information” about his “perfect call” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump then complained about Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who reported the whistleblower’s complaint about the call to Congress.

“I want to find out why the IG, why would he have presented that when in fact all he had to do was check the call itself, and he would have seen it,” Trump said.

The President’s comment came on the heels of a New York Times report on Trump’s private discussions with aides over whether he should fire Atkinson for not being sufficiently loyal to him.

Watch Trump below:

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Trump: Come on. What am I paying this guy for?

  2. Avatar for deuce deuce says:

    Long Knives, Decapitation, Under the Bus, Defenestration.

    What will it be?

  3. “I want to find out why the IG, why would he have presented that when in fact all he had to do was check the call itself, and he would have seen it,” Trump said.

    That call record the White House released confirms the whistleblower’s accusation of Trump’s crime.

    Of course, Trump knows that.

    He’s just playing the Big Lie game, repeating it over and over, suckling his toothless base at Fox’s teat.

  4. He’ll get worse.

  5. “I want to find out why the IG, why would he have presented that when in fact all he had to do was check the call itself, and he would have seen it,” Trump said.

    [Where’s @tena when you need her?]

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

96 more replies

Participants

Avatar for ajm Avatar for playitagainrowlf Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for fargo116 Avatar for cervantes Avatar for jimtoday Avatar for sparrowhawk Avatar for borisjimbo Avatar for lastroth Avatar for thebishop Avatar for kitty Avatar for wseitz Avatar for darrtown Avatar for blogamator Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for jmacaz Avatar for not_so_fluffy Avatar for drtv Avatar for timorwig Avatar for rascal_crone Avatar for dogmaalsocatma Avatar for rucleare Avatar for emiliano4 Avatar for Volvo_Birkenstock

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: