Engaging the press in his daily coronavirus news briefing, 73-year-old President Donald Trump fielded extraneous questions about his April 3 dismissal of 55-year-old Inspector General [IG] Michael Atkinson for the intelligence community. While touted ethical, Atikinson go caught up in political witch-hunt to remove Trump from office. Atkinson brought the so-called “whistleblower” complaint to Congress without any vetting. Trump held a July 25, 2019 phone call with 40-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he asked Zelensky to look into corruption with former Vice President Joe Biden and his 50-year-old son, Hunter. Trump’s phone call with Zelensky became the basis for the House Judiciary Committee to draft two articles of impeachment Dec. 13, 2019 against Trump, one for abuse of power and the other for obstruction of Congress. House managers led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) prosecuted Trump Jan. 16 in a Senate Impeachment Trial.
House Impeachment Managers gave it their best shot but failed to convince a Senate jury to convict Trump on either impeachment article. Trump was acquitted on both counts Feb. 5, making Democrats look partisan and Atikinson look foolish. If Atkinson did his job, surely some Republicans in the Senate would have voted to convict Trump. Only Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Ut.), settling an old score with Trump, voted with Democrats on Count 1 to impeach Trump. All other Senators voted on party lines, not because they lack integrity but because Schiff & Co. didn’t make a compelling case. Bored with talk about the SARS CoV-2 epidemic, some members of the press wanted red meat to talk about Atkinson’s April 3 firing. Trump responded, giving a more complete answer why Atkinson was incompetent.
Before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided for file articles of impeachment against Trump for his call with Zelensky, Special Counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller deliverd his Final Report after a 22-month, $40 million investigation into Russian meddling and alleged Trump collusion in the 2016 campaign. Mueller said March 23, 2019 he found no attempt by Trump or anyone in his campaign to conspire with Russia during the 2016 campaign. House Democrats led by Pelosi, Schiff and House Judiciary Chairman Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.) refused to accept Mueller’s Final Report, combing through the document to find anything impeachable. After months of cherry picking the Report’s finding, talking about “obstruction of justice,” suddenly a “whistleblower” turns up giving Democrats their smoking gun. Trump responded to the reporter’s question giving more than he wanted.
Atkinson brought the “whistleblower” case to the House Intelligence Committee without vetting the credibility of the complaint. Schiff touted the “whistleblower” complaint as his smoking gun against Trump but it looked more like a partisan witch-hunt, not because Trump said so but because Schiff lied about it. When he told MSNBC Sept. 17, 2019 that he or his committee had no contact with the “whistleblower” he tried to establish maximum credibility. When he was caught in a lie Oct. 3,2019 he was forced to admit that he in fact had contact with the ‘whistleblower.” Knowing this, Atkinson, operating in his oversight capacity as IG, should have immediately investigated the “whislteblower” complaint for credibility. Talk of a partisan witch-hunt was rampant at that point. “That man is a disgrace to IGs,” Trump said at his coronavirus press briefing. “He is a total disgrace.”
Democrats want to tout Atkinson’s credibility, just like they did with now disgraced form FBI Director James Comey. Democrats touted Mueller until the found March 23, 2019 Trump and his campaign did nothing wrong with Russia. Then Democrats looked under every rock to find anything impeachable. Atkinson should have known better. This wasn’t about protecting the anonymity of the “whistleblower,” it was finding out whether the charges against a sitting president were a partisan witch-hunt. Atkinson failed badly at his IG job, instead letting himself get swept up in Democrats obsession to impeach Trump. “I thought he did a terrible job, absolutely terrible,” Trump said at his press briefing today. “He took a fake report and brought it to Congress . . . .not a big Trump fan, I can tell you,” Trump said. Like Comey, Atkinson let his own bias get in the way of his job.
Dealing with the coronavirus crisis weighs heavily on Trump’s mind. He and his coronavirus Task Force are working 24/7 to slow the epidemic, provide urgent medical supplies to states without resources and prevent more deaths. Democrats and members of the press have done everything possible to play politics while fellow citizens are falling by the wayside. Trump’s assembled an impressive team to manage the deadly epidemic that’s already caused 8.454 U.S. deaths with 3,565 in New York alone. Yet anti-Trump reporters want to take valuable time away from what’s important to play politics. When Trump defends himself against charges he fired another member of his team without cause, the press gets angry. Whether it’s talk about the White House’s slow response to the epidemic or fake claims about hoarding ventilators, the press finds anyway possible to discredit Trump.
