Even as Democrat-aligned media were plotting to replace Trump with goofy “five-step plans” that would see Clinton ‘installed’ in his place, the Deep State was already hard at work formulating a fake “Russian collusion” narrative the establishment hoped would result in Trump’s removal.
It didn’t work, but Democrats followed up with attacks on Supreme Court nominee-now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Robert Mueller probe, Ukrainegate, and, most recently, outright impeachment. Nothing has worked.
Throughout all of this, the president and his allies in the White House have been watching, waiting, taking names — for the day when Trump could ‘clean house’ and finally install an administration filled with people he can trust, just as Obama, Bush, Clinton, and Reagan before him.
But to #NeverTrump CNN, Trump has launched a “retaliation campaign” against anyone and everyone he perceives as his ‘enemy.’ The network hysterically claimed on Monday that so far, the retaliation campaign has claimed eight people, but in fact, that’s a blatant lie.
As Breitbart News reported, there have been eight people who have left the White House in recent days, but hardly all of them were fired as “retaliation:”
— U.S. Special Representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker: This official, who was named as being ‘retaliated against’ by Trump, actually left on his own because of Congress. He was called as an impeachment witness by House Democrats but his testimony wound up being beneficial to the president. He said upon leaving that the inquiry itself, not Trump, led to his decision.
“I felt that I would no longer be effective as a special representative with this impeachment inquiry beginning and my name associated with that and all the media attention around that,” he said. “I didn’t think I would be able to go to Ukraine or meet with Russians and be able to carry out those duties in that way anymore.”
— National Security Council official Tim Morrison: His testimony was also helpful to President Trump, in that it aided his defense against impeachment. He also told Congress in no uncertain terms his leaving and the inquiry were completely unrelated.
“I do not want anyone to think there is a connection between my testimony today and my impending departure,” he said, adding he had already decided to leave the NSC.
There are two witnesses Trump has removed specifically because of the testimony they gave to House Democrats in their impeachment inquiry: Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland.
In the first case, as The National Sentinel reports, there were instances during Vindman’s testimony where he made claims and statements that were not true or, at least, not in the way he implied them:
Vindman was caught lying about his ‘concerns’ about Trump’s alleged ‘quid pro quo’ — military aid for a probe into the Bidens — when Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, testified that he heard “nothing improper” in Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
He also made what appeared to be a false claim about the phone call, as exposed by Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio).
As for Sondland, he pointedly claimed that yes, Trump did demand a quid pro quo — lethal military aid in exchange for a Ukrainian probe into Joe and Hunter Biden, but then, in his opening statement, claimed specifically that the president “wanted nothing from Ukraine.”
But the bottom line is this: President Trump, like all presidents before him, is entitled to build the supporting cast he wants in the White House. If there are certain individuals he doesn’t believe, for any reason, fit his mold or are fully on board with his agenda, he can ask them to leave or he can force them to leave.
And CNN knows that.
Sources include: