No. 3 - ranked official at State Dept says Ukraine conspiracy theory is um, just that.

[deckeda]

from WaPo’s live updates link on their home page

“David Hale, undersecretary of state for political affairs, contradicted two common Trump talking points, telling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was not a “hoax,” and that he has seen no evidence to suggest that Ukraine was guilty of interference in that election.

“Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), the top Democrat on the panel, asked Hale whether he had any reason to disagree with testimony former White House national security expert Fiona Hill gave the House that the conspiracy theory about Ukraine’s interference “is a fictional narrative that is being perpetrated and propagated by the Russian Security Services themselves.”

“Hale, the third-ranking State Department official, said he did not.
Menendez went on to point out that Trump has continued to press the Ukraine story line even though it was disputed by career diplomats and intelligence officials.

“Is our national security made stronger or weaker when members of the administration or members of Congress insist on repeating debunked Russian lies?” Menendez asked.

“That does not serve our interest,” Hale said.”

********

That drumbeat you hear is the relentless invitation for Pompeo and Barr to step forward and perjure themselves. I mean, defend The American Way (and Trump.)

[deckeda]

And in that note, the Schumer awoke from his apparent weeks-long nap to make a studied declaration:

“Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) chided his Republican colleagues who in recent days have advanced a Trump-backed theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election.

“It is appalling that, in recent days, certain members on the other side of the aisle have repeated the lie invented by Vladimir Putin’s intelligence services that Ukraine was somehow involved in 2016 election interference,” Schumer said in remarks on the Senate floor. “I have a simple message for my Republican colleagues: stop spreading Putin’s propaganda.”

“Schumer argued that Republicans need to forcefully and unequivocally refute the lie that Ukraine had anything to do with election interference in 2016.”

[deckeda]

Romney also agrees (that he’s been given cover to say something?)

“Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) challenged the assertion from the White House and some of his GOP colleagues that Ukraine had interfered in the 2016 election.

“I saw no evidence from our intelligence community, nor from the representatives today from the Department of State, that there is any evidence of any kind that suggests that Ukraine interfered in our elections,” Romney told reporters outside a Senate hearing. “We have ample evidence that Russia interfered in our elections.”
Romney, a longtime critic of Trump, had tweeted in October that Trump’s appeal to China and Ukraine to investigate the Bidens was “wrong and appalling.”

“But in a recent interview with the Salt Lake Tribune, Romney said he wouldn’t comment on the impeachment inquiry, including whether the process is unfair as many other Republicans contend it is.

Romney was overheard to (probably) say, “I can dispute Republicans here in D.C. because no one in Utah can buy a copy of the Washington Post there.”

[S. Pupp]

There's a Menendez on the panel?
I'm surprised our President has not tried to "send him back to his own country."

[rjmacs]

S. Pupp wrote:
There's a Menendez on the panel?
I'm surprised our President has not tried to "send him back to his own country."

White Cubans have pretty much always gotten a pass from Republicans.