WHISTLING IN THE DARK

When people are scared Schiffless, they do stupid things.

Rep. Adam Schiff scheduled four days of hearings this week and next for his impeachment “inquiry.”

After the way things went in the kickoff hearing Wednesday (11/12), he should rethink that.

“Day one a dud for Dems on Trump impeachment,” said CNN contributor Scott Jennings.

Democrats accuse Trump of threatening to withhold aid unless Ukraine reopened an investigation into Burisma Holdings, a shady energy firm which paid Quid Pro Joe Biden’s son Hunter more than $3 million.

Hunter knows nothing about energy, so the presumption – supported by witness testimony – is he was being paid for his access to Obama administration officials.

If Trump did what he’s accused of, he’d have broken no laws. But he didn’t.

The charge stems from what Schiff says a “whistleblower” – now outed as Eric Ciaramella –  told him the president said in a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Zelensky.

When President Trump made public a transcript, it was clear the “whistleblower” – who had no firsthand knowledge of what was said during the call – had got bum scoop, or was making things up.

Contrary to what the “whistleblower” claimed, there was no mention of a quid pro quo, no threat to withhold aid. It was Zelensky, not Trump, who mentioned Biden.

The timeline suggests that after Special Counsel Bob Mueller failed to deliver an impeachable offense, coup plotters cobbled together the Ukraine thingy.

It was a panicky response by desperate people who fear exposure and imprisonment. It will backfire bigly.

For the Ukraine smear to work, the “whistleblower’s” bogus description of the Zelensky call had to be the only one made public. The president blew that up when he declassified the transcript.

To conceal the fact he has bupkis, Schiff pretends the transcript isn’t out there for anyone to read; that gossip and innuendo from deep state bureaucrats should carry more weight than what was actually said and done.

Once the transcript was declassified, coup plotters should have quietly dropped the impeachment nonsense. They ought to have realized Trump had baited them into a trap. But having Schiff for brains, they ran their pre-scripted play, even though Trump has blown it up.

Americans who tuned in yesterday – the cable networks carried the hearing live – saw a kangaroo court run by Keystone Kops.

It’s customary to begin a series of hearings with your strongest witnesses. Schiff’s star witnesses Wednesday were two mid-level bureaucrats – William Taylor and George Kent – who have an elevated opinion of themselves, admitted they have no firsthand knowledge, wouldn’t say Trump committed an impeachable offense, agreed Burisma Holdings – and Hunter Biden – ought to be investigated.

Here’s a summary of Ambassador Taylor’s testimony

The hilarious low point of the hearing came when Dem Rep. Quigley (Ill), in response to the nothingburger testimony of Taylor and Kent, said “Hearsay can be much better evidence than direct.”

Taylor and Kent are peeved because Trump – not them — is making Ukraine policy. Their belief the president should cede policymaking to unelected bureaucrats isn’t as popular in Flyover Country as Democrats think it is.

Schiff stacked the deck. Democrats got more time to ask questions, were allowed to ask leading questions. The witnesses needn’t answer questions from Republicans, Schiff said. Despite this, Bidens pere et filswere bloodied more in the hearing than Trump was.

It’s a grave mistake for Schiff to raise the profile of Ukraine, because it is a quagmire for Democrats. Many more besides the Bidens were involved in corruption there. The Russiagate hoax may have originated there.

Schiff’s high handedness kept much truth from emerging yesterday. But the unfairness of the proceeding was obvious. More Americans than before the hearing wonder what Democrats are hiding, who the “whistleblower” is (Eric CIAramella), why he hasn’t been called to testify.

MSM gaslighting – already at surreal levels – will intensify in the wake of yesterday’s debacle.

To no avail. More of the truth will be revealed in the next few weeks, because President Trump knows all that went down, has the power to declassify the documents to prove it. He wouldn’t have baited Schiff into a trap if he didn’t intend to drop the hammer.

This came out less than an hour after the hearing ended.

Schiff for brains isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. But to pursue impeachment of Trump over Ukraine after declassification of the Zelensky call sinks to a level of stupidity reachable only by sheer panic.

Coup plotters fear exposure – of mind-boggling corruption, pedophilia, human trafficking, sedition – and the severe punishment these heinous crimes deserve.

Coup plotters know that if President Trump is re-elected, their evil deeds will be exposed. They fear – with good reason – that no Democrat running can beat him. The only way to keep their crimes hidden, they think, is to impeach him.

Coup plotters are spooked by the now imminent release of the DoJ Inspector General’s report on FISA abuses. They feel they must do something – anything – to divert attention from it. Schiff’s bogus impeachment charade is a last, desperate flail to fend off doom.

It’s already failing. Bigly.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret, and was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force during the Reagan Administration.  Until his retirement in January 2017, he was the national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.