Fascinating article now up at The Washington Post outlining Rudy’s machinations in Ukraine, the ouster of the U.S. Ambassador there at his recommendation, consternation and anger at the growing clusterfuck from John Bolton and other senior officials, great stuff, but, for my money, here is the beef:
“The perception of a parallel, hidden agenda intensified in the summer as officials at the NSC, Pentagon and State Department began reacting to rumors that hundreds of millions of dollars of military and intelligence aid to Ukraine was being mysteriously impeded.
“There were never any orders given, any formal guidance from the White House to any of the agencies,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter. “And the NSC was scratching their heads: How is this possible?”
NSC officials, including Tim Morrison, who had replaced Fiona Hill as the senior director for European and Russian affairs, began organizing meetings to try to understand these hidden forces affecting Ukraine policy, officials said.
But even then, clear answers proved elusive. Officials were told that the money was being blocked by the Office of Management and Budget, without any accompanying explanation.
“It was bizarre,” the official said.”
Bizarre?
I’ll say.
Hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid appropriated by Congress being held up by drumpf’s Chief-of-Staff/OMB Director without the approval or knowledge of said Congress, the State Department (though I think we might assume Pompeo was in the loop), the Military or the NSC.
And all of them groping in the dark, reacting to “rumors”?
This is no way to run a government folks.