ONLY NIKKI GOT OUT UNSTAINED:

SURROUNDED BY TRAITORS:

AUGUSTA, Maine -- U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, joined two other GOP senators in criticizing the president this week after he publicly asked the Chinese government to investigate a political opponent while talking to reporters outside the White House this week.

The Maine senator was unequivocal in her statements, which came after a firefighters memorial service in Augusta on Saturday morning, joining Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Ben Sasse, R-Nevada, in breaking rank with GOP support for the president.

"I thought the president made a big mistake by asking China to get involved in investigating a political opponent," Collins said. "It's completely inappropriate."

JUST TOSSING TOYS INTO THE TRUMPBOT PRAM:

For months, President Donald Trump's allies have been raising expectations for prosecutor John Durham's investigation into the origins of the Russia probe, predicting that he will uncover a deep state plot to stage a "coup" against the president.

Durham "is looking at putting people in jail," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News host Sean Hannity in July. Republican Rep. Jim Jordan said Durham is about to unleash "a pile of evidence" that will "debunk" everything House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff has proclaimed for "the last two years."

"Stuff is going to hit the fan" when Durham is done "investigating the investigators," said Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera. "If indictments are warranted, U.S. Attorney John Durham will be bringing them," wrote conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt.

But in the five months since Attorney General Bill Barr tapped Durham to investigate the origins of the Russia probe, and whether any inappropriate "spying" occurred on members of the Trump campaign, he has not requested interviews with any of the FBI or DOJ employees who were directly involved in, or knew about, the opening of the Russia investigation in 2016, according to people familiar with the matter.

DEVIN IS THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING:

Midway through the Examiner interview, Nunes says something interesting and surprisingly-if accidentally-on point. Per that report:

Nunes indicated that he would take issue with Trump and Giuliani if they purposely tried to pressure Ukraine, or other foreign governments, to unearth opposition research on Biden for political purposes. "If a president just randomly was parachuting his personal attorney down into countries where he thought he could get some dirt on political opponents ... that might be questionable," he said, but added, "That's not what this is."

The problem here, however, is that Trump and Giuliani are both accused of doing exactly what Nunes has described above.

BUBBLE BREACH:

Fox News host Tucker Carlson criticized President Donald Trump for calling on Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden. Although Carlson does ultimately defend the president, it marked a rare case in which the Fox News host does anything but staunchly support the commander in chief. "Donald Trump should not have been on the phone with a foreign head of state encouraging another country to investigate his political opponent, Joe Biden," Carlson said in a column he co-authored with fellow Daily Caller co-founder Neil Patel. "Some Republicans are trying, but there's no way to spin this as a good idea."

The president's actions were characteristic of the president, they said. "Like a lot of things Trump does, it was pretty over-the-top," Carlson and Patel wrote. "Once those in control of our government use it to advance their political goals, we become just another of the world's many corrupt countries. America is better than that."

IT'S NOT AN ECHO, VLAD AND DONALD A DUET:

MOST AMERICANS HAD never heard of Kurt Volker, the State Department's former special representative for Ukraine negotiations, until Thursday, when he provided Congress with text messages proving that the Trump administration did tell Ukraine's new president that he would only be invited to the White House if he agreed to publicly back an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden.

But the part-time diplomat and Washington lobbyist was already famous in Russia, where he was described on state-run television this week as "an evil demon." Volker, viewers of the Kremlin-controlled channel were informed, was a deep-state actor who had prolonged the war between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists by pushing a distracted Donald Trump to arm Ukraine's military with Javelin anti-tank missiles.

The Russian state broadcaster's reports from Washington -- which are made available with English subtitles on YouTube -- offer Americans a rare opportunity to see the world as the government of President Vladimir Putin wants it to be seen and understood. It is a worldview that in many ways echoes the conspiratorial, paranoid musings of far-right American pundits featured on Fox News.

THE RED HAT IS THE RED FLAG:

Ocasio-Cortez later tweeted that she was concerned the woman at the town hall was "suffering from a mental condition" and that she wanted to treat her with compassion. She also admonished right-wingers on Twitter for mocking the woman.

After the video went viral, a group called LaRouche PAC -- which is affiliated with people with a long history of peddling unfounded conspiracy theories that has now turned pro-Trump -- took credit for planting the woman at the town hall meeting in an attempt to "troll" Ocasio-Cortez and mock the climate change crisis.

The fringe group, founded by conspiracy theorist Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr., who died earlier this year, believes climate change is a hoax and compares carbon dioxide reduction policies to "genocide."

THE RED HAT IS THE RED FLAG (profanity alert):

At the center of the case is the U.S. intelligence community. We already know through private communications that FBI employees Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe, and Lisa Page wanted to "protect the country on many levels" from the possibility of a President Trump. They even texted on government phones about a "secret society" they had created. Also, since the election the heads of the FBI and CIA--James Comey and John O Brennan--have become #Resistance warriors. So Trump World assumes that they must have shared the views of the "secret society." It is the belief of Trump World that these individuals and/or their associates masterminded the entire plot--with Brennan as the ringleader.

Trump World believes that this conspiracy's first step was to fabricate a basis for an investigation into Trump some time during the Spring of 2016, just as he was sealing the GOP nomination. It was then that the intelligence chiefs worked with their partners in the Clinton campaign to hire Steele, who would serve either as their ally in fabrication or an unwitting dupe to be used as part of their efforts to launch the investigation.

Next they brought friends from the international intelligence community into the conspiracy. Using a shadowy Italian agent named Joseph Mifsud--who has Russian ties, making him an excellent head fake--and Australian ambassador Alexander Downer, they entrapped low-level Trump staffer George Papadopoulos in a brilliant scheme where Mifsud offered phony Russian dirt on Hillary Clinton. He did this knowing that Papadopoulos would brag about this highly secretive and illegal offer in a meeting with Downer a month later. Downer then relayed the "intelligence" (wink wink) back to the Americans who had positioned it there in the first place.

Like a skilled LAPD officer/Fox News analyst, the intel agencies had successfully planted the evidence they needed to begin the greatest witch hunt ever conducted outside of Salem. But, despite having this information in May, the investigation of Donald Trump couldn't start until something happened to precipitate it. So the intelligence community sat on their evidence for two months, patiently waiting for the moment to strike.

That opportunity came in July, when Wikileaks began releasing highly damaging information about Hillary Clinton--the candidate the intelligence community was ostensibly trying to help.

Wait, what?

This is one piece of the theory I haven't been able to puzzle out. When the intelligence community was planning this brilliant trap to frame Trump, how did they know that the Wikileaks emails would be coming a few months later and could be used as a pretext to spring the trap?

I suppose it's possible that they had a counter-intel informant in Russia. But that doesn't make much sense, because Trump World keeps saying that Russia wasn't involved in any of this. Plus--as we'll see shortly--having a source in Russia would have negated the need for the Crowdstrike cover-up.

Trump World has its own theory: Both Hannity and Trump's lawyers (Giuliani and Jay Sekulow) have suggested that the intelligence community had a mole inside the DNC who knew that the email servers had been breached. But rather than report this breach in an attempt to stop the damaging emails from being published (which would have been a much bigger help to Clinton) they murdered the leaker and then allowed the emails to be published as part of the sting to nail Trump. (This is the elevator pitch for the Seth Rich conspiracy theory.)

The final possibility is that the intelligence community used an ally--perhaps Ukraine?--to hack the DNC in a false-flag operation against the Clinton campaign so that they could later pin the breach on Trump and Russia.

Admittedly, it's all quite confusing. But in order to believe that it was the American Deep State waging war against Trump (and not the Russians trying to help him) you have to believe one of those three scenarios. (Let's all hope Bill Barr and John Dunham get to the bottom of this with their investigation into the origins of the witch hunt.)

Regardless of how it happened, though, the Wikileaks dump was the opportunity the intelligence community needed.

First they went through appropriate channels at the FBI--so as not to blow their cover--and presented the Papadopoulos intel and the dossier so that they could begin a formal investigation against Trump.

Next, using the dossier, they got a scam FISA warrant to monitor Trump consultant Carter Page, who had previously been recruited as an asset by Russian intelligence.

And then President Obama was brought in on the operation.

As Trump would later say, Obama "tapped my wires." It is unclear why Obama and the intelligence community didn't simply target Trump's campaign chair, Paul Manafort, who was also a Russian asset and might have had more relevant information for the high-stakes wire-tapping. But leave that aside for the moment.

The FISA warrant was for Carter Page. But Trump World thinks there was more going on than just this surveillance. During a discussion on Hannity this week, Lindsey Graham left the door open to the possibility that the intelligence cabal also brought in Italian, British, and Australian assets to outsource additional spying on Trump so that they could circumvent American law.

Why people already breaking so many laws--including possibly murdering Seth Rich--would get cold feet about conducting illegal surveillance doesn't make a ton of sense. But no matter. The point is that after a great deal of effort, the intelligence community finally had Trump right where they wanted him: He was the nominee and now it was time for the conspirators to execute the operation.

Ukraine 

As Obama, Comey, Brennan, and the rest scoured the globe for allies in their effort to derail Trump, they zeroed in on a particular eastern European nation well situated to be the lynchpin of their conspiracy.

Ukraine, having recently been invaded by Russia, was primed to participate in an effort to frame the Russians for the elaborate crime being committed by the American intelligence community (and the American president).

Conveniently, the cabal had a DNC consultant named Alexandra Chalupa who was willing and able to be the go-between between the American intelligence community and the Ukrainians. And that was just the beginning of their list of assets.

They had knowledge of Paul Manafort's actions in the country, through the anti-Russian elements of the Ukranian government.

They had a secret funder in George Soros.

And, as an added bonus, the Obama administration also had leverage over Ukraine, thanks to yet another conspiracy--this one headed up by the Vice President Joe Biden.

The President has called for his party's 2012 nominee to be impeached for saying that it's wrong and appalling to call on foreign governments to investigate your political opponent.

Question for Senate Republicans: do you agree with Trump, or your colleague? https://t.co/cR8TOlrjAk

— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) October 5, 2019

SELF-IMPEACHING:

Retweet this everywhere. It would be a real shame if every Republican in America had to suffer through hearing the truth for 60 seconds... pic.twitter.com/qCBYdODxS4

— Nathan H. Rubin (@NathanHRubin) October 5, 2019

WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU COMBINE GEORGE AND HENRY WALLACE :

Donald Trump "fawned" on dictators, "harangued" the leaders of longstanding allies and hectored one to help him win Nobel Peace Prize, White House sources have claimed.

According to reports, the US president repeatedly cast doubt on Russian involvement in the Salisbury nerve agent attacks during a phone call with Theresa May.

The US president disputed the UK's conclusion that it was "highly likely" President Vladimir Putin's government orchestrated the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March 2018.

"Trump was totally bought into the idea there was credible doubt about the poisoning," an official told The Washington Post. "A solid 10 minutes of the conversation is spent with May saying it's highly likely and him saying he's not sure."

HE'S DOING FOR EVANGELICALS WHAT PEDOPHILE PRIESTS HAVE DONE FOR CATHOLICISM:

Trump is claiming that his fight with the Democrats and the media has inspired a revival in Christianity https://t.co/vnSsMOlFpX

— The Independent (@Independent) October 5, 2019

HAS HE NO SHAME?:

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson was blocked by President Donald Trump in August from telling Ukraine's president that U.S. aid was on its way amid accusations Trump was withholding it until the eastern European nation investigated his political rival.    

Trump rejected Johnson's request after also refusing in May to back new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Oshkosh Republican said Friday.

"I was surprised by the president's reaction and realized we had a sales job to do," Johnson said during a constituent stop in Sheboygan. "I tried to convince him (in August) to give me the authority to tell President Zelensky that we were going to provide that. Now, I didn't succeed."

Johnson told reporters Trump said he was considering withholding the aid because of alleged corruption involving the 2016 U.S. election. Johnson stood by the president, saying he was sympathetic to his concerns and didn't see any bad motives on his part.

THERE IS NO SYRIA:

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey will carry out an air and ground military operation east of the Euphrates River in Syria, his most direct indication of an incursion since Ankara and Washington decided to establish a "safe zone".

BY WHICH HE MEANT, "IT'S DONALD":

A top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine thought it was "crazy" to withhold military aid for the country as it confronted Russian aggression, according to evidence presented on Thursday in an impeachment probe of President Donald Trump.

TAKING THE WARTIME CONSIGLIERE DOWN WITH HIM:

 Weeks before the whistleblower's complaint became public, the CIA's top lawyer made what she considered to be a criminal referral to the Justice Department about the whistleblower's allegations that President Donald Trump abused his office in pressuring the Ukrainian president, U.S. officials familiar with the matter tell NBC News.

The move by the CIA's general counsel, Trump appointee Courtney Simmons Elwood, meant she and other senior officials had concluded a potential crime had been committed, raising more questions about why the Justice Department later declined to open an investigation.

The phone call that Elwood considered to be a criminal referral is in addition to the referral later received as a letter from the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community regarding the whistleblower complaint.