Donald Trump’s panic move just backfired spectacularly

| 9:09 am EDT October 31, 2019
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Is Donald Trump too lazy and stupid to know that nominees for U.S. Ambassador have to testify to Congress in order to get confirmed? Or is Trump just too frantic at this point to think about the consequences of his panic moves before he makes them?

Those questions bring us to the matter of Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan. Immediately after House Democrats sent Sullivan a letter asking him to turn over State Department documents for the impeachment inquiry, Donald Trump nominated Sullivan to be a U.S. Ambassador. If the plan was to take him off the impeachment stage, Trump instead made a point of putting Sullivan directly on the stage.

Eighteen days ago, Palmer Report wrote this about the nomination: “Trump may not have thought this move through. Because he’s nominating Sullivan to be the Ambassador, and not simply naming him the Acting Ambassador, it means Sullivan will have to go through the Senate confirmation process. Senate Republicans will ultimately confirm him, but not before Senate Democrats get a chance to grill him in public hearings on the State Department’s role in the Ukraine scandal coverup.”

Yep, that’s exactly what happened when Sullivan testified before a Senate committee yesterday. He was asked about Trump’s Ukraine scandal, and he went ahead and said that he thought Trump was wrong for asking Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. Now the number two guy at the State Department is on the record, in front of the TV cameras, as having said that Trump’s actions were improper. Everyone saw this one coming a mile away, apparently except for Trump.