The White House is 'paralyzed' and 'teetering on the edge of a cliff' as it grapples with Ukraine fallout and 'Hurricane Rudy'

Sonam Sheth

Oct 1, 2019, 20:26 IST

The White House is 'paralyzed' and 'teetering on the edge of a cliff' as it grapples with Ukraine fallout and 'Hurricane Rudy'

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The White House is "paralyzed" and "teetering on the edge of a cliff" in the wake of an explosive whistleblower complaint about President Donald Trump's phone call with the Ukrainian president, a White House official told Insider.
A senior US official backed up that characterization, describing the mood within the White House as "a category 5 storm."
Complicating things is the outsize role Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, is playing in the controversy, as well as Trump's public comments on the matter. "We're just waiting for Hurricane Rudy to stop obliterating everything in its path," the White House official told Insider.
Trump's advisers are also worried the White House lacks a cohesive internal apparatus to push back on House Democrats' impeachment inquiry into Trump, who has defended his call as legal and appropriate.
Insider spoke to half a dozen current and former officials and advisers who described a White House reeling from days of Ukraine coverage and struggling to find a persuasive argument to counter Democrats' rising calls for impeachment.
Trump needs a "defense that doesn't look like it was put together by a bunch of pissed off pre-schoolers," said a former White House official. "You can't go around screaming 'fake news' and 'witch hunt' when you yourself put the evidence out there. It doesn't work that way."
They added: "This isn't a two-year long investigation like the Mueller probe, this thing is moving fast, and if the president doesn't get out ahead of it, it's going to swallow him up."
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"A category 5 storm."

That's how one senior US official described the mood within the White House as it grapples with the fallout from an explosive whistleblower complaint that spurred an impeachment inquiry that threatens Donald Trump's presidency.

At the heart of the controversy is a phone call Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25, during which the US president repeatedly pressed his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son for corruption. Biden is one of the 2020 Democratic frontrunners and has been Trump's chief political rival.

Insider spoke to half a dozen current and former officials and advisers who described a White House reeling from days of negative coverage and struggling to find a persuasive argument to counter Democrats' rising calls for impeachment.

The House Intelligence Committee chairman, California Rep. Adam Schiff, first revealed the existence of the whistleblower's complaint earlier this month. But it was initially unclear what the complaint was about, or even whom it was filed against, because the Office of the Director of National Intelligence refused to release it to Congress.

As the public firestorm around the complaint and the phone call mounted, Trump decided to release a White House summary of his conversation with Zelensky, believing he had done nothing wrong and releasing it would calm some of the backlash and help him come out the other end of the controversy.

"It was the stupidest f---ing thing I'd heard in months," a GOP advisor familiar with the president's thought process told Insider, referring to Trump's rationale for releasing the memo. "Anyone who heard what was said on that call knew it would bury the president. That's why they went and buried the transcript. I can't fathom what would lead him to believe this would help his case."

The source was referring to the fact that senior White House officials allegedly tried to lock down all records of the call after the conversation took place. That detail was revealed when Congress released the whistleblower's complaint last Thursday, the day after the White House's memo of the call was made public.

Officials told the whistleblower they were "directed" by White House lawyers to remove the electronic transcript from the computer system such documents are typically stored in, and place it in a codeword-level system, a National Security Council server meant to house classified and highly sensitive information pertaining to US national security.

The transcript hasn't been released. But the White House's summary of the call, released last week, is more than damning and provides plenty of fodder for House Democrats as they conduct an impeachment inquiry, current and former officials told Insider.

The memo largely corroborates the whistleblower's claims that Trump tried to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election, and Maguire testified to Congress last week that the memo is "in alignment" with the complaint.

Trump, meanwhile, continues defending his conduct during the call as "perfect."

The White House and Giuliani did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

'We're just waiting for Hurricane Rudy to stop obliterating everything in its path.'

(Photo by Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)

Former Mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani.

Complicating matters further are the outsize role that Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, is playing in the controversy, and the White House's lack of a cohesive apparatus to push back on the impeachment probe.

"We're just waiting for Hurricane Rudy to stop obliterating everything in its path," one White House official told Insider. Asked what they meant, the official replied, "Have you been watching TV lately?"

The individual was referring to Giuliani's slew of cable news appearances in recent days, during which he erupted at the news anchors interviewing him, contradicted himself, confirmed he asked the Ukrainian government to investigate the Bidens, implicated the State Department in the controversy, and said he would not cooperate with the House of Representatives' investigation into the matter.

Trump, meanwhile, has been unusually active on Twitter in recent days, firing off dozens of tweets accusing the whistleblower of being a spy and committing treason, suggesting Schiff should be investigated for treason, and quoting a Fox News guest who implied a civil war would break out if Trump was impeached.

Together, the White House official said, Trump and Giuliani's antics have left the White House "paralyzed" and "teetering on the edge of a cliff" as it tries to cobble together a coherent defense against House Democrats' impeachment investigation.

'This thing is moving fast, and if the president doesn't get out ahead of it, it's going to swallow him up.'

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Trump talks to the media about the whistleblower in the Oval Office of the White House on September 30, 2019.

But the president has told aides and confidants he doesn't need a more robust legal team, sources told Insider, because he believes he's his own best attorney and that the right-wing media machine will boost his case.

Perhaps for that reason, Trump was infuriated with Fox News host Chris Wallace and correspondent Ed Henry over the weekend, after both men raised questions about the president's misleading defense against the whistleblower's claims.

Trump expressed his anger toward Henry through a series of almost two dozen tweets and retweets attacking Henry and praising the far-right radio host Mark Levin for tearing into Henry during an interview on Fox News that day.

On the other hand, sources told Insider the president was thrilled with the performances of White House policy aide Stephen Miller and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan on the Sunday shows, where both men vehemently defended Trump's actions and laid the blame at Biden's and the Democrats' feet.

Still, others around the president have been working overtime in recent days to convince him to beef up his war room as they anticipate the drip-drip nature of the whistleblower controversy and the impeachment investigation will continue taking its toll on Trump's ability to govern.

Trump "is consumed by this," one former White House official told Insider, and "he needs to find a way to put down his phone and actually do his job."

"But he can't do that while he's surrounded by these PR clowns," the official added, referring to Giuliani and the Fox News contributors Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing, all of whom the president reportedly dispatched to dig up dirt on the Bidens.

Trump also needs a "defense that doesn't look like it was put together by a bunch of pissed off pre-schoolers," the former official added. "You can't go around screaming 'fake news' and 'witch hunt' when you yourself put the evidence out there. It doesn't work that way. This isn't a two-year long investigation like the Mueller probe, this thing is moving fast, and if the president doesn't get out ahead of it, it's going to swallow him up."