Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) used his appearance at a Trump rally on Monday to call out liberal mainstream media outlets for refusing to print the name of the “whistleblower” who helped launch the most recent wave of the witch-hunt targeting President Trump. On Tuesday, Paul appeared on Special Report With Bret Baier and told Baier he was confident he knew who the whistleblower was and said he could reveal the name if he wanted to.
At the rally, Paul said, “President Trump has great courage. He faces down the Fake Media every day. But Congress needs to step up and have equal courage to defend the President!” He continued, “Hunter Biden made $50,000 a month. That’s the definition of corruption. We know he got it only because of his family connections.” As the crowd enthusiastically cheered him on, Paul addressed the protection the media have given to the “whistleblower,” saying, “We also now know the name of the whistleblower. The whistleblower needs to come before Congress as a material witness because he worked for Joe Biden at the same time Hunter Biden was getting money from corrupt oligarchs. I say tonight to the media, ‘Do your job and print his name!’”
Paul went on to call on Congress to act, saying, “And I say this to my fellow colleagues in Congress, to every Republican in Washington, ‘Step up and subpoena Hunter Biden and subpoena the whistleblower!’”
Paul is not always on the side of President Trump. He has withstood the president on a range of policies and appointments. This does not appear to be a matter of rank partisan politics, but of principle; Paul opposes the president on issues where he believes the president is wrong and supports him when he believes the president is right.
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The so-called whistleblower in question is nothing of the sort. He is someone who came forward in late September claiming to have first-hand knowledge of the infamous July 25 phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. He claimed that the president attempted “to press Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son ahead of the 2020 presidential election,” according to the Washington Times.
And while the liberal media have made much of that claim, the official transcript of the call shows the claim to be bogus. Furthermore, the “whistleblower” not only came forward just in time to provide much-needed fuel for Democrats’ waning impeachment fire, but he is far from an objective source. As Fox News reported October 9:
Mark Zaid and Andrew Bakaj, the attorneys representing the whistleblower at the center of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, acknowledged in a statement on Wednesday that their client “has come into contact with presidential candidates from both parties” — but insisted that the contact involved the politicians’ roles as “elected officials — not as candidates.”
And according to Paul — who, remember, says he knows the identity of the so-called whistleblower — he is intricately connected to the underlying Biden-Burisma Holdings-Ukraine scandal that started all of this. According to Paul, he is not a whistleblower, but a material witness of the crimes of the Bidens. Paul told Baier Tuesday, “He was there under Joe Biden. He was there when Joe Biden was trying to fire the prosecutor … that was investigating Hunter Biden,” adding, “So this person was a Ukrainian expert on the desk at that time. I think he should be interviewed not as the whistleblower, but as a material witness to the Biden corruption in Ukraine.”
So, far from being a whistleblower, this person appears to be an active participant in the ongoing efforts of Democrats to rid themselves — and the White House — of President Donald Trump. As a true whistleblower — exposing corruption — he would have the right to expect protection. As a cog in the Trump witch-hunt machine, he is simply hiding behind his fraudulently assumed role as a whistleblower. After all, point after point of his complaint has been shown to be fabrication after fabrication.
First, though he checked the “firsthand knowledge” block on the complaint form, he was not one of the people in the room when the call took place. Second, several of the “whistleblower’s” claims about the content of that phone call were false: He claimed that President Trump made a “specific request that the Ukrainian leader locate and turn over servers used by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and examined by the U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike,” though the transcript of the call shows that while President Trump mentioned Crowdstrike and asked Zelensky to look into the matter, he never demanded the server. He also claimed that by mid-May, U.S. diplomat Kurt Volker sought to “contain the damage” caused by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani having reached out to Ukraine. But as Fox News reported October 9, “a July 19 text message conversation from Volker to Giuliani, provided to Fox News, showed that Volker had in fact encouraged Giuliani to reach out to Ukraine — even sending Giuliani a message reading, ‘Connecting you here with Andrey Yermak, who is very close to President Zelensky.’”
Given that the “whistleblower’s” complaint is a fraud, it is a logical conclusion that the “whistleblower” is not a whistleblower and is not entitled to hide in the shadows while making bogus claims that his Democrat accomplices in the House can use to fuel the fire by which they intend to burn President Trump at the stake. He should be named and called to testify before Congress.
As far as naming him goes, Paul indicated that he will only wait so long for the media to do its job before doing it himself. On Tuesday, Paul answered reporters’ questions as to why he has not disclosed the name of the “whistleblower.” He replied, “I’m more than willing to, and I probably will at some point. There is no law preventing anybody from saying the name.”
One of the “whistleblower’s” attorneys — Mark Zaid — tweeted that “If he does, he will be personally responsible for anything harmful that happens.” And — apparently unable to resist an opportunity to strike out at President Trump — Zaid added, “And let’s be clear, @RandPaul will be acting as surrogate for President Trump, making him just as responsible.”
Responding to an earlier tweet by the “whistleblower’s” other attorney — Andrew Bakaj — stating that if Congress does not protect his client’s “anonymity,” his “safety” would be jeopardized, Paul told Baier Tuesday, “I don’t wish harm on anyone. I’ve been the victim of political violence not once, but twice,” Paul said, “So I know what political violence is all about. I don’t want that at all.” Paul was on a Virginia baseball field in 2017 when a gunman opened fire, severely injuring Representative Steve Scalise (R-La.), and was left with broken ribs after an assault by a neighbor later that year.
Photo: AP Images
