In a normal world, news that the president* of the United States made a promise to the leader of a foreign nation that was so troubling, one of his own appointees made a whistleblower complaint to the intelligence agency's inspector general, it would be wall-to-wall news.

But this is no longer a normal world.

Here's some background. Under the applicable statute's definition of "urgent concern," it must be a flagrant abuse of presidential power. The complaint can't be grounded in a difference in policy opinion. The IG is an independent entity, and made the determination that it is serious enough to require the attention of Congress.

Now remember, the Inspector General who is fighting Acting DNI Joseph Maguire to transmit this info to Congress is a Trump appointee. If this alarms him, imagine how bad it is.

The Morning Joe panel talked about it this morning.

Scarborough reminded viewers of Trump previously hosting two high-level Russians in the Oval Office.

"This case though, I mean this has gone -- again, this has gone to the inspector general in this whistleblower case and he said it is of urgent concern, what the president said to this foreign leader, what the president promised this foreign leader was of such foreign concern that congress and the oversight committees had to know about it and yet it is being killed. Do you have an idea what the nature of the conversation was, David?

"This involves a promise that allegedly was made by President Trump to some foreign national that was so worrisome to somebody in the intelligence community that became aware of it that it seems in early August, they made a report to inspector general Michael Atkinson. That troubled Atkinson so much that within a month later, he reported that allegation, that IG issue that was of urgent concern to the head of the House Intelligence committee, Adam Schiff. So there are a couple of things to focus on. What was it that was said, that was taken as a promise that was so upsetting? I'll let Shane (Harris) go through the list of possibilities, but they are the ones you would think, Putin, Kim Jong-Un are the top of the list. What was it that made Michael Atkinson, the inspector general, so troubled that he felt he absolutely had a reporting allegation? What happened to intervene to prevent discussion by Joseph Maguire, the acting Director of National Intelligence before the congressional committee?"

As Scarborough pointed out, it's not as if we can expect Moscow Mitch to stand up for America.

Meanwhile, the DNI says he was ordered to stand down on the complaint by the DOJ.