History, Mark Twain is said to have commented, doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. (There’s no real proof he said it, but it sounds like him, so we should let him have it.) However, occasionally, history does put on a fake mustache and head to a comedy club for open mic night.
Thousands Of Pro-Gun Activists And Far-Right Extremists Swarm Richmond, Virginia
Thousands of pro-gun protesters, along with extremist factions from all over the country, crowded in and around Capitol Square on Monday for a pro-gun rally that for weeks has stoked fears of violence that reached the highest levels of Virginia government.
Three neo-Nazis associated with a violent white supremacist group called The Base were arrested last week after allegedly discussing plans to travel to the rally and open fire from different positions in order to cause chaos. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) declared a temporary emergency, banning all guns from Capitol Square for the event and saying there was “credible intelligence” that there may be violence.
McConnell’s impeachment resolution shortens trial’s opening arguments to two days per side
The impeachment organizing resolution text from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gives House impeachment managers and the President’s legal team 24 hours each to make their opening arguments over two days.
The resolution raises the prospect that the trial will have 12-hour days and go late into the night, according to a copy of the resolution obtained by CNN.
Alan Dershowitz’s Old Comments About Impeachment Come Back To Haunt Him
Some old comments about impeachment made by attorney Alan Dershowitz are starting to look awkward in light of his current position in defense of President Donald Trump.
Dershowitz was added to Trump’s legal team last week and claimed he would present a constitutional case against impeachment. Specifically, he said he planned to argue that “abuse of power” was not an impeachable offense.
New York Times editorial board endorses Warren AND Klobuchar
The New York Times’ editorial board endorsed two female senators for the Democratic nomination for president Sunday: Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar.
The Times’ editorial board sat with nine leading candidates last month for on-the-record interviews, transcripts of which were later annotated and published in full.
Top Democrats push for Senate impeachment trial witnesses and criticize Trump’s brief
Several of the House impeachment managers who will serve as prosecutors in the Senate trial appeared on Sunday shows to call on the chamber to approve witnesses and deride the Saturday night filing from the President’s legal team which called the two articles of impeachment “constitutionally invalid on their face.”
House Intelligence chairman and lead impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff pushed back on the President’s argument that he can’t be impeached for abuse of power, calling it an “absurdist position.”
Trump’s Defense Team Calls Impeachment Charges ‘Brazen’ as Democrats Make Legal Case
President Trump’s legal defense team strenuously denied on Saturday that he had committed impeachable acts, denouncing the charges against him as a “brazen and unlawful” attempt to cost him re-election as House Democrats laid out in meticulous detail their case that he should be removed from office.
In the first legal filings for the Senate impeachment trial that opens in earnest on Tuesday, the dueling arguments from the White House and the House impeachment managers previewed a politically charged fight over Mr. Trump’s fate, unfolding against the backdrop of the presidential election campaign.
Eric Boehlert: How 2016 Failures Keep Haunting The Beltway Media
The Hillary Clinton exoneration tour continues, and with it comes the deafening silence from news organization that gleefully bought into GOP attacks on her during the 2016 campaign. Determined to never acknowledge their sweeping failures during the last presidential cycle, the Beltway media show no signs of having learned anything over the last four years. Indeed, newsrooms refuse to be transparent about what kinds of changes, if any, have been put into place to make sure the epic failures of 2016 are not repeated this election cycle.
After Trump’s partisan Justice Department launched an investigation of the Clinton Foundation, in an obvious effort to “mollify conservatives” still obsessed with Clinton bashing, the inquiry has produced no proof of any wrongdoing, the Washington Post recently reported. The Clinton Foundation’s “corruption” was a GOP manufactured gotcha story that the press gleefully amplified for 18 months between 2015 and 2016.
Read the rest of Eric Boehlert’s piece at The National Memo.
The Rude Pundit: Trump Loses Any Time He’s Judged Objectively
This week, the Government Accountability Office, essentially the federal government’s rule enforcer and auditor, located in the Legislative branch, put out a decision that the Trump administration violated the law when it withheld funds from Ukraine that Congress had appropriated for that country. The law that was broken is the Impoundment Control Act, which says that the president can only hold back funds if he or she asks Congress to do so. The law itself is very clear on how the president is supposed to inform Congress by a “special message” that includes several conditions. Donald Trump, of course, didn’t inform Congress at all.
By the way, the law was passed by overwhelming bipartisan margins in 1973 and 1974 before being signed by Richard Nixon, who was, you know, a Republican.
11 Americans Were Hurt in Iranian Strike, Military Says, Contradicting Trump
Eleven American troops were treated for concussions after Iranian missiles struck two Iraqi bases where the servicemembers were stationed, the military said on Thursday, contradicting earlier statements by President Trump that no Americans had been injured.
The Jan. 8 attack on bases near Baghdad and Erbil, Iraq, were launched in retaliation for the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, a senior figure in Iran’s military, in a drone strike ordered by Mr. Trump.
Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr to Join Trump’s Impeachment Defense — And Dershowitz Will Argue in Senate Trial
Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz and former independent counsel lawyers Ken Starr and Robert Ray are expected to join President Donald Trump’s legal team ahead of the Senate impeachment trial, CNN reported Friday.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Pamela Brown reported that the pair will join Trump’s defense team, which already includes lead lawyers Pat Cipollone and Jay Sekulow.
Trump impeachment trial begins as Chief Justice Roberts, senators sworn in
The Senate formally accepted the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump shortly after noon on Thursday, officially triggering only the third trial of a president in U.S. history.
House managers, who will act as prosecutors, arrived on the Senate floor after walking silently across the Capitol to present the articles, with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff taking the lead role in the solemn ritual.
Trump administration violated the law by withholding Ukraine aid, Government Accountability Office says
The Trump administration violated the law by withholding military aid to Ukraine, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a decision released Thursday.
“In the summer of 2019, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) withheld from obligation funds appropriated to the Department of Defense (DOD) for security assistance to Ukraine,” the government watchdog’s ruling said.
Ukraine Investigates Reports of Surveillance of Former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch
The police in Ukraine have opened a criminal investigation into whether allies of President Trump had the United States ambassador to the country under surveillance while she was stationed in Kyiv, the Ukrainian government said on Thursday.
Democrats in the House of Representative on Tuesday revealed text messages to and from Lev Parnas — an associate of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer — pointing to surveillance of the ambassador, Marie L. Yovanovitch, just before Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate was scheduled to begin.
New lawsuit claims Jeffrey Epstein trafficked girls to US Virgin Islands as recently as 2018
A new lawsuit filed Wednesday by the attorney general of the Virgin Islands claims that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked girls to his estate on his private island as recently as 2018, as first reported by The New York Times.
The lawsuit against the wealthy investor’s estate accuses him of sexually abusing young women and girls in the Caribbean, including some as young as 12 years old.
Fmr Senior CIA Official Says Trump ‘Obsessed’ With Killing ‘Celebrity’ Targets, Failed to Understand Real Threats to U.S.
Former senior CIA official Douglas London claimed in an article on Wednesday that President Donald Trump is “obsessed” with killing celebrity targets for the “immediate gratification” of media headlines while ignoring “important threats” and long-term interests.
“When it comes to intelligence, like with so much else, President Donald Trump likes big names. It’s this focus on celebrity, headlines, and immediate gratification — versus substance, impact, and consequences — that so often motivates him,” claimed London in the article for Just Security, drawing on his experience working under the Trump administration. “Partly because of this, as a senior CIA counterterrorist manager, my team and I often struggled in persuading the president to recognize the most important threats.”
Senate to accept articles today as Trump impeachment trial set to begin
The Senate is expected to officially accept the articles of impeachment Thursday, after they were handed off by key members of the House late Wednesday, officially triggering the third presidential impeachment trial in presidential history.
House managers, who were officially revealed on Wednesday, will read the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump in the Senate chamber sometime in the afternoon, with House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff taking a lead role.
Lev Parnas Says Trump Knew Everything In Ukraine Scandal
Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani at the center of the Ukraine scandal that led to President Donald Trump’s impeachment, said both men were fully aware “of all my movements” and that the president knew “exactly what was going on” as he waged a pressure campaign to dig up dirt on a presidential campaign rival.
“President Trump knew exactly what was going on,” Parnas told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in an interview that aired Wednesday. “He was aware of all my movements. I wouldn’t do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani or the president. I have no intent, I have no reason to speak to any of these officials.”
Russian government resigns after Putin proposes constitutional shake-up
The Russian government resigned on Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin proposed sweeping constitutional changes affecting the balance of power in the country.
During his annual state of the nation speech, Putin proposed shifting power from the president to the prime minister and parliament, according to Reuters, by giving the lower house the power to choose the prime minister and other key positions. He also suggested that the State Council advisory body should be granted more powers.
Pelosi appoints impeachment managers for Trump’s Senate trial
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has appointed a team of seven House Democrats to serve as prosecutors in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
She named Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Val Demings (D-Fla.) and Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) as managers.
Neal Katyal: Lev Parnas and Rudy Giuliani have demolished Trump’s claims of innocence
Americans who have been wondering why President Trump has taken the extraordinary step of trying to block every document from being released to Congress in his impeachment inquiry need wonder no longer. The new documents released Tuesday evening by the House Intelligence Committee were devastating to Trump’s continuing — if shifting — defense of his Ukraine extortion scandal, just days before his impeachment trial is likely to begin in the Senate. These new documents demolish at least three key defenses to which Trump and his allies have been clinging: that he was really fighting corruption when he pressured Ukraine on matters related to the Biden family; that Hunter Biden should be called as a witness at the Senate impeachment trial; and that there’s no need for a real, honest-to-goodness trial in the Senate.
Senate resolution to limit Trump’s military authority on Iran has enough GOP votes to pass, key Democrats say
A resolution to curb President Trump’s military authority in Iran has enough votes to pass the Senate, leading Democrats announced Tuesday, stating that Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins will join three other members of the GOP who had previously announced their support for the measure to invoke Congress’ war powers.
Charlie Pierce: Russian Hackers Targeting Burisma Are Once Again Doing Trump’s Dirty Work For Him
It is happening again. It will continue to happen again. And the administration* and its pet majority in the U.S. Senate doesn’t give a damn whether it happens again or not.
House Votes Today To Send Impeachment Articles To Senate
The House is preparing to vote today to send the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate to start the historic trial, several people told The Associated Press.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi was meeting privately Tuesday at the Capitol with House Democrats about next steps, ending her blockade almost a month after they voted to impeach Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Giuliani sought private meeting with Ukrainian president, documents show
Rudy Giuliani wrote a letter requesting a private meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, then the president-elect of Ukraine, with President Donald Trump’s “knowledge and consent,” according to records released Tuesday by House Democrats.
The letter was part of the evidence turned over to the House impeachment investigators by lawyers for Lev Parnas, the Giuliani associate who is awaiting trial on campaign finance charges. It bolsters Democrats’ argument that Giuliani was doing Trump’s bidding by trying to dig up dirt on political rival Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee.
What we learned about the Democratic field from Tuesday’s debate
This was not the debate anyone expected, but it was perhaps the debate that voters needed.
Democratic voters, especially those who don’t have the time to pay close attention to politics, in polls and interviews have consistently been bewildered by the size of the field and turned off by petty fights between candidates that do little to clarify their differences. The CNN-Des Moines Register debate Tuesday night at Drake University did not feature the expected — choose your favorite journalistic cliché — no holds barred/gloves-are-off/there will be blood on the floor exchanges between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, or either of them and Joe Biden.
9 things to watch in Tuesday night’s Democratic debate
The final debate before the Iowa caucuses brings new challenges for the Democratic presidential field.
In the Middle East, a crisis is rising, with President Donald Trump increasingly at odds with Iran. In Washington, the looming Senate’s impeachment trial could soon command the national spotlight.
Charlie Pierce: Democrats Express Shock That Actual Politics Have Broken Out in a Primary Campaign
For the life of me, I’ll never understand why Cory Booker’s presidential campaign never even made it to the pad, let alone why it never achieved liftoff. He began with as large a national profile as any of them except, possibly, Joe Biden. He had solid debate performances. He has a large and expansive personality. Then he announced and, well…nothing. His numbers petrified. When he dropped out of the race on Monday, he did so from a position that was pretty much the same one he held on the day of his announcement.
(One other curious thing: for years, Booker was sniped at from the left for being too close to Wall Street and the financial-services industry, which, since he’s a senator from New Jersey, is rather like Mitch McConnell’s relationship with tobacco magnates. But those same people virtually abandoned his campaign, so Booker now has been pilloried for drawing support from people who ghosted him when he ran for president.)
McConnell afraid GOP doesn’t have enough votes to dismiss impeachment charges against Trump
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was once confident he could get rid of the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. As more information becomes available, however, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
A CNN report explained Monday that despite Trump’s urging, forcing senators to vote against a fair trial would put Republicans up for reelection in danger of losing their seats.
Trump authorized Soleimani’s killing 7 months ago, with conditions
President Donald Trump authorized the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani seven months ago if Iran’s increased aggression resulted in the death of an American, according to five current and former senior administration officials.
The presidential directive in June came with the condition that Trump would have final signoff on any specific operation to kill Soleimani, officials said.
Russians Hacked Ukrainian Gas Company at Center of Impeachment In November
With President Trump facing an impeachment trial over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter Biden, Russian military hackers have been boring into the Ukrainian gas company at the center of the affair, according to security experts.
The hacking attempts against Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company on whose board Hunter Biden served, began in early November, as talk of the Bidens, Ukraine and impeachment was dominating the news in the United States.
Cory Booker Drops Out of Presidential Race
Senator Cory Booker announced the suspension of his presidential campaign on Twitter Monday.
Booker tweeted a video announcing his suspension, with the following comment: “It’s with a full heart that I share this news—I’m suspending my campaign for president. To my team, supporters, and everyone who gave me a shot—thank you. I am so proud of what we built, and I feel nothing but faith in what we can accomplish together.”
Nancy Pelosi To Send Articles Of Impeachment To The Senate This Week
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Friday that the House will move to send the two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate this week, signaling an end to a weekslong standoff with Senate Republicans over the rules governing the impeachment trial.
In a letter to colleagues, Pelosi said she had instructed House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) to “be prepared to bring to the Floor next week a resolution to appoint managers and transmit articles of impeachment to the Senate.” Pelosi added that she would be consulting with her caucus at a Tuesday meeting “on how we proceed further,” but the letter is a clear sign of her backing down from demands about the Senate trial.
Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI) Blasts Trump For ‘Selling’ American Troops To Saudis
Conservative Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) accused Donald Trump Saturday of “selling” American troops to Saudi Arabia after the president boasted that the nation has deposited $1 billion into a bank he did not identify for “more troops.”
“He sells troops,” Amash tersely noted in a tweet.
Other critics erupted on Twitter over a possible future in which U.S. soldiers could be sent as mercenaries to any high-bidding country to risk their lives, regardless of a nation’s ideology or rationale for fighting.
The Rude Pundit: This Cowardly Nation Has Learned Nothing Since the Iraq War
Donald Trump is a coward. This much we must agree on before moving on. Everything he does, everything he has done, is based on his soul-draining fears. He fears that he will not be perceived as a success, a tough guy, a charmer, a winner of everything. He lashes out at anyone who foments those fears, those who tell him he’s wrong, or those who want to hinder him. He is driven by his panic that everyone will find out that he is entirely a fake, entirely a fraud. He is running away from the legacy of the still-beloved Barack Obama and the laughter that accompanies any comparison between him and the last president. Just like the buildings and products and businesses, he is merely a body, a vessel that has the word “Trump” stamped on it, and, goddamnit, that name better mean something or it all crumbles. In the business world, this led him to wildly overspend and wrongly invest, which led him to need financing from the skeeviest elements in the banking system, which led him to the presidency, which led us to this pivotal moment, one pivotal moment among far, far too many.
DefSec Mark Esper: Iran ‘Probably’ Planned to Attack U.S. Embassies, but I ‘Didn’t See’ Evidence of Threats to Four
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper says he “didn’t see” any evidence to back up President Donald Trump’s claim that Iran was planning an “imminent” attack on multiple U.S. embassies.
During an interview on Sunday with CBS’ Margaret Brennan, Esper stood by Trump’s assessment that there “could’ve been” attacks against America’s embassies, which is why he dispatched U.S. forces to the Middle East to reinforce them. This led to Brennan challenging him, saying it seemed like he was pointing to an “assessment” instead of a “specific tangible threat with a decisive piece of intelligence.”
Eric Boehlert: Did American Media Learn Anything From The Iraq Debacle?
The press sure seems to love glorifying Republican presidents against the backdrop of possible war.
Rushing in to get the behind-the-scenes telling of how Donald Trump decided to approve the drone killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed while traveling in a convoy near the Baghdad International Airport on January 2, CNN collected pleasing quotes from administration officials. Steering clear of any dissenting voices, the news outlet reported there had been “serious debate within the administration leading up to the strike,” CNN stressed that Trump, who was “wary of war,” had been “defiant” on the day the kill order was given, and seemed to “be freshly aware of the gravity of his role and the power he wields.” Perhaps most importantly, the raid represented an “immediate victory” for Trump.
Read the rest of Eric Boehlert’s piece at The National Memo.
Jailers failed to preserve security video linked to Jeffrey Epstein’s 1st suicide attempt: Officials
Security video purportedly showing the outside of millionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s New York jail cell at the time of his attempted suicide in July has been lost, federal prosecutors claim.
The five hours of footage taken by a camera outside of Epstein’s cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan between 11 p.m. on July 22 and 4 a.m. on July 23 was mistakenly not preserved, federal prosecutor Geoffrey S. Berman wrote in a letter sent Thursday to U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth M. Karas.
Poll: By 2-1 Margin, Public Says Trump’s Killing of Soleimani Made Americans ‘Less Safe,’ Majority Say Strike Was ‘Reckless’
The American public is highly skeptical of the benefits of President Donald Trump’s latest actions against Iran, and most fear that his decision to kill Iran’s Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani will have dangerous unintended consequences.
That’s according to a USA Today/Ipsos poll, which found 55% of Americans think the fatal airstrike on Soleimani last week made the country “less safe,” while only 24% thought it made the country somewhat or much more safe. In addition, a majority — 52% — of Americans characterized the fatal airstrike, which prompted twin Iranian retaliatory strikes on US forces in Iraq earlier this week, as “reckless,” versus 34% who did not.
Iran denies shooting down Ukrainian passenger jet
Iranian officials have denied claims that they mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet. The plane crashed early Wednesday morning soon after takeoff from Tehran’s airport, killing everyone on board.
CBS News has learned that U.S. officials are confident Iran shot down the jetliner in the hours after the Iranian missile attack on U.S. targets earlier this week. There were 176 people killed in the crash: 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedish, four Afghan, three German and three British nationals.
House passes measure seeking to limit Trump’s military actions against Iran
The House adopted a war powers resolution Thursday with the aim of limiting President Donald Trump’s military actions against Iran.
The adoption of the measure on a largely party-line vote of 224-194 came amid heightened tension between the two countries after the United States killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Iran retaliated with a ballistic missile attack against Iraqi air bases housing U.S. forces.
In Iran Plane Crash, Ukraine Will Investigate Possible Missile Strike
Investigators will look into the possibility that a missile shot down the Ukrainian passenger jet that crashed in Iran, a senior Ukrainian official said on Thursday, but he did not rule out a range of other possibilities for the disaster that killed at least 176 people.
The official, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said that investigators were following up on unconfirmed reports that fragments of a Russian-made Tor surface-to-air missile — a system used by Iran — had been found near where the plane came down.
Pence says sharing intel with Congress on assassination incident could ‘compromise’ sources
Vice President Mike Pence responded Thursday to lawmakers, including Republicans, who criticized the lack of information shared by the Trump administration during classified congressional briefings on the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, saying the intelligence was too sensitive to share.
Small rockets land near Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone
The US-led coalition to fight ISIS confirmed small rockets landed near the the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad on Wednesday afternoon without causing any damage to coalition troops or facilities.
Col. Myles B. Caggins, a spokesperson for the US-led coalition fighting ISIS, said in a tweet that small “rockets impacted near Baghdad’s International Zone, Jan. 8 at 11:45 p.m (local time).” Caggins added that there were “no coalition casualties or damage to facilities.”
Trump says Iran ‘appears to be standing down,’ vows new sanctions
President Donald Trump seemed to seek a de-escalation Wednesday in the rising military conflict with Iran, saying Tehran “appears to be standing down” after its missile attack on U.S. targets in Iraq.
In a 10-minute White House speech, Trump vowed to keep up the pressure on Iran with “punishing” new sanctions on top of the heavy economic restraints already in place, but didn’t suggest the U.S. would be taking any additional military action in response.
GOP Sen. Mike Lee RAGES at ‘Insulting’ Military Briefing on Iran Crisis: ‘Probably the Worst’ I’ve Ever Seen
Members of Congress were briefed today on Iran, and Senator Mike Lee (R- UT) wanted to make it clear to reporters afterwards that he was pissed off.
Lee erupted on what he called an “insulting and demeaning” briefing that he deemed “probably the worst briefing at least on a military issue I’ve seen.”
He said the briefing was the deciding factor in him coming around to support the War Powers Act resolution being pushed by Democratic colleague Tim Kaine.
McConnell Refuses to Negotiate With Pelosi on Impeachment Trial Terms
Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, flatly refused on Wednesday to negotiate with Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the terms of the Senate’s impeachment trial of President Trump, and accused the speaker of playing politics with a solemn process at a time of possible war.
A day after he announced that he had the votes to conduct a trial without agreeing to Democrats’ demands for witnesses, Mr. McConnell said that the House had no choice now but to end “shameless game-playing” and transmit the two articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump that it approved last month.
Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.
Ukrainian Airplane Crashes Just After Takeoff from Iran’s Tehran Airport, Killing as Many as 170 People
A Ukraine International Airlines 737-800 crashed just minutes after takeoff from the Tehran airport in Iran on Wednesday morning; there were nearly 180 people on board and reportedly no survivors of the crash.
According to the Associated Press, the plane took off and then stopped sending flight data almost immediately after becoming airborne. The crash came just hours after Iran launched missile attacks against two sites in Iraq as retaliation for last week’s US airstrike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, but the two incidents do not appear to be connected.
‘All is well,’ Trump tweets after Iran targets U.S. forces in missile attack in Iraq
“All is well!” and “so far, so good,” President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday night after Iran launched ballistic missiles at U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq.
The president also said he would make a statement Wednesday morning.
“Missiles launched from Iran at two military bases located in Iraq. Assessment of casualties & damages taking place now. So far, so good!” the president tweeted.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) resigns from Congress
Rep. Duncan Hunter will officially step down from Congress next week, more than a month after the California Republican pleaded guilty to conspiracy to misuse campaign funds.
Hunter had previously said he would leave Congress after the holidays. His resignation will take effect Jan. 13, according to a copy of the letter he sent to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday.
Bob Cesca: Donald Trump’s new “fire and fury”… More madman cosplay, with no exit strategy
Niccolò Machiavelli wrote in 1517 that it’s “a very wise thing to simulate madness.” In other words, behaving like an unpredictable, bug-eyed maniac might scare enemies enough to force them to back down.
Whether intentional or a simulation, plenty of despots and strongmen since then have engaged in this “madman theory,” too often with terrifying consequences. More recently, Richard Nixon gave it whirl when confronting the Soviet Union and its satellites, telegraphing an irrational anything-goes approach intended to scare the Kremlin into submission.
U.S. base in Iraq comes under attack from missiles, Iran claims credit
A U.S. military air base in Iraq’s Al Anbar province was hit by more than a dozen ballistic missiles from Iran on Wednesday local time, according to the Department of Defense.
“It is clear that these missiles were launched from Iran and targeted at least two Iraqi military bases hosting U.S. military and coalition personnel at Al-Assad and Irbil,” the department said in a statement.
It is unclear whether there is any damage to the Al-Assad air base, where U.S. troops are housed, or whether there were any casualties.
Stephanie Miller Lands On Talk Stream Live’s The Power 50 Most Influential Talk Streams
The ranks were produced by a sampled 36 million listener sessions — a record — during 2019. The TSL Power 50 Report tracks streaming talk shows through its platform of online website, channels, apps and gadgets.
Charlie Pierce: I Don’t Trust Bolton as Far as the Car Threw Me
Forgive me if I don’t turn handsprings.
–The House has concluded its Constitutional responsibility by adopting Articles of Impeachment related to the Ukraine matter. It now falls to the Senate to fulfill its Constitutional obligation to try impeachments, and it does not appear possible that a final judicial resolution of the still-unanswered Constitutional questions can be obtained before the Senate acts. Accordingly, since my testimony is once again at issue, I have had to resolve the serious competing issues as best I could, based on careful consideration and study. I have concluded that, if the Senate issues a subpoena for my testimony, I am prepared to testify.–
Awfully mustachioed of you, John. It was nice visiting your website, too.
OOPS! U.S. Military Letter Announcing Potential Iraq Withdrawal ‘Was A Mistake,’ General Says
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper disputed a U.S. military letter announcing that troops would be repositioned within Iraq in advance of a potential pullout. Esper claimed he didn’t know where the letter came from and that it was “inconsistent with where we are right now.”
There has been “no decision whatsoever to leave Iraq,” Esper told reporters on Monday, responding to a letter suggesting plans to draw down the troop presence in the country.
Defense Sec Esper Breaks With Trump Threats to Bomb Iranian Cultural Sites: US Military Will ‘Follow the Laws of Armed Conflict’
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper directly pushed back on President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to bomb Iranian cultural sites, telling the press that the US military “will follow the laws of armed conflict” that prohibit attacking civilian, cultural, and religious sites that have no military value.
In comments to CNN, Esper on Monday not so subtly contradicted Trump’s Twitter brinkmanship, a striking and ominous break between the Pentagon’s top official and the nation’s Commander-in-Chief just a day after the President reiterated his threats to attack Iran’s cultural sites. While Esper is a civilian appointee and not technically part of the military chain of command, Article 90 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice makes it clear that all members of the military have a duty to disobey any illegal or unlawful orders.
Iranian Americans say they were questioned and held by immigration officials
Mona Zabihian, an Iranian American, attempted to return to Washington state from Canada late Saturday after attending a concert — a trip she said she makes several times a year with no issues. This time was different, Zabihian said, as she and dozens of others were questioned and held for hours.
“We went inside, we saw a bunch of other Iranians, pregnant woman, children. I saw one of my friends from Seattle,” she told NBC News.
Bolton willing to testify in Senate impeachment trial if subpoenaed
John Bolton, the former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, said Monday he is willing to testify in the Senate impeachment trial if subpoenaed.
In a statement posted Monday, Bolton wrote, “I have concluded that, if the Senate issues a subpoena for my testimony, I am prepared to testify.”
Iran pulling out of nuclear deal commitment after U.S. strike that killed Soleimani
Iran said Sunday that it was ending its commitment to limit enrichment of uranium as part of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, more fallout from the U.S. strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal in May 2018, renewing tensions that reached new heights after Friday’s air strike.
Glenn Kirschner: Trump tweets that impeachment is a ‘coup.’ He’s almost right — but not in the way he thinks
President Donald Trump has taken to referring to his impeachment as a “coup.” In October, for example, he tweeted: “As I learn more and more each day, I am coming to the conclusion that what is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a COUP intended to take away the power of the……..People.” (That tweet is copied out verbatim, excessive ellipses included.) In his irate letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Dec. 17, Trump echoed the same sentiments: “this [attempted impeachment] is nothing more than an illegal, partisan coup that will, based on recent sentiment, badly fail at the voting booth.”
I’m not sure the president is entirely wrong to use the word “coup” to describe what’s taking place. Just not in the way he intends it.
Random Mar-a-Lago Guests Were Told More About Plan to Kill Soleimani Than Congress: Report
The death of Iran’s top military general Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a drone strike authorized by President Donald Trump Thursday evening, came as news to many in Congress who were not informed of the administration’s planned military attack. However, that was not the case for several random members of the president’s private south Florida golf resort, Mar-a-Lago.
Schumer ‘hopeful’ some Republicans will join calls for witnesses and documents
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday that he remains “hopeful” that enough Republicans senators will join Democratic calls for witnesses and documents in the forthcoming Senate impeachment trial.
“I hope, pray and believe there’s a decent chance that four Republicans will join us — if they do we will have a fair trial,” Schumer said in an interview on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” noting the minimum number of Republicans Democrats will need to follow through on their request. “I am hopeful that our Republican colleagues will come forward.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) says Trump administration must produce evidence that led to Soleimani strike
Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Sunday asserted that the Trump administration was obligated to “present the evidence” that justified an U.S. airstrike against Iran’s top military commander, which has inflamed regional tensions and heightened the potential for further conflict between Washington and Tehran.
“I think we learned the hard way, Chris, in Iraq, in the Iraq war, that administrations sometimes manipulate and cherry-pick intelligence to further their political goals. That’s what got us into the Iraq war,” the Maryland Democrat told host Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”
Pompeo backs Trump’s threats to Iran as US braces for possible retaliation
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday backed President Donald Trump’s strong threats to Iran as the US braces for potential retaliatory actions by the country following an attack last week by US forces that killed Iran’s top military leader.
“The American people should know that we will not waver. We will be bold in protecting American interests and we will do so in a way that is consistent with the rule of law,” Pompeo told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
Eric Boehlert: 2019, the year the press tried—and failed—to stand up to Trump
With Donald Trump becoming the first American president to be impeached in his first term, while holed up in the White House tweeting endless attacks around the clock like some internet troll, 2019 should have been the year the Beltway media finally shed its signature timidity and forcefully stood up to him. This should have been the year the press worked up the courage to disband the pointless protocols newsroom had established for covering Trump (he’s not a “liar,” he’s not a “racist”), and simply started telling the hard truths about him. And while there were some welcome flashes of truth-telling, especially surrounding the Ukraine scandal and impeachment, for the most part the D.C. press still hasn’t signaled that’s it’s ready, or willing, to take the necessary steps needed to cover Trump.
The Rude Pundit: Haiku Review of 2019… Out of the Blue and Into the Black
This fucked-up year is going to seem like an amuse-bouche of insanity by the time 2020’s shit fight in a monkey house is over. As both impeachment and election pressure amps up for President Dumbfuck McRageface, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see even more violence against racial and ethnic groups, against trans people and migrants, against liberals in general. Because that’s what these motherfuckers want. They want a purge, man.
But, hey, that journey into the inevitable dark void at the center of Trumpism is still a few days away. So, as we always do in this little corner of the ever-shrinking patch of Left Blogsylvania, let’s close out the year with the simplest of commentary. It’s haiku time once again, a tradition in this joint that goes back to 2004. Oh, shit, this is the 15th anniversary of it.
Republican senators and congressmen ask Supreme Court to consider overturning Roe v. Wade
Over 200 members of Congress asked the Supreme Court to consider overturning Roe v. Wade, which guarantees the right to an abortion, in a brief urging the court to uphold a Louisiana law severely restricting abortion.
The 39 senators and 168 House members submitted the amicus brief in the case of June Medical Services LLC v. Gee, which the Supreme Court will consider this spring.
Pentagon Confirms Leading Iran Gen. Soleimani Was Killed at Trump’s Direction
The Pentagon has confirmed that leading Iranian general Qassem Soleimani has been killed as part of an airstrike in Baghdad, which was directed by President Donald Trump.
In a statement, the Pentagon confirmed U.S. involvement in the strikes, as directed by Trump.
Biden reiterates that he won’t testify in a Senate impeachment trial
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden reiterated Friday that he would not comply with a subpoena to testify in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, in a new interview with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board.
His comments come as Republicans have threatened to call Democrats — including Biden and his son, Hunter — to testify in a Senate impeachment trial after the House impeached Trump earlier this month, accusing him of abusing his power and obstructing Congress in relation to a Ukraine pressure campaign.
Trump Pushes Out Tweet Naming Alleged Whistleblower
On Thursday evening, Donald Trump pushed out on Twitter the name of the alleged whistleblower whose complaint led to the president’s impeachment.
Trump’s personal Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, retweeted a post by the re-election campaign’s official “war room” account that was aimed at the whistleblower’s attorney Mark Zaid. “It’s pretty simple. The CIA ‘whistleblower’ is not a real whistleblower!” reads the tweet, which links to a Washington Examiner item. That piece, published Dec. 3, includes the alleged whistleblower’s name in the headline.
Trump obsesses over Pelosi as sting of impeachment spoils his holiday break
President Donald Trump can’t seem to get Nancy Pelosi out of his head, even as most of the rest of the nation enjoys a holiday halftime break from the impeachment drama.
His anger is boiling as the politics of impeachment evolve in a slow burn over the Christmas and New Year break, with pressure rising on senators of both parties over his coming Senate trial.
Trump, between rounds of golf and greeting guests at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, keeps returning to vent fury at the House speaker who led his impeachment a week ago.
Charlie Pierce: I’m a Lucky Motherf*cker. We All Are.
As you may have noticed, the shebeen has been disarranged for the past couple of weeks. The sudden intervention of an automobile into my affairs—and, it must be said, into my lower back—has kept me watching the considerable landfill of recent news from the sidelines—often, I must admit, severely hopped up on goofballs, as Joe Friday would have said. (I got a small glimpse of the opioid crisis from the inside and, let me tell you, the other day, the oxy was whispering to me the way Richard Pryor’s crack pipe used to talk to him. Motherfcker is strong, Jack.)
Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece about his accident at Esquire.
The Rude Pundit: Christmas Nativities 2019… Now with Zombies (Because Sure, Why Not?)
Like movies about suicidal snowmen and tortured ghosts and pole-frozen tongues, some things are a tradition around the rude house. Beloved reruns are good for the soul. My favorites to trot out this week are the Invader Zim Christmas episode and Olive the Other Reindeer. Even here, in Left Blogsylvania, we can indulge in revisiting old posts.
Trump Tweets About California Homelessness, Threatens to Intervene if Gov. Newsom ‘Can’t Fix Problem’
President Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to get the federal government involved in “taking care of the homeless population in California” if Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom “can’t fix the problem” soon.
In response to a video of Newsom criticizing the Trump administration for failing to solve homelessness, President Trump posted on Twitter, “Governor Gavin N has done a really bad job on taking care of the homeless population in California. If he can’t fix the problem, the Federal Govt. will get involved!”
Christmas Day passes with no sign of ‘gift’ that North Korea warned of
Christmas Day came and went with no sign of the “gift” that North Korea warned could come.
Earlier this month, Pyongyang set an year-end deadline for the U.S. to make new concessions in talks over the country’s nuclear arsenal.
And amid fears that North Korea was expanding a factory linked to the production of long-range nuclear missiles, the U.S. flew several spy planes over the Korean Peninsula during the holiday, according to South Korean media, citing military aircraft tracker Aircraft Spots.
GOP Sen. Murkowski ‘disturbed’ by McConnell comments about impeachment trial
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Tuesday she was “disturbed” that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would engage in “total coordination” with the White House regarding the upcoming Senate trial of President Donald Trump.
In an interview with Anchorage’s local NBC affiliate KTUU broadcast Tuesday, Murkowski — who earlier in the year refused to defend Trump from the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry — said McConnell’s comments “has further confused” the impeachment process.
Trump Blasts ‘Crazy Nancy Pelosi,’ ‘Scam Impeachment’ Following Christmas Call for Unity
Hours after President Donald Trump asked Americans to unify and embrace, he got on Twitter to launch new attacks on his political foes and the House Democrats’ effort to impeach him.
Democratic debate to go on tonight as planned after labor dispute tentatively resolved
The Democratic primary debate scheduled for Thursday will go on as planned, after a labor dispute between a California union and a catering provider that threatened to derail the high-profile event was resolved.
All seven Democratic presidential candidates who met the qualifications to participate in the debate declared their support last week for Unite Here Local 11 and said they would not participate in the debate if they had to cross the union’s picket line. The announcements threw the debate planning into turmoil as top officials from the Democratic National Committee, including chairman Tom Perez, spent the weekend frantically working the phones to come to a resolution.
Trump, Unbowed, Uses Rally to Strike Back Against Impeachment Vote
President Trump angrily responded to the impeachment he had long been dreading on Wednesday, lashing out at his Democratic accusers in a rambling two-hour speech and calling for their defeat in November.
Moments after the House passed two articles of impeachment against him, he told a campaign rally in a state he won in 2016 that is crucial to his re-election that the vote was an attempt to “nullify the ballots of tens of millions of patriotic Americans.”
Pelosi says House will wait to send impeachment articles to Senate for clarity on rules
The House will delay sending the articles of impeachment it approved to the Senate until rules are established for the trial of President Donald Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday night.
Pelosi, D-Calif., excoriated Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for saying he would coordinate with the White House counsel during the coming trial, which she likened to the foreman of a jury’s being in “cahoots” with the defendant’s attorney.
Trump is impeached by the House, creating an indelible mark on his presidency
The House of Representatives voted late Wednesday to impeach President Trump on charges that he abused his office and obstructed Congress, with Democrats declaring him a threat to the nation and branding an indelible mark on the most turbulent presidency of modern times.
After 11 hours of fierce argument on the House floor between Democrats and Republicans over Trump’s conduct with Ukraine, lawmakers voted almost entirely along party lines to impeach him. Trump becomes the third president in U.S. history to face trial in the Senate — a proceeding that will determine whether he is removed from office less than one year before he stands for reelection.
Rules Committee agrees to six hours of debate before Trump impeachment vote
The House Rules Committee voted along party lines to approve six hours of debate on the House floor Wednesday as lawmakers vote on two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
Democrats and Republicans will have three hours apiece to make their case ahead of votes.
Bob Cesca: Donald Trump is being impeached — and then Democrats can finish him off
Donald Trump can throw the world’s most dramatic “Real Housewives” hissy fit. He can ceaselessly whine like the entitled Frank Burns knockoff he is until even the bots and trolls stop following his tweets. He can shout “perfect call!” until the words lose all meaning. No matter what he does, no matter how loudly he struggles to change the subject or to derail the process, Donald Trump will be impeached for obstructing Congress and abusing the power of the presidency, and the scathing words contained in those articles will live forever. In the end, the word “impeached” will feature prominently in the first line of his eventual obituary. Guaranteed.
Trump Decries Impeachment in Unhinged Letter to Nancy Pelosi
President Donald Trump sent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a fiery letter on Tuesday railing against the impeachment process ahead of an expected vote this week, calling it “an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power” by Democrats.
“You have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!” Trump declared, accusing Democrats with “violating your oaths of office” with their “spiteful actions.”
Dems Tell Federal Court Mueller’s Secret Grand Jury Materials Could Lead to Second Impeachment
House Democrats told a federal court on Monday that they will continue impeachment investigations into President Donald Trump after the scheduled vote on articles of impeachment later this week.
In a 66-page filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, attorneys for congressional investigators led by House General Counsel Douglas N. Letter vowed that Democrats on the Judiciary Committee would continue their impeachment inquiry into whether Trump committed obstruction of justice–regardless of the outcome of the House’s current “narrow impeachment” process premised on the president withholding military aid to the Ukraine in an apparent scheme to obtain an investigation into Joe Biden‘s son.
Giuliani Provides Details of What Trump Knew About Ambassador’s Removal
Rudolph W. Giuliani said on Monday that he provided President Trump with detailed information this year about how the United States ambassador to Ukraine was, in Mr. Giuliani’s view, impeding investigations that could benefit Mr. Trump, setting in motion the ambassador’s recall from her post.
In an interview, Mr. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, described how he passed along to Mr. Trump “a couple of times” accounts about how the ambassador, Marie L. Yovanovitch, had frustrated efforts that could be politically helpful to Mr. Trump. They included investigations involving former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Ukrainians who disseminated documents that damaged Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Moderate Democrats Back Impeachment of Trump as House Vote Nears
Democratic lawmakers representing conservative-leaning districts announced one by one on Monday that they would cast votes this week to impeach President Trump, signaling that a critical bloc of the most politically vulnerable Democrats is pulling together behind the party’s effort to seek his removal from office.
Ahead of a historic vote on two articles of impeachment, about a half-dozen first-term Democrats in districts that Mr. Trump won in 2016 — all impeachment skeptics — said they had become convinced that they had no choice but to move forward with official charges of high crimes and misdemeanors against the president.
House inches closer to historic impeachment vote with Rules Committee hearing
As the House prepares to bring impeachment articles to the floor against the president for just the third time in American history, more than half of the Democrats from districts won by President Donald Trump in 2016 are planning to back impeachment.
At least 17 Trump-district House Democrats have announced plans to vote for articles of impeachment charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in the Ukraine affair.
Charlie Pierce: Only One American Political Organization Can Save the Republic Now
The way I look at things these days—which is to say, largely prone—we all have to come to face one big, hairy, honking, ugly fact about the situation in the country. There is only one organized political entity in the country right now capable of arresting the republic’s slide toward the boneyard wherein presently reside many of the republics in history. There is only one gathering of politicians capable of still reaching for the ripcord. That entity is the Republican Party. And not the Republican Party of Lincoln and Grant, and not the Republican Party of Coolidge and Hoover. And not the Republican Party of Taft and Eisenhower. And not even the Republican Party of Nixon and Agnew, of Railsback and Flowers and Elliot Richardson.
Eric Boehlert: The New York Times’ impeachment coverage devolves into Republican talking points
Firmly adopting Republican spin as the best way to view the House impeachment of Donald Trump, The New York Times in recent days appears to have forfeited much of its news coverage to the GOP. Adopting Republican talking points that impeachment is “a political plus” for Trump; “risky” for Democrats; that the White House’s impeachment war room is humming on all cylinders; Democrats are in danger of devaluing impeachment; and that nobody can really tell which party has the facts on their side, the Times is doing the GOP an incalculable favor by refusing to be aggressively honest with readers about the historic events that are unfolding.
The Rude Pundit: A Few Questions for Enraged Republicans
In the wake of Democrats finally loading the cannon on actual articles of impeachment, Republicans are somewhere between frantic denial and explosive apoplexy as they insist that Donald Trump did nothing wrong in his dealings with Ukraine and Congress. So I have a few questions for ’em.
House Judiciary Committee releases report explaining impeachment charges
The House Judiciary Committee early Monday morning released its impeachment report to accompany the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump that will be on the House floor this week.
The 658-page report explains the decision to charge Trump with two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of justice, and also includes the committee reports previously issued from the House Intelligence Committee laying out the evidence against the President and the Judiciary Committee explaining the constitutional grounds for impeachment.
Hallmark wants to reinstate same-sex marriage ad after pulling it
The Hallmark Channel said Sunday that it would “re-establish” its relationship with the wedding company behind a same-sex commercial, just days after Hallmark pulled the ad amid pressure from a conservative advocacy group.
In a statement Sunday, the president of Hallmark Cards, Mike Perry, said Hallmark’s parent company, Crown Media Family Networks, had been “agonizing” over its decision to remove the ad and the “hurt it has unintentionally caused.”
Trump Rants Against Speaker Nancy Pelosi: ‘Teeth Were Falling Out of Her Mouth!’
President Donald Trump went on a rant attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats over his likely impeachment.
“Nancy’s teeth were falling out of her mouth, and she didn’t have time to think!” Trump said Sunday evening in response to a tweet from GOP Rep. Mark Meadows criticizing Pelosi’s answer on dropping bribery as a potential article of impeachment.
Schumer proposes that Bolton and Mulvaney testify in Senate impeachment trial
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer proposed calling former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney as witnesses at an impeachment trial for President Donald Trump in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday.
The offer is intended as a signal that Democrats are seeking an evidentiary trial, not intending to simply rely on the House investigation.
House Judiciary Committee Approves Articles of Impeachment Against Trump
By votes of 23-17, the House Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
The vote came immediately after Friday morning’s proceeding was gaveled into session by committee chair Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). The vote came after a marathon session Thursday evening was adjourned prior to the vote by Nadler — over Republican opposition.
McConnell: ‘There’s no chance’ Trump is removed from office
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday that there was “no chance” that President Donald Trump would be removed from office in any impeachment trial and that it “wouldn’t surprise” him if some Democrats split from their party and voted in the president’s favor.
“The case is so darn weak coming from the House,” McConnell said in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News Thursday night, as the House Judiciary Committee continued to debate articles of impeachment. “We know how it’s going to end. There’s no chance the president’s going to be removed from office.”
Boris Johnson’s Conservatives win decisive victory in crucial UK election
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson went to Buckingham Palace to meet Queen Elizabeth II so she could formally invite him to form a new government on Friday in the wake of his Conservative Party’s resounding election victory.
Johnson, the 14th prime minister since the queen took the throne in 1952, promised to “get Brexit done,” which clearly resonated with voters and set him on course to take the country out of the European Union.
In a surprise move infuriating Republicans, Judiciary Committee delays impeachment vote until Friday
After a grueling 14-hour meeting, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee suddenly announced that the panel would not vote as planned late Thursday night on two articles of impeachment, angering Republicans.
Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said shortly after 11 p.m. that the committee would instead vote on the impeachment of President Donald Trump on Friday at 10:00 a.m.
The move caught Republicans on the committee off guard.
Senate Republicans increasingly favor short impeachment trial with no witnesses
There’s a growing consensus among Senate Republicans that President Donald Trump’s all-but-certain impeachment trial should be shorter rather than longer, lasting roughly 10 days to two weeks, with no witnesses called by either side.
One senior GOP senator told reporters that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell favors a shorter trial with a vote on impeachment articles soon after arguments are made by both sides.
Trump tweets at Greta Thunberg to ‘chill’ following person of the year announcement
President Donald Trump tweeted telling Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, to “chill.”
Trump wrote “so ridiculous” in response to a tweet from actress and producer Roma Downey congratulating Thunberg on being named Time magazine’s 2019 person of the year.
“Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend!” the president continued. “Chill Greta, Chill!”
Democrats, Republicans offer stark contrasts as House Judiciary Committee debates articles of impeachment
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler gaveled in a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, kicking off the committee’s marathon session to approve two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump for debate and approval, holding a “markup” — a public meeting where members can debate and offer amendments to the charges — ahead of a House floor vote next week.
“Taken together, these two articles charge President Trump, with placing his private, political interests above our national security, and above our free and fair elections, and above our ability to hold public officials accountable,” Nadler said.
Read the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., on Tuesday announced the introduction of two articles of impeachment — one for abuse of power, the other for obstruction of Congress — against President Donald Trump.
Senate likely to take up impeachment trial after holiday recess, McConnell says
Senate Republicans on Tuesday suggested that they may not call up live witnesses to testify as part of a likely impeachment trial slated to begin in January — a move that pits the Republican-led Senate against the desires of President Donald Trump.
“I think the prospect of calling witnesses, in my view, seems unlikely, as much as some people might like to complete the incomplete record,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. told reporters Tuesday. “The premise of the whole impeachment process is so warped that completing a bad record just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”
Barr thinks FBI may have acted in ‘bad faith’ in probing Trump campaign’s links to Russia
Attorney General William Barr said he still believes the FBI may have operated out of “bad faith” when it investigated whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, and he contends the FBI acted improperly by continuing the investigation after Donald Trump took office.
In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Barr essentially dismissed the findings of the Justice Department’s inspector general that there was no evidence of political bias in the launching of the Russia probe, saying that his hand-picked prosecutor, John Durham, will have the last word on the matter.
Trump slams ‘flimsy, pathetic, ridiculous articles of impeachment’
President Donald Trump bashed the impeachment inquiry on Tuesday just hours after House Democrats introduced two articles of impeachment, calling them “flimsy, pathetic, ridiculous articles of impeachment.”
“They are now admitting that there was no collusion, no obstruction of justice, there are no crimes,” Trump told a crowd of thousands of supporters at the Giant Center. “They are impeaching me and there are no crimes, this has to be a first.”
Bob Cesca: What civil liberties? Kentucky’s medieval abortion law amounts to state-sanctioned rape
Anti-choice conservatives aren’t big fans of science, but the decision this week by the Supreme Court to uphold a Kentucky law mandating transvaginal ultrasounds for women seeking abortion procedures isn’t just anti-science, it’s medieval. It’s state-sanctioned rape. And it’s not the first time the Court has steamrolled both civil rights for women and science fact in lieu of misogyny and science fiction.
Let’s rewind. In the brutally misguided Burwell v Hobby Lobby case of 2014, in which the Christian owners of the hobby-store chain disputed on religious grounds the birth control coverage mandate in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the pre-Trump Supremes decided that religious gibberish superseded actual fetal biology.
House Democrats Unveil Two Articles Of Impeachment Against Donald Trump
Top House Democrats unveiled two articles of impeachment against Donald Trump on Tuesday, laying the foundation for a vote that could see the president become just the third American leader in history to be impeached.
The articles of impeachment relate to two actions by Trump: One is abuse of power linked to his demand that the Ukrainian president investigate a political rival, and the second is obstructing Congress in its effort to investigate the behavior.
Democrats Signal Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress Charges Against Trump Today
House Democrats signaled that they would unveil articles of impeachment on Tuesday morning that charge President Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for conduct they called a “clear and present danger” to the 2020 election and national security.
The House Judiciary Committee was expected to work through the night on Monday readying the charges, according to multiple senior officials and lawmakers.
Supreme Court leaves in place Kentucky abortion law mandating ultrasounds
The Supreme Court on Monday left in place a Kentucky law, mandating doctors perform ultrasounds and show fetal images to patients before they can perform abortions.
The high court declined, without comment, to hear an appeal brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the state’s lone abortion clinic.
Internal Justice watchdog finds that Russia probe was justified, not biased against Trump
The FBI mishandled parts of its application to monitor a Trump campaign aide as it was probing possible Russian interference in the 2016 election, but the overall investigation was justified, according to a long-awaited report by the Justice Department’s watchdog that rebuts the president’s depiction of a politically biased plot against him.
Bill Barr Reportedly Advising Trump to Dump Rudy Giuliani Amidst Impeachment Proceedings
Attorney General Bill Barr has reportedly counseled President Donald Trump that Rudy Giuliani has become a “liability” for the administration.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that Trump has been advised by Barr “in general terms” to stop relying on Giuliani, who has made multiple trips to Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden’s family – including one this week to make a documentary.
Nadler: Trump showed ‘pattern’ that poses ‘danger’ to elections
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Sunday that President Donald Trump has shown “a pattern” of seeking foreign interference in U.S. elections but stopped short of saying that obstruction charges would be included in articles of impeachment.
“The central allegation is that the president put himself above his country several times, that he sought foreign interference in our elections several times, both for 2016 and 2020,” Nadler said on “State of the Union“ on CNN. “All this presents a pattern that poses a real and present danger to the integrity of the next election.”
White House: Pensacola shooting ‘appears to be a terrorist attack’
White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien said Sunday that the recent shooting at a naval base in Pensacola, Fla., appears to be an act of terrorism.
“To me, it appears to be a terrorist attack,” O’Brien said on CBS’ “Face the Nation”. “I don’t want to prejudge the investigation, but it appears that this may be someone that was radicalized. … It’s unclear whether he’s got ties to any other organizations.“
Democrats start impeachment homestretch with rising stakes on Capitol Hill today
Democrats are heading into a momentous impeachment finale as they set the pace and scope of their charges against President Donald Trump — prompting Republicans to escalate their effort to swamp the historic process in disinformation and partisanship.
Majority members of the House Judiciary Committee spent the weekend mapping out a critical hearing Monday at which congressional investigators will lay out the sweeping case that could make Trump only the third president to be impeached.
Eric Boehlert: The press doesn’t have—or won’t use—the proper language to describe today’s radical Republican Party
Extreme times call for extreme measures, but the Beltway press just isn’t willing to make that move in the Trump era. As a consequence, the news media fail to accurately capture the radical changes now underway in the country, and how today’s Republican Party has become purposefully untethered from reality.
Donald Trump remains a resolutely radical player who has eviscerated decades of protocols and traditions. Yet so much of the press refuses to cover him that way, opting instead to cling to Beltway traditions for how presidents are normally covered (i.e. We can’t call him a liar!). But as the high-profile impeachment hearings confirm (along with Trump’s recent disastrous and embarrassing trip to the NATO summit), new and bolder language is needed to accurately describe what’s transpiring.
The Rude Pundit: Nikki Haley Said One of the Stupidest F***ing Things I’ve Heard a Politician Say in a Long Time
Former South Carolina governor, former UN ambassador, and the hope of every Republican who believes their party is so much more than Trump (“See? A woman! And she’s not white! We’re not racist or sexist now!”) Nikki Haley was talking to Glenn “Fooled you with that brief bout of sanity” Beck on his internet concern, The Blaze, about her decision to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the SC state capital. She did this in the wake of racist Dylann Roof’s mass shooting of the members of the congregation of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a traditionally black place of worship, in Charleston in 2015. Roof hoped to start a race war, as he said in his racist manifesto.
House impeachment report looks at abuse, bribery, corruption
Previewing potential articles of impeachment, the House Democrats on Saturday issued a lengthy report drawing on history and the Founding Fathers to lay out the legal argument over the case against President Donald Trump’s actions toward Ukraine.
The findings from the House Judiciary Committee do not spell out the formal charges against the president, which are being drafted ahead of votes, possibly as soon as next week. Instead, the report refutes Trump’s criticism of the impeachment proceedings, arguing that the Constitution created impeachment as a “safety valve” so Americans would not have to wait for the next election to remove a president.
The Peloton actress has traded a bike for a cocktail in new Ryan Reynolds commercial
It’s a new beginning for the Peloton woman.
When last we saw her, she was celebrating her yearlong fitness journey and thanking her husband for giving her an exercise bike for Christmas. Both the bike and the husband were nowhere to be found on Friday.
In a video posted to his Twitter, Actor Ryan Reynolds seemed to poke fun at the recent controversy around an ad for Peloton, the indoor bike start-up. The video, a commercial for his Aviation Gin brand of distilled spirits, opens with the woman now dubbed “the Peloton woman” staring blankly at the camera while out with two girlfriends before they toast to “new beginnings.”
Supreme Court puts temporary hold on House subpoenas to banks for Trump’s financial documents
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday put a temporary hold on House subpoenas requesting President Donald Trump’s financial documents from two banks. In a brief order, Ginsburg said a lower court opinion that allowed the subpoenas to proceed would go on hold until December 13.
Earlier in the day, Trump had asked the justices to freeze the subpoenas to give his personal lawyers more time to ask the Supreme Court to take up his appeal.
Suspected shooter at Naval Air Station Pensacola was Saudi Air Force member
The suspect in a shooting that killed three people and injured several others at a naval base in Pensacola, Florida, on Friday morning was a member of the Saudi Air Force who was in the U.S. for training, officials said.
Several law enforcement sources identified the gunman, who was killed in the incident, as Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani.
House passes voting rights package aimed at restoring protections
The House on Friday passed a package of bills aimed at restoring protections of the Voting Rights Act rolled back by a key Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling.
The Voting Rights Advancement Act would, among other things, update the formula used to determine which states must preclear their voter registration practices, require public notice for voting registration changes, and allow the attorney general to send federal observers anywhere in the U.S.
Nancy Pelosi Takes Donald Trump’s Insult, Fires It Right Back At Him
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday night hit back at Donald Trump’s claim on Twitter that she’d “had a nervous fit” reportedly after she rebuked a journalist for asking if she “hated” the president.
Pelosi, who earlier in the day called on House Democratic leaders to begin drafting articles of impeachment against Trump, told a televised CNN town hall hosted by Jake Tapper that “the president is a master of projecting.”
Congressional Aides Tell Washington Post Trump Will Face Obstruction, Bribery Charges in Impeachment, But Not ‘Treason’
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that President Donald Trump is set to face obstruction and bribery impeachment charges, but not “treason” – though the situation could change at any moment.
Citing unnamed “congressional aides,” the Post reported Democrats in the House of Representatives “are considering articles of impeachment against President Trump that include obstruction and bribery but are unlikely to pursue a treason charge as they weigh how to illustrate that the president’s activities involving Ukraine were part of what they see as a pattern of misconduct.”
Trump sets his sights on Senate as he comes to grips with impeachment
With his impeachment now all-but-certain, President Donald Trump and his allies are beginning to look past the House of Representatives, shifting their sights to the Republican-led Senate where the President will face trial.
Trump, who as recently as Wednesday lamented impeachment as a “dirty word,” has struggled to accept the prospect of becoming the third President in history to be impeached. But the President and White House officials are now signaling they will mount a robust defense in the Senate and look to turn the tables on Democrats during the President’s trial — including by digging in on the President’s unsubstantiated claims of corruption leveled at former Vice President Joe Biden.
Pelosi announces full speed ahead with articles of impeachment against Trump
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced Thursday that she was asking the House Judiciary Committee and chairmen of other committees to proceed with drafting articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, saying “the president leaves us no choice but to act.”
“Sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders and our heart full of love for America, today, I am asking our chairmen to proceed with articles of impeachment,” Pelosi said in a brief televised statement from the Capitol, speaking directly to the American people.
Trump: I was asking Zelensky to help America, not me
It depends upon what the meaning of the word “us” is .
As the impeachment inquiries against President Donald Trump rocket forward, Trump tried Wednesday night to reframe the context of the phone call that sparked House Democrats’ impeachment investigation. Rather than asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up dirt on his domestic political rivals, Trump claimed that he had asked Zelensky to somehow help the nation as a whole.
3 dead, including gunman, in shooting at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard
An armed, active-duty sailor opened fire on three civilian employees, killing two, before he fatally shot himself at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard near Honolulu on Wednesday afternoon.
Three civilian Department of Defense workers were found shot in the vicinity of the base’s Dry Dock 2. Two died and a third is in the hospital in stable condition, according to Rear Adm. Robert Chadwick, commander, Navy Region Hawaii.
Barr’s handpicked prosecutor tells inspector general he can’t back right-wing theory that Russia case was U.S. intelligence setup
The prosecutor handpicked by Attorney General William P. Barr to scrutinize how U.S. agencies investigated President Trump’s 2016 campaign said he could not offer evidence to the Justice Department’s inspector general to support the suspicions of some conservatives that the case was a setup by American intelligence, people familiar with the matter said.
Legal scholars: Conduct like Trump’s is the reason Congress has impeachment power
There’s no question that President Donald Trump violated the Constitution’s limits on his power or that the House should respond by impeaching him, three legal scholars told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
That’s exactly what majority Democrats were hoping to hear, and it’s the testimony they will cite as the House moves toward drafting articles of impeachment against Trump based on his solicitation of Ukraine to launch investigations with political implications in the U.S. and possibly other matters.
Trump impeachment case enters historic next phase today in House Judiciary Committee
The investigation into President Donald Trump enters a historic next phase on Wednesday as the House Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on the constitutional grounds for drafting articles of impeachment.
The process of drawing up any articles, now becoming increasingly likely, could begin shortly after members question legal and constitutional experts about what the Constitution requires.
World leaders caught on camera appearing to joke about Trump
World leaders at the NATO summit in London were caught on camera appearing to joke about US President Donald Trump during a reception at Buckingham Palace Tuesday evening.
The video appears to show British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte having a laugh about Trump’s behavior during the summit.
The 25-second clip, which has gone viral and was first reported by CBC, begins with Johnson asking Macron why he was late.
Giuliani mystery phone calls, texts uncovered by Democrats’ impeachment report
Who in the White House budget office called Rudy Giuliani on an August afternoon, and what did they have to talk about for 13 minutes?
House impeachment investigators were unable to answer either question in their report released Tuesday by Democrats on the Intelligence Committee. But the call — and more than a dozen others and texts between President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and White House numbers — showed up in AT&T and Verizon records obtained by the House.
Bob Cesca: Trump’s “I want nothing!” defense was always stupid. Now it just went down in flames
There’s a myth going around that says goldfish only have memories lasting three seconds. The myth was busted long ago, with studies showing goldfish memories last closer to five months. But as we observe Donald Trump’s defense strategy against impeachment, he appears to believe his supporters possess even shorter memories than the mythical fish.
As more and more evidence of impeachable high crimes stack up against Donald Trump, his best defense strategy appears to rest on the assumption that his supporters can only remember one thing at a time.
Kamala Harris Dropping Out Of Presidential Race
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is dropping her presidential bid. She informed her staff on Tuesday. Harris held a call with her team in Iowa on Tuesday, saying that she had made the decision because of financial struggles experienced by the campaign.
“I don’t think anyone on my team was expecting this,” said one staffer, who said they were completely shocked by the news.
Democrats’ impeachment report cites Trump obstruction and withholding aid, warns of ‘grave harm’
The Democratic-led House Intelligence Committee released a report Tuesday containing a summary of the evidence it has collected in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
The 300-page report cited two instances of improper conduct: obstruction of the House inquiry and withholding an official White House meeting and military aid from Ukraine on the condition of investigating a Trump political rival.
House report due today will outline evidence for Trump impeachment
The House is poised to release a landmark impeachment report outlining evidence of what it calls Donald Trump’s wrongdoing toward Ukraine, findings that will push Congress toward a debate over whether the 45th president should be removed from office.
Democrats on the Intelligence Committee are making the case that Trump engaged in behavior violating his oath of office and, in the course of their investigation, obstructed Congress by stonewalling the proceedings. Republicans are defending the president in a rebuttal claiming Trump never intended to pressure Ukraine when he asked for a “favor” — investigations of Democrats and Joe Biden. They say the military aid the White House was withholding was not being used as leverage, as Democrats claim, and besides the $400 million was ultimately released.
Trump Blasts Macron For ‘Very Nasty Statement’ On NATO
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that French President Emmanuel Macron had been “very insulting” by describing NATO as “brain dead” as the two leaders prepared to attend a NATO summit.
“It’s a tough statement, though, when you make a statement like that, that is a very, very nasty statement to essentially 28, including them, 28 countries,” Trump told reporters as he met the head of NATO in London.
GOP Intelligence Committee Chairman Refuses To Knock Down Ukraine Conspiracy Theory
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) on Monday refused to say whether he’s seen evidence that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election, declining to directly rebut a debunked conspiracy theory floated by some of his fellow GOP lawmakers and President Donald Trump.
Burr, the chairman of the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee, instead played a game of words with reporters on Capitol Hill who pressed him about an interview with Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who suggested the Ukranian government worked “actively” to help elect Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton. Trump later thanked Kennedy “for the job he did in representing both the Republican Party and myself” on Twitter.
Charlie Pierce: Trump Has Begun the Process of Selling Out Rudy Giuliani
And, right before the holiday season officially begins, the last piece of the puzzle locks into place, and the last alibi falls apart like an overcooked turkey. From The New York Times:
Lawyers from the White House counsel’s office told Mr. Trump in late August about the complaint, explaining that they were trying to determine whether they were legally required to give it to Congress, the people said. The revelation could shed light on Mr. Trump’s thinking at two critical points under scrutiny by impeachment investigators: his decision in early September to release $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine and his denial to a key ambassador around the same time that there was a “quid pro quo” with Kyiv. Mr. Trump used the phrase before it had entered the public lexicon in the Ukraine affair.
Natasha Bertrand: Senate panel look into Ukraine interference comes up short
With the impeachment inquiry charging forward, President Donald Trump’s allies have defended his demand for political investigations from Ukraine by claiming that the government in Kyiv tried to sabotage his candidacy and boost Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“Russia was very aggressive and they’re much more sophisticated, but the fact that Russia was so aggressive does not exclude the fact that President Poroshenko actively worked for Secretary Clinton,” Republican Sen. John Kennedy claimed on Sunday in an interview with NBC, referring to the former Ukrainian president.
Jennifer Rubin: Nadler calls Trump’s bluff
When the House Intelligence Committee held depositions of key witnesses, President Trump’s lawyers cried: “Unfair! Secret hearings!” In fact, a slew of Republicans had the right to ask questions, though some chose not to attend. When the hearings moved to a public phase, the White House hollered: “Unfair! Trump’s lawyer isn’t present!” When the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), invited Trump’s lawyers to attend, the response was: “Unfair! We’re not coming!”
Read the rest of Jennifer Rubin’s piece at The Washington Post.
Duncan Hunter Says He is Leaving Congress, Pleading Guilty to Misusing Campaign Funds
Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter says he will leave Congress and will plead guilty to charges that he misused campaign funds.
Hunter said he is pleading guilty to spare his children from a public trial which was scheduled to begin next month. He told KUSI News that “not a single dime of taxpayer money is involved in this … I think it’s important that people know I did make mistakes.”
Eric Boehlert: Why is the press so obsessed with what Wall Street and billionaires think of Elizabeth Warren?
It turns out the media’s obsession with the superrich isn’t confined to the world of celebrity and entertainment. In politics, the press also seems utterly fascinated with how the 0.1% live, and especially what their political leanings are. For the 2020 campaign, that means a barrage of coverage about what Wall Street bankers and billionaires think about Elizabeth Warren and her populist agenda. They don’t trust her! Some like her! Some won’t donate! On and on it goes, as the press scurries to document the opinions of the superwealthy, but there’s no explanation for why they’re supposed to matter so much.
Lisa Page Speaks: ‘No Fathomable Way I Committed Any Crime’
It’s not often that you interview a subject who has no interest in being famous. But recently, I did just that when I sat down with Lisa Page the week before Thanksgiving in my hotel room in Washington, D.C. Page, of course, is the former FBI lawyer whose text-message exchanges with agent Peter Strzok that belittled Donald Trump and expressed fear at his possible victory became international news. They were hijacked by Trump to fuel his “deep state” conspiracy.
Trump’s Lawyers Won’t Participate in Impeachment Hearing on Wednesday
Lawyers for President Trump said on Sunday that they would not participate in the House Judiciary Committee’s first public impeachment hearing on Wednesday, airing a long list of complaints that they said prevented “any semblance of a fair process.”
Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the chairman of the committee, had given the White House a Sunday deadline for the president or his lawyers to take up the opportunity to appear at the hearing, where a panel of legal experts will offer an assessment of whether Mr. Trump committed impeachable offenses.
Harry Litman: The wait to see Trump’s taxes may have just gotten a lot longer
The chances just dramatically increased that President Trump will be able to keep his tax records secret through the 2020 election. The Supreme Court’s move Monday to grant a stay in one case involving the president’s returns means that neither members of Congress nor prosecutors — specifically, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. — may not be able to dislodge them for months.
The stay, which required the votes of five justices, was expected because it was necessary to ensure the government’s ability to argue to the high court that it should hear Trump v. Mazars, regarding a House committee’s subpoena of the president’s tax records from his accounting firm, Mazars USA. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had ruled in October that the House Oversight and Reform Committee is entitled to the records. Under the expedited schedule set by the court, the administration’s petition for certiorari — or written argument that the court should take the case — will not be filed until Dec. 5.
Read the rest of Harry Litman’s piece at The Washington Post.
The Rude Pundit: Note to Democrats… Call the GOP’s Bluff
Oh, it would be a shit show of open sewer proportions, for sure. It would be a scuzzy circus on top of a cheap zoo covered with crazy sauce. But House Democrats should call the bluff of the increasingly divorced-from-reality Republicans and hold hearings on all the fuckery they claim has been going on. Like fuckin’ all of it. Like let’s attempt to blow this shit up once and for all.
Just tell Republicans at different committees, “You wanna go? Let’s go, motherfuckers. Call your witnesses. But everyone has to go under oath. Every fucking witness.”
House GOP members are ‘absolutely disgusted and exhausted’ by Trump’s behavior, former GOP congressman says
Former Republican congressman Charlie Dent said Thursday some of his former colleagues in the House of Representatives have privately told him they are “absolutely disgusted and exhausted by the President’s behavior.”
Dent told CNN’s Ana Cabrera on “Newsroom” that House Republicans are standing with the President at the moment because of base pressure, but said “they resent being put in this position all the time.”
Intelligence Committee members can review impeachment report on Monday
The House Intelligence Committee is expected to allow members to review the committee’s impeachment report Monday ahead of a vote scheduled on Tuesday to approve the report, which details the committee’s findings from the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump and Ukraine, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The report is a chance for Democrats to make their case against the President after weeks of testimony and document collection and is expected to serve as the basis for articles of impeachment that the House Judiciary Committee will consider.
London Bridge attack threatens to recast U.K.’s ‘Brexit election’ with focus on terror
A deadly terror attack struck at the heart of the British capital just weeks before a crucial national election, refocusing the campaign on security issues as voters were set to head to the polls.
But two years later London Bridge was again the scene of tragedy, bravery and the center of national debate in the U.K. this weekend.
House Judiciary Panel Asks Trump if He Will Present Impeachment Defense
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee asked President Trump on Friday whether he intends to mount a defense during the committee’s consideration of impeachment articles, setting a deadline of next Friday for Mr. Trump and his lawyers to decide if they will present evidence or call witnesses.
In a letter to the president, Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the committee chairman, said Mr. Trump has the right to review the evidence against him, ask questions of his accusers during public hearings that begin next week and present evidence and request witness testimony.
Bob Cesca: Russian trolls are back for the 2020 election — and they won’t be easy to spot
We don’t hear this too often so it bears repeating: The ongoing Russian attack against the United States would’ve ultimately failed were it not for millions of unwitting American foot soldiers who helped it succeed. As accomplices, way too many of us were easily — willingly, in many cases — hoodwinked into sharing and retweeting propaganda designed to elect Donald Trump and, amid the chaos, undermine Western democracy.
In that respect, Russia’s active measures carried Vladimir Putin’s mission up to our doorsteps, but we were the ones who opened our virtual doors, welcoming in all the riffraff, treating the enemy like house guests, while suggesting all of our friends do the same. Putin and his operatives recognized a significant weakness here — the semi-distracted, drive-by gullibility of American social media users. As much as it pains me to say it, Putin was right. We might even be more gullible than he forecasted.
House impeachment inquiry releases transcripts of OMB and Pentagon officials’ depositions
House impeachment investigators released the final closed-door deposition transcripts from the impeachment inquiry on Tuesday with the interviews of State Department official Philip Reeker and Office of Management and Budget official Mark Sandy.
Sandy is a career official at OMB who was part of the freezing of the $400 million in US security aid to Ukraine, before the process was taken over by a political appointee to sign the documents delaying the aid.
House Judiciary Committee announces first impeachment hearing, invites Trump to attend
The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday announced it will hold its first public impeachment hearing next week, and invited President Donald Trump and his lawyers “to participate.”
“I am hopeful that you and your counsel will opt to participate in the Committee’s hearing, consistent with the rules of decorum and with the solemn nature before us,” Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler said in a letter announcing the hearing.
New CNN Poll Shows 50% of Americans Support Removing Trump From Office
While President Donald Trump and his media surrogates are busy proclaiming that House Democrat impeachment efforts are backfiring and public support is flagging, a new CNN poll reveals that half of Americans are in support of the impeachment and removal from office the embattled commander in chief.
In what is the first poll taken after two weeks of House Intel Committee hearings that kept the impeachment inquiry in the news cycle, the poll conducted by SSRS.
Ousted Navy Chief: Trump Meddling In SEAL’s Case Shows ‘You Can Get Away With Things’
Richard Spencer, the Navy secretary who resigned just a day ago, said Monday that President Donald Trump’s decision to block the Pentagon’s review of convicted war criminal and Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher sends a message “that you can get away with things.”
Spencer defended his handling of Chief Petty Officer Gallagher’s controversial case in a CBS interview with David Martin, the first time Spencer has spoken out about it since Defense Secretary Mark Esper forced him to step down on Sunday for disapproving of Trump’s intervention in military disciplinary proceedings.
Lindsey Graham Refuses To Back Down On Investigating Bidens
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) defended his move to investigate Joe Biden and his son, days after the former vice president said he was disappointed and angered by his old friend.
“I love Joe Biden as a person but we are not going to give a pass to what is obviously a conflict of interest,” Graham tweeted Monday, claiming Hunter Biden’s past position on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy firm, “doesn’t pass the smell test.”
Charlie Pierce: Rudy Giuliani Is Feelin’ Fine. It’s You Who’s Losing It, According to Rudy Giuliani.
Rudy Giuliani would like you all to relax. He’s fine. He’s just sailing along. And, despite the evidence of your own senses, he is not at all three sandwiches short of a picnic. From New York:
When reached for comment, Giuliani replied: “Garbage your publication cannot be counted on to report fairly on this salacious stupidity … I am a high functioning human being able to outwork people half my age. Compared to Biden and Pelosi, I’m a phenom.”
And I am the Tsar of all the Russias.
Supreme Court blocks House from receiving Trump financial records for now
The House of Representatives will not get President Donald Trump’s financial records for now, the Supreme Court said on Monday.
The ruling is a win for Trump, who is fighting on several fronts to shield the records from becoming public.
Former White House counsel Donald McGahn must comply with House subpoena, judge rules
Former Trump White House counsel Donald McGahn must comply with a House subpoena, a federal court ruled Monday, finding that top presidential advisers cannot ignore congressional demands for information and raising the possibility that McGahn could be forced to testify as part of the impeachment inquiry.
U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of Washington, found no basis for a White House claim that the former counsel is “absolutely immune from compelled congressional testimony,” likely setting the stage for a historic separation-of-powers confrontation between the government’s executive and legislative branches.
Eric Boehlert: It’s almost 2020 and New York Times editors are still debating if Trump’s a racist
Wasting untold time and energy, New York Times newsroom leaders continue to struggle with the not-very-difficult question of whether they ought to refer to Donald Trump as a racist. More than four years after Trump entered our national political conversation by announcing his candidacy for president, the Times still can’t figure out if the paper should accurately label him for his obviously racist behavior.
The Rude Pundit: Impeachment Hearings…Random Observations on Republicans Getting Kicked in the Taint
1. At some point in the future, barring democracy’s end, a Democrat will be president. Let’s say for shits and giggles that it’s, oh, hell, how about Alyssa Milano? Sure. Why not. Let’s say that it’s election time and Donald Trump, Jr. decides it’s time to throw his dumpy ass into the mix. And let’s say, and, why not, Junior’s the frontrunner because, hell, Republicans have got no one else. Maybe Junior will have opened a Trump Tower in Jerusalem in the last few years, and that meant doing a lot of business with wealthy people in Israel. Now, as we know, there are politicians (Netanyahu) in Israel who are tits-deep in corruption. We also know that the United States gives a fuck-ton of money in aid to Israel, along with military equipment.
Read the rest of The Rude Pundit’s piece at his blog…
Devin Nunes Dodges Questions About Whether He Met With Ukrainians For Dirt On Biden
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) dodged questions on Sunday from a Fox News host asking whether he met with a former Ukrainian official in 2018 to acquire dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden.
The lawyer for Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump, told CNN that Parnas is prepared to tell Congress that he is aware of a 2018 meeting between Nunes and former Ukrainian prosecutor general Victor Shokin, who was ousted for corruption in 2016; that he learned of this meeting directly from Shokin; and that the express purpose of the meeting was for Nunes to get information on Biden.
Bloomberg officially joins 2020 Democratic field
Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has launched his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination by spending $37 million on television advertising over the next two weeks, more than the entire field has spent on TV ads so far.
Schiff says House will move forward with impeachment inquiry after ‘overwhelming’ evidence from hearings
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Sunday that the two weeks of public hearings produced “overwhelming evidence” that President Donald Trump conditioned official acts for favors from Ukraine that would benefit his re-election bid, arguing that it’s “urgent” for the House to move forward with its impeachment inquiry.
In an interview on “Meet the Press,” Schiff, the California Democrat overseeing the hearings, said that while his committee has no more public testimony scheduled, he doesn’t “foreclose the possibility of others” being added.
Navy Secretary Richard Spencer fired in dispute with Trump over discipline of SEAL
Navy Secretary Richard Spencer was fired Sunday by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who ordered that a Navy SEAL who was acquitted of murder be allowed to remain in the elite commando corps, the Defense Department said.
Esper asked for Spencer’s resignation after President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher would retain the gold Trident insignia signifying his status as a member of the Sea, Air, and Land Teams, or SEALs. Spencer told reporters on Friday that he believed the review process over Gallagher’s status should go forward.
Fox 11 LA: The Issue Is… Stephanie Miller, Michael Reagan, Gianno Caldwell
After the House Intelligence Committee wraps up a week of dramatic testimony, what happens next?
Joining us: progressive radio talk show host Stephanie Miller & conservative commentator Michael Reagan.
We also discuss the most recent Democratic debate, including insight from our focus group of undecided voters.
Everything we learned from the Trump impeachment hearings
From Wednesday Nov. 13 to Thursday Nov. 21, Americans were glued to their televisions, computers and streaming devices, as the House Intelligence Committee held a series of long public hearings as part of a broader Democratic-led impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
Documents released to ethics group show Giuliani, Pompeo contacts before Ukraine ambassador ousted
An ethics group late Friday published nearly 100 pages of previously unreleased State Department documents that the group says shows “a clear paper trail” between President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before a Ukraine ambassador was abruptly recalled.
The documents were published by American Oversight, which calls itself a non-partisan and nonprofit ethics watchdog and Freedom of Information Act litigator investigating the Trump administration.
Giuliani Crony Can Detail Nunes’ Meeting With Ex-Ukraine Official To Get Biden Dirt: Report
Rudy Giuliani’s indicted associate Lev Parnas is prepared to tell Congress that Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) met with a former Ukrainian prosecutor who was ousted over corruption concerns in a bid to get dirt on Joe Biden, CNN reported Friday.
A lawyer for Parnas, a Soviet-born American who has been indicted on federal campaign finance violations, said his client found out about the European meeting directly from the Ukrainian official.
Volker admits he was wrong to view Biden and Burisma separately
Kurt Volker told lawmakers that he drew a “sharp distinction” between Burisma and Biden, but admits that he was wrong to view them separately.
“In hindsight, I now understand that others saw the idea of investigating possible corruption involving the Ukrainian company, “Burisma,” as equivalent to investigating former Vice President Biden. I saw them as very different. The former being appropriate and unremarkable, the latter being unacceptable,” Volker said in his opening statement. “In retrospect, I should have seen that connection differently, and had I done so, I would have raised my own objections.”
Stephen Miller planted anti-Rubio stories in Breitbart during 2016 campaign, leaked emails show
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller had more editorial influence over the right-wing news website Breitbart during the 2016 presidential campaign than previously known and attempted to push articles attacking then-presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., according to a new batch of leaked emails shared with NBC News.
6 things we learned from Vindman’s and Williams’ impeachment testimony
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Jennifer Williams — who both listened in on the July 25 call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy at the center of the House’s impeachment inquiry — spent more than four hours testifying before the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday.
Impeachment inquiry enters most crucial stage with top witnesses on deck
Democrats who want to oust President Donald Trump and Republicans battling to save him are braced for the most momentous phase yet in the battle of impeachment that is rocking Washington.
The showdown that could result in Trump becoming only the third US president to suffer such a fate will resume in the House Intelligence Committee at 9 a.m. ET with appearances by senior national security officials.
Bob Cesca: Trump’s still pushing the CrowdStrike conspiracy theory… But why, and where did it come from?
Last week, the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee shoehorned into the permanent record of the impeachment inquiry a conspiracy theory about the “real” attackers against the 2016 election. This defiant linkage to agitprop of dubious origin was yet another chapter in the GOP’s hopeless descent into complete make-believe.
Before we dig into the madness, there’s a history here that needs to be underscored, since the Republican appetite for crapola didn’t quite begin with Donald Trump.
Milwaukee’s progressive talk radio station adds FM outlet
Milwaukee’s only progressive talk radio station is now available round-the-clock on the FM broadcast band. WRRD announced on its Facebook page the launch of “Talk 101.7 FM” in Milwaukee. Previously, 24-7 programming was available only through the station’s internet audio stream.
Read the rest of the story at The Milwaukee Business Journal.
House Investigating Whether Trump Lied To Mueller In U.S. Russia Probe
The U.S. House of Representatives is probing whether President Donald Trump lied in his written testimony submitted to then-U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of the completed federal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, CNN said on Monday.
A House lawyer told a federal appeals court in Washington on Monday that lawmakers were examining whether Trump’s written answers to federal investigators were untruthful, CNN reported.
Oklahoma Walmart shooting leaves three dead, including suspect
A shooting outside a Walmart store in Oklahoma on Monday morning left at least three people dead, including the suspected gunman, officials said.
A woman and a man were fatally shot in a car, and another man was fatally shot outside of the car in the parking lot of the store in Duncan, about 80 miles south of Oklahoma City, according to the Duncan Police Department.
Trump says he will ‘strongly consider’ testifying in House impeachment probe
President Donald Trump said Monday that he is “strongly” considering testifying before the impeachment probe in light of recent comments from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who said he is more than welcome to present his case personally before the House Intelligence Committee.
Trump attacks another witness as his impeachment defense faces new tests
President Donald Trump’s impeachment angst led him to fire off a new attack on a key witness and threatens to deepen in the frenetic week ahead with crucial testimony scheduled from officials caught in the middle of the Ukraine storm.
But as is perpetually the case with the President, a brew of competing scandals and controversies will jostle for attention in Washington. That includes fallout from a mysterious and unscheduled trip to a hospital on Saturday, his fight against efforts to reveal his tax records and an apparent new tactic — firing off searing attacks on witnesses who criticize him in televised hearings.
Trump’s impeachment ire turns on Pompeo amid diplomats’ starring roles
The Ukraine impeachment inquiry has created the first rift between President Donald Trump and the Cabinet member who has been his closest ally, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to four current and former senior administration officials.
Trump has fumed for weeks that Pompeo is responsible for hiring State Department officials whose congressional testimony threatens to bring down his presidency, the officials said. The president confronted Pompeo about the officials — and what he believed was a lackluster effort by the secretary of state to block their testimony — during lunch at the White House on Oct. 29, those familiar with the matter said.
White House defends Trump’s surprise medical exam amid skepticism online
The White House said there was nothing unusual about President Donald Trump making a surprise trip to Walter Reed Medical Center on Saturday to undergo what he called “phase one” of his annual physical.
But the ordeal was met with skepticism online, where some felt the White House and the president weren’t being upfront about his hospital visit.
“Visited a great family of a young man under major surgery at the amazing Walter Reed Medical Center,” Trump tweeted early Sunday morning. “Those are truly some of the best doctors anywhere in the world. Also began phase one of my yearly physical. Everything very good (great!). Will complete next year.”
Eric Boehlert: Impeachment hearings confirm Republican Party is detached from reality. What does the press do now?
Republicans proudly advertised their radical ways during Wednesday’s impeachment hearings into Donald Trump, wallowing in conspiracies and embracing debunked claims. The question now: How does the Beltway media cover a party that has aggressively removed itself from reality? How does the news business describe and treat a political party that routinely echoes the most unbelievable claims from Fox News and the darkest corners of the right-wing media?
The Rude Pundit: Impeachment Hearings… Yovanovitch Kicks Trump’s Ass
Apparently, President Donald Trump, who is just large sack of yams mashed with sadness, decided that he would try to distract from the impeachment hearings today. He first tried by releasing the pseudo-transcript of a phone call between him and Ukrainian President Zelensky that occurred before the one where he pressured Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden’s son.
Of course, it’s a mostly banal congratulatory call, although Zelensky has the air of a desperate fanboy and Trump is his usual lumpen self. At one point, Trump pretty much compliments Zelensky on the hotness of the women in his country: “When I owned Miss Universe, they always had great people. Ukraine was always very well represented.”
Trump asks Supreme Court to keep his tax returns away from prosecutors
Lawyers for President Donald Trump want the Supreme Court to block New York prosecutors from obtaining his tax returns.
“We have filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to overturn the 2nd Circuit decision regarding a subpoena issued by the New York County District Attorney. The 2nd Circuit decision is wrong and should be reversed,” Trump attorney Jay Sekulow told NBC News late Thursday afternoon.
Santa Clarita, California, high school shooting leaves 2 students dead, multiple injured
A teenage gunman opened fire at a Southern California high school Thursday morning, killing two students and wounding three others, before shooting himself in the head, officials said.
The suspect, whom authorities described as an Asian male who turned 16 on Thursday, was in critical condition at a hospital, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday night. Surveillance video showed the shooter pull a gun from his backpack in the quad area of Saugus High School, shoot five people and then shoot himself, it said.
Trump: Impeachment has been ‘very hard on my family’
President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that the impeachment process was taking a personal toll, calling impeachment a “problem” that had been “very hard on my family.”
“I have one problem. And it has been very hard on my family,” he said at a campaign rally in Louisiana, adding that “impeachment, to me, is a dirty word.”
“It’s been very unfair, very hard on my family. Me, it’s my whole life, it’s crazy,” he said. “What a life I lead. You think this is fun, don’t you? But it’s been very hard on my family. Very, very hard.”
Who is Marie Yovanovitch? Ambassador testifying at today’s impeachment hearing
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch — who is testifying in the House impeachment inquiry on Friday — was derided by President Donald Trump as “bad news” in a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart.
“She’s going to go through some things,” Trump told President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a phone conversation that’s at the center of the impeachment probe.
Trump DC hotel sales pitch boasts of millions to be made from foreign governments
In its effort to sell off the lease to the Trump International Hotel in Washington the Trump Organization has put together a glossy investor brochure complete with pictures showcasing the hotel’s grandiose architecture, its central location and its spa’s Himalayan salt chamber.
The hotel’s biggest selling point though, according to a copy of the brochure seen by CNN, is the one thing that the Trump family insists it didn’t take advantage of: profiting off foreign governments.
Appeals court hands Trump another loss, saying Congress can seek his tax returns
An appeals court has denied for the second time President Donald Trump’s attempt to stop an accounting firm from turning over his financial documents to the House, making it the second tax case Trump’s lawyers say they are taking to the Supreme Court.
The DC Circuit Court of Appeals said on Wednesday that a panel of eight judges out of 11 voted against allowing Trump to continue his appeal.
Trump welcomes Turkey’s leader to White House weeks after Syria invasion
In a news conference in the Oval Office, President Trump said he and Turkish President Erdogan are “very good friends” and said the ceasefire in Syria is “holding very well.” Trump had faced bipartisan calls to rescind the invitation to Erdogan, from lawmakers who say the Turkish leader should not have been honored with a White House visit after Turkey attacked U.S. Kurdish allies in Syria last month.
7 Key Takeaways From The First Public Impeachment Hearing
The House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday held the first televised hearing of its impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Democrats are investigating his attempt to withhold U.S. military aid to Ukraine until the country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Bill Taylor, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary for Europe and Eurasian affairs, were the first two witnesses to publicly testify in the investigation, after they separately testified privately last month.
House Dems Announce More Impeachment Hearings Set for Next Week, Including Vindman, Sondland, Volker, and More
Ahead of the first round of impeachment hearings tomorrow, House Intel Committee chairman Adam Schiff has announced multiple additional hearings set for next week.
Next Tuesday, the committee will hear from Pence aide Jennifer Williams, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker, and NSC official Tim Morrison.
A combative Trump and his White House brace for first public impeachment hearings
President Donald Trump has long criticized Democrats for conducting the impeachment inquiry behind closed doors. This week, he and his advisers are bracing for impact as those doors are thrown open and the cameras roll on the first public presidential impeachment hearings in over 20 years.
As the hearings on Wednesday have approached, Trump’s mood has veered between relishing the fight and seething with anger as he focuses heavily on his television defenders, according to one person close to the White House.
Democrats warn State Department not to retaliate against testifying diplomats
Senate Democrats are warning State Department leaders not to retaliate against U.S. diplomats testifying publicly this week as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
In a letter dated Tuesday, the Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee also demand that the State Department issue statements of support for the diplomats soon to take the stage.
In private speech, Bolton suggests some of Trump’s foreign policy decisions are guided by personal interest
Former national security adviser John Bolton derided President Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law during a private speech last week and suggested his former boss’ approach to U.S. policy on Turkey is motivated by personal or financial interests, several people who were present for the remarks told NBC News.
According to six people who were there, Bolton also questioned the merits of Trump applying his business acumen to foreign policy, saying such issues can’t be approached like the win-or-lose edict that drives real estate deals: When one deal doesn’t work, you move on to the next.
Supreme Court’s Conservatives Seem To Back Trump On Ending DACA
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority seems prepared to allow the Trump administration to end a program that allows some immigrants to work legally in the United States and protects them from deportation.
There did not appear to be any support among the five conservatives in extended arguments Tuesday for blocking the administration’s decision to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. It currently protects 660,000 immigrants who came to the United States as children and are here illegally.
Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller pushed white nationalism in a series of leaked emails
Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller in a series of leaked emails pushed white nationalism, bemoaned opposition to Confederate symbols following a mass shooting at a Black church in South Carolina and embraced immigration policies once lauded by Adolf Hitler.
On Tuesday, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights advocacy group, published an investigative report from its Hatewatch arm, which reviewed more than 900 messages Miller sent to Breitbart editors from March 2015 to June 2016. More than 80% “relate to or appear on threads relating to the subjects of race or immigration,” Hatewatch said.
Bob Cesca: Send in the clowns… Impeachment is serious stuff, but GOP wants a circus
The impeachment of Donald Trump is not just a matter of holding the president accountable for his confessed plot to extort Ukraine at a time when Russia is engaged in both an invasion of that country and a cyber-invasion of the United States. This impeachment is also a mandatory warning to myriad potential Trump copycats that serving as a carrier of the political disease known as Trumpism is absolutely not a path to more winning, but a political death wish.
Not to overstate the obvious, but the very existence of this whimpering tyrant in the White House, along with his relentless undermining of liberal democracy, should never have occurred in the first place. But now that he’s here, we have no choice but to swiftly oust Trump and quarantine Trumpism, the style of politics Trump co-opted from decades of Fox News, talk radio and far-right agitprop. Too much time has passed already. Trumpism has to be yanked back now, before it’s too late.
Jimmy Carter Hospitalized for Brain Procedure
Former President Jimmy Carter was hospitalized in Atlanta on Monday night to undergo a procedure intended to relieve pressure on his brain caused by bleeding from recent falls, his office said.
Mr. Carter will have the procedure performed on Tuesday morning. “President Carter is resting comfortably and his wife, Rosalynn, is with him,” Deanna Congileo, his spokeswoman, said in a statement. Ms. Congileo provided no elaboration on what prompted the trip to the Emory University Hospital or any further details on the procedure.
Judge shuts out public from Mick Mulvaney hearing on House impeachment subpoena
The public couldn’t listen to a public court hearing Monday night over acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s House impeachment subpoena, a federal judge in Washington said.
Court security told three reporters from CNN, Bloomberg and The Washington Post to leave the DC federal courthouse minutes before the 5 p.m. ET start time for the hearing. The hearing, which was held over the phone, would not be open to the public and the judge was not in his chambers, according to court security guards who spoke to the judge’s chambers Monday.
Pentagon official testifies Trump directed freeze on aid to Ukraine
Laura Cooper, the top Pentagon official overseeing U.S. policy regarding Ukraine, told House impeachment investigators last month that President Donald Trump directed the relevant agencies to freeze aid to Ukraine over the summer, according to a transcript of her testimony released Monday.
Cooper, during Oct. 23 testimony before the three House committees leading the impeachment inquiry into Trump’s Ukraine dealings, testified that she and other Pentagon officials had answered questions about the Ukraine assistance in the middle of June — so she was surprised when one of her subordinates told her that a hold had been placed on the funds after an interagency meeting in July.
Joel Stein: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Elite
I am carrying a bottle of 2012 Trump Winery Sparkling Blanc de Blanc. I received the bottle ironically, and I am regifting it even more ironically to liberal radio talk-show host Stephanie Miller for the election party she’s throwing four houses up from mine in the Hollywood Hills. We shall toast Donald Trump’s concession speech with glasses of his own sorry attempt to mimic the elite he tried to bring down. It shall taste sweet. Slightly too sweet, maybe due to the low acid levels in the Virginia grapes.
Read the rest of Joel Stein’s piece in The Washingtonian and be sure to pick up his book “In Defense of Elitism: Why I’m Better Than You and You’re Better Than Someone Who Didn’t Buy This Book”
Trump can’t sue New York state in DC federal court to stop release of tax returns, judge says
A Trump-appointed federal judge decided Monday that President Donald Trump can’t sue New York state officials in a Washington, DC, court at this time to stop the release of his tax returns to Congress.
The case is one of many where the President or his administration have asked federal judges to intervene before House Democrats obtain Trump’s financial records.
Effectively, the ruling is a loss for Trump but a less significant one then the blows other courts have dealt him in cases involving Democrats’ pursuits of his financial records. Courts have sided with the House multiple times in cases where its committees have subpoenaed Trump’s financial records. Trump is still appealing those rulings, keeping the House subpoenas on hold.
Trump Met With ‘Lock Him Up’ Chants, ‘Impeach’ Signs At NYC Veterans Day Parade
President Donald Trump may have been a lifelong New Yorker until recently, but the city he once called home didn’t quite welcome him with open arms on Monday.
For the first few minutes of Trump’s speech in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park ahead of the 100th annual Veterans Day Parade, attendees could hear protesters outside the ceremony chanting “lock him up” and “traitor.”
To his left, luxury high-rise condominiums towered over the park with signs on some windows spelling out “IMPEACH” and “CONVICT” in massive black letters.
Trump, the first sitting president to attend the Veterans Day Parade in New York City, did not acknowledge the protests.
Charlie Pierce: Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan Just Debuted the Trump Circus Defense
Friday’s Transcripts of the Day were those of Fiona Hill and Colonel Alexander Vindland, and, yes, they pretty much prove that the president* is as guilty as sin, even as his own sins, which are considerable. But the most entertaining parts of the new transcripts, and the sections that give us some kind of indication as to where the open hearings might go, are those featuring the floundering attempts by various Republicans to derail the proceedings in one way or another. And when it comes to Republican Flounders, there’s no flounder more floundering than Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Breathalyzer), Republican of Florida.
Eric Boehlert: Ukraine floodgates open and Fox News tries to discredit everyone—but it won’t work
Will playing whac-a-mole help save the Trump presidency?
That’s what Fox News and Donald Trump defenders have been reduced to in recent weeks as the White House and its media allies scramble to try to find a coherent defense for his admitted campaign collusion with a foreign power. (This time, it’s attempted collusion with Ukraine.) More than a month into this unraveling story, Fox News is trying its best to protect Trump by attacking key players from within the administration who have come forward with damaging information during the impeachment inquiry. Going on the offensive and smearing honorable people is one of Fox News’ favorite pastimes: It’s the engine that fuels the whole propaganda enterprise. But this time it’s not going to work, simply because there are too many witnesses offering up too much damaging information for Fox News and the conservative media to combat.
Giuliani Associate Says He Told Ukraine That Aid Was Contingent On Biden Probe: Report
Lev Parnas, one of Rudy Giuliani’s two indicted business associates, reportedly said that he told incoming Ukrainian leadership earlier this year to announce an investigation into the Bidens in exchange for U.S. military aid.
Parnas allegedly traveled to Kyiv just before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was inaugurated in May and told the incoming government to announce an investigation into President Donald Trump’s political rival Joe Biden, otherwise the U.S. would freeze military aid to the country, the Ukrainian-American businessman’s attorney Joseph A. Bondy told The New York Times in a report published Sunday.
Read the story at The New York Times and HuffPost.
Donald Trump Jr. Ends Book Event Abruptly After Being Heckled By Far-Right Supporters
Donald Trump Jr ventured on to the University of California’s overwhelmingly liberal Los Angeles campus on Sunday, hoping to prove what he had just argued in his book – that a hate-filled American left was hell-bent on silencing him and anyone else who supported the Trump presidency.
But the appearance backfired when his own supporters, diehard Make America Great Again conservatives, raised their voices most loudly in protest and ended up drowning him out barely 20 minutes into an event scheduled to last two hours.
Nikki Haley says Kelly, Tillerson tried to get her to resist Trump to ‘save the country’
Nikki Haley, President Donald Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, claims in a new book that two of his top advisers tried to “undermine” the president to “save the country.”
Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, was asked by “CBS Evening News” about a passage from her new book, “With All Due Respect,” in which she claims that former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House chief of staff John Kelly tried to recruit her into that effort. She says she refused. The Washington Post also reported on the exchange. NBC News has not independently verified the passage.
Trump Wants Republicans to Stop Using the ‘Bad But Not Impeachable’ Defense: The Call Was ‘PERFECT’
Some Republicans have started defending President Donald Trump on the impeachment issue by gravitating towards the “bad but not impeachable” argument. A GOP congressman said this morning, for example, his call with the president of Ukraine was “inappropriate” but not impeachable.
But the president is clearly frustrated and would like Republicans to stop criticizing his “PERFECT” call, even for the purposes of ultimately defending him.
Eric Boehlert: Trump’s reelection campaign spreads lies online—and the press touts it as savvy
It’s gone from bad to worse: After spending years refusing to call Donald Trump a liar, the press is now toasting his reelection campaign, which is built on lies.
“That campaigns are now being fought largely online is hardly a revelation, yet only one political party seems to have gotten the message,” The New York Times recently reported in a major story on Trump’s reelection run. “While the Trump campaign has put its digital operation firmly at the center of the president’s re-election effort, Democrats are struggling to internalize the lessons of the 2016 race and adapt to a political landscape shaped by social media.” The message the Times presented was unmistakable: Trump’s reelection campaign is trouncing Democrats online. (Trump had gotten “the message.”) Separately, the Times in another piece announced, “The technical superiority and sophistication of the president’s digital campaign is a hidden advantage of incumbency.”
The Rude Pundit: Impeachment Transcripts Reveal That Republicans Continue to Be Utter D***s
Yes, there are a whole bunch of fascinating things in the transcripts of witness testimony that have been released by the House joint committee looking into whether or not to impeach President Trump. From the unending obsession with Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden to the mistreatment of people who gave their entire careers to serving the United States, only to see themselves treated like shit when this orange creep got into office, you can find nugget after nugget of pure impeachable gold.
Something else that comes through loud and clear is just how dickish Republicans are. Remember: these hearings were done behind closed doors in order to investigate the alleged crimes, with the knowledge that there would be a transcript. So Republicans on the committee aren’t performing for the cameras. They want to go down in history as vigorous nuzzlers of Donald Trump’s balls, and they like to do it from behind so they get a face full of taint while rubbing themselves on his walnut scrotum, getting that scent all over them.
Schiff says whistleblower testimony is ‘redundant and unnecessary’
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff made clear on Saturday that the Ukraine whistleblower won’t be testifying in the impeachment inquiry, arguing that the individual’s testimony would be “redundant and unnecessary.”
House Republicans earlier Saturday had submitted a list of witnesses to Democrats that they’d like to testify as part of the chamber’s impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump and Ukraine. The list included the whistleblower and former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
Mulvaney attempts to join lawsuit over House subpoena, sidestepping scheduled testimony
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney is attempting to join a lawsuit testing House subpoena power, which, if allowed, could effectively derail him from giving testimony in the impeachment inquiry until a federal court decides the case.
Mulvaney did not appear for his scheduled testimony Friday morning despite him receiving a subpoena, because the White House told him he should not appear, claiming that legally he is immune. According to transcripts of two other witness’ testimony released Friday, Mulvaney was a key broker inside the White House pushing for Ukraine’s announcement of investigations that could politically help President Donald Trump.
Vindman testified there was ‘no doubt’ Trump was seeking investigations from Ukraine
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, told House impeachment investigators “there was no doubt” what President Donald Trump was demanding during his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
During that conversation, now central to House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, Trump pressed Zelenskiy to launch investigations involving former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden as well as a conspiracy related to the 2016 U.S. election, according to the record of the call released by the White House.
John Bolton Knows Of ‘Many Relevant’ Conversations About Ukraine, Lawyer Says
President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton knows about “many relevant meetings and conversations” surrounding Trump’s communications with Ukraine, Bolton’s lawyer told lawmakers Friday.
Bolton has information that House impeachment investigators do not know about yet, his lawyer Charles Cooper said in a letter to the chief House lawyer, which was first reported by The New York Times. Lawmakers have called on Bolton to testify as part of the impeachment inquiry, but his lawyer first wants a court to rule on whether he should be made to do so, given that the White House has chosen not to cooperate with the inquiry.
Book by ‘Anonymous’ describes Trump as cruel, inept and a danger to the nation
Senior Trump administration officials considered resigning en masse last year in a “midnight self-massacre” to sound a public alarm about President Trump’s conduct, but rejected the idea because they believed it would further destabilize an already teetering government, according to a new book by an unnamed author.
In “A Warning” by Anonymous, obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its release, a writer described only as “a senior official in the Trump administration” paints a chilling portrait of the president as cruel, inept and a danger to the nation he was elected to lead.
Michael Bloomberg, billionaire and former NYC mayor, prepares for a presidential bid
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is positioning himself to enter the Democratic presidential primary, a longtime Bloomberg adviser confirmed to NBC News Thursday, though he has not yet made a final decision.
“Yes and yes,” Kevin Sheekey wrote in an email responding to the questions about whether Bloomberg, 77, a billionaire businessman, was preparing to run and collecting signatures in Alabama, moves first reported by The New York Times on Thursday afternoon.
State Dept. official believed Trump-Ukraine conduct was ‘injurious to the rule of law,’ transcripts show
State Department official George Kent, a key witness in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, told House investigators last month he created contemporaneous memos of specific conversations he’d witnessed related to the White House’s attempted quid pro quo that he said were “injurious to the rule of law, both in Ukraine and the U.S,” according to a transcript of his testimony made public Thursday.
John Bolton Willing to Testify in Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry With Federal Court Clearance
A new report says that if former White House National Security Adviser John Bolton can get clearance from a federal court, he’ll be prepared to defy the Donald Trump administration’s orders and testify before the Ukraine impeachment inquiry.
Washington Post reports that Bolton wants a court ruling on the dispute between the Trump administration and Congress about the impeachment investigation’s subpoenas. The Post notes that it’s unclear whether that can be arranged in time for Bolton to be called as a witness, but sources say he’s expected to describe his conversations with Trump and confirm the testimony from other witnesses about the president’s Ukraine quid pro quo.
Trump Ordered to Pay $2 Million Settlement For Misusing Charity Funds From His Dissolved Foundation
A New York judge has ruled that President Donald Trump must pay a $2 million settlement for using his charity organization to advance his 2016 campaign.
The settlement brings an end to the lawsuit the New York attorney general’s office filed against the Trump Foundation, claiming the president and his children repeatedly used the charity’s funds to break campaign finance laws, abused its tax-exempt status, and engaged in a pattern of “illegal conduct.” The Trump Foundation was dissolved last year and the organization’s remaining money has been redistributed to other charitable groups
Attorney General Barr Declined Trump’s Request to Declare There Was Nothing Illegal in Ukraine Call
President Trump asked that Attorney General William P. Barr hold a news conference to declare that he had broken no laws in a telephone call with Ukraine’s president that is now at the heart of the Democratic impeachment inquiry, but Mr. Barr declined, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Kentucky Gov. Bevin calls for vote recanvass as he refuses to concede
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin on Wednesday filed a formal request for a recanvass of the vote in his bid for re-election, a day after he appeared to come up roughly 5,150 votes short. NBC News declared his Democratic opponent, Andy Beshear, the state attorney general, the apparent winner of the race.
“The people of Kentucky deserve a fair and honest election,” Bevin campaign manager Davis Paine said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “With reports of irregularities, we are exercising the right to ensure that every lawful vote was counted.”
Top diplomat in Ukraine Bill Taylor directly ties Trump to quid pro quo
The top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, told House impeachment investigators last month that President Donald Trump directed officials to tie military aid to Ukraine to demands that the country open political advantageous probes, according to a transcript of his testimony made public Wednesday.
The transcript of Taylor’s closed-door testimony before the three House committees leading the impeachment inquiry into Trump — the latest in a series of witness transcripts made public — confirms NBC News’ reporting about his more than nine hours of testimony last month. It also contains new details about the language he used in describing the White House’s attempted quid pro quo with Ukraine that shed light on his level of concern about the matter.
Public Impeachment Hearings Will Begin Next Week, House Says
The House Intelligence Committee will hold the first of a series of public impeachment hearings next week, Democrats announced on Wednesday, calling three senior State Department officials to testify as they begin laying out their case against President Trump.
In the debut of the sessions expected to be televised live from Capitol Hill, lawmakers plan to question William B. Taylor Jr., the top American envoy in Ukraine, and George P. Kent, a senior American diplomat who oversees policy in the region, during a joint hearing on Wednesday. Then on Friday, they will take public testimony from Marie L. Yovanovitch, the former American ambassador to Ukraine, about her abrupt recall to Washington this spring amid a campaign by Mr. Trump and his inner circle to smear her as disloyal.
Lindsey Graham Says He Won’t Read Impeachment Testimony Transcripts
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told CBS News that he won’t be reading the transcripts House impeachment investigators released Tuesday, even though a witness revised his testimony to indicate that a quid pro quo deal was pushed on Ukraine. When asked if he planned on reading the testimony of U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland and former special envoy Kurt Volker on Tuesday, he said he would not. “I’ve written the whole process off… I think this is a bunch of B.S.,” Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said.
Dem claims victory in Kentucky governor race, as Democrats flip Virginia legislature
The closely watched governor’s race in Kentucky between incumbent GOP Gov. Matt Bevin and Democratic challenger Andy Beshear remains too close to call, according to The Associated Press, despite a celebratory speech by Beshear.
Beshear, the Democratic attorney general and a Kentucky political heir, held a slim lead over Bevin, 49.2% to 48.8%, according to unofficial results from Kentucky’s state board of elections at the time of the call.
Bob Cesca: His dark materials… Trump’s war on truth gets sicker, and more dangerous
Given how the year started out, the Virginia Democratic Party didn’t need another bombshell news story to collapse on its head so close to the state and local elections this week. But it appears as though Gov. Ralph Northam executed a baby. Sure, Virginia is a death penalty state, and even though Northam is personally opposed to capital punishment — a baby? How barbaric, how heartless, how … completely untrue.
No, Northam didn’t really execute a baby. But that didn’t stop Donald Trump from telling his Red Hat cult in Tupelo, Mississippi, over the weekend that the governor had done exactly that.
About 75 minutes into his latest pathologically unspooled campaign rally, the president said, “The governor of Virginia executed a baby, remember that whole thing?”
Sondland changes testimony, acknowledges delivering quid pro quo message to Ukraine
U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland told House impeachment investigators this week that he now remembers telling a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Ukraine would not receive U.S. military assistance until it committed to investigating the 2016 election and former Vice President Joe Biden, according to a person with knowledge of Sondland’s testimony.
Sondland’s latest testimony — stated in a three-page declaration to the House committees leading the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump — represents an update to the testimony he gave in October and contains significant new details. That includes a fuller accounting of the role he played in personally telling the Ukrainians they needed to cooperate with the demands of Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, if they wanted the aid money.
Rand Paul issues fiery demand for media to reveal whistleblower’s identity
Republican Sen. Rand Paul, before a raucous crowd on Monday, demanded members of the media print the identity of the anonymous whistleblower at the heart of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.
“I say to tonight to the media: do your job and print his name,” Paul, a Kentucky Republican, yelled during a rally Trump held in support of Republican Gov. Matt Bevin ahead of Tuesday’s gubernatorial election. The crowd of Trump supporters, many donning “READ THE TRANSCRIPT” shirts, erupted into applause and cheers, and some chanted “Do your job!” and pointed toward the area where members of the press gathered to cover the event.
Roger Stone complains of food poisoning, leaves jury selection in his trial
Jury selection in the trial of Roger Stone, the longtime confidant and adviser to President Donald Trump, got off to a bizarre start on Tuesday as Stone left the proceedings due to what he said was food poisoning shortly after an observer was taken out of the courtroom on a stretcher after appearing to have a seizure.
The selection of the jury continued without Stone present, but because of the earlier delay stemming from the separate medical emergency, it is unlikely jury selection will be completed Tuesday. More than 80 prospective jurors arrived at federal district court in Washington, D.C., to potentially take part in the trial.
Charlie Pierce: Mike Pompeo’s State Department Answers to Sean Hannity, Apparently
Once upon a time, there was a king of France who believed he was made of glass. Apparently, this was A Thing at the time. People thought they were made of glass. Literally. It was a sort of advanced, funky hypochondria, I guess. Some cases were more advanced than others, too.
Supreme Court unlikely to help Trump keep his taxes from prosecutors
President Donald Trump will face strong headwinds in asking the Supreme Court to stop prosecutors in New York from getting his tax returns.
Past Supreme Court rulings have upheld subpoenas directed at presidents, and this time the local prosecutors are seeking documents from the Trump Organization and Trump’s accountants — not directly from the president himself.
House Releases First Depositions From Trump Impeachment Probe
House investigators on Monday released transcripts from the closed-door interviews with two former State Department officials as part of their impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
These are the first depositions the Democrat-controlled House has made public as they investigate Trump pressuring Ukrainian officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter while also withholding U.S. military aid from the country.
Giuliani associate in talks with impeachment investigators
An associate of Rudy Giuliani — Lev Parnas — has initiated talks with impeachment investigators through his attorney.
The attorney, Joseph Bondy, told the team from CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” that he had sent a letter to congressional investigators saying Parnas will comply with a congressional subpoena for his documents and testimony.
However, Bondy said he would not use the word “cooperate.”
Ousted Ukraine ambassador Yovanovitch says she was told to tweet praise of Trump to save her job
Marie Yovanovitch, the ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told House impeachment investigators last month that U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland told her she should tweet out support or praise for President Donald Trump if she wanted to save her job, according to a transcript of her testimony made public Monday.
The three House committees leading the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump released two transcripts — including of Yovanovitch’s testimony — of the behind-closed-doors interviews they have conducted so far as their investigation moves to a more public phase.
Whistleblower offers to give Republicans testimony as Trump seeks to unmask
The U.S. official whose whistleblower complaint led to the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump offered to answer questions directly to Republicans on the intelligence committee leading the inquiry, one of his lawyers said on Sunday.
Mark Zaid said the action was taken to counter Republican efforts, led by Trump, to unmask the whistleblower, a member of the U.S. intelligence community whose identity has not been released.
News of the offer came as Trump on Sunday called on the whistleblower to come forward, in a stark departure from norms in such cases.
Republicans have “sought to expose our client’s identity which could jeopardize their safety, as well as that of their family,” Zaid wrote on Twitter.
Mueller Memo Bombshell: Michael Cohen Told If He Stuck To Russia Story, Trump ‘Loves You’
Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen was told that if he stuck to his account of Trump’s relationship with Moscow, the president “loves you,” according to a bombshell document from the Robert Mueller investigation obtained by BuzzFeed.
The glimpse into attempts to influence the convicted attorney who worked for Trump for years was in 500 pages of summaries of FBI interviews with investigation witnesses that BuzzFeed obtained through five separate Freedom of Information Act requests. The records were released Saturday by the Department of Justice.
Rep. Speier: Transcripts will ‘probably’ be released in next 5 days
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) set a five-day timeline on Sunday for the release of deposition transcripts that are part of the House’s impeachment probe into President Donald Trump.
“I think you’re going to see all of the transcripts that are going to be released probably within the next five days,” Speier, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
All four White House officials scheduled for House inquiry depositions today won’t testify
All four White House officials who are scheduled to give depositions on Monday during the House’s impeachment inquiry won’t show up, as a source with knowledge of the situation tells CNN that National Security Council lawyers John Eisenberg and Michael Ellis will not testify.
The two officials will join Robert Blair, assistant to the President and senior adviser to the acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and Brian McCormack, associate director for natural resources, energy & science at the Office of Management and Budget, in not testifying on Monday, CNN reported earlier. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who was scheduled to appear Wednesday, will not participate in a closed door deposition, an Energy Department spokesperson said Friday.
