In a fiery speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) called for Senate hearings into President Trump’s decision to withdrawal U.S. troops from Syria.
Said Romney: “So America is diminished, Russia, Iran and Assad are strengthened. And so I ask, how and why this decision was reached.”
He added :”Was there no chance for diplomacy? Are we so weak and so inept diplomatically that Turkey forced the hand of the United States of America? Turkey?”
When asked about acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s admission of a quid pro quo in withholding military aid from Ukraine, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) said the situation has “gone from very, very bad to much, much worse,” NBC News reports.
“Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Thursday that President Trump did not withhold military aid to Ukraine as part of a quid pro quo to get that country to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden,” CNBC reports.
“Instead, Mulvaney told reporters, that the withholding of aid this summer was due in part because Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate the possibility that elements in that country somehow had interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to Trump’s detriment.”
New York Times: “It was the first time a White House official has publicly acknowledged what a parade of current and former administration officials have told impeachment investigators on Capitol Hill.”
Vice President Mike Pence announced from Ankara on Thursday that Turkey has agreed to cease its military operation in northern Syria until Kurdish forces can withdraw from the area, Axios reports.
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said during a press briefing Thursday that next year’s G7 summit will be hosted at the Trump National Doral Miami resort, Axios reports.
Philip Bump: “There are a number of remarkable lines in the letter President Trump sent to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this month. But it’s a relatively unremarkable one that may be the most revealing.”
“‘I have worked hard to solve some of your problems,’ Trump writes at the beginning of the second paragraph. It’s not as splashy as ‘Don’t be a fool!’ but it’s more interesting. What, exactly, are those problems Trump has been working to solve?”
A new Pew Research survey finds 65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade.
Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated share of the population, consisting of people who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” now stands at 26%, up from 17% in 2009.
A new Marketing Resource Group poll shows Sen. Gary Peters (D) holds a small lead over challenger John James (R) by a slim 43 percent to 40 percent margin.
Out next week: The Turn-On: How the Powerful Make Us Like Them-from Washington to Wall Street to Hollywood by Steven Goldstein.
“Why do we like Ellen DeGeneres and Morgan Freeman, yet find Gwyneth Paltrow sometimes maddening? Why do we like Warren Buffett, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Google’s Sundar Pichai aside from their products and profits? And apart from our ideology, why do some of us like Barack and Michelle Obama and others Donald Trump, and what does Ben Franklin have to do with any of it?”
“Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, told House impeachment investigators Thursday that President Trump urged him to work with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on matters related to Ukraine, the Washington Post reports.
“The revelation came as Sondland, a key figure in the probe, appeared behind closed doors to testify about Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden at a time when nearly $400 million in military aid was being withheld.”
Politico: “Sondland’s testimony has the potential to be the most devastating yet for Trump’s defenders.”
Wall Street Journal: “Democratic presidential candidates spent $335 million in the first nine months of the year—and a big chunk of it went to raising more money.”
“The 25 Democrats, six of whom have dropped out of the race, spent more than $50 million building lists of potential donors, buying digital advertising to lure new donors and on other expenses labeled as fundraising, such as consulting, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Federal Election Commission filings from Jan 1. to Sept. 30. The total cost of fundraising could be higher because campaigns have wide leeway in how they identify expenses in public filings.”
Politico “The first time Donald Trump ran for president, Karen Pence, the wife of his running mate, rarely hit the campaign trail to stump for the pair. Camera shy and appalled by Trump’s treatment of women, Mrs. Pence surfaced only to support her husband in his October 2016 vice presidential debate and to join him at rallies in the final weeks before the election.”
“But when Trump began asking friends this summer for their thoughts about Vice President Mike Pence, the second lady decided it was time to step up. Fearful that the president might boot Pence — who has long had his eye on the 2024 presidential race — from his reelection ticket, she became eager to assist the campaign as a loyal female surrogate.”
Morning Consult: “The most vulnerable Republican senators are not improving their standing in their home states ahead of a tough 2020 election cycle, while the field of potential Democratic challengers took shape and began to flex its muscle.”
“Republicans representing Colorado, Arizona, North Carolina, Maine and Iowa all saw their net approval — the share of voters who approve of a senator’s job performance minus the share who disapprove — decline between the second and third quarters of 2019.”
“When you’re the father and your son’s entire career is dependent on that, they own you.”
— Donald Trump Jr., quoted by the Washington Post, suggesting Hunter Biden only had business opportunities due to his father’s name.
Washington Post: “Wednesday was the 1,000th day of Donald Trump’s presidency. He spent it the usual way, by saying unusual things.”
Mike Allen: “There have been many holy-crap-that-did-not-just-happen days in the Trump White House, but few top the soap opera of Oct. 16, 2019 — exactly Day 1,000 of the Trump presidency.”
Jonathan Bernstein: “Every once in a while, some event offers a clarifying reminder of the president’s poor judgment. On Wednesday, it was the release of a letter Trump wrote to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The letter itself was an embarrassment…”
“But what really underlined Trump’s problem for me wasn’t that he wrote an incompetent letter to follow up on what seems to have been an incompetent phone call. Or that his Syria policy has resulted in chaos and death. Or that, on a crass political level, he’s managed to alienate his congressional allies just as he needs them most, with House Republicans voting overwhelmingly on Wednesday to condemn his decision.”
“No, what really got to me was that Trump distributed copies of this letter to congressional leaders when they showed up at the White House for a briefing. Think of it. Even if the letter had been perfectly normal, what Trump was handing them was an Oct. 9 request to Erdogan to halt his invasion — a request that Erdogan has, as we’ve seen, totally ignored. Trump was bragging about what he considered to be a sign of his own brilliance without realizing that it was instead evidence of abject failure.”
“The reality of Washington in 2019 is this: A meeting between President Donald Trump and Speaker Nancy Pelosi will very likely end with someone abruptly walking out of the room. Wednesday’s ugly encounter marks the third time in less than nine months that a meeting between two of the nation’s most powerful leaders has been derailed after a barrage of insults from the president,” Politico reports.
“Trump accused Democratic leaders of sympathizing with communists in Syria and slammed Pelosi as ‘a third-rate politician,’ before ripping a series of targets including Jim Mattis, his own former Pentagon chief. While Trump also makes clear that he doesn’t care much for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), it’s Pelosi who clearly angers the president most — a fury that has only grown since Democrats launched their fast-moving impeachment inquiry of Trump.”
Politico: “Stalled in the polls and on the heels of another uninspiring debate performance, Joe Biden’s campaign was forced to respond to another troubling issue Wednesday: his lackluster fundraising. Just months ago, Biden’s initial cash haul surprised naysayers who doubted he could compete with the money-minting machines that is Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. But now the former vice president is bleeding money.”
“Biden spent almost $2 million more than his presidential campaign raised last quarter, a predicament caused by sluggish fundraising coupled with the expenses of maintaining a big payroll and a nationwide operation.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.