Daily Yonder: “There was a 22.5 percentage point difference in the Democratic vote between Louisville and the state’s most rural counties in 2015. This week, the gap was 29.6 points.”
Highlights from the Impeachment Transcripts
First Read points out that the more than 2,700 pages of transcripts released from the House impeachment inquiry show something more than President Trump asking a foreign country to investigate a political rival.
They also reveal Trump putting his personal interests over national ones, Russian president Vladimir Putin influencing Trump’s foreign policy, and the entire episode seriously harming U.S.-Ukraine relations.
A Message for Trump
Hanging in a building overlooking the site of President Trump’s Veterans Day speech is a huge sign in the windows that says “IMPEACH,” the AP reports.
Trump Falsely Claims ‘Doctored Transcripts’
Without evidence, President Trump questioned the accuracy of the transcripts from the closed-door interviews in the impeachment inquiry.
Said Trump: “Shifty Adam Schiff will only release doctored transcripts. Republicans should put out their own transcripts!”
However, Fox News reporter Chad Pergram tweets: “At no point have House Republicans who were present for the depositions and combed over the transcripts which were released, contested the authenticity of any of the transcripts.”
Blankenship Announces Third Party Presidential Bid
Former coal executive Don Blankenship announced he will make a 2020 White House bid as a Constitution Party candidate, The Hill reports.
Said Blankenship: “President Trump means well, but he simply cannot get it done because he is too busy mending his self-inflicted wounds and tripping over his ego.”
Efforts to Undermine Trump Went to Highest Levels
Aaron Blake notes that Nikki Haley’s claim that she refused to “undermine” President Trump at the request of John Kelley and Rex Tillerson “is significant in that she’s perhaps the Republican Party’s brightest rising star and someone many see as a future presidential candidate — and possibly even a replacement for Vice President Pence on the 2020 ticket.”
“It’s also significant because she has shown a capacity to criticize Trump when she felt it necessary, and there were even some thoughts that she resigned in October 2018 because she was disillusioned. She has clearly hitched her wagon to Trump now, at least to some degree, which is important.”
“The bigger story, though, is that two even-higher-ranking officials took such an extraordinary step that allowed for Haley’s refusal. The danger of Kelly and Tillerson making such an approach is exactly what we’re seeing today: That they would be outed by other officials. They did it anyway.”
Buttigieg Hails Obama Legacy After Misquote
“Pete Buttigieg hailed Barack Obama’s legacy after a journalist acknowledged misquoting the Democratic White House contender as making statement critical of the former president’s time in office,” Politico reports.
Buttigieg said he appreciated “this reporter’s swift and honest correction of a misquote on my views of” Obama’s presidency.
He added: “From health care to DADT repeal to the rescue of the auto industry, my appreciation of the great leadership of Barack Obama comes from a very personal place.”
TV Networks Will Cover Impeachment Hearings Live
ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS on Wednesday will preempt their regularly scheduled programming for live coverage of the House Intelligence Committee’s open impeachment hearings of President Trump, The Hill reports.
As expected, all of the major cable news networks, including Fox News, MSNBC, CNN and CSPAN will also offer live coverage.
Buttigieg Says He’d Pick Woman as VA Secretary
“Pete Buttigieg says if elected he’d like to name a woman to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs for the first time as 2020 hopefuls take aim at President Trump’s record on stemming military suicide and helping female vets,” the AP reports.
Perry Backers Got Huge Gas Deal In Ukraine
“Two political supporters of U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry secured a potentially lucrative oil and gas exploration deal from the Ukrainian government soon after Perry proposed one of the men as an adviser to the country’s new president,” the AP reports.
“Perry’s efforts to influence Ukraine’s energy policy came earlier this year, just as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s new government was seeking military aid from the United States to defend against Russian aggression and allies of President Trump were ramping up efforts to get the Ukrainians to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden.”
Peter King Will Not Run Again
Rep. Peter King (R-NY) will not seek reelection next year, Fox News reports.
100 House Republicans Gone
NBC News: “When Trump arrived in the White House in 2017, there were 241 Republicans at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue in the House of Representatives. Today, 100 of them have gone or have announced that they are leaving. That’s 41 percent of that original 241 in the 115th House.”
Quote of the Day
“The failures of the Obama era help explain how we got Trump. I am running on building a future that is going to have a lot of differences.”
— Pete Buttigieg, quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
Update: The reporter tweets he got the quote wrong as “the result of transcribing a noisy recording at a loud rally.” Buttigieg’s exact words were “failures of the old normal.”
A Monumental Week for Trump
Playbook: “We are beginning what is a pivotal week for Donald Trump and his presidency. Most notably: the public impeachment proceedings, which begin Wednesday and continue Friday. On Tuesday, we expect the release of a second transcript of a phone call between the president and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy.”
“Also: The president of Turkey — a country some in the Trump administration said was responsible for war crimes — will come to the White House and appear alongside the president for a news conference. Talks resume this week to avoid a government shutdown in 10 days. And if the administration is to complete the USMCA, progress needs to be made in short order.”
Mulvaney’s Move to Join Lawsuit Rankles Bolton Allies
“People close to John Bolton and Charles Kupperman said the two were flabbergasted by Mulvaney’s surprise request to join the lawsuit because they and others on the national security team considered Mulvaney a critical player in the effort to get the Ukrainian government to pursue investigations into Trump’s political opponents,” the Washington Post reports.
“Their objection is twofold: Bolton views Mulvaney as a key participant in the pressure campaign, a situation that the then-national security adviser referred to derisively as ‘a drug deal,’ according to congressional testimony by his aides. The two men were barely on speaking terms when Bolton left his post in September.”
“And they believe Mulvaney’s goal is to avoid testifying by joining a suit involving officials whose attorney has argued they may be limited in what they can share with Congress because of their role advising the president on national security matters.”
Trump Jr. Storms Out of Book Event
Donald Trump Jr., whose new book accuses his opponents of censorship and stifling open debate, stormed out of his own book launch Sunday after being heckled for refusing questions, The Guardian reports.
Republicans Used to Ignore Trump Resorts
Politico: “Between 2012 and 2014, campaigns and political groups spent a combined $69,000 at Trump businesses… But since June 2015, when Trump announced he was running for the White House, political spending at the president’s properties has topped $19 million.”
Bolivian Leader Steps Down
“President Evo Morales of Bolivia, who came to power more than a decade ago as part of a leftist wave sweeping Latin America, resigned on Sunday after unrelenting protests by an infuriated population that accused him of undermining democracy to extend his rule,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Morales’s reluctance to give up power — first bending the country’s laws to stand for a fourth election, then insisting that he won despite widespread concerns about fraud — left him besieged by protests, abandoned by allies and unable to count on the police and the armed forces, which sided with the protesters and demanded he resign.”