Fox News cut for brief commercial break as House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) began asking a question during the House impeachment hearings.
Staffer Overheard Trump Discuss ‘Investigations’
Ambassador Bill Taylor testified that one of his staffers overheard a phone call between President Trump and U.S. ambassador Gordon Sondland to the European Union in which the president asked about “the investigations,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Sondland told the staffer that Trump cared more about an investigation into Joe Biden than he did about Ukraine.
Taylor noted he was not aware of the conversation when he originally testified behind closed doors and was thus adding it to his opening statement now.
Trump Trails Top Democrats In Georgia
A new Atlanta Journal Constitution poll in Georgia finds Joe Biden leading President Trump in a potential 2020 match up, 51% to 43%.
In other match ups, Bernie Sanders tops the president, 48% to 44%, Elizabeth Warren leads, 47% to 44% and Pete Buttigieg is ahead, 46% to 43%.
The Impeachment Hearings Begin
The House begins the public phase of its impeachment inquiry at 10 a.m. ET with Democrats and Republicans prepared to offer competing narratives of whether President Trump inappropriately pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals.
Bill Taylor, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, are scheduled to testify. Both will appear at the same time.
The hearings will be televised pretty much everywhere.
Leave your reactions in the comments.
Donald Trump’s Big Lie
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Plague Is Diagnosed in China
“Two people in China were diagnosed with plague, setting off a panic on Tuesday about the potential spread of the highly infectious and fatal disease and prompting China’s government to warn citizens to take precautions to protect themselves,” the New York Times reports.
“Beijing officials said the two infected people came from Inner Mongolia, a sparsely populated region of northern China.”
“Fears are mounting in China over a possible outbreak of the disease, once known as the Black Death, which killed tens of millions of people in medieval Europe, and spread through Asia and Africa.”
Impeachment Hearings Could Take an Unpredictable Turn
First Read: “Most in Washington are already convinced how the public hearings in the impeachment inquiry, which begin this morning, will play out.”
“House Republicans will sabotage the proceedings and muddy the waters. Democrats will struggle to win the message war, as they often do. And everything — as it almost always does — will break along partisan lines. Maybe they’re right; it’s probably the smart bet.”
“But they also could be wrong, given how unpredictable President Trump can be; how unpredictable the witness answers could be; how these public hearings could play with the persuadable public; and how damning much of the available evidence already is.”
“Maybe the best news for Democrats entering today’s public hearing is how low the expectations are. There’s a good reason to have these low expectations. But it also creates a pretty low bar that becomes easier to clear.”
There’s Much More to This Ukraine Story
Carl Bernstein in an email to CNN: “Remarkable information related to Russia and Putin and Trump’s deference to Putin — whether witting, unwitting or half-witting — continues to be revealed. Turkey’s Syrian adventure-invasion with Trump’s permission; his disdain for Ukraine through his whole presidency; and serving Russia’s interest there (as opposed to established US policy) suggest more reporting again is called for.”
First Read: The impeachment inquiry has been all about Ukraine, but what about Russia?
Trump Invites GOP Senators for Unusual Meeting
“A small group of Republican senators who traditionally focus on foreign policy issues have been invited to the White House for a meeting with President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — including Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch,” CNN reports.
“There’s been limited information given to the Hill on what this is all about… It was being framed as an opportunity to ‘clear the air’ and have a serious and frank discussion about the real fissures in the relationship, which also includes US outrage over Turkey’s purchase of Russian weapons systems… But the source also acknowledged the meeting is very irregular and nobody is sure what to expect.”
Watch Trump’s Approval Ratings
Jonathan Bernstein: “The point of these hearings isn’t to learn new things. The House intelligence committee will be bringing out witnesses who have already been interviewed behind closed doors. So this is about making a case in public.”
“If Democrats want to actually remove Trump from office, then pushing down his public approval is key. So far, the Ukraine scandal hasn’t really done that. According to the FiveThirtyEight estimate, the president’s approval rating is now at 41.1%, down about a percentage point from when the story broke in September. That’s a very weak number, to be sure; Trump ranks 10th of 11 polling-era presidents after 1,027 days in office, and his disapproval number is now up to 54.6%.”
“But bad as that is, it’s probably not enough to make the party abandon Trump out of electoral self-interest. At 41%, he’s still not a lost cause. Perhaps the polls are off, or maybe he’ll still improve a bit before the election. He might even win without getting 50% support. But if Trump were to slip back to match the lowest point of his presidency, when only about 37% of the public approved of how he was doing his job? Then Republicans might start to wonder if the risks of sticking with him outweighed the risks of removing him.”
Tim Ryan Endorses Biden for President
Former Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) endorsed Joe Biden’s presidential bid Wednesday, saying the former vice president has the ability to win swing states President Trump won in 2016, CNN reports.
The Impeachment Calculus Democrats Don’t Talk About
Ryan Lizza: “The degree to which the Democrats in Congress who are running the impeachment inquiry are disconnected from their colleagues running for president cannot be overstated. Impeachment and the presidential primary are like two planets slowly pulled together by gravity that are finally about to collide — nobody seems to know who will survive impact.”
8 Witnesses Called for Next Week’s Hearings
“The House Intelligence Committee announced a new slate of hearings for the impeachment inquiry late Tuesday, scheduling eight witnesses for public appearances next week,” Politico reports.
“The hearings — scheduled for next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday — will feature current and former senior officials from across the National Security Council, the State Department and the Pentagon. All of the scheduled witnesses have already been deposed behind closed doors, and several provided explosive evidence that could be featured in articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.”
Why Bloomberg and Patrick Changed Their Minds
New York Times: “Both men have concluded in recent weeks that Mr. Biden, the former vice president, is not the imposing adversary they had expected him to be, interviews with aides and allies show. Both also believe there is room in the race for a more dynamic candidate who is closer to the political middle than Mr. Biden’s two most prominent challengers, Ms. Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders.”
“Should Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Patrick enter the race, they would test that proposition in different ways: Mr. Bloomberg with a powerfully funded campaign that would take on President Trump directly and contest the biggest states on the primary map from the start; Mr. Patrick with an insurgent candidacy that would begin in next-door New Hampshire and run through South Carolina, where black voters are likely to decide the primary.”
Politico: “The center of the Democratic Party is throwing a fit.”
The Land of Flickering Lights
Just published: The Land of Flickering Lights: Restoring America in an Age of Broken Politics by Sen. Michael Bennet.
“We had become the land of flickering lights, in which the standard of success was not what we were doing for the next generation of Americans, or to enhance our role in the world, but instead whether we had kept government open for another few minutes.”
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Bennet, Michael (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 352 Pages - 06/04/2019 (Publication Date) - Atlantic Monthly Press (Publisher)
The Case for Impeachment Defense
Rudy Giuliani, writing in the Wall Street Journal:
“Mr. Trump requested that Ukraine root out corruption; he didn’t demand it. His words were cordial, agreeable and free of any element of threat or coercion. Mr. Trump offered nothing in return to Ukraine for cleaning up corruption. If you doubt me, read the transcript. Allegations of Burisma-Biden corruption weren’t even a major part of the conversation. The focus was on Ukrainian corruption broadly speaking and out of a five-page transcript Mr. Trump spent only six lines on Joe Biden.”
Aides Tell Trump Not to Fire Mulvaney
“President Trump has been threatening for weeks to fire acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, but senior advisers have counseled him to hold off on such a drastic step amid a high-stakes impeachment probe, according to three people familiar with the discussions,” the Washington Post reports.
“Senior advisers have cautioned Trump that removing Mulvaney at such a sensitive time could be perilous, the people said — both because Mulvaney played an integral role in the decision to freeze the aid, and because of the disruption that would be caused by replacing one of Trump’s most senior aides.”
The GOP’s Ditch Rudy Strategy
Top House Republican sources tell Axios that one impeachment survival strategy will be to try to distance President Trump from any Ukraine quid pro quo, with Rudy Giuliani potentially going under the bus.
Said one: “This is not an impeachment of Rudy Giuliani, it’s not an impeachment of Ambassador Sondland. It’s an impeachment of the president of the United States. So the point is as long as this is a step removed, he’s in good shape… If it’s a step removed from the president, he doesn’t lose any Republicans in the House.”