“Recent revelations about President Trump’s conduct are testing the limits of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s narrow impeachment strategy, leading some Democrats to wonder whether the probe should be expanded beyond the Ukraine scandal,” the Washington Post reports.
Trump Unloads at Minnesota Rally
“President Trump descended into the heart of politically liberal Minneapolis on Thursday night, delivering a sprawling and at times vulgarity-laced campaign speech that attacked political opponents in withering terms, mocked Democrats for trying to impeach him, and predicted he’d carry Minnesota on his way to a second term next year,” the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
“The marathon, 102-minute speech capped a boisterous rally of cheering supporters who filled the 19,356-seat Target Center, surrounded by thousands more anti-Trump protesters, some of whom clashed with police as tensions rose amid a rainy chill.”
Trump’s Smoke-and-Mirrors Health Care Strategy
“President Trump may be telling voters everything that they want to hear when it comes to health care, but much of it isn’t true,” Axios reports.
“Trump is claiming victories he hasn’t achieved and making promises he’s not prepared to live up to, all on an immensely personal subject that that voters consistently rank as one of the most important issues of 2020.”
Trey Gowdy Moves Into Trump’s Inner Circle
Playbook: “People close to President Trump tell us that Trey Gowdy’s ascendance into the president’s circle is an attempt to supplant Rudy Giuliani as a presence on cable television and Sunday shows. One person close to Trump said White House aides have been “pulling their hair out” every time Rudy opens his mouth on TV.”
However, Trump said before departing for Minneapolis: “Trey Gowdy can’t start until sometime after January because of the lobbying rules and regulations. So, I don’t know. So, we’ll have to see.”
Trump lawyer Victoria Toensing to Yahoo News: “Are you kidding? Trey is a joke among us.”
Trump Allies Worry They Can’t Count on Senate GOP
“Donald Trump made a defiant prediction last week that Senate Republicans will be the bulwark to keep Democrats from ending his presidency,” Politico reports.
“But behind the scenes, Republicans and Trump’s informal circle of advisers are tempering the president’s bravado, expressing concern over whether the president can truly count on a GOP-led Senate to keep him in office.”
Facebook Is Threatening Our Elections Again
Vanita Gupta: “After Facebook was implicated in the 2016 election wreckage, the company made strides to shore up the platform against future harms to our democracy. But now, Facebook is sabotaging its own efforts through a new policy: the explicit exemption of politicians’ speech from its community standards.”
“Since 2016, Facebook has maintained a ‘newsworthiness’ exemption, meaning content that violates community standards—including hate speech and harassment—can still be posted when the public interest in viewing the content outweighs the risk of harm. With its new policy, Facebook will automatically presume speech from politicians to be newsworthy.”
“Simply put: While major news organizations are strengthening fact-checking and accountability, Facebook is saying: If you are a politician who wishes to peddle in lies, distortion and not-so-subtle racial appeals, welcome to our platform. We will not fact-check. You are automatically newsworthy. You are automatically exempt from scrutiny.”
Pompeo Deputy to Be Next Russian Envoy
“President Trump is set to formally announce his selection of John Sullivan, currently the deputy secretary of state, as the next American ambassador to Russia,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Moscow has agreed to accredit Mr. Sullivan to serve in the post—a precursor to a formal nomination—a State Department official said.”
Giuliani’s Dealings with Associates Probed
“Rudy Giuliani’s financial dealings with two associates indicted on campaign finance-related charges are under scrutiny by investigators overseeing the case,” CNN reports.
“The FBI and prosecutors in Manhattan are examining Giuliani’s involvement in the broader flow of money that have become the focus of alleged violations that are at the center of the allegations against Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, the sources said. The sources did not say that Giuliani was a target of the investigation.”
Giuliani Pressed for Turkish Prisoner Swap
“During a contentious Oval Office meeting with President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017, Rudolph W. Giuliani pressed for help in securing the release of a jailed client, an Iranian-Turkish gold trader, as part of a potential prisoner swap with Turkey,” the New York Times reports.
“The request by Mr. Giuliani provoked an immediate objection from Mr. Tillerson, who argued that it would be highly inappropriate to interfere in an open criminal case.”
Ex-Trump Aide Will Describe ‘Shadow’ Policy on Ukraine
“Fiona Hill, who was until recently President Trump’s top aide on Russia and Europe, plans to tell Congress that Rudy Giuliani and E.U. ambassador Gordon Sondland circumvented the National Security Council and the normal White House process to pursue a shadow policy on Ukraine,” a person familiar with her expected testimony told NBC News.
“Hill’s appearance next week before Congress has stoked fear among people close to the president, said a former senior White House official, given her central role overseeing Russia and Ukraine policy throughout most of the Trump administration.”
Sondland to Testify Next Week
U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland is expected to testify next Wednesday before the House committees investigating President Trump and Ukraine, despite being blocked by the State Department from appearing at a closed-door deposition this week, 3 congressional sources tell Axios.
Senior Pompeo Aide Resigns In Protest
“Michael McKinley, a career diplomat and senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has resigned his position amid rising dissatisfaction and plummeting morale inside the State Department over what is seen as Pompeo’s failure to support personnel ensnared in the Ukraine controversy,” the Washington Post reports.
Envoy to Ukraine Removed After Pushback on Giuliani
The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was removed from her post after insisting that Rudy Giuliani’s requests to Ukrainian officials for investigations be relayed through official channels,” the AP reports.
“The ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, is scheduled to testify before congressional lawmakers on Friday as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Democrats say they expect her to appear despite the White House’s position that no administration officials cooperate with the probe.”
4 National Security Aides Raised Alarms About Trump Call
Washington Post: “At least four national security officials were so alarmed by the Trump administration’s attempts to pressure Ukraine for political purposes that they raised concerns with a White House lawyer both before and immediately after President Trump’s July 25 call with that country’s president.”
“The nature and timing of the previously undisclosed discussions with National Security Council legal adviser John Eisenberg indicate that officials were delivering warnings through official White House channels earlier than previously understood — including before the call that precipitated a whistleblower complaint and the impeachment inquiry of the president.”
“At the time, the officials were unnerved by the removal in May of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine; subsequent efforts by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani to promote Ukraine-related conspiracies; as well as signals in meetings at the White House that Trump wanted the new government in Kiev to deliver material that might be politically damaging to Joe Biden.”
“Those concerns soared in the call’s aftermath.”
The Mystery of Rudy Giuliani’s Vienna Trip
Elaina Plott: “Last night, when Rudy Giuliani told me he couldn’t get together for an interview, his reason made sense: As with many nights of late, he was due to appear on Hannity. When I suggested this evening instead, his response was a bit more curious. We would have to aim for lunch, Giuliani told me, because he was planning to fly to Vienna, Austria, at night. He didn’t offer any details beyond that.”
“Giuliani called me at 6:22 p.m. last night—around the same time that two of his associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested at Dulles Airport while waiting to board an international flight with one-way tickets. As The Wall Street Journal reported this afternoon, the two men were bound for Vienna.”
Barr Meets with Rupert Murdoch
Attorney General William Barr “met privately Wednesday evening with one of President Trump’s frequent confidants, Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul whose holdings include Fox News, which has recently become more critical of the president,” the New York Times reports.
“The meeting was held at Mr. Murdoch’s home in New York.”
Trump Distances Himself from Giuliani Associates
“President Trump said that he doesn’t know the two business associates of his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani who were arrested on campaign finance charges, but acknowledged he may have been photographed with them at some point,” The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “I don’t know those gentleman. Now, it’s possible I have a picture with them because I have a picture with everybody.”
He added: “I don’t know them, I don’t know about them, I don’t know what they do/ I don’t know, maybe they were clients of Rudy’s. You’d have to ask Rudy.”
Who Is Paying Rudy Giuliani?
Trevor Potter and Delaney Marsco: “Rudolph W. Giuliani is not the secretary of state. In fact, he has no official position in President Trump’s Cabinet or administration. Yet he is traveling the world holding himself out as a U.S. government operative, engaging in some unknown amount of ‘unofficial’ diplomacy and insisting his work is not only officially sanctioned by the president but also assisted by the State Department. The president’s ‘private lawyer’ is not charging Trump for his services, but he and his law firm are known to have dozens of clients — including foreign entities — who are paying for whatever services they think Giuliani can provide for them.”
“That is a very convenient setup for Giuliani — but it leaves the public in the dark about the wealthy special interests who might be subsidizing his gratis work for Trump — or for whom he might actually be working while invoking Trump’s name and that of the State Department. Because Giuliani is not officially a federal employee, he can sidestep ethics obligations that would require transparency behind the foreign or domestic interests who are paying him.”