President Trump dismissed the need for a bolstered group of aides to defend him against impeachment, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “Here’s the thing. I don’t have teams. Everyone’s talking about teams. I’m the team. I did nothing wrong.”
President Trump dismissed the need for a bolstered group of aides to defend him against impeachment, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “Here’s the thing. I don’t have teams. Everyone’s talking about teams. I’m the team. I did nothing wrong.”
Washington Post: “The panels want Russell Vought, the acting director of the OMB, and Michael Duffey, the agency’s head of national security, to testify early next month. Vought said in a tweet this past week that neither he nor Duffey would testify.”
“At issue is whether the Trump administration withheld nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine as leverage to get it to investigate domestic political rivals.”
“The Trump Organization is exploring a sale of the rights to the company’s opulent Washington, D.C., hotel, a move it says is motivated partly by criticism that the Trumps are flouting ethics laws by profiting from the property,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
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“Federal prosecutors in New York have subpoenaed the brother of one of the recently indicted associates of Rudy Giuliani, as they escalate their investigation in the campaign-finance case,” CNN reports.
“The subpoena to Steven Fruman is the latest indication of prosecutors’ actions since the rushed arrest two weeks ago of his brother, Igor Fruman, and another defendant, Lev Parnas, at a Washington-area airport. Since then, investigators have doled out multiple subpoenas and conducted several property searches, in one case blowing the door off a safe to access the contents.”
“Federal prosecutors told a judge this week that they are sifting through data from more than 50 bank accounts.”
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway denied that she had threatened a Washington Examiner reporter when she suggested digging into the journalist’s personal life.
Said Conway: “It’s not a threat. I never threatened her. If I threaten someone, you’ll know it.”
Russian gun rights enthusiast Maria Butina was released from federal prison on Friday after having served more than 15 months behind bars for being a spy and is expected to be immediately deported to Moscow, CNN reports.
Jonathan Bernstein says we’re down to seven plausible Democratic nominees: Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
“Quite a few would need a big surge from this point to be able to win, although that’s happened before. I also still find it hard to imagine a path for Sanders, but as long as he keeps his faction together it’s difficult to discount him entirely. Two others who will be at the next debate, activist Tom Steyer and entrepreneur Andrew Yang, have little if any support from party actors. Yes, Donald Trump won a nomination without such support, but he was leading in the polls at this point, not lagging far behind, and dominated media coverage throughout.”
“I’m not ruling anything out after 2016. So I won’t say it’s impossible for Steyer, Yang or one of the candidates who doesn’t make it into the next debate to win the nomination — but I will say it’s increasingly unlikely.”
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) criticized Attorney General William Barr over reports that the Justice Department is launching a criminal investigation of the Russia probe.
Said Warner: “Senate Intel is wrapping up a three-year bipartisan investigation, and we’ve found nothing remotely justifying this… He needs to come before Congress and explain himself.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says President Trump would be arrested if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue, the AP reports.
The sixth Democratic debate will be held in Los Angeles on December 19, Politico reports.
The DNC has also raised the thresholds for participating — 4% in at least four qualifying polls, or 6% in two early-state polls — which could eliminate all but the top five candidates – Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris.
“The White House is eyeing former Treasury Department spokesman Tony Sayegh to lead impeachment messaging efforts,” CNN reports.
“Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, is among those pushing for Sayegh’s hire… Sayegh was previously a candidate to become White House communications director after Hope Hicks left the White House last year.”
The funeral for the late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) is being held in Baltimore, the city which he represented in the House of Representatives for more than 20 years.
Speakers include Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi.
The Hill: Cummings pallbearer skips Mitch McConnell at memorial.
Amber Phillips: “Republicans are flailing to defend President Trump from the impeachment inquiry, right as some key members of the Senate shift from implicitly defending Trump to acknowledging recent testimony has been damaging to his case. This suggests conviction of Trump in the Republican-controlled Senate, should the House impeach him, isn’t a door that’s entirely slammed shut.”
“As the impeachment inquiry presents stronger evidence Trump was holding up military aid for his personal gain, his congressional defenders are pulling even more Trumpian tactics. Most of them collapse under the weight of the facts. Some are so obviously political stunts that there’s no other way to describe them.”
Key takeaway: “Republicans’ erratic attempts to defend the president are derived from the fact the White House has no coherent defense either, and it largely isn’t coordinating with Republicans on what to say or do.”
George Soros told the New York Times that Sen. Elizabeth Warren is the top Democrat in the field vying to take on President Trump in 2020.
Said Soros: “She has emerged as the clear-cut person to beat. I don’t take a public stance, but I do believe that she is the most qualified to be president.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News that he has 46 senators who have backed his resolution criticizing the impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives.
Of course, that means 7 Republican senators declined to sign the resolution which suggests the resolution may not have the votes to pass.
David Frum: “This is really, really, really bad news for President Trump.”
Lawyers for former national security advisor John Bolton have been in touch with officials working on the House committees conducting an impeachment probe into President Trump, NBC News reports.
“The news comes more than a week after the White House’s former top Europe expert, Fiona Hill, testified to Congress that Bolton has been so disturbed by efforts to get Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political opponents that he called it a ‘drug deal.'”
When the White House was asked about Bolton by CNBC, an official said: “We’re not going to talk about Bolton.”
Despite reports that hundreds of U.S. troops will stay behind in Syria, President Trump took to Twitter to declare that troops were “coming home.”
Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirmed troops are staying behind in Syria — just 30 minutes after Trump’s tweet.
“Tim Morrison, a National Security Council official who has been identified as a witness to one of the most explosive pieces of evidence unearthed by House impeachment investigators, plans to testify Thursday even if the White House attempts to block him,” Politico reports.
“Morrison would be the first currently serving White House official to testify. He’s also the first official believed to be on a July 25 phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during which Trump pressed his counterpart to investigate former vice president Joe Biden.”
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.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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