The Fix: “Through the first 11 months of this year, Trump said he was ‘looking at,’ at least 34 issues or policies… He has not taken any known public action to follow up on 17 of those items.”
Congress Has Small Window to Avoid Shutdown
CNN: “Congress is once again running right up to the brink of a government shutdown. There is cautious optimism, but still work to be done. Progress has been made but the largest outstanding issues still stand. Everyone involved wants an agreement, but those same lawmakers and administration officials are still haggling over issues — large and small.”
“Negotiators have about 24 to 48 hours to wrap up an agreement on all 12 spending bills to have any chance to move them in such a short time frame. This is very, very tight — and a short-term off-ramp will be needed if nothing comes together before Monday.”
Issa Suggests Pardon for Duncan Hunter
Former Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told the San Diego Union Tribune that President Trump should consider clemency for convicted Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), who is scheduled to be sentenced to prison on March 17.
Said Issa: “It’s not my decision. It’s the president’s decision. But I would certainly say the commuting of sentencing… has a certain ability to balance the public good. Are we better off spending $60,000 a year to put him behind bars or are we better off with him doing community service and going on with his life with the likelihood of him committing a crime in the future being pretty low?”
Issa is currently running for Hunter’s seat.
The Spotlight Paradox
Amy Walter: “Back in the 2016 campaign, I noticed a pattern that could be called ‘the spotlight paradox:’ whenever the focus was on one candidate, the other candidate benefited… There’s something of a spotlight paradox happening in the Democratic primary this year. The candidates who have spent time under the bright lights have wilted, while those sitting in its shadow have risen.”
“Why is this? Democrats don’t suddenly dislike the candidates who have undergone the scrutiny that comes with front runner status. What they do dislike, however, is vulnerability. For many Democratic voters, President Trump is an existential threat. As with any existential threat, the most important question is who/what can beat it. In 2019, a candidate’s ideology isn’t as important as his or her ability to take a punch. And be able to punch back.”
Trump Approval Even In Kansas
A new Fort Hays State University survey in Kansas finds President Trump’s approval rate at 44% to 44%.
Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the state by 20 points in 2016.
Sanders Has Strong Latino Support
Ron Brownstein: “There are signs Hispanics may prove a kind of secret weapon for Sanders. In a recent Fox News poll of Nevada, Hispanics there preferred Sanders over Biden by 7 percentage points. Sanders also led Biden with them by 9 points in a recent Latino Decisions poll of California and doubled the former vice president’s vote among them in the University of Texas at Tyler poll. Sanders narrowly led Biden with Hispanics in a New York Times/Siena poll of Florida, and the two ran even in Arizona, according to the OH Predictive Insights survey.”
Ed Kilgore: “The evidence of Sanders’s strength among Latinos is everywhere, most recently in a University of California IGS survey of the Golden State, where Sanders led the field, in no small part because of his 32 percent showing (Biden is second at 19 percent) among Latinos.”
Unemployment Hits 50-Year Low
Employers added 266,000 jobs in November and unemployment matched a 50-year low of 3.5%, signs the U.S. economy is withstanding a global slowdown, the Wall Street Journal reports.
CNBC notes the numbers easily beat the Wall Street consensus.
John Major Urges Vote Against the Conservatives
Former Conservative British Prime Minister John Major is urging voters to back candidates standing against the Tories in a bid to stop Boris Johnson winning a Commons majority, Politics Home reports.
Fugitive Who Claimed Dirt on Biden Firm Is Arrested
“A former Ukrainian member of parliament who has claimed to have dirt on a company linked to the Bidens was arrested earlier this week in Germany,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Oleksandr Onyshchenko, who worked closely with Ukraine’s previous president before fleeing the country after being accused of embezzlement, has been living in Europe for several years. German authorities arrested him in Aachen on Friday.”
GOP Lawmaker Wants Election Overturned
Mississippi state Rep. Ashley Henley (R) is asking the GOP-led Mississippi House to overturn the results of the election she narrowly lost to Hester Jackson-McCray (D), Mississippi Today reports.
Jackson-McCray won the November 5 general election by 14 votes.
Henley claims that several findings of her ballot box examination show a failure “to adhere to proper election procedures to insure a fair and legitimate election” under state law.
Biden Hangs On to National Lead
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds Joe Biden leading the Democratic presidential field with 19%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 14%, Elizabeth Warren at 9%, Pete Buttigieg at 6% and Michael Bloomberg at 4%.
Exchange of the Day
Michael Bloomberg spoke to Gayle King about Joe Biden on CBS This Morning:
KING: Do you still consider him a friend?
BLOOMBERG: Yeah, sure, why would he not be?
KING: I don’t know. I’m thinking with friends like you, who needs enemies?
BLOOMBERG: You are friendly with other great TV presenters in the morning.
KING: Yes, yeah.
BLOOMBERG: And you’re all competing for the same get–
KING: But I’m not trying to–
BLOOMBERG: –all competing for the same job.
KING: –take their job.
BLOOMBERG: Well, I’m not trying to take his job either. He doesn’t have the job of president of the United States and neither do I. At the moment, the person that has it is Donald Trump. I’m trying to take away the job from Donald Trump.
Pompeo Secretly Met with GOP Donors In London
“Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attended an off-the-books sit-down meeting with a conservative group that included a small number of wealthy Republican donors, which was not on his official schedule while he was in London to attend this week’s NATO Summit,” CNN reports.
“The gathering, hosted by the Hamilton Society, conveniently took place in the hotel where Pompeo was staying, situated in a small events space on the second floor. Pompeo slipped into the meeting, without the State Department alerting the press traveling with him about where he was headed or who he was going to meet.”
Doubts Surface Over Giuliani-Budget Office Calls
“House Democrats earlier this week released records asserting that Rudy Giuliani was in contact with a phone number associated with the White House budget office, where $400 million in aid to Ukraine was temporarily put on hold this summer,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“That assertion, however, is now in doubt. The previously undisclosed phone number cited by the House Intelligence Committee in its impeachment inquiry report, which The Wall Street Journal has identified, isn’t directly linked to the Office of Management and Budget. It could instead reflect phone calls from other parts of the White House.”
New York Times: “While government directories list it as associated with the budget office, they also show the number as associated with offices in other parts of the White House, including the upper floors of the West Wing and the National Security Council.”
Pelosi Goes It Alone on Impeachment
“Speaker Nancy Pelosi never wanted to impeach President Donald Trump. But now that it’s happening, she’s doing it her own way — in four inch heels and with an iron grip. Pelosi has tightly scripted every step of the House’s march toward impeachment,” Politico reports.
“All the key decisions — whether to move forward with an inquiry, who will be in charge of the probe, and whether to begin drafting impeachment articles — have been made solely by Pelosi, then conveyed afterwards to her 12-member leadership team.”
“Even her top committee chairmen — including Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), head of the panel charged with drafting articles of impeachment against Trump — have been cast in supporting roles at times, learning details about Pelosi’s plans after she’s made them. Pelosi, long known for her top-down leadership style, has taken it to extremes these last few weeks as the House nears the final stages of the impeachment inquiry.”
Buttigieg’s Untenable Vow of Silence
New York Times editorial: “Pete Buttigieg worked nearly three years for the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, and he has presented that experience as a kind of capitalist credential — distinguishing him from some rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, and inoculating him against Republican attacks.”
“The thing is, Mr. Buttigieg has said precious little about his time at McKinsey. He has not named the clients for whom he worked, nor said much about what he did. He says his lips are sealed by a nondisclosure agreement he signed when he left the firm in 2010 and that he has asked the company to release him from the agreement. It has not yet agreed to do so.”
“This is not a tenable situation. Mr. Buttigieg owes voters a more complete account of his time at the company.”
Phone Logs Renew Concerns About Security
“President Trump has routinely communicated with his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and other individuals speaking on cellphones vulnerable to monitoring by Russian and other foreign intelligence services,” the Washington Post reports.
“Phone records released this week by the House Intelligence Committee revealed extensive communications between Giuliani, unidentified individuals at the White House and others involved in the campaign to pressure Ukraine, with no indication that those calls were encrypted or otherwise shielded from foreign surveillance.”
“The revelations raise the possibility that Moscow was able to learn about aspects of Trump’s attempt to get Ukraine to investigate a political rival months before that effort was exposed by a whistleblower report and the impeachment inquiry.”
Impeachment’s Limited Political Impact on 2020
Amy Walter: “Overall, my guess is that by the time we hit the summer of 2020, the issue of impeachment will just be one more in a string of unprecedented, presidency-altering events that have come and gone in the mind of voters. That’s not to say that it won’t be relevant. While the impeachment process hasn’t impacted Trump’s overall job approval ratings, the question is whether it is draining any of the last bit of ‘goodwill’ or ‘patience’ from voters who Trump needs to win over next fall.”
“While his support from his base is solid, will cross-pressured or ambivalent voters, those who reluctantly supported him last time, or who are happy with the current economy but unhappy with his style, decide that they’ve had enough of the drama and controversy? As one GOPer said to me the other day, will voters decide that they’ve grown tired of the reality show and just can’t stomach another four years of it?”
