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Ukraine Knew of Aid Freeze Before It Was Public

October 23, 2019 at 11:53 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “To Democrats who say that President Trump’s decision to freeze a $391 million military aid package to Ukraine was intended to bully Ukraine’s leader into carrying out investigations for Mr. Trump’s political benefit, the president and his allies have had a simple response: There could not have been any quid pro quo because the Ukrainians did not know the assistance had been blocked.”

“But in fact, word of the aid freeze had gotten to high-level Ukrainian officials by the first week in August.”

“The problem was not a bureaucratic glitch, the Ukrainians were told then. To address it, they were advised, they should reach out to Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff.”

Buttigieg Moves to the Center

October 23, 2019 at 11:45 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “For most of his political career, Mr. Buttigieg presented himself as more of a centrist technocrat than a liberal ideologue. But striving for attention in a crowded field, Mr. Buttigieg spent the early part of the 2020 Democratic primary touting an array of aspirational progressive ideas, delivering speeches that could have been ripped from an Aaron Sorkin script.”

“Now a serious candidate with a policy staff stocked with Washington insiders and a war chest boasting millions from big donors, Mr. Buttigieg has gradually reinvented himself as more of a moderate. While he hasn’t pivoted 180 degrees on policy proposals, he is modulating his positions and drawing explicit and implicit contrasts with his progressive rivals.”

For members: Is a Window Opening for Buttigieg?

Silly Season In Campaign Reporting

October 23, 2019 at 11:40 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jonathan Bernstein: “We’ve apparently reached the silly season of nomination politics. That’s not surprising. There is, after all, very little happening on the surface at the moment. The basic stories about most of the top candidates have been told. And there hasn’t been much movement either in the polls or in endorsements for weeks. Even the latest round of campaign-finance reports was fairly dull. As Nate Silver points out, this is exactly the formula that gets reporters chasing new — and potentially dubious — stories.”

“And so we get late speculation about new candidates jumping into the race, fueled by quotes from big donors who aren’t thrilled with the current lineup. It’s usually safe to ignore these stories. As Dave Hopkins points out, this is likely a case of donors who have contacts among journalists and pundits and who want to promote some politician on their wish list. Is it possible someone else could still jump in? Perhaps. But it’s getting very late to mount a serious effort, and most of the evidence suggests that Democrats are pretty happy with the field of candidates they have.”

Pennsylvania on Verge of Major Voting Reforms

October 23, 2019 at 11:26 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) has reached a deal with Republican lawmakers — who control the state legislature — on the largest fundamental modifications of how ballots are cast in decades,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

“Several are reforms that Democrats have long sought. And while none would catapult Pennsylvania to the bleeding edge of electoral reform, in many cases they would expand access to voting in a state that has fallen behind.”

“The changes include: Allowing any voter to request an absentee ballot and vote by mail without providing a reason, as they currently must. Creating a permanent mail-in voter list. Reducing the voter registration deadline from 30 to 15 days before an election.”

GOP Lawmakers Breach Protocol

October 23, 2019 at 11:06 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

House Republicans brought their phones into the secure area of the U.S. Capitol where Laura Cooper was set to testify in the impeachment inquiry, Politico reports.

Said a source: “Standoff in progress.”

There’s now video of the incident.

Holding the Line

October 23, 2019 at 11:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico reviews Holding the Line: Inside Trump’s Pentagon with Secretary Mattis by Guy Snodgrass.

“The book is the first account from inside the highest reaches of the Pentagon of how Trump has remade the American national security apparatus, reporting that Mattis respected the president for having highly tuned political skills but came to believe his policies were undermining the nation. And it reveals that even a Cabinet member like Mattis, a four-star general with ample experience in wartime, found himself unable to make a difference in shaping major decisions.”

Sale

Holding the Line: Inside Trump's Pentagon with Secretary Mattis

Hardcover Book
Snodgrass, Guy M. (Author)
English (Publication Language)
352 Pages - 10/29/2019 (Publication Date) - Sentinel (Publisher)

An Impeachment Inflection Point

October 23, 2019 at 10:47 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

John Podhoretz: “Remember when I said last week that October 17 was the worst day of the Trump presidency? Well, October 22 and has now come along to break the record. This is the day that, I think, has ensured Donald Trump’s impeachment. Not his removal. But impeachment will be bad enough.”

“Today’s key sentence: ‘Ambassador Sondland said, ‘everything’ was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance.'”

“It comes from the testimony of acting U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine William Taylor before House impeachment investigators, and it instantly makes all but impossible the task of anyone seeking to defend Trump against the charge that he held up American military aid to Ukraine to secure a political advantage in the 2020 election.”

Trump Repeatedly Tried to Cut Anti-Corruption Programs

October 23, 2019 at 10:41 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Trump administration has sought repeatedly to cut foreign aid programs tasked with combating corruption in Ukraine and elsewhere overseas, White House budget documents show, despite recent claims from President Trump and his administration that they have been singularly concerned with fighting corruption in Ukraine,” the Washington Post reports.

Quote of the Day

October 23, 2019 at 10:02 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“What evidence of a crime do you have? Abuse of power is not a crime… The constitution is very clear that this has to be some pretty egregious behavior.”

— Former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, on Fox News.

Mitt Romney Alone Can Fix It

October 23, 2019 at 9:58 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sarah Longwell: “Part of any collective-action problem is the disincentive to go first. Senators who want to vote against Trump will want to wait until the last minute, letting their more courageous colleagues take the political hit by going first. The senator going first might get hailed as a hero when the history books are written. But in the moment, he or she will be used as a human shield. It won’t be fun, and it’s a big ask for any sitting Republican.”

“Romney is best suited for the job. We already know, from The Atlantic’s McKay Coppins, that Romney is ‘taking the prospect of a Senate trial seriously—he’s reviewing The Federalist Papers, brushing up on parliamentary procedure, and staying open to the idea that the president may need to be evicted from the Oval Office.’ He’s not up for reelection until 2024, which gives him the maximum amount of leeway to make difficult votes. Even then, he represents Utah, a deep-red state where Trump’s approval rating has been underwater for much of his presidency. And that’s all assuming that Romney would even want to run for another six-year term at age 77. This all points to Romney as the perfect person to overcome the collective-action problem—he has more stature and political capital than anyone else in the Senate, but he also has the least to lose.”

Democrats Seek More Witnesses for Impeachment Probe

October 23, 2019 at 9:57 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The three House committees investigating President Trump and Ukraine have sent at least 8 letters — obtained by Axios — to key Trump administration officials over the past few days to demand that they appear as part of the rapidly expanding impeachment inquiry.”

Trump to Make Statement on Syria

October 23, 2019 at 9:36 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump announced in a tweet that he would deliver a statement from the White House at 11 a.m. E.T. on the situation in Syria, which he called a “big success.”

The statement comes a day after Russia and Turkey agreed to joint control of the northern part of the country.

Will Trump Shut Down Government to Fight Impeachment?

October 23, 2019 at 9:33 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

NBC News: “With funding for federal operations set to expire Nov. 21, the political class here is beginning to plan for the possibility — likelihood, in the eyes of some — that President Donald Trump will shut down the government to try to turn public opinion against House Democrats and their push to impeach him.”

“Trump has a history of seeking dramatic means to alter storylines.”

Scaramucci Predicts Trump Will Be Forced Out

October 23, 2019 at 9:06 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Anthony Scaramucci predicted to Vanity Fair that President Trump “will be out of office before the next election.”

Said Scaramucci: “In the next three to six weeks, there will be more damning information related to the president… He’s aware of it. I believe that McConnell will eventually go to him and say, ‘Hey, man. You’ve gotta take one for the team… you’ve gotta go back.’ He’ll probably end up back at Mar-a-Lago or something.”

He added: “We’ll eventually uncover that something happened between him and the president of Turkey to have him disavow the Kurds the way he did. I believe there’s a personal transaction embedded there as well.. I do believe he’s cornered now, and as the facts unfold, they’re so overwhelming in their criminality that he’ll be out of office.”

Anxiety Rises Among Democrats

October 23, 2019 at 9:02 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “In conversations with 17 state and national party leaders, nearly all expressed some level of unease with where the field stands and a deepening concern that, even as Trump suffers through one of the darkest phases of his presidency, the leading presidential contenders would struggle mightily in a one-on-one contest with him.”

“For all of his challenges, Trump commands a gigantic operation that has vacuumed up unprecedented sums of money, an unparalleled megaphone to lure in voters and a lock on most of the Republican Party. Democrats face the possibility of a long primary fight that could cleave the party along ideological and generational lines and leave the nominee campaigning against an incumbent whom Democrats see as simultaneously weak and hard to beat.”

McConnell Seeks to Defend Trump on Process

October 23, 2019 at 8:59 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is urging Republicans to focus on Democrats and their tactics in seeking to mount an effective defense of President Trump on impeachment, The Hill reports.

Said one GOP lawmaker, summing up McConnell’s message: “This is going to be about process.”

“McConnell recognizes that some members of his conference are uncomfortable defending Trump on charges his administration linked aid to Ukraine to that country’s government running politically motivated investigations meant to help the White House. As a result, he’s telling his members they have plenty of reason to offer a vigorous defense of Trump, as the president publicly urged them to do Monday, by focusing on Democratic tactics that McConnell and Trump view as unfair.”

‘Everyone Has a Breaking Point’

October 23, 2019 at 8:52 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Chris Cillizza: “It’s worth remembering that fact at this moment as congressional Republicans find themselves confronted with a cavalcade of troubling news stories about President Trump and his conduct in office. Because while elected GOP officials have almost totally capitulated to Trump’s hostile takeover of their party, there is always a point at which you simply cannot look even quasi-objectively at the actions of this president and conclude that standing behind him remains the right (or even defensible) thing to do.”

“And this week sure looks like just that sort of breaking point moment.”

Philadelphia Mayor Endorses Warren

October 23, 2019 at 8:44 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jim Kenney – the mayor of Philadelphia, where Joe Biden’s presidential campaign is based – announced he was throwing his support behind Elizabeth Warren’s bid.