“President Trump repeatedly involved Vice President Pence in efforts to exert pressure on the leader of Ukraine at a time when the president was using other channels to solicit information that he hoped would be damaging to a Democratic rival,” the Washington Post reports.
“Officials close to Pence insist that he was unaware of Trump’s efforts to press Zelensky for damaging information about Biden and his son.”
The Scotsman: “The Trump Organization’s plans for a major expansion of its flagship Scottish resort by building swaths of housing and luxury villas have been thwarted, further jeopardising efforts by the US president’s company to stem multimillion pound losses at its most prestigious overseas property.”
“The Trump administration is moving to begin collecting DNA samples from hundreds of thousands of people booked into federal immigration custody each year for entry into a national criminal database, an immense expansion of the use of technology to enforce the nation’s immigration laws,” the New York Times reports.
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Farhad Manjoo: “I won’t lie to you: Watching Fox isn’t easy. Much of it is still a fetid sewer of venom that bears little resemblance to the real world, and I would hope that you have more enjoyable ways to spend your time, like elective dental surgery.”
“But when news breaks on television — as it will in an unending cascade of hearings, stump speeches, debates and grandstanding news conferences from now until at least January 2021 — Fox should be your go-to place to watch, especially if you are on the left.”
“There is a simple reason: While other organizations report the news, Fox News is the news. There is now a growing rift on Fox: Its news side is asking increasingly tough questions of Trump, while its opinion side pushes his raving conspiracies. The drama speaks to real tension on the right, and Fox will inform political reality. It is no exaggeration to say that what happens on Fox now — the way it decides to play impeachment and the twists and turns of the 2020 race — could well determine the fate of the republic.”
The Wrap has learned that Todd Starnes’ contract at Fox News is not being renewed.
“His removal comes a few days after he said on his radio program on Monday that Democrats do not believe in the Christian God and instead may worship Moloch, a pagan god often associated with child sacrifice.”
Rudy Giuliani “refused to say what sort of agreement, if any, he has with President Trump to act as his lawyer,” BuzzFeed News reports.
Said Giuliani: “If I did, I wouldn’t show it to you, and what right do you have to ask me that? I’m a private lawyer. I could have a handshake with him. I don’t have to tell you what the basis of my attorney-client relationship is.”
“The nature of Giuliani’s work for Trump is central to how Congressional investigators are able to gather information from Giuliani. If Giuliani has been working as the president’s personal lawyer, he could claim attorney-client privilege over his communications with the president… But there are exceptions to that privilege, and Giuliani himself recently told The Atlantic, ‘I’m not acting as a lawyer.'”
President Trump said he likely will bring lawsuits against some of the people involved in the investigation into whether he or his 2016 election campaign colluded with Russia, Reuters reports.
Said Trump: “I probably will be bringing a lot of litigation against a lot of people having to do with the corruption investigation having to do with the 2016 election.”
John Cassidy: “If this was a dystopian thriller, one could imagine Giuliani as an undercover saboteur, who was ordered to embed himself as deeply as possible within Team Trump and then bide his time. In 2016, he proved his bona fides with Trump by publicly defending him after the appearance of the Access Hollywood tape, and then he accompanied Trump on his final campaign swing. In 2018, after Robert Mueller was appointed as special counsel, Giuliani reappeared as the public face of the President’s legal-defense team. With other lawyers conducting most of the actual legal work, he had plenty of time for pursuing other projects, including a certain oppo-research effort in Kiev. And what a job he made of it.”
“Giuliani isn’t an undercover operative, of course. He’s a retired politician who couldn’t bear to be out of the spotlight and who saw, in Trump’s rise, a way to get back on the stage. He’s also a rich security consultant, whose clients include Eastern European moguls with ties to the Ukrainian government. In promoting to Trump the unfounded theory that Biden blackmailed Ukraine’s government to protect his son, these two streams in Giuliani’s life came together. And you have to give him some credit, at least, for knowing his client. Outside the confines of 4chan, there is probably nobody in America more partial to conspiracy theories than Trump.”
“The Justice Department told White House personnel on Wednesday that they must preserve all notes regarding President Trump’s meetings and phone calls with foreign leaders,” CNN reports.
“A parental advisory for you: In this block, I’m going to be quoting from things that the President of the United States has tweeted, so if you have kids in the room, you might want to mute the television…”
— Jake Tapper, during his show on CNN.
When asked what specifically he asked Ukraine President Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son, President Trump repeatedly refused to answer the question. He became very agitated when it was pointed out that he did not answer the question.
Here’s the exchange with Jeff Mason of Reuters:
MASON: “The question, sir, was what did you want President Zelensky to do about Vice President Biden and his son Hunter?
TRUMP: “Are you talking to me?”
MASON: “Yes. It’s just a follow-up of what I just asked you, sir.”
TRUMP: “Listen, are you ready? We have the president of Finland. Ask him a question.”
MASON: “I have one for him. I wanted to follow-up on the one that I asked you.”
TRUMP: Did you hear me? Did you hear me? Ask him a question. I’ve given you a long answer, ask this gentleman a question. Don’t be rude. I’ve answered everything. It’s a whole hoax. And you know who’s playing into this hoax? People like you and the fake news media that we have in this country. And I say in many cases, the corrupt media.”
Overall, the press conference was a train wreck and showed Trump at his most rage-filled and victimized. He’s clearly in crisis.
The federal security detail assigned to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is expected to cost taxpayers more than $26 million during President Trump’s first term, CNN reports.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi told ABC News that President Trump is “scared” of the impeachment inquiry she launched last week.
Said Pelosi: “I think the president knows the argument that can be made against him, and he’s scared. And so he’s trying to divert attention from that to where [he’s] standing in the way of legislation.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) learned about the outlines of a CIA officer’s concerns that President Trump had abused his power days before the officer filed a whistle-blower complaint, the New York Times reports.
“The early account by the future whistle-blower shows how determined he was to make known his allegations that Mr. Trump asked Ukraine’s government to interfere on his behalf in the 2020 election. It also explains how Mr. Schiff knew to press for the complaint when the Trump administration initially blocked lawmakers from seeing it.”
Out next week: Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another by Matt Taibbi.
The book reveals that what most people think of as “the news” is, in fact, a twisted wing of the entertainment business.
No products found.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he “would not mind if the White House made public his talks with President Trump at a summit meeting last year, because there was nothing incriminating in their conversations,” the New York Times reports.
“Just five days earlier, Mr. Putin’s spokesman had said the Kremlin would not want records of the two presidents’ talks released. But Mr. Putin, a former K.G.B. spy, said his previous job had taught him that any conversation he had could be published.”
“Obviously, Batman is a billionaire and he’s got all the great gear, so that’s appealing. Then again, he doesn’t really strike me as happy, so, yeah, I’m going to stick with Spiderman.
— Pete Buttigieg, quoted by the Hollywood Reporter, on which superhero he most relates to.
President Trump blasted House Democrats’ investigations as “BULLSHIT,” as his furor with the impeachment probe reaching new heights.
Said Trump: “The Do Nothing Democrats should be focused on building up our Country, not wasting everyone’s time and energy on BULLSHIT, which is what they have been doing ever since I got overwhelmingly elected in 2016, 223-306,” he wrote, incorrectly stating the breakdown of electoral college votes he and Hillary Clinton received.”
He added: “Get a better candidate this time, you’ll need it!”
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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