“Joe Biden took aim at his critics in the presidential field Wednesday, scoring Sen. Cory Booker’s record and Sen. Kamala Harris’s policy positions in a bracing new offensive that signaled a more aggressive stance heading into next week’s presidential debate,” the Washington Post reports.
House Judiciary Prepares Lawsuit to Enforce Subpoena
“The House Judiciary Committee is preparing to file a lawsuit in the coming days to enforce a subpoena for testimony by former White House counsel Don McGahn, as the panel has so far failed to reach a deal with the White House over a central aspect of his testimony: whether it would be public or private,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Justice Department Won’t Prosecute Contempt Citation
“The Department of Justice won’t prosecute the attorney general or Commerce secretary after the House voted earlier this month to hold them in criminal contempt,” CNN reports.
Mueller Did Not Help Impeachment Advocates
New York Times: “Liberals who support opening impeachment proceedings against Mr. Trump had hoped that testimony by the former special counsel would finally electrify their efforts. The early verdict suggests that did not happen.”
“One Democrat, freshman Representative Lori Trahan of Massachusetts, joined the 90-odd other House members calling for the opening of an impeachment inquiry… Others could follow this week. But with a six-week August recess looming and the views of most Americans fixed on what is now a two-year-old story line, a lasting shift in public opinion appears unlikely.”
Washington Post: “If you’re House Speaker Nancy Pelosi it may not be all doom and gloom right now. Yes, the hearings were probably counterproductive when it comes to Democrats’ efforts to beat Trump in 2020, but they also would seem to help her campaign to hold off her fellow Democrats’ impeachment fervor.”
Politico: “Pro-impeachment Democrats were hoping for a blockbuster show on Wednesday. Instead they are left trying to regain momentum in their drive to oust President Trump from office.”
Trump’s Attempt to Bar Asylum Seekers Is Blocked
“A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to continue accepting asylum claims from all eligible migrants arriving in the United States, temporarily thwarting the president’s latest attempt to stanch the flow of migrants crossing the southern border,” the New York Times reports.
“The decision came on the same day that a federal judge in Washington, hearing a separate challenge, let the new rule stand, delivering the administration a win.”
Republicans Used Mueller’s Conservatism to Discredit Him
Jonathan Chait: “Mueller’s attempt to place himself above the fray, by refusing to call a crime a crime or to recommend impeachment, became the Republicans’ best evidence against him. His caution allowed a series of Republicans, beginning with William Barr, to mischaracterize his findings. And when he contradicted their lie, they accused him of smearing Trump.”
“Republicans used Mueller’s caution and occasional uncertainty to discredit all the damning facts he produced. In fact, it suggests the opposite point: Mueller did not chase down every possible lead or rule out every possible crime. He never got to the bottom of the nature of the contacts between the two Trump advisers, Stone and Manafort, who worked with Russian cutouts during the campaign.”
“Perhaps Mueller was outwitted, or at least outwilled, by Trump. What does that tell us? That Trump got away with even more than we think.”
CNN Requires $300K Commitment for Debate Ads
Variety: “CNN is seeking exponentially high prices for ad packages set to run in its broadcast of two debates among Democratic presidential hopefuls next week… The AT&T-owned cable-news outlet is requires a commitment of $300,000 in advertising on the network before a potential sponsor can purchase commercials within the two debate telecasts.”
Trump Admits He Was a Liability In 2018
“President Trump still won’t publicly admit he was a significant factor in Republicans’ loss of the House in 2018. But a behind-the-scenes moment captured in a new book suggests he is more politically self-aware than he leads on,” Inside Elections reports.
According to Tim Alberta, author of American Carnage, “the president endorsed a vulnerable member of Congress in an intentional effort to weaken his candidacy.”
From the book: “In one case, Trump endorsed as a means of punishment. Having heard that Minnesota congressman Erik Paulsen was distancing himself from the White House in the hope of holding his seat in the Twin Cities’ suburbs, the president stewed and asked that the political shop send a tweet of support for Paulsen — thereby sabotaging the moderate Republican’s efforts. When his aides demurred, Trump sent the tweet himself, issuing a ‘Strong Endorsement!’ of the congressman in a late-night post that left Paulsen fuming and his Democratic opponent giddy.”
U.S. Won’t Feed 30,000 Starving Syrians
Washington Post: “The situation inside the camp is dire. Residents can no longer find food or medicine on a daily basis and disease is rampant. People there have no jobs and no income. The last aid convoy came in February and the camp is besieged on all sides. It survives only because it falls within the 55-kilometer radius of U.S. military base Tanf’s security zone.”
“The residents want to be fed or transported to a place where they can be fed — but outside the control of the Assad regime.”
Trump Responds to Mueller Hearings
President Trump responded to today’s Mueller hearings with an ironic tweet:
“Truth is a force of nature!”
Just a Few Good Clips
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Madoff Asks Trump to Reduce His Prison Sentence
“Notorious Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff has filed a petition with the Justice Department asking that President Trump reduce his 150-year prison sentence,” CNBC reports.
Ken Starr Says Mueller Has Done a ‘Disservice’
Former special prosecutor Ken Starr told Fox News that former special counsel Robert Mueller has done a “grave disservice to our country” in his handling of the Russian investigation.
Said Starr: “The entire process has been so unfortunate. I love Bob Mueller as a human being, as a patriot, but I think he’s done a grave disservice to our country in the way that he conducted this investigation.”
Republicans Grilled Mueller With Hannity’s Questions
Daily Beast: “During his Tuesday evening broadcast, the bombastic Fox News host dedicated nearly 15 minutes to rattling off questions he would want to ask the former special counsel when he appeared before two congressional committees on Wednesday.”
Said Hannity: “This is not me telling people what to do.”
“But when it came time to publicly grill Mueller, many Republican questions lined up with Hannity’s script—and one committee member even openly cited the Fox star’s trusty pro-Trump on-air sidekick.”
Audience of One
Out this fall: Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America by James Poniewozik.
“An incisive cultural history that captures a fractious nation through the prism of television and the rattled mind of a celebrity president.”
Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Poniewozik, James (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 349 Pages - 09/10/2019 (Publication Date) - Liveright (Publisher)
Mueller Calls Trump’s Praise of Wikileaks ‘Problematic’
Former special counsel Robert Mueller said he found repeated statements by Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign praising WikiLeaks to be “problematic” — his most pointed criticism of Trump’s behavior since beginning Congressional testimony, the Washington Post reports.
Said Mueller: “Problematic is an understatement in terms of what it displays of giving some hope or some boost to what is and should be illegal behavior.”
White House Exults After Flat Mueller Performance
“The tense opening moments of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s much-anticipated testimony on Capitol Hill gave way to an early sense of relief at the White House, where aides were quietly celebrating what they viewed as disjointed questioning from Democrats and a weak performance from the star witness himself,” Politico reports.
“Mueller, whose steely reputation has cast a long shadow over the Trump’s tenure, proved — at least in the early offing — a less formidable witness in the flesh than Democrats had hoped, offering up clipped, monosyllabic responses and repeatedly asking lawmakers to repeat their questions. Watching from the White House, at least one Trump aide said the former FBI director, who spent some 22 months investigating the president, simply seemed past his prime and incapable of doing Trump much harm.”
Generic Democrat Leads Trump
A new Economist/YouGov poll finds 42% of Americans would vote for the Democratic presidential candidate while 35% said they would vote for Trump.
Another 11% said it would depend and 12% said they would not vote.
