The whistleblower responsible for revealing President Trump’s call to Ukraine was within their rights to do so, the Office of the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community said in a statement.
Trump falsely claimed the whistleblower was able to do so due to a recent rule change.
A new Change Research poll in South Carolina finds Jaime Harrison (D) trails Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) by just 7 percentage points in the U.S. Senate race — a surprisingly slim margin given the demographics of a state that elected President Trump by nearly 14 percentage points in 2016.
“Attorney General William Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence agencies’ examination of Russian interference in the 2016 election,” the Washington Post reports.
“Barr’s personal involvement is likely to stoke further criticism from Democrats pursuing impeachment that he is helping the Trump administration use executive branch powers to augment investigations aimed primarily at the president’s adversaries.”
A new CNN poll finds 47% of Americans support impeaching President Trump and removing him from office, up from 41% who felt that way in May.
“The share who favor impeachment and removal from office now narrowly outpaces the share who say they don’t feel that way — a first in CNN polling — although the two figures are within the poll’s margin of sampling error. Opposition stands at 45% in the new poll, down from 54% who said so in May.”
“Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was among administration officials who listened in on the July 25 phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a disclosure that ties the State Department more closely to the House impeachment inquiry,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Pompeo’s participation on the call hasn’t been previously reported.”
“President Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent telephone call to help Attorney General William Barr gather information for a Justice Department inquiry that Mr. Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation,” the New York Times reports.
“The White House restricted access to the call’s transcript to a small group of the president’s aides, an unusual decision that is similar to the handling of a July call with the Ukrainian president that is at the heart of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump. Like that call, the discussion with Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia shows the extent to which Mr. Trump sees the attorney general as a critical partner in his goal to show that the Mueller investigation had corrupt and partisan origins, and the extent that Mr. Trump sees the Justice Department inquiry as a potential way to gain leverage over America’s closest allies.”
“And like the call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, the discussion with Mr. Morrison shows the president using high-level diplomacy to advance his personal political interests.”
“House Democrats investigating whether to impeach President Trump issued a subpoena on Monday demanding that Rudolph W. Giuliani, his private lawyer, produce communications and other records related to his attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the president’s Democratic rivals,” the New York Times reports.
“The new demands of Mr. Giuliani and separate requests sent to three of his associates said to be involved in the Ukraine matter suggest that Democrats are moving quickly to stand up their investigation. On Friday, the issued a subpoena to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for documents and demanded that he make five department officials available for depositions.”
Politico: “During the Clinton impeachment, the dot com boom was making Americans exuberant about the economy. Today, the economy is slowing, consumer confidence is dipping and corporate America faces a gauntlet of worries … And now investors, consumers and corporate executives face the prospect of a Washington consumed for months by impeachment drama and the uncertain reactions of a volatile president with a penchant for lashing out under stress.”
“This complex stew could damage an economy already showing signs of flagging. That in turn could further erode Trump’s standing on the economy, up to now his strongest issue.”
President Trump said that the White House is “trying to find out” the identity of the intelligence community whistleblower who filed a complaint about the president’s interactions with Ukraine, The Hill reports.
Former National Security Adviser John Bolton was at odds with President Trump over his July phone call with the president of Ukraine, NBC News reports.
“Three officials said Bolton argued against Trump calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on July 25 because he was concerned the president wasn’t coordinating with advisers on what to say and might air personal grievances.”
A new Quinnipiac poll finds American voters are divided on impeaching and removing President Trump from office, 47% to 47% — closing a 20 point gap from less than a week ago.
In the poll released on September 25th, voters said that the president should not be impeached and removed, 57% to 37%.
Key finding: Democrats showed the greatest change from the last poll. Today, they show a virtual consensus on impeaching Trump, 90% to 5%, while last week they said Trump should be impeached 73% to 21%.
Chris Riback interviews New York Times television critic James Poniewozik about his excellent new book: Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America.
It’s more than a book about Trump, however. It shows how television has completely changed our politics.
Boston Globe: “Though almost all the presidential candidates take photos with potential voters, Warren has become famous for her ‘selfie’ lines, which can last hours and involve hundreds or even thousands of people. She has said that if she wins the nomination, she will continue to do them. But right now, with Warren climbing in the Democratic primary polls, these photo lines have a kind of intimate, now-or-never feeling to them, like meeting Taylor Swift when she was still strumming her guitar at a bar in Nashville.”
“Warren’s campaign sees the photos as a form of grass-roots canvassing, offering individuals a chance to talk to their candidate face-to-face. They also, of course, offer Warren the opportunity to appear in potential voters’ Snapchat stories and Instagram feeds without paying a cent. The ritual showcases the 70-year-old candidate’s stamina, too: She really will stay until the last person who wants one gets a photo. Recently, after a rally of 20,000 people in Manhattan, Warren snapped selfies for four hours.”
Also interesting: “Far from the existential despair and rage that one usually encounters among people who are waiting in a very long line, the people sticking around to meet Warren at Keene State were eager, rule-abiding, optimistic — matching almost perfectly the tone of the event. Occasionally, shouts of spontaneous joy would erupt.”
Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) has resigned from office, WGRZ reports.
Collins is expected to plead guilty tomorrow to insider trading charges.
Mark Blumenthal: “The impeachment story is blowing up. It’s a high-stakes moment — for President Trump, for Democrats and for pollsters. It’s also a scary moment for polling.”
“Yes, people who follow politics are now intensely interested in whether the latest developments might shift public opinion about Trump and impeachment. But when news is exceptionally big, a growing body of evidence suggests it can throw off the accuracy of polling itself.”
Washington Post: “Sanders and Warren say they’re running presidential campaigns funded ‘100%’ by grass-roots donors. It’s a big claim with no wiggle room. Money is fungible, so it’s an artifice to claim that money from wealthy donors last time around isn’t being used this time around. The key here is that Sanders and Warren define their presidential campaigns as entirely grass-roots-funded because of their self-imposed restrictions: no hobnobbing with rich donors in closed events and no PAC money, for example.”
“But Warren held high-dollar fundraisers for her 2018 Senate run, and then transferred $10.4 million from that campaign account to her presidential committee. Her Senate run raised $6 million from donors who gave $1,000 or more, and she also took some PAC contributions. Sanders in 2015 sought and received big checks from wealthy donors. Sanders’s 2020 committee so far has gotten $4.6 million from his prior presidential campaign. These are omissions worthy of Two Pinocchios. As a share of total fundraising, however, Sanders was less dependent than Warren on high-dollar contributions in his previous campaign.”
“We won the Mueller probe. We’re going to win this one. Here we go! I tell you what. If Mueller was a war this is a skirmish.”
— Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow, quoted by Politico.
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.