“Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Thursday that President Trump did not withhold military aid to Ukraine as part of a quid pro quo to get that country to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden,” CNBC reports.

“Instead, Mulvaney told reporters, that the withholding of aid this summer was due in part because Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate the possibility that elements in that country somehow had interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to Trump’s detriment.”

New York Times: “It was the first time a White House official has publicly acknowledged what a parade of current and former administration officials have told impeachment investigators on Capitol Hill.”

Vice President Mike Pence announced from Ankara on Thursday that Turkey has agreed to cease its military operation in northern Syria until Kurdish forces can withdraw from the area, Axios reports.

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said during a press briefing Thursday that next year’s G7 summit will be hosted at the Trump National Doral Miami resort, Axios reports.

Philip Bump: “There are a number of remarkable lines in the letter President Trump sent to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this month. But it’s a relatively unremarkable one that may be the most revealing.”

“‘I have worked hard to solve some of your problems,’ Trump writes at the beginning of the second paragraph. It’s not as splashy as ‘Don’t be a fool!’ but it’s more interesting. What, exactly, are those problems Trump has been working to solve?”

“Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, told House impeachment investigators Thursday that President Trump urged him to work with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on matters related to Ukraine, the Washington Post reports.

“The revelation came as Sondland, a key figure in the probe, appeared behind closed doors to testify about Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden at a time when nearly $400 million in military aid was being withheld.”

Politico: “Sondland’s testimony has the potential to be the most devastating yet for Trump’s defenders.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan put President Trump’s extraordinary letter ‘in the bin,” the BBC reports.

“On Wednesday, the U.S. military said two F-15E jet fighters carried out an airstrike to destroy an ammunition-storage facility, latrines, tents and other parts of the Syria headquarters of the American campaign to destroy Islamic State after pulling its forces from the base,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The decision to target the base, which included warehouses used to train-and-equip the Kurdish-led fighters, came after Turkish-backed forces moved on the facility on Tuesday.”

“European Union and U.K. negotiators agreed on a draft of a new Brexit deal, clearing a major hurdle to Britain’s exit from the bloc and setting up a crucial vote in the U.K. Parliament,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“After days of intense talks, the two sides struck a compromise agreement Thursday intended to ensure a border doesn’t appear on the island of Ireland after Brexit. It was the main sticking point in negotiations aimed at smoothing Britain’s split with its largest trading partner.”

“New details from Kurt Volker’s closed-door interview indicate Bill Taylor, the acting ambassador to Ukraine, was deeply conflicted about whether to take the job because of concerns about Rudy Giuliani’s shadow involvement,” Axios reports.

“The testimony by Volker, the former special envoy to Ukraine, earlier this month may help the president in the sense that it paints Giuliani, not President Trump, as the mastermind behind a campaign to get foreign leaders to investigate the Biden family and Burisma.”

“Taylor was also worried that Trump might be willing to trade away Ukraine’s interests as part of a grand bargain with Russia.”

The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to condemn President Trump’s troop withdrawal from northern Syria, 354 to 60, just hours after the president called his decision “strategically brilliant.”

“Lindsey Graham would like to stay in the Middle East for the next thousand years. I think Lindsey should focus on Judiciary… That’s what the people of South Carolina want him to focus on.”

— President Trump, quoted by The Guardian.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) lashed out at the Trump administration saying it paved the way for Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria and that it was “disingenuous” to be surprised by Ankara’s actions, The Hill reports.

Said Romney: “This was a decision by the administration which had the clearly observable result that we’re seeing. To have the vice president and the secretary of State going to meet with Erdoğan and suggesting that somehow we’re surprised by what’s happening is disingenuous.”

He added: “Very clearly it was a decision by the administration that which has led to what you’re seeing. This is a bit like the farmer locking the barn door after the horse has left.”

“Syria and Turkey can fight… They’ve got a lot of sand over there. There’s a lot of sand that they can play with.”

— President Trump, quoted by the Associated Press.

“Michael McKinley, the former senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo until his sudden resignation last week, will tell House impeachment investigators Wednesday that career diplomats were mistreated during his tenure and some had their careers derailed for political reasons,” the Washington Post reports.

“McKinley will outline how his concerns culminated with the recall of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, a punitive action he and many other rank-and-file diplomats viewed as wholly unjustified.”