President Trump insisted the text messages released by House Democrats late last night prove there’s nothing to investigate.
Tweeted Trump: “Case Closed!”
President Trump insisted the text messages released by House Democrats late last night prove there’s nothing to investigate.
Tweeted Trump: “Case Closed!”
Retired Navy Admiral William McRaven, the former top commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, believes President Trump “needs to be held accountable” for taking actions that don’t uphold the “dignity” of the office of the presidency, he said in an interview with CBS News.
Said McRaven: “Every public servant who fails to do things that are moral, legal, and ethical, ought to be held accountable.”
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“President Trump is going all in. He declared he has the ‘absolute right’ to call for foreign nations to investigate political rivals — publicly calling on China to investigate the Bidens — and he plans to ask Democrats to vote on starting impeachment or get stonewalled,” Axios reports.
“It now seems increasingly inevitable the House will impeach Trump. Think about it this way: Imagine a Democrat who called for impeachment before the China comment voting against impeachment after it.”
Playbook: “Here’s what we can say definitively: President Trump is bending the machinations of the U.S. government toward taking down Joe Biden. Senate and House Republicans are helping him by sticking by his side. That’s not an opinion; it’s a fact.”
“The only difference of opinion now is not over the facts, really. Republicans say there’s nothing to see here; it’s just Trump trying to root out corruption. And Democrats say his own words are evidence that the president is deeply unfit for office and deserves to be impeached.”
“Energy Secretary Rick Perry is expected to announce his resignation from the administration by the end of November,” Politico reports.
“An Internal Revenue Service official has filed a whistleblower complaint reporting that he was told at least one Treasury Department political appointee attempted to improperly interfere with the annual audit of the president or vice president’s tax returns,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump administration officials dismissed the whistleblower’s complaint as flimsy because it is based on conversations with other government officials. But congressional Democrats were alarmed by the complaint, now circulating on Capitol Hill, and flagged it to a federal judge.”
Adam Serwer: “Elected Republicans know that Trump is unfit for office. The president’s own subordinates know that Trump is unfit for office. They know this, because when the president issues ridiculous orders, such as the demand that a leader of the opposition party be arrested, they ignore his demands. A nation in which the opposition cannot criticize the head of state without facing criminal sanction is not a democracy, but it is the kind of country over which Donald Trump would like to preside. The result is that American democracy rests on the willingness of bureaucrats to ignore the commands of their democratically elected chief executive.”
“Unable to defend the substance of the president’s extortion attempt, Republicans have turned to complaining about the process. But Thursday’s performance on the White House lawn renders those baseless complaints moot—the president just did publicly what the Democrats have accused him of doing privately. The only argument against removing Trump from office is that Trump’s raving is just Trump being Trump, and is not to be taken seriously. But the fact that the president’s madness must be ignored from time to time for America to continue to function as a democracy is an argument for, not against, his removal.”
“Although congressional Democrats and Republicans are divided on impeachment, there is vanishingly little disagreement on whether or not Trump abuses his authority or is fit to be president. The distinction is that, for the moment, Republicans appear not to care.”
Vice President Mike Pence offered a full-throated defense of President Trump’s call for an investigation into Joe Biden and his son’s dealings with Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Said Pence: “My predecessor had a son who was paid $50,000 a month to be on a Ukrainian board at the time that Vice President Biden was leading the Obama administration’s efforts in Ukraine, I think that is worth looking into.”
Pence also took aim at Democrats generally for what he termed as “endless investigations” of Trump.
The White House sent out its general-public newsletter “with a very conspicuous line buried in a series of talking points on the rapidly escalating scandal that has President Trump on the verge of an impeachment vote,” the Daily Beast reports.
From the newsletter: “This year, President Trump has asked Ukraine to fully cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation into the actions of former Vice President Joe Biden and his family in Ukraine.”
“No such investigation into the Bidens has been publicly announced, and neither the DOJ nor the White House responded to inquiries about the statement. But then, at some point… the version on the White House website was quietly edited. It now says that the president ‘has asked Ukraine to fully cooperate with any Justice Department investigation into the actions of former Vice President Joe Biden and his family in Ukraine.'”
Alexandra Petri: “For the last time, this is all part of the plan. Getting himself impeached is actually a strategic triumph for President Trump, and anyone who thinks otherwise is just not playing chess in enough dimensions. Consider what is the greater mark of strategic genius: to mire yourself and your administration in an endless series of idiotic and pointless controversies, often rife with misspellings, damaging your standing at home and abroad, or to NOT do that? If you say the second, you are a fool. This is all part of the plan. Actually, this is good. Actually, this is great.”
“I repeat, every move that Trump makes, has made or is making, currently, with the president of Finland sitting helplessly by his side, wearing an expression of alarm, is planned. It is a genius plan. It might look like the random, haphazard flailing of a cat that has gotten its head stuck in a bucket. But actually he is in total control.”
Aaron Blake: “The idea that President Trump has finally gone over the edge is an overwrought journalistic genre. Oftentimes, people simply forget all that has come before when they declare him to be particularly unwieldy or off the rails at a particular moment. And his opponents are far too anxious to find examples of Trump finally reaching a threshold that suggests he has completely thrown caution to the wind and may be just giving up.”
“All of that said, it has been some week for Trump — even by his standards.”
“No, no war room… Russia was much more complicated and after two and half years and after they spent $42 million, there was no collusion, no obstruction, they got nothing, so I think we’re going to keep doing it the way we’re doing it.”
— President Trump, in an interview with the New York Post, on how he’ll defend himself against impeachment proceedings.
Jonathan Chait: “Donald Trump is being impeached for using his office to pressure foreign countries to investigate his political rivals. It is not clear Trump understands that, because he simply continues committing this offense in broad daylight.”
“In remarks to reporters today, Trump was asked what he wants Ukraine to do about the Bidens. He replied, ‘If they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens.’ While elaborating on his answer, he added that he would also suggest China launch an investigation of the Biden family.”
“Of course, the idea that any American citizens should be subject to the Chinese justice system is absurd. The only possible way Trump could desire such an investigation would be if he believes China would fix the outcome in order to win his favor.”
For members: Why This Scandal Is Different
George Conway: “You don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, and you don’t need to be a mental-health professional to see that something’s very seriously off with Trump—particularly after nearly three years of watching his erratic and abnormal behavior in the White House. Questions about Trump’s psychological stability have mounted throughout his presidency. But those questions have been coming even more frequently amid a recent escalation in Trump’s bizarre behavior, as the pressures of his upcoming reelection campaign, a possibly deteriorating economy, and now a full-blown impeachment inquiry have mounted. And the questioners have included those who have worked most closely with him.”
“No president in recent memory—and likely no president ever—has prompted more discussion about his mental stability and connection with reality.”
“The president isn’t simply volatile and erratic, however—he’s also incapable of consistently telling the truth. Those who work closely with him, and who aren’t in denial, must deal with Trump’s lying about serious matters virtually every day.”
Washington Post: “In his quest to rewrite the history of the 2016 election, President Trump’s personal attorney has turned to an unusual source of information: Trump’s imprisoned former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.”
“Rudy Giuliani in recent months has consulted several times with Manafort through the federal prisoner’s lawyer in pursuit of information that would bolster his theory that the real story of 2016 is not Russian interference to elect Trump, but Ukrainian efforts to support Hillary Clinton.”
“What you most hear from congressional Republicans on impeachment this week is the sound of silence,” CNN reports.
“GOP sources say they have a good reason for that fear. They have no idea what else House Democrats’ investigation will uncover or what comes next.”
“Along with that fear is frustration with President Trump: his ranting in performances full of false claims, like Wednesday in the Oval Office and White House East Room, and stream of consciousness rapid-fire tweets — curse words and all — are not exactly an anti-impeachment road map for his fellow Republicans.”
“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.”
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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