The Commentariat -- December 20, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Clare Foran of CNN: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has invited ... Donald Trump to deliver the State of the Union address on February 4, 2020." The story is breaking at 1:15 pm ET Friday. Mrs. McC: I don't suppose Pelosi tried to sell Trump on the idea that the SOTU would be a great place to announce his resignation. Anyway, a SOTU in the midst of an impeachment trial would be unique.

James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) wants to see the documents being concealed by the White House even more than he wants to hear from the list of current and former aides who followed President Trump's order not to testify during the investigation that led to his impeachment. 'The few [text] messages we did get [from Kurt Volker & Gordon Sondland ]were remarkably incriminating,' Schiff said in an interview on Thursday night. 'So you can only imagine, if this is what the small sample of documents that we have shows, just how damning many of the other documents the administration refuses to turn over may be.'"

Kentucky. Miller & Joe Sonka of the Louisville Courier Journal: "Former Gov. Matt Bevin on Thursday defended his controversial last-minute pardon of a man convicted of raping a 9-year-old, saying there was no physical evidence of her abuse.... Bevin also revealed publicly for the first time the victim's relationship to [her rapist] and said that the victim's sister was present during the alleged assaults. The sister has denied the assaults took place, Bevin said. 'Both their hymens were intact. This is perhaps more specific than people would want, but trust me. If you have been repeatedly sexually violated as a small child by an adult, there are going to be repercussions of that physically and medically,' Bevin said. Bevin's claim is flatly incorrect, Dr. George Nichols, who was Kentucky's chief medical examiner for 20 years..., told The Courier Journal.... 'He not only doesn't know the law, in my humble opinion, he clearly doesn't know medicine and anatomy.' Nichols added that he worked for six consecutive governors as chief medical examiner, 'and fortunately I didn't have to report to that a--hole.' According to Forensic Science International, a peer-reviewed journal, a survey of pediatric child abuse rape cases indicated that only 2.1% of subjects examined had visible lesions on the hymen."

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Our founders, when they wrote the Constitution, they suspected that there could be a rogue president. I don't think they suspected that we could have a rogue president and a rogue leader in the Senate at the same time. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in remarks Thursday ~~~

~~~ Sheryl Stolberg & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The day after the House cast historic votes to impeach President Trump, Democrats grappled on Thursday with when to send the charges to the Republican-led Senate, hoping to gain leverage in a bicameral clash over the contours of an election-year trial. With some leading Democrats pushing to delay transmittal of the articles and others advocating that they be withheld altogether, it appeared increasingly likely that the limbo could persist until the new year.... [Mitch] McConnell ... on Thursday [made] a scathing speech [on the Senate floor] in which he denounced her and Democrats for impeaching Mr. Trump.... Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, called Mr. McConnell's speech a '30-minute partisan screed.'... 'Is the president's case so weak that none of the president's men can defend him under oath?' Mr. Schumer asked in a speech on the Senate floor Thursday morning.... Later, he met with [Speaker] Pelosi behind closed doors to plan strategy."

Sam Brodey of the Daily Beast: "... Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), said that he backs the idea of withholding the articles of impeachment until Senate Republicans offer them more favorable terms for the trial. In his office on Thursday, Schumer told reporters that he and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) are on 'the same page' when it comes to the speaker's decision to sit on the articles of impeachment instead of immediately sending them to the GOP leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky."

Mike Lillis of the Hill: "House Democrats on Thursday are rallying behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) after she said she'll delay the deliver of impeachment articles to the Senate in an effort to ensure a fair trial. President Trump has urged a speedy trial in the upper chamber, and Pelosi's allies argue that delaying the delivery of the articles will put pressure on Senate GOP leaders to call witnesses and seek more evidence surrounding the president's dealings with Ukraine -- steps Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he'll not take." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Wednesday night a teevee pundit -- can't recall who -- noted that when the House passed Articles of Impeachment against Bill Clinton, House Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) almost immediately marched the articles right over to the Senate. ~~~

~~~ David Martasko & Emily Goodin of the Daily Mail: "Mitch McConnell threatened on Thursday to cancel Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate if 'scared' Nancy Pelosi refuses to send him the formal articles of impeachment that Democrats passed Wednesday night.... McConnell ... said ...: 'It's beyond me how the Speaker and Democratic Leader in the Senate think withholding the articles of impeachment and not sending them over gives them leverage. Frankly, I'm not anxious to have the trial. If she thinks her case is so weak she doesn't want to send it over, throw me into that briar patch.'... McConnell and the president both blasted Pelosi for refusing to move to the next step, with Trump unleashing a storm of tweets and retweets and venting: 'PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT.' The president also charged Democrats with being 'ashamed' of the impeachment articles." Via Steve M.

George Conway in a Washington Post op-ed: "If anything has cheapened or trivialized the process by which Trump was impeached, it was House Republicans' refusal to treat the proceedings with the seriousness the Constitution demands. Unable to defend the president's conduct on the merits, GOP members of the House resorted to deception, distortion and deflection: pretending that Trump didn't ask President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to investigate Trump's political rival; claiming that Ukraine interfered with the 2016 election; and throwing up all manner of silly assertions of procedural unfairness." ~~~

Anita Kumar of Politico: "Publicly..., Donald Trump has deferred to a Senate Republican plan to hold an impeachment trial with as few surprises -- and witnesses -- as possible. But privately, Trump is still harboring a desire to create a flashy, testimony-filled trial, fueled by a belief that such an approach would vindicate him and embarrass Democrats, according to six people familiar with the situation, including three who have spoken with the president."

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "'Lawyers close to ... Donald Trump are exploring whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to temporarily withhold articles of impeachment from the Senate could mean that the president hasn't actually been impeached,' Bloomberg reported Thursday. 'The White House legal theory, according to a person familiar with the legal review, is that if Trump has been officially impeached, the U.S. Senate should already have jurisdiction. Backers of the theory would argue that the clause of the U.S. Constitution that gives the Senate 'the sole Power to try all Impeachments' indicates that the impeachment isn't formalized until the House reported the charges to the upper chamber,' Bloomberg reported. Trump on Thursday claimed it was unconstitutional for Pelosi to hold the articles of impeachment, but he also claimed impeachment itself is unconstitutional -- despite being in the constitution." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This sounds batshit crazy to me, but Noah Feldman, a Constitutional expert who testified before the Judiciary Committee at the behest of Democrats, agrees with Trump's lawyers. In his Bloomberg column, Feldman writes, "Impeachment as contemplated by the Constitution does not consist merely of the vote by the House, but of the process of sending the articles to the Senate for trial. Impeachment as contemplated by the Constitution does not consist merely of the vote by the House, but of the process of sending the articles to the Senate for trial.... The House must actually send the articles and send managers to the Senate to prosecute the impeachment. And the Senate must actually hold a trial.... If the articles are not transmitted, Trump could legitimately say that he wasn't truly impeached at all."

Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times: "... Christianity Today, a prominent evangelical magazine, called for President Trump to be removed from office in a blistering editorial on Thursday.... The move was the most notable example of dissent among the religious conservative base that has supported Mr. Trump through controversy after controversy, and came at one of the most vulnerable moments of his presidency.... The editorial was a surprising move for a publication that has generally avoided jumping into bitter partisan battles. But it was unlikely to signal a significant change in Mr. Trump's core support; the magazine has long represented more centrist thought, and popular evangelical leaders with large followings continue to rally behind the president." Here's an AP story. ~~~

~~~ Mark Galli, Editor of Christianity Today: "... the facts in this instance are unambiguous: The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president's political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral. The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone -- with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders -- is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.... The impeachment hearings have made it absolutely clear, in a way the Mueller investigation did not, that President Trump has abused his authority for personal gain and betrayed his constitutional oath.... That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday went after Christianity Today after it published an editorial calling or his removal from office, saying the flagship Evangelical magazine was 'far left' and claiming it has been 'doing poorly.' 'A far left magazine, or very "progressive," as some would call it, which has been doing poorly and hasn't been involved with the Billy Graham family for many years, Christianity Today, knows nothing about reading a perfect transcript of a routine phone call and would rather ... have a Radical Left nonbeliever, who wants to take your religion & your guns, than Donald Trump as your President,' Trump wrote in a pair of tweets.... Trump added that 'no president' before him has done more for the Evangelical community and said he wouldn't be reading the publication again." Mrs. McC: Because I'm sure he's a regular subscriber who "religiously" reads Christianity Today. Anyhow, Merry Christmas to all!

All Politics Is Local. The best impeachment headline & lede come from the Queens Daily Eagle, "the only daily print newspaper covering Queens communities, Queens politics and the Queens legal justice system," according to the paper's Website. Headline: "Queens Man Impeached". Lede: "Former Jamaica Estates resident Donald Trump was impeached Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives."

Aaron Rupar of Vox: "Trump attacked a widow [Rep. Debbie Dingell] by denigrating her dead husband [long-time Rep. John Dingell]. The White House is portraying Trump as the real victim.... Trump's comments prompted bipartisan condemnation and calls for him to apologize. But on Thursday, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham and deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley went on TV and made clear that the president intends to do no such thing.... 'As we all know, the president is a counter-puncher. It was a very, very supportive and wild crowd,' [Grisham] said [on 'Morning America' Thursday]. 'He was just riffing on some of the things that had been happening the past few days.'... 'No matter what the president says people are going to parse it apart, try and tear it apart, and focus on the most negative aspects of it,' Gidley said [on Fox 'News'], as if there were any positive aspects to Trump's comments.... Referring to a similar attack Trump made against the late Sen. John McCain earlier this year, Pelosi said the president 'is clearly insecure when it comes to statespersons. Let us pray for the president,' she added. 'What the president misunderstands is that cruelty is not wit ... it's not funny at all. It's very sad.'... Trump, for his part, ignored repeated questions about whether he'll apologize to Dingell during a media availability at the White House on Thursday afternoon." ~~~

~~~ Juliegrace Brufke & Scott Wong of the Hill: "House Republicans are strongly rebuking President Trump's attacks on the late Democratic Rep. John Dingell (Mich.) and his widow, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), with numerous GOP lawmakers saying they believe the rhetoric was inappropriate." Mrs. McC: The story goes on to cite some House Republicans who are shocked and dismayed and all about Trump's remarks -- these would be Republicans who made up one excuse after the other as to why their Dear Leader should be able to abuse his office and ignore the Congress to which they belong. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump has freely and frequently brought the power of his office down on a variety of journalists, lawmakers, Foreign Service officers and members of the military he has seen as standing in his way. But Ms. Dingell is now joining the ranks of a more select group that includes the McCains and a Gold Star military family, who have suffered profound loss only to see it mocked and used as political ammunition by the president.... 'If anything good comes out of this,' Ms. Dingell said, 'maybe people will take a deep breath and think about it.' But Mr. Trump is not prone to contemplation." Durng his cruel riff on the Dingells, Trump said, "So she calls me up." In fact, he called her. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Among the lies Trump told about his phone conversation with Debbie Dingell has to be this one: according to Trump, she told him "... '"It's the nicest thing that's ever happened; thank you so much,"' Mr. Trump said at the rally, mocking the congresswoman's voice while recounting their call." I don't believe a new widow would describe any honors her husband might receive postumously as "the nicest thing that's ever happened." John Dingell, who served nearly six decades in Congress, certainly received other honors and experienced other moments that his wife might have characterized as "the nicest." Maybe it was a private moment between them, maybe it was something about the grandchildren, maybe it was President Obama's awarding him the Medal of Freedom. I don't know. But I'd bet it wasn't a sympathy call from Donald Trump.

Our So-Called Representative Democracy. Philip Bump of the Washington Post does the impeachment math: "Even if he were deeply unpopular, if Trump maintained support from senators in 17 states, he could keep his job. Meaning, in the most extreme scenario, that he could be impeached but not removed from office if senators from the 17 least-populous states -- representing about 7 percent of the population -- decided to stand by him." (Also linked yesterday.)

** "Putin Told Me." Shane Harris, et al., of the Washington Post: "Almost from the moment he took office, President Trump seized on a theory that troubled his senior aides: Ukraine, he told them on many occasions, had tried to stop him from winning the White House. After meeting privately in July 2017 with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Trump grew more insistent that Ukraine worked to defeat him, according to multiple former officials familiar with his assertions. The president's intense resistance to the assessment of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia systematically interfered in the 2016 campaign -- and the blame he cast instead on a rival country -- led many of his advisers to think that Putin himself helped spur the idea of Ukraine's culpability, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... One former senior White House official said Trump even stated so explicitly at one point, saying he knew Ukraine was the real culprit because 'Putin told me.'" Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ digby has republished most of the WashPo report. digby: "We still don't know the character of [Putin's] 'influence.' Putin may have something on Trump or Trump may be so psychologically damaged that he will believe anything from anyone who tells him he had the Greatest Electoral Victory The World Has Ever Known. But whatever drives this lunatic, it's clear that Putin fed Trump's deranged hallucinogenic fantasy that Ukrainians hacked the DNC and John Podesta because they were trying to help Hillary Clinton win the election! It's literally insane. I guess we can't expect the millions of people whose brains have been rotted by Fox News to know this.... But every Republican in the US Congress still backs this lunatic and they know exactly what he's doing. They just don't care."

Christopher Miller of BuzzFeed News: "Rudy Giuliani flew to Kyiv on a budget airline [WhizzAir] when he visited earlier this month -- but he left in style, on a private jet.... According to flight data, videos, and photographs analyzed by BuzzFeed News, and confirmed by a Giuliani associate who joined him, the former mayor of New York left on a flight from Kyiv to Vienna on the night of Dec. 6, aboard a Beechcraft Premier 1A light business aircraft with tail number T7-UTS.... Ukrainian media have reported that the company's owner is Alexander Rovt, a Ukrainian American.... Rovt has done business in the past with Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch with ties to organized crime and the Kremlin who is currently under house arrest in Vienna and is fighting extradition to the US, where he faces federal bribery charges.... [Rovt]' also connected to a $3.5 million mortgage loan to former Trump campaign chair and convicted financial fraudster Paul Manafort, through a real estate investment firm founded by a former Trump business partner." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

For what they did, they did a very good job.... They were perfect. They did everything I wanted, and they never got involved in asking questions. -- Rudy Giuliani, speaking of Lev & Igor, in an interview

Spoken like a seasoned mobster. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ~~~

~~~ Michael Rothfeld, et al., of the New York Times on how Lev & Igor worked their way into Trumpworld & played a part in Trump's undoing.

Katie Benner & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The federal prosecutor scrutinizing the Russia investigation has begun examining the role of the former C.I.A. director John O. Brennan in how the intelligence community assessed Russia's 2016 election interference, according to three people briefed on the inquiry. John H. Durham, the United States attorney leading the investigation, has requested Mr. Brennan's emails, call logs and other documents from the C.I.A., according to a person briefed on his inquiry. He wants to learn what Mr. Brennan told other officials, including the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, about his and the C.I.A.'s views of a notorious dossier of assertions about Russia and Trump associates. Mr. Durham's pursuit of Mr. Brennan's records is certain to add to accusations that Mr. Trump is using the Justice Department to go after his perceived enemies. The president has long attacked Mr. Brennan as part of his narrative about a so-called deep state cabal of Obama administration officials who tried to sabotage his campaign, and Mr. Trump has held out Mr. Durham's investigation as a potential avenue for proving those claims."

Sarah Blaskey, et al. of the Miami Herald: "A Chinese woman was arrested Wednesday for trespassing at Mar-a-Lago..., Donald Trump's private South Florida club and newly declared legal residence, the second such instance this year. Jing Lu, 56, was spotted on club grounds and asked to leave by staff, said Michael Ogrodnick, a spokesman for the Palm Beach Police Department. 'She returned and began to take photos, at which time the Palm Beach Police Department responded and took her into custody,' Ogrodnick said in a statement." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Racist in Chief. Rachana Pradhan of Politico: "Donald Trump intervened to cut the federal government's Medicaid funding for Puerto Rico as part of a larger government spending deal, according to four sources with knowledge of the discussions. The budget deal unveiled by lawmakers this week allocates up to $5.7 billion in Medicaid funds for the island over two years -- instead of $12 billion over four years that Republican and Democratic leaders on two key congressional committees had endorsed after months of negotiating a long-term financial path for Puerto Rico." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sarah Okeson of Salon: "Trump's National Forest Service is using a refuted scientific theory to justify building roads in our country's largest national forest, what some call 'America's Amazon.' Loggers want to raze trees more than 1,000 years old. The Forest Service says guidelines from the United Nations' climate authority would be followed. Two scientists whose research was cited in the U.N. study says the Forest Service is espousing junk science." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

James Laporta of Newsweek: "The Defense Department is seeking to stamp out leaks and limit media coverage of military operations at the U.S.-Mexico border by making what historically have been unclassified orders and daily briefings classified.... The policy shift to classify border documents came from Lieutenant General Laura J. Richardson of the U.S. Army in response to negative news coverage and leaks of border documents under U.S. Army North's previous commander, Lieutenant General Jeffrey S. Buchanan, who retired back in July, according to three Pentagon sources with direct knowledge of the matter." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Emily Cochrane & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "The House overwhelmingly approved a revised North American trade pact by a vote of 385 to 41 on Thursday, giving President Trump and the Democratic majority an improbable bipartisan victory less than 24 hours after Mr. Trump was impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. The implementing legislation for the revised United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement was the culmination of months of negotiations among the Trump administration, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a group of Democratic lawmakers, an unlikely collaboration in the middle of a highly fraught impeachment inquiry.... As a result of the changes Democrats secured -- and Republican eagerness to back a critical legislative priority for the president -- the pact drew a stunning range of support in the lower chamber. Just hours after a virtually party-line bid to remove Mr. Trump from office, Democrats and Republicans -- including opponents of the original NAFTA deal and others known for an aversion to trade pacts -- joined in giving their approval to their agreement, which was the chamber's final vote of the year."

Emily Cochrane: "Congress gave final approval on Thursday to $1.4 trillion in federal spending, staving off a lapse in government funding for the remainder of the fiscal year and delivering the legislation to President Trump in a year-end flurry of bipartisan compromise. The Senate on Thursday cleared two spending packages that comprised the dozen must-pass bills needed to prevent funding from running out on the eve of Dec. 20. While Mr. Trump has not formally announced his intent to sign the legislation, the administration has indicated he will do so in order to avoid what would be a catastrophic lapse in funding. Mr. Trump, having vowed never to sign a catchall spending package again, will instead sign two separate packages, stuffed with new funding allocations for a sweeping array of federal programs and many unrelated provisions, that will maintain funding through most of 2020." ~~~

~~~ Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Before adjourning for the year on Thursday, the GOP-controlled Senate approved a $1.4 trillion funding package embraced by President Trump that will push deficits to record levels -- with hardly a peep from many Republicans who have shut down the government over spending in the past.... The mammoth spending deal provides another stark indication of the Republican Party's near-total capitulation to Trump, who pays little mind to the goals of fiscal austerity that animated the GOP establishment and its tea party wing during years of dramatic fiscal standoffs with President Barack Obama.... And the deal comes just days after Congress passed another $738 billion spending agreement brokered with the Trump White House, creating a Space Force as the sixth branch of the military and guaranteeing 12 weeks of paid parental leave for federal workers -- a policy that once would have been anathema to conservative activists and a likely cause of revolt." ~~~

~~~ Issam Ahmed of AFP: "The US Congress voted Thursday to raise the minimum age to buy tobacco and e-cigarettes from 18 to 21 across the country, a move intended to stem the rising tide of youth vaping. Passed by the Senate as part of a wider budgetary bill, it will take effect next year and will mean that tobacco and e-cigarettes will join alcohol as substances that are prohibited to purchase for those under the age of 21. Nineteen of the country's 50 states and the capital Washington, DC had already set 21 as the minimum age."

Ugh! Marianne Levine of Politico: "The Senate on Thursday confirmed 12 more of ... Donald Trump's judicial nominees, just hours before leaving for Christmas recess. The final confirmations for 2019 come as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has turned his attention to approving district court nominees, after filling virtually every circuit court vacancy. The confirmations this week bring the total number of judicial confirmations for 2019 to 20 circuit judges and 67 district judges. Senate Republicans last week confirmed Trump's 50th circuit judge. The slew of confirmations in 2019 illustrates the effect of a rules change, when McConnell invoked the so-called nuclear option to cut down debate time for lower court nominees and speed up the confirmation process."

Presidential Race 2020

Katie Glueck & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., was repeatedly pushed onto the defensive in the sixth Democratic presidential debate on Thursday night, as several of his rivals challenged his political ascent by bluntly questioning his fund-raising practices and credentials for the presidency in a contentious and deeply substantive forum. Mr. Buttigieg has risen rapidly in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire in recent months, after his persistent attacks on Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and her support for single-payer health care.... Ms. Warren struck back at Mr. Buttigieg for his courting of wealthy donors at private fund-raisers -- including a recent event at a so-called wine cave -- and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota expressed clear skepticism of Mr. Buttigieg's electoral track record and public accomplishments.... Late in the evening, [Sen. Bernie] Sanders delivered perhaps his most concerted attack of any debate, challenging [Joe] Biden over his support for the Iraq war and for his opposition to 'Medicare for all'-style health care. For much of the evening, however, Mr. Biden seemed to recede from the foreground as other candidates battled around him -- though when he did speak, he delivered his smoothest remarks from a debate stage to date this cycle.... When Ms. Warren was asked to address the reality that she, like Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders, would be the oldest president ever inaugurated, her reply drew loud applause: 'I'd also be the youngest woman ever inaugurated.'" ~~~

~~~ Here's the Guardian's report. Politico's story, by Ryan Lizza, is here. ~~~

~~~ John Verhovek & Kendall Karson of ABC News: "'Wine caves' and 'purity tests,' and the recurring differences between the leading candidates on healthcare and foreign policy generated some of the night's tensest exchanges -- serving as a preview of the fights that will drive the final push before Democratic voters head to the polls. Here are five key takeaways from the last Democratic primary debate of 2019[.] ~~~

~~~ Joan Greve of the Guardian: "Following the contentious exchange [between Elizabeth Warren & Pete Buttigieg over Buttigieg's wine-cave fundraiser], the hashtag #winecave quickly began trending on Twitter as users tried to catch up on what exactly a wine cave was." ~~~

Little known fact: we have a wine cave here at FOX 5. But we just call it “hiding out under the desk.” We’ll explain why #winecave started trending during tonight’s #DemDebate on #TheFinal5 at 11:30 on #FOX5DC. pic.twitter.com/yLjXhsCQWc

— Jim Lokay | FOX 5 DC (@LokayFOX5) December 20, 2019

~~~ New York Times reporters liveblogged the Democratic presidential debate. The Times liveblog is always better than the debates. ~~~

~~~ AND Sarah Sanders, for all her many, many faults, is a better person than Donald Trump. For instance, she knows to apologize after mocking someone's disability & getting whupped for it.

But the E-Mails! Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Hillary Clinton's email scandal may be a fading memory for most, but it remains a live, legal morass for at least 14 attorneys who piled into a federal judge's courtroom in Washington on Thursday for the latest round in the never-say-die saga. Clinton's nemeses at the conservative legal group Judicial Watch pleaded with U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth for a chance to depose Clinton personally and to conduct a second round of questioning of Clinton's former chief of staff Cheryl Mills. Lamberth didn't immediately rule on that request, but repeatedly expressed concern with a continuing drip, drip, drip of Clinton messages -- several years after her presidential campaign was rocked by the disclosure that she exclusively used a private email account and server during her tenure as secretary of State."

Prez Hamburgers Approves. Sandra Lamotte of CNN: "If America does not collectively adopt healthier eating habits, over half of the nation will be obese within 10 years. Even worse, one in four Americans will be 'severely obese' with a body mass index over 35, which means they will be more than 100 pounds overweight. That alarming prediction, published Wednesday in NEJM, was the result of a study analyzing 26 years of self-reported body mass index (BMI) data from over six million American adults." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Washington. David Gutman & Jim Brunner of the Seattle Times: "State Rep. Matt Shea planned and participated in domestic terrorism against the United States before and during the armed takeover at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, an investigation commissioned by the Washington state House found. The 108-page report found that beginning in November 2015, Shea, working with militia leader Ammon Bundy, helped in the planning and preparation' of the Malheur takeover, a six-week conflict in which dozens of armed protesters occupied the refuge in rural Eastern Oregon. The standoff ended after one protester was shot and killed and dozens were arrested.... Immediately after the report was released, Rep. J.T. Wilcox, the Republican minority leader of the House, said Shea 'has been suspended from any role in the House Republican Caucus.' 'He should resign,'" Wilcox wrote on Twitter. 'He cannot use House Republican staff, he cannot meet with the caucus, his office will be moved.' Shea' name and picture were removed from the House GOP website."

Wisconsin. White House-Bound? Elisha Fiedlstadt of NBC: "A Wisconsin deputy sheriff is accused of breaking into and burglarizing the homes of people whom she knew would be at funeral services after she scoured local obituaries. Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff Janelle Gericke allegedly carried out her scheme from February 2018 through June 2019, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday by the Wisconsin Department of Justice." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

U.K. Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: "The wife of a US intelligence officer has been charged with causing the death by dangerous driving of the 19-year-old motorcyclist Harry Dunn, the Crown Prosecution Service has announced. Anne Sacoolas was whisked out of the UK by the American embassy days after the accident in August, with the US claiming she was covered by diplomatic immunity[.]... The CPS said it had started extradition proceedings.... Under arrangements agreed in 1964, American staff members at the base [where Sacoolas' husband worked] 'pre-waived' their immunity against criminal prosecution in the UK, but this was not done for their families."

The Commentariat -- December 19, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Mike Lillis of the Hill: "House Democrats on Thursday are rallying behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) after she said she'll delay the deliver of impeachment articles to the Senate in an effort to ensure a fair trial. President Trump has urged a speedy trial in the upper chamber, and Pelosi's allies argue that delaying the delivery of the articles will put pressure on Senate GOP leaders to call witnesses and seek more evidence surrounding the president's dealings with Ukraine -- steps Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he'll not take." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Last night a teevee pundit -- can't recall who -- noted that when the House passed Articles of Impeachment against Bill Clinton, House Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) almost immediately marched the articles right over to the Senate.

Juliegrace Brufke & Scott Wong of the Hill: "House Republicans are strongly rebuking President Trump's attacks on the late Democratic Rep. John Dingell (Mich.) and his widow, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), with numerous GOP lawmakers saying they believe the rhetoric was inappropriate." Mrs. McC: The story goes on to cite some House Republicans who are shocked and dismayed and all about Trump's remarks -- these would be Republicans who made up one excuse after the other as to why their Dear Leader should be able to abuse his office and ignore the Congress to which they belong.

Our So-Called Representative Democracy. Philip Bump of the Washington Post does the impeachment math: "Even if he were deeply unpopular, if Trump maintained support from senators in 17 states, he could keep his job. Meaning, in the most extreme scenario, that he could be impeached but not removed from office if senators from the 17 least-populous states -- representing about 7 percent of the population -- decided to stand by him."

Christopher Miller of BuzzFeed News: "Rudy Giuliani flew to Kyiv on a budget airline [WhizzAir] when he visited earlier this month -- but he left in style, on a private jet.... According to flight data, videos, and photographs..., and confirmed by a Giuliani associate who joined him, the former mayor of New York left on a flight from Kyiv to Vienna on the night of Dec. 6, aboard a Beechcraft Premier 1A light business aircraft.... Ukrainian media have reported that the company's owner is Alexander Rovt, a Ukrainian American.... Rovt has done business in the past with Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch with ties to organized crime and the Kremlin who is currently under house arrest in Vienna and is fighting extradition to the US, where he faces federal bribery charges.... [Rovt]'s also connected to a $3.5 million mortgage loan to former Trump campaign chair and convicted financial fraudster Paul Manafort, through a real estate investment firm founded by a former Trump business partner." --s

Sarah Blaskey, et al. of the Miami Herald: "A Chinese woman was arrested Wednesday for trespassing at Mar-a-Lago..., Donald Trump's private South Florida club and newly declared legal residence, the second such instance this year. Jing Lu, 56, was spotted on club grounds and asked to leave by staff, said Michael Ogrodnick, a spokesman for the Palm Beach Police Department. 'She returned and began to take photos, at which time the Palm Beach Police Department responded and took her into custody,' Ogrodnick said in a statement." --s

Racist in Chief. Rachana Pradhan of Politico: "Donald Trump intervened to cut the federal government's Medicaid funding for Puerto Rico as part of a larger government spending deal, according to four sources with knowledge of the discussions. The budget deal unveiled by lawmakers this week allocates up to $5.7 billion in Medicaid funds for the island over two years -- instead of $12 billion over four years that Republican and Democratic leaders on two key congressional committees had endorsed after months of negotiating a long-term financial path for Puerto Rico." --s

Sarah Okeson of Salon: "Trump's National Forest Service is using a refuted scientific theory to justify building roads in our country's largest national forest, what some call 'America's Amazon.' Loggers want to raze trees more than 1,000 years old. The Forest Service says guidelines from the United Nations' climate authority would be followed. Two scientists whose research was cited in the U.N. study says the Forest Service is espousing junk science." --s

James Laporta of Newsweek: "The Defense Department is seeking to stamp out leaks and limit media coverage of military operations at the U.S.-Mexico border by making what historically have been unclassified orders and daily briefings classified.... The policy shift to classify border documents came from Lieutenant General Laura J. Richardson of the U.S. Army in response to negative news coverage and leaks of border documents under U.S. Army North's previous commander, Lieutenant General Jeffrey S. Buchanan, who retired back in July, according to three Pentagon sources with direct knowledge of the matter." --s

Prez Hamburgers Approves. Sandra Lamotte of CNN: "If America does not collectively adopt healthier eating habits, over half of the nation will be obese within 10 years. Even worse, one in four Americans will be 'severely obese' with a body mass index over 35, which means they will be more than 100 pounds overweight. That alarming prediction, published Wednesday in NEJM, was the result of a study analyzing 26 years of self-reported body mass index (BMI) data from over six million American adults." --s

Christopher Mathias of Huffington Post: "A measure in the National Defense Authorization Act meant to keep white nationalists out of the U.S. military no longer mentions 'white nationalists' after Congress quietly altered the text [to 'extremist and gang-related activity'] after it initially passed the House. The change, which has not been previously reported, could water down a House-passed amendment meant to address the threat of white nationalists in the military.... Stripping the specific mention of 'white nationalists' from the legislation could leave the door open for more white nationalists to join the military and could leave the U.S. military off the hook for what many critics say are lackluster efforts to screen enlistees for white nationalist beliefs." --s

Wisconsin. White House-Bound? Elisha Fiedlstadt of NBC: "A Wisconsin deputy sheriff is accused of breaking into and burglarizing the homes of people whom she knew would be at funeral services after she scoured local obituaries. Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff Janelle Gericke allegedly carried out her scheme from February 2018 through June 2019, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday by the Wisconsin Department of Justice." --s

~~~~~~~~~~

Nicholas Fandos & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The House of Representatives on Wednesday impeached President Trump for obstruction of Congress and abuse of power, making him the third president in history to be charged with committing high crimes and misdemeanors and face removal by the Senate. On a day of constitutional consequence and raging partisan tension, the votes on the two articles of impeachment fell largely along party lines, after a bitter debate that reflected the deep polarization gripping American politics in the Trump era. All but two Democrats supported the article on abuse of power, which accused Mr. Trump of corruptly using the levers of government to solicit election assistance from Ukraine in the form of investigations to discredit his Democratic political rivals. Republicans were united in opposition. It passed 230-197, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi gaveling the vote to a close from the House rostrum." ~~~

~~~ Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "The House of Representatives voted late Wednesday to impeach President Trump on charges that he abused his office and obstructed Congress, with Democrats declaring him a threat to the nation and branding an indelible mark on the most turbulent presidency of modern times. After 11 hours of fierce argument on the House floor between Democrats and Republicans over Trump's conduct with Ukraine, lawmakers voted almost entirely along party lines to impeach him. Trump becomes the third president in U.S. history to face trial in the Senate -- a proceeding that will determine whether he is removed from office less than one year before he stands for reelection. On Trump's 1,062nd day in office, Congress brought a momentous reckoning to an unorthodox president who has tested America's institutions with an array of unrestrained actions, including some that a collection of his own appointees and other government witnesses testified were reckless and endangered national security." The NBC News story is here.

Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to commit Wednesday to delivering articles of impeachment to the Senate, citing concerns about an unfair trial on removing ... Donald Trump from office. 'So far we haven't seen anything that looks fair to us,' Pelosi told reporters at a press conference just moments after the House charged Trump with abuse of power and obstructing congressional investigations. 'That would've been our intention, but we'll see what happens over there.' Pelosi's comments, which echo suggestions raised by other Democrats throughout the day, inject new uncertainty into the impeachment timetable and send the House and Senate lurching toward a potential constitutional crisis. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has boasted that he has closely coordinated the planning of the trial with the White House and has repeatedly predicted Trump would be acquitted." Related stories linked below.

Adam Schiff's closing argument:

Madam Speaker. Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "In December 2018, President Trump mocked Rep. Nancy Pelosi's leadership skills in an Oval Office meeting, suggesting she needed help to secure enough votes to become the House speaker. The California Democrat sent a warning shot that set the table for their relationship going forward. 'Mr. President,' Pelosi interjected. 'Please don't characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting.' Over the next year, Pelosi firmly established herself as the president's most powerful political adversary, winning a showdown with him in January on the budget and regularly winning other one-on-one confrontations. A caucus filled with younger Democrats who questioned the 79-year-old's liberal bona fides now stands firmly behind her. All that culminated Wednesday night when, for only the third time in history, the House impeached a president. Pelosi presided over the chamber, wielding the gavel that Trump once doubted she could reclaim." ~~~

~~~ Heather Caygle, et al., of Politico: "... at age 79 and in her 17th term in the House, [Nancy] Pelosi has never been better, according to interviews with nearly two dozen Democrats. Her command of legislation, her control over her caucus, her ability to confront a historically hostile president and GOP-run Senate on equal terms are unparalleled. She's the one person in Washington who can beat Trump at his own game, though she never wanted to play it. Pelosi broke the marble ceiling a decade ago as the first female speaker of the House. And she was central to the legislative achievements of Barack Obama's presidency, including his signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act.... From the first weeks of [Trump's] presidency, Pelosi has been one of [his] most forceful opponents. In their very first meeting, the then-House minority leader was the only person in a roomful of congressional leaders to confront Trump when he inaccurately claimed widespread voting fraud in the 2016 election. Pelosi has also fought against Trump on his own turf, hitting back on Twitter, trolling him in made-for-TV moments, deriding him as 'an insecure imposter' and even threatening to cancel his State of the Union address in the middle of an ugly government shutdown." ~~~

~~~ Fashion Break. Vanessa Friedman of the New York Times: Nancy Pelosi wore "a lapelless black suit, almost military in design, with a high neck. Its somber color was a reflection of the darkness of the day.... Atop it, a dagger-like gold pin shone out over her heart like a beacon.... The pin ... represents the Mace of the United States House of Representatives: the long, blunt battle staff that has embodied the legislative branch's authority since 1789.... According to a website that catalogs the history of the House of Representatives, the mace is composed of 13 bundled rods, which look like a dagger from afar. They nod to the ancient Roman fasces, used to communicate strength through unity, and represent the original 13 states. The bundled rods are crowned by a globe -- i.e., the world -- atop which sits an American bald eagle, representing the obvious. The object itself, the site says, 'is usually placed atop a pedestal to the Speaker's right side' when the House is in session. If the House meets outside its traditional chamber, the mace follows." P.S. For $125, you can buy the pin, though they're on backorder.

It doesn't really feel like we're being impeached. The country is doing better than ever before. We did nothing wrong. We have tremendous support in the Republican Party like we've never had before. -- The Man Who Would Be King ~~~

~~~ Michael Crowley, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump angrily responded to the impeachment he had long been dreading on Wednesday, lashing out at his Democratic accusers in a rambling two-hour speech.... In his mostly unscripted remarks, Mr. Trump claimed he was enjoying himself.... But more often he seemed embittered, mocking the physical appearance of his rivals, attacking the news media, calling a female protester a 'slob' and a 'disgusting person,' and suggesting that John D. Dingell Jr., a Democratic congressman from Michigan who died in February after serving 59 years in the House, had gone to hell. Above all, Mr. Trump insisted that the vote to impeach him -- which unfolded at what had been billed as a 'Merry Christmas' campaign rally -- was nothing more than a fabrication by Democrats who cannot tolerate his presidency.... Even by his own standards, the president's speech was discursive and sometimes strange, as when he digressed to complain that modern toilets lack adequate flushing power and that 'women' had informed him that dishwashers, too, have lost their historic oomph." ~~~

~~~ Kathleen Gray of the Detroit Free Press: "During his Merry Christmas rally at Kellogg Arena on Wednesday, ... Donald Trump singled out U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Michigan, after she voted for impeachment.... Trump was upset because he said that he gave her the 'A-plus treatment, not the B treatment or the C treatment' after her husband, longtime U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Michigan, died in February. He called for flags to be lowered and said he offered up the Capitol Rotunda for his memorial.... 'She called me up and said it was the nicest thing and John would have been so pleased,' Trump said, adding that Dingell said John would be happily looking down from heaven at the ceremony. 'Maybe he's looking up,' Trump said, intimating that Dingell ended up in hell, instead.... Trump seemed to say the word 'Rotunda,' as if he had something to do with John Dingell's lying in state at the U.S. Capitol. But Dingell didn't lie in state before a funeral in Washington and his burial at Arlington National Cemetery and, even if he had, control of the Rotunda belongs to the Congress, not to the president." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Well, it was a "Merry Christmas" rally, so Trump was moved by the spirit of the season. Normally, he would have mocked widows AND orphans. ~~~

~~~ Matt Stieb of New York has more lowlights of Trump's "Merry Christmas Rally," "his longest and strangest yet."

** Jonathan Chait: “... Trump's scheme to extort Ukraine for investigations of his domestic opponents became in the minds of his opposition both [an] example and a symbol of his boundless sense of Constitutional impunity.... Both the president's critics and his supporters have attributed this sort of behavior to his character.... But there is also a strong ideological cast to the president's position, a worldview that is shared by a widening circle of Republican figures who may not share, or even approve of, his temperament and personal style.... Trump's extraordinary refusal to acknowledge any oversight role for Congress whatsoever, his claim of an 'absolute right' to do something even his allies recently considered improper forced Democrats to accept that they had to impeach him simply to assert that his twisted authoritarian vision of the presidency is wrong.... There will never be a final victory over Trumpism, just the persistent work of democratic politics."

George Conway in the Atlantic: "... today's impeachment of Donald Trump ... was pretty much inevitable ... because of Trump himself, his very character, whose essential nature many who now support him have long understood.... Trump's exceptional narcissism defines him, and it's what makes him wholly unfit for his job.... In essence, Trump thinks everything should be about him, for him, for his benefit and glorification -- and he can't comprehend, and doesn't care about, anything that isn't.... Should they choose to violate their oaths, history will long remember them for having done so -- not simply because of the insurmountable evidence of what Trump has already done, but also because Trump, by his nature, will assuredly do it all again."

The House clerk reads the Articles of Impeachment:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi's opening statement:

One month before Christmas, I want you to keep this in mind. Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats have afforded this president. -- Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., debate on impeachment

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I don't know if all those Republican Congressmen are as thick-headed & oblivious to facts as they say they are or if they're just playing dolts on teevee. But they sure come across as numbskulls. ~~~

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Some Republicans have ... have set out to argue for an alternate reality: One in which it's not conceivable that Trump did something wrong, because the things that happened didn't actually happen. Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) led the way last week by arguing that Trump hadn't even asked Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political rival in their July 25 phone call[.]... Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), was asked a similar question by CBS News on Tuesday, and he had another take: That Biden wasn't Trump's opponent.... On the House floor Wednesday, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) maintained not just that military aid to Ukraine wasn't used as part of a quid pro quo but also that the aid wasn't withheld.... Even the White House has admitted the aid was withheld.... In the same comment, Cole also notably denied there was any quid pro quo, and others ... [including] Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) ... [and] Rep. Jim Baird (R-Ind.) -- joined him in that Wednesday[.]"

Jill Colvin & Aamer Madhani of the AP: "An indignant and defiant ... Donald Trump stared down Wednesday's impending impeachment votes as he has every obstacle in his presidency: by broadcasting his grievances via tweet. The White House insisted Trump would be busy working rather than focused on the proceedings in the House, but Trump spent his morning tweeting and retweeting, expressing fury and disbelief. He has a campaign rally scheduled for Wednesday night in Battle Creek, Michigan. 'Can you believe that I will be impeached today by the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, AND I DID NOTHING WRONG!' Trump wrote in one of 45 tweets posted before noon. He asked his followers to 'Say a PRAYER!' As members of the House debated the articles of impeachment, Trump's urgency appeared to escalate as he switched to all capital letters: 'SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS. THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!' he wrote." ~~~

~~~ Meredith McGraw & Daniel Lippmann of Politico: "From the day he sent Sean Spicer out to harangue journalists over the crowd size at his inauguration, Trump has waged a three-year campaign to wear down any doubts about his right to occupy the Oval Office. He set up -- and then quietly abandoned -- a panel to investigate his specious claims that only voter fraud kept him from winning the popular vote in 2016. He publicly sowed doubts about Russia's election-year meddling. For White House visitors, reporters -- anyone really -- he constantly pulled out the red-saturated map detailing how districts voted in 2016.... 'Obsessed' is how one former White House official described Trump's mindset about how people will remember him. Trump, the ex-official said, has told people around him that impeachment would leave his presidency 'tainted.' 'His image is hugely important to him,' the former official said. 'He is going crazy over this because the legacy he is looking for is the greatest president -- even more so than Abraham Lincoln or George Washington.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: He really has no idea he's the worst, or one of the worst, president*s in U.S. history. Pathetic. ~~~

~~~ BUT. Justin McCarthy of Gallup: "... Donald Trump's job approval rating has inched up again and is now at 45%. The president's ratings have increased six percentage points since the House of Representatives opened an impeachment inquiry against him in the fall. Approval of the president's performance remains high among Republicans (89%) and low among Democrats (8%). Less than half of political independents approve, but the current 42% is up from 34% at the start of the impeachment hearings and matches their highest rating of Trump so far."

Aris Folley of the Hill: "Droves of protesters descended on the Capitol to voice support for President Trump's impeachment on Wednesday ahead of the full House's vote to impeach. According to The Washington Post, hundreds of protesters were demonstrating outside the Capitol, building on a string of similar protests calling on the president's impeachment that spread across the country the night before." (Also linked yesterday.)

The nature of foreign negotiations requires caution, and their success must often depend on secrecy. To admit, then, a right in the House of Representatives to demand and to have as a matter of course all the papers respecting a negotiation with a foreign power would be to establish a dangerous precedent. It does not occur that the inspection of the papers asked for can be relative to any purpose under the cognizance of the House of Representatives except that of an impeachment.... POTUS George Washington, letter to the House of Representatives, March 30, 1796

Except when an Impeachment is proposed & a formal enquiry instituted, I am of opinion that the House of Representatives has no right to demand papers relating to foreign negociations either pending or compleated. -- Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, letter to President Washington, March 26, 1796

Liberal House Democrats Push McCrabbie Move. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "A group of House Democrats is pushing Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders to withhold the articles of impeachment against President Trump that are expected to emerge on Wednesday, potentially delaying a Senate trial for months. The notion of impeaching Trump but holding the articles in the House has gained traction among some on the political left as a way of potentially forcing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to conduct a trial on more favorable terms for Democrats. And if no agreement is reached, some have argued, the trial could be delayed indefinitely, denying Trump an expected acquittal." ~~~

~~~ Hoyer to Discuss McCrabbie Move. Kyle Cheney & John Bresnahan of Politico: "House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking lawmaker in the House, said Wednesday that Democrats must discuss a last-ditch gambit to delay sending articles of impeachment to the Senate and prevent the Republican controlled chamber from summarily discarding the case against ... Donald Trump. 'Some think it's a good idea. And we need to talk about it,' Hoyer said just as the House began debating articles of impeachment that charge Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress." (Also linked yesterday.)

Linnaea Honl-Stuenkel & Lauren White of CREW: "In November, we noticed a mysterious spike in the price of available rooms at Trump's DC hotel for a Saturday night in December. The minimum cost was 13 times the average, but we couldn't identify a reason for the spike, until photos surfaced of the Trump Victory Committee's winter retreat at Trump's Hotel on that exact night, which appears to have sold out much of the venue. While the least expensive room for a one-night stay at the hotel was around $500 on surrounding days, the cheapest room on December 14 was a whopping $6,719.... The exorbitant cost is even more evidence that hosting fundraisers at the Trump International Hotel is one of the best ways to sell out the notoriously empty venue, sending donor money right into Trump's pocket. Lucky donors who managed to snag a room were also invited to the White House's holiday open house, meaning that the cost of a room at Trump's DC Hotel and donations towards his reelection included exclusive political access for the buyer."

The Biggest Elephant in the Committee Room. David Sanger of the New York Times: "As the House of Representatives began debating Wednesday whether to impeach President Trump for undercutting Ukraine in its fight with Russian aggressors, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee met ... to consider a bill that has been bubbling along all year with bipartisan support: S. 482, the 'Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act of 2019.' The bill's lead author is Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who introduced it in February, long before he became the Senate's leading defender of Mr. Trump, and long before Mr. Trump decided to undercut his own administration's policy.... The trick for [Republicans now] is to bash Mr. Putin without impugning Mr. Trump.... After some arguments about whether the new sanctions might harm American companies..., the bill passed, 17 to 5. A vote in the full Senate would not come until next year, presumably after an impeachment trial." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Betsy Swan of the Daily Beast: "The Trump administration is quietly fighting a new package of sanctions on Russia.... A Trump State Department official sent a 22-page letter to a top Senate chairman on Tuesday making a wide-ranging case against a new sanctions bill. Sen. Lindsey Graham -- usually a staunch ally of the White House -- introduced the legislation earlier this year. It's designed to punish Russian individuals and companies over the Kremlin's targeting of Ukraine, as well as its 2016 election interference in the U.S., its activities in Syria, and its attacks on dissidents. The administration's letter says it 'strongly opposes' the bill unless it goes through a ton of changes."

Presidential Race 2020

Elena Moore of NPR: "The top seven Democratic presidential candidates will appear on stage in Los Angeles Thursday night in the sixth debate of the year.... The debate is set to begin at 8 p.m. ET and last around three hours. It is co-hosted by PBS NewsHour and Politico and will take place at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. The debate will be televised on PBS and CNN, livestreamed online at PBS.org, PBS NewsHour, Politico.com, and CNN.com, and available on many of the news organizations' social, mobile and live-TV streaming apps. You can also listen to the debate on SiriusXM channels 116, 454, and 795.... The debate comes on the heels of a newly settled labor dispute between the food-service workers at [Loyola] and their contracting company Sodexo, a fight that prompted all seven candidates to threaten to boycott the event in solidarity with the workers."

Congressional Race 2020. John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), one of President Trump's closest allies and staunchest defenders in Congress, announced Thursday that he would not seek reelection next year but would instead stay 'in the fight' with Trump in an unspecified role.... Meadows, a former chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus who has served in Congress since 2013, is the 25th House Republican to announce he will not seek reelection next year, according to a tally by the House Press Gallery." CNN's story is here.

** Paul Demko of Politico: "A federal appeals court on Wednesday struck down Obamacare's individual mandate in a decision that immediately thrusts the health care law to the forefront of the 2020 elections. However, the appeals court ruling largely ducked the central question of whether the rest of the Affordable Care Act remained valid after Congress removed the penalty for not having health insurance. The three-judge panel instead sent the case back to a Texas federal judge, who previously threw out the entire law, to reconsider how much of Obamacare could survive. The high-stakes ruling keeps the legal threat to Obamacare alive while reducing the likelihood the Supreme Court could render a final verdict on the law before the next elections. Still, the appeals court's decision could renew pressure on ... Donald Trump and Republicans to explain how they will preserve insurance protections for preexisting conditions after failing to agree on an Obamacare replacement for years." ~~~

~~~ Ian Millhiser of Vox: "When Texas v. United States, a lawsuit over Obamacare, was argued last summer, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit appeared determined to repeal the entire law root and branch. Instead, in their opinion Wednesday, they punted on the biggest question: whether the entire law should be repealed.... The plaintiffs argued the individual mandate -- or, at least, the shell that remains of it -- is unconstitutional. They then argued that the courts should repeal the entire Affordable Care Act because of this alleged defect in one provision of the law. The plaintiffs' legal reasoning in Texas isn't simply rejected by liberal and centrist legal experts -- it's even rejected by many lawyers who spent a good part of their career trying to convince federal courts to repeal Obamacare.... It's likely that the case will proceed on two tracks. While the Trump administration took the plaintiffs' side in this case, several states intervened to defend Obamacare. Those states are likely to ask the Supreme Court to kill this case once and for all."

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "The government is entitled to any money former National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden makes from his memoir and paid speeches because he disclosed classified information without approval, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. Snowden has been charged with espionage since 2013, when he exposed top-secret surveillance documents in what may have been the biggest security breach in U.S. history.... Unable to put him on trial, the Justice Department this year moved to cut off his profits from the book he published, 'Permanent Record,' as well as from paid speeches. In a brief opinion in federal court in Alexandria, Judge Liam O'Grady ruled in the government's favor. 'The contractual language of the Secrecy Agreements is unambiguous,' he wrote.... Snowden's attorneys said they disagree with the court's decision and will review their options." A Law & Crime story is here.

The Plot Thickens. Stephen Brown of the New York Daily News: "Surveillance footage of the outside of Jeffrey Epstein's cell at the troubled Metropolitan Correctional Center during his suicide attempt has gone missing, prosecutors revealed Wednesday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Swergold admitted nobody can find the footage of the outside of the cell the multimillionaire perv shared with accused quadruple murderer Nick Tartaglione during a hearing in White Plains District Court. Tartaglione, a former Briarcliff Manor cop, faces the death penalty for the alleged murders in a drug deal gone bad.... Tartaglione's attorneys filed a request for the footage to be retained two days after Epstein's unsuccessful suicide attempt on July 23, Barket said."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Amanda Coletta of the Washington Post: "Canada's top court is set to rule Thursday on whether the Ontario-born son of Russian spies whose arrest by the FBI nearly a decade ago inspired the FX series 'The Americans' is entitled to Canadian citizenship. Alexander Vavilov, 25, and his brother, Timofey, 29, were born in a Toronto hospital into what appeared to be an ordinary Canadian family.... Alexander's parents, Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova, were carrying out 'deep-cover' assignments for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, a successor to the KGB. They arrived in Canada in the waning days of the Cold War, stole the identities of Donald Howard Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley -- Canadians who had died as infants decades earlier-- and began developing their 'legends,' or background stories. In 1995, the family moved from Canada, eventually settling in Cambridge, Mass., where 'Donald' completed graduate studies at Harvard University. The brothers, who were born Alexander and Timothy Foley, never lived in Canada again but visited frequently, Alexander said in court filings. It was in Massachusetts that Alexander's parents were busted in 2010 as part of Operation Ghost Stories, the decade-long FBI investigation that rounded up 10 Russian spies operating under aliases outside of diplomatic cover living in the United States."

The Commentariat -- December 18, 2019

The New York Times is live-updating [link fixed] impeachment development. Washington Post live updates are here. The Guardian's liveblog is here. CNN is live-updating here.

The House clerk reads the Articles of Impeachment:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi's opening statement:

Aris Folley of the Hill: "Droves of protesters descended on the Capitol to voice support for President Trump’s impeachment on Wednesday ahead of the full House’s vote to impeach. According to The Washington Post, hundreds of protesters were demonstrating outside the Capitol, building on a string of similar protests calling on the president’s impeachment that spread across the country the night before."

The nature of foreign negotiations requires caution, and their success must often depend on secrecy. To admit, then, a right in the House of Representatives to demand and to have as a matter of course all the papers respecting a negotiation with a foreign power would be to establish a dangerous precedent. It does not occur that the inspection of the papers asked for can be relative to any purpose under the cognizance of the House of Representatives except that of an impeachment.... POTUS George Washington, letter to the House of Representatives, March 30, 1796

Except when an Impeachment is proposed & a formal enquiry instituted, I am of opinion that the House of Representatives has no right to demand papers relating to foreign negociations either pending or compleated. -- Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, letter to President Washington, March 26, 1796

Hoyer to Discuss McCrabbie Move. Kyle Cheney & John Bresnahan of Politico: “House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking lawmaker in the House, said Wednesday that Democrats must discuss a last-ditch gambit to delay sending articles of impeachment to the Senate and prevent the Republican controlled chamber from summarily discarding the case against ... Donald Trump. 'Some think it’s a good idea. And we need to talk about it,' Hoyer said just as the House began debating articles of impeachment that charge Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.”

New York Times: "A majority of House members support the articles of impeachment against President Trump, ahead of a vote by the House of Representatives on Wednesday." The Washington Post agrees. ~~~

~~~ Matthew Choi of Politico: "The whole House will gather to begin debating on two articles of impeachment at 9 a.m.... Members will have six hours to debate, and the final vote is predicted to take place between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m."

Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: “From Boston Common to the French Quarter in New Orleans, a series of protests reverberated across the country on Tuesday evening to call for President Trump’s removal from office, a prelude to momentous impeachment votes set for Wednesday in the House of Representatives. In Center City Philadelphia, a group of demonstrators held up signs with LED lights spelling out IMPEACH at the base of a bronze statute called 'Government of the People,' while Times Square in New York teemed with protesters chanting, 'No one’s above the law.'” Mrs. McC: According to an NBC News report, there were demonstrations in every state.

More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials. -- Donald Trump, letter to Nancy Pelosi, today ~~~

... Learn some history: 1) Salem 1692 = absence of evidence+powerless, innocent victims were hanged or pressed to death 2)#Ukrainegate 2019 = ample evidence, admissions of wrongdoing+perpetrators are among the most powerful+privileged -- Kim Driscoll, Mayor of Salem, Mass., in a tweet ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear of the New York Times: “President Trump on Tuesday denounced what he called a 'partisan impeachment crusade' being waged against him by Democrats, calling the effort to remove him an unconstitutional abuse of power and an 'attempted coup' that would come back to haunt them at the ballot box next year. 'I have no doubt the American people will hold you and the Democrats fully responsible in the upcoming 2020 election,' Mr. Trump wrote in a rambling, six-page letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent on the eve of House votes to impeach him on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. 'They will not soon forgive your perversion of justice and abuse of power.'... The president angrily disputed both impeachment charges against him in the letter, saying he had done nothing wrong and asserting that Ms. Pelosi and her allies were using the Constitution to attack him for the successful policies he had implemented.” This is an update of a story about McConnell's refusal to accede to Schumer's request for witnesses, linked below. The Hill's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)  ~~~

     ~~~ An Extended Tweet on White House Letterhead. Trump's letter, via the Hill, is here. Mrs. McC: Recommended reading. It's kind of a Unabomber manifesto. You can tell the parts Trump wrote & the parts where his lawyers stepped in & added some "legal terminology" & other multi-syllable words. ~~~ 

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post has annotated Trump's screed with many corrections to the lies & misstatements in the letter. The New York Times also fact-checks Trump's letter & finds many false, misleading or exaggerated claims. Mrs. McC: I found the "mechanics" of the Times' fact-check more accessible than the Post's. ~~~

~~~ Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "Reading President Trump’s impeachment-eve letter to the House speaker seemed very familiar to The Fact Checker. It’s like a written version of his campaign rallies, replete with false claims we have fact-checked many times before either in individual fact checks or in our database of false or misleading Trump claims. This letter will add a couple dozen new entries to our database, but here are some of the lowlights." ~~~

~~~ Daniel Dale & Tara Subramaniam of CNN run down some of the false & misleading claims in the letter. ~~~

~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Every point [Trump] makes [in his letter to Pelosi] is one that has appeared before, in 280 characters on his favorite social media website." Bump illustrates by comparing portions of the letter with Trump's previous tweets & retweets. ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait: "Trump’s letter strengthens the case for impeachment in two important ways. First..., he repeatedly denies that the House has any constitutional right to undertake impeachment at all.... [Second,] the letter makes it perfectly clear that Trump himself is in agony, to the extent where his mental health is very much in question. If a juror in Trump’s coming impeachment trial had no other evidence except this letter, it would provide ample grounds for impeachment. Trump openly denies the Congress’s constitutional prerogative, and makes plain his mental unfitness for the job." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: How the letter proves the necessity of impeachment, in my mind, is that it demonstrates anew that Trump thinks he did nothing wrong. In the letter, Trump describes his phone call with President Zelensky as "perfect" twice and declares that his remarks were "totally appropriate." If this call were so perfect that he readily shared it with the public, what kind of a deal did he cut with Vladimir Putin in that hour-plus-long conversation they had, the one where Trump confiscated the translator's notes and ate them? As Greg Miller of the Washington Post wrote in January 2019, "... U.S. officials said there is no detailed record, even in classified files, of Trump’s face-to-face interactions with the Russian leader at five locations over the past two years. Such a gap would be unusual in any presidency, let alone one that Russia sought to install through what U.S. intelligence agencies have described as an unprecedented campaign of election interference." Adam Taylor of the WashPo wrote in early October 2018, "President Trump has spoken privately with Russia’s Vladimir Putin at least 16 times since he entered office in 2017." Especially since we know that Trump revealed highly-classified information to Putin's deputies at a White House meeting in 2017, I'm thinking those conversations with Putin himself were neither perfect nor totally appropriate. ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: “It is difficult to capture how bizarre and frightening the letter is simply by counting the utter falsehoods (e.g., repeating the debunked accusation that Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin was fired for investigating Burisma; claiming Congress is obstructing justice; arguing he was afforded no rights in the process), or by quoting from the invective dripping from his pen. What is most striking is the spectacle of the letter itself — a president so unhinged as to issue such an harangue; a White House entirely unable to stop him; a party so subservient to him that it would not trigger a search for a new nominee; a right-wing media bubble that will herald Trump for being Trump and excoriate Democrats for driving the president to this point; and a mainstream media not quite able to address a public temper-tantrum (resorting instead to euphemisms such as 'scorching,' 'searing,' etc.).... To say the process is 'partisan,' or that the two sides are 'unable to agree,' misleads average Americans who think there is some shared responsibility for the result of one party’s willingness to subvert the truth and the Constitution.”

We present you not just with high crimes and misdemeanors but a constitutional crime in progress up to this very minute. -- Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), testimony to House Rules Committee, yesterday

I look at this as a crime in progress, and we’re trying to stop the president from rigging the next election. -- Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), Rules Committee chair, yesterday ~~~

~~~ When the Criminals Return to the Scene of the Crime. Again and Again and Again. ~~~

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: “It was as if an accused white-collar criminal, during jury selection for his bribery trial, had offered the judge a briefcase full of unmarked bills.... Even as the House on Tuesday worked out the rules of the debate that will almost certainly see President Trump impeached by Wednesday night, Trump and his team continued to commit the very offenses for which he is being punished. As the Rules Committee moved to the floor an impeachment article alleging Trump had abused his office by soliciting foreign help for his reelection campaign..., Rudy Giuliani boasted to CNN that Trump is 'very supportive' of Giuliani’s ongoing efforts to dig up political dirt in Ukraine that would help with Trump’s reelection campaign.... 'He does this out of love, believe me,' the president said of Giuliani on Monday.”

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The House Rules Committee met Tuesday to set parameters for the House debate on impeachment. I tuned into it for a few minutes, and it was sort of hilarious. There was Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) making cogent, off-the-cuff answers (he was filling in for Judiciary Committee chair Jerry Nadler who was called away by a family emergency) to questions posed by Rules chair Jim McGovern, & Judiciary ranking member Doug Collins, spouting nonsense half-sentences and even half-words; e.g., "Constitu." Here's a brief example:

Collins reminded me of Porky Pig, if Porky came from Georgia:

~~~ Much Later That Same Day. Jeremy Herb of CNN: "The House Rules Committee just approved six hours of debate on the House floor Wednesday on the resolution to impeach President Trump. The panel announced the parameters of the debate after voting to approve the rule on the impeachment articles along party lines. The six hours of floor time will be divided equally by Democrats and Republicans and will be led by the House Judiciary Committee leaders. The House will also have one hour of debate before taking the procedural vote to approve the rule governing the debate." Mrs. McC: I myself will spend the day shoveling the driveway, going to the recycling center. Christmas shopping, delivering gifts & whatever else I can think of to avoid the blowhards. Maybe I'll learn a new carol:

Michael Shear of the New York Times: “Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, on Tuesday rejected demands by Democrats to call four White House officials as witnesses during President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate. On the eve of a House vote on Wednesday that is all but certain to result in Mr. Trump’s impeachment on two charges, Mr. McConnell said he would not agree to call the witnesses — all of whom have firsthand knowledge of Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine — including Mick Mulvaney, the White House chief of staff, and John R. Bolton, the former national security adviser. The White House blocked them from appearing during the House impeachment inquiry.... 'If House Democrats’ case is this deficient, this thin, the answer is not for the judge and jury to cure it here in the Senate,' [McConnell said on the Senate floor]. 'The answer is that the House should not impeach on this basis in the first place.' Mr. Schumer responded moments later, saying that holding a trial without witnesses 'would be an aberration' and vowing to demand votes by senators on whether to call witnesses and subpoena documents during the trial.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) 

If the Supplemental Submission accurately describes your September 18 conversation with President Zelensky . . . it would mean that the representation of your communications with President Zelensky, as described in your office’s December 11 letter, may be purposefully misleading. -- Adam Schiff in a letter to mike pence ~~~

~~~ Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: “Vice President Pence has refused to declassify testimony that is 'directly relevant' to the impeachment debate, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) wrote Tuesday in a letter that raised further questions about what Pence said in a September phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In a letter to Pence, Schiff wrote that classified witness testimony gathered during the impeachment inquiry 'raises profound questions about your knowledge of the President’s scheme to solicit Ukraine’s interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.'... The testimony from Jennifer Williams, Pence’s Russia adviser, was provided as a supplemental written submission to the Intelligence Committee through her lawyer Nov. 26. Ten days later, Schiff asked Pence to declassify it. But ... Schiff wrote that in a letter last week, Pence’s office refused to declassify Williams’s testimony.... 'Without prompting, the letter volunteers that "the Vice President never raised the Bidens, Burisma, or Crowdstrike in his conversations with President Zelensky,’” Schiff’s letter stated. 'The Committee neither asserted that, nor asked whether, you specifically used those words.' Schiff called the letter from Pence’s office 'deeply troubling,' writing that if Williams’s testimony is true, it suggests the vice president had knowledge about the efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political opponents.”

Aaron Rupar of Vox: “On Monday’s edition of Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle, [Rudy] Giuliani admitted he played a leading role in last spring’s ouster of Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine. Yovanovitch’s removal set the stage for the Trump administration’s efforts over the summer to leverage Ukrainian diplomacy into investigations of Joe and Hunter Biden that stood to benefit the president. 'I forced her out because she’s corrupt,' Giuliani said, before alluding to sketchily sourced information he dredged up during his just-completed trip to Ukraine and adding, 'I came back with a document that will show unequivocally that she committed perjury when she said that she turned down the visa for [Viktor] Shokin because of corruption .... there’s no question that she was acting corruptly in that position, and had to be removed. She should have been fired, if the State Department weren’t part of the deep state.'... As Will Saletan of Slate pointed out in response to a tweet in which Giuliani made the same claim, the House Republicans’ impeachment report characterizes Giuliani’s effort to obtain a visa for Shokin, as 'potential impropriety' that the Trump White House 'shut down.'” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Rudy (Ergo Trump) Gets His Disinformation from Russian Propagandists. Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: “... a social media analysis firm, Graphika, has traced ... posts [by John Solomon that appeared in the Hill] to a Russian disinformation campaign — in the first evidence that a network of accounts involved in spreading disinformation before the 2016 presidential election also participated in circulating the false claims about [U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie] Yovanovitch that earlier this year led to her recall from the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.... [Solomon claimed that Yovanovitch] had given a 'list of people whom we should not prosecute' to Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Yuri Lutsenko.... An image of that purported list appeared in a post on the website Medium and on some other self-publishing platforms....” But the image was doctored, and the story was false. 

Erica Orden of CNN: "A federal judge declined Tuesday to revoke bail for Lev Parnas, rejecting prosecutors' claims that the indicted Rudy Giuliani associate posed an 'extraordinary risk of flight' due to his association with a 'foreign benefactor' identified in court as Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash. US District Court Judge Paul Oetken also questioned prosecutors' assertions that Parnas had misstated information about his assets and income. The judge said that while the information Parnas provided 'might have violated the spirit' of disclosure requests, 'I don't know that it rises to the level of intentional misstatements warranting the revocation of bail.'... Tuesday's bail hearing provided additional information about Parnas' ties to Firtash, who is living in Austria while fighting bribery charges in the US. Prosecutors disclosed that an attorney for Firtash paid $1 million to Parnas' wife, Svetlana, in September, a transaction that Assistant US Attorney Rebekah Donaleski described as suspicious. 'It is an unsecured, undocumented loan to a housewife,' Donaleski said. 'That makes no sense, your honor.'"

Lara Jakes of the New York Times: "William B. Taylor Jr., the top American diplomat in Ukraine who described for Congress and the public what he saw as President Trump’s efforts to pressure Kyiv to go after political rivals, said on Tuesday that he was stepping down from his post. In a brief email to The New York Times, Mr. Taylor said he would leave in early January because his temporary appointment to Ukraine last June is set to expire. Under the Vacancies Act, political appointees in an acting position can hold office only for about 200 days." The NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Conor Finnegan of ABC News: Taylor "will be gone just ahead of Pompeo's first trip to Ukraine in early January, according to the official -- and after being attacked by Trump and Giuliani as a 'Never Trumper.' Just last month, Giuliani accused Taylor of personally blocking visas for Ukrainians who have 'direct evidence of Democrat criminal conspiracy with Ukrainians to prevent Donald J. Trump from being President,' he said in a letter to Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. With Taylor gone, Pompeo avoids being seen with him in meetings in Kyiv, potentially angering Trump.... But it also leaves a leadership gap at a critical time in Ukraine.... Despite [Giuliani's making] false allegations [about former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch], Pompeo never issued a statement of support for Yovanovitch and, amid similar allegations now by Giuliani against Taylor, has remained quiet on Taylor, too." ~~~

     ~~~ John Hudson of the Washington Post: “The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee accused Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday of 'unceremoniously recalling' the acting ambassador to Ukraine, William B. Taylor Jr., a key witness in the House impeachment inquiry who criticized the White House’s decision to withhold aid to the country. 'I am extremely concerned that this suspect decision furthers the president’s inappropriate and unacceptable linking of U.S. policy to Ukraine to his personal and political benefit, and potentially your own,' Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.) wrote in a letter to Pompeo.... Taylor ... has been criticized by the president as a 'Never Trumper.' The White House also has attacked witnesses broadly as 'radical unelected bureaucrats.'”

Simon Shuster of Time: "This summer, the Ukrainian government awarded the rights to develop a huge complex of oil and gas fields in the country to an American company that is co-owned by a former campaign donor [Michael Bleyzer] to then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry. The decision annoyed the heads of the state-owned Naftogaz conglomerate, which had competed and lost the bidding for the contract. Now, Naftogaz has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the deal, two sources familiar with the matter tell Time, casting a spotlight on Perry’s role in Ukraine’s oil and gas industry. The suit was filed on Friday afternoon in the District Administrative Court of Kyiv[.]" --s

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "More than 700 American historians have called for the impeachment and removal of Donald Trump.” The statement, published in Medium, is here, along with the names of the signers. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Devan Cole of CNN: "Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Monday weighed in on ... Donald Trump's assertion that the impeachment proceedings against him should stop, saying he 'is not a lawyer.' The remarks from the 86-year-old justice came at an event in New York where she was awarded the Berggruen Institute Prize for Philosophy and Culture. She plans to donate the $1 million prize to a number of organizations that promote opportunities for women."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A secretive federal court accused the F.B.I. on Tuesday of misleading judges about the rationale for wiretapping a former Trump campaign adviser and ordered the bureau to propose changes in how investigators seek their permission for national security surveillance targeting Americans. In an extraordinary public order, the presiding judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Rosemary M. Collyer, gave the F.B.I. a Jan. 10 deadline to come up with a proposal. It was the first public response from the court to the scathing findings released last week by the Justice Department’s independent inspector general about the wiretapping of the former Trump adviser, Carter Page, as part of the Russia investigation." The NBC News story is here.

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Rick Gates, one of the most significant former Trump campaign advisers who flipped on ... Donald Trump in the Mueller investigation, was sentenced to 45 days in jail and three years probation by a federal judge Tuesday morning. Gates, a longtime deputy to 2016 Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort who shared searing details about Trump's efforts in 2016 with special counsel Robert Mueller, admitted to helping Manafort conceal $75 million in foreign bank accounts from their years of Ukraine lobbying work.He agreed to plead guilty to related charges of conspiracy and lying to investigators in February 2018. He also signed up to cooperate, giving Mueller's team key insights into Manafort and Trump's actions in 2016 during the height of the Russia investigations. 'I accept complete responsibility for my actions,' Gates told Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Tuesday." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. The Washington Post report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~ 

 Politics don’t corrupt people. People corrupt politics. -- Judge Amy Berman Jackson, during Rick Gates' sentencing hearing, in the best example of a chiasmus I've heard since Charlie the Tuna learned the meaning of good taste ~~~

~~~ Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “Just a week after Attorney General Bill Barr declared the Mueller investigation was based on a 'completely bogus narrative,' [Judge] Jackson used her perch on Tuesday to deliver what sounded like a pointed, public rebuttal, saying there was 'an ample basis' for an aggressive inquiry into the Trump campaign aides’ connections and actions. 'Gates’ information alone warranted, indeed demanded, further investigation from the standpoint of our national security, the integrity of our elections and the enforcement of our criminal laws,' Jackson declared.”

BBC: "The Trump administration has said it does not consider the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 to be a genocide, contradicting a unanimous vote by the US Senate. The historic vote last week incensed Turkey, which has always denied that the killings amounted to a genocide. Turkey's foreign ministry on Friday summoned the US ambassador to express its anger over the vote, accusing the US of 'politicising history'. Armenia says 1.5 million were killed in an effort to wipe out the ethnic group. The killings took place in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, the forerunner of modern-day Turkey. 'The position of the administration has not changed,' said State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus in a statement on Tuesday. 'Our views are reflected in the president's definitive statement on this issue from last April,' she said. In a statement last April on the anniversary of the killings, Mr Trump said the US paid tribute to the victims of 'one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century', but he did not use the word genocide."

Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: “On the 75th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s final major push in World War II, a U.S. Army unit shared a tribute to the 'greatest battle in American history' — a detailed portrait of a worried military commander fretting over the plan that would ultimately secure an Allied victory over the Nazis. 'The fate of his beloved nation rested on his ability to lead his men,' the XVIII Airborne Corps wrote on a Monday Facebook post featuring the striking photo. But the description ... celebrated the strategic mind-set of Nazi war criminal Joachim Peiper, an infamous German commander who ordered the massacre of 84 U.S. prisoners of war during the Battle of the Bulge. The ... glamorous, colorized photo of Peiper ... was also shared on the Facebook pages for the Defense Department and the Army’s 10th Mountain Division. The backlash was swift.... Shortly after a public affairs officer for the Army criticized the posts on Twitter, the photos disappeared. The Defense Department and 10th Mountain Division deleted their posts, and the XVIII Airborne Corps removed the photo of Peiper from its lengthy narrative.” An NBC News story is here.

Tucker Doherty & Tanya Snyder of Politico: "The $67.4 million grant application for Boone County[, Kentucky] — a rapidly growing suburban district of political importance to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the husband of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao — was initially flagged by professional staff as incomplete.... [Yet the] Boone County project and 41 other applicants received [an] extra chance to fill in holes in their submissions when another 55 incomplete applications fell out of the running.... Chao chose it as one of 26 grant winners out of an initial pool of 258 applicants.... [E]mails obtained by Politico show that Boone County officials were in contact with Chao’s aide Todd Inman, a former McConnell campaign staffer known to offer extra guidance to Kentuckians with business before the secretary.... Chao’s alleged favoritism toward Kentucky has become a focus of scrutiny following revelations that she had designated Inman as a special point-of-contact for Kentucky officials.... No other state enjoyed such access to the office of the secretary.... House Democrats asked DOT’s inspector general to investigate the matter, and the office of the inspector general has confirmed ... that it has opened a review." --s

Presidential Race 2020

AFP: "Joe Biden is healthy and fit to be president of the United States, his physician said in a letter released Tuesday by his election campaign. The 77-year-old Democrat and former vice president is the current frontrunner in the race to challenge President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election. Earlier this year Biden had pledged to release his medical records before the Iowa caucuses in February, the first vote in the nomination race, after a challenger made allusions to his age. His campaign released a summary of his medical history from Kevin O'Connor, Biden's physician when he was vice president. Biden 'is a healthy, vigorous, 77-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency,' O'Connor, currently director of executive medicine at The GW Medical Faculty Associates, said in a three-page letter. He said Biden is being treated for non-valvular atrial fibrillation (A-fib), hyperlipidemia, gastro-esophageal reflux and seasonal allergies."

Pete's Wine Cave.~~~ Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: “The wits in the Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) campaign are trolling Democratic presidential rival Pete Buttigieg and his tony wine-cave fundraiser with the purchase of the URL domain 'peteswinecave.com.' The curious who click on the link are led to a fundraising site for Sanders. The stunt ... was a dig at Buttigieg’s fundraiser Sunday in the cellars of a Napa Valley winery. The event was hosted by the winery’s billionaire owners, reported The Associated Press.” ~~~

     ~~~ Or, as Stephen Colbert said, "In case you were wondering if the wealthy gather in underground bunkers to plot the fate of the working class -- yeah." ~~~

~~~ Mary Severns of Politico: "Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign omitted more than 20 high-level fundraisers from a list of top bundlers it disclosed last week. The public list of bundlers, featuring more than 100 people who have raised at least $25,000 for Buttigieg, was meant to bring a close to more than a week of feuding between Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren over campaign transparency. But the list left off a number of people the Buttigieg campaign had previously touted as top donors in an internal campaign fundraising report obtained by Politico.

Mrs. McCrabbie: Sadly, I missed this fine work of performance art posted on Twitter late last week:

     ~~~ Move Like Bloomberg. Megh Wright of Vulture: “When Brad Evans and Nick Ciarelli took the stage at the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles last Thursday..., they intended to ... create a very silly comedy bit [and] share the video on Twitter.... But ... [their] 23-second parody of the corny and relentlessly mocked Pete Buttigieg campaign dance video, only this time for candidate Mike Bloomberg and set to Maroon 5’s' Moves Like Jagger' — had gone viral... and igniting a wildfire of confusion and assumptions about whether or not the people in the video were, or were not, real Bloomberg supporters.”

Steve Peoples of the AP: “A small group of ... Donald Trump’s fiercest conservative critics, including the husband of the president’s own chief adviser, is launching a super PAC designed to fight Trump’s reelection and punish congressional Republicans deemed his 'enablers.' The new organization, known as the Lincoln Project, represents a formal step forward for the so-called Never Trump movement, which has been limited largely to social media commentary and cable news attacks through the first three years of Trump’s presidency.” (Also linked yesterday.)  ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a New York Times op-ed by George Conway, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver & Rick Wilson announcing the Lincoln Project. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Leo Shane of the Military Times: "Half of active-duty military personnel contacted in [a Military Times survey] held an unfavorable view of President Trump, showing a continued decline in his approval rating since he was elected in 2016.... But the latest numbers still leave Trump with a higher approval rating than former President Barack Obama when he left office in January 2017."

Senate Race 2020. David Sharp of the AP: “Republican Sen. Susan Collins officially launched her bid for reelection Wednesday, setting up an expensive and closely watched battle that’s starting against the backdrop of impeachment proceedings against ... Donald Trump. Collins made her formal announcement in an email to supporters, saying her 'bipartisan commonsense approach' has been key to many legislative successes and will be important in an era of bitter partisanship.... Democrats have targeted Collins for her votes for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the GOP tax cut. They have also sought to link her to Trump and his brand of brash, divisive politics, and have accused her of failing to do enough to stand up to him. Trump is reviled by many in the state’s populous south, anchored by liberal Portland, but cheered in the rural north. Collins, who says she didn’t vote for Trump in 2016, is likely to face a dramatic vote on whether to convict the president in an impeachment trial in the Senate, a decision that will anger either Democrats or Republicans.”