The Commentariat -- November 2, 2019

Afternoon Update:

How to Immigrate for $100. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "Smuggling gangs in Mexico have repeatedly sawed through new sections of President Trump's border wall in recent months by using commercially available power tools, opening gaps large enough for people and drug loads to pass through, according to U.S. agents and officials with knowledge of the damage. The breaches have been made using a popular cordless household tool know as a reciprocating saw that retails at hardware stores for as little as $100. When fitted with specialized blades, the saws can slice through one of the barrier's steel-and-concrete bollards in a matter of minutes, according to the agents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the barrier-defeating techniques. After cutting through the base of a single bollard, smugglers can push the steel out of the way, allowing an adult to fit through the gap. Because the bollards are so tall -- and are attached only to a panel at the very top -- their length makes them easier to push aside once they have been cut and are left dangling, according to engineers consulted by The Washington Post." Mediaite has a brief story here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: All together now: "We're shocked & nonplussed, Donnie's wall is a bust."

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Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday it's possible that controversies beyond Ukraine could be part of the impeachment case against President Trump.... Pelosi on Friday emphasized that the decision on articles of impeachment will be up to the committees handling the inquiry.... 'What we're talking about now is taking us into a whole other class of objection to what the president has done. And there may be other -- there were 11 obstruction of justice provisions in the Mueller report. Perhaps some of them will be part of this,' Pelosi said during an interview with Bloomberg Television. 'But again, that will be part of the inquiry, to see where we go.'... Pelosi also told Bloomberg News in a roundtable with editors and reporters on Friday that she expects public hearings will begin this month.... Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told PBS NewsHour on Thursday that closed-door witness testimony transcripts could be released as early as next week."

Kylie Atwood & Manu Raju of CNN: "A top White House official [-- Tim Morrison --] told lawmakers he tried to find out whether ... Donald Trump told a key US diplomat [-- Gordon Sondland --] he wanted Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, multiple sources familiar with his closed-door impeachment inquiry deposition on Capitol Hill told CNN.... Morrison, the President's top Russia adviser, had multiple conversations with American Ambassador to the European Union ... Sondland.... Morrison became concerned that Sondland was going rogue on Ukraine. Morrison told lawmakers he thought Sondland was a 'free radical.'... The term was a reference to molecules that cause cancer. To find out whether Sondland had talked to the President, Morrison went so far as asking Trump's executive secretary if the President had actually talked with Sondland. The ambassador's claims about having the conversations checked out each time, Morrison said in his testimony Thursday.... In his own opening statement, Sondland downplayed both Trump's role and his own in the effort to pressure Ukraine -- suggesting he was reluctantly working with Rudy Giuliani.... Morrison's testimony also could raise more questions about Sondland's deposition...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The person was "going rogue," of course, was Trump. Sondland was just "following orders." Republicans, including the Senators who will sit on Trump's jury (story linked below), have chosen not to face that.

The Cover-up, Ctd.  Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "The senior White House lawyer who placed a record of ... Donald Trump's July 25 call with Ukraine's president in a top-secret system also instructed at least one official who heard the call not to tell anyone about it, according to testimony heard by House impeachment investigators this week. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman ... told lawmakers that he went to the lawyer, John Eisenberg, to register his concerns about the call, in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Bidens, according to a person in the room for Vindman's deposition on Tuesday. Eisenberg recorded Vindman's complaints in notes on a yellow legal pad, then conferred with his deputy Michael Ellis about how to handle the conversation because it was clearly 'sensitive,' Vindman testified. The lawyers then decided to move the record of the call into the NSC's top-secret codeword system -- a server normally used to store highly classified material that only a small group of officials can access. Vindman did not consider the move itself as evidence of a cover-up, according to a person familiar with his testimony. But he said he became disturbed when, a few days later, Eisenberg instructed him not to tell anyone about the call -- especially because it was Vindman's job to coordinate the interagency process with regard to Ukraine policy.... Several National Security Council officials had complained to Eisenberg in the weeks leading up to the July 25 call about the shadow Ukraine policy being run by Giuliani and U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland. Those include Vindman's then-boss Fiona Hill, who went to Eisenberg at the instruction of then-National Security Adviser John Bolton." ~~~

~~~ Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: "The directive from [John] Eisenberg adds to an expanding list of moves by senior White House officials to contain, if not conceal, possible evidence of Trump's attempt to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to provide information that could be damaging to former vice president Joe Biden. The instruction to stay quiet came after White House officials had already discussed moving a rough transcript of the call into a highly classified computer server, and the instruction was delivered by Eisenberg, who would later be involved in the administration's battle to keep an explosive whistleblower complaint about the call from being shared with Congress. The interaction between Eisenberg and [Alexander] Vindman suggests there was a sense among some in the White House that Trump's call with Zel[e]nsky was not, as the president has repeatedly claimed, 'perfect.'" ~~~

~~~ Danny Hakim & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "After Colonel [Alexander] Vindman made his complaint [about the Trump-Zelensky phone call], but while he and his brother [Col Yevgeny Vindman] were still in the room, [lawyers John] Eisenberg and [Michael] Ellis discussed how to handle the transcript, and Mr. Eisenberg decided to place it into the White House's most secure system to avoid leaks, according to one of the people familiar with his account. Several days later, after a C.I.A. officer complained about the call to the C.I.A.'s general counsel, Mr. Eisenberg directed Colonel Vindman not to discuss the call further. The testimony only adds to House investigators' interest in Mr. Eisenberg, whom Democrats subpoenaed late Friday to appear for a deposition on Monday, according to people familiar with the matter. The White House is likely to order him not to cooperate, making his appearance uncertain....

"... investigators said they had scheduled additional new voluntary depositions for next week. They called Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who was deeply involved in American outreach to Ukraine, to answer questions on Wednesday, but a spokeswoman for the Energy Department said Mr. Perry had no intention of taking part in a 'secret star chamber inquisition.' Investigators also set appearances for Russell Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget; David Hale, the under secretary of state for political affairs; and T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, counselor to the secretary of state. It was unclear if any of them would comply. Investigators also subpoenaed Brian McCormack, Mr. Perry's chief of staff, to testify on Monday." ~~~

     ~~~ Ben Lefebvre of Politico: "Energy Secretary Rick Perry won't testify before House investigators' impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump, according to the DOE. 'The Secretary will not partake in a secret star chamber inquisition where agency counsel is forbidden to be present,' DOE spokesperson Shaylyn Hynes said in an email, adding that Perry would consider a request from lawmakers to testify in an open hearing." Mrs. McC: Perry may not have thought through this. He is not all that bright, and a "star-chamber inquisition" might have served as a sort a rehearsal, allowing him to "amend and extend" his testimony in an open hearing. If he appears at all, now it seems it will be without practicing. Break a leg, Rick! ~~~

~~~ Deb Riechmann of the AP: "The House impeachment inquiry is zeroing in on two White House lawyers privy to a discussion about moving a memo recounting ... Donald Trump's phone call with the leader of Ukraine into a highly restricted computer system normally reserved for documents about covert action. Deepening their reach into the West Wing, impeachment investigators have summoned former national security adviser John Bolton to testify next week. But they also are seeking testimony of two other political appointees -- John Eisenberg, the lead lawyer for the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a senior associate counsel to the president.... The lawyers' role is critical because two witnesses have suggested the NSC legal counsel -- when told that Trump asked a foreign leader for domestic political help -- took the extraordinary step of shielding access to the transcript not because of its covert nature but rather its potential damage to the Republican president. The ... effort to lock down the rough transcript suggests some people in the White House viewed the president's conversation as problematic." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Continuing Misadventures of

Aaron Katersky & Soo Rin Kim of ABC News: "... prosecutors in the Southern District of New York are looking into whether the former congressman [Robert Livingston (R-La.)] had contact with [Rudy] Giuliani related to the push for the removal of then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yavonovitch ... after his name was floated during testimony from a former White House official [Catherine Croft] earlier this week.... During her deposition before House impeachment investigators [Wednesday, Croft] said that she 'received multiple calls' from Livingston while she was at the White House, telling her that then-Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch be fired, according to her opening statement.... Through his lobbying firm Livingston Group, [Livingston] has been actively lobbying on behalf of at least a couple of Ukrainian clients since last year, records filed under the Foreign Agent Registration Act show.... It's unclear what connection, if any, exists between Livingston's lobbing on behalf of his Ukrainian clients and his push to oust the ambassador." ~~~

~~~ Sam Stein & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "In late 2018, as he was just starting to look for dirt on the origins of the FBI investigation into Russian election meddling..., Rudy Giuliani held a meeting with a top Ukrainian politician many in the administration believed would be the country's next president. The meeting with former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko took place on Dec. 5, 2018 in the U.S. and was set up with the help of two former Republican members of Congress. And it suggests that Giuliani's involvement in Ukraine policy was more extensive than previously understood and involved more individuals than previously appreciated.... Several sources said that among the topics discussed were U.S. military aid and future U.S.-Ukraine relations. And a source familiar with the arrangement told The Daily Beast the Tymoshenko meeting was brief, came at Giuliani's request, that the attorney was 'trolling for business,' and that Tymoshenko wanted to share 'her substantive vision of Ukraine.'... That U.S. aid to Ukraine was a discussion topic raises additional questions about how involved Giuliani was in actually crafting American foreign policy despite playing no official role in State Department channels."

~~~ David Ignatius of the Washington Post traces the Ukraine scandal back to mid-2017, when Rudy Giuliani traveled to Ukraine. "While Giuliani was [in Ukraine to give a speech], he also met with [then-President Petro] Poroshenko and his prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, according a news release issued by the foundation." Two weeks later, Trump met with Poroshenko, who had been lobbying for the meeting for months. "Just after Giuliani's visit, Ukraine's investigation of the so-called black ledger that listed alleged illicit payments to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was transferred from an anti-corruption bureau, known as NABU, to [Lutsenko], according to a June 15, 2017, report in the Kyiv Post. The paper quoted Viktor Trepak, former deputy head of the country's security service, saying: 'It is clear for me that somebody gave an order to bury the black ledger.'... Was there any implicit understanding that Poroshenko's government would curb its cooperation with the U.S. Justice Department's investigation of Manafort...?" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

"The Best-Paid Interpreter in the World." Vicki Ward & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Earlier this year, Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, received a sudden windfall of money from a prominent Ukrainian oligarch who is fighting extradition to the United States and is suspected of having ties to the Russian mob, according to four sources who spoke with Parnas. This summer, Parnas told potential business associates that his company began receiving payments from the oligarch, Dmytro Firtash, who is living in Austria while fighting bribery charges in the US, the sources told CNN. Parnas also told these people he met with Firtash several times over the summer while in Vienna. In June, according to one of these sources, Parnas vouched to Firtash for two well-known Washington lawyers [-- Fox 'News" fixtures Joe diGenova & Victoria Toensing --] who later brought up Firtash's plight in a face-to-face meeting with Attorney General William Barr. These new details appear to reveal a much more substantial relationship than previously known between Parnas and Firtash, and how Firtash's years-long extradition battle suddenly collided with Giuliani's push to dig up dirt on ... Donald Trump's political opponents. They could also raise the stakes for Giuliani, whose financial ties are being examined by federal investigators. A company owned by Parnas paid Giuliani $500,000 for consulting in the fall of 2018. Giuliani maintains that the money did not originate overseas." ~~~

     ~~~ diGenova & Toensing "have downplayed the relationship between [Firtash] and Parnas. In statements, they describe Parnas as merely an interpreter hired to communicate with Firtash, who does not speak English.... 'I'm the best-paid interpreter in the world,' Parnas joked to [CNN's] sources." ~~~

~~~ Ema O'Connor of BuzzFeed News: "A lawyer for Igor Fruman, one of the men who had been working with Rudy Guiliani in his Ukraine campaign, tried to argue Friday [at a hearing he requested before a U.S. District judge] that his client was not a flight risk and didn't need to be under house arrest, despite the fact that he had been arrested just before boarding a flight overseas on a one-way ticket last month.... [Defense attorney Todd] Blanche's mission in Friday's hearing was to convince Judge [Paul] Oetken that Fruman was not a flight risk, that the $1 million bond, which Fruman's son, brother, and sister-in-law are guarantors for, was enough to keep him in the country, and that he was never going to, and never did, attempt to flee the country." It did not go well. "... the lawyer for the government, Nicolas Roos..., went on to detail Fruman's many financial and political connections to Europe, attempting to demonstrate that Fruman could live a very pleasant life abroad if he were able to flee. 'He operates a bar called Buddha Bar' abroad, Roos said. He held up a printout of a glossy hotel brochure for the court to see, saying it listed Fruman as the president and CEO of a 'luxury group' that owns a hotel, 'restaurants, a beach club, and retail stores,' Roos told the court.... The judge denied the petition." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: At least Blanche has a sense of humor. O'Connor: "When BuzzFeed News asked him for his card in order to get the spelling of his name correct, he responded, 'I wish you wouldn't spell my name right. I wish I had one of my colleague's cards to give you instead. Lord.'" ~~~

~~~ Rachel Maddow noted that Fruman may lose his bail altogether as the $1MM bond was provided in part by his brother Steven Fruman, & the source of that bond money is under scrutiny. Kevin McCoy of USA Today: "Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos told a judge that Steven Fruman, the younger sibling of Giuliani business client Igor Fruman, could have been involved in the alleged scheme to buy influence by funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to U.S. politicians and campaign committees. Roos said the younger sibling lied about his bank accounts and his businesses when questioned by government paralegals who were examining his suitability to serve as a co-signer on Igor Fruman's $1 million bond package. Saying that Steven Fruman 'could be involved' in some of the actions alleged in the criminal case, Roos said, 'it seems he was trying to conceal something.' The prosecutor did not elaborate.... Saying that someone who may be involved in the case 'may not be suitable as a co-signer,' U.S. District Court Judge Paul Oetken said he would not immediately intervene with the examination of the younger Fruman's finances." ~~~

~~~ Andrew Kaczynski, et al., of CNN: Photos of Lev & Igor sitting in the good seats at 2018 Trump rallies keep emerging. "In photos posted on Twitter, Parnas and Fruman can be seen accompanying Giuliani to events in Michigan, New Hampshire, Florida, Indiana and again in Nevada." Mrs. McC: You might think the Three Stooges were Trump groupies, except you know they're doing it for the money.

Some GOP Senators Ready to Admit the Obvious, Then Pretend It's Okay. Rachel Bade & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "A growing number of Senate Republicans are ready to acknowledge that President Trump used U.S. military aid as leverage to force Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his family as the president repeatedly denies a quid pro quo. In this shift in strategy to defend Trump, these Republicans are insisting that the president's action was not illegal and does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense as the Democratic-led House moves forward with the open phase of its probe. But the shift among Senate Republicans could complicate the message coming from Trump as he furiously fights the claim that he had withheld U.S. aid from Ukraine to pressure it to dig up dirt on a political rival.... The pivot was the main topic during a private Senate GOP lunch on Wednesday, according to multiple people...." The new pretense is that Trump had no "corrupt intent." Mrs. McC: Good luck with that. Trump is the personification of corrupt intent. It's the only intent he has.

     ~~~ The Raw Story has a summary report here. Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "I see the inevitable retreat from 'Trump is innocent' to 'using extortion to ratfuck elections is great, frankly he should be doing more of it' has already started[.]"

** Kim Sengupta of the U.K. Independent: "... overshadowed by the publicity around the impeachment, is the ever-broadening investigation by William Barr..., which the White House sees as a game-changer.... It may also seem odd that Trump, having repeatedly claimed that the Mueller report was a 'complete and total exoneration' of him over Russiagate, is now going to such lengths to try and discredit it.... The information being requested [of foreign governments] has left allies astonished. One British official with knowledge of Barr's wish list presented to London commented that 'it is like nothing we have come across before, they are basically asking, in quite robust terms, for help in doing a hatchet job on their own intelligence services.'" Mrs. McC: Besides giving us a picture of how our government is viewed abroad, Sengupta's report is a good summary of the vast Trumpist conspiracy theory. The real Three Stooges are not Rudy, Lev & Igor, but the over-the-hill gang, Donnie, Bill & Rudy.

Polina Ivanova & Ilya Zhegulev of Reuters: "Sweeping changes to Ukraine's top law enforcement agency ordered by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy are set to derail a series of long-running criminal investigations, including two related to ... Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, three current and former Ukrainian prosecutors told Reuters.... Zelenskiy ... has said the makeover is essential because the office is widely distrusted by Ukrainians and has been seen as a political tool for the well-connected to punish their enemies. Plans to shake up the General Prosecutor's Office played a role in a July 25 phone call between Zelenskiy and Trump that is now at the heart of the impeachment inquiry into the U.S. president. On that call, Zelenskiy told Trump he was installing a new head at the agency who would be '100% my person, my candidate' and who 'will look into the situation' regarding the Bidens.... Among those who have been fired are 13 prosecutors from the Special Investigations Unit, which was overseeing corruption cases from the period of former President Viktor Yanukovich. Manafort, who worked as a political consultant in Ukraine for years, was implicated in two of those probes...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If the critics of Zelensky's "reform" of the GPO are right (and Zelensky's promise to Trump suggests they may be), it looks as if Zelensky is installing his own Bill Barr with a coterie of little Billy Barrs, and the cycle of Ukraine corruption continues. If not, Zelensky is establishing a civil-service-type structure in the prosecutor's office & everything's coming up roses. Far be it from me to know which scenario is closer to the truth.

Florida Man, Traveling to Mississippi, Tweets He's Going to Louisiana.* David Jackson of USA Today: A Florida man, "Donald Trump, tweeted early Friday he was looking forward to visiting Louisiana later in the evening, but there was one big problem: He's going to Mississippi. 'Louisiana, I'll see you tonight,' Trump said in a tweet that was later deleted. 'Big Rally for Eddie R. He will be a GREAT GOVERNOR. Early voting starts! @EddieRispone.' Instead, Trump has a political rally in Tupelo, Miss., on Friday evening.... In Mississippi, Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves is in a tight race with Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood for the right to move into the governor's mansion. Trump's rally in Tupelo, Mississippi, is designed to bolster Reeves' chances." Mrs. McC: Eddie Rispone is the GOP candidate for governor of Louisiana. Charles Pierce has more on what a "GREAT GOVERNOR" Eddie would be. (Also linked yesterday.)

     * This is one of two stories linked today that requires your reading yesterday's Commentariat. In this case, reading yesterday's Comments, especially the first comment, by Bobby Lee, is a big help.

News from the Mind of a Madman. Peter Baker & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "It was a vivid scene worthy of the ending of a Hollywood thriller, the image of a ruthless terrorist mastermind finally brought to justice 'whimpering and crying and screaming all the way' to his death. But it may be no more true than a movie script. In the days since President Trump gave the world a graphic account of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's last minutes, no evidence has emerged to confirm it. The secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the regional commander who oversaw the operation that killed the leader of the Islamic State all say they have no idea what the president was talking about. Four other Defense Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity..., said they had seen no ... communications that support Mr. Trump's claim. Nor did they have any indication that Mr. Trump spoke with any of the Delta Force commandos or ground commanders in the hours between the Saturday night raid and his Sunday morning televised announcement. One American official ... deeply familiar with the operation dismissed the president's version of events as mere grandstanding. Another senior official briefed extensively on the mission said, 'I don't know how he would know that. It sounds like something he made up.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This might have been Trump's best moment. Instead, it was an extended lie.

** Mike McIntire, et al., of the New York Times: "The New York Times examined [Donald] Trump's interactions with Twitter since he took office, reviewing each of his more than 11,000 tweets and the hundreds of accounts he has retweeted, tracking the ways he is exposed to information and replicating what he is likely to see on the platform. The result, including new data analysis and previously unreported details, offers the most comprehensive view yet of a virtual world in which the president spends significant time mingling with extremists, impostors and spies. Fake accounts tied to intelligence services in China, Iran and Russia had directed thousands of tweets at Mr. Trump, according to a Times analysis of propaganda accounts suspended by Twitter. Iranian operatives tweeted anti-Semitic tropes, saying that Mr. Trump was 'being controlled' by global Zionists, and that pulling out of the Iran nuclear treaty would benefit North Korea. Russian accounts tagged the president more than 30,000 times, including in supportive tweets about the Mexican border wall and his hectoring of black football players.... Mr. Trump has retweeted at least 145 unverified accounts that have pushed conspiracy or fringe content, including more than two dozen that have since been suspended by Twitter. Tinfoil-hat types and racists celebrate when Mr. Trump shares something they promote." ~~~

     ~~~ The Times has related stories here and here. Mrs. McC: Trump's Twitter activity is grounds for invoking the 25th Amendment.

No One Knows WTF Is Going on. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "President Trump told reporters Friday evening that Chad Wolf is the new acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, but it was unclear whether a formal appointment had occurred, extending confusion about who would step in to fill one of the country's most crucial national security posts. After reporters asked Trump about rumors he was planning to place Wolf in charge of DHS, Trump said, 'Well he's right now acting and we'll see what happens.' But no transition has taken place yet, according to two senior administration officials. Kevin McAleenan, the current acting DHS secretary, remains on the job, they said. McAleenan is scheduled to stay in the role at least through early next week, according to one of the senior administration officials, who was baffled by Trump's statement.... Wolf would be the fifth person to occupy the secretary job at DHS under Trump, an unusually high degree of leadership turnover for a department whose founding goal was to project stability and safeguard the country from another 9/11-style terrorist attack." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As Jeh Johnson said on MSNBC, Wolf is technically the sixth DHS secretary under Trump. Johnson himself, as the "designated survivor" during Trump's inauguration, was the Secretary of Homeland Security until he resigned 7-1/2 hours into Trump's tenure. ~~~

     ~~~ Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley attempts to clear up the confusion.

>Rob Crilly & David M. Drucker of the Washington Examiner: "President Trump declined to defend embattled acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, an indication he is considering a change. Asked during an Oval Office interview with the Washington Examiner if he is happy with the job Mulvaney is doing for him, Trump demurred. 'Happy?' he said, mulling the question. 'I don't want to comment on it.' Instead, Trump offered a general defense of his senior team and said some West Wing 'bedlam' was the inevitable result of an administration that had been besieged by federal investigations and congressional subpoenas from Day One. 'I could see that,' Trump said when asked about Republican senators expressing unhappiness with Mulvaney." Mrs. McC: For Pete's sake, Mick, walk out.

"Not Wholly Unexpected." Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump has abandoned the idea of releasing proposals to combat gun violence that his White House debated for months following mass shootings in August, according to White House officials and lawmakers, a reversal from the summer when the president insisted he would offer policies to curb firearm deaths. Trump has been counseled by political advisers, including campaign manager Brad Parscale and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, that gun legislation could splinter his political coalition, which he needs to stick together for his reelection bid, particularly amid an impeachment battle. The president no longer asks about the issue, and aides from the Domestic Policy Council, once& working on a plan with eight to 12 tenets, have moved on to other topics, according to aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... The White House's position is a marked, if not wholly unexpected, change from when the president vowed he would make a push to pass more restrictive laws after two gunmen killed scores of people in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso in early August, creating national outrage." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Laura Clawson has the Daily Kos story: "Who could possibly have predicted?" (Also linked yesterday.)

David Nakamura & Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post: "The Washington Nationals have accepted an invitation to visit President Trump at the White House on Monday for the traditional champions celebration, less than a week after winning their first World Series. The quick turnaround is unusual, but most of the players are in town for a parade Saturday in downtown Washington, and White House officials said the timing worked well for the team and the president. The ceremony will take place at 1:15 p.m. on the South Lawn, a White House official said." The ESPN story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

More Adventures of the Middle-Class Boys from Pottstown

When my father became commander in chief of this country, we got out of all international business. -- Eric Trump, in an interview on Fox News's "The Ingraham Angle," October 15

We've been international businesspeople for decades, but we can't even do those kinds of deals anymore. We can't even continue, and because we chose not to, because we didn't think it was appropriate. So that's the double standard. The media said, "Oh, you're enriching yourselves." We're like, "We literally stopped." -- Donald Trump Jr., in an interview on "Fox and Friends," Oct. 30

Pinocchios courtesy of Savador Rizzo of the Washington Post

Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) came up with a novel way to avoid a question about ... Donald Trump on Thursday. Instead of ignoring the activists from the progressive group MoveOn.org who were asking it, he head-butted their camera.... He never answered the question, asked several times: 'Do you think it's OK for the president to pressure foreign governments to interfere in our elections?'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2020

Sydney Ember & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Displaying a new assertiveness toward her Democratic opponents, Elizabeth Warren laced into her chief political rivals, warning on Friday night that the country was in a 'time of crisis' and arguing that Democrats would lose in 2020 if they nominated 'anyone who comes on this stage and tells you they can make change without a fight.' Speaking to thunderous applause during the party's biggest Iowa political event of the year, Ms. Warren denounced candidates in the presidential race who opposed bold ideas in favor of more moderate solutions, in veiled attacks on Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Pete Buttigieg.... Befitting her front-runner status, Ms. Warren was the target of heated attacks from three of the first five speakers on the stage: Mr. Biden, Mr. Buttigieg and Kamala Harris."

Natasha Korecki of Politico: "Joe Biden dropped to fourth place in Iowa, according to a new poll released Friday, his worst showing to date in the pivotal early state. A few hours later, at the largest gathering to date for any 2020 event, it was clear why. While Biden delivered a solid performance on stage before a crowd of 13,500 Democrats at the state party's Liberty & Justice dinner, he was overshadowed and outshined by the candidate who just passed him in the polls -- Pete Buttigieg. At the massive state party event known for its catalytic effect on campaigns -- it's widely remembered as a turning point for Barack Obama's Iowa fortunes in 2007 -- Buttigieg captured the audience's imagination, articulating a case for generational change.... Through his spending and organizing efforts, Buttigieg has managed to reshape the top tier into a 4-way contest that also includes Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Biden's campaign, meanwhile, has been forced to scale down expectations of his performance here. He has already seen Warren overtake him in the polls and is also battling the grassroots energy behind Sanders."

Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Former Representative Beto O'Rourke of Texas is dropping out of the presidential race, ending a campaign in which he struggled for months to recapture the energy of his insurgent 2018 Senate candidacy on a national stage full of other big personalities and liberal champions. Mr. O'Rourke made the decision to quit the race in the middle of this week, on the eve of a gathering Friday of Democratic presidential candidates in Iowa, according to people familiar with his thinking. He is not expected to run for any other office in 2020, despite persistent efforts by party leaders and political donors to coax him into another bid for the Senate." Politico's story is here.

Jasmine Wright, et al., of CNN: "Sen. Kamala Harris is closing three of her four presidential campaign offices in New Hampshire and has fired all her field organizers in the state as she homes in on her struggling campaign in Iowa, an aide tells CNN. The California Democrat is closing her offices in Nashua, Portsmouth and Keene. Her Manchester headquarters will remain open, but the staff will be scaled back significantly, with only volunteers left to knock on doors and pass out literature."

Thomas Kaplan, et al., of the New York Times: "Senator Elizabeth Warren on Friday proposed $20.5 trillion in new spending through huge tax increases on businesses and wealthy Americans to pay for 'Medicare for all,' laying out details for a landmark government expansion that will pose political risks for her presidential candidacy while also allowing her to say she is not raising taxes on the middle class to pay for her health care plan. Ms. Warren, who has risen steadily in the polls with strong support from liberals excited about her ambitious policy plans, has been under pressure from top rivals like former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to release details about paying for her biggest plan, 'Medicare for all.'" The Politico story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Holy Rolling in Money. Jeremy Peters & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Paula White, a televangelist based in Florida and personal pastor to President Trump whom he has known since 2002, has joined the Trump administration in an official capacity, according to a White House official. Ms. White will work in the Office of Public Liaison, the official said, which is the division of the White House overseeing outreach to groups and coalitions organizing key parts of the president's base. Her role will be to advise the administration's Faith and Opportunity Initiative, which Mr. Trump established last year by executive order and which aims to give religious groups more of a voice in government programs devoted to issues like defending religious liberty and fighting poverty. As Mr. Trump campaigns for a second term, he cannot afford to lose support from the religious conservatives who voted for him in 2016 in significant numbers. Without their backing, his path to re-election would be significantly narrower.... Ms. White cannot be easily categorized as either a political asset or a liability. She has a large following among Christians who believe in the 'prosperity gospel,' which teaches that God blesses people he deems to be of strong faith.... But many other Christians consider these beliefs to be heresy. And Ms. White's presence in the top tier of Mr. Trump's coterie of informal religious advisers has long been a source of contention with many evangelical Christians." A Hill story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The Church of Donald. Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner: "According to his longtime personal pastor, Paula White-Cain, Trump in 2006 was taking steps to build a glass cathedral. 'He wanted to build a house of God,' she told us. 'He said, "Let's do this, let's build this before we're too old,"' said White-Cain [said]. Trump had an architect in place and was eager to have her take charge of the church, but White-Cain said the timing wasn't right for her. At the time, her ministry was on nine TV networks, and she was heading to a divorce from her second husband in 2007."

General Election 2020. Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "Democratic organizations filed lawsuits in Georgia, Arizona and Texas on Friday saying Republicans are given an unfair advantage by being listed first on those states' general election ballots. The traditionally red states Democrats hope to make competitive in 2020 have slightly different rules about ballot placement, but in each case, because Republicans control the governorships, every other race from president on down is listed with the Republican candidate first.... Ahead of 2020, Democrats are looking at a slew of election laws they believe could tip the scale in Republicans' favor, filing lawsuits all over the country over matters like voting access for college students and ballot order.... The DNC and other party-affiliated groups filed a similar lawsuit in Florida in July decrying ballot order bias they contend would give President Trump the edge in a crucial battleground state he won in 2016 by only 1.2 percentage points. The 2018 Democratic candidates in Florida for governor and U.S. Senate lost by razor-thin margins to GOP opponents whose names were listed first...." There was a similar effect in the 2018 races for governor of Georgia & the U.S. Senate in Texas. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: And Democrats are just thinking of this now, less than a year before absentee ballots go out?

Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "The Keystone pipeline system, an addition to which has been the subject of environmental protests for years, leaked about 383,000 gallons of crude oil in North Dakota, covering an estimated half-acre of wetland, state environmental regulators said. The spill, which has been contained, occurred in a low-gradient drainage area near the small town of Edinburg in northeast North Dakota, less than 50 miles from the Canadian border, according to Karl Rockeman, the director of the state Department of Environmental Quality's division of water quality. 'It is one of the larger spills in the state,' he said in an email on Thursday. There are no residences near the site and the wetland is not a source of drinking water, he said." A Hill summary of the story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Deadspin Nears Death. Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "The last meeting for many of Deadspin's journalists took place on Wednesday in a conference room adorned with fake black cobwebs, a large spider and bloody handprints beside the words: 'HELP US.' The plea, it seemed, went unanswered. By Thursday, almost the entire staff -- nearly 20 writers and editors -- had resigned. The journalists at the site, founded as a sports blog in 2005, had chafed against an instruction handed down Monday in the form of a memo from management to confine themselves to sports-related posts. While largely focused on sports, Deadspin for years had delved into a broad range of topics in a voice that was sometimes rude, often funny and always conversational. On Tuesday, the site's top editor, Barry Petchesky, was fired after refusing to go along with the order.... The stick-to-sports memo ... was signed by Paul Maidment, the editorial director of G/O Media, the company that became the owner of Deadspin and sibling sites like Jezebel and Gizmodo six months ago." A Business Insider story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Commentariat -- November 1, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Florida Man, Traveling to Mississippi, Tweets He's Going to Louisiana. David Jackson of USA Today: A Florida man, "Donald Trump, tweeted early Friday he was looking forward to visiting Louisiana later in the evening, but there was one big problem: He's going to Mississippi. 'Louisiana, I'll see you tonight,' Trump said in a tweet that was later deleted. 'Big Rally for Eddie R. He will be a GREAT GOVERNOR. Early voting starts! @EddieRispone.' Instead, Trump has a political rally in Tupelo, Miss., on Friday evening.... In Mississippi, Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves is in a tight race with Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood for the right to move into the governor's mansion. Trump's rally in Tupelo, Mississippi, is designed to bolster Reeves' chances." Mrs. McC: Eddie Rispone is the GOP candidate for governor of Louisiana. Charles Pierce has more on what a "GREAT GOVERNOR" Eddie would be.

Thomas Kaplan, et al., of the New York Times: "Senator Elizabeth Warren on Friday proposed $20.5 trillion in new spending through huge tax increases on businesses and wealthy Americans to pay for 'Medicare for all,' laying out details for a landmark government expansion that will pose political risks for her presidential candidacy while also allowing her to say she is not raising taxes on the middle class to pay for her health care plan. Ms. Warren, who has risen steadily in the polls with strong support from liberals excited about her ambitious policy plans, has been under pressure from top rivals like former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to release details about paying for her biggest plan, 'Medicare for all.'" The Politico story is here.

Deb Riechmann of the AP: "The House impeachment inquiry is zeroing in on two White House lawyers privy to a discussion about moving a memo recounting ... Donald Trump's phone call with the leader of Ukraine into a highly restricted computer system normally reserved for documents about covert action. Deepening their reach into the West Wing, impeachment investigators have summoned former national security adviser John Bolton to testify next week. But they also are seeking testimony of two other political appointees -- John Eisenberg, the lead lawyer for the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a senior associate counsel to the president.... The lawyers' role is critical because two witnesses have suggested the NSC legal counsel -- when told that Trump asked a foreign leader for domestic political help -- took the extraordinary step of shielding access to the transcript not because of its covert nature but rather its potential damage to the Republican president. The ... effort to lock down the rough transcript suggests some people in the White House viewed the president's conversation as problematic."

David Ignatius of the Washington Post traces the Ukraine scandal back to mid-2017, when Rudy Giuliani traveled to Ukraine. "While Giuliani was [in Ukraine to give a speech], he also met with [then-President Petro] Poroshenko and his prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, according a news release issued by the foundation." Two weeks later, Trump met with Poroshenko, who had been lobbying for the meeting for months. &"Just after Giuliani's visit, Ukraine's investigation of the so-called black ledger that listed alleged illicit payments to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was transferred from an anti-corruption bureau, known as NABU, to [Lutsenko], according to a June 15, 2017, report in the Kyiv Post. The paper quoted Viktor Trepak, former deputy head of the country's security service, saying: 'It is clear for me that somebody gave an order to bury the black ledger.'... Was there any implicit understanding that Poroshenko's government would curb its cooperation with the U.S. Justice Department's investigation of Manafort...?"

"Not Wholly Unexpected." Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump has abandoned the idea of releasing proposals to combat gun violence that his White House debated for months following mass shootings in August, according to White House officials and lawmakers, a reversal from the summer when the president insisted he would offer policies to curb firearm deaths. Trump has been counseled by political advisers, including campaign manager Brad Parscale and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, that gun legislation could splinter his political coalition, which he needs to stick together for his reelection bid, particularly amid an impeachment battle. The president no longer asks about the issue, and aides from the Domestic Policy Council, once working on a plan with eight to 12 tenets, have moved on to other topics, according to aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... The White House's position is a marked, if not wholly unexpected, change from when the president vowed he would make a push to pass more restrictive laws after two gunmen killed scores of people in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso in early August, creating national outrage." ~~~

     ~~~ Laura Clawson has the Daily Kos story: "Who could possibly have predicted?"

Holy Rolling in Money. Jeremy Peters & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Paula White, a televangelist based in Florida and personal pastor to President Trump whom he has known since 2002, has joined the Trump administration in an official capacity, according to a White House official. Ms. White will work in the Office of Public Liaison, the official said, which is the division of the White House overseeing outreach to groups and coalitions organizing key parts of the president's base. Her role will be to advise the administration's Faith and Opportunity Initiative, which Mr. Trump established last year by executive order and which aims to give religious groups more of a voice in government programs devoted to issues like defending religious liberty and fighting poverty. As Mr. Trump campaigns for a second term, he cannot afford to lose support from the religious conservatives who voted for him in 2016 in significant numbers. Without their backing, his path to re-election would be significantly narrower.... Ms. White cannot be easily categorized as either a political asset or a liability. She has a large following among Christians who believe in the 'prosperity gospel,' which teaches that God blesses people he deems to be of strong faith with wealth, good health and other gifts. But many other Christians consider these beliefs to be heresy. And Ms. White's presence in the top tier of Mr. Trump's coterie of informal religious advisers has long been a source of contention with many evangelical Christians." A Hill story is here.

David Nakamura & Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post: "The Washington Nationals have accepted an invitation to visit President Trump at the White House on Monday for the traditional champions celebration, less than a week after winning their first World Series. The quick turnaround is unusual, but most of the players are in town for a parade Saturday in downtown Washington, and White House officials said the timing worked well for the team and the president. The ceremony will take place at 1:15 p.m. on the South Lawn, a White House official said." The ESPN story is here.

More Adventures of the Middle-Class Boys from Pottstown

When my father became commander in chief of this country, we got out of all international business. -- Eric Trump, in an interview on Fox News's "The Ingraham Angle," October 15

We've been international businesspeople for decades, but we can't even do those kinds of deals anymore. We can't even continue, and because we chose not to, because we didn't think it was appropriate. So that's the double standard. The media said, "Oh, you're enriching yourselves." We're like, "We literally stopped." -- Donald Trump Jr., in an interview on "Fox and Friends," Oct. 30

Pinocchios courtesy of Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post

Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) came up with a novel way to avoid a question about ... Donald Trump on Thursday. Instead of ignoring the activists from the progressive group MoveOn.org who were asking it, he head-butted their camera.... He never answered the question, asked several times: 'Do you think it's OK for the president to pressure foreign governments to interfere in our elections?'"

Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "The Keystone pipeline system, an addition to which has been the subject of environmental protests for years, leaked about 383,000 gallons of crude oil in North Dakota, covering an estimated half-acre of wetland, state environmental regulators said. The spill, which has been contained, occurred in a low-gradient drainage area near the small town of Edinburg in northeast North Dakota, less than 50 miles from the Canadian border, according to Karl Rockeman, the director of the state Department of Environmental Quality's division of water quality. 'It is one of the larger spills in the state,' he said in an email on Thursday. There are no residences near the site and the wetland is not a source of drinking water, he said." A Hill summary of the story is here.

Deadspin Nears Death. Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "The last meeting for many of Deadspin's journalists took place on Wednesday in a conference room adorned with fake black cobwebs, a large spider and bloody handprints beside the words: 'HELP US.' The plea, it seemed, went unanswered. By Thursday, almost the entire staff -- nearly 20 writers and editors -- had resigned. The journalists at the site, founded as a sports blog in 2005, had chafed against an instruction handed down Monday in the form of a memo from management to confine themselves to sports-related posts. While largely focused on sports, Deadspin for years had delved into a broad range of topics in a voice that was sometimes rude, often funny and always conversational. On Tuesday, the site's top editor, Barry Petchesky, was fired after refusing to go along with the order.... The stick-to-sports memo ... was signed by Paul Maidment, the editorial director of G/O Media, the company that became the owner of Deadspin and sibling sites like Jezebel and Gizmodo six months ago." A Business Insider story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Rob Crilly & David Drucker of the Washington Examiner: "A defiant President Trump signaled he will not cooperate with the Democratic Party's impeachment proceedings, insisting his telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was 'a good call' and that he might read it aloud to Americans so they can see his point. 'This is over a phone call that is a good call,' Trump, sitting behind the Resolute Desk, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. 'At some point, I'm going to sit down, perhaps as a fireside chat on live television, and I will read the transcript of the call, because people have to hear it. When you read it, it's a straight call.'... Trump said he was pleased with the Thursday testimony of a former White House official who said he saw nothing illegal in the telephone call at the heart of the controversy.... Trump flicked through a pile of papers to hold up a copy of news clipping reporting on Morrison's opening statement and said it was 'fantastic.' He said: 'This was going to be their star witness.'... [More on this below.] He outlined a strategy for fighting back that would rely on the White House account of his phone call with the Ukrainian president, including T-shirts with the slogan, 'Read the transcript.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: We now know, based on Alexander Vindman's testimony, that the abridged summary -- what Trump falsely calls a "transcript" -- is incomplete. Still, I can hardly wait for that "fireside chat" dramatic reading. No doubt Trump will read Zelensky's part of the conversation in something he imagines is a Ukrainian accent. He does do impressions, you know: people with disabilities, Asians, women, etc.

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "A bitterly divided House of Representatives voted on Thursday to endorse the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry into President Trump, in a historic action that set up a critical new public phase of the process and underscored the toxic political polarization that serves as its backdrop. The vote was 232-196 to approve a resolution that sets out rules for an impeachment process for which there are few precedents, and which promises to consume the country a little more than a year before the 2020 elections. It was only the third time in modern history that the House had taken a vote on an impeachment inquiry into a sitting president." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

** CNN has published a copy of Tim Morrison's opening statement. It clears up the differing accounts of whether or not Morrison took his concerns to NSC Legal Counsel. He did. Mrs. McC: What do not ring true are his reasons for seeking to loop in counsel, since he writes, "I want to be clear, I was not concerned that anything illegal was discussed." I expect the real reason was that he wanted to facilitate a cover-up. As for his claiming he didn't think "anything illegal was discussed," this is pure CYA. Morrison doesn't want to be liable for failing to report illegal acts by Trump & others. His opinion as to the legality of Trump's behavior, however, is moot. Morrison is a fact witness; his legal opinions are irrelevant, particular because he is not a lawyer. ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "... Mr. Morrison, a Trump political appointee and a former longtime Republican congressional aide, resisted making the kind of sweeping, often damaging judgments about what was taking place that Democrats have heard from other witnesses, and Republicans emerged calling him the most favorable witness they had heard from so far. In his opening remarks..., he did not draw conclusions about Mr. Trump's involvement in the pressure tactics, pointing back repeatedly to [Gordon] Sondland, whose involvement in Ukraine policy he said he 'did not understand.' In subsequent testimony, he said he did not view the July phone call between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky as illegal or improper, but he found it striking enough to ask the National Security Council's chief lawyer, John Eisenberg, to review it, in part out of a concern that a summary might leak out.... Mr. Morrison characterized the ... pressure campaign against Ukraine ... as bad foreign policy of the sort that could potentially squander a 'once-in-a-generation opportunity' afforded by the election of Mr. Zelensky, who campaigned as a reformer who would crack down on rampant corruption." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Republicans were crowing that Morrison was the most favorable witness evah because he did not characterize Trump as a criminal. Mighty favorable. Update: See Aaron Blake's post, linked below. ~~~

~~~ Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Tim Morrison, the top Russia and Europe adviser on ... Donald Trump's National Security Council, told House impeachment investigators that he was advised by then-White House official Fiona Hill to stay away from the parallel Ukraine policy being pursued by Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, according to a source familiar with his Thursday testimony. Morrison also told lawmakers that he was concerned the July 25 call transcript between Trump and Ukrainian President While he did deviate from Taylor on some details, Morrison testified that Sondland told him [the] President would release the aid if the Ukrainian prosecutor general announced an investigation, according to sources.... Morrison did not raise any concerns about the call to the National Security Council lawyers, as [Alexander] Vindman did, according to one source. [This last detail differs from the WashPo report below.]... Morrison also seemed critical of the role that US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland played over Ukraine policy, one source said.... At times, Morrison's attorney has instructed his client not to answer questions about interactions with the President, multiple sources said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Tim Morrison, the top Russia and Europe adviser on President Trump's National Security Council, on Thursday corroborated the testimony of a senior U.S. diplomat who last week offered House impeachment investigators the most detailed account to date for how Trump tried to use his office to pressure Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden, according to people familiar with his deposition. Morrison told impeachment investigators that the account offered by William B. Taylor Jr., the acting ambassador to Ukraine, is accurate. He said that he alerted Taylor to a push by Trump and his deputies to withhold both security aid and a White House visit for the Ukrainian president until Ukraine agreed to investigate the Bidens and interference in the 2016 presidential election, said one person, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive discussions. Morrison, who told colleagues Wednesday that he plans to leave the Trump administration, said he did not necessarily view the president's demands as improper or illegal, but rather problematic for U.S. policy in supporting an ally in the region.... Yet Morrison twice reached out to the National Security Council's attorneys with apparent concerns about Trump's conversations pertaining to Ukraine policy, according to various witness' testimony." (This is a second major update of a story first linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... Republicans claimed a game-changer Thursday. It came in the form of Tim Morrison's testimony. But as the White House aide's actual testimony shows, they're really reaching here. And in hailing Morrison as a witness, they proved how badly they're hoping for something -- anything -- to stanch the bleeding.... While Morrison says he didn't think Trump's conversation with Zelensky involved anything illegal or improper, he did express concern about it for a few other reasons[.]... He also, most importantly, corroborated the testimony of the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, William B. Taylor Jr., who said last week that Morrison described to him what can only be described as a quid pro quo.... What we have is essentially a sixth person confirming some kind of quid pro quo involving official U.S. concessions being conditioned on Ukraine pursuing investigations that help Trump politically. To celebrate that is really to suck on a lemon."

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "As the House of Representatives continues to take depositions in the impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump, investigators are reportedly considering issuing a subpoena for the twin brother [Yevgeny] of an eyewitness who gave blockbuster testimony. 'The twin brother of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council official who shared before House committees this week his concerns about President Trump's July phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, may also be called to testify,' The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday."

Cajoling the Jurors. Seung Min Kim & Rachel Bade of the Washington Post: "President Trump, in a private lunch Thursday with Senate Republicans, repeatedly praised his own decision to release a rough transcript of the July 25 call with the Ukrainian president that has become a central focus of the House's impeachment inquiry, according to the senators who attended. The White House invited just over a half-dozen GOP senators, most of them among the president's staunchest allies in the chamber, where many members have refrained from commenting directly on the unfolding case, arguing they will effectively serve as jurors in any impeachment trial.... The lunch ... was not included on the president's public schedule."

Bribing the Jurors. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "... Donald Trump is rewarding senators who have his back on impeachment -- and sending a message to those who don't to get on board. Trump is tapping his vast fundraising network for a handful of loyal senators facing tough reelection bids in 2020. Each of them has signed onto a Republican-backed resolution condemning the inquiry as 'unprecedented and undemocratic.' Conspicuously absent from the group is Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a politically vulnerable Republican who's refused to support the resolution and avoided taking a stance on impeachment. With his new push, Trump is exerting leverage over a group he badly needs in his corner with an impeachment trial likely coming soon to the Senate -- but that also needs him. Republican senators on the ballot next year are lagging in fundraising, stoking uncertainty about the GOP's hold on the chamber, and could use the fundraising might of the president. Trump's political operation has raked in over $300 million this year." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Jason Lemon of Newsweek: "Attorney Richard Painter, who served as the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, warned on Thursday that ... Donald Trump appeared to be committing 'felony bribery' by giving Republican senators fundraising cash ahead of an increasingly likely impeachment trial in the Senate.... Painter argued that GOP lawmakers who accept the fundraising support should face criminal charges as well. 'The senators can raise their own campaign cash. Any senator who accepts cash from @realDonaldTrump before the impeachment trial is guilty of accepting a bribe and should go to the slammer,' he tweeted."

She Was Not Amused. Katelyn Polantz & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "A federal judge in Washington expressed disbelief that the White House could control what its former officials might talk about, when they're subpoenaed by the House of Representatives or otherwise. 'We don't live in a world where your status as a former executive branch official somehow shields you or prevents you from giving information,' Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said Thursday during a nearly four-hour hearing to a Justice Department attorney who was defending the White House. The lawsuit is over whether former White House counsel Don McGahn must appear for testimony in the House. Democrats issued the subpoena in April, though he ignored their demands and didn't show up.... She also expressed disbelief over arguments from the Justice Department that the courts shouldn't play a role in these types of disputes between the more political branches of government.... [James] Burnham, the Justice Department attorney, said it didn't happen 'for 200 years' of US history. Jackson pointed out, nearly yelling with frustration at Burnham, that the Constitution always allowed for these sorts of disputes to be settled in the courts, even if it hasn't happened that often. The proceedings unfolding in Jackson's courtroom relate to one subpoena to one witness -- McGahn. But her eventual ruling could play a pivotal rule for future witnesses in the impeachment inquiry, as more Trump administration officials are subpoenaed for depositions in the House and could be called to testify at the Senate trial.... The judge didn't say exactly when she would issue a ruling, the timing of which could have a domino effect on other witnesses...."

Good riddance. It's not like Mr. Trump paid taxes here anyway. He's all yours, Florida. -- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "In late September, [Donald] Trump changed his primary residence from Manhattan to Palm Beach, Fla., according to documents filed with the Palm Beach County Circuit Court. Melania Trump, the first lady, also changed her residence to Palm Beach in an identical document. Each of the Trumps filed a 'declaration of domicile' saying that the Mar-a-Lago Club, Mr. Trump's resort in Palm Beach, will be their permanent residence.... White House officials declined to say why Mr. Trump changed his primary residence, but a person close to the president said the reasons were primarily for tax purposes. The person also said that Mr. Trump, who is deeply unpopular in New York, was infuriated by a subpoena filed by Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, seeking the president's tax returns, which Mr. Trump has not released. Changing his residence to Florida is not expected to have any effect on Mr. Vance's case, which Mr. Trump has sought to thwart with a federal lawsuit.... Beyond taxes, Mr. Trump has repeatedly signaled the importance of Florida to his 2020 re-election effort...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: While the reasons Haberman explores probably are all true, I suspect the one in the back of Trump's mind is this: "I can play golf wearing an ankle bracelet. No golf course in NYC, but I have my very own golf club within 5 miles of Mar-a-Lago. I should be able to work out a deal to travel 5 miles.

The Continuing Saga of Two Ordinary Middle-Class Boys from Pottstown. James Walker of Newsweek: "Donald Trump Jr. has suggested growing up at a Pennsylvania boarding school where tuition fees are on par with the median household income helped him build a connection with middle Americans. Speaking on Fox & Friends Wednesday, the president's eldest son also claimed that he started his working life as a dock attendant and bragged that he and his brother Eric Trump were 'the only sons of billionaires' who could drive a Caterpillar D10 bulldozer. After saying his real estate mogul father Donald Trump 'gets' middle America because he spent time on construction sites, Trump Jr. said: "He'd get on the ground and that's why I was like, listen, he can go talk to working class Americans because he has his whole life. In an attempt to establish a connection of his own with the middle and working class, the president's son continued: 'Eric and I, we went to boarding school in central Pennsylvania. We went through our formative years in the rust belt. 'So while we may be the son of a New York billionaire, we grew up in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.'" ~~~

      ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: You may recall that in yesterday's episode, we learned that Junior wished he were Hunter Biden so he could go abroad & make millions off his father's presidency. Which is kinda funny, because Junior does go abroad & presumably makes something off his father's presidency. Also too, one business trip to India cost taxpayers at least $98,000 (figures incomplete) and a similar figure for Eric's business trip to Uruguay. CREW found that the boys cost the Secret Service another $200,000 when they went to the United Arab Emirates to open a golf course there.

Vera Bergengruen & Brian Bennett profile Rudy Giuliani for the cover of Time. Despite concentrating on his shady international deals, they make him seem nicer than he is, ~~~

~~~ Maybe because they don't integrate anecdotes like this one from Rich Schapiro of NBC News: "Less than a month after he was named ... Donald Trump's cybersecurity adviser in 2017, Rudy Giuliani walked into an Apple store in downtown San Francisco.... Giuliani was looking for help. He was locked out of his iPhone because he had forgotten the passcode and entered the wrong one at least 10 times, according to two people familiar with the matter and a photo of an internal Apple store memo obtained by NBC News.... Giuliani's handling of the situation calls into question his understanding of basic security measures and raises the prospect that, as someone in the president's inner circle, his electronic devices are especially vulnerable to hackers, two former FBI cyber experts told NBC News.... [One] said someone in Giuliani's position should never allow a person he didn't know to access his device." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Schapiro doesn't say so, but the iPhone in his story is likely the same one (or accesses the same info, since he uses iCloud) as the one he held up on the teevee to show Laura Ingraham records of his calls with the State Department. So yeah. Rudy's a cybersecurity expert like I'm a brain surgeon. Have scalpel (and drill), will travel. (Okay, no scalpel, but I do have an X-Acto knife & a cordless drill with dull bits in various sizes.) ~~~

~~~ White Castle Intrigue. Mrs. McCrabbie: I've seen some reporting that critics are worried that Bill Barr's decision to horn in on the Southern District of New York's scrutiny of Rudy gives Barr the opportunity to scuttle any SDNY action against Giuliani. But Chris Smith of Vanity Fair surmises Barr dislikes Giuliani, not least because "Barr can't be happy that Giuliani has muddied the attorney general's own globe-trotting effort to reinvestigate the investigation of Russian meddling in the election, this time from a decidedly pro-Trump perspective. 'Giuliani was out there very clumsily doing part of what Barr was going to do on his own, launching this very political investigation,' says Matthew Miller, a senior DOJ official in the Obama administration. 'And Rudy has done it in a way that could get the president impeached.'"

Daniel Lippman, et al., of Politico: "The White House plans to name Homeland Security official Chad Wolf acting secretary, according to three people familiar with the situation. Wolf will replace acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan, whose last day in the job was supposed to be Thursday. McAleenan will now stay until Nov. 7, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: But here's the weird part: "The search has been complicated by a federal law that requires acting agency chiefs to have served under a Senate-confirmed secretary for 90 days. [Sen. Chuck] Grassley said this week there is no legal way to name someone acting DHS secretary if that person hasn't been confirmed in any capacity by the Senate. Wolf has not been confirmed in his present position as undersecretary for policy.... Two ... officials said that the White House has been speaking to reluctant GOP senators -- including Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) -- and asking them not to oppose Wolf's appointment to be undersecretary of the department." That is, Trump wants to keep Wolf in an "acting" capacity as secretary, so he's lobbying to have the Senate confirm in a lower-level position, one that he will no longer hold. Trump really likes to keep his Cabinet officers as nothing more than puppets. A person of principle would say, "No thanks, Mr. President*." Grassley should say the same.

Coral Davanport & Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Monday's surprise move by General Motors, Toyota and other auto giants to back President Trump in his fight with California over pollution rules came after days of White House pressure to support one of the administration's biggest efforts to weaken climate regulations. Previously, many automakers had indicated to California that they would not take a stand, according to Mary D. Nichols, chairwoman of California's clean air regulator, the Air Resources Board. Late last week, their stance quickly changed.... The auto industry was already divided. In July four other major companies -- Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW -- publicly sided with California." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Commentariat -- October 31, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "A bitterly divided House of Representatives voted on Thursday to endorse the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry into President Trump, in a historic action that set up a critical new public phase of the process and underscored the toxic political polarization that serves as its backdrop. The vote was 232-196 to approve a resolution that sets out rules for an impeachment process for which there are few precedents, and which promises to consume the country a little more than a year before the 2020 elections. It was only the third time in modern history that the House had taken a vote on an impeachment inquiry into a sitting president." Politico's story is here.

The New York Times is liveblogging developments in the House. The Guardian's liveblog is here.

Bribing the Jurors. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "... Donald Trump is rewarding senators who have his back on impeachment -- and sending a message to those who don't to get on board. Trump is tapping his vast fundraising network for a handful of loyal senators facing tough reelection bids in 2020. Each of them has signed onto a Republican-backed resolution condemning the inquiry as 'unprecedented and undemocratic.' Conspicuously absent from the group is Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a politically vulnerable Republican who's refused to support the resolution and avoided taking a stance on impeachment. With his new push, Trump is exerting leverage over a group he badly needs in his corner with an impeachment trial likely coming soon to the Senate -- but that also needs him. Republican senators on the ballot next year are lagging in fundraising, stoking uncertainty about the GOP's hold on the chamber, and could use the fundraising might of the president. Trump's political operation has raked in over $300 million this year."

Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Tim Morrison, the top Russia and Europe adviser on ... Donald Trump's National Security Council, told House impeachment investigators that he was advised by then-White House official Fiona Hill to stay away from the parallel Ukraine policy being pursued by Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, according to a source familiar with his Thursday testimony. Morrison also told lawmakers that he was concerned the July 25 call transcript between Trump and Ukrainian President While he did deviate from Taylor on some details, Morrison testified that Sondland told him [the] President would release the aid if the Ukrainian prosecutor general announced an investigation, according to sources.... Morrison did not raise any concerns about the call to the National Security Council lawyers, as [Alexander] Vindman did, according to one source. [This last detail differs from the WashPo report below.]... Morrison also seemed critical of the role that US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland played over Ukraine policy, one source said.... At times, Morrison's attorney has instructed his client not to answer questions about interactions with the President, multiple sources said."

Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Tim Morrison, the top Russia and Europe adviser on President Trump's National Security Council, on Thursday corroborated the testimony of a senior U.S. diplomat who last week offered House impeachment investigators the most detailed account to date for how Trump tried to use his office to pressure Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden, according to people familiar with his deposition. Morrison told impeachment investigators that the account offered by William B. Taylor Jr., the acting ambassador to Ukraine, is accurate. He said that he alerted Taylor to a push by Trump and his deputies to withhold both security aid and a White House visit for the Ukrainian president until Ukraine agreed to investigate the Bidens and interference in the 2016 presidential election, said one person, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive discussions. Morrison, who told colleagues Wednesday that he plans to leave the Trump administration, said he did not necessarily view the president's demands as improper or illegal, but rather problematic for U.S. policy in supporting an ally in the region.... Yet Morrison twice reached out to the National Security Council's attorneys with apparent concerns about Trump's conversations pertaining to Ukraine policy, according to various witness' testimony." This is a second major update of a story linked below.

Coral Davanport & Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Monday's surprise move by General Motors, Toyota and other auto giants to back President Trump in his fight with California over pollution rules came after days of White House pressure to support one of the administration's biggest efforts to weaken climate regulations. Previously, many automakers had indicated to California that they would not take a stand, according to Mary D. Nichols, chairwoman of California's clean air regulator, the Air Resources Board. Late last week, their stance quickly changed.... The auto industry was already divided. In July four other major companies -- Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW -- publicly sided with California."

~~~~~~~~~~

Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "For only the third time in the history of the modern presidency, the US House of Representatives was poised to vote on Thursday to formalize impeachment proceedings against the president of the United States. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has scheduled a morning press conference to announce the next stage in a process that seemed likely to lead to Donald Trump's impeachment -- if not necessarily his removal from office. The vote on Thursday, which was expected to pass on party lines, would lay out a road map for impeachment that could produce televised public hearings within two weeks and a vote on impeachment itself by the end of the year."

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Wednesday, the House Rules Committee voted 9-4, along party lines, to advance the resolution commencing a new stage of the impeachment investigation into ... Donald Trump[.]... The resolution, which will go to a vote of the full House on Thursday, is the first formal vote taken with respect to the impeachment investigation...." Christina Marcos of the Hill has a more detailed report.

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "House impeachment investigators have asked former national security adviser John Bolton and two key White House lawyers to testify next week as part of the inquiry, according to a source familiar with the matter. Bolton is scheduled to be deposed on Nov. 7, while National Security Council attorneys John Eisenberg and Michael Ellis are slated to appear on Nov. 4, the source said. It was not immediately clear whether they plan to appear for testimony." Mrs. McC: According to MSNBC & CNN, Bolton has indicated he would testify under subpoena. However, according to this New York Times note, "... a lawyer for Mr. Bolton responded that he was 'not willing to appear voluntarily.... If Mr. Bolton is subpoenaed, his lawyer, Charles J. Cooper, is likely to ask a federal judge to determine whether he needs to comply."

Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Tim Morrison, who is set to testify in the House impeachment inquiry [Thursday] about what he has witnessed as the senior National Security Council official handling Russian affairs, is leaving his White House post, according to people familiar with his plans. Morrison has been on the job for about 15 months, having joined the security council during John Bolton's tenure as national security adviser. Morrison could be a key witness in the inquiry into President Trump's efforts to get Ukraine to investigate his political rivals.... [John] Bolton handpicked Morrison to join the NSC because of his shared opposition to arms control agreements, which both men view as an unacceptable constraint on American power.... William B. Taylor Jr., acting ambassador to Ukraine, testified last week that Morrison told him that Gordon Sondland, the U.S. envoy to the European Union, relayed to a top Ukraine aide that the country wouldn't receive military aid money until the Ukrainian president agreed to pursue an investigation into Joe Biden's son." Franco Ordoñez of NPR first reported Morrison's plans to leave; his story is here. ~~~

~~~ Josh Rogin of the Washington Post: "... Democrats might not want to pin their impeachment hopes on his testimony Thursday, because there are three things [Tim] Morrison is not: a whistleblower, a Never Trumper or a potential member of the Resistance.... [His attorney Barbara Van Gelder said,] 'In the current impeachment inquiry, we hope there is enough open source information that he can avoid invoking the privilege.'... Morrison will have to answer for his part in the saga."

Kate Brannan of Just Security: "As the summer wore on, and ... Donald Trump would not budge on his decision to withhold almost $400 million in military aid for Ukraine, the Pentagon warned the White House: If its portion of the money wasn't released quickly, the Defense Department would not be able to spend it before the fiscal year ended on September 30. The Pentagon even gave the White House a deadline... [of] August 6.... And the Pentagon was also clear that providing Ukraine the security assistance was in the national security interests of the United States, on that point Trump's Cabinet agreed. 'At every meeting, the unanimous conclusion was that the security assistance should be resumed, the hold lifted,' Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, said in his opening statement to House investigators last week. As for corruption, the pretext being given for why the funding was being withheld, the Pentagon had certified in May that the 'Government of Ukraine has taken substantial actions to make defense institutional reforms for the purposes of decreasing corruption [and] increasing accountability.' When asked over the summer to perform an analysis of the effectiveness of the military aid, the Defense Department took one day to conclude the assistance was effective and should be resumed, Taylor testified. In late July, the Pentagon also alerted the White House that if the funding wasn't released in time, the Pentagon would be at risk of violating the Impoundment Control Act, which punishes the executive branch when it doesn't spend money that Congress has appropriated, the sources said. But, the White House did not heed the Pentagon's warnings. It continued to withhold the money through August and into September." There's more. (Also linked yesterday.)

** The Lawyer Did It. Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Moments after President Trump ended his phone call with Ukraine's president on July 25..., Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman rushed to the office of White House lawyer John Eisenberg..., bringing with him his twin brother, Yevgeny, an ethics attorney on the National Security Council.... Vindman ... was disturbed by the pressure Trump had applied to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political rivals, according to people familiar with Vindman's testimony to lawmakers this week. Vindman told Eisenberg, the White House's legal adviser on national security issues, that what the president did was wrong.... Scribbling notes on a yellow legal pad, Eisenberg proposed ... moving a transcript of the call to a highly classified server and restricting access to it.... The White House lawyer later directed the transcript's removal to a system known as NICE, for NSC Intelligence Collaboration Environment, which is normally reserved for code-word-level intelligence programs and top-secret sources and methods, according to an administration official. Former Trump national security officials said it was unheard of to store presidential calls with foreign leaders on the NICE system but that Eisenberg had moved at least one other transcript of a Trump phone call there.... Vindman's account marks the first known instance in which a witness before the impeachment inquiry has provided a firsthand account linking Eisenberg to the decision to move the problematic transcript to a highly classified server.... By the time Vindman came to him in late July, Eisenberg was already familiar with concerns among White House officials about the administration's attempts to pressure Ukraine for political purposes.... Three weeks earlier, Vindman and another senior official had gone to him after a contentious July 10 meeting in which they said European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland had pushed two Ukrainian officials to investigate Trump's political rivals...." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: Sondland is digging himself into a hole too deep to climb out of. More than one member of the professional diplomatic staff has testified, providing specific details, that during July 10 meetings, Sondland pressured the Ukrainians to "investigate" how Ukraine had helped the DNC cover-up its scam to frame Russia in the 2016 election hacks (nutty conspiracy theory) & dig up dirt on the Bidens. From the WashPo report: "Sondland's attorney, Robert Luskin, said Wednesday that his client did not mention the Bidens in the July 10 meeting or any other discussions about Ukraine policy. 'Ambassador Sondland has nothing to add to his prepared testimony in which he make clear that he did not then or on any other occasion mention any Biden by name and did not then know that Burisma was linked to Biden,' Luskin said." If we ever get a real attorney general, DOJ should open a criminal investigation, not just for lying to Congress but also for the underlying crime of attempting to use a foreign government to interfere in the 2020 election.

Jake Tapper of CNN: "Top White House Ukraine expert Alexander Vindman told congressional investigators he was convinced ... Donald Trump was personally blocking $400 million in military aid to Ukraine to force that country to publicly announce an investigation into Joe Biden and his family, two sources present at the deposition told CNN.... The sources at the deposition said Vindman believed the existence of a quid pro quo was clear during a July 10 meeting between American and Ukrainian officials. In his opening statement, Vindman wrote that date is when US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland told Ukrainian government officials that they would need to deliver 'specific investigations in order to secure the meeting' with Trump that they so desired. But the fact that the $400 million in aid, including desperately needed military assistance, was also being used by the President didn't become clear until the next month, Vindman testified.... On August 16, Bolton and other senior Cabinet officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, traveled to Trump's resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, to discuss a number of national security issues with the President [including a decision letter Vindman had written that showed government-wide support for releasing the funds to Ukraine]. Vindman learned after their meeting that Trump still refused to allow the security assistance funds to go to Ukraine, which made Vindman think the President was still waiting for the 'deliverable' [Trump had demanded]." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "It's not clear how significant the omissions [in the abridged telcon] noted by [Col. Alexander] Vindman were, but his testimony blows a massive hole in Trump's claim that the transcript is a complete and thorough documentation of the call. Yes, that claim was always obviously false, but having a sense of something specific that was apparently excluded makes obvious just how many gaps there could be in the document.... What was revealed in Vindman's testimony isn't that the transcript wasn't complete; we knew that on the day it was released. What was exposed instead was how hollow Trump's claims about the transcript really were. Trump has learned over the past four years that it doesn't matter what he says." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ You Can't Make up This Stuff. Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council's top Ukraine expert..., told lawmakers that a close associate of Republican Rep. Devin Nunes 'misrepresented' himself to ... Donald Trump in an effort to involve himself further in Ukraine policy.... [Vindman] told lawmakers that after attending Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's inauguration in May..., [he] had been looking forward to debriefing Trump and giving a positive account of Zelensky's vision for Ukraine's future.... But [his boss Fiona Hill] ... instructed [him] 'at the last second' not to attend the debriefing ... because ... Trump believed ... that Kashyap Patel, a longtime Nunes staffer who joined the White House in February and had no discernible Ukraine experience or expertise, was actually the NSC's top Ukraine expert instead of Vindman.... Vindman also testified that he was told Patel had been circumventing normal NSC process to get negative material about Ukraine in front of the president, feeding Trump's belief that Ukraine was brimming with corruption and had interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Democrats." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jeff Schogol & Haley Britzky of Task & Purpose: "The Army intends to fully support Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a combat veteran and a Purple Heart recipient, serves on the National Security Council. On Tuesday, he went before Congress after being subpoenaed by the House Intelligence Committee. Without referring to Vindman by name, Trump has repeatedly accused him of having a political axe to grind by describing him as a 'Never Trumper witness.' 'Lt. Col. Vindman, who has served this country honorably for 20+ years, is fully supported by the Army like every Soldier, having earned a Purple Heart after being wounded in Iraq in 2004,' Matt Leonard, an Army spokesperson, told Task & Purpose.... Gen. Joseph Dunford, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also weighed in, telling CNN that Vindman 'is a professional, competent, patriotic, and loyal officer. He has made an extraordinary contribution to the security of our Nation in both peacetime & combat.'" ~~~

~~~ Julia Ioffe has a good piece in GQ on, "... the making of a decorated U.S. military officer, and the immigrant experience of Soviet Jews in America and abroad." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Ioffe centers her story on the history of Alexander Vindman & his family. "While Trump has a history of attacking anyone who questions his power, there is a particularly insidious history to questioning the loyalty of Jewish émigrés." Critics so often see Hitler & Mussolini tendencies in Trump, but Ioffe's piece reminds us that Trump comes with a taste for Stalin, too.

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Senate Democrats on Wednesday opened a confirmation hearing for Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan as ambassador to Russia with questions about why he recalled the former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, and didn't stand up more forcefully for the foreign service. Sullivan, responding to sharp questions by Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, agreed that Yovanovitch had 'served capably and admirably.' But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, he said, told him 'the president had lost confidence with her,' and he was designated to deliver the news to her. Pompeo, he indicated, declined to specify any further reason in response to Sullivan's appeal.'... Menendez asked whether he knew that Trump's personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, was 'seeking to smear' Yovanovitch. 'I believe he was, yes,' Sullivan said.... He was asked whether it was 'ever appropriate for the president to use his office to solicit investigations into his domestic political opponents.'Sullivan said: 'I don't think that would be in accord with our values.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Nahal Toosi covers the same ground for Politico, and her take is worth reading, too. Sullivan "also said he was looped in when the State Department was given a packet of material that appeared to be aimed at denigrating Yovanovitch. 'It didn't provide to me a basis for taking action against our ambassador,' said Sullivan of the packet, which Giuliani is suspected of helping put together. Sullivan said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had tried to find out exactly why Trump was unhappy with Yovanovitch, but that after several months, the reason -- which Sullivan said he was never told -- became irrelevant because it was clear the president wanted her out." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "John Sullivan, the deputy secretary of state, said on Wednesday that President Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was involved in a smear campaign to oust the ambassador to Ukraine, publicly confirming a key part of the saga behind the impeachment inquiry."

Tinfoil Hat Time: Looking back at the timeline, Drumpf's infamous call with Ukraine Pres. Zelenskiy was July 25th. On July 31st, Drumpf and Putin had a telephone call that was first announced by the Kremlin, supposedly at the initiative of Trump, with the White House not acknowledging the call until August 1, saying the discussion revolved around Siberian "wildfires". This sounds about as credible as Drumpf worried about the scourge of "corruption". With this in mind, here's John Stoehr of Raw Story: "One of the reasons [Army Lt. Col. Alex] Vindman came forward against the wishes of the White House was because he was worried about the president and his allies outside of government working to establish a 'false narrative' about what happened in 2016 to undermine the special counsel's Russia investigation.... Trump is not engaging in conspiracy theory as much as making war against the truth so nothing is left but loyalty to The Leader.... He is the original victim and ultimate hero of this false narrative.... [T]he 'conspiracy theory' ... has gripped Trump's media allies and pretty much the whole of the Republican Party.... It is a big lie that would have gotten bigger had not patriots like Alex Vindman said enough is enough." I wonder if the July 31st call isn't one of those stashed away in Super Top Secret land?"--s ~~~

~~~ Donald Trump is a Russian asset:

A Chip off the Old Blockhead. Justin Wise of the Hill: "Donald Trump Jr. on Wednesday railed against the son of former Vice President Joe Biden over his foreign business dealings, claiming that if his name was Hunter Biden he could go abroad and make millions. 'I wish my name was Hunter Biden. I could go abroad, make millions off my father's presidency,' Trump Jr. said in an appearance on Sean Hannity's Fox News program. 'I'd be a really rich guy.'" Mrs. McC: I guess we'll have to assume Senior isn't paying Junior & the poor lad is living in a cardboard box under a bridge. He is, after all, a troll.

Rachel Frazin of the Hill: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that President Trump's infamous July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was 'consistent' with the administration's policies. The phone call in which Trump pressed Zelensky to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is at the center of House Democrats' impeachment inquiry into the president. 'The call was consistent with what I had a long set of conversations with President Trump on our policy for an awfully long time,' Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News. 'Our policy has been very clear all along with respect to Ukraine.'"

Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "The Pentagon on Wednesday released dramatic video from the raid that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and shared new details about the strike -- and the mission's hero dog.... Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of U.S. Central Command ... [said,] 'five ISIS members inside the compound presented a threat to the force.' The four women and one man were wearing suicide vests and approached in a 'threatening manner,' the general said. They 'did not respond to commands in Arabic to surrender' or to warning shots and were killed, McKenzie said.... Meanwhile, al-Baghdadi fled into a tunnel with two children, although officials initially thought there were three.... McKenzie said [the dog had] been hurt by exposed live electrical cables in the tunnel. McKenzie said the dog, who sources have told NBC News is Belgian Malinois, has been returned to duty. He's a four-year veteran who's been on approximately 50 combat missions.... McKenzie was also asked about ... Donald Trump's assertions that al-Baghdadi was crying before he killed himself. He said he couldn't confirm that account 'one way or another, but I can tell you this: He crawled into a hole with two small children and blew himself up while his people stayed on the ground. You can deduce what kind of person he is based on that activity.'" Includes video.

Joby Warrick, et al., of the Washington Post: "U.S. commandos zeroed in on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's final hideout with the help of an extraordinarily well-placed informant, an Islamic State operative who facilitated the terrorist leader's movements around Syria and even helped oversee construction work on his Syrian safe house, according to U.S. and Middle East-based officials.... The mole's detailed knowledge of Baghdadi's whereabouts as well as the room-by-room layout of his sanctuary proved to be critical in the Oct. 26 raid that ended with the death of the world's most-wanted terrorist, the officials said. The informant was present during the assault on Baghdadi's compound in the Syrian province of Idlib, and he was exfiltrated from the region two days later with his family. The man, whose nationality had not been revealed, is expected to receive some or all of the $25 million U.S. bounty that had been placed on Baghdadi's head, according to the officials. One official said he was a Sunni Arab who turned against the Islamic State because one of his relatives had been killed by the group." TPM has a brief summary of the WashPo report. (Also linked yesterday.)

Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: “Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney first learned about the U.S. military raid against ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after the operation was already underway, according to five current and former senior administration officials. Mulvaney was at home in South Carolina when ... Donald Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday night that 'Something very big has just happened!' He was briefed on the raid that night, officials said. The extraordinary move by Trump to leave his chief of staff out of the most significant U.S. military operation against the world's most wanted terrorist since the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011 represents a major blow to Mulvaney, suggesting that he is increasingly sidelined inside the White House. The White House chief of staff typically would be central to such a momentous gambit for a president, coordinating logistics, public statements and notifications of congressional leaders and allies.... Andrew Card, former President George W. Bush's longtime chief of staff, said the exclusion of Mulvaney from a moment of such magnitude in the presidency is difficult to grasp because the chief of staff typically would be in national security meetings leading up to it and tasked with coordinating with other top officials on everything from a communications strategy to a plan in case the raid failed." Mrs. McC: Mulvaney isn't even "acting" chief-of-staff anymore. (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump Retweets Insensitive Photo. Again. Niraj Chokshi & Karen Zraick of the New York Times: "President Trump on Wednesday shared an altered photograph of himself placing a medal around the neck of the dog injured in the raid last weekend that led to the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State's leader. The image, which bears a watermark for a social media account for the conservative news site The Daily Wire, appeared to be an altered version of a 2017 Associated Press photograph. In the original, Mr. Trump is seen awarding a Medal of Honor to James C. McCloughan, a retired Army medic who is credited with saving the lives of 10 men during the war in Vietnam.... In a phone interview on Wednesday, Mr. McCloughan, 73, who had not seen the image before a reporter sent it to him, said that he interpreted it as Mr. Trump recognizing the dog's heroism. He certainly was not offended and laughed when he compared the two images. After all, he said, Medal of Honor recipients accept on behalf of their entire teams, especially those that did not return from battle.... 'This recognizes the dog is part of that team of brave people,' he said. Mr. McCloughan ... added that he had worked with a dog in Vietnam who helped detect enemy activity during missions. 'They are very courageous,' he said of military canines. He was also concerned about the condition of the dog, after the president tweeted that the dog was injured when the terror leader detonated a suicide vest. 'Once a medic, always a medic,' Mr. McCloughan said." The Guardian story is here.

Deirdre Shesgreen of USA Today: "In a remarkable rebuke of a NATO ally, the House on Tuesday approved a biting sanctions bill that could cripple Turkey's economy and would punish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally by requiring an assessment of his net worth ami questions about his finances in Turkey. Lawmakers also passed a deeply contentious measure to commemorate the Armenian genocide, a historic move that will almost certainly exacerbate U.S.-Turkey tensions. The genocide measure officially recognizes the systematic killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. 'Members of my own family were among those murdered, and my parents fled with my grandparents to America,' said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. 'What all of the persecuted had in common was that they were Christians.'... Turkey condemned the House votes, saying the sanctions bill is "incompatible with the spirit of our allied relations under NATO.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Right. And how did attacking Kurdish allies of the U.S. & other NATO countries conform to "the spirit of our allied relations under NATO"? Note to Erdogan: Just because Trump lets you do it, doesn't mean it's okay.

Thanks to Forrest M. for passing along this:

Burgess Everett & Anita Kumar of Politico: "Sen. Chuck Grassley is warning the White House that it cannot legally appoint Ken Cuccinelli to lead the Department of Homeland Security. President Trump is seeking an end-around to appoint the immigration hardliner to the position, and Cuccinelli is loathed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republicans to the point that he probably could not be confirmed. And Grassley, the most senior Republican, said under the Vacancies Act there's no legal way to put the acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services chief in the position as acting chief after acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan leaves his post on Thursday. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Earlier. Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "The White House has found a way to bypass a federal statute that dictates who can fill secretary positions, potentially allowing President Trump to choose whomever he wants to lead the Department of Homeland Security, according to an administration official. The route may run through an office established to counter weapons of mass destruction.... The White House ... is exploring a loophole in the [federal vacancies] law, according to an administration official. Under this route, the White House would tap someone to be the assistant secretary of the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, which is vacant, and then elevate that person to be the acting secretary of homeland security." (Also linked yesterday.)

Nicole Acevedo of NBC News: "Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., on Wednesday accused acting Citizenship and Immigration Services director Ken Cuccinelli of pursuing a 'heinous white supremacist ideology' in seeking to deny public benefits to legal immigrants. Wasserman Schultz took particular offense that Cuccinelli did not know how many children would stop receiving access to essential social services if a proposed immigration rule that has been blocked by the courts goes into effect.... Wasserman Schultz was referring to the Trump administration rule, which would have gone into effect on Oct. 15, that limited a pathway to citizenship for legal immigrants who had enrolled or used publicly funded programs. Even though federal judges blocked the administration from implementing the rule, known as 'public charge, the ruling has caused a chilling effect among thousands of families in the U.S. who are eligible to receive public benefits. Many have dropped out of certain government programs or barred themselves from applying for assistance. In Miami, health officials are alarmed by the stark drop in insured children, and they attribute immigrants' fears over the rule as a main factor."

Noah Lanard of Mother Jones: "In the summer of 2017, the Trump administration made El Paso the test site for a family separation policy whose existence the administration denied. Now the administration is using El Paso to test another secretive policy that will allow it to rapidly deport asylum seekers with negligible due process.... The number of people taken into custody by Border Patrol agents dropped from 132,856 in May to 40,507 in September.... The number of parents and children traveling together stopped by Border Patrol agents plummeted from 84,486 to 15,824 during that period.... Since the fiasco of family separation, [the administration] moved toward policies like the new El Paso pilot program that are complex and hidden from public view..., another sign that the Trump administration concluded from the family separation crisis that deterrence is more sustainable when it is obscured and hard to understand." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Heather Timmons & Hallie Gu of Reuters: "U.S. President Donald Trump's demand that Beijing commit to big purchases of American farm products has become a major sticking point in talks to end the Sino-U.S. trade war, according to several people briefed on the negotiations. Trump has said publicly that China could buy as much as $50 billion of U.S. farm products, more than double the annual amount it did the year before the trade war started. U.S. officials continue to push for that in talks, while Beijing is balking at committing to a large figure and a specific time frame. Chinese buyers would like the discretion to buy based on market conditions." --s

Dan Goldberg of Politico: "Three years into a presidency that promised to kill Obamacare, the health care law has never been stronger. Millions of people buying coverage during the enrollment period starting Friday will find that average premiums have dropped across the country. When consumers go to HealthCare.gov, they'll be paying 4 percent less on average for the most popular health plans -- with six states reporting a double-digit decline.... To be clear, Obamacare still faces potential extinction in the judiciary, as a lawsuit pending in federal court could deal a death blow to the law. On top of that, Republicans remain hostile to the law." --s ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The Senate on Wednesday rejected a Democratic effort to roll back a Trump administration rule that allows states to ignore parts of ObamaCare. Senators voted 43-52 on the resolution, falling short of the simple majority needed to pass the chamber. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was the only Republican to vote for the resolution."

Elections 2020

Rachel Lerman & Barbara Ortutay of the AP: "Twitter, reacting to growing concern about misinformation spread on social media, is banning all political advertising from its service. Its move strikes a sharp contrast with Facebook, which continues to defend running paid political ads, even false ones, as a free speech priority. 'While internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions,' Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Wednesday in a series of tweets announcing the new policy."

Jonathan Chait: "'Hillary Clinton emerged recently to claim, with no basis in fact, that I am being "groomed" by the Russian government to undermine America,' claims Tulsi Gabbard in a Wall Street Journal op-ed today. In fact, as even the conservative Washington Examiner acknowledges, Clinton did not say that. She said Republicans were grooming Gabbard. And far from refuting that charge, everything about Gabbard's op-ed confirms Clinton was probably right.... In fact, nothing could do more to vindicate Clinton's suspicion that Gabbard is being groomed by the Republican party as a spoiler candidate than a Wall Street Journal op-ed previewing her case for a spoiler campaign.... Gabbard is now working hand in hand with the Republican party. This is apparent in her pattern of working closely with Republican-controlled media, like 'Hill TV' -- John Solomon's propaganda outlet -- and Sean Hannity. Gabbard used both forums to promote Republican talking points discrediting the impeachment process...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Christopher Cadelago & Scott Bland of Politico: "Kamala Harris is dramatically restructuring her campaign by redeploying staffers to Iowa and laying off dozens of aides at her Baltimore headquarters, according to campaign sources and a memo obtained Wednesday by Politico, as she struggles to resuscitate her beleaguered presidential bid. The moves come as Harris is hemorrhaging cash and in danger of lacking the resources to mount a competitive bid against better-funded rivals in Iowa. The overhaul will touch nearly every facet of Harris' operation, with layoffs or re-deployments coming at headquarters, as well as in New Hampshire, Nevada and her home state of California, a Super Tuesday prize that her advisers once viewed as a big asset."

Jeff Cox of CNBC: "The Federal Reserve approved an expected quarter-point interest rate cut Wednesday but indicated that the moves to ease policy could be nearing a pause. In a vote widely anticipated by financial markets, the central bank's Federal Open Market Committee lowered its benchmark funds rate by 25 basis points to a range of 1.5% to 1.75%. The rate sets what banks charge each other for overnight lending but is also tied to most forms of revolving consumer debt. It was the third cut this year as part of what Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has characterized as a 'midcycle adjustment' in a maturing economic expansion. Along with the decrease came language pointing to a higher bar for future easing." ~~~

~~~ Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Wednesday for the third time this year, reversing nearly all of 2018's rate increases as uncertainty from President Trump';s trade war and slowing global growth continue to pose risks to the United States economy. The decision to cut rates by another quarter point despite rock-bottom unemployment and decent overall growth shows the extent to which Mr. Trump's hot-and-cold trade war, paired with a tenuous global outlook, has put the Fed on the defensive. While the central bank was on a steady march to raise rates just a year ago, it has spent the past several months trying to insulate the American economy against those threats and keep a record expansion humming."

Boo-Hoo-Hoo. Everybody's Picking on Me Because I'm Mean to Gay People. Ariane de Vogue & Alex Rogers of CNN: "A federal appeals court nominee broke down in tears during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, reacting to a scathing letter against his confirmation by the American Bar Association after it conducted 60 interviews and concluded that he was 'not qualified" for the judicial branch. Lawrence J.C. VanDyke grew emotional, with his face turning red as he defended himself against the letter's conclusions that he could would not treat LGBTQ litigants fairly. 'I do not believe that,' VanDyke said. 'It is a fundamental belief of mine that all people are created in the image of God,' adding, 'they should all be treated with dignity and respect.'... "Mr. VanDyke's accomplishments are offset by the assessments of interviewees that Mr. VanDyke is arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-to-day practice including procedural rules,' William C. Hubbard, chair of the ABA's standing committee on the federal judiciary, wrote. 'There was a theme that the nominee lacks humility, has an 'entitlement' temperament, does not have an open mind, and does not always have a commitment to being candid and truthful.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Tami Luhby of CNN: "The number of uninsured children ballooned by more than 400,000 between 2016 and 2018, an unprecedented decline in health coverage for the youngest Americans, a new study has found. Roughly 4.1 million children were uninsured in 2018, up from a low of 3.6 million in 2016, according to the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, citing US Census Bureau data. Their uninsured rate jumped to 5.2% last year, up from 4.7% in 2016.... The national uninsured rate for all Americans also rose last year for the first time in nearly a decade, according to the Census Bureau. It increased to 8.5% in 2018, up half a percentage point a year earlier. Some 27.5 million people were uninsured last year, a jump of 1.9 million." --s

Tara Copp, et al. of McClatchy DC: "Veterans saw a spike in urinary, prostate, liver and blood cancers during nearly two decades of war, and some military families now question whether their exposure to toxic environments is to blame, according to a McClatchy investigation. McClatchy found that the rate of cancer treatments for veterans at Department of Veterans Affairs health care centers increased 61 percent for urinary cancers -- which include bladder, kidney and ureter cancers -- from fiscal year 2000 to 2018. The rate of blood cancer treatments ⁠-- lymphoma, myeloma and leukemia ⁠-- rose 18 percent in the same period. Liver and pancreatic cancer treatment rates increased 96 percent and prostate cancer treatment rates increased 23 percent.... While sympathetic to veterans' concerns, Dr. Michael Kelley, chief of hematology and oncology for the VA, said much more research is needed to link a cause to the cancers." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Iliana Magra of the New York Times: ""The family of Harry Dunn, the teenage motorcyclist who was killed in a crashin Britain in August, is suing the Trump administration for 'lawless misconduct,' a spokesman for the family said on Tuesday. Mr. Dunn, 19, died after his motorcycle collided with a car that the police said had been traveling on the wrong side of the road on Aug. 27 in Brackley, a town about 60 miles northwest of London. The case ignited a diplomatic tug-of-war between Britain and the United States after the woman thought to be driving the car, Anne Sacoolas, the wife of an American diplomat, claimed immunity and left the country a little over two weeks after the accident." The Hill's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Julie Brown of the Miami Herald: "... a private forensic pathologist hired by Mark Epstein [-- Jeffrey Epstein's brother] to oversee his brother's autopsy bolsters what conspiracy theorists have suggested for months: that the evidence does not support the finding that Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. Dr. Michael Baden, one of the world's leading forensic pathologists, viewed Jeffrey Epstein's body and was present at the autopsy, which was held the day after Epstein was found dead at the notorious Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Manhattan.... Baden, in an interview first aired on Fox & Friends Wednesday, announced his own findings: that Epstein, who was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell on Aug. 10, had two fractures on the left and right sides of his larynx. He told the Herald that it is rare for any bones to be broken in a hanging, let alone for multiple bones to be fractured. 'Those fractures are extremely unusual in suicidal hangings and could occur much more commonly in homicidal strangulation,' said Baden, who added that there were hemorrhages in Epstein's eyes that are also more common in strangulation than in hangings. Baden's opinion contradicted New York City Medical Examiner Barbara Sampson, who ruled Epstein's cause of death to be a suicide by hanging." The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sorry, Doc. Anybody who goes on "Fox & Friends" to explain science-y things immediately loses all credibility.

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Max Dixon of Politico: "The Republican Party of Florida on Monday postponed its biggest annual fundraiser, a move that some officials blamed on lackluster interest from donors....[The event] was scheduled for Nov. 9 in Orlando. The postponement is a significant setback to the state Republican Party and potentially ... Donald Trump, who will need to win Florida to secure his reelection in 2020.... As of Friday, the only table sponsorships that had been sold were bought by local Republican Executive Committees. No donor or corporate tables had been sold and [Gov. Ron] DeSantis had not raised any money for the event, despite pledging millions of dollars." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Matt Dixon of Politico: "... Donald Trump's promise to headline the Republican Party of Florida's annual fundraiser has given it a much-needed financial and emotional boost going into 2020, even as the news has laid bare divisions within the state party's leadership. The party's scramble to land a Trump visit culminated in a political victory for Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday and effectively left state GOP Chairman Joe Gruters with a title but no influence. The power play caps a monthslong effort by DeSantis to elbow the chairman out of power. It also ended the 24-hour drama that saw the party's Statesman's Dinner canceled due to a lack of interest, then rescheduled with a bang." (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond

Ernesto Londoño & Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "President Sebastián Piñera of Chile said on Wednesday that his country, which has been rocked by a wave of recent protests, was not in a position to host a key United Nations climate change meeting and a major Asia-Pacific trade summit later this year. The announcements underscored how destabilizing the recent wave of protests and acts of vandalism have been for the country, which has long been regarded as an exemplar of stability in a tumultuous region.... The trade meeting, of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group, had been scheduled for mid-November. That cancellation throws a wrench into trade talks between the United States and China. President Trump had been scheduled to attend the trade meeting, which was seen as an opportunity for the two economic giants to settle a monthslong fight over tariffs that has rippled across the global economy." (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

ABC News is liveblogging developments in the California fires: "Ferocious winds are hitting Southern California, fueling the already dangerous flames and igniting two new fires early Thursday. With wind gusts reaching 60 or 70 mph, the winds can easily shoot embers and sparks into the air and send them one or two miles away. In San Bernardino County, multiple homes were engulfed in flames early Thursday from the fast-moving Hillside Fire, which ignited as ferocious 70 mph wind gusts lifted burning embers into the air."