The Commentariat -- November 13, 2019

New York Times reporters are liveblogging the hearing, with commentary. Much of that commentary is useful and/or funny. The Washington Post is live-reporting the hearing here. Politico's liveblog (which seems a little less "live," is here. All three have livestream video of the hearing. ~~~

     ~~~ Besides the NYT reporters' commentary linked above, Michael Shear of the Times is writing mini-reports of highlights and related developments. "... William B. Taylor Jr., ... testified that he was told that Mr. Trump cared more about 'investigations of Biden' -- former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. -- than he did about Ukraine. The revelation, as Congress began the third set of presidential impeachment hearings in modern history, placed Mr. Trump at the center of what Mr. Taylor described in vivid detail as a 'highly irregular' effort to place the president's political interests at the center of American policy toward Ukraine." ~~~

     ~~~ From the WashPo live-report: @11:30 am ET: "Taylor added new information to his opening statement Wednesday, describing a July phone call between Trump and U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland overheard by a member of Taylor's staff in which Trump purportedly asked about 'the investigations.'... On July 26..., the aide heard Trump through the phone asking about 'the investigations' and Sondland said the Ukrainians were ready to move forward.... The phone call purportedly took place after Sondland met with Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Zelensky, and one day after Trump asked Zelensky to pursue investigations into his political opponents in a controversial phone call. Taylor said that after the call, the aide asked Sondland what Trump thought about Ukraine and Sondland said that Trump cares 'more about the investigations of Biden' that ... Rudolph W. Giuliani, 'was pressing for.' Taylor said he had not provided this account to impeachment investigators during his Oct. 22 deposition because his staff member only told him about the episode last Friday." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ @12:15 pm ET: David Holmes, "the embassy staffer who Taylor said overheard Trump ask ... Gordon Sondland about the status of 'the investigations' via phone just a day after Trump spoke to the Ukrainian leader, will testify behind closed doors Friday in the House's impeachment probe, according to two people familiar with the investigation.... The speed with which Holmes has been added to the deposition list also indicates how quickly investigators want to move forward with their inquiry.... The panels also announced that they expect Mark Sandy, who is in charge of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget, to testify Saturday. No OMB staff member has yet shown up for testimony in the impeachment probe." Mrs. McC: This is a big deal. The NYT currently (at 1:30 pm ET) has it as its headline on the hearing: "Testimony: 'Trump Cares More about the Investigations of Biden.'" ~~~

     ~~~ @12:35 m ET: "Kent told the House panel Wednesday that there no basis for Trump's assertion that Biden, while vice president, had stopped an investigation into a Ukrainian gas company where his son served on the board of directors. 'None whatsoever,' Kent testified. The issue is a crucial one in the impeachment hearings because Trump and his allies have for months alleged without evidence that Biden was seeking to prevent an investigation that could have affected his son Hunter."

~~~ Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Donald Trump called a top ally [Gordon Sondland] in July for an update on efforts to get the Ukrainian government to launch investigations of his Democratic adversaries..., [William Taylor] revealed Wednesday.... When pressed by Schiff about whether he took Trump's remarks on the call with Sondland to mean that Trump cares more about a Biden investigation that he does about Ukraine, Taylor responded: 'Yes, sir.'... The existence of the call delivered Democrats an explosive new detail as they seek to show Trump's effort to exploit a U.S. ally at war with Russia, all in order to boost his 2020 reelection campaign.... Democrats' case began with veteran State Department hands William Taylor and George Kent, who described efforts by Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to 'gin up' the politically motivated investigations favored by Trump by leaning on high-level Ukrainians. Kent said Giuliani has been aided in this effort by 'some of those same corrupt former prosecutors' that State Department officials spent years trying to sideline. 'They were now peddling false information in order to exact revenge against those who had exposed their misconduct, including U.S. diplomats, Ukrainian anti-corruption officials, and reform-minded civil society groups in Ukraine,' Kent said. 'In mid-August, it became clear to me that Giuliani's efforts to gin up politically motivated investigations were now infecting U.S. engagement with Ukraine.'... Taylor, Trump's current ambassador to Ukraine, said that the irregular channel included Giuliani, as well as Trump's acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and former Trump Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker."

Politico: "The public phase of the historic impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump begins Wednesday when two top American diplomats -- strong> William Taylor and George Kent -- are set to testify. Here's a rough schedule of the day's events, per an official working on the impeachment probe."

Jessica Taylor of NPR: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep during an interview at the Capitol on Tuesday that he thinks there's a clear argument to be made that Trump committed 'bribery' and 'high crimes and misdemeanors' -- both explicitly outlined in the Constitution as impeachable offenses -- when pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son in exchange for long-promised military aid. 'Bribery..., as the founders understood bribery..., connoted the breach of the public trust in a way where you're offering official acts for some personal or political reason, not in the nation's interest.' [Schiff said]. To prove bribery, Schiff said, you have to show that the president was 'soliciting something of value,' which Schiff thinks multiple witnesses before his committee have testified to in private."

New Defense: Trump Is as Pure as the Driven Snow. Mike Allen, et al., of Axios have more-or-less updated an earlier post, linked yesterday, to explain the GOP's "defense" of Trump: "Confronted with a mountain of damaging facts heading into tomorrow's opening of the public phase of impeachment, House Republicans plan to argue that 'the President's state of mind' was exculpatory." Mrs. McC: Sure he shot a guy in cold blood on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight, but he was thinking of the American flag waving in a blue sky when he did it. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ... Update: Democrats released a response, titled "Debunked," to the GOP's supposed defense of Trump, hitting all four GOP claims. CNN has republished the Democrats' response here. ~~~

~~~ "The GOP’s Impeachment Strategy Is Self-Refuting." William Saletan of Slate: “... Donald Trump and his congressional allies have a bizarre game plan for this week’s impeachment hearings. First, they’re going to argue that when Trump pressed Ukraine to investigate his Democratic opponents — in particular, former Vice President Joe Biden — Trump’s goal was to fight corruption, not to hurt Biden or the Democrats. Then, to prove that it wasn’t about smearing Biden or the Democrats, Trump and his allies will use the hearings to smear Biden and the Democrats.... Every time Trump opens his mouth, he gives away the game: 'Corruption' is his code for smearing Democrats.” Saletan points out numerous instances where Trump & his GOP allies disprove their own assertions. Saletan also knocks down the argument that "you can't get into the mind of Trump and his advisors"; that is, there's no way of proving intent. ~~~

~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: “... the House Republicans who are actually involved in the hearings seem set to go all in on the fantasy of Ukrainian election interference. To exonerate Trump, they are ready to help cover for Russia.” Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intel Committee wrote to chairman Adam Schiff Saturday, “of Trump’s 'documented belief that the Ukrainian government meddled in the 2016 election,' which 'forms the basis for a reasonable desire for Ukraine to investigate the circumstances surrounding the election.' The conspiracy theories that undergird the president’s 'documented belief' aren’t really coherent, but they don’t have to be to serve their purpose, which is sowing confusion about the well-established fact that Russia assisted Trump’s campaign.... 'George Soros was behind it. George Soros’s company was funding it,' [Rudy] Giuliani said on ABC in September, spinning tales of Hillary Clinton’s collusion with Ukraine. Speaking to The Post, Giuliani accused Marie Yovanovtich, the former ambassador to Ukraine, of 'working for Soros.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The Rogue Rudy Defense. Jonathan Swan & Mike Allen of Axios: "Top House Republican sources tell Axios that one impeachment survival strategy will be to try to distance President Trump from any Ukraine quid pro quo, with Rudy Giuliani potentially going under the bus.... An uber-connected Republican added: 'Rudy will be cut loose because he was rogue.'" Mrs. McC: This should go well, because everything we know about Rudy is that he will go gentle into that good night. Speaking of Rudy, ~~~

~~~ Rudy Giuliani has an op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal "defending" Trump. Oh darn, it's firewalled. Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: “'The focus was on Ukrainian corruption broadly speaking and out of a five-page transcript Mr. Trump spent only six lines on Joe Biden,' Giuliani offered as a defense.... Trump never mentioned 'corruption' on the call, but did mention 'Biden' three times. [Mrs. McC: Maybe more; all we have is an at-least-somewhat abbreviated summary of the call.]... [Giuliani] was quickly ridiculed for his legal defense. Here’s some of what people were saying[.]” Many of the Twitter responses run along the lines of this one from Krister Johnson: "Out of a whole lifetime, John Wilkes Booth spent only six seconds assassinating Abraham Lincoln" & this from Brian Klaas: "Out of all the days he was president, Nixon only spent a handful orchestrating a burglary and cover-up". And this from Ciara Torres-Spelliscy is good: "That’s all ya got? A word count is NOT a good defense to a crime."

MEANWHILE, at the White House, Everything Is Going Very Smoothly ~~~

~~~ ** Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "President Trump has discussed dismissing the intelligence community’s inspector general, Michael Atkinson, because Mr. Atkinson reported a whistle-blower’s complaint about Mr. Trump’s interactions with Ukraine to Congress after concluding it was credible, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Mr. Trump first expressed his dismay about Mr. Atkinson around the time the whistle-blower’s complaint became public in September. In recent weeks, he has continued to raise with aides the possibility of firing him, one of the people said.... He has said he believes Mr. Atkinson, whom he appointed in 2017, has been disloyal, one of the people said.... Inspectors general are supposed to be insulated from politics so they can follow the facts and provide oversight of the executive branch. While presidents have the authority to remove them, they are supposed to take that action only in cases of misconduct or failure to fulfill duties." (Also linked yesterday.)  The Hill has a summary report here. ~~~

     ~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Two Republican members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), are warning President Trump not to fire intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson. ~~~

~~~ Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump has been threatening for weeks to fire acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, but senior advisers have counseled him to hold off on such a drastic step amid a high-stakes impeachment probe, according to three people familiar with the discussions. Trump has expressed particular anger over Mulvaney’s performance in an Oct. 17 news conference in which Mulvaney stunned White House aides by saying military aid to Ukraine was withheld to pressure its government to launch investigations that could politically benefit Trump...." ~~~

~~~ Nancy Cook & Gabby Orr of Politico: "Mick Mulvaney is isolated, marginalized and growing more irrelevant to the West Wing staff he’s meant to lead during one of the most consequential moments of the Trump presidency. Though the White House’s acting chief of staff is still participating in impeachment meetings and working out of the White House, the strategy is increasingly being driven by White House lawyers, legislative affairs team and top officials from the press and communications shops who spent the week setting up a rapid-response team and developing plans to push back on witnesses’ testimony in real time.... [Mulvaney] ended up in this tenuous position after four days of back-and-forth federal court proceedings after his attorneys tried to join a lawsuit that asked a judge to rule on whether or not top officials should be forced to testify on Capitol Hill after Democrats subpoenaed them. Mulvaney decided to drop the lawsuit entirely on Tuesday morning, after his allies said he was surprised by the political blow-back and internal sniping his own court filing created." ~~~

~~~ Sideshow, Ctd. Say, remember that lawsuit Mick Mulvaney (1) tried to join last Friday? Well, he (2) withdrew from that effort yesterday. Then he said he (3) would file his own damned lawsuit. Then (4) ... Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: “Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Tuesday reversed plans to file a lawsuit regarding his compliance with a subpoena for congressional testimony in the House impeachment inquiry into President Trump. His attorneys notified a federal court that Mulvaney, after further consideration, 'does not intend to pursue litigation regarding the deposition subpoena issued to him by the U.S. House of Representatives' and will instead obey directions from Trump to ignore the subpoena altogether.” Mrs. McC: Maybe now you'll be a little less stunned & amazed by all those stories titled, "White House in Chaos." (Also linked yesterday.)

Neal Katyal in a New York Times op-ed: "Mr. Trump’s effort to hinder the House investigation of him is at least as great a threat to the rule of law [as the allegation of misconduct in regard to Ukraine]. It strikes at the heart of American democracy — and it is itself the essence of an impeachable offense.... Mr. Trump’s stonewalling is a grave problem because it means there is no way to police executive branch wrongdoing.... For impeachment to have meaning in our constitutional system, there must be a way for Congress to ferret out the facts.... The president now claims that, despite the call memo and other evidence, he never intended to do anything wrong. But the only way to test that claim is to permit witnesses to testify about what the president said at the time, and what he knew and asked about.... The stonewalling is particularly pernicious here because Mr. Trump’s party controls the Senate.... Why is the president afraid of letting his own White House officials tell the truth in a process ultimately controlled by Senate Republicans?"

** Frank Bruni of the New York Times: "... the current moment of reckoning ... is the collision of a president who has absolutely no regard for professionalism and those who try to embody it, the battle between an arrogant, unscrupulous yahoo and his humble, principled opposites.... Trump’s war on professionalism and professionals is also its own distinct theme in his business career, which is rife with cheating, and his political life, which is greased with lies.... Trump slyly markets his anti-professionalism as anti-elitism and a rejection of staid, cautious thinking. But it’s really his way of excusing his ignorance, costuming his incompetence and greenlighting his hooliganism.... Professionalism involves credentials, benchmarks, all sorts of yardsticks by which a person can be judged, sometimes unkindly. Trump wants only affirmation. And professionalism is a reality-based enterprise. Trump prefers fiction[.]" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't usually credit Bruni as being insightful, but I think the point of this column is exactly right and does help explain many of Trump's debilitating foibles.

Darren Samuelsohn & Matthew Choi of Politico: "Roger Stone first told one of Donald Trump’s top aides in April 2016 that WikiLeaks had plans to dump information in the heat of the presidential race, kickstarting a scramble inside the campaign to take advantage of the expected releases. And that plotting included at least one summertime call involving Trump himself, according to Rick Gates, the former Trump deputy campaign chairman, who was testifying Tuesday morning at Stone’s trial over lying to Congress about his efforts to contact WikiLeaks. The revelation means the Trump campaign was aware of WikiLeaks' election-year plans much earlier than previously understood. And it also shows that the president was involved in conversations about the issue, something he has previously denied.... Federal prosecutors rested their case against Stone before lunch on Tuesday, and Stone's lawyers spent a little more than an hour in the afternoon playing aloud portions of their client’s September 2017 deposition before the House Intelligence Committee, during which prosecutors allege Stone lied. After that, Stone's team also rested its case without inviting any witnesses to the stand." Emphasis added. ~~~

~~~ Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Rick Gates said he overheard a phone call in which [Roger] Stone seemed to make the president aware of a planned WikiLeaks release.... Gates said his boss, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, had told him that Trump would be kept updated on WikiLeaks’ plans to release Democratic campaign emails — which authorities concluded were hacked by Russia.... In written responses last year to questions from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III..., Trump said he did not recall receiving any information about WikiLeaks disclosures in advance, being told that Stone 'or anyone associated with my campaign' had discussions with WikiLeaks about future leaks, or ever discussing WikiLeaks with Stone.” ~~~

~~~ Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “The Roger Stone trial is no longer just about Roger Stone.... It revealed that Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign aides knew more about WikiLeaks’ plans than they have let on, and the president may have later misled Robert Mueller about it.... According to direct testimony and dozens of email and text messages introduced over the last week, the Trump campaign got its first heads up about Julian Assange’s ability to upend U.S. politics as far back as April 2016. The timing is months earlier than any Trump aide has previously described, and months before WikiLeaks published its first cache of damaging materials that would go on to cripple Hillary Clinton’s White House bid. Additionally, a wider cast of Trump aides participated in WikiLeaks strategy sessions than previously known as they mapped out an attack plan to take advantage of the hacked Democratic emails.... [Mueller's] decision to keep private such information left the public confused and more susceptible to the president’s 'no collusion, no obstruction' spin, [legal experts] argued.” ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The Mueller "investigation"/whitewash vis-a-vis Trump, is a scandal within a scandal. I don't know that Mueller always intended to let Trump off the hook, but in the end, that's what he did. Does it make any sense to conceal evidence against the POTUS* in order to make a stronger case that a smallfry like Roger Stone lied to Congress? Nope. Mueller was, indirectly, a Trump appointee, and he showed Trump that "loyalty" Trump demands, even as Trump excoriated Mueller & his staff almost daily.

Stephanie Ruhle & Carol Lee of NBC News: "Former national security adviser John Bolton derided ... Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law during a private speech last week and suggested his former boss’ approach to U.S. policy on Turkey is motivated by personal or financial interests, several people who were present for the remarks told NBC News.... Bolton outlined [a portrait of] of a president who lacks an understanding of the interconnected nature of relationships in foreign policy and the need for consistency, these people said.... Like other former Trump advisers, Bolton said regardless of how much evidence is provided to Trump that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, the president refuses to take any action because he views any move against Moscow as giving credence to the notion that his election is invalid, the people present for Bolton's remarks said." Also, he plugged his upcoming book. (Also linked yesterday.)

Married to the Mob. David Kirkpatrick & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: “Behind President Trump’s accommodating attitude toward Turkey is an unusual back channel: a trio of sons-in-law who married into power and now play key roles in connecting Ankara with Washington. One, Turkey’s finance minister, is the son-in-law of its strongman president and oversees his country’s relationship with the United States. Another is the son-in-law of a Turkish tycoon and became a business partner to the Trump Organization. Now he advocates for Turkey with the Trump administration. And the third is Jared Kushner, who as the son-in-law of and senior adviser to Mr. Trump has a vague if expansive foreign policy portfolio.... The three men have developed an informal, next-generation line of communication between Mr. Trump and ... President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who only weeks after his military incursion into northern Syria is scheduled to visit the White House on Wednesday. At a moment when Mr. Trump has come under bipartisan criticism from Congress for a series of stands favorable to Mr. Erdogan, the ties among the three men show how informal and often-unseen connections between the two presidents have helped shape American policy in a volatile part of the world.... 'Trump is replacing formal relations among nations in several cases with family-to-family relationship, or crony-to-crony relationships,' said Eric S. Edelman, who served as under secretary of defense for policy and United States ambassador to Turkey during the George W. Bush administration.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: When there's no handy family connection, Trump has Rudy & his mobster friends execute "U.S." policy. And Congressional Republicans are defending this guy -- the same guy who is defying not just formal diplomats but also the Congress? What is wrong with these people?

Wow! Thanks, Ivanka! Jonathan Chait: "At a speech to the Economic Club of New York [Tuesday], President Trump declared that his daughter, Ivanka, has personally created 14 million new jobs. The president announced this figure ... and then repeated it twice more as the crowd applauded politely.... The entire U.S. economy has created fewer than 6 million new jobs since Trump took office. So Trump is crediting his daughter with having personally created more than 200 percent of all new jobs in the United States. This is like supply-side economics but for authoritarian nepotism.... You can read about [Ivanka's] program at its official White House page, but the details are sparse even by the standards of a White House messaging site. There truly does not seem to be any policy here other than Ivanka asking businesspeople to promise to create jobs. Last October, Ivanka claimed this initiative had created 6.3 million jobs. Lydia DePillis interviewed some of the companies that contributed to this number, and several admitted they had simply credited all real (or, in some cases, hypothetical) job openings to the Ivanka initiative."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Tuesday appeared ready to side with the Trump administration in its efforts to shut down a program protecting about 700,000 young immigrants known as 'Dreamers.' The court’s liberal justices probed the administration’s justifications for ending the program, expressing skepticism about its rationales for doing so. But other justices indicated that they would not second-guess the administration’s reasoning and, in any event, considered its explanations sufficient.” A USA Today story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mark Stern of Slate, despite some of CJ John Roberts' remarks Liptak cites, is convinced Roberts doesn't get it, and Stern explains why. Stern also hits at the real reason for the Trump administration's recision of DACA: “Shortly before the justices heard arguments on Tuesday, the Southern Poverty Law Center published a horrific exposé of Stephen Miller’s deep ties to the white nationalist movement [SPLC story linked below]. The article detailed Miller’s affinity for outwardly racist websites, literature, and conspiracy theories, as well as immigrant laws rooted in eugenics. This animus, not some deep concern for 'the rule of law,' is what lies behind the Trump administration’s push to end DACA. It was racism, too, that motivated the administration’s quest to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census — racism papered over with lies so brazen that Roberts could not accept them. This time around, however, the chief justice seems unwilling to peer beyond the government’s pretext. And so his court could soon condemn 700,000 Dreamers to fear deportation from the only home they’ve ever known.” ~~~

~~~ Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: “President Trump unleashed on former President Obama and so-called Dreamers hours before the Supreme Court will hear arguments about Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. 'Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from “angels.” Some are very tough, hardened criminals,' Trump claimed in a tweet early Tuesday without providing details. 'President Obama said he had no legal right to sign order, but would anyway. If Supreme Court remedies with overturn, a deal will be made with Dems for them to stay!'... Obama used an executive action in 2012 to establish DACA, something the Trump administration has called 'an unconstitutional exercise of authority.'” Mrs. McC: Kind of ironic, inasmuch as Trump issues executive orders as often as Reagan passed around the jellybean jar. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Klar of the Hill: “Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a combat veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she celebrated Veterans Day in Tijuana, Mexico, with U.S. veterans who have been deported since fighting for the country. 'I am ashamed of and heartbroken by how our nation is treating the deported Veterans I met with today,' [Duckworth] said in a statement after her Monday trip. The senator said the veterans are 'Americans all but on paper.' Many enlisted after President George W. Bush signed an executive order fast-tracking citizenship for 'for those willing to serve — but who, because of things like lost paperwork, fell through the cracks, never officially became citizens, she said.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ ** Michael E. Hayden of the Southern Poverty Law Center: "In the run-up to the 2016 election, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller promoted white nationalist literature, pushed racist immigration stories and obsessed over the loss of Confederate symbols after Dylann Roof’s murderous rampage, according to leaked emails reviewed by Hatewatch. The emails, which Miller sent to the conservative website Breitbart News in 2015 and 2016, showcase the extremist, anti-immigrant ideology that undergirds the policies he has helped create as an architect of Donald Trump’s presidency." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Dan De Luce, et al., of NBC News: "A senior Trump administration official has embellished her résumé with misleading claims about her professional background — even creating a fake Time magazine cover with her face on it — raising questions about her qualifications to hold a top position at the State Department. An NBC News investigation found that Mina Chang, the deputy assistant secretary in the State Department's Bureau of Conflict and Stability Operations, has inflated her educational achievements and exaggerated the scope of her nonprofit's work.... Chang, who assumed her post in April, also invented a role on a U.N. panel, claimed she had addressed both the Democratic and Republican national conventions, and implied she had testified before Congress. She was being considered for an even bigger government job, one with a budget of more than $1 billion, until Congress started asking questions about her résumé. The gap between Chang's actual qualifications and her claims appears to be the latest example of lax vetting by the Trump administration, which has become known for its many job vacancies and appointments made without thorough screening." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I once attended a lecture my husband gave at Harvard. I didn't realize till I read Chang's résumé that showing up at a seminar in Cambridge made me a "Harvard alumna." In fairness, I've known ever since Trump began picking his Cabinet that I'm overqualified for a top job in the Trump administration. And so are you.

Presidential Race 2020

Quint Forgey of Politico: "Pete Buttigieg, whose presidential campaign has been steadily gaining ground in Iowa over recent weeks, now sits narrowly atop the 2020 Democratic field in the first-in-the-nation caucus state, according to a new survey. A Monmouth University poll published Tuesday shows that the South Bend, Ind., mayor is the first choice of 22 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers — outrunning all other rivals in Iowa for the party’s nomination to challenge ... Donald Trump. Former Vice President Joe Biden ranks in second place with 19 percent support, followed closely by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts with 18 percent and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont with 13 percent." (Also linked yesterday.)

Caitlin Byrd of the Charleston, S.C., Post & Courier: Mark Sanford ended his presidential bid outside the state capitol building in Concord, N.H. "Sanford had originally planned to be inside a Statehouse office on Friday, to have his name added to the ballot in the first-in-the-nation primary. Instead, it is where his run ended days after he vowed to spend all of November campaigning here." (Also linked yesterday.)

Congressional Race 2020. Luke Broadwater of the Baltimore Sun: "Maryland Democratic Party Chairwoman Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, the widow of U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, is running for her husband’s seat, arguing Monday she is the best option to carry out his legacy and continue his vision.... Rockeymoore Cummings, a public policy consultant who is founder of the Washington consulting firm Global Policy Solutions LLC and a former 2018 candidate for governor, said her husband told her months before he died he would like for her to succeed him.... Candidates must file by Nov. 20 to run in a special Feb. 4 primary for Cummings’ 7th District seat, which includes parts of the city of Baltimore and areas of Baltimore and Howard counties. The special election will be April 28, the same day as a regular primary for all of Maryland’s U.S. House seats.... Eight Democrats ... and three Republicans have filed to run in the special primary. Five candidates have filed to run in the regular GOP primary, along with seven Democrats." (Also linked yesterday.) 

Gubernatorial Race 2019. Kentucky. Joe Sonda of the Louisville Courier Journal: "As the final votes trickled in during last week's Kentucky gubernatorial election, a network of automated Twitter accounts suddenly sprang into action. They spread misinformation about the election being rigged, according to the CEO of a company that tracks political misinformation on social media. Gideon Blocq, the founder and CEO of VineSight, told The Courier Journal his company witnessed thousands of accounts with 'bot-like' automated behavior spreading misinformation about the race, including a screenshot of a tweet by one account claiming to have destroyed ballots with votes for incumbent Republican Gov. Matt Bevin. 'Immediately at the end of the counting of the votes, these stories started popping up in parallel, all about the election being rigged,' Blocq said.... Blocq said he could not determine the origin of the bot network pushing tweets about the Kentucky race...."

Mark Sherman & Dave Collins of the AP: "The Supreme Court said Tuesday that a survivor and relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting can pursue their lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 26 people. The justices rejected an appeal from Remington Arms, which argued it should be shielded by a 2005 federal law preventing most lawsuits against firearms manufacturers when their products are used in crimes. The case is being watched by gun control advocates, gun rights supporters and gun manufacturers across the country because it has the potential to provide a roadmap for victims of other mass shootings to circumvent the federal law and sue the makers of firearms."

Ali Breland of Mother Jones: "The government can no longer search international travelers’ cell phones and other personal devices at whim, a federal court ruled Tuesday. The ruling followed a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a technology civil liberties group, on behalf 11 travelers (10 US citizens and one permanent resident) whose phones and laptops were searched as they were coming into the United States. The searches were conducted without warrants and without suspicion of the travelers. Customs and Border Protection and US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement had previously been operating, in at least some cases, as though they did not have to obtain warrants or have reasonable cause for suspicion of travelers coming back into the country before searching their devices. Advocacy groups called that a violation of the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures.... The searches are a part of the Department of Homeland Security’s broader recent pattern of encroaching on civil liberties. The agency has also begun searching the social media profiles of travelers entering the United States."

The Commentariat -- November 12, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court's conservative majority on Tuesday appeared ready to side with the Trump administration in its efforts to shut down a program protecting about 700,000 young immigrants known as 'Dreamers.' The court's liberal justices probed the administration's justifications for ending the program, expressing skepticism about its rationales for doing so. But other justices indicated that they would not second-guess the administration's reasoning and, in any event, considered its explanations sufficient." A USA Today story is here. ~~~

~~~ Michael E. Hayden of the Southern Poverty Law Center: "In the run-up to the 2016 election, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller promoted white nationalist literature, pushed racist immigration stories and obsessed over the loss of Confederate symbols after Dylann Roof's murderous rampage, according to leaked emails reviewed by Hatewatch. The emails, which Miller sent to the conservative website Breitbart News in 2015 and 2016, showcase the extremist, anti-immigrant ideology that undergirds the policies he has helped create as an architect of Donald Trump's presidency."

Quint Forgey of Politico: "Pete Buttigieg, whose presidential campaign has been steadily gaining ground in Iowa over recent weeks, now sits narrowly atop the 2020 Democratic field in the first-in-the-nation caucus state, according to a new survey. A Monmouth University poll published Tuesday shows that the South Bend, Ind., mayor is the first choice of 22 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers -- outrunning all other rivals in Iowa for the party's nomination to challenge ... Donald Trump. Former Vice President Joe Biden ranks in second place with 19 percent support, followed closely by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts with 18 percent and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont with 13 percent."

Caitlin Byrd of the Charleston, S.C., Post & Courier: Mark Sanford ended his presidential bid outside the state capitol building in Concord, N.H. "Sanford had originally planned to be inside a Statehouse office on Friday, to have his name added to the ballot in the first-in-the-nation primary. Instead, it is where his run ended days after he vowed to spend all of November campaigning here."

Luke Broadwater of the Baltimore Sun: "Maryland Democratic Party Chairwoman Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, the widow of U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, is running for her husband's seat, arguing Monday she is the best option to carry out his legacy and continue his vision.... Rockeymoore Cummings, a public policy consultant who is founder of the Washington consulting firm Global Policy Solutions LLC and a former 2018 candidate for governor, said her husband told her months before he died he would like for her to succeed him.... Candidates must file by Nov. 20 to run in a special Feb. 4 primary for Cummings' 7th District seat, which includes parts of the city of Baltimore and areas of Baltimore and Howard counties. The special election will be April 28, the same day as a regular primary for all of Maryland's U.S. House seats.... Eight Democrats ... and three Republicans have filed to run in the special primary. Five candidates have filed to run in the regular GOP primary, along with seven Democrats."

Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "President Trump has discussed dismissing the intelligence community's inspector general, Michael Atkinson, because Mr. Atkinson reported a whistle-blower's complaint about Mr. Trump's interactions with Ukraine to Congress after concluding it was credible, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Mr. Trump first expressed his dismay about Mr. Atkinson around the time the whistle-blower's complaint became public in September. In recent weeks, he has continued to raise with aides the possibility of firing him, one of the people said.... He has said he believes Mr. Atkinson, whom he appointed in 2017, has been disloyal, one of the people said.... Inspectors general are supposed to be insulated from politics so they can follow the facts and provide oversight of the executive branch. While presidents have the authority to remove them, they are supposed to take that action only in cases of misconduct or failure to fulfill duties."

Sideshow, Ctd. Say, remember that lawsuit Mick Mulvaney (1) tried to join last Friday? Well, he (2) withdrew from that effort yesterday. Then he said he (3) would file his own damned lawsuit. Then (4) ... Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Tuesday reversed plans to file a lawsuit regarding his compliance with a subpoena for congressional testimony in the House impeachment inquiry into President Trump. His attorneys notified a federal court that Mulvaney, after further consideration, 'does not intend to pursue litigation regarding the deposition subpoena issued to him by the U.S. House of Representatives' and will instead obey directions from Trump to ignore the subpoena altogether." Mrs. McC: Maybe now you'll be a little less stunned & amazed by all those stories titled, "White House in Chaos."

Stephanie Ruhle & Carol Lee of NBC News: "Former national security adviser John Bolton derided ... Donald Trump's daughter and son-in-law during a private speech last week and suggested his former boss' approach to U.S. policy on Turkey is motivated by personal or financial interests, several people who were present for the remarks told NBC News.... Bolton outlined [a portrait of] of a president who lacks an understanding of the interconnected nature of relationships in foreign policy and the need for consistency, these people said.... Like other former Trump advisers, Bolton said regardless of how much evidence is provided to Trump that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, the president refuses to take any action because he views any move against Moscow as giving credence to the notion that his election is invalid, the people present for Bolton's remarks said." Also, he plugged his upcoming book.

Trump Is as Pure as the Driven Snow. Mike Allen, et al., of Axios have more-or-less updated an earlier post, linked below, to explain the GOP's "defense" of Trump: "Confronted with a mountain of damaging facts heading into tomorrow's opening of the public phase of impeachment, House Republicans plan to argue that 'the President's state of mind' was exculpatory." Mrs. McC: Sure he shot a guy in cold blood on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight, but he was thinking of the American flag waving in a blue sky when he did it. ~~~

~~~ BUT Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times writes, "... the House Republicans who are actually involved in the hearings seem set to go all in on the fantasy of Ukrainian election interference. To exonerate Trump, they are ready to help cover for Russia." Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intel Committee wrote to chairman Adam Schiff Saturday, "of Trump's 'documented belief that the Ukrainian government meddled in the 2016 election,' which 'forms the basis for a reasonable desire for Ukraine to investigate the circumstances surrounding the election.' The conspiracy theories that undergird the president's 'documented belief' aren't really coherent, but they don't have to be to serve their purpose, which is sowing confusion about the well-established fact that Russia assisted Trump's campaign.... 'George Soros was behind it. George Soros's company was funding it,' [Rudy] Giuliani said on ABC in September, spinning tales of Hillary Clinton's collusion with Ukraine. Speaking to The Post, Giuliani accused Marie Yovanovtich, the former ambassador to Ukraine, of 'working for Soros.'"

Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "President Trump unleashed on former President Obama and so-called Dreamers hours before the Supreme Court will hear arguments about Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. 'Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from "angels."Some are very tough, hardened criminals,' Trump claimed in a tweet early Tuesday without providing details. 'President Obama said he had no legal right to sign order, but would anyway. If Supreme Court remedies with overturn, a deal will be made with Dems for them to stay!'... Obama used an executive action in 2012 to establish DACA, something the Trump administration has called 'an unconstitutional exercise of authority.'" Mrs. McC: Kind of ironic, inasmuch as Trump issues executive orders as often as Reagan passed around the jellybean jar. ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a combat veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she celebrated Veterans Day in Tijuana, Mexico, with U.S. veterans who have been deported since fighting for the country. 'I am ashamed of and heartbroken by how our nation is treating the deported Veterans I met with today,' Tamworth said in a statement after her Monday trip. The senator said the veterans are 'Americans all but on paper.' Many enlisted after President George W. Bush signed an executive order fast-tracking citizenship for 'for those willing to serve -- but who, because of things like lost paperwork, fell through the cracks, never officially became citizens, she said."

Married to the Mob. David Kirkpatrick & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Behind President Trump's accommodating attitude toward Turkey is an unusual back channel: a trio of sons-in-law who married into power and now play key roles in connecting Ankara with Washington. One, Turkey's finance minister, is the son-in-law of its strongman president and oversees his country's relationship with the United States. Another is the son-in-law of a Turkish tycoon and became a business partner to the Trump Organization. Now he advocates for Turkey with the Trump administration. And the third is Jared Kushner, who as the son-in-law of and senior adviser to Mr. Trump has a vague if expansive foreign policy portfolio.... The three men have developed an informal, next-generation line of communication between Mr. Trump and ... President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who only weeks after his military incursion into northern Syria is scheduled to visit the White House on Wednesday. At a moment when Mr. Trump has come under bipartisan criticism from Congress for a series of stands favorable to Mr. Erdogan, the ties among the three men show how informal and often-unseen connections between the two presidents have helped shape American policy in a volatile part of the world.... 'Trump is replacing formal relations among nations in several cases with family-to-family relationship, or crony-to-crony relationships,' said Eric S. Edelman, who served as under secretary of defense for policy and United States ambassador to Turkey during the George W. Bush administration." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: When there's no handy family connection, Trump has Rudy & his mobster friends execute "U.S." policy. And Congressional Republicans are defending this guy -- the same guy who is defying not just formal diplomats but also the Congress? What is wrong with these people?

~~~~~~~~~~

Stefan Becket of CBS News: "Democrats in the House released a transcript of testimony by Laura Cooper, a top Pentagon official who appeared behind closed doors before the impeachment committees on October 23. Cooper is deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia whose responsibilities include overseeing U.S. military assistance to Ukraine." A pdf of the transcript of her testimony, via the House, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ ** Andrew Desiderio & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Investigators also released transcripts of Catherine Croft's and Christopher Anderson's testimony. Croft and Anderson served as top aides to Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations. Both officials had visibility into the hold on military aid -- including the extent to which Ukrainian officials knew of the hold before it was publicly revealed. by Politico on August 28. Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia and Ukraine, told investigators that Trump's abrupt hold on the critical security assistance sent all corners of the administration into a frenzy to get it released -- and to understand what motivated Trump's decision." The reporters outline Cooper's testimony & describe the timeline she established for who knew about Trump's hold on the aid & when. They also highlight aspects of Croft's and Anderson's depositions.

"Cooper told investigators that Michael Duffey, a senior official at the Office of Management and Budget who handles national security issues, said during a July 26 meeting that the president ordered the hold on aid to Ukraine because of his 'concerns about corruption.' But Cooper also said an inter-agency review for corruption concerns had already been completed. During the review process, Pentagon officials 'affirmed that we believed sufficient progress has been made,' Cooper added. 'It was unanimous with the exception of the statements by OMB representatives, and those statements were relaying higher level guidance,' Cooper said.... Duffey was subpoenaed by impeachment investigators but, like other OMB officials, he refused to appear for testimony, depriving Democrats of potentially explosive information about the hold on military aid to Ukraine." ~~~

     ~~~ Don't Upset Putin. Mrs. McCrabbie: Do check out the phone call Trump made to John Bolton's home, according Cooper's testimony. It's kinda unrelated to impeachment, but it's another indication of Trump's fear of Putin. More important, and in that same vein: Catherine "Croft revealed that a previously unknown hold was placed on a separate aspect of U.S. lethal military aid to Ukraine. She told investigators that OMB put a hold on a transfer of javelin missiles to Ukraine -- and that Mick Mulvaney ... expressed concerns that 'Russia would react negatively.'"

~~~ Adam Edelman & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Laura Cooper, the top Pentagon official overseeing U.S. policy regarding Ukraine, told House impeachment investigators last month that ... Donald Trump directed the relevant agencies to freeze aid to Ukraine over the summer, according to a transcript of her testimony released Monday.... Cooper said that she attended a meeting on July 23, where "this issue" of Trump's 'concerns about Ukraine and Ukraine security assistance' came up. She said the president's concerns were conveyed by acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. Days later, on July 26, she testified that she found out that both military and humanitarian aid had been impacted. Asked if the president was authorized to order that type of hold, Cooper said there were concerns that he wasn't.... Top Republicans, including Trump himself, have said there couldn't have been a quid pro quo because, they claim, the Ukrainians were not aware that military aid was being withheld in the first place. However, Cooper testified that she had concluded from conversations she'd had with Kurt Volker, the then-U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, and [Bill] Taylor, that that couldn't possibly be true." ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The White House began asking administration officials detailed questions about military assistance to Ukraine after a meeting with President Trump in mid-June, nearly a month before the aid was abruptly frozen, a top Pentagon official told impeachment investigators last month." Shear & Fandos outline some of the testimony of Cooper, Croft & Anderson, but their most shocking reporting is directly about the Mad King:

"On Twitter, [Trump] accused Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, of releasing 'doctored transcripts' of the administration officials who testified behind closed doors, though he offered no evidence. In fact, even the president's most loyal Republican allies, who participated in hours of closed-door questioning of the witnesses, have refrained from raising doubts about the veracity of the transcripts that have been released so far. But Mr. Trump said the effort to remove him from office was an 'Impeachment Scam,' and he has repeatedly demanded that Republicans join him in undermining the legitimacy of the Democratic-led inquiry. In one tweet on Monday, Mr. Trump called on Republicans to 'put out their own transcripts.'" Mrs. McC: Why can't Congressional Republicans just admit Trump is crazy & move on?

Zachary Basu & Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Republicans on the three House committees conducting the Trump-Ukraine investigation have settled on 'four key pieces of evidence' that they claim will undermine Democrats' arguments for why the president should be impeached, according to a staff memo circulated to committee members Monday night.... 'The July 25 call summary -- the best evidence of the conversation -- shows no conditionality or evidence of pressure; President Zelensky and President Trump have both said there was no pressure on the call; The Ukrainian government was not aware of a hold on U.S. security assistance at the time of the July 25 call; and President Trump met with President Zelensky and U.S. security assistance flowed to Ukraine in September 2019 -- both of which occurred without Ukraine investigating President Trump's political rivals.'" The story includes a reproduction of the memo. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sorry, boys, this is full bull, contradicted by hard evidence. (1) The July 25 phone call is all pressure; after Zelensky mentions his desire to purchase Javelins, Trump says, "I would like you to do us a favor, though," and goes on about the supposed Ukrainian server & the Bidens, and keeps telling Zelensky to call Bill Barr & Rudy Giuliani to set up the deal. (2) Trump bearing witness to the effects of his own extortion plot is meaningless, and there is plenty of evidence Zelensky felt the pressure of Trump's demands; Zelensky's claiming no pressure is like the shopkeeper who tells the cops the mob isn't shaking him down so the mob won't break his legs; (3) numerous witnesses testified to voluminous evidence Zelensky's people knew about the shakedown before it became public; and (4) Zelensky got lucky that John Bolton ordered release of the aid just before Zelensky was scheduled to go on CNN to announce the fake investigations. Zelensky cancelled the interview. ~~~

     ~~~ BTW, Akhilleus revealed in yesterday's Comments that he has acquired what is at least a partial Republican witness list.

Jonathan Chait: "Yesterday, Representative Mac Thornberry appeared on ABC's This Week to elucidate the Republican case against impeaching President Trump. To say that his appearance did not go well would understate the case considerably.... He treats the phone call as if it's the entirety of the case. But then, rather than insist the phone call was 'perfect,' he concedes it was kinda bad. At that point, though, Thornberry pivots to pointing out that the call is no different than things Trump 'says in public all the time.' That's true! Trump does solicit foreign countries to investigate his rivals in public all the time. He's even declared that he has an 'absolute right' to do the very thing he's being accused of. Of course he pressured Ukraine to smear his opponents.... You can't impeach Trump for a crime he does 'all the time.'" Mrs. McC: A fun read, which would be way funnier if it were only half a dozen yokels spouting these lines of "reasoning." Instead, it's almost every elected Republican, & those hoping to get elected to something. (Also linked yesterday.)

Mrs. McCrabbie: Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul (RTP-Ky.) went on "Meet the Press" and "argued ... that allegations that Trump and other top officials threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine to pressure the country to investigate Biden and his son's business dealing there is 'exactly' what the former vice president did while in office." Then Chuck Todd, the useful idiot, "counters" with, "So two wrongs make a right?" I saw a report of the interview yesterday & decided to ignore it because Todd pissed me off. I should have looked further, because as Greg Sargent of the Washington Post wrote Monday, Chuck's next guest was Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), and Himes ripped both Paul for expressing & Todd for accepting this outlandish false equivalency:

     ~~~ Greg Sargent: "This is the important subplot lurking beneath the scandal headlines -- that in leaving Ukraine vulnerable to Russia in order to strong-arm Ukraine into carrying out his own self-interested corrupt designs, Trump retreated from the United States' posture of siding with Ukraine in a broader battle between liberal democracy and illiberal authoritarian kleptocracy. [Same link as above.] As Franklin Foer has shown, Biden was trying to pull Ukraine into a more democratic orbit, and Trump in effect pulled in the other direction, mingling his own corruption with Russian geopolitical interests. Importantly, the diplomats horrified by Trump's misconduct have also testified to this broader story. As Ambassador William B. Taylor Jr. suggested, Trump betrayed a 'democratic neighbor' that is 'eager to join Western institutions and enjoy a more secure and prosperous life.'" ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait: "The American politician with the most impressive record of anti-corruption activism in [Ukraine] is Joe Biden. The New York Times, the Washington Post and L.A. Times have all conducted deep dives into Biden's record, and portrayed him as a forceful and effective advocate for reform.... The Ukraine policy architecture that Trump inherited was already geared toward fighting corruption in Ukraine. A thorough review of the transcripts of the impeachment hearings by Slate's Will Saletan found that Trump simply ignored all the official efforts to oppose corruption there.... To call Trump uninterested in corruption in Ukraine is to flatter him. Trump's policy was in fact to roll back the country's reforms and recorrupt its judicial system and, especially, its energy sector. To that end, Trump dispatched Rudy Giuliani, who in turn was hired by Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two figures linked to the Russian underworld. If you're looking to fight corruption, you obviously don't ignore official diplomatic channels and hand over diplomacy to Russian mobsters." Emphasis added.

Perhaps you'd like another glaring example of how Trump & Co. were encouraging, rather than discouraging, corruption in the new Ukraine government. Sad to oblige: ~~~

~~~ Desmond Butler, et al., of the AP: "Two political supporters of U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry secured a potentially lucrative oil and gas exploration deal from the Ukrainian government soon after Perry proposed one of the men as an adviser to the country's new president.... Ukraine awarded the contract to Perry's supporters little more than a month after the U.S. energy secretary attended Zelenskiy's May inauguration. In a meeting during that trip, Perry handed the new president a list of people he recommended as energy advisers. One of the four names was his longtime political backer Michael Bleyzer. A week later, Bleyzer and his partner Alex Cranberg submitted a bid to drill for oil and gas at a sprawling government-controlled site called Varvynska. They offered millions of dollars less to the Ukrainian government than their only competitor for the drilling rights, according to internal Ukrainian government documents obtained by The Associated Press. But their newly created joint venture, Ukrainian Energy, was awarded the 50-year contract because a government-appointed commission determined they had greater technical expertise and stronger financial backing, the documents show. Perry likely had outsized influence in Ukraine. Testimony in the impeachment inquiry into Trump shows the energy secretary was one of three key U.S. officials who were negotiating a meeting between Trump and the Ukrainian leader."

MEANWHILE, at the White House.... Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House's bifurcated and disjointed response to Democrats' impeachment inquiry has been fueled by a fierce West Wing battle between two of President Trump's top advisers [Mick Mulvaney & Pat Cipollone], and the outcome of the messy skirmish could be on full display this week, according to White House and congressional officials.... Mulvaney'office blames White House counsel Pat Cipollone for not doing more to stop other government officials from participating in the impeachment inquiry.... Cipollone, meanwhile, has fumed that Mulvaney only made matters worse with his Oct. 17 news conference, when he publicly acknowledged a quid pro quo.... Cipollone did not want Mulvaney to hold the news conference...." Trump has complained about both Mulvaney & Cipollone. Of course.

Impeachment: A Sideshow. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "A long-simmering feud within the White House broke into the open on Monday as a lawyer for John R. Bolton, President Trump's former national security adviser, filed a motion trying to keep Mick Mulvaney, the president's acting chief of staff, from joining a lawsuit over impeachment testimony. Mr. Bolton's lawyer argued in court papers that Mr. Mulvaney should not be allowed to jump into the existing lawsuit as a plaintiff because his interests are significantly different. But the legal schism underscored a broader rift between Mr. Mulvaney, who facilitated Mr. Trump's effort to pressure Ukraine for damaging information about Democrats, and Mr. Bolton, who tried to resist it. The lawsuit, filed by Charles M. Kupperman, a former deputy national security adviser and longtime associate of Mr. Bolton's, asked a court to decide whether Mr. Kupperman should obey the president's dictate or a House subpoena. While not technically a party to the lawsuit, Mr. Bolton, who left his post in September after clashing with Mr. Trump, is represented by the same lawyer, Charles J. Cooper, and is taking the same position as Mr. Kupperman in waiting for the court to decide whether he should testify or not." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Update. Stefan Becket & Rob Legare of CBS News: "Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has withdrawn his request to join a federal lawsuit over whether White House officials should comply with congressional subpoenas for testimony in the impeachment inquiry, indicating he plans to file his own separate case.... Mulvaney's decision to refile the suit came after attorneys for [Charles] Kupperman and the House both told the court Mulvaney should not be allowed to sign on to the effort." The NBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Trump Lit Corner, Ctd. "This Is the Way Democracy Ends, Not with a Bang but a Book Deal." Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "Now, Bolton could certainly serve his nation right now by confirming what Fiona Hill has testified to regarding the effort to extort Ukrainian assistance in cooking up oppo research for Trump.... Bolton's lawyer said in a letter to House Democrats Friday that Bolton 'was personally involved in many of the events, meetings, and conversations about which you have already received testimony, as well as many relevant meetings and conversations that have not yet been discussed in the testimonies thus far.' Which sounds like an elevator pitch for an awesome book-to-movie deal. But it's also a reason he should appear before Congress. Except he has declined to testify, and presumably will not until a federal judge reaches a decision compelling him to do so, a decision that ... may come long after the impeachment trial has wrapped. For Bolton, the constitutional imperative lies in locking down the book deal." Lithwick cites other book deals in the Trump Lit Corner. "It's a quaint and sad irony that an American political experiment, born of radical and courageous evolutionary tracts, pamphlets, papers, and books, is now drowning under a multimillion-dollar tsunami of self-absorbed self-promotion."

Brianne Gorod & Elizabeth Wydra of the Constitutional Accountability Center, in the New Republic, write up articles of impeachment. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

We Interrupt Our Regularly-Scheduled Programming ... Joe Concha of the Hill: "ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS on Wednesday will preempt their regularly scheduled programming for live coverage of the House Intelligence Committee's open impeachment hearings of President Trump. As expected, all of the major cable news networks, including Fox News, MSNBC, CNN and CSPAN will also offer live coverage. William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, on Wednesday is slated to be the first to publicly testify regarding possible efforts by Trump administration officials to link U.S. military aid to Ukraine in exchange for investigating former Vice President >Joe Biden ... and his son Hunter Biden for business dealings in the country. Taylor's testimony will be followed by Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent."

Trump Is Very Confused, Thinks He Was POTUS* in 1989. Washington Post live updates @4:15 pm ET Monday: "Trump sent a tweet Monday afternoon appearing to lament signing the Whistleblower Protection Act. But Trump actually did not sign the law which was passed by Congress in 1989. 'To think I signed the Whistleblower Protection Act!' Trump tweeted. He was responding to a message sent by the White House Twitter account listing ways that Trump has been 'looking out for our veterans.' But the White House's tweet had listed a separate measure, VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, which Trump did sign into law in 2017." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael Gold of the New York Times: President Trump returned to his hometown on Monday to kick off the 100th annual New York City Veterans Day Parade, his second visit to the city since he announced he was making Florida his primary home. In an 18-minute speech, Mr. Trump expressed his gratitude to American veterans, but also used his remarks to pay tribute to the city, where he remains deeply unpopular.... Even before the president arrived, protesters had gathered along the streets, a number of them from an anti-Trump group, Rise and Resist. They carried signs calling for Mr. Trump's impeachment and repeatedly shouted, 'Shame!' In the windows of a nearby glass tower overlooking the dais where Mr. Trump spoke, large signs placed in the windows spelled out the word 'impeach.' A few floors higher, letters spelling 'convict' were placed in another set of windows. Some of his supporters gathered nearby, many of them wearing hats bearing Mr. Trump's 2016 campaign slogan, 'Make America Great Again.' But raucous boos and chants jeering Mr. Trump could also be heard throughout the president's remarks. A chorus of people shouted 'lock him up!' and 'traitor' and blew whistles as he spoke, causing some veterans to complain that the din was drowning out the president's speech." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "A Trump-appointed federal judge decided Monday that ... Donald Trump can't sue New York state officials in a Washington, DC, court at this time to stop the release of his tax returns to Congress. The case is one of many where the President or his administration have asked federal judges to intervene before House Democrats obtain Trump's financial records. Effectively, the ruling is a loss for Trump but a less significant one then the blows other courts have dealt him in cases involving Democrats' pursuits of his financial records. Courts have sided with the House multiple times in cases where its committees have subpoenaed Trump's financial records. Trump is still appealing those rulings, keeping the House subpoenas on hold." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Corruption All Around! Dan Diamond & Adam Cancryn of Politico: "At least eight former White House, presidential transition and campaign officials for ... Donald Trump were hired as outside contractors to the federal health department at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, according to documents newly obtained by Politico. They were among at least 40 consultants who worked on a one-year, $2.25 million contract directed by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma. The contractors were hired to burnish Verma's personal brand and provide 'strategic communications' support.... CMS agreed to allow at least four consultants to bill up to $204,000 over the length of the contract. That included one longtime Verma ally -- Marcus Barlow, her spokesperson while she was an Indiana-based consultant to then-Gov. Mike Pence -- who was greenlighted to bill as much as $425,000 for about a year's worth of work.... Senior career officials in the CMS communications department were paid about $140,000 last year. HHS Secretary Alex Azar's annual salary is $203,500, a spokesperson said." --s

Nahal Toosi & Gabby Orr of Politico: "Aides to ... Donald Trump are drafting plans to condition U.S. aid to other countries on how well they treat their religious minorities, two White House officials said. The proposal is expected to cover U.S. humanitarian assistance, and could also be broadened to include American military aid to other countries. If the proposal becomes reality, it could have a major effect on U.S. assistance in a range of places, from Iraq to Vietnam. Its mere consideration shows how much the White House prioritizes religious freedom, an emphasis critics say is really about galvanizing Trump's evangelical Christian base.... But experts on U.S. aid also warn that picking and choosing which countries to punish could be a very difficult task, not least because several countries that are partners or allies of the United States have terrible religious freedom records." --safari: TrumpenAmerika wouldn't qualify for TrumpenAid.

E.P.A.: No. More. Science. Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Trump administration is preparing to significantly limit the scientific and medical research that the government can use to determine public health regulations, overriding protests from scientists and physicians who say the new rule would undermine the scientific underpinnings of government policymaking. A new draft of the Environmental Protection Agency proposal, titled Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science, would require that scientists disclose all of their raw data, including confidential medical records, before the agency could consider an academic study's conclusions. E.P.A. officials called the plan a step toward transparency and said the disclosure of raw data would allow conclusions to be verified independently.... The measure would make it more difficult to enact new clean air and water rules because many studies detailing the links between pollution and disease rely on personal health information gathered under confidentiality agreements."

** How Far We've Fallen. Christopher Sherman, et al. of AP: "This month new government data shows [there are] ... an unprecedented 69,550 migrant children held in U.S. government custody over the past year, enough infants, toddlers, kids and teens to overflow the typical NFL stadium. That's more kids detained away from their parents than any other country, according to United Nations researchers. And it's happening even though the U.S. government has acknowledged that being held in detention can be traumatic for children, putting them at risk of long-term physical and emotional damage." --s

Gwen Aviles of NBC News: "The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, was established in 2012 by former President Barack Obama and allowed teens over 16 and adults younger than 30 who were brought to the United States when they were children to work and study without fear of deportation.... More than 800,000 young immigrants ... have enrolled. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments Tuesday on a Trump administration challenge to lower court rulings that blocked the administration from ending the program, which ... Donald Trump announced he would do in 2017. Administration officials argue the program interferes with its immigration enforcement efforts and sanctions the violation of federal law, but they have been challenged in court by civil rights, legal and immigration groups. A number of national groups will rally outside the Supreme Court as Democratic lawmakers, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus will be holding a press conference and a prayer breakfast with national leaders in support of the program as the oral arguments begin inside the Supreme Court." Update: The New York Times story is here. ~~~

~~~ Amy Howe of ScotusBlog outlines the legal arguments. "The justices will consider three consolidated cases -- filed in California, the District of Columbia and New York. The challengers in all three cases argued that the termination of the program violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which is the federal law governing administrative agencies, as well as the rights of DACA recipients, and the lower courts ordered the government to keep DACA in place.... [The Court] agreed to tackle two questions: whether the government's decision to end DACA is something that courts can review at all and, if so, whether the decision to end DACA is legal. In its brief on the merits at the Supreme Court, the government maintains that its decision to end DACA is not reviewable. The lower courts, the government explains, ruled that the decision to end DACA should be set aside because it is 'arbitrary and capricious' -- that is, not the product of reasoned decision-making -- under the Administrative Procedure Act. But, the government continues, a court can't review an agency's decision under the 'arbitrary and capricious' standard if the agency's action is one that it has the discretion to take." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: You read that right. Trump is arguing he has a right to be "arbitrary and capricious." And good news, Nikki Haley agrees! ~~~

~~~ More from the Trump Lit Corner. Michelle Cottle of the New York Times: "Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations, has been causing quite a stir with her new memoir, in which she recounts how, during her time in the Trump administration, other top officials lobbied her to help them undermine the president. In 'With All Due Respect,' Ms. Haley writes that Rex Tillerson, then the secretary of state, and John Kelly, then the White House chief of staff, considered some of Mr. Trump's policies so harebrained that they ignored his directives and began recruiting other aides to derail his agenda.... Ms. Haley makes clear that what disturbed her was Mr. Tillerson's and Mr. Kelly's arrogance.... She really should be more concerned that we have a president whom top aides saw as a threat to the country." Cottle goes on to cite other instances where top aides claimed they undercut or disobeyed Trump's dangerous orders.

Voted Off & Deleted. Sad Ending for Another Ex-Trumper Just Trying to Make a Buck. Alexander Del Rosario of the Hollywood Reporter: "... Sean Spicer was voted off of ABC's Dancing With the Stars on Monday's show. Spicer's Dancing With the Stars days came to a close when the show's panel of judges, along with low fan votes, gave him the boot after the former U.S. press secretary performed a foxtrot to Destiny's Child's 'Bills, Bills, Bills' with dancing partner Jenna Johnson.... Earlier in the night, Trump had tweeted that viewers should 'vote for Sean' and that 'He is a great and very loyal guy who is working very hard.' After Spicer was kicked off the show, that tweet was deleted."

Karma Allen of ABC News: "Former President Jimmy Carter was hospitalized on Monday for a procedure to relieve pressure on his brain, caused by bleeding due to his recent falls, a spokesperson said. Carter, the oldest living ex-U.S. president, was admitted to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on Monday evening ahead of the procedure, which is scheduled to take place Tuesday morning."

Presidential Race 2020

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts has told Joseph R. Biden Jr. and other Democratic officials that he is considering making a last-minute entry into the presidential race, the latest evidence of how unsettled the party's primary is less than three months before the Iowa caucuses. Mr. Patrick told Mr. Biden in a phone conversation last week that he was weighing a bid, according to a Democrat directly familiar with the call, but did not indicate that he had fully decided to run. Mr. Patrick's conversations with other party officials was confirmed by two other Democrats with knowledge of those talks.Mr. Patrick has told party leaders that he doesn't think any of the candidates running have established political momentum and that he thinks there is an opening for somebody who can unite both liberals and moderate Democrats, according to Democrats who have spoken to him." Politico's story is here.

Note to Trump: This Is What "Acting Presidential" Really Looks Like. Quint Forgey of Politico: "Mayor Pete Buttigieg ... on Monday hailed Barack Obama's legacy after a journalist acknowledged misquoting the Democratic White House contender as making a statement critical of the former president's time in office. Evan Halper of the Los Angeles Times tweeted Monday morning that a line in his Sunday story on Buttigieg's campaign, in which the candidate referred to the 'failures of the Obama era,' was erroneously reported. 'That's an inaccurate quote -- the result of transcribing a noisy recording at a loud rally. His exact words were "failures of the old normal,"' Halper wrote. '...This one really hurts because it went viral,' he continued, going on to post Buttigieg's full remarks, corrected. Buttigieg replied to Halper's messages less than an hour later, tweeting that he appreciated 'this reporter's swift and honest correction of a misquote on my views of' the Obama presidency.' 'From health care to DADT repeal to the rescue of the auto industry, my appreciation of the great leadership of Barack Obama comes from a very personal place,' he wrote." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Molly Olmstead of Slate: "Don Blankenship, a former coal baron and ex-convict whom ... Donald Trump once spoke out against for being too extreme, said on Monday that he planned to run for president as a third-party candidate.... Blankenship, who spent a year in prison in connection with 29 coal miners' deaths, ran for a Senate seat in West Virginia in 2018. His campaign was rooted in anger (mostly related to his own past incarceration) and xenophobia. He called Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who was born in Taiwan and moved to the U.S. as a child, a 'China person,' and he blasted out an ad claiming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is married to Chao, had been bribed by his 'China family' into creating jobs for 'China people' instead of Americans. When pressed about the ad, Blankenship rejected criticism by saying he could not have been racist by just mentioning Chinese people: 'Races are Negro, white Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian. There's no mention of a race.'"

Congressional Race 2020

Farewell to Peter King. Jim Newell of Slate: "The news of [Peter] King's [(R-N.Y.) retirement] announcement was met, in some quarters, with musings about one of the last remaining 'moderates' within the House GOP hanging it up. That was the interpretation that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who has served in the Capitol with King for the entirety of King's career, ran with this morning in a tweet of effusive praise.... While King may not have shared some of his party's fanatical opposition to things like refundable tax credits, he went above and beyond many of them in his harassment of minority communities.... King's maximalist approach to terrorism done by Muslims showed none of the nuance he applied in the 1980s to the Troubles.... He was a vocal defender of the Irish Republican Army...." ~~~

~~~ Eoin Higgins of Common Dreams: "Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was heavily criticized Monday for expressing sorrow at the announcement from Republican Rep. Peter King that the New York congressman would not seek re-election to the U.S. House." ~~~

~~~ Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: Schumer's tweeted encomium to King "prompted more than 10,000 replies, mostly negative and some downright nasty. Videos of thumbs-downs, eye-rolling and heads shaking 'no,' flooded into Mr. Schumer's feed, as the word 'resign' got tossed about. Many of those outraged by Mr. Schumer's praise pointed out Mr. King's more controversial positions and statements, including when he said that there are 'too many mosques' in America; that protesting N.F.L. players are similar to Nazis; and that Eric Garner's death was the result of his obesity and asthma, rather than the chokehold applied by a New York Police Department officer. Add in Mr. King's frequent support for President Trump and his policies, and Mr. Schumer's comments seemed even more galling -- and divisive -- to some on the left."

The Commentariat -- November 11, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Stefan Becket of CBS News: "Democrats in the House released a transcript of testimony by Laura Cooper, a top Pentagon official who appeared behind closed doors before the impeachment committees on October 23. Cooper is deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia whose responsibilities include overseeing U.S. military assistance to Ukraine." A pdf of the transcript of her testimony, via the House, is here. Mrs. McC: I'll get more on her testimony when reporting becomes available.

Trump Is Very Confused, Thinks He Was POTUS* in 1989. Washington Post live updates @4:15 pm ET Monday: “Trump sent a tweet Monday afternoon appearing to lament signing the Whistleblower Protection Act. But Trump actually did not sign the law, which was passed by Congress in 1989. 'To think I signed the Whistleblower Protection Act!' Trump tweeted. He was responding to a message sent by the White House Twitter account listing ways that Trump has been 'looking out for our veterans.' But the White House’s tweet had listed a separate measure, VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, which Trump did sign into law in 2017.”

Michael Gold of the New York Times: President Trump returned to his hometown on Monday to kick off the 100th annual New York City Veterans Day Parade, his second visit to the city since he announced he was making Florida his primary home. In an 18-minute speech, Mr. Trump expressed his gratitude to American veterans, but also used his remarks to pay tribute to the city, where he remains deeply unpopular.... Even before the president arrived, protesters had gathered along the streets, a number of them from an anti-Trump group, Rise and Resist. They carried signs calling for Mr. Trump’s impeachment and repeatedly shouted, 'Shame!' In the windows of a nearby glass tower overlooking the dais where Mr. Trump spoke, large signs placed in the windows spelled out the word 'impeach.' A few floors higher, letters spelling 'convict' were placed in another set of windows. Some of his supporters gathered nearby, many of them wearing hats bearing Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan, 'Make America Great Again.' But raucous boos and chants jeering Mr. Trump could also be heard throughout the president’s remarks. A chorus of people shouted 'lock him up!' and 'traitor' and blew whistles as he spoke, causing some veterans to complain that the din was drowning out the president’s speech.”

Impeachment: A Sideshow. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "A long-simmering feud within the White House broke into the open on Monday as a lawyer for John R. Bolton, President Trump’s former national security adviser, filed a motion trying to keep Mick Mulvaney, the president’s acting chief of staff, from joining a lawsuit over impeachment testimony. Mr. Bolton’s lawyer argued in court papers that Mr. Mulvaney should not be allowed to jump into the existing lawsuit as a plaintiff because his interests are significantly different. But the legal schism underscored a broader rift between Mr. Mulvaney, who facilitated Mr. Trump’s effort to pressure Ukraine for damaging information about Democrats, and Mr. Bolton, who tried to resist it. The lawsuit, filed by Charles M. Kupperman, a former deputy national security adviser and longtime associate of Mr. Bolton’s, asked a court to decide whether Mr. Kupperman should obey the president’s dictate or a House subpoena. While not technically a party to the lawsuit, Mr. Bolton, who left his post in September after clashing with Mr. Trump, is represented by the same lawyer, Charles J. Cooper, and is taking the same position as Mr. Kupperman in waiting for the court to decide whether he should testify or not." Politico's story is here.

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "A Trump-appointed federal judge decided Monday that ... Donald Trump can't sue New York state officials in a Washington, DC, court at this time to stop the release of his tax returns to Congress. The case is one of many where the President or his administration have asked federal judges to intervene before House Democrats obtain Trump's financial records. Effectively, the ruling is a loss for Trump but a less significant one then the blows other courts have dealt him in cases involving Democrats' pursuits of his financial records. Courts have sided with the House multiple times in cases where its committees have subpoenaed Trump's financial records. Trump is still appealing those rulings, keeping the House subpoenas on hold."

Note to Trump: This Is What "Acting Presidential" Really Looks Like. Quint Forgey of Politico: “Mayor Pete Buttigieg ... on Monday hailed Barack Obama’s legacy after a journalist acknowledged misquoting the Democratic White House contender as making a statement critical of the former president’s time in office. Evan Halper of the Los Angeles Times tweeted Monday morning that a line in his Sunday story on Buttigieg’s campaign, in which the candidate referred to the “failures of the Obama era,” was erroneously reported. 'That’s an inaccurate quote — the result of transcribing a noisy recording at a loud rally. His exact words were “failures of the old normal,’” Halper wrote. '...This one really hurts because it went viral,' he continued, going on to post Buttigieg’s full remarks, corrected. Buttigieg replied to Halper’s messages less than an hour later, tweeting that he appreciated 'this reporter’s swift and honest correction of a misquote on my views of” the Obama presidency.' 'From health care to DADT repeal to the rescue of the auto industry, my appreciation of the great leadership of Barack Obama comes from a very personal place,' he wrote.”

Jonathan Chait: “Yesterday, Representative Mac Thornberry appeared on ABC’s This Week to elucidate the Republican case against impeaching President Trump. To say that his appearance did not go well would understate the case considerably.... He treats the phone call as if it’s the entirety of the case. But then, rather than insist the phone call was 'perfect,' he concedes it was kinda bad. At that point, though, Thornberry pivots to pointing out that the call is no different than things Trump 'says in public all the time.' That’s true! Trump does solicit foreign countries to investigate his rivals in public all the time. He’s even declared that he has an 'absolute right' to do the very thing he’s being accused of. Of course he pressured Ukraine to smear his opponents.... You can't impeach Trump for a crime he does 'all the time.'” Mrs. McC: A fun read, which would be way funnier if it were only half a dozen yokels spouting these lines of "reasoning." Instead, it's almost every elected Republican, & those hoping to get elected to something.

Brianne Gorod & Elizabeth Wydra of the Constitutional Accouantability Center, in the New Republic, write up articles of impeachment.

~~~~~~~~~~

Divider-in-Chief to Ruin National Day of Remembrance. Clyde Hughes of UPI: "... Donald Trump will lay a wreath and speak at the start of the Veterans Day Parade in New York City Monday, becoming the first U.S. president to do so."

Stupidest Senator Proves Case for Impeachment. Again. Allan Smith of NBC News: "Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., said Sunday that 'most' of ... Donald Trump's advisers were trying to figure out 'some way' to get him to release a hold on roughly $400 million in Ukrainian military aid, an effort at the center of Democrats' impeachment inquiry. 'I understand that most of President Trump's advisers wanted the military aid released,' Johnson, who had personally pushed Trump to release the aid, told CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'And they were trying to figure out some way, shape or form to convince President Trump to approve that release. It's certainly what I was trying to do in my phone call to him on Aug. 31....'... Johnson said ... he remains 'sympathetic to President Trump's legitimate concerns about corruption.' As CNN's Jake Tapper noted, the only instances of 'corruption' that Trump brought up in his July 25 phone call with ... Zelesnkiy ... were involving the debunked conspiracy and the business dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian gas company that was under investigation. Tapper pointed to testimony from Trump administration officials who said 'corruption' was code for those two things." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Trump's defenders are now trying to pretend that it was not Trump who held up Ukraine military aid. Mulvaney or somebody else is the perp. Republicans have repeatedly pointed out that most witnesses have offered no first-hand testimony that fingers Trump as the person who called for the hold (although Sondland did when he changed his testimony). Johnson just blew that fake cover story. Early last month, Johnson "told the Wall Street Journal that Gordon Sondland ... told him the Ukraine aid, which is part of the country’s defenses against Russia, was being linked to Trump’s desire to have Zelenskiy’s team investigate the 2016 U.S. elections."

Lev Sings! ... Uh, Maybe Off-key. Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: “Not long before the Ukrainian president was inaugurated in May, [Lev Parnas,] an associate of Rudolph W. Giuliani’s, journeyed to Kiev to deliver a warning to the country’s new leadership, a lawyer for the associate said.... Parnas told a representative of the incoming government that it had to announce an investigation into Mr. Trump’s political rival, Joseph R. Biden Jr., and his son, or else Vice President Mike Pence would not attend the swearing-in of the new president, and the United States would freeze aid, the lawyer said. The claim by Mr. Parnas, who is preparing to share his account with impeachment investigators, challenges the narrative of events from Mr. Trump and Ukrainian officials that is at the core of the congressional inquiry. It also directly links Mr. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, to threats of repercussions made to the Ukrainians, something he has strenuously denied. But Mr. Parnas’s account, while potentially significant, is being contradicted on several fronts.... Mr. Parnas stands alone in saying the intention [of the meeting] was to present an ultimatum to the Ukrainian leadership. Another participant in the meeting, Mr. Parnas’s business partner, Igor Fruman, said Mr. Parnas’s claim was false; the men never raised the issues of aid or the vice president’s attendance at the inauguration, lawyers for Mr. Fruman said. Mr. Giuliani ... [said,] 'Categorically, I did not tell him to say that,' Mr. Giuliani said.” ~~~  

     ~~~ Update: The Raw Story has a summary of the NYT report.

Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: “Former national security adviser John Bolton’s advisers and allies were taken aback to learn late Friday that [White House chief-of-staff Mick] Mulvaney had gone to court seeking to join a separation-of-powers lawsuit filed against Trump and the House leadership, according to people familiar with their views.... The suit was filed by Bolton’s former deputy, Charles Kupperman, who is asking a federal judge to determine whether a congressional subpoena takes precedence over a White House order not to comply with the inquiry. Bolton is willing to testify if the judge rules in favor of the House, The Washingon Post previously reported. People close to Bolton and Kupperman said the two were flabbergasted by Mulvaney’s surprise request to join the lawsuit because they and others on the national security team considered Mulvaney a critical player in the effort to get the Ukrainian government to pursue investigations into Trump’s political opponents. Bolton views Mulvaney as a key participant in the pressure campaign, a situation that the then-national security adviser referred to derisively as 'a drug deal,' according to congressional testimony by his aides. The two men were barely on speaking terms when Bolton left his post in September, according to White House officials.”

You're Fired! Vindman to Be "Streamlined" Off the NSC. It's Obama's Fault. Cristina Cabrera of TPM: “On Sunday, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who gave a bombshell testimony in the House impeachment investigation last month on ... Donald Trump’s Ukraine scheme, will be removed from his post at the White House National Security Council. 'Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, who has testified under oath, is serving on the National Security Council currently,' CBS News’s 'Face the Nation' host Margaret Brennan said during her interview with O’Brien. 'Will he continue to work for you despite testifying against the President?' 'Well look, one of the things that I’ve talked about is that we’re streamlining the National Security Council,' O’Brien replied. 'It got bloated to like 236 people up from 100 in the Bush administration under President Obama.' The national security adviser said Vindman, who currently serves as the council’s Director for European Affairs, will be removed as a part of the White House’s 'streamlining' efforts.” More on O'Brien's “Face the Nation” interview linked below. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I wonder if this is the first Col. Vindman has heard he was being "streamlined" out.

Zachary Basu of Axios: "Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told CBS' Margaret Brennan on Sunday that the impeachment inquiry has uncovered evidence of an 'extortion scheme ... using taxpayer dollars to ask a foreign government to investigate the president's opponent' ... involving President Trump withholding military aid to Ukraine to pressure its government to investigate his political opponents.... Democrats believe they already have enough evidence to impeach Trump and sent the case to the Senate for a trial, even without hearing from the White House witnesses who have refused to cooperate with the inquiry."

GOP Prepares Looney-Tunes Trump Defense. Michael Shear & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "House Republicans on Saturday offered the latest glimpse of their strategy to fight against impeachment by demanding testimony from figures at the center of President Trump’s favorite unsubstantiated theories: the son of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a researcher loosely connected to an anti-Trump dossier, a Democratic official and a board member of a Ukrainian energy company. Rather than shy away from conspiracies that Mr. Trump’s own government has repeatedly disavowed or played down, the Republicans’ requests suggest their willingness to conduct a scorched-earth strategy as they respond to nearly a month of blockbuster revelations about pressure campaigns involving military aid, diplomatic shakedowns and rogue actions by the president’s personal lawyer.... At the same time, the party is preparing to vigorously contest the Democratic case for impeachment on its own terms, people familiar with the plans said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't get it. Why aren't they subpoenaing Hillary? Clearly, she's the mastermind behind the Ukraine server scandal. And Obama? He tapped Trump's wires, for Pete's sake. ~~~

~~~ Asha Rangappa in a Washington Post op-ed: “Just under the deadline, Republicans turned in on Saturday the list of witnesses they’d like to have testify at impeachment hearings beginning this week. Among them is Hunter Biden..., who Trump wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate as a condition of getting U.S. military aid. In listing Biden as a witness, the GOP may hope to build a defense that shifts the focus to alleged wrongdoing by the former vice president rather than by Trump. But what Trump alleges against [Joe] Biden is exactly what he is being accused of himself — which makes any defense of his actions focused on the Bidens internally inconsistent, and ultimately just helps make the case for impeachment.... The idea there would be that as long as Trump was acting even in part in the public interest (that is, 'fighting corruption'), then any personal benefit that he might receive as a result — say, in the form of election assistance because of a public smear on his potential opponent — is ancillary and irrelevant. The problem is that ... the 'good faith' standard Trump hopes to argue would apply equally to Joe Biden.” Mrs. McC: As if taking a position that is "internally inconsistent" ever bothered a Republican. ~~~

~~~ Your Guide to GOP Anti-Impeachment Arguments. New York Times Editors: “... instead of considering the testimony, many Republicans have chosen reflexively to defend Mr. Trump — not an easy task in the face of such strong evidence of inexcusable behavior. Here’s a field guide to some of the lines of attack that Republicans have used so far: There was no quid pro quo.... How could it have been a quid pro quo if the Ukrainians didn’t know about it?... It’s all just hearsay. And the whistle-blower is a partisan Democrat.... It was a quid pro quo. But so what? This happens all the time.... It was a quid pro quo, but President Trump was only interested in rooting out corruption in Ukraine.... It was a quid pro quo, but Mr. Trump had nothing to do with it.... Fine. It was a quid pro quo. Trump ordered it. He did so for his own political benefit. The Ukrainians knew about it. That’s bad, but it’s not an impeachable offense.... It wasn’t a real quid pro quo because the Trump administration is too disorganized to pull off such a scheme....'I hardly know the gentleman.'...   This is a coup by the Deep State! A decorated American soldier is a Ukrainian agent! The witnesses who have testified are 'Never Trumpers'!” The Editors knock down on laugh off every GOP excuse. ~~~

Via @MontyBoa99~~~ The Fair & Impartial Juror. Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) doubled down on his defense of President Trump amid the ongoing impeachment inquiry.... 'You make your mind up about the phone call. I made my mind up. There's nothing there,' Graham said in an interview Saturday with KCCI, a Des Moines CBS affiliate.... He told CBS News last week he won't read the transcripts released of witness depositions. 'I've written the whole process off,' he said." ~~~

     ~~~ David of Crooks & Liars: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) argued that he will consider any impeachment 'invalid' unless it exposes the identity of the whistleblower who outed Donald Trump's extortion of Ukraine. While speaking to Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Graham suggested that the Senate does not have to fulfill its constitutional obligations to try the Donald Trump if the House impeachment is deemed 'invalid.' Graham praised Republicans in the House who have called on both the whistleblower and Hunter Biden ...  to testify. 'I consider any impeachment in the House that doesn't allow us to know who the whistleblower is to be invalid,' the South Carolina senator declared. 'Because without the whistleblower complaint, we wouldn't be talking about any of this.'" Mrs. McC: Well then, Democrats should definitely out the whistleblower, because then Lindsey will be fair & impartial. ~~~

"First, Kill All the Lawyers." -- Jesus Dick the Butcher. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Ignorant) confuses Jesus with Will Shakespeare, completely misunderstands context of citation, thus unwittingly (and we do mean unwittingly) condemning the current Man Who Would Be King. Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post reports; Twitter retorts. Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link. Mrs. McC: I was wondering if Blackburn, like nearly half the members of Congress, was a lawyer herself. Nope, but "She is a former beauty-pageant winner." Wouldn't you know it, Blackburn's first claim to fame was becoming the Oil Festival Queen in Laurel, Mississippi, maybe in 1969.

Jacob Knutson of Axios: "President Trump tweeted or retweeted 82 times on Saturday while flying to and from a collegiate football game in Alabama.... Many of the president's tweets were fighting back against the House's impeachment inquiry into allegations that he withheld congressionally approved military aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political opponents. The House will hold its first public impeachment hearings this week."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Doesn't Fox "News" Have a Seven-second Delay? Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway caused a scene on Sunday morning when she purposely named the alleged whistleblower at the center of the impeachment inquiry against President Trump, seemingly breaking the network’s policy of identifying the person. Amid a concerted effort by Trump’s allies to publicly out the whistleblower who filed the complaint about Trump’s infamous July 25 call with the Ukrainian president, right-wing media outlets have touted an online report purportedly sharing the identity of the person. Mainstream media outlets and social media platforms, meanwhile, have refrained from spreading the person’s name.... Hemingway — who is also the senior editor of right-wing website The Federalist — took part in a panel discussion on whether or not the press should reveal the alleged whistleblower’s name and identity.... Host Howard Kurtz, clearly startled, immediately shot back that he didn't know if that person was actually the whistleblower."

Trump Lit Corner, Ctd.

Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: “Two of President Trump’s senior advisers undermined and ignored him in what they claimed was an effort to 'save the country,' former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley claims in a new memoir. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly sought to recruit her to work around and subvert Trump, but she refused, Haley writes in a new book, “With All Due Respect.'... 'Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country,' Haley wrote. 'It was their decisions, not the president’s, that were in the best interests of America, they said. The president didn’t know what he was doing,' Haley wrote of the views the two men held.... In the book, which was obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its release Tuesday, Haley offers only glancing critiques of her former boss, saying she and others who worked for Trump had an obligation to carry out his wishes since he was the one elected by voters.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Here's a related story by CBS News. The part about Tillerson & Kelly is pretty far down the page. ~~~

~~~ Matt Stieb of New York: "The self-serving genre of Trump administration officials writing books or dancing with stars in order to reframe their time in the White House will gain its most self-serving entry to date on Tuesday with the publication of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s With All Due Respect. In a copy of the book obtained by the Washington Post, Haley creates a convenient distance from the president on some of his worst impulses, while staying in his corner on matters that remain popular among the GOP base. Establishing herself as a hero of the cantankerous administration, Haley has found her villains in former Chief of Staff John Kelly and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The thing is, Republicans consider self-service to be a virtue. Public service, not so much. Nikki Haley is as canny at self-service as they come. Because she's attractive and smart AND as ruthless as the very unattractive Mitch McConnell, she would be a dangerous president indeed. Stieb sees Haley as a 2024 contender, but if by chance Trump should be involuntarily retired before November 2020, Haley has put herself in position to step into the void. (This would require her to dig her stilettos into the prone corpus of mike pence, and she'll do so with a winsome smile.)

Maybe They Just Like to Chant. Andrew Gumbel of the Guardian: “Donald Trump Jr ventured on to the University of California’s overwhelmingly liberal Los Angeles campus on Sunday, hoping to prove what he had just argued in his book – that a hate-filled American left was hell-bent on silencing him and anyone else who supported the Trump presidency. But the appearance backfired when his own supporters, diehard Make America Great Again conservatives, raised their voices most loudly in protest and ended up drowning him out barely 20 minutes into an event scheduled to last two hours. The audience was angry that Trump Jr and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, would not take questions. The loud shouts of 'USA! USA!' that greeted Trump when he first appeared on the stage of a university lecture hall to promote his book Triggered: How The Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us quickly morphed into even louder, openly hostile chants of 'Q and A! Q and A!'”

Zack Budryk of the Hill: “National security adviser Robert O’Brien on Sunday defended the U.S. response to Turkey’s incursion into northern Syria, adding that the Trump administration is 'very upset' about Ankara's purchase of Russian missiles.... O’Brien said on CBS’s 'Face the Nation,' ... that 'there will likely be sanctions' if Turkey does not 'get rid of' the weapons.' 'There’s no place in NATO for the S-400 [missile defense system], there’s no place in NATO for significant Russian military purchases, and that’s a message that the president will deliver to [President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] very clearly when he’s here in Washington,' O’Brien added. O’Brien similarly said the U.S. remains 'very concerned' about possible Turkish war crimes in northern Syria, insisting 'we’re not rewarding the behavior, the president put on sanctions.' Host Margaret Brennan noted, however, that the sanctions were lifted after the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Turkey and Kurdish forces.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If Trump talks turkey to Erdogan this week, it will be a first. More likely, Trump with slobber all over Erdogan, who is on Trump's top-ten list of favorite autocratic world leaders.

Rishika Dugyala of Politico: “The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff doesn’t see a clear end to the American presence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria — nations facing down the threat of the Islamic State and other dangerous groups. Gen. Mark Milley on Sunday said the mission to ensure Afghanistan isn’t a terrorist haven is 'not yet complete.' That mission won’t be complete until the country’s government and security forces are able to sustain their own internal security, he added.... Milley said Sunday that around 500 to 600 troops remain in the area and acknowledged the possibility of an ISIS reemergence without maintaining pressure.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Stephanie Taylor of the Tuscaloosa News: "A Donald Trump supporter slashed the Baby Trump balloon on display at Monnish Park Saturday that protesters were using to protest the president’s visit to Tuscaloosa. Hoyt Hutchinson, 32, was charged with felony first-degree criminal mischief Saturday after Tuscaloosa Police officers witnessed him use a knife to cut an eight-foot gash in the 20-foot-high, 13-foot-wide inflatable. The Tuscaloosa County man posted a Facebook Live video, announcing his plans to damage the inflatable that depicts Trump as a crying baby wearing a diaper and holding a cellphone. He had bonded out and was watching the game by the third quarter, asking for people to contribute to one of the many GoFundMe accounts set up for anticipated legal fees." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race 2020

Chas Danner of New York: “The only good news for potential presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg over the weekend was that a Morning Consult poll published Sunday found that he would defeat Trump by 6 points in a hypothetical general election matchup.... The bad news? If anyone out there in the electorate is clamoring for Bloomberg to enter the presidential race, they probably aren’t a Democrat. Only 4 percent of Democratic primary voters reached by Morning Consult said that the well-known billionaire would be their first choice in the contest. Even worse, 25 percent of those voters said they already held an unfavorable view of the former Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat — meaning Bloomberg would start out late as the least popular candidate in the Democratic field.... Axios reported Sunday that the data-obsessed Bloomberg’s 'very extensive' internal polling 'remains far from convincing' and 'shows big, perhaps insurmountable hurdles, particularly if Joe Biden stays in [the race]' — which he obviously will.... So 'Baby Trump' may not have been the only balloon that got stabbed this weekend.” Danner also rounds up negative responses to Bloomberg's candidacy from Sanders & Warren & Klobuchar. But Jeff Bezos likes Mike! ~~~

~~~ Bloomberg's Reign of Terror. Charles Blow of the New York Times: "No black person — or Hispanic person or ally of people of color — should ever even consider voting for Michael Bloomberg in the primary. His expansion of the notoriously racist stop-and-frisk program in New York, which swept up millions of innocent New Yorkers, primarily young black and Hispanic men, is a complete and nonnegotiable deal killer. Stop-and-frisk, pushed as a way to get guns and other contraband off the streets, became nothing short of a massive, enduring, city-sanctioned system of racial terror. This system of terror exploded under Bloomberg, with his full advocacy and support."

Congressional Races 2020

Kyle Balluck of the Hill: “Longtime Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) announced Monday that he will not seek reelection next year. King said in a statement on Facebook that 'after 28 years of spending 4 days a week in Washington, D.C., it is time to end the weekly commute and be home in Seaford.'... A wave of House GOP retirements is creating headaches for party leaders and suggesting Republicans see little chance of winning back the chamber in 2020. So far, almost two dozen Republicans have announced this cycle that they are retiring from the lower chamber, resigning or running for other offices.” The New York Times story is here.

Dante Chinni of NBC News: "When Trump arrived in the White House in 2017, there were 241 Republicans ... in the House of Representatives. Today, 100 of them have gone or have announced that they are leaving. That's 41 percent of that original 241 in the 115th House. To be clear, that's not congressional seats lost; that's a measure of actual people, the personalities that once roamed the halls of Congress that aren't there anymore. They left for a range of reasons. Some left to take administration appointments, some lost, and some just walked away." Mrs. McC: And Peter King makes that 101 good-byes.

Adam Serwer of the Atlantic sees parallels between the post-U.S. Civil War period and today. It ain't pretty: "The election of Donald Trump, and the complete dominance of the Republican Party both in the federal government and in the states, may usher in a new era of Redemption, one which could see the seemingly astounding racial progress of having a black president relegated to little more than symbolism.... It seems ... likely that some day, Americans will look back at the Obama era much as historians have now come to look at Reconstruction: As a tragic moment of lost promise, a failed opportunity to build a more just and equitable society." Thanks to Anonymous for the link.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Bolivia. Kay Guerrero & Dakin Andone of CNN: "Bolivian President Evo Morales resigned Sunday amid growing opposition after an international audit found the results of last month's election could not be validated due to 'serious irregularities.'... Demonstrators and the Bolivian opposition had accused electoral authorities of manipulating the vote count in favor of Morales, the country's longtime socialist leader. Morales denied the allegations, but declared himself the winner. Morales was one of the longest-serving heads of state in Latin America. He had served nearly 14 years and was Bolivia's first indigenous president." The New York Times story is here.

Hong Kong. Alice Fung of the AP: “Hong Kong’s leader pledged on Monday to 'spare no effort' in bringing an end to anti-government protests that have wracked the city for more than five months, following a day of violence in which one person was shot and another set on fire. Carrie Lam’s comments are likely to fuel speculation that harsher legal and police measures may be in the works to curb the protests.... In a widely distributed video, a police officer is shown shooing away a group of protesters at an intersection Monday morning, then drawing his gun on a masked protester in a white hooded sweatshirt who approaches him. As the two struggle, another protester in black approaches, at whom the officer points his gun. He then fires at the stomach area of the second protester, who falls to the ground. The officer appeared to fire again as a third protester in black joined the tussle.... Police said that only one protester was hit and that he was undergoing surgery. The Hong Kong hospital authority said the person was initially in critical condition but was stable after surgery.” The New York Times story is here.