The Ledes

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Washington Post: “The five-day space voyage known as Polaris Dawn ended safely Sunday as four astronauts aboard a SpaceX Dragon splashed down off the coast of Florida, wrapping up a groundbreaking commercial mission. Polaris Dawn crossed several historic landmarks for civilian spaceflight as Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur and adventurer, performed the first spacewalk by a private citizen, followed by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis.”

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The New York Times lists Emmy winners.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Sunday
Sep222019

The Commentariat -- September 23, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Hahahaha. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: :... Donald Trump on Monday revived his beef with the selection committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize, claiming that the process is rigged against him. Speaking to reporters before a bilateral meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Trump asserted that 'I would get a Nobel prize for a lot of things, if they give it out fairly, which they don't.'" Mrs. McC: Yeah, when the Nobel committee starts giving out the prize for people who promote international discord, you'll win, Donaldo.

Trump Keeps Expanding His Admissions re: Ukraine. Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President Trump on Monday defended his efforts to urge the Ukrainian president to investigate a leading political rival for corruption, arguing that the United States should not give money to a government that tolerates it.... Speaking to reporters at the United Nations headquarters in New York, Mr. Trump declined to address questions about whether he temporarily withheld $391 million in military aid to Kiev as part of an effort to push the government to comply with his demands for an investigation into Mr. Biden and his family. But Mr. Trump appeared to argue that such an action would not be inappropriate. 'If you don't talk about corruption, why would you give money to a country that you think is corrupt?' he said.... 'What Biden did is a disgrace. What his son did is a disgrace,' Mr. Trump said. Between events at the United Nations complex, Mr. Trump also tweeted an attack against his accusers as 'stone cold Crooked.' And he implied that an unnamed intelligence community whistle-blower who filed a secret complaint about his behavior ... might be a traitor: 'Is he on our Country's side,' Mr. Trump wrote. 'Where does he come from.'" Here's the Hill's story. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As you can see, Trump is well-past the place where he started, calling the whole story "fake news" & now into admitting he discussed Biden on the phone call in which -- however obliquely -- he tried to twist Zelensky's arm to investigate the Bidens by holding back aid to Ukraine. AND we still don't know the content of the whistleblower's complaint. This is a pattern with Trump & his apologists: deny, hedge, admit, defend (with a phony excuse) & accuse others. And a lady in Ohio still thinks Trump is "trustworthy." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... on Monday, Trump appeared to inch ever closer to admitting the underlying allegation raised by that same whistleblower."

Stephanie Ebbs of ABC News: "Leaders from around the world are set to discuss climate change on Monday at a United Nations summit in what one U.N. official said could be a 'slingshot' to catalyze global action toward reducing emissions and limiting global warming.... Donald Trump was not scheduled to attend but showed up unexpectedly Monday morning." ~~~

~~~ "There Is No Planet B." Justin Moyer, et al., of the Washington Post: "Climate change protesters shut down some intersections from Capitol Hill to downtown Washington Monday morning in the latest of rallies around the world designed to force policymakers to respond to Earth's rising temperatures. Organizers of Shut Down DC urged 'climate rebels' to flood the District's streets Monday to bring 'the whole city to a gridlocked standstill,' according to the group's website. The website included a map of so-called 'climate criminals' that includes 'corporations, lobbyists, trade cartels, and government institutions that are most responsible for creating the climate crisis.'"

Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said Sunday that Iran would not resume talks with ... Donald Trump and his administration until a French plan to extend $15 billion of credit to Tehran goes into full effect.... Iran has been in conversations with French President Emmanuel Macron for weeks about the possibility of accessing billions of dollars fro either the French central bank or the European Central Bank to compensate for the money Iran lost in oil sales due to American sanctions.... On CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday, [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo said: 'I don't know why anyone listens to the Iranian foreign minister. It's beneath the dignity of anyone to listen to him.'" ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So Pompeo is the U.S.'s top "diplomat," and he's insulting Zarif, his Iranian counterpart. Okay. BUT Eleanor Mueller of Politico: "... Donald Trump 'would like a diplomatic solution' with Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday. 'Our mission set is to avoid war. That's the task in front of us,' Pompeo said on 'Fox News Sunday.' 'That's what we've been aiming for for a little over two years now, with the strongest sanctions that have ever been put in place against this revolutionary regime.'" Note to Mike: You know, if it's "beneath your dignity" (as if a Trumpy flunkie has any dignity) to listen to Iran's top "diplomat," you're not all that likely to get a "diplomatic solution."

Burgess Everett of Politico: "Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is requesting that the Republican Senate conduct hearings and issue a subpoena to the Trump administration in response to a whistleblower complaint about ... Donald Trump's alleged request that Ukraine investigate one of his political opponents. In a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday morning, the New York Democrat said the Senate should hold hearings regarding any connection between delayed aid to Ukraine and Trump's reported request that the country probe the son of former Vice President Joe Biden...."

Thomas Elfrink of the Washington Post: "Hours after appearing to confirm that he had discussed former vice president Joe Biden and his son with Ukraine's president in an exchange at the center of a whistleblower complaint, President Trump took to Twitter on Sunday night to insist again that he had done nothing wrong on a 'nice' call with the foreign leader and to slam his Democratic rival. The tweets came after a full day of attacks against the Democratic presidential nominee by Trump administration officials and allies who demanded investigations of Biden and his son Hunter despite a lack of evidence of wrongdoing.... Trump repeated those claims on Sunday night, again without any evidence, writing, 'Sleepy Joe Biden, on the other hand, forced a tough prosecutor out from investigating his son's company by threat of not giving big dollars to Ukraine.'"

Judd Legum of Popular Information: "The 'I Love America' Facebook page boasts 1.1 million fans ... [and] reaches more Facebook users than some of the largest media outlets in the United States.... Not mentioned is that the page is managed by ten people based in Ukraine. (There is also one manager from Kazakhstan, one from France, and one from the United States.)... The 'I Love America' page regularly recycles memes used by the Internet Research Agency, the Russian entity that set up phony Facebook pages to benefit Trump in advance of the 2016 election.... There is a complex network of Facebook pages, all managed by people in Ukraine ... that are now being used to funnel large audiences to pro-Trump propaganda. The pages have also joined political Facebook groups and are active on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.... A Facebook spokesperson told Popular Information that the company does not believe any of the Facebook pages discussed in this article violate its policies[.]"

Matthew Chapman of Raw Story: "A new report [PDF] from the Vietnam Veterans Association has uncovered an ongoing two-year effort by actors in several foreign countries, including Russia, to target U.S. veterans and servicemembers. The report shows that 'These foreign admins have created individual social-media accounts that purport to belong to American veterans working at reputable veterans organizations,'... and 'spread propaganda and false news, while shaping and moderating/censoring the conversations of the unsuspecting community of American veterans who follow or join these groups and pages.'" --s

Michael Wolgelenter of the New York Times: "The tour operator and airline Thomas Cook said on Monday that it had collapsed, forcing hundreds of thousands of travelers to scramble to find a way home, after last-minute negotiations to obtain necessary financing for the debt-ridden company fell apart.... The Civil Aviation Authority in Britain said that all Thomas Cook bookings, including flights and vacations, had been canceled, affecting an estimated 600,000 people around the world. The liquidation of the world's oldest travel company, which specialized in low-cost package vacations that included flights and accommodation in more than 60 destinations around the world, has set in motion what was being described as the biggest peacetime repatriation in British history, as the government announced plans to bring back 150,000 Britons." The NBC News story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Treason, Bribery, or Other High Crimes," Ctd.

Nicholas Fandos, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump acknowledged on Sunday that he raised corruption accusations against former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. during a phone call with Ukraine's leader, a stunning admission as pressure mounted on Democrats to impeach Mr. Trump over allegations he leaned on a foreign government to help damage a political rival. In public and in private, many Democrats said the evidence that has emerged in recent days indicating that Mr. Trump pushed the Ukrainian government to investigate Mr. Biden, and his administration's stonewalling of attempts by Congress to learn more, were changing their calculations about whether to charge him with articles of impeachment.... A group of moderate freshman lawmakers who had been opposed to an impeachment inquiry said they were considering changing course, while other Democrats who had reluctantly supported one amplified their calls."

Alan Smith of NBC News: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday assailed the Trump administration's efforts to block a whistleblower complaint involving ... Donald Trump's apparent effort to have Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his family. In a letter to colleagues Sunday, Pelosi said the administration 'will be entering a grave new chapter of lawlessness which will take us into a whole new stage of investigation' if acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire fails to provide the complaint when he testifies in front of the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday. Pelosi's "Dear Colleague" letter is here. ...

     "'... I don't know whether the whistleblower complaint is on [the Ukraine] allegation but if it is and even if it isn't, why doesn't the president just say "release the whistleblower complaint?'" [House Intelligence Chair Adam] Schiff told CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'Clearly, he's afraid for the public to see either one of those things and we're determined to make sure the public does, the nation is protected.'... Schiff said there should be no privilege afforded to discussions that 'involve potential corruption or criminality.' 'This would be the most profound violation of the presidential oath of office certainly during this presidency, which says a lot, but perhaps just about during any presidency,' Schiff said. 'There is no privilege that covers corruption. No privilege to engage in underhanded discussions.' Schiff added that the 'only remedy' to such behavior is impeachment.... Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., told 'Meet The Press' that while he didn't 'know the context' of the phone call between Trump and Zelensky or 'what was said,' 'it is not appropriate for any candidate" to 'ask for assistance from a foreign government.'" ~~~

I'm hoping the president can share, in an appropriate way, information to deal with the drama around the phone call. I think it would be good for the country if we could deal with it. -- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), cited in the Fandos, et al., story linked above

Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said on Sunday it would be 'troubling in the extreme' if President Trump urged Ukrainian officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. 'If the President asked or pressured Ukraine's president to investigate his political rival, either directly or through his personal attorney, it would be troubling in the extreme. Critical for the facts to come out,' Romney tweeted."

Rachel Bade of the Washington Post: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff said House Democrats may have to impeach President Trump following allegations that he pressured Ukraine to investigate a political adversary, a change in tone for the senior Democrat who has long been cautious about efforts to oust the president. Schiff (Calif.) said on CNN's 'State of the Union' on Sunday that Trump's request that a Ukrainian leader investigate a business connected to former vice president Joe Biden's son would be 'the most profound violation of the presidential oath of office.' Compounding that, he said, is the director of national intelligence's unwillingness to turn over a recent whistleblower complaint about a call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which he said could amount to a 'coverup.'" The Axios story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The integrity of our democracy isn't threatened when a president breaks the law. It's threatened when we do nothing about it. The GOP's silence & refusal to act shouldn't be a surprise. Ours is. -- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in a tweet

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump told reporters on Sunday that he would consider releasing a transcript of his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which is said to be the subject of an intelligence community whistleblower complaint. 'We'll make a determination about how to release it, releasing it, saying what we said,' Trump said in Houston, defending his conversation with Zelensky as 'perfect.' His remarks came hours after the president suggested that he had discussed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden during the call.... Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on ABC's 'This Week' earlier Sunday that releasing the contents of the call would not be appropriate 'except in the most extreme circumstances.'" Mrs. McC: It's an "extreme circumstance," Mike, when the POTUS* pressures a foreign leader to do a fake investigation on POTUS*'s political opponent. As for Trump's considering releasing the transcript, he's still considering releasing his taxes. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Oh, I guess I was wrong. Here's the transcript, as released with redactions for national security reasons: "Yo, Volo, I hear you'r a comedian. Say something funny." [Redacted] "Nice talking to you, Volo."

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump suggested Sunday that he mentioned former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter in a phone call with the leader of Ukraine, amid swirling questions about whether Trump sought to use his influence to seek reelection help from a foreign country.... 'The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place, was largely the fact that we don't want our people, like Vice President Biden and his son, creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine,' Trump told reporters. 'And Ukraine, Ukraine's got a lot of problems.'... The president's apparent confirmation that he mentioned Biden on the call came as his allies scrambled to deny that he did so.... Rudolph W. Giuliani ... said in a phone call with The Washington Post Sunday morning that he ... will 'keep pushing and pushing' to highlight the Biden family's finances. He alluded to new materials he may cite this week, but declined to offer specifics. When asked if Trump has given Giuliani's efforts his blessing, Giuliani said, 'I don't do anything that involves my client without speaking with my client.'" A Rolling Stone item is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Munchkin's Bad Day

~~~ Oops! Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin found himself in a rhetorical trap of his own making on Sunday when CNN's Jake Tapper cornered the treasury chief as he defended ... Donald Trump's efforts to pressure the Ukrainian president to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. '... if for instance, President Obama had pressured a foreign leader, Putin or the president of Ukraine, [and] anyone said "I want you to look into Donald Trump Jr., or I want you to look into Eric Trump," international businessmen, both of them, would you not find that inappropriate?' Tapper asked. 'I'm not going to speculate on that,' Mnuchin replied. 'What I do find inappropriate is the fact that Vice President Biden -- at the time's -- son did very significant business dealings in Ukraine. I, for one, find that to be concerning and to me that is the issue perhaps that should be further investigated.' The CNN anchor ... said he didn't understand Mnuchin's answer because it appeared he was saying it is 'okay for Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump to do business all over the world and okay for Ivanka Trump to have copyrights approved all over the world while President Trump is president and while Joe Biden is vice president his son shouldn't be able to do business dealings.'" Mnuchin replied, "homina homina." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Mystery Money. Mrs. McCrabbie: This AP story from 10 days ago slipped right by me: "Ukraine's president said Friday that the United States hasn't only released $250 million in military aid to his country but will also extend an additional $140 million.... The Trump administration said Thursday that it has released $250 million in military aid to Ukraine that had been held up. It didn't mention additional funds." The story, which appeared in multiple outlets, is often accompanied by a photo of Zelensky looking puzzled. ~~~

     ~~~ Chuck Todd (or His Producers) Was Puzzled, too. Christina Zhao of Newsweek: "'Explain how, all of a sudden, when the aid got released, more money showed up. Where did that money come from?' Todd asked Mnuchin during a segment on NBC's Meet the Press. 'There was $250 million and they got an additional $140 million that they didn't expect. Do you have any idea where that came from?' 'It was appropriated money, it came through the State Department,' the Treasury Secretary responded. 'They didn't know they were getting this money. Is there any indication why they got the money when they did?' Todd pressed, to which Mnuchin shot back: 'I'm not sure it's correct for you to say they didn't know they got the money.' 'The president [of Ukraine] said he was surprised to get it,' Todd explained.... 'I think he was referring to his expectations as opposed to necessarily a surprise,' Mnuchin said. 'You're getting into details again. These are foreign policy issues. They've been discussed at the National Security Council at the principles level. These were not connected issues.'" Mrs. McC: Looks suspiciously like a quid or a quo to me.

Missions Accomplished. We're maybe hours from learning the promise Trump made and to which leader, less than 24 from him calling it fake news, two days away from Republicans being 'troubled,' three away from the WH admitting the story is true but Trump was 'joking,' four from the GOP falling into line. -- Brian Beutler, in a tweet Wednesday night

Step 1. "Learning to which leader Trump talked." This is only a half-check, because we don't know the promise Trump made & we're not sure Zelensky was the only foreign leader to whom Trump made inappropriate overtures. However, Steve Mnuchin's mysterious "bonus" check of $140MM to Ukraine could have something to do with the "promise."

Step 2. Trump's "calling it fake news" within 24 hours.

Step 3. A couple of Republicans -- Toomey, Romney (& Graham, sort of) -- are "troubled" within three days.

Step 4. Trump (and Giuliani) admitted to reporters the story was true within three days. He did not say he was "joking" but he has repeatedly said things like his conversation with Zelensky was "perfect" and "beautiful" & Pompeo said the phone conversation was "100 percent appropriate" and "100 percent lawful."

Step 5. "The GOP falling into line" (most have skipped right over Step 3 -- "being 'troubled'" -- & gone directly to Step 5).

Renato Mariotti in a Politico Magazine opinion piece: "What Trump is alleged to have done is not a garden variety crime; it's worse. It involved misusing $250 million in aid appropriated by Congress for his benefit -- the kind of gross misconduct that easily clears the bar of high crimes and misdemeanors set by the Constitution when impeaching a president. Which means the best way to hold Trump accountable for that misconduct isn't a criminal trial; it's for Congress to impeach him.... Labeling Trump's alleged conduct as 'bribery' or 'extortion' cheapens what is alleged to have occurred and does not capture what makes it wrongful. It's not a crime -- it's a breach of the president's duty not to use the powers of the presidency to benefit himself. And he invited a foreign nation to influence the 2020 election on the heels of a nearly three-year investigation that proved Russia had tried to influence the last presidential election. No one should expect law enforcement to act if our elected representatives are unwilling to do so." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Jim Fallows of the Atlantic: An "as-if-we'd-learned-nothing-from-2016 case of false equivalence ... is unfolding before our eyes. This is 'the Ukraine problem.' Specifically, this is the idea that whatever Donald Trump may be guilty of, involving that country, is journalistically and historically comparable to whatever Joe Biden's son Hunter may have done there. Already leading media outlets have begun lumping these stories together. 'Scrutiny over Trump's Ukraine scandal may also complicate Biden's campaign' was the headline on a big story in The Washington Post on Saturday. The day before that, a New York Times investigative reporter, Ken Vogel, went on MSNBC to argue that Ukraine complications were 'a significant liability for Joe Biden.' [Mrs. McC: Vogel has a big story in today's Times on 'Biden's work in Ukraine' with a picture of Joe Biden at the top, even though Joe Biden never did any work in Ukraine & legitimate reports have universally found the work he did on Ukraine was above reproach.] Guests on talk shows have, reflexively, wanted to 'balance' what they are saying about Trump-and-Ukraine, with observations about what Ukraine might mean for the Biden campaign."

Jonathan Chait: "On May 1, the New York Times published a story that contained the most important facets of the Ukraine story. The Times reported that President Trump, through his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was pressing Ukraine's government to investigate Joe Biden. And yet, having uncovered a massive scandal, the Times buried its own scoop.... Headlined 'Biden Faces Conflict of Interest Questions That Are Being Promoted by Trump and Allies,' the story [-- by Ken Vogel --] spun out a version of the narrative Giuliani has been trying to implant in the media.... And then, after a brief detour that casually reveals that the Biden story is the product of an extraordinary abuse of power by the president, it returns to a long unspooling of the Biden-Ukraine narrative. Even at the the time, and especially in retrospect, it was an example of extremely bizarre journalistic judgment. One of the biggest presidential scandals in history had been dropped into the Times' lap, and it relegated the news to a subplot to its main story of vague insinuations against Biden.... Trump sent Giuliani to undertake a campaign so scurrilous that even Giuliani conceded the immorality from the outset. ('There's nothing illegal about it,' he said in May; 'somebody could say it's improper.') He did so in the belief that Biden would ultimately sustain more damage. We will see if he was right."


David Leonhardt of the New York Times lists 40 objectionable things Trump has done in the run-up to his campaign, his campaign & his presidency. They're not all impeachable offenses (tho some are, IMO), but they're all terrible.

"Howdy, Modi." Trump Plays Second Sitar to His Fellow Dictator. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "The foreign strategy of soothing tensions with the United States by stroking President Trump's ego was put into vivid effect here Sunday when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lathered praise on his American counterpart at a massive rally celebrating the Indian diaspora. The leaders of the world's two largest democracies took the stage together in Houston before a roaring crowd of tens of thousands of Indian Americans, where Modi delivered an unmistakable endorsement of Trump's presidency and cast their joint appearance in historic terms.... Called 'Howdy, Modi!,' the event was staged to honor the prime minister and was billed as the largest gathering for an invited foreign leader other than the pope. Attendees, many of them from Texas’s large Indian community, packed into NRG Stadium.... Modi recently invited Trump to join him here, and the president agreed to be a special guest, but the signage and stagecraft made clear that Modi was the main attraction, with his image projected on large screens throughout the arena." ~~~

~~~ Authoritarians Stick Together. Jeremy Diamond, et al., of CNN: "The event was the first of two events on Sunday with foreign leaders in battleground states. After the rally, Trump flew to Wapakoneta, Ohio, to tour an Australian-owned cardboard manufacturing plant alongside Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who Trump feted with a state dinner on Friday. The events were an opportunity for both Modi and Morrison to show the US President they can deliver in ways that are especially appealing to Trump. In the critical battleground state of Ohio, Morrison was expected to demonstrate that his country is contributing to the US economy and creating manufacturing jobs as the two men tour a Pratt Industries manufacturing facility." ~~~

~~~ "Into the Gathering Darkness." Katharine Murphy, an Australian reporter for the Guardian, describes the Trump-Morrison event. "The evening air was heavy and there was an unpleasant smell -- fertiliser perhaps, something mildly awful. No one cared. They fell over one another and held their iPhones high as the presidential motorcade roared past, across the flat plains, past the water towers and the red barns and the billboards telling the damned of America to Repent and Follow the Word of Jesus Christ, into the gathering darkness.... "

Liz Ford of the Guardian: "The US is understood to have written to UN member states urging them to join a 'growing coalition' of countries rallying against abortion, in what seems to be the latest attempt by the Trump administration to rollback women's rights.... In the letter, apparently signed by the secretary of state Mike Pompeo and health and human services secretary Alex Azar, governments are encouraged to sign a joint statement opposing 'harmful' UN policies that promote sexual and reproductive health and rights.... The Trump administration has made repeated attempts to dilute and remove language from decades-old UN agreements. Intense lobbying by US officials in April resulted in the removal of references to sexual and reproductive health from a UN security council resolution on combatting rape in conflict. The US previously attempted to water down language and remove the word 'gender' from UN documents." --s

Congressional Races 2020. Rachel Bade of the Washington Post: Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.) decided to retire when Trump began attacking four of Mitchell's female colleagues of color & no one in the White House would listen to Mitchell's objections. "Mitchell is among a growing list of House Republicans -- 18 to date -- who have announced plans to resign, retire or run for another office, part of a snowballing exodus.... Since Trump's inauguration, a Washington Post analysis shows, nearly 40 percent of the 241 Republicans who were in office in January 2017 are gone or leaving because of election losses, retirements including former House speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), and some, such as Mitchell, who are simply quitting in disgust. The vast turnover is a reminder of just how much Trump has remade the GOP -- and of the purge of those who dare to oppose him."

Way Beyond the Beltway

David Halbfinger of the New York Times: "After 27 years of sitting out decisions on who should lead Israel, Arab lawmakers on Sunday recommended that Benny Gantz, the centrist former army chief, be given the first chance to form a government over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a watershed assertion of political power. Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Arab Joint List, wrote in a New York Times Op-Ed published on Sunday that the alliance's 13 incoming lawmakers — the third-largest faction in the newly elected Parliament -- had decided to recommend Mr. Gantz because it would 'create the majority needed to prevent another term for Mr. Netanyahu.' 'It should be the end of his political career,' Mr. Odeh wrote.... [Gantz] appears to lack a 61-seat majority even with the Joint List's support. He emerged from the election with 57 seats, including those of allies on the left and the Joint List, compared with 55 seats for Mr. Netanyahu and his right-wing allies." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

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Saturday
Sep212019

The Commentariat -- September 22, 2019

Afternoon Update:

The integrity of our democracy isn't threatened when a president breaks the law. It's threatened when we do nothing about it. The GOP's silence & refusal to act shouldn't be a surprise. Ours is. -- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in a tweet

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump told reporters on Sunday that he would consider releasing a transcript of his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which is said to be the subject of an intelligence community whistleblower complaint. 'We'll make a determination about how to release it, releasing it, saying what we said,' Trump said in Houston, defending his conversation with Zelensky as 'perfect.' His remarks came hours after the president suggested that he had discussed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden during the call.... Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on ABC's 'This Week' earlier Sunday that releasing the contents of the call would not be appropriate 'except in the most extreme circumstances.'" Mrs. McC: It's an "extreme circumstance," Mike, when the POTUS* pressures a foreign leader to do a fake investigation on POTUS*'s political opponent. As for Trump's considering releasing the transcript, he's still considering releasing his taxes. ~~~

     ~~~ Oh, I guess I was wrong. Here's the transcript, as released with redactions for national security reasons: "Yo, Volo, I hear you're a comedian. Say something funny." [Redacted] "Nice talking to you, Volo." ~~~

~~~ Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump suggested Sunday that he mentioned former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter in a phone call with the leader of Ukraine, amid swirling questions about whether Trump sought to use his influence to seek reelection help from a foreign country.... 'The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place, was largely the fact that we don't want our people, like Vice President Biden and his son, creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine,' Trump told reporters. 'And Ukraine, Ukraine's got a lot of problems.'... The president's apparent confirmation that he mentioned Biden on the call came as his allies scrambled to deny that he did so.... Rudolph W. Giuliani ... said in a phone call with The Washington Post Sunday morning that he ... will 'keep pushing and pushing' to highlight the Biden family's finances. He alluded to new materials he may cite this week, but declined to offer specifics. When asked if Trump has given Giuliani's efforts his blessing, Giuliani said, 'I don't do anything that involves my client without speaking with my client.'" A Rolling Stone item is here. ~~~

~~~ Rachel Bade of the Washington Post: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff said House Democrats may have to impeach President Trump following allegations that he pressured Ukraine to investigate a political adversary, a change in tone for the senior Democrat who has long been cautious about efforts to oust the president. Schiff (Calif.) said on CNN's 'State of the Union' on Sunday that Trump's request that a Ukrainian leader investigate a business connected to former vice president Joe Biden's son would be 'the most profound violation of the presidential oath of office.' Compounding that, he said, is the director of national intelligence's unwillingness to turn over a recent whistleblower complaint about a call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which he said could amount to a 'coverup.'" The Axios story is here. ~~~

~~~ Oops! Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin found himself in a rhetorical trap of his own making on Sunday when CNN's Jake Tapper cornered the treasury chief as he defended ... Donald Trump's efforts to pressure the Ukrainian president to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. '... if for instance, President Obama had pressured a foreign leader, Putin or the president of Ukraine, [and] anyone said "I want you to look into Donald Trump Jr., or I want you to look into Eric Trump," international businessmen, both of them, would you not find that inappropriate?' Tapper asked. 'I'm not going to speculate on that,' Mnuchin replied. "What I do find inappropriate is the fact that Vice President Biden -- at the time's -- son did very significant business dealings in Ukraine. I, for one, find that to be concerning and to me that is the issue perhaps that should be further investigated.' The CNN anchor ... said he didn't understand Mnuchin's answer because it appeared he was saying it is 'okay for Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump to do business all over the world and okay for Ivanka Trump to have copyrights approved all over the world while President Trump is president and while Joe Biden is vice president his son shouldn't be able to do business dealings.'" Mnuchin repliced, "homina homina." ~~~

~~~ Renato Mariotti in a Politico Magazine opinion piece: "What Trump is alleged to have done is not a garden variety crime; it's worse. It involved misusing $250 million in aid appropriated by Congress for his benefit -- the kind of gross misconduct that easily clears the bar of high crimes and misdemeanors set by the Constitution when impeaching a president. Which means the best way to hold Trump accountable for that misconduct isn't a criminal trial; it's for Congress to impeach him.... Labeling Trump's alleged conduct as 'bribery' or 'extortion' cheapens what is alleged to have occurred and does not capture what makes it wrongful. It's not a crime -- it's a breach of the president's duty not to use the powers of the presidency to benefit himself. And he invited a foreign nation to influence the 2020 election on the heels of a nearly three-year investigation that proved Russia had tried to influence the last presidential election. No one should expect law enforcement to act if our elected representatives are unwilling to do so."

David Halbfinger of the New York Times: "After 27 years of sitting out decisions on who should lead Israel, Arab lawmakers on Sunday recommended that Benny Gantz, the centrist former army chief, be given the first chance to form a government over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a watershed assertion of political power. Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Arab Joint List, wrote in a New York Times Op-Ed published on Sunday that the alliance's 13 incoming lawmakers -- the third-largest faction in the newly elected Parliament -- had decided to recommend Mr. Gantz because it would 'create the majority needed to prevent another term for Mr. Netanyahu.' 'It should be the end of his political career,' Mr. Odeh wrote.... [Gantz] appears to lack a 61-seat majority even with the Joint List's support. He emerged from the election with 57 seats, including those of allies on the left and the Joint List, compared with 55 seats for Mr. Netanyahu and his right-wing allies."

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More Trump Projection. The Fake News Media nowadays not only doesn't check for the accuracy of the facts, they knowingly make up the facts. They even make up sources in order to protect their partners, the Democrats. It is so wrong, but they don't even care anymore. They have gone totally CRAZY!!!! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet, at 8:04 pm ET Saturday ~~~

~~~ Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "President Trump began his weekend defending his 'perfectly fine and routine' conversation with the Ukrainian president in which he reportedly asked the foreign leader to investigate former vice president Joe Biden. In his tweets, Trump references his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but makes no mention of whether he brought up Biden during the conversation. Instead, he blames the news media for its coverage of the story.... He later tweeted that the news was an extension of the 'witch hunt' carried out by Democrats, his frequent reference to the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and firing of James B. Comey as FBI director.... Trump's comments echo a defense first laid out Thursday night by his personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani, who argued that the president could ask a foreign leader anything he wanted and that the real story was related to Biden's pressuring the Ukrainian government in 2016 to fire its top prosecutor who at the time happened to be investigating a company in which Biden's son, Hunter, had a stake." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ There are Hill stories here and here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Daniel Politi of Slate: "In the upside-down world of Donald Trump it seems that journalists covering a story is the same as the media ignoring a story. On Sunday [Mrs. McC: actually Saturday] morning, the president went on a Twitter rant in which he defended his July phone call with Ukraine's leader, Volodymyr Zelensky.... Trump insisted that the only reason news outlets are so focused on the story is to avoid covering what he characterizes as the real story involving Biden's son Hunter, who worked for a Ukrainian gas company.... Then, moments after complaining that 'the Fake News Media' are trying 'to stay as far away as possible' from covering the Biden story, the president tweeted a video that shows a compilation of journalists actually covering the story. The video is expressly meant to build up support for Trump's reelection campaign."

The most remarkable part of the Ukraine story is that it has Trump trying to collude with a foreign power to influence his next election shortly after the Special Counsel wrapped up its investigation of whether Trump colluded with a foreign power to influence the last one. -- Orin Kerr, in a tweet (The responses are good, too)

~~~ Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "For months this spring and summer, Ukraine's newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, tried to deflect pressure from President Trump and his allies to pursue investigations into former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Biden's son and other Trump rivals. The pressure was so relentless that Mr. Zelensky dispatched one of his closest aides to open a line of communication with Rudolph W. Giuliani.... On July 25, two weeks after the first call between Mr. Zelensky's aide, Andriy Yermak, and Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Zelensky had a call of his own with Mr. Trump.... In the weeks after the call, events unfolded rapidly in a way that alarmed some officials in both countries. They interpreted the discussions as dangling support to Ukraine in exchange for political beneficial investigations.... The situation has also highlighted Mr. Trump's grudge against Ukraine, a close ally that has long enjoyed bipartisan support as it seeks to build a stable democracy and hold off aggression from ... Russia.... Privately, Mr. Trump has had harsh words about Ukraine, a former Soviet state.... 'They're terrible people,' he said of Ukrainian politicians.... 'They're all corrupt and they tried to take me down.'... Only after Congress put intense bipartisan pressure on the administration did he release the military assistance package to Ukraine last week." ~~~

~~~ Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "[O]f all the scraps in which Giuliani has engaged in recent months, of all the obfuscations and verbal sleights of hand, this week's performance could prove the most damaging, both for him and for his White House buddy.... No fewer than three House committees this week launched investigations into the Trump-Giuliani efforts in Ukraine. Though not yet on the scale of Mueller's inquiry into whether Trump colluded with Russia, the new uproar bears chilling echoes of it.... For the past five months [Giuliani] has been telling anyone prepared to listen about his attempts to enlist Ukraine as a partner in Trump's re-election.... Under US law, it is categorically illegal for anybody to solicit the help of any foreign national -- let alone a government -- for a US election." --s ~~~

~~~ ** Rudy Giuliani Is a Big Fat Liar. Serhiy Leshchenko, a Ukrainian journalist & activist, in a Washington Post op-ed: "On Aug. 19, 2016, I convened a news conference in Kiev at which I revealed previously secret records [in the so-called 'black ledger'] of payments made by the former pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych to Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.... I have no doubt that Yanukovych paid Manafort for his services out of the funds he robbed from Ukrainian taxpayers.... President Trump's lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, the mouthpiece of this campaign, is not only attempting to rehabilitate Manafort but is also working to undermine U.S. relations with Ukraine.... Giuliani went on Fox News, where he [falsely] called me '[an enemy] of the president [and] of the United States.' This accusation ... cost me a job in the new administration. Not wanting to create problems for Zelensky, I withdrew from consideration.... Giuliani's entire approach is built on disinformation and the manipulation of facts.... In his May interview on Fox, Giuliani even [falsely] claimed that I was convicted of a corresponding crime.... Giuliani also persists in [falsely] claiming that the 'black ledger' is a fake. Giuliani has also been attacking the fearless activists from our Anti-Corruption Action Center, who managed to uphold their ideals even though they were persecuted by the previous government of President Petro Poroshenko." ~~~

~~~ Kaitlin Collins, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump's stance on Ukraine has evolved over the past year from one of general uninterest to a more engaged approach as he has discussed allegations of wrongdoing involving former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, people familiar with the matter said.... His approach to Ukraine melds political and national security concerns fanned by some of his closest advisers. Trump has raised the issue involving the former vice president and his son Hunter Biden repeatedly in private conversations and believes there is a political opportunity in further probing the matter.... He's been urged along by ... Rudy Giuliani.... 'He had never been concerned or interested in Ukraine,' one person familiar with Trump's thinking said.... Renewed engagement [this summer by John Bolton & other Trump advisors] happened to dovetail with Giuliani's efforts to convince Ukrainian officials to look into Biden and his son.... At the same time, the administration begin reviewing $250 million in foreign aid to Ukraine, initially placing a hold on the package that angered some in Congress.... Through it all, Trump's interactions and meetings on Ukraine have been treated with special sensitivity within the administration. The State Department never got extensive readouts of his calls."

~~~ Tom Nichols in the Atlantic: "The president of the United States reportedly sought the help of a foreign government against an American citizen who might challenge him for his office. This is the single most important revelation in a scoop by The Wall Street Journal, and if it is true, then ... Donald Trump should be impeached and removed from office immediately.... If this in itself is not impeachable, then the concept [of impeachment] has no meaning. Trump's grubby commandeering of the presidency's fearsome and nearly uncheckable powers in foreign policy for his own ends is a gross abuse of power and an affront both to our constitutional order and to the integrity of our elections.... The story may even be worse than we know. If Trump tried to use military aid to Ukraine as leverage, as reporters are now investigating, then he held Ukrainian and American security hostage to his political vendettas.... There is no spin, no deflection, no alternative theory of the case that can get around the central fact that President Trump reportedly attempted to use his office for his own gain, and that he put the foreign policy and the national security of the United States at risk while doing so." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2020

Brianne Pfannenstiel of the Des Moines Register: "Elizabeth Warren has surged in Iowa, narrowly overtaking Joe Biden and distancing herself from fellow progressive Bernie Sanders, the latest Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows. Warren, the U.S. senator from Massachusetts, now holds a 2-percentage-point lead, with 22% of likely Democratic caucusgoers saying she is their first choice for president. It is the first time she has led in the Register's poll. Former Vice President Biden, who had led each of the Register's three previous 2020 cycle polls, follows her at 20%. Sanders, the U.S. senator from Vermont, has fallen to third place with 11%. No other candidate reaches double digits."

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Cory Booker's presidential campaign is betting it all on the next 10 days, signaling Saturday that it will cease to exist unless it can raise nearly $2 million by the end of the month. 'We have reached a critical moment, and time is running out,' campaign manager Addisu Demissie warned in a memo to Booker staff and supporters. 'It's now or never: The next 10 days will determine whether Cory Booker can stay in this race and compete to win the nomination.'"

Senate Race 2020. Steve Leblanc of the AP: "U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III formally declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate on Saturday, becoming the first member of the Kennedy political dynasty to bid for the upper chamber of Congress since Edward M. Kennedy in 1962."


Mark Chediak & Brian Eckhouse of Bloomberg: "Today, renewable energy is so cheap that the handouts they once needed are disappearing.... Electricity generation and heating account for 25% of global greenhouse gases. As wind and solar demonstrate they can compete on their own against coal- and natural gas-fired plants, the economic and political arguments in favor of carbon-free power become harder and harder to refute. 'The training wheels are off,' said Joe Osha, an equity analyst at JMP Securities. 'Prices have declined enough for both solar and wind that there's a path toward continued deployment in a post-subsidy world.'... The cost of wind power has fallen about 50% since 2010. Solar has dropped 85%. That makes them cheaper than new coal and gas plants in two-thirds of the world, according to BloombergNEF." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

CBS/AP: "A Facebook hoax this summer invited people to 'storm' Area 51 on Friday. Five people have been arrested since Thursday, mostly for trespassing. Meanwhile, thousands of others are celebrating their love of UFOs at a number of festivals in the Nevada desert. The events have been mostly festive, with crowds numbering in the low thousands and few arrests, officials said. Several minor injuries were reported, and one man was treated for dehydration by festival medics in Rachel before returning to the party." ~~~

~~~ Alex Dobuzinskis of Reuters: "A U.S. military unit apologized on Saturday and deleted a tweet that used the specter of a stealth bomber being deployed against any young people who tried to break into the Area 51 base in Nevada. The tweet, posted on Friday on the Twitter account of the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS), took aim at UFO fans and curiosity seekers who poured into the Nevada desert this week, after an online campaign to 'storm' the U.S. military base long rumored to house government secrets about extraterrestrial life and spaceships. Alongside a photo of military men and women standing at attention in uniform in front of a B-2 stealth bomber, it read, 'The last thing #Millennials will see if they attempt the #area51raid today.'"

Way Beyond the Beltway

Canada. Rob Gillies & David Crary of the AP: Canada's Prime Minister Justin "Trudeau, 47, is seeking a second term as prime minister in an Oct. 21 election. His leading opponent, Andrew Scheer of the Conservative Party, has assailed him as 'not fit to govern' because of the revelations [that he wore blackface & brownface at events years ago]. But key figures in the prime minister's Liberal Party have stuck by him, including Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, who would be a favorite to replace Trudeau as Liberal leader if he lost the election. Many minority Canadians, increasingly active in politics and government, seem ready to forgive Trudeau.... As for Trudeau's main election rival, his denunciation of the prime minister was undercut by comments he made shortly before the brownface photo surfaced. Scheer said he would stand by other Conservative candidates who had made racist or anti-gay comments in the past, as long as they apologized and took responsibility for those remarks."

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Friday
Sep202019

The Commentariat -- September 21, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "President Trump began his weekend defending his 'perfectly fine and routine' conversation with the Ukrainian president in which he reportedly asked the foreign leader to investigate former vice president Joe Biden. In his tweets, Trump references his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but makes no mention of whether he brought up Biden during the conversation. Instead, he blames the news media for its coverage of the story.... He later tweeted that the news was an extension of the 'witch hunt' carried out by Democrats, his frequent reference to the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and firing of James B. Comey as FBI director.... Trump's comments echo a defense first laid out Thursday night by his personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani, who argued that the president could ask a foreign leader anything he wanted and that the real story was related to Biden's pressuring the Ukrainian government in 2016 to fire its top prosecutor who at the time happened to be investigating a company in which Biden's son, Hunter, had a stake." ~~~

     ~~~ There are Hill stories here and here.

Tom Nichols in the Atlantic: "The president of the United States reportedly sought the help of a foreign government against an American citizen who might challenge him for his office. This is the single most important revelation in a scoop by The Wall Street Journal, and if it is true, then ... Donald Trump should be impeached and removed from office immediately.... If this in itself is not impeachable, then the concept [of impeachment] has no meaning. Trump's grubby commandeering of the presidency's fearsome and nearly uncheckable powers in foreign policy for his own ends is a gross abuse of power and an affront both to our constitutional order and to the integrity of our elections.... The story may even be worse than we know. If Trump tried to use military aid to Ukraine as leverage, as reporters are now investigating, then he held Ukrainian and American security hostage to his political vendettas.... There is no spin, no deflection, no alternative theory of the case that can get around the central fact that President Trump reportedly attempted to use his office for his own gain, and that he put the foreign policy and the national security of the United States at risk while doing so."

Mark Chediak & Brian Eckhouse of Bloomberg: "Today, renewable energy is so cheap that the handouts they once needed are disappearing.... Electricity generation and heating account for 25% of global greenhouse gases. As wind and solar demonstrate they can compete on their own against coal- and natural gas-fired plants, the economic and political arguments in favor of carbon-free power become harder and harder to refute. 'The training wheels are off,' said Joe Osha, an equity analyst at JMP Securities. 'Prices have declined enough for both solar and wind that there's a path toward continued deployment in a post-subsidy world.'... The cost of wind power has fallen about 50% since 2010. Solar has dropped 85%. That makes them cheaper than new coal and gas plants in two-thirds of the world, according to BloombergNEF." --s

~~~~~~~~~~

"Treason, Bribery, or Other High Crimes," Ctd.

** Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump repeatedly pressed his Ukrainian counterpart in a call to talk with his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, who had been urging the government in Kiev for months to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his family, according to people briefed on the call. Mr. Trump's desire for a Ukrainian investigation of Mr. Biden ... is part of the secret whistle-blower complaint that is said to be about Mr. Trump and at least in part about his dealings with Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the matter.... Mr. Trump ... has made no secret of his desire for Kiev to investigate the Bidens, repeatedly raising it publicly. But questions have emerged about whether Mr. Trump's push for an inquiry into the Bidens was behind a weekslong White House hold on military aid for Ukraine. The United States suspended the military aid to Ukraine in early July, according to a former American official. Mr. Trump did not discuss the aid in the July 25 call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, and Kiev did not learn of the suspension until August...." (Also linked yesterday.)

... the revelation that Trump pressured a foreign government to investigate one of his political rivals appears to be a textbook abuse of power. -- Aaron Rupar of Vox (linked below)

** Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump pressed the leader of Ukraine to investigate the son of former Vice President Joe Biden in a call between the two leaders that is at the center of an extraordinary whistleblower complaint, according to two people familiar with the matter. Trump used the July 25 conversation with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to pressure the recently elected leader to more aggressively pursue an investigation that Trump believed would deliver potential political dirt against one of the president's political adversaries, the people said. One source familiar with the contents of the exchange said that Trump did not raise the issue of American military and intelligence aid that had been pledged to Ukraine, indicating there was not an explicit quid pro quo in that call.... The revelation that Trump pushed Zelensky to pursue the Biden probe, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, represents the most detailed account so far of the president's conduct that prompted a U.S. intelligence official to file a whistleblower action against the president." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump reportedly pressured the president of Ukraine during a July phone call to investigate the son of Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky roughly eight times to work with his personal attorney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, on the matter. The president's contacts with Ukraine have come under intense scrutiny after a whistleblower filed a complaint related to Trump's communications with Ukraine." (Also linked yesterday.)

John Haltiwanger of Business Insider, citing the WSJ story: "'He told him that he should work with [Mr. Giuliani] on Biden, and that people in Washington wanted to know' whether there was any basis to allegations the former vice president worked to protect a Ukraine-based gas company with ties to his son, Hunter Biden, a person familiar with the matter told the Journal." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The assertion that Trump pressured Zelensky "roughly eight times" suggests to me that the reporters' source was working off a transcript of the Trump/Zelensky conversation. This also suggests that the source may hold a high-level job.

Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "When President Trump spoke on the telephone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in late July, the Ukrainians ... were waiting on millions in stalled military aid from the United States, and Zelensky was seeking a high-priority White House meeting with Trump. Trump told his Ukrainian counterpart that his country could improve its image if it completed corruption cases that have 'inhibited the interaction between Ukraine and the USA,' according to a readout of the call released by Kiev. What neither government said publicly at the time was that Trump went even further -- specifically pressing Ukraine's president to reopen a corruption investigation involving former vice president Joe Biden's son, according to two people familiar with the call.... Days after the two presidents spoke..., Rudolph W. Giuliani met with an aide to the Ukrainian president in Madrid and spelled out two specific cases he believed Ukraine should pursue. One was a probe of a Ukrainian gas tycoon who had Biden's son Hunter on his board. Another was an allegation that Democrats colluded with Ukraine to release information on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort during the 2016 election.... New revelations about the dual channels of pressure on Ukraine -- one from the president and one from his personal attorney -- are fueling questions about whether Trump used his office to try to force a foreign country to take actions damaging to his political opponents." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Ukraine had already "investigated" & rejected claims that then-Vice President Biden had acted improperly in regard to his son's business interests there, so Trump's repeatedly pressuring President Zelensky to "work with Giuliani" was a transparent attempt to get Zelensky to authorize a fake investigation that drew conclusions coinciding with Rudy's false condemnation of Biden. P.S. Trump called Zelensky on July 25, 2019. That was the day after Robert Mueller testified before the House Judiciary Committee. Apparently Trump thought the 2016 "Russia thing" was over & now he could start seeking foreign assistance in his 2020 campaign. And even though the source for the WSJ & WashPo stories claims Trump offered no quid pro quo, Trump had put a hold on U.S. aid to Ukraine, Trump also repeatedly told Zelensky that a successful Ukrainian investigation of "corruption"/Biden would improve U.S.-Ukraine relations. IOW, "Nice little country you got there, Zelensky. Wouldn't want anything to happen to it."

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump declined to say Friday whether he had discussed Joe Biden or his family during a July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that has drawn intense scrutiny, but he told reporters that 'someone ought to look into' the former vice president.... Asked Friday if he had discussed Biden with Zelensky, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, 'It doesn't matter what I discussed.'... 'I don't know the identity of the whistleblower. I just hear it's a partisan person, meaning it comes out from another party,' Trump said." (Also linked yesterday.)

Quint Forgey of Politico: "Trump's latest comments are also likely to heighten speculation that the conversation reportedly detailed in the complaint referred to his July 25 phone call with recently elected Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump told reporters he did not know whether that call was the subject of the whistleblower complaint." (Also linked yesterday.)

Aaron Rupar of Vox: "... Donald Trump's initial public comments about revelations that his conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are the subject of a whistleblower complaint regarding possible abuse of power were incoherent in multiple respects.... He attempted to suggest that the whistleblower in question had political motives by describing them as 'a partisan' -- even though he later said he doesn't know who he or she is. He insisted the conversations he had with Ukrainian officials that are now under scrutiny were 'totally appropriate' and 'beautiful,' and later said he can't remember them. He said he hadn't read the whistleblower complaint, but then in the next breath claimed 'everybody's read it, they laugh at it.' And [he] ... said 'it doesn't matter what I discuss' with foreign leaders.... Trump then turned his fire on ... the media. 'Our media has become the laughingstock of the world,' Trump said, before going on downplay the entire scandal as 'another media disaster' and insulting the assembled reporters. 'The media of our country is laughed at all over the world now. You're a joke, he said."

If these reports are true, then ... It means that he [Trump] used the power and resources of the United States to pressure a sovereign nation -- a partner that is still under direct assault from Russia -- pushing Ukraine to subvert the rule of law in the express hope of extracting a political favor.... Such clear-cut corruption damages and diminishes our institutions of government by making them tools of a personal political vendetta. At minimum, Donald Trump should immediately release the transcript of the call in question, so that the American people can judge for themselves, and direct the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to stop stonewalling and release the whistleblower notification to the Congress. -- Joe Biden, in a statement, Friday

Tal Axelrod & Juliegrace Brufke of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged the Trump administration on Friday to release a whistleblower complaint..., saying the complaint raises 'grave, urgent concerns for our national security.' 'We must be sure that the President and his Administration are conducting our national security and foreign policy in the best interest of the American people, not the President's personal interest,' Pelosi said in a statement." Mrs. McC: Pelosi does not mention impeachment in her statement. ~~~

~~~ ** Tom Scocca of Slate: "Someone should do something." In which the author suggests what someone might write to point "out the terrifying mismatch between the ever-increasing speed with which our political system is falling apart and the slow trudge toward November 2020, when the Democratic Party hopes that voters will do what current elected Democratic officials will not do and take action to remove our visibly degenerating president from office." ~~~

Many people including me are frustrated by the timidity of the Democrats. This is a smoking gun, people. If this doesn't warrant an impeachment inquiry, nothing does. But ... Timidity is bad, but it pales compared with the outright corruption of Republicans, who are clearly OK with actions that are precisely what the founding fathers feared, and the reason impeachment is possible[.] -- Paul Krugman, in tweets, Friday

~~~ George Conway & Neal Katyal in a Washington Post op-ed: The framers "believed that a president would break his oath if he engaged in self-dealing -- if he used his powers to put his own interests above the nation's. That would be the paradigmatic case for impeachment. That's exactly what appears to be at issue today.... It appears that the president might have used his official powers -- in particular, perhaps the threat of withholding a quarter-billion dollars in military aid -- to leverage a foreign government into helping him defeat a potential political opponent in the United States. If Trump did that, it would be the ultimate impeachable act. Trump has already done more than enough to warrant impeachment and removal with his relentless attempts, on multiple fronts, to sabotage the counterintelligence and criminal investigation by then-special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and to conceal evidence of those attempts.... The current whistleblowing allegations, however, are even worse.... It is high time for Congress to do its duty, in the manner the framers intended.... Congressional procrastination has probably emboldened Trump, and it risks emboldening future presidents...." The Raw Story has a summary of the op-ed here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie Note to Nancy: Wouldn't it be ironic -- and not in a good way -- if the House refused to impeach Trump for abuse of office, and he won re-election because he used his office to force so many countries or domestic entities to "find" and publicize all kinds of fake improprieties the Democratic presidential nominee was supposed to have committed.

MEANWHILE. Rachel Bade, et al., of the Washington Post: "Republicans responded with a collective shrug to explosive news that an intelligence official had lodged a complaint with the inspector general about President Trump's communications with a foreign leader, the latest example of GOP lawmakers falling in line. Rank-and-file Republicans on Friday repeatedly dodged questions about a whistleblower allegation that a 'promise' Trump made to a foreign leader jeopardized national security. Some even went so far as to dismiss the complaint as politically motivated -- even though they hadn't seen the full details of the allegation. 'It's not like we haven't seen this movie before: Democrats come out, they're all spun up, [House Intelligence Committee Chairman] Adam Schiff makes all kinds of statements, and then when the facts come out, whoa, different story!" said Trump-ally Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee. He compared the latest allegations to claims that Trump worked with Russia to win in 2016. 'This seems to be the same kind of deal.'" Mrs. McC: Yes, Jimbo, yes it does. ~~~

You will never see the attacks stopped. The left will not give up because they cannot even accept the fact that they lost. -- Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), on Fox "News," Friday ~~~

~~~ Darren Samuelsohn, et al., of Politico: "To the president's defenders, [the scandal is] just another case of media bias and an angry anti-Trump cabal inside the government lashing out -- what's the whistleblower's agenda? And so what if the president pressured foreign leaders to root out potential corruption? 'It looks to me like another deep state attack,' Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a top Trump booster, said Friday morning on Fox News. 'We have seen this over and over and over in this administration from anonymous sources deep inside the bureaucracy.'... Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) suggested in an interview Thursday on C-SPAN that the entire claim could be fake.... Almost every time a controversy emerges that seemingly imperils Trump's presidency, the same playbook unfolds. Amid angry calls for impeachment, Trump’s allies largely sidestep a debate over the event itself, cast blame elsewhere and start rationalizing the president's behavior. Countless times already, it's worked as an effective counterattack that gives Trump cover as he defends his norm-busting behavior."

We're maybe hours from learning the promise Trump made and to which leader, less than 24 from him calling it fake news, two days away from Republicans being 'troubled,' three away from the WH admitting the story is true but Trump was 'joking,' four from the GOP falling into line. -- Brian Beutler, in a tweet Wednesday night

Step 1. "Learning to which leader Trump talked." This is only a half-check, because we don't know the promise Trump made & we're not sure Zelensky was the only foreign leader to whom Trump made inappropriate overtures.

Step 2. Trump's "calling it fake news" within 24 hours.

Step 5. "The GOP falling into line" (it seems they have skipped right over Step 3 -- "being 'troubled'" -- & gone directly to Step 5

Anna Nemtsova of the Daily Beast: "Ukraine is ready to investigate the connections Joe Biden's son Hunter had with the Ukrainian natural-gas company Burisma Holdings, according to Anton Geraschenko, a senior adviser to the country's interior minister who would oversee such an inquiry. Geraschenko told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview that 'as soon as there is an official request' Ukraine will look into the case, but 'currently there is no open investigation.' 'Clearly,' said Geraschenko, 'Trump is now looking for kompromat to discredit his opponent Biden, to take revenge for his friend Paul Manafort, who is serving seven years in prison.'... But Geraschenko spoke [last week,] before the appearance of a Washington Post story on Thursday that implied that an intelligence-community whistleblower may have reported the untoward quid pro quo was put forth directly by Trump in a phone call with Ukraine's recently elected president last July." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Andrew Kramer of the New York Times has background from Ukraine's POV. "... for months now in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, the government of the neophyte president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been grappling with unwelcome political pressure by associates of Mr. Trump.... A former adviser to Mr. Zelensky, Serhiy Leshchenko, said in an interview. 'It was clear that the Zelensky team doesn't want to interfere in American politics,' Mr. Leshchenko said. 'They were very angry about this issue.' Mr. Leshchenko and two other Ukrainians, all of them young, Western-leaning politicians and veterans of the 2014 revolution, said in interviews that Mr. Giuliani's efforts created the impression that the Trump administration's willingness to back Mr. Zelensky was linked to his government's readiness to pursue the investigations sought by Mr. Trump's allies." (Also linked yesterday.)

Annie Karni & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "In a television appearance on CNN Thursday night, Rudolph W. Giuliani ... appeared to acknowledge that Mr. Trump had tried to pressure Ukraine into investigating Joseph R. Biden, Jr.... During the exchange, Mr. Giuliani said he had no idea whether Mr. Trump spoke with the Ukrainian president about Mr. Biden, or Mr. Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. But if he did, Mr. Giuliani said, 'he had every right to do it.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Karni & Haberman discuss whether Giuliani's off-the-wall appearance was part of a strategy or just crazy-talk. I'm going with "strategy" based on Giuliani's assertion -- one he trots out for every Trump scandal -- that "he had every right to do it." Giuliani is a lawyer; his assertions therefore -- at least to Trumpbots -- carry the weight of law. If a member of the bar asserts that Trump was within his rights, then either he is correct or he has a valid argument he is right. Giuliani would say the same thing if Trump shot somebody on Fifth Avenue, and Trumpbots would see that as permission to embrace Trump's right to premeditated or indiscriminate murder. "He has every right to do it" is akin to the argument Trump's other lawyers made this week in the the New York tax records case: Trump cannot be investigated. He is above the law. They will make the same arguments should Trump leave office alive: he cannot be investigated or indicted for crimes committed while in office.

AND Tom Llamas & Lucien Bruggeman of ABC News review Trump & Rudy Giuliani's efforts to smear Joe Biden regarding Biden's effort to actually reduce corruption in Ukraine. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: And remember this flashback to June 2019. ABC News: "Asked by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos in the Oval Office on Wednesday whether his campaign would accept [damaging] information [about a political opponent] from foreigners -- such as China or Russia -- or hand it over the FBI, Trump said, "I think maybe you do both.' 'I think you might want to listen, there isn't anything wrong with listening,' Trump continued. 'If somebody called from a country, Norway, [and said] "we have information on your opponent" -- oh, I think I'd want to hear it." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait: "... the whole plot has been sitting in plain sight, a gigantic scandal that has confounded the media and the opposition in part through its very nakedness. In recent days, a seemingly new scandal materialized: reports of an intelligence whistle-blower encountering disturbing conduct by President Trump, and having his complaint quashed in apparent violation of the law. The complaint turns out to be related to the Ukraine scandal.... We have known since last spring that Trump, working through Giuliani, is pressuring Ukraine to supply dirt on Joe Biden.... The allegation against Biden is totally baseless." Chait lays out the evidence hiding in plain site, including earlier insane admissions from Giuliani & a more oblique one from pence.

** Pankaj Mishra in a Guardian op-ed: "Anglo-American lamentations about the state of democracy have been especially loud ever since Boris Johnson joined Donald Trump in the leadership of the free world. For a very long time, Britain and the United States styled themselves as the custodians and promoters of democracy globally, fighting a great moral battle against its foreign enemies. From the cold war through to the 'war on terror', the Caesarism that afflicted other nations was seen as peculiar to Asian and African peoples, or blamed on the despotic traditions of Russians or Chinese, on African tribalism, Islam, or the 'Arab mind'. But this analysis ... did not prepare its audience for the sight of blond bullies perched atop the world's greatest democracies. The barbarians, it turns out, were never at the gate; they have been ruling us for some time." Read on. Here's a pithy observation: "In the next few days, [India's PM Narendra] Modi will address thousands of affluent Indian-Americans in the company of Trump in Houston, Texas. While his government builds detention camps for hundreds of thousands Muslims it has abruptly rendered stateless, he will receive a commendation from Bill Gates for building toilets." (Also linked yesterday.)


Let's Go to the Videotape. Rosalind Helderman & Colby itkowitz of the Washington Post: "A New York City judge has ordered that President Trump sit for videotaped testimony in a lawsuit brought by protesters who say they were assaulted by Trump's security guards during the 2016 campaign. The Bronx-based judge, Doris M. Gonzalez, wrote that Trump's testimony is 'indispensable' to the trial, which is scheduled to begin Thursday. She wrote he must therefore be examined by videotape before then, though Trump is likely to ask for a delay. The protesters argue Trump, his campaign and business should be held liable for the actions of security guards who were working for the company. They say, even if Trump didn't directly order the guards to act, he had control over their actions because they were his employees and his campaign trail rhetoric gave them the impression that violence would be condoned." The NBC News story is here.

Lolita Baldor & Robert Burns of the AP: "The Pentagon on Friday announced it will deploy additional U.S. troops and missile defense equipment to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as President Donald Trump has at least for now put off any immediate military strike on Iran in response to the attack on the Saudi oil industry. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told Pentagon reporters this is a first step to beef up security and he would not rule out additional moves down the road. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said more details about the deployment will be determined in the coming days, but it would not involve thousands of U.S. troops." ~~~

~~~ Scott Horsley of NPR: "The Trump administration ordered new economic sanctions against Iran Friday in response to the attack last weekend in Saudi Arabia. The sanctions target Iran's central bank and its sovereign wealth fund. 'This is very big,' said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. 'We've now cut off all sources of funds to Iran.' The move comes less than a week after an attack on a Saudi oil facility that temporarily cut off nearly 6% of the world's oil supply. While Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for that attack, the administration suspects Iran was behind it."

Another Step Forward in the Trump "Screw the Refugees" Program. Colleen Long & Astrid Galvan of the AP: "The United States on Friday signed an agreement that paves the way for the U.S. to send many asylum-seekers to one of the world's most violent countries, El Salvador. But both countries must first take necessary legal actions and implement major border security and asylum procedures before it would go into effect, according to a draft copy of the agreement obtained by The Associated Press. The deal is the latest ambitious step taken by the Trump administration to lean on other nations -- many of them notoriously violent -- to take in immigrants to stop the flow of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border." Mrs. McC: Accompanying the story is a photo of acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan cooly signing the agreement condemning untold numbers of would-be refugees. His heart is made of stone.

Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "Anxious about their future on a hotter planet and angry at world leaders for failing to arrest the crisis, masses of young people poured into the streets on every continent on Friday for a day of global climate protests. Organizers estimated the turnout to be around four million in thousands of cities and towns worldwide. It was the first time that children and young people had demonstrated to demand climate action in so many places and in such numbers around the world. They turned out in force in Berlin, where the police estimated 100,000 participants, with similar numbers in Melbourne and London. In New York City, the mayor's office estimated that 60,000 people marched through the narrow streets of Lower Manhattan, while organizers put the total at 250,000. By the dozens in some places, and by the tens of thousands in others, young people demonstrated in cities like Manila, Kampala and Rio de Janeiro. A group of scientists rallied in Antarctica.... Demonstrations in North and South America will be the culmination of a day of global strikes that began almost 24 hours earlier as morning broke in the Asia-Pacific region. More than 100,000 protested in Melbourne as the protests began, in what organizers said was the largest climate action in Australia's history.... In Mumbai, children in oversize raincoats marched in the rain. Thousands turned out in Warsaw, the capital of coal-reliant Poland.... Roughly 100,000 demonstrators showed around the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on a bright but unseasonably chilly day in Berlin.... Rarely, if ever, has the modern world witnessed a youth movement so large and wide, spanning across societies rich and poor, tied together by a common if inchoate sense of rage." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The Guardian has a liveblog here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Dan De Luce & Mosheh Gains of NBC News: "The Pentagon is fighting against proposals by White House officials to drastically cut the number of refugees allowed into the U.S., and has called for reserving visas for Iraqis who risked their lives working for U.S. troops, according to five people familiar with the plan. In internal discussions, the Defense Department has expressed opposition to any further reductions to the current annual ceiling of 30,000 for refugee admissions, which already is at a historic low for the 40-year-old U.S. refugee program, the sources told NBC News. Defense officials also proposed setting aside about 6,000 slots specifically for Iraqi applicants who worked for U.S. troops as interpreters or in other jobs.... The Pentagon has emerged as the lone voice in internal debates defending the traditional role of a refugee program overseen by the State Department, an unusual twist that reflects the administration's aggressive stance on immigration and refugees. The Pentagon's stance is at odds with White House senior adviser Stephen Miller -- the architect of the president's sweeping crackdown on immigration -- and his allies at the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, who are all proposing deep cuts or even a halt to refugee admissions for the next fiscal year starting in October." (Also linked yesterday.)

Burgess Everett of Politico: "The Senate [Mrs. McC: that is, Senate Republicans] is essentially outsourcing its legislative duties to a divided White House and the whims of ... Donald Trump, as it makes its first sustained attempt at overhauling gun laws in years.... 'First time ever in history when the president sets the agenda every day when he tweets at 4 in the morning,' said Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who is retiring at the end of the year and saw his work on an immigration bill fall apart last year after Trump came out against it.... The new reality also underscores how cautious the Republican-controlled Senate is under Trump, particularly as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell looks to defend his majority and a presidential election approaches." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2020

It should be noted that many of the linked stories filed under "'Treason, Bribery, or Other High Crimes,' Ctd." are also about the 2020 presidential race.

A Fine Coda. Joe Anuta of Politico: "Mayor Bill de Blasio's presidential campaign is over, but concerns over his fundraising practices linger on. An official with the Federal Election Commission sent a letter to the mayor's presidential campaign, which ended Friday, highlighting a problem that has been the subject of multiple Politico reports and two formal complaints from watchdog groups. In a July public filing, the de Blasio camp noted a $52,852 debt owed to the NY Fairness PAC, a state political action committee controlled by the mayor. The campaign had argued that this was a permissible loan from one organization to another. But the FEC's senior campaign finance analyst, Robin Kelly, wrote this week that the practice is not allowed by campaign finance rules. Such transfers are capped at $5,000 per election cycle, Kelly's letter said, meaning the campaign took more than ten times the permissible amount from the state PAC and spent it on travel and advertising. Kelly mandated that the campaign refile an amended report by late October that corrects the transfer, and noted that an audit of the campaign may follow. The campaign repaid the loan Thursday, the day it received the FEC's letter, spokesperson Jaclyn Rothenberg said."

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