What he thinks is "perfect" was nuancing the threat without saying it out loud -- and that's why he thinks the phone call exonerates him
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/09/30/trump-ukraine-perfect-call-moos-pkg-ebof-vpx.cnn
More: https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/proof-of-trumps-impeachable-offenses-plain-to-see/
Proof of Trump’s Impeachable Offenses Plain to See
The Repubs are saying that Tim Morrison's testimony helps Trump. No it doesn't
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/1/1896548/-Republicans-claim-that-Tim-Morrison-s-testimony-exonerated-Trump-they-couldn-t-be-more-wrong
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/republicans-mistakenly-celebrate-morrisons-impeachment-testimony
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/republicans-mistakenly-celebrate-morrisons-impeachment-testimony
The OTHER Vindman (yes, they're twins)
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/vindman-twin-testify-call-memo
So now we have to call them Vindman 1 and 2. This is more from Vindman 1: https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/vindman-was-told-to-not-talk-about-trump-ukraine-call/
“Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a decorated Army officer who served as the National Security Council’s director for Ukraine, told lawmakers that he went to the lawyer, John Eisenberg, to register his concerns about the call . . . Eisenberg recorded Vindman’s complaints in notes on a yellow legal pad…But he said he became disturbed when, a few days later, Eisenberg instructed him not to tell anyone about the call”
Trump hates his own Chief of Staff
https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/trump-declines-to-defend-mulvaney/
Asked during an Oval Office interview with the Washington Examiner if he is happy with the job Mick Mulvaney is doing for him, President Trump demurred . . . “Happy? I don’t want to comment on it.”
In investigation news . . .
As we start the fourth impeachment investigation in U.S. history, it's important to note what is about to change. First, closed-door testimony is about to go public. Second, though it isn't clear how it will play out, it will be much harder for people to refuse to testify -- and a lot of people are ignoring WH orders not to testify because they want to clear their names by disassociating themselves from the Trump-Giuliani Ukraine scam. Third, in the public testimony trained attorneys will be doing extensive questioning, keeping the showboating congresspeople on the sidelines. Fourth, we will start stacking up facts -- not personal slander, not gripes about process, not attributions of motives -- and it is the facts that are killing Dirty Don. This is a real trial, played out on TV, and it will be riveting
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/1/1896534/-Abbreviated-pundit-roundup-Public-phase-of-impeachment-inquiry-to-begin
Wow, more than you ever wanted to know about the impeachment main characters
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/infographic-tracking-the-status-of-the-impeachment-inquiry
Even more: https://www.politico.com/interactives/2019/trump-impeachment-inquiry-power-players/index.html
David Ignatius, who writes on intelligence issues for the Washington Post, also writes fairly decent spy thrillers as a sideline. Here he rewrites the Ukraine story, taking it all the way back to Paul Manafort
https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/11/yes-it-does-read-like-pot-boiler-very.html
Will obstruction of justice be an impeachment charge?
https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/trump-keeps-adding-to-an-obstruction-charge/
The Republican dilemma
https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/gop-lawmakers-bludgeoned-with-the-truth/
“The evidence against Trump is overwhelming. This Ukraine quid pro quo wasn’t just a single reckless phone call. It was a multiprong several-month campaign to use the levers of American power to destroy a political rival. . . . Republican legislators are being bludgeoned with this truth in testimony after testimony. They know in their hearts that Trump is guilty of impeachable offenses. It’s evident in the way they stare glumly at their desks during hearings; the way they flee reporters seeking comment; the way they slag the White House off the record. It’ll be hard for them to vote to acquit if they can’t even come up with a non-ludicrous rationale. . . . And yet when you get outside Washington it’s hard to imagine more than one or two GOP senators voting to convict.”
More: https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/the-new-gop-strategy-appears-to-be-misdirection/
“In recent days, Republicans have maintained a laserlike focus on a very narrow defense of Trump: that there was nothing illegal about his July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s president. In doing so, they are glossing over and even outright ignoring a growing mountain of evidence that much more explicit quid pro quos existed outside that call.”
The shifting narratives: first a "witch hunt," then a "coup," now a "Soviet show trial"
https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/a-soviet-witch-coup/
More: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-impeachment-ukraine-republicans_n_5dbc8423e4b0576b62a1bf0c
Without a coherent response from the White House, Trump’s supporters have been wildly pinballing across a range of unconvincing arguments. . . .
Are you KIDDING me?
https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/republicans-consider-admitting-quid-pro-quo/
“A growing number of Senate Republicans are ready to acknowledge that President Trump used U.S. military aid as leverage to force Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his family as the president repeatedly denies a quid pro quo . . . In this shift in strategy to defend Trump, these Republicans are insisting that the president’s action was not illegal and does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense as the Democratic-led House moves forward with the open phase of its probe. “But the shift among Senate Republicans could complicate the message coming from Trump as he furiously fights the claim that he had withheld U.S. aid from Ukraine to pressure it to dig up dirt on a political rival, even as an increasing number of Republicans wonder how long they can continue to argue that no quid pro quo was at play in the matter.”
[NB: How in the world do they think that confessing that Trump (once again) worked with a foreign government to slander a domestic political rival is a DEFENSE? How does this defense match up against the furious efforts to keep the phone call secret? And given that Trump has repeatedly denied offering a quid pro quo, how can he accept his own "supporters" admitting that he did? This just shows how desperate they are in the face of facts that can no longer be denied.]
Has Moscow Mitch already promised Trump to protect him?
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/1/1896621/-Looks-like-Moscow-Mitch-has-promised-Trump-impeachment-is-dead-on-arrival-in-the-Senate
AG Bill Barr is working overtime to protect Trump and ruin the institutions of government. What are they PAYING him?
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/1/1896567/-DOJ-argues-executive-has-absolute-im
DOJ argues executive has 'absolute immunity' . . .
Wow, more than you ever wanted to know about the impeachment main characters
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/infographic-tracking-the-status-of-the-impeachment-inquiry
Even more: https://www.politico.com/interactives/2019/trump-impeachment-inquiry-power-players/index.html
David Ignatius, who writes on intelligence issues for the Washington Post, also writes fairly decent spy thrillers as a sideline. Here he rewrites the Ukraine story, taking it all the way back to Paul Manafort
https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/11/yes-it-does-read-like-pot-boiler-very.html
Will obstruction of justice be an impeachment charge?
https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/trump-keeps-adding-to-an-obstruction-charge/
The Republican dilemma
https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/gop-lawmakers-bludgeoned-with-the-truth/
“The evidence against Trump is overwhelming. This Ukraine quid pro quo wasn’t just a single reckless phone call. It was a multiprong several-month campaign to use the levers of American power to destroy a political rival. . . . Republican legislators are being bludgeoned with this truth in testimony after testimony. They know in their hearts that Trump is guilty of impeachable offenses. It’s evident in the way they stare glumly at their desks during hearings; the way they flee reporters seeking comment; the way they slag the White House off the record. It’ll be hard for them to vote to acquit if they can’t even come up with a non-ludicrous rationale. . . . And yet when you get outside Washington it’s hard to imagine more than one or two GOP senators voting to convict.”
More: https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/the-new-gop-strategy-appears-to-be-misdirection/
“In recent days, Republicans have maintained a laserlike focus on a very narrow defense of Trump: that there was nothing illegal about his July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s president. In doing so, they are glossing over and even outright ignoring a growing mountain of evidence that much more explicit quid pro quos existed outside that call.”
The shifting narratives: first a "witch hunt," then a "coup," now a "Soviet show trial"
https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/a-soviet-witch-coup/
More: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-impeachment-ukraine-republicans_n_5dbc8423e4b0576b62a1bf0c
Without a coherent response from the White House, Trump’s supporters have been wildly pinballing across a range of unconvincing arguments. . . .
Are you KIDDING me?
https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/republicans-consider-admitting-quid-pro-quo/
“A growing number of Senate Republicans are ready to acknowledge that President Trump used U.S. military aid as leverage to force Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his family as the president repeatedly denies a quid pro quo . . . In this shift in strategy to defend Trump, these Republicans are insisting that the president’s action was not illegal and does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense as the Democratic-led House moves forward with the open phase of its probe. “But the shift among Senate Republicans could complicate the message coming from Trump as he furiously fights the claim that he had withheld U.S. aid from Ukraine to pressure it to dig up dirt on a political rival, even as an increasing number of Republicans wonder how long they can continue to argue that no quid pro quo was at play in the matter.”
[NB: How in the world do they think that confessing that Trump (once again) worked with a foreign government to slander a domestic political rival is a DEFENSE? How does this defense match up against the furious efforts to keep the phone call secret? And given that Trump has repeatedly denied offering a quid pro quo, how can he accept his own "supporters" admitting that he did? This just shows how desperate they are in the face of facts that can no longer be denied.]
Has Moscow Mitch already promised Trump to protect him?
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/1/1896621/-Looks-like-Moscow-Mitch-has-promised-Trump-impeachment-is-dead-on-arrival-in-the-Senate
AG Bill Barr is working overtime to protect Trump and ruin the institutions of government. What are they PAYING him?
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/1/1896567/-DOJ-argues-executive-has-absolute-im
DOJ argues executive has 'absolute immunity' . . .
In other news . . .
Trump keeps claiming 94% support among Republicans. Not only is that not true -- it's 20% lower than that . . . and droppinghttps://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-once-again-claims-94-percent-approval-rating-among-republicans-says-people-dont-1464995
https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/trump-approval-hits-new-low-among-republicans/
Political genius Lara Trump claims that "internal polls" show that impeachment is a big winner for Trump. I can guess in which part of the body those "internal" polls reside
https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/quote-of-the-day-2392/
More: https://www.vox.com/2019/11/1/20943460/trump-impeachment-polling
Trump claims the impeachment inquiry will “backfire.” Polling indicates he’s wrong.
Don't listen to Trump or his family members or his paid troupe of liars -- he is in serious trouble
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/1/1896591/-New-ABC-Washington-Post-poll-full-of-troubling-signs-for-Trump
Let's start with the basics: A plurality of 49% of Americans now support Trump's impeachment and removal from office, while 47% say he should not be impeached/removed. Most outlets are painting that as a "sharply divided" public, which is a fair read; but it's also fair to note both how far the numbers have moved and the strength of emotion behind the impeachment/removal cohort. Back in July, the same poll found that just 37% of Americans supported opening an inquiry (forget about removal), with fully 59% opposed. . . . But frankly, it's the other data points in the poll that even more strongly suggest rough waters ahead for Trump. Those numbers reveal that solid majorities of the public know that Trump did something wrong and isn't handling either the presidency or impeachment well even if they don't support his removal from office. . . . [read on]
Trump doesn't have a lot of friends. Here's one of the few
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/chris-ruddy-inappropriate-trump-biden-call
Trump Pal Chris Ruddy: Call With Zelensky ‘Absolutely’ Inappropriate
Gov. Andrew Cuomo thinks Trump's change of official residency to Florida is a "desperate legal move" intended to keep his NY state tax returns from being released
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/andrew-cuomo-trump-florida-new-york-residency
More: https://www.thedailybeast.com/democrats-plan-political-siege-on-trumps-sunshine-state-move
Democrats Plan Political Siege on Trump’s Sunshine State Move
Trump appoints a new Acting DHS Sect'y, ignoring the current Acting DHS Sect'y who is still in the job. Chaos ensues
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/01/trump-wolf-is-acting-dhs-secretary-064213
Trump is picking unanimously "not qualified" people to serve lifetime appointments on the bench
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-lifetime-judges-not-qualified-senate-republicans_n_5dbc7351e4b0fffdb0f674af
The economy grew 128,000 jobs last month, which is a good number. But Trump had to exaggerate it to the ridiculous 303,000
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/01/trump-october-unemployment-numbers-063870
Remember when Trump promised "serious" action on guns? I guess he wasn't so "serious" after all
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/1/1896547/-Trump-promised-action-on-guns-but-as-usual-he-was-all-talk
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/despite-recent-promises-trump-abandons-blueprint-gun-reforms
In a show of Trump's pandering to the one unshakeable part of his base, he adds a spiritual advisor to the WH staff
https://www.salon.com/2019/11/01/paula-white-the-personal-pastor-of-president-trump-joins-the-white-house-in-an-official-capacity/
She says he wanted to BUILD A CHURCH: https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/trump-wanted-to-build-a-mega-church/
State level Republicans keep cooking up rules to make it impossible for Dems to win
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/1/1896586/-Court-won-t-block-Mississippi-Jim-Crow-law-but-sends-strong-signal-it-may-after-Election-Day
How the Dems can retake the Senate
https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/narrow-path-to-majority-emerges-for-senate-democrats/
Beto drops out of the presidential race, won't run for Senate in TX
https://www.thedailybeast.com/beto-orourke-drops-out-of-2020-presidential-race-will-not-run-for-senate
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/11/1/20944401/beto-o-rourke-presidential-bid-end-2020-democratic-primary
Bye: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/10/beto-orourke-2020-president-campaign-profile-failing-up-226866
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/01/elizabeth-warren-medicare-for-all-063701
The Warren stump speech is simple, concise, and unchanging. She identifies three big problems and proposes three big plans: “corruption,” which she will tackle with an anti-lobbying package; inequality, which she will attack with a wealth tax that funds her education and child care programs; and the decline of democracy, which, among other things, she would attempt to fix by asking the Senate to relinquish the filibuster. There is one issue that she doesn’t dwell on: Medicare for All. The enormously expensive (some $30 trillion), difficult to pay for (she’s already spent the wealth tax on other things), and politically dangerous (polls show Democratic support declining) plan that would make health care a basic right in America has been like an asteroid hurtling toward the Warren campaign. There’s still time to get out of the way but there’s also a chance it might blow up her campaign. . . . [read on]
How will she pay for it? https://www.vox.com/2019/11/1/20942587/elizabeth-warrens-plan-to-pay-for-medicare-for-all-without-raising-middle-class-taxes-explained
Elizabeth Warren’s plan to pay for Medicare for All, explained . . . Warren claims she can do it without raising middle-class taxes. [read on]
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elizabeth-warren-medicare-for-all-plan_n_5dbc2699e4b09d8f9799c3cf
The 9,000-word, 21-page plan is sprawling ― including everything from an expansion of Warren’s signature wealth tax to incentives for unionization to a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants ― and contains aggressive measures to contain the spiraling cost of health care almost certain to generate opposition from doctors, drugmakers and hospitals. . . [read on]
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-magical-thinking-behind-warrens-medicare-for-all-plan
The Magical Thinking Behind Warren’s Medicare for All Plan
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/468525-bennet-slams-warrens-medicare-for-all-plan-this-isnt-going-to-happen
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) slammed Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) Medicare for All proposal on Friday, saying the plan is not believable. “Voters are sick and tired of politicians promising them things that they know they can’t deliver," Bennet said in a statement. "Warren's new numbers are simply not believable and have been contradicted by experts. Regardless of whether it's $21 trillion or $31 trillion, this isn't going to happen, and the American people need health care." . . .
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/01/elizabeth-warren-health-plan-2020-064259
“This is going to cause down-ballot damage in swing districts and states if she’s the nominee” . . . The fear of blowback is indicative of the broad and largely negative response to Warren’s proposal from centrist, moderate and rural Democrats — many of whom, like Buentello, back Joe Biden in the primary. And it exposes the fault line between those who fret about winning voters in the center and the activist progressive base propelling Warren to the front of the Democratic pack . . .
Elizabeth Warren accuses Joe Biden of "repeating Republican talking points"
https://politicalwire.com/2019/11/01/warren-says-biden-is-running-in-wrong-primary/
Warren Says Biden Is Running in ‘Wrong Primary’
https://www.thedailybeast.com/gifts-for-the-political-junkie-in-your-life
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