[Meteor Blades will be back in October]
Susan B. Glasser/New Yorker
“Do Us a Favor”: The Forty-eight Hours That Sealed Trump’s Impeachment
The most interesting moments to be in Washington are when the conventional wisdom is shifting and not everyone knows it yet, or when an old certainty has been shredded and nothing has emerged to replace it.
NY Times:
Whistle-Blower Is Said to Allege Concerns About White House Handling of Ukraine Call
New details have emerged about the intelligence officer who raised alarms about the president’s pressure on Ukraine to open inquiries that could benefit him politically.
The intelligence officer who filed a whistle-blower complaint about President Trump’s interactions with the leader of Ukraine raised alarms not only about what the two men said in a phone call, but also about how the White House handled records of the conversation, according to two people briefed on the complaint.
The whistle-blower, moreover, identified multiple White House officials as witnesses to potential presidential misconduct who could corroborate the complaint, the people said — adding that the inspector general for the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, interviewed witnesses.
Mr. Atkinson eventually concluded that there was reason to believe that the president might have illegally solicited a foreign campaign contribution — and that his potential misconduct created a national security risk, according to a newly disclosed Justice Department memo.
WaPo:
Senate Republicans split over Trump urging Ukrainian leader to investigate Biden
Several Senate Republicans were stunned Wednesday and questioned the White House’s judgment after it released a rough transcript of President Trump’s call with the Ukraine president that showed Trump offering the help of the U.S. attorney general to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
One Senate Republican, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, said the transcript’s release was a “huge mistake” that the GOP now has to confront, even as they argue that House Democrats are overreaching with their impeachment effort.
A top Senate GOP aide said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is expecting Wednesday’s closed-door lunch to be eventful and possibly tense as Republicans react to the transcript and debate their next step.
“It remains troubling in the extreme. It’s deeply troubling,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told reporters Wednesday, when asked about the transcript.
Some straight talk: this “transcript” is not helping Trump. Media reports are not helping Trump. Giuliani is not helping Trump. Talk of the whistleblower complaint is not helping Trump. The narrative is not helping Trump. And this is all moving too fast; Trump has lost control of the story:
NY Times:
Whistle-Blower Is Said to Allege Concerns About White House Handling of Ukraine Call
New details have emerged about the intelligence officer who raised alarms about the president’s pressure on Ukraine to open inquiries that could benefit him politically.
The whistle-blower, moreover, identified multiple White House officials as witnesses to potential presidential misconduct who could corroborate the complaint, the people said — adding that the inspector general for the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, interviewed witnesses.
Mr. Atkinson eventually concluded that there was reason to believe that the president might have illegally solicited a foreign campaign contribution — and that his potential misconduct created a national security risk, according to a newly disclosed Justice Department memo.
Greg Sargent/WaPo:
New revelations on Trump call and Giuliani make impeachment more likely
The fact that it’s now also confirmed that Trump directed Giuliani’s efforts to pressure Ukraine becomes even more important in light of an extraordinary Post report detailing Giuliani’s central role in manipulating relations with Ukraine.
The key revelations in the Post report are as follows: Giuliani was at the center of a months-long battle inside the administration between national security officials and Trump loyalists. Officials were alarmed at efforts by Giuliani — who is not a member of the administration — to undermine the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine with wild conspiracy theories.
Giuliani viewed Zelensky as a potential ally who could be enlisted, among other things, to provide dirt on Biden. That effort hit its climax when Trump pressed Zelensky to investigate Biden, as the call details show.
But, importantly, The Post’s report details that national security officials didn’t want that call to happen, and worked to prevent it. Why? Because they feared that “Trump and those close to him” — i.e., Giuliani — appeared “prepared to use U.S. leverage with the new leader of Ukraine for Trump’s political gain.”
Some twitter-heavy posting because it captures the spectrum of conservative, liberal, and neutral response.
Amanda Marcotte/Salon:
Will Republicans dump Trump? Nope — they'll cover up for him until the bitter end
Republicans are all-in on Trump at this point. They'll ride the ship to the bottom rather than let Democrats win
This is the same trick Trump pulled with special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Trump's efforts to collude with a Russian criminal conspiracy to interfere with the 2016 election, along with his use of presidential powers to cover up for this conspiracy after the fact. The administration at first released only a truncated summary in the form of a memo by Attorney General Bill Barr that purposefully distorted Mueller's findings to create the illusion of Trump's innocence. When we actually got to read the report, it showed that the evidence against Trump was vast and damaging. Team Trump played that game for a month before releasing the actual report, successfully killing off much of the media interest in the substance of Mueller's findings.
That will be the strategy again: Release falsified and misleading documents instead of the real ones, claim transparency, and try to wait out the news cycle. We can only hope that the launch of formal impeachment proceedings will be a good counterbalance to a strategy that has, so far, has worked to cover up, or at least minimize, Trump's likely crimes.
Republicans on Capitol Hill made it quite clear that they would keep on defending Trump, no matter what.
I don’t think this is right (see WaPo above), and I think the truth is closer to “we don’t know how this will play out.” Watch Mitt Romney and Ben Sasse, they are the permission structure for other Rs.
Paul Brandus/USA Today:
Nancy Pelosi's impeachment waiting game paid off. Americans will turn on Donald Trump.
Nancy Pelosi waited to launch an impeachment inquiry because she knew Donald Trump would do something to hang himself. He didn't disappoint.
Nancy Pelosi waited to launch an impeachment inquiry because she knew Donald Trump would do something to hang himself. He didn't disappoint.
But the allegations against Trump are piling up so fast and are so serious that Pelosi now feels that holding hearings and drilling down into Trump’s actions are justified and will boost the case for impeachment. And let’s not forget that even though the Mueller report said there was no collusion with Russia, it also outlined 10 possible instances of obstruction of justice. I repeat: 10 possible instances of obstruction of justice. If you’re like most Americans, you didn't read the report. Perhaps you should.
However, do note it was the grassroots that set this up. See Ryan Grim’s reporting e.g. See Elizabeth Warren’s role, and here is a local example.
NY Times:
Pelosi Tells Trump: ‘You Have Come Into My Wheelhouse’
Speaker Nancy Pelosi was once the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. She is drawing on that experience as she opens an impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Trump were discussing gun violence over the telephone Tuesday morning when the president abruptly changed the topic to an intelligence community whistle-blower complaint that had Democrats talking about impeachment.
Ms. Pelosi stopped him short.
“Mr. President,” she declared, according to a person familiar with the conversation, “you have come into my wheelhouse.”
Politico:
Democrats look to narrow impeachment focus to Trump-Ukraine scandal
They seized on a White House readout of Trump's call, in which he urged the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden.
The strategy, described by Democratic lawmakers and aides familiar with the talks, would center on streamlining the consideration of articles of impeachment to focus exclusively on Trump's efforts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden, instead of emoluments and obstruction of justice — a push they say included an implicit threat to withhold military aid to the eastern European country.
Will Bunch/Inquirer.com:
Congress, cancel your recess! Speed up Trump’s impeachment. The stakes are too high
Not now, Speaker Pelosi! This won’t win you a popularity contest, but you should be telling your members that they’re not going. Impeachment hearings should start Monday, and Congress needs to hear immediately from Giuliani (who, as a private citizen, should absolutely NOT be covered by claims of executive privilege), from Barr, who has already disgraced the Justice Department by politicizing it, and from other government aides with deep knowledge of the worst presidential scandal in history.
To do this, Pelosi also need to figure out how to both streamline the impeachment process and — while taking enough time to air the relevant issues in public hearings — accelerate it. Control of the probe needs to rest with one committee — either the House Judiciary Committee, which has traditionally done this, or a select impeachment panel if necessary. Promise the American people that the full House will vote no later than Nov. 3, 2019 — exactly one year before the 2020 general election.
The risk of proceeding with all deliberate speed — with an emphasis on the deliberate part — is far too great.
Nate Silver:
If This Is Trump’s Best Case, The Ukraine Scandal Is Looking Really Bad For Him
With that said, there is a little bit of polling data that points in the bad-for-Trump direction (more about that in a moment). And for the record, this is relatively new territory for me. Up until now, I’ve been skeptical of the political wisdom of impeachment for Democrats, as yesterday’s post detailed.
The logic behind my this-is-bad-for-Trump guess is that the White House’s record of Trump’s conversation with Zelensky represents the best case scenario for Trump. And that best case scenario is still potentially fairly bad for him. They have Trump on record as imploring a foreign leader to investigate Joe Biden, one of his most likely opponents in the 2020 general election.
We have only hints but:
OTOH, there are a lot of Jim Jordans.