The Commentariat -- December 5, 2019

Afternoon Update:

"Don't Mess with Me.... " ~~~

~~~ Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had just concluded her weekly news conference Thursday and was about to exit the room when a reporter shouted out a question. 'Do you hate the president, Madam Speaker?' James Rosen, a [winger] reporter for [righty-right] Sinclair Broadcast Group, called out from a seat in the front row. Most times, Pelosi ignores questions shouted at her in the hallways and briefing rooms of the Capitol. But Rosen's query appeared to strike a nerve with Pelosi, who stopped in her tracks, turned to face the reporter and delivered an extraordinary rebuttal." Watch it. "The exchange appeared to do little to change Republicans' messaging on the matter. Minutes after Pelosi's news conference concluded, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) sent out a tweet in which he declared, 'Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats are clearly ... blinded by their hate for the President.'"

~~~ Marc Caputo of Politico: "Joe Biden lashed out at an Iowa town hall Thursday after a man suggested the former vice president helped his son get a sweetheart deal in Ukraine and was 'selling access' like ... Donald Trump does.... The 83-year-old man said he had two problems with the 77-year-old Biden: that he's 'too old' and the Ukrainian issue.... [When the man brought up Biden's Ukraine dealings, Biden walked up to him menacingly & said,] 'You're a damn liar, man. That's not true. And no one has ever said that.'... As the two talked over each other, a staffer tried to take the man's microphone. But Biden waved him away and let the man keep the mic. 'Let him go. Let him go,' Biden said.... Returning to the issue of his age and fitness, Biden then laid down the challenge: 'Let's do push-ups together here, man. Let's run. Let's do whatever you want to do. Let's take an IQ test.' The man was speechless."

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~~~ Nicholas Fandos & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked the House of Representatives on Thursday to begin drafting impeachment articles against President Trump, pushing ahead with a rapid timetable that could set the stage for a deeply partisan vote before Christmas to charge him with high crimes and misdemeanors." A brief Politico story is here.

Nicholas Fandos & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The House Judiciary Committee opened an epic partisan clash over the impeachment of President Trump on Wednesday at a hearing where Democrats and Republicans offered up dueling legal scholars who disagreed over whether the president's conduct rose to the constitutional threshold to warrant his removal from office." ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear of New York Times: "Three constitutional scholars invited by Democrats to testify at the first impeachment hearing before the House Judiciary Committee said that President Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine for political gain clearly met the historical definition of impeachable offenses. Wednesday's Judiciary Committee hearing.... Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University who was invited to testify by the committee's Republicans, offered the lone dissent, arguing in his opening statement that Mr. Trump should not be impeached." Shear outlines key moments of the hearing. This article is an update of a highlights post first linked yesterday. ~~~

~~~ Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Pamela Karlan, a professor at Stanford Law School and a former Justice Department official in the Obama administration, said the 'the very idea that a president might seek the aid of a foreign government in his re-election campaign would have horrified' America's Founding Fathers. 'But based on the evidentiary record, that is what President Trump has done,' she added.... Michael Gerhardt, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, added that 'the record compiled thus far shows that the president has committed several impeachable offenses, including bribery, abuse of power in soliciting a personal favor from a foreign leader to benefit his political campaign, obstructing Congress and obstructing justice.'... Later, responding to questions, Gerhardt said, 'If what we are talking about is not impeachable, nothing is impeachable.'" ~~~

~~~ Here's Noah Feldman, a Harvard Law professor, delivering his opening statement:

~~~ The Purpose of Impeachment Is Donald Trump. Jonathan Allen of NBC News: "... Ultimately, three of the witnesses portrayed Trump as abusing the powers of his office for personal gain -- and in contravention of U.S. interests -- in ways envisioned by the founding fathers when they gave Congress the authority to remove the chief executive. The reason to impeach Trump isn't to punish him, law professors Pamela Karlan of Stanford, Noah Feldman of Harvard and Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina said, but to prevent further damage.... They all said Trump's actions met the threshold for 'high crimes and misdemeanors' and for 'bribery' under the Constitution's impeachment clause.... Gerhardt said "the record compiled thus far shows that the president has committed several impeachable offenses, including bribery, abuse of power in soliciting a personal favor from a foreign leader to benefit his political campaign, obstructing Congress and obstructing justice." ~~~

~~~ Politico has texts of the prepared opening statement by Wednesday's witnesses. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ken Vogel & Benjamin Novak of the New York Times: "Even as Democrats intensified their scrutiny this week of Rudolph W. Giuliani's role in the pressure campaign against the Ukrainian government that is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry, Mr. Giuliani has been in Europe continuing his efforts to shift the focus to purported wrongdoing by President Trump's political rivals. Mr. Giuliani ... met in Budapest on Tuesday with a former Ukrainian prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, who has become a key figure in the impeachment inquiry. He then traveled to Kyiv on Wednesday seeking to meet with other former Ukrainian prosecutors whose claims have been embraced by Republicans, including Viktor Shokin and Kostiantyn H. Kulyk, according to people familiar with the effort. The former prosecutors, who have faced allegations of corruption, all played some role in promoting claims about former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a former United States ambassador to Ukraine and Ukrainians who disseminated damaging information about Mr. Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in 2016.... Mr. Giuliani is using the trip, which has not been previously reported, to help prepare more episodes of a documentary series for a conservative television outlet promoting his pro-Trump, anti-impeachment narrative." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a HuffPost story. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, Back in the U.S.A. Erica Orden, et al., of CNN: "Federal prosecutors in New York who are investigating Rudy Giuliani and his associates have deepened their focus on Ukraine's state-run oil-and-gas company, having interviewed its CEO, Andriy Kobolyev, and seeking in recent weeks to speak to a key US embassy staffer in Ukraine, according to Kobolyev's attorney and people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors have interviewed Kobolyev, the head of Naftogaz, which stands at the center of an attempted scheme by Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman to replace Kobolyev with someone who could be more favorable to their own business interests.... Prosecutors have also made contact recently with the US embassy official, Suriya Jayanti, a foreign service officer based in Kiev.... Prosecutors' interest in the activity surrounding Naftogaz indicates a possible expansion of their case against Parnas and Fruman, who have been indicted for an alleged scheme to funnel foreign money into US elections, and demonstrates they are looking closely at possible crimes related to foreign bribery. And it comes as prosecutors probe Giuliani's business interests."

** John Stoehr of RawStory: "The [phone call] records [in the House impeachment report] suggest in the most granular detail yet that the president of the United States is the leader of an international criminal conspiracy to defraud the American people.... They provide an illustration, in miniature, of what a conspiracy looks like, and why it's morally and legally wrong for the head of the world's oldest democracy to engage in such conduct.... On the same day Joe Biden announced his presidential campaign, John Solomon wrote a falsehood-laden column 'alleging that Ukraine had planted Russia collusion allegations against the Trump campaign,' according to the [Washington] Post.... The very same day, April 25, Giuliani received a call from '-1' (i.e., Trump). Giuliani then called Sean Hannity at Fox. A while later, Trump appeared on Hannity's show to comment on Solomon's report in The Hill. 'That sounds like big, big stuff,' he said.... Coincidence isn't the right word to describe a president's dirty lawyer [Giuliani] getting a dirty prosecutor [Yuriy Lutsenko] to tell a dirty reporter [Solomon] the president's Democratic rival is dirty, and then getting a dirty TV host [Hannity] to ask the president to comment on the dirty reporter's dirt. The right word to describe all that is conspiracy." --s

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "A new ethics complaint was filed Wednesday against Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) after it was revealed he was coordinating with ... Donald Trump's attorney and recently indicted associates to garner 'dirt' on former Vice President Joe Biden. 'The House Intelligence Committee's Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Report dated December 3, 2019 used a subpoena to obtain phone records which plainly demonstrate that ranking member Devin Nunes (R-CA) has an actual conflict of interest with an ongoing impeachment hearing he oversees,' the filed complaint filed by The Democratic Coalition stated. 'That is because Rep. Nunes is currently engaged in overseeing an investigation in which it appears he is a fact witness, and which may examine his own activities and meetings with agents and lawyers of the President who solicited foreign election assistance, as well as potentially into his own contacts with foreign government officials.'"

Prosecutor Shoots Down Barr's Conspiracy Theory. Matt Zapotosky & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The prosecutor handpicked by Attorney General William P. Barr to scrutinize how U.S. agencies investigated President Trump's 2016 campaign said he could not offer evidence to the Justice Department's inspector general to support the suspicions of some conservatives that the case was a setup by American intelligence, people familiar with the matter said. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's office contacted U.S. Attorney John Durham, the prosecutor Barr personally tapped to lead a separate review of the 2016 probe into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, the people said. The inspector general also contacted several U.S. intelligence agencies.... Durham informed Horowitz's office that his investigation had not produced any evidence that might contradict the inspector general's findings on that point.... That could rebut conservatives' doubts -- which Barr has shared with associates in recent weeks -- that Horowitz might be blessing the FBI's Russia investigation prematurely, and that Durham could potentially find more, particularly with regard to [a] Maltese professor [whom winger conspiracy theorists falsely believe was a U.S. asset]." TPM has a summary of the WashPo report.

Never-Trumper Rick Wilson in Rolling Stone: "Be honest: The words 'traitor' and 'treason' don't have the sting they once had; they've been devalued from mis- and over-use by this president. For Donald Trump, any opposition, either personal, ideological, or political is treason.... Which is a shame, because America is in the midst of a treason boom right now, and more than a few people in Trump's immediate orbit -- and Trump himself -- richly and actually deserve the title of traitor, and the treason inherent in their acts and words is apparent." Wilson gives many examples. --s

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'two-faced' after a viral clip circulated showing Trudeau gossiping about the president's conduct at bilateral NATO meetings a day earlier." Mrs. McC: Trump has cancelled his press conference, maybe because Trudeau, Johnson & Macron laughed at him & hurt his fee-fees. (Also linked yesterday. Yesterday's Commentariat includes video of the exchange among Trudeau, et al.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly canceled a press conference that was scheduled to cap a contentious trip to England for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 70th anniversary meeting.... Hours before the press conference was set to start, video emerged of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau caught on a hot mic mocking Trump.... None of the politicians in the hot-mic video, which emerged on social media Tuesday evening, mentioned Trump by name. But Trudeau reportedly said later Wednesday that it was Trump's surprise announcement of the location for next year's Group of Seven summit that made 'his team's jaws drop to the floor.' Trump revealed Tuesday that the 2020 G-7 summit will be held at Camp David in Maryland, weeks after he retreated from a plan to host it at his own Miami golf resort." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Shay Khatiri in the right-wing, anti-Trump Bulwark: "... Donald Trump cancelled his press conference at the NATO summit, called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau two-faced, and abruptly left the summit altogether after video surfaced of Trudeau, Boris Johnson, and Emmanuel Macron talking about the American president with utter contempt. Trump seemed surprised that, after three years of crapping all over America's allies, they do not hold him in high regard.... Our relationship with our allies is not out of altruism. It is because we benefit from it. Being the hyperpower can be burdensome, but it is, all things considered, a bargain at twice the price. The United States is, far and away, the biggest beneficiary of the global order that it has implemented.... Trump is dismantling this equilibrium through imprudence and pettiness.... The creators of this order never dreamed that one day America's leader would be so foolish as to seek to throw these alliances away...." See also Nicholas Burns' commentary, linked below.

~~~ Move Along, Donald. There are many interpretations of what was going on between Queen Elizabeth & her daughter Princess Anne as Donald & Melanie Trump held up a reception line & monopolized receivers Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Duchess Camilla & NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. It appears to me that the Queen gestures to move the Trumps along & beckons Anne to help. Anne, who at some point during the reception also joined Canadian PM Justin Trudeau as he made fun of Trump, shrugged at her mother in a way that suggests to me she did not intend to assist in getting rid of the uncouth Americans. You may read the exchange differently. Maybe you think Elizabeth & Anne find Donnie delightful & thought it was great he was holding up other guests. Fine. We weren't there; we don't know. Thanks to Anonymous for the lead:

David Herszenhorn of Politico: "... Donald Trump warned Germany to up its military spending, or face unspecified trade sanctions. Trump issued the warning on Tuesday while in London for a NATO leaders' summit, and ahead of a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel scheduled for early Wednesday afternoon." (Also linked yesterday.)

Nicholas Burns in the Atlantic: "The not-so-closely guarded secret at NATO headquarters is allied officials are privately relieved that, rather than holding a full-fledged summit over two days, the leaders are holding just three and a half hours of formal discussions. That limited Trump's opportunities to blow up the proceedings, as he has done in other major meetings with European and Canadian leaders.... Article V [of the NATO treaty] has been invoked just once in NATO history, when the European allies and Canada vowed to come to our defense after the 9/11 attacks.... Trump appears entirely indifferent to the clear, decisive advantage over Russia and China that the United States enjoys because of our European ties. We have 28 allies in NATO, as well as treaty allies in Japan, South Korea, and Australia in the western Pacific, who will defend us when our backs are against the wall. This is the great power differential we enjoy with Moscow and Beijing." (Also linked yesterday.)"

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "A few months ago Donald Trump decided to suddenly yank our troops from Syria. We'd already beaten ISIS, so why not? It was time to get out. But the Wall Street Journal reports today that apparently things have changed: 'The Trump administration is considering a significant expansion of the U.S. military footprint in the Middle East, including dozens more ships, other military hardware and as many as 14,000 additional troops to counter Iran, U.S. officials said." (Emphasis [probably] Drum's.) You might want to read Drum's May 2016 post on the Blob, which he also links. The Raw Story has a short summary of the WSJ story.

Julia Ioffe of GQ: "Last year ... Lewis Lukens, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in London, visited a pair of English universities where he spoke about the importance of international cooperation ... between the U.K. and America.... A week later, Lukens says, his boss, the U.S. ambassador Woody Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and a Trump political appointee, told him that he was done, firing Lukens from his post seven months ahead of when he was scheduled to leave for a new assignment.... The reason? Lukens says he had unwittingly committed a fatal error in his speech: He had mentioned former president Barack Obama.... This incident ... offers a stark example of the politicization of the foreign service under Trump. It's also a grim illustration of how the administration -- through three years of attempted budget cuts, hiring freezes, and grotesquely personal attacks -- has eviscerated the country's diplomatic corps and put highly sensitive matters of national security in the hands of politically appointed novices." Read on. --s

** But We Say "Merry Christmas!" in the U.S.A. Lola Fadulu of the New York Times: "The Trump administration, brushing aside tens of thousands of protest letters, gave final approval on Wednesday to a rule that will remove nearly 700,000 people from the federal food-stamp program by strictly enforcing federal work requirements. The rule, which was proposed by the Agriculture Department in February, would press states to carry out work requirements for able-bodied adults without children that governors have routinely been allowed to waive, especially for areas in economic distress. The economy has improved under the Trump administration, the department argued, and assistance to unemployed, able-bodied adults was no longer necessary in a strong job market.... More than 140,000 public comments were submitted on the rule that was made final on Wednesday, and they were overwhelmingly negative." The NBC News story is here.

Ian McMacDougall of ProPublica: "The logistical challenges [of Trump's inhumane border policies] were daunting, but as luck would have it, Immigration and Customs Enforcement already had a partner on its payroll: McKinsey & Company, an international consulting firm.... [McKinsey] proposed cuts in spending on food for migrants, as well as on medical care and supervision of detainees.... The consultants ... seemed focused solely on cutting costs and speeding up deportations -- activities whose success could be measured in numbers -- with little acknowledgment that these policies affected thousands of human beings.... [T]he consulting firm's sway at ICE grew to the point that McKinsey's staff even ghostwrote a government contracting document that defined the consulting team's own responsibilities and justified the firm's retention, a contract extension worth $2.2 million." --s

GOP consultant Evan Siegfried in an NBC News opinion piece: "As the president's misguided worldwide trade war rages, the latest salvo is the United States Trade Representative's further proposed 100 percent tariff on several goods imported from France as a response to its taxes on digital companies -- and it's Americans who are paying and will continue to pay the price. The president and his supporters keep insisting, incorrectly, that the countries (China, France, etc.) from which tariffed products come are the ones paying their cost, but ... tariffs are never paid by the country on which they are imposed. Instead, their cost -- initially paid by the company producing the good -- is passed on to ... the consumer." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Siegfried is all upset that the price of his favorite French wine is about to go up. I have news for him: so is the price of a California alternative. If a $20 bottle of French wine goes up to $40, that California vintner is not going to keep selling her product for $18 or $20. She's going to raise her price to what the market will bear: not $40, but $25 or $30. To borrow a line from Siegfried, "That is basic capitalism."

Presidential Race 2020

Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe negative campaign ads turn you off. Here's one, and I think it's the best ad I've seen this campaign season:

~~~ Josh Taylor of the Guardian: "... Joe Biden has sought to capitalise on world leaders' private ridicule of Donald Trump at the Nato summit, releasing a video montage including similar moments which soon went viral on Twitter. Within hours the video, posted by the Democratic frontrunner on Wednesday evening, amassed close to 2m views, and more than 21,000 retweets. By comparison, Trump's video about his Nato trip had 1.4 million views and 14,600 retweets in the space of 12 hours.... CNN reported Biden's video was posted 30 minutes after Trump landed back on US soil, in keeping with Biden's policy of not criticising the president while he is overseas.... Trump later tweeted that 'I got along great with the Nato leaders' and accused the 'fake news media' [of] trying to 'belittle my very successful trip to London for Nato'."

Congressional Races 2020

Steven Shepard & Ally Mutnick of Politico: "Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee who participated in last month's impeachment hearings, said Wednesday he won't seek reelection next year. Heck, 67, was first elected in 2012 to represent a district southwest of Seattle.... Heck ... wrote that the process of compiling the intelligence committee's recent impeachment report had left him 'discouraged' about continuing to serve in Congress. 'The countless hours I have spent in the investigation of Russian election interference and the impeachment inquiry have rendered my soul weary,' Heck wrote. 'I will never understand how some of my colleagues, in many ways good people, could ignore or deny the president's unrelenting attack on a free press, his vicious character assassination of anyone who disagreed with him, and his demonstrably very distant relationship with the truth.'"

Yelena Dzhanova of CNBC: "Defying ... Donald Trump, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday tapped financial services executive Kelly Loeffler to fill the state&'s soon-to-be vacated Senate seat." ~~~

~~~ BUT There's Something about Loeffler Even Trump Can Understand. Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Georgia's soon-to-be Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) will spend $20 million of her personal fortune on her bid to hold on to her Senate seat next year, according to a person familiar with her plans. Loeffler, the multimillionaire CEO of an Atlanta-based financial services firm, was appointed on Wednesday to replace retiring Sen. Johnny Isakson (R) in 2020. Her appointment sets up a special election next year that is expected to draw both Republican and Democratic challengers."

Marisa Endicott of Mother Jones: "Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to confirm Sarah Pitlyk, who has argued against in vitro fertilization and surrogacy and touted the (debunked) 'eugenic origins of the birth control movement,' to a lifetime judgeship on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.... The American Bar Association unanimously determined Pitlyk was 'not qualified' for the judgeship.... Pitlyk clerked for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and wrote an opinion piece for Fox News defending him against the sexual assault allegations he faced during his confirmation process.... Pitlyk has made a career out of anti-abortion and reproductive health litigation." --s The Washington Post story is here.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the Guardian: "Colin Kaepernick sent a tweet on Thanksgiving [advocating for Indigenous causes] and the white-wing media wants to make sure you know about it.... So, why the panicky attacks on Kaepernick? Clearly, there's something much more insidious going on here: the sustained attempt to steal Kaepernick's political voice by characterizing him as un-American. The Black Grinch who wants to steal White Christmas American values.... History has taught us over and over that religious values are quickly abandoned when they conflict with economics or traditional social norms.... But really it's how conservative America has always treated African American athletes who speak out whether it's Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, or any of the others.... For much longer than 50 years people have been ordering truth-tellers to shut up and punishing them when they refuse.... But they sure will keep on trying as long as they get paid to pander to those who wrap themselves in the pretty colors of the flag rather that the bold words of the Constitution." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Abdul-Jabbar himself often has been on the receiving end of such criticism.

Beyond the Beltway

Kentucky. Ryland Barton of WFPL (Kentucky Public Radio): "During a series of interviews on talk radio shows Wednesday morning, outgoing Republican Gov. Matt Bevin said that he lost his race for reelection because the Democratic Party 'harvested votes in urban communities.'... Vote harvesting refers to collecting absentee or mail-in ballots in order to sway an election. The practice is illegal in some states, but Kentucky is one of 27 states that allows absentee ballots to be returned by a designated agent.... During the interview on 55KRC, Bevin said that he was encouraged by his supporters on Election Day, but that Democrats brought 'more less-informed people' to the polls." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie Translation: "Black people are so ignorant they'll hand over their ballots to crooked Democrats who happen by." You know, Matt, the percentage of Kentuckians identifying as black is less than 8 percent. The percentage of whites is more than 87 percent. That does kinda suggest that a whole buncha "more-informed" people from "non-urban communities" voted for Andy Beshear, too. You sniveling racist pig.

Way Beyond

Brazil. Matt Sandy of the New York Times: "... Brazil's space agency reported that in one year, more than 3,700 square miles of the Amazon had been razed -- a swath of jungle nearly the size of Lebanon torn from the world's largest rainforest. It was the highest loss in Brazilian rainforest in a decade, and stark evidence of just how badly the Amazon, an important buffer against global warming, has fared in Brazil's first year under President Jair Bolsonaro. He has vowed to open the rainforest to industry and scale back its protections, and his government has followed through, cutting funds and staffing to weaken the enforcement of environmental laws. In the absence of federal agents, waves of loggers, ranchers and miners moved in, emboldened by the president and eager to satisfy global demand." With photos.

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project: "What do a Swedish Hells Angels boss, an Iranian state oil company, the Italian mob, and a fake Gambian bank have in common? The answer: A company services firm called Formations House, hidden behind the doors of one of London's most exclusive addresses. For years, the handsome Edwardian terrace at 29 Harley Street was a front for a vast back-office operation run out of Pakistan that claims to have churned out some 400,000 companies for clients around the globe. A cache of the family-run company's internal records obtained by the anti-secrecy group Distributed Denial of Secrets, and shared with OCCRP and other media outlets, provides unprecedented insight into Formations House's global reach, and the criminal activities of some of its clients around the world." --s

News Ledes

NBC News: "A U.S. sailor fatally shot two civilian Defense Department employees and wounded a third at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii before killing himself, military officials said. Rear Admiral Robert Chadwick said the civilian shipyard worker who was wounded was stable. The gunman has been tentatively identified as an active duty sailor assigned to a submarine, he said."

AP: "Hiring in the United States jumped last month to its highest level since January as U.S. employers shrugged off trade conflicts and a global slowdown and added 266,000 jobs. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.5% from 3.6% in October, matching a half-century low, the Labor Department reported Friday. And wages rose a solid 3.1% in November compared with a year earlier. Investors cheered the report, sending the Dow Jones industrial average up more than 270 points in early trading."

The Commentariat -- December 4, 2019

Late Morning Update:

The New York Times is live-updating today's Judiciary Committee hearing. The Washington Post's live updates are here. The Guardian's liveblog is here. The Guardian's liveblog tends to be the most up-to-the-minute. ~~~

~~~ Politico has texts of the prepared opening statement by today's witnesses.

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'two-faced' after a viral clip circulated showing Trudeau gossiping about the president's conduct at bilateral NATO meetings a day earlier." Mrs. McC: Trump has cancelled his press conference, maybe because Trudeau, Johnson & Macron laughed at him & hurt his fee-fees. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly canceled a press conference that was scheduled to cap a contentious trip to England for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 70th anniversary meeting.... Hours before the press conference was set to start, video emerged of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau caught on a hot mic mocking Trump.... None of the politicians in the hot-mic video, which emerged on social media Tuesday evening, mentioned Trump by name. But Trudeau reportedly said later Wednesday that it was Trump's surprise announcement of the location for next year's Group of Seven summit that made 'his team's jaws drop to the floor.' Trump revealed Tuesday that the 2020 G-7 summit will be held at Camp David in Maryland, weeks after he retreated from a plan to host it at his own Miami golf resort."

David Herszenhorn of Politico: "... Donald Trump warned Germany to up its military spending, or face unspecified trade sanctions. Trump issued the warning on Tuesday while in London for a NATO leaders' summit, and ahead of a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel scheduled for early Wednesday afternoon."

Nicholas Burns in the Atlantic: "The not-so-closely guarded secret at NATO headquarters is allied officials are privately relieved that, rather than holding a full-fledged summit over two days, the leaders are holding just three and a half hours of formal discussions. That limited Trump's opportunities to blow up the proceedings, as he has done in other major meetings with European and Canadian leaders.... Article V [of the NATO treaty] has been invoked just once in NATO history, when the European allies and Canada vowed to come to our defense after the 9/11 attacks.... Trump appears entirely indifferent to the clear, decisive advantage over Russia and China that the United States enjoys because of our European ties. We have 28 allies in NATO, as well as treaty allies in Japan, South Korea, and Australia in the western Pacific, who will defend us when our backs are against the wall. This is the great power differential we enjoy with Moscow and Beijing."

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Michael Shear & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released a report documenting the impeachment case against President Trump, laying out the conclusions of its inquiry into allegations that he abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to help him in the 2020 presidential election and then impeded attempts by Congress to investigate.... The report's approval, expected on Tuesday evening, will set in motion the next phase in the impeachment of Mr. Trump, accelerating a constitutional clash that has happened only three times in the nation's history." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "... Donald Trump abused the power of his office by pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political rivals, House Democrats concluded in a highly anticipated report released Tuesday. The 300-page House Intelligence Committee report, which is expected to form the basis for articles of impeachment, also accuses Trump of engaging in an extensive effort to obstruct the House's impeachment inquiry and deprive investigators of key witnesses and documents. The report describes a president eager to use his leverage over Ukraine -- a country at war with Russia -- to extract political benefits ahead of the 2020 election. Trump allegedly conditioned military aid and a coveted White House meeting for Zelensky on his willingness to launch Trump's desired investigations, including one targeting former Vice President Joe Biden. '[T]he president placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States, sought to undermine the integrity of the U.S presidential election process, and endangered U.S. national security,' the report concludes. The Intelligence Committee formally adopted the report later Tuesday on a party-line vote, ahead of the first impeachment hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.... Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said his report uncovered 'overwhelming' evidence that should be presented to the Judiciary Committee immediately for consideration." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a ScribD of the report via Vox. (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: A summary report is 17 pages & there are 300+ pages of background. Michael Shear of the New York Times reports the highlights of the Intel Committee report. ~~~

~~~ The one thing that's new to the public in the body of the Intel Committee's report is a series of phone call records. Here are some eye-poppers. ~~~

     ~~~ Rudy, Rudy, Rudy. Colby Itkowitz, et al., of the Washington Post (@ 5:00 pm ET): "Records obtained by the House Intelligence Committee show several calls text messages in early August between ... Rudolph W. Giuliani and people whose phone numbers are associated with the White House and the Office of Management and Budget. At that time, then-U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland were trying to set up a meeting between Trump and Zelensky that the Ukrainians were desperate to schedule. Ukrainian official asked Volker on Aug. 7 whether he had any 'news about White House meeting date,' and Volker said he asked Giuliani to 'weigh in.' Giuliani's calls and texts include a nearly 13-minute call with an OMB official and an unnamed number identified only as '-1' on Aug. 8.... The contents of the exchanges are not known, but they preceded a group text exchange on Aug. 9 in which Volker applauds Sondland for making progress toward setting up a White House meeting." Mrs. McC: Now, who do you suppose "1" is?

     ~~~ Same link @4:45 pm ET: "Rudy "Giuliani called the White House repeatedly on the day that the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was abruptly ordered to return to Washington, according to phone records released Monday by the House Intelligence Committee.... The records show that Giuliani made a flurry of calls to the White House on April 24 -- the day that Yovanovitch was summoned to Washington and told that she had lost Trump's confidence. Giuliani called the White House at least seven times that day between 7:47 a.m. and 8:09 p.m. He also received a call from a White House number and spent more than eight minutes speaking to someone identified only as '-1' in the report." ~~~

     ~~~ Zachary Basu of Axios: "Call records included in an >impeachment report released by House Democrats Tuesday show that House Intelligence Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) had a number of contacts in April with Rudy Giuliani and Lev Parnas, an associate of Giuliani's who has since been indicted for campaign finance violations.... The April contacts came in the midst of a smear campaign against former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, which was led by Giuliani, Parnas and John Solomon, a Trump-friendly journalist who formerly wrote for The Hill." ~~~

     ~~~ Lachan Markay of the Daily Beast has more on Rudy's calls: "Rudy Giuliani and one of his indicted Ukrainian associates exchanged a flurry of phone calls with Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the top Republican on Congress' impeachment investigation panel, amid a Giuliani-led effort to dig up dirt on ... Donald Trump's political opponents in Ukraine. The House Intelligence Committee obtained phone records from AT&T showing extensive communications in early April involving Nunes, Giuliani, Lev Parnas, and The Hill columnist John Solomon, according to records released in the committee's formal report on its investigation underlying impeachment charges against President Donald Trump. The records shed new light on the relationship between Nunes, one of the impeachment inquiries most vehement critics, and the individuals at the center of what committee Democrats describe as an illicit campaign to weaponize U.S. foreign policy to Trump's political advantage." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Both Adam Schiff & Lev Parnas' lawyer Joseph Bondy called out Devin Nunes' for his alleged secret collaboration with Giuliani & the White House while sitting on the committee that was investigating Trump & others. Schiff, when asked by reporters about Nunes' activities, said, "It is, I think, deeply concerning that at a time when the president of the U.S. was using the power of his office to dig up dirt on a political rival that there may be evidence that there were members of Congress complicit in that activity." And Bondy tweeted, "Devin Nunes, you should have recused yourself at the outset [of the impeachment hearings]." Schiff, BTW, said on MSNBC that Nunes had access to the phone logs as soon as the committee obtained them. ~~~

(~~~ Devin Nuisance. Rowan Scarborough of the Washington Examiner: "Rep. Devin Nunes on Tuesday filed a defamation suit against CNN for a 'demonstrably false hit piece' that said the California Republican traveled to Vienna in 2018 to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joseph R. Biden. 'Devin Nunes did not go to Vienna or anywhere else in Austria in 2018,' declared the lawsuit seeking $435 million in damages. He said he visited two countries, Libya and Malta, on a 'codel' trip, meaning 'congressional delegation.' The CNN story, which ran Nov. 22, said Mr. Nunes met with former Ukraine chief prosecutor Viktor Shokin." ~~~)

~~~ Sharon LaFraniere & Julian Barnes of the New York Times take a stab at explaining the significance of Rudy's phone lobbying: "In the two days before President Trump forced out the American ambassador to Ukraine in April..., Rudolph W. Giuliani was on the phone with the White House more than a dozen times. Phone records cited in the impeachment report released Tuesday by the House Intelligence Committee illustrate the sprawling reach of Mr. Giuliani's campaign first to remove the ambassador, Marie L. Yovanovitch, then to force Ukraine's new government to announce criminal investigations for Mr. Trump's political gain. That effort accelerated through the spring and summer into a full-court press to force Ukraine's new president to accede to Mr. Trump's or risk losing $391 million in military assistance desperately needed to hold off Russian-led forces waging a separatist war in eastern Ukraine.... [Giuliani] reached out to ... Mike Pompeo..., John R. Bolton..., Devin Nunes..., [others,] and the owner of a mysterious number, '-1.'... The phone records also detail at least half a dozen calls between Mr. Giuliani and a number associated with the White House's Office of Management and Budget."~~~

     ~~~ Here's a report by NBC News, incorporating AP reports.

** Jonathan Chait: Evidence suggests "... Trump has been extorting Ukraine for his own political gain ... during the previous two years as well. Begin with Trump's notion that Ukraine, not Russia, hacked Democratic emails.... American intelligence officials have described the theory as a Russian-backed disinformation campaign.... Trump ... seems to have first heard [this idea] in the summer of 2016, from Paul Manafort.... By April 2017, Trump was repeating this theory in public, falsely telling an Associated Press reporter that a 'Ukrainian-based' company had taken the Democratic server with the stolen emails. A few months after that, Rudy Giuliani began meeting with Ukrainian officials." In June 2017, Giuliani met with former Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko & then-Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko. Lutsenko then opened an "investigation" into the "black ledger" scandal that had implicated Manafort. A few weeks later, Poroshenko scored a "drop-in" White House meeting with Trump. In 2018, the U.S. first agreed to sell Javelin missiles to Ukraine, & -- in exchange -- Ukraine quit cooperating with Bob Mueller's investigators. "Both [of these earlier quid pro quos] bear all the same superficial hallmarks to what occurred this year. In both instances, Giuliani had contacts with Ukrainian officials, and traded the same things (a presidential meeting and military aid). Also in both cases, Ukraine put its famously corrupt judicial system at the disposal of Trump's domestic interests."

Projection. I think he's a maniac. I think Adam Schiff is a deranged human being. I think he grew up with a complex for lots of reasons that are obvious. I think he's a very sick man.... This guy is sick. He made up the conversation [between Trump & Zelensky]. He lied. If he didn't do that in the halls of Congress, he'd be thrown in a jail. But he did it in the halls of Congress and he's given immunity. -- Donald Trump, at NATO

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "The State Department's No. 3 official on Tuesday flatly rejected a conspiracy theory pushed by ... Donald Trump and his personal attorney that it was Ukraine who systematically interfered in the 2016 election, not Russia. In a Senate Foreign Relations hearing on U.S. policy toward Russia, David Hale, the department's undersecretary for political affairs, succinctly summed up the findings of the U.S. intelligence community in response to questioning from the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Bob Menendez.... 'Was the Kremlin's interference in our 2016 election a hoax?' Menendez [asked], echoing the president's own language, and eliciting a swift 'no' from Hale. 'Are you aware of any evidence that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. election?' Menendez continued, to which Hale responded: 'I am not.'... Hale's series of responses is a departure from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who told reporters a week ago that he saw merit in investigating such allegations.... And Trump, too, has continued pushing the debunked claims that have formed -- in part -- the basis of his criticisms of Ukraine and set off the series of events resulting in the impeachment inquiry winding its way through the House." (Also linked yesterday.)

House Democrats released this video Tuesday morning:

Jeremy Stahl of Slate: "On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee will hold its first hearing in the latest phase of the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump. Based on everything we know about the committee's past oversight efforts, statements by Republican committee members and the president's defense team, and the details of the panel itself, one thing seems clear: Compared with the staid and productive fact-finding work conducted by the House Intelligence Committee over the past few weeks, this hearing will almost certainly be a disaster." ~~~

~~~ BUT. Heather Caygle & Sarah Ferris of Politico: "House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler had a blunt message as he privately addressed Democrats the day before his panel assumes a starring role in the impeachment inquiry. 'I'm not going to take any shit,' Nadler said in a closed-door prep session Tuesday morning...."

Ann Marimow & Renae Merle of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court has sided with House Democrats seeking to obtain President Trump's private financial records from Deutsche Bank and Capital One, stating that 'the public interest favors denial of a preliminary injunction.' The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit came in the ongoing legal battle Trump has waged over access to his private business records -- including two cases that have already reached the Supreme Court. The New York-based appeals court upheld Congress's broad investigative authority and ordered the two banks to comply with the House subpoenas for the president's financial information. The case pre-dates the public impeachment proceedings in the House.... Trump has asked the Supreme Court to block the subpoena, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. agreed to temporarily put the order on hold to give the high court time to review the case. A separate three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit also unanimously rejected Trump's effort to block New York grand jury subpoenas for his eight years of Trump's tax returns from his accounting firm.... Trump has also asked the Supreme Court to step in to stop disclosure of his financial records to New York prosecutors." A CNBC report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

** Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: Rudy "Giuliani's efforts to undermine the special counsel probe [-- an effort that began at the end of 2018 --] eventually snowballed into the current impeachment crisis gripping the capital --highlighting how the pressure Trump and his allies put on Ukraine originated as an effort to sow doubts about the Russia investigation.... The direct connection between the Mueller investigation and the Ukraine pressure campaign, often lost as the administration has reeled from controversy to controversy, shows the deep imprint the Russia investigation has had on the president.... Trump's determination to undercut the special counsel's findings was so great that, the very day after Mueller testified before Congress, the president appeared to solicit another country's political help in a phone call to his Ukrainian counterpart. In his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump described the Mueller investigation as 'nonsense,' emphasizing that it was very important to get to the bottom of what really happened." (Also linked yesterday.)

Nicolle Gaouette & Kylie Atwood of CNN: "One of ... Donald Trump's most common responses to intelligence briefings is to doubt what he's being told, former Deputy Director of Intelligence Susan Gordon said Tuesday. Gordon, an intelligence veteran of more than 30 years, said Monday that Trump had two typical responses to briefings. 'One,"'I don't think that's true,'" Gordon told the Women's Foreign Policy Group..., 'and the other is ... "Why is that true? Why are we there? Why is this what you believe? Why do we do that?" Those sorts of things.'... Gordon seemed to suggest that it was more difficult trying to figure out where the President had gotten the information that was shaping his beliefs and opinions than dealing with his tendency to doubt what he was being told.... Gordon'remarks about the President at the group's gathering may be her first since Trump veered from protocol to block her from rising to become the acting director of national intelligence after the July resignation of Dan Coats.... Gordon's ouster came about because Trump, who has had a contentious relationship with his own intelligence services, wanted a political loyalist in the role who would 'rein in' the intelligence agencies." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As Gordon notes, there's nothing wrong with a commander-in-chief questioning intelligence assessments. But if the reason for doubting the assessment is, "That's not what Putin or Erdogan on bin Salman or some guy on Fox 'News' says," there's a problem. BTW, what goodies do you suppose Trump got for refusing to condemn MSB for the gruesome murder of Jamal Khashoggi & for supporting Erdogan's brutal attack on the Kurds? We probably should stop pretending Trump "is drawn to" dictators & acknowledge that his supposed "attraction" to them is the as-yet-unknown "favors" they grant him.

Emmanuel Macron Is Tired of Trying to Reason with Donald Trump. Katie Rogers & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "A once-cordial relationship between President Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France devolved in a dramatic fashion on Tuesday, as the two leaders publicly sparred over their approach to containing the threat of terrorism and a shared vision for the future of NATO, a 70-year-old alliance facing existential threats on multiple fronts. In a lengthy appearance before reporters, the president met a cool reception from Mr. Macron, who earlier in the day Mr. Trump derided as 'very insulting' for his recent remarks on the 'brain death' of the alliance. When asked to address his earlier comments on the French leader, Mr. Trump, a leader averse to face-to-face confrontation, initially demurred, but Mr. Macron was direct." This is an update of a story also linked early yesterday. The Hill's story of the Macron-Trump meeting is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Aamer Madhani & Zeke Miller of the AP: "... Donald Trump barreled into a NATO leaders' meeting on Tuesday aiming insults at French President Emmanuel Macron, slamming 'unpatriotic' Democrats at home for holding an impeachment hearing while he is abroad and playing down the impact his domestic troubles are having on his standing on the global stage." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump has always relished throwing European leaders off balance, antagonizing allies, embracing insurgents and setting off a frantic contest for how best to deal with him. Now, as Europe undergoes dizzying political changes of its own, it is throwing Mr. Trump off balance. In London for a NATO summit meeting, Mr. Trump was subjected to a rare tongue-lashing on trade and terrorism by President Emmanuel Macron of France, who dismissed his attempt to lighten the mood with a curt, 'Let's be serious.' Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump held his own tongue about British politics, heeding Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plea not to barge into Britain's election at the 11th hour.... Mr. Trump bridled almost visibly as he tried to stay out of the British election on Dec. 12. 'I don't want to complicate it,' he said, in a grudging admission that he is so unpopular in Britain that a full-throated endorsement of the prime minister could backfire.... For a president who prides himself on being the Great Disrupter, it was a startling turnabout, one that underscored how Europe's shifting landscape -- with an ambitious president in France, a lame-duck leader in Germany and a breakaway populist in Britain -- has scrambled the calculus for Mr. Trump." ~~~

~~~ Macron Tricks Baby Trump into Endorsing NATO. Jonathan Chait: "The keenest minds in what remains of the free world have set themselves to the task of distracting Trump long enough to get through the NATO summit without dissolving the alliance in a tantrum. The Washington Post detailed the efforts leading up to the summit. The plans include flattering Trump with an elaborate dinner at Buckingham Palace, and presenting a series of trumped-up concessions to make it appear the allies have buckled to Trump's demands by increasing their spending, thereby allowing him to claim victory rather than storming out in a huff.... Amusingly, what seems to have worked instead is Emmanuel Macron's completely different ploy. The French president gave an interview last month decrying the 'brain death' of NATO, which he said had failed to account for America's shrinking commitment under Trump. Trump himself has called NATO 'obsolete,' openly questioned whether the U.S. would come to the defense of allies under attack..., and privately told aides on several occasions last year he wants to withdraw from the alliance. But the notion that somebody else would question NATO, and blame its demise on Trump, has enraged him.... And now Trump is lashing out at Macron. 'NATO serves a great purpose,' he declared [Tuesday].... Manipulating children into doing what you want by pretending to demand they do the opposite thing is a trick most parents learn to use. It usually stops working around the age of 5."

Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Tuesday made his most pessimistic comments in weeks regarding a trade deal with China, just one day after ratcheting up tensions with Brazil, Argentina, and France, sending chills through Wall Street and making clear there would be no let up in his protectionist tactics. Speaking on the first day of NATO's 70th anniversary summit, Trump said he was open to waiting until after the 2020 elections to reach a trade deal with China, a sharp departure from his comments in October when he said a' phase one' deal was nearly complete. The markets plunged on Trump's remarks, continuing a rocky December that began with Trump's Monday announcement -- coupled with disappointing manufacturing and construction data -- that he would reimpose tariffs on steel and aluminum from Brazil and Argentina.... The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 400 points after his comments, or 1.4 percent, and the Standard & Poor's 500 fell roughly 1.3 percent." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Thomas Franck of CNBC: “... Donald Trump downplayed the stock market's Tuesday losses as 'peanuts' when compared to both the economic importance of striking a favorable trade deal with China and the market's gains since his election." @11:15 am ET, that's the whole story. (Also linked yesterday.)

The royal Duke of York
Hung out with Donald Trump.

But Donald doesn't know him since
He fell into a dump. ~~~

~~~ Iliana Magra of the New York Times: "President Trump denied on Tuesday that he knew Prince Andrew, the son of Queen Elizabeth II who has become entangled in sexual abuse accusations against the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. But photographs show they have met several times over the past 20 years." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Hassan of the Washington Post: "President Trump said at a news conference on Tuesday that he 'doesn't know' Britain's Prince Andrew, despite photos of the two taking a walk side by side in June, smiling at Westminster Abbey during the president's three-day state visit to Britain and attending at least one social gathering several years ago." (Also linked yesterday.)

So You Think Trump Doesn't Make the U.S. the Laughingstock of the World? Allyson Chiu of the Washington Post: Snippets of a conversation among "Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron ... were captured in a short video that went viral late Tuesday after viewers surmised that the group appeared to be joking about President Trump's performance earlier in the day. 'Is that why you were late?' a smiling Johnson asks Macron in the 25-second clip first shared by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. 'He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top,' Trudeau chimes in. Hours before the reception, Trump had turned what were 'expected to be brief photo opportunities' with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Macron and Trudeau into 'his own personal daytime cable show,' The Washington Post reported. During the one-on-one meetings, Trump clashed with Macron and needled Trudeau over Canada's NATO spending.... 'You just watched his team's jaws drop to the floor,' an animated Trudeau later tells the group." Here's an AP story. Mrs. McC: A commenter to one tweet carrying the video notes that also among the group are Netherlands PM Mark Rutte Princess Anne. Can't see Anne's face, but Rutte seems to be amused:

Can't get over this video, both for the fact that POTUS hates the thought of anyone laughing at him and for the fact that he long used "other countries are laughing at us" as an attack against his predecessors. https://t.co/j2zmF27vBK

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) December 4, 2019

** Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "Speaking to a roomful of police officers and prosecutors on Tuesday, Attorney General William P. Barr ... suggested, those who don't show 'respect' to authority could lose access to police services. 'Today, the American people ... have to start showing, more than they do, the respect and support that law enforcement deserves,' Barr said in pointed remarks delivered at a Justice Department ceremony to honor police officers. Barr added that 'if communities don't give that support and respect, they might find themselves without the police protection they need.'" A HuffPost story is here. Mrs. McC: This is what the attorney general of the United States thinks of First Amendment rights for people who live in certain "disrespectful communities." Bill Barr is just a smarter Donald Trump.

Barbara Starr & Chandelis Duster of CNN: "Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher has retired from the Navy, capping off a career that gained national attention when ... Donald Trump controversially intervened in a war crimes case on his behalf.Gallagher retired on November 30 as planned, according to several Navy officials. His retirement followed standard practice for enlisted sailors with 20 or more years of service. He has been transferred to the 'fleet reserve,' a list of personnel that can be potentially called back to active duty in a national crisis." (Also linked yesterday.)

AP: "GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter showed no emotion in the courtroom when he pleaded guilty to misusing campaign money in San Diego on Tuesday. Outside federal court, the California congressman declined to say when he would leave office.... [Prosecutor Phil] Halpern vowed to seek a prison term for Hunter of at least a year, although his plea agreement calls for up to five years." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2020

Dan Merica & Kate Sullivan of CNN: "Sen. Kamala Harris ended her 2020 presidential campaign on Tuesday. The California Democrat told her senior staff of the decision Tuesday morning, and later sent an email to supporters.... The senator, who struggled to energize her campaign in recent months, acknowledged that financial pressures led to her decision." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's Harris's statement. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Too bad. We will miss you Kamala. -- Donald Trump, in a tweet

Don't worry, Mr. President. I'll see you at your trial. -- Kamala Harris, in a tweeted response

Presidential Race 2016. Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "An influential political power broker who was a witness named in the Mueller report was among eight people charged with conspiring to conceal the source of excessive contributions to groups supporting Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday. Prosecutors say George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman who was a cooperating witness in Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, conspired with Ahmad 'Andy' Khawaja, the owner of an online payments company, to conceal more than $3.5 million in donations to the groups. The donations let Mr. Khawaja gain access to Mrs. Clinton during the campaign, and he also visited with President Trump in the Oval Office, according to an investigation by The Associated Press last year.... Mr. Nader, who has been a frequent visitor to Mr. Trump's White House, has spent decades working in international diplomacy.... Mr. Nader is currently in federal custody on unrelated charges of possessing child pornography.... Prosecutors said Mr. Khawaja made the donations in the names of himself, his wife and his business, but that the money actually came from Mr. Nader. While arranging the payments, Mr. Nader reported to an official of an unspecified foreign government about his efforts to gain influence...." ~~~

Congressional Race 2020. GOP Congressman Lives in a UPS Mailbox. Tim Carpenter of the Topeka Capital-Journal: "U.S. Rep. Steve Watkins' [R] decision to sign a Kansas voter registration form and two other election documents that asserted his residential address was a UPS Store in Topeka could constitute felony voter fraud under federal law and election perjury under state statute, officials said Tuesday. Shawnee County records show the first-term Republican listed his official residence as 6021 S.W. 29th St. in Topeka, which corresponds to a UPS Store, when he signed a form to change his residency for voter registration purposes in August, signed an application for a mail-in ballot in October and signed a document to complete advance voting for the November election. It isn't clear where the congressman physically resided in Kansas after August nor what Topeka precinct he was legally qualified to be part of when voting in November.... A bipartisan contingent of Kansas politicians was critical of Watkins' handling of his residential declaration. Several of these Democrats and Republicans said they suspected Watkins' acts rose to the level of criminal conduct."

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Fake residency is a Kansas Republican tradition. In 2014, reporters found that Sen. Pat Roberts didn't actually live in Kansas. He listed as his residence the home of donors who supposedly rented him a room in their house.

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. Alex Samuels & Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune: "State Rep. Rick Miller, R-Sugar Land, is no longer running for reelection after he sparked a firestorm for saying he was facing primary challengers because they are 'Asian.'... In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Miller said that two of his Republican opponents -- former Fort Bend GOP Chairman Jacey Jetton and Houston Fire Department analyst Leonard Chan -- likely joined the race because they're Asian in a district with a sizable Asian population.... The backlash was swift earlier Tuesday as Gov. Greg Abbott pulled his endorsement of Miller and the Fort Bend county GOP chair asked him to consider dropping out."

The Commentariat -- December 3, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Michael Shear & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released a report documenting the impeachment case against President Trump, laying out the conclusions of its inquiry into allegations that he abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to help him in the 2020 presidential election and then impeded attempts by Congress to investigate.... The report's approval, expected on Tuesday evening, will set in motion the next phase in the impeachment of Mr. Trump, accelerating a constitutional clash that has happened only three times in the nation's history."

     ~~~ Here's a ScribD of the report via Vox.

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: A summary report is 17 pages & there are 300+ pages of background. I'll post links to more on this as they become available.

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "The State Department's No. 3 official on Tuesday flatly rejected a conspiracy theory pushed by ... Donald Trump and his personal attorney that it was Ukraine who systematically interfered in the 2016 election, not Russia. In a Senate Foreign Relations hearing on U.S. policy toward Russia, David Hale, the department's undersecretary for political affairs, succinctly summed up the findings of the U.S. intelligence community in response to questioning from the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Bob Menendez.... 'Was the Kremlin's interference in our 2016 election a hoax?' Menendez [asked], echoing the president's own language, and eliciting a swift 'no' from Hale. 'Are you aware of any evidence that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. election?' Menendez continued, to which Hale responded: 'I am not.'... Hale's series of responses is a departure from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who told reporters a week ago that he saw merit in investigating such allegations.... And Trump, too, has continued pushing the debunked claims that have formed -- in part -- the basis of his criticisms of Ukraine and set off the series of events resulting in the impeachment inquiry winding its way through the House."

Dan Merica & Kate Sullivan of CNN: "Sen. Kamala Harris ended her 2020 presidential campaign on Tuesday. The California Democrat told her senior staff of the decision Tuesday morning, and later sent an email to supporters.... The senator, who struggled to energize her campaign in recent months, acknowledged that financial pressures led to her decision." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's Harris's statement.

AP: "GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter showed no emotion in the courtroom when he pleaded guilty to misusing campaign money in San Diego on Tuesday. Outside federal court, the California congressman declined to say when he would leave office.... [Prosecutor Phil] Halpern vowed to seek a prison term for Hunter of at least a year, although his plea agreement calls for up to five years."

The royal Duke of York

Hung out with Donald Trump.

But Donald doesn't know him since
He fell into a dump. ~~~

~~~ Iliana Magra of the New York Times: "President Trump denied on Tuesday that he knew Prince Andrew, the son of Queen Elizabeth II who has become entangled in sexual abuse accusations against the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. But photographs show they have met several times over the past 20 years." ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Hassan of the Washington Post: "President Trump said at a news conference on Tuesday that he 'doesn't know' Britain's Prince Andrew, despite photos of the two taking a walk side by side in June, smiling at Westminster Abbey during the president's three-day state visit to Britain and attending at least one social gathering several years ago."

Emmanuel Macron Is Tired of Trying to Reason with Donald Trump. Katie Rogers & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "A once-cordial relationship between President Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France devolved in a dramatic fashion on Tuesday, as the two leaders publicly sparred over their approach to containing the threat of terrorism and a shared vision for the future of NATO, a 70-year-old alliance facing existential threats on multiple fronts. In a lengthy appearance before reporters, the president met a cool reception from Mr. Macron, who earlier in the day Mr. Trump derided as 'ery insulting' for his recent remarks on the 'brain death' of the alliance. When asked to address his earlier comments on the French leader, Mr. Trump, a leader averse to face-to-face confrontation, initially demurred, but Mr. Macron was direct" This is an update of a story linked below. The Hill's story of the Macron-Trump meeting is here. ~~~

~~~ Aamer Madhani & Zeke Miller of the AP: "... Donald Trump barreled into a NATO leaders' meeting on Tuesday aiming insults at French President Emmanuel Macron, slamming 'unpatriotic' Democrats at home for holding an impeachment hearing while he is abroad and playing down the impact his domestic troubles having on his standing on the global stage." ~~~

~~~ Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Tuesday made his most pessimistic comments in weeks regarding a trade deal with China, just one day after ratcheting up tensions with Brazil, Argentina, and France, sending chills through Wall Street and making clear there would be no let up in his protectionist tactics. Speaking on the first day of NATO's 70th anniversary summit, Trump said he was open to waiting until after the 2020 elections to reach a trade deal with China, a sharp departure from his comments in October when he said a' phase one' deal was nearly complete. The markets plunged on Trump's remarks, continuing a rocky December that began with Trump's Monday announcement -- coupled with disappointing manufacturing and construction data -- that he would reimpose tariffs on steel and aluminum from Brazil and Argentina.... The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 400 points after his comments, or 1.4 percent, and the Standard & Poor's 500 fell roughly 1.3 percent." ~~~

     ~~~ Thomas Franck of CNBC: "... Donald Trump downplayed the stock market's Tuesday losses as 'peanuts' when compared to both the economic importance of striking a favorable trade deal with China and the market's gains since his election."

House Democrats released this video this morning:

Ann Marimow & Renae Merle of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court has sided with House Democrats seeking to obtain President Trump's private financial records from Deutsche Bank and Capital One, stating that 'the public interest favors denial of a preliminary injunction.' The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit came in the ongoing legal battle Trump has waged over access to his private business records -- including two cases that have already reached the Supreme Court. The New York-based appeals court upheld Congress's broad investigative authority and ordered the two banks to comply with the House subpoenas for the president's financial information. The case pre-dates the public impeachment proceedings in the House.... Trump has asked the Supreme Court to block the subpoena, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. agreed to temporarily put the order on hold to give the high court time to review the case. A separate three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit also unanimously rejected Trump's effort to block New York grand jury subpoenas for his eight years of Trump's tax returns from his accounting firm.... Trump has also asked the Supreme Court to step in to stop disclosure of his financial records to New York prosecutors." A CNBC report is here.

** Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: Rudy "Giuliani's efforts to undermine the special counsel probe [-- an effort that began at the end of 2018 --] eventually snowballed into the current impeachment crisis gripping the capital -- highlighting how the pressure Trump and his allies put on Ukraine originated as an effort to sow doubts about the Russia investigation.... The direct connection between the Mueller investigation and the Ukraine pressure campaign, often lost as the administration has reeled controversy to controversy, shows the deep imprint the Russia investigation has had on the president.... Trump's determination to undercut the special counsel's findings was so great that, the very day after Mueller testified before Congress, the president appeared to solicit another country's political help in a phone call to his Ukrainian counterpart. In his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump described the Mueller investigation as 'nonsense,' emphasizing that it was very important to get to the bottom of what really happened."

Barbara Starr & Chandelis Duster of CNN: "Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher has retired from the Navy, capping off a career that gained national attention when ... Donald Trump controversially intervened in a war crimes case on his behalf.Gallagher retired on November 30 as planned, according to several Navy officials. His retirement followed standard practice for enlisted sailors with 20 or more years of service. He has been transferred to the 'fleet reserve,' a list of personnel that can be potentially called back to active duty in a national crisis."

~~~~~~~~~~

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "House Republicans plan to argue that President Trump was acting on 'genuine and reasonable' skepticism of Ukraine and 'valid' concerns about possible corruption involving Americans, not political self-interest, when he pressed the country for investigations of his Democratic rivals, according to a draft of a report laying out their impeachment defense. In a 123-page document that echoes the defiant messaging that Mr. Trump has employed in his own defense, the Republicans do not concede a point of wrongdoing or hint of misbehavior by the president.... They argue that ... the evidence 'does not support' that Mr. Trump withheld a coveted White House meeting for Ukraine's president or nearly $400 million in security assistance for the country as leverage for securing the investigations. The conclusion is at odds with sworn testimony from senior American diplomats, White House officials and other administration officials who recounted how Mr. Trump sought to use American influence over Ukraine to suit his domestic political purposes.... Republicans charge that [the testimony] came from civil servants who dislike Mr. Trump's agenda and style...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's report, by Jeremy Herb & Manu Raju, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As Geoff Bennett -- who is a reporter, not a commentator -- of NBC News said, the gist of the GOP report is "facts be damned." ~~~

     ~~~ Stephen Collinson of CNN: "A new report aimed at defending Donald Trump against Democratic claims of abuse of power represented a remarkable demonstration of the President's greatest political achievement -- the transformation of the Republican Party in his image. The 123-page document written by GOP members on three House committees formalized the President's own cycle of distraction and denial that he used out to ride out the Russia scandal.... The report released by the President's House Republican allies on Monday was in effect the prebuttal of a report on the Democratic impeachment investigation set to be released by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff on Tuesday. The message of the document -- less a defense of Trump on the merits but rather an endorsement of his counterfactual denials -- was simple: Nothing Trump did when it came to Ukraine was wrong." ~~~

... I read the Republicans Report on the Impeachment Hoax. Great job! Radical Left has NO CASE. Read the Transcripts. Shouldn't even be allowed. Can we go to Supreme Court to stop? -- Donald Trump, in a tweet

Nope. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ~~~

~~~ Adam Schiff announced on the teevee Monday night that the real Intel Committee impeachment report will be published sometime Tuesday.

Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "The House Judiciary Committee on Monday unveiled a witness panel of four constitutional scholars for its first impeachment hearing this week.... Wednesday's hearing will feature testimony from four law professors: Noah Feldman, a professor at Harvard Law School and director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law; Pamela Karlan, a professor of public interest law at Stanford Law School; Michael Gerhardt, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law; and Jonathan Turley, a professor of public interest law at George Washington University Law School." Mrs. McC: Turley is the Republicans' "scholar."

Simon Shuster of Time: "Speaking to reporters from Time and three of Europe's leading publications, [Ukraine] President [Volodymyr Zelensky] explained that, despite getting caught up in the impeachment inquiry now unfolding in Washington, D.C., Ukraine still needs the support of the United States. Otherwise his country does not stand much of a chance, Zelensky saidin its effort to get back the territory Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, starting with the Crimean Peninsula. Nor can Ukraine rely on steady financial support from abroad if ... Donald Trump and his allies continue to signal to the world that Ukraine is corrupt, Zelensky said.... During the interview in his office in Kyiv, the comedian-turned-president denied, as he has done in the past, that he and Trump ever discussed a decision to withhold American aid to Ukraine for nearly two months in the context of a quid pro quo involving political favors.... But he also pushed back on Trump's recent claims about corruption in Ukraine, and questioned the fairness of Trump's decision to freeze American aid. 'If you're our strategic partner, then you can't go blocking anything for us,' he said. 'I think that's just about fairness. It's not about a quid pro quo.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Look, I never talked to the president from the position of a quid pro quo. That's not my thing. I don't want us to look like beggars. But you have to understand: We're at war. If you're our strategic partner, then you can't go blocking anything for us. I think that's just about fairness. It's not about a quid pro quo. It just goes without saying. -- Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a media interview

Lie.Breaking News: The President of Ukraine has just again announced that President Trump has done nothing wrong with respect to Ukraine and our interactions or calls. If the Radical Left Democrats were sane, which they are not, it would be case over! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet on Monday morning

Lie. The Ukrainian president came out and said very strongly that President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong. That should be case over. -- Donald Trump in remarks to reporters on Monday morning ~~~

~~~ Trump Misquotes Zelensky (Of Course). Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "Nowhere in the interview did Mr. Zelensky say that his American counterpart did 'nothing wrong.' In fact, he criticized Mr. Trump's comments about corruption in Ukraine and his decision to suspend military aid to Kyiv. Though he said there had been no discussion of a quid pro quo in their conversations, Mr. Zelensky questioned the United States' decision to freeze the aid, which he said was a matter of 'fairness.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

** Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "With the impeachment inquiry charging forward..., Donald Trump's allies have defended his demand for political investigations from Ukraine by claiming that the government in Kyiv tried to sabotage his candidacy and boost Hillary Clinton in 2016.... But the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee thoroughly investigated that theory, according to people with direct knowledge of the inquiry, and found no evidence that Ukraine waged a top-down interference campaign akin to the Kremlin's efforts to help Trump win in 2016. But an interview that fall with the Democratic consultant at the heart of the accusation that Kyiv meddled, Alexandra Chalupa, was fruitless, a committee source said, and Republicans didn't follow up or request any more witnesses related to the issue. The Senate interview largely focused on a Politico article published in January 2017 [cited here yesterday in relation to Sen. John Kennedy's false claims], according to a person with direct knowledge of the closed-door hearing, in which Chalupa was quoted as saying officials at the Ukrainian Embassy were 'helpful' to her effort to raise the alarm about Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort in 2016. In her Senate testimony, Chalupa denied serving as an intermediary between the Ukrainian embassy and the DNC and said she had been targeted by a Russian active measures campaign." ~~~

      ~~~ ** As for Sen. Kennedy, James Downie of the Washington Post outlines his "extraordinary claims" in a post titled "The Useful Idiot from Louisiana." And for once, kudos to Chuck Todd for not letting Kennedy get away with promoting Russian/Trumpian propaganda. Mrs. McC: There is a reason that Kennedy, Nunes & other Trumpettes have embraced the Russian disinformation that Ukraine was the "real hacker-backer": were that true, Trump's ask of Zelensky would be more (though certainly not entirely) justified. These Republicans need to try to establish that Trump's disproved "Ukraine" Crowdstrike server theory was a real thing in order to partially defend him against a likely article of impeachment.

The Crime Family Trump, Ctd. Tom Winter & Rich Schapiro of NBC News: "The Justice Department is 'likely' to file additional charges in the case against two associates of Rudy Giuliani accused of funneling foreign money to U.S. political candidates, a prosecutor said Monday. The disclosure was made during a court hearing in New York related to the case of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. The federal prosecutor didn't offer any further details on the nature or target of any additional charges." ~~~

~~~ Adam Klasfeld of Courthouse News: "A federal judge paved the way on Monday for Rudy Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas to comply with a House subpoena for information relevant to the impeachment of ... Donald Trump. 'I certainly expect to grant that request,' U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken told Parnas' attorney Joseph Brody, adding that he hoped prosecutors would turn over the evidence as soon as possible. 'We will,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Zolkind replied, explaining that the paper trail seized by the government can be turned over quickly. Prosecutors would not be turning over the files to Congress directly but rather to Parnas' legal team, which intends to comply with House subpoenas. Because Parnas has not provided his passwords, however, Zolkind said the file-transfer process could take some time."

Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "House Democrats on Monday notched another legal victory in their pursuit of critical testimony tied to their impeachment efforts, though the ruling may be short-lived because the case is already on temporary hold while it works its way toward an appeal. U.S. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a 17-page opinion, rejected the Justice Department's request to put a long-term stay on her earlier opinion requiring Don McGahn, the former Trump White House counsel, to appear before the House Judiciary Committee.... 'This Court has no doubt that further delay of the Judiciary Committee's enforcement of its valid subpoena causes grave harm to both the Committee's investigation and the interests of the public more broadly,' Jackson wrote."

Omertà!Bobby Allyn of NPR: "The Justice Department says releasing secret grand jury documents from then-special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe to House lawmakers engaged in the impeachment inquiry could discourage future witnesses to presidential abuse from cooperating with grand juries. 'It is not difficult to imagine that a witness in a future investigation of alleged presidential misconduct might be deterred from testifying fully or frankly if she believed that her testimony would be readily disclosed to the House for use in impeachment proceedings,' Justice Department lawyers wrote in a brief filed on Monday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.... Such information is typically kept secret, even to members of Congress. But an impeachment inquiry presents a special legal scenario, and the House cited a Watergate era precedent that allowed impeachment investigators back then to review Watergate grand jury material. On Monday, Justice Department lawyers disputed that the 1974 case settled the issue, insisting that since the impeachment inquiry is not a 'judicial proceeding,' the material cannot fall within the confidential material exception the House lawyers cite." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is, of course, consigliere Bill Barr objecting to precedent that would help Congress establish whether or not il capo dei capi Donald Trump has committed more impeachable offenses. But wait; there's more on our loyal consigliere below.

Jeremy Stahl of Slate: "Mike Pompeo...has his fingerprints all over the Ukraine plot. Before the Ukraine news broke, the top-of-his-class West Point graduate, ex-CIA chief, former Kansas congressman, and former Army officer was considered one of the top potential political heirs to Trump in the Republican Party. Now, as he hints at a potential Senate run in Kansas in 2020, the impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives has turned up a pile of documents and testimony demonstrating the length and depth of his apparent involvement in the scandal, and his efforts to deceive Congress and the public about it:" Stahl summarizes all of Pompeo's machinations. --s

Jonathan Chait: "... as the substantive defense of Trump's behavior in the Ukraine extortion plot has disintegrated, perhaps the president's central talking point [is that Democrats have wanted to impeach him from the get-go].... As a factual account of Democratic behavior, this is mostly wrong. The party's decision-makers -- the House leadership and the 40 or so most-vulnerable members who controlled its majority -- all vocally opposed impeachment until this autumn.... Many progressives did support impeachment from the get-go ... [because] Trump has in fact committed a lengthy series of impeachable offenses.... Trump ran as an authoritarian demagogue whose entire conception of the office he stood poised to occupy was at odds with the republican form of government.... Trump has run through the authoritarian threats he made as if it were a to-do list ... [and has committed] new ones he hadn't [promised]."

Jason Leopold, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "On Monday, in response to a court order, the Justice Department released the second installment [of primary-source documents from the Mueller report]: summaries of FBI interviews spanning hundreds of pages. These summaries, known as '302 reports,' are some of the most important and highly sought-after documents from Mueller's investigation. They contain numerous redactions, which BuzzFeed News will challenge in our ongoing lawsuit." The report includes highlights from the newly-released, and heavily-redacted, material. ~~~

~~~ ** Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN write a more complete highlights report. Mrs. McC: Though hardly the most important revelation of the docs, Hope Hicks testified that Jared "Kushner didn't believe the [Trump Tower dirt-from-Russia meeting] story was a big deal." It isn't just that Kushner is as dumb as a post; he also has the moral compass of a cockroach. Hicks, by contrast, testified that she told Trump Sr. that "this is going to be a massive story."

~~~ Julia Arciga of the Daily Beast: "President Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, told federal investigators that [Jay Secolow,] a lawyer from Trump's legal team, encouraged him to hold back details from Congress in 2017 about 'more communications with Russia' on the Trump Tower Moscow project, including correspondence with a 'woman from the Kremlin,' according to newly released documents from the Mueller investigation.... According to the newly released transcripts, Cohen said Sekulow more or less shut him down when he offered more information on contacts with Russia regarding Trump Tower Moscow.... Sekulow kept pushing him, according to Cohen, urging him to 'stay on message and not over elaborate.' He also told him he would be 'protected' if he didn't go 'rogue.' Sekulow is also said to have told Cohen that it was 'time to move on' and to avoid contradicting the president." ~~~

~~~ Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Former counsel Robert Mueller had taken himself out of the running to be FBI director by the time he met with ... Donald Trump about the job, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told federal investigators.... Trump has claimed [falsely] that Mueller applied for the suddenly vacant job of FBI director in that meeting and turned him down.... Rosenstein described feeling 'angry, ashamed, horrified and embarrassed' at how the abrupt firing of then-FBI director James Comey on May 9, 2017 was handled.... Rosenstein said he spoke to Mueller ... about becoming special counsel the next day."

Katie Rogers & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "President Trump began a two-day summit meeting on Tuesday to mark the 70th anniversary of NATO -- an alliance that has been strained, in part, by his own brash handling of overseas allies — by lashing out at ... [Emmanuel Macron]. In a meeting with Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO, Mr. Trump said President Emmanuel Macron of France had been 'very insulting' to the alliance when he warned recently about the 'brain death' of NATO. Mr. Macron had suggested that Europe could no longer assume unwavering support from the United States. The two leaders were scheduled to meet later in the day." Story has been updated; see above. The Hill's story is here. ~~~

~~~ David Lynch, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump revved up his global trade war on two fronts Monday, announcing tariffs on industrial metals from Brazil and Argentina while threatening even harsher penalties on dozens of popular French products.... Robert E. Lighthizer, the president's chief trade negotiator, released the results of a five-month investigation that concluded a French digital services tax discriminated against American Internet companies and should be met with tariffs of up to 100 percent on $2.4 billion in products such as cheese, yogurt, sparkling wine and makeup. The proposal, which awaits a presidential decision, threatens to intensify simmering transatlantic trade friction, coming with Trump already accusing European carmakers of enjoying government protection from American competition. The French tax 'discriminates against U.S. companies, is inconsistent with prevailing principles of international tax policy, and is unusually burdensome for affected U.S. companies,' Lighthizer said in a statement. Speaking early Tuesday, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called the proposed tariffs 'unacceptable.'" A Politico story is here. ~~~

~~~ Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Donald Trump arrived in the UK to meet Nato allies who are fearful that he could pose a serious threat to the survival of the alliance if he wins re-election next year.... John Bolton, Trump's national security adviser until September, heightened fears among allies about the president's intentions in a private speech to a hedge fund last month, in which Bolton (according to a NBC report) warned that Trump could 'go full isolationist' if he wins re-election next November, withdrawing from Nato and other international alliances." --s

Because He's a Disgusting, Misogynistic Bully. Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday lashed out at Lisa Page after the former FBI attorney insisted in a new interview that she did not break the law during her work on the bureau's high-profile probe into Hillary Clinton's emails. 'When Lisa Page, the lover of Peter Strzok, talks about being "crushed", and how innocent she is, ask her to read Peter's "Insurance Policy" text, to her, just in case Hillary loses,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Also, why were the lovers text messages scrubbed after he left Mueller. Where are they Lisa?'" (Also linked yesterday.)

The Crime Family Trump, Ctd. Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Way back yesterday, I expressed some mild skepticism at a Politico story that asserted that Bill Barr "has struggled to maintain the department's historical reputation for independence...." If there ever was a struggle (and I doubt it), Barr has overcome ... ~~~

~~~ ** Devlin Barrett & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Attorney General William P. Barr has told associates he disagrees with the Justice Department's inspector general on one of the key findings in an upcoming report -- that the FBI had enough information in July 2016 to justify launching an investigation into members of the Trump campaign, according to people familiar with the matter. The Justice Department's inspector general, Michael Horowitz, is due to release his long-awaited findings in a week.... The discord [within DOJ] could be the prelude to a major fissure within federal law enforcement on the controversial question of investigating a presidential campaign. Barr has not been swayed by Horowitz's rationale for concluding that the FBI had sufficient basis to open an investigation on July 31, 2016, these people said.... It'not yet clear how Barr plans to make his objection to Horowitz's conclusion known." The Raw Story has a summary report here.

Matthew Lee of the AP: "The Trump administration has quietly released more than $100 million in military assistance to Lebanon after months of unexplained delay that led some lawmakers to compare it to the aid for Ukraine at the center of the impeachment inquiry. The $105 million in Foreign Military Financing funds for the Lebanese Armed Forces was released just before the Thanksgiving holiday and lawmakers were notified of the step on Monday.... The money had languished in limbo at the Office of Management and Budget since September although it had already won congressional approval and had overwhelming support from the Pentagon, State Department and National Security Council. The White House has yet to offer any explanation for the delay despite repeated queries from Congress. Lawmakers such as Rep. Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., had been pressing the administration since October to either release the funds or explain why it was being withheld.... Earlier this month, the delay came up in impeachment testimony by David Hale, the No. 3 official in the State Department, according to the transcript of the closed-door hearing. Hale described growing consternation among diplomats about the delay."

Nick Miroff & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "A company that President Trump urged military officials to hire for border wall construction has been awarded a $400 million contract to build a span of new barrier across an Arizona wildlife refuge, according to a Defense Department announcement Monday. North Dakota-based Fisher Sand and Gravel won the contract to build in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Yuma County, Ariz., the Defense Department said, with a target completion date of Dec. 30, 2020. Trump has repeatedly pushed for Fisher to get a wall-building contract, urging officials with the Army Corps of Engineers to pick the firm -- only to be told that Fisher's bids did not meet standards. Trump's entreaties on behalf of the company have concerned some officials who are unaccustomed to a president getting personally involved in the intricacies of government contracting. Trump has been enamored with Tommy Fisher, the company's chief executive, who has made multiple appearances on Fox News to promote his firm.... Fisher has worked with some Trump allies -- including former Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach and ex-White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon -- to build border fencing on private land using private donations."

Trump's Sleaze Family, Ctd. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Melania Trump suspects Roger Stone, a longtime ally and adviser to Donald Trump, of being behind the release of nude photos from her modelling past, a new book claims. In the book, Free, Melania, CNN correspondent Kate Bennett also writes that the first lady 'still refuses to believe' her husband played a role in the release. Bennett also adds to reports that the president and first lady keep separate bedrooms at the White House.... The pictures ... found their way into the New York Post [as] Donald Trump was embroiled in an ugly spat with the family of Capt Humayun Khan, a US soldier killed in Iraq in 2004.... Bennett writes of the release of the photos, 'the idea that [Trump] would throw his naked wife under the bus was almost so gross and salacious, and the photos so B-movie bad, the press ultimately spent very little time discussing them.'... Other nude pictures of Melania Trump, taken on Trump's plane, were published in GQ magazine in 2000.... Bennett writes that the episode left Melania 'humiliated, defeated, embarrassed and scared for her young son'." --s

Dan De Luce, et al. of NBC: "Mina ... Chang resigned last week from a senior State Department post after an NBC News investigation revealed she made misleading claims about her charity work and qualifications -- including a fake Time magazine cover with her face on it. Since Chang's resignation, former colleagues, social acquaintances and government officials have reached out to NBC News, providing more information that helps explain how Chang made it as far as she did."

Melanie Zanona & John Bresnahan of Politico: "GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter will plead guilty in federal court on Tuesday after denying for more than a year that he illegally misused campaign funds.... Hunter said he wanted to avoid a trial 'for my kids. I think it would be really tough for them.' The California Republican didn't say definitively that he was resigning, but the former Marine officer did mention that 'It's been a privilege to serve in Congress. I think we've done a lot of great things for the nation.'" A Washington Post story is here. Mrs. McC: Touching, isn't it, how he's doing it for the kids? ~~~

~~~ Morgan Cook & Jeff McDonald of the San Diego Union-Tribune: "The announcement was posted on the U.S. District Court docket Monday morning, then KUSI aired an interview with Hunter in which he said he will plead guilty to one of the 60 criminal charges against him. He suggested that he is likely to spend time in custody." ~~~

~~~ The Crime Family Trump, Ctd. As Rachel Maddow pointed out, Hunter was the second Member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump. The first congressman to endorse Trump, Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), also pleaded guilty to federal charges & is awaiting sentencing. Oh, as Maddow also noted, their loyal voters sent both men back to Congress even as both were under federal indictment. Remember when Republicans were supposedly the law-and-order party? Uh, that's law for thee, but not for us. Those indictments, which took place before Bill Barr had become consigliere, pissed off the boss: "Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff," Trump tweeted in September 2018.

Presidential Race 2020

John Sides & Lynn Vavreck of the Washington Post: Democratic voters don't see the ideological differences among presidential candidates that pundits emphasize. "In a large-scale project called Nationscape that we're conducting with our colleague Chris Tausanovitch at [UCLA], we have queried more than 6,000 voters weekly since July. Using these data, we find a surprising amount of agreement among Democrats on major policy issues. Contradicting the conventional wisdom, clearly defined ideological 'lanes' don't seem to exist in the minds of most voters.... Despite all the talk about the moderate-progressive split, for instance, the most popular second choice of [Joe] Biden voters is Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) -- followed by [Elizabeth] Warren. Many supporters of the 'progressives' also rank a moderate as a second choice.... In general, voters appear to be focused not on 'lanes' but on the candidates who are getting news coverage and who thus appear viable contenders for the nomination." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: They're describing me. Right now I'm wavering between Warren & Klobuchar, two smart, politically-experienced women who are in different ideological "lanes" but who have the fortitude to stand up to Trump (and to anybody else). For various reasons, none of the men in serious contention impress me as right for the top job. I have of course ruled out scatterbrained Marianne Williamson & Russian asset Tulsi Gabbard, and -- I'm sad to say -- Kamala Harris, as she does not seem to be fast enough on her feet or well-enough organized to beat Trump. Her "big moments" in debates have been scripted.

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump's 2020 campaign announced Monday it will no longer allow reporters from Bloomberg News to obtain credentials to cover Trump campaign events.... Campaign manager Brad Parscale described the decision to ban Bloomberg reporters as a reaction to Bloomberg News' announcement that it would no longer do investigative journalism on Democratic 2020 candidates, following the entry of the media outlet's owner, Mike Bloomberg, into the presidential race." (Also linked yesterday.)

CBS News: "60 Minutes ... found that over 300 video ads [for Donald Trump] were taken down by Google and YouTube, mostly over the summer, for violating company policy. But the archive doesn't detail what policy was violated. (Also linked yesterday.)

Pete Williams of NBC News: "The Supreme Court seemed unlikely Monday to be heading for a major ruling on Second Amendment rights after hearing courtroom arguments in a dispute over a New York City gun restriction -- a law no longer on the books. Because New York repealed the law after the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, the city argued that the case should be dismissed as moot because there's nothing left to fight over. Based on the comments by the justices Monday, it did not seem that a majority was willing to keep the case alive and rule on the broader gun rights issue."

Samantha Michaels of Mother Jones: "Citing concerns about contraband, officials around the country are ratcheting up restrictions on what gets into prison libraries.... New York, Maryland, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons have adopted similar policies, and Washington state banned most used books from its prisons, though all eventually backtracked because of public outrage. Even in places without wholesale bans, corrections departments are cracking down. Florida blocks 20,000 titles and Texas blocks 10,000 titles they claim could stir up disorder. A recent report by PEN America decried similar restrictions around the country as so arbitrary and sweeping as to effectively be 'the nation's largest book ban.' Texas prisons have prohibited Where's Waldo?... [S]ome departments encourage prisoners to read on tablets, which are now available in at least some prisons in more than 30 states. Pennsylvania inmates can choose from more than 8,500 e-books through the vendor GTL, but they come at a hefty price: Tablets cost nearly $150 and some e-books -- many of which can be downloaded for free outside of prison -- cost as much as $24.99." --s

Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "Republican megadonors Robert and Rebekah Mercer donated over $12 million to a variety of conservative causes last year despite distancing themselves from being associated with ... Donald Trump. In 2018, the Mercers signaled to their allies that they were not looking to directly support Trump's presidency after spending millions to get him elected in 2016.... The Mercers also gave $500,000 to the Government Accountability Institute, or GAI, a think tank founded by conservative investigator Peter Schweizer and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. The two Trump allies have pushed conspiracies against their rivals, including Hillary Clinton in Schweizer's book 'Clinton Cash.'"

Earth. Johnny Diaz of the New York Times: "A dead sperm whale that washed up on a Scottish beach had more than 220 pounds of tangled netting, rope, plastic and other debris inside its stomach, according to a local whale research group."

Beyond the Beltway

Illinois. Erik Ortiz of NBC News: "Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson was unexpectedly fired Monday just weeks before he was set to retire, ending a rocky, three-year tenure as head of a department marked by controversial police shootings, court-supervised reforms and its handling of high-profile arrests. But in announcing his firing, Mayor Lori Lightfoot suggested it was Johnson's personal failures when he was found asleep behind the wheel of his car on Oct. 17 and for what he told investigators that played into the decision to end his employment. 'Upon a thorough review of the materials of the Inspector General's ongoing investigation, it has become clear that Mr. Johnson engaged in a series of ethical lapses that are intolerable,' Lightfoot said in a statement ahead of a news conference in which she rebuked Johnson for his conduct." The Chicago Tribune story is here.

Way Beyond

Two-bit Dictator Threatens U.S. Huileng Tan of CNBC: "North Korea on Tuesday said that the 'year end limit' is nearing for the U.S. and that 'it is entirely up to the U.S. what Christmas gift it will select to get,' the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, citing Ri Thae Song, North Korean vice minister of foreign affairs in charge of U.S. affairs.... 'The DPRK has heard more than enough dialogue rhetoric raised by the U.S. whenever it is driven into a tight corner. So, no one will lend an ear to the U.S. any longer,' Ri said. Last Thursday, North Korea fired two short-range projectiles into the sea off its east coast." --s

News Lede

NBC News: "The wintry storm that has killed at least eight people as it marches across the country was expected to hang on stubbornly through Tuesday, further bedeviling travel plans in the Northeast. The powerful storm will show up along the Northeastern and New England coastlines, causing snow -- heavy in some areas -- from the Appalachian Mountains to inland areas of the Northeast and much of New England, the National Weather Service said. It could be well into Wednesday morning before the weather system -- which the weather service, in a bit of understatement, called a 'long-duration storm' -- finally moves completely off the Maine coast, forecasters said." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: More than a foot in my neck of the woods. All that shoveling I did yesterday is buried today. Not much point in going out now as it's still coming down hard.