The Commentariat -- October 30, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

John Bolton "has been invited to testify" before the House Intel Committee next Thursday, according to both CNN & MSNBC. So has the NSC lawyer John Eisenberg who is at the center of much of the Ukraine scandal.

Jake Tapper of CNN: "Top White House Ukraine expert Alexander Vindman told congressional investigators he was convinced ... Donald Trump was personally blocking $400 million in military aid to Ukraine to force that country to publicly announce an investigation into Joe Biden and his family, two sources present at the deposition told CNN.... The sources at the deposition said Vindman believed the existence of a quid pro quo was clear during a July 10 meeting between American and Ukrainian officials. In his opening statement, Vindman wrote that date is when US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland told Ukrainian government officials that they would need to deliver 'specific investigations in order to secure the meeting' with Trump that they so desired. But the fact that the $400 million in aid, including desperately needed military assistance, was also being used by the President didn't become clear until the next month, Vindman testified.... On August 16, Bolton and other senior Cabinet officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, traveled to Trump's resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, to discuss a number of national security issues with the President [including a decision letter Vindman had written that showed government-wide support for releasing the funds to Ukraine]. Vindman learned after their meeting that Trump still refused to allow the security assistance funds to go to Ukraine, which made Vindman think the President was still waiting for the 'deliverable' [Trump had demanded]."

You Can't Make up This Stuff. Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council's top Ukraine expert..., told lawmakers that a close associate of Republican Rep. Devin Nunes 'misrepresented' himself to ... Donald Trump in an effort to involve himself further in Ukraine policy.... [Vindman] told lawmakers that after attending Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's inauguration in May..., [he] had been looking forward to debriefing Trump and giving a positive account of Zelensky's vision for Ukraine's future.... But [his boss Fiona Hill] ... instructed [him] 'at the last second' not to attend the debriefing ... because ... Trump believed ... that Kashyap Patel, a longtime Nunes staffer who joined the White House in February and had no discernible Ukraine experience or expertise, was actually the NSC's top Ukraine expert instead of Vindman.... Vindman also testified that he was told Patel had been circumventing normal NSC process to get negative material about Ukraine in front of the president, feeding Trump's belief that Ukraine was brimming with corruption and had interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Democrats."

Boo-Hoo-Hoo. Everybody's Picking on Me. Ariane de Vogue & Alex Rogers of CNN: "A federal appeals court nominee broke down in tears during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, reacting to a scathing letter against his confirmation by the American Bar Association after it conducted 60 interviews and concluded that he was 'not qualified" for the judicial branch. Lawrence J.C. VanDyke grew emotional, with his face turning red as he defended himself against the letter's conclusions that he could would not treat LGBTQ litigants fairly. 'I do not believe that,' VanDyke said. 'It is a fundamental belief of mine that all people are created in the image of God,' adding, 'they should all be treated with dignity and respect.'... "Mr. VanDyke's accomplishments are offset by the assessments of interviewees that Mr. VanDyke is arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-to-day practice including procedural rules,' William C. Hubbard, chair of the ABA's standing committee on the federal judiciary, wrote. 'There was a theme that the nominee lacks humility, has an 'entitlement' temperament, does not have an open mind, and does not always have a commitment to being candid and truthful.'"

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Senate Democrats on Wednesday opened a confirmation hearing for Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan as ambassador to Russia with questions about why he recalled the former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, and didn't stand up more forcefully for the foreign service. Sullivan, responding to sharp questions by Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, agreed that Yovanovitch had 'served capably and admirably.' But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, he said, told him 'the president had lost confidence with her,' and he was designated to deliver the news to her. Pompeo, he indicated, declined to specify any further reason in response to Sullivan's appeal.'... Menendez asked whether he knew that Trump's personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, was 'seeking to smear' Yovanovitch. 'I believe he was, yes,' Sullivan said.... He was asked whether it was 'ever appropriate for the president to use his office to solicit investigations into his domestic political opponents.'Sullivan said: 'I don't think that would be in accord with our values.'" ~~~

~~~ Nahal Toosi covers the same ground for Politico, and her take is worth reading, too. Sullivan "also said he was looped in when the State Department was given a packet of material that appeared to be aimed at denigrating Yovanovitch. 'It didn't provide to me a basis for taking action against our ambassador,' said Sullivan of the packet, which Giuliani is suspected of helping put together. Sullivan said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had tried to find out exactly why Trump was unhappy with Yovanovitch, but that after several months, the reason -- which Sullivan said he was never told -- became irrelevant because it was clear the president wanted her out."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "It's not clear how significant the omissions [in the abridged telcon] noted by [Col. Alexander] Vindman were, but his testimony blows a massive hole in Trump's claim that the transcript is a complete and thorough documentation of the call. Yes, that claim was always obviously false, but having a sense of something specific that was apparently excluded makes obvious just how many gaps there could be in the document.... What was revealed in Vindman's testimony isn't that the transcript wasn't complete; we knew that on the day it was released. What was exposed instead was how hollow Trump's claims about the transcript really were. Trump has learned over the past four years that it doesn't matter what he says."

Kate Brannan of Just Security: "As the summer wore on, and ... Donald Trump would not budge on his decision to withhold almost $400 million in military aid for Ukraine, the Pentagon warned the White House: If its portion of the money wasn't released quickly, the Defense Department would not be able to spend it before the fiscal year ended on September 30. The Pentagon even gave the White House a deadline... [of] August 6.... And the Pentagon was also clear that providing Ukraine the security assistance was in the national security interests of the United States, on that point Trump's Cabinet agreed. 'At every meeting, the unanimous conclusion was that the security assistance should be resumed, the hold lifted,' Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, said in his opening statement to House investigators last week. As for corruption, the pretext being given for why the funding was being withheld, the Pentagon had certified in May that the 'Government of Ukraine has taken substantial actions to make defense institutional reforms for the purposes of decreasing corruption [and] increasing accountability.' When asked over the summer to perform an analysis of the effectiveness of the military aid, the Defense Department took one day to conclude the assistance was effective and should be resumed, Taylor testified. In late July, the Pentagon also alerted the White House that if the funding wasn't released in time, the Pentagon would be at risk of violating the Impoundment Control Act, which punishes the executive branch when it doesn't spend money that Congress has appropriated, the sources said. But, the White House did not heed the Pentagon's warnings. It continued to withhold the money through August and into September." There's more.

Burgess Everett & Anita Kumar of Politico: "Sen. Chuck Grassley is warning the White House that it cannot legally appoint Ken Cuccinelli to lead the Department of Homeland Security. President Trump is seeking an end-around to appoint the immigration hardliner to the position, and Cuccinelli is loathed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republicans to the point that he probably could not be confirmed. And Grassley, the most senior Republican, said under the Vacancies Act there's no legal way to put the acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services chief in the position as acting chief after acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan leaves his post on Thursday. ~~~

     ~~~ Earlier. Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "The White House has found a way to bypass a federal statute that dictates who can fill secretary positions, potentially allowing President Trump to choose whomever he wants to lead the Department of Homeland Security, according to an administration official. The route may run through an office established to counter weapons of mass destruction.... The White House ... is exploring a loophole in the [federal vacancies] law, according to an administration official. Under this route, the White House would tap someone to be the assistant secretary of the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, which is vacant, and then elevate that person to be the acting secretary of homeland security."

Ernesto Londoño & Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "President Sebastián Piñera of Chile said on Wednesday that his country, which has been rocked by a wave of recent protests, was not in a position to host a key United Nations climate change meeting and a major Asia-Pacific trade summit later this year. The announcements underscored how destabilizing the recent wave of protests and acts of vandalism have been for the country, which has long been regarded as an exemplar of stability in a tumultuous region.... The trade meeting, of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group, had been scheduled for mid-November. That cancellation throws a wrench into trade talks between the United States and China. President Trump had been scheduled to attend the trade meeting, which was seen as an opportunity for the two economic giants to settle a monthslong fight over tariffs that has rippled across the global economy."

Julie Brown of the Miami Herald: "... a private forensic pathologist hired by Mark Epstein [-- Jeffrey Epstein's brother] to oversee his brother's autopsy bolsters what conspiracy theorists have suggested for months: that the evidence does not support the finding that Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. Dr. Michael Baden, one of the world's leading forensic pathologists, viewed Jeffrey Epstein's body and was present at the autopsy, which was held the day after Epstein was found dead at the notorious Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Manhattan.... Baden, in an interview first aired on Fox & Friends Wednesday, announced his own findings: that Epstein, who was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell on Aug. 10, had two fractures on the left and right sides of his larynx. He told the Herald that it is rare for any bones to be broken in a hanging, let alone for multiple bones to be fractured. 'Those fractures are extremely unusual in suicidal hangings and could occur much more commonly in homicidal strangulation,' said Baden, who added that there were hemorrhages in Epstein's eyes that are also more common in strangulation than in hangings. Baden's opinion contradicted New York City Medical Examiner Barbara Sampson, who ruled Epstein's cause of death to be a suicide by hanging." The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sorry, Doc. Anybody who goes on "Fox & Friends" to explain science-y things immediately loses all credibility.

Thanks to Forrest M. for passing along this:

Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney first learned about the U.S. military raid against ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after the operation was already underway, according to five current and former senior administration officials.... The extraordinary move by Trump to leave his chief of staff out of the most significant U.S. military operation against the world's most wanted terrorist since the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011 represents a major blow to Mulvaney, suggesting that he is increasingly sidelined inside the White House. The White House chief of staff typically would be central to such a momentous gambit for a president, coordinating logistics, public statements and notifications of congressional leaders and allies.... Andrew Card, former President George W. Bush's longtime chief of staff, said the exclusion of Mulvaney from a moment of such magnitude in the presidency is difficult to grasp because the chief of staff typically would be in national security meetings leading up to it and tasked with coordinating with other top officials on everything from a communications strategy to a plan in case the raid failed." Mrs. McC: Mulvaney isn't even "acting" chief-of-staff now.

Joby Warrick, et al., of the Washington Post: "U.S. commandos zeroed in on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's final hideout with the help of an extraordinarily well-placed informant, an Islamic State operative who facilitated the terrorist leader's movements around Syria and even helped oversee construction work on his Syrian safe house, according to U.S. and Middle East-based officials knowledgeable about the operation. The mole's detailed knowledge of Baghdadi's whereabouts as well as the room-by-room layout of his sanctuary proved to be critical in the Oct. 26 raid that ended with the death of the world's most-wanted terrorist, the officials said. The informant was present during the assault on Baghdadi's compound in the Syrian province of Idlib, and he was exfiltrated from the region two days later with his family. The man, whose nationality had not been revealed, is expected to receive some or all of the $25 million U.S. bounty that had been placed on Baghdadi's head, according to the officials. One official said he was a Sunni Arab who turned against the Islamic State because one of his relatives had been killed by the group." TPM has a brief summary of the WashPo report.

Julia Ioffe has a good piece in GQ on, "... the making of a decorated U.S. military officer, and the immigrant experience of Soviet Jews in America and abroad." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Ioffe centers her story on the history of Alexander Vindman & his family. "While Trump has a history of attacking anyone who questions his power, there is a particularly insidious history to questioning the loyalty of Jewish émigrés." Critics so often see Hitler & Mussolini tendencies in Trump, but Ioffe's piece reminds us that Trump comes with a taste for Stalin, too.

Jonathan Chait: “'Hillary Clinton emerged recently to claim, with no basis in fact, that I am being "groomed" by the Russian government to undermine America,' claims Tulsi Gabbard in a Wall Street Journal op-ed today. In fact, as even the conservative Washington Examiner acknowledges, Clinton did not say that. She said Republicans were grooming Gabbard. And far from refuting that charge, everything about Gabbard's op-ed confirms Clinton was probably right.... In fact, nothing could do more to vindicate Clinton's suspicion that Gabbard is being groomed by the Republican party as a spoiler candidate than a Wall Street Journal op-ed previewing her case for a spoiler campaign.... Gabbard is now working hand in hand with the Republican party. This is apparent in her pattern of working closely with Republican-controlled media, like 'Hill TV' -- John Solomon's propaganda outlet -- and Sean Hannity. Gabbard used both forums to promote Republican talking points discrediting the impeachment process...."

Deirdre Shesgreen of USA Today: "In a remarkable rebuke of a NATO ally, the House on Tuesday approved a biting sanctions bill that could cripple Turkey's economy and would punish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally by requiring an assessment of his net worth amid questions about his finances in Turkey. Lawmakers also passed a deeply contentious measure to commemorate the Armenian genocide, a historic move that will almost certainly exacerbate U.S.-Turkey tensions. The genocide measure officially recognizes the systematic killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. 'Members of my own family were among those murdered, and my parents fled with my grandparents to America,' said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. 'What all of the persecuted had in common was that they were Christians.'... Turkey condemned the House votes, saying the sanctions bill is "incompatible with the spirit of our allied relations under NATO.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: And how did attacking Kurdish allies of the U.S. & other NATO countries conform to "the spirit of our allied relations under NATO"? Note to Erdogan: Just because Trump lets you do it, doesn't mean it's okay.

Florida. Max Dixon of Politico: "The Republican Party of Florida on Monday postponed its biggest annual fundraiser, a move that some officials blamed on lackluster interest from donors....[The event] was scheduled for Nov. 9 in Orlando. The postponement is a significant setback to the state Republican Party and potentially ... Donald Trump, who will need to win Florida to secure his reelection in 2020.... As of Friday, the only table sponsorships that had been sold were bought by local Republican Executive Committees. No donor or corporate tables had been sold and [Gov. Ron] DeSantis had not raised any money for the event, despite pledging millions of dollars." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Matt Dixon of Politico: "... Donald Trump's promise to headline the Republican Party of Florida' annual fundraiser has given it a much-needed financial and emotional boost going into 2020, even as the news has laid bare divisions within the state party's leadership. The party's scramble to land a Trump visit culminated in a political victory for Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday and effectively left state GOP Chairman Joe Gruters with a title but no influence. The power play caps a monthslong effort by DeSantis to elbow the chairman out of power. It also ended the 24-hour drama that saw the party's Statesman's Dinner canceled due to a lack of interest, then rescheduled with a bang."

Iliana Magra of the New York Times: "The family of Harry Dunn, the teenage motorcyclist who was killed in a crash in Britain in August, is suing the Trump administration for 'lawless misconduct,' a spokesman for the family said on Tuesday. Mr. Dunn, 19, died after his motorcycle collided with a car that the police said had been traveling on the wrong side of the road on Aug. 27 in Brackley, a town about 60 miles northwest of London. The case ignited a diplomatic tug-of-war between Britain and the United States after the woman thought to be driving the car, Anne Sacoolas, the wife of an American diplomat, claimed immunity and left the country a little over two weeks after the accident." The Hill's story is here.

Tara Copp, et al. of McClatchy DC: "Veterans saw a spike in urinary, prostate, liver and blood cancers during nearly two decades of war, and some military families now question whether their exposure to toxic environments is to blame, according to a McClatchy investigation. McClatchy found that the rate of cancer treatments for veterans at Department of Veterans Affairs health care centers increased 61 percent for urinary cancers ⁠-- which include bladder, kidney and ureter cancers ⁠-- from fiscal year 2000 to 2018. The rate of blood cancer treatments ⁠-- lymphoma, myeloma and leukemia ⁠-- rose 18 percent in the same period. Liver and pancreatic cancer treatment rates increased 96 percent and prostate cancer treatment rates increased 23 percent.... While sympathetic to veterans' concerns, Dr. Michael Kelley, chief of hematology and oncology for the VA, said much more research is needed to link a cause to the cancers." --s

Noah Lanard of Mother Jones: "In the summer of 2017, the Trump administration made El Paso the test site for a family separation policy whose existence the administration denied. Now the administration is using El Paso to test another secretive policy that will allow it to rapidly deport asylum seekers with negligible due process.... The number of people taken into custody by Border Patrol agents dropped from 132,856 in May to 40,507 in September.... The number of parents and children traveling together stopped by Border Patrol agents plummeted from 84,486 to 15,824 during that period.... Since the fiasco of family separation, [the administration] moved toward policies like the new El Paso pilot program that are complex and hidden from public view..., another sign that the Trump administration concluded from the family separation crisis that deterrence is more sustainable when it is obscured and hard to understand." --s

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Adam Edelman & Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "House Democrats released on Tuesday text of the resolution that will detail their procedures as they move forward with the impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump. The full House is expected to vote Thursday on the resolution after the House Rules Committee debates and marks it up on Wednesday.... The eight-page resolution calls for public hearings and lays out their general format, and specifically permits staff counsels to question witnesses for periods of up to 45 minutes per side, Democrats and Republicans. The resolution gives the minority the same rights to question witnesses that the majority has, 'as has been true at every step of the inquiry,' Democrats said in a fact sheet about the measure.... The measure also would allow the president or his counsel to participate in impeachment proceedings held by the House Judiciary Committee, whic has the authority to advance articles of impeachment against the president. The resolution explicitly states that the Judiciary panel will decide whether articles should be reported to the full House. If the president 'refuses to cooperate' unlawfully with congressional requests, Democrats say that the measure says '... the Chair shall have the discretion to impose appropriate remedies, including by denying specific requests by the President or his counsel.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Nicholas Fandos & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "... while the rules would afford the president many of the rights that congressional Republicans have demanded, including allowing Mr. Trump's lawyers or Republican lawmakers to submit written proposals to call additional witnesses, they are unlikely to satisfy his allies.As in past impeachment inquiries, Democrats as the majority party could block subpoenas requested by the minority Republicans if they disagreed that hearing from those people was necessary.... The House will recess late Thursday for a week, but Democratic leaders aim to begin open hearings in the Intelligence Committee as soon as the week of Nov. 11. The public hearings will most likely feature several key witnesses investigators have interviewed behind closed doors."~~~

~~~ Slow Readers. Media Matters: "Fox's Jason Chaffetz says two days isn't enough time for congressional Republicans to read the eight page impeachment resolution."

Jennifer Ansler & Kylie Atwood of CNN: "Two State Department experts on Ukraine are slated to become the latest diplomats thrust into the spotlight as part of the House impeachment inquiry. Catherine Croft and Christopher Anderson are scheduled to testify in separate closed-door hearings before the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees on Wednesday. The foreign service officers, described as 'two stars of the midlevel ranks' by a former State Department colleague, each worked as deputy to then-Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker.... Croft took over the role from Anderson in the summer of 2019.... A source familiar with their testimony told CNN that there are expected to be blind spots in what Croft and Anderson knew. Anderson left the role in July, which is when Giuliani's direct involvement intensified. When Croft took over the role, Giuliani's influence was more pronounced. According to her prepared statement, 'Ambassador Volker's conversations with Giuliani were separate from my work, and I was generally unaware of when they spoke or what they spoke about.'" ~~~

~~~ John Hudson & Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "Two career diplomats will testify before House impeachment investigators Wednesday that President Trump displayed a deeply pessimistic view of Ukraine that was out of step with officials at the White House and State Department who saw support for the European country as critical in its battle with Russian-backed separatists, according to their prepared remarks obtained by The Washington Post.... Anderson ... will detail efforts when U.S. officials tried to demonstrate support for Ukraine only to be batted down by the White House, including after Russian forces attacked and seized Ukrainian military vessels in the Sea of Azov in 2018.... Croft ... will say that 'throughout' her time in the Trump administration she heard the president 'describe Ukraine as a corrupt country,' both 'directly and indirectly.'... They ... offer new insight into how a shadow foreign policy executed by people outside of government undermined the work of U.S. officials."

     ~~~ NPR has Croft's opening statement here. "'During my time at the NSC, I received multiple calls from lobbyist Robert Livingston, who told me that Ambassador Yovanovitch should be fired. He characterized Ambassador Yovanovitch as an 'Obama holdover' and associated with George Soros,' Croft says in her opening statement.... 'It was not clear to me at the time -- or now -- at whose direction or at whose expense Mr. Livingston was seeking the removal of Ambassador Yovanovitch. I documented these calls and told my boss, Fiona Hill, and George Kent, who was in Kyiv at the time. I am not aware of any action that was taken in response.'" ~~~

     (~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If the name Robert Livingston sounds vaguely familiar, that's because he figured in the last impeachment of a President: Bill Clinton. After Newt Gingrich resigned as speaker, partly because it came out he was having an extramarital affair with a young staffer, House Republicans were ready to choose Livingston to replace Gingrich. Wikipedia: "Livingston learned late on the night of December 15, 1998 -- just days before the full House of Representatives was about to begin debating the impeachment of President Clinton -- that [Hustler publisher Larry] Flynt had been in contact with at least one woman with whom he had had an extramarital affair. Two days later..., Flynt released a press release saying he was investigating tips about four alleged affairs Livingston had had. Two days [after that], on December 19, 1998, during the final impeachment debates in the House of Representatives, Livingston challenged President Bill Clinton to resign -- and then said 'I can only challenge you in such fashion if I am willing to heed my own words,' and announced that he would not be a candidate for the speakership and would vacate his House seat...." House Republicans then settled on Denny Hastert, who -- it later emerged -- kept his sexual dalliances to high school wrestlers whom he coached. ~~~)

     ~~~ NPR has Anderson's opening statement here.

The Cover-up, Ctd. It's Not a "Rough Transcript." It's an "Abridged TELCON." ~~~

** About Those Ellipses. Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, told House impeachment investigators on Tuesday that the White House transcript of a July call between President Trump and Ukraine's president omitted crucial words and phrases, and that his attempts to include them failed, according to three people familiar with the testimony. The omissions, Colonel Vindman said, included Mr. Trump's assertion that there were recordings of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. discussing Ukraine corruption, and an explicit mention by Ukraine' president, Volodymyr Zelensky, of Burisma Holdings, the energy company whose board employed Mr. Biden's son Hunter. Colonel Vindman, who appeared on Capitol Hill wearing his dark blue Army dress uniform and military medals, told House impeachment investigators that he tried to change the reconstructed transcript made by the White House staff to reflect the omissions. But while some of his edits appeared to have been successful, he said, those two corrections were not made.... Colonel Vindman's account offered a hint to solving a mystery surrounding the conversation: what Mr. Trump's aides left out of the transcript in places where ellipses indicated dropped words." ~~~

     ~~~ The NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's worth noting here that Trump suggested Tuesday morning that it was not "possible" that Vindman was on the July 25 call & urged questioners to "Please ask him to read the Transcript of the call" (linked below). Read it? Vindman went over it with a fine-toothed comb & noted errors & omissions. Earlier, "Trump falsely claimed that a White House-released memo on his July 25 phone call with Zelensky was 'an exact word-for-word transcript of the conversation ... taken by very talented stenographers.' The memo includes a 'caution' note saying it 'is not a verbatim transcript'? -- on the first page. If the call was so "perfect," why has Trump repeatedly lied about it, & why did his staff hide evidence of the call on a top-secret server so few could access it?

~~~ "As God Is My Witness." Ben Lefebvre & Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "Testimony from a senior White House official on Tuesday appeared to contradict Energy Secretary Rick Perry's ardent denials that he ever heard former Vice President Joe Biden or his son Hunter discussed in relation to U.S. requests that Ukraine investigate corruption. In his opening statement, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman ... told House impeachment investigators that he objected to EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland's comments in a July 10 White House briefing -- attended by Perry -- requesting that Ukrainian officials investigate the 2016 U.S. election, the Bidens and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma that had employed Hunter Biden. 'I stated to Amb. Sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such investigations were not something the [National Security Council] was going to get involved in or push,' Vindman's statement said." Perry left the meeting after the exchange between Vindman & Sondland. "'Not once, as God is my witness, not once was a Biden name -- not the former vice president, not his son -- ever mentioned,' Perry told the CBN News on Oct. 7. He repeated those denials in a Fox News radio interview last week. A DOE spokesperson said Perry stands by his earlier statement but did not comment on the July 10 meeting." ~~~

The Squeeze Meetings. Greg Miller of the New York Times: "In a pair of volatile meetings, senior White House officials, including then-national security adviser John Bolton, were confronted with the outlines of a scheme they had previously only suspected: President Trump was seeking to use the power of his office to pressure Ukraine to deliver damaging information on former vice president Joe Biden and his son. One of the officials Trump had entrusted to pursue this agenda, Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, was undeterred by the fierce opposition from Bolton and others. He persisted in pressing Ukraine to commit to Trump's demands, convening a second meeting even after a spectacular blowup in the West Wing. All of this played out before ... confused officials from Ukraine, who came seeking to strengthen their standing with Trump and ended up witnessing events that are now at the heart of the House impeachment inquiry. Details of the July 10 sequence, which Bolton likened to an illicit 'drug deal,' have emerged from witnesses' testimony before House lawmakers over the past several weeks."

~~~ Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "National Security Council Ukraine expert Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's testimony in the House impeachment probe Tuesday is shedding new light on how Trump administration officials pressured Ukrainian leaders into investigations that could benefit the president, corroborating other witnesses with a firsthand account of the alleged attempt at a quid pro quo. Vindman' prepared remarks directly challenge the testimony of U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, who defended the president's actions and told House investigators that no one had raised concerns about them. Sondland told the top American diplomat in Ukraine, Ambassador William B. Taylor Jr., in September text messages saying Trump had not engaged in a quid pro quo.... Vindman's recollections, while narrower [than Taylor's], illuminate key episodes in Taylor's narrative with an even closer perspective: Vindman was either in the room or briefed personally after meetings by the Trump administration officials involved in exchanges Democrats believe amounted to a quid pro quo. ~~~

"Vindman's prepared testimony touched a nerve with Trump, who took to Twitter on Tuesday to deride the Iraq War veteran, who appeared for his testimony in uniform, as a 'Never Trumper,' questioning his recollection of events. 'Supposedly, according to the Corrupt Media, the Ukraine call 'concerned' today's Never Trumper witness. Was he on the same call that I was? Can't be possible!' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Please ask him to read the Transcript of the call. Witch Hunt!'" (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's hope trashing Vindman does not work all that well for Trump. But Trump & the Trumpies are certainly trying: (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump launched a sustained online offensive Tuesday morning after details emerged of damaging congressional testimony by a senior White House official.... The flurry of activity on the president's social media feed came just hours before Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council staffer overseeing Ukraine policy, was due to tell investigators on Capitol Hill that Trump undermined U.S. national security when he pressured Ukraine's president in a July phone call to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.... Among the roughly four dozen tweets or retweets Trump issued Tuesday morning, the president shared missives by prominent GOP defenders in Congress including Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Doug Collins of Georgia, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Devin Nunes of California." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Michael Grynbaum & David Alba of the New York Times: "... the notion that Colonel Vindman has some allegiance to a foreign country rapidly spread in right-wing circles, who apparently sensed a useful talking point to undermine testimony that is expected to be deeply damaging to Mr. Trump.... [Rudy] Giuliani ... [wrote] in a tweet that the colonel 'has reportedly been advising two gov's.' He added: 'No wonder he is confused and feels pressure.'... Jack Posobiec, a well-known figure on the far-right internet, tweeted the falsehood that Mr. Vindman had been advising the Ukrainian government on how to counter Mr. Trump's foreign policy goals. Mr. Posobiec cited The New York Times as his source -- in fact, The Times reported no such thing." ~~~

~~~ Matthews includes the remarkable video Philip Bump highlights in the following story. ~~~

~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "When news of Vindman's expected testimony broke on Monday night, the reaction from Trump's normal defenders was remarkably uniform: Vindman was suspect because he came from what is now Ukraine.... Trump tuned in to [Laura] Ingraham's [Fox 'News"] program and offered some thoughts -- including a claim that he'd 'never even heard of' Vindman, a member of his White House team. [More on Ingraham's show linked yesterday.] 'If you look at this lieutenant colonel's background, he's got a Purple Heart, he got hit by an IED in Iraq,' Brian Kilmeade said on 'Fox & Friends.' 'We also know he was born in the Soviet Union, immigrated with his family, young. He tends to feel simpatico with the Ukraine.' On CNN, former congressman Sean P. Duffy (R-Wis.) suggested that Vindman's birthplace was important. 'It seems very clear that he is incredibly concerned about Ukrainian defense,' Duffy said. 'I don't know that he's concerned about American policy, but his main mission was to make sure that Ukraine got those weapons.'" ** Mrs. McC: If you have access to the WashPo, read Bump's story for the first part, which is kind of amazing. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait: "The Republican position is that there's no loyalty problem involved in having American foreign policy conducted by an off-the-books lawyer with no security clearance who was apparently on the payroll of the Russian Mafia. The security problem is the NSC official advising an American ally about how to deal with the goons demanding that the ally subvert the independence of its judicial system and insert itself into the American election, and also that it give the goons a little taste of the gas-import business. The Republicans' logic is that Giuliani and his sleazy clients represent 'the president's interest,' as Ingraham put it. And the president's interest, however corrupt or improper, is the national interest. If you are working at cross-purposes with Rudy and his thugs, you must be disloyal to America." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ See also Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times on the Vindmans' story. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Burgess Everett & Melanie Zanona of Politico: "... congressional GOP leaders say it's out of bounds to question Vindman's patriotism and allegiance to the United States, as some conservative pundits did on Monday night.... 'That guy's a Purple Heart. I think it would be a mistake to attack his credibility,' said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, in an interview. 'You can obviously take issue with the substance and there are different interpretations about all that stuff. But I wouldn't go after him personally. He's a patriot.' 'I'm not going to question the patriotism of any of the people who come forward,' said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), though he declined to comment 'on the merit of what's going forward' or Vindman's suggestion that he was concerned Trump's actions had undermined national security. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), one of the most hawkish Republicans in the House and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said it would be 'shameful' to question Vindman's loyalty or patriotism to the country. Cheney wasn't even pressed by reporters on the topic; in her opening remarks during a weekly leadership news conference in the Capitol, she went out of her way to decry the attacks on Vindman, including the outlandish theory that he was a potential spy working against the United States." ~~~

~~~ Rachel Bade, et al., of the Washington Post: "Trump and his allies on TV lashed out at Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who said his concerns about what he heard in Trump's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky drove him to notify his superiors. Trump dismissed Vindman as a 'Never Trumper,' while some of his allies questioned the patriotism of the Army combat veteran because his family emigrated from the Soviet Union when he was 3. Trump's attack on the Purple Heart recipient unnerved Republicans in Congress, with several pushing back, albeit without naming the president. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called the offensive 'misplaced and very unfortunate,' and said he had 'full confidence' in Vindman 'as an individual and his patriotism.' The response from Trump's party created an unusual dynamic in which Republicans were defending a man who was simultaneously accusing the president of undermining national security for his own political purposes. Privately, several Republicans found Vindman's testimony to be damaging and lamented that once again they were forced to defend the president."

MEANWHILE, Inside the Hearing Room ... Betsy [Woodruff] Swan, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Congressional Democrats are struggling to protect the identity of the U.S. government official who filed a whistleblower complaint about ... Donald Trump's Ukraine policy. And those efforts have fueled friction behind closed doors. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) ruled in a closed-door deposition Tuesday morning that any questions that might lead to the revelation of the whistleblower's identity were out of order, according to two sources familiar with the meeting. His move frustrated Republicans. One source relayed that Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) ended up 'yelling at each other' during a closed door deposition of Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council Director for European Affairs who testified that he raised internal concerns about Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that is now at the center of the impeachment inquiry.... In a meeting [of top House Democrats] on Tuesday morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other attendees discussed how to handle potential Republican efforts to reveal the whistleblower's identity, according to two sources familiar with the talks.... [One source said] that a good chunk of the discussion focused on how to handle Republican-led attempts to disrupt future public hearings...." ~~~

~~~ Lisa Mascaro, et al., of the AP: "The session Tuesday grew contentious at times as House Republicans continued trying to unmask the still-anonymous whistleblower and call him or her to testify.... GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio acknowledged Republicans were trying to get Vindman to provide the names of others he spoke to after the July 25 phone call, in an effort to decide whom to call to testify. 'He wouldn't,' Jordan said." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As much as I understand the rabid, irrational nature of GOP politicos, I'm still surprised that members of Congress would openly admit they're trying to break the federal law that protects whistleblowers' identities.

Gary Stein of the Washington Post: "The president, and possibly other officials, may have violated the Hatch Act's civil and criminal prohibitions on the use of executive branch powers for partisan ends.... The text of the law flatly states that an employee of the executive branch may not, among other things, 'use his official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.'... In general, violations of the Hatch Act are pursued civilly by the Office of Special Counsel.... The president and vice president are exempt from the Hatch Act's civil restrictions on political activity. But ... the Hatch Act also includes criminal prohibitions that apply to everyone, including the president. At least two of them are relevant to the investigations surrounding the Ukraine matter.... If Trump commanded, or coerced or intimidated, State Department officials or other federal employees to engage in impermissible political activity -- or attempted to do so -- that itself would be a criminal violation of the Hatch Act.... [Also,] if the president, or other officials, tied the receipt of congressionally authorized military aid to Ukraine to Ukrainian help for the president's reelection campaign, that too could constitute a criminal offense." The Senate Watergate Committee concluded that Richard Nixon criminally violated this provision of the Hatch Act.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court has put a temporary hold on a judge's order requiring the Justice Department to give the Democratic-led House grand jury material from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation that could be fodder for the ongoing impeachment effort against ... Donald Trump. A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order Tuesday evening granting the Justice Department's request for an administrative stay of Chief Judge Beryl Howell's ruling Friday, which concluded that House lawmakers were entitled to the usually secret grand jury information."

Whither mikey? Sunday, Steve Benen reports, mike pence was not facing the nation on CBS News' "Face the Nation": "Pence was given multiple opportunities to say there was no proposed quid-pro-quo deal with Ukraine. He simply wasn't willing to make the assertion. The vice president, who has been implicated in the controversy, tried to emphasize that he personally wasn't involved in a quid-pro-quo scheme." ~~~

~~~ Monica Alba & Carol Lee of NBC News: "It's been almost three weeks since Vice President Mike Pence said he had 'no objection' to releasing a reconstructed transcript of his phone call with the leader of Ukraine. But as House Democrats' impeachment inquiry continues moving swiftly into its second month, the White House still has not made a decision on whether to make those details of Pence's call public. The internal debate has divided White House officials over whether releasing the call would help or hurt their flailing efforts to counter accusations that ... Donald Trump held up military aid to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate his political rivals, according to two people familiar with the discussions.... When pressed repeatedly by NBC News earlier this month about whether he was ever aware of the president's efforts to pressure Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, Pence did not directly answer the question and instead said 'I never discussed the issue of the Bidens with President Zelenskiy.'" Mrs. McC: Just maybe when someone will never give straight answers, it's because he has something to hide.

The Failure of Both-Sides "Journalism." Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "CNN executives certainly knew what they were getting into when they hired [Sean] Duffy. A five-term congressman and Tea Party darling, Duffy has a long, well-documented history of making inflammatory and dishonest comments. Appearing on the network in February of 2017, Duffy defended Trump's Muslim ban by saying Middle Eastern terrorists are a more significant threat than white domestic terrorists because the latter commit 'one-off' attacks. In the same interview he cited the 'good things' that stemmed from Dylann Roof's massacre of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. He has also suggested that George Soros was rigging elections, that Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin has 'ties to the Muslim Brotherhood,' and that the Democratic Party's pro-choice policies intentionally targeted black communities and amounted to 'infanticide.' Unfortunately for CNN and any other organization that clinging to a both-sides model of journalism, Duffy is probably the best the networ can get. Call it asymmetric punditry: As Republicans become more extreme, it's become near-impossible to find non-loony ones to fill airtime on cable news." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ CNN Tries to Defend Duffy Hire. Michael Calderone of Politico: "In an interview with Politico, CNN vice president Rebecca Kutler said the network 'is out there reporting from all over the country and from all points of view' and that 'having people who support the president's policies is part of that.' Kutler said that [Sean] Duffy, who started on the network on Oct. 20, was elected to Congress five times from Wisconsin and can help 'share with our audience what's important to the voters he's represented and how that will impact the 2020 election.' Duffy hasn't come under fire for his take on where Wisconsin voters are leaning, but for his defense of ... Donald Trump's role in the Ukraine scandal, which has included promoting a debunked conspiracy theory that ran counter to CNN's own reporting.... 'It is hard to find people who will come on and support the president's point of view,' CNN chief Jeff Zucker said at the network's 'Citizen' conference last Thursday. 'We need these voices.'... Later on 'New Day,' CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said that 'with all due respect to our new contributor, former Congressman Duffy,' his remarks [questioning Col Vindman's patriotism] were 'insanity, and frankly, anti-immigrant bigotry.' In the afternoon, anchor Brianna Keilar ripped Duffy for his 'anti-immigrant bigotry.' 'It's an odd questioning of patriotism coming from Sean Duffy, the guy who spent part of his 20s on MTV ... while Alexander Vindman spent his on foreign deployments, including one to Iraq where he earned a Purple Heart after he was injured by a roadside bomb,' Keilar said." ~~~

~~~ AND in today's Comments, Akhilleus puts the Duffy hire in the context it deserves.

Priscilla Alvarez of CNN: "The United States is on track to not admit any refugees in October, after already canceling around 500 flights this month, CNN has learned. A pause on admissions that was expected to lift on Tuesday will now extend into November, leaving those who expected to resettle in the US in limbo. It also means additional travel will need to be canceled and re-booked at the expense of federal taxpayers. The moratorium will run through November 5, according to a State Department spokesperson.... It's the third time this month that the State Department has delayed refugee admissions. Travel for refugees who were told they could come to the US was postponed through October 21, and then later to October 28. There's usually a pause in arrivals the first week of October."

When "Underwater" Will No Longer Refers to a Mortgage. Denise Lu & Christopher Flavelle of the New York Times: "Rising seas could affect three times more people by 2050 than previously thought, according to new research, threatening to all but erase some of the world's great coastal cities. The authors of a paper published Tuesday developed a more accurate way of calculating land elevation based on satellite readings, a standard way of estimating the effects of sea level rise over large areas, and found that the previous numbers were far too optimistic. The new research shows that some 150 million people are now living on land that will be below the high-tide line by midcentury." The Guardian's story is here.

Congressional Race

Caleb Ecarma of Mediaite: "Jennifer Van Laar, the writer behind the RedState.com and Daily Mail stories that included nude photos of former Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA), is a longtime GOP consultant who has worked for Republican politicians who ran against Hill and was at one point the campaign manager for a California Republican who ran for Hill's seat." ~~~

~~~ Nathan Robinson of the Guardian: "Democratic congresswoman Katie Hill has resigned after being accused of violating House Ethics rules by having a sexual relationship with staffers, and possibly using her position to grant improper favors. Members of her own party made it clear she did not have their support, with Nancy Pelosi saying that Hill 'has acknowledged errors in judgement that made her continued service as a member untenable.' Hill's case may seem straightforward: she violated the rules, she abused her office, she has to go. But there's much more to it, and we should be disturbed at the speed with which Hill was forced out of office.... There are very clear elements of slut-shaming and homophobia in the Hill story...." ~~~

~~~ AP: "George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign aide who was a key figure in the FBI's Russia probe, filed paperwork Tuesday to run for the U.S. House seat being vacated by Democrat Katie Hill.... Papadopoulos enters a field of at least three other Republicans and one Democrat.... A special election to fill Hill's seat cannot be set by Gov. Gavin Newsom until she officially leaves Congress, which she has not done. It's possible there is no special election, depending on how long she waits to leave office. That would make the next election for the seat in November 2020."

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Abbey Crain of AL.com: "A federal judge today has blocked Alabama's near-total abortion ban from going into effect Nov. 15. District Judge Myron Thompson issued a ruling blocking the Human Life Protection Act from taking effect while a challenge to the law makes its way through court."

In case you are of the opinion that anti-abortion proponents are nice, normal people who genuinely wish to help irresponsible women who have unprotected sex, then waltz into abortion clinics to eliminate the consequences ~~~

~~~ Missouri. Crystal Thomas of the Kansas City Star: "The Missouri state health director, Dr. Randall Williams, testified at a state hearing Tuesday that he kept a spreadsheet to track the menstrual periods of women who visited Planned Parenthood, an action that one lawmaker has called on the governor to investigate. The spreadsheet, which was made at Williams' request by the state's main inspector, helped to identify patients who had undergone failed abortions. The revelation came on the second day of an administrative commission hearing that will help decide whether Planned Parenthood can keep its license to perform abortions.... The Missouri House minority leader [Crystal Quade (D)] has called on Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, to 'immediately investigate' whether 'patient privacy was compromised or laws broken' or whether Williams was a 'a person who Missourians can be comfortable having in a position of public trust.'... 'This is government overreach at its worst,' Yamelsie Rodriguez ... of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, said in a statement. 'It shadows the Trump administration's history of tracking the periods of refugee girls under the government's care. This is outrageous and disgusting.'"

North Carolina. Gary Robertson of the AP (Oct. 28): "North Carolina judges on Monday blocked the state's congressional map from being used in the 2020 elections, ruling that voters had a strong likelihood of winning a lawsuit that argued Republicans unlawfully manipulated district lines for partisan gain. The panel of three Superior Court judges issued a preliminary injunction preventing elections under the district lines, starting with the March 3 primary. The judges halted the use of these districts less than two months after they struck down state House and Senate districts. There they found extreme political manipulation of the lines similar to what voters suing over the congressional map also say occurred.... The judges gave no date by which a new map must be drawn, but suggested lawmakers could redraw them on their own quickly to ensure congressional primaries be held as scheduled. The State Board of Elections has said lines needed to be finalized by Dec. 15."

Way Beyond

U.K. BBC: "The UK is set to go to the polls on 12 December after MPs backed Boris Johnson's call for an election following months of Brexit deadlock. By a margin of 438 votes to 20, the House of Commons approved legislation paving the way for the first December election since 1923. The bill is still to be approved by the Lords but could become law by the end of the week. If that happens, there will be a five-week campaign up to polling day. The prime minister has said the public must be 'given a choice' over the future of Brexit and the country. Mr Johnson hopes the election will give him a fresh mandate for his Brexit deal and break the current Parliamentary deadlock, which has led to the UK's exit being further delayed to 31 January." The 's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Meltdown. Justine Coleman of the Hill: "Thousands of commemorative Brexit coins designated with an Oct. 31 exit date will be melted down after the prime minister accepted a three-month delay in the proceedings, Bloomberg reported Monday. The Royal Mint had been asked to create a new 50 pence coin with the official Brexit date, but the U.K.'s divorce from the European Union (EU) has been pushed back again after Parliament failed to agree on a deal in time for the Halloween deadline. A Treasury spokesman told BBC that the Royal Mint will still create a coin to commemorate Brexit, which 'will enter circulation after we have left' the EU. The Royal Mint's website says the metals in the existing coins are set to be sorted, shredded, melted, purified and then solidified before being recycled."

News Lede

KABC Los Angeles: "A fast-moving vegetation fire erupted on the hillsides above Simi Valley on Wednesday morning amid extreme red-flag conditions, prompting evacuation orders and school closures as it spread to 407 acres. The so-called Easy Fire began shortly after 6 a.m. near the 200 block of West Los Angeles Avenue. Homes in nearby residential neighborhoods wer immediately threatened by the flames, even after winds initially seemed to be blowing the fire in a direction away from houses. Helicopters were seen performing water drops on the blaze while at least one fixed-wing aircraft dropped a payload of Phos-Chek. Firefighters raced to protect the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library as a thin wall of flames approached from a nearby hillside. The facility was closed Wednesday."

The Commentariat -- October 29, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "National Security Council Ukraine expert Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's testimony in the House impeachment probe Tuesday is shedding new light on how Trump administration officials pressured Ukrainian leaders into investigations that could benefit the president, corroborating other witnesses with a firsthand account of the alleged attempt at a quid pro quo. Vindman's prepared remarks directly challenge the testimony of U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, who defended the president's actions and told House investigators that no one had raised concerns about them. Sondland told the top American diplomat in Ukraine, Ambassador William B. Taylor Jr., in September text messages saying Trump had not engaged in a quid pro quo.... Vindman's recollections, while narrower [than Taylor's], illuminate key episodes in Taylor's narrative with an even closer perspective: Vindman was either in the room or briefed personally after meetings by the Trump administration officials involved in exchanges Democrats believe amounted to a quid pro quo. ~~~

"Vindman's prepared testimony touched a nerve with Trump, who took to Twitter on Tuesday to deride the Iraq War veteran, who appeared for his testimony in uniform, as a 'Never Trumper,' questioning his recollection of events. 'Supposedly, according to the Corrupt Media, the Ukraine call "concerned" today's Never Trumper witness. Was he on the same call that I was? Can't be possible!' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Please ask him to read the Transcript of the call. Witch Hunt!'"

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's hope trashing Vindman does not work all that well for Trump. But Trump & the Trumpies are certainly trying: ~~~

~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump launched a sustained online offensive Tuesday morning after details emerged of damaging congressional testimony by a senior White House official.... The flurry of activity on the president's social media feed came just hours before Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council staffer overseeing Ukraine policy, was due to tell investigators on Capitol Hill that Trump undermined U.S. national security when he pressured Ukraine's president in a July phone call to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.... Among the roughly four dozen tweets or retweets Trump issued Tuesday morning, the president shared missives by prominent GOP defenders in Congress including Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Doug Collins of Georgia, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Devin Nunes of California." ~~~

~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "When news of Vindman's expected testimony broke on Monday night, the reaction from Trump's normal defenders was remarkably uniform: Vindman was suspect because he came from what is now Ukraine.... Trump tuned in to [Laura] Ingraham's [Fox 'News"] program and offered some thoughts -- including a claim that he’d 'never even heard of' Vindman, a member of his White House team. [More on Ingraham's show linked below.] 'If you look at this lieutenant colonel's background, he's got a Purple Heart, he got hit by an IED in Iraq,' Brian Kilmeade said on 'Fox & Friends.' 'We also know he was born in the Soviet Union, immigrated with his family, young. He tends to feel simpatico with the Ukraine.' On CNN, former congressman Sean P. Duffy (R-Wis.) suggested that Vindman's birthplace was important. 'It seems very clear that he is incredibly concerned about Ukrainian defense,' Duffy said. 'I don't know that he's concerned about American policy, but his main mission was to make sure that Ukraine got those weapons.'" ** Mrs. McC: If you have access to the WashPo, read Bump's story for the first part, which is kind of amazing. ~~~

~~~ The Failure of Both-Sides "Journalism." Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "CNN executives certainly knew what they were getting into when they hired [Sean] Duffy. A five-term congressman and Tea Party darling, Duffy has a long, well-documented history of making inflammatory and dishonest comments. Appearing on the network in February of 2017, Duffy defended Trump's Muslim ban by saying Middle Eastern terrorists are a more significant threat than white domestic terrorists because the latter commit 'one-off' attacks. In the same interview he cited the 'good things' that stemmed from Dylann Roof's massacre of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. He has also suggested that George Soros was rigging elections, that Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin has 'ties to the Muslim Brotherhood,' and that the Democratic Party's pro-choice policies intentionally targeted black communities and amounted to 'infanticide.' Unfortunately for CNN and any other organization that clinging to a both-sides model of journalism, Duffy is probably the best the network can get. Call it asymmetric punditry: As Republicans become more extreme, it's become near-impossible to find non-loony ones to fill airtime on cable news." ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait: "The Republican position is that there's no loyalty problem involved in having American foreign policy conducted by an off-the-books lawyer with no security clearance who was apparently on the payroll of the Russian Mafia. The security problem is the NSC official advising an American ally about how to deal with the goons demanding that the ally subvert the independence of its judicial system and insert itself into the American election, and also that it give the goons a little taste of the gas-import business. The Republicans' logic is that Giuliani and his sleazy clients represent 'the president's interest,' as Ingraham put it. And the president's interest, however corrupt or improper, is the national interest. If you are working at cross-purposes with Rudy and his thugs, you must be disloyal to America." ~~~

~~~ See also Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times on the Vindmans' story.

~~~~~~~~~~

Impeachment: The Evidence Piles Up

** Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "A White House national security official who is a decorated Iraq war veteran plans to tell House impeachment investigators on Tuesday that he heard President Trump appeal to Ukraine's president to investigate one of his leading political rivals, a request the aide considered so damaging to American interests that he reported it to a superior. Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman of the Army, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, twice registered internal objections about how Mr. Trump and his inner circle were treating Ukraine, out of what he called a 'sense of duty,' he plans to tell the inquiry, according to a draft of his opening statement obtained by The New York Times. He will be the first White House official to testify who listened in on the July 25 telephone call between Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine that is at the center of the impeachment inquiry.... 'This would all undermine U.S. national security,' Colonel Vindman added, referring to Mr. Trump's comments in the call.... In his testimony, Colonel Vindman plans to say that he is not the whistle-blower who initially reported Mr. Trump's pressure campaign on Ukraine. But he will provide an account that corroborates and fleshes out crucial elements in that complaint.... He will testify that he watched with alarm as 'outside influencers' began pushing a "false narrative" about Ukraine that was counter to the consensus view of American national security officials, and harmful to United States interests." ~~~

     ~~~ The NBC News story is here. Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ ** Col. Vindman's opening statement is here, via Politico.

~~~ Don't Worry, Folks. Fox "News" Is Already Taking on Col. Vindman, Double Agent. Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: “Fox News host Laura Ingraham and two of her guests Monday night suggested that White House national security official Alexander Vindman ... is guilty of 'espionage' and could be a Ukrainian double agent." The guest who voiced the espionage angle: John Yoo -- author of the Torture Memos. Part of the "proof" Ingraham found "very interesting": Vindman, who is fluent in Ukrainian & Russian, was "working inside the White House, apparently against the president's interest, and usually [when speaking to Ukrainians], they spoke in English." Mrs. McC: Vindman, who came to the U.S. with his parents when he was 3-1/2 years old, is obviously a sleeper. Bill Barr should interrogate him. I'm sure Barr can get Yoo to bring his waterboard & help. Update: Philip Bump points out that Yoo is an immigrant to the U.S.

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie BTW: Gordon Sondland was on the Hill Monday, "reviewing his testimony." No wonder. He's in serious trouble. Hakim reports: "In a stormy meeting [on July 10,] in which [John] Bolton is said to have had a tense exchange with Mr. Sondland after the ambassador raised the matter of investigations he wanted Ukraine to undertake.... At a debriefing later that day attended by [Col. Vindman,] Mr. Sondland again urged Ukrainian officials to help with investigations into Mr. Trump's political rivals. 'Ambassador Sondland emphasized the importance that Ukraine deliver the investigations into the 2016 election, the Bidens and Burisma,' Colonel Vindman said in his draft statement." However, Sondland testified, "I did not understand, until much later, that Mr. Giuliani's agenda might have also included an effort to prompt the Ukrainians to investigate Vice President Biden or his son or to involve Ukrainians, directly or indirectly, in the president's 2020 reelection campaign." By "much later," he appears to mean September, when the press reported on the whistleblower's complaint: "'I did not know until more recent press reports that Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma,' Sondland said, adding he did not take part in any effort to encourage an investigation into the Bidens." ~~~

~~~ Josh Lederman & Dan De Luce of NBC News: "The White House was alerted as early as mid-May -- earlier than previously known -- that a budding pressure campaign by Rudy Giuliani and one of ... Donald Trump's ambassadors was rattling the new Ukrainian president, two people with knowledge of the matter tell NBC News. Alarm bells went off at the National Security Council when the White House's top Europe official was told that Giuliani was pushing the incoming Ukrainian administration to shake up the leadership of state-owned energy giant Naftogaz>, said the sources. The official, Fiona Hill, learned then about the involvement of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two Giuliani associates who were helping with the Naftogaz pressure and also with trying to find dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden's son. Hill quickly briefed then-National Security Adviser John Bolton about what she'd been told, said the individuals with knowledge of the meeting. The revelation significantly moves up the timeline of when the White House learned that Trump's allies had engaged with the incoming Ukrainian administration and were acting in ways that unnerved the Ukrainians -- even before President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had been sworn in. Biden had entered the presidential race barely three weeks earlier. In a White House meeting the week of May 20, Hill was also told that Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland ... was giving Zelenskiy unsolicited advice on who should be elevated to influential posts in his new administration, the individuals said. One of them said it struck the Ukrainians as 'inappropriate.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The House plans to take its first formal vote Thursday on the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, Democratic leaders said Monday, ushering in a new phase as they prepare to go public with their investigation into his dealings with Ukraine. Democrats described the vote, which will come more than a month after they launched the inquiry, as a necessary next step to lay out the rules for conducting it in public, rather than a response to accusations from Republicans and the White House that the process has violated precedents and denied the president due process rights. It marks a shift for Democrats, who have resisted for weeks the idea of holding a vote on the impeachment inquiry, arguing that doing so was unnecessary to authorize their work, and privately worrying that doing so could put politically vulnerable Democrats in a difficult position.... Though aides for several committees were still drafting the resolution Monday evening, the rough outlines of the next phase of the inquiry began to come into view. After it wraps up its closed witness depositions in the coming weeks, the House Intelligence Committee will begin to hold public hearings with key witnesses.... The rules will allow for the committee's staff aides to question witnesses directly during public hearings.... When the panel concludes its fact finding, Mr. Schiff will transmit raw evidence and, potentially, a written report on his findings to the House Judiciary Committee...." Politico's report is here. ~~~

      ~~~ Here's Speaker Pelosi's "Dear Democratic Colleague" letter.

I'd rather go into the details of the case rather than process. Process is wonderful. We already have 50 Republican senators -- I never called one of them -- sign up. Fifty. Out of 53, 50. And perhaps the other ones will do it too. But process is good. But I think you ought to look at the case. And the case is very simple; it's quick. It's so quick. -- Donald Trump, last week

The president may want to be careful what he wishes for. -- David Graham of the Atlanti

Robert Costa & Phil Rucker of the Washington Post: "Republican senators are lost and adrift as the impeachment inquiry enters its second month, navigating the grave threat to President Trump largely in the dark, frustrated by the absence of a credible case to defend his conduct and anxious about the historic reckoning that likely awaits them. Recent days have delivered the most damaging testimony yet about Trump and his advisers commandeering Ukraine policy for the president's personal political goals, which his allies on Capitol Hill sought to undermine by storming the deposition room and condemning the inquiry as secretive and corrupt.... Most GOP senators have been taking cues from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose paramount concern has been maintaining his party's control of the chamber in next year's election.... 'It feels like a horror movie,' said one veteran Republican senator.... The Republican Party's strategy is being directed almost entirely by the frenzied impulses of Trump...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: One thing to bear in mind is that few, if any, GOP senators like or respect Trump. It's way easier to dump someone who bullies you, makes your job harder every day, may turn on you on a dime, doesn't know WTF he's doing, is unteachable, is crude & embarrassing, lies every time he speaks, etc., than to dump someone you & your constituents like and admire but maybe committed one itsy-bitsy abuse of office. ~~~

~~~ Rats! Foiled Again! Marianne Levine & Burgess Everett of Politico: Senate "Republicans have focused their impeachment complaints on the House's impeachment process, lambasting closed-door hearings and the leaking of testimony from key witnesses. But the planned House vote this week -- which signals a move into a more public phase -- could put those complaints to rest.... Senate Republicans quickly coalesced behind an effort to condemn the House's impeachment inquiry late last week. Now their plans are up in the air. After House Democrats announced they'd vote to establish the next steps for their probe, Republicans were divided over whether to continue their push for a resolution intended to stick up for ... Donald Trump.... The conflict underscores how Senate Republicans have struggled to unite on a response to the House's fast-moving impeachment inquiry into Trump.... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell never committed to a floor vote on the measure in the first place.... The resolution, introduced last week by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and McConnell, came after Trump complained that Republicans were not doing enough to defend him from impeachment.

Devin Nunes' Cow Mole. Spencer Ackerman, et al., of the Daily Beast: "A top aide to Rep. Devin Nunes has been providing conservative politicians and journalists with information -- and misinformation -- about the anonymous whistleblower.... Derek Harvey, who works for Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, has provided notes for House Republicans identifying the whistleblower's name ahead of the high-profile depositions of ... [witnesses] ... in the impeachment inquiry. The purpose of the notes, one source said, is to get the whistleblower's name into the record of the proceedings, which committee chairman Adam Schiff has pledged to eventually release. In other words: it's an attempt to out the anonymous official who helped trigger the impeachment inquiry. On Saturday, The Washington Post reported that GOP lawmakers and staffers have 'repeatedly' used a name purporting to be that of the whistleblower during the depositions.... A former official told the Post that Harvey 'was passing notes [to GOP lawmakers] the entire time' ex-NSC Russia staffer Fiona Hill was testifying." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump said he could not give information about the raid on al-Badhdadi's compound to Democrats in the Gang of Eight because "Washington leaks like I've never seen before," and later, because "I think Adam Schiff is the biggest leaker in Washington." In some instances, aides to members of the Gang of Eight receive sensitive information. Devin Nunes is in the Gang of Eight.

Between Charybdis & Scylla. Jeremy Herb of CNN: "... Donald Trump's former deputy national security adviser Charles Kupperman defied a congressional subpoena Monday, failing to appear for a closed-door deposition before House impeachment investigators and throwing a new hurdle into Democrats' plans to quickly gather evidence in their inquiry. Kupperman filed a lawsuit on Friday asking a judge to rule whether he had to comply with the House subpoena, given the White House's stance that the impeachment inquiry is illegitimate. Kupperman's attorney, Charles Cooper, argued that his client was caught between competing demands between the Executive and Legislative branches and needed the courts to rule before Kupperman would testify." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mike Lillis & Olivia Beavers of the Hill: "House Democrats are threatening to charge a key witness in their impeachment investigation with contempt after he defied a subpoena and failed to show up at the Capitol Monday morning. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said the lawsuit filed by Charles Kupperman, a deputy to former national security adviser John Bolton, questioning his obligation to appear before Congress 'has no basis in law' since Kupperman is now a private citizen.... 'A private citizen cannot sue the Congress to try to avoid coming in when they're served with a lawful subpoena. And we expect that the court will make short shrift of that argument. But nonetheless we move forward,' [Schiff said]." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ David Graham of the Atlantic: "In early October, as the probe began, the White House announced its intention to hold back witnesses.... Almost immediately, the obstruction play fell apart. A procession of current and former officials has gone to Capitol Hill and delivered a series of damning revelations, making an impeachment vote all but inevitable. The first snag occurred last week, when former interim National Security Adviser Charles Kupperman went to court to ask whether he was required to honor the subpoena.... 'If this witness had something to say that would be helpful to the White House, they would want him to come and testify,' Schiff told reporters Monday. 'They plainly don';t.' But the converse is also true: If the White House doesn't want witnesses to speak, it's probably because they have something damaging to say, which Democrats should want to hear. Foregoing a court battle also risks eroding congressional prerogatives in future clashes with the executive branch."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Trump administration is appealing a judge's ruling requiring the Justice Department to give the House Judiciary Committee grand jury materials related to former special counsel Robert Mueller's report. The decision Friday from Chief Judge Beryl Howell of U.S. District Court in Washington effectively put the onus on the Justice Department to convince the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals or, perhaps, the Supreme Court, to reverse her ruling.... The Justice Department's detailed grounds for its appeal will be filed with the D.C. Circuit, but a motion submitted to Howell Monday seeking a stay of her decision sought to use statements by [Speaker] Pelosi to quarrel with Howell's claim Friday that the Mueller grand jury materials bear on events 'central to the impeachment inquiry.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

In yesterday's thread, contributor Elizabeth pointed to a Daily Kos post by Laura Clawson who noted that "Very Serious People are furrowing their brows and offering moral lessons in the wake of Donald Trump being booed at the World Series." Elizabeth mulled over reactions to the disrespectful fans while vacuuming (the forest, I hope -- it's autumn!). Comes now A Highly Paid Pundit who "-- like MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and author-pundit Ron Fournier -- [finds the fans' bad manners] alarming and offensive." Funny. Points taken.

** Enemy-Asset-in-Chief. Courtney Kube & Carol Lee of NBC News: "... Donald Trump painted a vivid picture for the world of the deadly U.S. military raid on ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.... A few of [the] colorful details [he related] were wrong. Many of the rest were either highly classified or tactically sensitive, and their disclosure by the president made intelligence and military officials cringe, according to current and former U.S. officials.... Current and former senior U.S. officials said from the earliest days of his presidency that Trump consistently wants to make public more than his advisers think is legally sound or wise for U.S national security. 'We agonized over what we would put in his briefings,' one former senior White House official said, 'because ... he has no filter,' the official added. 'But also if he knows something, and he thinks it's going to be good to say or make him appear smarter or stronger, he'll just blurt it out.'... The overarching concern about Trump's disclosures on the al-Baghdadi raid, officials said, is that he gave America's enemies details that could make intelligence gathering and similar military operations more difficult and more dangerous to pull off." The reporters go on to list some of Trump's remarks re: the Saturday raid & possible/probable perils his disclosures present. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Although articles of impeachment will not likely include reference to Trump's loose lips, GOP senators should keep in the backs of their minds the grave danger he presents to our national security.

Ben Hubbard & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "When the international manhunt for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, zoomed in on a village in northwestern Syria, the United States turned to its local allies to help track the world's most-wanted terrorist. The American allies, a Kurdish-led force that had partnered with the United States to fight ISIS, sent spies to watch his isolated villa. To confirm it was him, they stole a pair of Mr. al-Baghdadi's underwear -- long, white boxers -- and obtained a blood sample, both for DNA testing, the force's commander, Mazlum Abdi, said in a phone interview on Monday. American officials would not discuss the specific intelligence provided by the Kurds, but said that their role in finding Mr. al-Baghdadi was essential -- more so than all other countries combined, as one put it -- contradicting President Trump's assertion over the weekend that the United States 'got very little help.' Yet even as the Syrian Kurdish fighters were risking their lives in the hunt that led to Mr. al-Baghdadi’s death this weekend, Mr. Trump abruptly shattered America's five-year partnership with them." An NBC News report is here.

Americans Get Report Directly from the Imagination of the President*. Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump described the video footage he watched from the White House Situation Room [during the attack on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's compound] ... 'as though you were watching a movie.' What the president saw, according to military and intelligence officials, was overhead surveillance footage on several video screens that, together, provided various angles from above, and in real time.... But those surveillance feeds could not show what was happening in an underground tunnel, much less detect if Mr. al-Baghdadi was whimpering or crying.... Mr. Trump would not have received any real-time dialogue from the scene. For that, Mr. Trump would have had to have gotten a report from the commandos directly, or relayed up through their chain of command to the commander in chief.... At the Pentagon on Sunday, officials steered clear of any description of Mr. al-Baghdadi whimpering or crying, and Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, when pressed about the president's assertion on ABC's 'This Week,' did not repeat the 'whimpering' characterization." See related Guardian story linked below. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Here's the "'Sir' Tell" from the NYT report: "'No,' Mr. Trump said in response to whether he had to make decisions on the fly. 'We were getting full reports on literally a minute-by-minute basis. "Sir, we just broke in. Sir, the wall is down. Sir, you know, we've captured. Sir, two people are coming out right now. Hands up."' Then Mr. Trump said, he was given a report: '"Sir, there's only one person in the building. We are sure he's in the tunnel trying to escape."' 'But it's a dead-end tunnel,' Mr. Trump said he was told." ~~~

~~~ Asawin Suebsaeng & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "Five senior Trump administration officials who watched in real time as the president spoke on Sunday morning each told The Daily Beast that they had no idea where the president got the 'whimpering and crying and screaming' detail. Two officials recounted how after they heard that on Sunday, they immediately began messaging each other questions and comments like, 'uh where is he getting that?'... Officials in the Pentagon ... told The Daily Beast that there was no way Trump could have heard Baghdadi's voice on the Situation Room live stream Saturday night because it did not have audio. Two senior officials said while President Trump could have spoken to commandos on the ground who carried out the raid but said that has not often been the case in past operations." Defense Secretary Mark Esperanto dodged the issue by saying, "I don't have those details," & Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Millay said he didn't know the source of Trump's claim. ~~~

~~~ Max Boot of the Washington Post: "President Trump has a preternatural ability to turn any occasion, no matter how solemn or important, into a ridiculous, risible spectacle. He did it again Sunday in announcing the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. When he began to ad-lib about what happened near Idlib, Syria, he treated the world to his usual blend of braggadocio and bluster -- dishonest and distasteful in equal measure. He insulted Democratic leaders by claiming they would have leaked word of the raid in advance, even though he is the one with a history of leaking classified information. Ironically, he did it again Sunday by divulging operational details of the raid that horrified national security professionals.... Trump showed he was completely out of touch with ... essential facts. Instead, he parroted the propaganda of dictators, saying, for example, that 'Turkey has lost thousands and thousands of people from that safe zone.' In reality..., there have been few Kurdish attacks on Turkey from northern Syria, and those were most likely in response to Turkish military operations." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It is worth pointing out that Trump has turned on the Kurds because he turned on the Kurds. That might make no sense to you, but it does to Trump: he screwed up by abandoning the Kurds -- who have remained helpful to the U.S. even after Trump betrayed them -- so now he has to make the Kurds into villains to fit into his fictive narrative that the betrayal was "strategically brilliant": so the Kurds "are not angels"; they helped us fight ISIS only because we paid them "a lot of money"; they provided "very little help" in locating al-Baghdadi, but Russia & Turkey (who actually did nothing) deserve more praise. It does no good to be faithful to Trump; he will screw you anyway if it suits him for some extraneous reason. ~~~

Aaron Miller & Richard Sokolsky of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in a CNN opinion piece, tick off ways Trump has blown whatever credit he might receive for the killing of al-Baghdadi. Here's one thing: "Trump has made no secret that he has little use for the Kurds. His new Syria policy, as he made clear at Sunday's press conference, will rely primarily on Russia, Turkey and Syria to contain and diminish ISIS and to deal with the mess in Syria. What stood out Sunday was Trump's heavy reliance on these state actors and on their authoritarian governments, including Syria, which he thanked twice. Gone are any illusions that the US has the capacity to remove Assad from power, to steer Syria toward a democratic path, to stabilize and reconstruct the battered country, to kick the Iranians out of Syria and to prevent Russia from emerging as the key external power in Syri. Indeed, in deferring to Vladimir Putin, Trump has implicitly assented to Russia's desire to help the Assad regime consolidate its control over Syria."

** "'Blood for Oil' Is Official U.S. Policy Now." Adam Weinstein of the New Republic: "Skeptical reporters came away from Trump's endzone dance with some key insights: He'd overshared sensitive information that could endanger future operations...; he'd concocted details about Baghdadi's 'whimpering, crying and screaming' death that he could not have possibly witnessed; he offered no long-term vision or strategy for how to achieve stability, much less peace, in the Middle East, even as experts noted that decapitating the leadership of a networked insurgent group and its ideology, now as in 2011, was 'mostly strategically irrelevant.'... The main ingredient on Sunday was 'oil.' In his speech and in extended answers to reporters' questions, Trump mentioned oil an incredible 22 times; by contrast, he mentioned Baghdadi only 18 times.... Trump's oil obsession isn't entirely his fault: His military advisers ... now contended with a disastrous Syria withdrawal.... So they pleaded to keep U.S. troops in place by appealing to Trump's penchant for petroleum, saying the derricks and fields needed to be protected from enemies. 'This is like feeding a baby its medicine in yogurt or applesauce,' one U.S. official said -- a distressing comment on the weakness of civilian controls over the military under a proven half-wit civilian commander." ~~~

Conor Finnegan of ABC News: "After ... Donald Trump said on Monday the U.S. will be 'keeping the oil' in northeastern Syria, his administration is looking into the 'specifics,' according to a senior State Department official -- but it's prompted renewed cries that doing so is a war crime. Trump has a long history of calling for the U.S. to 'take the oil' in the Middle East, in Iraq and Syria in particular. But any oil in both countries belongs to their governments, and according to U.S. law and treaties it has ratified, seizing it would be pillaging, a technical term for theft during wartime that is illegal under U.S. and international law. 'We're keeping the oil,' Trump said Monday to a conference of police chiefs in Chicago. 'I've always said that -- keep the oil. We want to keep the oil, $45 million a month. Keep the oil. We've secured the oil.' On Sunday..., Trump said..., 'We should be able to take some [oil] also, and what I intend to do, perhaps, is make a deal with an ExxonMobil or one of our great companies to go in there and do it properly.'"

~~~ Trump Boasts of Committing War Crimes; Reaction Is "Meh." Jonathan Chait: "Over the last two and a half years, the once-vast space between Donald Trump's authoritarian vision of the presidency and the effective powers at his disposal has slowly collapsed. Trump used to wistfully pine for an Attorney General who would protect the president's personal interests and even cover up his actual crimes, and now he has William Barr. He used to call for American foreign policy as a weapon of plunder, and now he tells the country he has done exactly that.... [Now he is declaring he will "keep the oil" the U.S. plans to secure in Syria.] This course of action is indisputably an international war crime.... Trump even added the oddly specific price tag, $45 million a month, in case future war-crimes prosecutors at the Hague need to flesh out their indictment.... [And he specified a partner in crime: ExxonMobil.] Reporting indicates that generals and war hawks have played upon the president's childlike fascination with using the military as an instrument of foreign plunder to manipulate him into keeping American troops in the region -- Trump is unmoved either by humanitarian or strategic rationales, but if you're promising the opportunity for theft and raw domination, he'll listen."

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration is preparing to finalize an agreement this week to begin sending asylum seekers from the U.S. border to Guatemala, implementing a deal the two countries reached in July, according to three people with knowledge of the plan. The pact gives the Department of Homeland Security the ability to send asylum seekers to Guatemala if they do not seek protection there while transiting through the country en route to the U.S. border. It could mean that migrants from numerous countries will make the dangerous journey to the United States only to be sent back to Central America upon reaching U.S. territory.... Kevin McAleenan, who plans to step down as acting DHS secretary as soon as Thursday, has secured similar agreements with Honduras and El Salvador, but those deals have not been implemented.... The many critics of the accords say it is unrealistic to expect weak Central American governments to safely resettle vulnerable groups when they already struggle with widespread poverty and some of the highest homicide rates in the world."

Senate Race 2020. James Arkin, et al., of Politico: "Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is strongly considering jumping into the race for his old Senate seat in Alabama, according to multiple Republican sources.... Sessions would scramble the already crowded field of Republicans seeking to take on Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, who won a 2017 special election to fill the remainder of Sessions' term and is widely viewed as the most vulnerable senator on the ballot next year.... Candidates have until Nov. 8 to qualify for the ballot."

Harrison Smith of the Washington Post: "Kay Hagan, a North Carolina Democrat who served one term in the Senate after beating incumbent Elizabeth Dole, a Republican, in 2008, died Oct. 28 at her home in Greensboro, N.C. She was 66. A family representative, Ross Harris, said the cause was complications of Powassan virus, which can cause encephalitis. Ms. Hagan had been diagnosed with the tick-borne virus in 2016. (A breaking-news version announcing Hagen's death was linked yesterday.) The Charlotte Observer's report and obituary is here.

Michael Laris, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Federal Aviation Administration's deferential, industry-friendly approach to oversight allowed Boeing to submit documentation that obscured the dangers of its 737 Max, which was involved in two deadly crashes, documents, interviews and the findings of investigations show. However, instead of trying to reclaim its oversight powers after the deaths of 346 people over the past year, the FAA has been pressing ahead with plans to further reduce its hands-on oversight of aviation safety, current and former officials said. The FAA has been pushing for changes intended to speed approval on critical safety questions and remake regulations using 'voluntary consensus standards,' interviews and documents show. That could result in outsourcing policymaking on airplane safety to industry groups outside the public's view, experts said. FAA leaders say their approach is based on the premise that companies such as Boeing, and not regulators wielding the stick of enforcement, are best placed to guarantee safety." (Also linked yesterday.)

Karl Paul of the Guardian: "Hundreds of Facebook employees have signed a letter to executive Mark Zuckerberg decrying his decision to allow politicians to post advertisements on the platform that include false claims. More than 250 employees signed the letter, which was posted on an internal communication message board for the company.... They expressed concern that Facebook 'is on track to undo the great strides [its] product teams have made in integrity over the last two years'. 'Misinformation affects us all,' the letter said. 'Our current policies on fact checking people in political office, or those running for office, are a threat to what FB stands for. We strongly object to this policy as it stands.' Facebook has come under fire in recent weeks after the company rescinded an internal policy in late September, exempting political advertising from factchecking. Previously the social network banned adverts containing 'deceptive, false or misleading content' but later clarified this policy does not apply to paid advertisements from politicians." The New York Times story is here.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Heather Stewart & Kate Proctor of the Guardian: "Jeremy Corbyn has announced that Labour is ready to back a general election now that the EU has granted a three-month Brexit delay, making a pre-Christmas poll all but certain. With the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National party preparing to support a one-line bill tabled by Boris Johnson's government later on Tuesday, triggering an early poll, Corbyn said his party would also support it.

News Lede

AP: "Electrical equipment caused two Southern California wildfires -- one that killed three people and destroyed more than 1,600 homes last year -- and another still smoldering in the well-heeled hills of Los Angeles, where thousands of people including Arnold Schwarzenegger fled homes in the dark, utilities said Tuesday. The two findings add more examples of electric lines sparking major wildfires as utilities in California increasingly resort to drastic power outages as a precaution to prevent devastating blazes. A fire that broke out early Monday morning near the J. Paul Getty Museum was sparked after high winds blew a eucalyptus branch onto an electric line that caused it to arc, ignite dry grass and destroy a dozen homes, according to preliminary findings announced by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power utility and the Fire Department. Meanwhile, Southern California Edison announced that it believes its equipment caused the deadly Woolsey fire last year northwest of Los Angeles that scorched dry grasslands and burned across the Santa Monica Mountains all the way to the coast."

The Commentariat -- October 28, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Josh Lederman & Dan De Luce of NBC News: "The White House was alerted as early as mid-May -- earlier than previously known -- that a budding pressure campaign by Rudy Giuliani and one of ... Donald Trump's ambassadors was rattling the new Ukrainian president, two people with knowledge of the matter tell NBC News. Alarm bells went off at the National Security Council when the White House's top Europe official was told that Giuliani was pushing the incoming Ukrainian administration to shake up the leadership of state-owned energy giant Naftogaz, said the sources. The official, Fiona Hill, learned then about the involvement of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two Giuliani associates who were helping with the Naftogaz pressure and also with trying to find dirt on ... Joe Biden's son. Hill quickly briefed then-National Security Adviser John Bolton about what she'd been told, said the individuals with knowledge of the meeting. The revelation significantly moves up the timeline of when the White House learned that Trump's allies had engaged with the incoming Ukrainian administration and were acting in ways that unnerved the Ukrainians -- even before President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had been sworn in. Biden had entered the presidential race barely three weeks earlier. In a White House meeting the week of May 20, Hill was also told that Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland ... was giving Zelenskiy unsolicited advice on who should be elevated to influential posts in his new administration, the individuals said. One of them said it struck the Ukrainians as 'inappropriate.'"

Washington Post: "Former senator Kay Hagan has died at age 66. She served one term representing North Carolina. The Democrat lost to Thom Tillis in the GOP wave of 2014 as the Republicans seized the Senate majority. Hagan had beaten GOP incumbent Elizabeth Dole in 2008. She had contracted a brain inflammation from a tick-borne virus. This is a developing story. It will be updated."

Between Charybdis & Scylla. Jeremy Herb of CNN: "... Donald Trump's former deputy national security adviser Charles Kupperman defied a congressional subpoena Monday, failing to appear for a closed-door deposition before House impeachment investigators and throwing a new hurdle into Democrats' plans to quickly gather evidence in their inquiry. Kupperman filed a lawsuit on Friday asking a judge to rule whether he had to comply with the House subpoena, given the White House's stance that the impeachment inquiry is illegitimate. Kupperman's attorney, Charles Cooper, argued that his client was caught between competing demands between the Executive and Legislative branches and needed the courts to rule before Kupperman would testify." ~~~

~~~ Mike Lillis & Olivia Beavers of the Hill: "House Democrats are threatening to charge a key witness in their impeachment investigation with contempt after he defied a subpoena and failed to show up at the Capitol Monday morning. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said the lawsuit filed by Charles Kupperman, a deputy to former national security adviser John Bolton, questioning his obligation to appear before Congress 'has no basis in law' since Kupperman is now a private citizen.... 'A private citizen cannot sue the Congress to try to avoid coming in when they're served with a lawful subpoena. And we expect that the court will make short shrift of that argument. But nonetheless we move forward,' [Schiff said]."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Trump administration is appealing a judge's ruling requiring the Justice Department to give the House Judiciary Committee grand jury materials related to former special counsel Robert Mueller's report. The decision Friday from Chief Judge Beryl Howell of U.S. District Court in Washington effectively put the onus on the Justice Department to convince the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals or, perhaps, the Supreme Court, to reverse her ruling.... The Justice Department's detailed grounds for its appeal will be filed with the D.C. Circuit, but a motion submitted to Howell Monday seeking a stay of her decision sought to use statements by [Speaker] Pelosi to quarrel with Howell's claim Friday that the Mueller grand jury materials bear on events 'central to the impeachment inquiry.'"

Americans Get Report Directly from the Imagination of the President*. Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump described the video footage he watched from the White House Situation Room [during the attack on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's compound] ... 'as though you were watching a movie.' What the president saw, according to military and intelligence officials, was overhead surveillance footage on several video screens that, together, provided various angles from above, and in real time.... But those surveillance feeds could not show what was happening in an underground tunnel, much less detect if Mr. al-Baghdadi was whimpering or crying.... Mr. Trump would not have received any real-time dialogue from the scene. For that, Mr. Trump would have had to have gotten a report from the commandos directly, or relayed up through their chain of command to the commander in chief.... At the Pentagon on Sunday, officials steered clear of any description of Mr. al-Baghdadi whimpering or crying, and Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, when pressed about the president's assertion on ABC's 'This Week,' did not repeat the 'whimpering' characterization." See related Guardian story linked below. ~~~

~~~ Here's the "'Sir' Tell" from the NYT report: "'No,' Mr. Trump said in response to whether he had to make decisions on the fly. 'We were getting full reports on literally a minute-by-minute basis. "Sir, we just broke in. Sir, the wall is down. Sir, you know, we've captured. Sir, two people are coming out right now. Hands up."' Then, Mr. Trump said, he was given a report: '"Sir, there's only one person in the building. We are sure he's in the tunnel trying to escape."' 'But it's a dead-end tunnel,' Mr. Trump said he was told."

Michael Laris, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Federal Aviation Administration's deferential, industry-friendly approach to oversight allowed Boeing to submit documentation that obscured the dangers of its 737 Max, which was involved in two deadly crashes, documents, interviews and the findings of investigations show. However, instead of trying to reclaim its oversight powers after the deaths of 346 people over the past year, the FAA has been pressing ahead with plans to further reduce its hands-on oversight of aviation safety, current and former officials said. The FAA has been pushing for changes intended to speed approval on critical safety questions and remake regulations using 'voluntary consensus standards,' interviews and documents show. That could result in outsourcing policymaking on airplane safety to industry groups outside the public's view, experts said. FAA leaders say their approach is based on the premise that companies such as Boeing, and not regulators wielding the stick of enforcement, are best placed to guarantee safety."

~~~~~~~~~~

Six white guys pose for photo in White House Situation Room.

Photo by Pete Souza.

~~~ Aamer Madhani of the AP: "Photos taken in the White House Situation Room during the killings of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Saturday and of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden eight years earlier capture the vastly different styles of two American presidents.... The [Trump] photo shows the six men, all in dark suits or military uniform, posing for the camera and staring straight forward with stern expressions as they sit around a table.... In [the] unposed [Obama] scene, 13 faces are fully or partially visible in the crowded tableau. Obama, wearing a polo shirt and light coat, is hunched forward and perched on a folding chair slightly off center. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the most expressive face in the group, holds her hand over her mouth as Defense Secretary Robert Gates sits next to her, his arms tightly crossed.... The less formal Obama photo from 2011 crackles with suspense as the president's team monitors the raid where Navy Seals killed bin Laden in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan." ~~~

~~~ ** Trump's Betrayal of the Kurds Threatened al-Baghdadi Operation. Eric Schmitt & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "The surprising information about the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's general location -- in a village deep inside a part of northwestern Syria controlled by rival Qaeda groups -- came following the arrest and interrogation of one of Mr. al-Baghdadi's wives and a courier this past summer, two American officials said. Armed with that initial tip, the C.I.A. worked closely with Iraqi and Kurdish intelligence officials in Iraq and Syria to identify Mr. al-Baghdadi's more precise whereabouts and to put spies in place to monitor his periodic movements, allowing American commandos to stage an assault Saturday in which President Trump said Mr. al-Baghdadi died. But Mr. Trump's abrupt decision to withdraw American forces from northern Syria disrupted the meticulous planning and forced Pentagon officials to press ahead with a risky, night raid before their ability to control troops and spies and reconnaissance aircraft disappeared, according to military, intelligence and counterterrorism officials. Mr.al-Baghdadi's death, they said, occurred largely in spite of Mr. Trump's actions. The officials praised the Kurds, who continued to provide information to the C.I.A. on Mr. al-Baghdadi even after Mr. Trump's decision to withdraw the American troops left the Syrian Kurds to confront a Turkish offensive alone. The Syrian and Iraqi Kurds, one official said, provided more intelligence for the raid than any single country." According to the headline, Trump knew of plans for the raid when he decided on the spur-of-the-moment to pull troops out of Syria. Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Democrats, especially presidential hopefuls, should emphasize -- again & again -- that U.S. forces caught al-Baghdadi despite Trump, not because of him. For no good reason, Trump endangered the operation rather than facilitated it, and to that extent he proved once again to be a significant national security risk. ~~~

The irony of the successful operation against al-Baghdadi is that it could not have happened without U.S. forces on the ground that have been pulled out, help from Syrian Kurds who have been betrayed, and support of a U.S. intelligence community that has so often been disparaged. -- Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Sunday ~~~

~~~ ** David Sanger of the New York Times: "The death of the Islamic State's leader in a daring nighttime raid vindicated the value of three traditional American strengths: robust alliances, faith in intelligence agencies and the projection of military power around the world. But President Trump has regularly derided the first two. And even as he claimed a significant national security victory on Sunday, the outcome of the raid did little to quell doubts about the wisdom of his push to reduce the United States military presence in Syria at a time when terrorist threats continue to develop in the region."

~~~ Max Boot of the Washington Post: "There is every reason to fear that Islamic State now could prove distressingly resilient despite this monster's death. This summer, inspectors general from the Defense and State departments and the U.S. Agency for International Development warned that Islamic State retained as many as 18,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq and was starting to stage a comeback. That resurgence is likely to be accelerated by Trump's ill-advised pullout from northern Syria, which ends a partnership with the Kurds that, among other benefits, provided intelligence that contributed to the track-down of Baghdadi. Trump is now dismantling the infrastructure that made this success possible.... The only way to permanently defeat terrorist organizations is to foster stability in the lands where they operate -- the last thing that Trump, an agent of instability, is interested in." ~~~

~~~ Brett McGurk in a Washington Post op-ed: "... our abrupt pullout from Syria will make it harder to act on ... information ... pulled from the Baghdadi compound.... U.S. Special Forces have already left positions overwatching the Islamic State's former strongholds.... Turkey also has some explaining to do. Baghdadi was found ... in northwestern Syria -- just a few miles from Turkey's border, and in Idlib province, which has been protected by a dozen Turkish military outposts since early 2018. It is telling that the U.S. military reportedly chose to launch this operation from hundreds of miles away in Iraq, as opposed to facilities in Turkey, a NATO ally, just across the border.... Idlib has become the world's largest terrorist haven.... Everything we already know about the raid [in which al-Baghdadi died] reinforces just how valuable, unique and hard-fought the small and sustainable American presence there had been." ~~~

~~~ Fred Kaplan of Slate: "... the killing [of al-Baghdadi] is less of a big deal because, not least, as Trump has boasted on previous occasions, ISIS had already been severely reduced in stature and was no longer such a centralized organization. Its members still carried out terrorist activities, but Baghdadi no longer directed them to the degree he once had. Bruce Hoffman, a specialist on terrorism at Georgetown University, said in an email Sunday morning that Baghdadi's death may merely drive 'the remaining ISIS forces into an alliance with al-Qaida' -- which has experienced a bit of a revival in recent years."

Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Sunday that a commando raid in Syria this weekend had targeted and resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder and leader of the Islamic State, claiming a significant victory even as American forces are pulling out of the area. 'Last night, the United States brought the world's No. 1 terrorist leader to justice,' Mr. Trump said in an unusual nationally televised address from the White House. 'Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead.' Mr. Trump said Mr. al-Baghdadi was chased to the end of a tunnel, 'whimpering and crying and screaming all the way' as he was pursued by American military dogs. Accompanied by three children, Mr. al-Baghdadi then detonated a suicide vest, blowing himself and the children, Mr. Trump said. Mr. al-Baghdadi's body was mutilated by the blast, but Mr. Trump said tests had confirmed his identity. The president made a point of repeatedly portraying Mr. al-Baghdadi as 'sick and depraved' and him and his followers as 'losers' and 'frightened puppies,' using inflammatory, boastful language unlike the more solemn approaches by other presidents in such moments. 'He died like a dog,' Mr. Trump said. 'He died like a coward.'" The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ ** Matt Stieb of New York: "The president, who appears to relish violent rhetoric, personal boasting, the defeat of his enemies, and the simplicity of a good vs. evil narrative, announced on Sunday morning that U.S. special forces had killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a raid in northwestern Syria on Saturday. With such a natural lining up of his interests, Trump turned the event into a spectacle, even promoting the press conference on Twitter the night before. Anytime President Trump speaks for 48 minutes straight, the appearance is going to get pretty unhinged -- which, on Sunday, began about 90 seconds in, when he described the ISIS leader 'whimpering and crying and screaming all the way.'... The president, who did little to hide his enjoyment in the moment, said that 'it was just like a movie.'... Dehumanizing enemies, claiming to upstage Obama, celebrating details of war like they existed only on television ' the press conference seemed to hit peak Trump...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's interesting that Trump, who is a raging exhibitionist, is also a voyeur. Despite his fake Situation Room photo, Trump enjoyed watching the operation -- viewing it from afar, as if it were a piece of film fiction, "just like a movie." It's the way he gets his policy advice, too -- on the teevee or on the phone. He can't stand the in-person briefings. Even at his rallies, where he stands before thousands, Trump avoids the interpersonal: he speaks almost entirely about himself, and he avoids the glad-handing most politicians do as a matter of course. This distance he has created between himself and everybody else fits in with his inability to tell fact from fiction: he sees an actual moment of human drama as "just like a movie," and he sees himself as a fantasy heroic figure even though he is an extraordinary screw-up. ~~~

~~~ ** Update. Even More Fantastical Than I Realized. Michael Safi of the Guardian: "Footage of the US special forces raid on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's Syrian compound reportedly consisted of overhead surveillance footage and no audio, prompting questions over the extent of the dramatic licence taken by Donald Trump in describing the final moments of one of the most wanted terrorists in the world. US officials who also watched the feed have declined to echo details of Trump's macabre account of the Isis's leader death on Saturday, including that Baghdadi was 'whimpering, crying and screaming all the way'." Thanks to unwashed for the link. ~~~

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Three things about the announcement were striking. First is the amount of detail Trump provided -- far more than to which we're accustomed in such announcements.... Second is the role the Kurds and Russia played. In the hours before Trump's news conference, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said it was a joint operation between them and the United States. Trump portrayed the U.S.-allied Kurds ... as playing more of a bit part. When Trump initially thanked others, in fact, he mentioned Russia first, then Syria, Turkey and Iraq. He added that there was also 'certain support [the Kurds] were able to give us.' Later, Trump would credit Russia first in the news conference, saying it was 'great' and that Iraq was 'excellent.' He also disclosed that Russia was given a heads-up about the operation, even as top Democrats in Congress were not.... The third striking thing is the credit-taking. Most significantly, he repeatedly alluded to the idea that Baghdadi's death was a bigger moment than Osama bin Laden's. Bin Laden was killed in 2011 on President Barack Obama's watch, and Trump at the time accused Obama of taking credit for it." ~~~

~~~ Jacob Knutson of Axios: "President Trump said in a press conference Sunday that the operation that resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State, was 'bigger' than the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, before falsely suggesting he had predicted bin Laden's attack on the World Trade Center." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "President Trump said Sunday that he did not tell some congressional leaders about the U.S. military raid in which ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed, citing 'Washington leaks.' Trump said at the White House that 'some' leaders were notified and that others were being informed as he announced the death of the terror group's leader to the public. 'We were going to notify them last night, but we decided not to do that because Washington leaks like I've never seen before,' Trump said. 'There's no country in the world that leaks like we do, and Washington is a leaking machine.'... He later confirmed that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was not notified in advance. He said he did speak with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) about the operation following its conclusion." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McC Update: According to MSNBC & CNN, Trump also did not inform Chuck Schumer & Adam Schiff. There is no evidence the "Gang of Eight" has ever leaked sensitive information in the past, even when some have disagreed with the action being taken. As Jake Sherman & Anna Palmer write in today's Politico "Playbook," "Pelosi -- a former top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee -- has been trusted with state secrets for decades. There is approximately zero chance she would've dialed up a reporter to leak the plans." ~~~

~~~ Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Top Democrats reacted with anger to Donald Trump's decision to go ahead with the Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi raid without giving them advance notice, on grounds that they were not to be trusted with such highly sensitive information. In a break with precedent, Trump excluded senior Democrats on the so-called Gang of Eight -- the group of congressional leaders who by law are to be informed of covert actions ordered by the US president -- from all operational intelligence.... Pelosi reacted with scorn. In a statement released on Sunday, she praised the 'heroism, dedication and skill of our military and our intelligence professionals' before going on to excoriate the president. 'The House must be briefed on this raid, which the Russians but not top congressional leadership were notified of in advance,' she said.... As Democrats were quick to point out, Barack Obama did brief the Gang of Eight before the mission that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011.... Trump's griping about the extent of leaking is entirely understandable -- his administration has indeed been as leaky as a sieve. But most of the big stories to emerge from inside the White House have come ... from his own inner circle of senior aides, or from the whistleblower within the intelligence community...." ~~~

     ~~~ Pelosi's full statement is here.

~~~ James LaPorta & Tom O'Connor of Newsweek: "The CIA has targeted Islamic State militant group (ISIS) spokesperson Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir in a new operation that comes one day after the organization's leader was killed in a Joint Special Operations Command raid.... Syrian Democratic Forces commander Mazloum Abdi, also known as Mazloum Kobane, also reported on the news Sunday. 'Continuing the previous operation, terrorist Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir, the right-hand man of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and an ISIS spokesman, was targeted in the village of Ayn al-Bayda, near Jarablus, in direct coordination between SDF intelligence and the U.S. military,' Kobane said." Mrs. McC: The headline says al-Muhajir was killed; the text of the report says he was "targeted." ~~~

~~~ Al-Baghdadi Was a Figurehead, Not an Ops Leader. Tom O'Connor & Naveed Jamali of Newsweek: "Back-to-back U.S. operations Saturday and Sunday have resulted in the deaths of Islamic State militant group (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and spokesperson Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir in Syria, but the organization has already designated a successor, Newsweek has learned. Abdullah Qardash, sometimes spelled Karshesh and also known as Hajji Abdullah al-Afari, was said to have been nominated by Baghdadi in August to run the group's 'Muslim affairs' in a widely-circulated statement attributed to ISIS' official Amaq news outlet, but never publicly endorsed by the group. Though little is known about the former Iraq military officer who once served under late leader Saddam Hussein, one regional intelligence official asking not to be identified by name or nation told Newsweek that Qardash would have taken over Baghdadi's role -- though it had lost much of its significance by the time of his demise. Baghdadi ... built ISIS' self-styled caliphate out of Al-Qaeda's Iraqi branch, but the official said that the influential hard-line cleric's role had become largely symbolic. 'Baghdadi was a figurehead. He was not involved in operations or day-to-day,' the official told Newsweek. 'All Baghdadi did was say yes or no -- no planning.'" ~~~

~~~ Julia Davis of the Daily Beast: "At the White House Sunday morning, President Trump profusely thanked Russia for its alleged involvement in the killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Trump said: '[The Russians] were very cooperative, they really were good... Russia treated us great. They opened up, we had to fly over certain Russia areas, Russia-held areas. Russia was great.' Russia didn't seem to see it the same way. The Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov, refuted President Trump's statement, stating in part:' The Russian Defense Ministry has no reliable information about U.S. servicemen conducting an operation for "yet another" elimination of ... Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi....' The Russian Defense Ministry also disputed President Trump's claim that Russia provided access to U.S. air units entering the airspace over the Idlib de-escalation zone.... Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to provide a comment..., directing everyone to General Konashenkov's statement. Kremlin-controlled Russian state media shot down President Trump's announcement, with headlines that read: 'The Russian Defense Ministry does not believe in al-Baghdadi's liquidation.'... Russia ... openly refers to [Trump's] announcement as mere 'propaganda,' designed to appease his electorate and help him get re-elected."

Thank You, Washington, D.C. Scott Boeck of USA Today: "... Donald Trump was greeted with a thunderous chorus of boos from the sold-out crowd attendance at Game 5 of the World Series between the Nationals and Astros. Trump, who showed up shortly after the first inning, was introduced to the crowd after the third inning during the Nationals' salute to veterans, a regular feature at Nats' games. As the next inning began, fans chanted 'lock him up'..." ~~~

~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: "In the upper decks, fans held up a giant 'Impeach Trump!' banner." Baker writes a full account of Trump's first visit as president to a pro baseball game, & the fans' reactions. ~~~

~~~ Tom Lutz of the Guardian: "Every US president since 1910 has thrown out a ceremonial first-pitch at a baseball game during their time in office, but Trump is the first to break with that tradition. Major League Baseball's commissioner, Rob Manfred, said the President had told him he did not want to participate in the ceremony at this year's World Series 'in order to make the fan experience as positive as possible'. On Friday, Trump had joked his bullet-proof vest would make it hard to throw out the first pitch. 'I don't know. They gotta dress me up in a lot of heavy armour. I'll look too heavy. I don't like that,' he said. Sunday's first pitch was instead thrown by Washington DC chef José Andrés, a vocal critic of Trump." Mrs. McC: Trump didn't show up till minutes before the game started and after Andrés had thrown the ceremonial first pitch. ~~~

~~~ Mike Wise of WUSA Washington, D.C.: "... the family who owns the Washington Nationals, the Lerners, asked Major League Baseball that they not be put in a position to respond to any requests that President Trump sit with them during Game 5 of the World Series at Nationals Park in Washington, DC.... A person familiar with the family's thinking ... made it clear that at no time was a direct request made that the President notbe seated next to the Lerner family, but it was made clear that the family did not want to be put in the awkward position of having to respond to a request."

Tristan Greene of The Next Web: "White House computer security Chief Dimitrios Vistakis gave the White House one helluva resignation notice earlier this week when he quit over practices he dubbed 'absurd' including the systemic purging of cybersecurity staff.... [Vistakis's] letter [of resignation] paints the picture of a Trump administration hellbent on purging the Obama-appointed security specialists tasked with defending White House computers in the wake of a 2014 breach.... Vistakis greatest complaint seems to be that White House officials are prioritizing the President's comfort or convenience over actual computer security." --s

Ryan Bort of Rolling Stone: "[S]everal developments this week pulled back the curtain a bit further on what [Mick] Mulvaney was talking about when he said the Trump administration makes moves like it did in Ukraine 'all the time.' On Wednesday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to hand over records of his contacts with Turkish officials as part of an inquiry into whether the Trump administration meddled in U.S. criminal investigation into Halkbank, a Turkish state-owned bank.... Trump's breach of protocol in dealing with Turkey is remarkable similar to how he attempted [to force] Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into opening investigations into Joe Biden and the 2016 election, right down to the involvement of Giuliani." --s

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jake Pearson, et al. of ProPublica: "Last March, a veteran Washington reporter [& useful idiot John Solomon] taped an interview with a Ukrainian prosecutor [Yuriy Lutsenko] that sparked a disinformation campaign alleging [corruption by] Joe Biden.... The interview and subsequent columns ... [in The Hill], were the starting gun that eventually set off the impeachment inquiry into the president. Watching from the control booth of The Hill's TV studio was Lev Parnas, who helped arrange the interview.... Interviews and company records obtained by ProPublica show Parnas worked closely with Solomon to facilitate his reporting.... And the two men shared yet another only recently revealed connection: Solomon's personal lawyers [Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing] connected the journalist to Parnas and later hired& the Florida businessman as a translator in their representation of a Ukrainian oligarch.... Solomon's interview and columns were widely amplified. Giuliani praised them, and Trump said he deserved a Pulitzer Prize. Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Lou Dobbs trumpeted them." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie P.S.: Solomon is working for Fox "News" now.

Emily Bazelon, in a New York Times op-ed, takes a look at Bill Barr, "the perfect attorney general for President Trump. Not so much, it seems, for the country." Her piece is a complement to Rick Wilson's more incendiary analysis, linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.)

Elliot Spagat of AP: "[T]he total number of [immigrant] children separated [from their parents] since July 2017 [is] more than 5,400. The ACLU said the administration told its attorneys that 1,556 children were separated from July 1, 2017, to June 26, 2018, when a federal judge in San Diego ordered that children in government custody be reunited with their parents. Children from that period can be difficult to find because the government had inadequate tracking systems. Volunteers working with the ACLU are searching for some of them and their parents by going door-to-door in Guatemala and Honduras." --s

Heather Caygle, et al., of Politico: "Freshman Rep. Katie Hill is resigning from Congress after facing allegations of inappropriate sexual relationships with staffers in her office and on her congressional campaign, according to two Democratic sources.... In a statement earlier this week, Hill blamed the ongoing scandal -- which included several nude photos of the lawmaker published in conservative online news outlets -- on an 'abusive husband' whom she is in the middle of divorcing." The Washington Post story is here.

Kathleen Gray & Todd Spangler of the Detroit Free Press: "U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a civil rights icon whose five decades in Congress were tarnished in his final years in office, died Sunday of natural causes at the age of 90, according to several friends. His death come after a long and illustrious career that spanned more than 50 years and 27 terms in office, but ended in 2018 with a resignation amidst claims of sexual harassment and verbal abuse of employees and misuse of taxpayer funds to cover-up those claims. Conyers' tenure was a remarkable 53-year-run during which the lawmaker, the son of a well-known labor lawyer in Detroit, compiled a near-record legacy of civil rights activism, longevity and advocacy for the poor and underprivileged." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

The Long Ta-Ta. Daniel Henley & John Boffey of the Guardian: "The EU has agreed to a Brexit extension to 31 January 2020, with the option for the UK to leave earlier if a deal is ratified, clearing the way for opposition parties to back a general election. After a 30-minute meeting of European ambassadors, Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, said the EU27 had agreed to the request made by Boris Johnson just over a week ago."

News Ledes

New York Times: Robert Evans, who produced iconic films for Paramount Pictures & was a legend in his own time, died on Saturday in Beverly Hills, California.

AP: "Firefighters battled destructive wildfires in Northern California wine country and on the west side of Los Angeles on Monday, trying to beat back flames that forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. California's biggest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, cut off power to an estimated 2.5 million people in the northern part of the state over the weekend in yet another round of blackouts aimed at preventing windblown electrical equipment from sparking more fires. And more shut-offs are possible in the next few days. The fire that broke out last week amid Sonoma County's vineyards and wineries north of San Francisco grew to at least 103 square miles ..., destroying 94 buildings, including 40 homes, and threatening 80,000 more structures, authorities said. Nearly 200,000 people were under evacuation orders, mostly from the city of Santa Rosa."