The Commentariat -- January 26, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Justine Coleman of the Hill: "Alan Dershowitz, a member of President Trump's legal team, said the Democrats 'completely failed' to meet the constitutional standard for removing Trump from office in their opening argument last week. Dershowitz told Chris Wallace on 'Fox News Sunday' that he thought the House managers presented the strongest case they could' but 'didn't come close to alleging impeachable offenses.' 'They completely failed to meet that high constitutional standard, and therefore it would be unconstitutional to remove a president based on the allegations that were made against him in the articles of impeachment,' he said." Mrs. McC: If you don't have the facts, make up something. If you don't have the law & the Constitution, make up something else. If you don't have the facts or the law, go on Fox "News."

Rebecca Klar of the Hill: Donald "Trump tweeted early Sunday morning that [Adam] Schiff, whom he called a 'CORRUPT POLITICIAN,' has 'not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!'... Schiff ... said Sunday that [the] tweet from the president is 'intended to be a threat."

Evan Semones of Politico: "Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's wife on Saturday appeared to publicly break with her husband over support for Greta Thunberg's climate change activism. 'I stand with Greta on this issue. (I don't have a degree in economics either),' actress Louise Linton wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post after Mnuchin chided the 17-year-old's call for governments to end their support of fossil fuels at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, saying she should attend college and study economics."

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The Democrats are relying on facts, but the Republicans are relying on Fox. -- Maureen Dowd, in today's NYT column

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump's legal defense team mounted an aggressive offense on Saturday as it opened its side in the Senate impeachment trial by attacking his Democratic accusers as partisan witch-hunters trying to remove him from office because they could not beat him at the ballot box. After three days of arguments by the House managers prosecuting Mr. Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors, the president's lawyers presented the senators a radically different view of the facts and the Constitution, seeking to turn the Democrats' charges back on them while denouncing the whole process as illegitimate." ~~~

~~~ Elise Viebeck, et al., of the Washington Post: "In a two-hour presentation that reserved their most provocative attacks for Monday, members of Trump's legal team echoed the president's justifications for his actions toward Ukraine and sought to plant doubts about both the prosecutors' case and its lead advocate, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.). Yet, in arguing that the case for Trump's removal was partisan and misleading, lawyers for the president omitted facts, presented claims that lacked context or minimized evidence gathered by House investigators. Their most sweeping arguments did not specifically defend Trump but instead framed impeachment as no more than a politically motivated effort to remove him from the ballot in November.... The lawyers landed repeatedly on themes that matter to Trump, including what he has described as his 'perfect' July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's report, and omissions and errors by the FBI in document submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.... The next session is expected to include full-throated attacks on [Joe] Biden and his son Hunter...." ~~~

~~~ Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "Jay Sekulow, Trump's personal lawyer and a member of his legal team, had promised that there would be 'plenty' of material to delight the Sunday talk shows. He vowed to fill their 24 hours of allotted time over three days with all manner of conspiracies that ping from Fox News segments to the president's Twitter feed: the Bidens, the FBI warrants, FISA court orders and the like. But on Saturday, the team mostly avoided the fever swamps, focusing instead on rebutting the prosecution's case. Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel whose surname the prosecution never quite agreed on how to pronounce (it's SIP-uh-loan-ee), began with a time-honored trick of the trade: he flipped the script, seeking to turn those trying to impeach Trump into the villains who undermine American democracy." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: SIP-uh-loan-ee may be the way Pat Cipollone pronounces his surname, but Italians would pronounce it CHEEP-uhl-low-nay, "dragging out" that double "L".

~~~ New York Times liveblog: "President Trump's lawyers wrapped up a brief opening argument against his impeachment on Saturday much as they had begun, seeking to turn accusations of wrongdoing back on Democrats and insisting that there were innocent explanations for Mr. Trump's actions toward Ukraine.... The president's legal team spent only two of the 24 hours allotted to them on Saturday opening his defense, in what Mr. Trump's lawyers said was a preview of a fuller set of arguments to come on Monday. Their focus was on dismissing the House impeachment inquiry as a partisan ploy that ignored the facts in order to cast Mr. Trump's actions in the worst possible light...." ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear: "Immediately after the White House lawyers finished their opening arguments on Saturday, Democrats sought to pick the presentation apart.... House managers held a news conference to rebut the White House case, point by point. Over 30 minutes, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the lead manager, and Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, another manager, accused the president's lawyers of having little substance. Mr. Schiff said their case amounted to a single argument: that the president has the power to do whatever he wants. 'That is so deeply destructive of our national security, the integrity of our elections. It's hard to overstate the matter,' Mr. Schiff said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I would have posted this sooner, but I was busy. Unlike Akhilleus, who was watching other Saturday morning cartoons (see yesterday's Comments), I opted for an old movie starring Richard Gere. ~~~

~~~ Trump's Lawyers Cut Impeachment Clause out of Constitution. Eric Tucker, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump's lawyers plunged into his impeachment trial defense Saturday by accusing Democrats of striving to overturn the 2016 election, arguing that investigations of Trump's dealings with Ukraine have not been a fact-finding mission but a politically motivated effort to drive him from the White House. 'They're here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history,' White House Counsel Pat Cipollone told senators.... From the White House, Trump tweeted his response: 'Any fair minded person watching the Senate trial today would be able to see how unfairly I have been treated and that this is indeed the totally partisan Impeachment Hoax that EVERYBODY, including the Democrats, truly knows it is.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

Now, the first point that I would like to make is that the president's counsel did something that they did not intend: They made a really compelling case for why the Senate should call witnesses and documents. They kept saying there are no eyewitness accounts, but there are people who eyewitness accounts, the very four witnesses and the very four sets of documents that we have asked for.... -- Chuck Schumer, in comments following yesterday's proceedings ~~~

~~~ Sonam Sheth of Business Insider: "... on Saturday, Trump's lawyers seemed to bolster Democrats' case [for witnesses & documents] by repeatedly claiming that they hadn't heard from a single witness who had 'direct contact' with the president.... Their statements were misleading (Gordon Sondland, the US's ambassador to the European Union, was in frequent touch with Trump and testified to Congress that the president engaged in a quid pro quo with Ukraine).... It's worth noting, too, that though the president's lawyers complain of not hearing testimony from witnesses who spoke to Trump directly, the defense team led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone could easily solve that problem by retracting Trump's sweeping directive last year barring all executive branch officials across six agencies from cooperating with the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Mrs. McCrabbie: I think the head-on-a-pike story is essentially superfluous, but Jonathan Chait does a good job of disposing of it: "How convenient for the Republicans, that being accused implicitly of violating their conscience for political expediency should be the very thing that gives them license to violate their conscience for political expediency. It is as if stating the accusation grants them permission to fulfill it."

Mrs. McCrabbie: It seems to me that the main difference between elected Republicans & elected Russian Communists is that there are, percentage-wise, fewer elected Republicans than elected Communists. But their fealty to their respective dictators is identical.

Ken Vogel & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "For more than an hour one evening in 2018, President Trump sat around a dinner table in a private suite in his Washington hotel with a group of donors, including two men at the center of the impeachment inquiry, talking about golf, trade, politics -- and removing the United States ambassador to Ukraine. The conversation, captured on a recording made public Saturday, contradicted Mr. Trump's repeated statements that he does not know the two men, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who went on to work with the president's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to carry out a pressure campaign on Ukraine.... [The tape] does seem to shed light on the origins of Mr. Trump's interest in the issue, and to foreshadow his administration's withholding of military assistance from the country as part of the pressure campaign. It hints at the motivations of Mr. Parnas and Mr. Fruman, who had come to believe that [Ambassador Marie] Yovanovitch was opposed to their business plans in Ukraine, where they had tried to break into the natural gas market, according to associates of the two men.... And it provides a glimpse of something rarely seen: top-tier political donors getting a chance in an intimate setting to share their views with the president and press their agendas with him." ~~~

~~~ Zeke Miller, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump inquired how long Ukraine would be able to resist Russian aggression without U.S. assistance during a 2018 meeting with donors that included the indicted associates of his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. 'How long would they last in a fight with Russia?' Trump is heard asking in the audio portion of a video recording, moments before he calls for the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. She was removed a year later after a campaign to discredit her by Giuliani and others, an action that is part of Democrats' case arguing for the removal of the president in his Senate impeachment trial." The report goes on to relate some of Trump's other remarks recorded in the 80-minute tape.

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Oddly, however, the report does not include the answer to Trump's question about Ukraine's need for U.S. assistance. According to this PBS News report by Yamiche Alcindor, "Someone replies, 'Without us, not very long.' Trump appears to echo the voice saying, 'Without us.'" The report includes the full video, most -- but not all -- of which pictures the ceiling. More on this in yesterday's Commentariat. ~~~

~~~ Marcy Wheeler zeroes in on the original source of the videotape, who she believes is Lev Parnas. She explains her theory, "All of which suggests Parnas is trying to carefully manage what he'd sharing with HPSCI [House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence], presumably focusing on the latter period of his work to get Masha fired, when he could claim to be doing Rudy Giuliani's bidding, and not the earlier part, when prosecutors claim he was working for some Ukrainian. For better and worse, that likely means that Rudy is at least partly a victim of Parnas, someone who was desperate and weak and easily manipulated into doing really stupid things -- just like Trump -- who could then be claimed as the real actor behind this operation."

Lauren Egan of NBC News: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday attacked an NPR correspondent who reported that he berated and cursed at her following questioning over Ukraine, claiming 'she lied to me' and describing her actions as 'shameful.' 'NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly lied to me, twice. First, last month, in setting up our interview and, then again yesterday, in agreeing to have our post-interview conversation off the record,' Pompeo said in a statement. 'It is shameful that this reporter chose to violate the basic rules of journalism and decency.' Pompeo did not challenge the details of Kelly's claims about his statements or demeanor during their conversation.... Kelly said she did not agree to be off the record at any point, and had communicated in advance to Pompeo's office that she intended to ask him about Iran and Ukraine." Mrs. McC: Gee, I can't decide whom to believe, a seasoned liar or a seasoned reporter. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Pompeo Confuses Ukraine with Bangladesh. Deirdre Shesgreen of USA Today: "Pompeo, in his Saturday statement, suggested Kelly, a long-time reporter, did not correctly identify the location of Ukraine on the map. 'It is worth noting that Bangladesh is NOT Ukraine,' Pompeo's statement said. Mrs. McC: It is remotely plausible that Kelly could have confused the location of Ukraine with, say, Romania. It is not even barely plausible that she confused Ukraine with Bangladesh. The two countries are 3,600 miles apart and, obviously, in different regions of the world. But you, Mikey? I'm not so sure. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Aaron Blake of the Washington Post agrees with me. ~~~

     ~~~ Jonathan Chait, too: "The notion that an experienced foreign affairs reporter would be unable to locate a country that has been at the center of domestic and world news -- and would think it's next to India, not Russia! -- is implausible, and indicates not only Pompeo's dishonesty but the sheer level of absurdity he believes he can pass off.... It would be tempting to say the pressure of the Ukraine scandal is getting to Pompeo, but it's probably more likely that this is just the kind of person Pompeo is -- and the sort of behavior that has drawn him to Trump, and Trump to him." Mrs. McC: It's like a Fat Liars club.

Do you think Americans care about Ukraine? -- Mike Pompeo to NPR reporter, Friday ~~~

~~~ Top U.S. Diplomat to Fly to Ukraine or Bangladesh or Someplace. Nahal Toosi of Politico: "Mike Pompeo was already expecting to navigate a political minefield when he landed in Kyiv next week. But after the secretary of State's explosion at a respected NPR journalist, his trip just got a little more complicated.... 'Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?' he asked her -- a question arguably insulting to Ukraine as well as Americans. 'He used the F-word in that sentence and many others,' said Kelly, who has a master's degree in European studies from Cambridge University and said she correctly identified Ukraine.... Pompeo, whose own role in the impeachment scandal remains something of a mystery, faces a series of politically perilous questions[.]..." Related stories linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Nik Steinberg in a Politico Magazine opinion piece: "Since the House hearings, I’ve spoken to more than a dozen career Foreign Service officers, and it has become clear that the impeachment process has had a major collateral effect that reaches well beyond Trump himself. They say it has sharply hurt morale within the department, and in particular has eroded their faith in Pompeo. Many of the interviewees had initially hoped the secretary would rebuild the department after Rex Tillerson's efforts to strip it down, but they have instead seen Pompeo stand by silently as his employees were sidestepped and smeared. And they worry the loss of bipartisan trust in career diplomats, whom the president and his allies in Congress have cast as 'radical unelected bureaucrats,' will inflict lasting damage on the institution's role in foreign policy-making. I've agreed to keep the interviewees anonymous because of the Trump administration's record of harassing or marginalizing public servants they see as questioning their policies. But the people I spoke with serve primarily in senior roles in the department, and almost all have served for over a decade." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Is it any wonder? After serving your country for years or decades in posts far and wide, you can be abruptly fired and your personal safety threatened because the POTUS* hears a rumor from some guy he says he doesn't know & has never spoken to. Even if your difficult work has been exemplary, if somebody says -- without evidence -- that he heard you said something that hurts Trump's feelings, he will "take you out." That audio tape reported yesterday is among the best evidence that Trump doesn't give a rat's ass about U.S. international policy. Related stories linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Des Moines Register Editors: "The outstanding caliber of Democratic candidates makes it difficult to choose just one.... The Des Moines Register editorial board endorses Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses as the best leader for these times. The senior U.S. senator from Massachusetts is not the radical some perceive her to be. She was a registered Republican until 1996. She is a capitalist.... But she wants fair markets, with rules and accountability. She wants a government that works for people, not one corrupted by cash.... A qualification: Some of her ideas for 'big, structural change' go too far."

Presidential Race 2016. Obama Got That Right. Daniel Arkin of NBC News: "Barack Obama called Donald Trump a 'fascist' in a phone conversation with Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia during the 2016 presidential election, Kaine says in a video clip featured in an upcoming documentary about Hillary Clinton. Kaine, Clinton's running mate on the Democratic ticket, recounts the call during an exchange with Clinton that was caught on camera in 2016.... The clip appears in an episode of 'Hillary,' a four-part documentary series that will be available on Hulu on March 6.... Obama has rarely publicly attacked Trump since leaving office, and his description of Trump as a fascist -- as recalled by Kaine -- is a far sharper attack than he offered in public during or after the campaign." ~~~

~~~ Edward-Isaac Dovere of the Atlantic: "In the Sundance interview [on Saturday], Clinton said that Obama had never used the word fascist in conversations with her about Trump. But, she said, what Obama 'observed was this populism untethered to facts, evidence, or truth; this total rejection of so much of the progress that America has made, in order to incite a cultural reaction that would play into the fear and the anxiety and the insecurity of people -- predominantly in small-town and rural areas -- who felt like they were losing something. And [Trump] gave them a voice for what they were losing and who was responsible.'" Mrs. McC: Of course Trump is a fascist. I'm only sorry the House managers didn't mention it. Kudos to Jerry Nadler; he came close. In his closing argument he called Trump a "dictator." Though he certainly aspires to be and believes he has a right to be a dictator, Trump isn't technically a dictator yet. There are still some checks & balances. The Senate, alas, is not one of them.

Shoshana Zuboff has a longish op-ed in the New York Times about "surveillance capitalism," which she doesn't clearly define but seems to be something like, "Big Brother is here, and he's not Donald Trump; he's Mark Zuckerberg." ~~~

~~~ As a sort of companion piece, Adrienne LaFrance of the Atlantic and Hillary Clinton are horrified by Zuckerberg's totalitarian, Trumpian views of "truth."

News Ledes

ABC News: "Basketball legend Kobe Bryant is among five people who died in a helicopter crash in the wealthy Southern California residential neighborhood of Calabasas, ESPN has confirmed." An AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ A Sports Illustrated obituary for Bryant & his daughter Gianna, who also died in the crash, is here.

The Commentariat -- January 25, 2020

Afternoon Update:

The Democrats are relying on facts, but the Republicans are relying on Fox. -- Maureen Dowd, in today's NYT column

New York Times liveblog: "President Trump's lawyers wrapped up a brief opening argument against his impeachment on Saturday much as they had begun, seeking to turn accusations of wrongdoing back on Democrats and insisting that there were innocent explanations for Mr. Trump's actions toward Ukraine.... The president's legal team spent only two of the 24 hours allotted to them on Saturday opening his defense, in what Mr. Trump's lawyers said was a preview of a fuller set of arguments to come on Monday. Their focus was on dismissing the House impeachment inquiry as a partisan ploy that ignored the facts in order to cast Mr. Trump's actions in the worst possible light...." ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear: "Immediately after the White House lawyers finished their opening arguments on Saturday, Democrats sought to pick the presentation apart. Immediately after the White House lawyers finished their opening arguments on Saturday, Democrats sought to pick the presentation apart.... House managers held a news conference to rebut the White House case, point by point. Over 30 minutes, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the lead manager, and Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, another manager, accused the president's lawyers of having little substance. Mr. Schiff said their case amounted to a single argument: that the president has the power to do whatever he wants. 'That is so deeply destructive of our national security, the integrity of our elections. It'hard to overstate the matter,' Mr. Schiff said." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I would have posted this sooner, but I was busy. Unlike Akhilleus, who was watching other Saturday morning cartoons (see today's Comments), I opted for an old movie starring Richard Gere. ~~~

~~~ Trump's Lawyers Cut Impeachment Clause out of Constitution. Eric Tucker, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump's lawyers plunged into his impeachment trial defense Saturday by accusing Democrats of striving to overturn the 2016 election, arguing that investigations of Trump's dealings with Ukraine have not been a fact-finding mission but a politically motivated effort to drive him from the White House. 'They're here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history,' White House Counsel Pat Cipollone told senators.... From the White House, Trump tweeted his response: 'Any fair minded person watching the Senate trial today would be able to see how unfairly I have been treated and that this is indeed the totally partisan Impeachment Hoax that EVERYBODY, including the Democrats, truly knows it is.'"

Lauren Egan of NBC News: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday attacked an NPR correspondent who reported that he berated and cursed at her following questioning over Ukraine, claiming 'she lied to me' and describing her actions as 'shameful.' 'NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly lied to me, twice. First, last month, in setting up our interview and, then again yesterday, in agreeing to have our post-interview conversation off the record,' Pompeo said in a statement. 'It is shameful that this reporter chose to violate the basic rules of journalism and decency.' Pompeo did not challenge the details of Kelly's claims about his statements or demeanor during their conversation.... Kelly said she did not agree to be off the record at any point, and had communicated in advance to Pompeo's office that she intended to ask him about Iran and Ukraine." Mrs. McC: Gee, I can't decide whom to believe, a seasoned liar or a seasoned reporter. ~~~

~~~ Pompeo Confuses Ukraine with Bangladesh. Deirdre Shesgreen of USA Today: "Pompeo, in his Saturday statement, suggested Kelly, a long-time reporter, did not correctly identify the location of Ukraine on the map. 'It is worth noting that Bangladesh is NOT Ukraine,' Pompeo's statement said. Mrs. McC: It is plausible that Kelly could have confused the location of Ukraine with, say, Romania. It is not even barely plausible that she confused Ukraine with Bangladesh. The two countries are 3,600 miles apart and, obviously, in different regions of the world. But you, Mikey? I'm not so sure. ~~~

Do you think Americans care about Ukraine? -- Mike Pompeo to NPR reporter, Friday ~~~

~~~ Top U.S. Diplomat to Fly to Ukraine or Bangladesh or Someplace. Nahal Toosi of Politico: "Mike Pompeo was already expecting to navigate a political minefield when he landed in Kyiv next week. But after the secretary of State's explosion at a respected NPR journalist, his trip just got a little more complicated.... 'Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?' he asked her a question arguably insulting to Ukraine as well as Americans. 'He used the F-word in that sentence and many others,' said Kelly, who has a master's degree in European studies from Cambridge University and said she correctly identified Ukraine.... Pompeo, whose own role in the impeachment scandal remains something of a mystery, faces a series of politically perilous questions[.]..." Related stories linked below. ~~~

~~~ Nik Steinberg in a Politico Magazine opinion piece: "Since the House hearings, I've spoken to more than a dozen career Foreign Service officers, and it has become clear that the impeachment process has had a major collateral effect that reaches well beyond Trump himself. They say it has sharply hurt morale within the department, and in particular has eroded their faith in Pompeo. Many of the interviewees had initially hoped the secretary would rebuild the department after Rex Tillerson's efforts to strip it down, but they have instead seen Pompeo stand by silently as his employees were sidestepped and smeared. And they worry the loss of bipartisan trust in career diplomats, whom the president and his allies in Congress have cast as 'radical unelected bureaucrats,' will inflict lasting damage on the institution's role in foreign policy-making. I've agreed to keep the interviewees anonymous because of the Trump administration's record of harassing or marginalizing public servants they see as questioning their policies. But the people I spoke with serve primarily in senior roles in the department, and almost all have served for over a decade." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Is it any wonder? After serving your country for years or decades in posts far and wide, you can be abruptly fired and your personal safety threatened because the POTUS* hears a rumor from some guy he says he doesn't know & has never spoken to. Even if your difficult work has been exemplary, if somebody says -- without evidence -- that he heard you said something that hurts Trump's feelings, he will "take you out." That audio tape reported yesterday is among the best evidence that Trump doesn't give a rat's ass about U.S. international policy. Related stories linked below.

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Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Impeachment proceedings being at 10 am ET today. Since Trump's team will be defending him, no doubt with a Trumpian combo of lies and loud whining, I don't know how much I can stomach. In fact, it appears they may make their presentation as one extended campaign ad excoriating Joe Biden: ~~~

~~~ Rachel Bade, et al., of the Washington Post: "White House lawyers are gearing up for a scorched-earth defense of President Trump in the impeachment trial, mounting a politically charged case aimed more at swaying American voters than GOP senators -- and damaging Trump's possible 2020 opponent, Joe Biden. Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, and Jay Sekulow, Trump's personal attorney, plan to use their time in the trial to target the former vice president and his son, Hunter, according to multiple GOP officials familiar with the strategy. Trump's allies believe that if they can argue that the president had a plausible reason for requesting the Biden investigation in Ukraine, they can both defend him against the impeachment charges and gain the bonus of undercutting a political adversary." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I still don't understand why Cipollone -- who is supposed to represent the presidency, not the President* -- is showing up for the trial anyway. I guess if he limited himself to arguing that any president has a right to foster secret, corrupt foreign entanglements in conflict with official U.S. policy and withhold those corrupt, private dealings from Congress, Cipollone's involvement would be quasi-legit. But I don't expect Cipollone to be so circumspect. He already has proved that he is too dumb and/or too corrupt to faithfully carry out the mandate of his taxpayer-funded job, for instance in signing (and, we assume, at least partially writing with ghostwriter-dictator DJT) this October 2019 six-page screed to chairs of House committees in which he argues that an impeachment inquiry is illegal (NYT link).

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "House Democrats concluded their arguments against President Trump on Friday by portraying his pressure campaign on Ukraine as part of a dangerous pattern of Russian appeasement that demanded his removal from office. Ending their three-day presentation in the Senate, the impeachment managers summoned the ghosts of the Cold War and the realities of geopolitical tensions with Russia to argue that Mr. Trump's abuse of power had slowly shredded delicate foreign alliances to suit his own interests." ~~~

~~~ Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "The Democratic House managers focused on ... Donald Trump's attempts to stymie their impeachment inquiry during his Senate trial Friday.... The managers wound down their final day of opening arguments by outlining the second article of impeachment against the president, obstruction of Congress. Trump, they noted, is the only president in history to completely refuse to cooperate with an impeachment investigation, blocking witnesses and documents.... The case managers focused on the White House's directive that no executive branch agency or personnel cooperate with the House's impeachment inquiry, which [Rep. Jerry] Nadler called an unprecedented 'categorical blockade.' He contrasted Trump to presidential cooperation in other investigations, including President Ronald Reagan turning over his personal diary to investigators during the Iran-Contra probe.... Democrats capped three days with lead House manager Rep. Adam Schiff, who attempted to knock down some of Trump's potential defenses ahead of ceding center stage to the president's lawyers Saturday."

The Guardian's liveblog for Friday's impeachment proceedings is here. @13:14 ET: "Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell kicked off today's proceedings by confirming that the trial would resume [Saturday] at 10 a.m. ET, earlier than recent days, and run for 'several hours.'&" Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ The New York Times liveblog of Friday's developments in the Senate impeachment proceedings is here. "The House impeachment managers are now at work on the heart of their task for the afternoon: stringing together, bit by bit, a story of how President Trump and lawyers around him tried to conceal his Ukraine pressure campaign. Discussion of Mr. Trump's alleged cover-up had focused primarily on Mr. Trump's defiance of subpoenas for testimony and documents in the impeachment inquiry. But Representatives Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Jason Crow of Colorado suggested to senators that behavior is just one part of a longer cover-up, much of which took place behind the scenes before the House had even learned of the pressure campaign." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

Lordy, There Are Tapes!* Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "A recording reviewed by ABC News appears to capture ... Donald Trump telling associates he wanted the then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch fired while speaking at a small gathering that included Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman.... The recording appears to contradict statements by President Trump and support the narrative that has been offered by Parnas during broadcast interviews in recent days. Sources familiar with the recording said the recording was made during an intimate April 30, 2018, dinner at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. Trump has said repeatedly he does not know Parnas.... 'Get rid of her!' is what the voice that appears to be President Trump's is heard saying. 'Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it.'" Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Update: The story now includes portions of the audio tape. *Headline stolen from digby. ~~~

~~~ Colby Itkowitz & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "But the 2018 conversation about Yovanovitch also raises questions about the impetus behind the effort to push her out, indicating that it began before the Ukraine pressure campaign. The dinner took place before Parnas and Fruman began working with Giuliani and seven months before Giuliani has said he began his Ukraine investigation -- suggesting that the duo were agitating against the ambassador for another reason and may have biased Trump against her early on."

There could be video of trump throwing her out of a helicopter and the GOP would not care. -- Ray Doherty, in a tweet ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: According to a review of the tape by NBC News, in another part of the tape, Trump asks Lev how long Ukraine could hold off Russian forces without U.S. military aid, and Lev responds, "About 30 seconds." (Of course, Trump could have learned this from our vast intel sources, but hey, why rely on those deep-state shmucks when you've got Lev & Igor?) Here's the discussion, which Rachel Maddow begins in an interview with Parnas' attorney Joseph Bondy: ~~~

~~~ Betsy Swan of the Daily Beast: “Joseph Bondy, a lawyer for Florida businessman Lev Parnas, told The Daily Beast that the recording was made by former partner Igor Fruman. Both men were arrested in October and charged with campaign-finance violations. 'We have hoped that, to the extent this recording still existed, it would be released to Congress for use in the impeachment trial,' [Bondy said]." ~~~

~~~ Update. Ken Vogel & Ben Protess of the New York Times: Lev Parnas said through his attorney "on Friday that he had turned over to congressional Democrats a recording from 2018 of the president ordering the removal of Marie L. Yovanovitch as the United States ambassador to Ukraine.... Parnas ... located the recording on Friday after its existence was first reported by ABC News, said Joseph A. Bondy, Mr. Parnas's lawyer. Mr. Bondy said the recording was 'of high materiality to the impeachment inquiry' of Mr. Trump and that he had provided it to the House Intelligence Committee, whose chairman, Representative Adam B. Schiff, is leading the impeachment managers in their presentation of the case.... Mr. Parnas and his legal team did not provide the recording to ABC News, Mr. Bondy said." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So not only did Fruman make the tape, he passed it on to someone who shared it with ABC News. Josh Marshall of TPM notes that this suggests Fruman, who has been silent. now may be leaking stuff.

Gabe Sherman of Vanity Fair dishes on Trump's "mood" (bad) as the impeachment proceedings drag on. Here's one bit: "Meanwhile, Trump has been in a particularly foul mood as impeachment drags on. Trump recently told some Republicans that he decided to say 'fuck it' and kill General Qasem Soleimani, according to a source briefed on the conversation." Mrs. McC: Vanity Fair is subscriber-firewalled & can't be opened by nonsubscribers in a private window. I don't know from the monthly limit for freebies is. digby republishes much of Sherman's post here.

Matthew Choi of Politico: "An NPR reporter's interview with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo grew testy when the subject of Ukraine arose and a department aide cut off the interview, the radio network reported Friday. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly conducted a roughly 10-minute interview with Pompeo on Friday morning that ended after she brought up the topic at the center of ... Donald Trump's impeachment, according to the reporter.... When Kelly asked about former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, the secretary grew upset, the reporter said. Kelly said she was later led to the secretary's private living room, where Pompeo berated her and asked whether the American people care about Ukraine. He allegedly used the F-word multiple times and asked her to identify Ukraine on an unlabeled map of the world." Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: Gee, Mike, have you ever asked the Dear Leader "to identify Ukraine on an unlabeled map"? ~~~

~~~ Allison Quinn of the Daily Beast has more. After Pompeo cut short the interview, Kelly "was then reportedly asked to follow him without her recorder, but without any agreement that the following conversation would be off the record. At that point, Pompeo reportedly challenged Kelly to find Ukraine on an unmarked map and asked, 'Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?' He reportedly wrapped up the meeting by declaring that 'people will hear about this.'" Emphasis added. The remark in bold is a threat, a threat by a powerful man against a much less powerful woman. It's creepy-scary. ~~~

~~~ A transcript of the recorded interview is here. ~~~

~~~ Pompeo Unaware of Subject of Impeachment Trial. Marcy Wheeler: Pompeo "falsely claimed he had defended everyone of his reports, including Marie Yovanovitch. And he reportedly accused Kelly of not being able to find Ukraine on a map (which she promptly did).... But the craziest thing might be Pompeo's claim that President Obama did nothing to take down corruption in Ukraine." Mrs. McC: Wheeler doesn't say it, but a major component of the impeachment thing revolves around Trump's corrupt effort to impugn Joe Biden for the work he did, as part of the Obama administration, to curb corruption in Ukraine. Pompeo is now (and perhaps always has been) just as adept at saying black is white and white is black as is the Lyin' King he serves.

Robert Burns of the AP: "The Pentagon disclosed on Friday that 34 U.S. service members suffered traumatic brain injuries in Iran's missile strike this month on an Iraqi air base, and although half have returned to work, the casualty total belies ... Donald Trump's initial claim that no Americans were harmed. He later characterized the injuries as ['headaches' and] 'not very serious.' Eight of the injured arrived in the United States on Friday from Germany, where they and nine others had been flown days after the Jan. 8 missile strike on Iraq's Ain al-Asad air base. The nine still in Germany are receiving treatment and evaluation at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the largest U.S. military hospital outside the continental United States." ~~~

~~~ Paul Szoldra of Task & Purpose: "The Veterans of Foreign Wars has demanded an apology from President Trump over recent comments in which he downplayed the seriousness of traumatic brain injuries suffered by American troops in an Iranian missile attack. 'The Veterans of Foreign Wars cannot stand idle on this matter,' William 'Doc' Schmitz, VFW National Commander, said in a statement Friday, noting TBI is a serious injury known to cause depression, memory loss, severe headaches and other symptoms in the short and long-term." Szoldra provides a transcript of the exchange between Trump & reporter Weijia Jiang of CBS News. Jiang asks about the discrepancy between Trump's repeated claims there were no U.S. injuries resulting from the attack:

Trump: No, I heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things, but I would say, and I can report, it is not very serious.

Jiang: You don't consider a potential traumatic brain injury serious?

Trump: "They told me about it numerous days later, you'd have to ask Department of Defense. No, I don't consider them very serious injuries relative to other injuries that I've seen. I've seen what Iran has done with their roadside bombs to our troops. I've seen people with no legs and with no arms, I've seen people that were horribly horribly injured in that area, that war. In fact, many cases put those bombs put there by Soleimani, who is no longer with us. I consider them to be really bad injuries. No, I do not consider that to be bad injuries no. (Emphasis original to report.)

Presidential Race

Jonathan Martin & Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders has opened up a lead in Iowa just over a week before the Democratic caucuses, consolidating support from liberals and benefiting from divisions among more moderate presidential candidates who are clustered behind him, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll of likely caucusgoers.... The rise of Mr. Sanders has come at the expense of his fellow progressive, Senator Elizabeth Warren: she dropped from 22 percent in the October poll, enough to lead the field, to 15 percent in this survey." Poll results: Sanders 25%; Buttigieg 18; Biden 17%; Warren 15%; Klobuchar 8%.

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times on how a bleak future is influencing the presidential race: "The candidate who polls show has the most support among young people is Bernie Sanders, the oldest person in the race. Clearly, Sanders fills his followers with hope and makes them feel that a transformed world is possible, but he also speaks to their terrors." ~~~

Beyond the Beltway

California. Yousef Baig & Chantelle Lee of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat: "The Russian River flowed with a cherry red tint Wednesday after tens of thousands of gallons of fresh cabernet sauvignon wine poured into the largest tributary in Sonoma County. The wine -- enough to fill more than 500,000 bottles -- spilled from a Rodney Strong Vineyards' tank at the Healdsburg winery, made its way into Reiman Creek running through the property and drained into the river.... A roughly two-foot oval door near the bottom of a 100,000-gallon Rodney Strong blending tank somehow popped open about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday and spilled from 46,000 to 96,000 gallons of wine, officials with the Governor's Office of Emergency Services said Thursday. Local and state water quality and fish and wildlife officials are investigating to determine any negative effects to the river ecosystem and whether the winery violated water quality rules." Mrs. McC: Finally a real-world approximation of The Odyssey's "wine-dark sea."

Way Beyond

China. New York Times liveblog: "As China marked a somber Lunar New Year on Saturday, 15 more deaths from the new coronavirus were reported in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. Other countries, including Australia, said the virus had reached their shores.The latest deaths, announced early Saturday by the health authorities in Hubei Province, whose capital is Wuhan, brought the toll in China to 41. All but three of those deaths were in Wuhan.... Nationwide, more than 400 new cases of the virus were diagnosed, officials said early Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in China to nearly 1,300. Travel restrictions in Wuhan and 12 other cities have essentially penned in 35 million people on the country's biggest holiday, normally a time for traveling to visit family."

News Lede

NBC News: "Major search and rescue efforts are underway in eastern Turkey after it was rocked by a 6.8 magnitude earthquake late Friday evening. At least 22 people have died, the country's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said Saturday, adding that 1,103 were injured."

The Commentariat -- January 24, 2020

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times liveblog of today's developments in the Senate impeachment proceedings is here. "The House impeachment managers are now at work on the heart of their task for the afternoon: stringing together, bit by bit, a story of how President Trump and lawyers around him tried to conceal his Ukraine pressure campaign. Discussion of Mr. Trump's alleged cover-up had focused primarily on Mr. Trump's defiance of subpoenas ... in the impeachment inquiry. But Representatives Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Jason Crow of Colorado suggested to senators that behavior is just one part of a longer cover-up, much of which took place behind the scenes before the House had even learned of the pressure campaign." ~~~

~~~ The Guardian's liveblog is here. @13:14 ET: "Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell kicked off today's proceedings by confirming that the trial would resume tomorrow at 10 a.m. ET, earlier than recent days, and run for 'several hours.'"

Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "A recording reviewed by ABC News appears to capture ... Donald Trump telling associates he wanted the then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch fired while speaking at a small gathering that included Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman.... The recording appears to contradict statements by President Trump and support the narrative that has been offered by Parnas during broadcast interviews in recent days. Sources familiar with the recording said the recording was made during an intimate April 30, 2018, dinner at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. Trump has said repeatedly he does not know Parnas.... 'Get rid of her!' is what the voice that appears to be President Trump's is heard saying. 'Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "House Democrats sought on Thursday to pre-emptively dismantle President Trump's core defenses in his impeachment trial, invoking his own words to argue that his pressure campaign on Ukraine was an abuse of power that warranted his removal. On the second day of arguments in the third presidential impeachment trial in American history, Democrats sought to make the case that Mr. Trump's actions were an affront to the Constitution. And they worked to disprove his lawyers' claims that he was acting only in the nation's interests when he sought to enlist Ukraine to investigate political rivals. In doing so, they took a calculated risk in talking at length about Mr. Trump's targets -- former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter Biden.... [Lead House manager Adam] Schiff later volunteered that neither he nor his colleagues had a position on the Democratic presidential primary. Mr. Schiff also brought Mr. Trump into the chamber -- at least on video -- to use the president's own words against him, with a clip in which the president ... called for Ukraine to start a 'major investigation' into [the Bidens]." ~~~

Schiff's Stemwinder:

     ~~~ Worth remembering when Republican senators vote against the nation. ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' liveblog is here. "Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the lead impeachment manager, stepped back to the Senate lectern around 10 p.m. Eastern to deliver one final argument for the day. It turned out to be a stemwinder, jolting the sleepy Senate to attention as Mr. Schiff argued more explicitly than ever before for President Trump's removal from office. ~~~

~~~ "Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, began the House presentation on Thursday with an hourlong lecture on the constitutional history of impeachment. He insisted that the history of the Constitution makes it clear that a criminal violation is not necessary to impeach the president.... He cited words from some of President Trump's key allies in his impeachment defense: Alan Dershowitz, a member of the president's impeachment team; William P. Barr, the attorney general; and Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina.... [ABC:] 'Abuse. Betrayal. Corruption,' he said. 'Here are the core offenses, the framers feared most. The president's abuse of power, his betrayal of the national interest, and his corruption of our elections plainly qualified as great and dangerous offenses.'" ~~~

~~~ The Guardian's report on Thursday's proceedings is here. The Guardian's liveblog for Thursday is here. ~~~

~~~ Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) spent several minutes Thursday afternoon focusing on the theory that Ukraine was involved in the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), one that Trump has continued to mention despite his own advisers repeatedly pushing back on it as debunked. Mentioning statements from Trump's former aides..., Schiff described the theory as 'brought to you by the Kremlin' and alleged Trump was motivated by his own political ambitions in raising it with Ukraine. 'On the basis of this Russian propaganda, he withheld $400 million in military aid to a nation Russia was fighting -- our ally,' Schiff said.... 'He was doing it because it helped him,' Schiff said, echoing prior remarks from Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), another impeachment manager. 'Because it could get these talking points for him in his reelection campaign, and for that he would sacrifice our ally and our own security.'" ~~~

~~~ Amber Phillips of the Washington Post has a "five-minute Fix" on the day's proceedings: "Democrats made their case that Trump acted corruptly by trying to methodically knock down four of Trump's main defenses."

Catch 22. Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "A growing number of Republicans are pointing to ... Donald Trump's threat to invoke executive privilege in order to make their case against subpoenas sought by Democrats for key witnesses and documents, a development that could bolster Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's goal of a swift end to the impeachment trial. GOP senators are privately and publicly raising concerns that issuing subpoenas -- to top officials like acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton and for documents blocked by the White House -- will only serve to drag out the proceedings." Mrs. McC: The "logic" here is impressive: we can't ask Trump for evidence about articles of impeachment including obstruction of Congress because he'll obstruct Congress.

Catherine Garcia of the Week: "Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) was engrossed in a book during Thursday's impeachment proceedings, but one thing managed to make her look up: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) referring to Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a Purple Heart recipient, as an 'American patriot.' 'How patriotic is it to badmouth and ridicule our great nation in front of Russia, America's greatest enemy?' Blackburn tweeted. She did not give any examples of Vindman speaking ill of the United States in front of Russia.... Senators aren't supposed to be using electronics during the trial, but Blackburn tweeted throughout the afternoon and evening. Over multiple tweets, she accused Vindman of leaking sensitive material, being 'vindictive,' and wanting to 'take Trump out.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post reports the background on Blackburn's unsupported multiple attacks on Vindman.

Burgess Everett of Politico: "Sen. Susan Collins was 'stunned' by Rep. Jerry Nadler's late-night diatribe this week against what he deemed a 'cover-up' by Senate Republicans for ... Donald Trump -- so much so that she wrote a note to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.... Collins said she believed the back and forth between House Judiciary Chairman Nadler (D-N.Y.) and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone violated Senate rules and felt compelled to point that out, even though senators are required to stay at their desks and not speak during the trial." Roberts then chastised presenters on both sides. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Nadler could have gotten up there and made a blasphemous, profane harangue accusing Republican senators of mass murder, rape and pedophelia, and he would not have been more offensive than Collins' speech announcing her vote for Brett Kavanaugh. P.S., Susan, you hypocritical slut, in complaining to the CJ about Nadler's supposed violation of Senate rules, you violated the Senate rule to STFU under penalty of prison when you passed that note to Johnny.

Lindsey Graham has some thoughts on impeachment, including a new claim that the Trump administration released funds to Ukraine because he and Sen. Rob Portman called the White House:

After having been treated unbelievably unfairly in the House, and then having to endure hour after hour of lies, fraud & deception by Shifty Schiff, Cryin' Chuck Schumer & their crew, looks like my lawyers will be forced to start on Saturday, which is called Death Valley in T.V. -- Donald Trump, in a tweet this morning

Trump is upset that Mitch McConnell, who is openly coordinating with him, gave his team a bad slot for TV ratings. -- New York "Daily Intelligencer" (no link)

Jonathan Chait: Trump lead attorney Jay "Sekulow is prone to making absurd claims based on comically obvious errors. And ... when he is called on these undeniable errors, the White House will back him up anyway.... It's probably inevitable, given the nature of the defendant and the charges against him, that Trump's lawyers will bungle the facts and the law. But is it really necessary for the president of the United States to employ a lead attorney who is unable to understand words?" The words Sekulow can't understand in this case are -- "quid pro quo" and "FOIA" -- even though Val Demings explained in the same sentence she used it, that FOIA stood for "Freedom of Information Act." Mrs. McC: Most people probably don't know what the acronym FOIA (pronounced "FOY-yah") means, but a lawyer whose client has been vigorously fighting FOIA requests should definitely know what they are, even without the explanation provided.

Frank Rich: "The facts are utterly damning, even without an infusion of new witnesses and documents, and Adam Schiff's prosecutorial skills may join Clarence Darrow's in American history books." Mrs. McC: And Rich wrote this before Thursday's proceedings.

Kyle Cheney & John Brenahan of Politico: "The White House declined to provide documents to a congressional watchdog investigating ... Donald Trump's decision to withhold military aid from Ukraine, according to documents released Thursday by Sen. Chris Van Hollen. The White House responded to the Government Accountability Office's inquiry with a one-page letter on Dec. 20, citing a legal memo from the Office of Management and Budget that defended the hold on military aid as necessary to ensure spending the funds wouldn't 'conflict with the President's foreign policy.' The correspondence is part of what led GAO to accuse the Trump administration of blocking its inquiry and conclude last week that Trump's decision to withhold military aid violated federal law. Democrats have cited that decision as they press their case that Trump should be removed from office.... The documents released by Van Hollen (D-Md.) indicate that GAO had asked the White House budget office for details on how the hold on military aid complied with the Impoundment Control Act, the law the GAO argues Trump violated."

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post agrees with Mrs. McCrabbie (see yesterday Comments): Chief Justice John "Roberts's captivity [in the Senate] is entirely fitting: He is forced to witness, with his own eyes, the mess he and his colleagues on the Supreme Court have made of the U.S. political system. As representatives of all three branches of government attend this unhappy family reunion, the living consequences of the Roberts Court's decisions, and their corrosive effect on democracy, are plain to see. Ten years to the day before Trump's impeachment trial began, the Supreme Court released its Citizens United decision, plunging the country into the era of super PACs and unlimited, unregulated, secret campaign money from billionaires and foreign interests. Citizens United, and the resulting rise of the super PAC, led directly to this impeachment. The two Rudy Giuliani associates engaged in key abuses -- the ouster of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, the attempts to force Ukraine's president to announce investigations into Trump's political opponents -- gained access to Trump by funneling money from a Ukrainian oligarch to the president's super PAC. The Roberts Court's decisions led to this moment in indirect ways, as well.... Now, we are in a crisis of democratic legitimacy: A president who has plainly abused his office and broken the law, a legislature too paralyzed to do anything about it -- and a chief justice coming face to face with the system he broke."

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department secretly acknowledged last month that it had 'insufficient predication' to continue monitoring a former Trump campaign adviser during the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to records made public Thursday -- a notable admission likely to fuel continued criticism over how the bureau handled the high-profile case. The concession was revealed in an order posted on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court's website. In December, according to the order, the department told the court it had come to believe that in at least two of the four applications to monitor the former adviser, Carter Page, 'there was insufficient predication to establish probable cause' to believe he was acting as a Russian agent."

Matt Stieb of New York: "As part of his misbegotten campaign to be considered for a Nobel Peace Prize, President Trump is moving forward with a plan developed by his son-in-law to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On Thursday, the administration took a major step toward delivering Jared Kushner's long-delayed proposal, when Vice-President Mike Pence announced an invitation to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet in Washington next week.... Rather than include Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in a talk to determine an agreement between Israel and Palestine, Pence extended the invitation to Netanyahu's challenger in the March election, Benny Gantz. At a larger scale, the Trump administration has not welcomed Palestinian leaders to the table as Kushner has drawn up his peace plan -- which the president said would be released prior to the Tuesday meeting.... Palestinian leadership has refused all Trump administration outreach since the U.S. recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital in 2018 -- including ten invitations in recent weeks to discuss the plan."

It Turns Out There Are Many "Mr. Kurd"s. Miriam Berger of the Washington Post: "Trump appears to confuse the Kurds of Syria and Iraq in a meeting with the president of Iraqi Kurdistan. President Trump met with Nechirvan Barzani, president of Iraqi Kurdistan, on Wednesday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. During their encounter, Trump focused on praising the Kurds of Syria.... The Kurds of Syria are geographically and politically distinct from the Kurds of Iraq. Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria are all home to Kurdish populations.... During a news conference in 2018, he referred to Kurdish journalist Rahim Rashidi as 'Mr. Kurd.'... Earlier Wednesday, the White House's official YouTube channel initially listed Trump as having met with the president of Iran at Davos, when in fact it was Iraqi President Barham Salih. The caption has since been corrected." Mrs. McC: Iraqi Kurdistan is an autonomous region, unlike the Irani, Turkish & Syrian majority-Kurdish regions. Apparently that's too complex for Trump to grasp.

** Will Bunch of The Philadelphia Inquirer: "[T]he political equivalent of a nuclear bomb just exploded in the Persian Gulf. Or at least the news should have had that kind of impact. Two top experts for the United Nations on cyber-crimes have confirmed an explosive theory that's been ticking for the last year: That Saudi Arabia was behind the phone hacking of [Jeff Bezos] ... right before salacious pictures and texts that ended Bezos' marriage were published in the National Enquirer.... The scandal has nothing to do with Trump's impeachment trial that began in earnest this week ... and everything to do with it...[T]he Trump-Saudi-Khashoggi-Post-Bezos-Enquirer nexus is, arguably, the worst-of-the-worst, betraying how an unfit president has sold out U.S. policy -- and even our young troops -- to murderous dictators while championing the obliteration of the civil liberties like press freedom that might restrain tyranny in America and in our so-called allies." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The Inquirer, like the New Yorker and more & more news outlets, has a "hard" subscriber firewall; that is, it disallows opening pages in private windows & a very limited number of hits-per-month. If you're a nonsubscriber, it's probably worth opening "using up" one of the freebies on Bunch's conspiracy theory. I find it a completely plausible theory. Trump is a hundred percent scum, and conspiring with the Saudis to "get" Bezos & covering up the culpability of MBS in Khashoggi's brutal murder -- not to mention repressing evidence of the top Saudis' culpability in 9/11 -- fits perfectly into his MO. ~~~

~~~ ** Tim Golden & Sebastian Rotella of ProPublica in the New York Times Magazine: "The full story of the F.B.I.'s investigation into Saudi links to the 9/11 attacks has remained largely untold. Even the code name of the case -- Operation Encore -- has never been published before. This account is based on interviews with more than 50 current and former investigators, intelligence officials and witnesses in the case. It also draws on some previously secret documents as well as on the voluminous public files of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission." (Also linked yesterday.)

Juliet Eilperin & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "President Trump has said his plan to weaken federal mileage standards would make cars cheaper and 'substantially safer.' But the administration's own analysis suggests that it would cost consumers more than it would save them in the long run, and would do little to make the nation's roads safer. The revised Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles rule, which has not been released publicly, would require automakers to increase the average fuel efficiency of the nation's fleets by 1.5 percent per year between model years 2021 and 2026. Rules put in place by the Obama administration, by comparison, require a nearly 5 percent annual increase..... The new analysis, outlined in a letter Wednesday by Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), projects that the benefits of Trump's proposed rollback would not significantly outweigh the costs. Trump's approach would lower the sticker price of new cars, according to the documents, but drivers would spend more at the gas pump over time by driving less efficient vehicles." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jan Ransom & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: Actor Annabella Sciorra testified Thursday that Harvey Weinstein raped her. The Hollywood Reporter story is here.

Presidential Race

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Senator Kamala Harris is weighing an endorsement of Joseph R. Biden Jr., according to multiple Democratic officials familiar with her deliberations. Such a move could lift Mr. Biden's campaign and perhaps do even more to enhance Ms. Harris's chances of becoming vice president, but it could also anger her liberal base in California." The Hill has a summary story here. Mrs. McC: Way back when, I seriously considered Harris as my choice for president; I now want to thank her for confirming my view that she isn't smart enough or thoughtful enough to be president.

I realize that some people are saying, 'Do we really want a race between two New York billionaires?' To which I say, 'Who's the other one?' -- Michael Bloomberg, in a speech in Texas ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "... as he has tuned into coverage of his Senate impeachment trial, Mr. Trump has been pricked by a deluge of television ads funded by [Michael Bloomberg] -- a far wealthier billionaire.... The show, 'Fox and Friends,' aired without commentary a new ad from Mr. Bloomberg's team that is based on reporting from a new book, 'A Very Stable Genius,' describing the language Mr. Trump used to excoriate military generals during a Pentagon meeting in 2017. The ad described him as 'erratic' and pointed to the 'chaos' in his administration.... So the president, who is notorious for reacting to what he sees on Fox News, did just that. 'Mini Mike Bloomberg is playing poker with his foolhardy and unsuspecting Democrat rivals,' Mr. Trump tweeted. 'He says that if he loses (he really means when!) in the primaries, he will spend money helping whoever the Democrat nominee is [and so on].'" The Hill's report is here.

Jason Horowitz & Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times: "Pope Francis sought to shift the ideological balance of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States on Thursday, replacing one of his most prominent conservative critics as the archbishop of Philadelphia. Pope Francis announced in a statement that Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia was retiring, and that Bishop Nelson J. Perez of Cleveland, a former Philadelphian and relative newcomer to the national scene, would assume the role." (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

China. Chris Buckley & Javier C. Hernández of the New York Times: "The authorities drastically expanded a travel lockdown in central China on Thursday, essentially penning in more than 22 million residents to contain a deadly virus that is overwhelming hospitals and fueling fears of a pandemic. The new limits -- abruptly decreed ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, China's busiest travel season -- were an extraordinary step that underscored the ruling Communist Party's deepening fears about the outbreak of a little understood coronavirus. It has killed at least 26 people and sickened more than 800 in China and at least six other countries, including the United States, according to statistics from health officials."