The Commentariat -- December 3, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

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

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

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

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

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

     ~~~ Here's Harris's statement.

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

The royal Duke of York

Hung out with Donald Trump.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

House Democrats released this video this morning:

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

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

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

~~~~~~~~~~

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

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

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

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

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

Nope. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ~~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Presidential Race 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beyond the Beltway

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

Way Beyond

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

News Lede

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

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

The Commentariat -- December 2, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~~~~~~~~~

"Trump Is the Founders' Worst Nightmare." Bob Bauer in a New York Times op-ed: "The founders feared the demagogue, who figures prominently in the Federalist Papers as the politician who, possessing 'perverted ambition,' pursues relentless self-aggrandizement 'by the confusions of their country.' The last of the papers, Federalist No. 85, linked demagogy to its threat to the constitution.... This 'despotism' is achieved through systematic lying to the public, vilification of the opposition and, as James Fenimore Cooper wrote in an essay on demagogues, a claimed right to disregard 'the Constitution and the laws' in pursuing what the demagogue judges to be the 'interests of the people.'... And yet ... the very behaviors that necessitate impeachment supply the means for the demagogue to escape it. As the self-proclaimed embodiment of the American popular will, the demagogue portrays impeachment deliberations as necessarily a threat to democracy.... As we have seen with Mr. Trump, the demagogue can bully his party into being an instrument of his will, silencing or driving out dissenters.... When this is all over..., the lesson will be that, in the politics of the time, a demagogue who gets into the Oval Office is hard to get out." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It's ironic, isn't it, that demagoguery is the apotheosis of political oratory at the same time it is the instrument of political catastrophe?

White House Plans to Whine about Everything. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The White House on Sunday informed the House Judiciary Committee it will not participate in Wednesday's impeachment inquiry hearing but did not rule out taking part in future hearings. 'We cannot fairly be expected to participate in a hearing while the witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains unclear whether the Judiciary Committee will afford the President a fair process through additional hearings," White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). 'More importantly, an invitation to an academic discussion with law professors does not begin to provide the President with any semblance of a fair process,' Cipollone wrote." The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Times report includes the full whiney letter. The Hill has the letter here.

GOP Plans to Whine about Everything. Mike DeBonis & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "As the impeachment inquiry into President Trump moves to the House Judiciary Committee, Republicans signaled Sunday that they will mount an aggressive campaign to delegitimize the process, accusing Democrats of rushing the proceedings as the White House debates whether to participate at all. Speaking on 'Fox News Sunday,' Rep. Douglas A. Collins (Ga.), the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, indicated that the GOP would continue its all-out effort to attack the Democratic-led impeachment process. But he declined to say whether Republicans would take advantage of the complete range of opportunities they will have to make their case against Trump's removal. The remarks from Collins and other Republicans on Sunday reflected a conflict inside the GOP over the extent to which Trump and his congressional defenders ought to participate in a process they have spent more than two months attacking as unfair and corrupt." ~~~

~~~ So yesterday we learned via the Hill (linked yesterday below) that "Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) demanding that he expand the panel beyond the four constitutional law scholars from whom the committee plans to hear.... The letter did not clarify which witnesses the Republicans would seek to call." ~~~

     ~~~ Now, today we learn from Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Rep. Doug Collins (Ga.), the top GOP member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Sunday that Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is the most important witness Republicans want to question in the upcoming phase of the impeachment inquiry." Mrs. McC: Right. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "A week after claiming that he didn't know whether Russia or Ukraine was responsible for hacking the DNC server during the 2016 election, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) left Meet the Press anchor Chuck Todd astounded when he accused the former president of Ukraine of working for Hillary Clinton's campaign.... '... the fact that Russia was so aggressive does not exclude the fact that [Ukraine] President Poroshenko actively worked for Secretary Clinton,' [Kennedy said]. 'Actively worked for Secretary Clinton?! My goodness, wait a minute, Senator Kennedy,' Todd shot back. 'You now have the president of Ukraine saying he worked for the Democratic nominee for president. C'mon. You realize the only other person selling this argument outside the United States is this man, Vladimir Putin!'... Todd further pushed back on Kennedy's assertion, asking him if he believed that Ukrainian officials criticizing Trump during the election over his endorsement of Russia's annexation of Crimea was equivalent to Russia's hacking." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I checked out the most incendiary story from a reputable news organization about the Clinton-Ukraine connection -- the now-infamous January 2017 Politico article by Ken Vogel & David Stern -- and the closest the reporters get to claiming Poroshenko "actively" worked for Clinton is to cite an unnamed political operative who speculated that "... Poroshenko was probably aware of and could have stopped [a Ukrainian government investigation into corruption in the previous administration of Viktor Yanukovych, which had turned up off-the-books payments to Paul Manafort,] if he wanted to." So yeah, actively working for Clinton. ~~~

     ~~~ Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) said Sunday that both Russia and Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election, despite the intelligence community's assessment that only Russia did so. comments mark Kennedy's latest attempt to shift the focus away from the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia worked to help elect President Trump, following a Fox News Channel interview last week from which he later backtracked.... Despite Kennedy's claim, there is no evidence that the Ukrainian government engaged in a large-scale effort to aid Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016."

Michael Birnbaum & David Stern of the Washington Post: "By the end of this month, more than 500 Ukrainian prosecutors will be out of their jobs as part of sweeping professional reviews under Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Among the prosecutors heading for the exit: a key Kyiv contact for Rudolph W. Giuliani. The prosecutor purge is just one of several corruption-busting efforts set in motion by Zelensky. But it puts into sharp relief Zelensky's twin challenges -- trying to balance his clean-government promises at home with his needs to keep President Trump from turning against him.... Trump's views of Ukraine -- and his demands to investigate the Biden family -- were largely shaped by Giuliani.... The theories and opinions that were passed to Giuliani came from some of the very officials whom Ukrainian activists claim are prime corruption culprits in their own system.... Zelensky's new prosecutor general, Ruslan Ryaboshapka..., also has started to audit how previous investigations were pursued against the owner of Burisma, the natural gas company that employed former vice president Joe Biden's son Hunter. But anti-corruption activists say the audit is unlikely to produce any information that would lead to evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Biden, since no evidence has emerged." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, at the U.S. DOJ. Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "The Justice Department is in another election-season jam -- faced with politically loaded decisions over how aggressively to investigate ... Donald Trump and his allies in the heat of the 2020 campaign. Legal experts see signs that DOJ is laying the groundwork for a potential criminal probe into whether the president and his top advisers broke federal laws by withholding a White House meeting and nearly $400 million dollars in foreign aid from Ukraine unless the country's new leaders agreed to investigate Trump's political rivals. In Washington, the FBI has already contacted an attorney for the whistleblower who first revealed the scheme. In New York, federal prosecutors are expanding a probe into Rudy Giuliani.... But the ghosts of 2016 linger. DOJ and FBI leaders are still weathering bipartisan scorn for their handling of dual election-year probes into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server and the Trump campaign's Russia connections. Any moves to examine Trump as 2020 heats up will receive similar scrutiny -- as will any choice not to examine Trump." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm taking this report with a pillar of salt. For instance, there's this: "It all adds up to a tumultuous year ahead for Attorney General William Barr, who has struggled to maintain the department's historical reputation for independence while serving a president who openly castigates federal law enforcement for leading a 'coup' to unseat him." The only thing Bill Barr struggles over is getting his belt buckle to close. He doesn't give a rat's ass about "the department's historical reputation for independence."

Molly Jong-Fast of the Daily Beast has interviewed Lisa Page, the former FBI lawyer whom Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked & belittled as a deep-state conspirator against him. Page was willing to talk to Jong-Fast because, "'Honestly, his demeaning fake orgasm was really the straw that broke the camel's back,' she says. The president called out her name as he acted out an orgasm in front of thousands of people at a Minneapolis rally on Oct. 11, 2019."

Deborah Solomon of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Monday that he would reinstate tariffs on steel and aluminum from Brazil and Argentina, accusing the two countries of artificially weakening their currencies and hurting American farmers. Mr. Trump, in a message on Twitter, said the currency manipulation by Brazil and Argentina was hurting American farmers. 'Therefore, effective immediately, I will restore the Tariffs on all Steel & Aluminum that is shipped into the U.S. from those countries.'... The Trump administration initially exempted Brazil and Argentina from the president's sweeping metal tariffs in 2018, after the United States said it had reached trade deals with those countries." The AP story is here.

Dave Philipps, et al., of the New York Times: "Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher's case pits a Pentagon hierarchy committed to enforcing longstanding rules of combat against a commander in chief with no military experience but a finely honed sense of grievance against authority.... While [Trump] boasts of supporting the military, he has come to distrust the generals and admirals who run it. Rather than accept information from his own government, he responds to television reports that grab his interest. Warned against crossing lines, he bulldozes past precedent and norms. As a result, the president finds himself more removed than ever from a disenchanted military command, adding the armed forces to the institutions under his authority that he has feuded with, along with the intelligence community, law enforcement agencies and diplomatic corps.... Mr. Trump has long sought to identify himself with the toughest of soldiers and loves boasting of battlefield exploits to the point that he made up details of an account of a 'whimpering' Islamic State leader killed in October." Mrs. McC: If you have access to the NYT, this story is worth reading. The details of Gallagher's alleged actions are sickening.

Trump Administration Proposes to Assault Helpless Elderly People. NPR. "The Trump administration wants to reduce the 'burden' on nursing home operators by relaxing rules governing the facilities. Critics see troubling implications for the care of millions of residents." This is a transcript of an interview of NPR's Ina Jaffe by NPR host Scott Simon.

Adios, Mofo. John Bowden of the Hill: "Rick Perry concluded his final day as President Trump's Energy secretary on Sunday, thanking his family and the American people in a tweet for allowing him to serve at the agency." (Headline context.)

Presidential Race 2020

Natasha Korecki of Politico: "Amid fundraising struggles and a repeated inability to qualify for the debate stage, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock announced Monday morning he is suspending his campaign for president. The Democrat attempted to sell himself as the moderate voice needed to beat Donald Trump, given that he demonstrated the ability to win in a red state. But Bullock ultimately was unable to break through...." The Washington Post story is here.

Candidate You Didn't Know Was in the Race Quits. Ursula Perano of Axios: "Joe Sestak announced Sunday evening that he is dropping out of the 2020 presidential race, leaving the total number of Democrats left in the field at 17.... Sestak was one of the last Democrats to join the race, clocking in as the 25th candidate as of June. Like many of his competitors, he struggled to gain name recognition within the crowded field, leaving him at 0% in most polls. He also failed to qualify for any Democratic debates."

Andrew Chung of Reuters: "A legal fight over a New York City handgun ordinance that could give the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority a chance to expand gun rights goes before the nine justices on Monday in one of the most closely watched cases of their current term." The New York Times story, by Adam Liptak, is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Maine. Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Living in New Hampshire as I do, it would be wrong to call Mainers stupid. But.... (Yeah, okay, there are lots of very smart Down Easters. Still....)

Way Beyond

Iran. Farnaz Fassihi & Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "Iran is experiencing its deadliest political unrest since the Islamic Revolution 40 years ago, with at least 180 people killed -- and possibly hundreds more -- as angry protests have been smothered in a government crackdown of unbridled force. It began two weeks ago with an abrupt increase of at least 50 percent in gasoline prices. Within 72 hours, outraged demonstrators in cities large and small were calling for an end to the Islamic Republic's government and the downfall of its leaders. In many places, security forces responded by opening fire on unarmed protesters, largely unemployed or low-income young men between the ages of 19 and 26, according to witness accounts and videos.... Altogether, from 180 to 450 people, and possibly more, were killed in four days of intense violence after the gasoline price increase was announced on Nov. 15, with at least 2,000 wounded and 7,000 detained...."

Mexico. CBS News: "Several individuals connected with a family massacre in northern Mexico were detained in an early Sunday operation. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's office confirmed to CBS News that three suspects were captured Sunday in a joint operation by the Prosecutor General, the National Guard and the National Center for Intelligence. Nine U.S. citizens -- three women and six children -- were murdered November 4. The victims were members of the LeBaron family who were part of a group of fundamentalist Mormons who migrated to Mexico after polygamy was outlawed in the U.S. in the 1800s. The operation, carried out in collaboration with the FBI, follows an earlier arrest last month, according to officials. Four people are now in custody in connection with the attack." A Washington Post story is here.

U.K. Peter Walker & Frances Perraudin of the Guardian: "Boris Johnson has been accused of twisting the facts of the London Bridge terror attack in a 'distasteful' attempt to turn it into an election issue, as he tried to blame Labour for the release of the terrorist who stabbed two people to death. Despite one of the victims families pleading for their son's death not to be used as an excuse for kneejerk political reaction, Johnson claimed that 'a lefty government' was responsible for Usman Khan being freed. The family of Jack Merritt called for the murder of 'our beautiful, talented boy' to not be exploited for political gain, as police named the second victim as Saskia Jones, a prisoner rehabilitation volunteer."

News Lede

CNN: "The weather has already caused a plane to slip off a runway while it was landing at Buffalo Niagara International Airport Sunday.... It also led to a 25-vehicle pile up on Interstate 68 in Garrett County, Maryland, about 20 miles from the state's border with West Virginia.... A day earlier in Chamberlain, South Dakota, nine people were killed when a plane crashed during blizzard-like conditions.... On Sunday evening, nearly 6,500 flights were delayed within, into or out of the United States and more than 800 had been canceled, according to FlightAware.com. Travel impacts are expected to last through Monday, the weather service said."

The Commentariat -- December 1, 2019

Afternoon Update:

So yesterday we learned via the Hill (linked below) that "Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) demanding that he expand the panel beyond the four constitutional law scholars from whom the committee plans to hear.... The letter did not clarify which witnesses the Republicans would seek to call." ~~~

     ~~~ Now, today we learn from Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Rep. Doug Collins (Ga.), the top GOP member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Sunday that Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is the most important witness Republicans want to question in the upcoming phase of the impeachment inquiry." Mrs. McC: Right.

Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "A week after claiming that he didn't know whether Russia or Ukraine was responsible for hacking the DNC server during the 2016 election, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) left Meet the Press anchor Chuck Todd astounded when he accused the former president of Ukraine of working for Hillary Clinton's campaign.... '... the fact that Russia was so aggressive does not exclude the fact that [Ukraine] President Poroshenko actively worked for Secretary Clinton,' [Kennedy said]. 'Actively worked for Secretary Clinton?! My goodness, wait a minute, Senator Kennedy,' Todd shot back. 'You now have the president of Ukraine saying he worked for the Democratic nominee for president. C'mon. You realize the only other person selling this argument outside the United States is this man, Vladimir Putin!'... Todd further pushed back on Kennedy's assertion, asking him if he believed that Ukrainian officials criticizing Trump during the election over his endorsement of Russia's annexation of Crimea was equivalent to Russia's hacking." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I checked out the most incendiary story from a reputable news organization about the Clinton-Ukraine connection -- the now-infamous January 2017 Politico article by Ken Vogel & David Stern -- and the closest the reporters get to claiming Poroshenko "actively" worked for Clinton is to cite an unnamed political operative who speculated that "... Poroshenko was probably aware of and could have stopped [a Ukrainian government investigation into corruption in the previous administration of Viktor Yanukovych, which had turned up off-the-books payments to Paul Manafort,] if he wanted to." So yeah, actively working for Clinton.

~~~~~~~~~~

For the first time in a long time, enjoy the luxury of a Slow Gnus Day. ~~~

Grace Segers of CBS News: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a delegation of members of Congress to the annual international climate summit known as COP25 in Madrid, Spain, next week. While the delegation will include members of both the House and Senate, it will not be bipartisan, as only Democrats will be attending.... In 2016, attendees at the COP25 summit in Paris, France, announced they would sign a pact to lower greenhouse gas emissions, a deal commonly known as the Paris Climate Agreement. President Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw from the agreement shortly after taking office, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced earlier this month the U.S. had begun formal proceedings to pull the U.S. out."

Phil McCausland of NBC News: “Three proposed rule changes by the Trump administration could cause millions of poor people to lose access to food stamps and decrease the size of the benefit for millions more. Over the past year, the Department of Agriculture proposed three changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps. The new rules create stricter work requirements for program eligibility, cap deductions for utility allowances and 'reform' the way 40 states automatically enroll families into SNAP when they receive other forms of federal aid. A study by the Urban Institute released this week examined the three rules in combination for the first time and found that 3.7 million fewer people would receive SNAP in an average month, 2.2 million households would see their average monthly benefits drop by $127, more than 3 million others would see an average drop of $37 per month, and 982,000 students would lose access to free or reduced lunches."

Let his days be few; and let another take his office. -- Psalm 109, 8. Today's prayer, suggested by Forrest M., for You-Know-Who

Mike DeBonis & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) set a Tuesday meeting to approve the release of a report expected to detail the panel's findings on President Trump's dealings with Ukraine. In keeping with committee rules, panel members are expected to be able to review the report starting at 6 p.m. Monday, 24 hours before the scheduled meeting." Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Tax Axelrod of the Hill: "Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee are calling for the panel to expand its list of witnesses ahead of the Dec. 4 hearing it will hold in the House's impeachment investigation into President Trump. Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) demanding that he expand the panel beyond the four constitutional law scholars from whom the committee plans to hear.... The letter did not clarify which witnesses the Republicans would seek to call. Staff for the Democrats on the committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill. Nadler wrote to Collins on Friday asking if he would like to issue any subpoenas or interrogatories relating to the matter. He also gave the ranking member until Dec. 6 to notify him." ~~~

~~~ Manisha Sinha in a New York Times op-ed, compares Donald Trump to Andrew Johnson, who escaped removal from office by one Senate vote: "While Mr. Trump's criminality is of the same order as Richard Nixon's, trying to interfere in a presidential election, like Johnson, he exhibits no public or private decorum. Johnson's and Mr. Trump's biographies could not be more different but their lack of presidential demeanor was evident from the start.... Both Johnson and Mr. Trump amply displayed their unfitness for the presidency before getting the job.... But most significantly, both men made an undisguised championship of white supremacy -- the lodestar of their presidencies -- and played on the politics of racial division. For Johnson, it was his obdurate opposition to Reconstruction, the project to establish an interracial democracy in the United States after the destruction of slavery.... Like Johnson, [Trump] uses derogatory language for people of color and he has expressed his preference for Nordic immigrants.... Both Johnson's and Mr. Trump's concept of American nationalism is narrow, parochial and authoritarian.... Johnson and Mr. Trump not only managed to diminish their office but also engaged in actions that have dangerous repercussions for American democracy." ~~~

~~~ Alex Pareene, in the New Republic, compares the Congresses then and now.

Foreign Election Meddling, Trump Edition. William Booth & Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "... there's little surprise that the American president is playing an outsize role in Britain's upcoming elections -- for good or bad, depending. In Britain, more than any other country aside from the United States, Trump has sought to bolster his political allies and trash his detractors. In so doing, he has blithely crossed traditional red lines. In late October, Trump phoned in to a talk radio show hosted by a friend, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, to dump on leftist Labour Party head Jeremy Corbyn.... British officials have been taken aback by such overt election interference by a close ally. But in an act of political jujitsu, Corbyn embraced the fight, tweeting out Trump's harsh remarks as he sought to weaponize the U.S. president's deep unpopularity among Britons for his own aims. Now, with the Dec. 12 election just days away, Trump is headed here again. The president is due in London on Tuesday and Wednesday for a NATO summit.... On Friday, [PM Boris] Johnson tried to diplomatically dissuade the American president from offering his opinions on domestic affairs. 'What we don't do traditionally as loving allies and friends, what we don't do traditionally, is get involved in each other's election campaigns,' Johnson told LBC radio." Mrs. McC: Good luck with that.

Presidential Race 2020. Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "Joe Biden has embarked upon an eight-day tour across Iowa as the former US vice-president attempts to arrest his flagging poll numbers in the key state.... Biden started his election blitz on Saturday, telling supporters in a fundraising email that he was undertaking an 'eight-day, 18 county, "No Malarkey" barnstorm' across Iowa. 'The plan is to meet as many caucus-goers as I can, and we're going to cover a lot of ground to do it,' the email read. The bus tour follows recent polling that shows Biden's standing has slipped among Democratic voters in Iowa who, on 3 February, will be the first caucus in the US to pick a favored candidate to take on Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election."

Way Beyond the Beltway

U.K. Karla Adam & William Booth of the Washington Post: "The queen on Saturday led tributes to individual acts of bravery on London Bridge, which included a Polish immigrant helping subdue [a] British-born terrorist with a five-foot narwhal tusk grabbed from a wall. As more details emerged about Friday's deadly knifings -- carried out, police said, by 28-year-old Usman Khan, previously convicted and jailed for a terrorism plot -- new profiles in courage appeared in the British press.... The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, no relation to the dead attacker, said he was in 'awe of the people who ran toward danger to keep us all safe.' Asked about reports that one of the defenders was from Poland -- whose identity has not been made public -- the mayor confirmed he was a Londoner of Polish origin. 'One of the great things about London is its diversity, so I'm not surprised at all. When I say "the best of us," I include E.U. citizens as well,' the mayor said. Many social media posts also pointed out that campaigners for Brexit used stereotypes such as the 'Polish plumber' and other tropes about workers coming to Britain from across the European Union."

News Lede

Washington Post: "Millions of Americans who had to navigate a bomb cyclone and a Midwest wind storm on the way to Thanksgiving will encounter more inclement weather when returning home Sunday and Monday, as a major winter storm takes shape in the Northeast and a new storm hits the San Francisco Bay area. In the Northeast, heavy snow, mixed precipitation and strong winds are expected to develop in many areas beginning as early as Sunday. Freezing rain was already falling in parts of Pennsylvania on Sunday, making roads hazardous, and the stage is set for a burdensome Monday morning commute for many from New York to Portland, Maine." The New York Times' story is here. A Guardian story is here. Mrs. McC: It's snowing on my house.