The Commentariat -- November 17, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Oh, For Those Quiet Rooms of Yore. Allan Smith of NBC News: "Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., said Sunday that the administration officials who provided the whistleblower with information on ... Donald Trump's conduct toward Ukraine 'exposed things that didn't need to be exposed.... This would have been far better off if we would have just taken care of this behind the scenes,' he said.... 'If the whistleblower's goal is to improve our relationship with Ukraine, he utterly -- or she -- utterly failed,' Johnson said...." Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: So here's a U.S. senator going on national teevee & advocating for cover-ups of presidential crime sprees. In fairness, Johnson is the stupidest senator.

Mimi Rocah & Jennifer Rodgers in a USA Today op-ed: Former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was testifying before a House panel that "she later learned the reason for her recall was a smear campaign orchestrated by Rudy Giuliani and others because she was standing in the way of their corrupt agenda in Ukraine. As she spoke..., Donald Trump was on Twitter doing exactly the same thing to Yovanovitch that his cohorts had done: attempting to smear and intimidate her.... This was not his first foray into public witness tampering. It is, in fact, one of his go-to moves[.]... The right to express one's opinion does not extend to criminal speech, such as verbal efforts to intimidate or tamper with witnesses. And the language, the pattern, the timing, and the contrast with tweets about other potential witnesses whom Trump considers loyal makes clear what he intends by these smear attacks.... The real issue for these impeachment proceedings is whether Trump appears to be using his platform and the power of the presidency to intimidate and harass witnesses who are providing highly damaging testimony against him. The answer to that is clearly yes."

Maybe Bloomberg Really Is Running for Prez. Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: 'Ahead of a potential Democratic presidential run, former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York reversed his longstanding support of the aggressive 'stop-and-frisk' policing strategy that he pursued for a decade and that led to the disproportionate stopping of black and Latino people across the city. 'I was wrong,' Mr. Bloomberg declared. 'And I am sorry.' The speech was Mr. Bloomberg's first since he re-emerged as a possible presidential candidate. The topic and the location, the Christian Cultural Center, a black megachurch in Brooklyn, was a nod to the fact that African-American voters are a crucial Democratic constituency and that Mr. Bloomberg's policing record is seen as one of his biggest vulnerabilities, should he decide to run. Until Sunday, Mr. Bloomberg had steadfastly ... defended stop-and-frisk, which gave New York police officers sweeping authority to stop and search anyone they suspected of a crime. Mr. Bloomberg stood behind the program even after a federal judge ruled in 2013 that it violated the constitutional rights of minorities and despite the fact that crime continued to drop even after the program was phased out in recent years." Politico has the story here.

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David Smith of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's fate in the impeachment inquiry could rest in the hands of a donor and supporter under pressure to turn against the US president to save his own skin. Gordon Sondland, the American ambassador to the European Union, is due to testify on Wednesday during the second week of televised hearings that have rocked the White House.... The ambassador made no mention of the [July 26 restaurant] call [to Trump] in a deposition to the inquiry behind closed doors, nor in a revised statement three weeks later that conceded a quid pro quo over military aid. Now, in front of TV cameras and an audience of millions, he will be asked why.... 'Hey Ambassador Sondland,' tweeted Joe Scarborough, a former [Mrs. McC: Republican] congressman turned TV host, 'Roger Stone lied to Congress for Trump and is now going to jail. Just like his campaign manager and lawyer. Are you next? Your call, Gordy.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't think Congress can shop for prosecutors. Thus, it seems any criminal referral coming out of the hearings would go to main Justice in D.C., where it would land in a circular file or at best garner a finding of "innocent by reason of loyalty to Trump."

Kyle Cheney & Blake Hounshell of Politico: "Tim Morrison, a top White House national security aide, told impeachment investigators that Gordon Sondland -- a U.S. ambassador at the center of the Ukraine scandal imperiling Donald Trump's presidency -- claimed to be acting on Trump's orders, and in fact was regularly in touch with him. Though other impeachment witnesses have suggested Sondland has overstated his relationship with the president, Morrison said he was repeatedly able to confirm that the envoy did speak directly with Trump. 'Every time you went to check to see whether he had, in fact, talked to the president, you found that he had talked to the president?' one lawmaker wondered, according to a transcript of Morrison's testimony released Saturday. 'Yes,' Morrison replied. Sondland's direct access to Trump is a crucial aspect of the House's impeachment inquiry.... Morrison also testified that Sondland had briefed President Trump before the fateful July 25 call, in what amounted to a circumvention of the usual National Security Council procedures." The Washington Post report is here. Mrs. McC: So now we know that Sondland spoke to Trump right before and the day after (the Kiev restaurant call) the July 25 call. ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Fandos & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "John R. Bolton, President Trump' national security adviser, met privately with the president in August as part of a bid to persuade Mr. Trump to release $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine, a senior National Security Council aide told House impeachment investigators last month. The meeting, which has not been previously reported, came as Mr. Bolton sought to marshal Mr. Trump's cabinet secretaries and top national security advisers to convince the president that it was in the United States' best interest to unfreeze the funds to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia. But Mr. Bolton emerged with Mr. Trump unmoved, and instructed the aide to look for new opportunities to get those officials in front of Mr. Trump. 'The extent of my recollection is that Ambassador Bolton simply said he wasn't ready to do it,' said the aide, Timothy Morrison, referring to Mr. Trump, according to a transcript of his testimony released by House Democrats on Saturday." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Man up, John Bolton. Now is the time you must decide if you're a wimpy Trumpette or an American. It's a binary choice.

Andrew Desiderio & Melanie Zanona of Politico: "A top national security aide to Vice President Mike Pence told House impeachment investigators that ... Donald Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political opponents were 'unusual and inappropriate,' and 'shed some light on possible other motivations' for the president's order to freeze military aid to the U.S. ally. Jennifer Williams, who serves as Pence's special adviser for Europe and Russia, told investigators in early November that she took notes while she listened in on Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from the White House Situation Room, adding that she viewed Trump's requests for investigations as politically motivated. 'I found the specific references to be -- to be more specific to the president in nature, to his personal political agenda, as opposed to a broader ... foreign policy objective of the United States,' Williams said, according to a transcript of her closed-door deposition released Saturday. Williams also told investigators that she put a hard copy of the call transcript in Pence's briefing book, but did not know whether he had read it.... Williams first-hand account details a White House and a U.S. national security apparatus deeply troubled about what appeared to be an inexplicable reversal of the Trump administration's posture toward Ukraine, a U.S. strategic ally subject to Moscow's malign influence in the region.... ~~~

     ~~~ "... Williams testified she was told that Trump asked Pence not to attend Zelensky's inauguration in May -- a month after initially asking the vice president to travel to Kyiv for the event. She added that she was never given an explanation for the reversal." As Fandos & Stolberg of the NYT reports, (linked above) "She said an assistant to the vice president's chief of staff, Marc Short, told her that Mr. Trump had asked Mr. Pence to stay home. That fact was included in an anonymous whistle-blower complaint about the Ukraine matter that helped prompt the impeachment inquiry"

Karoun Demirjian, et al., of the Washington Post: "A longtime budget official testified Saturday that the White House decision to freeze military aid to Ukraine in mid-July was highly irregular and that senior political appointees in the Office of Management and Budget were unable to provide an explanation for the delay. The testimony from Mark Sandy, the first employee of OMB to testify in the House impeachment probe, appeared to confirm Democrats' assertion that the decision to withhold nearly $400 million in congressionally approved funds for Ukraine ... was a political one. Sandy, the deputy associate director for national security programs at OMB, testified that he was instructed to sign the first of several apportionment letters in which budget officials formally instituted the freeze on funds.... Other witnesses have testified that the letter Sandy signed was dated July 25 -- the same day that President Trump spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and one week after OMB verbally informed interagency officials that they were withholding the funds on orders from the White House. The signature of Sandy's boss, political appointee Michael Duffey, appears on subsequent letters.... [Sandy's testimony] undermines acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney's public assertion that the Ukraine aid was frozen in a routine manner that happened 'all the time.'" The reporters outline the weird, fake excuse Duffey gave Sandy for holding up the funds to Ukraine.

Paul Sonne & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Waiters were coming and going as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland spoke on the phone with President Trump on July 26 from the outdoor section of a central Kyiv restaurant and discussed the Ukrainian president's willingness to conduct politically charged investigations, an episode that also highlighted the lack of security around a presidential call, according to [U.S. embassy staffer David Holmes'] testimony to Congress and a person familiar with the episode. Sondland arrived in Kyiv and scrapped a schedule the embassy had arranged for him..., instead saying he wanted to meet only with Volodymr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, and the two aides closest to him: head of the presidential administration Andriy Bohdan and adviser Andriy Yermak, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitive nature of the subject. Sondland's interactions in Kyiv -- the day after Trump called Zelensky and exhorted him to investigate former vice president Joe Biden -- will be scrutinized in public testimony Sondland is scheduled to give this week at the impeachment inquiry.... Two other people were sitting at the table at the time and would potentially be able to corroborate Holmes's account: Suriya Jayanti, an embassy staffer..., and Tara Maher, Sondland's personal assistant, according to people with knowledge of the lunch." The story goes on to describe Sondland's extensive interactions with Yermak, tho the gist of their conversations remains secret. ~~~

     ~~~ The Useful Idiot. Mrs. McCrabbie: What's clear now is that Trump recalled Marie Yovanovitch & replaced her with Sondland specifically to carry out the scheme to pressure the Ukrainians into doing political favors for Trump. That was Sondland's Ukraine portfolio (and was outside his real job as ambassador to the E.U.): get it done & report back to the chief. It was reported last month that when other diplomats & staff asked Sondland what his authority was to run the Ukraine operation, Sondland replied, "The President*." What might have been dismissed as boasting has turned out to be true. Trump didn't "lose confidence" is Yovanovitch, as John Sullivan told her after she was recalled; rather, Trump had confidence that she wasn't a person who would do his personal bidding. And Sondland was. Trump is now publicly attacking Yovanovitch because, like Jim Comey & others, she is not "loyal" to him. To Trump, "loyal" is a euphemism for "willing to do my dirty work." Trump has little use for honorable public servants. His euphemism for those people is "deep state."

Greg Miller, et al., of the Washington Post: "For two weeks [this summer, a CIA analyst] pored over notes of alarming conversations with White House officials, reviewed details from interagency memos on the U.S. relationship with Ukraine and scanned public statements by President Trump. He wove this material into a nine-page memo outlining evidence that Trump had abused the powers of his office to try to coerce Ukraine into helping him get reelected. Then, on Aug. 12, the analyst hit 'send.' His decision to report what he had learned to the U.S. intelligence community's inspector general has transformed the political landscape of the United States, triggering a rapid-moving impeachment inquiry that now imperils Trump's presidency. Over the past three months, the allegations made in that document have been overwhelmingly substantiated -- by the sworn testimony of administration officials, the inadvertent admissions of Trump's acting chief of staff and, most importantly, the president's own words, as captured on a record of his July 25 call with the leader of Ukraine.... It is not clear whether any of this would have come to light were it not for the actions of a relatively junior CIA employee, who is now the target of almost daily attacks by Trump and right-wing efforts to make his identity widely public." (Also linked yesterday.)

** The New Red Scare. Julia Davis in the Daily Beast: "As Russia's state media watch impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Donald J. Trump they're loving what they see.... They listen in delight as Republicans parrot conspiracy theories first launched by Russians. And they gloat about the way Trump removed U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, because they blame her for promoting democratic 'color revolutions' that weakened Moscow's hold on the former Soviet empire. Best of all, from the Kremlin's point of view, they see Trump pushing Ukraine back into the Russian fold.... Instead of disseminating their usual conspiracy theories, the Russians watch gleefully as the Republicans do that for them. From the long-debunked 'Crowdstrike' cyber plot positioning Ukraine as the fall guy for what undoubtedly was Russian interference in the 2016 elections, to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories centering around Jewish financier and philanthropist George Soros, rivers of Russian dezinformatsiya are flowing down from the President of the United States and the GOP, through the impeachment hearings, to Trump's cult-like devotees." (Also linked yesterday.)

CBS News has David Holmes' opening statement in a lot more readable form than is CNN's purloined copy, linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.)

Charles Pierce: David "Holmes's statement is detailed and damning. It's also faintly hilarious that the whole case may be broken because two old men talked too loudly on their cellphones.*... Holmes's statement ... [Gordon] Sondland squarely back on the hook for having once told Congress that he'd had no contact with anyone at the White House on these matters.... And ... it leaves the president* and his enablers with no defense left except to say that, yes, the president* did it, but it's not impeachable.... If there's a gun left here that isn't smoking, I can't find it." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ * Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't think we know what kind of device Trump was shouting at. ~~~

     ~~~ On another note, how can what now appears to be at least a ten-month effort (December 2018 to September 2019) to abuse presidential power in a scheme that endangered U.S. national security, subverted legal & Constitutional separation of powers, and tried to extort an allied foreign leader while helping a hostile foreign nation (Russia) not be impeachable? Republicans want you to believe the whole scandal boils down to an inadvertent slip-of-the-tongue -- "I'd like you to do us a favor though" -- in a phone conversation. (We'll soon be hearing, "The readout isn't even an exact transcript! Maybe he didn't say "though"; maybe he never said "favor.")

Akhilleus wrote something in yesterday's Comments that makes me fairly ashamed of myself because never once have I thought about what he wrote, looked it up, or "just knew it." Yet it's somewhat obvious: "The word of the moment is subpoena. This medieval Latin construction meaning 'under penalty', that is, subject to penalty if one disregards or ignores the summons, has been much in the news of late."

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post takes a look at Ken Vogel's reporting for both the New York Times & Politico on then-Veep Joe Biden's role in Ukraine. In the Times story, published in May 2019, Vogel didn't mention till the 19th paragraph that "No evidence has surfaced that the former vice president intentionally tried to help his son by pressing for the prosecutor general's dismissal." Mrs. McC: The NYT story first mentioned Giuliani in the 10th paragraph. Knowing what we know now, this sentence from Paragraph 10 is a hoot: "Mr. Giuliani's involvement raises questions about whether Mr. Trump is endorsing an effort to push a foreign government to proceed with a case that could hurt a political opponent at home." Farhi: "As a staff writer at Politico in early 2017, [Vogel] co-authored another piece that suggested that the Democratic National Committee had cooperated with Ukrainian efforts to thwart Republican candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 campaign.... Vogel's articles have been called into question -- the Times story most prominently by Biden's presidential campaign, and the Politico story by Politico's own recent reporting." ~~~

     ~~~ It seems to me these stories are very much like the Times coverage of Clinton's e-mail usage, although Vogel may get less wrong than Michael Schmidt & others at the Times did about Clinton. There's nothing wrong, of course, about reporting on political controversies, but in Vogel's case, he skews the story in the direction of what has turned out to be false. He implicates both Biden & Trump/Giuliani, and the tone of the story suggests Biden did something wrong. Even though Vogel suggests that Trump, via Giuliani, may have been behind the story, a reader would assume that Biden, whether intentionally or not, helped his son Hunter. As it turns out, Biden's successful effort to get rid of a corrupt Ukraine prosecutor would have put Hunter in more jeopardy, not less. You sure can't glean that from Vogel's NYT story. And, as Farhi points out, Republicans have used Vogel's reporting during the impeachment hearings to implicate Biden and justify Trump's supposed "concerns about corruption in Ukraine."

In yesterday's Comments, Forrest M. kindly reminded us of this:

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Hillary gets the last laugh. She won the popular vote by a substantial margin, and she has had to put up with a lot less guff from the vast right-wing conspiracy than she would have had she also won the Electoral College. And, of course, Roger there is going to prison, barring a grant of clemency by the Great Orange Blob.

Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "President Trump underwent a two-hour doctor's examination on Saturday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, which the White House said was part of a routine annual physical and included lab work. The appointment was not on the president's schedule, in contrast to a previous physical that Mr. Trump had in February, also at Walter Reed outside Washington. In a statement, Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Trump, 73, was taking advantage of a free weekend to begin portions of his annual physical, and was anticipating a busy schedule in 2020. She did not specify what types of tests Mr. Trump had." Mrs. McC: That sounds like a lie. ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's report is here. A video report is embedded in the page. Jessica McBride of Heavy: "A contributor for the Hill who writes on veterans issues and used to work for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is claiming that ... Donald Trump visited Walter Reed National Medical Center due to chest discomfort. That's a different story from the White House statement on Trump's November 16, 2019 visit, which said Trump was undergoing 'portions' of a routine annual exam." Mrs. McC: The cause of "chest discomfort" could be one too many portions of McDonalds fries. The fact that Trump was reportedly at the hospital for only two hours suggests to me that he didn't have a serious medical issue. I'm having a four-hour test this week for possible heart issues, and I have not experienced any chest discomfort.

But He's Jewish! Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The White House is standing by senior adviser Stephen Miller as he faces calls from dozens of Democrats to resign after newly released emails showed he circulated material linked to white nationalism to conservative media before joining the administration.... 'I work with Stephen. I know Stephen. He loves this country and hates bigotry in all forms -- and it deeply concerns me as to why so many on the left consistently attack Jewish members of this Administration,' deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement." Mrs. McC: Gidley is hiding Miller's racism behind an overt implication that "the left" is anti-Semitic. The answer to that is, "But the e-mails!" The pretense that a member of one minority can't be prejudiced against another is ludicrous, and the specific observation that Stephen Miller "hates bigotry in all forms" is disproved by voluminous evidence to the contrary.

Louisiana Gubernatorial Race 2019. Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler. Rick Rojas & Jeremy Alford of the New York Times: "Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana, the only Democratic governor in the Deep South, narrowly won re-election Saturday, overcoming the intervention of President Trump, who visited the state multiple times in an effort to help Mr. Edward's Republican challenger and demonstrate his own clout. It was the second blow at the ballot box for Mr. Trump this month in a Republican-leaning state, following the Democratic victory in the Kentucky governor's race, where the president also campaigned for the G.O.P. candidate. In Louisiana, Mr. Trump had wagered significant political capital to try to lift Eddie Rispone, a businessman who ran against Mr. Edwards in large part by embracing the president and his agenda. Mr. Trump campaigned for Mr. Rispone twice in the final two weeks of the race, warning Louisiana voters that a loss would reflect poorly on his presidency -- the same appeal he made in Kentucky earlier this month to try to help Gov. Matt Bevin, who ultimately lost." The Baton Rouge Advocate's report, by Mark Ballard, is here. ~~~

~~~ The New York Times has parish-by-parish votes here. Alex Isenstadt of Politico writes about why Rispone's loss was a big loss for Trump, who invested heavily in the Louisiana gubernatorial election.

Presidential Race 2020. Brianne Pfannenstiel of the Des Moines Register: "Pete Buttigieg has rocketed to the top of the latest Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll in the latest reshuffling of the top tier of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Since September, Buttigieg has risen 16 percentage points among Iowa's likely Democratic caucusgoers, with 25% now saying he is their first choice for president. For the first time in the Register's Iowa Poll, he bests rivals Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who are now clustered in competition for second place and about 10 percentage points behind the South Bend, Indiana, mayor. Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, led the September Iowa Poll, when 22% said she was their first choice. In this poll, her support slips to 16%. Former Vice President Biden, who led the Register's first three Iowa Polls of the 2020 caucus cycle, has continued to slide, falling 5 percentage points to 15%. Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, also garners 15% -- a 4 percentage point rise." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As much as I've paid attention (which isn't much), Buttigieg is the only presidential candidate running New Hampshire-specific ads on the cable news networks. (I assume these are area rollovers of the nationwide feed.)

Beyond the Beltway

Colorado. Radio Host Flunks Trump Loyalty Test, Is Fired on Air. Sam Tabachnik of the Denver Post: "Craig Silverman, a former chief deputy district attorney in Denver and talk-show host on the conservative 710 KNUS radio station, said he was fired mid-show Saturday after criticizing ... Donald Trump. Silverman was in the middle of a segment about Roy Cohn, Trump's former personal attorney, when he suddenly was interrupted by network news, he told The Denver Post.... Program director Kelly Michaels came through the door. 'You're done,' Silverman recounted Michaels as saying. The former prosecutor, who has hosted 'The Craig Silverman Show' from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays for more than five years, responded to the sudden firing on Twitter. 'I cannot and will not toe strict Trump party line. I call things as I see them,' he tweeted. 'I see corruption and blatant dishonesty by President and his cronies. I also see bullying/smearing of American heroes w/courage to take oath and tell truth. Their bravery inspires me.'" Mrs. McC: No word on what programming filled the rest of Tabachnik's show-time. Sousa marches? "Hail to the Chief"?

North Carolina. Ally Mutnick (Nov. 15): "North Carolina Republicans approved a new congressional map Friday that would cost the party at least two House seats and potentially roil the state's delegation -- but Democrats immediately objected, saying it's still a GOP gerrymander. Republicans represent 10 of the state's 13 districts and would be very likely to lose two seats: those held by Republican Reps. George Holding and Mark Walker. Democrats, though, argue the new map doesn't go far enough and quickly challenged it in state court."

The Commentariat -- November 16, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Veronica Stracqualursi & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "A senior career official at the Office of Management and Budget arrived on Capitol Hill Saturday for his closed-door deposition in the House impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump. Mark Sandy, who has served under both Republican and Democrat presidents, is the first OMB official to meet with impeachment investigators after others, like OMB director and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, refused. Sandy received a subpoena Saturday morning to appear before lawmakers, after his attorney said he would be willing to testify so long as he was subpoenaed."

Greg Miller, et al., of the Washington Post: “For two weeks [this summer, a CIA analyst] pored over notes of alarming conversations with White House officials, reviewed details from interagency memos on the U.S. relationship with Ukraine and scanned public statements by President Trump. He wove this material into a nine-page memo outlining evidence that Trump had abused the powers of his office to try to coerce Ukraine into helping him get reelected. Then, on Aug. 12, the analyst hit 'send.' His decision to report what he had learned to the U.S. intelligence community’s inspector general has transformed the political landscape of the United States, triggering a rapid-moving impeachment inquiry that now imperils Trump’s presidency. Over the past three months, the allegations made in that document have been overwhelmingly substantiated — by the sworn testimony of administration officials, the inadvertent admissions of Trump’s acting chief of staff and, most importantly, the president’s own words, as captured on a record of his July 25 call with the leader of Ukraine.... It is not clear whether any of this would have come to light were it not for the actions of a relatively junior CIA employee, who is now the target of almost daily attacks by Trump and right-wing efforts to make his identity widely public.”

** The New Red Scare. Julia Davis in the Daily Beast: “As Russia’s state media watch impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Donald J. Trump they’re loving what they see.... They listen in delight as Republicans parrot conspiracy theories first launched by  Russians. And they gloat about the way Trump removed U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, because they blame her for promoting democratic 'color revolutions' that weakened Moscow’s hold on the former Soviet empire. Best of all, from the Kremlin’s point of view, they see Trump pushing Ukraine back into the Russian fold.... Instead of disseminating their usual conspiracy theories, the Russians watch gleefully as the Republicans do that for them. From the long-debunked 'Crowdstrike' cyber plot positioning Ukraine as the fall guy for what undoubtedly was Russian interference in the 2016 elections, to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories centering around Jewish financier and philanthropist George Soros, rivers of Russian dezinformatsiya are flowing down from the President of the United States and the GOP, through the impeachment hearings, to Trump’s cult-like devotees.”

CBS News has David Holmes' opening statement in a lot more readable form than is CNN's purloined copy, linked below.

Charles Pierce: David "Holmes’s statement is detailed and damning. It’s also faintly hilarious that the whole case may be broken because two old men talked too loudly on their cellphones.*... Holmes's statement ... [Gordon] Sondland squarely back on the hook for having once told Congress that he’d had no contact with anyone at the White House on these matters.... And ... it leaves the president* and his enablers with no defense left except to say that, yes, the president* did it, but it’s not impeachable.... If there’s a gun left here that isn’t smoking, I can’t find it." ~~~

     ~~~ * Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't think we know what kind of device Trump was shouting at. ~~~

     ~~~ On another note, how can what now appears to be at least a ten-month effort (December 2018 to September 2019) to abuse presidential power in a scheme that endangered U.S. national security, subverted legal & Constitutional separation of powers, and tried to extort an allied foreign leader while helping a hostile foreign nation (Russia) not be impeachable? Republicans want you to believe the whole scandal boils down to an inadvertent slip-of-the-tongue -- "I'd like you to do us a favor though" -- in a phone conversation. (We'll soon be hearing, "The readout isn't even an exact transcript! Maybe he didn't say "though"; maybe he never said "favor.")

Forrest M. kindly reminds us of this:

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Hillary gets the last laugh. She won the popular vote by a substantial margin, and she has had to put up with a lot less guff from the vast right-wing conspiracy than she would have had she also won the Electoral College. And, of course, Roger there is going to prison, barring a grant of clemency by the Great Orange Blob.

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Sorry for my relative silence on yesterday's breathtaking news. The Geek Squad had control of my computer for 16 hours, and they didn't fix a thing. But they did tell me things weren't working right. Thanks, guys. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie 

Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "A US ambassador told ... Donald Trump that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 'loves your ass' and that Ukraine was going to move forward with the investigation Trump had asked Zelensky for a day earlier, according to new testimony from a US official in Kiev who overheard the phone conversation. David Holmes told lawmakers in a closed-door impeachment inquiry Friday that US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland had told Trump the Ukrainian President would do 'anything you ask him to' and that Sondland had confirmed the Ukrainians were going to 'do the investigation,' one day after Trump has asked Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, according to a copy of Holmes' opening statement obtained by CNN. Holmes' statement confirmed the testimony from Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, who revealed the July 26 phone call with lawmakers at his public testimony Wednesday.... 'While Ambassador Sondland's phone was not on speakerphone, I could hear the President's voice through the earpiece of the phone. The President's voice was very loud and recognizable, and Ambassador Sondland held the phone away from his ear for a period of time, presumably because of the loud volume [of Trump's shouting]," Holmes testified.... Holmes also confirmed Taylor's testimony about the President's thoughts on Ukraine, saying he had asked Sondland 'if it was true that the President did not 'give a s[hit] about Ukraine.' Holmes said Sondland had responded that Trump cares only about 'big stuff.' When Holmes said that the Ukraine war was big, Sondland responded, '"Big stuff" that benefits the President, like the Biden investigation that Mr. Giuliani was pushing,' Holmes said." ~~~

     ~~~ The statement (here) consists of photos of the pages of Holmes' prepared remarks. ~~~

~~~ Karoun Demirjian, et al., of the Washington Post: David "Holmes’s testimony, first reported by CNN, directly implicates Trump in an alleged scheme at the heart of the impeachment probe.... Holmes’s testimony ... increases pressure on Republicans, who have dismissed other witnesses as relaying hearsay and speculation about Trump’s motives in withholding almost $400 million in aid from Ukraine. It also raises the stakes for next week’s testimony by Sondland, who will be pressed to answer questions about the call. Sondland didn’t mention the call during closed-door testimony before lawmakers last month, according to a transcript. Instead, he claimed little knowledge of any link between Biden and the investigations sought by Trump.... [Ambassador Marie] Yovanovitch described how actions by the president and [Rudy] Giuliani served to undermine American interests in Ukraine. A campaign led by Giuliani and supported by corrupt officials led to her abrupt ouster from her post in Kyiv, she said.... [Rep. Devin] Nunes [-- the committees' ranking member] and the GOP’s counsel, Steve Castor, asked Yovanovitch questions to prove her irrelevance [to the inquiry].... But Trump’s tweet could ultimately make Friday’s hearing a more central part of his own impeachment."

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: “The former United States ambassador to Ukraine told the House impeachment inquiry on Friday that she felt threatened by President Trump and 'shocked, appalled, devastated' that he vilified her in a call with another foreign leader, as Mr. Trump attacked her in real time on Twitter, drawing a stern warning about witness intimidation from Democrats. The extraordinary back-and-forth unfolded on the second day of public impeachment hearings as Marie L. Yovanovitch, who was ousted as the envoy to Ukraine on Mr. Trump’s orders, detailed an unsettling campaign by the president’s allies to undermine her as she pushed to promote democracy and the rule of law. Her testimony ... drew a spontaneous standing ovation and a loud round of applause from spectators, and capped a revealing first week of public hearings as Democrats seek to make their case that Mr. Trump abused his power to enlist Ukraine’s help in discrediting his political rivals, chiefly former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week called it 'bribery,' echoing the language in the Constitution that describes impeachable offenses.”

Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: “President Trump on Friday denigrated Marie L. Yovanovitch, the former United States ambassador to Ukraine, even as she testified in the impeachment inquiry about how she felt threatened by Mr. Trump, leading Democrats to accuse him of trying to intimidate a witness in real time. 'Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go?' Mr. Trump wrote, assailing her on Twitter to his 66 million followers and adding that 'It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors.' The president’s insults came as Ms. Yovanovitch told the House Intelligence Committee in powerful and personal terms of the devastation and fear she felt earlier this year, as she was targeted first by Mr. Trump’s allies and later by the president himself during a phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s onslaught amounted to an attempt to threaten Ms. Yovanovitch, who is still a State Department employee, and other potential witnesses against cooperating with the inquiry, a tactic that they said could itself be impeachable.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Maggie Miller of the Hill: “Former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch responded in live time to tweets from President Trump denigrating her as she testified in a House impeachment hearing, stating that they were meant to intimidate her. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) offered Yavonovitch the chance to respond to Trump after he paused her dramatic testimony to read Trump's tweet. 'It’s very intimidating,' Yovanovitch said. 'I can’t speak to what the president is trying to do, but I think the effect is to be intimidating.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mike Lillis & Scott Wong of the Hill: “House Democrats wasted no time Friday saying President Trump’s real-time Twitter attack on a top U.S. diplomat — as she was testifying on Trump’s dealings with Ukraine — was more evidence of presidential misconduct as they charge ahead with their impeachment probe. 'The president in real time is engaging in witness intimidation and witness tampering,' an exasperated Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), a member of the Intelligence Committee, told reporters during a break in the Yovanovitch hearing.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ According to MSNBC, Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) put out a statement saying Trump's attack on Yovanovitch was "wrong."

~~~ Rachel Frazin of the Hill: "Fox News host Bret Baier said Friday that President Trump's tweet criticizing former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was 'adding an article of impeachment real-time.' 'That was a turning point in this hearing so far,' Baier said on Twitter of Trump's tweet." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Joe Concha of the Hill: “'Fox News Sunday' anchor Chris Wallace said Friday that if viewers weren't moved by the impeachment testimony of former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, they 'don't have a pulse,' during commentary on 'America's Newsroom.' The comments from Wallace came as Yovanovitch testified Friday that she felt threatened when she saw President Trump had brought up her service in Ukraine on a July call with the country's President Volodymyr Zelensky.  'I was shocked and devastated,' she told the House Intelligence Committee. 'It was a terrible moment.'” (Also linked yesterday.)

Tamara Keith of NPR: "President Trump on Friday released the rough transcript of a brief, 16-minute congratulatory conversation he had on April 21 with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, timed to coincide with the beginning of the second day of open hearings in the House impeachment inquiry. 'President Trump underscored the unwavering support of the United States for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity – within its internationally recognized borders – and expressed his commitment to work together with President-elect Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people to implement reforms that strengthen democracy, increase prosperity, and root out corruption,' the press statement said. But in the rough transcript, Trump mentions neither U.S. support for Ukraine in its fight over territory with Russia, nor Ukraine's effort to address corruption.... Trump invited Zelenskiy to the White House, an invitation Trump still hasn't followed through on.... Actually setting a date for that White House meeting would become a central thread in [the impeachment inquiry]...." ~~~

     ~~~ A ScribD copy of the transcript summary telcon is here.

~~~ White House Blames Vindman. Kaitlan Collins & Kylie Atwood of CNN: "The White House placed the responsibility on ... Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman ... on Friday after being asked about the discrepancy between the April readout of ... Donald Trump's phone call with the Ukrainian President and the transcript released Friday. The President also ignored directives from his National Security Council staff to bring up corruption during his first call with ... Volodymyr Zelensky, despite the White House's claim that fighting corruption was his primary reason for withholding the military aid.... In that transcript, there is no mention of corruption.... 'It is standard operating procedure for the National Security Council to provide readouts of the President's phone calls with foreign leaders. This one was prepared by the NSC's Ukraine expert,' [deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said, referring to Vindman]. Despite what Gidley said, a White House source told CNN the mistake was due to an error by the White House, a remarkable disagreement over the responsibility for an inaccurate press release within the West Wing. According to that source, the national security adviser reviews and approves a draft press release ... based on prepared talking points for the call and done before it happens.... 'Given that the call occurred on Sunday, April 21, 2019, the White House may not have updated the press release to reflect the contents of the call before it was publicly released,' the source explained." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Finally, something nearly "perfect" about a Trump phone call. (1) He decides to release a supposed transcript of the call because it was that rare occasion in which he did not try to shake down or diss a foreign leader. Rather, he boasted about his own election & the "progress" he had made, and he shared his connection to Ukraine: when he owned Miss Universe, Ukraine always sent hot contestants. (2) But he plumb forgot the readout he'd sent out at the time of the call. (3) The readout turns out to have been largely fictitious, or what you might call "fake." (4) That's because he didn't read his briefing notes that gave him talking points on what-all to say in the call, and the readout was based, comme d'habitude, on a draft of the talking points. The draft readout reflects what he was supposed to say, not what he said, because he can't follow instructions. (5) So he proudly releases the telcon summary, having no earthly idea there's a gross discrepancy between the contemporaneous readout and the telcon memo. Nothing about strengthening democracy or reforms or corruption. (6) So he immediately looks for a scapegoat to finger for the discrepancy, and finds a handy one: a guy he loathes for providing evidence against him in the very case that is the reason Trump released this telcon summary. (7) But then it turns out the reason the readout & the telcon don't match up is because the White House forgot to correct the readout. As I said, nearly perfect: one Trumpian fuck-up after another. But, by chance, no shakedown! Witch hunt!

     ~~~ A core factor that sometimes gets lost in all the details of the Ukraine scandal is that while U.S. policy is to reduce corruption in Ukraine (and elsewhere), the "policy" of Trump & the Gang has been to increase corruption, at least insofar as it benefits them. Trump isn't just corrupt; he's a subversive, actively working to undermine essential U.S. policy based on democratic ideals. That Trump accidentally forgot to mention corruption in his April 2019 call to Zelensky is a function of his plot to bend Ukraine to his purposes, a plot that Vicky Ward of CNN (story linked below) shows had been hatched as early as December 2018. 

The Misadventures of  , Ctd.

Josh Kovensky of TPM: “Manhattan federal prosecutors are seeking to learn whether Rudy Giuliani could have profited from a natural gas business plan pitched by his two now-indicted buddies, the Wall Street Journal reports. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman had pitched a business plan involving their company Global Energy Producers, in which Ukraine would import U.S. LNG via a pipeline the the firm was to build across Poland. The extent of Giuliani’s involvement in the firm is unclear. He denied any link to the company in an interview with the newspaper. But Kenneth McCallion, an attorney for former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, said that the pipeline proposal was 'part of the essential package' of what Parnas and Fruman were pitching.”

I don't know those gentlemen. Now, it's possible I have a picture with them, because I have a picture with everybody. -- Donald Trump, on Lev & Igor, October 10 ~~~

~~~ The Hanukkah Plot: Lev & Igor, Secret Agents. Vicky Ward of CNN: "At one point during the [annual White House Hannukah] party [last year, Lev] Parnas and [Igor] Fruman slipped out of a large reception room packed with hundreds of Trump donors to have a private meeting with the President and Giuliani, according to two acquaintances in whom Parnas confided right after the meeting.Word of the encounter in the White House last December, which has not been previously reported, is further indication that Trump knew Parnas and Fruman, despite Trump publicly stating that he did not on the day after the two men were arrested at Dulles International Airport last month. Eventually, according to what Parnas told his confidants, the topic turned to Ukraine that night. According to those two confidants, Parnas said that 'the big guy,' as he sometimes referred to the President in conversation, talked about tasking him and Fruman with what Parnas described as 'a secret mission' to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter."

Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Roger Stone has been found guilty on all charges in a case accusing the longtime Donald Trump adviser of seeking to thwart a House investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. After a trial that spanned just over a week, a federal court jury in Washington, D.C., convicted Stone on five felony counts of lying to investigators, one of obstructing a congressional probe and one of witness tampering." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here. Mrs. McC: Kinda perfect that while Roger was being convicted of witness tampering, Trump was doing it in real time. ~~~

~~~ All the President's Crooks. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "[Roger Stone]’s convictions seem to bring to an end the high-profile criminal probes stemming from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The convictions also contribute to a truly remarkable universe of admitted, proved or alleged criminal behavior involving people linked to Trump.... [Bump lists the convictions of Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen & George Papadopoulos as well as numerous others not directly connected to Trump. But there's more!] The Stone verdicts were returned during a break in a public impeachment hearing. During that same break, the Wall Street Journal reported that [Rudy] Giuliani himself was under investigation by federal prosecutors regarding a natural gas business in Ukraine. Earlier in the day, Bloomberg reported that Giuliani might also be under investigation for potential campaign finance violations. Reported investigations into Giuliani offered in vague terms extend back for more than a month.... Two associates of ... Giuliani were indicted last month on campaign finance charges. Those men, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were subpoenaed by House investigators in September...." The Guardian also lists Trump's convict pals. ~~~

~~~ The Conspirators Hang Tight. David Graham of the Atlantic: "Despite the extensive investigation by Mueller and the FBI, as well as inquiries by House and Senate committees, and now the record of the Stone trial, there’s a great deal that we simply don’t know about Trump and Russia, for two reasons. First, Mueller approached his purview narrowly, acting as a prosecutor rather than as a fact-finder, and his report is long on vague formulations and short on specifics.... Second, we still don’t know the whole story, because the key players have kept their peace. Stone ... joins a list of people around Trump ... who have pleaded to or been convicted of similar [obstruction] crimes.... Trump ... did not answer [Mueller's written] questions about obstruction or his campaign transition. Taken together, this represents a wide-ranging conspiracy of silence.... Trump did tweet in anger after the [Stone] verdict, offering a nonsensical list of people he claimed should be in prison: 'So they now convict Roger Stone of lying and want to jail him for many years to come. Well, what about Crooked Hillary, Comey, Strzok, Page, McCabe, Brennan, Clapper, Shifty Schiff, Ohr & Nellie, Steele & all of the others, including even Mueller himself? Didn’t they lie? A double standard like never seen before in the history of our Country?'... There is a double standard...: It’s the standard that sends his aides to prison for putting roadblocks before federal prosecutors, even as the obstructor in chief skates free."

~~~ Note to Roger: There is hope, Roger, et al. ~~~

~~~ Dave Philipps of the New York Times: “President Trump cleared three members of the armed services on Friday who have been accused or convicted of war crimes, overruling military leaders who had sought to punish them. All three have been championed by conservative lawmakers and commentators, who have portrayed them as war heroes unfairly prosecuted for actions taken in the heat and confusion of battle. In a statement released by the White House late Friday, Mr. Trump announced that he was ordering the full pardon of Clint Lorance, a former Army lieutenant, from the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, where he is serving a 19-year sentence for the murder of two civilians. He ordered the full pardon of Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, an Army Special Forces officer who was facing murder charges for killing an unarmed Afghan he believed was a Taliban bomb maker. And he reversed the demotion of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was acquitted of murder charges but convicted of a lesser offense in a high-profile war crimes case over the summer.... The moves signaled that as commander in chief, Mr. Trump intends to use his power as the ultimate arbiter of military justice in ways unlike any other president in modern times.”

Trump Business News, Ctd. David Fahrenthold & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: “Secret Service agents had identified four U.S. sites as finalists for next year’s Group of Seven summit — but then they were told to add a new finalist: President Trump’s Doral resort, according to an internal Secret Service email released late Friday. 'Our original itinerary included Hawaii, Utah, California and North Carolina,' a Secret Service official wrote, describing a trip that a team of Secret Service personnel took in July to examine the finalists. 'By departure, they had already cut two (California and North Carolina) and added Miami on the back end.' 'Miami' meant President Trump’s resort near the Miami airport, which hadn’t been among the original 10 sites that the Secret Service team had vetted. Although vetting of possible sites had begun in late May, the official wrote on July 12 that 'yesterday was the first time we put eyes on this [Doral] property.' The official’s email was released to the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which made a public-records request and then sued when government agencies did not comply.... In a news conference, [Mick] Mulvaney described a long search process that began with 12 sites, then whittled the list down to four, including Doral.... Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for ... [CREW], said it appeared Trump had intervened in the process to steer business to himself.”

Presidential Race 2020

Lisa Lerer of the New York Times: “Former President Barack Obama offered an unusual warning to the Democratic primary field on Friday evening, cautioning the candidates not to move too far to the left in their policy proposals, even as he sought to reassure a party establishment worried about the electoral strength of their historically large primary field.... 'Even as we push the envelope and we are bold in our vision we also have to be rooted in reality,' Mr. Obama said. 'The average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.' The comments marked an extraordinary entrance into the primary contest by the former president, who has been careful to avoid even the appearance of influencing the direction of the race. His remarks offered an implicit critique of Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who have urged voters to embrace 'political revolution' and 'big, structural change,' as well as proposals once widely considered to be left to the liberal fringes of the party, including court packing and decriminalizing illegal border crossings.” An AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ Looks as if Warren Figured That out All by Herself. The Warren Two-Step. Ed Kilgore of New York: "As part of her effort to lay out her plans to enact Medicare for All in greater detail, Senator Elizabeth Warren has now released a procedural timeline that makes it clear she will initially push legislation to open up Medicare to parts of the population without any direct interference with private insurance. A second bill implementing Medicare for All fully would come later in her first term. This distinguishes her approach from that of Bernie Sanders, who will push for immediate adoption of Medicare for All, though it will be phased in over his first term. Warren seems to be recognizing the political implausibility of immediate adoption of the big structural change that both she and Sanders have been calling for." Mrs. McC: The lady can dance.

Beyond the Beltway

David Davies of Texas Public Radio: "The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas has granted death row inmate Rodney Reed a stay, meaning he will not be executed on Wednesday, Nov. 20 as previously scheduled.... The case has drawn national attention from celebrities and lawmakers from both parties, who have thrown their support behind Reed, who maintains his innocence."

Way Beyond

AND Prince Andrew of Britain says the reason he kept on staying at the New York mansion of Jeffrey Epstein after Epstein was convicted of pedophilia is that he, Andrew, is "too honourable." Mrs. McC: Thanks, Andy. We band of grubby commoners stand in awe.

The Commentariat -- November 15, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Roger Stone has been found guilty on all charges in a case accusing the longtime Donald Trump adviser of seeking to thwart a House investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. After a trial that spanned just over a week, a federal court jury in Washington, D.C., convicted Stone on five felony counts of lying to investigators, one of obstructing a congressional probe and one of witness tampering."

Here are the New York Times' live updates of the Yovanovitch hearing. Politico highlights are here. Guardian updates are here. ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday denigrated Marie L. Yovanovitch, the former United States ambassador to Ukraine, even as she testified in the impeachment inquiry about how she felt threatened by Mr. Trump, leading Democrats to accuse him of trying to intimidate a witness in real time. 'Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go?' Mr. Trump wrote, assailing her on Twitter to his 66 million followers and adding that 'It is a U.S. President's absolute right to appoint ambassadors.' The president's insults came as Ms. Yovanovitch told the House Intelligence Committee in powerful and personal terms of the devastation and fear she felt earlier this year, as she was targeted first by Mr. Trump's allies and later by the president himself during a phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Democrats said Mr. Trump's onslaught amounted to an attempt to threaten Ms. Yovanovitch, who is still a State Department employee, and other potential witnesses against cooperating with the inquiry, a tactic that they said could itself be impeachable." ~~~

~~~ Maggie Miller of the Hill: "Former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch responded in live time to tweets from President Trump denigrating her as she testified in a House impeachment hearing, stating that they were meant to intimidate her. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) offered Yavonovitch the chance to respond to Trump after he paused her dramatic testimony to read Trump's tweet. 'It's very intimidating,' Yovanovitch said. 'I can't speak to what the president is trying to do, but I think the effect is to be intimidating.'" ~~~

~~~ Mike Lillis & Scott Wong of the Hill: "House Democrats wasted no time Friday saying President Trump's real-time Twitter attack on a top U.S. diplomat -- as she was testifying on Trump's dealings with Ukraine -- was more evidence of presidential misconduct as they charge ahead with their impeachment probe. 'The president in real time is engaging in witness intimidation and witness tampering,' an exasperated Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), a member of the Intelligence Committee, told reporters during a break in the Yovanovitch hearing." ~~~

~~~ According to MSNBC, Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) put out a statement saying Trump's attack on Yovanovitch was "wrong."

~~~ Rachel Frazin of the Hill: "Fox News host Bret Baier said Friday that President Trump's tweet criticizing former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was 'adding an article of impeachment real-time.' 'That was a turning point in this hearing so far,' Baier said on Twitter of Trump's tweet." ~~~

~~~ Joe Concha of the Hill: "'Fox News Sunday' anchor Chris Wallace said Friday that if viewers weren't moved by the impeachment testimony of former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, they 'don't have a pulse,' during commentary on 'America's Newsroom.' The comments from Wallace came as Yovanovitch testified Friday that she felt threatened when she saw President Trump had brought up her service in Ukraine on a July call with the country's President Volodymyr Zelensky. 'I was shocked and devastated,' she told the House Intelligence Committee. 'It was a terrible moment.'"

~~~~~~~~~~~

Sonam Sheth of Business Insider: "The public will hear on Friday from one of the most significant witnesses to ... Donald Trump's shadow foreign policy campaign in Ukraine.... Marie Yovanovitch served as the US's ambassador to Ukraine until she was abruptly recalled in May following what she characterized as a smear campaign against her based on 'false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.' Yovanovitch's testimony is expected to throw the spotlight on Rudy Giuliani..., who is accused of engineering her ouster.... Yovanovitch will testify to the House Intelligence Committee as part of its public impeachment hearings beginning at 10 a.m. [Mrs. McC: 9 a.m.] ET on Friday. The hearing will be broadcast live on the major cable news networks and C-SPAN. It will also be streamed live on YouTube." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Mrs. McCrabbie: Rachel Maddow says the Yovanovitch hearing will begin at 9 am ET, not 10 am. I'm going to assume she's correct. ~~~

     ~~~ Rosalind Helderman & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "The impeachment inquiry has pulled back the curtain on a long and murky effort to engineer [Marie Yovanovitch]'s removal -- one driven by an array of figures whose motives are still not fully understood. They include a former U.S. congressman-turned-lobbyist, a then-sitting member of Congress and the two Giuliani associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who have since been charged with campaign finance crimes." ~~~

     ~~~ "The Woman ... [Is] Going to Go Through Some Things." -- Trump. Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "As a leading female diplomat, a political target of the president's allies and a figure at the center of the Ukraine drama, Yovanovitch ... enters the spotlight as the latest woman who has refused to acquiesce to Trump in the face of personal and gender-specific attacks.... The impeachment probe is magnifying those dynamics as the first woman to publicly testify prepares to confront Trump's fiercest congressional defenders, nearly all men, about a campaign by other male allies of the president to force her from her post." Mrs. McC: Let's see how mad-dog Jim Jordan approaches Yovanovitch.

Russia, China, Israel, or any other country, if you are listening and have the july 26th Trump/Sonderland phone call I'm sure that our press will reward you mightily if you release it. -- RAS, in yesterday's Comments

Uh, turns out that may not be necessary. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ~~~

~~~ Trump, Sondland Are So Screwed. Desmond Butler, et al., of the AP: "A second U.S. Embassy staffer in Kyiv overheard a cellphone call between ... Donald Trump and his ambassador to the European Union discussing a need for Ukrainian officials to pursue 'investigations,' The Associated Press has learned. The July 26 call between Trump and Gordon Sondland was first described during testimony Wednesday by William Taylor, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Taylor said one of his staffers overhead the call while Sondland was in a Kyiv restaurant the day after Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that triggered the House impeachment inquiry. The second diplomatic staffer also at the table was Suriya Jayanti, a foreign service officer based in Kyiv. A person briefed on what Jayanti overheard spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.... The staffer Taylor testified about is David Holmes, the political counselor at the embassy in Kyiv, according to an official familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. Holmes is scheduled to testify Friday before House investigators in a closed session.... Later that day, a Twitter account that appears to belong to Ukraine's then-Defense Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk posted a photo of himself at dinner with Sondland, Taylor and Ambassador Kurt Volker." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: How could it be a crime, much less impeachable, if Trump shouted his corrupt intent to a guy using an unsecured cell in a crowded Kiev restaurant while dining with a foreign minister who probably oversees counterintelligence? Trump is innocent by reason of stupidity. ~~~

~~~ The Man Without a Friend. John Hudson & Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: Gordon Sondland "upended the House impeachment inquiry last week by acknowledging he communicated the terms of a quid pro quo with Ukraine during a meeting in September after testifying earlier that he had no knowledge of such an arrangement. The reversal of his testimony prompted key Republican allies in the White House and Congress to abandon Sondland after initially viewing him as an indispensable witness. Further revisions of his testimony may come next Wednesday, when he is expected to return to Capitol Hill to address a previously unknown July 26 phone call he had with Trump that Ambassador William B. Taylor Jr. revealed this week. Sondland's attorney said his client 'has the full confidence of Secretary [Mike] Pompeo,' but the State Department declined to comment on that claim, adding to the diplomat's isolation as he comes under fire from all sides.... Trump publicly distanced himself from his envoy last week.... Top Republicans in Congress also have turned on Sondland and began circulating unsubstantiated rumors suggesting he had been co-opted by the Democrats.... Democrats privately concede that Sondland isn't an ideal witness for them either because he now lacks credibility." ~~~

AND There's This: "Not long after arriving [in Brussels, Belgium], Sondland started talking to subordinates about a need for more skilled and wealthy European immigrants in the United States in an attempt to ease tensions with the European Union, according to a person familiar with his views. Many U.S. diplomats in the mission were unsettled by the idea, viewing it as racially motivated. One diplomat said that 'the way this was going to come off was that the United States is fishing for white people, while reducing opportunities for needier people to immigrate.' The person familiar with Sondland's views said Trump had tasked him in July 2018 with developing a proposal to 'fast track' immigration from the E.U. in consultation with the president's main immigration adviser [Mrs. McC: and noted white nationaist], Stephen Miller, and son-in-law Jared Kushner."

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As the Washington Post reported last month, Sondland is an ambitious guy who paid $1MM for the E.U. job because he wanted the glory of being an ambassador, just as a few of his rich friends had been. Evidently it never dawned on him that "ambassador," especially to the E.U., involves more than throwing galas for glamorous, urbane Europeans at his "baronial residence" in Brussels, a residence he made more baronial with a cool million plus extracted from us taxpayers. And it never dawned on him that when he muscled in on Ukraine -- a country not even in his portfolio -- & ordered embassy staff to do illegal and "irregular" things, there could be blowback. He was a guy who wanted to be friends with all the big shots, and now he has few friends at all. ~~~

~~~ Zachary Cohen & Kevin Collier of CNN: "US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland's cell phone call to ... Donald Trump from a restaurant in Ukraine this summer appears to be a shocking security breach that raises significant counterintelligence concerns, according to several former officials, who told CNN there is a high probability that intelligence agencies from numerous foreign countries, including Russia, were listening in on the conversation.... Fiona Hill, a former Russia aide on Trump's National Security Council, testified in October that she had previously tried to get Sondland to stop using his personal cell phone for work." ~~~

     ~~~ BUT Trump, Sondland Can Latch onto This. Matthias Williams of Reuters: "Ukraine's Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said on Thursday that U.S. ambassador Gordon Sondland did not explicitly link military aid to Kiev with opening an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Interfax Ukraine reported.... 'Ambassador Sondland did not tell us, and certainly did not tell me, about a connection between the assistance and the investigations. You should ask him,' Prystaiko said about Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union.... 'I have never seen a direct relationship between investigations and security assistance,' Prystaiko was quoted as saying by Interfax. 'Yes, the investigations were mentioned, you know, in the conversation of the presidents. But there was no clear connection between these events.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Huh. Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "A longtime career employee at the White House Office of Management and Budget is expected to break ranks and testify Saturday in the House Democrats' impeachment inquiry, potentially filling in important details on the hold-up of military aid to Ukraine. Mark Sandy would be the first OMB employee to testify in the inquiry, after OMB acting director Russell T. Vought and two other political appointees at the agency defied congressional subpoenas to appear. The White House has called the impeachment inquiry unconstitutional and ordered administration officials not to participate. But unlike these other OMB officials, Sandy is a career employee, not one appointed by the president. He has worked at the agency off and on for over a decade, under presidents of both parties, climbing the ranks into his current role as deputy associate director for national security programs. 'If he is subpoenaed, he will appear,' Sandy's lawyer, Barbara 'Biz' Van Gelder said Thursday evening. Sandy is expected to testify during a closed-door deposition, which is not open to the public.... Sandy could provide insight into the process by which some $400 million in military and security aid to Ukraine was held up over the summer. He was among the career staffers who raised questions about the hold-up on the aid, people familiar with the matter said, and his role gave him responsibility for signing the documents required to hold it up."

Rudy Implies He Has the Goods on Trump. Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's personal lawyer, has said he is confident the president will remain loyal to him as an impeachment inquiry unfolds in which the former New York mayor has become a central figure. But Giuliani joked that he had good 'insurance' in case Trump did turn on him, amid speculation Republicans will seek to frame him as a rogue actor. In a telephone interview with the Guardian, in response to a question about whether he was nervous that Trump might 'throw him under a bus' in the impeachment crisis, Giuliani said, with a slight laugh: 'I'm not, but I do have very, very good insurance, so if he does, all my hospital bills will be paid.' Giuliani's lawyer, Robert Costello, who was also on the call, then interjected: 'He's joking.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Rudy's Threat to Trump Looks Like More than a Joke. Jessica Campisi of the Hill: "President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is under investigation by federal prosecutors over possible campaign finance violations and accusations he failed to register as a foreign agent, Bloomberg reports. Multiple U.S. officials told the outlet that the probe into Giuliani's financial dealings could also lead to charges of violating bribery or conspiracy laws, with one adding that his work alongside the president has raised counterintelligence concerns.... 'I would not be surprised if he gets indicted,' Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, told Bloomberg. 'It's clear Giuliani is up to his ears in shady stuff and there's tons of smoke.' Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are also investigating whether Giuliani broke lobbying laws in dealing with Ukraine, as well as his efforts to undercut Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who was ultimately recalled in the spring as Trump sought to pressure the country to probe Biden." Mrs. McC: Will Rudy be indicted? Will he finger Trump to save his own ass? Stay tuned. ~~~

     ~~~ Rudy's Bagman Tried to Flee with a Lot in His Bag. Mrs. McCrabbie: This Daily Beast story by Lachlan Markey & Betsy Swan is firewalled, but I heard on the teevee that what it says is that when Lev Parnas tried to get out of the U.S. with a one-way ticket to Vienna, he was carrying the equivalent of US$6,000 in cash, five cellphones, Trump campaign paper straws & the business card of a reputedly corrupt fake "anti-corruption" Ukrainian prosecutor given to shaking down prosecution targets.

**Josh Kovensky of TPM: "President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and his two now-indicted cronies [Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman] had thought they had struck a deal with Kyiv for political dirt. But everything changed in a matter of days. Whatever deal the group thought they had struck fell apart with the election of President Volodymyr Zelensky, forcing Trump and Giuliani to launch a new pressure campaign to bully Kyiv anew into helping them politically.... The fulcrum of the scandal was the April 21 election. It is the key to understanding what came before and to unlocking the sequence of events that followed, culminating in the impeachment inquiry against Trump.... The crucial piece in understanding the Ukraine scandal is that two months before Zelensky won power -- in February 2019 -- Trump thought that he had done a deal which would transform Ukraine into a domestic political bludgeon." --s ~~~

~~~ American Turncoat. Casey Michel of the New Republic: "[T]here's an undercurrent in the ongoing impeachment hearings that points to a different outcome of Trump's extortion attempts. If Trump had gotten his way -- if Rudy Giuliani's popeyed machinations hadn't come to light; if a whistleblower ... hadn't come forward -- the president would have also managed to upend the allegations surrounding a figure whose legacy has been stalking Trump's presidency since its first days: Paul Manafort.... Manafort's legacy, and future, haunts everything surrounding impeachment. Not only is he a tether linking Russia's 2016 interference efforts to the sudden Ukraine-related impeachment efforts -- providing evidence that the scandals are simply two sides of the same coin -- there is every reason to think he was the key figure setting both in motion." --s ~~~

~~~ safari: If you take the two prior articles together, a central source of this entire scandal beseiging America's democracy and standing in the world is Paul Manafort and his successive failures to corrupt Ukraine. Starting with the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych sending him to the US to help install Trump to pay back debts to his Russian handlers; then afterwards with the defeat of corrupt Petro Poroshenko who had reportedly already agreed to fabricate investigations against the Bidens: all to help Trump win re-election, "clear" Manafort, and "clear" Russia. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The Ukraine affair is a mini-scandal in the broader Trump-Russia conspiracy. Even though Trump's 2016 election crimes are not to be part of Articles of Impeachment, I hope that when the trial goes to the Senate, House managers explain this to Senators, and therefore to the American public. I'll give Trump this: his presidency* is the greatest grift in American history.

Pelosi Has the Goods on Trump. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi sharpened the focus of Democrats' impeachment case against President Trump on Thursday, accusing the president of committing bribery when he withheld vital military assistance from Ukraine at the same time he was seeking its commitment to publicly investigate his political rivals. The speaker's explicit allegation of bribery, misdeed identified in the Constitution as an impeachable offense, was significant. Even as Ms. Pelosi said that no final decision had been made on whether to impeach Mr. Trump, it suggested that Democrats are increasingly working to put a name to the president's alleged wrongdoing, and moving toward a more specific set of charges that could be codified in articles of impeachment in the coming weeks. 'The devastating testimony corroborated evidence of bribery uncovered in the inquiry, and that the president abused his power and violated his oath by threatening to withhold military aid and a White House meeting in exchange for an investigation into his political rival -- a clear attempt by the president to give himself an advantage in the 2020 election,' Ms. Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference in the Capitol." (Also linked yesterday.)

Betsy Swan & Adam Rawnsley of The Daily Beast: "One of the people in the mix [to replace ousted Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch] ... was Pete Sessions, a former congressman who called for Yovanovitch's firing. He is also a longtime ally of the former New York mayor and is believed to have taken millions of dollars from a PAC funded in part by Giuliani's indicted cronies.... Witnesses in the inquiry have said they believed the people who successfully pushed for her ouster wanted to replace her with someone more pliable -- and maybe even more friendly to their business interests. Conversations about Sessions -- and another possible pick for the job, Raul Mas Canosa, a South Florida businessman with deep ties to the Cuban expat community -- circulated inside and outside the administration.... Lev Parnas ... was part of discussions about Mas Canosa with associates in Kyiv[.]" --s

Mrs. McCrabbie: From the Moops to Sideshow Bob. Now, more than ever, it is necessary to be familiar with comedic absurdities to understand American politics: ~~~

Convicted of a crime I didn't even commit. Hah! Attempted murder? Now honestly, what is that? Do they give a Nobel Prize for attempted chemistry? Do they? -- Sideshow Bob, "The Simpsons," Season 6, Episode 5, 1994 ~~~

~~~ Bill Oakley of the Washington Post: "This rhetorical absurdity, originally intended as a joke on a TV cartoon, is now being trotted out in all seriousness by the GOP. What New York magazine writer Jonathan Chait has called the 'Sideshow Bob defense' has become central to Republican efforts to shield President Trump from accusations of wrongdoing. Because the Ukrainian quid pro quo was ultimately unsuccessful, the argument goes, no crime was committed, even if one was attempted.... Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.) felt obliged to stamp out any [Sideshow Bob-type] confusion during the impeachment hearing Wednesday. 'Is attempted murder a crime?' he asked Ambassador William B. Taylor Jr. Laughing, Taylor responded: 'Yes, attempted murder is a crime.'" As Oakley explains, the parallels between the Sideshow Bob storyline & the Ukraine impeachment scandal are "getting uncanny." Oakley cites the Wall Street Journal, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy & ambitious presidential hopeful Nikki Haley for employing the Sideshow Bob defense to "exonerate" Trump. ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's important to bear in mind, when Trump allies spout the Sideshow Bob defense, that Trump came very close to getting away with his attempted murder plot. The victim was ready to take the bullet, not on Fifth Avenue, but within walking distance of it, at 10 Columbus Circle (CNN's NYC studios), a walk in the park, you might say, or at least along the southern border of it: ~~~

~~~ Matt Shuham of TPM: "Over the course of a few nail-biting days in early September, Trump nearly obtained the 'deliverable' he had sought from Ukraine for months.... The date for the announcement was reportedly set for Sept. 13.... A look at the chronology reveals just how close Trump came to extracting what he wanted from Ukraine's president.... On ... Sept 9th, three congressional committees launched an investigation into whether [Rudy] Giuliani strong-armed Ukraine 'to assist the President's reelection campaign.'... On Sept. 11, The White House released the $391 million aid package to Ukraine.... [CNN anchor Fareed] Zakaria, in fact, had traveled to Ukraine on Sept. 12 and 13 and met with [Volodymyr] Zelensky for a pre-interview discussion...Then, on Sept. 13 [Adam] Schiff announced publicly that [acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph] Maguire was withholding a whistleblower's complaint.... The interview was 'set,' Zakaria recalled, until it wasn't. Looking back, he said, the release of the aid and the revelation of a whistleblower complaint appeared to have been responsible for the cancellation." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Fareed Zakaria, in a Washington Post op-ed, describes his efforts to get the interview with Zelensky.

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha

Brian Stelter of CNN decided to check out Fox "News" Wednesday night to find out how the impeachment hearing went: "Here's how I would sum up everything I heard from Fox's prime time hosts: Wednesday's hearing was a bust. It was all just hearsay. It was a 'disaster' for the Democrats and a 'great day' for the Republicans. Impeachment is 'stupid.' Impeachment is 'fake.' There's nothing impeachable here. There's no reason to hold hearings. This inquiry needs to stop right now.... CNN's Oliver Darcy wrote earlier in the day. 'Don't expect viewers, listeners, and readers of right-wing media to walk away from Wednesday's impeachment hearings with a different opinion of President Trump's behavior,' Darcy said. 'In fact, it's possible they might be more convinced than ever that Trump did nothing wrong. Why? Because right-wing media has largely -- and unsurprisingly -- focused on the moments in the hearing favorable to its preferred narrative.' He was right."

Soros Runs the State Department! Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Following the first public impeachment hearing on Wednesday, a Trump-supporting husband-wife lawyer duo who are now fully entangled in the Ukraine scandal appeared on Fox Business host Lou Dobbs' show and pushed an outlandish conspiracy theory involving billionaire Democratic financier George Soros, the State Department, the FBI, and Ukraine. During Wednesday night's broadcast of Lou Dobbs Tonight, attorneys Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing -- who reportedly ran an off-the-books operation with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to dig up Ukrainian dirt on former vice president Joe Biden -- immediately took issue with senior State Department official George Kent, who testified earlier in the day.... [After Dobbs teed up the Soros conspiracy theme, diGenova claimed,] '... there's no doubt that George Soros controls a very large part of the career foreign service of the United States State Department.... He also controls the activities of FBI agents overseas who work for [non-governmental organizations]. That was very evident in Ukraine. And Kent was part of that. He was a very big protector of Soros.' The former U.S. attorney ... went on claim that Soros 'had a daily opportunity to tell the State Department' what to do in Ukraine and 'ran it. He corrupted FBI officials, he corrupted foreign service officers,' diGenova concluded. 'And the bottom line is this, George Soros wants to run Ukraine and he's doing everything he can to use every lever of the United States government to make that happen, for business interests, not for good government business.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Fox should get Dobbs, diGenova & Toensing off the air. The "international Jewish cabal" crap really is a bridge too far. ~~~

     ~~~ Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: Fox has come under fire from Jewish organizations following a Wednesday night segment on Fox Business Network's Lou Dobbs Tonight in which Trump-boosting lawyer Joe diGenova seemingly trafficked in anti-Semitic tropes by accusing Jewish financier George Soros of controlling 'very large parts' of the U.S. Department of State.... The far-right lawyer's remarks are extremely similar to comments made by Judicial Watch's Chris Farrell last year during a Dobbs interview -- comments that got Farrell banned from Fox programming.... Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, took to Twitter on Thursday to call on Fox to hold to the same standards they used with Farrell."

AND Soros' Son is the Whistleblower! Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "Rep. Steve King (R-IA) posted photos of the son of left-wing billionaire George Soros on Thursday, absurdly accusing him of being the White House whistleblower. 'Adam Schiff said, "I do not know the identity of the whistleblower." @RepAdamSchiff here are four strong clues,' posted King, along with four pictures of Soros with ... Hillary Clinton..., Chuck Schumer..., Nancy Pelosi, and ... Elizabeth Warren. Alexander Soros is not the whistleblower. He does not work at the CIA, or in government. While King deleted the tweet after this article was published," Nash posted a screenshot of the original tweet. ~~~

~~~ Nash reports that Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Az.) retweeted King's ridiculous tweet. It seems Gosar is quite the active Tweetledeedumb: ~~~

~~~ Adam Raymond of New York: Arizona's Paul Gosar (R-Az.) wrote a series of 23 tweets Wednesday, which "at first glance..., appeared to be standard GOP talking points against impeachment and Wednesday's public hearings in the House. But upon closer inspection, some noticed that the first letter of each tweeted spelled 'Epstein didn't kill himself.'... And he wasn't done." In his final tweet, which asserted that all the previous tweets were about the impeachment hearings, the first letter of each line spelled out "Area 51." "Gosar is the first member of Congress to so publicly embrace the 'Epstein didn't kill himself' meme, which has flourished in recent weeks.... Gosar's embrace of the Epstein conspiracy isn't much of a surprise. This is a guy who once said the Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville was a false-flag operation orchestrated by leftists; who embraced birtherism; and whose own siblings came together last year to make an ad begging voters not to reelect him. He blamed that on Barack Obama." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Gosar's apparent objective is to prove that Donald Trump is not the looniest elected official in the land. So there's a new & original anti-impeachment arguments that's a little worse than Kellyanne Conway's (see yesterday's Commentariat). ~~~

~~~ Contributor MAG reminds us that Gosar has had his well-deserved star turn on SNL. (And thanks for the memories, Elijah Cummings):

Robert Barnes & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "President Trump asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to stop a prosecutor's investigation of his personal finances, a bold assertion of presidential power that seeks a landmark decision from the nation's highest court. The filing by the president's private lawyers represents a historical moment that tests the court's independence and highlights the Constitution's separation-of-powers design. It also marks a new phase in the investigations that have dogged Trump throughout his presidency and have culminated in an impeachment inquiry. The case involves Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s attempt to enforce a grand jury subpoena issued to the president's accountants for eight years of Trump's tax records.... The justices are not required to review the lower court's decision. But the chances that the high court will get involved increased Wednesday, when a separate appeals court in a separate case concluded Congress has a right to those same tax records." The New York Times report, by Adam Liptak, is here. The NBC News story, by Dareh Gregorian, is here.

Trump Business Briefs

Jonathan O'Connell & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "President Trump's Washington hotel has fallen well behind competing properties despite continuing to charge among the highest rates in the city, according to financial information provided to potential bidders as his company tries to sell the hotel's lease. The hotel has become a center of Republican politics and a frequent stopping point for members of Trump's cabinet and inner circle. But its guest rooms are running nearly half empty this year, according to the information, causing the 263-room luxury property -- which opened on Pennsylvania Avenue weeks before Trump arrived in the White House -- to fall short of the company's own expectations. Marketing materials distributed by a real estate firm hired by Trump's company say that a new owner, operating 'unencumbered' by Trump's name or his management company, could dramatically increase profits, particularly through a massive increase in business with foreign governments."

RNC Gives Trump a Consolation Prize. David Fahrenthold & Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "The Republican National Committee will hold its winter meetings at President Trump's Doral golf course in Florida next year -- awarding another of the party's most lucrative events to the president's private business, a party spokesman said Thursday.... Last month, Trump briefly chose Doral to host a much larger event: next year's Group of Seven summit of world leaders -- effectively awarding a massive federal contract to himself. After bipartisan criticism, Trump canceled the event a few days later. No new site has yet been chosen for the summit. Still, this will be the second time in two years that the GOP will hold a major meeting at the resort -- a key property for Trump that has suffered financial decline since he entered politics."

Severin Carrell of the Guardian: "The Trump Organization has settled a £225,000 legal bill with the Scottish government after it lost a long court battle against a windfarm near its Aberdeenshire golf course.... Trump sued ministers in Edinburgh in 2012 over the decision to authorise and support the construction of an 11-turbine experimental windfarm about two miles from the southern boundary of his coastal golf course north of Aberdeen." --s

Jim Acosta & Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "... Donald Trump met with Attorney General William Barr and White House counsel Pat Cipollone in an Oval Office meeting Thursday afternoon in which the so-called Horowitz report came up in conversation, two sources told CNN. The animated discussions were captured by TV crews outside the Oval Office on the South Lawn of the White House awaiting the President's departure for Louisiana. Trump held a campaign rally in Louisiana ahead of Saturday's gubernatorial election in that state. The Horowitz report refers to a probe by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on the opening of the Russia investigation. Horowitz's office is expected to wrap up its investigation soon." ~~~

~~~ Matt Zapotosky & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department Inspector General's office has told witnesses who are set to review draft sections of its long-awaited report on the FBI investigation of President Trump's 2016 campaign that they will not be allowed to submit written feedback -- one in a series of unusual restrictions that some fear could make the final document less accurate, people familiar with the matter said. As is the case in most inspector general probes, witnesses are being invited to review draft sections of the report and offer comments and corrections, the people said. But -- unlike most cases -- they are being told those comments must be conveyed only verbally, the people said.... Witnesses, they said, are being asked to review their sections in a secure area, after signing nondisclosure agreements.... The witnesses, they said, are also concerned that the process gives the inspector general complete control in characterizing any comments witnesses make -- and leaves witnesses with no ability to create a paper trail that might help them show their words were captured inaccurately." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Isn't this how a totalitarian state operates? Still, I feel sure Bill Barr's "Justice" Department will come up with a fair & balanced report on the FBI investigation into Trump's 2016 campaign, you know, the one where Barr testified before the Senate that the government was "spying" on the Trump campaign.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge excoriated Justice Department officials Thursday for their handling of potential criminal charges against former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, saying the continued uncertainty over the prosecution was unfair to McCabe and the public. 'This is not a hard case,' U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton said. 'I was a good prosecutor for a long time. Deciding whether or not you're going to charge someone with false statements or perjury is not that hard, factually or legally -- maybe politically, but not factually or legally.' Walton, a George W. Bush appointee overseeing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by a watchdog group to obtain records about McCabe's firing, complained at a hearing Thursday afternoon that the Justice Department claims about an ongoing potential prosecution of McCabe may have been a 'smoke screen' to persuade the judge to forestall the case demanding documents."

"Pardon Me." -- Roger Stone. Timothy Johnson of Media Matters: "While a jury deliberated over his fate, Roger Stone -- a confidant of ... Donald Trump and longtime GOP operative who is facing felony charges that he lied to Congress -- purportedly sent a message through far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones asking Trump to pardon him if he is convicted.... As the jury deliberated on November 14, Jones purported to share a message from Stone himself during the broadcast of Infowars' The Alex Jones Show. Jones said, 'Roger Stone's message is this: He expects to be convicted. He said only a miracle can save him now. ... He said to me, "Alex, barring a miracle, I appeal to God and I appeal to your listeners for prayer, and I appeal to the president to pardon me because to do so would be an action that would show these corrupt courts that they're not going to get away with persecuting people for their free speech or for the crime of getting the president elected."'"

Every Damned Thing Trump Does Is Against U.S. Interests. Nicole Gaouette of CNN: "Secretary of Defense Mark Esper landed in South Korea on Thursday to navigate renewed threats from an 'enraged' North Korea and newly heightened strain in the alliance with Seoul that congressional aides, lawmakers and Korea experts say has been caused by ... Donald Trump. Trump is demanding that South Korea pay roughly 400% more in 2020 to cover the cost of keeping US troops on the peninsula, a congressional aide and an administration official confirmed to CNN. The price hike has frustrated Pentagon officials and deeply concerned Republican and Democratic lawmakers, according to military officials and congressional aides. It has angered and unnerved Seoul, where leaders are questioning US commitment to their alliance and wondering whether Trump will pull US forces if they don't pay up.... In the US, congressional aides and Korea experts familiar with the talks say the President's $4.7 billion demand came out of thin air, sending State and Defense Department officials scrambling to justify the number...."

The Measure of Lindsey Graham

Mrs. McCrabbie: Up till now, we've learned that Lindsey is totally lacking in moral conviction, has zero courage, and flipflops on everything. So yesterday, we learned from an Axios report that Sen. Lindsey Graham went to the White House & really stood up to Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Graham himself boasted to the Axios guys about it: "In a phone interview last night, Graham confirmed he clashed with Erdoğan in the Oval. 'The Turkish narrative that they have done more to destroy ISIS, I rejected forcefully, and I let Turkey know that 10,000 SDF fighters, mostly Kurds, suffered, died or injured, in the fight against ISIS, and America will not forget that and will not abandon them.'" Wow, Lindsey, thanks for letting us know what a tough guy you are, after all. ~~~

~~~ So then our hero Lindsey marched right back to the Senate chambers and ... wait for it ... "blocked a resolution to formally recognise the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One as a genocide.... [The resolution] passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 405 to 11 in October.... Last month Mr Erdogan described the House of Representatives vote as 'worthless' and the 'biggest insult' to Turkish people." Erdoğan spoke against the resolution Wednesday as well, saying he didn't think the Senate would make the same "mistake" the House did in passing it. Gee, he was right! Thanks, Lindsey!

Matthew Chapman of RawStory: "Brett Kavanaugh is slated to be the keynote speaker at a black tie dinner in Washington, D.C. thrown by the Federalist Society -- the group of right-wing lawyers who have agitated for an ideological takeover of the federal courts.... [D]emonstrators outside Union Station have erected a giant screen broadcasting the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford whose accusation that Kavanaugh attempted to rape her at a high school party in the 1980s, and Republican senators' sneering indifference, triggered a national firestorm[.]" --s

This Is Horrible. Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "The Senate voted Thursday to make Steven Menashi a lifetime federal judge, despite his inflammatory writings about women's rights and diversity, his refusal to answer senators' questions and his role in devising an illegal Education Department effort to deny debt relief to students cheated by for-profit colleges. Every Democrat present voted against confirming Menashi, who is ... Donald Trump's choice for a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. Every Republican present but one, Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), voted to confirm him.... Nearly every national civil and women's rights group opposed him, including the NAACP, the National Organization for Women, the Human Rights Campaign, Muslim Advocates and Planned Parenthood. Democrats questioned his qualifications ― he has never tried a case, made oral arguments in court or conducted a deposition ― as well as his temperament." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2020

Matt Stevens & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts officially entered the presidential race on Thursday, adding an 18th candidate and an 11th-hour twist to a turbulent Democratic primary with less than three months to go before the Iowa caucuses. Mr. Patrick's announcement, which he had signaled this week, came in the form of a video he released early Thursday morning. In it, he said he was running for people who 'feel left out' and want a future 'not built by somebody better than you, not built for you, but built with you.'" A CBS News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's a good pitch, Deval! You shoulda thought of it about six months ago.

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: Michael Bloomberg has a history of making crude sexual remarks & "jokes" about women. "... the comments revealed a cruder side of Mr. Bloomberg, now 77 and a potential presidential candidate, who made his billions in the towel-snapping culture of Wall Street decades before #MeToo became a household term. Lawsuits portrayed the early days of his company as a frat house, with employees bragging about sexual exploits. Even after entering politics, Mr. Bloomberg's cavalier attitude caused trouble: In 2012, the mayor, while admiring a woman at a party, urged two guests to 'look at the ass on her.' On Wednesday, after inquiries from The Times, Mr. Bloomberg's team issued a statement addressing his history of insensitive comments. 'Mike has come to see that some of what he has said is disrespectful and wrong,' said a spokesman...." Mrs. McCrabbie: What this country needs to heal the damage caused by a 73-year old supposed billionaire sexist & racist is a 77-year-old real billionaire sexist & racist. (Also linked yesterday.)

Gubernatorial Race 2019. Kentucky. Daniel Desrochers of the Lexington Herald-Leader: "Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin conceded the race for governor Thursday, ending more than a week of speculation over whether he would contest the results of the Nov. 5 election, which he narrowly lost to Democrat Andy Beshear. Bevin's announcement came after a statewide recanvass showed minimal changes in election totals. Beshear won by less than 0.5 percentage points." (Also linked yesterday.)

Sigal Samuels of Vox: "Every 15 minutes, one person in the US dies because of an infection that antibiotics can no longer treat effectively. That's 35,000 deaths a year. This striking estimate comes from a major new report, released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on the urgent problem of antibiotic resistance. Although the report focuses on the US, this is a global crisis: 700,000 people around the world die of drug-resistant diseases each year. And if we don't make a radical change now, that could rise to 10 million by 2050." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Joshua Sharpe of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Ray 'Jeff' Cromartie was executed Wednesday at 10:59 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison amid uncertainty and contention. The 52-year-old had been sentenced to die for the 1994 murder of a store clerk in South Georgia, a crime Cromartie always insisted he hadn't committed. His efforts to get new DNA testing in the case failed, even though the victim's daughter supported it.... On Monday, one of Cromartie's co-defendants, Thad Lucas, released an affidavit saying he'd overheard their other co-defendant, Corey Clark, confess to being the shooter.... Cromartie's fate was sealed when the U.S. Supreme Court, in a ruling Wednesday at roughly 10:15 p.m., also denied his request for a stay."

Indiana. Laurel Wamsley of NPR: "Back in May, three Indiana judges got into a fight. It was the crescendo of an incident brimming with colorful details: a gaggle of judges drinking the night before a judicial conference, a failed attempt to visit a strip club called the Red Garter, a brawl in the parking lot of an Indianapolis White Castle. The altercation apparently started sometime after 3 a.m., when one of the judges, Sabrina Bell, raised a middle finger at two men yelling from a passing SUV, and ended after one of those men shot two of the judges.... Adams and Jacobs were both seriously wounded and required emergency surgeries; Jacobs was hospitalized for two weeks.... In between, the three judges took a number of actions that 'discredited the entire Indiana judiciary,' according to an opinion posted by the Indiana Supreme Court this week, suspending the judges. The court found that the three -- Andrew Adams, Bradley Jacobs and Sabrina Bell -- had 'engaged in judicial misconduct by appearing in public in an intoxicated state and behaving in an injudicious manner and by becoming involved in a verbal altercation.' Adams and Jacobs engaged in further judicial misconduct 'by becoming involved in a physical altercation for which Judge Adams was criminally charged and convicted.'... The court suspended both Jacobs and Bell for 30 days without pay. Adams, who pleaded guilty in September to one count of misdemeanor battery, is suspended for 60 days without pay. He was sentenced to 365 days in jail but was required to serve only two."

Way Beyond

Italy. Bad Timing. Gianluca Mezzofiore of CNN: "Veneto regional council, which is located on Venice's Grand Canal, was flooded for the first time in its history on Tuesday night -- just after it rejected measures to combat climate change. The historic Italian city has been brought to its knees this week by the worst flooding there in more than 50 years.... The council chamber in Ferro Fini Palace started to take in water around 10 p.m. local time, as councilors were debating the 2020 regional budget, Democratic Party councilor Andrea Zanoni said in a long Facebook post. 'Ironically, the chamber was flooded two minutes after the majority League, Brothers of Italy, and Forza Italia parties rejected our amendments to tackle climate change,' Zanoni, who is deputy chairman of the environment committee, said in the post, which also has photographs of the room under water." (Also linked yesterday.)