Tag Archives: Donald Trump

The Associated Press reports: The closed doors of the Trump impeachment investigation are swinging wide open. When the gavel strikes at the start of the House hearing on Wednesday morning, America and the rest of the world will have the chance to see and hear for themselves for the first time about President Donald Trump’s actions toward Ukraine and consider …

Axios reports: Top House Republican sources tell Axios that one impeachment survival strategy will be to try to distance President Trump from any Ukraine quid pro quo, with Rudy Giuliani potentially going under the bus. What they’re saying: A Republican member of one of the impeachment committees told Axios: “[T]his is not an impeachment of Rudy Giuliani, it’s not an …

The Morning Consult reports: Most voters say there is little to no chance they will change their minds about the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s conduct, even as public hearings are set to kick off on Wednesday, according to a new Morning Consult poll. A majority of voters, 62 percent, say there is no chance they could change their …

NPR reports: With the House set to begin public impeachment inquiry hearings against President Trump on Wednesday, the man tasked with leading the Democrats’ investigation says he already sees several potential impeachable offenses Trump has committed, including bribery. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said on Tuesday that he thinks there’s a clear argument to be made that Trump …

The Washington Post reports: Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) predicted a Senate impeachment trial would last six to eight weeks, although the top Republican in the chamber, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), has yet to weigh in. Burr made the comment Monday at an event at Wake Forest University with Sen. Mark R. Warner (Va.), the top …

The Hill reports: Stephen Moore — a fellow at the Heritage Foundation who played a key role in developing President Trump’s tax proposals in 2016 — said Tuesday that he’s pitched several tax plan ideas for the president’s reelection campaign, including consolidating the number of tax brackets from seven “to potentially three or four.” Moore told The Hill on Tuesday …

The opening paragraphs here should draw you in: The media coverage of Watergate gave us much of today’s concussive, ballistic jargon of scandal. There were “bombshells.” There were “smoking guns.” Ever since, we have measured controversies as if on a decibel meter, judging them by their “fireworks” and “explosive” drama. But the most striking thing for a viewer in 2019, …

The New York Times reports: President Trump has discussed dismissing the intelligence community’s inspector general, Michael Atkinson, because Mr. Atkinson reported a whistle-blower’s complaint about Mr. Trump’s interactions with Ukraine to Congress after concluding it was credible. Mr. Trump first expressed his dismay about Mr. Atkinson around the time the whistle-blower’s complaint became public in September. In recent weeks, he …

Mediaite reports: Conservative pundit and apparent former big-time Donald Trump supporter Ann Coulter has finally had enough, she says, of his policies not meeting expectations. “I give up,” she said on Tuesday after Trump tweeted about Dreamers. Coulter has been increasingly agitated about Trump’s seeming lack of commitment to the hard line on immigration, and has expressed her frustrations publicly …

The New Yorker reports: At a speech to the Economic Club of New York today, President Trump declared that his daughter, Ivanka, has personally created 14 million new jobs. The president announced this figure — so astonishingly ludicrous it would embarrass a Stalin-era pronouncement — and then repeated it twice more as the crowd applauded politely. The entire U.S. economy …

CNN reports: “A Warning,” written by an anonymous person who has worked at a senior level in the Trump administration, is already a hit, according to the book’s publisher. While the book won’t be out for another week, the Twelve imprint at Hachette Book Group says “A Warning” has “garnered more pre-orders than any other nonfiction book at any imprint …

The Washington Post reports: Former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford ended his presidential primary challenge to President Trump on Tuesday, blaming the impeachment drama in Washington for crowding out a discussion of policy issues. Sanford, who launched his protest campaign two months ago, announced his decision during a news conference in New Hampshire. He had been planning to file in …

CNBC reports: A former top Trump campaign official on Tuesday testified that President Donald Trump talked to political trickster Roger Stone about WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign. That testimony by Rick Gates at Stone’s trial contrasts with Trump’s claim last November that Trump did not recall speaking to Stone about WikiLeaks, the document disclosure group that during the 2016 campaign …

The Hill reports: Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley defended President Trump on Tuesday, saying that she believed the president was “truthful” in all of his dealings with her. In an interview with Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s “TODAY” show, Haley defended Trump as “great to work with” and reiterated that she did not share the concerns of other former officials, such …

The Associated Press reports: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday issued a veiled threat suggesting Turkey could release the Islamic State group prisoners it holds and send them to Europe, angered at a EU decision to impose sanctions on his country over its drilling for gas in Mediterranean waters off Cyprus. Speaking to reporters before a visit to the …

An interesting hypothesis from a GOP strategist: A secret impeachment ballot might sound crazy, but it’s actually quite possible. In fact, it would take only three senators to allow for that possibility. According to current Senate procedure, McConnell will need a simple majority — 51 of the 53 Senate Republicans — to support any resolution outlining rules governing the trial. …

Axios reports: Confronted with a mountain of damaging facts heading into tomorrow’s opening of the public phase of impeachment, House Republicans plan to argue that “the President’s state of mind” was exculpatory. “To appropriately understand the events in question — and most importantly, assess the President’s state of mind during his interaction with [Ukrainian] President Zelensky — context is necessary,” …

People Magazine reports: Sean Spicer‘s Dancing with the Stars days have come to an end. At the wrap of the Boy Band and Girl Group Night episode on Monday, President Donald Trump‘s former White House Press Secretary was sent home after landing in jeopardy against fellow contestant Lauren Alaina. Prior to his elimination, President Trump, 73, asked his Twitter followers …

NBC News reports: President Trump said he would release the transcript of his first call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this week, describing it as more important than his second call with the leader that is at the center of the House impeachment inquiry. Trump indicated last week that he would was open to publicly releasing a transcript of his …

NBC News reports: Laura Cooper, the top Pentagon official overseeing U.S. policy regarding Ukraine, told House impeachment investigators last month that President Donald Trump directed the relevant agencies to freeze aid to Ukraine over the summer, according to a transcript of her testimony released Monday. Cooper, during Oct. 23 testimony before the three House committees leading the impeachment inquiry into …