Impeachment

CNN reports: President Trump attacked Democrats on Twitter this morning and threatened an economic depression if he is impeached. The three major US stock indexes rallied to fresh record highs Friday, as investor sentiment was helped by hopes for a US-China trade deal and better-than-expected retail sales. The Dow rallied above 28,000 points for the first time ever. The first …

Fox News reports: Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, pointed her finger at President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani while detailing her sudden removal from her diplomatic post during Friday’s nationally-televised impeachment testimony, as the president fired back in realtime and said every place she worked “turned bad.” Trump’s comments ignited an outcry from Democrats: Intelligence Committee chairman Adam …

Time Magazine reports: The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who was abruptly removed by President Donald Trump earlier this year will take center stage on Friday morning to testify in the second public hearing in his impeachment inquiry. Ambassador Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch, 61, was ousted in May after what her former colleagues describe as a “smear campaign” by Trump’s allies, …

Deadline Hollywood reports: A grand total of 13,098,000 Americans tuning in to watch the televised opening of the House Select Committee on Intelligence questioning on Wednesday, Ambassador William Taylor and Deputy Secretary of State George Kent topped the 12.9 million who saw the former FBI Director’s circumspect stint in the hot seat on July 25. Fox News won the viewership …

Reuters reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that Republican President Donald Trump has admitted to actions that amount to bribery in the Ukraine scandal at the heart of a Democratic-led impeachment inquiry. “The bribe is to grant or withhold military assistance in return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the elections. That’s bribery,” Pelosi said …

Politico reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) brushed aside a question on Wednesday about trying to quickly dismiss the articles of impeachment against President Trump, noting the chamber would have to have a trial. “I don’t think there’s any question that we have to take up the matter. The rules of impeachment are very clear, we’ll have to have …

“William Taylor was a very impressive witness and was very damaging to the president. First of all, as you pointed out, he took very copious notes at almost every conversation, I think very nonpolitical. He went out of his way to talk about what he knew, what he was specifically testament to. The only thing he talked about was a …

The Associated Press reports: The Kremlin has drawn a parallel between the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump and accusations of Russia’s interference in his election. Asked about the hearings opening Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that “there are a lot of things far-fetched.” Peskov compared the proceedings to the U.S. claims of Russian interference in …

USA Today reports: The impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump moved into public view Wednesday as the House Intelligence Committee heard from two witnesses, Ambassador William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, deputy assistant secretary at the State Department. William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, read his Sept. 1 text message out loud, asking …

Vox reports: In the hours leading up to an especially pivotal day in his presidency — the House begins public impeachment hearings Wednesday morning — President Donald Trump indulged in an epic Fox News binge. Trump started watching Lou Dobbs on Fox Business sometime around 7:30 pm last night. He later flipped the channel over to Fox News to catch …

Law & Crime reports: Kellyanne Conway’s attorney husband George Conway, daily Trump nemesis and critic, made an appearance Wednesday morning on MSNBC ahead of the first public impeachment hearings in the House of Representatives. “The problem with Donald Trump is, he always sees himself first,” he said. “Trump is all about Trump. And that’s why it was inevitable he’d get …

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 …

You know he won’t be able to resist: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says he will be paying attention to the Senate’s business Wednesday instead of the first day of the House’s public impeachment hearings. McConnell is one of several Republican senators who said Tuesday that they don’t plan to watch. “Tomorrow, I’m going to be paying attention to …

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 …

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,” …

Deadline reports: CBS is the first U.S. broadcast network to announce its plans to pre-empt regular daytime programming for coverage of next week’s first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry. All of the broadcast networks are expected to join cable news channels and news streaming services to cover the hearings, which will start Wednesday with the testimony of Bill Taylor, …

CNN reports: House Democrats are signaling they are now on a fast-track in their impeachment proceedings, avoiding court battles that could delay their inquiry and limiting the number of witnesses at public hearings — all signs that President Donald Trump could be impeached as soon as next month. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not shared her thinking on the final …

Axios reports: Republicans formally made Rep. Jim Jordan a member of the House Intelligence Committee on Friday, a move that will allow him lead the party’s defense of President Trump during public impeachment hearings next week. Privately, GOP members have said they think Jordan — one of Trump’s fiercest allies — is a stronger defender of the party and the …