I must be watching a different hearing than the rest of the punditry. What I've seen here is Mueller make very clear that he believes the president obstructed justice. That was true in the report, but his testimony went further. It may not be exciting to watch, but it's serious.
Not sure how
@PeteButtigieg
will end up faring in the presidential, but one thing that’s clear from conversations I’ve had with him, interviewing him and reading his book: he’s operating at a different intellectual level — a much higher one — than the vast majority of politicians
In case anyone is having trouble following the thread: The Secret Service, which is missing messages, is under the Homeland Security Department, which is missing messages. The head of DHS was Chad Wolf, an acting chief under dubious authority, whose messages are among the missing
10 GOP votes for impeachment constitutes the highest number from the president’s own party ever, and 231 overall votes (so far) is the highest number in history. In other words, this is the strongest and most bipartisan repudiation of a president by the House.
"I would never use Nancy Pelosi as my source for legal authority on anything." -- Sarah Sanders. Pelosi has been making laws, including as an appropriator, since Sanders was four years old.
In Midland City, Alabama, Steve Bannon goes after
@JoeNBC
, saying he got into better schools than Joe could have—Georgetown and Harvard. This might be the wrong place for that attack: Joe went to the University of Alabama.
Indiana’s top law enforcement official, Republican AG Todd Rokita, thought the villain in the rape of a 10-year-old girl was the doctor who treated her.
It bears repeating.
Down 15 pounds since Jan. 1. Lifelong battle. Stick with me. My goal is 100 pounds by New Year’s Eve 2022. Feels like a lot, but you won’t get anything done if you don’t start with a mission.
"I am completely and utterly perplexed by those who argue that perjury and
obstruction of justice are not high crimes and misdemeanors." -- Mitch McConnell, 2/12/99.
Fox decision desk guru just told Fox & Friends he'd rather be Biden than Trump in Michigan and Wisconsin and that if Biden wins those states -- threw in Nevada for good measure -- Biden is the next president.
Stunned by the number of people, including Rudy Giuliani, who confess the belief that anyone in politics would take stolen information from an adversarial foreign government to win an election. In this view, there are no means to victory that are not justified by victory.
The president is bullying and smearing Yovanovitch as she testifies to facts in front of Congress. She's not smearing him or lying about him or making judgmental conclusions about him.
He's intimidating the witness in real time on Twitter.
Spokesman for alliance of Native American tribes says Trump's commentary "smacks of racism" and president should "stop using our historical people of significance as a racial slur against one of his opponents."
Nunes' theory appears to be that Democrats conspired with Russians to assist Donald Trump in securing an electoral victory so that they could later undermine Trump's presidency.
The president pressured the Park Service to mislead about the size of his inauguration crowd. Now, the Park Police say they didn’t use “tear gas” when we all know what happened. And they say troops were under assault from bricks and frozen water bottles. No one saw that.
Just watched
@SRuhle
interview w/ John Fetterman. He was making jokes about crudite and magic diet pills, talking about substantive issues and referred to the number of counties in PA - 67 - repeatedly. I’m no doctor, but he’s more on the ball than a lot of senators I’ve covered.
Trey Gowdy throws cold water on a public hearing with James Comey after he was subpoenaed by House Judiciary, saying no serious interview can be conducted in public. Gowdy adds on CBS that it’s ultimately Bob Goodlatte’s decision
GIVEN AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPLAIN WHY HE ASKED THE PROSECUTOR TO INVESTIGATE HIS OPPONENT AFTER DISCUSSING THE RELEASE OF CASH FOR UKRAINIAN DEFENSE, TRUMP PASSES OVER AND OVER. WILL NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION. HUGE MOMENT.
Trump says GM plant closing in Ohio "DOESN'T REALLY MATTER"
"It doesn’t really matter because Ohio is, under my leadership from a national standpoint, Ohio’s going to replace those jobs like in two minutes."
From Fox News interview today.
PERSONAL OPINION: There are plenty of quality journalists at Fox, some of whom have been excellent questioners at past presidential debates. And really, if you can't answer questions -- especially if they're not the questions you want asked -- maybe you don't have good answers.
Georgia is going to be soooo tight. If Fulton and DeKalb came in at the same rate they have been and the percent yet to be reported is accurate, Biden would net 126K votes. Right now, he trails by 118K.
Doug Collins is on Fox arguing that violations of the Constitution are not impeachable offenses if they are not violations of criminal statute. That position suggests the Constitution derives its power from statute and not the other way around.
While you were hyper-focused on the latest
@AOC
tempest in a teapot, the Congressional Budget Office reported that the Trump tax cut will add more than $1.6 trillion to the debt over the next decade.
How could Trump possibly know whether the whistleblower is “highly partisan” as he says on Twitter this morning? If DOJ or IC shared that info with him, which would kill any future whistleblowing.
Either he knows the identity of the whistleblower or he is pretending to.
Just to be clear: Michael Cohen lied to Congress about whether Trump was seeking a major hotel deal in Moscow during the 2016 campaign. The strategy of trying to discredit him by saying he lied hinges on the audience not knowing what he lied about and whom he sought to protect.
SCOOP: KJP got a plum offer to run EMILY’s List in December.
She told them she’s ridin’ with Biden.
Good sign for a president when aides reject attractive offers to stay in trenches.
After declining to take audience questions after his first New Hampshire campaign event today, Ron DeSantis lashed out at a reporter for asking him about it while he was chatting with members of the crowd individually.
Here’s the video, via
@NBCNews
—>
Exclusive: The office Trump doesn’t want you to know about
“Boxes everywhere.”
A private firm conducted a search. But there is no indication that the FBI ever inspected it for classified or other materials that belong to the U.S.
1/2
He says North Dakota, where his grandfather was a mayor, is nearby. He’s standing in Cheyenne, Wyoming. His grandfather was mayor of a town more than 700 miles away—roughly the distance from Pensacola to “nearby” Cincinnati.
Wow! An American president just urged Americans to stop buying products from American companies like John Deere, Caterpillar and Ford. The argument is you should avoid the cost of tariffs by picking companies without facilities in China. But wow. Deere. Ford. Caterpillar
regular reminder: McCarthy doesn't have the authority to take Cheney & Kinzinger off standing committees as punishment for joining 1/6 panel.
Removing them from regular committees requires House vote. GOP is in the minority--meaning they have less than a majority on floor votes.
Trump on Biden and Hunter: “At what point does the father get angry, like this kid is not working out well for me?”
Fair to say this is telling about the contrast between Biden and Trump.
DOJ IG just said he’s still investigating contacts between NY FBI field office and Rudy Giuliani in run-up to 2016 Election Day.
Says difficulty is getting people — presumably FBI agents — to discuss the content of the contacts!!!
Justin Fairfax said “fuck that bitch” as he tried to discredit his accuser during a private meeting Monday night, sources tell
@NBCNews
’
@GeoffRBennett
and me.
MASS GOV CHARLIE BAKER SUSPENDS DEPLOYMENT OF NAT'L GUARD TROOPS TO BORDER because "federal government’s current actions are resulting in the inhumane treatment of children," reports WGBH
.
@TulsiGabbard
does not respond to requests for comment about Neo-Nazi donations to her campaign -- or whether they will be returned -- from
@Bencjacobs
. Daily Stormer took credit for getting her qualified for first debates.
Here’s what we’re being asked to believe:
• A nation so powerless in the face of Russia that it lost major chunks of its territory and needed billions in foreign aid to forestall collapse devised and executed an undetected plan to frame Russia for hacking U.S. election 1/x
The poverty rate in Mulvaney's old district (14.9%) isn't much lower than it is in Cummings' district (16.6%). Both are above the national poverty rate of 12.3%. By Mulvaney's standard, Republican Reps. Jeff Duncan and Tom Rice of SC should be thrown out of office. 1/2
Mulvaney on Fox: I was in Congress for 6 yrs & if I had poverty in my district like they have Baltimore..& I spent all of my time in..DC chasing down this Mueller investigation..I’d get fired. I think the president is right to raise the issue & it has absolutely zero to do w/race
Talk about quid pro quo all you want -- and that's important for a bribery charge -- but Sondland's testimony on the president using his office to force a foreign country to investigate his leading rival for the presidency is jaw-dropping in and of itself.
NBA players: Sorry to call out China over Hong Kong.
U.S. Senate: OUTRAGEOUS!!! HEARINGS!!! DISBAND THE LEAGUE!!!
Trump to Xi: I won’t call you out on Hong Kong.
U.S. Senate: ............
👀
.
@PunchbowlNews
reports House GOP discussing whether to strip committee assignments from the baker’s dozen who voted for bipartisan infrastructure bill.
If so, House GOP would send a message that members’ votes belong to the caucus not constituents.
There was a time when the president of the United Stated would have expressed the sympathy of the people of the United States for the loss of two young children in the custody of the United States government.
My mom earned a PhD with two little kids in the house. She taught at UMD, ran the TV/film dept at Gallaudet, did comms for NIH for ~30 years, did a fellowship at Penn at 72 and now teaches my kids via zoom. She probably doesn’t need some dude telling her she’s great. But she is.
Follow the thread: On July 26, former President Donald Trump’s “Save America” PAC donated $1M to a nonprofit called the Conservative Partnership Institute. 1/x
Trump gave $1M to Meadows nonprofit weeks after Jan. 6 panel's creation
In one breath, the president says he against mob violence and lawlessness.
In the next, he praises an elected official for assaulting a reporter who asked a question about health care policy.
Trump's remarks on how much he hates Democrats at the MAGA rally in Wheeling tonight are indistinguishable in tone and substance from Kavanaugh's at the hearing on Friday.
Trump, while withholding aid to Ukraine, pushed Zelenskyy to investigate Biden.
One of his mantras in 2016 was “lock her up.”
In both of his previous bids for president, he encouraged legal action against the leading candidate of the rival party.
.
@PeteButtigieg
may be the anti-Trump...his politics are informed by a deep grasp of history, philosophy and ethics that are at odds with Trump's rejection of expertise.
He’s getting notice in early states & elite salons,
@alivitali
& I report
Hillary Clinton: "you can put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables."
Trump tonight: "Anybody who votes for a Democrat now is crazy."
Deplorable is more evocative. Anybody is much more than half.
This
@kasie
interview with Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Ga., from last night is ... pick your word.
He didn’t read the Mueller report, and it’s hard to identify a reason in what he says about that that doesn’t come down to plausible deniability about what’s in it.
Americans sitting at the White House applauded as the president said that votes should not be counted in certain states but should continue to be counted in other states.
Americans.
And … the DHS inspector general’s office took the unusual step — antithetical to the purpose of the office — of stopping efforts to recover deleted messages potentially relevant to an ongoing investigation.
This admission from Georgia's governor is jaw-dropping. It suggests he reads no newspapers, watches no television, has no advisers and speaks to no officials. Here's his hometown paper warning 40,000 UGA students of asymptomatic transmission a month ago.
While Trump was telling states to find their own medical equipment, his task force was outbidding them with sweetheart deals for industry: chartered jet rides for the freight, a distro formula allowing them to keep 40% for regular customers & more. —>
In exclusive interviews, the ex-wife of Michigan Supreme Court Justice Brian Zahra says that he impregnated her and took her to an abortion clinic in 1983.
In September, he voted to block an abortion-rights measure from going on the ballot.
It’s shocking that evidence used in any legal proceeding — much less in the FBI obtaining permission to surveil an American citizen — would be altered intentionally by anyone in an agency dedicated to enforcing the law.