Trump impeachment news: President launches fresh attack on longstanding allies as new poll projects him losing to 2020 contenders
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has lashed out at Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and French president Emmanuel Macron and their “delinquent countries” on Twitter, still reeling a week on from his sharp exit from a Nato summit in London at which the duo and others were filmed laughing behind his back at Buckingham Palace.
The president was also busy attacking his domestic political enemies in his latest 2020 campaign rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, last night, branding House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff “a crooked bastard” and the FBI “scum” just hours after House Democrats moved to charge him with two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The Judiciary Committee is due to meet today to debate the articles ahead of a vote to send the matter on to the full House of Representatives as a devastating new Quinnipiac poll projects Mr Trump losing comfortably to all of the leading Democratic presidential nominees in 2020.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump officiall signed an executive order on Wednesday to designate Judaism as a nationality in the US — allowing the Trump administration better leverage over universities across the country.
The House is expecting a vote on impeachment sometime next week.
Preliminary word is that the Senate will take up the impeachment next month, with a short trial that will likely exonerate the president in the end.
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Senate bill to halt Russian election hacking goes down the Crapo
Republican senator Mike Crapo (yup) yesterday blocked a bill by Democrat Chris Van Hollen seeking to stop Russia and other nations from interfereing in American elections. Incredible.
Van Hollen's DETER Act (Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing Redlines) was intended to prevent such unwelcome interventions and ensure the likes of Moscow knew there would be "a very tough price to pay" for attempting to sway the outcome.
"It's designed to send a very clear and simple message to Russia or any other country that is thinking about interfering in our elections and undermining our democracy that if we catch you, you will suffer a severe penalty," Van Hollen said of his bipartisan bill with Marco Rubio, which calls on the director of national intelligence to determine wrongoing and impose sanctions within 30 days.
Enter Crapo.
The chair of the Senate Banking Committee found a way to object to the unobjectionable, warning the process would prove a "two-edged sword". "I think that President Trump has probably put more sanctions on the Russians than any president in our history," he said, sounding very Trumpian.
"The mechanisms in this bill have been designed more to attack the Trump administration and Republicans than to attack the Russians and those who would attack our country and our elections," he continued, bafflingly.
"When we can stop trying to make it anti-Trump or anti-Republican or make politics out of the problems that Russia truly is creating for us, maybe we can come together and pass yet another strong piece of legislation to move forward."
Lindsey Graham accuses FBI of 'massive criminal conspiracy' against Trump
Here's an update on the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings with Justice Dept IG Michael Horowitz from The Independent's Andrew Feinberg, who is in the room observing:
"Senator Graham says the Senate will receive a 'defensive briefing' on foreign election attacks: 'There may be some specific threats against us, I don’t know, but they are going to brief us to protect us.'
(Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
"Graham accuses the FBI of having participated in a 'massive criminal conspiracy over time' to 'defraud the FISA court' and keep the investigation into Trump open. He says it was perpetuated by “people at the highest levels of our government: 'How bad is it? It was as if J Edgar Hoover came back to life'.
"'Folks, if these are a few irregularities, the rule of law in this country is dead,' Graham continues. 'These aren’t a few irregularities - these are are a few bad people - they couldn’t believe Trump won, didn’t want to him to win, and when he won they couldn’t tolerate it.'
"Graham admits that Ukraine didn’t interfere in the election: 'We know it was the Russians. It wasn’t the Ukrainians and they’re coming after us again... Why do you think [the FBI] kept going? Maybe because they were on a mission - not to protect Trump, but to protect us from Trump, protect all of us smelly people from Donald Trump. Maybe you don’t believe that... but I believe it.'"
Trump urges Congress to pass NDAA
Back on Trump's Twitter, the president is back quoting Ted Cruz in his defence (remember when they hated each other's guts?) and urging Congress to pass a National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) to boost the military.
Old tweets return to haunt Graham amid anti-FBI grandstanding in deference to Trump
As Lindsey Graham rages about the FBI in complete defiance of the inspector general's report, here's a sobering little reminder of his equally vociferous anti-Trump opinions prior to November 2016.
Joe Biden 'won’t run for re-election' if he beats Trump in 2020
Joe Biden “won’t be running for re-election” if he wins the White House in 2020, according to a new report, as the 77-year-old former vice president maintains a clear frontrunner status in the Democratic primaries.
Advisers to Biden told Politico it was highly unlikely that he’d seek a second term in office, with one source telling the news outlet: "He’s going into this thinking: 'I want to find a running mate I can turn things over to after four years, but if that’s not possible or doesn’t happen, then I’ll run for re-election'."
That would make Biden a “good transition figure” for the Democratic Party, one adviser added, noting how the former vice president could usher in a young, diverse Cabinet and “fresh faces” after taking out Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential elections.
Here's Chris Riotta's report.
Democrats denounce moderates' call for censure instead of impeachment as 'boneheaded'
A group of 10 moderate Democrats yesterday proposed a less drastic alternative to impeaching Trump over the Ukraine scandal, pitching a vote to censure him instead, according to Politico.
The measure would allow them to register their approval of the president's actions without rendering their own seats vulnerable in the 2020 election, the thinking went.
“I continue to study all the facts and am waiting to see what happens out of committee next week on the articles, and then I’ll make a decision,” New Jersey congressman Josh Gottheimer, one of the Democrats involved in the discussions, told The Huffington Post.
But plent in the party were outraged at the very idea of simply giving the president "a slap on the wrist", not least "Squad" progressives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashia Tlaib. "I have 15-year-olds in my district that get sent to Rikers because they jump a turnstile and they can’t afford $2.75 (£2.09)", said an outraged AOC, pointedly.
California Democrat Jared Huffman was even more plainspeaking, calling censure a “boneheaded idea.”
“That’s just frankly one of the dumbest ideas I’ve heard in a long, long time,” Huffman said. “If this were a president lying about a blow job, that’s a censure issue. This is a president fundamentally misusing his office and obstructing Congress, involving our national security and the integrity of our democracy. If you can’t move to impeachment on something like this, frankly, we just shouldn’t take your ideas seriously.”
Senate Judiciary Committee hearing from Michael Horowitz
A few scenes from Lindsey Graham's conspiracy-a-thon.
From Andrew Feinberg, in Washington today for The Independent:
DOJ IG tells Sen. Leahy that his office is still investigating leaks about the Clinton email probe to Rudy Giuliani during 2016 election. — “We are investigating those contacts” between NY FBI and Rudy“What’s proving to be very hard is to prove the actual substance of the communications...but we can prove the contacts.”
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