Trump Ukraine extortion scheme , CD3 DFL

A day of history accentuates America’s divide and the distortions of truth in the Trump era

For only the fourth time in the nation’s history, congressional leaders on Tuesday put forward articles of impeachment against a president, but that milestone was the most predictable of events on a day that accentuated the degree to which the institutions of government are under stress and the citizens they serve are in conflict.

Amid the partisan breakdown over President Trump’s conduct in office, there was a rare statement of progress: a deal to cement a new U.S. trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, the only substantial legislative breakthrough of the year and one long sought by the president.

But in today’s hyper-polarized environment, agreement among elected leaders — once considered the norm — is now the anomaly. Instead, the House Democrats’ march to impeach Trump and the president’s continuing war with the FBI over the origins of the Russia investigation more clearly characterized the strained state of the nation and the rising prominence of distorting facts for political gain.

Trump, allies aim to delegitimize impeachment from the start

President Donald Trump and his Republican allies spent weeks trivializing the House impeachment inquiryahead of Tuesday’s historic unveiling of formal charges against the president.

Where Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton treated the prospect of impeachment as a serious threat to their presidencies, Trump’s boosters have tried to brush off the whole thing. Believing that acquittal by the GOP-controlled Senate is all but certain, they’re out to convince voters to punish the president’s Democratic accusers — or at least tune out the Washington spectacle.

To that end, they have belittled the impeachment process with mockery, schoolyard taunts and an unyielding insistence that Trump did not a single thing wrong. They have stonewalled, refusing to allow witnesses to testify; protested by declining to send their own lawyers to hearings; and dished out the ultimate Trumpian insult: calling the proceedings boring.

Hoyer predicts impeachment vote next week

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that Democrats will likely impeach President Trump before Christmas, setting the stage for floor votes in the lower chamber next week.

Behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Democrats earlier Tuesday introduced two articles of impeachment related to Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukrainian leaders for political favors. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said he’ll move those articles through the panel this week — likely on Thursday — and Hoyer predicted the full House will vote on them before the winter holidays.

“Assuming that they … report out articles, my presumption is that we will be considering them before we leave,” Hoyer told reporters in the Capitol.

The articles of impeachment against President Trump, explained

Now we have it: The reasons House Democrats will give to their fellow House lawmakers, to senators conducting a trial and to the history books for President Trump being unfit for office. They are giving two specific reasons, in the form of articles of impeachment unveiled Tuesday: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Let’s break them down.

1. Abuse of power

What it means: That Trump used the power of the presidency for his own benefit. Specifically the allegation that he leveraged the State Department, the White House budget office, his unique ability to conduct high-level diplomacy and taxpayer dollars to pressure Ukraine to announce political investigations into former vice president Joe Biden and a conspiracy theory that Democrats and Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, downplaying Russia’s broad involvement.

Experts bewildered as GOP counsel Castor offers stunningly weak defense of Trump at hearing

Attorney Steve Castor, the Republican Party’s lead counsel in House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings, did his best to defend President Donald Trump — but many experts believe his best was far from sufficient.

Throughout his opening statement, Castor barely touched upon the core allegations that Trump abused his office in order to pressure a foreign government to launch an investigation into his top rival in the 2020 presidential election.

In fact, Castor spent most of his time attacking Democrats, whom he accused of making up wild charges to bring down the president.

Trump a ‘clear and present danger,’ says Democratic investigator in impeachment hearing

President Trump’s efforts to get Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden was meant to interfere in next year’s election and “is a clear and present danger” to fair elections and U.S. national security, a Democratic staff investigator presenting impeachment evidence testified Monday.

Intelligence Committee investigator Daniel Goldman accused Trump of an “unprecedented campaign of obstruction of Congress” in his opening statement.

“President Trump’s persistent and continuing effort to coerce a foreign country to help him cheat to win an election is a clear and present danger to our free and fair elections and to our national security,” Goldman said.

Sen. Ted Cruz echoes debunked claims that Ukraine interfered in 2016 election

In a fiery back-and-forth on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) declared there is “considerable evidence” that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, echoing debunked claims recently spread by other GOP leaders.

The show’s host, Chuck Todd, asked the senator if he believed Ukraine had attempted to sway the 2016 election.

“I do,” Cruz said.

Todd’s eyes grew wide and he raised his eyebrows in surprise: “You do?”

Nadler: Trump showed ‘pattern’ that poses ‘danger’ to elections

The House Judiciary chairman says Trump acted against his country’s interests.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Sunday that President Donald Trump has shown “a pattern” of seeking foreign interference in U.S. elections but stopped short of saying that obstruction charges would be included in articles of impeachment.

“The central allegation is that the president put himself above his country several times, that he sought foreign interference in our elections several times, both for 2016 and 2020,” Nadler said on “State of the Union“ on CNN. “All this presents a pattern that poses a real and present danger to the integrity of the next election.”

Pressed by host Dana Bash on whether charges related to 2016 would be included in articles of impeachment, Nadler demurred.

‘That is not true’: Manic Republican Mark Meadows shut down by CNN host for repeating lies about Ukraine

A fifteen-minute CNN interview with Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) wound down to an abrupt end on Sunday morning as the “State of the Union” host Dana Bash cut off the Trump defender’s insistence there was no quid pro quo offer from the president to Ukraine’s leadership, with the CNN host telling the GOP lawmaker, “That’s not true. I don’t want to debate about it.”

In an interview where Meadows continued to rage about former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, Bash finally brought up Trump’s phone call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky that led to the impeachment inquiry.

Discussing the call where Trump asked for a favor, Meadows pushed back after she said Trump, “Allegedly held up aid and he said it in this phone call.”

Judiciary Committee Report Offers Legal Rationale for Impeaching Trump

The report, which echoes one released in 1974 as the House debated impeaching President Richard M. Nixon, comes two days before the committee will formally receive the evidence against President Trump.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats released a report on Saturdayintended to lay out the legal and historical underpinnings of their case for impeaching President Trump while also countering Republican accusations that the investigation of the president’s conduct in office has been unfair and illegitimate.

Democrats have accused the president of abusing his power by trying to pressure the Ukrainian government to announce investigations into his political rivals. They also claim that Mr. Trump obstructed the congressional inquiry by blocking witnesses from testifying and refusing to provide documents.

The 52-page report by the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee argues that the framers of the Constitution intentionally provided a way to remove the occupant of the Oval Office for just such misconduct.

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1. Abuse of power

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The House Judiciary chairman says Trump acted against his country’s interests.

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The report, which echoes one released in 1974 as the House debated impeaching President Richard M. Nixon, comes two days before the committee will formally receive the evidence against President Trump.

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