McConnell: Pelosi 'too afraid' to send impeachment articles to Senate
NBC News - ALLAN SMITH AND FRANK THORP V
Dec 19th 2019
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/19/mcconnell-pelosi-too-afraid-to-send-impeachment-articles-to-senate/23884269/
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will say Thursday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., "may be too afraid" to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate after the speaker suggested she won't submit them until she believes a fair trial will take place.
McConnell will lambaste the impeachment from the Senate floor as "the most rushed, least thorough, and most unfair ... in modern history," according to excerpts of his floor remarks released ahead of the speech.
The two articles of impeachment approved by the House on Wednesday charge Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
McConnell will say those articles are "fundamentally unlike any articles that any prior House of Representatives has ever passed" and the idea Democrats will withhold the articles suggests "House Democrats may be too afraid to even transmit their shoddy work product to the Senate."
"The framers built the Senate to provide stability," McConnell will say. "To keep partisan passions from boiling over. Moments like this are why the United States Senate exists."
Trump also expressed disdain over the idea that Democrats may not immediately submit the articles, tweeting on Thursday: "Now the Do Nothing Party want to Do Nothing with the Articles & not deliver them to the Senate, but it’s Senate’s call!"
"The Senate shall set the time and place of the trial," he said. "If the Do Nothing Democrats decide, in their great wisdom, not to show up, they would lose by Default!"
The articles must be transmitted to the Senate before such a trial could begin.
Pelosi on Wednesday excoriated McConnell for pledging "total coordination" with the White House for the coming Senate trial, which she compared to the foreman of a jury's being in "cahoots" with the defendant's attorney.
"We're not sending (the articles) tonight because it's difficult to determine who the managers would be until we see the arena in which we will be participating," Pelosi said, adding, "So far, we haven't seen anything that looks fair to us, so hopefully it will be fairer, and when we see what that is, we'll send our managers."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., tweeted that such withholding of the articles of impeachment "would be a breathtaking violation of the Constitution, an act of political cowardice, and fundamentally unfair to" Trump.
"Not allowing the Senate to act on approved Articles of Impeachment becomes Constitutional extortion and creates chaos for the presidency," he continued.
Earlier this week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., proposed calling four Trump administration witnesses, including former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney at the Senate trial. House Democrats previously subpoenaed all four officials, who did not testify.
"There's not a single reason that has been given why the four witnesses we've asked for, why the documents we've asked for, should not be presented," Schumer told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday. "I don't know what they'll say. Maybe they'll be exculpatory to President Trump. But to not have them is to engage in a cover up."
In response, McConnell said it's "not the Senate's job to leap into the breach and search desperately for ways to get to guilty."
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee spoke out after the president attacked him in a rambling six-page letter to Pelosi.
Dec. 18, 2019,
By Allan Smith
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., joked Wednesday that the passage of President Donald Trump's scorched-earth letter focused on Schiff was "probably the nicest thing" Trump "had to say about me in quite some time," adding that the president was merely projecting his own misdeeds onto others.
"This president does nothing but project onto others his own lack of morality," Schiff told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" of Trump's Tuesday letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "This is someone who mocks others constantly, but can't stand to be mocked himself."
Schiff said the White House summary of the president's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy "speaks for itself, and it's damning."
"Anyone willing to stand up to him, he's going to go after," Schiff said. The criticism from Trump is just "a part of my job," he added.
In his rambling six-page letter to Pelosi, in which he said the effort to impeach him amounted to a declaration of "open war on American Democracy” where he had less due process than "those accused in the Salem Witch Trials," Trump accused Schiff of "shameless lies and deceptions."
"Congressman Adam Schiff cheated and lied all the way up to the present day, even going so far as to fraudulently make up, out of thin air, my conversation with President Zelensky of Ukraine and read this fantasy language to Congress as though it were said by me," Trump wrote. "His shameless lies and deceptions, dating all the way back to the Russia Hoax, is one of the main reasons we are here today."
Trump was referencing September comments Schiff made during a hearing in which the chairman parodied Trump’s rhetoric from his July 25th phone call and exaggerated some of the president's language, though some of Schiff's phrasing matched that of the White House summary of what Trump said.
The House is set to vote Wednesday on two articles of impeachment against the president. One article charges Trump with abusing his power for pushing Ukraine to announce investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden and Democrats and for withholding nearly $400 million in military aid to the country as well as an official White House meeting with Zelenskiy as he pursued the probes. The other article charges Trump with obstruction of Congress for stonewalling impeachment investigators examining his conduct.
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IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY
House Judiciary Committee publishes full impeachment report
In making its case that President Donald Trump abused his power and obstructed Congress, the committee concludes, "President Trump has realized the Framers' worst nightmare."
The House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said in its report that 'President Trump will continue to threaten the Nation's security, democracy, and constitutional system if he is allowed to remain in office.'Joshua Roberts / Reuters
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/impeachment-day-schiff-condemns-trump-s-lack-morality-n1103681
House Judiciary Committee publishes full impeachment report
Dec. 16, 2019, 6:36 AM GMT / Updated Dec. 16, 2019, 7:23 AM GMT
By Richie Duchon and Alex Johnson
The House Judiciary Committee released its full report on the impeachment of President Donald Trump early Monday, ahead of consideration by the full House as early as Wednesday.
The 658-page document, issued just after midnight Sunday, is an explanation in four parts of the committee's process and justification for recommending two articles of impeachment against Trump, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The committee, led by Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., devotes part one to detailing the process by which the House Intelligence Committee investigated the case against Trump. Part two is dedicated to examining the standards of impeachment laid out in the Constitution.
Part three delves into the details of the Democrats' case that Trump abused the power of his office to pressure a foreign government, that of Ukraine, to investigate his domestic political rival and interfere in the 2020 presidential election.
"President Trump has realized the Framers' worst nightmare. He has abused his power in soliciting and pressuring a vulnerable foreign nation to corrupt the next United States Presidential election by sabotaging a political opponent and endorsing a debunked conspiracy theory promoted by our adversary, Russia," the committee wrote.
Part four makes a case that the president obstructed Congress' ability to hold the executive branch accountable by flouting House investigators' requests for documents and testimony.
"Other Presidents have recognized their obligation to provide information to Congress under these circumstances," the report states. "President Trump's stonewall, by contrast, was categorical, indiscriminate, and without precedent in American history."
The committee concludes that Trump "has fallen into a pattern of behavior: this is not the first time he has solicited foreign interference in an election, been exposed, and attempted to obstruct the resulting investigation. He will almost certainly continue on this course."
"For all the reasons given above, President Trump will continue to threaten the Nation’s security, democracy, and constitutional system if he is allowed to remain in office. That threat is not hypothetical," the report states.In a response to the Democratic findings, Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the ranking Republican on the committee, said the articles failed to establish any impeachable offense, arguing that "an accusation of abuse of power must be based on a higher and more concrete standard than conduct that 'ignored and injured the interests of the Nation.'"
"The people, through elections, decide what constitutes the 'interests of the nation,'" Collins wrote.
"It is no surprise the allegations shifted from quid pro quo, bribery, and extortion to settle on an undefined 'abuse of power,'" according to Collins.
He also argued that obstruction of Congress isn't an impeachable offense per se because "the Founders intended to create interbranch conflict."
"The fact that conflict exists here does not mean the President has committed either a high crime or a high misdemeanor," Collins wrote, arguing that Congress should pursue the matter in the courts.
On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., proposed terms for a likely impeachment trial in the Senate, including calling former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney as witnesses.
The terms laid out in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was evidence that Democrats are seeking an evidentiary trial, not intending to rely on the House investigation. McConnell responded that that he would meet with Schumer "soon" to discuss plans for a possible trial.
Richie Duchon
Richie Duchon is an NBC News digital editor in the Los Angeles bureau.
Alex Johnson
Alex Johnson is a reporter and editor for NBC News based in Los Angeles.
by Taboola
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/house-judiciary-committee-publishes-full-impeachment-report-n1102531
IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY
Nadler: Anti-impeachment Democrat switching parties because he would lose primary
"What he's reacting to is public polling that shows he can't get renominated," the House Judiciary Committee chairman said Sunday of Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-N.J.
Nadler on why anti-impeachment Dem is switching parties
Nadler said Sunday that Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-N.J., is set to switch parties is because he saw polling that suggested Democrats in his district don't want to renominate him.Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images file
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/nadler-anti-impeachment-democrat-switching-parties-because-bad-primary-poll-n1102406
Dec. 15, 2019, -By Allan Smith
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said Sunday the only reason anti-impeachment Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-N.J., is set to switch parties is because he saw polling that suggested Democrats in his district don't want to renominate him.
"What he's reacting to is public polling that shows he can't get renominated," Nadler told ABC's "This Week." "His electorate in his district is 24 percent to renominate him and 60 percent to nominate somebody else."
"But more to that point, this is not political," Nadler said of impeachment. "We should not be looking at those things. This is the defense of our democracy. Do we stay a democratic republic or do we turn into a tyranny?"
Two Democratic leadership sources told NBC News Saturday that Van Drew, who resides in a southern New Jersey swing district and is an outspoken opponent of impeachment — is likely to soon switch parties and become a Republican.
Trump excitedly welcomed the news, tweeting, "Wow, that would be big" after earlier thanking Van Drew for his "honesty" in speaking out against impeachment.
An internal poll conducted for Van Drew this month and obtained by NBC News suggested the congressman was unlikely to make it through a Democratic primary in New Jersey's 2nd Congressional District, with just 28 percent of Democratic respondents saying Van Drew "deserves to be re-nominated," while 58 percent said that "another Democrat" should be the party's nominee in 2020.
"The leading Democrat opposed to impeachment is switching parties to protect Trump," former Vice President Joe Biden tweeted Sunday, soliciting donations for the eventual Democratic nominee in that district. "The best way to beat him is to give him a well-funded opponent — and a strong campaign at the top of the ticket."
In 2018, Van Drew won his seat with 52.9 percent of the vote. His district voted for Trump in 2016 after supporting Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.
"Despite knowing full well that the president has abused the powers of his office, Congressman Van Drew is now willing to enable Donald Trump just to try to salvage his own election," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said Saturday in a statement.
The House Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment against Trump on Friday for his efforts to have Ukraine probe Biden, his son Hunter Biden and Democrats, and his efforts to withhold information from Congress as they probed his conduct. The articles are expected to be passed in a Wednesday before the full House vote. Trump would then be tried in the Senate.
Allan Smith
Allan Smith is a political reporter for NBC News.
President Trump impeached in historic vote by sharply divided House
Jon Ward - Senior Political Correspondent
Yahoo News•December 19, 2019
President Trump impeached in historic vote by sharply divided House
https://news.yahoo.com/president-trump-impeached-in-historic-vote-by-sharply-divided-house-013514099.html
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump became the third sitting president in U.S. history to be impeached, as the House of Representatives approved on Wednesday the two articles of impeachment against him: that he abused the power of his office by pressuring Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election on his behalf, and that he obstructed Congress in its inquiry.
The House approved the first article of impeachment, on abuse of power, by a vote of 230 to 197 at 8:34 p.m. after a daylong debate. Of the 233 Democrats, 229 voted in favor, along with the House’s one independent. Two Democrats opposed the measure. No Republicans voted in favor.
Eighteen minutes later, the second article, charging obstruction of Congress, passed by a vote of 229 to 198 with three Democrats voting no, and again no Republicans in favor.
One Democrat voted “present” on each article.
Trump came to the stage for a rally in Battle Creek, Mich., just as the vote was being called and told the crowd, “It doesn’t really feel like we’re being impeached. The country is doing better than ever before. We did nothing wrong. And we have tremendous support in the Republican Party.”
Moments after the second article was approved, Trump called his impeachment “illegal, unconstitutional and partisan.” Democrats, he said, “are declaring their deep hatred and disdain for the American voter.”
Democrats “have branded themselves with an eternal mark of shame," he said.
Eight hours earlier, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi laid out the Democratic case: “The president violated the Constitution. It is a matter of fact that the president is an ongoing threat to our national security and the integrity of our elections: the basis of our democracy.”
Pelosi said that Trump “used the power of his public office to obtain an improper personal, political benefit at the expense of America's national security.”
The only other two presidents to be impeached in American history are Andrew Johnson, in 1868, and Bill Clinton, in 1998. Both survived their Senate trials and served out their terms. The House began impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon in 1973, but Nixon resigned before he was impeached.
Trump was scheduled to speak at his rally at around the same time that the House held its final vote on impeachment.
He was awaited by supporters — most of whom stood in line for hours in temperatures that did not rise above the teens — inside the 9,800-seat Kellogg Arena.
During the day, Trump railed against the impeachment on Twitter in the same vein as the six-page, angry letter he sent to Pelosi on Tuesday. In one early morning tweet, he wrote, “I DID NOTHING WRONG!” In a midday tweet, he called his impeachment “AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!”
The proceedings on Capitol Hill were historic, but lacked suspense and drama for much of the day. The outcome unfolded just as most had expected since the day Pelosi announced the opening of an official impeachment inquiry on Sept. 24.
After a prayer by the House chaplain for “wisdom and discernment,” and an hour or so of procedural delay by Republicans, the House chamber was filled all day with short speeches — typically just one minute — by hundreds of representatives, alternating between the two parties.
The chamber was mostly empty for most of the day’s six hours of scheduled debate — which ran to more than eight hours — making what should be the most high-profile moment of the impeachment process the least substantive. It was a striking contrast to the last several weeks of in-depth hearings in which fact witnesses laid out a detailed storyline of the president’s actions.
Democrats kept to a disciplined set of talking points, reiterating that they were reluctant to impeach the president, but his abuse of the power of the presidency left them no choice.
“I want you to know that it does not feel good,” said Rep. Joe Kennedy III, addressing his 60-second floor speech to his two young children. But, he said, the president “broke our laws” and “abused the highest, most sacred office in our land.”
As the debate moved toward a conclusion, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the majority whip, put his personal stamp on the case for impeachment. “Never in all my years of serving in this great institution that I love,” he said, speaking more deliberately than most of those who went before, “… did I ever expect to encounter such an obvious wrongdoing by a president of the United States. Nor did I expect to witness such a craven rationalization of presidential actions."
His remarks lowered the tension in the chamber after Republican Whip Steve Scalise accused Democrats of hating the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump, prompting boos from the other side of the aisle.
While Democrats projected a tone of sadness, the mood among Republicans was one of outrage, at times veering toward the apocalyptic.
“This country’s end is now in sight. I hope I don’t live to see it,” said Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.
Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., described a scene more similar to Dante’s “Inferno” than that of a legislative body. “I have descended into the belly of the beast. I have witnessed the terror within. And I rise committed to oppose the insidious forces which threaten our republic,” said Higgins, a former police officer whose colorful past includes filming a video from the Auschwitz death camp to promote U.S. homeland security.
And Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., compared Trump’s impeachment to the trial of Jesus Christ.
“When Jesus was falsely accused of treason, Pontius Pilate gave Jesus the opportunity to face his accusers. During that sham trial, Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats have afforded this president and this process,” Loudermilk said.
Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said that “all we keep hearing from the other side are attacks on the process and questions of our motives.”
“They cannot articulate a real defense of the president’s actions,” Nadler said.
Impeachment is an act of censure by the House, a recommendation that the president be removed from office. But the Senate decides in a trial whether to actually do so, and Republicans in the Senate — who hold a 53-to-47 majority — are not expected to defect from the president. He will therefore almost certainly remain in office, even if the stain of impeachment lingers.
"Donald J. Trump is president of the United States. He is president today. He’ll be president tomorrow, and he will be president when this impeachment is over,” House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy told the chamber.
The impeachment vote was the culmination of a process that began in early August when a whistleblower filed a complaint to the inspector general of the intelligence community, alleging that Trump pressured Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to open an investigation into a political rival. The report became public in mid-September.
The House Intelligence Committee conducted an investigation, calling over a dozen witnesses to testify in closed-door depositions, and then moving on to a series of public hearings with a majority of those witnesses. The White House refused to cooperate and blocked another dozen witnesses from speaking with Congress.
That stonewalling gave Democrats the grounds to charge the president with obstructing an investigation by Congress, a co-equal branch of the federal government.
The witnesses who did testify said that Trump pressured Ukraine to announce an investigation into Democrat Joe Biden, a rival for the presidency, using a White House meeting the the new Ukrainian president wanted, and also withholding nearly $400 million in military assistance to the country.
Ukraine, a former Soviet state that became independent in 1991, has increasingly sought to align itself with the West since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, a peninsula in southern Ukraine, and began supporting a separatist conflict in the east of the country. Russian and Ukrainian forces are still engaged in an active military conflict.
Republicans on the Intelligence Committee mounted a series of often-changing defenses to explain why the president withheld assistance, but settled around a few explanations. They pointed to actions by individual Ukrainians critical of Trump to argue that president had a justified bias against the nation.
And Republicans said Trump was concerned about giving aid to a country that had problems with corruption. Yet the new Ukrainian government had met benchmarks set by the U.S. government to qualify for the funding, even before Trump decided to freeze the congressionally authorized aid.
Republicans also said, despite evidence to the contrary from Pentagon officials, that Ukraine didn’t know the aid had been withheld when Trump spoke to Zelensky by phone on July 25 and asked him to investigate Biden.
In an angry six-page letter to Pelosi sent Tuesday afternoon, Trump also lodged a series of criticisms, starting with the fact that there are “no crimes, no misdemeanors, and no offenses” in the two articles of impeachment.
Trump, in his letter, also insisted that Biden “used his office and $1 billion of U.S. aid money to coerce Ukraine into firing the prosecutor who was digging into the company paying his son millions of dollars.”
This is a reference to Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, and to Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company with a history of corruption. Burisma added Hunter Biden to its board in April 2014, not long after the British government had frozen $23 million in assets belonging to Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, on suspicion of money laundering.
In December 2015, Joe Biden — then vice president under President Obama and responsible for running U.S. policy in Eastern Europe — told the Ukrainian government that $1 billion in aid would be withheld if the nation’s top prosecutor was not fired. Biden related this conversation in a 2018 think tank appearance.
The Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, was fired three months later.
But Biden’s demand that Shokin be fired actually increased the likelihood that Burisma would be investigated for corruption, according to the most authoritative reporting on the subject, because the prosecutor had failed to pursue corruption cases.
Nonetheless, Hunter Biden’s presence on the board of Burisma, which paid a significant amount of money to him, has created a massive political headache for his father and the Democratic Party. Hunter Biden has admitted he exercised “poor judgment” but maintains he did nothing illegal or unethical.
Like Trump’s attacks on Hillary Clinton in 2016 about her speaking fees and her private email server, the criticisms of Biden and Burisma are becoming a mantra for the president that he will likely repeat over and over as long as the former vice president is the leading Democratic candidate for president.
Chuck CallestoVerified account @ChuckCallesto 19h19 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Impeachment will cost DEMS the 2020 Election Want to PERSONALLY thank Nancy for helping re-elect Trump.. We did and so did close to 85k others... Lets hit 100k... Send yours....
Daniela Dea @DanielaDea3
Indeed, this partisan impeachment is an opportunity for us to take the House as well!
New conversation
Bradley Scott @Hoosiers1986
President Trump, We see this Impeachment for the SHAM that it is. Keep doing the great work that you are doing & don't worry about the slander and dishonesty of the Democrats. We voted for you in 2016, you've kept your promises & we'll re-elect you in 2020! Signed, America!
Adam @mule2218
Well after careful consideration today's winner. Congratulations!
Well-there-it-is-The-dumbest-fucking-think-I-have-read-all-day
#Trump #TrumpImpeached #TrumpImpeachment
US House votes to impeach Trump for abuse of power, obstruction
Al Jazeera English
For only the third time in 243 years, a US president has been impeached. Donald Trump's been charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over his putting pressure on Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden. The vote came following more than eight hours of divisive debate in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives. Al Jazeera's Shihab Rattansi reports from Washington, DC. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/ #Trump #TrumpImpeached #TrumpImpeachment
Iran Promises Retaliation After U.S. Kills General
Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, who led the powerful Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was killed in an American drone strike in Baghdad on Friday. New York Times
Jan. 3, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/03/world/middleeast/iran-suleimani-killing-iraq.html?campaign_id=60&instance_id=0&segment_id=20016&user_id=eeeb41ac0b2b0fd3a56a87fed573283b®i_id=100892575
Here’s what you need to know:
Iran’s supreme leader is vowing ‘a forceful revenge.’
Americans are evacuating, and oil prices are soaring.
Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani led 20 years of spying and proxy warfare.
Mass protests were held in Iran, as Iraq denounced ‘a blatant violation.’
Séamus Malekafzali@Seamus_Malek
After a small initial gathering early this morning in Kerman, Qassem Soleimani's hometown, there is now a massive funeral crowd lining the streets, all wearing black.
10:09 AM - Jan 3, 2020
https://twitter.com/JZarif/status/1212946202280579073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1212946202280579073&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2020%2F01%2F03%2Fworld%2Fmiddleeast%2Firan-suleimani-killing-iraq.html
Javad Zarif✔@JZarif
The US' act of international terrorism, targeting & assassinating General Soleimani—THE most effective force fighting Daesh (ISIS), Al Nusrah, Al Qaeda et al—is extremely dangerous & a foolish escalation.
The US bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism.
26.3K
3:58 AM - Jan 3, 2020
https://twitter.com/JZarif/status/1212946202280579073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1212946202280579073&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2020%2F01%2F03%2Fworld%2Fmiddleeast%2Firan-suleimani-killing-iraq.html
The remains of a vehicle hit by missiles outside the Baghdad airport. The commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, was killed.Credit...Iraqi military's joint operations forces, via EPA
Iran’s supreme leader is vowing ‘a forceful revenge.’
Iranian leaders issued strident calls on Friday for revenge against the United States after the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in an overnight airstrike at the Baghdad airport. The strike spurred mass displays of public mourning by Iran and its network of allies across the Middle East.
General Suleimani, a powerful strategist who represented Iran’s influence across the region, was killed by an American drone at Baghdad airport, in an attack that had been authorized by President Trump and that ratcheted up tensions between Washington and Tehran. The death threatened to tip the country’s shadow conflict with the United States and its partners across the region into a new war.
General Suleimani was the head of the powerful Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the architect of nearly every significant operation by Iranian intelligence and military forces over the past two decades.
His death is a considerable blow to Tehran, and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called for retaliation on Friday and for three days of national mourning.
“His departure to God does not end his path or his mission, but a forceful revenge awaits the criminals who have his blood and the blood of the other martyrs last night on their hands,” the supreme leader said in a statement.
The general’s prominent role meant that his death could have a ripple effect in any number of countries across the Middle East where Iran and the United States compete for influence.
The strike was carried out by a MQ-9 Reaper drone that fired missiles on a convoy of vehicles leaving the airport. Several other officials from Iraqi militias backed by Tehran were also killed.
“This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans,” the Pentagon said in a statement. The United States has long been at odds with Iran over its nuclear program and influence in Iraq and other countries in the region. Those tensions have surged under Mr. Trump after he abruptly pulled the United States out of a landmark 2015 nuclear deal and reintroduced punishing sanctions against Tehran.
The strike on Friday was the latest escalation between the two nations after a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base, believed to have been carried out by an Iran-backed militia, killed an American contractor in December.
The United States hit back with airstrikes on an Iranian-backed militia that killed 24 and prompted outrage among some who saw that attack as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. Iraqis lashed out at the United States, breaking into its embassy compound on Tuesday and setting fires inside the area. The breach prompted Mr. Trump to order roughly 750 additional American troops to be deployed to the region.
Americans are evacuating, and oil prices are soaring.
The State Department urged American citizens to leave Iraq immediately following the strike that killed General Suleimani in Baghdad, citing “heightened tensions,” and officials were braced for potential retaliatory attacks.
Oil prices jumped on Friday after the news of the general’s death: The price of Brent oil, the international benchmark, surged in the early hours of Hong Kong trading to nearly $70 a barrel — an increase of $3.
The immediate increase in the price of oil was among the largest since an attack on a critical Saudi oil installation in September that temporarily knocked out 5 percent of the world’s oil supply.
By 11 a.m. in London, the price of Brent crude oil was at a three-month high of $69.20 a barrel. International oil companies based in the southeastern Iraqi city of Basra have begun evacuating American employees, according to Al Arabiya news outlet.
Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani led 20 years of spying and proxy warfare.
As the leader of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which leads Iran’s operations abroad, General Suleimani was the country’s top security and intelligence commander.
A senior military figure with considerable powers, General Suleimani, who was 62, was behind nearly all military and intelligence operations orchestrated by Iran in the past two decades. He directed Iran-backed militias in the fight against the Islamic State.
American officials had also accused him of causing the deaths of hundreds of soldiers during the Iraq war and he was believed to have played a central role in orchestrating Iran’s support for the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Lately, officials in the Trump administration had claimed that he fueled anger against the American presence in Iraq that culminated in the attack on the United States Embassy in Baghdad this week.
In Iran, General Suleimani a respected political figure among hard-liners and close to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He was described by some officials as the country’s de facto second foreign minister.
To many Iranians, he was also a war hero, after becoming a commander while he was only in his 20s during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
A polished man of short stature but with considerable charisma, as the journalist Dexter Filkins wrote in a 2013 New Yorker profile, General Suleimani lived in Tehran and had several children.
In a speech in 2018, he warned Mr. Trump not to take any military action against Iran.
“We are near you, where you can’t even imagine,” the general said at the time, according to Iranian news agencies. “Come. We are ready. If you begin the war, we will end the war.”
On Friday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appointed General Suleimani’s deputy, Brig. Gen. Ismail Qaani, as the new leader for the Quds Force.
Mass protests were held in Iran, as Iraq denounced ‘a blatant violation.’
Large crowds gathered for Friday Prayer in Iran and filled public squares with mass protests, while officials met privately to plot strategy and leaders vowed to avenge General Suleimani’s death.
Images broadcast on Iranian state television showed hundreds of supporters of General Suleimani gathered in mourning outside his house in the southeastern town of Kerman, and later footage shows thousands gathered on the streets.
“The great nation of Iran will take revenge for this heinous crime,” President Hassan Rouhani wrote on Twitter.
Iran was working with Iraqi officials to repatriate the general’s body for a funeral service, perhaps as soon as Saturday, a number of Iranian journalists reported.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council also held an emergency meeting. According two people with knowledge of the discussion, council members received a written order from Mr. Khamenei that ordered that Iran “strike America directly and in exact proportion to the attack.”
In Iraq, the strike appeared likely to accelerate calls for the departure of American troops. Along with General Suleimani, it killed Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, the leader of a powerful militia that is backed by Iran but technically under the umbrella of the Iraqi military.
Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi of Iraq praised Mr. al-Mohandis and General Suleimani as heroes in the fight against the Islamic State and condemned their killing as “a brazen violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and a blatant attack on the nation’s dignity.”
Iraq’s Parliament plans to convene an emergency session on Saturday to address the strike, which could accelerate calls to push United States forces from the country.
Iraq’s Parliament plans to convene an emergency session on Saturday to address the strike, which could accelerate calls to push United States forces from the country.
U.S. allies are warning of ‘a more dangerous world.’
The starting point of the recent escalation in tensions between the United States and Iran began with the 2018 decision by President Trump to withdraw from a landmark nuclear agreement with Iran signed in 2015 by the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany.
Many experts said on Friday that any new negotiations to save the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, were now unlikely.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the killing of General Suleimani “an adventurist step that will increase tensions throughout the region,” according to local news agencies.
“Soleimani served the cause of protecting Iran’s national interests with devotion,” the ministry added, using a different spelling for the general’s name.
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry called for restraint on all sides, “especially the United States.”
“China has always opposed the use of force in international relations,” the spokesman, Geng Shuang, said at a daily news briefing, according to news agencies.
Britain’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, called on Friday for a de-escalation in tensions and said that further conflict in the region was not in his country’s interest.
“We have always recognized the aggressive threat posed by the Iranian Quds force led by Qasem Suleimani,” Mr. Raab said in a statement. “Following his death, we urge all parties to de-escalate.”
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, a key architect of the nuclear deal, called the American drone strike an “act of international terrorism.”
In France, President Emmanuel Macron had yet to react, but the country’s junior minister for European affairs, Amélie de Montchalin, said that she would soon consult with countries in the region.
“We have woken up to a more dangerous world,” Ms. de Montchalin told French radio, calling for “stability and de-escalation.”
Ben Hubbard, Farnaz Fassihi, Elian Peltier, Megan Specia and Catie Edmondson contributed reporting.
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, called the United States drone strikes an “act of international terrorism.”Credit...Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA, via Shutterstock
Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in October. He was behind nearly all military and intelligence operations orchestrated by Iran in the past two decades.Credit...Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, via Associated Press
The remains of a vehicle hit by missiles outside the Baghdad airport. The commander of Iran’s powerful
Maps: How the Confrontation Between the U.S. and Iran Escalated
Jan. 3, 2020
Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, on Wednesday at the Capitol.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
Mark Hamill has the question people should ask about Donald Trump's impeachment
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/01/02/mark-hamill-has-the-question-people-should-ask-about-donald-trumps-impeachment/23891088/
LEE MORAN - JAN 2ND 2020
“Star Wars” actor Mark Hamill used his first tweets of 2020 to reveal the “common sense question” that every American must currently consider about the impeachment of President Donald Trump over the Ukraine scandal.
Namely, “why would an innocent man bar witnesses who could exonerate him” from testifying in the Senate’s impeachment trial, asked Hamill.
″#Duh,” he captioned the post.
Mark HammyNewYear
✔@HamillHimself
The common sense question every American must consider for themselves: Why would an innocent man bar witnesses who could exonerate him? #Duh https://bit.ly/2u5mus4
McConnell Won't Allow Witnesses In Senate Trial Because T...
Mitch McConnell is still refusing to describe how the Senate trial on the Impeachment of Donald Trump will be structured. However,
crooksand liars.com
11:11 PM - Jan 1, 2020
2,450 people are talking about this on 2nd January, 2019
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is refusing to allow key witnesses, including former national security adviser John Bolton, to testify in Trump’s trial because he sees it “as an opening for uncertainty,” reported The New York Times.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), meanwhile, is presently holding back from transmitting the articles of impeachment to the Senate amid fears of Republican bias in the proceedings. McConnell has previously vowed to work with the White House on Trump’s defense.
Hamill, a frequent critic of the president, earlier advised his 3.5 million followers on Twitter to “buckle-up for 2020: the make-or-break year in which our country either reclaims normalcy or doubles down on the crazy.”
Mark HammyNewYear
✔@HamillHimself
Buckle-up for 2020: the make-or-break year in which our country either reclaims normalcy or doubles down on the crazy.#TheDividedStatesOfAmerica #VOTE
Meanwhile, Stuart Stevens, a top Republican Party strategist in the 2012 election, has torn into the current GOP in a new editorial for The Washington Post in which he lambasted its members for now only standing for what the president has just tweeted.
Stevens noted in the op-ed published Wednesday - titled “Wake up, Republicans. Your party stands for all the wrong things now” - that most Republicans would have until only-recently agreed the party stood for “some basic principles” such as “fiscal sanity, free trade, strong on Russia, and that character and personal responsibility count.”
But now the party “actively opposes” those issues, he explained.
“Republicans are now officially the character doesn’t count party, the personal responsibility just proves you have failed to blame the other guy party, the deficit doesn’t matter party, the Russia is our ally party, and the I’m-right-and-you-are-human-scum party,” said Stevens, who is now working with a political action committee backing former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld’s (R) run against Trump’s 2020 reelection.
“Yes, it’s President Trump’s party now, but it stands only for what he has just tweeted,” he added.
Stevens said the impeachment of Trump over the Ukraine scandal “and all that has led to it should signal a day of reckoning.”
“A party that has as its sole purpose the protection and promotion of its leader, whatever he thinks, is not on a sustainable path,” he wrote, later adding: “I’d like to say that I believe the party I spent so many years fighting for could rise to the challenge of this moment. But there have been too many lies for too long.”
Read the full editorial here.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/gdpr-consent/?destination=%2fopinions%2fwake-up-republicans-your-party-stands-for-all-the-wrong-things-now%2f2019%2f12%2f31%2fc8347b32-2be8-11ea-9b60-817cc18cf173_story.html%3f
#AlJazeeraEnglish #Trump #Impeachment
How exactly does the US president's impeachment process work?
Al Jazeera English
The Democratic-led House of Representatives voted largely along party lines to impeach President Donald Trump for obstruction of United States Congress and abuse of power over his dealings with Ukraine. Trump is only the third US president to be impeached. No president has ever been removed from office via the impeachment process. The landmark votes on Wednesday set up a likely January trial in the Republican-controlled Senate, where Trump is expected to be acquitted. Richard Pildes is the Sudler family professor of constitutional law at New York University's School of Law who talks to Al Jazeera about the impeachment process. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/
President Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in New York City, Sept. 25, 2019. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)
JRehling @JRehling
US President Donald Trump… Print this out and hold it over your face.
Alex Johnson is a reporter and editor for NBC News based in Los Angeles.
Donald Trump The USA President is being Impeached
“SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS,” the president wrote as the debate took place on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. “THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!”
Donald J. TrumpVerified account @realDonaldTrump
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1207355923573989376
9:44 am - 18 Dec 201
Eugene Gu, MDVerified account @eugenegu 19h19 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Nothing like tweeting in all caps screaming about an assault on America and an assault on the Republican Party to show how unhinged this President really is. Trump is doing an all out assault on our democratic institutions, the rule of law, and most of all, the American people.
Sheila @SheilaGaston200 - My new screen saver pic
Norman Dodd - The Hidden AgendaTax exempt foundations - Manipulating politics and culture
http://inlnews.com/TheGreatAmericanNovel_P3.html
AmadeusLegend
Norman Dodd and his research on the Tax exempt foundations in 1954. Interviewed by G. Edward Griffin in 1982.
The House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said in its report that 'President Trump will continue to threaten the Nation's security, democracy, and constitutional system if he is allowed to remain in office.'Joshua Roberts / Reuters
Among public, a great divide at moment of Trump impeachment
AP
BOBBY CAINA CALVAN, KATHLEEN RONAYNE AND CALVIN WOODWARD
Dec 19th 2019
They reflect the polling that finds a great divide over whether Trump should be driven from office. On this, though, they might agree with Mark McQueen, a state government worker in Tallahassee, Florida: “Tensions are high across the land."
The Associated Press asked people about the impeachment in a half-dozen states important in the 2020 election or in the primaries that will choose Trump’s Democratic rival.
TEMPE, Arizona
At the moment of Trump's impeachment, the loudspeaker at the Tempe Marketplace blared “Feliz Navidad.” Children danced on a stage next to a Christmas tree taller than the surrounding buildings at this outdoor mall in the Phoenix suburbs.
Ana Daugeterre, a 34-year-old claims adjuster from nearby Mesa, responded “yay!” when she saw the impeachment news on Snapchat while waiting to meet a friend. “He’s very disrespectful, not just to women but to everyone,” she said of Trump.
Few were paying attention to the historic vote, among the young people taking selfies by the tree and the parents watching their children play in the specks of soapy water sprayed from the roof — what counts as snow in the desert.
“Sad day,” pharmacist Rudy Dragone said when he learned what had just happened. “I think they should leave the man alone,” he added. “I don’t think you can run a country without breaking a few eggs.”
Sports and an occasional holiday movie played on more than two dozen televisions at the assorted bars, restaurants, yogurt shops and hair salons. None showed the proceedings in Congress.
Stevie Anderson, a 30-year-old pastry chef from Mesa, found the news a bit anti-climactic. “Part of me is like, ‘It’s about time.' But part of me is like, ‘We could’ve just let him finish his term because he’s almost finished.'
"But, good riddance.”
___
LAS VEGAS
Eddie Ramos, a Las Vegas activist, followed the weeks of proceedings closely but missed the impeachment vote because he was attending a meeting of Latino leaders and Cory Booker, a Democratic presidential contender and senator from New Jersey. Impeachment didn't come up at the meeting.
Ramos clung to hope that the Senate would remove Trump from office — against all expectations. “The concerns right now I’m having is with the Republicans, and the reason is because they don’t see the evidence," Ramos said. "The evidence is right there. They don’t want to listen to anybody.”
As House members started voting, Booker drove across town to meet members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community at a boba shop in the Las Vegas’ Chinatown district. Booker again didn’t bring up the impeachment, instead joking around and chatting with voters before heading off to a town hall.
___
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire
Two televisions by the bar of the Puritan Backroom restaurant in Manchester showed the impeachment debate and vote. Chris Pappas, a Democratic congressman from New Hampshire, is a co-owner of the restaurant and announced just days before that he would support both impeachment articles.
At the restaurant, one person briefly cheered when the first impeachment article reached the necessary number of votes while one woman called out that it was a sad day.
Watching from a table near the television screens showing the vote, Susan Berntsen, a 54-year-old Republican and senior mortgage underwriter at a local bank, said she had voted for Trump in 2016 and felt the House has “tried to get rid of my vote.”
She had voted for Pappas in the past but "I will not vote for him again," she said. She added, though: “We'll frequent his restaurant.”
Walking outside, James Adamonis, a 39-year-old Navy veteran, voiced support for the impeachment. “He does absolutely nothing for this country, especially for veterans like myself," Adamonis said. "He's just an awful president. Everything he's done has been a lie right from the get go."
___
LOS ANGELES
Robert James, 72, was people-watching at a Los Angeles mall and waiting to meet a friend. He felt no need to watch the House debate because he's heard all the talking points already. “It’s kind of like, how much can I listen to, you know?”
He found the impeachment to be a waste of time, even while thinking Trump needed to be “marked” somehow for improper conduct.=
But Jake Murphy, 25, who works at a store in the mall, saw value in what was done and noticed plenty of people keeping tabs on developments. Murphy said the process can feel futile when the outcome — impeachment in the House, acquittal in the Senate — is essentially preordained.
Yet, he said, “I think 20, 30, 40 years from now, we’ll look back when something else worse happens and we’ll have this to stand by. We didn’t remove him from office but we still did something."
___
DENVER
Morgan O’Sullivan, a 31-year-old Denver brewpub owner and Democrat, kept glancing at his phone as it sent him alerts.
His immediate wish: that his state's Republican senator, Cory Gardner, doesn’t just fall into partisan lockstep during the Senate trial on the House articles of impeachment. If Gardner shows some independence, he said, “I’d gain a significant amount of respect for the Republican Party and I’d start to believe there was some bipartisanship out there.”
The holiday song “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” played at Denver’s Union Station as the House voted. Couples sipped drinks and commuters rushed for trains. Almost everyone else was looking at laptop or phone screens but not at the goings-on in Washington.
“That’s happening right now?” Sonia Chacon, a 2016 Trump voter, asked incredulously as she sipped drinks with Loney Mascarenas, who backed Hillary Clinton.
Chacon quickly became disenchanted with Trump after the election and wants him out. She doubted impeachment will accomplish that but said that “it shows we have a voice as a people.”
___
TALLAHASSEE, Florida
"Any time you impeach a president, it's a historic moment,” said Aimee Brewer, 49, a nurse from Monticello, Florida, who voted for Trump in 2016. “Being impeached is bad, but I don't know if it's going to be just a blemish or something bigger. Either way, I'm going to support him.”
She said of the Democrats: "They never really made a decent case against him. We needed a little more proof; it was all circumstantial."
Concerning her support for Trump, she said: “I don't necessarily like listening to him and reading his tweets, but I like everything else he's doing."
Mark McQueen, 46, is an informational technology engineer with the state government and a Democrat. “We are divided as a society," he said. “Tensions are high across the land. I think people risk losing faith in the political process."
____
Calvan reported from Tallahassee, Florida; Ronayne from Los Angeles; and Woodward from Washington. Associated Press writers Nicholas Riccardi in Denver, Hunter Woodall in Manchester, New Hampshire; Jonathan J. Cooper in Tempe, Arizona; and Michelle L. Price in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
Richie Duchon is an NBC News digital editor in the Los Angeles bureau.
Firsta Ndlast @Loves_USA
How poor people survive in the USA | DW Documentary
DW Documentary
Homelessness, hunger and shame: poverty is rampant in the richest country in the world. Over 40 million people in the United States live below the poverty line, twice as many as it was fifty years ago. It can happen very quickly. Many people in the United States fall through the social safety net. In the structurally weak mining region of the Appalachians, it has become almost normal for people to go shopping with food stamps. And those who lose their home often have no choice but to live in a car. There are so many homeless people in Los Angeles that relief organizations have started to build small wooden huts to provide them with a roof over their heads. The number of homeless children has also risen dramatically, reaching 1.5 million, three times more than during the Great Depression the 1930s. A documentary about the fate of the poor in the United States today. .DW Documentary gives you knowledge beyond the headlines. Watch high-class documentaries from German broadcasters and international production companies. Meet intriguing people, travel to distant lands, get a look behind the complexities of daily life and build a deeper understanding of current affairs and global events. Subscribe and explore the world around you with DW Documentary.
Subscribe to DW Documentary:
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Impeachment Briefing: Trump Is Impeached
Impeachment Briefing
The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/us/politics/trump-impeached.html?te=1&nl=impeachment-briefing&emc=edit_ib_20191219?campaign_id=140&instance_id=14651&segment_id=19714&user_id=c5ed3af7cf6db33805e8b866043ab876®i_id=10148370220191219
December 18, 201
By Noah Weiland
Welcome back to the Impeachment Briefing. Today was historic: President Trump was impeached.
What happened on the House floor
The House voted this evening to impeach President Trump over his campaign to pressure Ukraine to investigate a political rival, making him just the third president in American history to be charged with “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
On the first article, for the charge of abuse of power, the vote was split almost entirely along party lines, 230 to 197. Two Democrats sided with Republicans: Collin Peterson and Jeff Van Drew, who has indicated that he plans to switch parties and join the Republicans. Justin Amash, who recently left the Republican Party to become independent, voted for the article, and Tulsi Gabbard, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, voted “present.”
On the second article, concerning obstruction of Congress, the vote was 229 to 198. Members voted the same way as in the first vote, except Jared Golden, Democrat of Maine, who voted “no.” (Here’s how every member of the House voted.)
Hours of debate
The votes came after eight hours of debate in the House. Lawmakers made a barrage of one- to two-minute speeches, with each side laying out a highlight reel of the arguments they have been making for weeks.
Democrats described it as a solemn day, saying they saw it as their duty to protect the Constitution and hold the president accountable. “Our founders’ vision of a republic is under threat from actions from the White House,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “If we do not act now, we would be derelict in our duty. It is tragic that the president’s reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice.”
Republicans argued that Democrats have been hellbent on impeaching Mr. Trump since he first took office, with the Ukraine affair merely a convenient scandal to reach that end. “This day is about one thing and one thing only: They hate this president,” said Representative Chris Stewart of Utah. “They hate those of us who voted for him. They think we are stupid. They think we made a mistake.”
The president’s reaction
Mr. Trump took the stage at a campaign rally tonight in Battle Creek, Mich., just minutes before he was impeached, an extraordinary scene where thousands of supporters responded to the votes in real time as Mr. Trump railed against House Democrats.
During the day Mr. Trump sent more than 45 tweets defending himself and amplifying messages from supporters. “SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS,” he said in one tweet. “THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!”
Meanwhile, in Michigan …
I’m writing the Impeachment Briefing today from snowy, frigid Battle Creek, a town of around 50,000 and the epicenter of American cereal production, where the scent of Rice Krispies and Raisin Bran sometimes wafts through the air. Tonight it was a hive of pro-Trump, anti-impeachment fervor, the only time in American history when a president held a campaign rally the night of his impeachment.
Thousands of Trump supporters wrapped in scarves and parkas lined up early this morning, some of them waving flags featuring Mr. Trump holding an assault rifle, while a large screen nearby pumped out videos the Trump campaign made with the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara. Unofficial vendors sold goods with “Trump 2020: No More,” with an expletive at the end.
As this newsletter is being sent out, Mr. Trump is standing onstage about a hundred feet in front of me, dozens of other journalists and more than 6,000 cheering supporters. He took the stage around 17 minutes before his impeachment was finalized, leading to a surreal moment in the arena. About an hour in, Mr. Trump read off the vote counts, boasting about how unified Republicans were.
“The Republican Party has never been so affronted, but they’ve never been so united,” he said.”
Battle Creek, in between liberal strongholds like Kalamazoo and East Lansing, is in some ways the perfect image of Mr. Trump’s political vulnerability in 2020. It’s the industrial hub of a county that went for Mr. Trump in 2016, but went twice for President Barack Obama.
Many Trump supporters I talked to this afternoon borrowed the president’s anti-impeachment vocabulary, which we’ve become familiar with in the past few weeks as the final vote approached.
“They don’t have any direct evidence,” said Karen Paul, a Flint resident. “It’s all hearsay. If anybody is affecting the 2020 election, it’s them.”
“It’s nothing but a witch hunt in the House,” said Maureen Sloan, a resident of Dexter, Mich.
“Good god, just look at the transcript,” Charles Crookston said.
Near the beginning of his speech tonight, Mr. Trump seemed to wonder in bemusement at his fate.
“It doesn’t really feel like we’re being impeached,” he said, to roars.
Here’s our story on the rally, which will be updated as the night goes on.
What happens next
The House is expected to vote tonight to empower Ms. Pelosi to name impeachment managers — House lawmakers who act much like prosecutors and present findings of the impeachment inquiry to the Senate. We’re likely to learn the managers’ identities in the coming days.
After this week, Congress will go on a two-week break for the holidays, returning the week of Jan. 6.
The Senate is expected to begin its trial after its members return, where they have the power to convict the president with a two-thirds majority — thus removing him from office — or acquit him.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to the impeachment process.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/us/politics/trump-impeached.html?te=1&nl=impeachment-briefing&emc=edit_ib_20191219?campaign_id=140&instance_id=14651&segment_id=19714&user_id=c5ed3af7cf6db33805e8b866043ab876®i_id=10148370220191219
Speaker Nancy Pelosi arriving at her office on Wednesday before the House voted on articles of impeachment against President Trump.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
Tourists on Wednesday morning at the Capitol.Credit...Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times
Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, on Wednesday at the Capitol.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Time
A visitor to the Capitol taking a picture of the Washington Monument as the House debated articles of impeachment.Credit...Jason Andrew for The New York Times
Trump Impeached for Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress
Voting nearly along party lines, the House approved two articles of impeachment against President Trump, making him the third president in history to face removal by the Senate.
The Democratic-led House of Representatives charged President Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.CreditCredit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
By Nicholas Fandos and Michael D. Shear
Published Dec. 18, 2019
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives on Wednesday impeached President Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, making him the third president in history to be charged with committing high crimes and misdemeanors and face removal by the Senate.
On a day of constitutional consequence and raging partisan tension, the votes on the two articles of impeachment fell largely along party lines, after a bitter debate that stretched into the evening and reflected the deep polarization gripping American politics in the Trump era.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/18/us/politics/trump-impeachment-vote.html?mtrref=www.nytimes.com&gwh=F9ABDF3227150E7BDC8DC64FAE53C37C&gwt=pay&assetType=REGIWALL
Only two Democrats opposed the article on abuse of power, which accused Mr. Trump of corruptly using the levers of government to solicit election assistance from Ukraine in the form of investigations to discredit his Democratic political rivals. Republicans were united in opposition. It passed 230 to 197, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi gaveling the vote to a close from the House rostrum.
On the second charge, obstruction of Congress, a third Democrat joined Republicans in opposition. The vote was 229 to 198.
The impeachment votes set the stage for a historic trial beginning early next year in the Senate, which will have final say — 10 months before Mr. Trump faces re-election — on whether to acquit the 45th president or convict and remove him from office.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/us/politics/senate-impeachment-trial.html
The timing was uncertain, after Ms. Pelosi suggested late Wednesday that she might wait to send the articles to the Senate, holding them out as leverage in a negotiation on the terms of a trial
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/us/politics/impeachment-trial.html
Impeachment Results: How Democrats and Republicans Voted
See how each House member voted on the articles of impeachment against President Trump.
Acquittal in the Republican-controlled chamber may be likely, but the proceeding is certain to further aggravate the political and cultural fault lines in the country that Mr. Trump’s presidency has brought into dramatic relief. Regardless of the outcome, the impeachment votes in the House put an indelible stain on Mr. Trump’s presidency that cannot be wiped from the public consciousness with a barrage of tweets or an angry tirade in front of thousands of his cheering supporters at a campaign rally.
On Wednesday, Democrats characterized his impeachment as an urgent action to stop a corrupt president whose misdeeds had unfolded in plain view from damaging the United States any further.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/us/impeachment-democrats-votes.html
“Over the course of the last three months, we have found incontrovertible evidence that President Trump abused his power by pressuring the newly elected president of Ukraine to announce an investigation into President Trump’s political rival,” said Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the Intelligence Committee chairman, who led the impeachment inquiry.
“The president and his men plot on,” Mr. Schiff said. “The danger persists. The risk is real. Our democracy is at peril.”
Far from showing contrition or contemplating resignation, as his predecessors have done in the face of impeachment, Mr. Trump instead offered an indignant defense as the House weighed his fate, raging on Twitter from the White House.
“SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS,” the president wrote as the debate took place on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. “THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!”
Donald J. TrumpVerified account @realDonaldTrump
SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS. THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!
9:44 am - 18 Dec 2019
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1207355923573989376
Later, as members cast their votes to impeach him in Washington, Mr. Trump took the stage to roars of adulation from his supporters at an arena-style campaign rally in Battle Creek, Mich. He brushed aside the constitutional confrontation as a “hoax” based on unfounded charges, even as he conceded that it would be a permanent blot on his presidency.
“I’m not worried,” Mr. Trump said. “You don’t do anything wrong and you get impeached. That may be a record that will last forever.”
“But you know what they have done?” he said of Democrats. “They have cheapened the impeachment process.”
Senators, he added, “are going to do the right thing.”
Despite years of speculation, Mr. Trump’s impeachment did not, in the end, grow out of the two-year investigation into Russian election meddling by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, or the seemingly endless series of other accusations of corruption and misconduct that have plagued this White House: tax evasion, profiting from the presidency, payoffs to a pornographic film actress and fraudulent activities by his charitable foundation.
Instead, the existential threat to Mr. Trump’s presidency centered around a half-hour phone call in July. On it, he pressured Ukraine’s president to announce investigations into former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and other Democrats at the same time he was withholding nearly $400 million in vital military assistance for the country and a White House meeting.
Congress learned about the call after an anonymous C.I.A. official lodged a whistle-blower complaint in August — pulling a string that helped unravel an effort by the president and his allies to pressure a foreign government for help in smearing a political rival. Over a period of weeks this fall, a parade of diplomats and other administration officials confirmed and expanded on those revelations.
When Congress sought to investigate, the president ordered his administration to defy its every request, leading to what the House said Wednesday was a violation of the separation of powers and a de facto assertion by Mr. Trump that he was above the law.
United in their opposition, Republicans accused the Democrats, who fought their way back from political oblivion in 2016 to win the House in 2018, of misusing the power voters had invested in them to harangue a president they never viewed as legitimate by manufacturing a case against him. Though they conceded few of them, they insisted the facts against Mr. Trump nonetheless fell woefully short of impeachment.
“When all is said and done, when the history of this impeachment is written, it will be said that my Washington Democrat friends couldn’t bring themselves to work with Donald Trump, so they consoled themselves instead by silencing the will of those who did, the American people,” said Representative Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina.
Throughout the inquiry, even as Republicans raged against the process and sought to offer benign explanations for Mr. Trump’s conduct, none disputed the central facts that served as its basis: that he asked Ukraine’s president to “do us a favor” and investigate Mr. Biden, a prospective rival in the 2020 campaign, and other Democrats.
Mr. Trump’s impeachment had the potential to change the trajectory of his presidency and redefine an already volatile political landscape. Democrats, including the most vulnerable moderates, embraced the articles of impeachment with the full knowledge that doing so could damage them politically, potentially even costing them control of the House.
The only Democratic dissenters from the abuse of power charge on Wednesday were Representatives Collin C. Peterson of Minnesota and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, a freshman who has announced that he will switch parties and become a Republican. Representative Jared Golden of Maine, another centrist freshman, joined them in opposition to the obstruction of Congress charge.
And Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a Democratic presidential contender who has built her reputation as a maverick in her party, voted “present” on both articles.
Republicans tethered themselves to Mr. Trump, as they have since he took office, yoking their political brands and fortunes to his.
The debate proceeded in historic terms in the well of the House, even as an odd sense of inevitability hung over Washington about Mr. Trump’s fate.
“Today, as speaker of the House, I solemnly and sadly open the debate on the impeachment of the president of the United States,” Ms. Pelosi, dressed in all black, said as debate opened on the articles around noon. “If we do not act now, we would be derelict in our duty. It is tragic that the president’s reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice.”
After the votes, Ms. Pelosi would not say when she would transmit the articles to the Senate, indicating she might wait to do so until she got certain assurances about the fairness of a trial. With Mr. Trump and his allies interested in a speedy acquittal, Ms. Pelosi believes slowing the process could force Senate Republicans to set procedures the Democrats like, people close to her said.
Her comments at least raised the prospect that the House could leave for the holidays with the matter unresolved and the timing of the trial in limbo.
In the Senate, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, has already made clear he views the House’s case as “weak” and would prefer a swift trial in January that does not call any additional fact witnesses. That would increase the likelihood that Congress will simply never hear from several senior government officials with knowledge of the Ukraine matter who avoided House testimony.
Impeachment traces its origins to monarchical England, but the framers of the Constitution confined its use on presidents to rare occasions, when their actions corrupted the public interest for personal ones. Only twice previously has the House impeached a president, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. President Richard M. Nixon resigned in 1974 rather than face such a consequence.
Johnson remained in office by a single vote in 1868. Mr. Clinton more soundly beat the charges, with no more than half of the Senate voting for conviction after more than a month of deliberations. The trial of Mr. Trump is likely to reach a similar outcome, but it could do so much more quickly, with some Senate Republicans discussing the possibility that the case could be resolved in little more than a week.
As he did in the face of past accusations, Mr. Trump, 73, railed against impeachment as a “witch hunt” and a “hoax,” attacking his adversaries with a viciousness rarely heard from previous presidents.
“More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials,” the president seethed in an angry impeachment eve letter to Ms. Pelosi.
In Mr. Trump’s reality, reinforced by the conservative cable news programs that swirl around him throughout the day, his three years in the White House have been more successful than any other. Wednesday’s impeachment intrudes on that, forcing the president and those around him to confront a different narrative, one in which he has — in the words of the articles of impeachment — “betrayed the nation” and acted “in a manner grossly incompatible with self governance and the rule of law.”
“Whether Donald Trump leaves in one month, one year or five years, this impeachment is permanent,” said Representative Ted Lieu, Democrat of California. “It will follow him around for the rest of his life, and history books will record it.”
The absolutist defense by many members of the Republican Party and the partisan nature of Wednesday’s votes underscored the remarkable hold that Mr. Trump, who has never commanded the support of a majority of the nation, has come to have over the party, remaking it in his image.
One Republican, Representative Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, compared Mr. Trump on Wednesday with Jesus Christ, saying that the son of God had been “afforded more rights” by Pontius Pilate than Democrats had given the president.
Democrats’ most fervent supporters have fantasized since Inauguration Day 2017 about impeaching Mr. Trump, an extreme remedy for the ultimate insurgent they believed was shredding American institutions in his self-interest. The debate reached a new pitch this year when they reclaimed control of the House after nearly a decade and awaited the results of a two-year Justice Department investigation into whether Mr. Trump’s campaign had conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election.
But as the left pushed harder for Mr. Trump’s ouster, Democratic leaders resisted. “He’s just not worth it,” Ms. Pelosi said in March. The Russia investigation fizzled when the special counsel declined to recommend charges, even though his report detailed at least 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice by Mr. Trump when he tried to thwart the inquiry. By the time lawmakers returned to Washington this fall after a summer break, impeachment appeared all but dead.
Ms. Pelosi’s calculations — and public opinion — shifted abruptly in September, when the C.IA. whistle-blower arrived on the House’s doorstep.
The inquiry it prompted moved with alacrity, even as Democrats did not have an independent counsel or special prosecutor on whose work they could build. Instead, the House Intelligence Committee called senior American diplomats and White House officials for questioning and requested reams of documents.
In private and then in publicly televised hearings — and all in defiance of White House orders — they outlined a wide-ranging attempt by Mr. Trump and his allies to bend American policy on Ukraine toward carrying out what one former White House official called “a domestic political errand” on the president’s behalf.
Fueling the obstruction of Congress charge, a dozen more witnesses, some with direct knowledge of Mr. Trump’s actions, were blocked from speaking to investigators, and the Trump administration refused to produce a single document under subpoena.
As the facts tumbled into the open, there were moments when Republicans in the House and in the Senate flirted with casting their lot against the president. After the acting White House chief of staff said in October that Mr. Trump had withheld military aid in part to extract at least one politically beneficial investigation from Ukraine, Representative Francis Rooney of Florida said he was open to impeachment. But on Wednesday, he joined every Republican in voting no.
Testimony in November by Gordon D. Sondland, Mr. Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, that there had been a quid pro quo around a White House meeting and maybe around the foreign aid money prompted momentary fears of a mass defection. It did not materialize.
If anything, the process underscored the extent to which the nation was splitting in two, with each side claiming its own news sources and fact sets that make meaningful debate between Democrats and Republicans over the significance of president’s conduct almost impossible. Public opinion polls show the nation is as closely divided over Mr. Trump’s impeachment and removal as it was on Election Day 2016.
On Wednesday, neither lawmakers nor aides to Mr. Trump foresaw a resolution to the broader fight.
“We know how this partisan process will end this evening,” said Representative Will Hurd of Texas, one of a handful of Republicans willing to criticize the president’s conduct and who is retiring from Congress. “But what happens tomorrow?”
Nicholas Fandos is a national reporter based in the Washington bureau. He has covered Congress since 2017 and is part of a team of reporters who have chronicled investigations by the Justice Department and Congress into President Trump and his administration. @npfandos
Michael D. Shear is a White House correspondent. He previously worked at The Washington Post and was a member of their Pulitzer Prize-winning team that covered the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007. @shearm
What to Expect Today
What time will everything start? How long will it last?
Debate should start on the House floor around 9 a.m. and will probably last all day, ahead of a likely vote in the early evening.
What will it look like?
Tomorrow will probably be a mix of decorum and chaos, fiery speeches and sober appeals. Once it’s time for the vote, the House will handle the two articles of impeachment separately, in close succession, and then adopt a procedural measure to lay out what comes next. That will involve the appointment of impeachment managers and the transmission of the articles to the Senate.
How heavy-handed will Democrats be?
The debate and the vote will expose what might not be the most savory aspect of Congress: The majority rules, and it rules completely. Republicans can protest and argue as much as they want. But Democrats set the rules. The House, a majoritarian institution, is tasked with presenting the charges to the Senate, which is supposed to be a less partisan, more balanced arbiter.
Does today signal the end of the impeachment case for House Democrats?
The House will follow the case to the Senate and form the prosecution, meaning a small appointed group of House members and their lawyers will trek over to that side of the Capitol and make the case for impeachment. They might make a push to get new evidence presented in the Senate trial. That is kind of their final venue for the work that they have been doing over the past three months.Common Questions About Impeachment
What is impeachment?
Impeachment is charging a holder of public office with misconduct.
Why is the impeachment process happening now?
A whistle-blower complaint filed in August said that White House officials believed they had witnessed Mr. Trump abuse his power for political gain.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/us/politics/whistleblower-declassified-report.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=STYLN_trump_playbook&variant=1_trump_playbook®ion=footer&context=guide
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Create your free account or log in to continue reading.
Can you explain what President Trump is accused of doing?
President Trump is accused of breaking the law by pressuring the president of Ukraine to look into former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a potential Democratic opponent in the 2020 election.
What did the President say to the president of Ukraine?
Here is a reconstructed transcript of Mr. Trump’s call to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, released by The White House.
What is the impeachment process like?
Here are answers to seven key questions about the process.
How the Impeachment Process Works
The inquiry into President Trump has the potential to reshape
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/us/politics/impeachment-trump-explained.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=STYLN_trump_playbook&variant=1_trump_playbook®ion=footer&context=guide
Far from showing contrition or contemplating resignation, as his predecessors have done in the face of impeachment, Mr. Trump instead offered an indignant defense as the House weighed his fate, raging on Twitter from the White House.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1207355923573989376
“SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS,” the president wrote as the debate took place on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. “THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!”
Donald J. TrumpVerified account @realDonaldTrump
SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS. THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!
9:44 am - 18 Dec 201
Eugene Gu, MDVerified account @eugenegu 19h19 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Nothing like tweeting in all caps screaming about an assault on America and an assault on the Republican Party to show how unhinged this President really is. Trump is doing an all out assault on our democratic institutions, the rule of law, and most of all, the American people.
Eugene Gu, MDVerified account @eugenegu 19h19 hours ago
There’s an old legal saying. “If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table." For Trump, he pounds Twitter in all caps like a guilty maniac hiding from the facts and truth.
(((DeanObeidallah)))Verified account @DeanObeidallah 19h19 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Trump is right- he should not be getting IMPEACHED today. Instead Trump should be getting INDICTED!! He committed multiple federal crimes from bribery to wire fraud to extortion! #ImpeachmentDay
(((DeanObeidallah)))ᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠ
Thanks John!! I got some.
#ThePersistenceVerified account @ScottPresler 19h19 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
The democrats are really after us, but they’re going after you because you’re the only thing standing in their way. Thank you for protecting us, Mister President.
Ouitweet @Oui_Tweet
Your right. They hate us.. and want to force us into their way of thinking
New conversation
Jeff Tiedrich @itsJeffTiedrich
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
NOT NOW MISTER PRESIDENT SIR THE GROWNUPS ARE TALKING
Firsta Ndlast @Loves_USA
The Hoarse Whisperer @HoarseWisperer
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
You know who never got impeached? This guy.
Sheila @SheilaGaston200
My new screen saver pic
Alyssa MilanoVerified account @Alyssa_Milano
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
He should work on his anger management problem.
Amy Siskind Verified account @Amy_Siskind 18h18 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
RESIGN!
HIGHSPEED Magazine @HighSpeedMag
NO. Resignation is for people who have honor. He needs to be the first president removed.
Andy OstroyVerified account @AndyOstroy
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
LOOKS LIKE SOMEONE'S TOTALLY LOSING HIS SHIT... #Trump #Impeachment
Z.J. Majewski @ne0mega 19h19 hours ago
I'm just here like...
Brian Tyler CohenVerified account @briantylercohen
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
The leader of the Party of Personal Responsibility is doing a lot of finger pointing today.
Levi Warren @LeviWarren77
Maybe because he is speaking truth.
422 replies .1 retweet72 like
Andy OstroyVerified account @AndyOstroy
Mor
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
It's all fun and games until someone gets impeached....
Reality Has a Liberal Bias @Liberal_Bias
47 tweets so far today. What's the over/under on where he'll end the day?
Tomi T AhonenVerified account @tomiahonen
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Let's play! Six Degrees of Kevin Putin Pelosi to Trump: "All roads with you lead to Putin" Giuliani - Firtash - Putin Pence - Manafort - Deripaska - Putin Don Jr - Torshin - Putin Jared - Veselnitskaya - Putin McTurtle - Deripaska - Putin Rand Paul - Kilimnik - Kosachev - Putin
FLIP THE SENATE @WatchingWhatYou
Don't forget Nunes- Firtash McCarthy-Parna
Jeff Tiedrich @itsJeffTiedrich 19h19 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
sir, this is a Wendy's drive-thru
Htygrett1 @Htygrett1 19h19 hours ago
(((DeanObeidallah)))Verified account @DeanObeidallah 19h19 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Watching Trump freak out is joyful-not bc Im cruel like Trump. But it means Trump is feeling a taste of the pain he has caused to so many from his demonizing Blacks, Latinos +Muslims to mocking the disabled to defending men who abuse women to anti-LGBT policies #MerryImpeachmas
Sheldon @Sheldon51955542 17h17 hours ago
Lori Hendry @Lrihendry 19h19 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
OMG! I despise what they’re doing to our President— Who has done nothing wrong! He’s guilty of loving the people and MAGA! We love you, Mr President
Linda Keating @lindak1973 18h18 hours ago
No we don’t. He is a horrible person and deserves everything he gets
New conversation
Mia FarrowVerified account @MiaFarrow 16h16 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Its not only that you are unqualified & unwilling to learn. Or that you are cruel, corrupt & untruthful. Its not only that you believe Putin’s lies rather than our intel, have no respect for rule of law and favor whites over people of color.ALL of it makes you a danger to America
Mia FarrowVerified account @MiaFarrow 14h14 hours ago
Im no lawyer but for me personally, his order to separate children from parents, the indefinite incarceration of children, denying them life saving vaccines- - in my books, this constitutes abuse of power and crimes against humanity.
New conversation
Lesley Abravanel Verified account @lesleyabravanel 18h18 hours ago
M
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
YOU ARE A WHINY ASS BITCH. YOU ARE BEING IMPEACHED FOR YOUR ASSAULT ON THE CONSTITUTION! #TrumpResign #ResignTrump #RemoveTrump #ImpeachmentDay
@Buddhakitty @LoriSilver928 10h10 hours ago
John PavlovitzVerified account @johnpavlovitz 19h19 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
An assault on this Republican Party can't be an assault on America, you all caps-typing ignoramus. By the way, shouldn't you be working right now?
The Hermster @hermanw741 10h10 hours ago
“SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS,” the president wrote as the debate took place on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. “THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!”
Donald J. TrumpVerified account @realDonaldTrump
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1207355923573989376
Eugene Gu, MDVerified account @eugenegu 19h19 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Nothing like tweeting in all caps screaming about an assault on America and an assault on the Republican Party to show how unhinged this President really is. Trump is doing an all out assault on our democratic institutions, the rule of law, and most of all, the American people.
Eugene Gu, MDVerified account @eugenegu
There’s an old legal saying. “If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table." For Trump, he pounds Twitter in all caps like a guilty maniac hiding from the facts and truth.
(((DeanObeidallah)))Verified account @DeanObeidallah
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Trump is right- he should not be getting IMPEACHED today. Instead Trump should be getting INDICTED!! He committed multiple federal crimes from bribery to wire fraud to extortion! #ImpeachmentDay
(((DeanObeidallah)))ᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠ
Thanks John!! I got some.
#ThePersistenceVerified account @ScottPresler
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
The democrats are really after us, but they’re going after you because you’re the only thing standing in their way. Thank you for protecting us, Mister President.
Ouitweet @Oui_Tweet
Your right. They hate us.. and want to force us into their way of thinking
New conversation
Jeff Tiedrich @itsJeffTiedrich
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
NOT NOW MISTER PRESIDENT SIR THE GROWNUPS ARE TALKING
Alyssa MilanoVerified account @Alyssa_Milano 14h14 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
He should work on his anger management problem.
Amy Siskind Verified account @Amy_Siskind 18h18 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
RESIGN!
HIGHSPEED Magazine @HighSpeedMag
NO. Resignation is for people who have honor. He needs to be the first president removed.
Andy OstroyVerified account @AndyOstroy
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
LOOKS LIKE SOMEONE'S TOTALLY LOSING HIS SHIT... #Trump #Impeachment
Z.J. Majewski @ne0mega
I'm just here like...
Brian Tyler CohenVerified account @briantylercohen
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
The leader of the Party of Personal Responsibility is doing a lot of finger pointing today.
Levi Warren @LeviWarren77
Maybe because he is speaking truth.
Andy OstroyVerified account @AndyOstroy
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
It's all fun and games until someone gets impeached....
Reality Has a Liberal Bias @Liberal_Bias
47 tweets so far today. What's the over/under on where he'll end the day?
Buckle-up for 2020-the make-or-break year in which our country either reclaims normalcy or
doubles down on the crazy.#TheDividedStatesOfAmerica #VOTE
Trump blasts Pelosi for 'crying for fairness' in Senate trial
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/23/trump-blasts-pelosi-for-crying-for-fairness-in-senate-trial/23886944/
ALLAN SMITH Dec 23rd 2019
President Donald Trump on Monday decried House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's call for "fairness" in a Senate trial as both chambers of Congress remain at a stalemate over the next steps in his impeachment.
"Pelosi gives us the most unfair trial in the history of the U.S. Congress, and now she is crying for fairness in the Senate, and breaking all rules while doing so," Trump tweeted. "She lost Congress once, she will do it again!"
Trump tweeted shortly after Pelosi, D-Calif., posted that the House "cannot choose our impeachment managers until we know what sort of trial the Senate will conduct."
"President Trump blocked his own witnesses and documents from the House, and from the American people, on phony complaints about the House process," she twed. "What is his excuse now?"
Pelosi has said she does not intend to transmit the articles over to the Senate until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announces the process by which the Senate will conduct the trial.
As it stands, McConnell has said he wants the Senate to conform to the precedent set in 1999, during then-President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial, which including a two-resolution process: first, an initial agreement to first hear case and then a later vote on whether to call witnesses.
McConnell's counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has pushed for a single resolution that would set parameters for presenting the case and allow for the calling of witnesses. Schumer has said he wants the Senate to call former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, as well as two others, as witnesses to testify about Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine.
Speaking with "Fox and Friends" Monday, McConnell said "we're at an impasse" and "we can't do anything until the speaker sends the papers over, so everybody enjoy the holidays."
McConnell blasted Pelosi for trying to "tell us how to run the trial."
"Look, what we need to do is to listen to the arguments, have a written questioning period, and then decide whether we need witnesses or not," McConnell said, adding that some Republican senators "have said, 'I am thinking of myself as a juror,'" while others believe "the case against President Trump is very thin."
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Schumer said the Senate "is yearning to give President Trump due process, which means that documents and witnesses should come forward."
"What is a trial with no witnesses and no documents?" Schumer said. "It's a sham trial. And that's why feel so strongly that there ought to be witnesses and documents."
He pledged the trial would "be very, very fair."
The House approved two articles of impeachment against Trump last week. The first charged the president with abusing his power by pushing Ukraine to probe former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden and Democrats while Trump withheld nearly $400 million in military aid to the country as well as an official White House visit for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The second article charged Trump with obstructing Congress' efforts to probe those efforts.
This weekend, newly released emails showed that a request to withhold Ukrainian military aid came less than two hours after Trump's July 25 phone call with Zelenskiy, which is at the center of the impeachment proceedings.
Schumer said those documents show "how important having these witnesses are."
President Donald Trump arrives at W. K. Kellogg Airport as the US House of Representatives debates his impeachment December 18, 2019, in Battle Creek, Michigan. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
Pelosi and McConnell, masters of the congressional chessboard, face off over impeachment
Yahoo News
ALEXANDER NAZARYAN Dec 20th 2019
WASHINGTON — The fate of the Trump impeachment — in fact, the fate of the entire Trump presidency — now rests on the outcome of a battle between the two ablest political generals in recent American history: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
They are struggling over a few sheets of paper that, when stapled together, barely rival a standard apartment lease in heft. These are the articles of impeachment — one charging abuse of power, the other obstruction of Congress — approved by the House of Representatives on Wednesday, in a step that had been taken only twice before in American history.
These articles are now supposed to be transmitted to the Senate for a trial that could lead to Trump’s acquittal, or his removal from office. But that trial cannot begin until Pelosi names impeachment managers — in effect, prosecutors — to transmit those articles to the Senate.
Wednesday’s vote had not been a surprise. What followed was: a press conference in which Pelosi announced she would not send the articles of impeachment until McConnell made certain assurances about the procedures the Senate would follow. Democrats know that the Republican majority in that chamber is sure to acquit Trump, whatever rules are adopted for the trial. All the same, they don’t want the trial to amount to a farce.
McConnell promptly accused Pelosi of “hemming and hawing” in one tweet. Another tweet from the morning after impeachment taunted Democrats, accusing them of getting “cold feet” about their case against Trump.
While revealing little about how long the delay would last, Pelosi indicated, as she has several times since the impeachment vote, that she is not rattled by such attacks.
“I don’t care what the Republicans say,” she told journalists during her weekly press conference on Thursday.
In effect, an outright confrontation between Pelosi and McConnell became inevitable when she was named speaker after Democrats retook the House in the 2018 midterm congressional elections. Since then, McConnell has refused to take up a number of Democratic bills passed by the House, including measures on gun control, voting rights and transgender protections. He has gleefully owned the nickname of “the Grim Reaper” for his approach to Democratic legislation.
Yet much as Democrats dislike McConnell, they’ve had few means to challenge him directly.
Until now.
No confrontation over legislation is as complex or consequential as that over presidential impeachment. It is especially so because the House brings the articles of impeachment to the Senate and argues its case there. Rarely, if ever, are the two chambers so extensively — and publicly — enmeshed in each other’s affairs.
And in a sense, Pelosi and McConnell are the perfect leaders for these supremely strange and significant times. Both are exceedingly gifted tacticians who can maintain their equipoise even in the most tense moments. Both keep firm control over their caucuses.
Both have also been here before, more than once. Pelosi was speaker during the 2008 financial crisis, which was taking place in the midst of a presidential race. A bank bailout was necessary, but also unpopular with many Democrats. At one point, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson actually got down on bended knee to beg Pelosi to marshal the votes necessary to save the financial system from what many feared would be a complete collapse. She failed at first, but eventually mustered enough votes to pass a bipartisan $700 billion bailout.
Pelosi is “best at one of the most critical, if not most critical, roles of speaker, which is to court votes and count votes,” Brookings Institution fellow Elaine Kamarck wrote in 2018, adding that Pelosi was especially adept at “understanding the political challenges of each and every member of Congress and then devising a legislative package that can pass.”
Another key victory for Pelosi was the passage of the Affordable Care Act under President Barack Obama. At points, the complexity and seeming unpopularity of the health care bill seemed to doom its prospects, but once again Pelosi patiently and diligently scrounged for the necessary votes, working the halls of Congress after the fashion of legendary leaders like Sam Rayburn or Tip O’Neill.
“As an act of legislative prowess, her revival of [the Affordable Care Act] remains a signature accomplishment,” Ryan Grim recently wrote in the Intercept, a progressive publication that tends to be critical of mainstream Democrats like Pelosi.
If Democrats are generally in awe of the House speaker, conservatives feel the same way about the man who sells “Cocaine Mitch” T-shirts on his website (the joking reference is to a slur by a failed Senate candidate from neighboring West Virginia). “He’s a master of Senate rules and procedure, he’s politically savvy and he’s tough as nails,” says Mike Davis, a conservative operative whose organization, the Article III Project, has worked on judicial nominations with Senate Republicans.
Davis predicted that McConnell would “eat Pelosi's lunch in a congressional feud over impeachment.”
McConnell’s most consequential decision in recent years has been to refuse to take up the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in the final year of the Obama administration, leaving the seat open for Trump to fill. The open seat became a rallying cry for conservatives during the 2016 campaign.
The Garland fight was the capstone of a years-long effort by McConnell to remake the federal judiciary. His “historic judge blockade” during the Obama presidency, as Politico deemed it, left dozens of vacancies on the federal bench. These have since been filled by Trump nominees.
And it was McConnell’s steadfastness that rescued the Supreme Court confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, which had been imperiled by allegations of sexual misconduct. Other Republicans began to waver, fearing popular backlash. McConnell did not.
“I’m stronger than mule piss,” he said of his own resolve.
And if McConnell wants legislation to die, the death is all but certain. For example, an election security bill co-sponsored by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., seemed destined for easy passage in the Senate. But at the urging of the White House — whose legal counsel at the time, Don McGahn, is a close McConnell ally — the Senate majority leader prevailed on Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and the bill was promptly dispatched to the legislative graveyard.
Having waged plenty of proxy battles, Pelosi and McConnell now face each other directly on impeachment, which dwarfs every previous confrontation.
Pelosi, for her part, has been circumspect in her statements, saying that she does want to have a Senate trial, but that absent certain provisions, including seeking testimony and documents from administration witnesses, the trial would be a disservice to the Constitution. She has allowed legal scholars to make the argument that the House can unilaterally hold back the articles from the Senate.
Not all legal scholars agree that the tactic is permissible — or wise. Noah Feldman, a Harvard law professor who testified as a Democratic witness during the impeachment inquiry, argued in a widely shared Bloomberg op-ed that if Pelosi fails to transmit the articles, she will have effectively aborted the entire impeachment process, thus allowing Trump to declare himself acquitted.
McConnell may have committed a rare misstep when he seemed to admit that he had little interest in hearing the evidence the House has gathered against Trump. “I’m not impartial about this at all,” he said the day before Trump was impeached. Several days before that, he had informed Sean Hannity of Fox News that there was “total coordination” between him and the White House counsel on a framework for the trial.
These admissions have provided Pelosi and fellow Democrats with grounds for arguing that McConnell is not interested in holding a fair trial and that they are justified in holding back the articles until he makes what they deem to be necessary concessions.
The Democratic delay tactics have infuriated McConnell, though they are not all that different from how he has often maneuvered in the Senate. The morning after the impeachment vote, he raged against Democrats on the Senate floor, accusing them of conducting a “shoddy” impeachment inquiry, the results of which they now feared, he surmised, to put in the Senate’s hands.
Pelosi does not appear to have been rattled. Speaking to Politico on Thursday, she said she was “never afraid” and “rarely surprised.”
U.S. President Donald Trump impeached
CBC News
The Democrat-led House of Representatives has passed two articles of impeachment that charged Trump with abuse of power for his dealings with Ukraine and with obstruction of Congress. To read more:
https://www.cbc.ca/1.5400411 »»»
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Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch speaks at the event on board a decommissioned aircraft carrier docked in the Hudson River in New York,
Trump becomes third U.S. president to be impeached | Nine News Australia
•Dec 19, 2019
Nine News Australia
#9News #NineNewsAustralia #9NewsAUS
Donald Trump has become the third US President in history to be impeached on two counts of abuse of power and obstructing the work of Congress. Subscribe: https://bit.ly/2noaGhv Get more breaking news at: https://bit.ly/2nobVgF Join Nine News for the latest in news and events that affect you in your local city, as well as news from across Australia and the world. Follow Nine News on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/9News/ Follow Nine News on Twitter: https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS Follow Nine News on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/9news/
A person votes during the midterm election at P.S. 140 in Manhattan on Nov. 6, 2018.Andrew Kelly / Reuters file
Billy D Resist 45* Never Again is Right Now @EugJHawk
Replying to @realDonaldTrumpSomebody_Stop-Me_Donald_Trump_Cartoon_Poster
McConnell: Senate GOP has not ruled out witnesses in Trump trial
THOMSON REUTERS
Dec 23rd 2019 9:53AM
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/23/mcconnell-senate-gop-has-not-ruled-out-witnesses-in-trump-trial/23886646/
WASHINGTON, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday that Republicans were not opposed to hearing witnesses in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
"We haven't ruled out witnesses," McConnell said in an interview with "Fox & Friends." "We've said, 'Let's handle this case just like we did with President Clinton.' Fair is fair."
In that 1999 trial, he said, senators went through opening arguments, had a written question period and then decided what witnesses to call based on that.
McConnell and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer failed to reach an agreement on Thursday on Schumer's demand that witnesses testify at the trial, which McConnell said would be the Republican-led Senate's first order of business in the new year.
"We remain at an impasse on these logistics," McConnell said on Thursday. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Toby Chopra and Steve Orlofsky)
Trump says strained relationship with Australia fixed following gala dinner with Prime Minister
The two had ‘a testy exchange’ when Trump first came to office.
https://www.thejournal.ie/trump-australia-spat-3374291-May2017/
May 5th 2017,
DONALD TRUMP MET Australia’s Malcolm Turnbull for a patch-things-up summit in New York yesterday, when the US president said an earlier telephone spat had been “all worked out”.
Trump claimed a bad-tempered call with the Australian prime minister early in his White House tenure had been “fake news” that was a “big exaggeration” by the media.
However, during a speech later in the evening, he admitted it “got a little bit testy”.
Trump reportedly exploded and cut short the call when he was told about a Barack Obama-era deal to move refugees from Australia to America.
The president took to Twitter afterward to call the agreement “dumb,” rattling a decades-old alliance.
“It’s all worked out. It’s been worked out for a long time,” Trump said on Thursday, as the pair, dressed in black tie, smiled and swapped legislative war stories.
“We had a great telephone call. You guys exaggerated that call. That was a big exaggeration. We’re not babies,” Trump said during his first meeting with Turnbull, reverting to his favoured tactic of media-bashing.
“We get along great. We have a fantastic relationship. I love Australia. I always have,” he added.
Turnbull said that “we can put the refugee deal behind you and move on”.
The pair convened on a decommissioned aircraft carrier, the Intrepid, to mark the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea and to steady the long-standing alliance after relations soured at a time of growing tensions in the Asia-Pacific.
The World War II fight against Japanese forces helped forge an alliance during which Australia has pitched in alongside the United States in every major conflict since.
Fence-mending
The crisis over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and a fence-mending trip to Sydney by Vice President Mike Pence last month appears to have eased tension between the United States and Australia.
After meeting Turnbull, Pence had said the United States would take the refugees but added it “doesn’t mean we admire the agreement”.
A businessman-turned-politician like Trump, Turnbull has said he was “delighted” to meet with the US leader and affirm the relationship.
Trump, for his part, said he would be happy to travel Down Under, describing the United States and Australia as “rebellious children of the same parent”.
“Oh, that will happen. It’s one of the great, great places. It’s one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I have so many friends there. I’ll be there. We’ll be there. Absolutely we’ll be there.”
One of those friends is the media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who attended the dinner at which Trump and Turnbull spoke.
Trump regaled the crowd with stories about how he agreed to give the Fox News owner cash for a US-Australia charity.
Turnbull highlighted the close military ties between the two countries.
“We fight together in Iraq and Afghanistan to defeat and destroy the terrorists who threaten our way of life,” he said.
“Today, Australians and Americans stand shoulder-to-shoulder defending our freedoms.”
Despite the bonhomie, the advent of Trump has invigorated a debate over Australia’s place in the world and whether its future lies with an unpredictable United States or a closer relationship with China, its top trading partner.
Several former senior Australian diplomats have urged Canberra to rethink ties with the United States in light of China’s rise.
The icy start during Trump’s first days in office was further cooled by Washington’s withdrawal from a trans-Pacific trade agreement that would have given Australian businesses greater access to American and other key regional markets.
NBC/WSJ poll: A record share of voters dislike Trump personally, but Democrats face challenges of their own
Voters overall also have doubts about Democrats' most progressive policy proposals. And many worry Joe Biden isn't up for the job.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/nbc-wsj-poll-record-share-voters-dislike-trump-personally-democrats-n1057036
Sept. 22, 2019, By Carrie Dann
WASHINGTON — As Democratic candidates compete for the opportunity to take on President Donald Trump, the incumbent they hope to oust is more personally disliked than any of his recent predecessors, and half of voters say they’re very uncomfortable with the idea of his re-election.
But the electorate at large also expresses doubts about some of the progressive policies being backed by candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and the party’s more moderate frontrunner — Joe Biden — also faces questions about his fitness for the job.
Those are the major findings in the latest release from the September NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, which also shows that 46 percent of Americans give Trump credit for what they call an improving economy, the highest share of his presidency.
“The Democrats want a referendum on Trump. The GOP wants a comparative choice. And therein lies the rub,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff and his firm Public Opinion Strategies.
Trump approval stable, but a record share dislike him personally
The poll found Trump’s approval rating at 45 percent among registered voters, virtually unchanged from last month and consistent with where former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton stood in public approval at this point in their presidencies.
But it also showed that Trump faces historically poor personal favorability ratings, even among those who approve of the plans he has pursued in office.
A combined 69 percent of registered voters say they don’t like Trump personally, regardless of their feelings about his policy agenda. A record 50 percent say they dislike him personally and dislike his policies, while another 19 percent say that they dislike him but approve of his policies.
Just 29 percent say they like Trump personally, with 25 percent saying they also approve of his policy agenda and 4 percent saying they disapprove.
On this measure, the high degree of personal dislike for Trump differentiates him from his five most recent predecessors. Majorities of voters said they personally liked Obama, Clinton, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan, even though they might disagree vigorously with their political agenda.
In fact, prior to Trump’s presidency, the highest share of voters saying they disliked the president personally — regardless of their views on his policies — was 42 percent for George W. Bush in March 2006, after Hurricane Katrina.
Voters also have higher levels of discomfort about Trump’s re-election than about his main Democratic rivals.
Half of voters — 49 percent — say they’re very uncomfortable with his 2020 candidacy. That’s compared to 41 percent who say the same for Sanders and 33 percent apiece who say the same for Biden or Warren.
But Trump also continues to benefit from the upside of the polarization of the electorate around him, commanding more enthusiasm than his Democratic competitors as well. A quarter of voters (26 percent) say they’re enthusiastic about him, while fewer say they’re enthusiastic about Warren (17 percent), Sanders (13 percent) and Biden (12 percent.)
Some progressive proposals divide Democrats and the electorate at large
Voters overall are supportive of many of the policy goals being discussed by 2020 Democratic candidates, but there are notable exceptions surrounding "Medicare-for-All," government health care for undocumented immigrants, and complete student loan forgiveness.
Among Democratic primary voters, 64 percent say they support providing government health care to undocumented immigrants, while just 36 percent of all registered voters agree.
A similar share of Democratic voters — 63 percent — support a single payer "Medicare-for-All" style plan, also backed by Warren and Sanders, that would replace the existing private insurance system. Among voters overall, just 41 percent support that idea.
And six-in-10 Democratic voters also back immediate cancellation and forgiveness of all student debt, a position shared by just 41 percent of all voters. Sanders has unveiled a plan to eliminate all $1.6 trillion in student debt, while Warren has proposed the cancellation of up to $50,000 in student debt per person, based on household income.
More moderate Democratic positions on the issues of health care and student loan forgiveness, however, have the backing of wide majorities of both Democratic voters and the general electorate.
Two-thirds of all voters — 67 percent — and 78 percent of Democrats back an optional program that would allow those under 65 to buy into Medicare just like one can currently buy in to private insurance.
A similar share of all voters — 64 percent — support a plan to forgive student debt for those who have paid 12.5% of their income every year for 15 years.
And 58 percent of all voters support a measure to provide free tuition at state colleges and universities.
While some of the most progressive Democratic proposals lack majority support, the poll also found that two of Trump’s signature plans are similarly unpopular with the voting public.
Just 43 percent of all voters support the construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall. And exactly the same share back the elimination of the Affordable Care Act.
Voters raise concerns about Trump and Biden’s fitness for the presidency
While Biden may be the Democratic Party’s current standard-bearer for more moderate — and popular — policy proposals, a significant share of Americans in the poll say they’re losing confidence in his ability to lead the country.
A third of voters overall — 36 percent — say they’ve lost confidence in Biden in recent weeks, a time period that included a debate performance described as shaky by his critics. Just eight percent say they’ve grown more confident in him.
The same share — 36 percent — say they have become less confident in recent weeks in Trump’s ability to lead, with 17 percent saying they’ve become more confident.
Those who have lost confidence in the former vice president cited his debate performance, his age and what they say is an over-reliance on Obama’s legacy in making his own case for the job.
“Overall, I like Joe Biden a lot, but I think his performance at the debate gave me the feeling that he might be a little bit past his prime for the position,” said one male Democratic respondent from New York.
A white female Democrat from Illinois put it more bluntly.
“Basically he's an old white man who I don't think is going to help our country advance,” she said. “Because our country is not just a bunch of white people anymore.”
The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Sept. 13-16. The margin of error for all adults is +/- 3.27 percentage points.
Carrie Dann
Carrie Dann is a political editor for NBC News.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Trump impeachment FAQ: What you need to know
Dylan Stableford and Christopher Wilson
Senior Staff
Yahoo News•December 20, 2019
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-impeachment-frequently-asked-questions-210215708.html
Trump impeachment FAQ: What you need to know
For the first time in over two decades, the United States has been thrust into an impeachment drama, this one involving President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine’s government. The process has often been confusing or difficult to follow. And with the Constitution murky on the specific roadmap that impeachment must follow, and with bad actors happy to propagate information that isn’t accurate, the entire process has left many Americans scratching their heads.
Here’s a list of answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about impeachment.
Why was President Trump impeached?
The House of Representatives voted Thursday to approve two articles of impeachment against President Trump, charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over his efforts to procure Ukrainian investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and alleged election interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Trump is just the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. You can read the full text of the articles here.
Why didn’t the House vote to ‘censure’ Trump instead?
The idea was floated by a small group of House Democrats from districts where impeachment could be an electoral liability. Rather than face the prospect of being removed from office, Trump would be rebuked in a vote of formal disapproval over his actions in Ukraine. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ruled it out, saying, “If the goods are there, you must impeach.”
How many votes did it take to impeach the president?
Two hundred and sixteen. A simple majority in the House was all that’s required, so half of the members who vote plus one. The current makeup of the House is 233 Democrats, 197 Republicans and one independent, Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, who left the Republican Party in July and voted in favor of impeachment.
What was the final vote tally?
The House approved the first article of impeachment, on abuse of power, by a vote of 230 to 197 after a daylong debate. Of the 233 Democrats, 229 voted in favor, along with the House’s one independent. Two Democrats opposed the article. No Republicans voted in favor.
The second article, charging obstruction of Congress, passed by a vote of 229 to 198, with three Democrats voting no, and again no Republicans in favor.
One Democrat, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, voted “present” on each article.
Is the obstruction charge related to the Mueller report?
No. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation identified at least 10 instances of Trump’s possible obstruction of justice related to that probe, but the special counsel ultimately declined to recommend charges due to a Justice Department policy that prevents federal prosecutors from charging a sitting president with a crime.
The current obstruction of Congress charge stems from the White House’s blanket order for administration officials to refuse to cooperate with the impeachment probe.
What happens next?
A trial in the Senate, presided over by Chief Justice John Roberts, was expected to begin shortly after the New Year. But after the House voted to impeach Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she is waiting for the Senate to agree on procedures before she sends the articles over. She said she wants “a fair trial.”
How long can Pelosi withhold the articles of impeachment from the Senate?
What would a Senate trial look like?
In most matters during an impeachment trial, such as a vote over a potential witness, a simple majority vote in the Republican-controlled Senate would be needed. Trump has suggested he’d like to see former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint triggered the impeachment investigation and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff called to testify — a spectacle that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may want to avoid.
Indeed, Senate Republicans have already signaled they would rather have a speedy trial that may not include witnesses, though McConnell said no decisions have been made.
Could Trump challenge any aspect of his impeachment trial in federal court?
No. In Nixon v. United States (not that Nixon), the Supreme Court ruled that impeachment is a political question and cannot be resolved in the courts.
With Trump impeached, is he allowed to govern before the Senate trial?
There is nothing in the Constitution limiting a president’s power during the period between impeachment in the House and the Senate trial that follows.
So the president doesn’t lose any power?
No. The president loses no power at all if he’s only impeached in the House.
Is there any legal consequence to his impeachment?
There is at least one. As UC Berkeley public policy professor Robert Reich noted earlier this month, Trump now cannot be pardoned for crimes. “Article II, section 2 of the Constitution gives a president the power to pardon anyone who has been convicted of offenses against the United States,” Reich wrote, “with one exception: ‘In Cases of Impeachment.’
“He cannot pardon himself ... and he cannot be pardoned by a future president,” Reich added.
Is impeachment the same thing as removal from office?
It is not. Impeachment in the House is similar to a criminal indictment, while a vote in the Senate is required for removal. Both Andrew Johnson, who was impeached in 1868, and Bill Clinton, whose impeachment came in 1998, were acquitted by the Senate. After acquittal, they served out their terms. Impeachment articles against Richard Nixon passed the Judiciary Committee in 1974, but he resigned prior to the full House voting.
Must a president have committed a crime in order to be impeached?
No. The Founding Fathers kept things vague with the intention of making impeachment political and not legal, with the Constitution saying impeachment can be for “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” The burden of proof has been lower than that of criminal courts, where it’s “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
How many Senate votes are needed to remove him from office?
Sixty-seven. A two-thirds supermajority of the 100-member Senate is required to remove a president from office. The current composition is 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats, meaning 20 GOP members would have to break ranks with Trump for him to be removed, something that appears highly unlikely.
What happens if Trump is removed?
Vice President Mike Pence would immediately become president. Pence would then nominate a candidate to become his vice president. Per the 25th Amendment, a majority vote in both houses of Congress is required to confirm a vice presidential nominee. This process happened twice in the 1970s, when Gerald Ford was nominated to replace Spiro Agnew after Agnew’s resignation and again when Nelson Rockefeller was nominated to replace Ford after Nixon’s resignation.
Could Trump run for president again if he’s removed by the Senate?
That depends. The Constitution says that the Senate can vote for removal and for “disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States.” In U.S. history, a president has never been removed from office only to seek it again, but federal judges who have been removed have required a second vote to disqualify them from future office. If that precedent were to be applied in the case of Trump’s ouster, the Senate would have one vote to remove him from office and another to disqualify him from future office. If the second vote isn’t held or fails, he could legally be free to run again.
Can the Senate vote to imprison a president?
No. That would require a separate criminal process, as the Constitution states the “party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgement and Punishment, according to Law.” The Senate’s abilities are limited to removing an official and disqualifying him or her from holding that office in the future.
If he’s acquitted by the Senate, can Trump still run for reelection?
Yes.
Following a Senate acquittal, could Trump be impeached again?
Yes. In theory, the House could continue to pass additional articles of impeachment that would then trigger additional Senate trials. Throughout it all, the president would remain in office unless two-thirds of the Senate voted to remove him.
What is Trump saying about all of this?
The president has repeatedly called impeachment “a dirty word” and has reportedly fretted about the stain it would leave on his legacy.
On the eve of the vote, the president sent a scathing, insult-filled letter to Pelosi, accusing Democrats of “declaring open war on American Democracy,” among other things.
On the morning of the vote, Trump tweeted in disbelief, asking his Twitter followers to “Say a PRAYER” for him.
And at a rally in Battle Creek, Mich., the same night, the president said: “It doesn’t really feel like we’re being impeached.”
Do Americans support impeachment?
According to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll conducted after the impeachment vote, majorities of registered voters agree that the president both abused his powers and obstructed Congress: 53 percent of registered voters said Trump abused his powers as president; only 40 percent said he did not. Fifty-one percent said Trump obstructed Congress; again, only 40 percent said he did not.
Voters favor the House’s decision to impeach the president by a 50 percent to 45 percent margin. Previous Yahoo News/YouGov polls found slightly lower levels of support for impeachment among registered voters: 48 percent in November and 49 percent earlier this month. The belief that Trump abused his powers has also ticked up slightly over time, rising 2 percentage points since November. And a majority of registered voters (52 percent) say that by pressuring Ukraine to launch investigations, Trump was primarily acting in his own personal and political self-interest.
Do the polls matter?
Not ones this close. Majorities this slim do not represent the sort of groundswell of popular support needed to change the political calculus in the Republican-controlled Senate, which will hold a trial and vote on removal after Pelosi forwards the articles of impeachment.
Will Fox News save Trump from impeachment?
Some observers have suggested that Nixon might have survived Watergate if Fox News had been around back then. And they might be right. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found just 29 percent of Fox News viewers support Trump’s impeachment and removal, compared to 70 percent who watch MSNBC or CNN.
Melania Trump silently forges path through impeachment
DARLENE SUPERVILLE Dec 24th 2019
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/24/melania-trump-silently-forges-path-through-impeachment/23887294/
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton spent the morning of her husband's impeachment visiting Capitol Hill to rally Democrats to his side. Pat Nixon kept assuring reporters her husband wouldn't quit — right up until he did. Eliza Johnson, frail from tuberculosis, kept watch over her husband during his impeachment while sitting in a room across from his White House office.
Melania Trump, just the fourth first lady forced to grapple with the threat of her husband's impeachment, is pressing on through the ordeal silently, showing no inclination to speak out publicly on behalf of her spouse.
While her husband recently broke his own record on daily tweets and delivered his longest-ever rally speech as he was being impeached, the first lady has largely held her tongue — with the exception of a sharp tweet scolding a law professor who invoked 13-year-old Barron's Trump name during an impeachment hearing.
"Like every first lady, she's sort of trying to forge her own path through this,” said Tammy Vigil, a Boston University communications professor and author of a book about Melania Trump and Michelle Obama. “In this particular case, she doesn't really have a whole lot of history to look toward.”
Melania Trump has said in the past that the president is the one the public needs to hear from since he was the one elected
And while the president has complained about the “great damage and hurt” the impeachment process has “inflicted upon wonderful and loving members of my family,” the first lady's spokeswoman rejected the idea that Mrs. Trump has been somehow wounded.
“As always, Mrs. Trump is focused on being a mother and wife, and is busy serving our great nation,” said Stephanie Grisham, her spokeswoman. “She is very strong, and after many years now, has become used to political harassment.”
Trump is only the third U.S. president to be impeached, accused of pressuring Ukraine's leader to investigate Trump's political rivals as he withheld security aid approved by Congress. Trump is also accused of obstructing House efforts to investigate the matter.
Mrs. Trump also stayed silent after a former Playboy model and an adult film actress went public with claims of having extramarital affairs with Trump before he was president. Trump has denied having the relationships.
She has followed the same pattern during impeachment.
The first lady made her first solo visit to the Capitol in October on the same day that a group of House Republicans caused a ruckus by trying to barge into a secure briefing room where three committees were hearing depositions in the case against Trump.
Instead of canceling the appearance, she proceeded to mark the anniversary of legislation the president signed to help reduce opioid use, one of her signature issues.
As she departed after the event, the first lady ignored shouted questions about how impeachment was affecting her family.
Shortly after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the beginning of a formal impeachment inquiry in late September, Melania Trump flew alone to Wyoming and spent two days promoting national parks and spending time in the outdoors for her “Be Best" youth initiative.
She has participated in numerous events since then in Washington and around the country: traveling to South Carolina with Karen Pence, the wife of Vice President Mike Pence, receiving the official White House Christmas tree and accompanying the embattled president to London, among them.
Amid the impeachment debate, she and the president also welcomed scores of lawmakers and other guests to White House Christmas receptions.
The two other presidents to be impeached, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998, were both acquitted after trials in the Senate. Richard Nixon resigned before the House could vote to impeach him over the Watergate scandal.
Up until Nixon resigned, Pat Nixon would tell reporters that her husband wouldn't quit, said Mary C. Brennan, author of a biography about the late first lady.
“So much of her identity was tied up with his political career, so him quitting is like her quitting and that's not something that she would have done,” said Brennan, dean of the history department at Texas State.
Pat Nixon often answered questions by saying she only knew what she read in the newspapers.
''My mother's greatest regret in the aftermath of Watergate was that my father did not consult her about the tapes before their existence became common knowledge,'' Julie Nixon Eisenhower wrote about her mother. ''She would have urged that they be destroyed forthwith.''
And at some point, Mrs. Nixon began scaling back her public appearances because “people were yelling questions to her about impeachment” everywhere she went, added Myra Gutin, who studies first ladies at Rider University in New Jersey.
Eliza Johnson stayed on top of her husband's impeachment, the byproduct of a post-Civil War clash with Congress. She closely read stories from a variety of newspapers and preserved them in scrapbooks, according to the National First Ladies' Library. She is said to have always believed he would be acquitted and was overtaken with emotion when she learned the verdict.
Hillary Clinton was active in her husband's defense in a case that revolved around his sexual relationship with a White House intern.
On the morning of the House vote in December 1998, she made a rare foray to the Capitol to privately rally Democrats. She joined the president and congressional Democrats for an appearance in the White House Rose Garden later that day after Clinton was impeached.
Hillary Clinton also used an unrelated White House appearance on the eve of the House vote to urge the nation to “practice reconciliation" and “end divisiveness.”
___AP news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
___Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap
Has Trump's impeachment inquiry divided Americans even further? | The Bottom Line
USA •Nov 27, 2019 Al Jazeera English
Two months into the impeachment investigation into US President Donald Trump, the American people find themselves bitterly split on the inquiry. For some, it is a clear case of bribery, where a sitting president tried to press a foreign country to help him win the 2020 elections. For others, they see a Democratic Party conspiring to destroy the president at any cost. The partners in the conspiracy are the media, "deep state" diplomats and bureaucrats, and a handful of influential Ukrainians. Join Steve Clemons in a wide-ranging discussion on the difficulties of agreeing on the facts and reaching consensus in today's United States. Guests: Rina Shah - Republican consultant and strategist Jay Newton-Small - Contributor to Time magazine and author of Broad Influence: How Women are Changing the Way America Works Peter Roff, Contributing editor for Newsweek magazine and commentator for One America News Network (OANN - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/ #TheBottomLine
Donald Trump impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress | ABC News
ABC News (Australia)
The US House of Representatives casts a historic vote to impeach a president for just the third time in history.
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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks after being impeached on abuse of power
CTV News
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Michigan and reacts to the news that he's been impeached on abuse of power. Subscribe to CTV News to watch more videos: https://www.youtube.com/ctvnews Connect with CTV News: For the latest news visit: http://www.ctvnews.ca/ For a full video offering visit the CTV News Network: http://www.ctvnews.ca/video CTV News on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CTVNews CTV News on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CTVNews Watch CTV News on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WatchCTVNews CTV News on Google+: https://plus.google.com/+CTVNews/posts CTV News on Instagram: https://instagram.com/ctvnews/ CTV News on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ctvnews
Putin criticizes 'dreamed up' Trump impeachment charges
CBC News
Russian President Vladimir Putin defended U.S. President Donald Trump during his year-end news conference, saying impeachment proceedings are a continuation of the 2016 election race. To read more: https://www.cbc.ca/1.5401967 »»» Subscribe to CBC News to watch more videos: http://bit.ly/1RreYWS Connect with CBC News Online: For breaking news, video, audio and in-depth coverage: http://bit.ly/1Z0m6iX Find CBC News on Facebook: http://bit.ly/1WjG36m Follow CBC News on Twitter: http://bit.ly/1sA5P9H For breaking news on Twitter: http://bit.ly/1WjDyks Follow CBC News on Instagram: http://bit.ly/1Z0iE7O Download the CBC News app for iOS: http://apple.co/25mpsUz Download the CBC News app for Android: http://bit.ly/1XxuozZ »»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» For more than 75 years, CBC News has been the source Canadians turn to, to keep them informed about their communities, their country and their world. Through regional and national programming on multiple platforms, including CBC Television, CBC News Network, CBC Radio, CBCNews.ca, mobile and on-demand, CBC News and its internationally recognized team of award-winning journalists deliver the breaking stories, the issues, the analyses and the personalities that matter to Canadians.
Historic Week: A Divided House Impeachment of President Trump
This Week With George Stephanopoulos 12/01/2019 FULL |ABC Sunday with George Stephanopoulos
ERKAN KUCUK
Misha Collins—Get The Adventurous Eaters Club Now!Verified account @mishacollins
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Nothing conveys “not guilty” like the measured, well-reasoned response of an all caps-locked Twitter rant.
Honestly it doesn't even feel like that big a deal because we all know nothing will really happen. An impeachment looks worse on the Democrats than anything else.
♻️ Christopher Zullo @ChrisJZullo a 1`
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Do nothing my ass. Democrats in Congress have passed literally 400 bills addressing infrastructure, healthcare, jobs. Donald Trump and Senate Republicans are just ignoring them because that wouldn’t fit this narrative. Donald Trump is nothing but a fear-mongering divider in chief
Anne Wheaton Verified account @AnneWheaton
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
You went on national television and asked not one, but two, foreign governments to investigate your political opponent. That puts our national security at risk and makes you and our country weak. The "assault on America" only comes from those who choose to look the other way.
sofia @sottsof
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
STREAM FINE LINE
Jane LynchVerified account @janemarielynch 15h15 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Do you need a hug?
Helen Armstrong @HelenArmstrong5
to @realDonaldTrump
Tourists on Wednesday morning at the Capitol.Credit...Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times
US President Donald Trump… Print this out and hold it over your face.
Louisa Pickring @loulousfo
I just looked at the list of "likes" on 45s tweet and the majority are BOTS
Moment US President Donald Trump is impeached by the House of Representatives
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NA6WRxT_dQ
The Sun
DONALD Trump has become only the third president in US history to be impeached by the House of Representatives after a dramatic night. Lawmakers in the lower house of Congress, currently controlled by opposition Democrats, voted to approve two articles of impeachment. No Republicans voted against the president but three Democrats voted not to impeach. Read more Donald Trump becomes only THIRD US president in history to be impeached but mocks ‘phony’ vote to cheering supporters https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1058261... Donald Trump launches furious impeachment tirade against ‘radical’ Democrats hours before vote https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1057903... Donald Trump will hear impeachment result live ON STAGE as he holds massive Michigan rally at exact same time as vote https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1057942... From Brexit breaking news to HD movie trailers, The Sun newspaper brings you the latest news videos and explainers from the UK and around the world. Become a Sun Subscriber and hit the bell to be the first to know Read The Sun: http://www.thesun.co.uk Like The Sun on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesun/ Follow The Sun on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSun
The Hermster @hermanw741 .." Can anyone explain why the Republicans are blocking a report that can "completely exonerate" the President?
FLIP THE SENATE @WatchingWhatYou
Don't forget Nunes- Firtash McCarthy-Parna
Jeff Tiedrich @itsJeffTiedrich
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
sir, this is a Wendy's drive-thru
Htygrett1 @Htygrett1 19h19 hours ago
(((DeanObeidallah)))Verified account @DeanObeidallah
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Watching Trump freak out is joyful-not bc Im cruel like Trump. But it means Trump is feeling a taste of the pain he has caused to so many from his demonizing Blacks, Latinos +Muslims to mocking the disabled to defending men who abuse women to anti-LGBT policies #MerryImpeachmas
Sheldon @Sheldon51955542
American Worker VOTE @WorkerVote
Believe Him.....
" I will burn my own country to save my own ass..." ,....Donald-Trump
Public views Ukraine charges as serious, but half say Trump shouldn't be removed, poll finds
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll also finds that the public's overall views of Donald Trump and Joe Biden remain virtually unchanged.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/poll-public-views-trump-ukraine-charges-serious-half-say-he-n1063876
Oct. 8, 2019, - By Mark Murray
WASHINGTON — A majority of Americans say the allegations that President Donald Trump asked a foreign leader to investigate 2020 rival Joe Biden are serious and need to be fully investigated, and they also believe the president hasn’t been honest and truthful about his actions.
Still, the public is divided — largely along partisan lines — on whether Trump should be impeached and removed from office, with 43 percent supporting his removal given what they know today, versus 49 percent who oppose it.
And the overall standings of the two characters at the center of this story — Trump and Biden — are essentially unchanged.
Those are the findings from a new national poll from NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, which was taken after House Democrats opened a formal impeachment inquiry into the allegations that Trump asked Ukraine’s president to investigate Biden and his son.
The survey also comes after the White House released a transcription memo of Trump’s July 25 call with Ukraine’s president, after the whistleblower’s complaint that triggered the impeachment inquiry was released, and after text-message conversations between U.S. diplomats became public.
“What’s powerful about this poll is what has not changed,” said Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Peter Hart and his firm, Hart Research Associates
“At this time, this is not a story that has fundamentally reset American politics,” McInturff added.
But Hart cautions that it is still early.
“This is one poll at the beginning,” Hart said. “And it’s a different starting point than either Nixon or Clinton had” during their impeachment investigations, he said, referring to former Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
According to the poll, 47 percent of Americans believe the allegations that Trump requested Ukraine’s president to look into the Bidens are either “quite serious” or “extremely serious.”
That includes 73 percent of Democrats, 55 percent of independents and even 21 percent of Republicans.
By contrast, a combined 28 percent dismiss the allegations as either being not serious or false and without merit.
Twenty-five percent of respondents say they don’t have an opinion or are unsure.
In a separate question, 51 percent say the allegations are serious and should be fully investigated, versus 44 percent who believe they’re more-of-the-same politically motivated attacks.
And just 38 percent of Americans agree with the statement that Trump has been honest and truthful when it comes to the investigation into his actions, while 53 percent say they disagree.
“Americans view these allegations as being serious and having merit,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates.
Asked what specific steps Congress should take, a combined 55 percent think either that there’s enough evidence already for Congress to impeach Trump and remove him from office right now (24 percent), or that it should hold an impeachment inquiry to determine if there’s enough evidence to do so in the future (31 percent).
That’s compared with 39 percent of Americans who say that there isn’t enough evidence for Congress to hold an impeachment inquiry, and that Trump should finish his term as president.
When narrowed down to what they support based upon what they know today, 43 percent believe Congress should impeach and remove the president from office, while 49 percent say he shouldn’t be impeached and should remain in office
Democrats overwhelmingly support Trump’s removal (75 percent to 17 percent), and Republicans oppose it (85 percent to 11 percent).
Among independents, 45 percent say he shouldn’t be removed from office, versus 39 percent who say he should.
“The one thing that we do know from history is that impeachment and removing a president is a far different political animal than getting to just 50 percent of the vote in an election,” Horwitt added. “Even if a majority of Americans support impeachment, what really matters is Trump’s standing with Republicans.”
Trump’s job approval stands at 43 percent
The NBC/WSJ poll also shows that 43 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance, while 53 percent disapprove — essentially unchanged from where it’s been in the poll over the last year and half.
In September, Trump’s job rating stood at 45 percent approve and 53 percent disapprove among registered voters.
In August, it was 43 percent approve, 55 percent disapprove among all adults.
To compare Trump’s standing with past presidents, Bill Clinton had a 68 percent job-approval rating in the NBC/WSJ poll when the Republican-led House of Representatives began its impeachment inquiry in October 1998.
Richard Nixon’s approval was at just 25 percent when the House began its impeachment inquiry in May 1974, according to Gallup.
Biden’s standing is essentially unchanged, too
And the NBC/WSJ poll finds that attitudes have largely remained the same about former Vice President Joe Biden.
Thirty-three percent of Americans say they have a positive view of him, while 34 percent have a negative view (-1).
In August, Biden’s fav/unfav rating was 34 percent positive, 38 percent negative (-4).
“Biden is fundamentally in the same position,” said McInturff, the GOP pollster.
Trump’s fav/unfav in the poll is 38 percent positive, 53 percent negative (-15).
The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Oct. 4-6 of 800 adults — more than half via cellphone — and it has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.5 percent points.
Mark Murray
Mark Murray is a senior political editor at NBC News.
John PavlovitzVerified account @johnpavlovitz 19h19 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
An assault on this Republican Party can't be an assault on America, you all caps-typing ignoramus. By the way, shouldn't you be working right now?
The Hermster @hermanw741
" Can anyone explain why the Republicans are blocking a report that can "completely exonerate" the President?
Trump says he's heard from women about inefficient dishwashers
PHIL HELSEL
Dec 19th 2019
President Donald Trump on Wednesday night again addressed the plumbing issues of Americans, telling a crowd at a Michigan rally that “women tell me” about how they have to repeatedly run their dishwashers.
The comments in Battle Creek came hours after the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
At the rally, the president said that dishwashers don't work as well as they once did, blaming regulations.
"Remember the dishwasher? You'd press it, boom! There’d be like an explosion. Five minutes later you open it up, the steam pours out,” he said.
"Now you press it 12 times. Women tell me ..." the president said. "You know, they give you four drops of water."
Though he didn't offer any specifics, Trump appeared to say that his administration had adopted new regulations for the appliances.
The Department of Energy has said that it will move forward with a rule-making change that would exempt new dishwashers from previous energy-efficiency standards, MarketWatch reported in late November. The White House has touted the rolling back or elimination of regulations as among Trump's achievements while in office.
Trump on Wednesday also mentioned "electric" — he has complained about energy-efficient light bulbs — and told the crowd "we're bringing back standards that are great."
Trump's administration announced in September it was rolling back requirements for energy-efficient bulbs.
Trump on Dec. 6 told reporters that “we're looking very strongly at sinks and showers and other elements of bathrooms," including low-flow toilets, and he said then that the “EPA is looking at that very strongly, at my suggestion” referring to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Trump at Wednesday night's rally also accused Democrats of trying to "nullify the ballots" of voters by the impeachment.
But he also said, "it doesn't really feel like we’re being impeached." It is likely that Trump will be acquitted in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Trump says he's heard from women about inefficient dishwashers
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/19/trump-says-hes-heard-from-women-about-inefficient-dishwashers/23884028/
Alanah PearceVerified account @Charalanahzard
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
wait wait wait did they do “NOTHING” or is this an “ASSAULT ON AMERICA”?
HutchVerified account @hutchinson
MoreWHY ARE WE SCREAMING
David RothschildVerified account @DavMicRot
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
IMPEACHMENT ONLY COVERS A SMALL PORTION OF PRESIDENT TRUMP & TRUMP REGIME'S CRIMES AGAINST US. DUDE OPENED UP A HOTEL ACROSS THE STREET FROM WHITE HOUSE & TAKE CASH FROM PEOPLE WITH BUSINESS WITH US.
(((DeanObeidallah)))Verified account @DeanObeidallah
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
I love the smell of Trump's twitter panic...it smells like Victory! #MerryImpeachmas #ImpeachmentDay
#VoteBlueNoMatterWho #FBR #PitbullAdvocate @HellNo2Hate
Me too! #PanicAttackTrump is hysterical.
RD @real_defender
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
These radical left democrats are the biggest threat to the presidency and constitution I have ever seen. They must never be allowed to happen again.
Gary @KMGGaryde
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
The Democrats will pay in 2020. Vote them all out!
Vicky F R Trump ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ @VickyForT45
Yes they will... no doubt!
REESUS PATRIOT™ @ReesusP
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Fixed it for ya. SOUND UP
Andy OstroyVerified account @AndyOstroy
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
HE RAGES WHILE WATCHING TV, AS HE PAYS FOR HIS HIGH-CRIME SPREE, ON HIS BIG MAC HE CHOKES, AS HE SCREAMS "IT'S A HOAX!" IT'S THE DEATH OF HIS LEG-A-CY... #Trump #Impeachment
Reply
AnthemRespect @AnthemRespect 19h19 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Democrats haven’t tried this hard to remove an innocent President since Republican Abe Lincoln freed their slaves.
Mia FarrowVerified account @MiaFarrow 19h19 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Impeached. Your legacy. The most corrupt president of my lifetime.
#TuckFrump @realTuckFrumper
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
All caps makes Donny an angry boy!
Cam @BlindDrilling
Trump right now!
Melissa A. @TheRightMelissa
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
This is an assault on the American people. Remember they are impeaching democracy.. they are impeaching millions of votes including mine & I am mad as hell about it. This is only going to make me work harder to ensure a 2020 Victory for Trump & a GOP sweep. Who’s with me?
Jamil SmithVerified account @JamilSmith 18h18 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
You are not America.
⭕Bryan Dechart: HumanVerified account @BryanDechart 16h16 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
TYPING IN ALL CAPS ACTUALLY WEAKENS YOUR POSITION.
Tomi T AhonenVerified account @tomiahonen
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Jailhouse Rock Elvis POTUS 45 said to Pence VP You're the gayest jailbird I ever did see God sure would be delighted if you slept with me Come on & do the ‘small-hands jive’ with me Let's rot, everybody, let's rot Everybody who’s a shameful blot Was dancin' to the Jailhouse Rot
Jailhouse_Rock_Elvis-(Impeachment Ed)
Pelosi threw a party at the fed'ral jail
The TRump gang was there and began to wail.
Manafort was grumpy and the joint began to swing.
You should've heard those treasonous stooges sing
Let's rot, everybody, let's rot.
Everybody who's a shameful blot
Was dancin' to the Jailhouse Rot.
Daddy Trump 'played' the tenor saxophone,
Little Don was blowin' on a side trombone.
Drummin' boy called Hannity went crash, boom, bang,
Mitch McConnell section was the Turtle Gang
Let's rot, everybody, let's rot.
Everybody who's a shameful blot
Was dancin' to the Jailhouse Rot.
POTUS forty-five said to Pence VP:
You're the gayest jailbird I ever did see.
God sure would be delighted if you slept with me
Come on and do the 'small-hands jive' with me
Let's rot, everybody, let's rot.
Everybody who's a shameful blot
Was dancin' to the Jailhouse Rot.
Kellyanne was a sittin' on Roger Stone
Both over in the corner weepin' all alone.
Mike Coen said, "Hey, lovers, don't you be no square.
I've tape recorded you with my mic right there"
Let's rot, everybody, let's rot.
Everybody who's a shameful blot
Was dancin' to the Jailhouse Rot.
Devin Nunes said to Rand, "For Putnin's sake,
No one's lookin', now'd our chance to make a break."
Paul Ryan pointed out as he told Hope Hicks,
We wanna stick around as Trump's ass gets kicks
Original lyrics by The SEVENTH Steve, aka T Dawg aka HatRat, based on Elvis classic Jailhouse Rock.
No jails, no houses and no rocks were destroyed or damages in the creation of this song.
It is Impeachmas and throughout the land, there was much rejoicing.
GOP Sen. Collins says she's open to impeachment witnesses
The Associated Press
MATTHEW DALY- Dec 31st 2019
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/31/gop-sen-collins-says-shes-open-to-impeachment-witnesses/23890383/#
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said last week that she was “disturbed” by McConnell's comments, adding that there should be distance between the White House and the Senate in how the trial is conducted.
“To me, it means that we have to take that step back from being hand in glove with the defense, and so I heard what Leader McConnell had said, I happened to think that that has further confused the process,” Murkowski said.
The remarks by the GOP senators come as Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer hailed as a “game changer” a news report detailing the role of White House officials in withholding aid to Ukraine, a key element of the impeachment effort.
The New York Times reported new details about efforts by acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and other officials to cut off the aid to Ukraine. Senate Democrats are seeking to call Mulvaney and three other White House officials as witnesses in the impeachment trial.
“Simply put: In our fight to have key documents and witnesses in a Senate impeachment trial, these new revelations are a game changer,'' Schumer said. ”Will the Senate hold a fair trial, or will it enable a cover-up?"
McConnell said last week that he is not ruling out calling witnesses in Trump's impeachment trial, but he indicated he was in no hurry to seek new testimony.
January 12-15, 2017: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/17016NBCWSJJanuary2017PollFinal.pdf?mod=article_inline
December 12-15, 2016: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/161300NBCWSJDecember216PollFinal1.pdf?mod=article_inline
October 10-13, 2016: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/16991NBCWSJMiddleOctoberPoll.pdf?mod=article_inline
September 16-19, 2016: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/16804NBCWSJSeptemberPoll9212016.pdf?mod=article_inline
July 31-August 3, 2016: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/16579NBCWSJAugust2016PollFull.pdf?mod=article_inline
July 9-13, 2016: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/16495NBCWSJJuly2016Poll.pdf?mod=article_inline
June 19-23, 2016: Barack Obama
http://wsj.com/public/resources/documents/16417NBCWSJJune2016Poll.pdf?mod=article_inline
May 15-19, 2016: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/16306NBCWSJMay2016Poll.pdf?mod=article_inline
April 10-14, 2016: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/16229NBCWSJApril2016Poll.pdf?mod=article_inline
March 3-6, 2016: Barack Obama
http://wsj.com/public/resources/documents/16139NBCWSJMarchPOLLRelease.pdf?mod=article_inline
February 14-16, 2016: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/16091NBCWSJFebruaryPOLLfull.pdf?mod=article_inline
January 9-13, 2016: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/January2016FullWSJNBCUPDATEDPoll.pdf?mod=article_inline
December 6-9, 2015: Barack Obama
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/NBCWSJDecember2015PollFullRelease.pdf?mod=article_inline
October 25-29, 2015: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/NBCWSJLateOctoberPoll.pdf?mod=article_inline
October 15-18, 2015: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/NBCWSJOct2015PollFinal.pdf?mod=article_inline
September 20-24, 2015: Barack Obama
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/NBCWSJSept2015.pdf?mod=article_inline
July 26-30, 2015: Barack Obama
m/public/resources/documents/July2015_NBCWSJPOLL.pdf?mod=article_inline
June 14-18, 2015: Barack Obama
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJNBCpoll06242015.pdf?mod=article_inline
April 26-30, 2015: Barack Obama
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJNBCpoll05042015.pdf?mod=article_inline
March 1-5, 2015: Barack Obama
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/NBC_WSJ_MARCH_POLL.pdf?mod=article_inline
January 14-17, 2015: Barack Obama
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJNBCpoll01192014.pdf?mod=article_inline
December 10-14, 2014: Barack Obama:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/December2014_NBC_WSJ_Poll.pdf?mod=article_inline
November 14-17, 2014: Barack Obama:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJNBCpoll11192014.pdf?mod=article_inline
October 30-November 1, 2014: Barack Obama:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJNBCpoll11022014.pdf?mod=article_inline
October 8-12, 2014: Barack Obama:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJNBCpoll101514.pdf?mod=article_inline
September 3-7, 2014: Barack Obama:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJNBCpoll09092014.pdf?mod=article_inline
July 30-August 3, 2014: Barack Obama:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJNBCpoll08062014.pdf?mod=article_inline
June 11-15, 2014: Barack Obama:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/wsjnbc06182014.pdf?mod=article_inline
April 23-27, 2014: Barack Obama:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJNBCpoll04232014.pdf?mod=article_inline
March 5-9, 2014: Barack Obama:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJNBCpoll03052014.pdf?mod=article_inline
January 22-25, 2014: Barack Obama:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/wsjnbcnewspoll01222014.pdf?mod=article_inline
December 4-8, 2013: Barack Obama:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/wsjnbc12132013.pdf?mod=article_inline
October 25-28, 2013: Barack Obama:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/octpoll.pdf?mod=article_inline
October 7-9, 2013: Barack Obama:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJNBCpoll10072013.pdf?mod=article_inline
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December 14-17, 2007: George W. Bush
November 1-5, 2007: George W. Bush
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July 27-30, 2007: George W. Bush
June 8-11, 2007: George W. Bush
April 20-23, 2007: George W. Bush
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December 8-11, 2006: George W. Bush
October 28-30, 2006: George W. Bush
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September 30-October 2, 2006: George W. Bush
September 8-11, 2006: George W. Bush
July 21-24, 2006: George W. Bush
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September 15-16, 2001: George W. Bush
June 23-25, 2001: George W. Bush
April 21-23, 2001: George W. Bush
March 1-4, 2001: George W. Bush
January 13-15, 2001: Bill Clinton
November 3-5, 2000: Bill Clinton
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August 20-21, 1996: Bill Clinton
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November 4-5, 1994: Bill Clinton
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June 10-14, 1994: Bill Clinton
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10-13, 1993: Bill Clinton, July 24-27, 1993: Bill Clinton,
June 4-8, 1993: Bill Clinton,
April 17-20, 1993: Bill Clinton,
March 5-9, 1993: Bill Clinton,
January 23-26, 1993: Bill Clinton
Speaker Nancy Pelosi arriving at her office on Wednesday before the House voted on articles of impeachment against President Trump.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
Trump accuses Pelosi of 'crying for fairness' in Senate trial after 'unfair' House impeachment
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-accuses-pelosi-of-crying-for-fairness-in-senate-trial-after-unfair-house-impeachment
By Ronn Blitzer | Fox News
President Trump slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday for making demands of the Senate regarding his upcoming trial as she sits on two impeachment articles, accusing her of "crying for fairness" after leading an "unfair" process in the House.
Throughout the House Democrats' impeachment inquiry, Trump and fellow Republicans criticized elements of the process -- including the initial closed-door sessions with witnesses, an invitation for him to participate in a hearing while he was overseas, and the decision to cite the president's assertion of executive privilege as evidence of obstruction as opposed to battling it out in court.
MCCONNELL RIPS PELOSI FOR IMPEACHMENT DELAY, SAYS DEMS 'AFRAID' TO TRANSMIT 'SHODDY' ARTICLES
"Pelosi gives us the most unfair trial in the history of the U.S. Congress, and now she is crying for fairness in the Senate, and breaking all rules while doing so," Trump tweeted Monday morning. "She lost Congress once, she will do it again!"
Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump
Pelosi gives us the most unfair trial in the history of the U.S. Congress, and now she is crying for fairness in the Senate, and breaking all rules while doing so. She lost Congress once, she will do it again! 1:38 PM - Dec 23, 2019
Both chambers of Congress are engaged in an unusual battle over the next steps in the historic process after the House accused Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for his actions concerning Ukraine, in the third-ever impeachment of an American president.
Pelosi is now indicating she will not turn over the articles of impeachment to the Senate or name impeachment managers until the upper chamber announces the process of how the trial will be conducted.
Coinciding with that position, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has demanded that the Senate be allowed to subpoena documents and witnesses who did not appear before the House. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., responded by saying that the Senate's role is not to do what the House failed to do during what he has called "the most rushed, least thorough, and most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history."
PELOSI STANDS BY DELAY IN SENDING IMPEACHMENT ARTICLES TO SENATE, CALLS MCCONNELL A 'ROGUE LEADER'
Pelosi fired back Monday morning, tweeting: "The House cannot choose our impeachment managers until we know what sort of trial the Senate will conduct. President Trump blocked his own witnesses and documents from the House, and from the American people, on phony complaints about the House process. What is his excuse now?"
Nancy Pelosi✔@SpeakerPelosi
The House cannot choose our impeachment managers until we know what sort of trial the Senate will conduct.
President Trump blocked his own witnesses and documents from the House, and from the American people, on phony complaints about the House process. What is his excuse now? 1:32 PM - Dec 23, 2019
Pelosi has also faced criticism for pushing House Democrats to pursue articles of impeachment on a tight timetable, only to drop that sense of urgency after the final vote. McConnell has accused her and fellow Democrats of getting "cold feet."
Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., defended Pelosi on "Fox News Sunday," noting that President Bill Clinton was impeached in mid-December and managers were not appointed until Jan. 6 of the following year after the House returned from the holiday break. She suggested that the current process would not move any faster, even if Pelosi took swift action.
Earlier on the show, Marc Short, chief of staff for Vice President Pence, claimed that Pelosi would ultimately move forward and allow the Senate to conduct a trial.
"She will yield, there's no way she can hold this position," he predicted.
IMPEACHMENT NIGHT RALLY: President Trump in MI same night House passes two articles of impeachment
FOX 10 Phoenix
Without any Republican support, the House on Wednesday night voted to impeach President Trump for "abuse of power" and "obstruction of Congress" related to his dealings with Ukraine, making Trump the third American president ever to be impeached. The separate votes on the two counts teed up an all-but-certain Senate acquittal, should House Democrats forward the charges to the GOP-controlled chamber. They also fulfilled a promise made by some Democrats ever since Trump's inauguration to impeach him, even as polls have shown support for impeachment declining. But, late Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, floated the possibility of a delay in passing a resolution to formally send the articles of impeachment to the Senate, where Republicans likely would present a strong defense of the president that could prove politically damaging for vulnerable Democrats. "We’ll make a decision... as we go along." Pelosi told reporters, adding that "we'll see what the process will be on the Senate side." "We have acted," Pelosi said. "Now, they'll understand what their responsibilities are, and we'll see what that is.” In 1998, after the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the House sent the charges off to the Senate within minutes. This time around, the House may want to hold onto the articles as leverage to extract concessions from Senate Republicans -- or to bury impeachment as polls show it is increasingly unpopular among moderates in key battleground states. Republicans and conservative commentators slammed any delay in the Senate trial as crass partisan gamesmanship, noting that just this past March, Pelosi had vowed that impeachment would need to be a bipartisan effort. In the end, the only bipartisan aspect of the impeachment process was that a handful of Democrats joined Republicans to oppose it.
Donald Trump Speaks Out to the UN General Assembly after two year as President of the USA
Putin: Trump impeachment 'far-fetched,' Senate will acquit
AP
VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV AND HARRIET MORRIS
Dec 19th 2019
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/19/putin-trump-impeachment-far-fetched-senate-will-acquit/23884165/
Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming only the third American chief executive to be formally charged under the Constitution’s ultimate remedy for high crimes and misdemeanors.
The historic vote split along party lines Wednesday night in the U.S., much the way it has divided the nation, over a charge that the 45th president abused the power of his office by enlisting a foreign government to investigate a political rival ahead of the 2020 election. The House then approved a second charge, that he obstructed Congress in its investigation. The articles of impeachment, the political equivalent of an indictment, now go to the Senate for trial.
Turning to a spat with Germany over the killing of a Georgian citizen in Berlin in August, which German prosecutors alleged had been ordered by Moscow or authorities in the Russian province of Chechnya, Putin described the victim as a “bloodthirsty killer.” He said the man, an ethnic Chechen who was accused of being responsible for the killing of 98 people in just one raid in Russia's North Caucasus and masterminding bombings on the Moscow subway system.
Russian officials have denied that Moscow had any relation to the killing,
Putin said that Russian law enforcement agencies had spoken to their German counterparts to demand the man's extradition, but were given the cold shoulder and never sent a formal extradition request. He likened the victim to Islamic State group militants in custody in Turkey, some of whom come from Germany, France and other European nations.
“If those people come your way, will you like it?” Putin said. “Will you let them freely roam the streets like that?”
He argued that law enforcement agencies in Russia and Europe need to cooperate more closely to fend off terror threats.
Putin spoke on a variety of issues during the marathon news conference that was dominated by local issues, such as Russia's ailing health care system and federal subsidies for the regions.
He opened it by warning about new challenges posed by global climate change, saying that global warming could threaten Russian Arctic cities and towns built on permafrost.
The Russian leader added that climate changes could trigger fires, devastating floods and other negative consequences.
Putin emphasized that Russia has abided by the Paris agreement intended to slow down global warming. At the same time, he noted that factors behind global climate change have remained unknown and hard to predict.
Putin, who has been in power for two decades, also hailed the economic achievements of his rule. He emphasized that Russia has become the world's largest grain exporter, surpassing the U.S. and Canada — a dramatic change compared to the Soviet Union that heavily depended on grain imports.
The Russian leader also pointed at industry modernization, saying that three quarters of industrial equipment is no older than 12 years.
He said that the country has built three new airports, 12 new railway stations and the number of major highways has doubled.
The Russian economy had suffered a double blow of a drop in global oil prices and Western sanctions that followed Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea. It has seen a slow recovery since 2017 after a two-year stagnation.
Russia's ties with the West have remained at post-Cold War lows, but Putin argued that Russia has recovered and become more resilient to shocks from Western penalties and fluctuations in global energy prices.
Putin voiced hope for further moves to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine following his talks in Paris on Dec. 9 with the leaders of Ukraine, France and Germany.
He said that the 2015 peace agreement signed in Minsk and brokered by France and Germany must be observed, rejecting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's push for revising it.
The fighting in eastern Ukraine that flared up in 2014 after Russia's annexation of Crimea has killed more than 14,000 and ravaged Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland.
The Minsk deal envisaged that Ukraine can regain control over the border with Russia in the separatist-held regions only after they are granted broad self-rule and hold local elections. The agreement was a diplomatic coup for Russia, ensuring that the rebel regions get a broad authority and resources to survive on their own without cross-border support.
Zelenskiy pushed for tweaking the timeline laid out in the accord so that Ukraine gets control of its border first before local elections are held, but Putin firmly rejected that.
“There is nothing but the Minsk agreement,” Putin said. “If we start revising the Minsk agreement, it will lead to deadlock.”
He said that Russia still hopes to negotiate a new gas deal with Ukraine that will allow his country to maintain transit shipments of gas to Europe via Ukrainian territory. The Russian leader noted that Moscow would be ready to continue pumping gas via Ukraine even though the new prospective Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea is expected to come online next year.
Putin, who once lamented the breakup of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century, had some harsh words to say about Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin.
He lambasted Lenin's policies on ethnic issues, saying that his idea to grant broad autonomy to ethnic-based Soviet republics, including their right to secede, paved way for the Soviet breakup once the Communist Party's hold on power started to loosen.
At the same time, Putin rejected the push for taking Lenin's embalmed body out of the Red Square tomb and burying it, saying that it would offend older people who still see the Soviet founder as a powerful symbol.
He noted that the Soviet demise spawned expectations of a “unipolar world” in which the U.S. dictates terms to others, adding that such “illusions” quickly collapsed. Putin said that China has come to challenge the U.S. as the global economic powerhouse and hailed increasingly close ties between Moscow and Beijing.
Putin, whose current term runs through 2024, remained coy about his political future. He wouldn't answer if he could potentially extend his rule by shifting into a new governing position to become the head of a Russia-Belarus union.
He left the door open to amending the Russian Constitution, such as changing the powers of the president and the Cabinet, but noted that changes must be made carefully after a broad pubic discussion.
President Trump becomes third president in U.S. history to be impeached
CBS News
The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to impeach President Trump. CBS News White House correspondent Paula Reid, Wall Street Journal congressional reporter Siobhan Hughes, CBSN political contributor Molly Hooper and CBSN legal contributor Rebecca Roiphe join "Red and Blue" to discuss the historic day.
Tulsi Gabbard says impeachment has increased chance of Trump reelection: 'A disaster for our country'
GABRIELLE SORTO,
AOL.COM
Dec 31st 2019
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/31/tulsi-gabbard-says-impeachment-has-increased-chance-of-trump-reelection-a-disaster-for-our-country/23890306/
Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said President Trump's chances of winning reelection have been "greatly increased" because of the House impeachment.
Gabbard made the surprising move to vote "present" on both articles of impeachment charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. She was the only Democratic presidential candidate who was eligible to vote on impeachment.
In a video posted on Twitter, she seemingly explained her position against impeachment, warning that it "will actually increase his support amongst voters and it's going to make him harder to defeat."Tulsi Gabbard
✔@TulsiGabbardIn 2020, we will have a new president in the White House. How many of you do NOT want that to be Donald Trump? I certainly don't. Unfortunately, the House impeachment of the president has greatly increased the likelihood Trump will remain the president for the next 5 years …
1:12 AM - Dec 31, 2019
"In 2020, we will have a new president in the White House. How many of you do NOT want that to be Donald Trump? I certainly don't," she said. "Unfortunately, the House impeachment of the president has greatly increased the likelihood Trump will remain the president for the next 5 years …"
Gabbard goes on to explain that not only will impeachment help Trump get reelected, but she believes it will increase the chances of Republicans taking over the House of Representatives. This would leave the U.S. Senate and House controlled by Republicans, which she said she is "really concerned" about.
"This is going to be a disaster for our country," she said of that potential
"We need to stand together, work side by side to usher in a bright future, a bright future of peace, genuine equality and human dignity," Gabbard concluded in the video.
This isn't the first time the presidential hopeful has railed against Trump's impeachment. She told ABC News that impeachment will only "embolden" the president and if he is acquitted in his impeachment trial, it could leave “lasting damage” on the country as a whole.
Noam Chomsky on the new Trump era | UpFront special
2,432,040 views
•Nov 25, 2016
Al Jazeera English
4.23M subscribers
"The most predictable aspect of Trump is unpredictability. I think it’s dangerous, very dangerous," says Noam Chomsky.
US President Donald Trump impeached - BBC News
BBC News
Donald Trump has become only the third US president to be impeached. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives last night approved two charges -- setting up a trial next month in the Senate -- but the Senate is dominated by Republicans -- so the President is almost certain to remain in office. Mr Trump denies abusing his power and obstructing Congress -- and says the process is a witch hunt. Huw Edwards presents the latest from the BBC's North America Jon Sopel, on BBC News at Ten.
Steph @steph93065 19h19 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
It's enraging what these people are doing.
MatthewJshow @MatthewJshow
The voter will remember the sinister actions of the Democrats! 2020 is coming!
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Traitor
Lori Hendry @Lrihendry 19h19 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
OMG! I despise what they’re doing to our President— Who has done nothing wrong! He’s guilty of loving the people and MAGA! We love you, Mr President
Linda Keating @lindak1973
No we don’t. He is a horrible person and deserves everything he gets
New conversation
Mia FarrowVerified account @MiaFarrow 16h16 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Its not only that you are unqualified & unwilling to learn. Or that you are cruel, corrupt & untruthful. Its not only that you believe Putin’s lies rather than our intel, have no respect for rule of law and favor whites over people of color.ALL of it makes you a danger to America
Mia FarrowVerified account @MiaFarrow
I' no lawyer but for me personally, his order to separate children from parents, the indefinite incarceration of children, denying them life saving vaccines- - in my books, this constitutes abuse of power and crimes against humanity.
New conversation
Lesley Abravanel Verified account @lesleyabravanel
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
YOU ARE A WHINY ASS BITCH. YOU ARE BEING IMPEACHED FOR YOUR ASSAULT ON THE CONSTITUTION! #TrumpResign #ResignTrump #RemoveTrump #ImpeachmentDay
@Buddhakitty @LoriSilver928 10h10 hours ago
Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in October. He was behind nearly all military and intelligence operations orchestrated
by Iran in the past two decades.Credit...Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, via Associated Press
Trump slams idea of delaying Senate impeachment trial
Yahoo News KADIA TUBMAN Dec 19th 2019
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/19/trump-slams-idea-of-delaying-senate-impeachment-trial/23884366/
The morning after the House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against him, President Trump slammed Democrats for a still-evolving plan to “Do Nothing with the Articles,” delaying the start of a trial in the Senate.
“I got Impeached last night without one Republican vote being cast with the Do Nothing Dems on their continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history,” Trump said Thursday after he became the third sitting president in U.S. history to be impeached. “Now the Do Nothing Party want to Do Nothing with the Articles & not deliver them to the Senate, but it’s Senate’s call!”
“‘The Senate shall set the time and place of the trial.’ If the Do Nothing Democrats decide, in their great wisdom, not to show up, they would lose by Default!” he added.
Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump
I got Impeached last night without one Republican vote being cast with the Do Nothing Dems on their continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history. Now the Do Nothing Party want to Do Nothing with the Articles & not deliver them to the Senate, but it’s Senate’s call!
2:10 PM - Dec 19, 2019
Trump’s comments came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, following the historic vote, declined to rule out the idea of delaying the transmittal of the articles of impeachment to the Senate, as leverage in the looming fight over the rules for the trial, which would decide if Trump is removed from office.
Until the Senate takes up the question, Trump will remain in office, but under the cloud of impeachment. Delaying a trial, which otherwise would most likely start right after the New Year, would have unpredictable effects on the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination. Five senators are running, including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and their required attendance at the impeachment trial could take them away from the campaign in the crucial run-up to the first primaries.
After Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted he had no intention of being “impartial” in the trial, some House Democrats floated the idea of holding back the articles. Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has said he wants testimony from current and former administration officials, such as former national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, which the White House opposes. Schumer said Tuesday he would force a vote on the Senate floor on calling these witnesses, which could put some of McConnell’s Republican allies in a difficult position.
“So far we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us,” Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters after the House impeached Trump. About the timing of the transmittal to the Senate, she said: “We’ll make that decision as a group, as we always have, as we go along.”
“Pelosi feels her phony impeachment HOAX is so pathetic she is afraid to present it to the Senate, which can set a date and put this whole SCAM into default if they refuse to show up! The Do Nothings are so bad for our Country!” Trump said on Twitter.
This was only the third impeachment of a president in U.S. history, so there are few legal precedents governing the way forward. Chief Justice John Roberts would preside over the Senate trial, and House Democrats would appoint impeachment managers to prosecute their case, but McConnell exercises near-total control over what happens in the upper chamber.
While impeachment is a rebuke by the House — a recommendation that the president be removed from office — the Senate decides in a trial whether to actually do so, and Republicans in the Senate — who hold a 53-to-47 majority — are not expected to defect from the president.
A day before the impeachment vote, McConnell, who will essentially serve as the jury foreman, rejected the notion of being impartial during the Senate trial.
“I’m not an impartial juror,” McConnell said. “This is a political process. There is not anything judicial about it. Impeachment is a political decision. ... I’m not impartial about this at all.
“We will have a largely partisan outcome,” he added, referring to the trial.
Trump praised the fact that no Republican House member voted in favor of the articles of impeachment.
“100% Republican Vote,” Trump tweeted Thursday morning. “The Republicans are united like never before!”
Only two other presidents have been impeached in American history: Andrew Johnson, in 1868, and Bill Clinton, in 1998. Both survived their Senate trials and served out their terms.
Related: Donald Trump holds a rally in Battle Creek, Michigan
Michael B @MichaelBConway1
"Yes_Master Putnin..."Donald Trump
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff speaks at a press conference on impeachment on Dec. 3, 2019.
Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images file
Trump's approval rating steady despite impeachment: NBC News/Wall Street Journal polls
Compare President Trump's approval rating with Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/presidential-approval-poll-tracker-n1102776
Despite an eventful first three years, President Trump has seen his job approval stay virtually unchanged from Day One.Chelsea Stahl / NBC Ne
Dec. 18, 2019
By Nigel Chiwaya, Carrie Dann and Jeremia Kimelman
Donald Trump's presidency is a roller coaster everywhere except in his approval rating.
There have been ups (the economy, the killing of an ISIS leader) and there have been downs (the Mueller investigation and impeachment inquiry, to start) in his presidency. Through it all, though, the president's job approval has remained steady across all polls, the NBC News/Wall Street Journal’s included.
Trump's approval rating has hovered within the same nine-point range (upper: 47 percent in the Oct. 14-17, 2018, poll; lower: 38 percent in Oct. 23-26, 2017) since his inauguration in January 2017.
The chart below shows Trump's approval rating history, along with those of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton when they were president. It will be updated when new polls are published.
President Donald Trump's approval rating is down.
In the most recent poll, 44 percent approved of Trump's job performance. That's 1 point lower than the previous poll, taken October 27-30, 2019.
Trump has a median approval rating of 43.5 percent. At a similar point in their tenure, Obama, Bush, and Clinton had respective median ratings of 48 percent, 62.5 percent, and 48 percent.
Trump: 44%, Margin of error: 3.27%, Dec. 14-17 2019
Obama: 53%, Margin of error: 3.1%, Oct. 10-13, 2016
Bush: 26%, Margin of error: 3.1%, Nov. 1-2, 2008
Clinton: 52%, Margin of error: %
THE PRESS
NBC/WSJ poll: 49 percent now back Trump's impeachment and removal
But the president's support among Republicans remains strong one year out from Election Day
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/nbc-wsj-poll-49-percent-now-back-trump-s-impeachment-n1075296
Nov. 3, 2019, 2:00 PM GMT
By Mark Murray
WASHINGTON — Exactly one year out from the 2020 general election, a majority of all Americans — or close to it — support impeaching President Donald Trump and removing him from office, disapprove of his job performance and back his top Democratic rivals in head-to-head matchups.
Those are the findings from the latest national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, which was conducted amid the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry against the president, after Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, and after the military raid that killed the leader of ISIS.
Despite those grim numbers for Trump, the poll also contains silver linings for the president, including more than 50 percent who approve of his handling of the economy and a GOP base that remains loyal to him, with nine-in-10 Republicans opposing his removal from office. That party support is a crucial factor given that an impeachment conviction in the Senate requires a two-thirds vote.
“At this very early stage of the impeachment inquiry the data suggest a path for victory for Trump with the judges in the Senate,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff at Public Opinion Strategies.
“But there’s a much more challenging road ahead come next November with the judges at the ballot box,” Horwitt added.
In the poll, 53 percent of Americans say they approve of the impeachment inquiry regarding Trump’s actions with Ukraine’s president, while 44 percent disapprove.
The results largely break along partisan lines, with 89 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of independents supporting the inquiry — versus just 9 percent of Republicans who agree.
Then asked if Trump should be impeached and removed from office, 49 percent answer yes, while 46 percent say no.
That’s a reversal from a month ago, when the survey found the numbers essentially flipped — 43 percent yes, 49 percent no.
The increase in those supporting removal from office comes mainly from Democrats and independents.
And once again, the partisan divide here is striking: 88 percent of Democrats now support Trump’s impeachment and removal from office, compared with 90 percent of Republicans who oppose it.
Independents are split, with 43 percent supporting Trump’s removal and 46 percent opposing it.
The bad news for Trump heading into the 2020 election
A year away from the 2020 general election, the NBC/WSJ poll contains other ominous signs for the president.
Fifty-three percent of Americans disapprove of hisjob performance, including 45 percent who say they strongly disapprove.
That’s compared with 45 percent who approve, including 31 percent who do so strongly.
These numbers are essentially unchanged from the last month and over the past year.
“These are the same exact numbers we’ve been seeing,” said McInturff, the GOP pollster.
By party, 91 percent of Republicans approve of his job, versus just 6 percent of Democrats and 38 percent of independents.
In addition, half of Americans — 50 percent — say they have no confidence that Trump has the right goals and policies to be president, compared with just 35 percent who say they are “extremely” or “quite” confident.
“What should trouble Donald Trump is both the size of the opposition to him and how locked in it is,” said Horwitt, the Democratic pollster.
And the president trails the leading Democratic candidates by nearly 10 points in hypothetical general-election matchups.
Former Vice President Joe Biden leads Trump by nine point among registered voters, 50 percent to 41 percent. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is ahead of him by eight points, 50 percent to 42 percent.
In a separate question, 46 percent of all registered voters say they are certain to vote against Trump in 2020, versus 34 percent who say they are certain to vote for him.
Seventeen percent — made up disproportionately of independents, soft Republicans and younger voters — say they might vote either way depending on the nominee.
On this same question in the Dec. 2011 NBC/WSJ poll, 34 percent said they were certain to vote for Barack Obama; 37 percent said they were certain to vote against him; and 27 percent said they could vote either way depending on the nominee.
The good news for Trump for 2020
Despite those challenging numbers for Trump, there are positive signs for him in the poll.
For starters, a majority of Americans — 52 percent — approve of his handling of the economy, which is higher than his overall job rating (45 percent) and his foreign-policy handling (41 percent).
Next, Republican voters are essentially tied with Democrats when it comes to expressing high interest in the upcoming election — which wasn’t the case at this stage in the 2018 midterms, when Democrats won control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
And, by a 40 percent-to-9 percent margin, Americans say that the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi makes the United States safer rather than less safe.
By contrast, the public believes Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northeastern Syria makes the United States less safe by a 35 percent-to-10 percent margin.
Biden, Warren, Sanders lead Democratic horserace
Turning to the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination, Joe Biden gets the support from 27 percent of Democratic primary voters in the new NBC/WSJ poll.
He’s followed by Elizabeth Warren at 23 percent and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., at 19 percent.
After that, it’s South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 6 percent, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., at 5 percent, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., at 4 percent and entrepreneur Andrew Yang at 3 percent.
No other Democratic presidential candidate gets more than 2 percent support in the national poll.
In September’s NBC/WSJ poll, Biden was at 31 percent, Warren at 25 percent and Sanders at 14 percent.
More than eight-in-10 Democratic primary voters say they’re satisfied with their presidential field, with 31 percent saying they’re “very” satisfied and another 54 percent saying they’re “fairly” satisfied.
And 37 percent of Democratic primary voters say they prefer a candidate who will build on former President Barack Obama’s legacy, versus 55 percent who want a candidate who will take a new and different approach.
Biden (at 34 percent support) and Warren (24 percent) lead among the Democratic voters who want to build on Obama’s legacy.
And among the Democrats who want to go in a different direction, it’s Sanders (at 27 percent), Warren (22 percent) and Biden (20 percent).
The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Oct. 27-30 of 900 adults — including more than half who were reached by cellphone — and the overall margin of error in the poll is plus-minus 3.3 percentage points.
The poll also surveyed 720 registered voters (a margin of error of plus-minus 3.7 percentage points) and 414 Democratic primary voters (plus-minus 4.8 percentage points).
Mark Murray
Mark Murray is a senior political editor at NBC News.
View historical polls
Read the PDFs of the detailed poll results. An asterisk (*) means that the poll targeted registered voters. These polls often occur close to an election.
Date
October 27-30 2019: President Donald Trump
Trump's support among Republicans remains strong one year out from Election Day
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/nbc-wsj-poll-49-percent-now-back-trump-s-impeachment-n1075296
October 4-6 2019: Donald Trump
Public views Ukraine charges as serious, but half say Trump shouldn't be removed, poll finds
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/poll-public-views-trump-ukraine-charges-serious-half-say-he-n1063876
September 13-16 2019: Donald Trump
A record share of voters dislike Trump personally, but Democrats face challenges of their own
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/nbc-wsj-poll-record-share-voters-dislike-trump-personally-democrats-n1057036
August 10-14 2019: Donald Trump
The good, the bad and the ugly for Trump in the new NBC/WSJ poll
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/good-bad-ugly-trump-new-nbc-wsj-poll-n1043831
July 7-9 2019: Donald Trump
Trump trails Biden, Warren and Sanders in new poll
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/trump-trails-biden-warren-sanders-new-nbc-news-wall-street-n1029646
June 8-11 2019: Donald Trump
Support for beginning impeachment hearings grows among Democrats in new poll
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/support-impeachment-grows-among-democrats-new-nbc-news-wsj-poll-n1017751
April 28-May 1 2019: Donald Trump
Sixty percent of Americans say President Donald Trump has been dishonest in the Russia investigation, but it's a mixed bag on impeachment hearings.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/hung-jury-public-remains-divided-over-mueller-probe-new-nbc-n1001886
March 23-27 2019: Donald Trump
Most Americans don't think Trump is in the clear yet on Russia, new poll finds
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/poll-after-mueller-summary-americans-are-still-wait-see-mode-n989061
February 24-27 2019: Donald Trump
Poll: 2020 race will be uphill for Trump, but he has strong party loyalty
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/nbc-news-wsj-poll-2020-race-will-be-uphill-trump-n978331
January 20-23 2019: Donald Trump
Sixty-three percent of Americans say the nation is on the wrong track after government shutdown
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/wrong-track-public-sours-nation-s-direction-after-shutdown-n963051
December 9-12 2018: Donald Trump
Poll: 62 percent say Trump isn't telling the truth in Russia probe
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/poll-62-percent-say-trump-isn-t-telling-truth-russia-n948226
November 1-3 2018: Donald Trump
Fifty percent of likely voters say they prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress, while 43 percent want Republicans in charge
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/democrats-hold-7-point-edge-final-national-nbc-wsj-poll-n931001
October 14-17 2018: Donald Trump
Poll: Democrats hold 9-point advantage for midterm elections
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/nbc-wsj-poll-democrats-hold-nine-point-advantage-midterm-elections-n922266
September 16-19 2018: Donald Trump
Poll: Democrats hold the advantage in November's elections
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/nbc-news-wsj-poll-democrats-hold-advantage-november-s-elections-n912046
August 22-25 2018: Donald Trump
Poll: Trump approval 'remarkably stable' after a stormy week of bad news
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/nbc-wsj-poll-trump-approval-remarkably-stable-after-stormy-week-n903626
August 18-22 2018: Donald Trump
Poll: Trump approval 'remarkably stable' after a stormy week of bad news
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/nbc-wsj-poll-trump-approval-remarkably-stable-after-stormy-week-n903626
July 15-18 2018: Donald Trump
Poll: Public gives Trump thumbs-down on Russia, thumbs-up on economy
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/nbc-wsj-poll-public-gives-trump-thumbs-down-russia-thumbs-n893266
June 1-4 2018: Donald Trump
Poll: Economic satisfaction under Trump isn't helping his party's 2018 chances
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/poll-economic-satisfaction-under-trump-isn-t-helping-his-party-n880721
April 8-11 2018: Donald Trump
Republicans regain advantage on dealing with the economy
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/republicans-regain-advantage-dealing-economy-n866416
March 10-14 2018: Donald Trump
Democrats hold double-digit lead for 2018 midterm elections, also, President Trump's approval ratings edge up
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/democrats-hold-double-digit-lead-2018-midterm-elections-n857466
January 13-17 2018: Donald Trump
Poll: More than half of Americans strongly disapprove of Trump
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/poll-more-half-americans-strongly-disapprove-trump-n838926
December 13-15 2017: Donald Trump
https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/17505NBCWSJDecember2017Poll.pdf
October 23-26 2017: Donald Trump
https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/17409NBCWSJOctober2017Poll.pdf?mod=article_inline
September 14-18 2017: Donald Trump
Poll: Public likes Trump's bipartisan move — but little else
https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/17409NBCWSJOctober2017Poll.pdf?mod=article_inline
August 5-9 2017: Donald Trump
https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/17312NBCWSJ2017SocialTrendsPoll09062017Release.pdf?mod=article_inline
June 17-20 2017: Donald Trump
Poll: Public overwhelmingly disapproves of House health care bill
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/nbc-news-wsj-poll-public-overwhelmingly-disapproves-house-health-care-n775491
May 11-13 2017: Donald Trump
Poll: Just 29 percent approve of Trump's firing of James Comey
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/nbc-wsj-poll-just-29-percent-approve-trump-s-firing-n759196
April 17-20 2017: Donald Trump
Public gives Trump low marks for first 100 days
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/public-gives-trump-low-marks-first-100-days-nbc-news-n749756
February 18-22, 2017: Donald Trump
Poll: Trump is stronger with the base, weaker with the middle
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/nbc-wsj-poll-trump-stronger-base-weaker-middle-n893601
January 12-15, 2017: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/17016NBCWSJJanuary2017PollFinal.pdf?mod=article_inline
December 12-15, 2016: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/161300NBCWSJDecember216PollFinal1.pdf?mod=article_inline
October 10-13, 2016: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/16991NBCWSJMiddleOctoberPoll.pdf?mod=article_inline
September 16-19, 2016: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/16804NBCWSJSeptemberPoll9212016.pdf?mod=article_inline
July 31-August 3, 2016: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/16579NBCWSJAugust2016PollFull.pdf?mod=article_inline
July 9-13, 2016: Barack Obama
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/16495NBCWSJJuly2016Poll.pdf?mod=article_inline
Can Trump survive impeachment? | UpFront
Al Jazeera English
This week the US House of Representatives held a historic vote to impeach President Donald Trump. He now joins Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton as one of only three presidents to face a Senate trial. On a now infamous July 25 phone call, Trump indicated to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky that military aid and a possible meeting with the White House would be contingent on Ukraine announcing an investigation into the son of Trump's political rival and leading Democratic candidate, Joe Biden. While many saw this as a clear case of soliciting foreign help in an election, the majority of Republicans have cast doubt on whether Trump's actions are impeachable. One of those Republicans is Harlan Hill, a Trump 2020 advisory board member. "I read the transcript and I didn't find that it was offensive at all," he said, adding that he agreed with the president that it was a "perfect" call. Many Republicans say that Trump should not be impeached, claiming that nothing illegal was done. But Georgetown University constitutional law professor John Mikhail does not see it that way. "It's very clear from the history and the scholars who have looked at this very closely," he said, "that criminal conduct is neither necessary nor sufficient to constitute impeachable conduct under the Constitution." For Democrats like Tiffany Cross, co-founder of the Washington, DC news website The Beat DC, Trump's behaviour surpassed the bar for impeachable conduct. "If we are not going to impeach this president for this, what will we impeach a president for?" she said. "This is the conservation of our democracy. Our democracy has never before been tested like this." Trump's acquittal is considered inevitable with a two-thirds majority needed in the Republican-held Senate in order to remove him from office. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Lindsey Graham have stated publicly they have already made up their minds ahead of the trial. "It's really not the Republican Party anymore," said Cross. "This is like the Trump sycophant land that we're in." She added, "I think it is important for the American people to see the evidence laid out before them. I think it's unfortunate that you don't have an impartial Senate. Majority leader Mitch McConnell has said openly that he's coordinating with the White House." "I don't even think there should be a trial," said Hill. "Let's just vote. Like, let's put this on a fast track, let's get this done with. This has been all a political show." Some say Trump's acquittal could backfire for Democrats and embolden his base. "Ultimately, said Hill, "I think that this will go to the voters in 2020 and he's going to win in a landslide." Cross believes the impeachment has only hurt his campaign. "Trump's base has not grown since 2016," she said. "He has only lost people. There's nobody that looks at the past few years and says 'You know what! That Trump guy, he's onto something. I think I'm going to switch sides and get in his camp'." On this week's UpFront special, we discuss the impeachment of Donald Trump with Republican political consultant Harlan Hill, liberal commentator Tiffany Cross and constitutional law professor John Mikhail. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/
Trump accuses Pelosi of ‘breaking all rules’ on impeachment process
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer calls for emails and other documents from the White House to be released
Suzanne Lynch in Washington
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/trump-accuses-pelosi-of-breaking-all-rules-on-impeachment-process-1.4124150
US president Donald Trump accused Nancy Pelosi of “breaking all rules” on impeachment, as he railed against the House Speaker’s decision to delay sending articles of impeachment to the Senate.
“Pelosi gives us the most unfair trial in the history of the US Congress, and now she is crying for fairness in the Senate, and breaking all rules while doing so,” the president tweeted from his home in Florida. “She lost Congress once, she will do it again!
In a surprise move, Ms Pelosi declined to send articles of impeachment to the Senate before the House of Representatives rose for the Christmas recess late last week, throwing the timing of the forthcoming impeachment trial into uncertainty. While she had been expected to name impeachment “managers” – representatives from the House of Representatives who will take part in the senate trial – a vote on the issue did not take place as expected last week, effectively putting the next stage in the process on hold.
Mr Trump became the third president in US history to be impeached when the Democratically-controlled House charged him with two articles of impeachment over his dealings with Ukraine.
Under the constitution, the process will move to the Senate for a trial, where the 100-member upper house will decide whether or not to convict the president of wrongdoing.
Ms Pelosi defended her actions on twitter on Monday.
“The House cannot choose our impeachment managers until we know what sort of trial the Senate will conduct,” she wrote. “President Trump blocked his own witnesses and documents from the House, and from the American people, on phony complaints about the House process. What is his excuse now?”
Democrats are demanding the Senate trial calls witnesses, including senior White House officials who were named during the three-month inquiry into Mr Trump’s dealings with Ukraine such as acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security advisor John Bolton.
On Monday, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer issued fresh demands, calling for emails and other documents from the White House to be released.
“There simply is no good reason why evidence that is directly relevant to the conduct at issue in the articles of impeachment should be withheld from the Senate and the American people,” he wrote in a letter.
Next stage
For his part, Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican, criticised Democrats for delaying the next stage in the impeachment process and accused Ms Pelosi of taking an “absurd position”.
“[Pelosi] apparently believes that she can tell us how to run the trial,” he said in an interview on Monday. “We’re at an impasse. We can’t do anything until the Speaker sends the papers over, so everybody enjoy the holidays,” he said.
He also disputed whether Democrats would be impartial in the forthcoming Senate trial.
“Do you think Chuck Schumer is impartial? Do you think Elizabeth Warren is impartial? Bernie Sanders is impartial? So let’s quit the charade. This is a political exercise . . . All I’m asking of Schumer is that we treat Trump the same way we treated [president] Clinton,” he said, referring to the most recent US impeachment trial, that of president Bill Clinton which took place in early 1999.
Nonetheless, he did not rule out calling witnesses, a key demand of Democrats.
As Washington prepared for a Senate trial earlier next year, in a New York Times opinion piece, Democratic senator Pat Leahy criticised some of his Republican colleagues in the Senate for suggesting that they would not be impartial jurors. Noting that senators “serve as a unique combination of judge and juror during an impeachment trial,” Mr Leahy said that all 100 senators will have to swear a special oath to uphold “impartial justice”.
“The House has accumulated significant evidence that Mr Trump used his office, and leveraged congressionally appropriated foreign security assistance, for his personal political benefit by attempting to coerce Ukraine, a foreign ally facing Russian aggression, to announce an investigation into a domestic political rival,” he wrote.
Thousands of Trump supporters wrapped in scarves and parkas lined up early this morning, some of them waving flags featuring Mr. Trump holding an assault rifle, while a large screen nearby pumped out videos the Trump campaign made with the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara. Unofficial vendors sold goods with “Trump 2020: No More,” with an expletive at the end.
Iran's Gen. Soleimani killed in U.S. airstrike at Baghdad airport
The Associated Press
QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Jan 2nd 2020 9:01PM
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/01/02/irans-gen-soleimani-killed-in-us-airstrike-at-baghdad-airport/23891476/
BAGHDAD — The Pentagon said Thursday that the U.S. military has killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, at the direction of President Donald Trump.
An airstrike killed Soleimani, architect of Iran's regional security apparatus, at Baghdad’s international airport Friday, Iranian state television and three Iraqi officials said, an attack that's expected to draw severe Iranian retaliation against Israel and American interests.
The Defense Department said Soleimani “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region." It also accused Soleimani of approving the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad earlier this week.
A statement released late Thursday by the Pentagon said the strike on Soleimani “was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans."
The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, Iraqi officials said. The PMF media arm said the two were killed in an American airstrike that targeted their vehicle on the road to the airport.
Citing a Revolutionary Guard statement, Iranian state television said Soleimani was “martyred” in an attack by U.S. helicopters near the airport, without elaborating.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who was vacationing on his estate in Palm Beach, Florida, but sent out a tweet of an American flag.
Their deaths are a potential turning point in the Middle East and if the U.S. carried them out, it represents a drastic change for American policy toward Iran after months of tensions.
Tehran shot down a U.S. military surveillance drone and seized oil tankers. Meanwhile, the U.S. blames Iran for a series of attacks targeting tankers, as well as a September assault on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry that temporarily halved its production.
The tensions take root in Trump’s decision in May 2018 to withdraw the U.S. from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, struck under his predecessor.
A senior Iraqi politician and a high-level security official confirmed to The Associated Press that Soleimani and al-Muhandis were among those killed in the attack shortly after midnight. Two militia leaders loyal to Iran also confirmed the deaths, including an official with the Kataeb Hezbollah faction, which was involved in the New Year's Eve attack by Iran-backed militias on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
The security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said al-Muhandis had arrived to the airport in a convoy along with others to receive Soleimani, whose plane had arrived from either Lebanon or Syria. The airstrike took place near the cargo area after he left the plane to be greeted by al-Muhandis and others.
Two officials from the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces said Suleimani's body was torn to pieces in the attack while they did not find the body of al-Muhandis. Asenior politician said Soleimani's body was identified by the ring he wore.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject and because they were not authorized to give official statements.
As the head of the Quds, or Jersualem, Force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Soleimani led all of its expeditionary forces. Quds Force members have deployed into Syria’s long war to support President Bashar Assad, as well as into Iraq in the wake of the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, a longtime foe of Tehran.
Soleimani rose to prominence by advising forces fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and in Syria on behalf of the embattled Assad.
U.S. officials say the Guard under Soleimani taught Iraqi militants how to manufacture and use especially deadly roadside bombs against U.S. troops after the invasion of Iraq. Iran has denied that. Soleimani himself remains popular among many Iranians, who see him as a selfless hero fighting Iran’s enemies abroad.
Soleimani had been rumored dead several times, including in a 2006 airplane crash that killed other military officials in northwestern Iran and following a 2012 bombing in Damascus that killed top aides of Assad. Rumors circulated in November 2015 that Soleimani was killed or seriously wounded leading forces loyal to Assad as they fought around Syria’s Aleppo.
Earlier Friday, an official with the Popular Mobilization Forces said seven people were killed by a missile fired at Baghdad International Airport, blaming the United States.
The official with the group known as the Popular Mobilization Forces said the dead included its airport protocol officer, identifying him as Mohammed Reda.
A security official confirmed that seven people were killed in the attack on the airport, describing it as an airstrike. Earlier, Iraq’s Security Media Cell, which releases information regarding Iraqi security, said Katyusha rockets landed near the airport's cargo hall, killing several people and setting two cars on fire.
It was not immediately clear who fired the missile or rockets or who was targeted. There was no immediate comment from the U.S.
The attack came amid tensions with the United States after a New Year's Eve attack by Iran-backed militias on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The two-day embassy attack which ended Wednesday prompted President Donald Trump to order about 750 U.S. soldiers deployed to the Middle East.
It also prompted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to postpone his trip to Ukraine and four other countries “to continue monitoring the ongoing situation in Iraq and ensure the safety and security of Americans in the Middle East,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said Wednesday.
The breach at the embassy followed U.S. airstrikes on Sunday that killed 25 fighters of the Iran-backed militia in Iraq, the Kataeb Hezbollah. The U.S. military said the strikes were in retaliation for last week’s killing of an American contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base that the U.S. blamed on the militia.
U.S. officials have suggested they were prepared to engage in further retaliatory attacks in Iraq.
“The game has changed,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Thursday, telling reporters that violent acts by Iran-backed Shiite militias in Iraq — including the rocket attack on Dec. 27 that killed one American — will be met with U.S. military force.
He said the Iraqi government has fallen short of its obligation to defend its American partner in the attack on the U.S. embassy.
The developments also represent a major downturn in Iraq-U.S. relations that could further undermine U.S. influence in the region and American troops in Iraq and weaken Washington’s hand in its pressure campaign against Iran.
___
Karam reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Zeke Miller in Washington, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed reporting.
#DonaldTrump #Impeachment #GlobalNews
President Trump has been impeached. What happens now?
Global News
U.S. President Donald Trump has now been officially impeached. In a historic move on Wednesday evening, lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted to impeach U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump is now only the third U.S. president to have been impeached under the U.S. Constitution. Now that he has been impeached, the process moves on to the Senate, which is tasked with deciding whether to remove the president from office. Jackson Proskow explains what happens next. For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/6302134/do... Subscribe to Global News Channel HERE: http://bit.ly/20fcXDc Like Global News on Facebook HERE: http://bit.ly/255GMJQ Follow Global News on Twitter HERE: http://bit.ly/1Toz8mt Follow Global News on Instagram HERE: https://bit.ly/2QZaZIB #DonaldTrump #Impeachment #GlobalNews
Vicky F R Trump ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ @VickyForT45
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
If Trump was actually impeached, which is highly unlikely, this country would be irreparably broken, to a point where it may never bounce back. And then the dirty Dem politicians will take control of each & every one of us. You like being controlled? You'd be STUPID if you did.
Mary Klett @MKlettKlett
He was impeached. It's over and done. Thank goodness.
Angela Belcamino @AngelaBelcamino
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
HAPPY IMPEACHMENT!
Angela Belcamino @AngelaBelcamino
I STAND WITH IMPEACHMENT! WHO'S WITH ME?
Tomi T AhonenVerified account @tomiahonen 15h15 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
More Six Degrees of Kevin Putin Pelosi to Trump: "All roads with you lead to Putin" Kevin McCarthy - Lev - Firtash - Putin Lindsey Graham - Deripaska - Putin Hannity - Firtash - Putin Tucker Carlson - Deripaska - Putin Devin Nunes - Firtash - Putin Barr - Firtash - Putin
Democrat: I'll vote to acquit Trump if 'dots aren't connected'
Yahoo News KADIA TUBMAN Dec 22nd 2019 6
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/22/democrat-ill-vote-to-acquit-trump-if-dots-arent-connected/23886060/
Democratic Sen. Doug Jones dismissed concerns that he will lose his seat if he votes to remove President Trump in a Senate trial, but said he would acquit Trump if “dots aren't connected” over “gaps” in the impeachment case.
Jones, D-Ala., during an appearance on ABC's “This Week,” called the impeachment charges against Trump “really serious allegations.” The House last week voted to approve two articles of impeachment that accuse the president of abusing the power of his office by pressuring Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election on his behalf and obstructing Congress in its inquiry.
“What I'm trying to do because, quite frankly, I didn't sit in front of the TV set the entire time the last two or three months, I've been trying to read this. I'm trying to see if the dots get connected. If that is the case, then I think it's a serious matter. I think it's an impeachable matter,” Jones said. “But if those dots aren't connected and there are other explanations that I think are consistent with innocence, I will go that way too.”
Jones said “there are gaps” that witnesses who appear at the Senate trial would help fill in. But Democrats’ requests for witnesses and relevant documents have been roundly resisted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“Now, people can make up their mind with gaps in testimony, but I would like to see a full and complete picture,” Jones said. “And we don't have that because the president has refused to have his people come and testify and deliver documents. He says the Senate's going to give him a fair trial and he wants these folks to testify. Well, let him tell Sen. McConnell to let him come testify and get this — let's get this going as soon as we get back.”
Last week, McConnell admitted he had no intention of being “impartial” in the Senate impeachment trial. Some House Democrats then floated the idea of holding back the articles until a fair trial was guaranteed. Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he wants testimony from current and former administration officials, such as former national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, which the White House opposes. Schumer said Tuesday he would force a vote on the Senate floor on calling these witnesses, which could put some of McConnell’s Republican allies in a difficult position.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if we got one or two Democrats,” McConnell said about the Senate trial.
“Is he talking about you?” asked “This Week” anchor Martha Raddatz.
“I have no idea what Mitch McConnell's talking about these days,” responded Jones, a vulnerable moderate whose state had not voted for a Democrat in a Senate race in 25 years before his upset victory in December 2017. He is considered to be one of the potential Democratic defectors in Trump’s impeachment trial.
Last year, in another consequential vote, Jones came out against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who had been accused of sexual assault, despite increased pressure from conservatives in his deep-red state to confirm Trump’s pick.
When asked if he was worried about his seat in 2020, Jones said, “No,” adding, “I took an oath as a U.S. senator. I'm going to take another oath.”
He said the “problem that we've got in America today [is] everyone wants to talk about this in the political terms, in the political consequences term.”
“This is a much more serious matter than that,” the senator continued. “This has to do with the future of the presidency, and how we want our presidents to conduct themselves. It has all to do with the future of this Senate and how a Senate should handle impeachment, articles of impeachment that come over. That's how I'm looking at this.”
Jones, defending his position, added, “If I did everything based on a pure and political argument, all I'd — you'd need is a computer to mash a button. It's just not what this country's about, it's not what the Founders intended, it's not what I intend to do.
I luv being Teamster @JimKilbane
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Nathaniel #CountryOverParty @NewGopforUSA
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Your caps lock is on
Tomi T AhonenVerified account @tomiahonen 14h14 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
#ImpeachmentDay #MerryImpeachmas My Way Sinatra And now, the vote is here, and so I face humiliation Voters, I’ll say it clear: It was Putin, I sold our our nation I’ve lived my lies and bull, I conned on Fox my only airwave And more, much more than this, I tricked you my way....
My Way (Impeachmas Edition)
(Frank Sinatra)
And no, the vote is here, and so I face humiliation,
Voters, I'll say it clear; It was Putin, I sold our nation!
I've lived my lies and bull, I conned on Fox my only airwave,
And more, much than this, I tricked you my way.
Success? I could not do. And then again, my lies will mention.
I took, what I could take, and screwed it all, without exception.
I played each Trump gold course: helicopter rides, up to the fairway.
And yes, I felt the bliss, I fooled you my way.
For what is a man, what has be got? Impeached con-man, yes I am naught.
To sau those things, I know are lies: so cruel and vile; you so despise,
The record shows, this truly blows. I fucked you my way!
Original lyrics by The SEVENTH STEVE aka T Dawg aka HatRat (also occasionally Space Force Tom or DJ Tommy)
based on Frank Sinatra classic My Way. Incidentally Sinatra is Trumpo's face artist. So were anyways harmed or damages in the creation of this joke? No way! But today? It is Impeachmas Day and throughout the land, there was much rejoicing!
How the Confrontation Between the U.S. and Iran Escalated- Jan. 3, 2020- Maps
President Donald Trump speaks to the media outside of the White House on Oct. 11, 2019.Zach Gibso / Bloomberg via Getty Images file
Pelosi won't rule out delay in impeachment inquiry
Yahoo News
ALEXANDER NAZARYAN Dec 19th 2019
Pelosi won't rule out delay in impeachment inquiry
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/19/pelosi-wont-rule-out-delay-in-impeachment-inquiry/23884008/
WASHINGTON — Just minutes after impeaching President Trump, and just steps from where that historic vote took place, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised House Democrats for upholding their constitutional duty and called on the Senate, and its Republican leaders, to do the same.
Standing with six party leaders beneath a portrait of George Washington in an ornate Capitol room, Pelosi praised the “moral courage” of House Democrats, who used their majority in that chamber to affirm two articles of impeachment against Trump, one for abusing power and another for obstructing a congressional investigation. She called it a “great day” for the U.S. Constitution, though also a sad one for the nation.
Careful not to appear jubilant on the House floor as the articles of impeachment were ratified, the Democratic leaders used their press conference to further argue that Congress had done nothing more than exercise its authority to check the executive branch.
“We have done as the framers would have us do,” said Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the House Intelligence Committee chairman and a leader of the impeachment inquiry.
Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, another prominent figure in the impeachment effort, put the matter even more bluntly: “A president must not be allowed to become a dictator.”
The next step in the impeachment inquiry is for the two articles to be referred to the Senate, which will then hold a trial, with all 100 Senators acting as the jury. That chamber is controlled by Republicans, albeit narrowly.
Still, the Senate’s majority party will set the trial’s ground rules, just as Democrats have set the rules for the House stage of the impeachment inquiry. Worrying that Senate Republicans will in effect try to nullify the work House Democrats have done, some proponents of the impeachment effort have urged in recent days that House Democrats to not send those articles until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agrees to what Democrats could credibly regard as a fair trial.
McConnell has openly said that he is “coordinating” trial planning with the office of White House counsel Pat A. Cipollone. He has, for example, declared that the trial would have no witnesses. House impeachment witnesses proved roundly damaging to Trump’s version of events.
McConnell said in a tweet that he would address impeachment in a Senate floor address on Thursday morning.
Leader McConnell✔@senatemajldr
At 9:30am tomorrow morning, on the Senate floor, I will speak about House Democrats’ precedent-breaking impeachment of the President of the United States.
2:23 AM - Dec 19, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
Speaking at the press conference following the impeachment vote, the Democratic leaders did not say they would withhold articles of impeachment, but they also left that possibility open. Were they to do so, Trump would find himself in an uncomfortable legal limbo, impeached by the House but not acquitted by the Senate.
Schiff said “trial should be fair to the president, yes, but should be fair also to the American people.” Schiff elaborated by saying that it was imperative to hear from witnesses like former national security adviser John Bolton, who was reportedly critical of the Ukraine pressure campaign that is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry, and Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, who in a disastrous October press conference seemed to confirm Democratic suspicions instead of dispelling them.
Schiff also called for the release of documents from the State Department and the White House Office of Management and Budget. Political appointees at both State and the budget office were involved in the alleged effort to pressure new Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky into announcing investigations that could help President Trump’s re-election prospects.
Pelosi sounded notes identical to Schiff’s. “So far we haven't seen anything that looks fair to us,” she said. She implied that she would not name impeachment managers, who prosecute the case before the Senate, until McConnell comes up with a satisfactory trial framework.
But in the end, the House Speaker was more interested in talking about her chamber, the House, than she was in speculating about the Senate, even if the handoff of the impeachment articles is bound to prove one of the more sensitive moments of the entire impeachment process.
“We have done what we have set out to do,” Pelosi said
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Trump's approval rating mostly unchanged despite impeachment
Trump lavishes praise on GOP anti-impeachment "warriors"
What is the 'deep state' that Trump keeps talking about? | The Bottom Line
Al Jazeera English
The term "deep state" usually conjures a secretive illuminati that is the real power behind the curtains - made up of spies, criminals, military leaders and businessmen. In the world of US President Donald Trump, it has come to mean the civil servants who have been working for the government for years. They are "holdovers" from previous administrations, and they are blocking his agenda and policy reversals. At least, that's the mantra that he repeats in his campaign rallies nationwide. But is Trump using this construct as a punching bag to paint himself as an underdog who is fighting the powers that be? "Deep state" has become a permanent fixture of the culture wars in the United States, and Trump is using it to energise his base. So what is the reality of the "deep state" in US politics? Join Steve Clemons as he hosts a discussion on the ramifications of the constant presidential rants against government bureaucrats and diplomats. Guests: Elaine Kamarck - Director, Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution Adolfo Franco - Republican strategist and former executive, US Agency for International Development John Neffinger - Former communications director, Democratic National Committee - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/
Inside look at Melania Trump's daily diet, including her favorite meal
AOL.COM EDITORS
Dec 26th 2019 12:11PM
She may be only 49, but she sure doesn't look like it.
First lady Melania Trump sports a body enviable to most, but when it comes to her diet, that slim figure might actually be quite attainable. Some older interviews about her personal life have recently resurfaced, offering the public just a teensy bit of insight into the life of the notoriously "private" FLOTUS.
A former model, Melania is of course no stranger to a healthy lifestyle. She strives to eat seven pieces of fruit a day, all of which offer her the vitamins and minerals for her hair and skin. In the morning, her breakfast is made with only "a few ingredients and lots of vitamins in it."
Frequently, she'll opt for nutrient-filled smoothie or fiber-rich oatmeal, also choosing to supplement her diet with extra vitamins to benefit her hair and nails. "I take vitamins A, C, and E to keep my skin, hair, and nails healthy," she revealed to Bella NYC in 2011. Water, moisturizer and sleep are also key for Melania's youthful appearance, especially since she's reportedly "against Botox."
That doesn't mean Melania is all about diet, but instead, balance. She explained, "I love chocolate and ice cream, and I have those things once in a while. It's good to indulge cravings and your tastes once in a while...as long as you balance those things with healthy foods." Sometimes, she'll opt for a piece of dark chocolate for a snack or a glass of Diet Coke.
While she won't "overindulge" in food (but the chicken parm from NYC's Jean Georges is reportedly her favorite) she also refuses to participate in diet fads.
As for workout, Melania has listed ankle weights, pilates and tennis as some of her favorites, crediting them to getting her back in shape after Barron's birth. Clearly, if we can't afford Melania's taste in fashion, we just might be able to afford her taste at the gym.
Related: Melania over the years:
https://www.aol.com/article/lifestyle/2019/12/26/inside-look-into-melania-trumps-daily-diet-including-her-favorite-meal/23278552/#slide=4267795#fullscreen
Tomi T AhonenVerified account @tomiahonen 15h15 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Let's play! Six Degrees of Kevin Putin Pelosi to Trump: "All roads with you lead to Putin" Giuliani - Firtash - Putin Pence - Manafort - Deripaska - Putin Don Jr - Torshin - Putin Jared - Veselnitskaya - Putin McTurtle - Deripaska - Putin Rand Paul - Kilimnik - Kosachev - Putin
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Trump takes swipe at late Michigan lawmaker, upsetting widow
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dec 19th 2019
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/19/trump-takes-swipe-at-late-michigan-lawmaker-upsetting-widow/23884029/
President Donald Trump took a swipe at the late Rep. John Dingell during his raucous impeachment-day rally on Wednesday, drawing a quick rebuke from the longtime Michigan congressman's widow and successor in the House.
Trump told the Battle Creek rally that Debbie Dingell had thanked him profusely for providing “A-plus treatment” after her husband's death in February, including ordering flags flown at half-staff.
He quoted her as saying, “Thank you so much. John would be so thrilled. He's looking down.”
Then he added: "I said, 'That's OK. Don't worry about it.' Maybe he's looking up. I don't know."
The remark drew wary oohs and aahs from the crowd in Michigan, where John Dingell was a powerful advocate for the state he represented for more than 59 years. The comment came shortly after Debbie Dingell voted in favor of two articles of impeachment against the president.
Trump then offered: “But let's assume he's looking down.”
Debbie Dingell tweeted her response, telling Trump: “Mr. President, let’s set politics aside. My husband earned all his accolades after a lifetime of service. I’m preparing for the first holiday season without the man I love. You brought me down in a way you can never imagine and your hurtful words just made my healing much harder.”
John Dingell was the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history.
His widow wasn't the only one upset by the president's comment.
Republican congressman Fred Upton of Michigan, who voted against impeaching Trump, tweeted: “I’ve always looked up to John Dingell - my good friend and a great Michigan legend. There was no need to 'dis' him in a crass political way. Most unfortunate and an apology is due.”
Richard Wolff: "Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism" | Talks at Google
Talks at Google
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Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York City. He wrote Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism and founded www.democracyatwork.info, a non-profit advocacy organization of the same name that promotes democratic workplaces as a key path to a stronger, democratic economic system. Professor Wolff discusses the economic dimensions of our lives, our jobs, our incomes, our debts, those of our children, and those looming down the road in his unique mixture of deep insight and dry humor. He presents current events and draws connections to the past to highlight the machinations of our global economy. He helps us to understand political and corporate policy, organization of labor, the distribution of goods and services, and challenges us to question some of the deepest foundations of our society. For more of his lectures, visit the Democracy at Work YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/democracyatwrk
Should Donald Trump be impeached? | UpFront
Al Jazeera English
In this week’s UpFront, we discuss the impeachment inquiry with a close friend of US President Donald Trump, Chris Ruddy. And in our Arena, we ask ISIL analysts Jessica Stern and Hassan Hassan about the group’s future following the killing of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Trump impeachment: Is the end near for the US president? The US House of Representatives on Thursday voted to approve procedural rules in the impeachment of President Donald Trump. The inquiry centres around a July phone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On the call, Trump allegedly threatened holding back nearly $400 million in military aid unless Zelenskyy investigated the business dealings of Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. “I agree that it's not proper and, and was a mistake,” said Chris Ruddy, a personal friend of Trump and CEO of the conservative news outlet Newsmax. “But I don't think it's a criminal act, and I don't think it's an impeachable act.” "The president's gotten a lot of bad legal advice," said Ruddy. "If you look at this Ukrainian thing, a lot of it starts because his legal counsel at the time, Rudy Giuliani, told him to push the issue of corruption and investigating the Bidens." This week’s Headliner, personal friend of US President Trump and Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy. Can ISIL survive the death of its leader? Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was killed in an October 26 raid by the US forces in Syria. US officials say, facing imminent capture, al-Baghdadi detonated a bomb he was wearing, killing himself and two children. Jessica Stern, Boston University Professor and Co-author of ‘ISIS: The State of Terror’, says the killing of al-Baghdadi is significant, but even if his organisation is severely weakened the conditions remain ripe for another ISIL. “We know that some of the risk factors for terrorism include lots of young men who are unemployed or underemployed, sectarian tensions, sectarian conflict, sectarian war.” Stern says the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 played a role in the emergence of ISIL, but US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of US soldiers from Syria is also problematic. Hassan Hassan of the Center for Global Policy and co-author of ‘ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror’ says groups like ISIL will continue to attract members as long as authoritarian governments continue to hold power in the region. Hassan believes the threat from ISIL remains despite al-Baghdadi’s death. “Most certainly they will try to wage a campaign of revenge,” he said. He added that in 2006 and 2010 the organisation was also in a critical time, yet it survived. In this week’s Arena, we discuss the future of ISIL and its ideology after the death of its leader. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/
A visitor to the Capitol taking a picture of the Washington Monument as the House debated articles of impeachment.Credit...Jason Andrew for The New York Times
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, called the United States drone strikes an “act of international terrorism.”Credit...Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA, via Shutterstock
COME AND BRING IT: President Trump Says He Can't Wait For The Senate Impeachment Trial
FOX 10 Phoenix
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky
Delaying Trump's Senate trial undercuts Dem claims impeachment was 'urgent,' Pence aide says
KENNETH GEE, AOL.COM
Dec 22nd 2019
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/22/delaying-trumps-senate-trial-undercuts-dem-claims-impeachment-was-urgent-pence-aide-says/23885932/
WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff argued Sunday that the House Democrats’ delay in turning over impeachment articles to the Senate has undercut their own arguments about the urgency in pursuing the process in the first place.
“It's a really untenable position, we think, for Speaker Pelosi to say, ‘this president is such a clear and urgent danger to the world, to the globe, that we have to basically trample his constitutional rights, to force a quick impeachment,' and then say, 'well, we're going to hold up impeachment papers,'” Pence's aide, Marc Short, said Sunday during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“How can you possibly justify the contrast to say, ‘this is urgent,’ to then say, ‘well, we'll have to wait and see?’”
The House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump on two articles last week — abuse of power and obstructing Congress — in largely party-line votes.
Democrats have accused Trump of pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential rival in next year's presidential election.
And they’ve said his administration had stonewalled congressional attempts to investigate those allegations.
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced late Wednesday that she wouldn’t immediately send over the House-approved articles to the Senate, arguing that she isn’t yet convinced the Senate trial would be “fair.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer so far remain at an impasse over the rules for a Senate trial over the articles, with Schumer pressing for witness testimony and a more extended trial than McConnell seems to want.
Democrats have criticized McConnell for not not setting the stage for an impartial trial, and the Senate leader has publicly said he is working closely with the White House on the matter.
Hunter Biden, left, and Joe Biden. (Photo: Teresa Kroeger/Getty Images for World Food Program
Sen. Schumer lists documents he wants for impeachment trial
THOMSON REUTERS Dec 23rd 2019
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/23/sen-schumer-lists-documents-he-wants-for-impeachment-trial/23886731/
WASHINGTON, Dec 23 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday outlined the kinds of documents he would like to have introduced as evidence in the upcoming impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, including emails and other communications held by the White House and State Department.
In a letter to his 99 fellow senators, Schumer wrote that denying the Senate these documents "would be to turn a willfully blind eye to the facts" in the abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges against Trump that were approved by the House of Representatives last week.
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said that he and Schumer were at an impasse over the Democrat's demand for four administration witnesses to testify and for documents to be entered into the trial record.
The Republican president was charged with abuse of power and obstructing Congress' investigation. He has said he did nothing wrong.
His trial in the Senate is likely to start in January but no exact date has been set as Democrats and Republicans are at loggerheads over the rules for a trial.
Examples Schumer listed of potentially important documents were records between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy related to the "scheduling, preparation for, and follow-up from" their April 21 and July 25 telephone calls.
Schumer also listed email communications related to "several occasions" in which National Security Council officials "reported their concerns to the NSC legal advisor about the decision to delay" almost $400 million in U.S. security assistance to Ukraine.
Detailed notes, emails and text messages that State Department witnesses told House investigators have been withheld by the administration also were included in Schumer's letter.
McConnell said on Monday that Republicans had not ruled out hearing witnesses in the impeachment trial, as sought by the Democrats, but wanted to leave the decision until after the trial begins.
Trump was impeached on two charges over his pressuring Ukraine to announce an investigation of former vice president Joe Biden, a potential Democratic candidate to run against Republican Trump in the November 2020 election.
There is little chance Trump will be convicted and removed from office through a trial in the Republican-led Senate, but the impeachment proceedings could resonate at the ballot box in November. (Reporting by Richard Cowan Editing by Alistair Bell)
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Rep. Collins explodes, gets standing ovation in impeachment debate
Fox News
House Judiciary ranking member Rep. Doug Collins launches into a furious speech on the House floor, blasting House Democrats' handling of the Trump impeachment inquiry. #FoxNews
Trump doesn't rule out pardon for convicted confidant Roger Stone
NBC News ADAM EDELMAN Dec 24th 2019
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/24/trump-doesnt-rule-out-pardon-for-convicted-confidant-roger-stone/23887316/
President Donald Trump wouldn't rule out pardoning Republican operative Roger Stone, saying Tuesday that "it's very tough" what happened to his former confidant and criticizing federal prosecutors and investigators as "dirty cops" and "evil people."
Trump, talking to reporters following a video teleconference with members of the military at his Mar-a-Lago resort in southern Florida, first said he "hadn't thought of it" when asked if he would pardon Stone, but then lambasted the criminal case against him.
"I think it's very tough what they did to Roger Stone, compared to what they do to other people on their side," Trump said.
"I've known Roger over the years. He's a nice guy. A lot of people like him, and he got hit very hard, as did General Flynn," Trump added, referring to his first national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian interference into the 2016 election.
Trump added that "a lot of other people...got hit very, very hard."
“And now they're finding out it was all a big hoax. They're finding out it was a horrible thing," he said.
"And what they did to so many others is very unfair, and now we found out there are a bunch of dirty cops," Trump said, referring to a Justice Department internal watchdog report that found that the FBI mishandled parts of its application to monitor a Trump campaign aide as it was probing possible Russian interference in the 2016 election. The report, however, also found that the overall investigation was justified.
"These were dirty people, these were bad people, these were evil people," Trump added.
Stone served early on as an adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign and has called the case against him politically motivated.
Stone was found guilty last month on seven counts against him —including witness tampering and making false statements — that were related to his pursuit of Russian-hacked emails in 2016.
Prosecutors portrayed Stone, 67, as a serial liar who tried to bully witnesses into not cooperating with authorities. They charged Stone with making false statements, obstruction and witness tampering in a case that was an offshoot of Mueller's Russia investigation.
Stone was the sixth Trump aide or adviser to be convicted of the charges brought as part of Mueller's probe.
His sentencing is set for Feb. 6, and he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Vicky F R Trump ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ @VickyForT45
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
If you proudly stand by our President, Donald J. Trump, please give me an AMEN!! #WalkAway #VoteThemAllOut #VoteTRUMP2020 #WalkAwayFromCorruptDemocrats #VoteRedToSaveAmerica #KAG2020LandslideVictory
Its-despictable-to-witness-bioted-Democrat_Liars_Hating-the-One-who-is-fighting-corruption_24-7_who-proudly-stands-for-our-Constitution_and-who-truly-loves-America_and_all_off-the-people-in-it.
#VoteThemOut, America
#WalkAWayFromDemocrats
#WalkAway
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Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, on Wednesday at the Capitol.Credit...Erin Schaff
The New York Times
Bradley Scott @Hoosiers1986 - replying to @realDonaldTrump
President Trump, We see this Impeachment for the SHAM that it is. Keep doing the great work that you are doing & don't worry about the slander and dishonesty of the Democrats. We voted for you in 2016, you've kept your promises & we'll re-elect you in 2020! Signed, America!
Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga. (Photo: House Television via AP)
MsPacNWer ⚖ @MsPacNWer
Dang, she looks presidential.
Jeffrey GutermanVerified account @JeffreyGuterman
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Now he’s typing in all caps. Watch out for a total meltdown
SuzanneCitere @SuzanneCitere
It's coming. I full out, no holds barred, Colonel Jessup in A Few Good Men meltdown....
James FeltonVerified account @JimMFelton 18h18 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
Can you try and shit yourself in lower case please, you are clogging up my feed. Thank you.
Pukey Nips @NonagonCity
*finds high profile tweet with huge satirical potential* *Sees @JimMFelton has already done the job* *me*
✞ TrumpGirlOnFire #Cult45Leader @TrumpGirlOnFire 18h18 hours ago
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
People around the world are laughing at the Democrats and the Impeachment. Putin, just laughs! This is an opening for more corruption on the USA when other Countries know we are so divided. This is bad on every front.
Dave Schreiber @DaveSchreiber3 17h17 hours ago
#TrumpLandslide2020
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky
AP Analysis: Impeachment forever changes Trump's legacy
AP
JONATHAN LEMIRE Dec 19th 2019
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/12/19/ap-analysis-impeachment-forever-changes-trumps-legacy/23884233/
NEW YORK (AP) — The first line of President Donald Trump’s obituary has been written.
While Trump is all but certain to avoid removal from office, a portion of his legacy took shape Wednesday when he became just the third president in American history to be impeached by the U.S. House.
The two articles of impeachment approved along largely partisan lines on Wednesday stand as a constitutional rebuke that will stay with Trump even as he tries to trivialize their meaning and use them to power his reelection bid.
“It’ll be impossible to look back at this presidency and not discuss impeachment. It is permanently tied to his record,” said Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University. “Trump now always becomes part of the conversation about misusing presidential power. Ukraine will be his Watergate. Ukraine will be his Lewinsky.”
History books will add Trump to the section that features Bill Clinton, impeached 21 years ago for lying under oath about sex with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and Andrew Johnson, impeached 151 years ago for defying Congress on Reconstruction. Richard Nixon, who avoided impeachment by resigning during the Watergate investigation, is there, too.
Trump himself is keenly aware of the impact that impeachment may have on his legacy.
Allies in recent months have described him as seething over the prospect, taking impeachment more as a personal attack and an attempt to delegitimize his presidency than a judgment on his conduct. Trump said Tuesday that he took “zero” responsibility for his expected impeachment.
“Few people in high position could have endured or passed this test,” Trump wrote in a fiery six-page letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the eve of his impeachment. “You do not know, nor do you care, the great damage and hurt you have inflicted upon wonderful and loving members of my family.”
The letter, rife with exclamation points, random capitalizations and scores of grievances, portrayed the president as the victim of an unfair and politically motivated attack.
“One hundred years from now, when people look back at this affair, I want them to understand it, and learn from it, so that it can never happen to another President again,” he wrote.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham conceded Thursday that Trump was unhappy with the outcome. “The president has said many times that this isn't something he necessarily wants on his resume,” she said in an interview with ABC's “Good Morning America.”
With Republicans in control of the Senate, Trump’s acquittal in a January trial there seems assured.
He has asserted that a public backlash to impeachment may help him politically by firing up loyal supporters and attracting more independents to his cause. He's mused about taking a post-verdict victory lap, a veritable “Not Guilty Tour” akin to the “Thank You Tour” he conducted during the 2016 presidential transition.
Presidential historian Jon Meacham said impeachment will make Trump “the first insurgent incumbent president in American history.” He compared the reflexive partisanship of this moment to the 19th-century tribalism that surrounded Johnson and Reconstruction, requiring a divided nation “to assess what’s being said instead of simply saluting the person saying it.”
Uniquely able to command attention, Trump has held sway over his adopted Republican Party, reshaping it in his image even while defying its orthodoxy. He has thrilled his base of supporters with his confrontational style and tough rhetoric, using his combative Twitter account to fight political rivals and dispute from the outset accusations of foreign electoral interference during special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
While Trump escaped that episode with his grip on power unchanged, the Ukraine story stunned the White House with the speed that it overwhelmed Washington. Trump fell back on the same playbook -- deny, delay, denounce -- but could not avoid an impeachment inquiry at the hands of the Democratic-controlled House.
Kellyanne Conway, senior counselor to the president, on Wednesday rejected the notion that Trump believes his legacy will be tarnished by impeachment.
“No, he doesn't,” Conway said. “He sees it as a stain on the legacy of people who have been so focused and hell-bent on removing him from office."
While Clinton apologized for his behavior and Nixon stepped aside, Trump has remained unbowed, sticking to his contention that he had a “perfect” phone call with Ukraine’s president. Trump and many of his Republican defenders have rejected the testimony of a parade of government witnesses who testified about Trump’s efforts to push Kyiv to investigate potential election rival Joe Biden.
At a rally in Michigan that began mere minutes after the House began its historic vote, Trump tried to publicly downplay the stain on his record.
“It’s impeachment lite. With Richard Nixon, I could see it as a very dark era,” Trump said. “I don’t know about you, but I’m having a good time. But I also know we have a great group of people behind us in the Republican Party.”
The president's approval rating has largely remained unchanged during the impeachment inquiry, his pugnacious personality and populism helping cement his hold with supporters.
Extraordinary polarization around impeachment is not new, but the fierce partisanship this time has been heightened by a unique aspect of this moment: Trump is standing for reelection, while Clinton and Nixon were halfway through their second terms when they faced the threat of impeachment.
The outcome of that election may alter how Trump’s impeachment is ultimately remembered.
“Donald Trump is now going to be synonymous with impeachment. There is no way to market it like a badge of honor. It’s a medallion of shame,” said Douglas Brinkley, presidential historian at Rice University.
“But if he wins, the impeachment looks somewhat smaller. It means he defied it and remade the modern Republican Party in his own image and kept them loyal."
___
Jonathan Lemire has covered the White House and politics for The Associated Press since 2013.
___
Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire
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How each House member voted on the articles of impeachment against President Trump.
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