Democrats are planning public hearings to make their case for impeachment.
Welcome to the Impeachment Briefing. On a quiet Monday for news, we're keeping things short. |
- House Democrats privately admitted that the impeachment investigation was likely to now extend into the Christmas season, as they planned a series of high-profile public hearings designed to make the best possible case for removing President Trump.
- Mr. Trump raged against Republican defections on impeachment, complaining that while Democrats had been "vicious" and united in attacking him, his own party had not been fighting hard enough on his behalf.
- The president's allies on Capitol Hill tried to ramp up their defense by forcing a vote in the House to censure Representative Adam Schiff, who is leading the impeachment inquiry as the chairman of the Intelligence Committee. The vote failed in the Democratic-led chamber.
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Why is foreign interference a bad thing? |
A number of readers have written in with a question fundamental to the impeachment investigation: Why is it harmful for one country to ask another country for help ahead of an election? My colleague Katie Rogers addressed that question in several ways in an article today: |
- When the framers of the Constitution were establishing what kind of behavior should merit a president's removal from office, they arrived at the standard of "high crimes and misdemeanors." One of the high crimes they had in mind was accepting money from a foreign power — what Alexander Hamilton said was giving in to "the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils."
- Asking another government for help — whether a quid pro quo existed or not — means that a president would find himself indebted to another country. "If the president of Ukraine has agreed to do this, he has something to hold over the head of the president of the United States," Trevor Potter, the founder of the Campaign Legal Center, told her. "It indeed opens the president up to political blackmail."
- Asking for help as Mr. Trump did is not "politics as usual." Ten former chiefs of staff for five former presidents — Ronald Reagan, both Bushes, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — all said they would have considered such a prospect unacceptable.
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What's happening this week |
- With several memorial events for the late Representative Elijah Cummings scheduled, House impeachment investigators are planning only two interviews this week: Bill Taylor, the acting ambassador to Ukraine, will testify on Tuesday, and Laura Cooper, a deputy assistant secretary of defense for Ukraine, will be deposed on Wednesday.
- On Monday, Russell Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, said he and the staffer who oversaw the freezing of almost $400 in military aid to Ukraine, would not testify this week, defying House Democrats.
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- Most people in the 2020 battleground states support the impeachment investigation, 50 percent to 45 percent, according to new survey from The New York Times and Siena College. But a majority still opposes removing him from office, 53 percent to 43 percent.
- Another new survey found that support for impeaching and removing Mr. Trump from office is rising, but that Republicans remain almost unanimously opposed, leaving Mr. Trump with a loyal but shrinking base.
- The Wall Street Journal looked through the private Instagram account of Lev Parnas, one of Mr. Giuliani's associates who was arrested this month on campaign finance charges. They found plenty of contact with Mr. Trump and his family.
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