North Korea claims that its negotiations with the United States over its nuclear weapons program broke down on Saturday, although the U.S. sees it differently.
But North Korea’s chief negotiator said after hours of talks Saturday in Stockholm that the discussions “have not fulfilled our expectation and finally broke up.”
“The breakup of the negotiation without any outcome is due to the fact that the U.S. would not give up their old viewpoint and attitude,” North Korean diplomat Kim Myong Gil said.
“The U.S. raised expectations by offering suggestions like flexible approaches, new methods and creative solutions, but they have disappointed us greatly and dampened our enthusiasm for negotiations by bringing nothing to the negotiation table,” he added.
The State Department rejected this characterization of the talks, saying in a statement by spokesperson Morgan Ortagus that North Korea’s comments “do not reflect the content or the spirit of today’s 8 1/2 hour discussion.”
“The U.S. brought creative ideas and had good discussions” with its North Korean counterparts, Ortagus said.
He added that the U.S. has already accepted an invitation from Sweden to return to Stockholm in two weeks to continue the negotiations.
“The United States and the DPRK will not overcome a legacy of 70 years of war and hostility on the Korean Peninsula through the course of a single Saturday,” Ortagus said in the statement, using the country’s full title of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “These are weighty issues, and they require a strong commitment by both countries. The United States has that commitment.”
The two sides had not met since February at the working level, and North Korea had indicated it would not consider further negotiations until the U.S. dropped a demand for unilateral disarmament.
President Donald Trump unleashed a load of venom on Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) over the course of several hours on Saturday, deeming him a “a pompous ‘ass’” and even calling for him to be impeached on Twitter.
The tweets came in response to Romney’s sharp criticisms the previous day of the president’s appeal toforeign countries to conduct investigations into Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, a potential political rival in 2020. “By all appearance, the President’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling,” Romney tweeted on Friday.
The acrimonious exchange is the latest turn in the up-and-down relationship between the two men, who share a party but are miles apart on questions of style, propriety, and adherence to institutional norms.
The vehemence of Trump’s tweets also served as a signal to other GOP lawmakers that Trump is willing to direct his ire at them if they step out of line and offer a hint of support to Democrats’ impeachment efforts against him. (And regarding Trump’s retaliatory impeachment plan: technically a senator can’t be impeached, but they can be expelled by a vote in the upper chamber.)
Somebody please wake up Mitt Romney and tell him that my conversation with the Ukrainian President was a congenial and very appropriate one, and my statement on China pertained to corruption, not politics. If Mitt worked this hard on Obama, he could have won. Sadly, he choked!
Mitt Romney never knew how to win. He is a pompous “ass” who has been fighting me from the beginning, except when he begged me for my endorsement for his Senate run (I gave it to him), and when he begged me to be Secretary of State (I didn’t give it to him). He is so bad for R’s!
Romney accepted Trump’s 2018 endorsement, but has become a Trump critic in the Senate
The Utah senator has had a complicated relationship with Donald Trump.
When Romney made his second bid for the White House in 2012, Trump endorsed himand called him more “presidential” than Barack Obama. But after Romney lost the election, Trump criticized him for his loss.
In 2016, Romney wasn’t so keen on backing Trump when he emerged as the GOP’s presidential nominee. He expressed concern about Trump’s vulgar and racist remarks on the campaign trail, and pleaded to the public to consider other nominees.
But when Trump won the election, Romney famously sat down for dinner with Trump to discuss a potential position in Trump’s White House, and told reporters that Trump was “the very man who can lead us.”
It didn’t work out, but that dinner signaled a détente. While Romney did criticize Trump during his first two years in office — most notably for his handling of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017 — he clearly foresaw a benefit to not taking his condemnations too far.
Trump endorsed Romney for Senate in 2018, and Romney happily accepted it. The reason was simple: it was in both politicians’ interest to do so.
ButRomney’s relationship with Trump while in the Senate has been a mixed bag. Right before he was sworn in, he wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post criticizing Trump’s character. “With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential leadership in qualities of character is indispensable. And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring,” Romney wrote in January 2018.
But Trump’s latest behavior calling for Ukraine and China to conduct investigations of Biden could potentially cross a red line for Romney.
Normally Romney impugning Trump for issues of character while going along with him on policy wouldn’t amount to much, but the timing of his criticism may be crucial. Democrats have opened an impeachment inquiry into Trump’s behavior, and should House Democrats choose to impeach Trump, then Republican unity in the Senate will be crucial to ensuring Trump isn’t removed from office.
So far though, Romney has been a fairly lonely voice among his GOP peers. Other than Romney’s broadside, the most pointed Republican criticism of Trump’s appeal to China to date has come from Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska.
“Hold up: Americans don’t look to Chinese commies for the truth,” Sasse wrote in a statement to the Omaha World-Herald Thursday in response to Trump’s call for China to investigate Biden. “If the Biden kid broke laws by selling his name to Beijing, that’s a matter for American courts, not communist tyrants running torture camps.”
But Sasse went out of his way to ensure that this wasn’t interpreted as siding with the Democratic impeachment inquiry. He accused House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) of “running a partisan clown show.”
Romney not only has a uniquely tense relationship with Trump, but he’s also being unusually blunt in his criticism of Trump’s conduct. Trump is responding with tremendous force, and in the process he’s warning other Republicans that they could be the target of his wrath too if they step too far out of line.
Trump asserted in a tweet that the whistleblower’s complaint was “way off” and claimed that key Democrats didn’t think he would release a transcript of his call with the Ukrainian president, which sparked the scrutiny.
“The so-called Whistleblower’s account of my perfect phone call is ‘way off,’ not even close,” he tweeted.
The so-called Whistleblower’s account of my perfect phone call is “way off,” not even close. Schiff and Pelosi never thought I would release the transcript of the call. Got them by surprise, they got caught. This is a fraud against the American people!
Trump’s tweet came the morning after The New York Times reported that a second intelligence official was considering whether to file their own whistleblower complaint over concerns about the president’s dealings with Ukraine.
The person reportedly has more direct information than the first whistleblower, who did not have direct knowledge but cited “multiple White House officials with direct knowledge.”
Pelosi last week announced that Democrats would launch a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump over his dealings with Ukraine. The probe is being handled by the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight and Reform committees.
The White House released a rough transcript of the July 25 call that matched key details from the whistleblower complaint. Trump was quoted in the memo as asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “look into” the former vice president. Trump this week also publicly encouraged Ukraine and China to launch probes into Biden.
“I would think that if they were honest about it they’d start a major investigation into the Bidens,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about Ukraine.
House Democrats have ramped up their impeachment probe in recent days, issuing a subpoena on Friday for Ukraine-related documents from the White House and issuing a request for similar information from Vice President Pence.
In an extraordinary move on Thursday, President Trump, already facing impeachment for pressuring Ukraine to investigate a political rival, publicly called on China to examine former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., another request for help from a foreign power that could benefit him in next year’s election. On Monday it was revealed that Mr. Trump had also asked Australia for help in an effort he had hoped would discredit the origins of the Mueller investigation. To tally that all up, Mr. Trump and his attorney general have sought help to discredit the president’s opponents from Ukraine, Australia, Italy and, according to one report, Britain.
Ensnarled in an impeachment probe over his request for Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, President Donald Trump is now calling on another nation to do the same: China. There is no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Bidens. (Oct. 3) AP, AP
ALLENTOWN, Penn. – Rep. Susan Wild was prepared for the criticism on Wednesday evening.
She’d come to Muhlenberg College ready to defend why Democrats in the House of Representatives were moving forward on an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
It was her first town hall since announcing that she, a freshmen Democrat who beat a Republican in a swing state in 2018, also supported the historic move put in motion by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in late September. The forum would offer a peek into how the ruckus in Washington was playing out at home.
But over about 90 minutes in a packed room full of hundreds of people, so many that officials had to bring in more chairs, impeachment was only raised a handful of times. Instead, people in this eastern Pennsylvania city wanted to know about bread-and-butter issues like health care and education and weren’t preoccupied with the hysterics surrounding the quickly moving impeachment probe.
“I didn’t come to Congress to pursue an impeachment inquiry,” she told the hundreds who attended the town hall. “It was the last thing in the world that I wanted.”
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was recalled to Washington for “consultations” on April 29, 2019. The whistleblower complaint cited a Rudy Giuliani interview with a Ukrainian journalist published on May 14, 2019, where he stated that Yovanovitch was “removed … because she was part of the efforts against the President.” Seen here, Yovanovitch, center, sits during her meeting with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev, Ukraine, on March 6, 2019. Mikhail Palinchak, Presidential Press Service Pool Photo via AP
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., joins Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., right, at a news conference as House Democrats move on depositions in the impeachment inquiry of Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 2, 2019. J. Scott Applewhite, AP
From a stage flanked by Pennsylvania and American flags, Wild asked those in the audience to line up if they had any questions or concerns. One by one, they appeared at microphones on both sides of the event hall, but missing from their comments was the topic that was leading most newspapers and cable news.
“Do you believe that there should be a profit motive in health care, and if not, then we need to work toward Medicare for All,” the first constituent at the microphone asked, also noting Wild’s work on mental health after the recent death of her partner by suicide.
The second, a young woman, approached the microphone: “Have you changed your position on the Green New Deal? Will you please sign on to co-sponsor” the legislation, she asked, raising the climate change resolution posed by fellow freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a prominent New York progressive.
Of the 31 questions she took from constituents throughout the evening, impeachment came up just a few times. Only two people stood up to criticize her or Democrats for launching the inquiry, which started after a whistleblower charged that Trump used his office to go after a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
It wasn’t until about 20 minutes into the event that someone brought up the issue. That person argued a majority of Americans don’t support removing Trump from office and that the inquiry would prevent Congress from being able to solve problems and work together.
“I just want to make a point that there is another way,” one man told Wild. “I did admire when you said you did several, a few collaborative bills, bipartisan. Just don’t hear much about that anymore, and I think more Americans would be happy to hear more of that and less of the accusation du jour.” The crowd booed.
House Democrats have been trying to stress they haven’t lost sight of issues important to their constituents, even as they attempt to explain the inquiry to voters in their districts. Republicans want to sell Democrats as so hell-bent on impeaching Trump that they’ve abandoning kitchen-table issues.
To those who criticized her, Wild argued that impeachment would not be a distraction from the issues that got her elected. She pointed to her work on the Education and Labor committee and legislation aimed at lowering prescription drug prices.
But some backed Wild’s call for an inquiry – and took it a step further.
“Why can’t the House hold those who refuse to cooperate in contempt, find them, and put them in jail?” one woman asked Wild as the crowd cheered. Wild pushed back, explaining that Congress’ job was to investigate, not to jail or take the place of judges and juries. She also swatted away comments from another constituent who called the president “crazy,” saying she would not talk about the president’s state of mind.
“I hope that it is expeditious and I hope that we get it done,” Wild said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made an effort at drawing attention away from impeachment this week during a news conference. She declined to answer questions about impeachment without first discussing the proposed new North American trade deal and legislation that aims to lower prescription drug prices.
“Does anybody in this room care about the cost of prescription drugs and what it means to America’s working families?” Pelosi asked reporters.
Wild is one of many House Democrats in moderate districts who faced voters after months of resisting efforts to embrace impeachment by the progressive faction in the caucus.
But the mostly friendly crowd Wednesday evening was much more focused on issues like the status of schools in the area, health care and climate change. Such issues resonate in the purple 7th Congressional District, which encompasses everything from Allentown — one of cities with the highest populations in the state — to rural areas where cornfields, country homes and tractors are common.
Wild, a former attorney, captured a seat formerly held by Republican Rep. Charlie Dent in 2018 by eight points, but she is a top target of Republicans in the state in 2020.
She defended herself when questions came up about whether the impeachment inquiry could negatively affect her in the next election. She acknowledged that Republicans would likely target her as they have already Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright, who represents the district neighboring Wild. Ads have criticized Cartwright of backing “a radical scheme to impeach President Trump.”
CLOSE
House Democratic leaders accused President Donald Trump of “incitement to violence” Wednesday and warned him not to intimidate the whistleblower or potential witnesses in their impeachment inquiry. (Oct. 2) AP, AP
“I believe that I will be reelected because of the work I’ve done for the people in this district,” Wild said, “not because I went one way or the other on an impeachment inquiry.”
The political layout of Wild’s district displays the vacillations of swing districts. Her district includes Northampton County, one of the three counties in Pennsylvania that voted for former President Barack Obama and then flipped for Trump in 2016. Persuading voters in counties like Northampton could be key for both Democrats and Republicans in deciding both Wild’s political future and who controls the White House in 2020. Pennsylvania is one of five swing states that has been rated a toss-up by the Cook Political Report.
Large shopping centers are sprinkled throughout Northampton County, as are rural areas featuring acres of corn, wheat and soybeans, along with farm animals and inviting country homes. The county is also home to several colleges and businesses that range from industrial plants to small coffee shops frequented by millennials.
Outside a grocery store inForks Township — a community of about 15,000 people — voters said they felt torn by the constant investigations and the president’s conduct. While some felt worried by the president’s actions, others put the blame on Democrats.
Bridget Colman says she would rather hear about what’s being done to better health care and has gotten so fed up with the news that she doesn’t watch anymore.
“It’s like every time I turn it on I get angry. My blood boils for what?” she asked, noting she did not vote for Trump in 2016. “I can’t do anything but just watch this circus.”
Others like Dawn Dobrosky noted she wasn’t “a fan” of Trump but felt as though Democrats were picking on him.
“It’s like they won’t give him a break,” she said while loading groceries in her car.
Dobrosky, who says she wrote in a candidate instead of voting for Hillary Clinton or Trump in 2016, said she is still undecided on a candidate in 2020.
“It’s just constant,” she said of the fighting, adding that she would rather hear about education and health care instead of impeachment. “They seem to want to keep him under a microscope.”
Like Dobrosky and Colman, others were in agreement that impeaching the president wasn’t the issue that was most important to them.
As Mike Gerbasio and his wife, Cindi Hopkins, got seated in the back of the large event hall at Muhlenberg College — their first time at one of Wild’s town halls — both mentioned a variety of topics they wanted Wild to discuss.
“I just want to hear what she stands for and what she’s been working on,” Gerbasio said. “I know everyone in Washington has a tough job and I want to listen and hear what she is doing for us.”
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talks during a joint news conference with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias on Saturday in Athens.
Thanassis Stavrakis/AP
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Thanassis Stavrakis/AP
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talks during a joint news conference with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias on Saturday in Athens.
Thanassis Stavrakis/AP
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took a trip to Europe this week but was followed by allegations that he and other American diplomats helped to try to strong-arm Ukraine into aiding President Trump’s reelection campaign.
At a public meeting in Athens on Saturday, a Greek journalist asked Pompeo about the Ukraine-related investigation back home. Pompeo seemed exasperated by the question. “This is what’s wrong, when the world doesn’t focus on the things that matter … and instead, you get caught up in a silly gotcha game,” he said.
Earlier in the week, Democratic leaders of the impeachment inquiry in Congress accused Pompeo of “stonewalling” their investigation by refusing to turn over documents. Congressional investigators issued a subpoena for these documents on Sept. 27 and set a deadline of Friday, Oct. 4, for turning them over. At a press conference in Athens Saturday, Pompeo said he had responded with a letter on Friday evening, which he called “our initial response to the document request.”
“We’ll obviously do all the things that we’re required to do by law,” Pompeo said. “We’re going to be more responsive than the Obama administration was in the years that preceded this particular Congress.”
Pompeo is just one of the top Trump administration officials facing a demand for documents. Congressional investigators have delivered a subpoena to the White House and have sought documents from the office of Vice President Pence.
Neither of those offices appeared inclined to turn over documents. A spokesperson for Pence’s office told The New York Times that “it does not appear to be a serious request,” but rather, an attention-getting maneuver.
On Friday night, Republican Sen. Mitt Romney criticized Trump on Twitter, calling his efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating the actions of former Vice President Joe Biden or his son Hunter “wrong and appalling.”
By all appearances, the President’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling.
Trump fired back on Saturday morning, also on Twitter. “Somebody please wake up Mitt Romney and tell him that my conversation with the Ukrainian President was a congenial and very appropriate one,” he wrote.
In a follow-up tweet, Trump called Romney a “pompous ‘ass’ who has been fighting me from the beginning.”
Somebody please wake up Mitt Romney and tell him that my conversation with the Ukrainian President was a congenial and very appropriate one, and my statement on China pertained to corruption, not politics. If Mitt worked this hard on Obama, he could have won. Sadly, he choked!
Mitt Romney never knew how to win. He is a pompous “ass” who has been fighting me from the beginning, except when he begged me for my endorsement for his Senate run (I gave it to him), and when he begged me to be Secretary of State (I didn’t give it to him). He is so bad for R’s!
“Over the past two weeks, senior campaign leadership received multiple complaints regarding inappropriate behavior by Rich McDaniel,” campaign spokeswoman Kristen Orthman said in a statement.
“Over the same time period, the campaign retained outside counsel to conduct an investigation. Based on the results of the investigation, the campaign determined that his reported conduct was inconsistent with its values and that he could not be a part of the campaign moving forward,” she said.
The complaints about McDaniel did not involve sexual assault or rape, according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive personnel matter.
McDaniel could not immediately be reached for comment.
He recently hosted a happy hour for Warren’s campaign supporters to get to know one another at a pub in Atlanta. At that event he led a group of about 60 in a chants supporting the campaign.
He also frequently was on the road with Warren.
McDaniel has worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential team, as well as campaigns for Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), according to his Twitter bio.
“But when you respond to that,” he continued, “it brings you back down into that.”
Mr. Biden was even blunter, and angrier, in private after news first emerged that Mr. Trump had exhorted the Ukrainian government to investigate him and his son.
“I can’t believe this guy is going after my family like this,” he told Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, as the two campaigned in Iowa, Mr. Coons recalled.
Leading Democrats have been pleading privately with Mr. Biden and his top aides to aggressively confront Mr. Trump, and expressing impatience with them for not seizing this opportunity to engage him in a two-man race. After all, Mr. Biden had spent months framing his candidacy as a singular crusade to oust an aberrant president.
“It’s time to really respond so everybody hears it,” said Representative Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, a campaign co-chairman. “If someone says something enough, people will start to believe it, and this president gets in his zone of telling a lie over and over again. You have to make sure people don’t believe in it.”
David Plouffe, former President Barack Obama’s campaign manager, was mystified. Mr. Biden “should use this moment and become Trump’s opponent,” Mr. Plouffe said. “I don’t understand it.”
But Mr. Biden is confronting an almost unimaginable situation: the president he hopes to challenge is facing impeachment for urging another country to help smear him. What’s more, the House inquiry centers on what Mr. Biden values most in his private and public life: protecting his family and honoring institutional norms.
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In a letter to the White House, Democrats said President Trump had “chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up”
US Democratic lawmakers have demanded documents from the White House as part of their impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
The documents relate to a call between Mr Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on 25 July.
In the call, Mr Trump pushed Mr Zelensky to investigate his leading Democratic political rival, Joe Biden.
The impeachment inquiry stems from the call, which was flagged up by a whistleblower in August.
The whistleblower alleged that Mr Trump used a $400m military aid package to Ukraine, which had been suspended earlier in July, as leverage to persuade Mr Zelensky. The White House released the aid in September.
Mr Trump has denied any wrongdoing, accusing his political opponents of a “witch hunt”.
But in a move to crank up the pressure on the president, the three House committees leading the investigation have given him until 18 October to hand over the documents.
“We deeply regret that President Trump has put us – and the nation – in this position, but his actions have left us with no choice but to issue this subpoena,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to the White House.
Image copyright Reuters
Image caption
Democrats have asked Mike Pence for documents to clarify his role in the Ukraine affair
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham sought to play down the subpoena, saying it “changes nothing”.
A separate request for records has also been sent to Vice-President Mike Pence, with Democrats asking him to clarify “any role you may have played” in Mr Trump’s overtures to Ukraine.
Media captionWhat we know about Biden-Ukraine corruption claims
If Democrats manage to impeach Mr Trump – by way of a vote in the House of Representatives – a trial would be held in the Senate.
Senators would have to vote to convict Mr Trump by a two-thirds majority to remove him from office.
But that outcome is seen as unlikely given that the president’s fellow Republicans control the Senate.
What documents are the Democrats demanding?
In their letter to the White House, the committees accused Mr Trump of “stonewalling” multiple requests for records relating to his July 25 call with Mr Zelensky.
By refusing to voluntarily release the documents, the Democrats said Mr Trump had “chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up”.
As the fast-moving investigation into Mr Trump escalates, there are reports of a second intelligence official considering making a complaint against the president.
Michael Atkinson, the general inspector of the intelligence community, interviewed this official to corroborate the original whistleblower’s allegations, the paper reported.
Given the original whistleblower, reported to be a CIA official, did not directly witness the call, the testimony of a second official could prove valuable to the Democrats’ inquiry.
Four quick questions on Trump-Ukraine
Why is Mr Trump being investigated?
A whistleblower alleges he used “the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the US 2020 election”, by asking Ukraine to investigate his main rival, Joe Biden.
Is this illegal?
If this is what he’s proven to have done, then yes: it’s illegal to ask foreign entities for help winning a US election. Mr Trump says it’s a witch-hunt and he did nothing wrong.
What could happen next?
If the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted to impeach Mr Trump, there’d be a trial in the Senate.
Could he be removed?
A Senate vote needs a two-thirds majority to convict, but Mr Trump’s Republican party controls the Senate so that’s unlikely. And the Mueller inquiry made clear you can’t charge a sitting president with a crime.
The Hong Kong government has invoked a colonial-era law to ban face masks in an attempt to crack down on the months-long protest movement that’s gotten increasingly tense in recent weeks.
Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive, announced the ban Friday. “The decision to enact an anti-mask law is not easy one, but it is a necessary decision considering the situation today,” Lam said at a press conference.
The law, which went into effect Saturday at midnight local time, bans protesters from wearing any sort of mask or face covering, including paint, at any public gathering, including both lawful protests and unlawful assemblies. Those who violate the ban could face up to one year in jail and a fine of HK$25,000 (about $3,200 US dollars), according to the Hong Kong Free Press.
The rule will exempt people who wear face coverings for their job or for religious reasons.
Lam relied on a 1922 law that gives Hong Kong’s leader additional powers in times of emergency. The statute predates the handover of Hong Kong — once a British colony — to the People’s Republic of China in 1997, and hasn’t been used since 1967, the Hong Kong Free Press reports. Lam denied that the face mask ban meant that Hong Kong was in a state of emergency, though she warned that “freedoms are not without limits.”
But so far, the ban has only galvanized those opposed to Hong Kong’s government. Protesters — in face masks, of course — continued to demonstrate after Lam enacted the ban. Protests broke out across Hong Kong Friday night into Saturday, with more businesses and transit stations vandalized, and clashes with police turned violent.
Masks have been a feature of the Hong Kong protests since the beginning
Demonstrators wear masks for both practical reasons — the masks protect against tear gas, which the police have used against protesters — and more symbolic ones.
Since the start of these protests in June, the movement has valued anonymity above all else. Protesters organize online and closely guard their real identities, and their disguises — whether face masks or hoodies or face paint — allow them to protest in public with less fear of reprisal from school or work or family. Masks also protect them from being recognized on CCTV cameras around the city, which could be used to identify them and arrest them. (The government argues that this allows the protesters to act with impunity.)
But given that masks are a defining element of the protests, it seems impossible to institute an all-out ban. It may deter some people from protesting, but it almost certainly isn’t going to prevent the most committed of the demonstrators. It also may have the effect of increasing solidarity against the government, as even those not actively participating in the unrest may view the Hong Kong government’s steps as far too harsh.
In other words, the measure is likely to infuriate the very protesters most likely to cause disruptions and chaos across Hong Kong, and it also makes their cause look more just, and necessary.
“This is adding fuel to the fire,” Fernando Cheung, a pro-democracy lawmaker, told the Washington Post. “People are already extremely angry at the police and the government for not responding to their demands.”
The Hong Kong protests intensified in June over a controversial extradition bill that would have allowed for people accused of crimes to be sent to face trial in mainland China, which many critics feared would allow Beijing to target dissidents and others critical of the Communist Party.
Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam formally withdrew the extradition law in early September after weeks of relentless protests. But by then, many pro-democracy protesters interpreted the concession as insufficient, as it came far too late and failed to address all of their grievances.
In addition to calling for an independent investigation into police tactics, protesters want all activists arrested to be freed with charges dropped. They are also demanding universal suffrage — a chance for Hong Kong to be able to fully elect its own leaders, outside the influence of Beijing.
The mask ban was quickly interpreted as another undemocratic move, and it once again puts the Hong Kong government in direct opposition with the protesters.
Lam introduced the ban a few days after violent protests marred Beijing’s celebration of the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. President Xi Jinping presided over a huge military parade, meant to signal to domestic and international audiences Beijing’s growing role and prowess in the world. But the protests in Hong Kong tainted that commemoration, at least on the international stage, where protesters directly challenged China’s system.
Lam has denied that China influenced her decision to put the ban into place, but there’s a lot of skepticism about why the Hong Kong government acted in this manner, and why now. Some have speculated that this is a test case so Hong Kong can take harsher measures if it withstands legal and public challenges.
But nothing, to date, has really quelled the pro-democracy uprising in Hong Kong. Any concessions the Hong Kong government has made — including withdrawing the extradition bill that ignited the movement — have been met with still more resistance from activists, who want a fully functioning democracy and the preservation of their autonomy from China under the “one country, two rules” system.
The face mask rule is now in effect in Hong Kong. But the transit system is shut down, a 14-year-old has been injured by live ammunition fired by an off-duty police officer, and protesters are in the streets, in masks, in defiance of the ban and Lam’s government.
“I feel there was in the 2016 campaign — there was tremendous corruption against me,” said Trump, transforming himself — a man who has now publicly asked no fewer than three foreign countries (Russia, Ukraine and China) to look into his political opponents — into the victim of corrupt behavior.
And he was just getting started.
“I was investigated, I was investigated, okay?” he said, before pointing at himself — two rapid-fire taps to his right breast — and adding: “Me! Me!”
He barked at the media that it was he who ran, he who won, he who was investigated, before accusing the assembled press: “You won’t say that, will you?”
Finally, he began wrapping up: “I was investigated. I was investigated. And they think it could have been by U.K. They think it could have been by Australia. They think it could have been by Italy. So when you get down to it, I was investigated by the Obama administration.”
“By the Obama administration,” he concluded, shouting now, and using both hands to point at himself, “I was investigated.”
It was unclear, exactly, to which unfounded, unproven theory Trump was referring.
Perhaps he was incorrectly claiming that Barack Obama’s administration was investigating him. In fact, the FBI opened investigations into several of his campaign aides — including Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, both foreign policy advisers — but not actually Trump himself.
Or maybe he was conflating Christopher Steele — a former British intelligence officer who during the 2016 campaign compiled a dossier of damaging information on then-candidate Trump — with the British government itself.
But either way, Trump was angry, and his rambling question-and-answer session seemed to convey an essential truth: That he considers it fair game for him ask foreign governments to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter — who, Trump claimed again with no evidence, were the perpetrators of “tremendous corruption.”
The president has long been comfortable with conspiracy theories. His political rise was abetted by the racist lie of birtherism — the false claim that Obama was not born in the United States. But ever since special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia probe, and now amid the throes of an impeachment inquiry, Trump seems to have moved into a split-screen reality — one in which he is the hero who has, as he tweeted Thursday, the “absolute right” to do just about anything he pleases.
And his South Lawn session Friday again laid bare the incongruity between actual facts and what the president espouses.
Trump repeatedly insisted that he was not worried about Biden as a possible 2020 rival — “I don’t care about Biden’s campaign, but I do care about corruption,” he said — a claim undermined by the fact that Trump fixated on Biden, mentioning the former vice president more than two dozen times.
The president as caped anti-corruption crusader is also undermined by his own previous behavior. He refused to condemn and was slow to dismiss some of his own Cabinet officials, including former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt and former interior secretary Ryan Zinke, amid ethical lapses and controversy. Unlike previous presidents, both Democratic and Republican, Trump has often expressed admiration and fondness for dictators, rather than pressuring them to improve their record on human rights.
He again claimed his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — during which he asked that the Ukrainians dig up dirt on Biden as “a favor” — was “perfect,” and that when he released notes from the conversation, the reaction was positive.
“They say, ‘Wow, this is incredible,’ ” Trump said. “We’re very proud of that call.”
In fact, even some of his Republican allies have been reticent to publicly defend the content of the call, and on Friday, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a former GOP presidential nominee, criticized Trump in a duo of tweets.
“When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China’s investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated,” Romney wrote. “By all appearances, the President’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling.”
Trump also falsely claimed that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the president’s phone call with Zelensky was “wonderful.” Though McConnell did defend Trump in a statement to Politico, saying the Democrats had “already overplayed their hand” by using the phone call to launch an impeachment inquiry, he was hardly effusive about Trump’s conversation with Zelensky.
The president also accused Hunter Biden of taking “a billion and a half dollars out of China.” He seemed to be referring to the sum of money that a private-equity company based in China had said it hoped to raise. Hunter Biden became a board member of the firm, BHR Partners, in 2013, and later acquired a 10 percent interest in the entity overseeing the fund — but his lawyer has described Trump’s allegations against him as “a gross misrepresentation of Mr. Biden’s role with BHR.”
Turning his attention to Mueller’s Russia investigation, Trump described that probe as “perfect.”
“We went through two years of Mueller, and that came out like a 10,” the president said.
Even many of Trump’s most stalwart allies, however, privately are unlikely to describe Mueller’s investigation and subsequent report as having been ideal for the president.
Though Mueller determined that current Justice Department policy prevented him from concluding whether Trump committed a crime, he did lay out possible evidence of obstruction of justice by the president in his final 448-page report and noted that “while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Trump did, however, utter at least one thing that seemed to be unambiguous.
“I’ve been president now for almost three years, and I’ve been going through this for almost three years,” he said. “It’s almost become like a part of my day.”
Trump discussed the Friday unemployment numbers as well as “Democrats’ refusal to focus on solutions that would help the American people as they attempt to overturn the result of the 2016 election,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.
“The President, Leader McCarthy, Whip Scalise, Chair Cheney, and Republican leaders on key House committees spoke on the call and emphasized that Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and Chairman [Adam] Schiff are deliberately misleading the American people about the truth, and are trampling over procedure and precedent to advance their political goals,” Deere said in the statement issued late Friday.
Trump also touted the economy earlier Friday, after new figures showed the United States added 136,000 jobs in September and unemployment hit a 50-year low.
The president’s call with Republicans came as three House committees held a closed-door interview with the inspector general of the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, regarding a whistleblower complaint raising alarm over Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.
The whistleblower complaint, which triggered House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry last week, alleged that Trump solicited foreign interference in the 2020 presidential election and described an effort by the White House to contain details of the call.
“While we cannot get into the substance, we explored with the IG through documents and testimony the reasons why he found the whistleblower complaint to be both urgent and credible,” Schiff, who leads the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement following the closed-door interview.
“Now that we have all seen the call record, we can see that the IG’s determination was correct in both respects.”
House Democrats also issued a subpoena Friday evening to the White House for documents related to Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, and requested documents from Vice President Pence for their impeachment probe.
Trump has railed against Democrats’ impeachment inquiry as a “witch hunt,” accusing them of trying to bruise him ahead of the 2020 election and insisting he did nothing wrong on the call with Zelensky.
“I’m only interested in corruption,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday. “I don’t care about politics. I don’t care about Biden’s politics. I never thought Biden was going to win, to be honest.”
President Trump speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House on Friday.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
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Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
President Trump speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House on Friday.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
President Trump signed a proclamation late Friday barring legal immigrants who cannot prove they will have health care coverage or the means to pay for it within 30 days of their arrival to the United States.
Trump said uninsured individuals are a burden on the health care industry and U.S. taxpayers.
“Immigrants who enter this country should not further saddle our health care system, and subsequently American taxpayers, with higher costs,” Trump declared.
Beginning Nov. 3, only immigrants covered by approved health insurance or those who can show they can pay for “reasonably foreseeable medical costs” will be allowed entry into the U.S.
The announcement affects immigrants applying for visas from overseas. It doesn’t apply to non-citizen children of U.S. citizens. Refugees and asylum-seekers are also exempt.
However, it would apply to the spouses and parents of U.S. citizens and the immediate family members of lawful permanent residents.
The proclamation is the latest effort by the Trump administration to limit the number of low-income immigrants coming to the United States. The administration also plans to make it harder for immigrants to get green cards if they use a wide range of public benefits. That new rule is set to take effect this month, although it is facing legal challenges.
The new proclamation is also expected to be challenged.
“If this policy survives the inevitable court challenges and is implemented, it will create a new and arbitrary hurdle for some half a million green card applicants each year,” Doug Rand, who worked on immigration policy in the Barack Obama administration, told NPR. “Consular officers will deny the parents of U.S. citizens based on a snap judgment about their apparent health. U.S. citizens will be separated from their husbands and wives abroad based on a failure to demonstrate health insurance coverage or a subjective level of wealth.”
“The Republicans are very unified,” Trump said, as he again insisted he had said nothing inappropriate during the July call in which he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
Trump’s comments to reporters at the White House came as fallout continued Friday from the late-night release of text messages by House investigators, while another key figure, the inspector general of the intelligence community, testified on Capitol Hill behind closed doors.
The texts released late Thursday show how State Department officials coordinated with Zelensky’s top aide and Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to leverage a potential summit between Trump and Zelensky on a promise from the Ukrainians to investigate an energy company, Burisma, that had employed Hunter Biden.
Early Friday, Ukraine’s chief prosecutor said he would conduct an “audit” of an investigation related to Burisma.
6:40 p.m.: Defense Secretary Mark Esper declines to give details of delay in aid to Ukraine
Defense Secretary Mark Esper declined to say whether or how Pentagon officials had addressed the delay in providing military aid to Ukraine after they informed Congress this spring that the country had made sufficient progress on corruption to receive it.
“I’m not going to add any fuel to the fire at this point in time,” Esper told reporters traveling with him to Kentucky and Ohio. He said the Defense Department would answer any congressional questions if they arose.
“Right now I’m trying to keep DOD out of this issue,” he said. “It’s a very political issue.”
Esper said “the good news” was that officials had wanted to ensure that the aid went forward by the end of the year, and that was now occurring. This week the State Department said it was approving the sale of $39 million in Javelin missiles to Ukraine.
– Missy Ryan
6:20 p.m.: House committee chairmen send a subpoena to the White House
Chairmen of the House Oversight, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees issued a subpoena to White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney for documents as part of the impeachment inquiry into Trump. The letter compels Mulvaney to produce the records by Oct. 18.
“Your failure or refusal to comply with the subpoena, including at the direction or behest of the President or others at the White House, shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House’s impeachment inquiry and may be used as an adverse inference against you and the President,” wrote chairmen Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.).
The letter says House committee chairmen twice asked the White House for documents related to the investigation and the White House did not produce the records or reply to the requests. The congressmen referenced news reporting that Trump plans to write a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying the White House will not cooperate with the impeachment inquiry until there is a vote on the House floor.
“We deeply regret that President Trump has put us — and the nation — in this position, but his actions have left us with no choice but to issue this subpoena,” the chairmen wrote.
5:40 p.m.: Trump references impeachment in a speech at the White House
Speaking to young black conservatives at the White House, Trump said congressional Democrats and “the corrupt forces in Washington” were trying to suppress the voices of voters.
“They’re trying to steal your vote, they’re trying to steal your voice and they’re trying to steal your country,” he told attendees at the Young Black Leadership Summit organized by conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA. “They don’t have what it takes.”
The oblique reference to impeachment came amid a wide-ranging speech that hit on criminal justice reform, school choice, the U.S.-Mexico border and free speech on college campuses, among other topics. Pence also appeared at the event, although he did not speak.
5:30 p.m.: Schiff thanks Atkinson for testifying before the House Intelligence Committee
In a statement released after intelligence community inspector general Michael Atkinson’s closed-door testimony, Schiff said the committee had explored with Atkinson why he had found the whistleblower complaint about the Ukraine call to be “urgent and credible.”
“Now that we have all seen the call record, we can see that the IG’s determination was correct in both respects,” Schiff said. “That call record shows that Trump pressured a foreign leader to interfere in the 2020 election by investigating a political opponent. Those facts cannot be seriously contested.”
Schiff said the committee’s Republicans had argued that because the whistleblower reached out to the committee for guidance, the committee could not investigate the complaint.
“If that were true, no whistleblower could contact Congress, and no committee could conduct an investigation,” Schiff said. “We look forward to following up on what we learned today and continuing our investigation into the facts.”
5:20 p.m.: Biden says no conflict of interest for son to work for foreign company
Biden became defensive when asked by a reporter whether his son’s job in Ukraine gave even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
“It’s not a conflict of interest. There’s been no indication of any conflict of interest … Period. I’m not going to-” Biden said.
The reporter interjected, “But even the appearance of conflict of interest?”
“I’m not going to respond to that,” Biden replied. “Focus on this man. What he’s doing that no president has ever done. No president.”
— Amy Wang
4:30 p.m.: Utah Democrat’s support for impeachment inquiry leaves just 9 Democrats not on board
Rep. Ben Adams’s decision Friday to back the House Democrats’ impeachment probe brings the number of Democrats who don’t support it into single digits.
McAdams is the 88th House Democrat to come on board for an inquiry in the last two weeks since the news broke of Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president.
At an event in his district, Adams was pressed on the subject and he told constituents, “I am not on the fence.”
“The president’s refusal to further cooperate with congressional oversight, without an impeachment inquiry, is regrettable,” McAdams said in his updated comments. “We find ourselves today at the point that an [impeachment] inquiry is necessary to get all of the facts on the table.”
The remaining nine Democratic holdouts hail from conservative districts that voted for Trump.
3:30 p.m.: House committees request information from Pence
The committees leading the impeachment inquiry sent a letter to Pence asking for an expansive list of documents and communications to determine Pence’s knowledge of Trump asking Ukraine to investigate Biden.
“Recently, public reports have raised questions about any role you may have played in conveying or reinforcing the President’s stark message to the Ukrainian President,” the letter reads.
It specifically points to news reports that a member of Pence’s staff may have been on the call between Trump and Zelensky, and to Pence’s meeting with the Ukrainian president in September.
They are also seeking all communication — “including but not limited to requests, suggestions, proposals, or other communications” — around Trump’s decision not to send Pence to the Ukrainian president’s inauguration in May as well as a call Pence had with Zelensky in September.
1:50 p.m.: China vows not to ‘interfere’ after Trump asks for Biden probe
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday that China “will not interfere in the internal affairs of the U.S.,” after President Trump urged Beijing to probe his political rival Joe Biden amid an impeachment inquiry in Washington.
“We trust that the American people will be able to sort out their own problems,” the Global Times, a party-affiliated newspaper, reported Wang as saying.
1:40 p.m.: Rubio plays down Trump’s China ask, says it wasn’t a ‘real request’
When asked if it was appropriate for Trump to ask China to investigate Biden, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Trump didn’t really mean it.
“I don’t know if that’s a real request or him just needling the press knowing you guys were going to get outraged by it. He’s pretty good at getting everyone fired up and the media responded right on task,” Rubio said, according to video posted to Twitter.
Asked again if it’s all right for Trump to say that, Rubio repeated his dismissal of it.
“I don’t think it’s a real request. Again, I think he did it to gig you guys. . . . I think he did it to provoke you to ask me and others and get outraged by it. Like I said, he plays it like a violin and everybody falls right in. That’s not a real request.”
1:15 p.m.: Biden says his family knows ‘what real pain is,’ Hunter will be a part of his campaign
Biden defended his son against Trump’s attacks, telling the Reno Gazette Journal in an interview that Hunter Biden is “a fine man” who has “been through hell.”
He also said Hunter will play a role in his presidential campaign.
Biden said he understands that these attacks are just the beginning of going up against Trump, but that he is not deterred.
“Look, we are a family. We have been through a lot worse,” Biden said. “We know what real pain is.”
Biden’s wife and infant daughter were killed in a car accident in 1972 when his sons were young. His oldest son, Beau Biden, died in 2015 of brain cancer.
1 p.m.: Volker defended Biden to Congress against Trump accusations of corruption
Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special representative for Ukraine, defended Biden in his opening statement to Congress on Thursday and said he was trying to run interference on information being supplied to Trump by Giuliani to secure continued American support for the government in Ukraine.
Volker said he did not believe allegations that Giuliani has leveled against Joe Biden, namely that Biden was influenced in his dealings with the Ukrainian leadership by his son’s presence on the board of a Ukrainian gas company whose owner was being investigated by authorities in Kiev.
“I have known former vice president Biden for 24 years, and the suggestion that he would be influenced in his duties as vice president by money for his son simply has no credibility to me,” Volker said. “I know him as a man of integrity and dedication to our country.”
Volker sought to present himself in the testimony as a man caught in the middle of Giuliani’s efforts to pressure the Ukrainian leadership for Trump’s domestic political purposes and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s attempts to maintain U.S. support for Ukraine and win a meeting with Trump.
— Paul Sonne and Greg Jaffe
12:20 p.m.: Romney criticizes Trump’s ‘brazen and unprecedented’ appeals to Ukraine, China
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Friday condemned Trump’s efforts to get Ukraine and China to investigate the Bidens as “wrong and appalling,” breaking ranks with most Republicans on Capitol Hill who have largely avoided criticizing the president.
In a pair of tweets, Romney referenced that fact that Biden is running for president.
“When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China’s investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated,” Romney said in one tweet.
“By all appearances, the President’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling,” he added in another.
12:05 p.m.: E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland gave $1 million to Trump inaugural committee through LLCs
Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union who has become a key figure in the Ukraine controversy, has been a longtime donor to the Republican Party, previously supporting the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and Mitt Romney.
In the 2016 primaries, he initially supported Jeb Bush’s campaign and the super PAC supporting Jeb Bush.
When Trump became the party’s presumptive nominee, Sondland signed on to the joint finance operation between the campaign and the party as a major fundraiser, or a “bundler” who collects big checks on behalf of the nominee.
Sondland was announced as the Oregon and Washington state co-chair of Trump Victory in July 2016. He was listed as a co-host of an August 2016 fundraiser in Seattle in his capacity as Trump Victory co-chair, according to an invitation. Tickets for that fundraisers cost as high as $100,000 per couple.
But once media outlets reported plans for that fundraiser, Sondland and another Portland hotelier, Bashar Wali, said their names were added without their approval and declined to participate as co-hosts, the Willamette Week reported at the time. The two men said through a Provenance Hotels spokeswoman that they refused to participate due to Trump’s anti-immigrant stance.
Sondland eventually donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee through four limited-liability companies, state and federal records show. Buena Vista Investments LLC and BV-2 LLC gave $350,000 each, and Dunson Cornerstone Inc. and Dunson Investments LLC gave $150,000 each, inaugural committee records show.
All four companies are registered in Washington, under Sondland’s name. Sondland was among at least 47 people or corporations who gave $1 million or more to the Trump inaugural committee, which drew $107 million. Sondland’s donations were first reported in 2017 by the Intercept, the Center for Responsive Politics and other outlets.
— Michelle Ye Hee Lee
12 p.m.: Cornyn tweets that Justice is investigating Biden ‘conflicts of interest’
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) tweeted Friday morning that the Justice Department is “investigating foreign government influence, VP Biden conflicts of interest, and possible corruption.”
A spokesman for Cornyn clarified that the senator was referring to the ongoing investigation being conducted by U.S. Attorney John Durham into various activities surrounding the FBI’s Russia probe and that “the Durham investigation could end up also looking at the Bidens.”
A spokeswoman for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to messages, and an FBI spokeswoman declined to comment.
When asked by a reporter later Friday morning if the Justice Department was looking into Biden, Trump said, “Well, that you’d have to ask Attorney General Barr, but I can tell you just as an observer that what I saw Biden do with his son, he’s pillaging these countries, and he’s hurting us.”
The Biden family’s Ukraine dealings would seem far afield of what has been publicly revealed about Durham’s work. When it was first announced that Barr had tapped Durham to conduct the review, a person familiar with the matter said the prosecutor was seeking to determine if the U.S. government’s “intelligence collection activities” related to the Trump campaign were “lawful and appropriate.”
A Justice Department spokeswoman said more recently that Durham was “exploring the extent to which a number of countries, including Ukraine, played a role in the counterintelligence investigation directed at the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.”
“While the Attorney General has yet to contact Ukraine in connection with this investigation, certain Ukrainians who are not members of the government have volunteered information to Mr. Durham, which he is evaluating,” the spokeswoman said.
— Matt Zapotosky
11:45 a.m.: Trump won’t say whether he’s asked countries to investigate any nonpolitical opponents
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Trump said he didn’t know if he had ever asked a foreign leader to investigate a person who wasn’t his political opponent, though he said he had a right to do so.
“You know, we would have to look,” Trump said. “But what I looked for and will always ask for is anything having to do with corruption.”
Reporters asked him several times if that included enlisting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s help, but Trump ignored the question.
“I’ll tell you what’s okay,” he continued. “If we feel there is corruption, we have a right to go to a foreign country.”
11:30 a.m.: Trump says Democrats have votes to impeach him in House
Trump told reporters Friday that it appears House Democrats have the votes to impeach him but predicted that he would be acquitted in a trial in the Republican-led Senate.
“The Democrats unfortunately, they have the votes,” Trump said as he prepared to leave the White House. “They can vote very easily, even though most of them, many of them, don’t believe they should do it.”
“If they proceed, they’ll just get their people, they’re all in line, even though many of them don’t want to vote, they have no choice,” Trump added. “They have to follow their leadership. And then we’ll get it to the Senate, and we’re going to win. The Republicans have been very unified.”
Trump said Democrats would “pay a tremendous price at the polls” for impeaching him.
He continued to insist that he had done nothing inappropriate during his July call in which he pressed Zelensky to investigate the Bidens.
“When I speak to a foreign leader, I speak in an appropriate manner,” Trump said.
10:30 a.m.: Trump shares purported employer of whistleblower in a tweet
In the midst of several midmorning tweets, Trump identified the purported employer of the whistleblower as the CIA.
In the tweet, Trump quoted longtime Republican operative Ed Rollins from an appearance on Fox News.
“I think it’s outrages that a Whistleblower is a CIA Agent,” Trump quoted Rollins as saying, misspelling “outrageous.”
Federal laws offer only limited protection for those in the intelligence community who report wrongdoing — even when they follow all the rules for doing so.
“If he wants to destroy this person’s life, there’s not a lot to stop him right now,” whistleblower attorney Bradley P. Moss told The Washington Post last week.
Both The Post and the New York Times have published stories identifying the whistleblower as a CIA officer, drawing objections from the whistleblower’s lawyers, who say he is entitled to anonymity under the law.
10 a.m.: Trump camp to air anti-Biden ads in key early primary states
Beginning this weekend, the Trump campaign is airing more than $1 million worth of TV ads in early primary states that accuse Joe Biden and his son Hunter of corruption in Ukraine, according to Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager.
The commercials will air in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, Parscale tweeted.
The anti-Biden ads are part of a larger $8 million ad buy focused on impeachment, which the Trump camp is trying to spin to its advantage.
CNN said Thursday it would not run the ad because the allegations of corruption against the Bidens highlighted in the ad are unsubstantiated.
9:50 a.m.: Intelligence community inspector general meeting with Congress about whistleblower complaint
Atkinson will appear before the House Intelligence Committee on Friday to discuss the complaint from a whistleblower that touched off the impeachment probe against Trump.
He arrived on Capitol Hill shortly before 10 a.m. for a scheduled 10:30 a.m. hearing.
The hearing is necessary “to establish additional details, leads and evidence” in the probe, Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, wrote in a letter to colleagues last week. The hearing will not be public.
“We have to flesh out all of the facts for the American people. The seriousness of the matter and the danger to our country demands nothing less,” Schiff wrote.
Atkinson alerted Schiff and other congressional committee leaders to the whistleblower’s complaint last month, but at the time, acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire would not allow Atkinson to share the full complaint with the committees.
9 a.m.: House Republicans object to White House subpoena
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee on Friday made public a letter to Cummings, the committee’s chairman, in which they objected to his threatened subpoena of White House records related to Trump’s call with Zelensky.
“You decided to issue this subpoena without consulting Republicans and without allowing Members to debate the terms of the subpoena,” the Republicans wrote in the letter, dated Thursday. “Your memorandum cherry-picks and misstates information to propagate a misleading narrative about the President’s actions. We object strongly to the issuance of this subpoena and your stated reasons for issuing it.”
Cummings said earlier this week he would issue a subpoena if the White House didn’t reply with document requests by Friday.
8:50 a.m.: Trump seizes on unemployment rate in arguing against impeachment
Trump seized the release of new unemployment numbers Friday morning to argue against his impeachment.
“Breaking News: Unemployment Rate, at 3.5%, drops to a 50 YEAR LOW,” he tweeted. “Wow America, lets impeach your President (even though he did nothing wrong!).”
Trump made no mention that the same report showed the economy adding a modest 136,000 jobs in September, in what is likely to be interpreted as further evidence that the country is headed for a slowdown.
8:25 a.m.: Schiff says Republicans must decide if Trump has ‘absolute right’ he claims
In a morning tweet, Schiff responded to Trump’s late-night assertion that he has an “absolute right” to enlist foreign countries in corruption investigations.
Trump’s contention, in a tweet, came at the end of a day in which he publicly urged both Ukraine and China to investigate the business dealings of Hunter Biden.
“It comes down to this,” Schiff tweeted. “We’ve cut through the denials. The deflections. The nonsense. Donald Trump believes he can pressure a foreign nation to help him politically. It’s his ‘right.’ Every Republican in Congress has to decide: Is he right?”
Minutes after Schiff’s tweet, Trump doubled down on his assertion.
“As President I have an obligation to end CORRUPTION, even if that means requesting the help of a foreign country or countries,” he tweeted. “It is done all the time. This has NOTHING to do with politics or a political campaign against the Bidens. This does have to do with their corruption!”
6:45 a.m.: Ukraine’s new chief prosecutor to ‘audit’ Biden case
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s new chief prosecutor said Friday his office will conduct an “audit” of an investigation into Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company that had recruited Hunter Biden for its board.
A criminal probe of the company was closed in 2016, and Trump has alleged it was because of pressure by Hunter Biden’s father, Joe Biden, who was then vice president. Trump has insisted that Ukraine open a new investigation.
Ukrainian officials said previously that the probe was focused on the years 2010 to 2012, before the younger Biden joined the board. They also have said that there is no evidence of any wrongdoing on his part.
Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka told a news conference that he is aware of at least 15 investigations that may have touched on Burisma, its owner Nikolai Zlochevsky, an associate named Serhiy Zerchenko, and Biden, and that all will be reviewed. He said no foreign or Ukrainian official has been in touch with him to request this audit.
6:30 a.m.: Trump wanted Ukraine’s president to launch investigations before face-to-face meeting, texts show
House investigators released numerous text messages late Thursday night illustrating how senior State Department officials coordinated with the Ukrainian president’s top aide and Trump’s personal lawyer to leverage a potential summit between the heads of state on a promise from the Ukrainians to investigate the 2016 U.S. election and an energy company that employed Biden’s son.
The texts, which former special U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker provided investigators during a nearly 10-hour deposition Thursday, reveal that officials felt Trump would not agree to meet with Zelensky unless Zelensky promised to launch the investigations — and did so publicly.
Although the texts do not mention Biden by name, congressional Democrats leading an impeachment inquiry are pointing to them as clear evidence that Trump conditioned normal bilateral relations with Ukraine on that country first agreeing “to launch politically motivated investigations,” top Democrats said in a statement Thursday night.
“heard from White House — assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / ‘get to the bottom of what happened’ in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington,” Volker texted Zelensky’s aide, Andrey Yermak, on July 25, hours before Trump and the Ukrainian president spoke via phone.
— Karoun Demirjian, Rachael Bade, Josh Dawsey and John Hudson
6 a.m.: Trump asserts ‘absolute right’ to investigate corruption
Trump on Thursday night asserted an “absolute right” to investigate corruption, which he said includes reaching out to foreign countries for assistance, and suggested that he might sue House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif).
He comments on Twitter came hours after he told reporters that he would like to see investigations of the Bidens not only by Ukraine but also China, prompting an uproar from congressional Democrats.
“As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Later, he took aim at Pelosi for standing by Schiff’s comments in a hearing last week.
Trump has called for Schiff to resign for remarks in which he embellished Trump’s phone call with Zelensky. Schiff later said his remarks were intended as a parody and that Trump should have recognized that.
Pelosi defended Schiff during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that aired Thursday morning on “Good Morning America,” saying his remarks were “fair.”
“Nancy Pelosi today, on @GMA, actually said that Adam Schiffty Schiff didn’t fabricate my words in a major speech before Congress,” Trump said in his tweet. “She either had no idea what she was saying, in other words lost it, or she lied. Even Clinton lover @GStephanopoulos strongly called her out. Sue her?”
5 a.m.: Members of Congress getting pressed on developments back home
With Congress in recess, House and Senate members are getting pressed on developments in the Ukraine controversy while back home.
Here is a video of Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) responding to a constituent Thursday night at a town hall in Templeton, Iowa, who asked a pointed question about the president: “When are you guys going to say, ‘Enough?’”
5 a.m.: CNN declines to run Trump campaign ads
CNN said Thursday that it will not run two Trump campaign ads because they disparage the network’s journalists and make “demonstrably false” claims while discussing impeachment and pushing unsubstantiated allegations of corruption against Biden.
The network’s decisions come as the Trump administration escalates its attacks on congressional Democrats’ impeachment efforts and continues to lash out at media organizations it tries to discredit as “fake news.”
CNN’s move brought renewed ire from Trump’s reelection campaign, as Communications Director Tim Murtaugh called the news network a “Democrat public relations firm” that “spends all day protecting Joe Biden.”
WASHINGTON — House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., subpoenaed the White House on Friday for documents related to the House impeachment investigation after administration officials failed to comply with repeated requests for the materials.
The subpoena seeks documents related to President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading Democratic candidate for president. Cummings issued the subpoena in consultation with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.
“We deeply regret that President Trump has put us — and the nation — in this position, but his actions have left us with no choice but to issue this subpoena,” the three chairmen wrote in a letter addressed to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney Friday.
Mulvaney has until Oct. 18 to respond, the letter said.
The White House dismissed the move as political posturing. “This subpoena changes nothing – just more document requests, wasted time, and taxpayer dollars that will ultimately show the President did nothing wrong,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement Friday evening. “The Do Nothing Democrats can continue with their kangaroo court while the President and his Administration will continue to work on behalf of the American people.”
Cummings’ subpoena marks the third one issued by House Democrats since the impeachment inquiry formally launched last week; the other subpoenas targeted the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and secretary of state Mike Pompeo.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Schiff made clear earlier this week that if the White House and the administration continued to stonewall congressional requests seeking information through testimony or documents, then the White House would be “strengthening the case on obstruction.”
“If they are going to prevent witnesses from coming forward to testify on the allegations in the whistleblower complaint, that will create an adverse inference that those allegations are, in fact, correct,” Schiff told reporters during a press conference Wednesday.
On Thursday night, GOP members of the House Oversight panel wrote in a letter to Cummings that he should convene a committee business meeting before issuing a subpoena to allow members to debate and vote on the subpoena.
“You decided to issue this subpoena without consulting Republicans and without allowing Members to debate the terms of the subpoena,” the letter said. “Your memorandum cherry-picks and misstates information to propagate a misleading narrative about the President’s actions. We object strongly to the issuance of this subpoena and your stated reasons for issuing it.”
A memo from Cummings on Wednesday outlining the reasons for the subpoena said his and other congressional committees first requested the documents in early September and sent a follow-up letter a couple of weeks later warning they would be “forced to consider compulsory process” if the White House continued to ignore the request, but the White House again did not comply.
The subpoena comes the same day that intelligence community inspector general Michael Atkinson, who received the whistleblower complaint at the center of the Ukraine scandal, is giving closed-door testimony to the House Intelligence Committee about the matter.
Former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker testified to several House committees for more than nine hours Thursday and provided lawmakers with text messages that show U.S. ambassadors working to persuade Ukraine to publicly commit to investigating Trump’s political opponents and explicitly linking the inquiry to whether Ukraine’s president would be granted an official White House visit.
The White House, meanwhile, is planning to spurn Democrats’ request for documents as administration aides scramble to calibrate a legal response strategy. White House lawyers plan to argue that until there is a formal vote by the House to begin impeachment proceedings, Congress doesn’t have the right to the information, people familiar with the discussions told NBC News.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, announced Friday that he will review cases involving Hunter Biden but that he isn’t aware of any evidence of wrongdoing by Biden.
Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
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Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, announced Friday that he will review cases involving Hunter Biden but that he isn’t aware of any evidence of wrongdoing by Biden.
Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
At a news conference in Kyiv on Friday, Ukraine’s newly appointed top prosecutor announced a sweeping review of past corruption investigations that had been either shut down or split up. Fifteen of those cases, according to an official press release, involve the founder of the Ukrainian gas firm Burisma.
Former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter was appointed to Burisma’s board in 2014, while his father was leading policy on Ukraine during the Obama administration.
The audit of earlier corruption probes follows a promise Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made to President Trump in a July 25 phone conversation: that a new prosecutor general would look into the closing of an investigation into Burisma’s practices.
Ukraine might appear to be bowing to pressure from Trump, who lifted his previously unannounced two-month hold on nearly $400 million in security assistance for Ukraine on Sept. 11. Earlier this week, the U.S. State Department gave the green light for Congress to consider selling 150 Javelin anti-tank missiles worth nearly $40 million to Ukraine. Zelenskiy had mentioned his desire to acquire those weapons, which are intended to counter Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, in his phone call with Trump.
Still, it’s not clear the official review of dropped cases involving Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky would include the gas firm he founded. Those cases date to his time as ecology minister for Viktor Yanukovich, the Ukrainian president whose 2014 overthrow took place before Hunter Biden was hired to Burisma’s board. Biden left that board earlier this year.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is Trump’s personal lawyer, has repeatedly accused Joe Biden of pushing in 2016 for the removal of Ukraine’s then-top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, to prevent him from investigating Burisma.
Biden responded to those charges Wednesday in Reno, Nev. “What I did in Ukraine was carry out the official policy of the United States government: to root out corruption in Ukraine in conjunction with our European allies, the International Monetary Fund and its leader, our closest democratic allies,” he said. “It was a fully transparent policy, carried out in front of the whole world, and fully, fully embraced by the international community of democracies.”
“The key word [in this audit] is neither Biden nor Burisma,” Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka, whom Zelenskiy appointed in late August, told reporters. “The key word is those cases that were either closed or investigated under the previous management, and among them, there may be those with those two words.”
Asked if he had found any evidence of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden, Ryaboshapka replied, “I have no such information.”
The review of previously closed corruption probes is required by legislation that also terminates the investigative powers of the prosecutor general’s office after Nov. 20, 2019.
The announcement of the audit came hours after a trove of Ukraine-related text messages exchanged by U.S. diplomats was released Thursday evening by House Democrats who have begun an inquiry into the impeachment of President Trump.
One of those messages came from the top U.S. diplomat in Kyiv, chargé d’affaires Bill Taylor. “I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign,” Taylor wrote to the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland.
After conferring with Trump, Sondland texted a reply to Taylor. “Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump’s intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s of any kind.”
Sondland, a hotel developer who was named ambassador after donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration festivities, then suggested they quit conversing by text messages.
Both Sondland and Taylor are expected to be called to testify in the House impeachment inquiry.
“What the inspector general said last time was, the whistle-blower pulled the fire alarm,” Representative Mike Quigley, Democrat of Illinois, told reporters. “We have now seen the smoke and the fire.”
How the White House, which has routinely rejected congressional requests for information, responds to the demands for documents could significantly shape the impeachment investigation going forward. Under normal circumstances, the White House could claim materials referred to in both requests were privileged, using that as a defense in court.
Press secretaries for the White House and the vice president issued similar statements assailing the demands, but did not clearly indicate whether they would comply or not. Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, said the subpoena “changes nothing” and called it “just more document requests, wasted time and taxpayer dollars that will ultimately show the president did nothing wrong.”
Katie Waldman, Mr. Pence’s press secretary, promptly said that “given the scope, it does not appear to be a serious request but just another attempt by the ‘Do Nothing Democrats’ to call attention to their partisan impeachment.”
But that will not help Mr. Trump’s case on Capitol Hill. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the chairmen leading the inquiry have consistently warned the White House that noncompliance with their requests will be viewed as obstruction of Congress, itself a potentially impeachable offense.
“The White House has refused to engage with — or even respond to — multiple requests for documents from our Committees on a voluntary basis,” said the letter to Mr. Mulvaney, signed by Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the Intelligence Committee chairman; Representative Eliot L. Engel of New York, the Foreign Affairs Committee chairman; and Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the Oversight and Reform Committee chairman. “After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the president has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up.”
A new cache of text messages released late Thursday reveals that top U.S. diplomats believed President Trump would not meet with Ukraine’s president unless the country launched investigations into Trump’s political enemies. Over several weeks, they coordinated with a top aide to new leader Volodymyr Zelensky and with Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to try to accomplish both, the texts show.
Ukraine
Trump circle
Andrey Yermak
Rudolph W.
Giuliani
Aide to Ukrainian
President Volodymyr
Zelensky
President Trump’s
personal attorney
U.S. diplomats
Kurt Volker
Gordon
Sondland
Former U.S. Special
Envoy for Ukraine
U.S. Ambassador
to the European
Union
William “Bill”
Taylor
Charges d’Affaires
at the U.S. embassy
in Ukraine
Ukraine
Trump circle
Andrey Yermak
Rudolph W.
Giuliani
Aide to Ukrainian
President Volodymyr
Zelensky
President Trump’s
personal attorney
U.S. diplomats
Kurt Volker
Gordon
Sondland
William “Bill”
Taylor
Former U.S. Special
Envoy for Ukraine
U.S. Ambassador
to the European
Union
Charges d’Affaires
at the U.S. embassy
in Ukraine
Ukraine
U.S. diplomats
Trump circle
Kurt Volker
Gordon
Sondland
William “Bill”
Taylor
Rudolph W.
Giuliani
Andrey Yermak
Aide to Ukrainian
President Volodymyr
Zelensky
Former U.S. Special
Envoy for Ukraine
U.S. Ambassador
to the European
Union
Charges d’Affaires
at the U.S. embassy
in Ukraine
President Trump’s
personal attorney
The excerpts were provided by Kurt Volker, the special envoy to Ukraine until his resignation last week. They were released by House Democratic investigators following Volker’s 10-hour deposition on Thursday as part of the fast-moving impeachment inquiry into Trump. Among those involved were Volker, U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, and William “Bill” Taylor, the U.S. Charges D’affaires in Ukraine. They show that Volker connected Andrey Yermak, the aide to Zelensky, and Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the House Intelligence Committee chairman leading the investigation, and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), said in a letter that the texts released were “only a subset” of all the messages. Read the messages released below.
Volker introduces Giuliani to Yermak
July 19, 2019
Kurt Volker 4:48 p.m. Mr Mayor — really enjoyed breakfast this morning. As discussed, connecting you here with Andrey Yermak, who is very close to President Zelensky. I suggest we schedule a call together on Monday — maybe 10am or 11am Washington time? Kurt
“Mr. Mayor” in this exchange refers to President Trump’s personal lawyer, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. At this point, Giuliani had already been pushing the idea that Ukraine should pursue specific investigations for months. His efforts included multiple meetings with two of the country’s prosecutors general, according to media reports and the whistleblower complaint.
Giuliani has pointed to such text messages as indicating the State Department was aware of and even supported his efforts in Ukraine.
Officials discuss goals for the Trump-Zelensky call
July 19, 2019
Kurt Volker4:49 p.m. Can we three do a call tomorrow-say noon WASHINGTON?
Gordon Sondland 6:50 p.m. Looks like Potus call tomorrow. I spike [sic] directly to Zelensky and gave him a full briefing. He’s got it.
Gordon Sondland 6:52 p.m. Sure!
Kurt Volker 7:01 p.m. Good. Had breakfast with Rudy this morning-teeing up call w Yermak Monday. Must have helped. Most impt is for Zelensky to say that he will help investigation-and address any specific personnel issues-if there are any
These texts provide the earliest known example of the participants suggesting Zelensky will need to promise Trump something – without raising the other side of a potential quid pro quo, though. Sondland suggests he has briefed Zelensky on what to expect on his upcoming call with Trump. In response, Volker refers to the specific idea that Zelensky should tell Trump that “he will help investigation.”
Concerns about Ukraine becoming an ‘instrument’
July 21, 2019
Bill Taylor 1:45 a.m. Gordon, one thing Kurt and I talked about yesterday was Sasha Danyliuk’s point that President Zelenskyy is sensitive about Ukraine being taken seriously, not merely as an instrument in Washington domestic, reelection politics.
Gordon Sondland 4:45 a.m. Absolutely, but we need to get the conversation started and the relationship built, irrespective of the pretext. I am worried about the alternative.
Here comes the first indication that this was understood as relating to Trump’s political prospects. “Sasha Danyliuk” appears to refer to Oleksandr Danylyuk, Ukraine’s former finance minister who recently resigned as Zelensky’s secretary of the national security and defence council. Per Taylor, he said Zelensky was wary of it looking like the United States dictated its business to Ukraine. Sondland, interestingly, responds by referring to the “pretext” of the two countries’ conversation and relationship. It’s not clear to what he is referring.
Officials plan Trump and Zelensky’s July 25 call
July 22, 2019
Kurt Volker 4:27 p.m. Orchestrated a great phone call w Rudy and Yermak. They are going to get together when Rudy goes to Madrid in a couple of weeks.
Kurt Volker 4:28 p.m. In the meantime Rudy is now advocating for phone call.
Kurt Volker 4:28 p.m. I have call into Fiona’s replacement and will call Bolton if needed.
Kurt Volker 4:28 p.m. But I can tell Bolton and you can tell Mick that Rudy agrees on a call if that helps.
Gordon Sondland 4:30 p.m. I talked to Tim Morrison Fiona’s replacement. He is pushing but feel free as well.
Volker sends along word that Giuliani is approving of Trump speaking with Zelensky by phone, and the two of them talk about how they will set it up. (“Fiona” refers to Fiona Hill, a former top Russia adviser in the White House. “Bolton” refers to then-national security adviser John Bolton. “Mick” refers to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.)
Volker and Yermak discuss the call before and after
July 25, 2019
Kurt Volker 8:36 a.m. Good lunch – thanks. Heard from White House-assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / “get to the bottom of what happened” in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington. Good luck! See you tomorrow- kurt
Andrey Yermak 10:15 a.m. Phone call went well. President Trump proposed to choose any convenient dates. President Zelenskiy chose 20,21,22 September for the White House Visit. Thank you again for your help! Please remind Mr. Mayor to share the Madrid’s dates
Kurt Volker 10:16 a.m. Great-thanks and will do!
Here’s the big one. For the first time that we know of, a U.S. official ties Zelensky’s investigative promise to getting a White House visit – a potential quid pro quo. Volker, importantly, also indicates this was a message conveyed from the White House. And this came before the Trump-Zelensky call, so this was more coaching from U.S. diplomats of what Zelensky was supposed to say.
Yermak responds after the call and floats a few dates. These dates have now passed, though, and the trip has still not been planned.
U.S. officials advise Ukrainians on investigation language
Aug. 9, 2019
Gordon Sondland 5:35 p.m. Morrison ready to get dates as soon as Yermak confirms.
Kurt Volker5:46 p.m. Excellent!! How did you sway him? 🙂
Gordon Sondland5:47 p.m. Not sure i did. I think potus really wants the deliverable
Kurt Volker5:48 p.m. But does he know that?
Gordon Sondland5:48 p.m. Yep
Gordon Sondland5:48 p.m. Clearly lots of convos going on
Kurt Volker5:48 p.m. Ok—then that’s good it’s coming from two separate sources
Gordon Sondland5:51 p.m. To avoid misundestandings [sic], might be helpful to ask Andrey for a draft statememt [sic] (embargoed) so that we can see exactly what they propose to cover. Even though Ze does a live presser they can still summarize in a brief statement. Thoughts?
Kurt Volker5:51 p.m. Agree!
Here, Volker and Sondland plot out a potential statement Ukraine might make, in addition to a live press conference where Zelensky (they’ve apparently been led to believe) would make an announcement. Sondland also refers to a “deliverable” – apparently a reference to the end result of Ukraine actually announcing the investigations – and suggests Trump is anxious to get it.
Giuliani’s input sought on Ukraine statement
Aug. 9, 2019
Kurt Volker11:27 a.m. Hi Mr Mayor! Had a good chat with Yermak last night. He was pleased with your phone call. Mentioned Z making a statement. Can we all get on the phone to make sure I advise Z correctly as to what he should be saying? Want to make sure we get this done right. Thanks!
Gordon Sondland Good idea Kurt. I am on Pacific time.
Rudy Giuliani Yes can you call now going to Fundraiser at 12:30
Volker loops Giuliani in on what the Ukraine statement might say. Again, Giuliani has suggested this meant the State Department was on-board with his efforts.
Yermak seeks date for White House visit
Aug. 10, 2019
Andrey Yermak4:56 p.m. Hi Kurt. Please let me know when you can talk. I think it’s possible to make this declaration and mention all these things. Which we discussed yesterday. But it will be logic to do after we receive a confirmation of date. We inform about date of visit and about our expectations and our guarantees for future visit. Let discuss it
Kurt Volker5:01 p.m. Ok! It’s late for you—why don’t we talk in my morning, your afternoon tomorrow? Say 10am/5pm?
Kurt Volker5:02 p.m. I agree with your approach. Let’s iron out statement and use that to get date and then Prez can go forward with it?
Andrey Yermak5:26 p.m. Ok
Kurt Volker5:38 p.m. Great. Gordon is available to join as well
Andrey Yermak5:41 p.m. Excellent
Andrey Yermak5:42 p.m. Once we have a date, will call for a press briefing, announcing upcoming visit and outlining vision for the reboot of US-UKRAINE relationship, including among other things Burisma and election meddling in investigations
Kurt Volker5:42 p.m. Sounds great!
Yermak has apparently been given a list of things that should be included in the statement. But – and this is the key – he wants to get a date for a White House visit before Ukraine makes the commitments. This, again, suggests that the meeting was used as leverage. Volker proposes that they could finalize the statement and then use that to convince Trump to schedule the meeting.
Also important here is that Yermak refers explicitly to the investigations into the origins of the Russia investigation and the Bidens (Burisma).
Desire for specific references in Ukrainian statement
Aug. 13, 2019
Kurt Volker10:26 a.m. Special attention should be paid to the problem of interference in the political processes of the United States especially with the alleged involvement of some Ukrainian politicians. I want to declare that this is unacceptable. We intend to initiate and complete a transparent and unbiased investigation of all available facts and episodes, including those involving Burisma and the 2016 U.S. elections, which in tum will prevent the recurrence of this problem in the future.
Gordon Sondland10:27 a.m. Perfect. Lets send to Andrey after our call
They appear to be reviewing language intended for Ukraine’s statement.
Aug. 17, 2019
Gordon Sondland3:06 p.m. Do we still want Ze to give us an unequivocal draft with 2016 and Boresma?
Kurt Volker4:34 p.m. That’s the clear message so far …
Kurt Volker4:34 p.m. I’m hoping we can put something out there that causes him to respond with that
Gordon Sondland4:41 p.m. Unless you think otherwise I will return Andreys call tomorrow and suggest they send us a clean draft.
Volker suggests someone is giving a “clear message” that the Ukraine statement should be specific about the two investigations. It’s not clear who that message is coming from.
Yermak shares report of U.S. withholding assistance
Kurt Volker6:55 a.m. Hi Andrey — absolutely. When is good for you?
The link here is to a Politico story about the Trump administration deciding to withhold $250 million in military aid to Ukraine. Reporting has suggested Ukraine might not have known it was being withheld, though Yermak doesn’t specifically indicate that this is the first time they are finding out about it.
U.S officials discuss Trump’s trip, withholding military assistance for Ukraine
Aug. 30, 2019
Bill Taylor12:14 a.m. Trip canceled
Kurt Volker12:16 a.m. Hope VPOTUS keeps the bilat — and tees up WH visit…
Kurt Volker12:16 a.m. And hope Gordon and Perry still going …
Gordon Sondland 5:31 a.m. I am going. Pompeo is speaking to Potus today to see if he can go.
“The bilat” refers to Vice President Pence’s visit to Poland, where he would meet Zelensky.
Sept. 1, 2019
Bill Taylor12:08 p.m. Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?
Gordon Sondland12:42 p.m. Call me
For the first time, one of the diplomats suggests the military aid — separate from the meeting — is being withheld as leverage. It’s not clear why Taylor believes that. It could simply be that he saw the newspaper stories like the one Yermak shared.
Sondland’s response – “Call me” – suggests he knows they shouldn’t discuss things in a written form which could wind up in inquiries like this.
Sept. 8, 2019
Gordon Sondland 11:20 a.m. Guys multiple convos with Ze, Potus. Lets talk
Bill Taylor11:21 a.m. Now is fine with me
Kurt Volker11:26 a.m. Try again—could not hear
Bill Taylor11:40 a.m. Gordon and I just spoke. I can brief you if you and Gordon don’t connect
Bill Taylor12:37 p.m. The nightmare is they give the interview and don’t get the security assistance. The Russians love it. (And I quit.)
The three of them seem to try to salvage the situation. Taylor against suggests exasperation.
Sept. 9, 2019
Bill Taylor12:31 a.m. The message to the Ukrainians (and Russians) we send with the decision on security assistance is key. With the hold, we have already shaken their faith in us. Thus my nightmare scenario.
Bill Taylor12:34 a.m. Counting on you to be right about this interview, Gordon.
Gordon Sondland12:37 a.m. Bill, I never said I was “right”. I said we are where we are and believe we have identified the best pathway forward. Lets hope it works.
Bill Taylor12:47 a.m. As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.
Gordon Sondland5:19 a.m. Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump’s intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s of any kind. The President is trying to evaluate whether Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that President Zelensky promised during his campaign I suggest we stop the back and forth by text If you still have concerns I recommend you give Lisa Kenna or S a call to discuss them directly. Thanks.
Another big moment: Taylor repeats his concern that military aid is being withheld for bad reasons – this time suggesting it’s “for help with a political campaign.” Sondland again suggests they talk about it rather than text, and delivers a lengthy defense of Trump that again suggests he’s mindful of who might see these texts one day.
This conversation, notably, came eight days after Taylor first raised this prospect, and he apparently hadn’t been disavowed of it during that time period.
President Trump talks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House on Friday, demanding that the House formally vote on an impeachment inquiry before responding to lawmakers’ requests for documents.
Evan Vucci/AP
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President Trump talks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House on Friday, demanding that the House formally vote on an impeachment inquiry before responding to lawmakers’ requests for documents.
Evan Vucci/AP
Updated at 5:05 p.m. ET
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not rule out a vote by the full chamber on its impeachment inquiry into President Trump — but she restated her belief on Friday that none is required for it to move ahead.
Pelosi, D-Calif., said on a trip to Atlanta that she was unmoved by calls from the White House for a full vote. Trump said earlier in the day he would send a letter to the speaker, which was expected to demand action by the full House.
“We may decide to do it but it has nothing to do with the president saying what he’s saying,” Pelosi told reporters, including Robert Jimison of Georgia Public Broadcasting.
Reporters asked Trump at the White House about his willingness to accommodate congressional requests for testimony or documents.
“The lawyers think they’ve never seen anything so unfair,” Trump said. “They’ve never seen anything so unjust. I’ve been president now for almost three years, and I’ve been going through this for almost three years. It’s almost become, like, a part of my day.”
Trump has gone back and forth about what he may or may not release from within the administration on the Ukraine affair, and he wasn’t clear on Friday about whether he might stop cooperating short of a full House vote.
Request to Pence
That issue faced its first test not long after Pelosi spoke, when House Democratic chairman announced they’re requesting documents from Vice President Pence about his dealings with the government of Ukraine.
Investigators want to know about the role Pence may have played in communicating Trump’s desires to Ukrainian leaders that its government launch investigations that might help Trump in the 2020 election.
Katie Waldman, the vice president’s press secretary, did not directly address whether Pence’s office would give Democrats what they’re requesting but did criticize them and their investigation.
“Given the scope, it does not appear to be a serious request but just another attempt by the do nothing Democrats to call attention to their partisan impeachment,” she said.
The White House’s letter to Congress is expected to contend that for impeachment to be legitimate, all members in the chambers must have a chance to support or oppose it. Supporters have been making that case for some time already.
Pelosi said on Friday that Democrats are “very comfortable” with where they are today on the status of the impeachment inquiry.
The House’s rules do not mandate a vote for lawmakers to conduct an impeachment investigation, but a vote could give Republicans more power in the Democratic-led inquiry.
It would also force lawmakers in both parties to go on the record for or against the inquiry as headlines fly thick and fast about the Ukraine affair.
While most Republicans so far oppose the impeachment investigation, some GOP lawmakers also have said the Ukraine allegations are worthy of an investigation. They could also face a tough choice if put to a vote by the full House. Some moderate Democrats have yet to take a position.
When does impeachment become impeachment
Democrats, led initially by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York, argue that they’ve been acting on impeachment business for months.
Nadler has said as much in his hearings, and attorneys for House Democrats also have invoked impeachment in their separate legal contests with attorneys for Trump over documents and witnesses.
The White House demand for a full vote represented the latest tactical skirmish within the broader political war over impeachment, which has sucked all the oxygen out of official Washington and largely sidelined other business between the administration and Congress.
Trump and Pelosi both have said, at different times, they thought Washington still might attempt to negotiate over other legislation — potentially involving prescription drug costs or new gun restrictions — but for now, the shadow of impeachment seems to have blotted out nearly everything else in the capital.
Trump’s challenge about a vote also is an attempt to force Pelosi to truly test which of her moderate members, some of whom were elected last year in districts that Trump carried in 2016, are prepared to go on record in support of impeachment.
“Most of them, many of them, don’t believe they should do it,” Trump said on Friday. The president said that if Democrats move ahead, “I really believe they’re going to pay a tremendous price at the polls.”
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Trump Publicly Calls For China And Ukraine To Investigate Biden
Pelosi said on Friday that she believes the politics are most problematic for the minority, because a vote would put Republicans on the record about what’s being revealed about Trump’s requests for foreign governments to get involved in U.S. politics.
“You know who is most scared of having a vote on the floor – the Republicans,” Pelosi said in Atlanta. Of Republicans, she said: “Every time they say something – turn it upside down.”
Theory of the case
The top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, has emphasized that in his view, Pelosi’s statements about impeachment carry no legal weight on their own.
House Democrat “investigations” further reveal “impeachment” as a sham. The House hasn’t authorized a formal impeachment inquiry, and it has no real claim to grand jury information.
The Speaker’s press conferences have no legal effect.
What’s more, Collins argues, what he calls a “real” impeachment would permit more of what he called “due process” for the House minority. As it stands, normal procedure in the chamber means that majority Democrats can convene hearings, call witnesses and issue subpoenas. Minority Republicans can’t.
If the ongoing House impeachment is real, for Collins and Republicans, they too would get those powers and be able to mount an equal defense of Trump.
Another ally of Trump’s, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on Friday that Democrats in the House can’t hide behind Pelosi if in fact they’re serious about impeaching Trump.
Graham alluded to an apocryphal story about the president of the Continental Congress who, in 1776, is said to have signed his name to the Declaration of Independence so boldly that the King of England would be able to read it without his spectacles.
“We need a John Hancock moment from House Democrats before moving forward on impeachment,” Graham said. “It is past time for House Democrats to put their names on the line as supporting or opposing an impeachment inquiry.”
Road ahead unclear
Impeachment in the House, if it proceeds, would amount to the equivalent of an indictment for Trump, which would then necessitate a trial in the Senate over whether he keeps his office. Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts would preside, according to the Constitution.
Republicans control the Senate, and Trump emphasized on Friday how much he expects that support to endure.
“We’ll get it to the Senate, and then we win,” he said.
Democrats can see the arithmetic of a Senate impeachment vote as clearly as Trump and Republicans, so it isn’t clear how far along Pelosi and her members are prepared to drive this offensive.
The speaker resisted calls from liberals within the party to impeach Trump for months, anxious about preserving Democrats’ viability in moderate districts and with general election voters in the 2020 election.
But that was before the revelations about the deepening Ukraine affair: Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, potentially in exchange for military assistance already authorized by Congress or engagement with the president.
Those developments moved enough House Democrats that Pelosi opted to move with them.
More documents in the Ukraine case emerged late Thursday, including text messages in which senior U.S. diplomats debate the propriety of the Trump camp’s strategy to pressure Ukraine over the Biden investigation.
Democrats argue that Trump has abused his power.
Now Pelosi and Democrats must decide whether to press on no matter what and hand the case to the Senate — even though Trump and Republicans believe they would be strengthened by a party-line vote that they argue would amount to a vindication — or stop short with a vote of censure or other action within the House.
Complicating the political strategy for both sides are changing poll results on impeachment, some of which suggest more Americans may now support it.
Then there are arguments offered by Democrats such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a presidential candidate. She has suggested the House has a duty to impeach Trump over his actions and force Republicans in the Senate to go on record defending the president.
Although many Senate Republicans have been muted in their response to the headlines about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, and his newer call for China also to investigate Biden, the red wall protecting the president still seems intact.
Republicans told NPR that the next few weeks would likely determine whether that bulwark holds — or whether cracks may begin to form.
NPR congressional correspondent Susan Davis and White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez contributed to this report.
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