Some of the president’s advisers were mystified, therefore, that the White House would repeatedly send him to a state irrelevant to his re-election for a candidate he scarcely knows, Eddie Rispone, after they had just been scalded in their attempt to rescue Mr. Bevin in another safely red state.

In Congress, Louisiana lawmakers and their aides grumbled that Mr. Trump was not being shown quality polling indicating how formidable Mr. Edwards was with Republican-leaning voters. And some in the delegation pointed a finger at Louisiana’s voluble junior senator, John Kennedy, who has become a close White House ally, for pushing the president to campaign in the state.

But the president was receptive to Republicans who told him he could be the difference-maker in these elections, according to G.O.P. officials briefed on the discussions.

One of those people said that Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chairwoman, had been preparing the president for the past two weeks for the possibility of a Louisiana loss. That’s because early voting patterns showed Democrats mobilizing their core voters, especially African-Americans.

Mr. Trump’s supporters defended him, noting that Republicans won down-ballot in Kentucky and captured the Mississippi governor’s race, while arguing that he would benefit from a polarizing opponent next year.

“The gubernatorial results in 2019 in Kentucky and Louisiana are in no way a referendum on President Trump or a foreshadowing of the 2020 presidential election,” said the R.N.C. spokesman Mike Reed. “The Democrats who ran for governor in those red states aren’t anything like the far-left candidates running against President Trump.’’

Still, the main instigator for the president’s involvement in the races, many Republicans said, was Mr. Trump himself, who simply craves the adulation of his supporters and is singularly focused on notching victories, no matter the details. He is even more eager to flex his political muscle in the face of impeachment, and has surrounded himself with several aides who either defer to his whims regardless of the neon-flashing signs of risk before them, or know little about politics.

People close to Mr. Trump — who spoke anonymously to discuss sensitive matters — said he viewed the campaigns he had weighed in on mostly as opportunities for gratification. And with few seasoned political advisers in his inner circle — his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has control over the president’s campaign, has never worked on another race — there was nobody to tell him that attacking an anti-abortion rights, pro-gun Democrat like Mr. Edwards as a radical would be folly.

“There were people who are normally part of the Republican base who voted for the governor,” said Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, noting that the portrayal of Mr. Edwards as a liberal extremist was ineffective given his views on cultural issues and credentials as a West Pointer turned Army Ranger. “He’s a very likable man and a man of character.”

Of course, plenty of well-credentialed and well-liked candidates have fallen prey to the forbidding political demographics of their states or districts.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/17/us/politics/louisiana-governor-trump.html

President Donald Trump lashed out on Sunday against Jennifer Williams, a foreign policy aide to Vice President Mike Pence who has become the latest impeachment inquiry witness to be targeted by the president’s ire.

“Tell Jennifer Williams, whoever that is, to read BOTH transcripts of the presidential calls, & see the just released ststement (sic) from Ukraine,” he tweeted. “Then she should meet with the other Never Trumpers, who I don’t know & mostly never even heard of, & work out a better presidential attack!”

Offering a non-defensive response to Trump’s tweet, Pence’s spokesperson told CNN, “Jennifer is a State Department employee.”

On Saturday, House lawmakers released a transcript of Williams’ testimony on Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which is at the heart of impeachment proceedings. A rough transcript of the call shows Trump sought Zelensky’s help with a corruption probe of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, based on unsubstantiated allegations.

Earlier this month, Williams told Intelligence Committee members that the conversation on which she listened in, “struck me as unusual and inappropriate.”




She described the discussion as “more political in nature” than Trump’s communications with other foreign leaders, noting that he was concerned with his “personal political agenda.”

The call, which occurred while American military aid was being withheld from Ukraine, has raised questions over whether Trump was attempting to broker a quid pro quo while soliciting interference in the 2020 election to handicap his Democratic rival.

Trump has already bashed other impeachment witnesses, including former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch who hadn’t even left Friday’s hearing before he assailed her decadeslong career online.

In a tweet, Trump claimed that “everywhere” she “went turned bad.” Yovanovitch, responding in real time, called the rebuke “intimidating.”

Speaking to reporters, Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) characterized Trump’s remarks as “witness intimidation.”

Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/11/17/trump-accuses-pence-aide-of-presidential-attack/23863075/

President Donald Trump on Sunday blasted an adviser to Vice President Mike Pence who told House impeachment investigators this month that Trump’s asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to probe the Bidens and other Democrats in a July 25 call was “unusual and inappropriate.”

“Tell Jennifer Williams, whoever that is, to read BOTH transcripts of the presidential calls, & see the just released ststement [sic] from Ukraine,” Trump tweeted. “Then she should meet with the other Never Trumpers, who I don’t know & mostly never even heard of, & work out a better presidential attack!”

The president has labeled other Trump administration officials who have testified, including some career diplomats, as Never Trumpers. The term is a reference to conservatives during the 2016 election cycle who pledged never to support Trump’s presidential candidacy, even as he breezed through the Republican primary to the party’s nomination.

In public testimony last week, George Kent, the senior State Department official overseeing Ukraine; Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine; and Marie Yovanovitch, the ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, all said they were not Never Trumpers.

Williams, a top national security aide serving as Pence’s special adviser for Europe and Russia, told investigators this month that she took notes while she listened in to Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelenskiy — the call in which Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a debunked conspiracy theory involving Democrats and the 2016 election. Williams said Trump’s push was “unusual and inappropriate” and “shed some light on possible other motivations” for Trump’s order to withhold nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine.

The Trump administration released that aid on Sept. 11 — just two days after Congress was made aware of the existence of the whistleblower’s complaint. House impeachment investigators released Williams’ transcript on Saturday. She is expected to testify publicly before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, alongside Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council’s top Ukraine expert.

“I found the specific references to be — to be more specific to the president in nature, to his personal political agenda, as opposed to a broader … foreign policy objective of the United States,” Williams said, according to a transcript of her testimony.

Asked to respond to Trump’s attack on Williams, a Pence spokesperson told NBC News, “Jennifer is State Department employee.”

Trump on Friday released a summary of a call with Zelenskiy in April during which Trump congratulated the Ukrainian leader on his election. The call took place before Zelenskiy was inaugurated.

In addition to blasting past witnesses as “Never Trumpers,” Trump has sought to distance himself from the administration officials involved in the probe. He has said he “hardly knows” Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, who was a major donor to his political campaign and one of the central players in the impeachment inquiry.

Trump on Friday lashed out at Yovanovitch in a tweet as she was in the middle of publicly testifying before Congress.

Read the tweet as she was answering lawmakers’ questions, Yovanovitch said Trump’s commentary was “intimidating.” Democrats have said the tweet amounts to witness intimidation.

Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called Trump’s tweet “totally wrong and inappropriate and typical of the president.”

“People don’t insult people, especially when they’re giving testimony before the Congress of the United States,” she said. “I think even his most ardent supporters have to honestly admit this was the wrong thing for the president to do.”

On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, said, “I think, along with most people, I find the president’s tweets generally unfortunate.”

“It’s certainly not impeachable, and it’s certainly not criminal, and it’s certainly not witness intimidation,” he added.

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/trump-attacks-pence-aide-who-said-his-call-ukraine-probe-n1084481

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited President Donald Trump to testify in front of investigators in the House impeachment inquiry ahead of a week that will see several key witnesses appear publicly.

Pushing back against accusations from the president that the process has been stacked against him, Pelosi said Trump is welcome to appear or answer questions in writing, if he chooses.

“If he has information that is exculpatory, that means ex, taking away, culpable, blame, then we look forward to seeing it,” she said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Trump “could come right before the committee and talk, speak all the truth that he wants if he wants,” she said.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer echoed that suggestion.

“If Donald Trump doesn’t agree with what he’s hearing, doesn’t like what he’s hearing, he shouldn’t tweet. He should come to the committee and testify under oath. And he should allow all those around him to come to the committee and testify under oath,” Schumer told reporters. He said the White House’s insistence on blocking witnesses from cooperating begs the question: “What is he hiding?”

The comments come as the House Intelligence Committee prepares for a second week of public hearings as part of its inquiry, including with the man who is arguably the most important witness. Gordon Sondland, Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, is the only person interviewed to date who had conversations directly with the president because the White House has blocked others from cooperating with what they dismiss as a sham investigation. And testimony suggests he was intimately involved in discussions that are at the heart of the investigation into whether Trump held up U.S. military aid to Ukraine to try to pressure the county’s president to announce an investigation into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading 2020 candidate, and his son, Hunter.

Multiple witnesses overheard a phone call in which Trump and Sondland reportedly discussed efforts to push for the investigations. In private testimony to impeachment investigators made public Saturday, Tim Morrison, a former National Security Council aide and longtime Republican defense hawk, said Sondland told him he was discussing Ukraine matters directly with Trump.

Morrison said Sondland and Trump had spoken approximately five times between July 15 and Sept. 11 — the weeks that $391 million in U.S. assistance was withheld from Ukraine before it was released.

And he recounted that Sondland told a top Ukrainian official in a meeting that the vital U.S. military assistance might be freed up if the country’s top prosecutor “would go to the mike and announce that he was opening the Burisma investigation.” Burisma is the gas company that hired Hunter Biden.

Morrison’s testimony contradicted much of what Sondland told congressional investigators during his own closed-door deposition, which the ambassador later amended.

Trump has said he has no recollection of the overheard call and has suggested he barely knew Sondland, a wealthy donor to his 2016 campaign. But Democrats are hoping he sheds new light on the discussions.

“I’m not going to try to prejudge his testimony,” Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said on “Fox News Sunday.” But he suggested, “it was not lost on Ambassador Sondland what happened to the president’s close associate Roger Stone for lying to Congress, to Michael Cohen for lying to Congress. My guess is that Ambassador Sondland is going to do his level best to tell the truth, because otherwise he may have a very unpleasant legal future in front of him.”

The committee will also be interviewing a long list of others. On Tuesday, they’ll hear from Morrison along with Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, Alexander Vindman, the director for European affairs at the National Security Council, and Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine.

On Wednesday the committee will hear from Sondland in addition to Laura Cooper, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, and David Hale, a State Department official. And on Thursday, Fiona Hill, a former top NSC staffer for Europe and Russia, will appear.

Trump, meanwhile, continued to tweet and retweet a steady stream of commentary from supporters as he bashed “The Crazed, Do Nothing Democrats” for “turning Impeachment into a routine partisan weapon.”

“That is very bad for our Country, and not what the Founders had in mind!!!!” he wrote.

He also tweeted a doctored video exchange between Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, in which Schiff said he did not know the identity of the whistleblower whose complaint triggered the inquiry. The clip has been altered to show Schiff wearing a referee’s uniform and loudly blowing a whistle.

In her CBS interview, Pelosi vowed to protect the whistleblower, whom Trump has said should be forced to come forward despite longstanding whistleblower protections.

“I will make sure he does not intimidate the whistleblower,” Pelosi said.

Trump has been under fire for his treatment of one of the witnesses, the former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, whom Trump criticized by tweet as she was testifying last week.

That attack prompted accusations of witness intimidation from Democrats and even some criticism from Republicans, who have been largely united in their defense of Trump

“I think, along with most people, I find the president’s tweet generally unfortunate,” said Ohio Republican Rep. Mike Turner on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Still, he insisted that tweets were “certainly not impeachable and it’s certainly not criminal. And it’s certainly not witness intimidation,” even if Yovanovitch said she felt intimidated by the attacks.

Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, said Trump “communicates in ways that sometimes I wouldn’t,” but dismissed the significance of the attacks.

“If your basis for impeachment is going to include a tweet, that shows how weak the evidence for that impeachment is,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”

And the backlash didn’t stop Trump from lashing out at yet another witness, this time Pence aide Williams. He directed her in a Sunday tweet to “meet with the other Never Trumpers, who I don’t know & mostly never even heard of, & work out a better presidential attack!”

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Source Article from https://www.snopes.com/ap/2019/11/17/democrats-invite-trump-to-testify-in-impeachment-inquiry/

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — At least ten people have been shot, and four are dead after Fresno Police say a suspect opened fire as a family gathered at an east central Fresno home Sunday night.

Officers responded to a home on Lamona Avenue near Ceasar Avenue, located about three blocks south of the Fresno Yosemite International Airport just before 8 pm on Sunday.

Fresno Police say around 45 people were at the home to watch a football game on television.

The suspect came snuck into the backyard and opened fire on the ten people that were in the yard. The other 35 people inside the home were not injured.

Police officials say that five of the victims are currently being treated at Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno and one victim is being treated at Saint Agnes Medical Center.

Hospital officials say of the shooting victims, two are in critical condition, three are in critical but stable condition. Another victim was grazed by a bullet.

When officers arrived, they found three people who had already died from their injuries. The fourth victim died at a hospital.

Police have also not yet released a description of the suspect, or a possible motivation.

The streets in the area have been closed off as an investigation is underway. Residents and drivers are advised to avoid the area.

Fresno Police say they are using their “mass casuality protocol” for this shooting.

RELATED: ‘Any available unit citywide’: Hectic moments authorities respond to Fresno ‘mass casualty’ shooting

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced late Sunday night that it will be sending agents from its San Francisco field office to assist in the investigation of the shooting.

California State Senator Andress Borgeas responded to the shooting on Twitter:

Fresno prosecutor and mayoral candidate Andrew Janz also tweeted:

This is a developing story. Stay with Action News for updates.

Source Article from https://abc30.com/police-searching-for-gunman-who-shot-at-fresno-family-gathering/5704122/

A front-line officer, speaking on condition of anonimity, said the police strategy was to surround the campus, block the exits, and wait for the demonstrators to leave. On Monday morning, police made dozens of arrests in the Tsim Sha Tsui neighborhood adjoining the campus, local media reported.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/hong-kong-police-pummel-university-with-water-cannon-as-officer-hit-by-arrow/2019/11/17/f004c978-091f-11ea-8054-289aef6e38a3_story.html

The demonstrators, who spent Sunday countering police water cannons of stinging blue dye with petrol bombs, held their ground early Monday morning local time. Just before daybreak, officers from a special tactical unit entered the campus and made dozens of arrests, according to local news reporters at the site. Then a live feed showed a university entrance engulfed in flames. Demonstrators were feeding the fire to hold police off.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/hong-kong-police-pummel-university-with-water-cannon-as-officer-hit-by-arrow/2019/11/17/f004c978-091f-11ea-8054-289aef6e38a3_story.html

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said President Donald Trump was “wrong” to tweet criticisms of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, during her testimony Thursday before the House Intelligence Committee, but stopped short of saying the tweets constituted witness intimidation. 

Yovanovitch was testifying in the second public hearing of the impeachment inquiry into allegations that Trump used military aid as leverage to pressure Ukraine into opening investigations that stood to benefit him politically. As she testified about her removal as ambassador, Trump tweeted, “Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go?”

Yovanovitch told Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., that she found the tweet “intimidating.” 

In a CBS News “Face the Nation” interview that aired Sunday, Pelosi said Trump “made a mistake” by posting the tweets. She said Trump knew Yovanovitch’s “strength” and was “trying to undermine it.” 

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/11/17/pelosi-trumps-yovanovitch-tweet-mistake/4222985002/

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., talks to reporters Thursday on Capitol Hill.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP


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J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., talks to reporters Thursday on Capitol Hill.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a stern warning for President Trump on Sunday: Do not try to retaliate against the intelligence community official whose anonymous complaint helped spur the impeachment inquiry.

“I will make sure he does not intimidate the whistleblower,” Pelosi said in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation. “I told the president, you’re in my wheelhouse when you come after the whistleblower.”

Pelosi’s comments follow Trump’s repeated calls for the whistleblower’s name to be exposed. Trump claimed on Friday that “everybody knows” who the whistleblower is, calling the person’s identity “no great secret.”

But it is not clear that Trump truly knows who filed a complaint about his July 25 call with the president of Ukraine where he pressed for the country to open investigations into the Biden family and a disproven theory about 2016 election meddling by Ukraine. The whistleblower wrote that Trump’s actions raised national security concerns and constituted an abuse of power.

Trump and some of his Republican supporters have ramped up their attacks on the whistleblower’s credibility as House impeachment investigators continue to call witnesses to testify for nationally televised hearings into the president’s conduct.

Lawyers representing the whistleblower say respecting the individual’s anonymity is important to their client’s safety, as well as ensuring that future whistleblowers will not have to fear intimidation in response to reporting government abuse. Pelosi told CBS that the process that allows whistleblowers to come forward anonymously should not be undermined.

“This is really important, especially when it comes to intelligence, that someone who would be courageous enough to point out truth to power,” she said.

Federal law allows the whistleblower to remain anonymous, but it is not expressly a crime for the president to unmask the person. Legal experts have said that if Trump outs the individual, it could prompt an article of impeachment.

Pelosi did not elaborate on what exactly the House’s response would be if Trump decides to do so.

Conservative media has named someone thought to be the whistleblower and attempted to portray the person as a political enemy of the president. But the reports are speculative, since there has been no official confirmation of the whistleblower’s identity.

The whistleblower’s legal team has sent a cease and desist letter to the White House Counsel, warning that the president should stop calling for the whistleblower to be publicly revealed.

“Let me be clear: Should any harm befall any suspected named whistleblower or their family, the blame will rest squarely with your client,” wrote attorney Andrew Bakaj.

House Democrats say the person’s testimony is no longer integral to the impeachment investigation since the whistleblower’s complaint has been largely corroborated by other witnesses.

Still, the whistleblower agreed to answer written questions from Republicans under oath, but the offer has not been accepted.

Democrats say Trump tried to bribe the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, by conditioning $391 million in military assistance that was already approved by Congress on Ukraine announcing investigations that would politically benefit Trump. The White House released the aid after Congress learned about the whistleblower complaint.

Republicans appearing on Sunday talk shows argued that since the money was eventually delivered to Ukraine without the country launching political investigations, there was nothing wrong with the now infamous July 25 phone call.

“Most importantly, the Ukrainians did nothing to, as far as investigations goes, to get the aid release,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said on CBS. “So there was never this quid pro quo that the Democrats all promise existed before President Trump released the phone call.”

Eight witnesses are expected to testify this week, including Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert at the National Security Council, and Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union.

Vindman, a key witness in the inquiry, was listening in on Trump’s July 25 call and in closed-door testimony said he was so alarmed by the president’s behavior that he rushed to report it to John Eisenberg, the top lawyer for the NSC.

Sondland is also an important player in the impeachment probe. In a sharp reversal, Sondland earlier this month submitted an addendum to his original closed-door testimony to House lawmakers acknowledging that he now does recall informing an aide to Zelenskiy that military aid to Ukraine was linked to the announcement of “anti-corruption” investigations.

House lawmakers on Saturday released a transcript of closed-door testimony from National Security Council official Tim Morrison.

Morrison said Sondland told a Ukrainian official that U.S. assistance would be sent to Kyiv once investigations were announced. In his testimony, Morrison said Sondland spoke directly to Trump about the arrangement about half a dozen times.

Pelosi on Sunday said if Trump wants to defend himself, he has an open invitation to speak to House investigators.

“The president could come right before the committee and talk, speak all the truth that he wants if he wants — if he wants to take the oath of office or he could do it in writing,” she said. “He has every opportunity to present his case.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/11/17/780298608/pelosi-on-trump-i-will-make-sure-he-does-not-intimidate-the-whistleblower

On Sunday, Chris Wallace, the host of “Fox News Sunday,” pressed Representative Steve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican, on that point, asking him whether Mr. Sondland might “blow a hole” in Republicans’ defense.

“The president’s defense is that those things didn’t happen,” Mr. Scalise insisted, adding, “The real bottom line is he got the money. Ukraine got the money.”

Later, Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Wallace on Twitter.

@SteveScalise blew the nasty & obnoxious Chris Wallace (will never be his father, Mike!) away on Chris’s lowest rated (unless I’m on) morning show. This kind of dumb and unfair interview would never have happened in the @FoxNews past. Great job Steve!” the president wrote.

Both Mr. Scalise and Mr. Jordan have made such arguments before, but their remarks on Sunday suggest this will be Republicans’ core line of defense this week. What both Mr. Scalise and Mr. Jordan failed to mention, however, is that Mr. Trump released the administration’s hold on the money amid a bipartisan uproar on Capitol Hill and revelations of a whistle-blower’s report that prompted the impeachment inquiry.

Their responses underscore the difficulty party leaders face in fashioning a defense as evidence mounts against Mr. Trump. On Friday, the Democrats’ case was bolstered by another witness, David Holmes, a top official at the United States Embassy in Kiev, who told investigators in a closed-door deposition that he had overheard Mr. Trump on a cellphone call loudly asking Mr. Sondland if Ukraine’s president had agreed to conduct an investigation into one of his leading political rivals.

“So, he’s going to do the investigation?” Mr. Trump asked, according to a copy of Mr. Holmes’s opening statement.

“He’s going to do it,” replied Mr. Sondland, who had just come from a meeting with top Ukrainian officials and the country’s president, according to the statement. He also told Mr. Trump that Mr. Zelensky would do “anything you ask him to.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/17/us/politics/republicans-trump-impeachment.html

Iowa voters appear split on the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, according to a new poll that places four candidates within the margin of error for the top spot in the field. 

Former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenBudget official says he didn’t know why military aid was delayed: report Growing 2020 field underscores Democratic divide READ: Foreign service officer Jennifer Williams’ closed-door testimony from the House impeachment inquiry MORE and Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersSinger Neil Young says that America’s presidents haven’t done enough address climate change New poll catapults Buttigieg to frontrunner position in Iowa Growing 2020 field underscores Democratic divide MORE (I-Vt.) are leading the primary field in the first-in-the country caucus state with 22 percent support each, respectively, according to a CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday. 

South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete ButtigiegPeter (Pete) Paul ButtigiegNew poll catapults Buttigieg to frontrunner position in Iowa Growing 2020 field underscores Democratic divide Deval Patrick: a short runway, but potential to get airborne MORE closely trails at 21 percent and Sen. Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth Ann WarrenNew poll catapults Buttigieg to frontrunner position in Iowa Bloomberg, Patrick take different approaches after late entries into primary race Deval Patrick: a short runway, but potential to get airborne MORE’s (D-Mass.) 18 percent also falls within the 4.1 percent margin of error, placing the four candidates in a statistical dead heat for the top spot in Iowa.

No other candidate registered double-digit support, with Sens. Kamala HarrisKamala Devi HarrisNew poll catapults Buttigieg to frontrunner position in Iowa Growing 2020 field underscores Democratic divide Harris gets key union endorsement amid polling plateau MORE (D-Calif.) and Amy KlobucharAmy Jean KlobucharNew poll catapults Buttigieg to frontrunner position in Iowa Election 2020: Why I’m watching Amy and Andy 2020 Democrats demand action on guns after Santa Clarita shooting MORE (D-Minn.) tied at a distant fifth place with 5 percent each.  

Buttigieg saw a 15-point uptick since a CBS/YouGov poll of Iowa voters in September that placed him at 6 percent support. 

Sanders’s support increased 3 points, while Warren had a 10-point dip since the September poll and Biden’s support decreased 3 points in Iowa since September. 

Buttigieg saw a similar surge in a CNN poll released Saturday that placed him at him at 25 percent support, leading Sanders and Biden by 10 points and Warren by 9 points. 

The new CBS/YouGov poll surveyed 856 registered Democratic voters and was conducted between Nov. 6 and 13.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/470838-new-poll-shows-four-candidates-as-defined-top-tier-in-iowa

Two Arkansas college chemistry professors have been arrested on charges of making meth, in an apparent case of life imitating art.

The Clark County sheriff’s office says Henderson State University professors Terry David Bateman and Bradley Allen Rowland were arrested Friday on charges of manufacturing methamphetamine and using drug paraphernalia.

It wasn’t clear if they remained in jail Sunday, and a jail official said he couldn’t give out that information.

Tina Hall, a spokeswoman for the Arkadelphia-based school, says Bateman and Rowland have been on administrative leave since Oct. 11. She says three days earlier, police investigated a report of a chemical odor in the campus science center. She says the building reopened Oct. 29 after a company filtered the air.

The arrests drew comparisons to the central character in the hit TV series “Breaking Bad,” in which a high school chemistry teacher began making methamphetamine.

Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/arkansas-chemistry-professors-accused-making-meth-67087647

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Source Article from https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/11/democratic-governor-louisiana-john-bel-edwards-wins-reelection-blow-trump.html

On Saturday, the Hong Kong government denied that it had invited the PLA to clear the roadblocks, saying the work was a “voluntary community activity,” according to Chinese state-owned CGTN. The development drew sharp criticism from pro-democracy lawmakers, who said it was illegal and a PR stunt by Beijing to normalize the army’s presence in the territory.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/hong-kong-police-pummel-university-with-water-cannon-as-officer-hit-by-arrow/2019/11/17/f004c978-091f-11ea-8054-289aef6e38a3_story.html

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Sunday that President Donald Trump’s conduct is “so much worse” than that of former President Richard Nixon, adding that Trump is insecure about being an “imposter.”

Pelosi spoke with CBS’s “Face the Nation” days after House impeachment investigators conducted their first public hearings. Three more days of public hearings are scheduled for this week.

“I will make sure he does not intimidate the whistleblower,” Pelosi said of the CIA employee whose complaint about Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine led to the impeachment inquiry. “The president can come before the committee and speak all the truth that he wants … He has every opportunity to make his case.”

“But it’s really a sad thing,” Pelosi continued. “What the president did was so much worse than even what Richard Nixon did. At some point, Richard Nixon cared about the country enough to recognize that this could not continue.”

Since the House launched its impeachment inquiry in September, multiple Trump administration officials have alleged that Trump tied U.S. aid to Ukraine to an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Republicans have defended the president by pointing out that the aid was eventually released and Ukraine never announced an investigation into the Bidens. But Pelosi and other Democrats have said that, by conditioning aid on the investigations, Trump was attempting to commit bribery.

“The whistle was blown, the whistle was blown, and that was blown long before we heard about it,” Pelosi said. “Don’t forget that in-between all of that came the inspector general. An inspector general appointed by President Trump. And the inspector general said this was of urgent concern. That is what intervened.”

Speaking with “Fox News Sunday,” Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said Republicans have offered up “a whole bunch of defenses that don’t make sense.”

“Lots of crimes can be committed … by the boss hinting and giving direction,” Himes said. “Corrupt people don’t always say, ‘Hey, here’s the signed contract.’ What has already developed from second-hand witnesses is that this aid was withheld as a condition.”

Even more Trump administration officials are set to testify publicly in the impeachment probe this week, including E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland, who Himes said is a first-hand witness to Trump’s conduct, having been tasked with carrying out his wishes. While Sondland’s initial October testimony largely absolved him from any wrongdoing, he submitted additional testimony in November acknowledge that he did deliver a quid pro quo message to Ukraine.

Acknowledging that Sondland’s credibility is in question, Himes said it “was not lost on Ambassador Sondland what happened to” Trump associates Roger Stone and Michael Cohen “for lying to Congress.”

“My guess is Gordon Sondland is going to do his level best to tell the truth because otherwise, he may have a very unpleasant legal future in front of him,” Himes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said.

Democrats also addressed Trump’s tweet bashing ousted U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch during her Friday testimony — commentary that Yovanovitch said moments later was “intimidating” and that Democrats referred to as witness intimidation.

Pelosi called Trump’s tweet “totally wrong and inappropriate and typical of the president.”

“People don’t insult people, especially when they’re giving testimony before the Congress of the United States,” she said. “I think even his most ardent supporters have to honestly admit this was the wrong thing for the president to do.”

“The president and perhaps some at the White House need to know is that the words of the president weigh a ton,” she continued. “They are very significant. And he should not frivolously throw out insults. I think part of it is his own insecurity as an imposter. I think he knows full well he’s in that office way over his head, and so he has to diminish everyone else.”

Elsewhere on “Face the Nation,” Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., said the president’s comment is “part of a pattern of witness intimidation.”

“What did he say about Mr. Cohen? That he was a rat,” Quigley, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said, adding that Trump “was talking like a mobster. What did he say about Mr. Manafort? That he was a good guy because he wasn’t cooperating. That’s witness intimidation.”

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/pelosi-trump-s-conduct-so-much-worse-nixon-s-n1084336

President Donald Trump on Sunday told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that his regime was overstating when it called former Vice President Joe Biden a “rabid dog.”

“Mr. Chairman, Joe Biden may be Sleepy and Very Slow, but he is not a ‘rabid dog’,” the president tweeted in a tepid defense of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. He added that Biden is “actually somewhat better than that.”

Last week, North Korean state media hurled a series of insults at Biden and said, “Rabid dogs like Biden can hurt lots of people if they are allowed to run out of control.” The statement said that such dogs “must be beaten to death with a stick, before it is too late.” 

The regime’s attack on Biden was apparently in response to a Biden campaign ad that referred to Kim as a “tyrant.” 

After defending Biden, the president then referred to the efforts to negotiate an agreement aimed at halting North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, telling Kim “I am the only one who can get you where you have to be. You should act quickly, get the deal done. See you soon!” 

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/11/17/trump-kim-jong-un-joe-biden-rabid-dog/4222461002/

“I don’t believe it was clear, even as of July 9, what exactly was behind that in terms of was this a, you know, long-term hold or what was the motivation behind it,” Williams testified, according to the transcript. “But I was aware that there was a problem with clearing the assistance, yes.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sen-johnson-says-whistleblowers-sources-exposed-things-that-didnt-need-to-be-exposed/2019/11/17/ce0a9d1a-0952-11ea-bd9d-c628fd48b3a0_story.html