WTF Just Happened Today

Thursday, October 31, 2019

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1/ The House approved a resolution to formally authorize and set ground rules for its impeachment inquiry into Trump. The resolution passed 232-196 almost entirely along party lines and outlines how the House will make the investigation more public, authorizes the House Intelligence Committee to release transcripts from past interviews, and gives Republicans the right to call witnesses, though those requests are subject to approval by Democrats. Before the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said "Today, we are further down the path of our inquiry," calling it a "sad day," because "nobody comes to Congress to impeach a president." Minutes after the vote, the White House press secretary denounced the resolution as "a sham impeachment" and "a blatantly partisan attempt to destroy the president." (New York Times / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / Politico / CNN / ABC News)

• Two Democrats voted against the impeachment inquiry resolution. Reps. Jeff Van Drew and Collin Peterson both voted "nay" on the resolution. (CNN)

• What is impeachment and how does it work? 10 facts to know. (NBC News)

• The full Trump-Ukraine timeline. The House is engaged in a formal impeachment inquiry of Trump. It's focused on his efforts to secure specific investigations in Ukraine that carried political benefits for him — with indications that there might have been an explicit or implicit quid pro quo involved. (Washington Post)

• ⚡️ Impeachment.wtf – The historian's guide to the Trump impeachment inquiry. Maintained by the community. Updated daily.

2/ Trump's former top National Security Council advisor on Russia and Europe corroborated testimony by the acting ambassador to Ukraine that Trump tried to withhold military assistance until Ukraine committed to investigating Trump's political rivals. Tim Morrison told impeachment investigators today that he spoke to Bill Taylor at least twice in early September. One call was about Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, who told the Ukrainians that no U.S. aid would be released until they announced an investigation into Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that had hired Joe Biden's son Hunter. Morrison also spoke with Taylor on Sept. 7 to share his "sinking feeling" about a conversation between Trump and Sondland, during which Trump demanded that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly announce investigations and a debunked conspiracy t...

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