WTF Just Happened Today

Monday, December 2, 2019

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1/ The White House will not participate in the Judiciary Committee's first impeachment hearing on Wednesday. In a letter to Chairman Jerry Nadler, White House counsel Pat Cipollone called the inquiry "baseless" and "partisan," and that "all" of Trump's due process rights had been violated by the impeachment inquiry. Cipollone did not rule out the possibility that the White House would participate in future proceedings. The White House has a Friday deadline to decide whether or not Trump will offer a defense as part of the broader impeachment proceedings. (Politico / CNN / NBC News / Washington Post / Reuters / ABC News)

2/ The House Intelligence Committee will circulate its report on Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine to launch investigations into his political rivals. Lawmakers will have 24 hours to review the report before a vote on Tuesday over whether to pass the impeachment inquiry over to the Judiciary Committee. The panel is expected to approve the findings on a party-line vote. The Judiciary Committee, which will begin scheduled impeachment hearings on Wednesday, is expected to then draft and vote on articles of impeachment around the second week of December with a full House vote before the Christmas recess. (Politico / NBC News)

3/ House Republicans prepared their own report, which claims Trump did "nothing wrong" and committed "no quid pro quo, bribery, extortion, or abuse of power." The 123-page rebuttal report claims Trump was acting on "genuine and reasonable" skepticism of Ukraine and had "valid" concerns about corruption – not political self-interest – when he pressured Ukraine to open investigations to benefit his 2020 re-election bid by withholding nearly $400 million in security assistance and a White House meeting. Republicans called the move "entirely prudent." The report, however, does not acknowledge any wrongdoing surrounding the core allegations in the impeachment inquiry and ignores or downplays testimony from career officials who raised serious questions and concerns about the conduct of Trump and his top aides. (New York Times / CNN / Daily Beast / Axios / Wall Street Journal)

poll/ 53% of Republicans think Trump is a better leader than Lincoln; 47% said Lincoln was a better leader. Overal...

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