WTF Just Happened Today

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Subscribe: Get the Daily Update in your inbox for free

1/ Speaker Nancy Pelosi instructed the key chairmen in the House of Representatives to begin drafting impeachment articles against Trump, signaling that the House will likely vote to charge him with high crimes and misdemeanors before Christmas. Pelosi said the facts of Trump's alleged wrongdoing involving Ukraine "are uncontested" and that "the president leaves us no choice but to act." By ordering the "chairmen" to draft the charges, Pelosi left open the possibility that the other five committees that have investigated Trump and his administration will be asked to make recommendations about articles of impeachment. Pelosi added that Trump "abused his power for his own personal political benefit" and that his alleged wrongdoing "strikes at the very heart of our Constitution." (New York Times / Politico / NBC News / ABC News / CNN / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post / Bloomberg)

• ???? The House Judiciary Committee will hold its next impeachment on Monday at 9 a.m. ET, when the panel will receive presentations from Democratic and GOP counsels to the Intelligence Committee on the evidence collected in the inquiry. (CNN / NBC News)

• House Democrats are considering obstruction and bribery articles of impeachment against Trump. Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee and Intelligence Committee believe Trump's actions vis-a-vis Ukraine meet the definition of bribery. House Democrats have also signaled that they plan to include evidence from Robert Mueller's investigation as part of the obstruction of justice articles. (Washington Post / CNN)

• READ: Full text of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's impeachment inquiry update.

2/ Trump accused Pelosi of having "a nervous fit" after a reporter asked if she hated Trump. James Rosen, a reporter for a conservative television network, loudly asked Pelosi as she was leaving a news conference: "Do you hate the president?" Pelosi rejected the question, saying: "Don't mess with me when it comes to words like that." (The Guardian /