Steve Helber AP
President Trump claimed Democrats “looked like fools” during this week’s impeachment proceedings, as he called in to Fox News for nearly an hour to weigh in on the blitz of public testimony from witnesses summoned to bolster the case that he used his office for personal gain.
Following public hearings by the House Intelligence Committee over the past two weeks, both parties are digging in as Democrats prepare to draft articles of impeachment, with a full House vote possible by the end of the year.
Democrats have been seeking to build the case that Trump sought to leverage U.S. military aid to Ukraine and a White House visit by President Volodymyr Zelensky in exchange for investigations of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, among others.
●With a warning on Russia, blitz of public testimony in impeachment inquiry comes to an end.
●Hearings unite Democrats behind impeachment.
●White House and Republicans discuss limiting impeachment trial to two weeks.
● Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) launches probe of Bidens, Burisma and Ukraine.
What’s next in the inquiry | Who’s involved in the impeachment inquiry | Key documents related to the inquiry
8:50 AM: Trump says he knows identity of whistleblower
Trump said during the Fox News interview that he knows the identity of the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry.
“You know who the whistleblower is. So do I,” Trump told the hosts.
Trump also said he didn’t believe House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) when he recently asserted that he doesn’t know the identity of the anonymous U.S. intelligence official.
“If he doesn’t, then he’s the only person in Washington who doesn’t,” Trump said.
By: John Wagner
8:40 AM: Trump perpetuates debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine interfered in 2016 election
The intelligence community concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, but Trump continues to push the unsubstantiated claim that Ukraine worked against him.
“Ukraine hated me. They were after me in the election. They wanted Hillary Clinton to win,” the president said Friday during his Fox News interview.
His comments came a day after Fiona Hill, the former National Security Council senior director for Europe and Russia, chastised Republicans for the “fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.”
Hill said the constant battle between Republicans and Democrats over the issue undermines the United States and its political system.
By: Donna Cassata
8:30 AM: Trump accuses embassy staffer of lying in testimony
In his Fox News interview, Trump claimed that David Holmes, a Ukrainian embassy staffer, lied during testimony on Thursday when he said he overheard a phone call between Trump and Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union.
Holmes testified that he was eating lunch with Sondland the day after Trump called Zelensky and asked for “a favor.” During the lunch, Sondland talked to Trump on his cellphone, and Holmes testified that Trump was talking loudly enough that he could hear him inquire about the status of “investigations.”
“How about the guy with the telephone?” Trump said during the interview. “How about that one? I guarantee you that never took place.”
Trump went on to assert that he has “good hearing” and that he can’t hear people on the other end of cellphone calls unless they are on speakerphone.
“That was a totally phony deal,” Trump said.
Trump also claimed he was not close with Sondland, a major donor whom he appointed to the position.
“This guy, Sondland, hardly know him,” Trump said.
By: John Wagner
8:20 AM: Trump resorts to name-calling in attacking Schiff, Pelosi
Trump called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “crazy as a bed bug” and labeled House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff a “sick puppy” as he railed against the fast-moving impeachment probe during the Fox News interview.
His broadside on the Democrats came a day after the end of scheduled public hearings featuring testimony from a dozen witnesses, several of whom described the president trying to coerce a foreign leader to help his reelection bid.
On Pelosi, Trump said, “She’s nuts,” adding that she will go down as the worst speaker in history.
On Schiff, the president said, “Let me tell you, he’s a sick puppy. He’s so sick. He makes it all up. He’s sick.”
Trump said he wants Schiff to testify in a Senate trial about the whistleblower whose complaint triggered the impeachment probe. Testimony and evidence have corroborated the whistleblower’s report.
During the interview, Trump said Democrats more broadly “looked like fools” during the hearings and claimed that those paying attention in Ukraine “must think we’re nuts in this country.”
Trump also lashed out at former vice president Joe Biden, a 2020 candidate, calling him “corrupt.” The president said George Conway, husband of his senior adviser Kellyanne Conway and a fierce critic of Trump, is a “whack job.”
By: Donna Cassata and John Wagner
8:15 AM: Trump escalates attack on former ambassador Yovanovitch
During his Fox News interview, Trump lashed out at former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, saying “this was not an angel, this woman.”
In his telephone interview with Fox and Friends, Trump claimed without evidence that she refused to hang his photograph in the embassy in Kyiv and said “bad things about me. She wouldn’t defend me.” He called her an “Obama person,” also with no evidence.
In her public testimony last Friday, Yovanovitch said she was fearful and appalled by the smear campaign by Trump allies that led to her being abruptly removed from her post in May. During that testimony, Trump railed against her on Twitter, a move decried by Democrats and some Republicans.
Multiple witnesses this week praised the work of Yovanovitch, a longtime diplomat, and criticized her treatment.
By: Donna Cassata
8:10 AM: Trump pushed debunked conspirary theory on DNC server
Trump continued in his Fox News interview to push a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukrainians might have hacked the Democratic National Committee’s network in 2016 and framed Russia for the cyber intrusion.
Trump’s own advisers have dismissed the idea, which flies in the face of detailed assessments from the U.S. intelligence community, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and the congressional committees that have investigated Russia’s election interference.
“They have the server,” Trump said of Ukraine. “That’s what the word is.”
One of the investigations that Trump on which Trump pressed Zelensky centered on the server.
By: John Wagner
7:45 AM: Perry predicts Trump will ‘muscle right through’ impeachment
Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who declined to appear for a deposition before House investigators, predicted that Trump will “muscle right on through” the impeachment process during a portion of a television interview aired Friday.
“I don’t see the American people buying into this thing,” Perry said in a clip of a longer interview scheduled to air this weekend on Fox News.
Asked by Fox News’s Ed Henry if he thinks Trump will be removed from office, Perry said: “Lord, no, not even close.”
Removal by the Republican-led Senate would require a two-thirds vote.
Perry was among the officials known as the “three amigos” who conducted a side-channel policy on Ukraine in conjunction with Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani.
Perry declined to appear for a Nov. 6 closed-door deposition. In a statement, the Energy Department said he would “not partake in a secret star chamber inquisition where agency counsel is forbidden to be present.” The House Intelligence Committee has subsequently held two weeks of public hearings.
By: John Wagner
7:30 AM: Pelosi to appear at televised town hall as House weighs impeachment
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will take questions from voters during a televised town hall early next month as the House weighs impeaching Trump, CNN announced Friday.
The broadcast is scheduled for the night of Dec. 5 and will be moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper, the network said.
During a news conference on Thursday, Pelosi declined to say whether she has heard enough from the witnesses to make a determination on impeachment, offering only, “We will go where the facts take us.”
Pelosi said it will be up to the House committees leading the inquiry to decide on a timeline and on whether testimony from any additional witnesses is needed.
“When we see a violation of the Constitution, we have no choice but to act,” Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol. “And the evidence is clear that the president — the president — has used his office for his own personal gain — and in doing so, undermined the national security of the United States by withholding military assistance to Ukraine, to the benefit of the Russians.”
By: John Wagner and Felicia Sonmez
7:15 AM: Trump to weigh in on impeachment proceedings in television interview
Trump is scheduled to weigh in on the status of the impeachment proceedings during an interview at 8 a.m. on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.”
Steve Doocy, one of the show’s hosts, said Trump would call into the show from the White House. Ainsley Earhardt, another of the show’s hosts, said the interview is expected to last at least 40 minutes.
“I know that there’s not much to talk about, but we will try to keep the conversation going,” Trump said sarcastically in a tweet before his appearance, adding: “Enjoy!”
The only public event Trump has on his schedule Friday is a White House celebration of several NCAA national championship teams. That is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.
By: John Wagner
7:00 AM: Two more transcripts of closed-door depositions to be released
Though the public hearings are over — at least for now — House investigators could release transcripts as early as Friday of two closed-door depositions taken as part of the impeachment inquiry.
Still outstanding are the transcripts of depositions taken of Mark Sandy, an Office of Management and Budget official, and Philip Reeker, the diplomat in charge of U.S. policy for Europe.
Sandy testified earlier this month that the White House decision to freeze nearly $400 million in congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine in mid-July was highly irregular and that senior political appointees in the OMB were unable to provide an explanation for the delay.
Sandy, the deputy associate director for national security programs at OMB, testified that he was instructed to sign the first of several apportionment letters in which budget officials formally instituted the freeze on funds, according to two people familiar with his testimony who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly.
Reeker said during his deposition that he appealed to top State Department leaders to publicly support Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who was the target of a conspiracy theory-fueled smear campaign, a person familiar with his testimony said.
Reeker expressed his concerns over the falsehoods about Yovanovitch to David Hale, the third-highest-ranking official in the State Department, and T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, the closest adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door proceedings.
By: John Wagner
6:00 AM: Trump shares assessments from GOP allies
Trump returned to Twitter late Thursday night to share a spate of assessments of the impeachment proceedings from Republican allies.
That included multiple tweets from Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), one of Trump’s staunchest defenders on the House Intelligence Committee, who wrote in one that Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the panel’s chairman, “failed to bring ANY evidence for impeaching @realDonaldTrump.”
Trump also shared a promotion of T-shirts being sold by his campaign on which the word “BULL-” appears in front of a picture of Schiff.
By: John Wagner
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMihAFodHRwczovL3d3dy53YXNoaW5ndG9ucG9zdC5jb20vcG9saXRpY3MvaW1wZWFjaG1lbnQtaGVhcmluZ3MtbGl2ZS11cGRhdGVzLzIwMTkvMTEvMjIvNTRmZmY3MzAtMGNhOS0xMWVhLTk3YWMtYTdjY2M4ZGQxZWJjX3N0b3J5Lmh0bWzSAZMBaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud2FzaGluZ3RvbnBvc3QuY29tL3BvbGl0aWNzL2ltcGVhY2htZW50LWhlYXJpbmdzLWxpdmUtdXBkYXRlcy8yMDE5LzExLzIyLzU0ZmZmNzMwLTBjYTktMTFlYS05N2FjLWE3Y2NjOGRkMWViY19zdG9yeS5odG1sP291dHB1dFR5cGU9YW1w?oc=5
2019-11-22 14:22:00Z
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