Turkey’s Erdogan warns that it can release ISIS prisoners back to Europe - Fox News

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday issued a chilling threat to Europe over looming sanctions over Ankara's unauthorized drilling in the Mediterranean: penalize us and we'll release ISIS prisoners back to European countries.

IS THIS THE FUTURE LEADER OF ISIS?

"You should revise your stance toward Turkey, which holds so many IS members in prison and controls them in Syria," he told reporters.

The Associated Press reported that his comments were in response to the European Union’s unveiling of a system for imposing sanctions on Turkey over drilling off Cyprus.  He made the comments while speaking to reporters prior to a trip to the U.S. to meet with President Trump.

Erdogan also said Turkey would continue repatriating foreign Islamic State militants to their home countries, even if these countries decline to take them back.

His move to use ISIS prisoners as a bargaining chip is a troubling turn. Turkey's motivation for the offensive has been debated and Ankara has been accused of poor planning and security standards at these so-called prisons.

Early in the invasion, more than 100 ISIS fighters who were being held in Kurdish prisons in the country are now on the loose in the days after the invasion.

Trump gave Ankara a green light for an offensive in Syria last month. The decision sent shockwaves through the region and Washington, with U.S. officials telling Fox News that top Pentagon officials were “completely blindsided” and “shocked” by the order to pull back hundreds of U.S. troops, a move that effectively green-lights the Turkey operation.

Sen. Chuck  Schumer, D-N.Y., took to Twitter last week to criticize Trump for rolling out the welcome mat for Erdogan, "an autocrat whose actions threaten our allies & partners."

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“You still haven’t told us your plan to contain ISIS prisoners who escaped a fter Erdogan’s invasion of northern Syria!” he wrote.

Fox News' Greg Norman and the Associated Press contributed to this report

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2019-11-12 09:20:15Z
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Israel kills a senior leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza airstrike - Washington Post

Mohammed Salem Reuters Smoke rises following an explosion in Gaza early Tuesday. Israeli forces said they carried out an airstrike that killed a senior Palestinian militant.

JERUSALEM — Israeli security forces killed a senior leader of the militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad in a targeted airstrike in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, sparking a rain of retaliatory rocket fire from the enclave and raising fears of escalating reprisals.

Warning sirens sounded in multiple population centers, including Tel Aviv, sending thousands to shelters. Schools, work places and public transport were canceled in large areas of south and central Israel. More than 50 rockets were launched and at least one residence and an office were hit, the army said, adding that 20 were intercepted. An 8-year-old girl was reportedly in stable condition after losing consciousness during the barrage.

In Syria, state media reported an attack about the same time struck the house of a second Palestinian Jihad leader living in Damascus. The reports said the leader, Akram al-Ajouri, was not injured but his son and one other were killed and 10 other wounded. Israel declined to comment on the reports.

In Gaza, Israeli Defense Forces said they targeted Baha Abu Al Ata, the commander responsible for several previous rocket launches, because “his next attack was imminent.”

Photographs posted on social media showed a heavily damage house in the east Gaza neighborhood of Shejaiya. The Gaza Health Ministry said a man and woman were killed in the attack and two people injured.

In a statement, Palestinian Islamic Jihad confirmed that Abu Al Ata and his wife were killed. “Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine, is mourning its martyr and one of the most prominent members of its military council and the commander of the northern region,” it said, describing the attack as a “cowardly assassination.”

“We affirm that the response to this crime will have no limits and will be the size of the crime committed by the criminal enemy and that the occupation will bear the consequences of this aggression,” the statement said.

[Netanyahu’s party could break Israel’s political deadlock by dumping him. Why won’t it?]

The army said it had carried out the joint strike with Shin Bet security service in response to attacks directed by Al Ata, including rocket launches and sniper fire. They attributed recent rocket attacks on a summer music festival and on the city of Sderot to the faction he led.

“Abu Al Ata was responsible for most of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s activity in the Gaza Strip and was a ticking bomb,” the army’s statement said, calling him an “imminent threat” plotting additional violence.

Mohammed Salem

Reuters

A Palestinian militant walks past the home of Islamic Jihad field commander Baha Abu Al Ata after it was hit by an Israeli strike that killed him in Gaza City early Tuesday.

The overnight action was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the statement said. Benny Gantz, the former army chief who is now trying to form a coalition government, supported the action.

“The fight against terrorism is ongoing and requires moments of difficult decision-making. The political echelon and the IDF made the right decision tonight for the security of Israeli citizens and residents of the south. Blue and white will back up any proper activity for the security of Israel and put the residents’ security above politics,” he said.

Hamas, the militant Islamist group that governs the territory, restricted offshore fishing activities to six miles.

Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said Israel was getting preparing for days of potential hostilities.

[A summer day at the beach? For many Gazans, the conflict has put an end to that, too.]

Conricus said that based on intelligence information, at about 4 a.m., Israel conducted a surgical strike, killing the commander that Israel blames for much of the rising tensions in recent months.

“He was leader of the northern command for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but we know that his activities were not only restricted to the northern Gaza strip,” said Conricus.

“The Israeli operation was aimed to mitigate the threat and done with the approval of the cabinet and the Minister of Defense,” said Conricus. “We were looking for the most opportune moment over the past week but Baha Abu Al Ata had a habit of surrounding himself with human shields, we were waiting for a time to minimize the human casualties.”

Conricus said that missiles from fighter jets struck only the floor where Baha Abu Al Ata was located and only a handful of rooms. He said the Israelis were aware of additional casualties and were investigating.

“We want to emphasize that this was a preemptive strike to remove an imminent threat,” said Conricus. “We tried to communicate to him and to his senior commanders that we were aware of his plans but these warnings were not heeded.”

Mohammed Salem

Reuters

A rocket is fired from Gaza toward Israel on Tuesday.

The strike did not mark a return to the strategy of targeted killings, Conricus said, but rather a tailored response to remove a specific threat. The use of assassinations was discussed recently in Israel’s security cabinet and it has been a subject of disagreement between the political echelons and security establishment.

Naftali Bennett, who was appointed by Netanyahu on Sunday to take over as Defense Minister on Tuesday, has been outspoken about supporting such actions when dealing with flare ups from the Gaza strip. He participated in an emergency meeting of the cabinet convened Tuesday.

“We have bolstered our defenses in the south if there is any attempt by PIJ to launch an attack,” said Conricus.

There were further reports of explosions in Gaza later in the morning as the funeral of Al Ata progressed through the streets. It could not be determined if they were the result of Israeli actions in response to the rocket activity or by failed rockets themselves. The Health Ministry reported two further deaths and seven injuries.

In May, Israeli forces carried out a similar strike on Hamad Hudri, who they said was a high-ranking official in Hamas’ Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades and who was responsible for transferring money from Iran to the various terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip.

Hazem Balousha in Gaza and Sarah Dadouch in Beirut contributed to this story.

Read more

A summer day at the beach? For many Gazans, the conflict has put an end to that, too.

Netanyahu’s party could break Israel’s political deadlock by dumping him. Why won’t it?

Netanyahu can’t form a government. Here’s what’s next for Israeli politics.

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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2019-11-12 07:48:00Z
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Morales' exit in Bolivia leaves violence and political vacuum - Reuters

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Buildings were set alight in Bolivia’s capital La Paz overnight in apparent retaliatory attacks after Evo Morales, president since 2006, resigned under pressure from anger over his disputed re-election last month.

A report from the Organization of American States (OAS) released on Sunday had said the election should to be annulled and rerun because “clear manipulations” of the voting system called into question Morales’ win.

Soon after, Bolivia’s first indigenous leader said he was stepping down to ease the violence that has raged since the election on Oct. 20 - but repeated his argument that he had been the victim of a coup.

On Monday, the leftist stuck to his defiant tone, in comments that appeared unlikely to calm violence between his supporters and opposition activists.

“The world and our Bolivian patriots repudiate the coup,” Morales tweeted. “They moved me to tears. They never abandoned me; I will never abandon them.”

While some Latin American countries had backed his allegations of a coup, others had called for a new election.

Morales had triggered protests by running for a fourth term in defiance of term limits, before claiming victory in an election marred by allegations of fraud.

Morales’ vice president and many of his political allies in government and the legislature stepped down with him.

Demonstrators stand next to a barricade during a protest against Bolivia's President Evo Morales in La Paz, Bolivia, November 10, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

LOOTING AND FIRES

In the capital and the eastern city of Santa Cruz, crowds cheered his resignation.

But as night fell, gangs roamed the streets, looting businesses and setting fire to properties. Prominent opposition figure and academic Waldo Albarracin tweeted that his house had been set on fire by Morales supporters.

Another widely-shared video appeared to show people inside Morales’ own property with graffiti daubed on the walls after he flew to another part of the country.

It was not initially clear who would take the helm of the country pending a new election, though opposition senator Jeanine Añez said she was prepared to accept the responsibility.

Slideshow (5 Images)

“If I have the support of those who carried out this movement for freedom and democracy, I will take on the challenge, only to do what’s necessary to call transparent elections,” Añez told the television channel Red Uno on Monday.

“It’s not that I want to assume this by force, it is a constitutional succession for now that I have to assume.”

In Bolivian law, in the absence of the president and vice president, the head of the Senate would normally take over provisionally. However, Senate President Adriana Salvatierra also stepped down on Sunday.

Legislators are expected to meet on Monday to agree on an interim commission or legislator who would take temporary administrative control of Bolivia, according to a constitutional lawyer who spoke to Reuters.

Reporting by Daniel Ramos, Gram Slattery, Monica Machicao; Writing by Adam Jourdan and Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Kevin Liffey

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-11-11 11:25:00Z
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Australian state declares emergency, faces 'catastrophic' fire danger - NBCNews.com

Australia's most populous state declared a state of emergency Monday as dozens of fires ravaged the countryside with authorities warning of “catastrophic” fire risk — the highest level of bush fire danger.

New South Wales state emergency services minister David Elliott said residents were facing what "could be the most dangerous bush fire week this nation has ever seen,” the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Three people have died in the fires that destroyed more than 150 homes since Friday, according to state police and fire officials.

Bush fires burn in the distance as children play on a beach in Forster, 180 miles north of Sydney, on Saturday. Peter Parks / AFP - Getty Images

The blazes were so bad that smoke and dust from them had traveled across the Tasman Sea and turned neighboring New Zealand's skies red, the country's media reported.

Residents of Sydney, one of Australia’s largest cities, as well as Hunter Valley and Illawarra regions and the city of Shoalhaven have been told to brace for "catastrophic" fire danger Tuesday, with severe and extreme danger across large areas of the state on Tuesday.

New South Wales Rural Fire Service said Sunday “catastrophic” is the highest level of bush fire danger.

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The catastrophic rating “is as bad as it gets,'' an RFS spokesman was quoted as saying by Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said declaring a state of emergency was a precautionary measure to ensure “everyone is as safe as possible.”

“For heaven's sake stay away from bushland tomorrow,” she told reporters in a press conference on Monday, asking residents to heed advice from emergency services. “You might think you are OK and a few minutes later you won’t be."

New South Wales Police said Monday that some fires may start and spread so quickly there may be little time to get out.

“There are simply not enough fire trucks for every house," it said in a statement. "If you call for help, you may not get it."

New South Wales Rural Fire Service said the state of emergency will remain in place for seven days.

As of Sunday, it said 64 bush and grass fires were burning across the state, 40 of which were still not contained.

Bush fires burning in northeast New South Wales as seen from a plane. Tom Bannigan / AFP - Getty Images

New South Wales Ambulance Service warned Sunday that “even healthy adults and children can be impacted by the effects of heavy smoke which can result in lung irritation.”

Around 500 schools will be closed across the state because of the fire risk, ABC reported.

Further north in Queensland, more than 50 fires were burning on Sunday, with emergency warnings in place for two fires.

The ravaging fires have reignited the debate on whether Australia has taken enough action on climate change.

The leader of Australian Greens party, Richard Di Natale, and the party's climate spokesman, Adam Bandt, blamed Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government for the crisis.

"The PM does not have the climate emergency under control," he said on Twitter.

Morrison said Saturday that he had not considered whether the unprecedented fires scorching New South Wales and neighboring Queensland state were linked to climate change, according to the Associated Press.

I welcome the announcement a state of emergency has been declared in NSW. Catastrophic fire danger is forecast for the Greater Sydney & Hunter areas tomorrow. Stay updated on fires in your area & emergency services are advising if you’re in a danger zone, leaving early is best. https://t.co/9N70qP1mCl

— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) November 10, 2019

Morrison's deputy Michael McCormack said Monday that now was not the time for political debate on climate change.

"What people need now is a little bit of sensitivity, understanding and real assistance. They need help; they need shelter," McCormack told ABC.

Yuliya Talmazan

Yuliya Talmazan is a London-based journalist.

Associated Press contributed.

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2019-11-11 13:14:00Z
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Hong Kong protester shot at close range, counterprotester set on fire in latest escalation of violence - Fox News

A pro-democracy protester was shot at close range and a counterprotester was set on fire as violence continued to engulf Hong Kong on Monday morning, with the disturbing images of street fights and escalating attacks from both sides drowning out an appeal by the city's embattled leader for an end to demonstrations.

Carrie Lam, the pro-China chief executive of Hong Kong, laid the blame for the ongoing demonstrations deteriorating into chaos squarely at the feet of the pro-democracy protesters, who she labeled "rioters." But videos emerging from the autonomous Chinese territory showed the mayhem being instigated from all angles.

Video of one horrific incident showed a man, who is described as being opposed to the protesters, having a substance thrown on him which then ignites, consuming the man's upper body in flames.

In another alarming interaction, a police officer is seen shooing away a group of protesters at a street intersection, then drawing his gun on one masked demonstrator who approaches him. As the two struggle, the officer points his gun at a second protester who walks toward him and shoots him at close range in the stomach area.

The protester falls to the ground as the police officer appears to fire again as a third protester enters the melee. Authorities said only one protester was shot and was in critical condition at a nearby hospital.

HONG KONG POLICE SHOOT PROTESTER IN VIDEO POSTED TO FACEBOOK

WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO

HONG KONG STUDENT WHO FELL FROM PARKING DECK DURING PROTESTS DIES, SPARKING MORE DEMONSTRATIONS

Lam on Monday said "rioters" were to blame for destroying Hong Kong and cautioned that violence won't get demonstrators what they want.

“If there’s still any wishful thinking that by escalating violence, the Hong Kong [special administrative region of China] government will yield to pressure, to satisfy the so-called political demands, I’m making this statement clear and loud here: that will not happen,” she said, according to Reuters.

The violence, fueled by demands for democratic reforms, is likely to further inflame passions in Hong Kong after a student who fell during an earlier protest succumbed to his injuries and died on Friday. The unrest also intensified after police over the weekend arrested six pro-democracy lawmakers, who have all been freed on bail, on charges of obstructing the local assembly during a raucous May 11 meeting over the extradition bill.

Elsewhere in the city on Monday, police fired tear gas and deployed a water cannon, and charged onto the campus of Chinese University, where students were protesting. Video posted online also showed a policeman on a motorcycle riding through a group of protesters in an apparent attempt to disperse them.

The protests, which began in June, were sparked over a proposed extradition law and have expanded to include demands for greater democracy and police accountability. Activists say Hong Kong's autonomy and Western-style civil liberties, promised when the former British colony was returned to China in 1997, are crumbling.

On Sunday, police fired tear gas and protesters vandalized stores at shopping malls in anti-government demonstrations across Hong Kong. They targeted businesses whose owners are seen as pro-Beijing and also damaged the Sha Tin train station.

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Police said they arrested at least 88 people on various charges, including unlawful assembly, possession of an offensive weapon, criminal damage and wearing masks at an unlawful assembly.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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2019-11-11 10:49:49Z
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Day of rage plunges Hong Kong into turmoil after police shoot protester - The Washington Post

Kin Cheung AP Riot police fire tear gas in central Hong Kong on Monday.

HONG KONG — The shooting of a pro-democracy protester by Hong Kong police unleashed a chain of chaotic events on Monday, as thousands of demonstrators clashed with riot police in the city’s financial district and violent confrontations erupted at university campuses, plunging the Asian financial hub further into turmoil.

Tensions soared across the city. In the afternoon, police fired tear gas as a melee of protesters and office workers packed streets and flyovers in the downtown area. “Disband the police!” they shouted. Protesters threw debris into the road, brought traffic to a halt, and set fires. Later, a man was doused with liquid and set alight.

There had been calls for a general strike on Monday, the latest step in months of anti-government unrest that has convulsed the former British colony and posed a direct challenge to Chinese rule. But the immediate spark for the escalation came when a police officer fired live rounds in the Sai Wan Ho neighborhood early in the day, critically injuring a 21-year-old protester who appeared to be unarmed. Police confirmed that one man had been shot by an officer.

“It’s a police state in Hong Kong,” said Jerry, 26, a finance worker who joined the protests and gave only one name out of fear of retribution. “Police are murderers.”

[Hong Kong police shoot at pro-democracy protesters]

Throughout more than five months of unrest, Beijing has exhorted Hong Kong’s leaders to clamp down harder on the dissenters. Hong Kong authorities have obliged with thousands of arrests, draconian new laws, a barrage of tear gas, and the detention of pro-democracy lawmakers. A protester died Friday after falling in a parking garage several days earlier as police dispersed demonstrators nearby.

Yet far from blunting the democracy movement, the intensifying crackdown has prompted protesters to adopt more aggressive tactics. With the deeply divided city descending into disorder, there has been no sign that Beijing might change tack or allow the Hong Kong government to offer a political compromise.

Nicole Tung

Bloomberg

People react to tear gas fired by police in Hong Kong’s downtown area on Monday, after thousands took to the streets to protest the police shooting of a demonstrator.

“Senior officials have issued very draconian comments regarding the promulgation of a national security law and stepping up overall control,” said Willy Lam Wo-Lap, a professor of Chinese politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “This, together with the death of the student protester last week, is responsible for today’s outbreak of disorder.”

Student protesters “see no future ahead of them” because of the government’s crackdown and refusal to compromise, Lam added. “It seems like Beijing wants to use [the escalating protests] as an excuse to impose tougher measures,” he said.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang declined to comment on the shooting of the protester, referring reporters to other government departments. The State Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[Buffeted by trade war and Hong Kong protests, China’s Xi Jinping seeks to project stability]

At an evening news conference, Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said protesters were “destroying society” and labeled them “the people’s enemy,” saying their actions had far exceeded demands for democracy. The government would not bow to such pressure, she said. Some 60 people had been injured in Monday’s clashes, she added.

Protests began in June when the Hong Kong leader tried to push through a now-shelved proposal to allow criminal suspects to face trial in mainland China. But the movement has widened into an uprising against Beijing’s encroachment on Hong Kong’s autonomy, encompassing demands for full democracy and police accountability.

The unrest has pushed the city into recession. On Monday, numerous shops were closed, train lines were shut and many workers unable to reach their offices. Universities canceled classes. Police said a petrol bomb was thrown into a subway car. A police officer who rode a motorcycle into a crowd of demonstrators was placed on leave pending an investigation.

In central Hong Kong, as police retreated in vans at one point in the afternoon, crowds on the footbridges above chanted “fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong!” Other onlookers shouted and threw debris at police vans.

Protesters occupied a main thoroughfare, erecting barricades and setting fires near high-end hotels. As protesters blocked a road tunnel, they clashed with onlookers and taxi drivers. Some travelers abandoned their cars and walked with their suitcases.

Kin Cheung

AP

Protesters burn debris to block a road on Monday. Hong Kong’s political crisis has pushed the city into turmoil.

Scuffles broke out between protesters and Chinese government supporters. Footage shared on social media showed two men arguing about national identity, before one man doused the other with liquid and set him alight. He was in critical condition, hospital officials said.

The Global Times, a Chinese nationalist state-run tabloid, seized on the incident as evidence that “black-clad rioters” were “destroying the city.”

At a news conference Monday, police defended the officer’s decision to open fire earlier in the day, saying the protester had wanted to take the officer’s firearm.

“He was under threat by two people; if he lost his gun he would be under severe threat. Hence, he decided to fire,” Kwok Pak-chung, regional commander of Hong Kong island, told reporters.

The condition of the man, who was struck in the abdomen, was not life-threatening, Kwok said.

[China’s ominous warning to Hong Kong: Less tolerance, more patriotic education]

The unrest marks the worst violence in Hong Kong in decades, posing a quandary for China’s leader, Xi Jinping, who has sought to bring Hong Kong to heel without resorting to Tiananmen Square-style bloodshed.

In the United States, Congress is considering a bill that would pave the way for sanctions against individuals who undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy. The bill, approved unanimously by the House, would require the U.S. government to consider annually whether it should continue to treat Hong Kong as a trading entity separate from mainland China in response to political developments. However, the bill is stuck in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) so far has declined to bring it to a debate.

Hong Kong is governed by a “one country, two systems” arrangement under which Beijing pledged to maintain the territory’s relative freedoms and autonomy for half a century after its return to Chinese rule in 1997. But China has been tightening its grip, triggering anger in Hong Kong and uncertainty about its status as a global financial center.

At the heart of the stalemate is the fact that Hong Kong’s leader is not directly elected, but chosen by a committee that largely consists of Beijing loyalists. Many here perceive local authorities as conspiring with the Chinese government to undermine Hong Kong’s rule of law and bind the territory more closely with mainland China.

Shannon Stapleton

Reuters

A man extinguishes a fire set by protesters at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on Monday.

There has been speculation the government might use the worsening violence as a pretext to suspend local district elections planned for Nov. 24, though so far officials have said they would like the vote to proceed if possible. Although Hong Kong does not have genuine universal suffrage, a quasi-democratic process exists to choose local district councilors.

The Electoral Affairs Commission issued a statement Monday urging the public to “keep calm and return to rationality,” to allow the elections to proceed.

“However, it is important to note that the smooth proceeding of [the] election owes much to the full co-operation of all Hong Kong citizens to create a safe environment for Hong Kong,” a spokesman said.

Separately, Hong Kong’s government sought to dispel “online rumors” that it would suspend work, school classes and trading on the city’s stock market, one of the world’s largest. Such claims were “absolutely not true,” a government spokesman said. The benchmark Hang Seng Index slumped more than 2.6 percent on Monday.

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s leader, has declined to launch an independent inquiry into the police force, insisting that the city wait for the outcome of a probe by the existing police watchdog, which has limited powers.

Amnesty International branded Monday’s shooting “another shocking low for the Hong Kong police” and called for an urgent independent examination.

In the meantime, protesters continue to turn their fury on police.

“They’re crazy. It’s outrageous,” said Kong, a 27-year-old woman on her lunch break, referring to Monday’s shooting. “They’ve lost control.”

David Crawshaw in Hong Kong and Liu Yang in Beijing contributed to this report.

Read more

Hong Kong police shoot at pro-democracy protesters

Buffeted by trade war and Hong Kong protests, China’s Xi Jinping seeks to project stability

China’s ominous warning to Hong Kong: Less tolerance, more patriotic education

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2019-11-11 10:38:00Z
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Republicans push diversions and distractions ahead of this week's televised impeachment hearings - CNN

Trump himself aggressively squelched the one defense that could ease the political pain of moderate Republican lawmakers. He warned that it would be unacceptable for any Republican to argue his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was inappropriate but did not meet the constitutional standards for removal.

"Republicans, don't be led into the fools trap of saying it was not perfect, but is not impeachable. No, it is much stronger than that. NOTHING WAS DONE WRONG!" Trump tweeted Sunday.

Fierce political exchanges over the weekend offered a preview of how Republicans and Democrats will joust for advantage when the televised hearings get underway on Wednesday.

Republicans will seek to deflect, take the investigation down political rabbit holes and create a spectacle with an eye to Trump's conservative media cheerleaders and his supporters. They will also seek to confuse the case with details and factually dubious arguments designed to complicate it in the eyes of Americans watching the proceedings.

Democrats will battle to keep their simple abuse of power case from being corrupted by Republican attacks. They will try to turn the public against Trump by using witnesses drawn from political and military service -- like the current top US diplomat in Ukraine Bill Taylor on Wednesday and the ousted US ambassador to the country, Marie Yovanovitch, on Friday.

"They are going to hear immensely patriotic, beautifully articulate people telling the story of a President who ... extorted a vulnerable country by holding up military aid," Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Trump supporters also took to Sunday talk shows. Their arguments reflect the reality that for Trump partisans the next few weeks will not necessarily be about finding the truth about what happened in his off-the-books foreign policy with Ukraine.

In a war for public opinion, they will instead seek to construct plausible narratives that can shield the President and themselves from any wider political backlash.

The President's friends are keen to talk about anything -- other than the currently easy-to-understand facts of the case that Democrats have been building through witness testimony.

The case against Trump

Trump stands accused of abusing his power by trying to coerce Ukraine to open an investigation into a domestic political opponent -- former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either Biden. Multiple witnesses have now testified that they believe he demanded a quid pro quo from Ukraine while holding up $400 million in military aid as it battled Russia.

But several Republicans argued Sunday that the President was merely worried about corruption in Kiev -- an argument that challenges credibility since it concerns a topic that Trump has rarely shown any interest in pursuing elsewhere in the world.

"The quid pro quo, in my judgment, is a red herring," said Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, on CBS' "Face the Nation." "Here are the two possible scenarios. Number one, the President asked for an investigation of a political rival. Number two, the President asked for an investigation of possible corruption by someone who happens to be a political rival."

"The latter would be in the national interest. The former would be in the President's parochial interests and would be over the line," Kennedy said, constructing an alternative narrative that offers Trump and GOP supporters a way out of a box.

Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson also claimed on CNN's "State of the Union" that the President was concerned about good governance in Kiev, rather than seeking personal political advantage.

"When you're going to provide hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into a system, you want to make sure it isn't corrupt," Johnson told CNN's Jake Tapper.

"I never heard the President say, 'I want to dig up dirt on 2020 opponents.'"

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul made a novel argument -- that Trump's offense was merely to reach for the same kind of leverage that everyone else in Washington uses.

"I would make the argument that every politician in Washington, other than me, virtually, is trying to manipulate Ukraine to their purposes," he said.

"They're all doing it. They're all trying to manipulate Ukraine to get some kind of investigation -- either to end an investigation or start an investigation."

Paul's comments blur the issue. Biden's pressure on Ukraine during the Obama administration -- in common with the European Union and international organizations -- was motivated by a desire to improve investigations of corruption, not to shut them down.

Witness depositions appear to suggest that pressure by Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani was motivated by a desire to investigate Biden -- a potential 2020 rival -- and his son, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

Republicans are also expected to argue that while Democrats have built up evidence from foreign policy officials, they have yet to prove that Trump or those closest to him directly ordered the withholding of aid or asked for political concessions. The argument is perhaps their strongest opening to undermine the Democratic impeachment case.

Still, the refusal of the White House to make available witnesses like Giuliani, who was acting for Trump in Ukraine, and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney allows Democrats to argue that the White House has something to hide.

The White House transcript of Trump's July 25 call with Zelensky shows that he asked his counterpart for a "favor" and requested he look into Biden and his son. And in a stunning moment in a White House briefing, Mulvaney effectively confirmed that a quid pro quo took place.

Republicans want the House hearings to probe Hunter Biden and the whistleblower

Several Republicans demanded testimony in impeachment hearings from Hunter Biden and called for a whistleblower who first raised the alarm about Ukraine to testify in public.

"I consider any impeachment in the House that doesn't allow us to know who the whistleblower is to be invalid, because without the whistleblower complaint, we wouldn't be talking about any of this," Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham said on Fox.

"I also see the need for Hunter Biden to be called to adequately defend the President. And if you don't do those two things, it's a complete joke," the South Carolina Republican said.

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, has already argued that exposing the identity of the whistleblower is unnecessary since the person's complaint has been confirmed by witness testimony.

"In light of the President's threats, the individual's appearance before us would only place their personal safety at grave risk," Schiff wrote in a Saturday letter to Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, that was obtained by CNN's Manu Raju.

Democrats argue that calling for Hunter Biden to testify is irrelevant to the impeachment case -- since it is a constitutional proceeding designed solely to judge whether the President abused his power. And such a move would also in effect create the political investigation -- in Congress no less -- into the Bidens that Trump sought to get the Ukrainians to initiate.

Trump's Capitol Hill allies over the weekend lodged a list of witness requests apparently designed to cause havoc in the hearing room -- or a talking point when Democrats who have the power of the majority reject them.

They requested Hunter Biden and the whistleblower, but also Nellie Ohr, a former contractor for intelligence firm Fusion GPS, and Alexandra Chalupa, a former Democratic National Committee staffer.

Those two names suggest a Republican focus on unsubstantiated claims that Ukraine and not Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election -- despite voluminous evidence and indictments of Moscow-linked suspects compiled by former special counsel Robert Mueller.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/11/politics/republicans-trump-impeachment-inquiry/index.html

2019-11-11 09:43:00Z
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