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On Politics | IMPEACHMENT. 2020 ELECTION. WASHINGTON. AND MORE FROM THE POLITICS WORLD. | Tuesday, December 3 | | |
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| Happy Tuesday, OnPolitics readers! We're in the full swing of the holiday (shopping) season, and we've got a lot to cover in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Let's talk politics. |
House Dems release major draft impeachment report |
| Three House committees investigating a potential Trump impeachment uncovered a months-long effort "to use the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election," according to their draft report released Tuesday. |
| "The evidence of the President's misconduct is overwhelming, and so too is the evidence of his obstruction of Congress," the 300-page report said. |
| Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said the investigation found that Trump withheld official acts and added if Congress doesn't act, it would be "begging for more of the same" where a president is "beyond accountability." |
| The Intelligence Committee adopted the report Tuesday on a party-line vote of 13-9. |
| Trump's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, criticized the report. |
| "At the end of a one-sided sham process, Chairman Schiff and the Democrats utterly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by President Trump," Grisham said. |
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| As part of the report, phone records released Tuesday detailed previously unreported contacts between Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, the White House, top House Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, and Hill columnist John Solomon. |
| According to AT&T phone records produced by the Intelligence Committee, Solomon was in frequent contact with Giuliani and his associate Lev Parnas. Federal prosecutors are likely to file updated criminal allegations against Parnas who, along with Igor Fruman, has already been indicted for conspiring to funnel foreign money into the U.S. election system. |
| But Schiff would not say when and where the evidence from the phone records came from. |
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House Dems' report says Pence is at fault, too |
| Vice President Mike Pence is among the top officials culpable in Trump's efforts to bend U.S. foreign policy for personal gain, the report states. |
| Pence and other senior officials "were either knowledgeable of or active participants in an effort to extract from a foreign nation the personal political benefits sought by the president," according to the report. |
| The report also faults Pence for not producing "a single document" requested by the panels. |
What's next in the inquiry: Judiciary Committee gets to work |
| Christal Hayes outlined what's next in the impeachment inquiry. After the House Intelligence Committee investigated Trump's conduct with Ukraine, the House Judiciary Committee, starting Wednesday , will be tasked with deciding if Trump's conduct is impeachable and whether to draft articles of impeachment. |
| While there were moments of partisan bickering throughout the process in the House Intelligence Committee, things are likely to come to a head on the House Judiciary Committee. The panel is filled with many far-right-leaning Republicans and far-left-leaning progressives who are known for their theatrics. |
Harris leaves the Democratic presidential race |
| California Sen. Kamala Harris has ended her presidential campaign, closing the chapter on a candidacy that began with high expectations but failed to capitalize on a viral debate performance and struggled with reported tumult among the campaign's staff. |
| In an email to supporters, Harris said she's "taken stock and looked at this from every angle, and over the last few days have come to one of the hardest decisions of my life." She also clearly stated her campaign "simply doesn't have the financial resources we need to continue." |
| During the first Democratic primary debate in June, Harris had a powerful exchange with Biden, where she called him out for opposing federally mandated busing to integrate schools while he was in Congress. In polling after that exchange, Harris experienced a spike. But her numbers dipped quickly. |
| Despite being one of three black candidates, Harris also struggled to make waves with African American voters, a top voting bloc for Democrats. |
| More on the 2020 election: |
| • | A Trump 2020 campaign Twitter account poked at the tension between Harris and Democratic candidate Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard by congratulating Gabbard for Harris dropping out. | | • | Three 2020 Democratic candidates dropped out of the race in less than 48 hours and the field is starting to narrow. Here's what that means. | | • | Despite his late entry into the Democratic primary, two polls find ex-NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is in fifth place, outperforming many of the candidates who have been on the campaign trail for months. | |
Wrapping it up |
| • | Deutsche Bank, Trump's longtime lender, must turn over financial records, an appeals court ruled Tuesday. The decision blocks another attempt by the president to prevent disclosure of his financial records. But he's likely to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court, like he has other rulings. | | • | Trump displayed "no foundation or framework to understand the limits of intelligence" during regular security briefings at the White House, Susan Gordon, a former top intelligence official, said. | | • | Trump signaled a trade war with China could drag on until after the 2020 election. | | • | Days after being released from the hospital after undergoing surgery earlier in November, President Jimmy Carter was admitted again with an infection. | | • | Kellyanne Conway, a Trump senior adviser, took a jab at Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden. Her husband, conservative lawyer George Conway, responded with a jab at her boss. | |
| - Until Wednesday, OP readers |
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