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Biden Campaign Attacks Trump Policy on Saudi Arabia, North Korea

Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential campaign launched new attacks on Donald Trump on Sunday, advocating a reevaluation of U.S.-Saudi relations and calling North Korea’s apparent weapons test a “rebuke” to the U.S. president in a statement to Reuters.The statement comes as Trump faces pressure to examine his administration’s approach to Riyadh after law enforcement officials said a Saudi Arabian Air Force lieutenant killed three people at a U.S. Navy base in Pensacola, Florida, before being fatally shot.The man was on the base as part of a Navy training program designed to foster links with foreign allies.Authorities said they believe the man acted alone. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Trump on Sunday the kingdom would aid an investigation into the shooting, the Saudi state news agency reported.Still, the incident put a spotlight on the Trump administration’s warm ties with the Saudis as fallout continues from the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year at a Saudi consulate in Turkey, as well as Saudi involvement in the war in Yemen and tensions with Middle East rival Iran.In a statement emailed to Reuters, Biden campaign spokesman TJ Ducklo said the Trump administration has written Saudi’s kingdom “a blank check to act with impunity around the world.”Biden would “reevaluate our relationship with Saudi Arabia to ensure it is fully aligned with American values and priorities” if he beats Trump in a November 2020 election, Ducklo said. Biden believes the investigation into the Florida shooting should run its course, the spokesman added.Ducklo also said a test at North Korea’s Sohae rocket-testing ground after Trump called U.S.-North Korean relations “very good” were a “clear rebuke to Trump” and showed that “Trump’s made-for-TV summits have achieved little, while North Korea continues to advance its dangerous capabilities.”He added that Biden, as president, “won’t be sending Kim Jong Un any love letters,” a reference to an exchange of personal correspondence between Trump and Kim since their first summit in Singapore in June 2018, when the North Korean leader pledged to dismantle the missile installation where its latest test took place.Trump’s reelection campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment late on Sunday.The former vice president has been highlighting his foreign policy credentials as he battles rivals for his Democratic party’s presidential nomination but also as he looks ahead to an election fight against Trump. In a widely viewed video posted online on Wednesday, Biden characterized the sitting president as a joke among world leaders.Trump’s presidential campaign was based partly on the argument that other countries were taking advantage of the United States due to diplomacy Biden advocated when he was Barack Obama’s vice president.
 
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Elizabeth Warren Discloses Details of Past Legal Work, Showing $2M in Compensation

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren released information on Sunday about her past legal work, showing nearly $2 million in compensation from dozens of clients, as a dispute intensified with her rival Pete Buttigieg over transparency.Warren, a leading candidate among the 15 Democrats vying for the party’s nomination to take on President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election, had already put out 11 years of tax returns in April and called on other candidates to follow suit.Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has said in recent days that Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, should release older tax documents detailing her corporate legal work.In return, Warren has called on Buttigieg to allow media coverage of his private donor events and to disclose information about his past work at the consultancy company McKinsey. Warren does not hold big-ticket fundraisers and has focused her campaign on combating Washington corruption and corporate greed.Democratic presidential candidate South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg speaks during the Iowa Farmers Union Presidential Forum, Dec. 6, 2019, in Grinnell, Iowa.Buttigieg’s campaign said on Saturday it was working on making the details of his employment at McKinsey “fully transparent” and called on Warren to match that by releasing her tax returns covering her corporate legal work.On Sunday, in a 15-page document, Warren’s campaign provided examples of her legal work, some of which dated back to 1985, in capacities including as a counsel, consultant and expert witness, giving information about the cases and how much she was compensated.The document included dozens of cases, some of which Warren took on a pro-bono basis and was not compensated for. In some cases, she worked with a group of consultants. The document showed a total of nearly $2 million in compensation.A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll on Thursday showed that support for Warren dropped nationally to its lowest level in four months, as she came under attack over her proposal to extend government-paid healthcare to all Americans, deemed too costly by her rivals for the nomination.Warren, 70, is still among the leaders in opinion polls in Iowa, which kicks off the Democratic nominating contests on Feb. 3, and in other early voting states. Buttigieg, 37, who had campaign stops this weekend in Iowa, has surged into the lead in recent opinion polls there. 
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Democrats Move Toward Articles of Impeachment

The House Judiciary Committee holds another hearing Monday in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.  Proceedings have been centering on allegations that the president abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to announce an investigation into political rival Joe Biden, the leading Democratic presidential contender. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, the hyper partisanship in Washington promises to intensify.
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Watchdog Expected to Find Russia Probe Valid, Despite Flaws

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog will release a highly anticipated report Monday that is expected to reject President Donald Trump’s claims that the Russia investigation was illegitimate and tainted by political bias from FBI leaders. But it is also expected to document errors during the investigation that may animate Trump supporters.The report, as described by people familiar with its findings, is expected to conclude there was an adequate basis for opening one of the most politically sensitive investigations in FBI history and one that Trump has denounced as a witch hunt. It began in secret during Trump’s 2016 presidential run and was ultimately taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller.The report comes as Trump faces an impeachment inquiry in Congress centered on his efforts to press Ukraine to investigate a political rival, Democrat Joe Biden — a probe the president also claims is politically biased.Still, the release of Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s review is unlikely to quell the partisan battles that have surrounded the Russia investigation for years. It’s also not the last word: A separate internal investigation continues, overseen by Trump’s attorney general, William Barr and led by a U.S. attorney, John Durham. That investigation is criminal in nature, and Republicans may look to it to uncover wrongdoing that the inspector general wasn’t examining.Trump tweeted Sunday: “I.G. report out tomorrow. That will be the big story!”He previously has said that he was awaiting Horowitz’s report but that Durham’s report may be even more important.Horowitz’s report is expected to identify errors and misjudgments by some law enforcement officials, including by an FBI lawyer suspected of altering a document related to the surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide. Those findings probably will fuel arguments by Trump and his supporters that the investigation was flawed from the start.FILE – U.S. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz testifies on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Sept. 18, 2019.But the report will not endorse some of the president’s theories on the investigation, including that it was a baseless “witch hunt” or that he was targeted by an Obama administration Justice Department desperate to see Republican Trump lose to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.It also is not expected to undo Mueller’s findings or call into question his conclusion that Russia interfered in that election in order to benefit the Trump campaign and that Russians had repeated contacts with Trump associates.Some of the findings were described to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity by people who were not authorized to discuss a draft of the report before its release. The AP has not viewed a copy of the document.It is unclear how Barr, a strong defender of Trump, will respond to Horowitz’s findings. He has told Congress that he believed “spying”  on the Trump campaign did occur and has raised public questions about whether the counterintelligence investigation was done correctly.The FBI opened its investigation in July 2016 after receiving information from an Australian diplomat that a Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, had been told before it was publicly known that Russia had dirt on the Clinton campaign in the form of thousands of stolen emails.By that point, the Democratic National Committee had been hacked, an act that a private security firm — and ultimately U.S. intelligence agencies — attributed to Russia. Prosecutors allege that Papadopoulos learned about the stolen emails from a Maltese professor named Joseph Mifsud. Papadopoulous pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about that interaction.FILE – Former special counsel Robert Mueller checks pages in the report as he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on his report on Russian election interference, on Capitol Hill, July 24, 2019.The investigation was taken over in May 2017 by Mueller, who charged six Trump associates with various crimes as well as 25 Russians accused of interfering in the election either through hacking or a social media disinformation campaign. Mueller did not find sufficient evidence to charge a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.He examined multiple episodes in which Trump sought to seize control of the investigation, including by firing James Comey as FBI director, but declined to decide on whether Trump had illegally obstructed justice.The inspector general’s investigation began in early 2018. It focuses in part on the FBI’s surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page. The FBI applied in the fall of 2016 for a warrant from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to monitor Page’s communications, with officials expressing concern that he may have been targeted for recruitment by the Russian government.Page was never charged and has denied any wrongdoing.Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to hear testimony from Horowitz on Wednesday, said he expected the report would be “damning” about the process of obtaining the warrant.“I’m looking for evidence of whether or not they manipulated the facts to get the warrant,” Graham, a Republican, said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”The warrant was renewed several times, including during the Trump administration. Republicans have attacked the procedures because the application relied in part on information gathered by an ex-British intelligence operative, Christopher Steele, whose opposition research into the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia was funded by Democrats and the Clinton campaign.In pursuing the warrant, the Justice Department referred to Steele as “reliable” from previous dealings with him. Though officials told the court that they suspected the research was aimed at discrediting the Trump campaign, they did not reveal that the work had been paid for by Democrats, according to documents released last year.Steele’s research was compiled into a dossier that was provided to the FBI after it had already opened its investigation.The report also examined the interactions that senior Justice Department lawyer Bruce Ohr had with Steele, whom he had met years earlier through a shared professional interest in countering Russian organized crime. Ohr passed along to the FBI information that he had received from Steele but did not alert his Justice Department bosses to those conversations.Ohr has since been a regular target of Trump’s ire, in part because his wife worked as a contractor for Fusion GPS, the political research firm that hired Steele for the investigation.This is the latest in a series of reports that Horowitz, a former federal prosecutor and an Obama appointee to the watchdog role, has released on FBI actions in politically charged investigations.Last year, he criticized Comey for a news conference announcing the conclusion of the Clinton email investigation, and for then alerting Congress months later that the probe had been effectively reopened. In that report, too, Horowitz did not find that Comey’s actions had been guided by partisan bias.
 
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Nadler: ‘Rock Solid Case’ for Trump’s Impeachment

The leader of the House of Representatives committee weighing articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump contended Sunday that there is a “rock solid case” against the U.S. leader.Congressman Jerrold Nadler declared on CNN that Trump would be found guilty in “three minutes flat” if he were facing charges before a criminal court jury that he abused his office by soliciting Ukraine to investigate one of his chief 2020 Democratic presidential challengers, former Vice President Joe Biden.Nadler said if Trump “had any exculpatory evidence,” he would be making it known rather than rejecting participation, as the White House has, before the Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee’s consideration of impeachment allegations against the Republican president.Nadler said the Judiciary panel, after a hearing Monday on evidence already collected by the House Intelligence Committee on Trump and his aides’ interactions with Ukraine, could possibly vote on the articles of impeachment by the end of the week. The full House then could be on track to impeach Trump before it recesses for its annual Christmas holiday break in two weeks, setting the stage for a January trial in the Republican-majority Senate, although Trump’s conviction and removal from office remains unlikely.But Nadler declined to speculate on how many articles of impeachment will be brought against Trump and their content.There is a division among the majority House Democrats advancing the impeachment case against Trump on whether to limit the allegations to abuse of power (asking a foreign government for help in a U.S. election) and obstruction of Congress (for refusing to turn over key documents related to Ukraine and to allow key Trump aides to testify) or to also include allegations that Trump sought to obstruct special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks in Kyiv, Dec. 4, 2019.Some more moderate Democratic lawmakers who won seats in the current session of Congress by capturing districts that Trump won in the 2016 presidential election have sought to limit the articles of impeachment to Ukraine, centered on his July 25 telephone request to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy “to do us a favor,” to investigate Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian natural gas company and whether Ukraine meddled in the 2016 presidential election Trump won, not Russia, as the U.S. intelligence community concluded.More vocal Trump opponents among House Democrats say they want to include allegations related to Trump’s actions during the Mueller investigation.House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told the CBS “Face the Nation” show on Sunday that he thinks it is best to focus the impeachment charges on Ukraine.”It’s always been my strategy … to charge those that there is the strongest and most overwhelming evidence and not try to charge everything, even if you could charge other things,” Schiff said.Trump’s request to Zelenskiy for the Biden investigations came at a time he was temporarily withholding $391 million in military assistance from Kyiv it wanted to help fight pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country, although Trump in September released the aid without Zelenskiy announcing any investigations.Twenty years ago, when a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, was facing impeachment for lying about an affair he had with a White House intern, Nadler said the impeachment case against Clinton would lack legitimacy if it was almost entirely supported by Republicans and few Democrats, as was the case.No current Republicans have supported the impeachment effort against Trump. Asked whether he was comfortable with such a Democrats’-only impeachment vote against Trump, Nadler said of Republicans, “It’s up to them to decide whether they want to be patriots or partisans.”Trump has almost daily vented his wrath against the impeachment effort, even as his legal team has rejected Nadler’s invitation for it to participate in the Judiciary Committee’s hearings this week.Trump said Sunday on Twitter, “Less than 48 hours before start of the Impeachment Hearing Hoax, on Monday, the No Due Process, Do Nothing Democrats are, believe it or not, changing the Impeachment Guidelines because the facts are not on their side. When you can’t win the game, change the rules!” It was not immediately clear what rules Trump was referring to.Less than 48 hours before start of the Impeachment Hearing Hoax, on Monday, the No Due Process, Do Nothing Democrats are, believe it or not, changing the Impeachment Guidelines because the facts are not on their side. When you can’t win the game, change the rules!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2019One of Trump’s most vocal Republican supporters in the House, Congressman Mark Meadows, noted in another CNN interview that Trump’s request to Zelenskiy for the Biden investigations made no mention of a reciprocal deal for the military assistance Kyiv wanted.”It’s appropriate to make sure nothing was done wrong in Ukraine,” Meadows said of Trump’s call for investigating Biden and his son. He said that “to give [Biden] a free pass, that’s just not appropriate.”Trump could be the third U.S. president to be impeached, after Andrew Johnson in the mid-19th century and Clinton two decades ago, although both were acquitted in Senate trials and remained in office. Former President Richard M. Nixon resigned in 1974 in the face of certain impeachment in the Watergate political corruption scandal and cover-up.      
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In Florida, Trump Says He’s Israel’s Best Pal in White House

President Donald Trump said Saturday that Israel has never had a better friend in the White House than him because, unlike his predecessors, “I kept my promises.”
Trump energized an audience that numbered in the hundreds at the Israeli American Council National Summit in Florida by recounting his record on issues of importance to Jews, including an extensive riff on his promise to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and relocate the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv.
Trump said his predecessors only paid lip service to the issue.
“They never had any intention of doing it, in my opinion,” Trump said. “But unlike other presidents, I kept my promises.”Trump also highlighted his decision to reverse more than a half-century of U.S. policy in the Middle East by recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the strategic highlands on the border with Syria.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war but its sovereignty over the territory had not been recognized by the international community.
In his speech, the president also claimed there are some Jewish people in America who don’t love Israel enough.
“We have to get the people of our country, of this country, to love Israel more, I have to tell you that. We have to do it. We have to get them to love Israel more,” Trump said, to some applause. “Because you have Jewish people that are great people – they don’t love Israel enough.”
Aaron Keyak, the former head of the National Jewish Democratic Council, denounced Trump’s remarks as anti-Semitic.
“Trump’s insistence on using anti-Semitic tropes when addressing Jewish audiences is dangerous and should concern every member of the Jewish community – even Jewish Republicans,” Keyak said.
Trump has been accused of trafficking in anti-Semitic stereotypes before, including in August, when he said American Jews who vote for Democrats show “either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” A number of Jewish groups noted at the time that accusations of disloyalty have long been made against Jews.
The Israeli American Council is financially backed by one of Trump’s top supporters, the husband-and-wife duo of Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, a Las Vegas casino magnate.
Both Adelsons appeared on stage to introduce Trump, with Miriam Adelson asserting that Trump “has already gone down in the annals of Jewish history, and that is before he’s even completed his first term in office.”The Adelsons donated $30 million to Trump’s campaign in the final months of the 2016 race. They followed up by donating $100 million to the Republican Party for the 2018 congressional elections.
Trump’s entourage at the event included Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, along with Republican Reps. Jim Jordan and Michael Waltz, whom he described as “two warriors” defending him against “oppression” in the impeachment inquiry.
Trump criticized Israel’s sworn enemy, Iran, saying he withdrew the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal with other world powers because Tehran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.
But Trump voiced support for Iranian citizens who have been protesting a decision by their government to withdraw fuel subsidies, which sent prices skyrocketing.
Trump said he believes thousands of Iranians have been killed in the protests and that thousands more have been arrested.
“America will always stand with the Iranian people in their righteous struggle for freedom,” he said.
The president introduced his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, who has played a leading role in helping the administration craft its Mideast peace plan.
A self-described deal-maker, Trump said he had long been told that achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians would be the hardest deal of all.
But “if Jared Kushner can’t do it, it can’t be done,” Trump said.
The White House has said its Mideast peace plan is complete and had promised to release it after Israeli elections in September. The long-delayed plan remains under wraps, and Israel appears headed for its third round of elections this year.
The plan also is facing rejection by Palestinian officials, who object to the pro-Israel leanings of the Trump administration.
During his speech, Trump also name-dropped Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., criticizing her for supporting the “BDS” movement against Israel: boycott, divest and sanction. In August, at Trump’s urging, Israel denied Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., entry to the country over their support for the BDS movement. Omar and Tlaib are the first two Muslim women elected to Congress and outspoken critics of Israel over its treatment of Palestinians.
“My administration strongly opposes this despicable rhetoric,” Trump said. “As long as I am your president, it makes no difference. It’s not happening.”
Before addressing the Israeli American Council summit, Trump spoke at the Florida Republican Party’s Statesman’s Dinner in nearby Aventura. The state GOP closed the event to media coverage.
  
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Biden Calls Sanders’ Pitch to Leverage Israel Aid ‘Bizarre’

OELWEIN, IOWA – Joe Biden said Saturday that it is “bizarre” for Bernie Sanders to propose withholding U.S. military aid from Israel if the government there doesn’t moderate its treatment of Palestinians.
The remarks highlight a nuanced but significant distinction between the Democratic presidential contenders. Biden and Sanders support a “two-state solution” for Israel and the Palestinians, and both men have criticized political leaders on each side of the long-standing conflict. But Biden’s take, offered during a question-and-answer session with Iowa voters, hewed a more traditional U.S. establishment line by reaffirming a financial commitment to Israel regardless of its actions toward Palestinians.
The former vice president, while casting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “counterproductive” and “extreme right” leader and accused Palestinian leaders of fomenting'' the conflict andbaiting everyone who is Jewish,” while suggesting that some on the U.S. political left give the Palestinian Authority a pass'' when criticizing Israeli leadership.
"In terms of Bernie and others who talk about dealing with Zionism, I strongly support Israel as an independent Jewish state,'' Biden said in rural northeastern Iowa. He added,The idea that I’d withdraw military aid, as others have suggested, from Israel, is bizarre. I would not do that. It’s like saying to France, Because you don't agree with us, we're going to kick you out of NATO.''
Sanders, a Vermont senator, elevated the matter in late October when he said the U.S. should ``leverage'' its billions of dollars in annual Israeli aid. ``My solution is to say to Israel:You get $3.8 billion every year. If you want military aid, you’re going to have to fundamentally change your relationship to the people of Gaza.’ In fact, I think it is fair to say that some of that should go right now into humanitarian aid.”
Netanyahu said Thursday, despite warnings from the International Criminal Court, that he has the full right'' to annex the Jordan Valley altogether if it chooses, and he said he discussed annexation this week in a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The Palestinians seek all the West Bank, captured by Israel in 1967, as the heartland of their hoped-for state. The Jordan Valley comprises about a quarter of the West Bank and is one of the few open areas that could be redeveloped by the Palestinians. Israel counters that the area is vital to its security. President Donald Trump's administration aligns closely with Netanyahu, already recognizing Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights. Democrats, especially in the party's progressive flank, have become increasingly critical of Netanyahu and the long-standing U.S. alliance with the Jerusalem government.
Biden on Saturday called ita serious mistake, a fundamental mistake for the occupation of the West Bank now to become annexed property,” and he chided Netanyahu for a lurch to the extreme right'' as a means "to keep control.''
But Biden had perhaps even harsher words for the Palestinian Authority, seemingly blaming them for a failure to reach new peace accordsand get 98% of what they wanted” when President Barack Obama was in office with Biden as his top lieutenant.
“They continued to insist on baiting everyone who is Jewish, saying they would not sign a deal with a Jewish state, will not recognize one even if we have an independent nation,” Biden said.
Biden said that, as president, he’d continue to push Israel to accept a Palestinian state, but added that he’s “tired of everybody giving the Palestinian Authority a pass … as if they’re not continuing to foment all of this.” 
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Bloomberg: His News Reporters Need to Accept Restrictions

Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg says employees at his news organization need to accept restrictions with their paycheck, including the ban on investigating their boss.Bloomberg, billionaire founder of Bloomberg News, was asked in a CBS News interview about rules put in place when he announced his candidacy: The organization’s reporters are not allowed to probe him and his finances, or any of his Democratic rivals.Bloomberg News says the restriction does not apply to President Donald Trump as the government’s leader. That prompted Trump’s campaign to say it would not allow Bloomberg reporters to cover its events.“We just have to learn to live with some things,” Bloomberg told CBS. His reporters “get a paycheck. But with your paycheck comes some restrictions and responsibilities.”He said that people have said to him, “‘how can you investigate yourself?’ And I said, Ï don’t think you can.”’ He noted that Bloomberg News subscribers also get access to campaign news from The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.With his comments, the former New York mayor “puts the journalists who work for him in an extremely uncomfortable, tenuous position,” said Lynne Adrine, a Washington-based journalism professor for Syracuse University. As the owner of Bloomberg News, which started in 1990, Bloomberg has the right to do as he wants, she said.“Yet, I don’t think that’s the take-away journalism consumers need at this time,” Adrine said.Bloomberg reporter Mark Niquette is covering Bloomberg’s campaign. On Friday, he posted a story about remarks Bloomberg made in the CBS interview, including about the news organization’s policy.Earlier this week, he wrote about Bloomberg’s campaign stop in Mississippi, where the candidate talked about his apology for New York City’s stop-and-frisk policing tactics when he was mayor.The Bloomberg company had no comment Friday on what the candidate said.Kathleen Culver, a professor of journalism ethics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, said she’s concerned about the extent to which Bloomberg reporters feel intimidated about their boss’ remarks.Culver said she understands Bloomberg’s reluctance to step fully away from the company he created, but he might want to look at ways to completely disassociate himself with Bloomberg News at this time.
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Doctor’s Report Says Elizabeth Warren ‘In Excellent Health’

Elizabeth Warren “is in excellent health,” according to a doctor’s report released by the Massachusetts senator on Friday, becoming the first in a trio of top Democratic presidential candidates over 70 to make their medical records public.
                   
Warren’s last physical was in January and was conducted by Dr. Beverly Woo, who said she has served as the candidate’s primary care physician since 1999. Woo, from Boston, wrote in a one-page letter dated this week that Warren’s “only medical condition” is an underactive thyroid gland, which is easily treated by medication, the only kind she takes.
                   
The senator , 70, is up to date on some important protective health steps: She had her annual flu shot in October, and a routine mammogram in January found no sign of trouble. At 5 feet, 8 inches, she weighs 129 pounds, exercises regularly and follows a healthy diet, the doctor wrote. She has never smoked, misused drugs or had a problem with alcohol.
                   
Woo said Warren’s January checkup found no red flags. In fact, her blood pressure was lower than is usual for someone her age 115 over 57, and her heart rate was 70, levels that are seen in people who exercise regularly.
                   
“If I were seeing a 70-year-old woman in my clinic with these vital signs, physical exam and lab values, I would tell her that she is quite healthy for her age,” said Dr. Brian Antono, a family medicine specialist at Georgetown University School of Medicine who reviewed the health information released by Warren’s campaign.
                   
Warren underwent a long list of blood tests at that physical, and none signaled any underlying diseases. Importantly, they indicate she’s at low risk of heart disease and stroke. Her blood sugar was normal. Her cholesterol was in the healthy zone, with a total cholesterol of 193 and level of the so-called bad'' subtype, or LDL, at 88. Her level of HDL, or “good” cholesterol, was an unusually high 95. In contrast to the other cholesterol types where a lower number is better, an HDL higher than 60 is considered protective, and Antono said the thyroid condition Warren has sometimes bumps up that number.
                   
“Her normal cholesterol levels combined with the rest of her `puzzle pieces' - normal blood pressure, normal blood sugar and non-smoker status - are all positive contributors to an overall reassuring heart health,” Antono said.
                   
The senator frequently jogs onto stage at her rallies and says she keeps healthy by walking frequently while talking on the phone or listening to audiobooks, with the goal of doing 7 miles (11 kilometers) daily. “But I don't always hit it,” she says.
                   
Warren is among her party's primary front-runners along with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 78, and former Vice President Joe Biden, 77. Also in the top tier is Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, who is 37.
                   
Sanders had a heart attack while campaigning in Las Vegas on Oct. 1 and has brushed off complaints his campaign wasn't fully forthcoming about the extent of his health scare until he was subsequently released from the hospital. But he has promised to release full medical records by the end of the year. Biden says he'll make his health records public before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3.
                   
A Pew Research Center poll from May found that about half of Democrats said it would be best for a president to be in their 50s. Another quarter said it would be best for a president to be in their 40s, and 16% preferred a president in their 60s. Just 3% said someone in their 70s would be best, and 6% said the same of a president in their 30s.
                   
Donald Trump, now 73, became the oldest newly inaugurated first-term president in January 2017. He has been criticized for releasing only cursory details on his health while running for the White House.
                   
His doctor, Harold Bornstein, wrote in December 2015 that Trump would “unequivocally” be the healthiest president in history and deemed the celebrity businessman's condition “astonishingly excellent.'” Bornstein later said he wrote the note in five minutes while a limo sent by the candidate waited outside his office.
                   
Last month, on a Saturday, Trump visited Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a stop that wasn't listed on the president's schedule and came just nine months after his last physical. Trump later said he went through avery routine physical” and blamed the media for sparking unfounded fears that the visit meant he was ill.
                   
Figuring out how fit the septuagenarians or any candidates really are can be tricky. No law requires them to disclose their medical records, though doctor’s notes and the records from a most-recent physical, like Warren released, do provide snippets and important clues.
                   
Biden had a brush with death in 1988, requiring surgery to repair two brain aneurysms, weak bulges in arteries, one of them leaking. Medical records released in 2008 during Biden’s vice presidential campaign showed he’d made a full recovery, with no trouble since.
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Democrats Say Trump Impeachment Charges Must Come Swiftly

House Democrats moved aggressively to draw up formal articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Thursday, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying he “leaves us no choice” but to act swiftly because he’s likely to corrupt the system again unless removed before next year’s election.
A strictly partisan effort at this point, derided immediately by Trump and other leading Republicans as a sham and a hoax, it is a politically risky undertaking. Democrats say it is their duty, in the aftermath of the Ukraine probe, while Republicans say it will drive Pelosi’s majority from office.
Congress must act, Pelosi said. “The democracy is what is at stake.”
“The president’s actions have seriously violated the Constitution,” she said in a somber address at the Capitol. “He is trying to corrupt, once again, the election for his own benefit. The president has engaged in abuse of power, undermining our national security and jeopardizing the integrity of our elections.”
Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong. He tweeted that the Democrats “have gone crazy.”
At the core of the impeachment probe is a July phone call with the president of Ukraine, in which Trump pressed the leader to investigate Democrats, including political rival Joe Biden. At the same time the White House was withholding military aid from Ukraine, an ally bordering an aggressive Russia.
Drafting articles of impeachment is a milestone moment, only the fourth time in U.S. history Congress has tried to remove a president, and it intensifies the rigid and polarizing partisanship of the Trump era that is consuming Washington and dividing the nation.Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meets with reporters at her weekly news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 5, 2019.The speaker delivered her historic announcement in solemn tones at the Capitol, drawing on the Constitution and the Founding Fathers in forcefully claiming Congress’ oversight of the president in the nation’s system of checks and balances. Democrats are already beginning to prepare the formal charges, pushing toward House votes, possibly before Christmas.
“Sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders and a heart full of love for America, today I am asking our chairmen to proceed with articles of impeachment,” Pelosi said.
Seemingly eager to fight, Trump tweeted that if Democrats “are going to impeach me, do it now, fast.” Though he has fought the House investigation, trying to bar current and former officials from testifying, he said he now wants to move on to a “fair trial” in the Senate.
Approval of articles of impeachment is considered likely in the Democratic-majority House. Conviction in a following trial in the Republican-dominated Senate seems very unlikely.
Once reluctant to pursue impeachment, warning it was too divisive for the country and needed to be bipartisan, Pelosi is now leading Congress into politically uncertain terrain for all sides just ahead of the election year.
Republican are standing lockstep with Trump, unswayed by arguments that his actions amount to wrongdoing, let alone impeachable offenses. That is leaving Democrats to go it alone in a campaign to consider removing the 45th president from office.
At a town hall late Thursday on CNN, Pelosi said she would have no regrets if impeachment ended up helping Trump’s reelection effort. “This isn’t about politics at all,” she said. “It’s about honoring our oath of office” – to defend the Constitution.
Pelosi has  emphasized the Russia connection, from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into 2016 election interference to the president’s phone call this summer with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that set off alarms in Washington.Russia and President Vladimir Putin benefited most from Trump’s actions toward Ukraine, she said.
“All roads lead to Putin. Understand that,” she declared at a morning news conference at the Capitol. “That was the a-ha moment.”
She spoke solemnly and calmly, but that changed when she was asked as she was leaving if she hates Trump.
Pelosi stiffened, returned to the podium and responded sharply that the president’s views and politics are for the voters to judge at elections but impeachment “is about the Constitution.” She said that as a Catholic, she does not hate the president but rather is praying for him daily.
Trump quickly tweeted back that he didn’t believe her.
Trump’s allies argue that voters, not lawmakers, should decide the president’s future. But Democrats say the nation cannot wait for the 2020 election, alleging Trump’s past efforts to have foreign countries intervene in the presidential campaign are forcing them to act to prevent him from doing it again. Pelosi said the still-anonymous whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s Ukraine call changed the dynamic, creating the urgency to act.
The number of articles and the allegations they will include will be both a legal and political exercise for the House committee chairmen, who will be meeting privately. They must balance electoral dynamics while striving to hit the Constitution’s bar of “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Pulling from the House’s 300-page investigation of the Ukraine matter, Democrats are focusing on at least three areas – abuse of power, bribery and obstruction – that could result in two to five articles, they say.
They argue that Trump abused the power of his office by putting personal political gain over national security interests; engaging in bribery by holding out $400 million in military aid that  Congress had approved for Ukraine; and then obstructing Congress by stonewalling the investigation.Some liberal Democrats want to reach further into Trump’s actions, particularly regarding the findings from special counsel Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. That could produce an additional article of obstruction not only of Congress, but also of justice.
But more centrist and moderate Democrats, those lawmakers who are most at risk of political fallout from the impeachment proceedings, prefer to stick with the Ukraine matter as a simpler narrative that Americans can more easily understand.
The GOP Leader of the House, Kevin McCarthy, said Pelosi is more concerned about tearing the president down than building the country up. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., criticized Democrats for focusing on impeachment over other issues, though many House-passed bills are waiting for action in his chamber. “It’s all impeachment, all the time,” he said.
At the White House, press secretary Stephanie Grisham tweeted that Pelosi and the Democrats “should be ashamed.”House members are preparing to vote on the articles of impeachment in the Judiciary Committee, possibly as soon as next week. The committee set a Monday hearing to receive the Intelligence Committee’s report outlining the findings against the president.
The House is expecting a full vote by Christmas. That would send the issue to the Senate for a trial in the new year.      
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‘Dark Money’ Ties Raise Questions for GOP Sen. Ernst of Iowa

An outside group founded by top political aides to Sen. Joni Ernst has worked closely with the Iowa Republican to raise money and boost her reelection prospects, a degree of overlap that potentially violates the law, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.Iowa Values, a political nonprofit that is supposed to be run independently, was co-founded in 2017 by Ernst’s longtime consultant, Jon Kohan. It shares a fundraiser, Claire Holloway Avella, with the Ernst campaign. And a condo owned by a former aide — who was recently hired to lead the group — was used as Iowa Values’ address at a time when he worked for her.Political nonprofits are often referred to as “dark money” groups because they can raise unlimited sums and are not required to reveal their donors. But they must take steps to keep their activities separate from the candidates they support. Additionally, while such tax-exempt groups can do political work, they can’t make it their primary purpose.The documents reviewed by the AP, including emails and a strategy memo, not only make clear that the group’s aim is securing an Ernst win in 2020, but they also show Ernst and her campaign worked in close concert with Iowa Values.Ernst is hardly the first politician to push campaign finance law boundaries. But the revelation could complicate her efforts to fend off a Democratic challenger in a closely watched race next year.“The truth is, our campaign is completely separate and independent from any outside organization,” Ernst senior adviser Brook Ramlet said in a statement. “Our campaign always has and always will act in full compliance with and in the spirit of the law. For the AP to suggest otherwise, is the definition of fake news.”Campaign finance law states that candidates and their “agents” can’t solicit, direct or spend contributions that exceed federal limits, even if the donations are made to an outside group. Those limits currently prevent donors from giving more than $2,800 to a candidate and $5,000 to a political action committee per election.In July, Holloway Avella requested “an investment of $50,000” from a donor after Ernst made an introduction. She made clear in an email, which was obtained by the AP, how much a contribution of that size could help.“As a follow up to our introduction by Senator Ernst, I am reaching out to you on behalf of Iowa Values,” she wrote.“As you may have seen, an outside group on the left … recently launched a six-figure ad buy in media markets across the state attacking Senator Ernst on her vote to repeal Obamacare,” she continued. “The purpose of our group, Iowa Values, is to push back against these type of negative attacks.”Separately, a strategy memo states the group will use door-knocking, as well as TV, radio and digital advertising, to build a “firewall” that could be the difference “between winning and losing in 2020 for Senator Ernst.” The group is targeting about 120,000 Iowans who “lean Republican on the issues” but abandon the party at times over “the tone of the GOP.”Taken together, some legal experts say the documents offer proof that the effort violates the spirit of campaign finance and tax law, if not the letter of it.“It seems like pretty strong evidence” that the $50,000 request was for an “illegal donation” while it’s “clear that the goal of Iowa Values is to reelect Joni Ernst, which may violate its tax-exempt status,” said Brendan Fischer, an attorney with the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington.He also said the documents pulled back the curtain on how dark money works.“This is a striking example of how secret campaign money operates,” Fischer said. “The big donors that bankroll a dark money group like Iowa Values remain hidden from the public, but the politician that benefits knows where the money is coming from.”Still, it’s far from certain that the Federal Election Commission, or the IRS, will find that they broke the law.The FEC often gridlocks along partisan lines. And after a recent resignation, the panel doesn’t have enough members to legally meet for conducting business. Similarly, the IRS has shown little appetite for cracking down on dark money groups that push the limits.“There’s a real disconnect between the principles behind the law and how they are enforced,” said Larry Noble, a former general counsel to the FEC who served under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Noble said he would need more details before assessing whether Ernst’s campaign broke the law. But, he added: “The bottom line is that this is really questionable.”Dan Petalas, a former FEC attorney, said that the “law is undecided” but that his personal view is the fundraising was permissible because Holloway Avella said she was requesting the $50,000 on behalf of Iowa Values, not the campaign.In a statement, Iowa Values executive director Derek Flowers said the organization has “systems and controls in place to make certain that it complies with all laws” and is “careful to follow all requirements that limit how much of its activities can be focused on supporting candidates.”What’s undeniable is the close connection between Ernst and the group.Kohan, a former Ernst deputy chief of staff who is now a general consultant to her campaign, was paid $120,000 to serve as executive director of Iowa Values for two years, according to the group’s tax filings. He left the group earlier this year. Jamestown Associates, where he is a named partner, also collected an additional $101,000 from Ernst’s campaign in the years he served as executive director.Holloway Avella raised about $520,000 for Iowa Values in 2017 and 2018, tax records show. The group lists her Arlington, Virginia, office as one of its business addresses and paid her about $60,000. Ernst paid her an additional $363,000 those years, record show.The group listed a Waukee, Iowa, condo owned by Flowers as another business address in 2017, records show. Flowers was campaign manager during Ernst’s 2014 Senate primary. A company called Midland Strategies, which has been paid $145,000 by Ernst since 2013, also listed Flowers’ condo as a business address. Flowers succeeded Kohan as the group’s executive director this year.After Ernst launched her reelection campaign, Holloway Avella was deeply involved with both operations.Holloway Avella’s website lets prospective donors request to host a fundraiser for the senator. And invitations for several recent Ernst events list her as an organizer, including two held in September at Bistro Bis, a French eatery a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol.Around the same time, Holloway Avella was seeking donations for Iowa Values from prominent Ernst supporters, like dieting entrepreneur Jenny Craig and San Francisco philanthropist Diane “Dede” Wilsey. Craig previously gave $30,000 to Ernst; Wilsey donated $46,000.A legal compliance letter Holloway Avella sent to donors underscored the delicate terrain.Iowa Values’ mission “is to educate the public about common-sense solutions to various public policy issues of national importance,” it stated. “It was not formed by any federal candidates or agents of candidates or at the direction or request of any candidates or an agent of a candidate.”
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Poll: Support for Warren Drops to Lowest Since August in White House Race

Support for U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren dropped nationally to its lowest level in four months, and nearly one in three potential Democratic primary voters say they do not know which candidate to pick with the first nominating contests less than two months away, according to a Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a town hall meeting, during his “No Malarkey!” campaign bus tour at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, Dec. 4, 2019.Support dropped by 2 percentage points for former Vice President Joe Biden to 19%. It fell by 3 points for U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont to 14%, and it declined by 1 point to 6% for Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana.Bloomberg, a billionaire media mogul, entered the race as the fifth-most popular candidate with 4% support.Support for Warren dropped by 2 points to 9% in the national poll, the worst showing for the U.S. senator from Massachusetts in the Reuters/Ipsos poll since August.To be sure, Warren is still among the most popular candidates in Iowa, which will be holding its nominating contest on Feb. 3, and she is also among the top candidates in other early primary states. But nationally, Warren has slipped as her rivals for the nomination criticized her proposal for extending government-paid healthcare to all Americans as too costly.Meantime, 31% of Democrats and independents said they “don’t know” which candidate to support. That is the highest level of indecision measured in Reuters/Ipsos poll dating back to mid-April.The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 719 adults who identify as Democrats, independents and politically unaffiliated. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 4 percentage points.  
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Joe Biden Wins Kerry Endorsement, Touts World Experience

John Kerry, the former secretary of state and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, is endorsing Joe Biden for president, buoying the former vice president’s argument that his international experience should be a deciding factor for voters in 2020.The Biden campaign rolled out Kerry’s endorsement as it continues to hammer President Donald Trump as a dangerous and erratic commander in chief and head of state. The campaign hammered the argument Wednesday with an online ad featuring video of other world leaders mocking Trump at a Buckingham Palace reception held alongside a NATO summit.“I’ve never before seen the world more in need of someone who on day one can begin the incredibly hard work of putting back together the world Donald Trump has smashed apart,” Kerry said in a statement.That echoes applause lines Biden uses often as he campaigns.“The next president will inherit a world in disarray,” Biden said Thursday, touting his decades of foreign policy experience as a six-term Delaware senator and two-term vice president.
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One US Senator Blocks Resolution Recognizing Armenian Genocide

Republican Senator Kevin Cramer prevented the U.S. Senate from voting Thursday on a resolution that would recognize as a genocide the mass killings of Armenians a century ago, saying it was not an appropriate time to pass legislation that would anger Turkey. 
 
The Democrat-led House of Representatives passed the resolution  405-11 in late October. But there has not been a vote in the Senate, where President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans hold a majority of seats. 
 
Congressional aides said the White House did not want the legislation to move ahead while it was negotiating with Ankara on sensitive issues such as Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria and the NATO ally’s purchase of an S-400 missile defense system from Russia, which could provoke U.S. sanctions. 
 
The resolution asserts that it is U.S. policy to commemorate as genocide the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. The Ottoman Empire was centered in present-day Turkey. 
 
Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War I, but it contests the figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute a genocide. Threat to sovereigntyAnkara views foreign involvement in the issue as a threat to its sovereignty. It immediately denounced the House vote. 
 
Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas tried to force a Senate vote on the resolution Thursday. 
 
Cramer, of North Dakota, blocked it, saying the time was not right, just after Trump held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a NATO summit in London. 
 
“I don’t think there’s a single member of the Senate who doesn’t have serious concerns about Turkey’s behavior,” Cramer said, adding, “At the right time, we may pass it.” 
 
Menendez disagreed, noting Erdogan recently visited Washington and nothing had changed. He promised to come to the Senate chamber once a week to raise the issue. 
 
For decades, measures recognizing the Armenian genocide have stalled in Congress, stymied by concerns about relations with Turkey and intense lobbying by the Ankara government. 
 
The House vote marked the first time in 35 years such legislation was considered in the full chamber, underscoring widespread frustration in Congress with the Turkish government, from members of both U.S. political parties. 
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US House Speaker Denies Hating Trump, Declares ‘Don’t Mess With Me’

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday said she does not hate President Donald Trump, but called him a coward and cruel on certain policies and asserted “don’t mess with me” during a testy news conference as she moved ahead with an impeachment process that could remove him from office.At the close of the news conference, an indignant Pelosi, the top Democrat in the U.S. Congress, took strong exception to a reporter’s question as to whether she hated Trump, a Republican. The reporter explained he was asking because some Republicans have said a dislike of Trump is driving impeachment.
“I don’t hate anybody,” Pelosi said. “I was raised in a Catholic house. We don’t hate anybody. Not anybody in the world. So don’t you accuse me,” she said, pointing at the reporter.
Earlier on Thursday, Pelosi said she directed the House Judiciary Committee to draft articles of impeachment – formal
charges – against Trump over his effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate a political rival, a historic step that sets up a
fight over whether to oust him from office.
Responding to the question about hating Trump, Pelosi criticized the president on policy, calling him a “coward” on
failing to take steps against gun violence, “cruel” for seeking to remove protections for “Dreamers” immigrants and “in denial” about climate change. But Pelosi said those were issues to be settled in an election, while the impeachment inquiry was aimed at preventing abuses of presidential power as outlined in the U.S. Constitution.
“This is about the Constitution of the United States and the facts that led to the president’s violation of his oath of
office,” she said, tapping the podium for emphasis. She also said that she continued to pray for the president.
“As a Catholic, I resent your using the word hate in a sentence that addresses me. I don’t hate anyone. I was raised in
a way that is … a heart full of love, and always pray for the president,” Pelosi added. “So don’t mess with me,” she said, “when it comes to words like that.”
Trump responded to Pelosi’s comments with a Twitter post, saying, “Nancy Pelosi just had a nervous fit,” adding that she hated his accomplishments under his administration.
“She hates that we will soon have 182 great new judges and sooo much more. Stock Market and employment records,” Trump added.
“She says she ‘prays for the President.’ I don’t believe her, not even close. Help the homeless in your district Nancy,”
Trump wrote, adding “USMCA?” – a reference to a pending trade agreement with the United States and Canada that Pelosi has not brought to the House floor for a vote.Nancy Pelosi just had a nervous fit. She hates that we will soon have 182 great new judges and sooo much more. Stock Market and employment records. She says she “prays for the President.” I don’t believe her, not even close. Help the homeless in your district Nancy. USMCA?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 5, 2019 
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Trump Asks Supreme Court to Void Financial Records Subpoena

President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to void a subpoena from the House of Representatives that seeks the president’s financial records from his accounting firm.
       
The justices already have shielded the documents from being turned over while they consider whether to hear Trump’s case and his separate appeal of a court order that requires the same accounting firm, Mazars USA, to give his tax returns to the Manhattan District Attorney. The court could say as early as mid-December whether it will hear and decide the cases by the end of June.
       
Yet another case involving House subpoenas for Trump’s records from New York banks also is headed for the Supreme Court, and the justices are likely to prevent the handover of any documents for the time being.
       
The two court cases involving House subpoenas are distinct from the ongoing impeachment inquiry. 
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Klobuchar Returns to Iowa With Plan For a Changing Economy

Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar on Thursday rolled out a plan to help Americans succeed in a changing economy, as she returns to Iowa looking to quickly build support with weeks to go before the first votes are cast for the party’s 2020 nomination.
                   
The Minnesota senator’s plan, which she will discuss during a three-day swing that include forums with the Teamsters and the Iowa Farmers Union, includes tax credits to help retrain workers who lose their jobs to automation and support for workers and communities that have relied on the fossil fuel industry. It also calls for more investment in cybersecurity, encouraging small manufacturers to innovate and several measures to help the growing number of “gig”, workers, such as Uber drivers, including by allowing them to form unions and by making it easier to file their taxes.
                   
Klobuchar is trying to move closer to the top tier of candidates after seeing her support slowly grow throughout the fall, thanks to two strong debate performances that also helped the campaign bring in its highest level of donations since she joined the race in February. She has used the money to increase her advertising and hire more staff in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states to vote, and to open offices in the next two states, Nevada and South Carolina.
                   
She has touted her slow-but-steady approach to the race, noting her conservative spending in the early months of the campaign has allowed her to stay in a contest that has had more than two dozen candidates. California Sen. Kamala Harris became the latest to drop out of the race, saying on Tuesday that she didn’t have the funds to continue.
                   
But Klobuchar continues to poll a distant fifth in Iowa, behind Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. And the time is getting short for Klobuchar to execute her strategy before Iowa’s Feb. 3 caucus.
                   
Her campaign announced on Wednesday that it has hired a longtime political operative and former Iowa Democratic Party executive director, Norm Sterzenbach, to serve as its Iowa caucus adviser, calling the move “the latest sign of strength heading into 2020.”
                   
Sterzenbach, who was the state director for former Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign before O’Rourke dropped out, brings expertise in caucus math and geography that Klobuchar’s campaign said will be a big asset heading into the final weeks.
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Key Witness Testimony at Heart Of Democrats’ Drive to Impeach Trump

Senior U.S. diplomats and national security experts have testified before Congress about behind-the-scenes maneuvering by President Donald Trump or aides to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals.With Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives moving toward possibly impeaching Trump, who urged Ukraine’s president in a July 25 phone call to carry out the investigations, here are highlights of testimony already given by key witnesses in televised hearings:The quid pro quoSince the House began a formal impeachment inquiry on Sept. 24, Democrats and Republicans have argued over whether Trump demanded a political favor from Ukraine to benefit him personally in return for the release of $391 million in U.S. security assistance to Kyiv.In testimony on Nov. 13, William Taylor, acting ambassador to Ukraine, said it was his understanding that the delivery of the U.S. aid to Ukraine was linked to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announcing investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who had business dealings in Ukraine. The elder Biden is a leading Democratic candidate for president in 2020.Democrats contend that any linking of aid to the probes Trump sought would fit the definition of the Latin term “quid pro quo,” or a favor for a favor.Under questioning from Republicans, Taylor acknowledged that he did not have firsthand knowledge of Trump explicitly tying the aid to investigating the Bidens.But Gordon Sondland, a Trump donor and ambassador to the European Union, told Congress: “Was there a quid pro quo? As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes.”Sondland was referring to Zelenskiy’s drive to get a White House meeting with Trump.National security concernsNational security officials working in the White House told of their worries over Trump’s phone call with Zelenskiy and the role that Trump’s private lawyer Rudy Giuliani was playing in shaping policy toward Ukraine, an important U.S. ally.Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a top Ukraine expert assigned to the White House, was one of several people who listened to that call. Vindman testified that Trump had made an “improper” demand of Zelenskiy, referring to the American president urging Zelenskiy to initiate investigations.”Frankly, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was probably an element of shock that maybe, in certain regards, my worst fear of how our Ukrainian policy could play out was playing out,” Vindman said.Trump has repeatedly defended what he calls a “perfect” phone conversation, saying his goal was to ensure that any U.S. aid delivered to Ukraine was not falling into corrupt hands.Giuliani’s roleDavid Holmes, a career diplomat serving in the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, testified that his work started to become overshadowed in March by Giuliani, who was pushing Ukraine to carry out probes of the Bidens and a debunked conservative theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. elections.Former White House Russia expert Fiona Hill recalled how then-national security adviser John Bolton called Giuliani, a private citizen with no formal job in the administration, “a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up.”Trump has defended the former New York City mayor and ex-federal prosecutor, saying his crime-fighting abilities were needed to deal with corruption in Ukraine. Giuliani has said that everything he did was to protect his client: Trump.Pence and PompeoSondland told the House Intelligence Committee that several senior administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, knew about efforts to pressure Ukraine to carry out investigations that might help Trump.”Everyone was in the loop” about the efforts to get Ukraine to conduct investigations that Trump sought, Sondland testified.A top Pence aide said in a statement that the vice president “never had a conversation” with Sondland about investigating the Bidens or the conditional release of aid to Ukraine.A State Department spokeswoman said Sondland never told Pompeo that he believed Trump was linking the aid to the requested investigations and “any suggestion to the contrary is flat out false.” 
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Biden Says He Would Consider Harris for Vice Presidential Slot

A day after U.S. Senator Kamala Harris ended her 2020 presidential bid, former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading contender for the Democratic nomination, said on Wednesday he would consider her as a potential running mate.Biden, with whom Harris clashed during a Democratic debate earlier this year, praised her after a campaign event in Ames, Iowa.”Senator Harris has the capacity to be anything she wants to be,” Biden told reporters, according to a video posted by CBS News. “I talked to her yesterday. She’s solid. She can be the president one day herself. She can be the vice president. She can go on to be a Supreme Court justice.”FILE – Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., left, speaks with Astrid Silva, right, at an immigration roundtable at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Las Vegas, June 14, 2019.Biden and Harris had a contentious exchange over forced busing in public schools in the first Democratic debate in Miami in June. It was a standout moment for Harris, who saw her fortunes briefly rise in her party’s contest for the right to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in next year’s election.But any rift appears to have been closed. Biden praised Harris effusively on Tuesday after she dropped out. Harris was close friends with Biden’s son Beau, before he died of brain cancer in 2015.Biden told reporters on Wednesday that “of course I would” consider Harris to be his running mate.Earlier this year, Harris, 55, was viewed as a prime contender in the crowded Democratic presidential field. But organizational and financial woes, along with her struggles to make a compelling case for her candidacy, derailed her campaign.The U.S. senator from California could potentially bring much to a ticket. A former prosecutor, state attorney general and only the second black woman elected to the Senate, she is still considered a rising star within the party.After Harris’ exit, 15 Democrats are left to battle for the party’s nomination. 
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Kamala Harris Exit Points to Hurdles Facing Minority Candidates

Kamala Harris cloaked her presidential campaign in the promise of becoming the first black woman in the White House. That wasn’t enough for donors and supporters, including black voters.The California senator abruptly withdrew from the race on Tuesday after her once-promising campaign failed to coalesce around a message that would resonate with voters. And without clear support from voters, Harris couldn’t raise the money needed to keep going.Responsibility for the collapse of a presidential campaign almost always rests with the candidate. But Harris’ exit also demonstrates the unique challenges facing candidates of color in the 2020 campaign. As Democratic voters of all races almost singularly obsess over who is seen as best positioned to defeat President Donald Trump next year, candidates who aren’t white are largely seen as not fitting the bill.With less than two months before voting begins, those judgments — right or wrong — are becoming fatal as donors watch these cues to decide when to pull back.”It’s the money, it’s the support, it’s the polls… It’s an assumption for black candidates that their campaigns are long shots,” said Quentin James, the founder and executive director of CollectivePAC, an organization aimed at building black political power. “We’re left to wonder why is it that a candidate’s race still impacts how much money they can raise or how much support they get from institutional Democratic donors.”Of course, Barack Obama, the first black president, is one of the most successful Democratic fundraisers, still collecting millions of dollars for the party nearly three years after he left the White House. And plenty of white candidates have had money problems this year.Among the Democratic presidential candidates on stage at the debate held in Miami, June 27, 2019, were former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and N.Y. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.John Hickenlooper, the former governor of Colorado, couldn’t raise enough money for his presidential bid and chose to run for the U.S. Senate instead. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York is a powerhouse fundraiser in her home state but couldn’t translate that success to her presidential campaign and dropped out in August. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock ended his campaign this week, also bemoaning money trouble.But other white candidates have had success that women and candidates of color have said isn’t available to them. Harris, for instance, is the highest-ranking black woman in the U.S. government. But the $35.5 million she raised during her campaign falls far short of the $51.5 million that Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old white mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has collected.Other white candidates with big questions about their electability have also hauled in substantial sums of money. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has raised $61 million — more than any of his rivals — despite debate over whether his policies are too liberal. Concerns over the 78-year-old’s candidacy also grew after he had a heart attack in October. He has since returned to active campaigning.Former Vice President Joe Biden is legendarily gaffe-prone and also faces questions about whether, at 77, he’s too old to manage the demands of the presidency. But he’s raised $37.7 million, topping Harris even though he launched his campaign more than two months after she did.This is not just about Harris. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker has struggled to raise money. In September, he pleaded with supporters to donate $1.7 million in 10 days to keep him in the race. On the debate stage last month, he turned his closing statement into another pitch for cash, raising over $500,000 in nine hours. Although he has met the fundraising threshold for this month’s debate, low polling numbers may keep him off the stage for the first time.Senator Cory Booker works his way through the spin room after the 2020 Democratic U.S. presidential debate in Houston, Sept. 12, 2019.”People assume he’s going to be in this all the way because he’s credentialed and such a serious candidate,” said Jenna Lowenstein, Booker’s deputy campaign manager. “We saw it coming, that this was going to narrow this way, that it was going to be because of money. We’ve really been looking for every opportunity when eyeballs are on us to make direct appeals because every time we do it, it works.”Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro — a Latino whose successful 10-day, $800,000 fundraising push in October brought his campaign back from the brink — may miss the debate stage for the second time in a row.FILE – Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, center, waves to people in the audience as his wife Diane Bemus, left, looks on at the conclusion of ceremonies for the unveiling of his official state portrait, Jan. 4, 2015, at the Statehouse, in Boston.Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who’s black, entered the Democratic presidential race just last month, and he has almost no chance to qualify for the December debate.Neither businessman Andrew Yang, who’s Asian, nor Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who’s American Samoan and Hindu, has yet qualified for this month’s debate, meaning the debate field could be all-white for the first time this cycle.The rapidly shifting dynamics strongly suggest that a Democratic field that began as the most diverse in history is unlikely to yield a person of color as its nominee. That raises structural questions about how modern campaigns function.Small-dollar donors tend to be overwhelmingly white, older and well-off with disposable income — in many ways, the opposite of the Democratic Party’s voter base. For someone like Castro, the lone Latino candidate, he’s speaking to supporters who are not part of the traditional donor class, or in a position to support him financially even if they like his message, said campaign manager Maya Rupert.Democratic presidential candidate former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro speaks during the Iowa Democratic Party’s Liberty and Justice Celebration, Nov. 1, 2019, in Des Moines, Iowa.”Our donors are a part of this campaign in a way that’s probably true of a lot of campaigns, but is also tied to being able to get on the next debate stage and remain viable,” she said. “We very much meant it in October when we said, ‘We don’t see a path forward if we’re not able to raise this amount.’ People have to understand the urgency.”There have also been challenges with bigger donors. Just last week, Booker super PAC Dream United closed after being unable to raise the money it had hoped to use to buttress his campaign.The failed effort points to “a lurking fear that a black candidate is less electable,” said Steve Phillips, who launched the effort in December 2018.”There are many more people of color who are able to contribute more than $2,800,” said Phillips. “We had people who were prepared initially to write seven-figure checks, but who then were reluctant to pull the trigger. It became clear that these fears about electability were larger than we originally anticipated. What you see in the polling numbers among black voters you also see in the giving numbers.””There’s a fear,” he continued, “that this would be wasted support because of their fears about whether the rest of the electorate will back a person of color.” 
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Democratic Presidential Field Shrinks with Departure of Harris, Bullock

The Democratic presidential field continues to shrink. The latest casualty is California Senator Kamala Harris, who withdrew from the 2020 race on Tuesday.  Earlier, Montana Governor Steve Bullock also ended his campaign. Former Vice President Joe Biden leads a cluster of four contenders near the top of national public opinion polls, but there is still plenty of uncertainty about where the Democratic race is headed as the campaign heats up.  VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
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Trump Dismisses Giuliani Calls With White House, OMB

President Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed the significance of repeated contacts between his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and phone numbers linked to the White House and its budget office — contacts that were revealed in the House intelligence committee’s impeachment report.“So somebody said he made a phone call into the White House. What difference does that make?” Trump commented during his meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on the sidelines of a NATO meeting Wednesday in London.“Is that supposed to be a big deal?’“ he added. “I don’t think so.”The 300-page House report is serving as the basis for the House Judiciary Committee’s efforts beginning Wednesday  to formally move forward on drafting articles of impeachment against Trump.FILE – President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani smiles as he arrives at Trump’s campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, Aug. 15, 2019.The report includes phone records obtained from AT&T and Verizon, showing extensive contact between Giuliani and the White House. On April 24, Giuliani had three calls with a number associated with the Office of Management and Budget, and eight calls with a White House number, the documents show.But Trump on Wednesday insisted he knew nothing about the calls. He defended Giuliani as a “very good lawyer,” a “great crime fighter” and “the best mayor in the history of New York City.”“Rudy is a great gentleman and they’re after him only because he’s done such a good job. He was very effective against Mueller and the Mueller hoax,” Trump said, referring to former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.He also encouraged reporters to ask Giuliani about the calls, but claimed they are “no big deal.”Giuliani has long pushed the debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election and worked to push Ukrainian officials to investigate the son of Trump’s potential Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. Hunter Biden was on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
 
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Democratic Presidential Field Shrinks with Departure of Harris and Bullock

The Democratic presidential field continues to shrink. The latest casualty is California Senator Kamala Harris, who withdrew from the 2020 race on Tuesday.  Earlier, Montana Governor Steve Bullock also ended his campaign. Former Vice President Joe Biden leads a cluster of four contenders near the top of national public opinion polls, but there is still plenty of uncertainty about where the Democratic race is headed as the campaign heats up.  VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
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NATO Leaders Present United Front Amid Bitter Differences

NATO leaders are gathering at a golf resort outside of London Wednesday to present a united front amid bitter differences over terrorism, Turkey and increased burden sharing with the United States.The 29 leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, posed for a traditional “family” photograph before retreating for the planned three-hour meeting.  The leaders are expected to release a statement afterwards promising to focus more attention on the challenges posed by Russia and rising superpower China.  On the sidelines of the meeting Wednesday, Trump met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  The White House said “the  two Presidents discussed the importance of Turkey fulfilling its alliance commitments, further strengthening commerce through boosting bilateral trade by $100 billion, regional security challenges, and energy security.”A day earlier, leaders had gathered for informal meetings to mark the 70th anniversary of the alliance’s founding, but the day was overshadowed when tensions between President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron broke out in full public display.Macron vs Trump
In an almost 40-minute session with journalists the two leaders clashed on a number of issues including burden sharing within NATO, terrorism, Turkey’s invasion in northern Syria, and the U.S. withdrawal from an arms treaty with Russia.The two leaders met hours after Trump criticized Macron for his recent statement describing NATO as experiencing a “brain death,” due to diminished U.S. leadership.  Trump called it a “nasty statement.”  President Donald Trump, right, listens as French President Emmanuel Macron speaks at their meeting at Winfield House during the NATO summit, in London, Dec. 3, 2019.As the two sat down for talks, Trump warned NATO member countries who do not meet NATO’s guideline of spending 2% of GDP on collective defense could be dealt with “from a trade standpoint” referring to tariffs on products, including French wine.This prompted Macron, who is currently contributing 1.9% of France’s GDB towards NATO’s defense, to push back.“It’s not just about money,” Macron said. “What about peace in Europe?” he asked Trump.“It’s impossible just to say we have to put money, we have to put soldiers, without being clear on the fundamentals of what NATO should be,” Macron said.Macron said he supports a stronger European component in NATO but points out that after the end of the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) Treaty, European countries are faced with the new threat of Russian missiles.The Trump administration withdrew from the 1987 arms control treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union in August after what it says were Moscow’s repeated violations of the agreement.Trump and Macron argued about how to deal with Islamic State after the October withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, a move Trump made without consulting the alliance. The withdrawal paved the way for Turkey to launch an offensive against the U.S.-allied Kurdish militia in northern Syria and triggered fear among allies of a potential IS resurgence.In response to a question on whether France should do more to take Islamic State fighters captured in the Middle East, Trump asked Macron if he would like “some nice ISIS fighters”.Macron countered that the main problem is IS fighters in the region. Referring to the abrupt U.S. withdrawal from northern Syria, Macron said “you have more and more of these fighters due to the situation today”.Macron is “more on the side of those who wants to actually face up to the crisis and talk about it,” said Hans Kundnani of Chatham House. He is the sort of “disruptive factor” compared to other leaders who may choose to paper over disagreements, Kundnani said.U.S. President Donald Trump, center left, speaks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center right, during a ceremony event at a NATO leaders meeting at The Grove hotel and resort in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, Dec. 4, 2019.NATO chief meeting
Earlier Tuesday, as Trump met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the U.S. president said Macron’s “brain death” comments regarding NATO were “insulting” to other members.In the past Trump has repeatedly criticized the alliance as “obsolete” and expressed his desire to leave it. But the president seemed to have changed his tune, saying that NATO “serves a great purpose”.The French leader warned in a recent interview with The Economist that European countries can no longer rely on the United States to defend NATO allies and need to start taking care of their own security.”As Emmanuel Macron considers complacency as the most pressing danger facing Europe and European security, he is likely to reaffirm his comments and continue to push for all allies to clarify their position in this debate,” said Martin Quencez, Deputy Director of the Paris Office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.“It is also France’s role to show that the president’s disruptive method can foster constructive reforms, and that his harsh criticisms can be followed by a more positive agenda for the transatlantic partnership,” said Quencez.Burden sharingThe dispute between two leaders was precisely the kind of flare-up that summit organizers have desperately tried to avoid, as it overshadowed discussions of substance in the summit, including the idea of a more equitable burden-sharing touted by Trump.Stoltenberg praised Trump on Tuesday, saying his leadership on the issue is “having a real impact.”  He cited a $130 billion increase in defense budgets among the non-U.S. NATO members and said that would go to $400 billion by 2024.Only 9 out of 29 member countries currently meet NATO’s guideline of spending 2% of GDP on collective defense.Source – nato.orgIn addition to budget discussions, NATO’s secretary general said leaders would be talking about counterterrorism efforts, arms control, relations with Russia and the rise of China.Stoltenberg also rejected the suggestion that NATO is “brain-dead” saying that the alliance is active, agile and adapting. “We have just implemented the largest reinforcements of collective defense since the end of the Cold War,” he added.The issue of member countries being delinquent was brought up again in Trump’s meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.When asked about whether he would defend a country that does not meet its defense spending target, Trump appeared non-committal.“I would look at it as a group, but I think it’s very unfair when a country doesn’t pay,” Trump said.The principle of collective defense is enshrined in NATO’s Article 5, that an attack on one member is an attack on all of its members. The alliance has only invoked the article once in its history—in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on the U.S.Cloud of impeachmentThe summit comes as Trump faces an impeachment investigation back home.  He repeated his criticism Tuesday of Democrats who control the House of Representatives, saying it is unfair to hold hearings while he is attending the summit.Trump is not the first U.S. president to attend a NATO summit under the cloud of impeachment. In 1974 Richard Nixon went to NATO’s 25th anniversary meeting in Brussels while the U.S. House of Representatives was concluding its impeachment inquiry. Nixon stepped down a few weeks later. 
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US Constitutional Scholars Testify at Trump Impeachment Hearing

The next step by congressional Democrats pushing the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump is unfolding Wednesday, with four constitutional scholars testifying on what they believe the country’s founding fathers intended when they decided how a president could be impeached and removed from office.The Democratic majority on the House Judiciary Committee is calling law professors Noah Feldman of Harvard, Pamela Karlan of Stanford and Michael Gerhardt of North Carolina to advance their case that Trump abused the presidency by pushing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate one of his chief 2020 Democratic rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter’s work for a Ukrainian natural gas company and a debunked theory that Ukraine, and not Russia, meddled in the 2016 U.S. election.Watch Hearing LIVE:*/

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 In a prepared opening statement, Gerhardt says, “If Congress fails to impeach here, then the impeachment process has lost all meaning, and, along with that, our Constitution’s carefully crafted safeguards against the establishment of a king on American soil. No one, not even the president, is beyond the reach of our Constitution and our laws.”Republicans defending Trump are calling George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley to buttress their contention that Trump did nothing wrong while asking for the Ukrainian investigations at the same time he was withholding $391 billion in military aid Kyiv wanted to help fight pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Trump eventually released the assistance in September without Ukraine opening the Biden investigations, proof, Republicans say, that there was no quid pro quo, an exchange of favors between Trump and Ukraine.  Constitutional law expert George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley arrives to testify during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on the constitutional grounds for the impeachment of President Donald Trump.Under the U.S. Constitution, a president may be impeached and removed from office for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” but the definition of those terms has been left to lawmakers throughout the country’s 243-year history.Trump is only the fourth U.S. leader to face a formal impeachment proceeding. Two former presidents were impeached but not convicted by the Senate and removed from office, while a third resigned in the face of certain impeachment. Many constitutional scholars believe abuse of office and obstruction of justice are also impeachable offenses, but the U.S. Constitution makes no mention of such offenses.  Trump has assailed the impeachment effort targeting him, saying he is blameless in his request for investigations that would have benefitted  him politically. While he is in London for NATO meetings, his political campaign complained that the majority “Democrats will get THREE constitutional lawyers and Republicans will only get ONE!” at Wednesday’s hearing. “This entire process is unfair to not only @realDonaldTrump, but the American People!”Tomorrow, Democrats will get THREE constitutional lawyers and Republicans will only get ONE!This entire process is unfair to not only @realDonaldTrump, but the American People!#StopTheSchiffShowpic.twitter.com/gDfqHco5vo— Team Trump (@TeamTrump) December 3, 2019The new testimony comes a day after the Democratic-controlled House Intelligence Committee released a 300-page report accusing Trump of “misconduct” in seeking Ukrainian political interference in the 2020 presidential election and then relentlessly trying to “obstruct” Congress as it carried out an inquiry into his actions.
 
The nearly three-month impeachment inquiry “has found that President Trump, personally and acting through agents within and outside of the U.S. government, solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, to benefit his reelection,” the report stated.
 
“In doing so, the president placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States, sought to undermine the integrity of the U.S. presidential election process, and endangered U.S. national security,” the report declared.A Trump defender, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, rebuffed the claims, saying , “House Democrats have been trying to undo the results of President Trump’s historic election since before he was sworn in.” He said Democrats have not found “a single legitimate reason” for impeachment.
 
“Instead, Democrats have relied on smears, hearsay, and presumption to build their false narrative,” he said.
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House Democrats Launch New Phase in Impeachment Inquiry

House Democrats launch a new phase of the impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump Wednesday, as the investigation moves to the House Judiciary Committee. The Democratic-majority House of Representatives is expected to hold a vote by year’s end on whether to impeach the president for allegedly leveraging almost $4 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine for his own political benefit. But the following step will be in the U.S. Senate where things look much more favorable for Trump. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has the look ahead.
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