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For Obama and Patrick, a Long Friendship and Political Bond

Deval Patrick was in need of a pep talk. He was staring down reelection as Massachusetts governor in 2010, in the midst of a sluggish economic recovery that would ultimately contribute to sweeping Democratic defeats across the country. In stepped President Barack Obama, a close friend and political ally, who was in town for an event. The two men met for a “get in the game” conversation that helped put Patrick on the path to a second term.
                   
“I think it was very meaningful to Deval,” said David Axelrod, a political adviser to both Obama and Patrick. “That’s the kind of relationship they have. There’s a level of trust and mutual caring between them.”
                   
That relationship will test whether Obama can maintain his vigorously neutral approach to the 2020 Democratic primary now that Patrick has launched a late bid for the presidential nomination. Although Obama has ties to several candidates – most notably Joe Biden, who spent eight years as his No. 2 in the White House – his ties to Patrick are unique. The two men were friends well before the White House years and have bonded over shared personal experiences and a strikingly similar approach to politics.
                   
“They both had Chicago roots, they both had the Harvard experience and they shared a set of values,” Axelrod said. “You go back and listen to some of Patrick’s speeches from when he was running for governor and you hear echoes of Obama.”
                   
Obama advisers say there are currently no plans for the former president to endorse in the Democratic primary race, though he’s met with most of the major candidates and is said to be following the primary campaign closely. Yet advisers have purposely left some wiggle room in that position, well aware that there could be a moment that demands the input of the nation’s most popular Democrat, particularly if the primary appears to be headed toward a contentious conclusion.
                   
For now, the former president appears content to stay on the sidelines and offer occasional counsel to the candidates he is closest to, including Patrick.
                   
When Patrick called him this week to tell him he was making a late bid for the nomination, he got advice similar to what Obama has told other White House hopefuls: Make an affirmative case for yourself, show up and be present even in places you might lose, and stay focused on the urgency of defeating President Donald Trump.
                   
Patrick, who made his first campaign appearance in New Hampshire on Thursday, said Obama had given him “great insights about his own experiences and about his experience with some of the other candidates and what he thought the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign, of my campaign, might be.”
                   
“He’s been, I think, entirely appropriate in saying, Look, this is your decision, no one else’s,” Patrick said shortly after filing papers to get on the ballot in New Hampshire. “And I’m not encouraging you or discouraging you. Be clear-eyed about how heavy the lift is.”
                   
Obama and Patrick first connected in the 1990s, long before either was a national political figure. Both graduated from Harvard Law School and were shaped by their experiences on the South Side of Chicago, where Patrick grew up and Obama worked as a community organizer. Later, when Obama and his family vacationed during their summers in the White House at Martha’s Vineyard, Patrick and his family made regular visits from Boston.
                   
As barrier-breaking African Americans, Obama and Patrick have also drawn comparisons throughout their political careers. The day after Patrick won his first campaign for governor in 2006 – running on a “Together We Can” slogan – two of his top political consultants, Axelrod and David Plouffe, met with Obama to start charting his 2008 presidential campaign. That campaign’s motto: “Yes We Can.”
                   
In addition to Axelrod and Plouffe, Obama confidante and White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett is particularly close to Patrick and urged his campaign for president.
                   
It’s unclear whether those connections will help Patrick, who is launching his campaign less than three months before voting begins. Many Obama staffers are already working for other candidates or have left the political arena. It’s also uncertain whether Patrick, who was the first black governor of Massachusetts, will be seen by African American voters as the heir to Obama’s legacy.
                   
So far, it’s Biden who has had the strongest appeal with black voters, one of the most important constituencies in Democratic politics. And it’s Biden who has wrapped himself in Obama’s legacy, frequently reminding voters of the eight years he spent by the 44th president’s side. He’s also staked his candidacy in part on a robust defense of the landmark health care overhaul Obama signed into law.
                   
Obama has stayed in touch with Biden throughout the campaign, and the two huddled privately last month at funeral services for U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland.
                   
Biden also remains the only candidate whose entry into the race was greeted with a formal statement from Obama, who praised his former vice president but stopped short of endorsing his White House run.
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US Investigates Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s Personal Lawyer

Federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into Rudy Giuliani, the personal lawyer of U.S. President Donald Trump, Bloomberg reports.The prosecutors are conducting an inquiry into possible finance violations against Giuliani and his failure to register as a foreign agent, according to the Bloomberg account.Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, has emerged as a key figure in Trump’s impeachment inquiry where lawmakers are also examining what role Giuliani played in pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Trump’s rivals.Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York told Bloomberg, she “would not be surprised” if Giuliani is indicted as a result of the federal probe. “It’s clear Giuliani is up to his ears in shady stuff,” she said.
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Republican National Committee to Hold Meetings at Trump Property

The Republican National Committee confirmed Thursday that it would hold its winter meetings at Trump National Doral, bringing business to one of the president’s struggling properties. The news came weeks after President Donald Trump canceled plans to host next year’s Group of Seven summit of world leaders in Doral after facing accusations that he was using the presidency to enrich himself. In a statement, RNC spokesman Michael Ahrens confirmed that the group’s multiday event would be held in January at Trump’s golf resort, which is located near Miami International Airport. The RNC said the contract was signed in March and noted that the majority of RNC meetings have not been held at Trump properties. The media is obsessed with our spending at Trump properties and has covered it ad nauseam,'' Ahrens said.As we have stated multiple times, we continue to hold events at them because they have fantastic service and secure spaces that fit our needs.” The RNC winter meetings will be the second time in two years that Republicans have held a major meeting at the resort. According to The Washington Post, a GOP event in Doral last year produced about $630,000 in revenue for Trump’s company. Critics have noted that the Doral resort, the biggest source of revenue among Trump’s 17 golf properties, appears to have been struggling since even before he became president. Financial disclosure reports filed by the president show revenue is barely growing, up just $1 million last year, to $76 million. And the Trump Organization itself has admitted it was struggling, arguing in a tax appeal to local authorities last year that it is seriously underperforming, according to a Washington Post review of tax appeal documents. 
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Trump Asks Supreme Court to Block Subpoena for His Tax Returns 

President Donald Trump on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to block a subpoena for his tax returns, in a test of the president’s ability to defy investigations. The filing set the stage for a high-court showdown over the tax returns Trump has refused to release, unlike every other modern president. The justices also could weigh in more broadly on Trump’s claim that sitting presidents can’t be prosecuted or investigated for crimes. The subpoena from the Manhattan district attorney is seeking Trump’s tax returns back to 2011 from his accounting firm as part of a criminal investigation. Trump wants the court to decide the case by late June, under a deal to keep the district attorney from enforcing the subpoena in the meantime. The justices may not decide whether to hear the case for at least another month. Second caseA second, similar case is headed to the court over a House committee subpoena demanding Trump’s financial records from the same accounting firm. The president has lost both cases at each step of the judicial process so far. FILE – The logo of Mazars, an international organization that specializes in audit, accounting, tax and advisory services, is seen on a building in the financial district of La Defense near Paris, May 14, 2018.The Mazars USA firm has said it will comply with the subpoenas, if courts agree. A ruling against Trump would not require public release of the information. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. is seeking the records back to 2011 in a broader probe that includes payments made to buy the silence of two women, porn star Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal, who claim they had sexual encounters with the president before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied the claims. Trump is asking for the Supreme Court’s intervention as the impeachment drama plays out elsewhere in Washington. Public impeachment hearings that began Wednesday are examining claims that Trump tried to get Ukraine’s leader to investigate political rival Joe Biden. If the House votes to impeach the president, Chief Justice John Roberts would preside at a Senate trial that is likely to begin in January. The justices usually fill their term’s calendar by late January. Quick paceThe New York tax case is moving unusually swiftly through the federal courts. A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled last week that the tax returns could be turned over to New York prosecutors. The appellate judges emphasized the narrowness of their ruling, deciding only that a state prosecutor could demand Trump’s personal financial records from a third party while the president was in office. Their opinion upholding a trial judge’s earlier ruling noted that they did not consider whether the president was immune from indictment and prosecution while in office or whether the president himself might be ordered to produce documents in a state criminal proceeding. The subpoena does not implicate, in any way, the performance of his official duties,” 2nd Circuit Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann wrote. During arguments in a New York courtroom, Trump's lawyer told the 2nd Circuit that Trump was immune from state criminal law, even if he shot someone, because he's president. The exchange stemmed from Trump's campaign trail comment in 2016 that hecould stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” Trump’s lawyers have said the probe by Vance, a Democrat, is politically motivated. Narrower approachThe Justice Department, which intervened on Trump’s behalf in New York, has taken a narrower approach, saying Vance must prove particularized need” for the records before they are released to a grand jury. In the Washington case, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform subpoenaed records from Mazars in April. The records include documents from 2011 to 2018 that the House wants for investigation into the president's reporting of his finances and potential conflicts of interest. The list of documents makes no mention of Trump's tax returns. The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted Wednesday not to reconsider an earlier panel opinion ordering Mazars to comply with the subpoena. Trump's two appointees to the Washington court said the full court should have reheard the case. Judge Greg Katsas called the subpoena athreat to presidential autonomy and independence.” There are two Trump appointees on the nine-member Supreme Court, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. 
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Pelosi Seeks Trade Pact Passage by Year’s End

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday said a breakthrough in talks with the Trump administration on the trade pact with Mexico and Canada could be imminent and that she wanted to pass the deal by the end of the year. “We are moving positively in terms of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement. Again, it all comes down to … enforcement,” she told reporters at a news conference. “I do believe that if we can get this to the place it needs to be, which is imminent, that this can be a template for future trade agreements.” The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), signed by 
the three countries about a year ago to replace the $1 trillion North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), must be passed by lawmakers in all three countries. Mexico has already ratified the new deal, while Canada has said it is waiting to move in tandem with the United States.  The office of Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland was not immediately available for comment on Pelosi’s remarks. Complaints from White HouseU.S. President Donald Trump and other administration officials have complained that Pelosi and her fellow Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, are holding back the U.S. economy by slow-walking USMCA’s passage. But a major U.S. labor leader, AFL-CIO union chief Richard Trumka, said last month that the deal was unlikely to pass as is if put to a vote in November, given lingering concerns about labor and other issues. “I’d like to see us get it done this year. That would be my goal. I don’t imagine that it would take much more in the Senate to pass,” Pelosi told reporters Thursday. Trump’s fellow Republicans control the U.S. Senate. Separately, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, testifying before a House of Representatives panel, said that the deal’s passage would help remove uncertainty and would be very constructive for the U.S. economy. 
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Expect 10 Candidates on Stage at Next Week’s Democratic Presidential Debate

Ten Democratic presidential candidates were expected to qualify for next Wednesday’s debate in Georgia, giving voters a smaller lineup on stage to consider even as the party’s overall field expands.Those poised to meet the Democratic National Committee’s polling and grassroots fundraising thresholds were: former Vice President Joe Biden; New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker; Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana; Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard; California Sen. Kamala Harris; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders; billionaire activist Tom Steyer of California; Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren; and entrepreneur Andrew Yang of New York.DNC officials planned to finalize the lineup later Thursday after reviewing qualifying polls and grassroots donor lists submitted by the campaigns.Former Obama administration housing chief Julian Castro is the most high-profile remaining candidate seen as falling short of the benchmarks. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas ended his campaign last month. Those two created headlines with their earlier debate performances, including some spirited exchanges with each other.Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and author Marianne Williamson already have missed debates as the party chairman, Tom Perez, continues to raise qualification requirements.This month, candidates were required to have reached 3% in at least four qualifying national polls since Sept. 13 or 5% in two early nominating state polls since that date, while also having collected contributions from at least 165,000 unique donors, with at least 600 each in a minimum of 20 states.Some candidates have criticized Perez for the requirements. Some argue that the donor emphasis has forced them to spend disproportionately for online fundraising efforts that drain resources they could be using to reach voters other ways. Perez counters that candidates have had ample time to demonstrate their supporter, both in polls and through small-dollar contributors, and that any Democrat falling short this far into the campaign almost certainly isn’t positioned to win the nomination or defeat President Donald Trump.Perez already has announced even stiffer requirements for a Dec. 19 debate. The polling marks: 4% in four national polls or 6% in two early state polls taken after Oct. 16. The donor threshold: 200,000 unique donors with at least 800 each from 20 states.Biden, Warren, Sanders and Buttigieg — the four who top most national and early state polls — are not threatened by those goals. Harris and Klobuchar already have met them, as well. But the higher targets put pressure on several other candidates to broaden their support or risk falling out of any reasonable contention with less than three months to go before the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses.Two new candidates also could be vying for December spots.Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick launched his campaign Thursday and filed to appear on New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary ballot, and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is considering a bid as well, while already having filed paperwork for some Super Tuesday primaries.Patrick has strong ties to Wall Street and deep-pocketed Democratic donors. Bloomberg is among the world’s wealthiest men. Both may be able to afford television advertising and other campaign operations relatively quickly. But, just as Perez has said throughout the process, debate slots intended not as rewards for the amount a campaign raises or spends, but as a recognition of how much support a candidate has attracted.Next week’s debate will be broadcast on MSNBC from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST.
 
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Jury Begins Deliberating Verdict in Trial of Trump Adviser Roger Stone

The federal jury in the criminal trial of U.S. President Donald Trump’s adviser Roger Stone began deliberations on Thursday into whether he lied to Congress about his efforts to learn more about when WikiLeaks would publish damaging emails about 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.The 12-member jury, consisting of nine women and three men, represents a diverse cross-section of people, including an IRS civil tax attorney, an employee with AARP, and a former congressional candidate.Stone, 67, has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements in testimony during the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.Witness tampering carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The other counts carry a maximum sentence of five years each. If Stone is convicted, under U.S. sentencing guidelines he would likely face much less jail time as a first-time non-violent offender.Prosecutors accused Stone of telling lawmakers five different lies related to the WikiLeaks website and its founder Julian Assange. WikiLeaks released a series of damaging emails about Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival in the presidential election, that U.S. intelligence officials and Special Counsel Robert Mueller later concluded had been stolen by Russian hackers.Some of those lies relate to the existence of certain texts or emails, while others pertain to Stone’s conversations with Trump campaign officials and a supposed “intermediary” with WikiLeaks in early August 2016 whom Stone identified to lawmakers as being comedian Randy Credico.The government and Stone’s attorneys offered closing arguments on Wednesday, with the government telling the jury Stone lied to Congress in order to protect Trump’s image.Stone’s lawyers counter that such a motive makes no sense, because by the time Stone testified to the House Intelligence Committee in September 2017, Trump was already president. 
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Ex-Governor Deval Patrick Announces 2020 Presidential Bid

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is making a late entry into the Democratic presidential race.Patrick announced his bid Thursday in an online video, saying, “I am today announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.”Patrick made history as the first black governor of Massachusetts and has close ties to former President Barack Obama and his network of political advisers. But he faces significant fundraising and organizational hurdles less than three months before voting begins.Patrick’s announcement comes as some Democrats worry about the strength of the party’s current field of contenders. Another Democrat — former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg — is also weighing a last-minute bid for the party’s nomination. Bloomberg has taken steps toward launching a last-minute presidential campaign, filing candidate papers in Alabama and Arkansas. Even 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton this week said in a BBC interview that she is “under enormous pressure from many, many, many people to think about it,” adding that she has no such plans but still would “never, never, never say never.”The moves reflect uncertainty about the direction of the Democratic contest with no commanding front-runner. Joe Biden entered the race as the presumptive favorite and maintains significant support from white moderates and black voters, whose backing is critical in a Democratic primary. But he’s facing spirited challenges from Patrick’s home-state senator, Elizabeth Warren, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, progressives whose calls for fundamental economic change have alarmed moderates and wealthy donors.Patrick could present himself as a potential bridge across the moderate, liberal and progressive factions — as candidates like Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Cory Booker are trying to do. 
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Appeals Court Again Backs House Request for Trump Tax Documents

A U.S. appeals court said on Wednesday it would not revisit an October decision backing a U.S. House of Representatives subpoena issued to President Donald Trump’s accounting firm for his financial records.The 8-3 vote by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, declining the Republican president’s request to rehear arguments that the subpoena to Mazars LLP was illegitimate, brings Democrats closer to shedding light on his business interests and how he built his fortune.In a statement, Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said the president would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Mazars this year, saying it needed the records to determine if Trump complied with laws requiring disclosure of his assets, and to assess whether those laws needed to be changed.While campaigning for the presidency in 2016, Trump broke with a decades-old convention of candidates releasing their tax returns publicly.Trump sued the House panel in April, arguing that its subpoena exceeded limits on Congress’s investigative power.He said the true motive for the subpoena was to expose private financial information “with the hope that it will turn up something that Democrats can use as a political tool against the President.”A lower court judge ruled against Trump in May, saying the documents might assist Congress in passing laws and performing other core functions.The May decision was the first time a federal court waded into the tussle about how far Congress can go in investigating Trump and his business affairs, and marked an important victory for House Democrats.A three-judge panel of D.C. circuit judges, in a 2-1 ruling, upheld the lower court judge in October.”Contrary to the president’s arguments, the committee possesses authority under both the house rules and the constitution to issue the subpoena, and Mazars must comply, Judge David Tatel wrote on behalf of the majority.Judge Neomi Rao, who was appointed by Trump to the D.C. appeals court, dissented from the October decision.Rao and another Trump appointee to the court, Gregory Katsas, voted to rehear the case, Wednesday’s order showed. They were joined by Karen Henderson, an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush.   
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Democrat Patrick May Join 2020 US Presidential Race 

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is telling allies that he will join the 2020 presidential race, according to two people familiar with his plans. An official announcement is expected before Friday, the filing deadline for the New Hampshire primary. 
 
His move injects a new layer of uncertainty into the contest less than three months before the first votes. Patrick, a popular two-term Democratic governor with a moderate bearing and close ties to former President Barack Obama, is starting late but with a compelling life story and political resume. 
 
The two people with knowledge of Patrick’s plans spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.  FILE – Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg talks to the media after filing paperwork to appear on the ballot in Arkansas’ March 3 presidential primary, Nov. 12, 2019 in Little Rock, Ark.In addition to Patrick, Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City, has taken steps toward launching a last-minute presidential campaign, filing candidate papers in Alabama and Arkansas. Uncertainty among DemocratsThe moves reflect uncertainty about the direction of the Democratic contest. Joe Biden entered the race as the front-runner and maintains significant support from black voters, whose backing is critical in a Democratic primary. But he’s facing spirited challenges from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, progressives whose calls for fundamental economic change have alarmed moderates and wealthy donors. 
 
Patrick’s candidacy faces a significant hurdle to raise enormous amounts of money quickly and to build an organization in the traditional early voting states that most of his rivals have focused on for the past year. And he’ll have to pivot to the expensive and logistically daunting Super Tuesday contests, when voters in more than a dozen states and territories head to the polls. 
 
Bloomberg’s team has said it will skip the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina to focus on the Super Tuesday roster. 
 
If Patrick gains traction, he could pull together multiple Democratic constituencies. A former managing director for Bain Capital, he has close ties to Wall Street donors. And as the first black governor of Massachusetts, Patrick could present himself as a historic boundary breaker who could dent Biden’s support among African Americans.  FILE – Deval Patrick, right, then Massachusetts’ governor, shakes hands with bakery employees as then-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, center, looks on, during a campaign stop, Oct. 10, 2014, in Hartford, Conn.Patrick has remained active in politics since his term as governor ended in 2015. 
 
During the 2018 midterm elections, he traveled across the country in support of Democratic candidates, a move that helped raise his national profile. He also campaigned for Doug Jones during Alabama’s contentious 2017 special election for U.S. Senate. ‘Not for me’
 
By December, however, Patrick cooled to the idea of a White House campaign. After a lot of conversation, reflection and prayer, I've decided that a 2020 campaign for president is not for me,'' Patrick posted on his Facebook page at the time. He said he and his wife worried that thecruelty of our elections process would ultimately splash back on people whom Diane and I love, but who hadn’t signed up for the journey.” 
 
For years, Patrick had been on an upward swing in Democratic politics, having served two terms as governor. He was the country’s second black elected governor since Reconstruction. 
 
In 2012, he gave a rousing speech in defense of Obama at the National Democratic Convention, urging fellow party members to grow a backbone'' and fight for their ideals. Obama at the time was being challenged by former Republican Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — Patrick's predecessor in the governor's office. 
 
Patrick grew up in Chicago, Obama's adopted home. Both men have campaigned for each other. 
 
Patrick has also tried to position himself over the years as slightly more moderate than some on the Democratic left. 
 
After Donald Trump's election, Patrick's initial criticism of the Republican president was somewhat less pointed than that from others in his party. He said he wasold-fashioned in the sense that I think nobody should cheer for failure. We need our presidents to succeed,” but said he was particularly concerned about what he described as Trump’s belittling of those with opposing points of view. FILE – Then-Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, center, waves as his wife, Diane Bemus, left, looks on at the conclusion of ceremonies for the unveiling of his official state portrait, Jan. 4, 2015, in Boston.Chides partyPatrick also urged the party at the time to look in the mirror, saying the outcome of the 2016 election was less about Donald Trump winning than Democrats and our nominee letting him do so.'' 
 
Last year, some of Patrick's supporters and close advisers launched the Reason to Believe political action committee,a grass-roots organization dedicated to advancing a positive, progressive vision for our nation in 2018 and 2020.” 
 
The PAC held meetups across the country, including in early presidential primary states, and was seen as a possible vehicle to help support a Patrick candidacy. It was formally dissolved earlier this year. 
 
Early in his career, Patrick served as assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration and later worked as an executive at Texaco and Coca-Cola. Since leaving the governor’s office, Patrick has worked as a managing director for Bain Capital — a company co-founded by Romney. Record as governorPatrick’s record as governor is mixed. His successes include helping oversee the 2006 health care law signed by Romney that would go on to serve as a blueprint for Obama’s 2010 health law. 
 
Also considered a success was a 2008 initiative pushed by Patrick that committed Massachusetts to spending $1 billion over 10 years to jump-start the state’s life sciences sector. 
 
There were also rough patches, including turmoil at the state Department of Children and Families following the deaths of three children. 
 
Patrick was also forced to publicly apologize for a disastrous effort to transition to the federal health care law during which the state’s website performed so poorly it created a backlog of more than 50,000 paper applications. 
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Closing Arguments Underway in Roger Stone Trial 

Closing arguments began Wednesday in Roger Stone’s federal trial on charges he lied to Congress. A veteran Republican political operative and longtime confidant of President Donald Trump, Stone was indicted in January as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian electoral tampering. He is accused of lying to lawmakers about his attempts to communicate with the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, tampering with witnesses and obstructing a House Intelligence Committee investigation into whether the Trump presidential campaign coordinated with Russia to tip the 2016 election. Several witnesses have highlighted how Trump campaign associates were eager to gather information about emails the U.S. says were hacked by Russia and then provided to WikiLeaks. Steve Bannon, who served as the campaign’s chief executive, testified that Stone had boasted about his ties to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, alerting them to pending new batches of damaging emails. Campaign officials saw Stone as the “access point” to WikiLeaks, he said. 
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Bloomberg Requests Tennessee Presidential Ballot Petition

Tennessee’s top election officials say Michael Bloomberg has requested a petition that would require securing 2,500 signatures from registered voters in less than a month if he wants to qualify for the state’s Democratic presidential primary ballot.The secretary of state’s office confirmed Wednesday that Bloomberg requested the ballot petition earlier this week.Tennessee has two ways to qualify for a presidential primary ballot. Either the secretary of state deems the candidate as “nationally recognized” or candidates can submit 2,500 signatures by Dec. 3.The billionaire former New York City mayor has said he’s considering seeking the Democratic nomination but has not made a decision.If he runs, Bloomberg plans to skip campaigning in the traditional early voting states and focus more on Super Tuesday states, which include Tennessee.
 
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Sharply Divergent Views Offered on Historic Impeachment Hearings

Historic impeachment hearings targeting U.S. President Donald Trump opened Wednesday in Washington, with key lawmakers offering sharply contradictory views whether Trump abused his office to help himself politically.Congressman Adam Schiff, the leader of the Democratic effort to impeach Trump, accused the president in his opening statement of pressuring Ukraine to open an investigation of one of his chief 2020 Democratic challengers, former Vice President Joe Biden, before Trump would release $391 million in U.S. military aid Kyiv wanted to help it fight pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country.”The matter is as simple, and as terrible as that,” said Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. “If this is not impeachable conduct, what is?”But  a staunch Trump defender, Republican Congressman Devin Nunes, called the hearing a “televised theatrical performance” and an “impeachment process in search of a crime.” He belittled secret hearings over the last several weeks and called the release of transcripts of officials who have testified against Trump a “carefully orchestrated media smear campaign.”Career Foreign Service officer George Kent and top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine William Taylor, right, are sworn in to testify.Two State Department officials — William Taylor, the current top American diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, who oversees Ukraine affairs – were the first witnesses before the Intelligence panel in the nationally televised hearings –only the fourth time in U.S. history that an impeachment inquiry has been launched against an American leader.Taylor and Kent were testifying publicly after weeks of behind-closed-doors hearings.More than a dozen current and former diplomatic and national security officials, including Taylor and Kent, laid out the case in private testimony that Trump temporarily withheld  the military aid to Ukraine to fight the pro-Russian separatists unless Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy publicly promised to open investigations of Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s work at a Ukrainian natural gas company and a debunked theory that Ukraine worked to undermine Trump’s 2016 election campaign. LIVE: Watch the hearing  In the hours ahead of the testimony, Trump railed against the Democratic-led impeachment effort that threatens his three-year presidency, quoting one supporter as noting that he eventually released the U.S. assistance to Kyiv in September without the investigations of the Bidens being opened.Trump said the witnesses expected to testify about his actions involving Ukraine are “NEVER TRUMPERS!” However, almost uniformly, they are career diplomats and national security officials who have worked for both Republican and Democratic administrations or in the case of one key witness next week, Gordon Sondland, a million-dollar Trump political donor and now the ambassador to the European Union, was appointed by him.NEVER TRUMPERS!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2019Trump has described his late July call with Zelenskiy as “perfect” and urged Americans to “READ THE TRANSCRIPT!” READ THE TRANSCRIPT!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2019But the key element of the impeachment case against Trump is in the rough transcript of the call released by the White House, with the U.S. leader asking Zelenskiy “to do us a favor,” to open the investigations of the Bidens. It is a violation of U.S. campaign finance law to seek assistance from a foreign government to help in a U.S. political campaign.Trump’s supporters say that Trump never specifically mentioned a quid pro quo in the call – the military aid in exchange for the politically tinged probes that would help Trump as he seeks re-election in November 2020.House Intelligence Committee Chairman Schiff said Taylor, Kent and a third witness set to testify Friday, Marie Yovanovitch, a former U.S. ambassador to Kyiv, “bring decades of dedicated and exemplary service to our nation, and I believe it is vitally important that the American people and all members of Congress hear in their own words what they experienced and witnessed.”But Republicans, according to memos circulating Tuesday to party members ahead of the hearings, plan to sharply question Taylor’s and Kent’s understanding of Trump’s intent in dealing with Ukraine and insist that Trump had a “deep-seated, genuine and reasonable skepticism” about corruption in Ukraine and that his withholding aid was “entirely reasonable.”A Republican strategy memo circulating at the Capitol building outlined four defenses for Trump: that the July 25 call “shows no conditionality or evidence of pressure,” that both Zelenskiy and Trump have subsequently said there was no pressure during the call, that Kyiv was not aware at the time, only later, that U.S. military aid was being withheld, and that Trump eventually released the military aid  without the investigations of the Bidens being opened.”These four key points undercut the Democrat impeachment narrative that President Trump leveraged U.S. security assistance and a presidential meeting (with Zelenskiy at the White House) to force Ukraine to investigate the president’s political rivals,” the memo said.Trump continued to scoff at the impeachment hearings against him, only the fourth such occurrence in the 243-year history of the U.S. In the previous three impeachment efforts targeting U.S. leaders, two presidents (Andrew Johnson in the mid-19th century and Bill Clinton two decades ago) were impeached but acquitted in Senate trials, while a third president, Richard Nixon, resigned ahead of all-but-certain impeachment in the 1970s.Trump, on Twitter, called the effort targeting him “A total Impeachment Scam by the Do Nothing Democrats!”A total Impeachment Scam by the Do Nothing Democrats! https://t.co/aFTQe293JF— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2019″Why is such a focus put on 2nd and 3rd hand witnesses, many of whom are Never Trumpers, or whose lawyers are Never Trumpers, when all you have to do is read the phone call (transcript) with the Ukrainian President and see first hand?” Trump said in another tweet.Why is such a focus put on 2nd and 3rd hand witnesses, many of whom are Never Trumpers, or whose lawyers are Never Trumpers, when all you have to do is read the phone call (transcript) with the Ukrainian President and see first hand? He and others also stated that there was…..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2019Schiff told the 435 members of the House of Representatives that the nationally televised hearings “are intended to bring the facts to light for the American people.”The committee will also hold three days of hearing next week. Among the witnesses scheduled to appear then are the EU ambassador Sondland, Ambassador Kurt Volker, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and former National Security Council senior director Fiona Hill.Republicans claimed in their memo defending Trump, “Democrats want to impeach President Trump because unelected and anonymous bureaucrats disagreed with the president’s decisions and were discomforted by his telephone call with President Zelenskiy. The president works for the American people. And President Trump is doing what Americans elected him to do.” 
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Bill Weld Files to Challenge Trump in New Hampshire Primary

Republican Bill Weld has filed for the New Hampshire presidential primary and is now the first major GOP challenger to officially challenge President Donald Trump in the state.The filing by the former Massachusetts governor came on the same day as the House began public impeachment hearings of Trump in Washington.Weld says if Trump were to be reelected, “I think that would be a tragedy for the country.”Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina governor and congressman, dropped out of the Republican primary race on Tuesday, leaving Weld and former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh as the remaining major Trump primary challengers.Walsh is scheduled to file for the first-in-the-nation presidential primary Thursday.
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US House Set to Start Public Trump Impeachment Hearings

Wednesday brings the start of open hearings in the impeachment inquiry examining the actions of U.S. President Donald Trump.The House Intelligence Committee is overseeing the probe. After weeks of closed-door depositions involving current and former diplomat and officials, lawmakers and those watching across the country will hear testimony from William Taylor, the current top American diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, who oversees Ukraine affairs.Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Taylor, Kent and a third witness set to testify Friday, Marie Yovanovitch, a former U.S. ambassador to Kyiv, “bring decades of dedicated and exemplary service to our nation, and I believe it is vitally important that the American people and all members of Congress hear in their own words what they experienced and witnessed.”Both Taylor and Kent have said that Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to open investigations of one of Trump’s chief 2020 Democratic challengers, former Vice President Joe Biden, before he would release $391 million in military aid Kyiv wanted to help fight pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country.But Republicans, according to memos circulating Tuesday to party members ahead of the hearings, plan to sharply question the two officials’ understanding of Trump’s intent in dealing with Ukraine and insist that Trump had a “deep-seated, genuine and reasonable skepticism” about corruption in Ukraine and that his withholding aid was “entirely reasonable.”In a late July call with Zelenskiy, Trump asked the Ukrainian leader for “a favor,” the investigation of Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s work at a Ukrainian natural gas company, and a debunked theory that Ukraine had meddled in the 2016 election that Trump won, not Russia, as the U.S. intelligence community concluded.President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the InterContinental Barclay New York hotel during the United Nations General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019, in New York.However, a Republican strategy memo circulating at the Capitol building outlined four defenses for Trump: that the July 25 call “shows no conditionality or evidence of pressure,” that both Zelenskiy and Trump have subsequently said there was no pressure during the call, that Kyiv was not aware at the time, only later, that U.S. military aid was being withheld, and that Trump eventually released the military aid on September 11 without the investigations of the Bidens being opened.”These four key points undercut the Democrat impeachment narrative that President Trump leveraged U.S. security assistance and a presidential meeting (with Zelenskiy at the White House) to force Ukraine to investigate the president’s political rivals,” the memo said.Trump continued to rail against the impeachment hearings against him, only the fourth such occurrence in the 243-year history of the U.S.”A total Impeachment Scam by the Do Nothing Democrats!” Trump said on Twitter.A total Impeachment Scam by the Do Nothing Democrats! https://t.co/aFTQe293JF— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2019″Why is such a focus put on 2nd and 3rd hand witnesses, many of whom are Never Trumpers, or whose lawyers are Never Trumpers, when all you have to do is read the phone call (transcript) with the Ukrainian President and see first hand?” Trump said in another tweet.Why is such a focus put on 2nd and 3rd hand witnesses, many of whom are Never Trumpers, or whose lawyers are Never Trumpers, when all you have to do is read the phone call (transcript) with the Ukrainian President and see first hand? He and others also stated that there was…..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2019Schiff told the 435 members of the House of Representatives that the nationally televised hearings “are intended to bring the facts to light for the American people.”The committee will also hold three days of hearing next week. Among the witnesses scheduled to appear then are Ambassador Kurt Volker, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, Ambassador Gordon Sondland and former National Security Council senior director Fiona Hill.Republicans claimed in their memo defending Trump, “Democrats want to impeach President Trump because unelected and anonymous bureaucrats disagreed with the president’s decisions and were discomforted by his telephone call with President Zelenskiy. The president works for the American people. And President Trump is doing what Americans elected him to do.”Taylor, Kent and Yovanovitch are among current and former diplomatic and national security officials who testified behind closed doors in recent weeks.Transcripts of their depositions detailed how Trump and his aides pressed Ukraine to launch investigations of the Bidens and any Ukraine involvement in the 2016 U.S. election.In the previous three impeachment efforts targeting U.S. leaders, two presidents (Andrew Johnson in the mid-19th century and Bill Clinton two decades ago) were impeached but acquitted in Senate trials, while a third president, Richard Nixon, resigned ahead of all-but-certain impeachment in the 1970s.
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Bloomberg Registers for 2020 US Presidential Ballot in Arkansas

Michael Bloomberg filed paperwork Tuesday to appear on the ballot in Arkansas’ March 3 presidential primary, the latest indication that the billionaire former New York City mayor may seek the Democratic nomination .Bloomberg sent staffers to Alabama last week to file for the primary there, but filed his paperwork in person in Arkansas two hours before the state’s deadline.”We’re getting closer” to making a decision, Bloomberg told reporters after filing paperwork at Arkansas’ Capitol.He’s moving toward a presidential bid as he warns that the current field of Democratic presidential candidates isn’t equipped to defeat President Donald Trump next year. If he runs, Bloomberg plans to skip campaigning in the traditional early voting states and focus more on Super Tuesday states, including Arkansas and Alabama.Bloomberg has rebuffed criticism from his potential rivals that his candidacy would amount to buying the election, saying self-financing his campaign means he wouldn’t be beholden to anyone.”I’m going to finance the campaign, if there is one, with my own money so I don’t owe anybody anything,” he said. “Other people ask for donations in return for which they’ve got to give favors. But it costs a lot of money, whether you’re doing it with your own money or somebody else’s money, to get a message out.”Bloomberg also promised to support whoever wins the Democratic nomination.”That is a very easy thing to say yes, given who the Republican candidate is going to be,” Bloomberg said.Bloomberg filed to run in a state that had once been a Democratic stronghold in the South, but turned solidly red over the past decade. Republicans hold all of Arkansas’ seats in Washington, its statewide offices and both chambers of the Legislature. Lawmakers this year moved the state’s primary up from May to attract more attention from presidential hopefuls.Bloomberg’s appearance in Little Rock raised hopes from state Democrats that Arkansas will play a greater role in the nominating contest, especially with a crowded field.”I think they realize when we start counting delegates, if this thing is jumbled up going into Super Tuesday, every state’s in play,” state Democratic Party Chairman Michael John Gray said. 
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Stone Trial Testimony Ends With Talk of Outreach to Kushner

Testimony in the colorful trial of Roger Stone — featuring talk of dognapping and Godfather references — wrapped up Tuesday with a top Trump campaign official telling jurors that Stone tried to contact Jared Kushner to “debrief” him about hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.While Stone’s trial in Washington didn’t produce the bombshells about President Donald Trump that some expected, the testimony over the last week reinforced that those at the highest ranks of the Trump campaign were eager to gather information about WikiLeaks’ plan to release the damaging emails and saw Stone — who had repeatedly inferred he had inside information about those plans — as the best person to gather that intelligence.Stone, a longtime Trump friend and ally, is charged with witness tampering and lying to Congress about his attempts to contact WikiLeaks about the damaging material during the 2016 presidential campaign.Stone, who has denied wrongdoing, did not testify. His attorneys rested after playing a tape of his congressional testimony. Closing arguments are scheduled for Wednesday.Text messages, emailsThroughout the trial, prosecutors used Stone’s own text messages and emails — some of which appeared to contradict his congressional testimony — to lay out their case that he lied to Congress and threatened a witness. FILE – Jared Kushner, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, speaks in New York, Apr. 23, 2019.Rick Gates, who was Trump’s deputy campaign chairman and became a key cooperator in the special counsel’s Russia probe, told jurors he received a text message from Stone on June 15, 2016, asking for Kushner’s contact information. He said Stone wanted to “debrief” Kushner on developments about the hacked emails. Kushner was a senior campaign adviser at the time.Gates did not say if Stone received Kushner’s information. Kushner’s attorney did not respond to a message seeking comment.The prosecution rested its case after recalling a former FBI agent who had previously testified about a series of phone calls between Stone and then-candidate Trump — including three calls on July 14, 2016 — the day that a massive hack of the Democratic National Committee’s servers was reported.The president told special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors in written responses to questions that he had no recollection of any particular conversations about the hacked emails.Stone, whose history in Republican political circles dates back to the Nixon era, was charged as part of Mueller’s investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 presidential election. 
 
Stone has consistently criticized the case against him as politically motivated and the judge overseeing his case had to issue a gag order in February after he posted a photo on Instagram of the judge with what appeared to be crosshairs of a gun. 
 
His trial has become somewhat of a spectacle in Washington — even as the world’s eyes were drawn to the House impeachment inquiry. Before the trial even began, a spectator collapsed during jury selection and Stone later fell ill and needed to leave early because of food poisoning. 
 
On another day, as Stone dined in the courthouse cafeteria with right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, protesters turned a large inflatable rat that looked like Trump toward the cafeteria windows. ‘Godfather’ references
 
Jurors also heard from Randy Credico, a New York radio talk show host and comedian who scored an interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2016, when he was avoiding prosecution by sheltering in the Ecuadoran embassy in London. 
 FILE – Randy Credico, an associate of former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone, walks with his dog as he arrives to testify before the grand jury convened by Special Counsel Robert Mueller at U.S. District in Washington, Sept. 7, 2018.During the 2016 campaign, Stone had mentioned in interviews and public appearances that he was in contact with Assange through a trusted intermediary and hinted at inside knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans. But he started pressing Credico to broker a contact, and Credico testified that he told Stone to work through his own intermediary.Yet earlier testimony revealed that Stone, while appearing before the House Intelligence Committee, named Credico as his intermediary to Assange and pressured Credico not to contradict him.After Credico was contacted by Congress, he reached out to Stone, who told him he should “stonewall it” and “plead the fifth,” he testified. 
 
Stone called a Credico a “rat” and a “stoolie” in a threatening April 2018 email. Credico also testified that Stone used repeated references from the movie “The Godfather Part II” to intimidate him into either backing up Stone’s testimony to Congress or refusing to testify.Prosecutors said Stone had also threatened Credico’s therapy dog, a Coton de Tulear named Bianca. 
 
“I’m going to take that dog away from you,” prosecutors said Stone wrote in the threatening message. Accusations of lying
 
Stone briefly served on Trump’s campaign but was pushed out amid infighting with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Though sidelined, he continued to communicate with Trump and stayed plugged into his circle of advisers.Prosecutors charged that he repeatedly lied to Congress “because the truth looked bad” for the president.Even his lawyer, Bruce Rogow, didn’t deny that Stone had told the House committee things that were untrue. Rogow described his client as a natural braggart whose claims of insider information didn’t match reality.But, he argued, Stone didn’t have any “corrupt intent.”Gates testimonyGates’ appearance on Tuesday came about a week after the Justice Department released documents detailing how he described the campaign’s interest in obtaining stolen emails of Democrats to the FBI. He repeated some of those details in his testimony Tuesday.FILE – Rick Gates, former campaign aide to U.S. President Donald Trump, departs after a bond hearing at U.S. District Court in Washington, Dec. 11, 2017.On the stand, Gates described overhearing a speakerphone conversation in July 2016 between Stone and Paul Manafort, his longtime business associate and the campaign chairman, after WikiLeaks released its first batch of emails, and Stone told Manafort that “additional information would be forthcoming.””Mr. Manafort thought it would be great,” Gates testified.At the end of July, Gates said he was with Trump on a car ride from Trump Tower to LaGuardia Airport when Trump was in the midst of a conversation with Stone, whose voice Gates recognized on the other end of the line.Defense lawyers objected to the question when Gates was asked about it, but he was allowed to testify that Trump indicated after the call concluded that “more information would be coming,” presumably related to WikiLeaks.
 
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Former Republican Governor Abandons Trump 2020 Challenge

Mark Sanford, a former governor of South Carolina, abandoned his longshot bid on Tuesday to challenge President Donald Trump for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination.Sanford, 59, announced he was dropping out of the race at an event in New Hampshire, which holds the first Republican presidential primary, his hometown newspaper, The Post and Courier, reported.Sanford’s bid to challenge the sitting president for the Republican nomination failed to gain much traction since he threw his name into the ring two months ago.His departure from the race leaves two other Republicans waging longshot bids to win the Republican nomination — former Massachusetts governor William Weld and former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh.Sanford was governor of South Carolina from 2003 to 2011, and served two separate stints in the House of Representatives, but lost a party primary in 2018 after Trump urged voters to back his challenger.
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Republicans Planning Vigorous Defense Against Trump Impeachment

Republican supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump are planning a vigorous defense of him as public congressional impeachment hearings start Wednesday that target his presidency.Trump administration officials are bracing for hours of testimony from two U.S. State Department officials — William Taylor, the current top American diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, who oversees Ukraine affairs.  Both officials have said that Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to open investigations of one of Trump’s chief 2020 Democratic challengers, former Vice President Joe Biden, before he would release $391 million in military aid Kyiv wanted to help fight pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country.But Republicans, according to memos circulating to party members Monday night and Tuesday, plan to sharply question the two officials’ understanding of Trump’s intent in dealing with Ukraine and insist that Trump had a “deep-seated, genuine and reasonable skepticism” about corruption in Ukraine and that his withholding aid was “entirely reasonable.”President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the InterContinental Barclay New York hotel during the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 25, 2019, in New York. In a late July call with Zelenskiy, Trump asked the Ukrainian leader for “a favor,” the investigation of Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s work at a Ukrainian natural gas company and a debunked theory that Ukraine had meddled in the 2016 election that Trump won, not Russia, as the U.S. intelligence community concluded.However, a Republican strategy memo circulating at the Capitol building outlined four defenses for Trump: that the July 25 call “shows no conditionality or evidence of pressure,” that both Zelenskiy and Trump have subsequently said there was no pressure during the call, that Kyiv was not aware at the time, only later, that U.S. military aid was being withheld and that Trump eventually released the military aid on September 11 without the investigations of the Bidens being opened.”These four key points undercut the Democrat impeachment narrative that President Trump leveraged U.S. security assistance and a presidential meeting (with Zelenskiy at the White House) to force Ukraine to investigate the president’s political rivals,” the memo said.Trump continued to rail against the impeachment hearings against him, only the fourth such occurrence in the 243-year history of the U.S.”A total Impeachment Scam by the Do Nothing Democrats!” Trump said on Twitter. A total Impeachment Scam by the Do Nothing Democrats! House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., second from right, talks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 6, 2019, about the House impeachment inquiry.Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee overseeing the impeachment hearing, said that Taylor, Kent and a third witness set to testify Friday, Marie Yovanovitch, a former U.S. ambassador to Kyiv, “bring decades of dedicated and exemplary service to our nation, and I believe it is vitally important that the American people and all members of Congress hear in their own words what they experienced and witnessed.”Republicans claimed in their memo defending Trump, “Democrats want to impeach President Trump because unelected and anonymous bureaucrats disagreed with the president’s decisions and were discomforted by his telephone call with President Zelenskiy. The president works for the American people. And President Trump is doing what Americans elected him to do.”Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, center, arrives on Capitol Hill, Oct. 11, 2019, in Washington.Taylor, Kent and Yovanovitch are among current and former diplomatic and national security officials who testified behind closed doors in recent weeks.Transcripts of their depositions detailed how Trump and his aides pressed Ukraine to launch investigations of the Bidens and any Ukraine involvement in the 2016 U.S. election.Trump on Monday criticized the investigation as a “totally one sided Witch Hunt” and teased the release of a transcript of his first phone call with Zelenskiy, which took place in April shortly after Zelenskiy was elected.The impeachment inquiry was touched off by a complaint from an anonymous government whistleblower who said he was troubled by Trump’s request to Zelenskiy for the Biden investigations, since it seemed the president was seeking the help of a foreign government in next year’s election. It is illegal under U.S. campaign finance law to solicit help from a foreign government to help a candidate in a U.S. election.Trump says the call was “perfect,” and that he did nothing wrong.Schiff invited Republicans to submit a list of witnesses they want to question, but has rejected the two most prominent figures on the Republican wish list: Hunter Biden and the unnamed whistleblower.Schiff said Trump “has engaged in unprecedented obstruction” with his administration “defying subpoenas for thousands of documents” that House committees have requested.”He’s blocking more than a dozen witnesses from testifying,” Schiff said.  “The American people see through this.”In the previous three impeachment efforts targeting U.S. leaders, two presidents (Andrew Johnson in the mid-19th century and Bill Clinton two decades ago) were impeached but acquitted in Senate trials, while a third president, Richard Nixon, resigned ahead of all-but-certain impeachment in the 1970s.
 
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Markets Hope for Positive Signs From Trump Trade Speech

U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to discuss the country’s trade policy at the Economic Club of New York on Tuesday, and markets from frothy stocks to jittery bonds are likely to hang on every word.Trump’s address at noon at the club, which has hosted U.S. presidents including Woodrow Wilson and John F. Kennedy, as well as foreign leaders like former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will be closely watched by investors anxious for any positive news about his administration’s long-running trade war with China.“You can expect the president to highlight how his policies of lower taxes, deregulation, and fair and reciprocal trade have supported the longest economic recovery in U.S. history with record low unemployment, rising wages, and soaring consumer confidence,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said. He declined to give further details.Signals that the White House and Beijing are nearing a trade deal that could go a long way toward dispelling the uncertainty dogging the global economy have helped U.S. stocks to record highs in recent days. The renewed optimism has also undercut the year’s big rally in safe assets like Treasury bonds.Ahead of Trump’s address, the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was trading in record territory, a fact Trump often points to as a validation of his economic and trade policies.The index is up more than 36% since Trump took office, though two-thirds of that gain occurred in his first year of office before his focus turned to trade and he began imposing tariffs on Chinese imports. Stocks have found the going far more choppy since the first wave of tariffs came into play in 2018.The latest back-and-forth between Washington and Beijing illustrate the bumpy state of play. Last week, officials from both sides said they had a deal to roll back tariffs, only to have Trump deny any deal was agreed on.“Strap in,” Andrew Brenner from NatAlliance Securities wrote in an email to clients on Tuesday morning. “There is no way to know what the President will say at the NY Economic Club today.”“Hard to judge whether he views today’s speech as a campaign rally or being on the international stage with everyone watching,” Brenner said.A positive speech on U.S.-China trade would likely satisfy market participants even without specific details of the “Phase 1” agreement under negotiation, said Jim Paulsen, chief investment officer at The Leuthold Group in Minneapolis.“It still feels like we’re pretty close to having something done,” Paulsen said on Monday. “Even if it’s meaningless, it will be meaningful.”More than 1,350 people are expected to attend the speech, according to the club’s spokeswoman, Erin Klem.Not everyone thought Trump’s speech to the 112-year-old club, which has served as a venue for major economic policy addresses, would be seen as constructive by investors.Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas, had little hope Trump’s speech would mark an end to uncertainty. It remains notoriously hard to predict whether Trump will take a positive or negative tone on trade.“Whatever uncertainty exists today will exist tomorrow also,” he said, adding that if Trump were to say he is not rolling back any tariffs, the market would react negatively.Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, estimated the trade war had chopped about eight-tenths of a percentage point off U.S. growth. After starting the year with growth running at 3.1%, output throttled back to 1.9% in the third quarter, with weak business investment factoring heavily in the slowdown.Daco questioned whether a limited trade deal with China would be enough to draw businesses back off the sidelines.“Do you as a business make a decision that now the environment is clearer, there are less tariffs, so now you’re more likely to invest? Or, if after the last three years, you’re still more cautious and say ‘let’s wait this one out,’” Daco said. “I’d favor the latter.”
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Trump Lashes Out at Some Young Immigrants Obama Let Stay in US

U.S. President Donald Trump contended Tuesday that some of the young immigrants that his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, allowed to stay in the country to avoid deportation are now “hardened criminals.”The U.S. leader, who won the White House in 2016 by taking a tough stance against illegal immigration, unleashed his attack on the immigrants hours before the Supreme Court heard arguments on the legality of Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.The 2012 policy allowed more than 800,000 undocumented immigrants who crossed illegally into the U.S. at a young age with their parents to remain in the United States — for many, the only home country they have known.”Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from ‘angels,’ Trump said on Twitter. “Some are very tough, hardened criminals. President Obama said he had no legal right to sign order, but would anyway. If Supreme Court remedies with overturn, a deal will be made with Dems for them to stay!”   Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from “angels.” Some are very tough, hardened criminals. President Obama said he had no legal right to sign order, but would anyway. If Supreme Court remedies with overturn, a deal will be made with Dems for them to stay!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Martín Batalla Vidal takes an escalator into the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York to take a bus to Washington, Nov. 11, 2019.The DACA program accepted young immigrants if they entered the U.S. before their 16th birthday and if they arrived by 2007. Studies show that more than 90% of the DACA residents are employed and nearly half are in school.While Obama said he could not unilaterally change contentious U.S. immigration policies, he said he could prioritize enforcement, deporting convicted criminals but allowing other immigrants, such as the young immigrants brought to the U.S. by their parents, to stay.The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency says that 2,130 of the more than 800,000 immigrants in the DACA program at one time or another have had their benefits pulled because of criminal activity. A 2017 study by the libertarian CATO Institute said that was a lower rate of incarceration than that for native-born Americans.The Supreme Court is deciding whether Trump acted properly by shutting down DACA by labeling it illegal without offering any analysis of how it would affect immigrants. The Justice Department contends that such an analysis was not necessary, but DACA defenders say a detailed explanation was required. 
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Study: Social Media a Double-Edged Sword for Female Politicians

On Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren’s Facebook page, you can find videos ranging from an announcement in Des Moines, Iowa, that her campaign has reached $2 million in donations …Two Million DonationsWe’ve worked hard, sharing plans and building a grassroots movement. And yesterday, we reached a new milestone—two million donations!Posted by Elizabeth Warren on Monday, October 21, 2019… to one with the Massachusetts senator looking into the camera, explaining her plan to help U.S. teachers.My New Plan Would Help Teachers Like KatieBetween town halls last week, I took some time to read a letter I got from Katie, a teacher in North Carolina.

Katie wrote in with her story—so I called her to say thanks for being in the fight. My new public school plan would help Katie and her students: ewar.ren/Public_Education_PlanPosted by FILE – A photo taken July 4, 2019, in Nantes, France, shows logos of the U.S.-based social media platform Facebook. “You are not asking a reporter to change a quote or asking for local news to recut the story,” she said. “You can put the video up that you want; you can put the message up that you want in a way that you want it to be shown to people. That’s often the best way to get truthful information about yourself out there — and to counter bad information.”While the 2018 midterm elections saw an unprecedented number of female candidates win congressional seats, Rebecca Schuller, executive director of Winning for Women, an organization that supports female Republican leaders, said right-of-center female candidates are working to build a similar kind of momentum online.”Maybe they are not getting the attention because they just don’t have the history that some of their male peers have, or maybe they are Republican women in a very purple district and it’s a challenging media environment,” she said.Even then, social media is still a useful tool that enables them “to kind of take the reins and do it for themselves,” Schuller said.While social media can be a great equalizer at a time when women politicians remain underrepresented in traditional media, Virginia-based political consultant Christine Matthews said the success of individual candidates in driving their message on social media depends largely on their skills in the medium.”A candidate who can use it [social media] effectively and authentically is going to be more powerful and have a better message,” Matthews, president of Bellwether Research and Consulting, told VOA.Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., top center, questions Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, foreground, as he appears before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 23, 2019.Matthews points to New York Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat, as one who is savvy at using social media. For last month’s pointed cross-examination of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Ocasio-Cortez sought questions from her Twitter followers to ask the tech mogul. Candidates who use social media in a “risk-averse way, I think you’re going to have more difficulties,” she said.Double-edged swordDespite myriad benefits of direct online engagement, broader online exposure can cut both ways, the Global Women’s Leadership initiative study found.Not only are women targeted for harassment on Twitter more frequently than that their male counterparts, but the nature of the criticism is different, the study, headed by Di Meco, found.”Twitter conversations, for example, looked more at their [the women’s] personality and character instead of their policies,” Di Meco said, adding that females also are more likely to be targeted by fake accounts.Consultant Matthews said all candidates — particularly women — should have an established strategy for responding to online harassment before hitting the campaign trail, such as identifying fake accounts and training staff in digital literacy.”What women in particular are going to need to do is think about, What is my strategy for responding to trolls or negative criticism or attacks,’ ” she said. They also need to consider real-time response logistics, from staffing size to specific skillsets of workers, in order to respond effectively, she added.Matthews also said it is imperative that party officials at all levels tell constituents and online commenters that offensive memes and misogynistic attacks, regardless of the target’s political affiliation, aren’t acceptable.Political consultant Jenna Golden, former head of political and advocacy sales at Twitter, said even if candidates face an unbearably toxic environment online, withdrawal from the political arena shouldn’t be the solution.”The solution is not to walk away, the solution is to say, ‘We belong here, this is a place for us, this is an opportunity for us to communicate,’ ” she said during an October panel discussion at American University on challenges facing female candidates.  “As a result, we have to look to all these groups of people and entities and say, ‘How can we come up with a solution together?'”Evolving responsesAnother key finding in Di Meco’s report: Women are increasingly savvy about responding effectively to harassment on the campaign trail.While female candidates have historically been advised to “take the high road” and ignore sexist attacks, Di Meco said new research indicates that many women are seeing an uptick in popularity when responding to harassment by calling it out, whether that’s online or on the campaign trail.”It was found that the better response is, in fact, to call it out, to say that those things aren’t acceptable,” Di Meco said. “When a female politician does that, she recovers in credibility and improves her likability.”Due to technology’s rapid advance, platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are only now offering guidance on navigating social media platforms, partnering with digital-literacy advocates to train political professionals on how to maximize their reach and impact while shielding themselves from attack. The Women and Politics Institute at American University, for example, offers a WeLead training program that offers guidance to young women who want to run for office or run a political campaign.Asked whether the expanded online engagement can translate into more votes, Di Meco said results of the 2018 midterms are a positive sign.”We did see an uptick in the number of female politicians elected. And so I would think that the younger generations are politically active both online and offline,” she said.This story originated in VOA’s Albanian Service. 
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AP Sources: Deval Patrick Mulling Democratic White House Run

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is considering making a late run for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to two people with knowledge of his deliberations, underscoring some Democrats’ deep uncertainty about the party’s current crop of contenders.Patrick, a close friend and ally of former President Barack Obama, ruled out a presidential bid earlier this year but has since been talking with Democratic operatives and donors about launching a campaign. He has not made a final decision on whether to run, but he is expected to do so quickly, given fast-approaching deadlines to get on the ballot in key states.Patrick is the second Democrat to weigh jumping into the race at this late juncture, less than three months before the kickoff Iowa caucuses. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is also reconsidering a run, citing concerns about the current Democratic front-runners’ ability to defeat President Donald Trump. Bloomberg is expected to make a final decision on his 2020 prospects within days.The people with knowledge of Patrick’s deliberations spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.Democrats plunged into the 2020 race with sky high enthusiasm about the prospects of defeating Trump and with a historic number of candidates vying for the nomination. But as the field has started to dwindle, some in the party have raised concerns about the durability of former Vice President Joe Biden and the ability of liberal Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to win in a general election.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.Although Patrick ruled out a run late last year, he reopened conversations with close friends and aides over the summer but did not take active steps to form a campaign. In recent days, those conversations have intensified, with Patrick gauging interest in a run with donors and Democratic operatives.He would face big hurdles to launching a campaign at this late stage. Unlike Bloomberg, a wealthy billionaire who would self-fund, Patrick would have to quickly raise money to build out a campaign operation and boost his familiarity with voters. Some of his former political advisers are already working for other 2020 candidates, including his former chief of staff Doug Rubin, who is working for Tom Steyer.Patrick, who made history as Massachusetts’ first black governor, could gain traction in neighboring New Hampshire, which holds the first primary contest. However, he’d face stiff competition there from two other neighboring state candidates: Warren of Massachusetts and Sanders of Vermont.New Hampshire’s primary filing deadline is Friday.Honoree Michael Bloomberg attends the annual Hudson River Park Gala at Cipriani South Street, Oct. 17, 2019, in New York.Bloomberg plans to skip the early states, where candidates have camped out for months courting voters and building operations. Instead, he’s said he would focus on the crush of states that vote on March 3 — dubbed Super Tuesday — and beyond, where more delegates are at stake.When Patrick decided last year not to run, he cited what he called the “cruelty” of the election process.”After a lot of conversation, reflection and prayer, I’ve decided that a 2020 campaign for president is not for me,” Patrick had posted on his Facebook page. Patrick said he and his wife worried that the “cruelty of our elections process would ultimately splash back on people whom Diane and I love, but who hadn’t signed up for the journey.”Patrick has tried to position himself as more moderate than his party’s left flank and could compete for votes with Biden, who is running as a centrist.Early in his career, Patrick served as assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration and later worked as an executive at Texaco and Coca-Cola. Since leaving the governor’s office, Patrick has worked as a managing director for Bain Capital — a company co-founded by Mitt Romney and widely criticized by Democrats during Romney’s 2012 Republican presidential campaign. 
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Trump Described Ukraine Call as ‘Perfect,’ But Some Republicans Say It Wasn’t

For weeks, as Democratic critics of U.S. President Donald Trump have called for his impeachment, the U.S. leader has repeatedly described his July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as “perfect.”Though it is a violation of U.S. campaign finance law to seek foreign government help in a U.S. election, Trump had asked Zelenskiy to investigate one of his top 2020 Democratic challengers, former Vice President Joe Biden, and Biden’s son’s work for a Ukrainian natural gas company.Trump also asked Zelenskiy to investigate a debunked theory that Ukraine rather than Russia meddled in the 2016 election, as the U.S. intelligence community has concluded.President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the InterContinental Barclay New York hotel during the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 25, 2019, in New York.To Trump’s chagrin, some of his normal Republican supporters are rejecting his “perfect” characterization of the phone call, saying it was wrong, improper or inappropriate, albeit not rising to the level of an offense that Trump should be impeached and removed from office.With public hearings set to start Wednesday targeting him and his three-year presidency, Trump is recoiling at any retreat from full-bore Republican support, though no Republican official has called for Trump to be the first U.S. president to be removed from office in the country’s 243-year history.Even if the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives votes to impeach him in the coming weeks, as numerous Washington political analysts are predicting, his conviction by the Republican-majority Senate remains unlikely.At least 20 Republican senators would need to turn against Trump to oust him from the White House.”The call to the Ukrainian President was PERFECT,” Trump said Sunday on Twitter. “Read the Transcript! There was NOTHING said that was in any way wrong. Republicans, don’t be led into the fools trap of saying it was not perfect, but is not impeachable. No, it is much stronger than that. NOTHING WAS DONE WRONG!”The call to the Ukrainian President was PERFECT. Read the Transcript! There was NOTHING said that was in any way wrong. Republicans, don’t be led into the fools trap of saying it was not perfect, but is not impeachable. No, it is much stronger than that. NOTHING WAS DONE WRONG!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2019While dozens of Democratic lawmakers have criticized the Trump request for “a favor” from Zelenskiy — the investigation of the Bidens — some Republicans are also voicing their opposition.The Washington Post said it had found 13 Republicans who had criticized Trump’s overture to the Ukraine leader.Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said, “It is not a good practice for us ever to ask a foreign country to investigate an American.” But she added, “I don’t see it as impeachable.”Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio said, “I thought it was inappropriate for the president to ask a foreign government to investigate a political opponent,” while adding, “I also do not think it’s an impeachable offense.”John Sullivan, Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to Russia, said at his Senate confirmation hearing, “Soliciting investigations into a domestic political opponent — I don’t think that would be in accord with our values.”Sen. Mitt Romney, the unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate in 2012 and a frequent Trump critic, said, “By all appearances, the president’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling.” 
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Former US Top Diplomat Rice Concerned by Shadow Diplomacy on Ukraine

Condoleezza Rice, a secretary of state under Republican President George W. Bush, said on Monday reports of an unofficial U.S. policy being carried out in Ukraine were “deeply troubling.”Rice was critical of President Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential run but has been more restrained since the Republican took office.State Department officials have testified in the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry about an “irregular channel” of people involved in Ukraine policy, including Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer. Public hearings begin this week.”What I see right now troubles me. I see a state of conflict between the foreign policy professionals and someone who says he’s acting on behalf of the president but frankly I don’t know if that is the case,” Rice, who also served as Bush’s national security adviser, said at a conference in Abu Dhabi.”It is troubling. It is deeply troubling,” she said.The House of Representatives’ inquiry centers on Trump’s July 25 request to Ukraine’s president that he investigate former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, and Biden’s son Hunter, who was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.FILE – Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City, speaks at an event in Ashraf-3 camp, which is a base for the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) in Manza, Albania, July 13, 2019.Witnesses in the inquiry have described how Giuliani and others worked to pressure Ukraine into announcing an investigation of the Bidens. They said Trump and his administration sought to tie $391 million in security aid to Ukraine to an investigation, as well as a White House meeting.The United States has been highly supportive of Ukraine against the threat from Russia, especially after the takeover of the Crimea in 2014.Rice, who went to the White House as a Soviet specialist, said any non-official persons carrying messages for the U.S. administration should make sure they are carrying the same message as the secretary of state or national security adviser.”This is just not a good thing. The world shouldn’t get confusing messages from the United States of America,” she said.Rice also criticized the July 25 call in which Trump made the request of Ukraine’s newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.”The call is murky, it is really murky. I don’t like for the president of the United States to mention an American citizen for investigation to a foreign leader. I think that is out of bounds,” she said. 
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Trump, in Veterans Day Remarks, Hails Recent Deaths of IS Leaders

As the first sitting U.S. president to attend New York City’s Veterans Day parade and lay a wreath at the Eternal Light Memorial, Donald Trump paid tribute to warriors in attendance dating back to World War II.“We pledge to always honor our veterans,” said Trump on Monday morning at the open of the 100th annual parade. “You are America’s greatest living heroes and we will cherish you now, always and forever.”Trump also noted one of the recent highlights of his administration, which is being overshadowed by an impeachment inquiry against him in the Democrat-majority House.Referencing last month’s raid by U.S. special forces against the leader of the Islamic State group, Trump said, “Al-Baghdadi is dead. His second-in-command is dead and we have our eyes on No. 3. His reign of terror is over and our enemies are running very, very scared.”The terror group, on October 31, confirmed the death of its longtime leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and named his replacement as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi.The president’s remarks brought applause from the crowd in Madison Square Park. But some people nearby did not give Trump a warm welcome back to his native city.“As Trump began to speak, a din arose from the west side of the park on 5th Avenue. As Trump’s voice boomed from loudspeakers, chants of ‘Lock him up’ could be heard coming from the crowd,” print pool reporter Eli Stokols of the Los Angeles Times noted in a dispatch to other White House correspondents.Public televised testimony of impeachment proceedings begins Wednesday.This follows closed-door depositions at the Capitol during which witnesses were questioned about whether Trump asked Ukraine to investigate the family of former Vice President and political rival, Joe Biden, who is seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination in next year’s presidential election.Some Democrats say they have already concluded Trump’s actions were a violation of the law and the president should be impeached.If the House impeaches Trump, the Senate – which is controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans – would be compelled to hold a trial to decide whether the president should be removed from office.Democrat Bill Clinton was the last president to face trial in the Senate after the House voted to impeach him in the late 1990s. He was acquitted on perjury and obstruction of justice as neither count received the necessary two-thirds majority vote of the senators present for conviction and removal from office.  Prior to Clinton, only Andrew Johnson faced such a trial. The Senate, in 1868, voted 35 to 19 to convict and remove the Democrat from office – one vote short of the necessary two-thirds.Trump, earlier Monday on Twitter, claimed – without citing any specifics – that the transcripts of the closed-door hearing were “doctored,” while repeating a call for the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Adam Schiff, to be investigated for fraud.Shifty Adam Schiff will only release doctored transcripts. We haven’t even seen the documents and are restricted from (get this) having a lawyer. Republicans should put out their own transcripts! Schiff must testify as to why he MADE UP a statement from me, and read it to all!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 11, 2019The lawyer for the Whistleblower takes away all credibility from this big Impeachment Scam! It should be ended and the Whistleblower, his lawyer and Corrupt politician Schiff should be investigared for fraud!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 11, 2019The deposition transcripts were made available to the witnesses for review before their release. They do, according to the intelligence committee, have “appropriate redactions for classified and other sensitive information.”The president has repeatedly called the impeachment procedure a scam and a witch hunt instigated by his political opponents.
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