A Must See TV Day

Tune in at 10 ET/7 PT:  The impeachment hearings begin today with Bill Taylor, the acting Ambassador to Ukraine, and George Kent, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs first on the hotseat.  The hearings continue on Friday at 9 ET with former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, whose smearing at the hands of Rudy Giuliani and his honchos Lev and Oleg inspired a lot of the fury that ultimately led to all that whistle blowing.  Last night it was announced that eight more witnesses will testify next week: Pence aide Jennifer Williams and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, hopefully decked out in his full military regalia, on Tuesday morning, Kurt Volker, one of the Three Amigos, and Tim Morrison on Tuesday afternoon; Gordon Sondland, another one of the Amigos and Trump’s $1 million donor,  on Wednesday morning and Defense Department Deputy Laura Cooper and State Department official David Hale on Wednesday afternoon; and Russia expert/Bolton Deputy Fiona Hill on Thursday.  Morrison, Volker and Hale were included at the request of the Intelligence Committee’s Republicans but Committee Chair Schiff did not agree to include their other requests so neither Hunter Biden nor the Whistleblower are on the schedule. Expect the Democrats, most notably Schiff and staff/ former federal attorney Daniel Goldman to lay out their case, sticking to the facts and jamming in as many incriminating tidbits as possible.  Expect the Republicans to divert and distract. Helped by their staff attorney Stephen Castor, who is being brought in with Jim “Gym” Jordan from the Oversight Committee, they’ll question the legitimacy of the hearing, assert that Trump did nothing wrong, that if anything wrong was done it was done by rogue actors like Rudy Giuliani and his henchmen or Democrats who together with the Ukrainians plotted against Trump in 2016. Fear of being left holding the bag may be what motivated Rudy Giuliani to get an Op Ed supporting all things Trump and the innocence of the incriminating July 25 Zelensky call published in today’s WSJ. If your day is too jammed to watch the whole kit and kaboodle on almost every station, squeeze in the opening, its going to be jammed packed. Though PBS will not be re-airing everything at night as they did in the Watergate days, they do plan to feature the highlights during their evening programming.

Keep on Dreaming: The impeachment hearings have been dominating the airwaves but they aren’t the only story in town.  Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard final arguments in the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) case.  As expected the four liberal judges appear to be leaning in favor of ruling against the Trump administration’s plan to end DACA, the plan that will turn the 700,000 DACA recipients back into illegal aliens, unemployable and vulnerable to deportation.  The five conservative justices appear to be leaning towards allowing Trump to follow through on his plans. The only chance for the program’s continuation without legislation is that Chief Justice Roberts will join in with the liberals but it’s far from clear that he will do so.  Yesterday, Trump who once said that his heart was with the DACA recipients tweeted “ Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from “angels.” Some are very tough, hardened criminals.” but then added if the “Supreme Court remedies with overturn, a deal will be made with Dems for them to stay!”  He’s been saying that last part for a while, so there is no reason to believe that he means it or that he would risk alienating his right wing base in the run up to the 2020 election.  As to the first part of his tweet, to qualify and stay in the DACA program, your record has to be fairly pristine, so there are no hardened criminals in the program. Anyway the decision is expected sometime in the Spring.   

Only the Best:  Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley continues to make the “buy my book” rounds.  She’s doing her best to destroy any illusions that she was more decent than the rest of Trump’s revolving cabinet instead revealing that she’s just another Trump groupie. Yesterday, she actually told NBC’s Savanah Guthrie  that Trump is a truthful person and that she never doubted his mental acuity. Mike Pence has got to be shaking in his boots, she’s turning out to be even more obsequious than he is, his VP slot looks up for grabs. Departing Secretary of Energy Perry, the third of the Three Amigos, helped two of his political supporters secure a lucrative oil and gas exploration deal from the Ukrainian government.  Perry's efforts on his friends’ behalf occurred earlier this year, just as President Zelensky’s new government was seeking that much discussed US military aid. Nothing new here, just run of the mill swampiness by a Trump cabinet member.  Acting Chief of Staff Mulvaney has decided not to ask the courts to rule on whether he should comply with a House subpoena to testify instead he’s decided that he won’t testify. WaPo reports that that Trump is seriously considering pushing him to the curb, holding back only because a Mulvaney on the outside is even more dangerous than an incompetent Mulvaney on the inside.  NYT reports that Trump is considering firing Michael Atkinson the Intelligence Community Inspector General, for reporting rather than squelching the Whistleblower’s complaint, holding Atkinson responsible for the initiation of the impeachment inquiry. Trump is furious that Atkinson, one of his appointees, isn’t showing him more loyalty, bringing to mind that dinner where he asked former FBI Director Comey for his loyalty and we know how that turned out for Comey and for Trump. Trump has been advised that firing Atkinson during the impeachment hearings wouldn’t end well for him and might actually provoke some Republicans into voting against him, as if.  For his part former security advisor John Bolton who is still a testimony hold out has been talking, a lot.  Apparently, at a closed door, supposedly off the record Morgan Stanley event he  derided Ivanka and Jared and suggested that Trump’s Turkey policies were motivated by personal or financial interests. Sadly, we only know this because six people attending the conference spoke to the press as right now Bolton only talks when being paid to do so.  Lastly, raise your hands if you didn’t think that Stephen Miller, despite his heritage, is a white supremacist.  Yesterday, a trove of emails that he sent to Breitbart in the run up to the 2016 election, promoting white nationalist literature and pushing racist immigration stories, were released by the Southern Poverty Law Center who got them from a former Breitbart employee. White House Press Secretary Grisham responded by attacking the SPLC.  Of course she did.    

Stone Tossing: Closing arguments in the case against Roger Stone are scheduled to take place this afternoon.  Stone didn’t testify and his lawyers called no witnesses because when you are expecting a pardon, why bother? Rick Gates, the former Paul Manafort cohort/Trump deputy campaign manager who has been cooperating with the Feds testified about a call that he overheard Trump having with Stone where the two discussed WikiLeaks and the infamous emails.  The White House had no comment on that but to the extent Gates is telling the truth, and he probably is, Trump lied in his written response to former Special Counsel Mueller.  This should be a humongous story but it’s being crowded out by everything else that’s going on.      

2020:  Although most forgot he was running for the Republican nomination, former South Carolina Governor/Congressman Mark Sanford dropped out of the race yesterday.  Congressman Tim Ryan, who at one point was running for the Democratic nomination endorsed Joe Biden this morning, not surprising given that they are both moderates but notable because he previously said that Biden was declining and lacked clarity.  The most recent Iowa polls shows that Mayor Pete Buttigieg has moved into the lead, up by just a few points he’s in a statistical tie with Joe Biden, who is only one point up on Elizabeth Warren who is followed by Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar.  And Mike Bloomberg who isn’t sure that he is running showed up in Arkansas yesterday to file for the state’s Democratic primary because all roads lead to Little Rock?