Ukraine, Ukraine, Russia

Tune in Tomorrow:  In 1995 Trump  donated $300,000 to the NYC Veterans Day Parade, requesting that in exchange he be made that year’s grand marshal.  Since he’d never served in the military his request was turned down.  Later during his presidential campaign and into his term he slammed war hero John McCain, went after a Muslim Gold Star family and misused some of his charity’s money for a veterans event that was really a campaign rally.  But being president comes with benefits so despite his lack of service and past behavior he finally got his parade.  Facing a mix of cheers and jeers, some MAGA hats, lock him up chants, signs poking fun at his bone spurs and others calling for his impeachment, he read from a teleprompter, mangled a few multi syllabic words, but mostly said appropriately respectful things about vets. Mixed reception and all, the parade is likely to be the highpoint of his week because despite his plans to sit down with Turkey’s President Erdogan as the impeachment hearings begin the theme of the rest of the week will be about impeachment. 

Writing Lessons:  To get impeachment week started, House Democrats released a few more testimony transcripts.  Though Trump is now insisting those transcripts are being doctored to make him look bad, there is no evidence of or need for such embellishment, the facts speak for themselves.  Pushing back at one defense, that there was no quid pro quo because the Ukrainians didn’t know that their promised aid was being held up, State Department Ukraine specialist Catherine Croft said that the Ukrainians “found out very early on” that the funds had been frozen as the result of a decision at the Office of Management and Budget made at Trump’s behest and circulated to other government officials on July 18.  Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, confirmed that, testifying that Croft’s boss at the time, Kurt Volker, one of the Three Amigos, had led Cooper to make a “very strong inference” that the Ukrainians knew there was a hold on the military aid long before that information was made public. Volker also told her that he was working through a “nontraditional” diplomatic channel, as in one Rudy Giuliani and his cronies, to get the Ukrainian government to commit to prosecuting people involved in US election interference and that the aid could be released if that effort was successful. Foreign Service Officer Christopher Anderson’s testimony put to bed Trump’s assertion that he barely knew that other Three Amigo Gordon Sondland, he testified that Sondland was taken seriously because of his connection to the White House.  The bottom line is that the testimony released yesterday reinforced how Trump, acting Chief of Staff Mulvaney and the Office of Management and Budget that he led before moving to his White House position, “worked against the advice, expertise and counsel of every other US governmental agency involved in Ukraine policy when it came to delivering the congressionally approved money.” And proving once again that everything goes back to Russia, at one point Trump cancelled a scheduled Black Sea naval exercise because CNN reported that it was to pushback at Russian aggression and early on Mulvaney reportedly said he was sitting on the delivery of the anti-tank missiles promised to Ukraine so as not to upset Russia.

Open testimony begins tomorrow, it will be aired on most stations, and recognizing that the American public tends to have a short attention span, reports are that it will be frontloaded so that the really bad stuff gets summarized and revealed early.  Democrats are ceding their 45 minute questioning slot to Daniel Goldman, the House Intelligence Committee lawyer who previously worked as an Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of New York where among other things he successfully tried a Genovese Family boss and two hitmen on a RICO case. As one of his former colleagues said, “He’ll do fine.”

Mulvaney Stew:  Doing fine is more than can be said for Mick Mulvaney, yesterday his lawyer’s attempt to get him included in former national security advisor John Bolton and his deputy Charles Kupperman’s case, the one where they are trying to outsource to the courts their decision as to whether they should testify in front of Congress or obey White House instructions to remain silent, was rebuffed by Bolton who apparently is no fan of Mulvaney’s. Either in response to Bolton’s push back or as the result of an indication from the Judge overseeing the case that he’s not inclined to accept Mulvaney’s request, Mulvaney is now going it alone.  The Washington Post reports that he is also facing pushback within the White House, duking it out with White House Counsel Cipollone over who should direct the war against impeachment.  Judging by their accomplishments to date, it appears that neither one of them is up for the task but that’s what happens when you are working with C Team players.  As to C players, Trump is now waiting for former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to unwind her role as a Qatar lobbyist so that she can join his impeachment messaging team. His ties to Bondi go back awhile, as noted in his charity fraud case, he directed $25,000 from his fraudulent charity to her campaign, shortly after getting those funds she decided not to investigate his corrupt Trump University.  In other words, she’s perfect for the job.   

2020:  Taking the count up to twenty, another senior Republican Congressman, Long Island’s Peter King,  has decided to throw in the towel.  By Republican standards, King, despite his rather virulent anti-Muslim stance, was considered a moderate.  His Republican leaning district is now viewed as vulnerable for a Democratic pick-up.  Last night, former Congressman Elijah Cummings’ widow Maya Rockeymoore Cummings resigned her post as Maryland State Democratic Chair and announced that she will be running for his vacated seat.  Another Democrat may be dipping his toes into the presidential race.  Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is now seriously considering a run, so seriously that he’s already told the other leading candidates that he’s exploring his options. For the record Mike Bloomberg’s toe dipping doesn’t appear to be working out all that well for him, so far. He looks good in the polls against Trump but it’s not clear how he could win the Democratic nomination, the impediment that kept him out of the race in the first place. Despite Trump’s mud throwing, all the questions about his campaign, and his fundraising capability, a recent Quinnipiac poll shows Joe Biden narrowly in the lead in New Hampshire which is surprising because given New Hampshire’s proximity to Vermont and Massachusetts it’s supposed to be a lay-up for either Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.  And though she’s not formally running for anything though we know she is, former UN Ambassador/South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley continues to do the rounds.  Last night she told Fox’s Sean Hannity that the investigations against Trump were one sided and that it would be okay to investigate Joe Biden, his son Hunter and even Obama.  Separately Rex Tillerson came out of wherever he’s been hiding to deny her assertion that he and then Chief of Staff Kelly ever tried to enlist her in their efforts to mute Trump’s worse instincts, but then again he still refuses to admit that he called Trump a moron.