memeorandum: Susan Rice: Obama Put Call Transcripts On Top Secret Server, Too (David Marcus/The Federalist)

4:50 PM ET, September 28, 2019

Top Items:

Forget impeachment. Donald Trump needs to resign — THE VISCERAL REACTION I had to the summary of President Trump's phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky was that he should resign the presidency. So obvious and brazen was the abuse of presidential power …

Discussion: RedState and Palmer Report

Associated Press:

For Trump, a high-velocity threat like none he's ever faced — WASHINGTON (AP) — From the moment Donald Trump became a national political figure, he has been shadowed by investigations and controversy. — They have been layered, lengthy and often inconclusive, leaving many Americans scandal-weary and numb to his behavior.

Discussion: NPR, FOX6Now.com and globalnews.ca

Hearst Connecticut / Connecticut Post:
President Trump needs to step down

Discussion: Mediaite

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Public opinion polls show shift toward impeaching Trump

Discussion: Disrn, New York Post and Reuters

Jeremy Hobson / WBUR: Former Sen. Jeff Flake On The Trump Impeachment Inquiry 05:54

Michael Balsamo / Associated Press:

Trump blurs lines between personal lawyer, attorney general — WASHINGTON (AP) — As Washington plunges into impeachment, Attorney General William Barr finds himself engulfed in the political firestorm, facing questions about his role in President Donald Trump's outreach to Ukraine …

Rich Schapiro / NBC News:

Rudy Giuliani's former DOJ colleagues believe he committed crimes in pushing Biden probe — “I think the Giuliani that I know would prosecute the Giuliani of today,” said Jeffrey Harris, who worked closely with him in the 1980s. — On a Friday in late July, Rudy Giuliani boarded a plane …

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
The Ukraine Scandal Is a Fitting Symbol of Trump's Presidency. It May Finally Be His Downfall.

Discussion: Slate

Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:

If Democrats impeach Trump, a GOP House would probably impeach the next Democratic president — House Democrats are poised to impeach President Trump once they've spent more time following the leads in the whistleblower complaint. But should they take that step in a heavily partisan process …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, POLITICUSUSA, Raw Story, The Week and New York Post

Dan Balz / Washington Post: Republicans might oppose impeachment, but do they condone what Trump did?

Neil Vigdor / New York Times:
Mark Amodei Is First House Republican to Support Trump Impeachment Inquiry

Discussion: Rolling Stone, Vox, LGBTQ Nation, KTLA, Townhall, The Week, Axios, New York Post and Breitbart

Washington Post:

Trump told Russian officials in 2017 he wasn't concerned about Moscow's interference in U.S. election — President Trump told two senior Russian officials in a 2017 Oval Office meeting that he was unconcerned about Moscow's interference in the U.S. election because the United States did the same …

Benjamin Wittes / Lawfare:

Collusion After the Fact — The Washington Post reported last night: … Shortly after the story broke, I received a message from a person directly involved with the FBI's decision to open a counterintelligence and obstruction investigation of President Trump in the immediate aftermath of the firing of FBI Director James Comey.

Discussion: HuffPost, Slate, The Guardian and Daily Kos

Julian Borger / The Guardian:

Trump's Ukraine call sparks new questions over intelligence chief's firing — The president removed Dan Coats days after his conversation with Zelenskiy and insisted that Coats's deputy not get the job — Three days after his now infamous phone conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy …

Discussion: CNBC and Alternet.org

Ephrat Livni / Quartz: Ukraine's president is being dubbed “Monica Zelensky” at home

Jeff Schogol / Task & Purpose: The Pentagon is doing its damnedest to avoid being dragged into the Ukraine mess

David Marcus / The Federalist:

Susan Rice: Obama Put Call Transcripts On Top Secret Server, Too — Former national security adviser Susan Rice acknowledged last night that the Obama administration moved transcripts of conversations with foreign leaders onto the same top-secret server where the Trump administration stored …

Discussion: RedState, Patterico's Pontifications, ABC News and Occupy Democrats

Ari Fleischer / Fox News:
Dem drive to impeach Trump over Ukraine call is hysterical, hyperbolic and hypocritical

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Daily Caller

Ian Hanchett / Breitbart:
Maher: If Don Jr. Did What Hunter Biden Did, ‘It Would Be all Rachel Maddow Was Talking About’

Discussion: Axios and Washington Post

Marisa Iati / Washington Post:

Chief accused of slamming black teen's head into door: Trump is ‘last hope for white people’ — A former New Jersey police chief standing trial for allegedly slamming a black teenager's head into a door jamb reportedly called President Trump “the last hope for white people” before the 2016 election.

Phil McCausland / NBC News:

Trump blasts ‘savages’ — Ocasio-Cortez, three other women of color, Schiff, Nadler — “Savages” started to trend on Twitter after the president's post, which comes amid a House impeachment inquiry into his dealings with Ukraine. — President Donald Trump blasted six members of the House …

Discussion: RedState, Talking Points Memo and CNN

Quint Forgey / Politico:

How Mitch McConnell could give impeachment the Merrick Garland treatment — It's on track to be the trial of the century: President Donald Trump fighting to keep his job before a jury of 100 senators. — It also could never happen. — That's because of a Constitution that designates the Senate with the …

Discussion: CNN and The Week

Carlos Greer / Page Six:

Lindsey Graham loudly blabs about whistleblower controversy on commercial flight — Sen. Lindsey Graham on Friday gave a commercial flight a private preview of his appearance on CBS's “Face the Nation,” a source told Page Six, including calling the whistleblower controversy “Kavanaugh on steroids!”

Discussion: The Guardian

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: 'Don't overthink it'

Discussion: Axios, Mother Jones and Raw Story

Bud Kennedy / Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

11,000 college votes in '18 turned Tarrant County purple. Now campus voting may end — More than 11,000 votes were cast on local college campuses like UT Arlington and TCU last year — many for Democrats. — Now, county officials have no plans to offer college voting sites for the 2020 election.

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Impeaching the Peach One — There are observers, including critics of President Trump, who are skeptical of the push for impeachment. Not because he hasn't earned the contempt and sanction of Congress, but because the politics are too risky. Will the public support an impeachment investigation …

Ivana Kottasová / CNN:

Boris Johnson has been referred to a police watchdog over his alleged relationship with an American businesswoman — (CNN)British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been referred to a police watchdog over his alleged relationship with an American businesswoman when he was mayor of London.

Discussion: Raw Story

CNN:

Mulvaney on shaky ground in wake of whistleblower fallout, sources say — (CNN)Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney is on shaky ground in the wake of a bad week for President Trump, according to multiple sources with knowledge of discussions surrounding the whistleblower fallout.

John Daniel Davidson / The Federalist:

Texas Democrat Forced To Apologize For Saying Gov. Greg Abbott ‘Hates Trees Because One Fell On Him’ — Sometimes the mask slips. — Yesterday I attended a panel at the Texas Tribune Festival, an annual gathering of politicos and media figures in Austin, where both audience and speakers tend to be disproportionately leftist.

Discussion: Fox News, The Texas Tribune, RedState and twitchy.com

New York Times:

Sandeep Dhaliwal, Sikh Sheriff's Deputy, Is Fatally Shot Near Houston — The Harris County deputy, who made headlines after gaining an exemption to wear a turban as part of his uniform, was shot during a traffic stop. — A sheriff's deputy in Texas who was an observant Sikh …

Discussion: CNN, FOX59 and Breitbart

Miami Herald:

Prosecutors: Army official at Mar-a-Lago uploaded suspected child porn to Russian website — A military official formerly in charge of all White House communications for the U.S. Army at Mar-a-Lago was sentenced to three years of probation on Friday after he made false statements …

Discussion: Palm Beach Post, Fox News and Raw Story

Gabriel Debenedetti / New York Magazine:

Is Impeachment the End of the Road for Most of the 2020 Field? — The closing days of a fundraising quarter are usually hectic for presidential candidates and their top-level staffers, who are tasked with pulling in every last dime they can find and figuring out what to do with the cash.

Discussion: Political Wire