Top Items:
CNN:
Republican senators echoed Biden in urging Ukrainian president to reform prosecutor general's office — (CNN)A newly unearthed letter from 2016 shows that Republican senators pushed for reforms to Ukraine's prosecutor general's office and judiciary, echoing calls then-Vice President Joe Biden made at the time.
Discussion:
Vox, Occupy Democrats, Slate, Raw Story, KTLA, Law & Crime and Politico
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Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:
Trump keeps making it harder for supporters to defend him — As President Trump keeps talking, he makes it more and more difficult for his supporters to mount an actual defense of his underlying behavior. — Trump's pushback against impeachment efforts seemed to be gaining some traction …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Trump Just Committed More High Crimes on the White House Lawn — Donald Trump is being impeached for using his office to pressure foreign countries to investigate his political rivals. It is not clear Trump understands that, because he simply continues committing this offense in broad daylight.
Discussion:
Washington Post and Political Wire
Eileen Sullivan / New York Times:
Trump Publicly Urges China to Investigate the Bidens — President Trump said he had not personally asked President Xi Jinping of China to examine the Bidens, “but it's certainly something we can start thinking about.” — The public statement came as the House begins an impeachment inquiry …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Law & Crime, Vanity Fair, Outside the Beltway, Althouse and The Week
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Pence: I Participated in the Ukraine Plot But Only As a Patsy — Vice-President Mike Pence is knee-deep in the Ukraine scandal. He is floating the absurd defense that, while he did participate in Trump's plan to extort Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden, he was completely ignorant of what he was doing.
Discussion:
Shareblue Media, Vox, Vanity Fair, NBC News, The Daily Beast, The Nation, HuffPost, Washington Post, POLITICUSUSA, Axios and Occupy Democrats
Adam Edelman / NBC News:
Trump publicly urges China, Ukraine to investigate Bidens amid impeachment inquiry — Trump has repeatedly accused Hunter Biden of using a 2013 trip on Air Force Two with his father to procure $1.5 billion from China for a fund he started. — Trump: Ukraine and China ‘should investigate’ the Bidens
Discussion:
Public Citizen, CNN, Fox News, Vox, HuffPost, Raw Story and twitchy.com
Washington Post:
Odd markings, ellipses fuel doubts about the ‘rough transcript’ of Trump's Ukraine call
Odd markings, ellipses fuel doubts about the ‘rough transcript’ of Trump's Ukraine call
Discussion:
emptywheel, Daily Kos and Althouse
Washington Post:
Live updates: Trump calls for China to investigate Bidens; former Ukraine envoy testifies on Capitol Hill
Live updates: Trump calls for China to investigate Bidens; former Ukraine envoy testifies on Capitol Hill
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, New York Times, CANNONFIRE, Raw Story, NPR, Axios, Balloon Juice and Mediaite
Aaron Rupar / Vox:
Irony is dead: The Trump sons are doing everything possible to make corruption a major 2020 issue
Irony is dead: The Trump sons are doing everything possible to make corruption a major 2020 issue
Discussion:
Politico, PolitiFact and The Atlantic
Zachary Basu / Axios:
Schiff calls Trump's call for China to investigate Bidens “repugnant”
Schiff calls Trump's call for China to investigate Bidens “repugnant”
Discussion:
New York Times, Vanity Fair and Political Wire
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
How this scandal could get much worse for Trump — and Pence
How this scandal could get much worse for Trump — and Pence
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Vanity Fair, New York Times, The Week and American Military News
Associated Press:
Trump calls for China to investigate Bidens
Trump calls for China to investigate Bidens
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Deseret News and Associated Press
Grace Segers / CBS News:
Trump suggests Ukraine and China should investigate the Bidens - live updates
Trump suggests Ukraine and China should investigate the Bidens - live updates
Discussion:
NB Blog, Breitbart, Fox News, FOX News Radio, Raw Story and Liberty Unyielding
Adam Serwer / The Atlantic:
The Mad King's Enablers
The Mad King's Enablers
Discussion:
CNN, Raw Story and Slate, more at Mediagazer »
Fadel Allassan / Axios:
3 GOP senators called for Ukrainian government reform in 2016 letter
3 GOP senators called for Ukrainian government reform in 2016 letter
Discussion:
Raw Story and Washington Post
Susan Page / USA Today:
Perilous times for President Trump: By 45%-38%, Americans support impeaching him over allegations related to Ukraine, poll finds — From the moment Donald Trump became a national political figure, he has been cloaked in controversy and shadowed by investigations.
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Andrew Kirell / The Daily Beast:
CNN Refuses to Air Trump Ad Pushing Biden-Ukraine Claims and Bashing Network Anchors — The 30-second spot paints the president as a victim of Democrats and alleged “media lapdogs” like CNN. — In a move that is sure to ratchet up tension with the White House, cable news channel CNN …
Discussion:
New York Times, Axios, Townhall, The Daily Caller, Deadline, POLITICUSUSA, Political Wire and Mediaite
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Josh Rogin / Washington Post:
In May, Ukrainian oligarch said Giuliani was orchestrating a ‘clear conspiracy against Biden’ — Months before an intelligence community whistleblower accused President Trump's lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani of digging for dirt on former vice president Joe Biden in Ukraine …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, KTLA, Mediaite, Politico, Inquirer.com and The Week
Katherine Faulders / ABC News:
‘Crazy to withhold security assistance’ to Ukraine for political purposes: Top US diplomat — In newly disclosed text messages shared with Congress, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine at the time writes to a group of other American diplomats that “I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”
Andrew Napolitano / Fox News:
Judge Andrew Napolitano: Trump's call with Ukraine president manifests criminal and impeachable behavior — The House of Representatives has begun to gather evidence in an effort to determine if President Trump has committed impeachable offenses. The Constitution defines an impeachable offense as …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Shareblue Media, Law & Crime and Raw Story
George T. Conway III / The Atlantic:
Unfit for Office — On a third-down play last season, the Washington Redskins quarterback Alex Smith stood in shotgun formation, five yards behind the line of scrimmage. As he called his signals, a Houston Texans cornerback, Kareem Jackson, suddenly sprinted forward from a position four yards behind the defensive line.
Discussion:
Axios, Mediaite, Law & Crime and Raw Story
Judd at Popular Information / Popular Information:
Facebook says Trump can lie in his Facebook ads — Last week, Facebook quietly changed the language of its advertising policies to make it easier for politicians to lie in ads. — On Tuesday, the Trump campaign launched a new ad on Facebook, which includes a claim that was ruled false by Facebook-approved third-party fact-checkers.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Mother Jones, Los Angeles Times, Balloon Juice, New York Post and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »
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Bill Barrow / Associated Press:
Biden ads focus on early-voting states as he counters Trump
Biden ads focus on early-voting states as he counters Trump
Discussion:
Politico, ABC News and Political Wire
Lachlan Markay / The Daily Beast:
White House Floats Potential DOJ Investigation Into ‘Joe Biden and His Family’ — A tiny, largely unnoticed edit to a daily White House newsletter this week suggests the Trump administration is leaving open the possibility of siccing the Justice Department on Joe Biden.
Discussion:
The White House
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
Trump's video taken off Twitter after band Nickelback complains — US president receives copyright censure over video that took aim at political rival Joe Biden — A video posted by Donald Trump has been removed from Twitter following a copyright claim by the rock band Nickelback.
Discussion:
ABC News, Fortune, Trending Politics, CNN, Deseret News, Slate, Gizmodo, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, David Harris Jr, The Daily Caller, RedState, Splinter, NB Blog, The Verge and Shareblue Media
Steven Lemongello / Orlando Sentinel:
Watch: Trump arrives to The Villages today amid impeachment probe — THE VILLAGES - The official subject of President Trump's visit to The Villages this afternoon is Medicare. — But his first large event before a friendly crowd since Congress began impeachment hearings last week could make it hard for him to resist sounding off.
Discussion:
Raw Story
BuzzFeed News:
The New Way To Hack Democracy: The Political Operatives Who Fake Voter Outrage With Millions Of Made-Up Comments — Sarah Reeves sat on her couch in Eugene, Oregon, staring at her laptop screen in furious disbelief. She was reading the website of a government agency, where her mother appeared …
Discussion:
Politico
Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Matt Lieberman, son of former VP nominee, runs for Senate in Georgia — Matt Lieberman, an entrepreneur who is the son of former U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, became the first Democrat to enter the race for retiring Republican Johnny Isakson's seat on Thursday with a promise to be a voice for frustrated Georgians.
Discussion:
ABC News
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Lachlan Markay / The Daily Beast:
Book Alleging Biden Corruption in Ukraine Lifted Passages From Wikipedia — In more than a dozen instances, Peter Schweizer's book “Secret Empires” appears to have copied complete sentences or large parts of them from other sources. — A book that has fueled corruption allegations …
Discussion:
Bloomberg
Alexandra Petri / Washington Post:
For the last time, Trump's every move is brilliant and calculated — “There are different ways to bake the cake, depending on what sort of cake you want. Different flavoring, different temperatures, different ingredients yield different types of cake, and the president as the master baker …
Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post:
Trump's removal would require Republican dissidents. But those who speak out become targets of viral disinformation. — In the conspiracy-obsessed echo chambers of conservative talk radio and far-right websites, Sen. Mitt Romney has some explaining to do — answering for ties …
Lee Drutman / FiveThirtyEight:
If Republicans Ever Turn On Trump, It'll Happen All At Once — In the House, Democrats are inching ever closer to impeaching President Trump. Some are even pushing for drafting articles of impeachment by Thanksgiving and, potentially, sending proceedings to the Senate by early next year.
Discussion:
Raw Story
BuzzFeed News:
Attorney General Bill Barr Will Ask Zuckerberg To Halt Plans For End-To-End Encryption Across Facebook's Apps — Attorney General Bill Barr, along with officials from the United Kingdom and Australia, is set to publish an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, asking the company …
Discussion:
New York Times, 9to5Mac and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
Washington Post:
Giuliani consulted on Ukraine with imprisoned Paul Manafort via a lawyer — In his quest to rewrite the history of the 2016 election, President Trump's personal attorney has turned to an unusual source of information: Trump's imprisoned former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Discussion:
Politico, HuffPost, Talking Points Memo, New York Post, Axios, The Week and Splinter
Rick Wilson / The Daily Beast:
Trump Is Going to Burn Down Everything and Everyone, and Republicans, That Means You — That press conference was terrifying. And congressional Republicans should be more afraid than anyone. Trump's going down and taking them with him. — BEAST INSIDE
Kyle Kondik / Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball:
The Senate: Ratings Changes and the Shadow of Impeachment — KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE — Nationalization is an increasingly important trend in American election outcomes. It's hard to think of a more nationalizing issue than a presidential impeachment.
Discussion:
Daily Kos
Molly Ball / TIME:
Why Kamala Harris Is Struggling to Find Her Footing — Sometimes Kamala Harris wakes up in the middle of the night because there's something on her mind. Did anybody get back to so-and-so? How is my stepdaughter adjusting to her apartment in New York City?
Discussion:
Fox News, Axios and Los Angeles Times
Charles M. Blow / New York Times:
Donald Is Desperate — He will do and say whatever he can to avoid impeachment. — On Wednesday I watched Donald Trump in the Oval Office, while seated next to the Finnish president, take questions from reporters in what can only be described as the unhinged rantings of a desperate man melting down …
Discussion:
ABC News, Hullabaloo, JONATHAN TURLEY, CNN, CNBC and The Verge