memeorandum: Republicans stumbling over question at heart of impeachment (Nicholas Riccardi/Associated Press)

11:50 AM ET, October 11, 2019

Top Items:

At least four national security officials raised alarms about Ukraine policy before and after Trump call with Ukrainian president — At least four national security officials were so alarmed by the Trump administration's attempts to pressure Ukraine for political purposes that they raised concerns …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Week, Raw Story, CNN, POLITICUSUSA, Vanity Fair, The New Civil Rights Movement, Boing Boing and Mediaite

Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:

Senior adviser to Pompeo resigns — Michael McKinley, a career diplomat and senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has resigned his position amid rising dissatisfaction and plummeting morale inside the State Department over what is seen as Pompeo's failure to support personnel ensnared in the Ukraine controversy.

Discussion: Hullabaloo, CNN, New York Post, The Week and Raw Story

NBC News:

Trump's former Russia aide set to give revealing testimony on Giuliani, Sondland — Fiona Hill's appearance next week before Congress has stoked fear among people close to the president. — WASHINGTON — Fiona Hill, who was until recently President Donald Trump's top aide on Russia and Europe …

Discussion: Washington Post and Boing Boing

Washington Examiner:

Joe Biden worked with whistleblower when he was vice president, officials reveal — The 2020 Democratic candidate with whom the CIA whistleblower had a “professional” tie is Joe Biden, according to intelligence officers and former White House officials. — Lawyers for the whistleblower …

Associated Press:

Diplomat removed after upholding protocol, ex-official says — WASHINGTON (AP) — The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was removed from her post after insisting that Rudy Giuliani's requests to Ukrainian officials for investigations be relayed through official channels, according to a former diplomat who has spoken with her.

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Dan Mangan / CNBC:

Federal appeals court rejects Trump's bid to block House subpoena for his financial records — A federal appeals court on Friday rejected President Donald Trump's bid to block a House committee subpoena for his financial documents from his accounting firm.

Discussion: Political Wire

Axios:
Appeals court upholds House subpoena for Trump's financial records

Discussion: Fox News and Associated Press

CNN:

Fact check: Trump falsely claims ‘we have no soldiers in Syria’ — (CNN)President Donald Trump falsely claimed on Thursday that the United States has no troops in Syria. — Trump was defending his decision to remove American troops from a part of northern Syria that Turkey wanted to attack.

Discussion: Sputnik International, Defense One, Althouse and Reason

Spencer Ackerman / The Daily Beast:
Trump Says U.S. Troops Have Quit Syria. It's Not True.

Discussion: Associated Press, Politico, Slate and Al Jazeera

Lara Seligman / Foreign Policy: 'Some of the Most Noble People I'd Ever Met'

Elizabeth Dias / New York Times:
‘Shame on Him’: Evangelicals Call Out Trump on Syria

Discussion: The Guardian, The Federalist and Raw Story

Julia Davis / The Daily Beast:
Trump's Syria Fiasco Is Part of Putin's To-Do List

Discussion: CNBC and Washington Post

Natasha Bertrand / Politico:
Lindsey Graham dishes on Trump in hoax calls with Russians

Carol Morello / Washington Post: U.N. Security Council fails to condemn Turkey's military action in Syria

Kenneth P. Vogel / New York Times:

Giuliani's Ukraine Team: In Search of Influence, Dirt and Money — The president's lawyer was paid by Lev Parnas, who with Igor Fruman worked on behalf of President Trump in Ukraine. — WASHINGTON — When Rudolph W. Giuliani set out to dredge up damaging information on President Trump's rivals in Ukraine …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Progress Pond, The Week, Raw Story, CNN, Just Security, The National Interest, Law & Crime, Vox, TheBlaze, emptywheel, Hullabaloo, The Atlantic, Talking Points Memo and The Daily Caller

Elaina Plott / The Atlantic:

The Mystery of Rudy Giuliani's Vienna Trip — Last night, when Rudy Giuliani told me he couldn't get together for an interview, his reason made sense: As with many nights of late, he was due to appear on Hannity. When I suggested this evening instead, his response was a bit more curious.

Cameron Joseph / VICE:
Kevin McCarthy Is Donating the Cash He Took From Rudy Giuliani's Indicted Pals

Discussion: Politico, The Hill, Sun-Sentinel, Shareblue Media, Jewish Insider, Axios, CNN and ABC News

Bloomberg:
Rudy Giuliani Draws Prosecutors' Scrutiny With Ukraine Allies' Arrest

Discussion: Raw Story

Sam Stein / The Daily Beast:
Dems Want to Know: Who Paid Rudy?

Discussion: Washington Post, CANNONFIRE, Raw Story, CNN, Fortune, Associated Press and Chicago Sun-Times

Nicholas Riccardi / Associated Press:

Republicans stumbling over question at heart of impeachment — DENVER (AP) — A simple yes-or-no question keeps tripping up Senate Republicans: Should the president ask foreign countries to investigate political rivals? — A month ago the question was a legal and constitutional no-brainer.

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Trump predicts senators will quash impeachment. His allies aren't so sure.

Discussion: The White House

Wall Street Journal:
GOP Senators' Concerns Muddy Path to Dismiss Possible Impeachment Charges

Discussion: Raw Story, Honest Graft, Daily Kos and Mediaite

David M. Drucker / Washington Examiner:
McSally allies plead for air cover as Democratic groups pummel the Arizona senator

Discussion: Political Wire

Jonathan Lemire / Associated Press:

Analysis: In impeachment fight, it's Trump vs. Constitution — NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump has spent his time in office trying to bend the conventions of the American presidency to his will. Now he appears to be trying to override a core principle of democracy: that no one is above the law.

Discussion: One America News Network, Politico, Shareblue Media and Breitbart

Seung Min Kim / Washington Post:
Trump obfuscates, misleads and exaggerates to make his case against impeachment

Discussion: The White House

Rachael Bade / Washington Post: New revelations about Trump test Pelosi's narrow impeachment strategy

Associated Press:

Iran says oil tanker struck by missiles off Saudi Arabia — TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Two missiles struck an Iranian tanker traveling through the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia on Friday, Iranian officials said, the latest incident in the region amid months of heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, American Military News, NPR, Washington Post and Liberty Unyielding

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: The drama behind Trump's outreach to Trey Gowdy

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Raw Story

Hunter Walker / Yahoo News:
‘Trey is a joke among us’: Gowdy is a divisive addition to Trump's legal team

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, POLITICUSUSA and Raw Story

Washington Post:
Trump asked Tillerson to help broker deal to end U.S. prosecution of Turkish trader represented by Giuliani

Discussion: New York Times, MSNBC and CAFE

David Freedlander / New York Magazine:

How Trump-Country Democrat Rep. Max Rose Got to Impeachment — Because this is a story about Max Rose, it has to at some point find him at Jody's Club Forest, a Staten Island bar he famously frequents, drinking pitchers of Bud Light. And because Max Rose is who he is …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Alexander Nazaryan / Yahoo News:

Pentagon officials deemed withholding of aid to Ukraine was illegal — WASHINGTON — The Pentagon was confused. Hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine had been appropriated in late 2018 by Congress, intended to help fend off aggression by neighboring Russia.

Discussion: Raw Story, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Politico, CNN, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos and Mother Jones

Allyson Chiu / Washington Post:

‘Stunning in ugliness & tone’: Trump denounced for attacking Somali refugees in Minnesota — For roughly six minutes Thursday night, President Trump predictably singled out Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) during his campaign rally in her home district of Minneapolis.

Discussion: Axios, Slate, Al Jazeera, Sputnik International and HuffPost

Abbey Marshall / Politico:

Larry Hogan comes out in support of Trump impeachment inquiry — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan publicly expressed support for the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, joining a small but growing number of Republicans breaking from the party's mostly unwavering support of the president.

Discussion: Political Wire

New York Times:

Barr Meets With Murdoch as Trump Steps Up His Criticism of Fox News — William P. Barr, the attorney general, met privately Wednesday evening with one of President Trump's frequent confidantes, Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul whose holdings includes Fox News, which has recently become more critical of the president.

Discussion: The Wrap, CNN, Breitbart, The Week, Raw Story and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

At Minneapolis Rally, an Angry Trump Reserves Sharpest Attack for Biden — MINNEAPOLIS — A fired-up President Trump lashed out against Democrats at a combative campaign rally on Thursday night, deriding them as “very sick and deranged people” who were only investigating him for abuse of power in order to “erase your vote.”

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Common Dreams

Los Angeles Times:

Trump's children take in millions overseas as president slams Biden's son — Eric Trump sounded shocked that Hunter Biden hadn't drawn more criticism for his lucrative business deals in Ukraine and China while his father, Joe Biden, was vice president. — “Can you imagine if I took 3 cents from the Ukraine or 4 cents from China?”

Ashley Feinberg / Slate:

Bret Stephens Backs Out of Bedbug Debate — New York Times opinion columnist and man who thinks it's deeply important to engage in open debate Bret Stephens has backed out of an upcoming scheduled event at George Washington University, where he was set to discuss civil discourse online with professor Dave Karpf.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and Mediaite

Brianna Sacks / BuzzFeed News:

A Group Of Students Burned A Latina Author's Book Because They Felt Attacked For Being White — Jennine Capó Crucet spoke about “white privilege” at Georgia Southern University. The freshman audience said she attacked them for being white and privileged.

Discussion: USA Today and The College Fix

Tim Elfrink / Washington Post:

Prince's reps say Trump broke a promise by playing ‘Purple Rain’ at his latest rally. They have receipts. — As President Trump walked offstage from a campaign rally at the Target Center in Minneapolis on Thursday, thousands of supporters in Make America Great Again gear bobbed along …

Discussion: New York Times, NPR, Breitbart and Deadline