memeorandum: Impeaching a president requires both a lens and a mirror (Karen Tumulty/Washington Post)

8:55 AM ET, November 14, 2019

Top Items:

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

Crazy for Trump: On the G.O.P. Plan to Keep Impeachment Partisan — The hearings open with diplomatic gravitas—and nutty conspiracy theories. — It didn't take long for the crazy to start. Even before the first two witnesses in the public impeachment hearings of Donald Trump had been sworn …

Discussion: CNN, The Hill, Progress Pond, New York Times and Washington Post

Renato Mariotti / Politico:

Impeachment Is Not a Fair Fight, and on Day One It Showed — If it looked like House Republicans were throwing a lot of mud at the wall to see what might stick during the first day of public impeachment hearings, that's because they had settled into a strategy many defense attorneys adopt …

Discussion: The Hill, Raw Story, The Week, Balloon Juice, ABC News, Breitbart and Redstate

Just Security:
Highlights of Taylor-Kent Hearing and Connections to Other Witnesses

Discussion: Washington Post and CNN

Reuters:
Consequential, but dull: Trump impeachment hearings begin without a bang

Discussion: Mediaite

Andrew McCarthy / New York Post:
Dems trot out new charge as initial focus of impeachment hearings falls flat

Discussion: Geller Report News

Aila Slisco / Newsweek:
Axios' Swan Says Trump Team, White House Thinks They Won First Day of Impeachment Hearings: ‘They Feel Great Today’

Discussion: Mediaite

Ben Jacobs / New York Magazine: The Impeachment Hearings Get Off to a Subdued Start

Paul Kane / Washington Post:
Diplomats who look and sound the part provide vivid testimony about Trump and Ukraine

Discussion: Washington Blade

Peter Baker / New York Times:
Behind a Star Witness, Democrats Take Their Impeachment Case to the Public

Discussion: PunditFact, Washington Examiner, The Atlantic, CNN and Talking Points Memo

Jonathan Allen / NBC News:
Plenty of substance but little drama on first day of impeachment hearings

Discussion: emptywheel, Breitbart, Balloon Juice and Slate

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:

Ambassador's cellphone call to Trump from Kyiv restaurant was a stunning breach of security, former officials say — A U.S. ambassador's cellphone call to President Trump from a restaurant in the capital of Ukraine last summer was a stunning breach of security, exposing the conversation …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, New York Times, The Week, Politico and POLITICUSUSA

Anton Troianovski / New York Times: As Talks With Putin Loom, Ukraine Looks in Vain for U.S. Help

Matthias Williams / Reuters:
U.S. envoy Sondland did not link Biden probe to aid: Ukraine minister

Discussion: Breitbart

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Scoop: Erdogan upends Oval meeting to play anti-Kurd film on iPad — An Oval Office meeting yesterday with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took a dark turn when Erdoğan pulled out his iPad and made the group watch a propaganda video that depicted Kurds as terrorists …

Discussion: CNN, The Hill, Political Wire and Mediaite

Jordain Carney / The Hill:

Graham blocks resolution recognizing Armenian genocide after Erdoğan meeting — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) blocked a resolution on Wednesday that would have formally recognized the Ottoman Empire's genocide against the Armenian people. — Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) …

Discussion: Fox News, Axios, NBC News and One America News Network

Mike Allen / Axios:

Axios AM — Subscribe — ☕ Good Thursday morning. Today's Smart Brevity™ count: 1,198 words ... 4½ minutes. — 1 big thing ... Scoop: Erdoğan upends Oval meeting to play anti-Kurd film on iPad — An Oval Office meeting with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğ …

Uri Friedman / The Atlantic:
How Trump's ‘Green Light’ Moment in Syria Shook the World

Discussion: NPR and The Intercept

YouTube:

Deval Patrick Announcement Video — In a spirit of profound gratitude for all the country has given to me, with a determination to build a better, more sustainable, more inclusive American Dream for everyone: — I am today announcing my candidacy for President of the United States.

Discussion: Politico, ABC News, The Guardian, NPR, Washington Times, The Week, Bloomberg, Fox News and Axios

CNN:
Deval Patrick announces presidential campaign

Discussion: Q13 FOX News, Political Wire, The Guardian and The Hill

Paul Steinhauser / Fox News:
Deval Patrick jumps into Democratic presidential nomination race

Discussion: Politico, Townhall and One America News Network

Edward-Isaac Dovere / The Atlantic: A New Candidate for Obama's Rightful Heir

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:
Deval Patrick Will Enter 2020 Presidential Race on Thursday

Discussion: The Boston Globe, Patterico's Pontifications, National Review, Washington Free Beacon, Hot Air, No More Mister Nice Blog, CNN and HuffPost

Ann Marimow / Washington Post:

Congress can seek eight years of Trump's tax records, appeals court rules — Congress can seek eight years of President Trump's tax records, according to a federal appeals court order Wednesday that moves the separation-of-powers conflict one step closer to the Supreme Court.

Discussion: HuffPost, Axios and Political Wire

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Court Rejects Trump's Appeal in Fight to Keep Financial Records From Congress — The decision almost certainly paves the way for a major Supreme Court case over President Trump's stonewalling of congressional oversight efforts. — WASHINGTON — A full federal appeals court on Wednesday …

Discussion: The Week and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Eli Lake / Bloomberg:

Trump's Best Defense on Impeachment Undermines His Case for Re-Election — Insubordinate bureaucrats may save him from being removed from office, but they also show him to be a weak president. — The best defense of President Donald Trump on the first day of the House's public impeachment hearings came …

Discussion: CNN and Politico

Vanessa Friedman / New York Times:
George Kent and the Bow Tie of History

Discussion: PolitiFact, Vox and The Daily Beast

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:
Impeaching a president requires both a lens and a mirror

Discussion: MSNBC and Deseret News

Andrew O'Reilly / Fox News:
Schiff cuts off GOP congresswoman who brings up his ‘parody’ of Trump-Zelensky call

Discussion: Associated Press

Josh Feldman / Mediaite:

Rush Limbaugh Mocks Bill Taylor, George Kent as ‘Self-Important Nerds’ Who ‘Believe in Their Own Superiority’ — As the impeachment hearing was underway today, Rush Limbaugh said that both Bill Taylor and George Kent are “self-important nerds” who are only upset because the president wouldn't do foreign policy their way.

Reed Richardson / Mediaite: Nixon WH Lawyer John Dean: First Day of Trump Hearings Yielded More Damning Testimony Than All of Watergate

NBC News:
White House looks both to be in the impeachment fray — and appear above it

Discussion: The Bulwark, Politico and Reuters

CNN:

Exclusive: Trump DC hotel sales pitch boasts of millions to be made from foreign governments — The hotel's biggest selling point though, according to a copy of the brochure seen by CNN, is the one thing that the Trump family insists it didn't take advantage of: profiting off foreign governments.

Discussion: The Hill

Brian Schwartz / CNBC:

Elizabeth Warren buys CNBC commercial time to blast billionaires in a fiery new campaign ad — Sen. Elizabeth Warren is firing back against a group of billionaires who have criticized her plans with a new TV ad set to air on CNBC later this week. — The ad takes aim at longtime investor …

Discussion: New York Times, HuffPost, TheStreet, The Hill, The Week, Twitchy, Raw Story and Mediaite

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: What Democrats and Republicans are telling us about Wednesday's impeachment show — DRIVING THE DAY — DAY ONE IS OVER, and it's hard to encapsulate six hours of hearings in a single headline. We spent the evening in the Capitol chatting up lawmakers, aides and reporters …

Discussion: New York Times, Associated Press and The Week

Blake Flayton / New York Times:

On the Frontlines of Progressive Anti-Semitism — I am a young, gay, left-wing Jew. Yet I am called an “apartheid-enabler,” a “baby killer” and a “colonial apologist.” — Mr. Flayton is a sophomore at George Washington University. — I have never done 23-and-me, nor have I “ancestry.com'd” myself.

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

Michael Bloomberg Has a History of Demeaning Comments About Women — As he prepares a presidential run, Mr. Bloomberg's crude remarks are likely to draw scrutiny. His team issued a statement saying that some of them were “disrespectful and wrong.” — It was a cheeky birthday gift …

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

RNC plunges into Louisiana gov's race amid signs of trouble — The Republican National Committee is pouring another $1 million into the Louisiana governor's race ahead of Saturday's runoff — a move that comes amid mounting GOP concerns about losing a second major election in a conservative state in as many weeks.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Robin Givhan / Washington Post:

For dignity's sake, Jim Jordan, put on a jacket — Of course Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) took his seat Wednesday morning, at the opening of the public impeachment hearings on Capitol Hill, wearing nothing but his shirtsleeves. No suit jacket. That's how Jordan dresses. It's his power move.