memeorandum: Trump complains about impeachment hearing during NATO trip (Aamer Madhani/Associated Press)

7:15 PM ET, December 2, 2019

Top Items:

Rep. Duncan Hunter to plead guilty in campaign finance scandal, leave Congress — Longtime congressman says he wants to spare his family the spectacle of a trial, which was to start Jan. 22 — After years of denials and claims he was the target of a political witch hunt, Rep. Duncan Hunter …

Discussion: Bloomberg, HuffPost, Raw Story, Law & Crime and The American Independent

KUSI Newsroom / KUSI-TV:

Congressman Duncan D. Hunter announces guilty plea on one count of misuse of campaign funds — SAN DIEGO - For 39 years, the Hunter family has represented San Diego in the 50th Congressional District, but that may come to an end next year. — Hunter is is charged with using campaign funds …

John Bresnahan / Politico:

Rep. Duncan Hunter to plead guilty in campaign finance violations case — GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter will plead guilty in federal court on Tuesday after denying for more than a year that he illegally misused campaign funds. — Hunter told TV station KUSI in San Diego that “Tomorrow, on Tuesday, I'm going to change my plea to guilty.”

Discussion: NBC News and Fox News

CNN:
Rep. Duncan Hunter to plead guilty in case alleging misuse of campaign funds

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Alayna Treene / Axios:

GOP impeachment report claims Trump did nothing wrong — President Trump committed “no quid pro quo, bribery, extortion, or abuse of power,” Republicans on the House committees investigating the Ukraine controversy have concluded in a 110-page report reviewed by Axios ahead of its formal release.

Discussion: The Hill, Politico, ABC News, Associated Press and Breitbart

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:

Republican Impeachment Defense Claims Trump's Ukraine Pressure Was Apolitical — In a report intended to counter Democrats' impeachment case against President Trump, Republicans will argue his efforts to get Ukraine to investigate his rivals had nothing to do with politics.

Discussion: Daily Kos, Political Wire, Raw Story and Mediaite

Aamer Madhani / Associated Press:
Trump complains about impeachment hearing during NATO trip

Discussion: Politico, One America News Network, Salon, The Hill, Hullabaloo and The Daily Caller

Cristina Marcos / The Hill:
House Judiciary announces impeachment witnesses

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux / FiveThirtyEight:
Do Democrats Have Enough ‘Smoking Gun’ Evidence For Impeachment?

Discussion: NBC News and HuffPost

CNN:
House Republicans defend Trump's actions in new report responding to impeachment inquiry

Discussion: KTLA and KTVZ-TV

Natasha Bertrand / Politico:

Senate panel look into Ukraine interference comes up short — With the impeachment inquiry charging forward, President Donald Trump's allies have defended his demand for political investigations from Ukraine by claiming that the government in Kyiv tried to sabotage his candidacy and boost Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Discussion: Washington Post, Mediaite and The Daily Beast

James Downie / Washington Post:

The useful idiot from Louisiana — A few weeks ago, I wrote about Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) showcasing the “typical shell game” of Republicans on impeachment: Eliminate the importance of the “quid pro quo,” muddy the waters of the president's motive and distort the impeachment process itself.

Discussion: The Independent, HuffPost and Axios

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
John Kennedy vs. Vladimir Putin: How Trump defenders' Ukraine talking points compare to what Russians say

Discussion: The Bulwark, The Hill, The American Independent, KIFI-TV, One America News Network, KyivPost, Mediaite and Daily Kos

Betsy Swan / The Daily Beast:
House Republicans Put Together an Impeachment Rebuttal Report

Discussion: Washington Post, Breitbart and The Hill

ABC News:

Giuliani associate asks court to release material for impeachment inquiry — An attorney representing Rudy Giuliani's indicted associate, Lev Parnas, asked that materials seized during his client's arrest be released to the House committees leading the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Discussion: USA Today, The Hill and The Daily Beast

Adam Klasfeld / courthousenews.com:
Giuliani Associate Lev Parnas Cleared to Comply With Impeachment Subpoena

Discussion: VICE and Law & Crime

NBC News: Prosecutor says new charges ‘likely’ in case against Rudy Giuliani associates

Erin Durkin / Politico: New charges likely in case against Giuliani associates

Christian Berthelsen / Bloomberg:
U.S. ‘Likely’ to Bring New Charges in Giuliani-Allies Case

Discussion: Political Wire

Washington Post:

The surprising second choices of Democratic primary voters upend political cliches — A war between ‘progressives’ and ‘moderates’? Voters don't see things the way pundits do. — To many observers, the Democratic presidential primary has highlighted the “profound ideological divides between …

Kathleen Ronayne / Associated Press:
California Gov. Newsom to campaign in Iowa for Kamala Harris

Discussion: Axios

Jacksonville Journal-Courier:
Poll says Biden keeps narrow lead in state, but Warren, Buttigieg gain in primary race

Discussion: The Hill

Cheyenne Haslett / ABC News:
Young voter asks Elizabeth Warren emotional question about acceptance

Discussion: The Independent, Raw Story, The Hill and Blue Virginia

Simon Shuster / TIME:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Speaks Out on Trump, Putin and a Divided Europe — 'I don't trust anyone at all'

Jason Leopold / BuzzFeed News:

Here Are The Latest Secret Memos From Mueller's Report — BuzzFeed News sued the US government for the right to see all the work that Mueller's team kept secret. Today we are publishing the second installment of the FBI's summaries of interviews with key witnesses.

Discussion: Raw Story

Politico:

Georgia governor set to buck Trump on Senate appointment — In defiance of Trump, Brian Kemp has begun informing fellow Republicans that he will appoint business exec Kelly Loeffler to the soon-to-be-vacant seat. — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has been getting pressure about his prospective Senate pick.

Discussion: ABC News, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Breitbart, Axios, Talking Points Memo, The Dispatch and National Review

Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Kelly Loeffler to have powerful ally after she's tapped to Senate in Georgia

Discussion: Roll Call and Washington Free Beacon

CBS News:

Facebook CEO on political ads: People should “judge for themselves the character of politicians” — Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is doubling down on his company's decision to not take down political ads that contain false information. — “What I believe is that in a democracy …

Discussion: Redstate, Vanity Fair, IJR, Common Dreams, Louder With Crowder, The Daily Caller and New York Post

Zack Budryk / The Hill:
Zuckerberg on allowing political ads: ‘People should be able to judge for themselves’

Discussion: IJR

Matthew Lee / Associated Press:

Trump administration quietly releases Lebanon military aid — 1 of 3 — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has quietly released more than $100 million in military assistance to Lebanon after months of unexplained delay. — That's according to two congressional staffers …

Discussion: CNN, Fox News, Talking Points Memo and One America News Network

Pete Williams / NBC News:

Supreme Court appears unlikely to hand victory to gun rights backers in 2nd Amendment case — “You're asking us to take a case in which the other side has thrown in the towel and opine on a law that's not on the books anymore,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said. — Supreme Court finishes hearing first 2nd Amendment case in a decade

Discussion: Townhall, MSNBC and UPI

Associated Press:
The Latest: Justices weighing dismissal of guns case

Discussion: Fox News, Washington Post and The Daily Beast

Dan Levin / New York Times:

‘OxyContin Just Started Showing Up’ — Purdue Pharma introduced its opioid painkiller, OxyContin, in 1996, when the Class of 2000 entered high school. Some students began experimenting, often combining prescription opiates with alcohol at parties. — For many, what started …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Kate Bennett / CNN:

‘Free, Melania’ offers new details about the life of a private first lady — Adapted from Kate Bennett's “Free, Melania: The Unauthorized Biography” set for release Tuesday. — Washington (CNN)First lady Melania Trump, like those before her, has battled the vast juxtaposition between public perception and private citizen.

Discussion: Raw Story

Elisabeth Egan / New York Times:
6 Takeaways From Melania Trump's Unauthorized Biography

Discussion: The Guardian, The Gateway Pundit and The Root

ustr.gov:

Conclusion of USTR's Investigation Under Section 301 into France's Digital Services Tax — Washington, DC - The U.S. Trade Representative has completed the first segment of its investigation under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and concluded that France's Digital Services Tax (DST) …

Discussion: Axios, Politico and One America News Network, more at Techmeme »

Harper Neidig / The Hill:

Carter Page loses appeal in defamation suit against media outlets — Carter Page, the former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, suffered another court loss on Monday when a federal appeals court upheld a trial judge's decision to throw out his defamation lawsuit against a pair of media outlets.

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Appeals court refuses to revive Carter Page lawsuit

Discussion: Associated Press

Collin Anderson / Washington Free Beacon:

Warren's Son Attended One of Nation's Most Elite Private Schools — The Haverford School's leafy campus, arched doorways, and neatly uniformed boys would seem to denote the sort of class and privilege that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) has decried on the campaign trail.

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Trump campaign to blacklist Bloomberg News — President Trump's 2020 campaign announced Monday it will no longer allow reporters from Bloomberg News to obtain credentials to cover Trump campaign events. — The big picture: Campaign manager Brad Parscale described the decision …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Hill, Politico, HotAir, The Daily Caller, NBC News, TVNewser, One America News Network and Associated Press, more at Mediagazer »

Brian Schwartz / CNBC:

Wealthy Mercer family spent millions on conservative causes in 2018 as they distanced themselves from Trump — Republican megadonors Robert and Rebekah Mercer donated over $12 million to a variety of conservative causes last year despite distancing themselves from being associated with President Donald Trump.

The Guardian:

Traditional ‘foreign policy’ no longer exists. Democrats are the last to know — Progressives need a new doctrine, championing the interests of the global 99% against a transnational oligarchy — There are few phrases as fundamental to US politics as foreign policy.

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Trump Is Making the Al Capone Tax-Evasion Defense Against Impeachment — “The fact that they have long wanted to impeach the president suggests those Democrats view the Trump-Ukraine matter as just the latest, and perhaps the best, chance to get the president,” argues fiercely pro-Trump columnist Byron York today.

Discussion: Washington Examiner and Raw Story