memeorandum: GOP embraces a debunked Ukraine conspiracy to defend Trump from impeachment (Washington Post)

11:10 AM ET, December 4, 2019

Top Items:

Trump calls Trudeau ‘two-faced’, cancels press conference and leaves Nato summit early after video of world leaders making fun of him — 'I called him out on the fact he's not paying 2 per cent, and I guess he's not very happy about it,' says US president — Donald Trump has reacted furiously …

Discussion: Raw Story

Associated Press:

NATO leaders appear to gossip about Trump in unguarded chat — In this grab taken from video on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019, France's President Emmanuel Macro, centre right, gestures as he speaks during a NATO reception. While NATO leaders are professing unity as they gather for a summit near London …

Discussion: Axios and New York Post

Rosie Perper / Insider:

Video appears to show world leaders mocking Trump after uncomfortable first day at NATO summit — A video from a reception at Buckingham Palace appears to show several world leaders, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and French President Emmanuel Macron …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Talking Points Memo and Townhall

Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:

Trump abruptly cancels NATO press conference after summit turns sour — “When today's meetings are over, I will be heading back to Washington. We won't be doing a press conference at the close of NATO because we did so many over the past two days. Safe travels to all!” Trump tweeted.

Nicholas Burns / The Atlantic:

Trump Violates Diplomacy's Golden Rule — During a testy joint press conference at the NATO summit in London yesterday, President Donald Trump and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, argued openly over how the 70-year-old alliance should handle Russia, the Islamic State, and Turkey.

Allan Smith / NBC News:
Trump calls Trudeau ‘two-faced’ after hot mic catches NATO leaders speaking candidly

Discussion: The Hill and One America News Network

Emilio Casalicchio / Politico:
Boris Johnson holds late-night chat with Donald Trump

Discussion: One America News Network and GOV.UK

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
No, Mr. President, impeachment doesn't trigger NATO Article 5

Discussion: Politico, NBC News, RealClearPolitics and New York Post

Daniel Dale / CNN:
Fact check: Trump makes at least 21 false claims at NATO meetings

Discussion: FactCheck.org and The White House

Washington Post:
Trump calls Trudeau ‘two-faced’ after video emerges of world leaders apparently mocking the president

Discussion: Vox, Politico, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Progress Pond and Althouse

Mark Hannah / Politico:
It's Not Just Trump. The American People Are Skeptical of NATO, Too.

Discussion: New York Times, The Atlantic, Occupy Democrats and Foreign Policy

Andrew Feinberg / The Independent:

Trump's mental state is deteriorating dangerously due to impeachment with potentially ‘catastrophic outcomes’, psychiatrists urgently warn Congress — Exclusive: Statement to be accompanied by petition with at least 350 signatures from mental health professionals endorsing conclusions

Discussion: Raw Story

Sarah Ferris / Politico:

'I'm not going to take any sh—': Nadler girds for battle — House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler had a blunt message as he privately addressed Democrats the day before his panel assumes a starring role in the impeachment inquiry. — “I'm not going to take any shit,” …

Discussion: NBC News, Axios, CNN, Talking Points Memo, Vox, Washington Post, Breitbart, IJR, The Hill, The American Independent, KDFX-TV, Mediaite, UPI, MSNBC and New York Times

Andrew Desiderio / Politico:

Impeachment witness calls Trump's actions ‘worse than the misconduct of any prior president’ — Three constitutional lawyers called by Democrats in their rapidly progressing impeachment inquiry plan to testify that Donald Trump's actions toward Ukraine were the worst examples of misconduct …

Discussion: The Guardian and NBC News

Emma Dumain / The State:
Top House Democrat wants Mueller findings in impeachment articles against Trump

Discussion: Politico and The Hill

Melanie Zanona / Politico:
Republican bomb-throwers prep impeachment spectacle

Discussion: Raw Story, NBC News, Associated Press and MSNBC

Washington Post: Democrats should not give up the fight to hear from more witnesses

Sanjana Karanth / HuffPost:

William Barr Says Those Who Don't Show More Respect To Cops May Not Get Police Protection — The remarks are the latest example of the U.S. attorney general's “tough on crime” approach that President Donald Trump has adopted. — U.S. Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday …

Discussion: U.S. Department of Justice, The Hill, Raw Story, Law & Crime, No More Mister Nice Blog, emptywheel and Contemptor

Tim Elfrink / Washington Post:

William Barr says ‘communities’ that protest cops could lose ‘the police protection they need’ — Speaking to a roomful of police officers and prosecutors on Tuesday, Attorney General William P. Barr drew a parallel between protests against soldiers during the Vietnam War and demonstrations against law enforcement today.

Discussion: Slate, Raw Story, The Daily Beast and Mediaite

New York Times:

A Mysterious ‘-1’ and Other Call Records Show How Giuliani Pressured Ukraine — House Democrats' impeachment report showed the president's personal lawyer executing an irregular foreign policy. — WASHINGTON — In the two days before President Trump forced out the American ambassador to Ukraine in April …

Discussion: National Review, Politico, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway and Roll Call

Elizabeth Vaughn / Redstate:
Adam Schiff Has Crossed a Line: He's Obtained Phone Records of Devin Nunes, Nunes' Aide, Rudy Giuliani and John Solomon

Discussion: Power Line, The Gateway Pundit, CNN, The Daily Beast and HuffPost, more at Mediagazer »

Rebecca Ballhaus / Wall Street Journal:
Report Reveals Call Records Between Giuliani, White House and Nunes

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA, Mediaite and Law & Crime

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
The Intelligence Committee's report is a triumph

Discussion: Vanity Fair and Cmte Intelligence (D) …

The Keyword:

A letter from Larry and Sergey — Our very first founders' letter in our 2004 S-1 began: … We believe those central tenets are still true today. The company is not conventional and continues to make ambitious bets on new technology, especially with our Alphabet structure.

Discussion: CNBC, National Review, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Alphabet, Politico, The Verge, KRON4, Wired, Slate, Vox, Breitbart, NPR, KTLA, The Daily Caller, The Wrap, New York Times, Disrn, TechCrunch, UPI and New York Post, more at Techmeme »

CNN:

Former official says Trump often refused to believe his intelligence briefings — (CNN)One of President Donald Trump's most common responses to intelligence briefings is to doubt what he's being told, former Deputy Director of Intelligence Susan Gordon said Tuesday.

Discussion: Redstate, USA Today, Hullabaloo, Raw Story, Mediaite, The Hill and Axios

U.S. Department of Justice:

California CEO and Seven Others Charged in Multi-Million Dollar Conduit Campaign Contribution Case — Earlier today, an indictment was unsealed against the CEO of an online payment processing company, and seven others, charging them with conspiring to make and conceal conduit …

Discussion: Redstate, National Review, The Hill, New York Times, Politico, HuffPost, The Daily Beast, Fox News, Raw Story and emptywheel

Spencer Hsu / Washington Post:
Key Mueller witness, major Clinton and Trump donor charged with funneling $3.5 million …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Josh Kraushaar / National Journal:

The Battle for the GOP Starts in Georgia — Georgia's Trump-backed Republican governor is defying the president with his Senate appointment. Will his gambit pay off? — One of the biggest skirmishes in the war over the Republican Party's future is currently taking place in Georgia …

Discussion: Politico

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:
Loeffler will cut huge check for Georgia special election

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Marc Caputo / Politico:

Biden struts as his rivals bite the dust — MASON CITY, Iowa — Joe Biden's feeling awfully confident these days. — The former vice president thinks he doesn't need Barack Obama to win the primary. He seemed to mock the ideas that there's enthusiasm for Elizabeth Warren or that Pete Buttigieg came up with his own plans.

Discussion: Washington Post, NBC News, Breitbart and Washington Free Beacon

Gabriel Debenedetti / New York Magazine:
Kamala Harris's Long Road to an Early Exit Inside her promising rise and painful fall.

Discussion: Breitbart and Los Angeles Times

Nidhi Prakash / BuzzFeed News:
Julián Castro Said Kamala Harris's Campaign Suffered Because The Media Holds Candidates …

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, The Atlantic, Fox News and Axios

Liel Leibovitz / New York Post:

Iran in flames and ‘experts’ didn't foresee it due to Trump-hate blindness — The Iranian regime faces the most serious popular challenge to its tyranny in 40 years. Sparked by a 50 percent hike in fuel prices last month, the uprising has spread to the whole country.

David Ignatius / Washington Post:
Iran is brutally suppressing popular dissent. The world is watching.

Discussion: Associated Press

Quin Hillyer / Washington Examiner:

Sen. John Kennedy's full-Trump mode is just his latest stage persona — Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, now all over the news after a volatile verbal exchange with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, is a habitual shape-shifter. Pundits disappointed that the Oxford-educated media hound …

Ian MacDougall / New York Times:

How McKinsey Helped the Trump Administration Carry Out Its Immigration Policies — Newly uncovered documents show the consulting giant helped ICE find “detention savings opportunities” — including measures the agency's staff sometimes viewed as too harsh on immigrants.

Discussion: Slate, ImmigrationProf Blog and Eschaton

Max Boot / Washington Post:

‘GOP’ now stands for ‘Gang of Putin’ — Of all the changes that have occurred in our politics since the rise of Donald Trump, the most gut-wrenching for me personally is to see the Republican Party transformed into the Kremlin's “useful idiots.” As a young refugee from the Soviet Union growing …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Daily Beast and Contemptor

Washington Post:
GOP embraces a debunked Ukraine conspiracy to defend Trump from impeachment

Discussion: Politico, New York Times and HuffPost

Simon Rosenberg / GEN:

How to Impeach Trump Without Letting His Co-Conspirators Get Away — Congress needs to break Trump's impeachment into three tracks in order to remove him by the 2020 election — iven Republicans' stated intent to turn the Senate impeachment trial into a wildly partisan Sean Hannity-inspired circus …

DW.COM:

Germany expels Russian diplomats after murder in Berlin — German prosecutors said evidence suggests Russia or Chechnya may have ordered the murder of a Georgian man in Berlin. Two Russian diplomats have been expelled, with the German government discussing further steps.

Discussion: Fox News

Jonathan Bernstein / Bloomberg:

Trump's Approval Rating Should Worry Republicans — If the president remains this unpopular, it's hard to see him helping his party in the 2020 elections. — It's still early to project how next year's congressional elections will go. But the folks at Inside Elections have updated …

Discussion: USA Today