House releases transcripts from key witnesses in Trump impeachment inquiry – live – The Guardian, Theguardian.com

From the South Lawn, Trump honored the Washington Nationals on the “first of many” World Series championships. He called their victory a “comeback story for the ages.”

He heaped praise on Nats manager David Martínez, who he said “didn’t make any mistakes” and might be “more famous than me”.

“America fell in love with the Nats baseball,” he said.“That’s all they wanted to talk about. That and impeachment. I like Nats baseball much more. ”

A few members of the team did not attend, at least one in objection of the president’s politics. But Trump also had some supporters on the team. Catcher Kurt Suzuki was brought to the mic by Trump sporting a “Make America Great Again” hat.

Trump urged the team to get back to celebrating after their White House appearance because: “As soon as you lose the first two or three games you’re not going to be heros anymore. That’s how it goes. ”

The sweet sounds of Baby Shark are serenading guests on the South Lawn as the crowd awaits Trump to honor theWashington Nationals , who won the 2019 World Series champions.

Most – but not all – of the players opted to go to the White House.

Kamala Harrishas qualified for the Democratic debate in December in Los Angeles over the weekend. She will join frontrunnerJoe Bidenas well asElizabeth Warren, Bernie SandersandPete Buttigieg.The support and polling threshold to qualify for the December debate is higher than the one in Atlanta this month, which will feature 9 candidates on stage.

Donald Trump has a lot on his plate: an escalating abuse-of-power scandal, looming impeachment, a possible resurgence of Isis, an emboldened Iran, etc. But he’s got a forthcoming book on his mind, and it’s not the one he’shawking on behalf of his son.

It’s A Warning, the book by an anonymous Trump official who wrote a 2018New York Times op- edin which he expressed alarm about the president’s competence.

CNNreportedthat Trump’s department of justice has sent a letter to the book’s publisher warning that the author could be in violation of a nondisclosure agreement.

“If the author is, in fact, a current or former ‘senior official’ in the Trump Administration, publication of the book may violate that official’s legal obligations under one or more nondisclosure agreements, including nondisclosure agreements that are routinely required with respect to information obtained in the course of one’s official responsibilities or as a condition for access to classified information, ”assistant attorney general Joseph Hunt wrote in the letter, according to a copy of the letter obtained by CNN.

The author’s literary agency has rejected the justice department’s argument, and said the book would be released on 19 November as scheduled.

“Our author knows that the President is determined to unmask whistleblowers who may be in his midst. That’s one of the reasons A WARNING was written, ”the literacy agency Javelin said in a statement. “But we support the publisher in its resolve that the administration’s effort to intimidate and expose the senior official who has seen misconduct at the highest levels will not prevent this book from moving forward.”

Congressman Adam Schiff,the chairman of the House Intelligence committee who is leading the impeachment inquiry, said he expects the witnesses this afternoon to not show for their deposition, which he said the lawmakers will interpret as further obstruction of justice by the White House.

“These witnesses are significant and the White House understands they’re significant,” Schiff said during a press conference after releasing the transcripts.

He added:“We may infer that their testimony would be further incriminating the president.”

Schiff said the committees will release the transcripts ofKurt Volker,the president’s former special envoy to Ukraine, andGordon Sondland,the US Ambassador to the European Union, on Tuesday.

Our world affairs editor Julian Borger is combing through the transcripts, tweeting his observations as they come.

The committees investigating impeachment againstDonald Trumpover his efforts to pressure Ukraine to extract damaging information on his political rivals has entered a “new public phase” with the release of transcripts for two key witnesses.

The deposition transcript withformer US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitchfrom (October) can be readhere.

The deposition transcript offormer senior adviser to the secretary of state, Ambassador Michael McKinley,from (October) can be readhere.

“The transcripts of interviews with Ambassadors Yovanovitch and McKinley demonstrate clearly how President Trump approved the removal of a highly respected and effective diplomat based on public falsehoods and smears against Ambassador Yovanovitch’s character and her work in support of long-held US foreign policy anticorruption goals, ”said the chairs of the three panels leading the investigations.

“Ambassadors Yovanovitch and McKinley’s testimony also demonstrates the contamination of US foreign policy by an irregular back channel that sought to advance the President’s personal and political interests, and the serious concerns that this activity elicited across our government . ”

What’s the matter with Kansas, you ask?

That’s the question our world affairs editor Julian Borger, asked in a recent report catalogingthe secretary of state, Mike Pompeo’s ,many overtures to his adopted home state, where speculation – and evidence – is mounting that he’s plotting a Senate run.

The outreach includes pins stamped with the word “swagger”, an appearance with the president’s daughter and dozens of interviews with local press, some of which have turned quite testy.

To many – inKansasand beyond – that looked like a stretch. The badges, glad-handing and posing with Ms Trump seemed more like someone lining up his next job, particularly as it coincides with one of the state’s Republican senators stepping down.

It was Pompeo’s fourth visit to the midwestern state so far this year, and more than one in seven of the nearly 200 interviews he has given in 2019 have been to Kansas-based media outlets. It was also reported by theWall Street Journal, that he took time in Wichita to meet Charles Koch, his longstanding sponsor and a kingmaker on the right of Republican party.

Three of Pompeo’s trips to Kansas have been official visits paid for by the state department, leading Democrats to (file a complaint) that he is violating federal laws prohibiting political activities while acting in an official capacity.

Pompeo dismissed the complaint as “silliness”.

Trump’s personal attorneyJay Sekulowhas vowed to take the case dealing with the president’s tax returns to the supreme court.

Writer E Jean CarrollsuedDonald Trumpon Monday, accusing the president of defamation after she came forward this summer to allege that he raped her more than two decades ago in the dressing room of an upscale New York City department store.

Carroll, a longtime advice columnist,described the alleged assault inher book What Do We Need Men For ?, an excerpt of which was published in New York magazine in June.

According to her account,which Trump has adamantly denied,Carroll said she ran into Trump, whom she had met a few years previously, at Bergdorf Goodman in late 1995 or early 1996. After chatting about lingerie, they shopped together before he attacked her in a dressing room.

She said Trump pulled down her tights and penetrated her before she was able to push him off of her and leave. Carroll does not describe the incident as “rape” though her description of the incident meets the legal definition.

A US appeals courtruledon Monday that Donald Trump’s accounting firm must turn over eight years of the president’s personal and corporate tax returns to New York prosecutors.

The ruling is the latest setback for the president, who has fought vigorously to block his accounting firm, Mazars USA, from releasing his tax returns to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Trump is expected to appeal the ruling, a move that is likely to send the case to the US supreme court.

“Because we conclude that the president is unlikely to succeed on the merits of his immunity claim, we agree with the district court that he is not entitled to injunctive relief,” the ruling states.

As expected, two witnesses subpoenaed to testify before the House intelligence committee on Capitol Hill today have refused to appear, according to CNN.

The other two witnesses called to testify this afternoon are also expected not to appear today.

Meanwhile,Fiona Hill,the top Russia expert in the White House who testified last month is back on the Hill today, presumably to check review a transcript of her testimony beforeDemocratsrelease

(Donald Trump) is distancing himself from “a man namedMichael Esposito. ”

Who, you might be asking, is Michael Esposito?

According to the Washington Post, Esposito is a lobbyist whose dubious ties to the president has turned his family business into an international success. But Trump’s son and son-in-law say they have never heard of Esposito.

Esposito has “an open line of communication to the President of the United States” and is in “regular” contact with the president, Federal Advocates wrote in three contract bids reviewed by The Washington Post. The same proposals say Esposito worked with the president’s son Eric Trump and son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner on real estate deals. And the firm’sWebsitecalls Esposito “an integral part of the senior-most leadership” of the Republican National Committee.

Some of those very people, however, told The Post that Esposito’s claims are greatly embellished – or simply not true.

“I have no recollection of a Michael Esposito,” said Eric Trump. “Sounds like someone trying to trade off our name.”

“Jared Kushner does not know who Michael Esposito is,” an administration official said.

The RNC recently sent him a “cease and desist” letter.

The story was published online 1 November but published on the front page of today’s Washington Post. The tweet furthers speculation that, as suspected, Trump has not stopped reading the paper despite demanding that all White House agencies cancel their subscriptions to the Post and the New York Times.

As we mentioned earlier, the 2020 election is less than a year away. But the Democratic primary remains unsettled and polling suggests a very tight race no matter the nominee.

Which raises the question: Is it time for a Clinton revival?

The idea of ​​Hillary Clintonreturning as the Democratic White Knight in 2020 to slay the dragon in the White House has evoked some still-raw emotions from supporters, detractors and everyone in between. Yet the 2016 Democratic nominee seems to be having more fun than she ever had as a candidate fanning the flames of another run.

My colleagueDavid Smithlooks at how Clinton might be positioning herself for an improbable run for the White House.

Speaking in New York at a screening of The Great Hack about theCambridge Analyticascandal this weekend, Clinton said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg “should pay a price” for what he is doing to democracy.

The 2016 Democratic nominee expressed doubts about whether free and fair elections were even possible in the wake of Facebook’s decision to not factcheck political advertising.

Martin Pengelly

Can there be any sentence more likely to turn off blog readers than “an alarming poll from the New York Times”? Possibly not, but here goes…

A year out from election day 2020, (Nate Cohn of the New York Times) has published the results of new polls in key swing states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona and North Carolina. And if you are not a supporter of Donald Trump, and in particular if youarea supporter of Senator Elizabeth Warren, the picture does not look particularly rosy. Here’s a screengrab:

Of course, the picture is a little brighter if you back Joe Biden – the medium’s average, the Centrist Dad’s Centrist Dad – or Bernie Sanders, the great progressive hope of 2016 who is trailing Warren in Democratic polls this year.

Here’s how Cohn sums it up:

Across the six closest states that went Republican in 2016, [Trump]trails Joe Biden by an average of two points among registered votersbut stays within the margin of error.

Mr Trump leads Elizabeth Warren by two points among registered voters, the same margin as his win over Hillary Clinton in these states three years ago.

The poll showed Bernie Sanders deadlocked with the president among registered voters, but trailing among likely voters.

The results suggest that Ms Warren, who has emerged as a front-runner for the Democratic nomination, might face a number of obstacles in her pursuit of the presidency.The poll supports concerns among someDemocratsthat her ideology and gender – including the fraught question of ‘likability’ – could hobble her candidacy among a crucial sliver of the electorate. And not only does she underperform her rivals, but the poll also suggests that the race could be close enough for the difference to be decisive.

Hmmm.

Pollingout at the weekendfrom The Washington Post and ABC News put Biden in the lead nationally among Democratic primary voters, from Warren, Sanders and Pete Buttigieg. The mayor of South Bend is second in Iowa, though, and has said he thinks the nomination fight is now between him and Warren.

On the subject of Mayor Pete and Iowa, Cohn of the Times says the following:

Ms Warren trailed Mr Trump by six points in Iowa, the widest gap among leading Democrats, even though sheled the Democratic caucusin our poll. Pete Buttigieg, who is generally not as well known as Ms Warren,trailed Mr Trump by four points in Iowa, which was the only state where we included him in head-to-head polling against the president. Mr Biden trailed by one point and Mr Sanders by three.

Sobering news also from Texas, meanwhile, home state of Beto O’Rourkewho withdrew from the Democratic race on Fridayand a dream target for Democrats, if not necessarily a realistic on e. Ross Ramseyof the Texas Tribunewrites that according to a poll conducted by the paper and the University of Texas:

None of the top Democrats seeking the presidential nomination would beat PresidentDonald Trumpin Texas in an election held today…

Joe Biden of Delaware, the former vice-president, is running 7% behind Trump in Texas, as is Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Bernie Sanders of Vermont falls 5% short in a head-to-head with the president among Texas voters. ”

Further hmmm.

Good morning and welcometo our live coverage of politics from the nation’s capital. We are now officially less than one year away from election day 2020 and less than 100 days until the Iowa caucuses. Let that sink in.

The House is on recess this week but the committees investigating impeachment remain in Washington to move forward with the inquiry overDonald Trump‘s handling of military aid to Ukraine.

There are four witnesses – all political appointees – scheduled for depositions today, but it remains unclear if they’ll show up in defiance of White House orders not to cooperate in the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

The witnesses includeRobert Blair,an assistant to the president and senior adviser to Trump’s acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney,Brian McCormack, the associate director for natural resources at the Office of Management and Budget; and White House attorneysJohn EisenbergandMichael Ellis.

Trump has a busy day. At 11. am he meets with thesecretary of state, Mike Pompeo,in the Oval Office. Later in the afternoon, he hoststhe 2019 World Series Champions, the Washington Nationals, on the South Lawn. Then the president departs for Lexington, Kentucky, where he will speak at a campaign rally ahead of the state’s gubernatorial elections on Tuesday.

Trump has also already started to tweet, and judging the time between when he stopped sending missives last night until he started up again this morning – the president isn’t operating on much sleep.

This morning Trump began by reviving the intrigue around an executive tweet early in his presidency that was the subject of much discussion among Washington insiders:“covfefe”.Here Trump playfully suggests the tweet “may be something with deep meaning”.

Returning to a more familiar subject, Trump fired off a blitz of tweets railing against the Ukraine scandal and the anonymous whistleblower who touched off the investigation.

Though multiple witnesses have confirmed key elements of the whistleblower complaint regarding a call between Trump and the Ukrainian president,Volodymyr Zelenskiy– and not to mention that it also matches the rough transcript of the call released by the White House – Trump has stepped up his attacks on the whistleblower, demanding the identity be revealed. He also again slapped down an offer by thewhistleblower’s lawyersto answers written questions from Republican members of Congress, an effort to show the person’s willingness to cooperate.

And he couldn’t help but to brag about his standing within the Republican party, which was on display last week as the GOP kept a united front against a resolution formally launching the investigation.