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Today I’m reminded of Judas – because Judas for pieces of silver betrayed Jesus; for positive tweets for easy reelection, the other side is willing to betray the American people.
Democrat
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell compares Republican rhetoric to yoga:
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It is incredible to me to see some of my colleagues bend over backward to cover up for the president. My sister is a yoga teacher. She doesn’t contort, the way some of my Republican colleagues distort the facts all to protect this president.
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Afternoon summary
I’m about to hand over this blog to my colleague Maanvi Singh in Oakland.
Here’s a summary of where we’re at today.
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This hearing began almost six and a half hours ago and we’ve yet to have a meaningful vote.
We’re now on the third amendment, entered by Republican Andy Biggs (Gaetz’s amendment predictably failed on party lines).
Here’s the latest:
(@ jeremyherb)
Biggs amendment up nexf pic.twitter.com/2z8vtYL066 N (December) ,
Of course, this amendment will fail as well. But we’re likely to see more drawn out polemics from both sides.
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Trump’s re-election campaign is circulating a video suggesting that Judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler dozed off during the hearings.
A quick look at the video reveals though … that’s not true.
Trump War Room (Text TRUMP to 88022 (@ TrumpWarRoom)
NOT AGAIN!
Democrat impeachment “manager” (# SleepyJerry) ************* Nadler snoozes through evidence exonerating President Trump 😴💤 # JerryRigged********************************************************************************************* # SchiffShow pic.twitter.com/3c0PaVA8p6(*************
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Saudi Arabia has sent its US ambassador to the US naval base in Florida following a mass shooting there last week at the hands of a Saudi national.
More from Reuters:
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The Saudi ambassador to the United States visited a U.S. naval air station in Florida on Thursday to extend her condolences for a shooting attack by a Saudi Air Force officer that killed three people last week, the Saudi embassy said.
Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud met with members of the Pensacola Naval Air Station command “and reiterated her condemnation for this horrific attack,” the statement said.
She pledged to provide “any assistance possible to accelerate the investigation.”
US close to new trade deal with China
The Trump administration has reached a trade deal in principle with China, with reports indicating US negotiations to have offered to slash existing tariffs by as much as half on the $ billion of Chinese products and cancel a new round of charges set to take effect by the end of the week.
Reporting by Bloombergindicates the deal is awaiting final approval by Trump and could be announced as early as this afternoon.
Trump tweeted earlier in the day, alluding to the potential deal:
Donald J. Trump (@ realDonaldTrump)
Getting VERY close to a BIG DEAL with China. They want it, and so do we! (December) ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************,The Wall Street Journalreports the deal was negotiated roughly within the past five days. The reporting suggest the US has demanded China purchase large quantities of US agricultural products and make steps to better protect intellectual property rights.
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Things are about to get started again back at the Judiciary committee hearing. It’s really just a matter of time before the meaningful vote occurs, so we’ll just have to see how many amendments the Republicans attempt to introduce.
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The House has passed a major piece on healthcare legislation during the Judiciary committee impeachment hearing break.
The bill, HR 3, passed by (votes to********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** mostly along party lines. It would lower the cost of prescription drugs by allowing government to negotiate prices with manufacturers. It makes major changes to the US government Medicare program by capping out of pocket drug cost expenses under to the program to $ 2, and creates new dental and vision benefits.
The bill has little to no chance of passing the Republican controlled senate so is unlikely to become law.
Here’s some more from the AP:
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Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bill would cap Medicare recipients’ out-of-pocket costs for medicines at $ 2, a year. It would use about $ 391 billion of its projected – – year savings from lower drug costs to establish Medicare coverage for dental care, hearing, and vision, filling major gaps for seniors. (********************************************************************************************************************** ()
But the legislation has no chance of passing the Republican-controlled Senate, and the White House has issued a veto threat. Still, Democrats saw a victory in the message their bill sends to voters.
I think that it is going to be too hot to handle for the Republicans, ”said Pelosi, D-Calif.
She is claiming bragging rights because her bill would deliver on the promise that Donald Trump ************ (made as a candidate in**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************, when he said he would “negotiate like crazy” to lower prescription drug prices for Medicare recipients. It’s a pledge that Trump has backed away from as president.
For months, Pelosi’s office and the White House had talked privately about Medicare negotiations. But the sides went their own ways partly because administration officials connected her approach could never win support among congressional Republicans. Trump now favors a bipartisan compromise in the Senate that would limit drug price increases and cap what seniors pay out-of-pocket, but would not authorize Medicare negotiations.
Negotiations are “the heart of the matter,” Pelosi insisted.
High prescription drug prices consistently register as the public’s top health care concern. But it’s unclear in a capital divided over Trump’s impeachment that any major legislation will pass before next year’s elections.
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Warren changes tack, taking aim at rivals with big money fund
Democratic(************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************ ****************************** (presidential candidate) ******************************* Elizabeth Warren on Thursday accused her more moderate rivals of failing to stand up to the rich and pledged to fix a “rigged” US economy, as she sought to re-energize her stalled campaign.Warren delivered pointed criticisms aimed at several others vying to win the Democratic nomination to face Donald Trump in the election, including former Vice President
********************************************************************************************************************** Joe Biden and
Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Reuters wri tes.
In a speech to the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, Warren also faulted unnamed Democrats for soft-pedaling their rhetoric for political reasons.
“Unlike some candidates for the Democratic nomination, I’m not betting my agenda on the naive hope that if Democrats adopt Republican critiques of progressive policies or make vague calls for unity that somehow the wealthy and well- connected will stand down, ”she said. The rebukes reflected a recent tactical shift for Warren, whose campaign spent much of the year largely refusing to engage in back-and-forth spats with her rivals.
The speech underscored an effort to return to a key theme that helped lift Warren’s campaign through the summer and early fall: the country political and economic systems are corrupted by money and special interests, ensuring the wealthy benefit at everyone else’s expense.
In recent months, Warren’s momentum has slowed in the face of sustained criticism from Buttigieg, Biden and others over her support for the sweeping healthcare restructuring known as Medicare for All. (**************************************************************************************************************** (There are 15 Democrats running for the party’s nomination to challenge Trump in next November’s election. Democratic nominating contests begin in February and the campaign has become increasingly unsettled, with no clear front-runner.
“We will beat the most corrupt president in American history by campaigning on the most aggressive anti-corruption plan since (Watergate, “Warren declared .
The next Democratic debate is a week from today, in California.
************************************************************************************************************************************ Andrew Yang earlier earlier this week, with the bar for qualification ramping up with each month’s debate.
At this moment, the December debate candidates joining Yang on stage are(Joe Biden) , Elizabeth Warren , Bernie Sanders ******************************,(Pete Buttigieg)******************************* Amy Klobuchar ************** and, um,
Tom Steyer. (********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
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Rounds of charged exchanges and fist-pounding rants did little to lift the air inevitability that surrounded Thursday’s hearing. The battle lines were drawn long ago and the outcome was all-but assured. (***************************************************************************************************************************
Before the end of the day, the Democrats on the committee would almost certainly vote to send articles of impeachment againstDonald Trumpto the House floor. Republicans would almost certainly and uniformly oppose it.
Throughout the morning, lawmakers defaulted to the same, familiar arguments they’ve been making for five weeks. Democrats argued that the case before the committee was crystal clear and that they had a duty to hold the president for his corrupt actions. Republicans argued that Democrats were blinded by their hatred of Trump, who, they contend publicly, did nothing wrong in his dealings with Ukraine.
There was an agreement that “facts matter”. But there wasn’t an agreement on the facts, and they went round and round debating them. Republicans twisted testimony and wrongly asserting that Ukraine was not aware that the US had withheld military aid as Trump pressured the country’s new president to open investigations into his political rivals. Democrats sought to correct the record with little hope of changing their minds.
There were flickers of drama, however. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat who has participated in three modern impeachment investigations, refuted Republicans ’claim that the process had been less fair than the Republican-led impeachment investigations of Bill Clinton.
Rep. Steve Chabot, a Republican, said that the “biggest difference in the Clinton impeachment and this one is that President Clinton committed a crime, perjury.” By contrast, he said, Trump hasn’t committed a crime.
“I would just like to note that the argument that somehow lying about a sexual affair is an abuse of presidential power, but the misuse of presidential power to get a b enefit somehow doesn’t matter, ”she said. “If it’s lying about sex, we could put Stormy Daniels’s case ahead of us. We don’t believe that’s a high crime and misdemeanor. No. And it is not before us. And it should not be for us, because it’s not an abuse of presidential power. ”
Trump’s former personal lawyer has said that he was directed by Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee, to pay the Daniels, a pornographic actor, $ (******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************, 03 to keep quiet about her affair with Trump. Trump has denied the affair.
Unsurprisingly, the committee rejected an amendment by Rep. Jim Jordan, one of Trump’s most loyal defenders, to remove the first article of impeachment from the draft resolution. During debate over a separate amendment, Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced a resolution that would change the subject of the impeachment inquiry to focus on Hunter Biden and Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company on which he served while his dad was Vice President.
Gaetz, insisting he did not intend to make fun of someone’s addiction, read aloud a passage from a New Yorker article that described Hunter Biden’s efforts to buy drugs. Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat, stared at Gaetz, who was arrested for a DUI: “The pot calling the kettle black is not something we should do.”
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The session has broken for lunch. My colleague Lauren Gambino will have a wrap of the day’s activities thus far coming shortly.
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