William McRaven/NY Times, icymi:
Our Republic Is Under Attack From the President
If President Trump doesn’t demonstrate the leadership that America needs, then it is time for a new person in the Oval Office.
As I stood on the parade field at Fort Bragg, one retired four-star general, grabbed my arm, shook me and shouted, “I don’t like the Democrats, but Trump is destroying the Republic!”
Those words echoed with me throughout the week. It is easy to destroy an organization if you have no appreciation for what makes that organization great. We are not the most powerful nation in the world because of our aircraft carriers, our economy, or our seat at the United Nations Security Council. We are the most powerful nation in the world because we try to be the good guys. We are the most powerful nation in the world because our ideals of universal freedom and equality have been backed up by our belief that we were champions of justice, the protectors of the less fortunate.
But, if we don’t care about our values, if we don’t care about duty and honor, if we don’t help the weak and stand up against oppression and injustice — what will happen to the Kurds, the Iraqis, the Afghans, the Syrians, the Rohingyas, the South Sudanese and the millions of people under the boot of tyranny or left abandoned by their failing states?
USA Today:
John Kasich now says President Trump should be impeached
The headline says it all.
WaPo:
Growing number of Republicans struggle to defend Trump on G-7 choice, Ukraine and Syria
A growing number of congressional Republicans expressed exasperation Friday over what they view as President Trump’s indefensible behavior, a sign that the president’s stranglehold on his party is starting to weaken as Congress hurtles toward a historic impeachment vote.
In interviews with more than 20 GOP lawmakers and congressional aides in the past 48 hours, many said they were repulsed by Trump’s decision to host an international summit at his own resort and incensed by acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s admission — later withdrawn — that U.S. aid to Ukraine was withheld for political reasons. Others expressed anger over the president’s abandonment of Kurdish allies in Syria.
One Republican, Rep. Francis Rooney (Fla.) — whose district Trump carried by 22 percentage points — did not rule out voting to impeach the president and compared the situation to the Watergate scandal that ended Richard Nixon’s presidency.
Americans don’t approve of Trump’s actions on Syria (USA Today/Ipsos) and that includes Mitch mcConnell (op-ed, WaPo). The McConnell piece is permission structure for Rs to oppose Trump on this.
Politico:
Why Republicans should be worried about their chances of retaking the House
Democrats' fundraising pace is not slowing down as they gear up to defend the chamber.
The GOP is struggling to adapt to a changing landscape; They can no longer dismiss the strong fundraising as an anomaly when it has remained steady throughout the first three quarters of 2019. And while operatives insist the disparity is not insurmountable, Democrats have undoubtedly amassed a head start in a battle that will be waged in suburban districts that lie in the most expensive media markets in the country.
For comparison, only nine the 30 Republican incumbents who lost reelection last November had more than $1 million in the bank after the third quarter of 2017.
Still, top Republican strategists remain undaunted, citing the potential for impeachment backlash to motivate voters and lessen the potency of their opponents’ cash advantage. They acknowledged the Democratic cash influx may continue but brushed aside concerns it would derail their shot at taking back the House.
Remember, no matter how bleak the landscape, Republicans are supremely confident. If Democrats dare point out how badly Trump is doing in the polls, we get pearl clutching on an epic scale. So it goes.
Lawfare:
New Impeachment Poll: Quid Pro Quo Trouble Ahead
White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney made a stunning admission of a quid pro quo by confirming that President Donald Trump froze nearly $400 million in U.S. security aid to Ukraine in part to pressure that country into investigating Democrats. The latest University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll fielded by Nielsen Scarborough finds this could spell major trouble for the president’s public standing ahead, including among Republicans: We asked: “In general, do you believe it is an impeachable offense if the president of the United States invites foreign leaders/entities to interfere in U.S. elections?” Two thirds of respondents, including 46 percent of Republicans and 58 percent of Independents said yes.
Before Mulvaney’s statement this week, the president appeared to have succeeded in persuading many, including a majority of Republicans, that there was no such quid pro quo. In a follow up we asked: “Do you believe that President Trump has invited foreign interference into a U.S. election?” A slight majority, 52 percent, said yes, but 79 percent of Republicans said no.
Those numbers will change for the worse for Trump, but Mulvaney really poured gasoline on that fire.
This observation is from WaPo:
Impeachment inquiry shows Trump at the center of Ukraine efforts against rivals
Yet despite his discomfort, Sondland said that because he and his team had been “given the president’s explicit direction,” the group “agreed to do as President Trump directed” and involved Giuliani in the ongoing Ukraine discussions.
Republicans are using the Nuremberg defense. Good luck.
Igor Bobic/HuffPost:
GOP Senator Breaks With White House Over Ukraine Quid Pro Quo
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) pushed back on the idea endorsed by the Trump administration this week that withholding foreign aid to other countries for political purposes is a routine and appropriate way of doing business.
“You don’t hold up foreign aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative,” Murkowski, a senior appropriator, told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon. “Period.”
She joins Mitt Romney as the dam continues to show cracks.
Jennifer Rubin/WaPo:
Trump melts down when he can’t control the news
As on impeachment, Trump cannot spin his way out of a self-made disaster on Syria, cannot distract the media and cannot control Congress’s reaction. When deprived of scapegoats and the ability to distract the media, Trump melts down. He cannot acknowledge fault nor ignorance nor gullibility. Hence, like a toddler, he pitches a fit. One wonders what he will do when the House actually votes on impeachment.
Greg Sargent/WaPo:
The big lie at the core of Trump’s ugly meltdown at Pelosi
President Trump is in a rage, because nobody in Washington will take his claims about pulling U.S. troops out of Syria seriously. He insists he’s operating in the national interest, but everyone aside from his base and his most slavish loyalists knows that’s utter nonsense. Trump either has no idea what he’s doing, or has uglier motives — either way, he isn’t acting in accord with any meaningful conception of what’s good for the country.
But Trump has only himself to blame for this. At precisely the moment he’s defending his Syria moves, the unfolding Ukraine scandal is showcasing in vivid detail that Trump is perfectly willing to sell out our foreign policy for profoundly corrupt, self-interested reasons.
The confluence of these two narratives has left Trump with an unusually depleted store of credibility as he demands the benefit of the doubt on Syria. Why would anyone assume he’s operating in the national interest on that front, when he’s completely betraying it on another before all the world to see?…
The big lie at the core of all of this — that Trump is operating out of any devotion to the national interest — is getting harder to sustain, precisely because of what’s about to unfold in the Ukraine scandal that’s consuming Trump’s presidency.
Jonathan Cohn/HuffPost:
What ‘Medicare For All’ Would Really Mean For The Middle Class
The answer is more complicated than the Democratic debates might suggest.
“Creating a single-payer plan where the wealthy pay more and everyone else comes out no worse or ahead would require a delicate balance of high tax rates for the wealthy that do not cause substantial tax avoidance and moderate to low tax rates for everyone else,” Jodi Liu, chief author of the Rand report, told HuffPost. “The overall tax revenue needed would depend critically on how much providers are paid.”
Even Within The Middle Class, Some Might Pay More
Then there is the other big asterisk in the Rand report.
It’s one thing to say that, on average, people in the lower 90% of the income scale would pay less for their health care. It’s quite another thing to say that every single person in the lower 90% of the income scale would pay less for their health care.
In reality, for each income group, at least some individuals would likely find themselves paying more, not less, once a Medicare for All system took effect.