Donald Trump roiled the impeachment waters this morning by again making the suggestion, this time in public, that both Ukraine and China launch an "investigation into the Bidens." There have been no credible accusations of wrongdoing by the Bidens.
Soliciting foreign assistance in a United States election is a crime. There is no requirement that something be offered in exchange; the request itself is criminal. Trump's re-assertion of his once-secret request and expansion upon it appears to reflect confidence that Republican lawmakers will take no action even if he brazenly breaks U.S. laws.
In other impeachment-related news:
• Former envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker testified today before members of three House committees in the first formal deposition of the House's impeachment inquiry. Volker reportedly testified that he had warned Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani that the stories Giuliani was pursuing on Joe and Hunter Biden were a lie and that Giuliani's sources were "untrustworthy," but that Giuliani ignored his warnings.
• A mysterious packet of "propaganda" delivered yesterday to Congress by the State Department inspector general appears to be in part a Giuliani-written collection of conspiracy theories intended to smear former U.S Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Yovanovitch was recalled after a campaign for her ouster by Trump allies, including Giuliani. In another blockbuster revelation, The Wall Street Journal reports this evening that Trump ordered Yavonovitch’s removal because Giuliani saw her as “an obstacle to efforts to push Ukraine to investigate Mr. Biden and his son.”
• Donald Trump claimed today that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had told him his Ukraine call was "the most innocent phone call" ever. Sen. McConnell's office so far has neither confirmed nor denied Trump's claim.
• Questions abound as to whether the White House-released readout of Trump's call with Ukrainian President Zelensky are a "word for word" transcript, as Trump insists, or was instead edited to omit certain parts of that conversation.
• House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, among the most insistent of Trump's House defenders, wrote House Speaker Pelosi to demand impeachment be put on hold until a laundry list of Republican demands were met; Pelosi dispensed with that demand in short order.
• Republicans continued today to anchor Trump's defense on supposed improprieties by the "whistleblower" who filed a report of Trump's actions and by House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff. Not only are these would-be scandals based on false information, they are now irrelevant: The White House itself released a "readout" of Trump's Ukraine call that confirmed, and further detailed, Trump's actions.
• Republicans are also grousing about being tasked with the heavy lift of defending Trump while the White House itself (and the Republican National Committee) flounders for a response.
• Public support for impeachment has now increased significantly; swing-state Democrats who came out in support of the impeachment inquiry are so far seeing few repercussions for their stance. Nonetheless, the national press continues to focus on the risk Democrats face in launching an investigation of Trump's actions—while saying little of the risks Republicans could face for defending apparent criminal acts.
• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's failed effort to pretend he was unaware of the Ukraine call's contents, even though he personally listened in on the call, is a reminder that the culture of lying to the press and public extends throughout the Republican administration.