General
Key Mueller witness, major Clinton and Trump donor charged with funneling $3.5 million in illegal contributions in 2016 U.S. elections
Spencer S. Hsu and Matt Zapotosky, The Washington Post
A key witness in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election has been indicted with seven others on charges of conspiring to funnel more than $3 million in illegal foreign campaign contributions for that year’s elections, the Justice Department announced. George Nader, an adviser to the United Arab Emirates who acted as an intermediary for members of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign seeking to forge contacts in the Middle East, was charged with conspiring to make conduit campaign contributions and related offenses in a 53-count indictment unsealed Tuesday in Washington, prosecutors said.
House pushes ‘dozen bills or none’ approach to spending talks
Jennifer Shutt and Paul M. Krawzak, Roll Call
House Democratic leaders are insisting that all 12 overdue spending bills for the current fiscal year must be finalized before any of them can reach the floor, according to sources familiar with strategy talks. The demand for some kind of grand bargain could complicate hopes for completion of at least a portion of fiscal 2020 appropriations before stopgap funding runs dry on Dec. 20 and Congress adjourns for the winter holidays.
Syrians Say U.S. Helicopter Fire Killed Civilians During The Raid On Baghdadi
Daniel Estrin and Lama Al-Arian, NPR News
A Syrian farmer says his arm was blown off and his two friends were killed by U.S. helicopter fire in the village where American special forces were attacking the compound of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October. His account is supported by analysis of photos of shrapnel and of a damaged van.
2020 U.S. census plagued by hacking threats, cost overruns
Nick Brown, Reuters
In 2016, the U.S. Census Bureau faced a pivotal choice in its plan to digitize the nation’s once-a-decade population count: build a system for collecting and processing data in-house, or buy one from an outside contractor. The bureau chose Pegasystems Inc, reasoning that outsourcing would be cheaper and more effective.
Mexico Weighs U.S. Plan to Strip Drugs Provision From USMCA
Eric Martin and Jenny Leonard, Bloomberg
Mexico is considering a U.S. proposal to remove protections for biologic drugs from a renegotiated Nafta trade deal, a plan that could help clear a hurdle to an agreement and deal a blow to brand-name pharmaceutical companies. The proposed change would drop language in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement offering 10 years of market protection for drug makers from cheaper generic spinoffs, according to half a dozen sources familiar with the talks who asked not to be named because the negotiations are private.
North Korea warns US to prepare for ‘Christmas gift,’ but no one’s sure what to expect
Joshua Berlinger, CNN
North Korea will send a “Christmas gift” to the United States, but what that present contains will depend on the outcome of ongoing talks between Washington and Pyongyang, a top official has warned. The ominous comments, which some have interpreted as a sign that North Korea could resume long-distance missile tests, comes as the clock ticks closer to the country’s self-imposed end-of-year deadline for nuclear negotiations with the Trump administration.
White House & Administration
In Video, World Leaders Seem to Be Commiserating About Trump
Annie Karni and Katie Rogers, The New York Times
It was a NATO anniversary celebration designed specifically to avoid unwanted disruptions. But those drama-free plans were upended on Tuesday when President Emmanuel Macron of France aggressively challenged President Trump during a televised appearance.
State Dept. undersecretary counters GOP claims Ukraine meddled in 2016
Dartunorro Clark et al., NBC News
Longtime U.S. diplomat David Hale on Tuesday disputed a growing conspiracy theory being advanced by President Donald Trump and some GOP lawmakers that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Hale, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, told Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, that he was not aware of any evidence that Ukraine meddled in the presidential race, but reiterated the American intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered to boost Trump’s campaign.
U.S., China Move Closer to Trade Deal Despite Harsh Rhetoric
Jenny Leonard and Shuping Niu, Bloomberg
The U.S. and China are moving closer to agreeing on the amount of tariffs that would be rolled back in a phase-one trade deal despite tensions over Hong Kong and Xinjiang, people familiar with the talks said. The people, who asked not to be identified, said that U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments Tuesday downplaying the urgency of a deal shouldn’t be understood to mean the talks were stalling, as he was speaking off the cuff.
Former official says Trump often refused to believe his intelligence briefings
Nicole Gaouette and Kylie Atwood, 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. Gordon, an intelligence veteran of more than 30 years, said Monday that Trump had two typical responses to briefings.
Trump administration will provide HIV prevention drug for free to uninsured in new program
Helen Branswell, Stat News
The Trump administration on Tuesday detailed how it will roll out the delivery of donated HIV prevention drugs to people who should be taking them but do not have prescription drug coverage. Pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP drugs, which are taken daily, have been shown to be highly effective at preventing infection, but they are expensive and too few people at risk use them.
Senate
Senate Republicans Warm to Theory of Ukrainian Election Interference
Lindsay Wise and Dustin Volz, The Wall Street Journal
Some Republican lawmakers are warming to the allegation that Ukraine’s government meddled in the 2016 U.S. elections, even though a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of any systematic effort by Ukraine to interfere. The Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee has spent nearly three years investigating Russia’s interference in 2016, and has released public reports that emphatically support the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community that Moscow carried out an influence operation intended to boost President Trump.
Push to investigate Bidens sets up potential for Senate turf war
Jordain Carney, The Hill
A push by President Trump and his allies to investigate the Bidens has set off a horse race among high-profile Senate chairmen. It’s spawned two competing probes in the upper chamber: Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) are weeks into their own wide-ranging investigation that includes the Bidens and Ukraine while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is suggesting he’ll run a separate review out of the Judiciary Committee.
McConnell: Senate could pass partisan rules package for impeachment trial
Alexander Bolton, The Hill
Senate Majority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said that if he’s unable to reach a deal with Democrats to set the rules for a Senate impeachment trial then he will try to to do so solely with GOP votes. A Senate trial is expected to last as long as five or six weeks, depending on how much time the resolution allows House impeachment managers to make their case and the president’s defense team to offer a rebuttal.
‘America, we’ve got a problem’: Isakson’s farewell warning
Graham MacGillivray, Roll Call
After 20 years in Congress, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., spoke Tuesday on the Senate floor for what might be his last time. He delivered a warning to the country and a call for bipartisanship. Worried that the “strongest country in the world” might “succumb to crushing itself inwardly,” he told the chamber, and C-SPAN2 viewers, that he sees bipartisanship “slipping away.”
Republicans To Confirm Lifetime Federal Judge Opposed To Fertility Treatments
Jennifer Bendery, HuffPost
Senate Republicans will vote this week to confirm a lifetime federal judge who claimed that fertility treatments and surrogacy have “grave effects on society, including diminished respect for motherhood and the unique mother-child bond; exploitation of women; commodification of gestation and of children themselves; and weakening of appropriate social mores against eugenic abortion.” Sarah Pitlyk, President Donald Trump’s nominee to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, argued those points in a 2017 amicus brief opposing a California statute that protects the right to assisted reproductive technology like in vitro fertilization, or IVF, and gestational surrogacy.
House
‘I’m not going to take any sh–‘: Nadler girds for battle
Heather Caygle and Sarah Ferris, Politico
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,” Nadler said in a closed-door prep session Tuesday morning — a rare cuss word from the lawyerly Manhattan Democrat that prompted some lawmakers to sit up in their chairs, according to multiple people in the room.
Top House Democrat wants Mueller findings in impeachment articles against Trump
Emma Dumain, The State
The third most senior House Democrat wants a vote on articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump — and the charges against him to include obstruction of justice related to the findings of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. That controversial strategic position, laid out by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., in a brief interview with McClatchy on Tuesday evening, is the strongest and most decisive statement yet by a member of the House Democratic leadership team.
Rep. Adam Schiff: ‘The Uncontested Facts Show This President Solicited A Bribe’
Brakkton Booker, NPR News
Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead investigator in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump, says the House Intelligence Committee’s report “shows abundant evidence” that Trump used the power of his office to “condition official acts” in exchange for political favors. In other words, the California Democrat says Trump met a threshold set forth in the Constitution that says a president can be impeached and removed from office for committing treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
House passes sanctions bill on China for mass detention of Uighur Muslims
Orion Rummier, Axios
The House overwhelmingly passed a bill on Tuesday that would push for sanctions against China over its mass detention of Uighur Muslims. The bill would also restrict U.S. technology and AI exports to China that could be used to facilitate detentions.
Prosecutors expect to seek at least a year in prison for Rep. Duncan Hunter after guilty plea
Sarah D. Wire and Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times
Rep. Duncan Hunter pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of conspiracy to misuse campaign funds and is expected to resign from Congress before facing a prison sentence. Hunter, who will be sentenced March 17, faces a maximum of five years in prison.
U.S. Rep. Steve Watkins tangled in voter fraud, perjury allegations for listing UPS store as residence
Tim Carpenter, The Topeka Capital-Journal
U.S. Rep. Steve Watkins’ decision to sign a Kansas voter registration form and two other election documents that asserted his residential address was a UPS Store in Topeka could constitute felony voter fraud under federal law and election perjury under state statute, officials said Tuesday. Shawnee County records show the first-term Republican listed his official residence as 6021 S.W. 29th St. in Topeka, which corresponds to a UPS Store, when he signed a form to change his residency for voter registration purposes in August, signed an application for a mail-in ballot in October and signed a document to complete advance voting for the November election.
Devin Nunes sues CNN for $435M over ‘false and defamatory’ Ukraine story
Brian Flood and Brooke Singman, Fox News
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., sued CNN for defamation on Tuesday, accusing the cable network of publishing a “demonstrably false hit piece” about him amid his high-profile opposition to the Trump impeachment inquiry. The 47-page lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, accuses the liberal network of publishing “numerous egregiously false and defamatory” statements about Nunes on Nov. 22, 2019 when journalist Vicky Ward reported claims that Nunes met with Ukranian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, in Vienna in 2018 to dig “up dirt” on Hunter and Joe Biden.
2020
Democrats once hailed their diverse 2020 field. Now the top candidates are all white
Alex Roarty, McClatchy DC
Democrats lost arguably their most prominent presidential candidate of color Tuesday when Kamala Harris suddenly ended her campaign, leaving the party’s upper echelon of contenders — including all of those currently qualified for the next debate — entirely white. It’s a stark new reality that’s left many leading progressive activists disappointed, upset and concerned that the 2020 field is not reflecting an increasingly diverse Democratic base, harming the party’s chances to defeat President Donald Trump in next year’s general election.
Joe Biden Still Wants to Win Iowa. Here’s His Strategy.
Kate Glueck, The New York Times
The teleprompters are gone. The gatherings are often intimate.
Liberal Veterans’ Group Endorses Pete Buttigieg in 2020 Race
Reid J. Epstein, The New York Times
VoteVets, the political action committee that backs liberal veterans running for office, has endorsed Pete Buttigieg for president, the first major organization to support him. The endorsement brings Mr. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., and a former Navy officer who served in Afghanistan, new defenders in a 2020 Democratic presidential contest that has seen better known candidates drop out as polling shows early-state voters coalescing around the four leading candidates.
Quietly recruiting megadonors, Pompeo eyes a massive Senate campaign war chest
Michael Wilner and Bryan Lowry, McClatchy DC
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has reached out to Sheldon Adelson, the Republican Party’s largest donor, in recent weeks to “gauge interest” in his potential run for an open Senate seat in Kansas next year, three sources familiar with the matter told McClatchy. It is the latest evidence of Pompeo’s outreach campaign to rally donor support around a potential Senate bid, following similar conversations with Charles Koch, a Kansas resident, as well as donors affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
States
Rep. Rick Miller won’t seek re-election, apologizes for comment about ‘Asian’ candidates
Andrea Zelinski, Houston Chronicle
State Rep. D.F. “Rick” Miller of Sugar Land dropped his re-election bid on Tuesday as fellow Republicans rebuked him for saying that two GOP candidates are running against him in the primary because they’re “Asian.” In a statement, the four-term lawmaker said he used a poor choice of words that were “insensitive and inexcusable,” but not meant to be hurtful.
Advocacy
Hospital Groups Sue to Block Price-Transparency Rule
Stephanie Armour, The Wall Street Journal
Hospital groups sued to block a Trump-administration rule forcing them to disclose secret rates, for the first time laying out the industry’s legal strategy for defeating the president’s central health-policy initiative. The lawsuit filed Wednesday says the rule compelling the hospitals to publish their negotiated rates with insurers violates the First Amendment and goes beyond the statutory intent of the Affordable Care Act.
Labor Unions Team Up With Drug Makers to Defeat Drug-Price Proposals
Katie Thomas, The New York Times
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bill to lower drug prices has the backing of many of the nation’s biggest labor groups, including the United Auto Workers, the A.F.L.-C.I.O., and unions representing teachers and other government workers. But a wave of Facebook ads that ran this fall appeared to suggest otherwise.
How McKinsey Helped the Trump Administration Carry Out Its Immigration Policies
Ian MacDougall, The New York Times and ProPublica
Just days after he took office in 2017, President Trump set out to make good on his campaign pledge to halt illegal immigration. In a pair of executive orders, he ordered “all legally available resources” to be shifted to border detention facilities, and called for hiring 10,000 new immigration officers.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
It’s Not Just Trump. The American People Are Skeptical of NATO, Too.
Mark Hannah, Politico
When it was created in 1949, the purpose of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was clear. With the horrors of Nazism still vivid as the Cold War commenced, NATO’s first secretary general, Hastings Ismay, said the alliance existed to “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in and the Germans down.”
Research Reports and Polling
Americans Remain Divided on “Obamacare”
Mohamed Younis, Gallup
Americans continue to give the Affordable Care Act a split decision, with 50% telling Gallup they approve of the healthcare law brought about by President Barack Obama, and 48% saying they disapprove. The latest data are from a Gallup poll conducted Nov. 1-14.
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