News Dump

He's just going all in now. He's confident that nobody will stop him. And so far he's right.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that lawmakers don't need to conduct "too much inquiry" on whether or not to impeach Trump since he has already "confessed" to breaking the oath he took when entering office.
https://www.newsweek.com/pelosi-says-not-much-inquiry-needed-impeach-trump-1463207

“During a press conference on Wednesday, President Trump was asked if he would cooperate with the House impeachment inquiry.  He responded, ‘I always cooperate.’  President Trump’s claim is patently false.  The White House has refused to engage with—or even respond to—multiple requests for documents from our Committees on a voluntary basis.  After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the President has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up,” the Chairmen wrote.
https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=718

House Democrats Just Subpoenaed the White House for Ukraine Documents: “After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the President has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up.”
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9kezw3/house-democrats-just-subpoenaed-white-house-for-ukraine-documents

Doctors Ask FDA To Label Cheese As Cancerous | “Dairy cheese contains reproductive hormones that may increase breast cancer mortality risk.” That’s the warning label the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine—a nonprofit with more than 12,000 doctor members—is petitioning the Food and Drug Administration to require cheese manufacturers to prominently display on all dairy cheese products. The petition is being submitted on Oct. 3, as Breast Cancer Awareness Month begins.
https://www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/doctors-petition-fda-require-breast-cancer-warning-label-cheese

Mitch McConnell's reelection campaign is seizing on the fight over impeachment, pledging in Facebook ads that he will lead Republican efforts to stop Trump from being removed from office. | McConnell said during a CNBC interview earlier this week that he would have "no choice" but to bring up impeachment if the House sends over articles.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/464379-mcconnell-vows-to-block-trump-impeachment-in-fundraising-pitch
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/463644-mcconnell-senate-would-have-no-choice-but-to-take-up-impeachment

A protestor who called for Americans to 'eat babies' to fight climate change at AOC's town hall was revealed as a member of a pro-Trump fringe group
https://www.businessinsider.com/pro-trump-group-behind-aoc-protester-calling-to-eat-babies-2019-10

Conservatives attacked Ocasio-Cortez over a bizarre town hall speaker. Now, a pro-Trump fringe group says they planned the stunt.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/04/conservatives-attacked-ocasio-cortez-over-bizarre-town-hall-speaker-now-pro-trump-fringe-group-says-they-planned-stunt/

At least 13 Ukrainian soldiers were killed while President Donald Trump's administration was withholding military aid from the country from mid-July to mid-September. The men, aged from 20 to 45, are among at least 78 Ukrainian soldiers killed in action up to mid-September this year in the east of the country, according to various local media and Ukrainian government reports. It is impossible to say whether timely delivery of American aid would have helped any individual soldier. But their deaths are a potent reminder that while the Trump administration was wrangling over military assistance, Kiev was—and remains—locked in a deadly struggle with its Russian-backed separatist adversaries.
https://www.newsweek.com/thriteen-ukrainian-soldiers-killed-trump-aid-withheld-1463128

Sen. Bob Menendez, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has requested that the State Department Inspector General open a formal inquiry into the Department's withholding of security assistance to Ukraine.
https://www.menendez.senate.gov/news-and-events/press/menendez-requests-state-department-ig-open-formal-investigation-into-trump-ukraine-scandal

Ukraine will re-review probe into gas company linked to Biden's son because the Trump Administration recently approved additional Javelins for the Ukraine a few days ago
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/04/politics/ukraine-investigations-biden-son-review-intl/index.html
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/28/trump-ukraine-military-aid-russia-1689531

Remember, when pro-Trump people say, "What's wrong with investigating what happened in 2016?" they are saying "What's wrong with coercing US allies to endorse Sean Hannity's theory that Hillary Clinton murdered Seth Rich to implicate Russia for WikiLeaks?"
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1180089519309234176

'Where is The Line?': Republican Senator Grilled Over Support for Trump at Iowa Town Hall
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/where-is-the-line-republican-senator-grilled-over-support-for-trump-at-iowa-town-hall/2019/10/03/57406b06-2a76-406e-986a-ce924705cf77_video.html

Gabby Giffords: I saw Beto O'Rourke’s commitment to ending gun violence firsthand in El Paso. He approaches this issue with unparalleled passion because his own community was devastated by it. Thank you for sharing this passion at the #GunSafety Forum today.
https://twitter.com/GabbyGiffords/status/1179524252719992832

'Just Because He Does It in the Open Does Not Make Abuse of Power OK': Outrage After Trump Asks China to Investigate Bidens: "Let's be very clear what’s happening here: Trump is openly asking foreign governments to interfere in the 2020 presidential election against his political rivals."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/03/just-because-he-does-it-open-does-not-make-abuse-power-ok-outrage-after-trump-asks

Beto O'Rourke on Bernie Sanders: "I know he's going to be good. He's an incredibly strong, man. We're thinking about him. But we're confident that he'll be back on the campaign trail very soon. And this country is all the better for it."
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1179619953479168000

Trump privately told Xi Jinping he would roll over on Hong Kong to get a trade deal
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/trump-privately-told-xi-jinping-he-would-roll-over-on-hong-kong-to-get-a-trade-deal-report/

After a few tough seasons, the Baltimore Orioles sent handwritten cards to their fans, thanking them for their support and reassuring them that better times are ahead (via The Athletic)
https://i.redd.it/wezah9nwgdq31.jpg

Am getting tired of hearing about how "corrupt" Ukraine is. You know which country is corrupt? The United States. We have a president who is using the White House to make money, presidential children who are using their father's prestige to make money. We have political donors who buy influence, we have legislators who represent private interests, and we have companies who put prominent, unqualified political/military people on their boards to gain credibility. Why was Jim Mattis on the board of Theranos, a scam company? Also: corruption in places like Ukraine and Russia is facilitated by American banks and by offshore tax havens that exist because the US government tolerates them. And why does the US government tolerate them? Because very wealthy people use them. Do you want to secretly, legally send money to Jared Kushner? I wrote about it last June. Why isn't this a scandal? I don't know. But it's definitely corrupt.

Lawyers representing disgraced Theranos founder and accused fraudster Elizabeth Holmes said in a civil case claim she hasn’t paid them for more than a year and probably never will, according to court records, and they don’t want to be her lawyers anymore.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/10/03/theranos-disgraced-founder-elizabeth-holmes-cant-pay-lawyers-lawyers-claim/

Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special representative to Ukraine, defended former vice president Joe Biden in a statement to Congress on Thursday and said he was trying to run interference on information being supplied to Trump by former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, to secure continued U.S. support for the government in Ukraine. Volker, who as of Thursday was the executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership, said he did not believe allegations Giuliani has leveled against Biden, namely that Biden was influenced in his dealings with the Ukrainian leadership by his son’s presence on the board of a Ukrainian gas company whose owner was being probed by authorities in Kiev. (Cindy McCain, a Biden friend, chairs the McCain Institute.) “I have known former vice president Biden for 24 years, and the suggestion that he would be influenced in his duties as vice president by money for his son simply has no credibility to me,” Volker said, according to a written copy of the opening statement reviewed by The Washington Post. “I know him as a man of integrity and dedication to our country.” | Volker said he told Giuliani that the information he was receiving from former Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuri Lutsenko was not credible. “I believed that these accusations by Mr. Lutsenko were themselves self-serving, intended to make him appear valuable to the United States, so that the United States might weigh in against his being removed from office by the new government,” Volker said. He said his efforts to persuade Trump to support Zelensky were undermined by information that Giuliani and others had been feeding Trump. Among other things, Volker suggested that Trump had bought into a theory — widely pushed by former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s team — that the Ukrainians conspired with Democrats during the 2016 election to undermine Trump and support Hillary Clinton. | However, it is clear from the text messages Volker knew by Aug. 10 that a renewed investigation of Burisma, the gas company where Hunter Biden served on the board, along with a probe of Ukraine and the Democrats during the 2016 election, were viewed in Kiev as a quid pro quo for the Ukrainian president to secure a date for a White House summit with Trump. 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/volker-defends-biden-asman-of-integrity-in-testimony-to-congress/2019/10/04/bab8d4a2-e6ca-11e9-b7da-053c79b03db8_story.html

Fox Host Defends Trump as ‘Honest and Transparent’ After Trump Called Him Fake News
https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-host-ed-henry-defends-trump-as-honest-and-transparent-after-trump-called-him-fake-news

77 Groups Demand Trump Rescind Attack-on-Facts Executive Order Slashing Expert Advisory Committees
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/04/77-groups-demand-trump-rescind-attack-facts-executive-order-slashing-expert-advisory

Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Friday that he was suing a 2016 campaign aide to Trump for slander because the aide told an Italian right-wing newspaper that Mr. Renzi, while in office, had sought under the orders of President Barack Obama to derail Mr. Trump’s candidacy by planting a spy in a small Roman university.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/world/europe/italy-renzi-trump-obama.html

Committees Seek Ukraine Documents from Vice President
https://oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/committees-seek-ukraine-documents-from-vice-president

Every day this expands to another cabinet member, administration official, or additional foreign country. Turns out there was an international and governmental conspiracy to break the law, and it was Trump running an extortion racket from the Oval. So much for the Deep State

Demanding Transcript of Trump Call With Xi, Warren Slams President for Selling Out People of Hong Kong 'Behind Closed Doors': "The public must see the transcript of Trump's call with Xi. And we need a leader who will stand up for our values."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/04/demanding-transcript-trump-call-xi-warren-slams-president-selling-out-people-hong

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson was blocked by Trump in August from telling Ukraine's president that U.S. aid was on its way in the wake of accusations Trump was withholding it until the eastern European nation investigated his political rival.    Trump rejected Johnson's request after refusing in May to back new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Johnson told reporters Friday.    “I was surprised by the president’s reaction and realized we had a sales job to do,” Johnson said during a constituent stop in Sheboygan. “I tried to convince him (in August) to give me the authority to tell President Zelensky that we were going to provide that. Now, I didn’t succeed."
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/04/ron-johnson-says-trump-blocked-him-assuring-ukraine-aid/3862948002/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-used-potential-meeting-to-pressure-ukraine-on-biden-texts-indicate-11570205661

Sondland, a wealthy businessman who donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural, was literally the only person in the text messages released last night who suggested that the deal wasn't a quid pro quo (while desperately trying to get the other ambassadors to stop talking about the quid pro quo in text and call him instead). Now, a GOP Senator just admitted Sondland told him it was.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/04/gordon-sondland-ukraine-texts-ambassador/

Rod Blagojevich is sitting in prison right now for a quid pro quo that arguably didn't even compromise America's national security the way that Trump's has. As anyone with half a brain cell can intuit, quid pro quo was clearly implied by the "I would like you to do us a favor, though" quote. But it's important to remember that quid pro quo does not need to be present for this to be an impeachable offense. Asking a foreign government to dig up (or fabricate) dirt on a political opponent, regardless of whether something is offered in return, is sufficient cause for impeachment.

CNN's team "contacted the offices of 85 Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate to see if any had concerns" with Trump's call for China to investigate Biden. Only a few responded, and "just three expressed misgivings:" Hurd, Romney and Sasse.
https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1180237864476565505

This amounts to Republican approval of Trump's wrongdoing. Going forward, are all presidential candidates (and presidents) going to try to persuade foreign governments to intervene in our elections on their behalf?
https://twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/1180243178437464064

Senator Bernie Sanders had a heart attack this week, his campaign said on Friday, as he was released from a Las Vegas hospital. “After two and a half days in the hospital, I feel great, and after taking a short time off, I look forward to getting back to work,” Mr. Sanders said in a statement. His doctors, Arturo E. Marchand Jr. and Arjun Gururaj, said in the statement that after Mr. Sanders experienced chest pains on Tuesday night, he was given a diagnosis of a myocardial infarction, or heart attack.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/us/politics/bernie-sanders-hospital.html

Trump Denies Protection to Ancient Alaskan Cedar Trees Threatened by Climate Crisis, Logging
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2019/10/04/trump-denies-protection-ancient-alaskan-cedar-trees-threatened-climate-crisis
Microsoft says a hacker group with ties to Iran has targeted a U.S. presidential campaign, in the latest sign that foreign governments may try to influence the 2020 election. In a blog post published Friday, Tom Burt, a Microsoft security executive, said the company has seen "significant cyber activity" by a group it is calling Phosphorus. Burt said Microsoft believes the group "originates from Iran and is linked to the Iranian government," although he did not say how the company reached that conclusion
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/04/767274042/microsoft-says-iranians-tried-to-hack-u-s-presidential-campaign
https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2019/10/04/recent-cyberattacks-require-us-all-to-be-vigilant/

EU ambassador Gordon Sondland is now scheduled to testify to three House committees on Tuesday, October 8th.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/donald-trump-impeachment-inquiry-latest-updates-today-2019-10-04/

Trump's own appointees think he's a criminal: CIA's top lawyer made criminal referral on whistleblower's complaint about Trump conduct | The move by the CIA's general counsel, Trump appointee Courtney Simmons Elwood, meant she and other senior officials had concluded a potential crime had been committed, raising more questions about why the Justice Department later closed the case without conducting an investigation.  | The fact that she and other top Trump administration political appointees saw potential misconduct in the whistleblower's early account of alleged presidential abuses puts a new spotlight on the Justice Department's later decision to decline to open a criminal investigation — a decision that the Justice Department said publicly was based purely on an analysis of whether the president committed a campaign finance law violation.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/cia-s-top-lawyer-made-criminal-referral-whistleblower-s-complaint-n1062481

Warning issued after RNC sends 'imitation census’ mailers to boost Trump re-election in Montana | The so-called "imitation census" is putting state officials on edge about potentially confusing Montana’s more than 711,000 registered voters and by possibly dampening participation in the actual census in 2020, which comes after a tumultuous year for the U.S. Census Bureau.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/montana-officials-warn-misinformation-rnc-sends-imitation-census/story?id=66065706

In Tennessee's second day of public hearings on a controversial proposal to shift the funding of its Medicaid program to a federal block grant, dozens showed up to an East Knoxville public library to make their opinions known. And for the second day, not a single person spoke in favor of the plan.
"If Tennessee becomes the first state in our country to switch Medicaid to a block grant, it will move into last place in our country as to how it treats its most vulnerable," said the Rev. Larry Boudon, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Oak Ridge. | Sen. Richard Briggs, R-Knoxville, attended the hearing, along with Knoxville Democratic Reps. Gloria Johnson and Rick Staples. Briggs was the sole Republican to vote against the legislation requiring Gov. Bill Lee to apply to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for block grant funding for TennCare, the state's Medicaid program that services 1.4 million people. "There's a lot to gain, but there's also something to lose," said Briggs, a heart surgeon who was a rare Republican proponent in the Tennessee legislature for expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. "A lot of my concerns are more financial."
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/02/tennessee-block-grant-proposal-draws-criticism-knoxville-public-hearing-medicaid-tenncare-funding/2375975001/

Trump issued a proclamation Friday that will require immigrants to prove they can obtain health insurance before they are issued a visa. Trump rolled back Obamacare’s individual mandate, saying it was a “total disaster” and a cruel requirement. But now he would essentially create a mandate for immigrants — and deny them visas if they can’t comply.
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/04/trump-immigrants-health-insurance-proclamation-029705

As Donald Trump rails against the Bidens' business dealings abroad, ethics experts say it's the President's own family that presents the larger conflict of interest. "Trump's children ink international deals on his behalf, and serve in his administration," reports @SaraMurray.
https://twitter.com/OutFrontCNN/status/1180275307279990784

The thing is this entire saga is devastating to Biden’s theory that personal relationships with senate republicans + policy moderation will let him “get things done” as president. If those friends are real now would be a great time for them to speak up!
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1180089485071134720

In one of his first calls with a head of state, Trump fawned over Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling the man who ordered interference in America’s 2016 election that he was a great leader and apologizing profusely for not calling him sooner. | And in a later call with Putin, Trump asked the former KGB officer for his guidance in forging a friendship with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un — a fellow authoritarian hostile to the United States.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-calls-with-foreign-leaders-have-long-worried-aides-leaving-some-genuinely-horrified/2019/10/04/537cc7a8-e602-11e9-a331-2df12d56a80b_story.html

Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel say "it's hard to argue" Trump's Ukraine call rises to impeachment. Nevertheless, the condemnation of the call is still a break from a lot of conservative media and Republicans: Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel in op-ed: "Trump should not have been on the phone with a foreign head of state encouraging another country to investigate his political opponent, Joe Biden. Some Republicans are trying, but there’s no way to spin this..."
https://dailycaller.com/2019/10/03/tucker-and-patel-truth-about-impeachment/

It is interesting that Trump isn't investigating ANY OTHER CORRUPTION other than that of the top Democratic contenders.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/10/donald-trump-jr-is-outraged-by-hunter-bidens-conflict-of-interest-where-to-begin/

There's already a setback to the Trump admin's effort to resume federal executions -- the 9th Circuit has stayed an execution set for Dec. 11 until they decide an appeal for one of the death row inmates that predated AG Barr's announcement in July
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6454565/10-4-19-9th-Circuit-Order-Mitchell.pdf