SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL on “Fox and Buddies” this morning: “Do you assume Chuck Schumer is neutral? Do you assume Elizabeth Warren is neutral? Bernie Sanders is neutral? So let’s give up the charade. This can be a political exercise. … All I’m asking of Schumer is that we treat Trump the identical means we handled Clinton.
“We had a procedure that was permitted 100 to nothing -- Schumer voted for it, to go through the opening arguments, to have a written question interval, after which, based mostly upon that, deciding what witnesses to call. We haven’t ruled out witnesses. We’ve stated let’s deal with this case identical to we did with President Clinton. Truthful is truthful.”
MCCONNELL was asked if he had spoken to Schumer: “Yeah, before we left town. Look, we’re at an deadlock. We will’t do anything till the speaker sends the papers over, so everyone enjoy the holidays.”
“THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, in the event that they assume this can be a very vital episode, can take it under consideration we’re voting [next] yr. Most people that I run into, whether or not they are fans of the president or not, say, ‘Nicely, why don’t you just allow us to determine this. We’re in the midst of the election.’”
SWING STATE READ … FRONT PAGE of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, banner headline: “‘Nakedly partisan … disrespectful’: Impeachment of Trump echoes that of Clinton”
THE NEXT BIG OBJECT OF FASCINATION amongst President DONALD TRUMP’S allies is U.S. Lawyer John Durham’s report on his investigation into the origins of the Russia probe -- and, extra specifically, the intelligence group’s position in it.
WE KNOW REMARKABLY LITTLE about Durham and what he’s up to. POLITICO and others have reported that he’s focusing on former prime intel leaders like CIA chief JOHN BRENNAN, however not much else. What we do know is that the president personally and his allies have stated -- time and again -- that they're putting a lot of stock into Durham, which makes him a central determine of the moment.
-- KNOWING DURHAM … NYT, A1: “Durham Surprises Even Allies With Statement on F.B.I.’s Trump Case,” by Elizabeth Williamson: “Mr. Durham is understood in New England’s close-knit regulation enforcement group for working lengthy days on his personal instances, and offering sought-after steerage on others’.
“Sporting gunmetal-frame glasses and a drooping goatee, he rises early and clothes in the dead of night, typically mismatching his go well with jackets and pants. His status for discretion, on prime of an extended document of profitable high-profile prosecutions, are among the many causes he has been a go-to individual when Washington — underneath Republicans and Democrats alike — needs somebody to handle sensitive duties. …
“‘He believes in four issues: his family, his career, his religion and the Boston Pink Sox,’ stated Hugh F. Keefe, a Connecticut defense lawyer who says Mr. Durham is so by the ebook, he once asked Mr. Keefe whether he had reported a free Purple Sox ticket to the I.R.S. ‘If anybody thinks they will lead him like a horse to water, they’re mistaken.’”
THE EVANGELICAL VOTE … SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL FRONT PAGE: “President Donald Trump to rally evangelical voters in Miami,” by Skyler Swisher: “President Donald Trump is going to rally his spiritual supporters in Miami, a move that comes after an evangelical Christian magazine referred to as for him to be removed from office. Trump is rolling out an ‘Evangelicals for Trump’ coalition on Jan. three in Miami, in line with his campaign.” Front page
-- “At one evangelical church, congregants dismiss the Christianity Today editorial — if they’ve read it at all,” by WaPo’s Amy Wang in Brookfield, Wis.
BREAKING IN THE KINGDOM … AP/RIYADH: “Saudi sentences 5 to death for Jamal Khashoggi’s killing,” by Abdullah Al-Shihri and Aya Batrawy: “Saudi Arabia sentenced 5 individuals to dying on Monday for the killing of Washington Submit columnist and royal family critic Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered within the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul final yr by a group of Saudi brokers.
“The killing of Khashoggi surprised the international group and in addition many Saudi residents, who have been deeply shocked that a Saudi nationwide might be killed by 15 authorities agents inside one of many kingdom’s consulates.
“One other three individuals have been sentenced to jail for a mixed 24 years, based on a press release learn by the lawyer basic’s office on Saudi state TV. No individual breakdown for the sentencing was given.”
Good Monday morning. WELCOME TO CHRISTMAS WEEK! Hanukkah started Sunday night time. Playbook will still be in your inbox as typical, however just a bit later this week and subsequent. Playbook PM and the Audio Briefing are on hiatus.
MARKET WATCH -- “How the financial system might make or break Trump in 2020,” by Ben White: “A lot of the financial presents President Donald Trump goes to get for 2020 are already unwrapped and out from beneath the tree. The Federal Reserve slashed charges and went dark. The part one China deal is pretty much executed. So is the brand new NAFTA.
“That leaves one huge question for a just lately impeached president as he heads for a dicey reelection bid: What’s left to goose markets and the financial system past what most anticipate shall be a fairly blah 2020?
“Even blah — a 2 percent-or-so progress price with unemployment still near or under four % — might be enough to help Trump overcome a low approval score and win once more. But when he really hopes to romp over the eventual Democratic nominee, he’ll in all probability want markets to keep popping and progress to bubble greater, particularly in the industrial Midwest. And it is removed from obvious how america can get there from here.” POLITICO
TRADE WARS ... WSJ/BEIJING: “China to Cut Tariffs on Range of Goods Amid Push for Trade Deal”: “China will minimize import tariffs for frozen pork, prescription drugs and a few high-tech elements ranging from Jan. 1, a transfer that comes as Beijing and Washington try to finish a phase-one commerce deal.
“The plan, permitted by China’s cupboard, will lower tariffs for all trading companions on 859 varieties of products to under the charges that most-favored nations take pleasure in, the Finance Ministry stated Monday. Most-favored-nation rates are the lowest attainable tariffs a rustic gives to its buying and selling partners.
“The lower levies will apply to frozen pork, as China aims to shore up its meat provides amid an outbreak of swine fever, in addition to semiconductor products and medicines to deal with bronchial asthma and diabetes. Tariffs on a few of the products will go to zero.
“The plan will even minimize import levies for greater than eight,000 products even lower for 23 nations and areas which have free-trade agreements with China, including Australia, South Korea, Iceland, New Zealand and Pakistan, from the beginning of subsequent yr. The assertion stated China would additional minimize tariffs on some information-technology services from July 1, 2020.”
WE’RE STILL AT WAR … AP/KABUL: “U.S. soldier is killed in Afghanistan; Taliban claim attack”
2020 WATCH …
-- “Trump campaign affected by groups raising tens of hundreds of thousands in his identify,” by Maggie Severns: “As President Donald Trump raises money for his reelection campaign, he’s competing for cash with a growing mass of pro-Trump PACs, darkish cash groups and off-brand Fb advertisers neither affiliated with nor endorsed by Trump’s campaign, which have pulled in over $46 million up to now.
“The groups mimic Trump’s brand in the best way they appear and feel. They borrow the president’s Twitter avatar on Fb pages, use clips of Trump’s voice in robocalls asking for ‘an emergency contribution to the marketing campaign’ and, in some instances, have been affiliated with former Trump aides, resembling onetime deputy marketing campaign supervisor David Bossie. But most are spending little cash to assist the president win in 2020, POLITICO found.
“The unofficial pro-Trump boosters quantity within the lots of and are alarming the actual operatives charged with reelecting the president: They suck up cash that Trump aides assume must be going to the campaign or the Republican Nationwide Committee, they usually muddy the Trump campaign’s message and make it more durable to accumulate new donors, Trump allies say.” POLITICO
-- DES MOINES REGISTER FRONT PAGE: “Warren shakes up campaign style in Iowa”
-- BOSTON GLOBE: “Elizabeth Warren’s brothers are a silent fixture of her marketing campaign,” by Jess Bidgood in Newcastle, Okla.: “It feels as distant as potential from the chaos and choreography of a presidential campaign: slightly purple house in a neighborhood surrounded by fields, where virtually nothing breaks the straight line of the horizon.
“However the man who lives here, a adorned Air Drive veteran who the neighbors don’t see fairly often, has an important position to play in Senator Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign. So do his two brothers, who reside their very own quiet lives in Oklahoma City and close by Norman.
“The lads are Warren’s older brothers — Don Reed Herring, John Herring, and David Herring — and, at almost each campaign stop, she introduces herself to voters by talking about them, weaving folksy household tales with particulars about their army service, conservative politics, and agreement round her massive ideas. Over the past yr, they've develop into a fixture of her pitch, a dwelling link to her upbringing in a financially strained world she says is an indelible part of who she is.
“Additionally they do more: They are a key a part of her effort to show she will discover widespread floor with Republicans, offering them as a rejoinder to questions on her electability.” Boston Globe … A1 PDF
-- ELENA SCHNEIDER with this AMAZING DETAIL: “How Buttigieg’s childhood pal ended up managing 2020’s breakout campaign”: “Before the Democratic presidential debate in Columbus, Ohio, Mike Schmuhl ventured into the town to get his mop of pink hair minimize. It wasn’t so much that Schmuhl himself needed a trim — however Pete Buttigieg’s campaign manager needed to ensure the barbershop was as much as the duty of a presidential shave.
“Thirty minutes later, after the Royal Rhino Membership Barbershop and Lounge handed muster and Schmuhl made an appointment beneath the identify ‘Max Harris,’ another aide who acquired his hair trimmed, Buttigieg himself appeared for a recent pre-debate minimize.”
-- THE HOLLYWOOD VOTE: “Actor Kevin Costner returns to Iowa to support Buttigieg,” by AP’s Thomas Beaumont in Indianola, Iowa
TRUMP’S MONDAY … THE PRESIDENT is in Florida and has nothing on his schedule.
-- MERIDITH MCGRAW in West Palm Seashore, Fla.: “Escape to Mar-a-Lago: Trump will get a post-impeachment mood carry”: “Pals of the president famous simply how content he appeared in the glamorous getaway city of Palm Seashore he now calls house, away from it all and again at his Mar-a-Lago resort — what’s described to be like a personal ‘Cheers bar,’ where Trump knows everyone’s identify.
“‘He’s very pleased to be again at what he calls the winter White Home and is glad to take a break from the chilly and craziness of his job,’ stated George Guido Lombardi, a Mar-a-Lago member and longtime Trump pal. ‘It’s the one time that he’s received to be his actual self and let down.’
“For aides, Mar-a-Lago can typically be a headache, as there's less management over who gets face time with the president and who may have the ability to whisper an concept in his ear. But that’s the best way Trump likes to be, unfettered and capable of do what he loves greatest — enjoying host, golfing with associates, watching tv and dealing away from the confines of the West Wing.” POLITICO
DAILY RUDY -- “Giuliani buddies leveraged GOP access to seek Ukraine fuel deal,” by AP’s Desmond Butler and MIchael Biesecker in Kyiv, Ukraine: “The Related Press reported some details in October of the brash pitch that [Lev] Parnas and [Igor] Fruman made to [Andrew] Favorov in Houston. However in a current collection of interviews with the AP in Kyiv, Favorov painted a more full picture of his dealings with Giuliani’s associates.
“His tale, corroborated by interviews with other key witnesses, reveals that the pair continued to pursue a deal for months. The campaign culminated in Might, at a gathering at the Trump Worldwide Lodge in Washington that included a lobbyist with deep ties to U.S. Power Secretary Rick Perry and a Republican fundraiser from Texas near Donald Trump Jr. Three individuals with direct information of that meeting described it to the AP on situation of anonymity because a number of the gamers are underneath federal investigation.
“The maneuvering over Naftogaz came on the similar time that Giuliani, with the help of Parnas and Fruman, have been making an attempt to get Yovanovitch out of the best way and persuade Ukraine’s leaders to launch an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s work with Burisma, a rival Ukrainian fuel firm.” AP
-- NBC’S JOSH LEDERMAN: “Inside Giuliani’s new push to flip the script on Trump’s impeachment”
TOP-ED -- SEN. PAT LEAHY (D-Vt.) in the NYT: “What the Senate Does Now Will Cast a Long Shadow”: “When the Senate finally convenes to think about whether to remove the president from office, for just the third time in its historical past, it can convene not as a legislative physique, but as a courtroom of impeachment. And it'll not just be President Trump on trial. The Senate — and indeed, fact itself — will stand trial.”
FED WATCH -- “Fed Confronts Lack of Variety in Its Ranks,” by WSJ’s Nick Timiraos: “The economics career embarked this yr on a soul-searching appraisal of perceived hostility to ladies and minorities in its ranks, and the Federal Reserve—the nation’s largest employer of Ph.D. economists—needs to get ahead of the curve.
“For the Fed, where three quarters of its analysis economists are men and most are white, dealing with as much as the shortage of ladies and minorities amongst these staff isn’t only a matter of appearances. A employees that better reflects the U.S. inhabitants might restrict the potential for groupthink or blind spots that hinder the central financial institution’s assessment of how the financial system is changing. ...
“Current and former staffers and private economists who interact with the central bank say the Fed’s attention to variety points gained new urgency beneath former Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen and has continued beneath her successor, Jerome Powell. The shift has coincided with veteran female staffers earning promotions to 3 of the central bank’s most necessary management positions this yr.” WSJ
BEYOND THE BELTWAY -- “Fur is under attack. It’s not going down without a fight,” by WaPo’s Robin Givhan
ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION FRONT PAGE: “Loeffler reaches out to skeptical Georgia GOP activists,” by Greg Bluestein: “As Kelly Loeffler prepares to be sworn in as Georgia’s next U.S. senator, most of the grassroots activists who type the backbone of the state’s Republican Get together stay reluctant to offer her a full-fledged endorsement.
“An Atlanta Journal-Structure survey of dozens of native celebration officials and county GOP chairmen confirmed many are taking a wait-and-see strategy to Loeffler, a financial government Gov. Brian Kemp selected for the job who is essentially unknown to even many prime Republicans.
“Their hesitance will play a significant factor because the political newcomer faces a steep process. Her new position would require her to virtually instantly take part in impeachment hearings towards President Donald Trump, whilst she tries to determine her political brand and fend off conservative challengers.” AJC … Front page
MEDIAWATCH -- “Devin Nunes, Johnny Depp lawsuits seen as threats to free speech and press,” by WaPo’s Justin Jouvenal: “The fits are part of a string of splashy defamation claims by politicians and the A-list star in search of almost $1 billion in damages in Virginia courts this yr, despite the fact that most of the instances have solely unfastened connections to the state.
“The plaintiffs argue their names have been smeared and the venues are applicable, however a number of of the defendants — including Twitter and Heard — say the filing location is aimed toward exploiting the state’s weak protections for defamation defendants. Some authorized specialists say Virginia regulation permits those with deep pockets to bulldoze targets with frivolous, protracted and expensive litigation they couldn’t pursue in many different states.
“The true objectives of the fits, the defendants argue, are to stifle critics, blunt aggressive journalism and settle scores. Some deride the authorized maneuvers as ‘libel tourism’ and see a rising development not simply in Virginia however in different states that equally lack safeguards. The suits have prompted Virginia lawmakers to take a look at changing the regulation.” WaPo
Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com.
ENGAGED -- Jacques Petit, regional press secretary at Giffords, acquired engaged to Alyssa Harris, a contractor on the Division of Power. Pic
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Steve Thomma, government director of the White House Correspondents Association. An fascinating ebook he’s been studying: “‘American Caesar.’ It was a present from David Bradley of Atlantic Media after a conversation about our mutual admiration for the reporting and writing of the late William Manchester. It’s a terrific e-book, deeply reported, and a reminder to this addict of presidential bios that there really are different lions of American life even when they didn’t make it to the White House.” Playbook Q&A
BIRTHDAYS: Invoice Kristol … Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa) is 67 … Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) is 69 … retired Gen. Wes Clark is 75 ... Fox News’ Shannon Bream … Lucinda Guinn, government director of the DCCC (h/t Cole Leiter) … Michawn Rich, USDA communications director (h/t Alec Varsamis) … Chris Peacock of Stanford College communications is 59 (h/t David Jackson) ... POLITICO’s Julia Franklin … Alyssa DiBlasi ... Steve Hills is 61 ... Dentons’ John Russell IV ... Axios’ Claire Kennedy ... Julio Negron ... Adam Milakofsky ... Meghan Stabler ... Patrick Burgwinkle ... Kelley Moore, communications director for Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) ... Lauren Kahn …
… Fatima Noor … Jared Gilmour ... Dan Shott is 33 … Tom Epstein (h/t Jon Haber) … Lewis A. Kaplan … Melissa Ann Merz … Abe Sutton … Josh Satin … Bill Goodson … Natasha Dabrowski … Trump White House alum Zina Bash … Texas A.G. Ken Paxton is 57 ... Louisiana A.G. Jeff Landry is 49 … Brittany Bolen … Google’s Patrick D. Smith ... Audrey Kubetin ... James Miller ... Joe Boswell ... Jonathan Zucker is 48 ... Hilary Novik Sandberg is 31 ... Emil Pitkin, CEO of GovPredict ... Elizabeth Bingold ... Karen Roberts ... Brennan Foley ... Deloitte’s Rasheq Zarif ... Allison Dobson ... Wealthy Tarplin … Carter Snead ... Kevin Hayes … Roy Behr … Doug Vilsack … Mark Clesh
Article initially revealed on POLITICO Magazine
Src: POLITICO Playbook: McConnell: Quit the charade, impeachment is a ‘political exercise’
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