EFTA00046963

From: 
Th W hin 
n Post <[email protected]> 
To: 
Subject: 
The Daily 202: Impeachment Day showcased five hallmarks of Trump's governing style 
Sent: 
Thu. 19 Dec 2019 16:28:56 +0000 
If you're having trouble reading this, click here. 
Share: 
Listen to The Big Idea 
Impeachment Day showcased five hallmarks of 
Trump's governing style 
'Maybe he's looking up': Trump implies the late Rep. John Dingell might be in hell 
BY 
HOHMANN 
with Mariana Alfaro 
THE BIG IDEA: In the Age of Trump, even the extraordinary has become ordinary. 
After he was impeached 21 years ago today, Bill Clinton spoke on the South Lawn of the 
White House. "We must stop the politics of personal destruction," he said. "We must get 
rid of the poisonous venom of excessive partisanship, obsessive animosity and 
uncontrolled anger. That is not what America deserves." 
When President Trump was impeached on Wednesday night, he suggested during a 
campaign rally in Michigan that John Dingell, a Democrat who represented that state in 
Congress for six decades and stood behind Clinton on that December afternoon in 1998, 
might be in hell. 
EFTA00047543

"This lawless partisan impeachment is a suicide march for the Democratic Party," Trump 
told a crowd of 10,000 at an arena in Battle Creek, Mich. "After three years of sinister 
witch hunts, hoaxes, scams, tonight House Democrats are trying to nullify the ballots of 
tens of millions of patriotic Americans." 
Trump talked for two hours and one minute, a show of stamina that would have 
impressed Fidel Castro. 
At one point, the president criticized Rep. Debbie Dingell (D), who holds her late 
husband's seat, for voting to impeach him. "A real beauty," Trump said, recounting how 
the widow thanked him for agreeing to provide special funeral honors when he passed 
away in February. "She calls me up. 'It's the nicest thing that's ever happened. Thank 
you so much. John, would be so thrilled, he's looking down,-  Trump recalled. 
"Maybe," Trump mused, "he's looking up." 
Going to Michigan and suggesting that the longtime dean of the House might be in hell? 
Only Trump would do that. 
The congresswoman responded: 
It was a petulant coda to a momentous day that captured in miniature five 
hallmarks of the Trump presidency: 
1) Governing as perpetual warfare 
With us-against-them rhetoric, Trump consistently focuses more on inflaming his base 
than soothing the country or reassuring independents who don't identify with either tribe. 
Trump's reelection campaign blasted out a barrage of fundraising solicitations on 
Wednesday, all under the president's name, asking supporters to chip in to help him 
raise $2 million for the day. "Before the upcoming vote, I want to post another HUGE 
fundraising number to ensure that we have the resources to win this IMPEACHMENT 
EFTA00047544

WAR," Trump wrote in one of the emails. "I'm calling on my most FIERCE and LOYAL 
defenders to step up. ... Remember, this is WAR and America's future depends on us 
winning." 
A few minutes after he started speaking in Michigan, an aide held up a poster board to 
show him the final vote count in the House. "Whoa, every single Republican voted for 
us," the president told the crowd, which roared with approval at what history will 
remember as a defining low point of his tenure, even assuming he's acquitted in the 
Senate. "We didn't lose one Republican! ... The Democrats always stick together." 
Trump went out of his way to thank his diehard supporters who travel like groupies to all 
his rallies. 
He has shown little or no desire to transcend the deep divisions of the country over the 
past three years. Trump wants to build a wall, not bridges. His deliberate disregard for 
customs and niceties also endears him to his most ardent boosters, even as it annoys a 
GOP establishment that tries to look the other way. He's the disruptor-in-chief who took 
office with a mandate to shake up business as usual. 
"Impeachment was so partisan that there were as many members who switched party 
over impeachment — two — as there were other crossover votes," Aaron Blake notes. 
"Those party-switchers were Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.), who went from Republican to 
independent, and Rep. Jeff Van Drew (N.J.), who is moving from Democrat to 
Republican. Van Drew remained a Democrat at least for Wednesday and was joined in 
voting against both articles by Rep. Collin C. Peterson (D-Minn.), who represents the 
most Trump-friendly district (Trump won it by 31 points) of any Democrat." 
The only other crossover was Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), who "split the baby" by 
voting for the first article on abuse of power but against the second article on obstruction 
of Congress. Trump won his district by 10 points. 
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), the struggling presidential candidate who failed to 
qualify for tonight's debate, voted "present" on both articles because she prefers for 
Trump to be censured. 
EFTA00047545

As a point of comparison, five Democrats voted to impeach Clinton and six Republicans 
on the House Judiciary Committee voted to advance articles of impeachment against 
Richard Nixon. 
House passes two articles of impeachment against President Trump 
2) Governing by exhaustion 
"In the life of Trump, 10 months is an eternity," Trump said at the rally. He was 
explaining why he's "not worried" about suffering politically from impeachment. 
Sometimes it feels as if Trump is waging a war of attrition against longstanding norms as 
he seeks to dismantle various guardrails on his power. Many of the president's critics 
have been worn out or ground down. That was reflected with relatively paltry turnout at 
most of the pro-impeachment protests organized from coast to coast on Tuesday night. 
The reality TV president supercharged the celebrification of politics, but people are 
changing the channel. This week's Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 62 
percent of Americans said they were closely following the impeachment story, down 
from 82 percent who said the same on the eve of Clinton's impeachment. "At the other 
end of the spectrum, 18 percent say they are not following Trump's impeachment too 
closely and 20 percent say they are not following it at all. In 1998, only 5 percent 
reported paying no attention," Marc Fisher notes. 
"Chris Cannon, a former Republican congressman from Utah who served as a House 
impeachment manager during the Clinton proceedings, said the country is now divided 
into two dueling factions — the 'I'm going to wear my MAGA hat and punch you in the 
face if you disagree' group and the 'I'm going to punch you in the face because of your 
MAGA hat' group," Marc reports. "That political and cultural gulf virtually guarantees that 
EFTA00047546

this impeachment cannot end with any consensus like the one that emerged after the 
proceedings against Nixon and Clinton — that the system had worked. ... 
"Americans have become so jaded that misdeeds that once had the power to shock 
across ideological lines now seem to have little or no impact. 'This time,' Cannon said, 
'you have a guy who said he'd grab women by the privates, and America looks at that 
and says that's locker room trash talk, and they elect him. So nothing can shock the 
American people about him. ... There's so much coarseness now, it makes you want to 
cry." 
"Even I don't watch this stuff," retired congressman 
Bonior, a Democrat from 
Michigan who was the House minority whip during the Clinton impeachment, told Marc. 
"If it bores me, and I'm a political person, it's going to really bore a lot of other people." 
From 'Jesus' crucifixion' to 'belly of the beast': Lawmakers use quips in impeachment vote 
3) Governing by grievance (and hyperbole) 
Trump seems to take every slight as a personal affront. His speech last night oozed with 
grievance and victimhood. The president noted that he once contributed to the campaign 
of Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who has just replaced the late Elijah Cummings as 
chair of the House Oversight Committee. Then he said he wants her to refund his "damn 
money" after she voted for impeachment. 
The president likes hyperbole. He's always talking about how this or that is the 
BIGGEST or the BEST. He has set the tone for the tenor of his party's defense of him, 
most notably with the six-page letter he sent on Tuesday to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 
"More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials," Trump 
wrote. 
During yesterday's 11-hour debate on the House floor, two Republican lawmakers 
likened the impeachment of Trump to the crucifixion of Jesus. "Before you take this 
EFTA00047547

historic vote today, one week before Christmas, I want you to keep this in mind: When 
Jesus was falsely accused of treason, Pontius Pilate gave Jesus the opportunity to face 
his accusers," said Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.). "During that sham trial, Pontius Pilate 
afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats have afforded this president in this 
process." 
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) responded: "The president 
was given the opportunity to come and testify, to send his counsel [and] to question 
witnesses. He declined to do so." 
Rep. Fred Keller (R-Pa.) recalled how Jesus, on the cross, asked God to forgive those 
who were about to kill him. "I want Democrats voting for impeachment today to know that 
I'll be praying for them," he said. "From the Gospel of Luke, the 23rd chapter, verse 34: 
And Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.-
Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) compared Trump's impeachment to Pearl Harbor, when 2,403 
Americans were killed and 1,143 more were wounded in a sneak attack on America that 
started World War II. Standing literally feet away from where Franklin Roosevelt told the 
country that December 7, 1941, was "a date which will live in infamy," Kelly declared: 
"Today, December the 18th, 2019, is another date that will live in infamy." 
Rep. 
Brady (R-Tex.) said Democrats will be remembered as the "Senator Joe 
McCarthys of our time" for trying "to plunge America into darkness for raw political gain." 
Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) criticized Democrats for conducting depositions in a secure 
briefing room at the Capitol, which he referred to as "Chairman Schiff's chamber of 
secrets," a Harry Potter reference. 
"I have descended into the belly of the beast," added Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.). "I have 
witnessed the terror within. And I rise committed to oppose the insidious forces which 
threaten our republic." 
Trump: 'It doesn't really feel like we're being impeached' 
EFTA00047548

4) Governing by defiance 
When a reporter asked Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday whether he feels any 
responsibility for the part he played in creating this predicament, the president replied: 
"Zero." 
When was the last time Trump took personal responsibility for doing something wrong? 
No contrition. No apologies. No remorse. 
That's his M.O. 
One of the articles of impeachment that passed was for obstruction of Congress, 
something Trump certainly had a hand in. The president declared publicly that he would 
refuse to comply with any and all subpoenas, and he directed his aides not to testify. 
"We did nothing wrong, nothing whatsoever," Trump said at last night's rally, defending 
the July 25 call with Ukraine's president. "This was just an excuse." 
Then he compared Ukraine-gate to Watergate. "With Richard Nixon, I just see it as a 
very dark era, very dark, very old," Trump said. "I don't know about you, but I'm having a 
good timer 
Amash: 'It is our duty to impeach' Trump 
5) Governing with "alternative facts" 
Muddying the waters has helped the president fight the public debate over impeachment 
to a draw. Studies show that, if you repeat disinformation enough times, people start to 
EFTA00047549

believe it, even if they're told at the start that it's totally false. We've seen that during this 
process. 
This pattern dates to the first days of the administration, when counselor to the president 
Kellyanne Conway defended Sean Spicer's false claims about the inauguration crowd 
size by suggesting that the White House was entitled to its own set of "alternative facts." 
Every president is the storyteller-in-chief. They use their bully pulpit to weave a narrative 
as helpful as possible. Trump, who used a Sharpie to edit a weather map this summer, 
serves as his own White House communications director. He tweeted 49 times on 
Wednesday. The rally and the tweets reflect his adeptness at bypassing the traditional 
filters of the legacy media. 
Dan Balz, our newspaper's chief correspondent, reflects in a story today on everything 
that's changed since the Clinton impeachment. "A consistent theme of analysis focused 
on the broken politics of the time, the rancor and rank partisanship that had taken hold in 
Washington," Dan writes. "The stories that day provide an echo of what is being said and 
written about this moment, but few today see the period of two decades ago as 
equivalent to what the country is going through now. Whatever conditions existed then 
have grown worse. Many factors contribute to the 
the velocity at which information 
moves; the endless news cycles; the fractured and more partisan media; the toxicity of 
social media. ... America was certainly polarized two decades ago, but it is worse 
today." 
One of the most striking elements of the House debate washow few Republicans made 
an effort during their speeches to engage directly with any of the number of allegations 
related to Trump's abuse of power, specifically the charge that he personally ordered the 
freeze on military assistance in an attempt to coerce a foreign government into 
announcing an investigation into a domestic political rival. 
"I've heard several of my colleagues in a row now, and it's interesting to see how very 
few of them want to address any of the facts of the president's misconduct," House 
Intelligence Committee Chairman 
B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said during his closing 
argument. "They don't want to defend that conduct. So instead, they say, 'Oh, 
EFTA00047550

Democrats really want to impeach the president,' or, 'Democrats don't like the president.' 
But what they can't say is that this president's conduct was ethical. What they can't say 
was that this president's conduct was legal. What they can't say was this president's 
conduct was constitutional." 
Rep. Doug Collins (Ga.), the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, 
responded to Schiff. "We've beat the facts back all the time," he said. 
How the House impeachment vote unfolded 
THE WOMAN AND THE HOUR HAVE MET: 
-- Impeachment demonstrated how Pelosi has emerged as Trump's most powerful 
political adversary. Paul Kane reports: "A caucus filled with younger Democrats who 
questioned the 79-year-old's liberal bona fides now stands firmly behind her. ... Pelosi 
presided over the chamber, wielding the gavel that Trump once doubted she could 
reclaim. ... That power dynamic left the president fuming ... 'Will go down in history as 
worst Speaker,' he tweeted. 'Already thrown out once!" 
Most of the Democrats who opposed Pelosi becoming speaker at the start of the 
year now sing her praises. "I thought it was time for new leadership, and I've got to tell 
you: Thank goodness, thank goodness, that we have Nancy Pelosi speaking for the 
House of Representatives," said Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who flipped a suburban 
seat long held by the GOP in the Twin Cities. 
"I admit she has rehabilitated her image from 2006, 2008, 2010," said Rep. Steve 
Stivers (R-Ohio), who chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee 
last year. "I don't know that I know exactly where all this goes, but I know that the bright 
spotlight is on her again. And sometimes that melts Icarus's wings." 
— The brooch Pelosi wore during the debate was a declaration: The Republic will 
survive this, writes fashion critic Robin Givhan: "The woman in charge, Madam 
EFTA00047551

Speaker, arrived on the House floor wearing a black sheath with bracelet sleeves and 
matching pumps. ... As she spoke, it was impossible to miss the large golden mace 
brooch pinned to the left side of her chest. It is an eagle with its wings spread, perched 
on a pearl mounted on a sheath of gilded rods. ... Pelosi dressed for a funeral and her 
tone was dire. But her glittery brooch made clear that it was not the republic she had 
come to bury." 
Pelosi raises possibility of withholding impeachment articles from Senate 
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: 
Pelosi said after last night's votes that the House could at least temporarily 
withhold the articles from the Senate — a decision, she suggested, that could 
depend on how the other chamber chooses to conduct its trial on Trump's 
removal. "We cannot name managers until we see what the process is on the Senate 
side," she said, referring to the House "managers" who will present the case for removal 
to the Senate. "So far we haven't seen anything that looks fair to us. So hopefully it will 
be fair. And when we see what that is, we'll send our managers." 
"Pelosi would not answer questions about whether she was entertaining an 
indefinite hold on the articles," Mike DeBonis reports, which could push a trial until 
after the 2020 election. "Under the rules the House adopted Wednesday for 
consideration of the impeachment articles, a resolution naming the impeachment 
managers — and authorizing the transmittal of the articles to the Senate — can be 
called up at any time by Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) or a 
designee. There is no time limit on that authority; the House is expected to recess for the 
winter holidays as soon as Thursday and not return until Jan. 7. ... 
"The withhold-the-articles gambit gained some traction inside the left wing of the 
House Democratic Caucus this week. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) on Wednesday 
... said that he had spoken to three dozen Democratic lawmakers who had expressed 
EFTA00047552

some level of enthusiasm for the idea ... 'At a minimum, there ought to be an agreement 
about access to witnesses, rules of the game, timing,' Blumenauer said of a Senate trial. 
The notion has been most prominently advocated by Laurence,. Tribe, a Harvard Law 
School professor who has advised the House Judiciary Committee on the impeachment 
process. ... Republicans have scoffed at the notion of the House withholding the articles, 
noting it hardly counts as leverage to deny the GOP the ability to remove a president 
that the party wants to keep in place." 
Mitch McConnell, who has resisted allowing any witnesses to testify, joked that 
the trial will be "good therapy" for senators: "Just one thing that may make senators 
impatient to get it over with is [that] in an impeachment trial, they can't speak," the 
majority leader told conservative radio host 
I
M
 
Hewitt. "They have to sit there quietly 
and listen. ... This'll be good therapy for a number of them." McConnell also pushed 
through the confirmation of 13 more federal judges as the House debated on 
Wednesday, CNN notes. 
Meanwhile, a federal appeals court wants answers about what impact 
impeachment may have on the House's ongoing legal efforts to obtain records 
and testimony bearing on alleged misconduct by Trump. From Politico: "Less than 
an hour after the first impeachment vote was gaveled to a close, the D.C. Circuit Court of 
Appeals issued a pair of orders directing House lawyers to indicate whether lawmakers 
are still seeking testimony from former White House counsel Don McGahn and portions 
of special counsel 
Mueller's report containing information gleaned from secret 
grand jury testimony. Both orders raised the issue of whether the pending appeals may 
be moot and whether the cases, set to be argued on Jan. 3, should still be considered 
on an expedited basis. The court is demanding answers, and views from the Justice 
Department, by Monday afternoon." 
— More team coverage: 
• Rachael Bade, Mike DeBonis and Josh Dawsey: "Inside the 
decision to impeach Trump: How both parties wrestled with a 
constitutional crisis." 
EFTA00047553

• Seung Min Kim: "Senators are balancing their partisan roles with a 
desire to protect the integrity of the Senate." 
• Katie Shepherd: "Conservative radio host wishes for a `nice school 
shooting' to distract from impeachment." 
• Ben Terris: "The impeachment vote felt like a funeral. But what 
died?" 
-- Commentary from The Post's opinion page: 
• Editorial Board: "Why the House's impeachment of Trump was 
proper and necessary." 
• Dana Milbank: "The House has impeached Trump. But in a sense, 
he won." 
• Max Boot: "Impeachment isn't Democrats vs. Republicans. It's 
right vs. wrong." 
• Karen Tumulty: "Impeachment is different this time. But the script 
is already written." 
• Henry Olsen: "Partisan impeachment will only add fire to our 
ideological warfare." 
• E.J. Dionne Jr.: "Impeaching Trump is just the end of the 
beginning." 
• Jennifer Rubin: "Trump is impeached and joins the 'losers' of 
presidential history." 
• Former senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis.): "Senators have a duty to 
keep an open mind on impeachment." 
Vladimir Putin attends his annual news conference in Moscow on Thursday. (Pavel Golovkin/AP) 
THE LATEST ON THE UKRAINE AFFAIR: 
-- Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his end-of-the-year news 
EFTA00047554

conference that Trump's impeachment is "far-fetched," predicted the Senate will 
acquit him and accused Democrats of trying to overturn the results of the 2016 
election. "The party that lost the election, the Democratic Party, is trying to achieve 
results by other means," Putin told reporters at the Kremlin. He likened Trump's 
impeachment to the Mueller probe, which Putin downplayed as being meritless. Putin 
observed that "Republicans have a majority" in the Senate. "They will be unlikely to 
remove a representative of their own party from office on what seems to me an 
absolutely far-fetched reason," the Russian leader said, according to the AP. 
Putin also called the Olympic ban on his country unfair, boasted about Russia's 
wheat exports and blamed other nations for worldwide pollution, Robyn Dixon and 
Isabelle Khurshudyan report. 
— Acting Ambassador Bill Taylor was directed to step aside ahead of a visit to 
Kyiv by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, per the Wall Street Journal: "That timing 
countered earlier suggestions that Mr. Taylor's precise departure date was 
predetermined, and will allow Mr. Pompeo to avoid meeting or being photographed with 
an ambassador who has drawn [Trump's] ire for his testimony ... Mr. Taylor was named 
as the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine after [Marie] Yovanovitch was recalled from her post 
in Ukraine in May. Under the terms of the federal Vacancies Act, he could have retained 
his position in Kyiv until Jan. 8, and can serve longer in other capacities under his 
contract with the State Department. But Ulrich Brechbuhl, a key aide to Mr. Pompeo who 
serves as State Department counselor, informed Mr. Taylor on Dec. 11 that Mr. Pompeo 
had instructed him to hand over his responsibilities on Jan. 1." 
— Rudy Giuliani appears to have flown into Ukraine on a budget flight but returned 
to the U.S. on a private jet. From BuzzFeed News: "It was the afternoon of Dec. 4 
when Giuliani flew to the Ukrainian capital from Hungary with low-cost commercial 
carrier WizzAir. He was there to film a three-part video series for the staunchly pro-
Trump OAN channel, which framed the trip as a mission to 'destroy' the Democrats' 
impeachment narrative. Flying WizzAir, which demands that customers pay for 
everything a la carte and forces them to fight for unassigned seats and overhead bin 
space, often feels like a particularly chaotic Black Friday at Best Buy. After experiencing 
EFTA00047555

that, it's no wonder Giuliani wanted to fly out of Kyiv on a private jet." 
— The New York Times Sunday magazine looks at how Giuliani's associate Lev 
Parnas ingratiated himself with Trump: "The first time Mr. Parnas spoke with Mr. 
Trump, he wanted to make a personal connection. It was October 2015 ... Mr. Parnas 
and his 16-year-old son drove from their home in Boca Raton, Fla., to the Trump 
National Doral Miami ... for a raucous campaign rally ... Before the rally, Mr. Parnas 
shook hands with the candidate and told him about a long-ago, if tenuous, connection to 
the Trump family. As a young man in Brooklyn, he had sold co-op apartments built by 
Mr. Trump's father, prompting the men to joke that Mr. Parnas's son might one day work 
for Mr. Trump ... It was a brief but exhilarating encounter for someone born in Ukraine 
who had arrived in the United States at age 4." 
Subscribe on Amazon Echo Google Home Apple HomePod and other podcast 
players. 
Welcome to the Daily 202, PowerPost's morning briefing for 
decision-makers. 
Sign up to receive the newsletter. 
Migrants seeking asylum wake up at a camp near a legal port of entry bridge to the United States in 
Matamoros, Mexico. (Fernando Llano/AP) 
DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS THAT SHOULD NOT BE OVERLOOKED: 
An appeals court ruled that the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate is 
unconstitutional, sending back to a lower court the question of whether the rest of 
the law can remain without it. Amy Goldstein reports: "The long-awaited decision by a 
three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has little immediate 
practical effect on consumers because Congress already has removed the penalty for 
EFTA00047556

people who flout the insurance requirement. But the panel's 2-to-1 ruling leaves the rest 
of the sprawling statute in limbo, catapulting questions of insurance coverage and 
consumer health-care protections to the forefront of the 2020 presidential and 
congressional campaigns. The panel's one Democratic appointee dissented from 
the 98-page opinion, writing that the Republican states challenging the law did not have 
standing to do so. If they did, she wrote, she would find the mandate constitutional. The 
5th Circuit decision almost certainly will bring the health-care law before the 
Supreme Court for a third time, and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, 
leading a coalition of his Democratic counterparts fighting to preserve the law, said 
Wednesday night that he was prepared to ask the high court to take the case before the 
lower court rules again. But by sending a thorny legal question back to the Texas jurist 
who already has held the law unconstitutional, the judges may effectively slow the 
progress of the case, so that the high court does not take it during its current term and 
decide it before the November elections." 
-- The administration proposed new regulations that would deny asylum 
protections to immigrants with criminal convictions — including some low-level 
offenses and misdemeanors - measures that would make it harder for many to 
seek refuge in the U.S. Nick Miroff reports: "The proposed change from the Justice 
Department and the Department of Homeland Security would disqualify asylum 
applicants found guilty of serious offenses such as driving while intoxicated and 
domestic battery, as well as lesser violations such as the use of false documents and 
reentering the United States illegally. ... If implemented after a public comment period, 
the new regulation would help the government sort through an immigration court backlog 
that exceeds 1 million pending cases, according to the Justice Department. ... Current 
U.S. law already disqualifies major criminal offenders from obtaining asylum protection in 
the United States, but the new proposal would add several additional categories of 
mandatory bars. They would include any felony conviction at the federal or state level, 
and offenses such as driving while intoxicated, domestic violence — even when no 
conviction results — and any 'federal, state, tribal, or local crime involving criminal street 
gang activity.-
-- The ACLU filed a lawsuit against a Nashville suburb to stop a zoning ordinance 
EFTA00047557

that effectively bans surgical abortions within the city's borders. Emily Wax-
Thibodeaux and Ariana Eunjung Cha report: "The suit, joined by the national ACLU and 
filed on behalf of the nonprofit national women's clinic Carafem, calls the Mount Juliet 
City Commission's zoning ordinance 'unconstitutional.' The ordinance is part of 'the 
state's relentless attack on abortion rights, enacting a multitude of restrictions designed 
to shutter clinics that have provided safe and affordable abortion care and impose 
unconscionable obstacles' the lawsuit states. Two days after the Carafem women's clinic 
opened, the city commission called a meeting in March with just one item on the agenda: 
to restrict surgical abortion clinics to industrial zones. Carafem, which provides a range 
of women's health-care services, had opened its clinic in a commercial-zone complex 
with other medical offices." 
-- The Trump administration is considering plans to reduce student debt. From the 
WSJ: "White House and Education Department advisers think a program to cancel a 
large portion of student debt would be unfair to taxpayers and unpopular among 
Republican voters, senior administration officials said. Instead, officials are looking at 
ways to help borrowers lower their debt. The proposals are in flux and would likely 
require approval by Congress, aides said. One senior official said a plan probably 
wouldn't be completed until next year but the administration believes it can gain 
bipartisan support." 
Uber settled a sex-discrimination charge with the U.S. Equal Employment 
Opportunity Commission. From the Journal: "Uber will start a $4.4 million class fund to 
compensate victims of sexual harassment or retaliation from as early as Jan. 1, 2014, as 
determined by the EEOC ... The company has also agreed to have former EEOC 
Commissioner Fred Alvarez monitor Uber for three years ... The EEOC said the 
settlement ended its investigation where it 'found reasonable cause to believe that Uber 
permitted a culture of sexual harassment and retaliation against individuals who 
complained about such harassment, in violation Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.-
-- Coca-Cola internal documents reveal efforts to sell more soda to teenagers and 
to downplay their concerns about the health impacts of drinking sugary 
beverages, despite the obesity crisis. (= 
Reiley) 
EFTA00047558

— New Jersey's governor and the mayor of Jersey City called for a school board 
member to resign after she called Jews "brutes" in a Facebook post the same 
week that three people were killed at a local kosher grocery store. Marisa lati 
reports: "'Where was all this faith and hope when black homeowners were threatened, 
intimidated and harassed by I WANT TO BUY YOUR HOUSE brutes of the Jewish 
community?' Jersey City school board member Joan Terrell-Paige wrote..." 
-- A teenage girl broke into the Fresno International Airport in California, stole a 
plane and crashed it. The 17-year-old managed to break through fencing and into a 
propeller-driven aircraft, which never became airborne but instead crashed into a fence. 
She was disoriented and uncooperative when officers arrested her. (USA Today) 
— A stabbing and carjacking rampage in Oregon left one dead and three injured. A 
20-year-old was arrested after two people were stabbed at a Wells Fargo bank, one at a 
gym next door, and a fourth person amid a getaway attempt. (NBC News) 
— A shooting at a mall in San Antonio last night has left at least four wounded. 
Authorities are searching for three suspects. One victim was in critical condition after 
being shot in the stomach, the city's police chief said. (Fox News) 
— Puppies may be behind an outbreak that's sickened people in 13 states. Hannah 
Knowles reports: "Thirty people have reported infections as of Tuesday, according to the 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says the outbreak seems to stem 
mostly from dogs purchased at pet shops. About 70 percent of those sickened who were 
interviewed reported contact with a pet store puppy. No single supplier has been 
connected to cases of the illness, which often involves bloody diarrhea and can be 
transmitted through animal feces. But investigations so far link 12 affected people to 
Petland, a national chain implicated in a previous spate of puppy-related illness involving 
the same kind of bacteria, campylobacter. Five of those 12 people were Petland 
employees, the CDC said." 
— The surveillance footage from the outside of Jeffrey Epstein's cell during his 
suicide attempt has gone missing, prosecutors revealed. From the New York Daily 
News: "Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Swergold admitted nobody can find the footage of 
EFTA00047559

the outside of the cell the multimillionaire ... shared with accused quadruple murderer 
Nick Tartaglione during a hearing in White Plains District Court. Tartaglione, a former 
Briarcliff Manor cop, faces the death penalty for the alleged murders in a drug deal gone 
bad." 
-- Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a close Trump ally, won't run for reelection next 
year but will instead stay "in the fight" with Trump in an unspecified job. John 
Wagner, 
Costa and Mike DeBonis report: "'For everything there is a season,' 
Meadows said in a statement. 'After prayerful consideration and discussion with family, 
today I'm announcing that my time serving Western North Carolina in Congress will 
come to a close at the end of this term.'... Meadows, 60, was considered for the position 
of Trump's chief of staff last year, but Trump ultimately told him that he would like him to 
remain on Capitol Hill. ... In his statement, Meadows praised Trump and said his work 
with him 'is only beginning.' This President has accomplished incredible results for the 
country in just 3 years, and I'm fully committed to staying in the fight with him and his 
team to build on those successes and deliver on his promises for the years to come,' 
Meadows said. He did not elaborate on what that work might entail. Meadows easily won 
reelection last year, receiving 59 percent of the vote against his Democratic opponent." 
— A second Chinese national has been arrested at Mar-a-Lago. From the AP: "Jing 
Lu, 56, was confronted by the private club's security officers and told to leave, but she 
returned to take photos, Palm Beach police spokesman 
Ogrodnick said in an 
email. Palm Beach officers were called and arrested her. It was determined she had an 
expired visa, Ogrodnick said. Lu was charged with loitering and prowling and was being 
held late Wednesday at the Palm Beach County jail. ... Lu's arrest is reminiscent of the 
March arrest of Yujing Zhang, a 33-year-old Shanghai businesswoman, who gained 
access to Mar-a-Lago while carrying a laptop, phones and other electronic gear." 
-- Scrutiny of the U.S. election system, spurred by Russia's interference in the 
2016 election, has landed Election Systems & Software, the company behind 
voting machines used by thousands of Americans, in the spotlight. From NBC 
News: "The source of the nation's voting machines has become an urgent issue 
because of real fears that hackers, whether foreign or domestic, might tamper with the 
EFTA00047560

mechanics of the U.S. voting system. That has led to calls for ES&S and its competitors 
to reveal details about their ownership and the origins of the parts that make up their 
machines, some of which come from China. But ES&S still faces questions about the 
company's supply chain and the identities of its investors, although it has said it is 
entirely owned by Americans. And the results of its government penetration tests, in 
which authorized hackers try to break in so vulnerabilities can be identified and fixed, 
have yet to be revealed." 
-- The Defense Department's senior adviser for international cooperation left the 
Pentagon, the fifth top official to leave or announce their departure in seven days. 
(The Hill) 
-- This is actually kind of funny: The U.S. Department of Agriculture removed the 
fictional Kingdom of Wakanda from its Agricultural Tariff Tracker, a government-
operated tool that tracks the cost of importing and exporting goods from 
countries that have free trade agreements with the U.S. Reis Thebault reports: 
"Washington immersed in an impeachment imbroglio briefly turned its attention to issues 
of international trade with the Marvel Universe nation best known as the home country of 
T'Challa, a.k.a. Black Panther. ... It's unclear when Wakanda was added to the list —
where it appeared alongside Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru and other actual partners —
but the fictional country disappeared after a reporter at NBC News first queried the 
agency about it. ... The tracker listed hundreds of data inputs for Wakanda ... Among the 
country's commodity groups were fresh vegetables, unroasted coffee beans, essential 
oils and livestock. ... An agency spokesman told The Washington Post that Wakanda's 
public listing was a mistake from the start. The staff responsible for the tracker were 
'using test files to ensure that the system is running properly,' Mike Illenberg said in a 
statement." 
(Daniela Santamarina) 
2020 WATCH: 
-- Seven Democratic presidential candidates will face off tonight in Los Angeles 
EFTA00047561

during a debate sponsored by PBS and Politico. The Associated Press raises the 
curtain: "The televised contest ahead of Christmas will bring seven rivals to heavily 
Democratic California, the biggest prize in the primary season and home to 1-in-8 
Americans. And, coming a day after [impeachment], the debate will underscore the 
paramount concern for Democratic voters: Who can beat Trump in November? ... [It] 
could turn out to be the least watched so far. Viewership has declined in each 
round though five debates, and even campaigns have grumbled that candidates would 
rather be on the ground in early voting states than again taking the debate stage. ... 
"There will be a notable lack of diversity onstage compared to earlier debates. For 
the first time this cycle, the debate won't feature a black or Latino candidate. The 
race in California has largely mirrored national trends, with former Vice President Joe 
Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren 
clustered at the top of the field, followed by South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, businessman Andrew Yang and billionaire 
philanthropist Tom Steyer. Conspicuously missing from the lineup at Loyola Marymount 
University on Thursday will be former New York City Mayor 
Bloomberg, a 
billionaire who is unable to qualify for the contests because he is not accepting 
campaign donations." 
— Politico founder John F. Harris recalls the biggest reveals from the Democratic 
debates so far: "One of the takeaways in a race dominated by candidates in their 70s is 
about how variable perceptions of age and infirmity can seem, depending on the 
politician and on the light in which he or she is viewed. ... Another choice highlighted by 
the debates relates to the value voters will place on the power of the spoken word. ... 
Buttigieg has vaulted into his current position — in the top tier of candidates and credibly 
positioned to win the Iowa caucuses — largely on the basis of something that no doubt 
became evident in elementary school. He is uncommonly articulate." 
— California is home to millions of unregistered Latinos. From NBC News: "The 
latest report from California Secretary of State Alex Padilla's office says that some 25.2 
million people in the state are eligible to vote. The state does not collect ethnicity on 
registrations, but in 2018, when about 15.7 million Californians were registered, 3.4 
EFTA00047562