monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) shifted the goalposts for President Donald Trump again on Wednesday, insisting that there could not have been a “quid pro quo” in Trump’s interactions with Ukraine because Ukraine never buckled to Trump’s demands.

Cornyn Shrugs Off Diplomat’s Explosive Testimony: ‘I Don’t Know Bill Taylor from Adam’

In the summer of 2015, the House Select Committee on Benghazi was still chasing conspiracy theories, holding a series of closed-door hearings with officials and witnesses. As part of the investigatory process, other members of Congress that were interested in learning more were excluded -- and when former House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) tried to crash a deposition, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) blocked him.

...According to Bloomberg News, Donald Trump knew in advance about these far-right members' plan to barge into a secure hearing room -- and the president supported the scheme. In fact, The Daily Beast reported that Trump effectively encouraged them to obstruct the impeachment inquiry.

If you care that deeply and passionately about someone who changes his mind and returnsto a2k after saying hes leaving which is however you look at ig small potatoes, how can you possibly justify continuing to support a presiden g who is demonstrably a congenital liar who lets ou allies be slughtered who calls the condtitution phony who makes dumb decjjlisions on the spur of the moment and sticks with them no matter how stupid. If you codemn blatham endlessly for changing his mind but continue to support trump for lying and rank duplicitly then you have bone of the integrity you boast of.

There Was No ‘Quid Pro Quo’ Because Ukraine Didn’t Bend To Demands, McCarthy Argues

'When you're in a hole, stop digging': Clinton lawyer Greg Craig to President Trump

IMHO, the USA is now in the greatest Constitutional Crisis since the Civil War.

Will Trump shut down the government to fight impeachment?

Analysis: Washington is bracing for the prospect that president may seek to let funding lapse in a bid to blame Democrats.

WASHINGTON — Impeachment, meet government shutdown.

With funding for federal operations set to expire Nov. 21, the political class here is beginning to plan for the possibility — or the likelihood, in the eyes of some — that President Donald Trump will shut down the government to try to turn public opinion against House Democrats and their push to impeach him.

"He used it for his almighty wall for the longest shutdown in history, so I don't put anything past him when it comes to this," Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic minority whip, told NBC News.

It's not just Democrats who have learned that Trump has a tendency to add as many chips to the pile as he can in high-stakes political battles, particularly when things aren't going his way. Right now, according to an impeachment tracker by FiveThirtyEight.com, a plurality of Americans (48.6 percent to 43.3 percent) support removing the president from office.

Trump has a history of seeking dramatic means to alter storylines.

David Atkins
@DavidOAtkins
Remember that Trump and Giuliani weren't just doing this to get dirt on Biden, but to exonerate Putin over 2016.

There is still a deep, dark, very ugly and almost certainly criminal secret we still don't know about with Trump and Putin.

America has never been this weak <<<<sigh>>>>

for changing his mind

Daniel Dale
@ddale8
Alert: The president said a couple minutes ago, "We're building a wall in Colorado. We're building a beautiful wall. A big one that really works."

And he's going to make New Mexico pay for it

.....exonerate Putin over 2016.

There is still a deep, dark, very ugly and almost certainly criminal secret we still don't know about with Trump and Putin.

An earlier version of this article described incorrectly an element of Hillary Clinton's recent comments about Representative Tulsi Gabbard. While Mrs. Clinton said that a Democratic presidential candidate was "the favorite of the Russians," and an aide later confirmed the reference was to Ms. Gabbard, Mrs. Clinton's remark about the “grooming” of a third-party candidate in the 2020 race was in response to a question about the Republicans’ strategy, not about Russian intervention.