THE BIG IDEA: Sunday started with President Trump’s former homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, saying he was “deeply disturbed” by the implications of his call to the Ukrainian president and ended with a GOP Congressman, Adam Kinzinger, calling one of Trump’s tweets “beyond repugnant.”
While key Republicans have rallied to the president’s defense since House Democrats opened an impeachment inquiry last week, the bookends to the day underscore the riskiness of a scorched-earth defense strategy that is predicated on an insistence that Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.
The president is running the smashmouth playbook he learned from Roy Cohn, his mentor and Joe McCarthy’s hatchet man. It’s worked repeatedly for Trump, from fighting the Justice Department’s investigation of racial discrimination at his family’s rental properties in the 1970s to overcoming Bob Mueller’s investigation the past two years. Among other things, this strategy involves denying everything and counterattacking critics by accusing them of whatever you’ve been accused of.
The don’t-give-an-inch mentality is what prompts someone like White House policy adviser Stephen Miller to declare on “Fox News Sunday” that “the president of the United States is the whistleblower, and this individual is a saboteur trying to undermine a democratically elected government.” And it is why Trump allows Rudy Giuliani, his ferocious personal attorney, to keep defending him on television despite the messes he seems to make each time he goes on the air.
-- Bossert’s appearance Sunday morning on ABC’s “This Week” showed that even Trump loyalists cannot always be counted on to espouse Trump’s I-know-what-you-are-but-what-
“That conspiracy theory has got to go,” Bossert said, explaining that Trump is motivated to spread the “completely debunked” theory because he had “not gotten his pound of flesh yet” over being “wrongly accused of colluding with Russia” to win the 2016 election. But Bossert warned that he risks taking it too far: “If he continues to focus on that white whale, it’s going to bring him down,” he said.
Bossert resigned as the top homeland security official in the White House in April 2018 at the request of John Bolton, one day after Bolton took over as national security adviser. On ABC, where he has a contributor contract, Bossert also criticized Giuliani for pushing conspiracy theories on the president because “it sticks in his mind when he hears it over and over again.”
Bossert’s comments were measured. He said he’s not convinced that Trump leveraged U.S. aid to Ukraine for political dirt, noting that there might have been legitimate reasons to hold back the money, such as getting other European countries to put up more. “That said,” Bossert added, “it is a bad day and a bad week for this president and this country if he is asking for political dirt on an opponent.”
Appearing later in the program, Giuliani told anchor George Stephanopoulos: “Tom Bossert doesn't know what he's talking about.”
-- Kinzinger’s tweet on Sunday night suggested that there’s some limit to how much congressional Republicans will defend Trump’s tactics. The president vigorously defended himself on Twitter all weekend and continued to attack the whistleblower whose complaint set in motion the impeachment inquiry. At one point, the president highlighted a quote he apparently heard on Fox News from an evangelical pastor who supports him.
“If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal,” Trump tweeted, adding his own parenthetical to a comment from Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist preacher who is based in Dallas.
Kinzinger, a decorated Air Force veteran who served as a pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan and represents the Chicago suburbs in Congress, quickly replied: “I have visited nations ravaged by civil war,” he tweeted. “I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President.”
THE LATEST ON THE INVESTIGATION:
-- Nancy Pelosi, mindful of her front-line moderates, is counting on House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff to keep the impeachment inquiry focused on Ukraine. She thought the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing with Corey Lewandowski the week before last was a debacle for Democrats. By coincidence, that embarrassing fiasco came just days before the deluge of revelations about Trump’s interactions with Ukraine’s president. Those two events prompted the speaker to change up strategy. For now, she’s largely sidelined Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler to elevate Schiff. Pelosi wants the investigation to focus narrowly on Ukraine and believes it’s easier for the public to understand than what was covered in the Mueller report. (Rachael Bade and Mike DeBonis have more on the internal machinations.)
-- “On a conference call with House Democrats on Sunday afternoon, Pelosi told her colleagues that public sentiment — something she had frequently cited as an obstacle to pursuing impeachment — had begun to swing around,” per Felicia Sonmez and DeBonis. “‘The polls have changed drastically about this,’ she said, urging a careful approach, according to notes taken by a person on the call: ‘Our tone must be prayerful, respectful, solemn, worthy of the Constitution.’”
-- Here’s the jurisdictional breakdown by committee: Intelligence will focus on allegations that Trump coerced Ukraine to dig up dirt on his political opponent. Foreign Affairs will focus on any wrongdoing by Trump appointees within the State Department, especially pertaining to Giuliani. Oversight will scrutinize why the summary of the Ukrainian call was moved to a more classified system, which the whistleblower alleged was done in an effort to keep the misconduct from getting out. Judiciary would retake center stage when it comes to drafting articles of impeachment.
-- Schiff said his panel has reached a tentative agreement to secure testimony from the still-anonymous whistleblower “very soon,” pending a security clearance from acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire. “We’ll get the unfiltered testimony of that whistleblower,” Schiff said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Mark Zaid, a lawyer for the whistleblower, said no date or time for the testimony has been set. He said bipartisan negotiations in both chambers are ongoing, and “protecting the whistleblower’s identity is paramount.” Andrew Bakaj, another attorney for the whistleblower, sent a letter to Maguire expressing fears for his client’s safety.
After CBS News reported last night at the top of “60 Minutes” that the whistleblower is “under federal protection,” citing that letter, Zaid replied that the network “completely misinterpreted contents of our letter.” CBS responded that it “stands by its sources and reporting.”
-- Coming attractions: On Wednesday, House investigators from the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees are scheduled to depose Marie Yovanovitch, a career foreign service officer who was recalled early from her post as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. On Thursday, the investigators will depose Kurt Volker, who resigned on Friday night as Trump’s special State Department envoy to Ukraine and who Giuliani was in contact with. On Friday, intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson – another Trump appointee – is scheduled to testify behind closed doors about his determination that the whistleblower’s complaint was urgent and credible.
-- Subpoenas were issued late Friday to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, giving him a week to turn over documents.
-- Giuliani said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Pompeo told him he was aware of his shadow diplomacy to prod Ukraine's government to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his family. “I did not do this on my own,” he said. “I did it at the request of the State Department, and I have all of the text messages to prove it. And I also have a thank you from them from doing a good job. … When I talked to the secretary last week, he said he was aware of it.”
-- Giuliani was not the only attorney linked to Trump trying to get damaging information on Biden from Ukraine, Fox News’s Chris Wallace reported on “Fox News Sunday”: “Joe DiGenova and his wife, Victoria Toensing, worked alongside the former New York City mayor. According to a top U.S. official, the three attorneys were working ‘off the books’ – not within the Trump administration – and only the president knows the details of their work. DiGenova and Toensing have been staunch supporters of Trump and were close to joining his legal team during Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. That ultimately did not happen due to conflicts, as Toensing had previously represented witnesses who had already spoken to Mueller’s team. In a tweet on Sunday, Toensing denied that her husband and she were working with Giuliani and called the reporting ‘categorically false.’ Wallace later responded, ‘We stand by our story.’”
-- Fox News also reported that Trump’s order to withhold assistance for Ukraine was made despite “unanimous” support for delivering the aid from the Pentagon, the State Department and the National Security Council.
-- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has not suffered politically back home for kowtowing to the American president’s demands -- at least not yet. Will Englund and Natalie Gryvnyak track the fallout in Kiev: “It might not say much for his adherence to the rule of law that he appeared amenable to [Trump’s] suggestion, analysts say. But in Ukraine, it’s hardly shocking. And, importantly, he hasn’t actually done anything about it since he hung up the phone. ‘This scandal is not affecting Ukrainian politics at all,’ said Sviatoslav Yurash, a Zelensky ally in the Rada, or parliament. ‘American politics isn’t on top of the agenda.’
“But some members of the Rada appear ready to turn up the heat. Prominent among them is Oleksiy Honcharenko, a member of former president Petro Poroshenko’s party. Honcharenko told The Washington Post on Sunday that ‘sources’ within the government have told him Ukraine has both a transcript and an audio recording of the call — and he plans to ask Zelensky to release them. The chances of that happening are slim, which raises the possibility that Honcharenko is merely trolling. He said he plans to hold an informal hearing later this week. ‘He’s doing a stunt,’ Yurash said. ‘Some people like that.’”
THE POLITICS:
-- An ABC News-Ipsos poll released Sunday shows that just about half of Americans said they are “not surprised at all” to hear of Trump’s actions. An additional 32 percent said they are “not surprised,” Scott Clement and Colby Itkowitz report. “The national poll, conducted Friday and Saturday, also finds that 63 percent of adults say it is a serious problem that Trump pushed the president of Ukraine to investigate the son of his potential 2020 opponent … Less than half of the public, 43 percent, said Trump’s action was ‘very serious.’ The survey did not ask whether Trump should be impeached or about accusations that White House officials tried to keep the July phone call secret…”
-- A CBS-YouGov survey, also released Sunday, found that 55 percent of Americans support an impeachment investigation, though independents remain evenly divided. The poll showed that only 42 percent said Trump deserves to actually be impeached, with 22 percent saying it’s too soon to know.
-- That topline number tracks with what Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee officials say their internal polling shows. In the conference call yesterday afternoon with Pelosi, DCCC chair Cheri Bustos told members that their private poll – in the field on Thursday and Friday – showed that 54 percent of likely voters support Democrats opening an impeachment inquiry, and that voters preferred a pro-impeachment Democrat over an anti-impeachment Republican by 11 points. But Politico reports that Bustos urged anyone who might be vulnerable to gauge local support and test messages through polling in their own districts — and promised the party committee will help pay for these surveys.
-- “Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries outlined a plan to message the issue with ‘repetition,’” Politico adds. “He named six words that Democrats will use — ‘betrayal, abuse of power, national security’ … On the call, Pelosi reiterated that Democrats would remain focused on their legislative agenda and said she hopes Trump doesn't walk away from a deal on trade or drug pricing — a dual approach that many moderates have said is key to keeping the House.”
-- The House is on a two-week recess, which means members are back in their districts. Vulnerable Democrats appear to be treading carefully as they arrive home. From the New York Times: “Orange County was the epicenter of the 2018 House Democratic takeover, where Republicans lost four seats … On Saturday night, as three of the victorious Democrats were honored at an annual political dinner, a new battle was on everyone’s minds: How to protect those gains in 2020 by selling voters on the impeachment inquiry … At the dinner, Representative Harley Rouda warned Democrats not to ‘sit on our laurels.’ Representative Mike Levin solemnly said ‘the times have found us.’ And Representative Gil Cisneros, who came out for the inquiry only last week, plugged his campaign website twice to ask for donations and noted, ‘The Republicans are coming after me now.’
“That Democratic messaging challenge came into sharp relief during interviews with voters like Donna Artukovic, a retired teacher who was volunteering at the Orange County dinner. Ms. Artukovic expressed nervousness about what an impeachment battle could mean for Democratic candidates. ‘I am afraid it’s going to hurt them,’ she said. ‘A lot of people — even who don’t like Trump — don’t like impeachment.’
“Representative Andy Kim of New Jersey, a Democrat who ousted a Republican incumbent in 2018 by focusing on issues like health insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions, held a town hall-style meeting in his district on Saturday where only one voter asked about impeachment (and even then, it was part of a multipronged question). In an interview afterward, Mr. Kim noted the paucity of questions on a topic that has engulfed Washington."
Joe and Hunter attend a Duke-Georgetown NCAA college basketball game in 2010. (Nick Wass/AP)
-- Some of Biden’s supporters are voicing growing concern that his campaign is not prepared to weather the dual political rip currents suddenly reshaping the 2020 race — an onslaught of attacks on his family from Trump and a tightened contest for the Democratic nomination. Matt Viser reports: “Several allies, including top financial backers, are weighing whether to create a super PAC to independently defend Biden and go after the president, who has repeatedly accused the former vice president of corruption and whose campaign last week launched a $10 million ad blitz aimed largely at attacking Biden. …-- The presidential campaign has entered uncertain territory, and campaigns are still figuring out how they should try to adjust messaging and scheduling, Sean Sullivan reports.
“Biden, who has insisted his election would return the country to normalcy, has over the past several days largely sought to avoid the political spasm in which he is now a central figure. His campaign has sent out daily statements on health care and other issues, as if leaning toward predictability in a highly unpredictable time. He has only sporadically talked about Trump’s attacks on him and his son Hunter. At a fundraiser Saturday in Park City, Utah, the host, Barry Baker, called Trump a ‘lying, narcissistic traitor, cheater,’ while Biden over the course of a 20-minute speech did not mention impeachment or the president’s dealings with Ukraine. …
“On Sunday, two top Biden campaign officials sent a letter to the heads of major news and cable networks, urging them not to book [Giuliani]. ‘By giving [him] your air time, you are allowing him to introduce increasingly unhinged, unfounded and desperate lies into the national conversation,’ the letter from Anita Dunn and Kate Bedingfield reads.”
-- The White House is preparing to activate an impeachment-focused war room: “Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House counsel Pat Cipollone will be among those who present the president with the plan for a rapid-response effort that could come as early as Monday,” NBC News reports. “It was unclear who would lead the internal effort, but one person expected to play a role was White House spokesman Steven Groves, who has spent time in both the White House counsel’s office helping manage the Mueller inquiry and the press shop as a spokesman on issues related to congressional investigations … ‘We’re not going to get caught flat-footed, and we’re not going to take it lying down,’ said one source.”
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