Not that anyone is asking but if I were one of the Democratic leaders I would be saying something like this.

“Sen McConnell has made it clear he wants a phony trial, a trial with no evidence and no witnesses and maybe no jurors. But there are a handful of Senators who say they’re moderates and who’ve said they want a fair trail. They want to do their job as jurors. Sens Gardner, McSally, Collins, Tillis, Romney and a few others. So we’re going to take a deep breath and see if they can use the holidays to make their voices heard with Sen McConnell and maybe the White House. Because there should be a fair process like they said they wanted.”

Lindsey Graham seems to be getting some degree of cold feet over having Rudy Giuliani up to the Hill to share his latest findings out of Ukraine, tells Giuliani, “I hope you know what you’re talking about.”

LOL After inviting Rudes to come up to the hill to share his Ukraine findings, Lindsey tells Rudes: "I hope you know what you're talking about." pic.twitter.com/ZiPIb9dQZj

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 19, 2019

The Times published a new story on the mystery duo of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. It is chock full of interesting detail about how they wormed into the Trump inner circle and other details. But I wanted to focus on two nuggets. First, Giuliani and Fruman have entered into a joint defense agreement. That’s their right. But that is a very notable fact.

A simple note: We’re seeing a lot of muscle flexing and threats about who will run the House in January 2021. But nothing speaks more clearly then the steady and seemingly endless stream of Republican retirements. Some of these, of course, are simply ordinary life decisions with limited connection to politics. Some find themselves in suburban seats that were once reliably Republican but which now look likely to require a real fight for reelection every year. That’s not fun, especially while serving in the minority. But the biggest, overarching message with retirements from men like Mark Meadows is that House Republicans do not expect to be back in the majority any time soon.

As is often the case in other contexts, voting with their feet tells the clearest story.

I have a slightly different or perhaps complementary take on this. But I think TPM Reader JO is right on this as well. Senate Republicans want to take control of this as quickly as possible and make the whole thing go away. It’s like getting the ball back in the final seconds of a football game while you’re ahead and running out the clock by curling up with the ball. Pelosi has the initiative and the choices until she sends it to the Senate. There’s little reason to rush to give that up, especially since holding the ball a bit longer allows her to play up Republicans’ more or less open determination not to hold a real trial. It’s not like anyone thought Mitch McConnell or Lindsey Graham were disinterested players here. But I do think they got a bit over their skis playing to Trump’s vanity in stating quite as clearly as they did that they plan to work on Trump’s behalf to force a sham process.

Good morning and happy Thursday, December 19. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will speak from the Senate floor Thursday morning, where he plans to criticize House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for hinting that she might keep impeachment articles close to her chest for a while. Here’s more on that and other stories we’re following.

I’m watching the President’s rally tonight in Michigan and his recurrent theme is asking for money back from New York Democrats he said he gave campaign contributions to twenty or thirty years ago.

Read More

A New York judge on Wednesday dismissed a criminal case against Paul Manafort, halting a prosecution that was widely seen as a form of insurance against a possible presidential pardon for the former Trump campaign manager.

While the Manhattan district attorney plans on appealing the decision, the ruling means Manafort could go free immediately should he be pardoned.

On the latest episode of the podcast, we preview the House impeachment vote and take a look at the curious case of Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-NJ) maybe (or maybe not?) switching to the Republican Party. We also take stock of the absolutely massive amount of news that happened in 2019. Listen to it here, or your preferred podcast app.

With the day now upon us, I wanted to lay out some points on impeachment which seem to me essential and definitional.

The signature reality of the Trump Era is confusion. False stories crowd out real ones – false stories driven less by ignorance than as a mode of attack. We hear endlessly about ‘two realities’, in which partisans on either side of the political divide see the same things and come away with radically different understandings of them. This is mainly false. We see and understand the same things but simply react differently. The great threat we face as a country isn’t poor logical reasoning but the growth of authoritarianism and leader-worship.

Here are three points that, for me, function as a sort of north star through this addled and chaotic process.
Read More