While lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee each got to have their say during Wednesday’s impeachment inquiry hearings, counsel for both the Democrats and Republicans did much of the legal questioning.
After the dust settled, though, lead counsel for the Republicans Stephen Castor was pilloried by Democrats for inconsistent and sometimes bizarre lines of questioning during the first day of impeachment hearings.
As Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) put it in an interview with Cheddar, Castor was tasked with an impossible job.
“I wouldn’t put as much blame or fault on Mr. Castor,” Swalwell said. “You could resurrect Johnnie Cochran and put him on the Republican side, but the facts are the facts.”
“The President’s own words is the most powerful evidence we have,” Swalwell said.
At Wednesday’s widely-publicized hearing, Acting Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor, revealed that he learned from a staffer last Friday that EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland had discussed “investigations” in a phone call with President Trump on July 26th. Taylor said that when he later asked Sondland about Trump’s thoughts on Ukraine, "Ambassador Sondland responded that President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pressing for."
In her weekly press conference Thursday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters that the testimony from Taylor and State Department official George Kent was “devastating” for the president, adding that it “corroborated evidence of bribery.”
“Is this who we are as a country?” Swalwell asked.
Meanwhile, Sondland is expected to appear before the House Intelligence Committee next Wednesday. Swalwell noted that the ambassador has already updated his closed-door testimony to “reflect what other witnesses had said” and called the “evolution” a “good thing.”
Before Sondland takes the witness stand, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch will testify publicly Friday. Yovanovitch was reportedly forced from her position earlier this year because she opposed the president’s Ukraine policy.
Following next week’s eight public testimonies, the House Intel Committee will compile a report, which it will send to the House Judiciary Committee. The Judiciary Committee will deliberate on possible Articles of Impeachment. If articles are drawn up and approved by the full House, impeachment proceedings would move to the Senate which would be responsible for holding a, presided over by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
President Donald Trump says a deal struck by Netflix last week to buy Warner Bros. Discovery “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share. The Republican president says he will be involved in the decision about whether federal regulators should approve the deal. Trump commented Sunday when he was asked about the deal as he walked the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors. The $72 billion deal would bring together two of the biggest players in television and film and potentially reshape the entertainment industry.
Real estate software company RealPage has agreed to stop sharing nonpublic information between landlords as part of a settlement with the Department of Justice.
A legislative package to end the government shutdown appears on track. A handful of Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to advance the bill after what's become a deepening disruption of federal programs and services. But hurdles remain. Senators are hopeful they can pass the package as soon as Monday and send it to the House. What’s in and out of the bipartisan deal has drawn criticism and leaves few senators fully satisfied. The legislation includes funding for SNAP food aid and other programs while ensuring backpay for furloughed federal workers. But it fails to fund expiring health care subsidies Democrats have been fighting for, pushing that debate off for a vote next month.
Sabrina Siddiqui, National Politics Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins to break down the SNAP funding delays and the human cost of the ongoing shutdown.
Arguments at the Supreme Court have concluded for the day as the justices consider President Donald Trump's sweeping unilateral tariffs in a trillion-dollar test of executive power.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without much of the economic data it typically relies on from the government. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that there were “strongly differing views” at the central bank's policy meeting about to proceed going forward.
U.S. and Chinese officials say a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies is drawing closer. The sides have reached an initial consensus for President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to aim to finalize during their high-stakes meeting Thursday in South Korea. Any agreement would be a relief to international markets. Trump's treasury secretary says discussions with China yielded preliminary agreements to stop the precursor chemicals for fentanyl from coming into the United States. Scott Bessent also says Beijing would make “substantial” purchases of soybean and other agricultural products while putting off export controls on rare earth elements needed for advanced technologies.
