The Senate voted via unanimous consent on Tuesday on a resolution calling for the Trump administration to release to the Senate Intelligence Committee a whistleblower complaint that allegedly involves President Trump and Ukraine.
Why it matters: The resolution is non-binding, but it's a rare show of bipartisanship on an issue that threatens to spark an official impeachment proceeding in the House. The House will vote on a similar resolution on Wednesday. The Senate Intelligence Committee has opened a bipartisan investigation into the complaint and is currently in talks to bring in the whistleblower for a closed-door testimony.
President Trump tweeted Tuesday that he would authorize the release of the transcript of the phone call he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25 in which he discussed Joe Biden and his son.
"I am currently at the United Nations representing our Country, but have authorized the release tomorrow of the complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript of my phone conversation with President Zelensky of Ukraine. You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call. No pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo! This is nothing more than a continuation of the Greatest and most Destructive Witch Hunt of all time!"
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has told friends that impeachment now feels unavoidable, according to someone who discussed it with her last night. She hates the politics of it, but has succumbed to the inevitability, the source says.
The bottom line: Trump’s decision to release the transcript of a call with the Ukrainian president doesn’t appear to have stopped Democrats’ march toward impeachment.
Joe Biden will announce later Tuesday that he will back the impeachment of President Trump if the White House refuses to comply with requests for information from Congress.
The state of play, according to Biden's campaign:The former vice president will argue that Trump's latest scandal involving his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lands on top of his other alleged abuses of power while in office, heightening the need for impeachment. He'll focus his case on the fact that the administration should comply with all outstanding requests for information from Congress — not just on Ukraine.
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) on Tuesday endorsed launching impeachment proceedings against President Trump while speaking on the floor of the House.
"The future of our democracy is at stake. I truly believe the time to begin impeachment proceedings against this president has come. To do otherwise would betray the foundations of our democracy."
The Democratic chairs of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees sent a letter to White House counsel Pat Cipollone on Tuesday demanding that the Trump administration turn over documents related to the president's alleged attempts to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden by Thursday.
"If the recent reports are accurate, it means the President raised with a foreign leader pursuing investigations related to a political opponent in an upcoming U.S. election. That is the very definition of corrupt abuse of power."
President Trump used his address before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday to denounce "globalists" and "socialists" while taking aim at China, Iran and Venezuela.
Between the lines: The shock factor has mostly worn off — including for the president himself, who was expressionless and spoke in monotone for most of the speech — but Trump's decision to once again use the world’s biggest diplomatic gathering to promote nationalism is notable. So, too, was Trump’s hawkish tone on China.
President Trump confirmed to reporters at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that he withheld almost $400 million in military aid to Ukraine, but claimed that he did so to force other European nations to contribute.
"I want other countries to put up money. I think it's unfair that we put up the money. Then people called me, they said 'Oh, let it go.' And I let it go. We paid the money. The money was paid. But very importantly, Germany, France, other countries should put up money. And that's been my complaint from the beginning."
Sen. Bernie Sanders has released a wealth tax that's even more aggressive than Sen. Elizabeth Warren's "ultra-millionaire tax." Axios first reported Sanders' proposal.
Why it matters: Sanders keeps trying to remind voters that he's the original when it comes to progressive policy in the 2020 field, but he's being eclipsed at every turn by the surging Warren. The Vermont senator has proposed massive spending — $16 trillion on climate alone — and so has to show a little revenue to add credibility to his proposals.
Stories about Joe Biden generated millions more interactions on social media than any other 2020 Democrat last week after the firestorm over President Trump’s alleged attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate him, according to data from NewsWhip exclusively provided to Axios.
Why it matters: At a time when Biden has been straining to stay ahead in the polls while showered with negative coverage, this storyline has helped galvanize Democrats to back the former vice president in opposition to Trump.
More momentum built yesterday among Democrats for impeachment proceedings than on any other single day of the Trump presidency.
Why it matters: One summer phone call by President Trump is proving to be more of an impeachment catalyst for House Democrats than two years of drip-drip revelations from Robert Mueller's investigation. Today, the behind-the-scenes action could burst into view.
President Trump directed his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to withhold nearly $400 million in military aid for Ukraine days before he phoned the country's president and allegedly urged him to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son, the Washington Post and New York Times report.
Details: The White House told Axios that the reports, published late Monday, are "completely false." WashPost reported that officials in the administration's Office of Management and Budget notified the Pentagon and State Department about the request at an interagency meeting in July.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance asked a federal judge in a court filing Monday to reject President Trump's attempts to stop New York prosecutors from subpoenaing his corporate and personal tax returns.
Details: Trump sued Vance last Thursday in an effort to block New York prosecutors from obtaining 8 years of his tax returns from his longtime accounting firm Mazars USA. Vance said in the filing addressing Trump's lawsuit that the president was trying to be covered by a "sweeping immunity" that is not provided by law.
/2019/09/24/1569320935390.gif?w=3840)
