President Trump signed an executive order on Monday authorizing the imposition of sanctions on current and former Turkish officials, senior administration officials told reporters Monday.
Why it matters: Trump's removal of nearly all U.S. troops from Syria created bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill, prompting members of Congress to immediately prepare sanctions bills of their own in retaliation. As Axios' Dave Lawler notes, Trump is now preempting those looming sanctions with steps of his own.
The co-founders of Fusion GPS, the political research firm behind the infamous "Steele Dossier," are coming out with a book about President Trump's alleged ties to Russia in November.
Background: The book, titled "Crime in Progress: The Secret History of the Trump-Russia Investigation," is written by former journalists Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, who commissioned former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele in 2015 to conduct opposition research for the conservative Washington Free Beacon. Steele's work was later funded by the Democratic National Committee and Simpson himself after November 2016.
The U.S. Census Bureau is requesting information from drivers' license records and public assistance recipients in an effort to make documenting citizenship a key aspect of the 2020 Census, the Associated Press reports.
Why it matters: The request has alarmed civil rights advocates who believe it will discourage immigrant participation in next year's population count, which will be used to determine congressional seat apportionment and how federal funding is distributed.
President Trump's former Russia adviser Fiona Hill arrived on Capitol Hill to testify in the House's Ukraine investigation Monday after receiving a subpoena from the Democratic-led committees leading the impeachment inquiry, her attorney confirmed on Twitter.
Why it matters: Hill, who left her role as Trump's top Russia aide in August, is expected to testify that Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland "circumvented [the administration] to pursue a shadow foreign policy on Ukraine," according to NBC News. That policy included pushing Ukraine to open investigations into the 2016 presidential election and unsubstantiated corruption allegations against Joe Biden and his son.
Firehouse Strategies, a Republican firm, and data company Optimus found that a majority of 1,765 likely Democratic primary voters in early voting states believe that President Trump should not only be impeached but also imprisoned.
The big picture:Support for impeachment has continued to climb since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an inquiry into allegations that Trump in July tried to pressure the president of Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden, but there has been little polling on the public's opinion on imprisonment for the president.
President Trump on Monday said in a pair of tweets Monday the whistleblower who filed the complaint that set off the House impeachment inquiry must "testify to explain why he got my Ukraine conversation sooo wrong" and that they must be identified "to determine WHY this was done to the USA."
Adam Schiff now doesn’t seem to want the Whistleblower to testify. NO! Must testify to explain why he got my Ukraine conversation sooo wrong, not even close. Did Schiff tell him to do that? We must determine the Whistleblower’s identity to determine WHY this was done to the USA.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Swing voters in this Rust Belt state are expressing a range of unease about impeaching President Trump, from fears it will hurt the economy to frustrations that House Democrats are more invested in going after Trump than in helping people.
Why it matters: If such sentiments last and play out on a larger scale across pivotal states, it spells trouble for Democrats unless they can reframe what they're trying to accomplish.
New polling shows that most of the public does not think President Trump has or will have a health care plan.
Driving the news: The results of the latest Kaiser Family Foundation’s tracking poll, which will be out Tuesday, show that most Republicans are sticking with Trump, but few other voters are buying his repeated promises about delivering a “phenomenal health plan.”
A video depicting President Donald Trump stabbing and shooting journalists, political opponents and Black Lives Matter movement figures was played at an event for his supporters at his Miami resort last week, the New York Times reported Sunday. Trump was not present, it said.
Why it matters: Event organizers American Priority confirmed to the Times that the video was shown at the conference at the Trump National Doral, which demonstrates how "Trump’s anti-media language has influenced his supporters and bled into their own propaganda."
Ahead of this week's subpoenas and depositions, new documents obtained by Axios show how Democrats are taking the impeachment inquiry in two tightly focused directions: Ukraine and obstruction of justice.
Why it matters: There are new temptations for Democrats to broaden the scope of their inquiry after developments last week including President Trump's gift to Turkey, new questions about coordination with the Chinese over Hunter Biden, and the dramatic airport arrests of two of Rudy Giuliani's associates with Eastern European backgrounds and their indictments on campaign finance violations.
President Trump's allies still fear a general election matchup against a banged-up Joe Biden more than a run against an invigorated Elizabeth Warren, people close to the president tell Axios.
Driving the news: Warren has surpassed Biden in some primary polls, seemingly helped by the early coverage of Trump's efforts to get Ukraine to investigate conspiracy theories involving Biden and his son Hunter. And a Fox News poll now shows Biden and Warren each would lead Trump, 50% to 40%.
On CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, Mayor Pete Buttigieg pushed back on fellow 2020 candidate Beto O'Rourke's proposal to strip religious institutions of their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage, arguing that it would just "deepen the divisions that we're already experiencing."
As the House impeachment inquiry into President Trump barrels on full speed ahead, at least 7 of the 235 Democrats in the House are continuing to hold out or openly criticize their party for pursuing impeachment, according to NBC News.
The big picture: All 7 holdouts represent districts that Trump won in the 2016 presidential election, and most are freshmen lawmakers elected in the 2018 midterms. They consider their seats vulnerable and fear that impeachment will cost their party its House majority in the 2020 elections, despite polls showing that public support for impeaching Trump is rising.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on CBS’ "Face the Nation" on Sunday that the committees investigating President Trump and Ukraine may not need testimony from the whistleblower who filed the complaint that set off the impeachment inquiry.
Why it matters: Schiff said that asking for a testimony could unnecessarily harm the whistleblower by exposing their identity, especially with Trump accusing the official of partisanship and repeatedly calling for them to be unmasked.
As Congress returns from break this week, at least 2 witnesses plan revealing testimonies in off-camera depositions for House investigators.
Driving the news: On Monday, Fiona Hill, former senior director for Europe and Russia on President Trump's National Security Council, plans to testify that Rudy Giuliani and EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland circumvented normal process "to pursue a shadow policy on Ukraine," NBC News reports.
Asked whether it's appropriate for President Trump to suggest China investigate the Biden family, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told CBS' Margaret Brennan:"Of course not. Elections in the U.S. should be decided by Americans, and it's not the business of foreign countries, any foreign countries, to be interfering in our elections."
In an interview with ABC' "This Week" Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders pushed back on the idea that he and Sen. Elizabeth Warren are interchangeable candidates within the 2020 Democratic field, arguing that Warren is a "capitalist through her bones" and he is a democratic socialist.
This morning, Axios goes back and puts in order for you the most important things we have learned about President Trump and Ukraine.
Why it matters: There’s just so much new each day. Some consequential revelations get overlooked; some ephemeral developments get overblown.Even people who follow it all fairly diligently can get wildly confused.
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday that “all transcripts” of depositions related to the impeachment inquiry into President Trump "will eventually be scrubbed for classified information and made available for the American public to see."
Why it matters: Some have criticized House Democrats investigating Trump and Ukraine for conducting all witness depositions behind closed doors and selectively leaking certain excerpts to the media. Himes explained that the depositions are private because witnesses may discuss classified information and also because it's important to prevent Trump allies who are being questioned from coordinating their testimonies.
Hunter Biden, son of the former vice president and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden, will be leaving the board of BHR Equity Investment — a private equity fund backed by Chinese state-owned entities — at the end of the month, Bloomberg reports.
Why it matters: The younger Biden is leaving the board amid unsubstantiated allegations by President Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani that he made millions of dollars from BHR Equity Investment while his father was in office. Trump has suggested that China should investigate Hunter, setting off claims by Democrats that the president is soliciting foreign election interference.
President Trump told the Value Voters Summit in Washington, D.C., an annual conference of Christian conservatives, that he feels like he's on an "island of one" over his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria. But he said the U.S. has to "bring our great heroes" home.
Why it matters: Trump has faced criticism from some Republicans and religious conservatives concerned that he's "left Kurdish Christians open to Turkey’s military offensive," per the Washington Post. Turkey launched a military offensive soon after the president announced the withdrawal.
Former Defense Secretary James Mattis addressed during an interview on NBC’s "Meet the Press" to air Sunday President Trump's decision to pull troops out of northern Syria, warning "ISIS will resurge."
Secretary of State Pompeo, the intelligence services, the foreign countries that are working with us have it about right that ISIS is not defeated. We have got to keep the pressure on ISIS so they don't recover."
