A $1 million donor to Trump’s inauguration committee who later became the EU ambassador is now on record saying he told a Ukrainian official that the country wouldn't get military aid unless they caved to President Trump's demands.
Why it matters: President Trump keeps denying the existence of a quid pro quo.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that he will not read any of the transcripts released Tuesday by the House committees conducting the impeachment inquiry, telling CBS News: '"I've written the whole process off. ... I think this is a bunch of B.S."
Why it matters: In a revision to his Oct. 17 testimony, U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland acknowledged that he told a Ukrainian official that the release of military aid to Ukraine would "likely not occur" unless President Volodymyr Zelensky announced an investigation into a gas company with ties to Joe Biden's son.
The House Intelligence Committee released on Tuesday transcripts of its closed-door interviews with U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker.
Driving the news: Sondland, a key figure in alleged efforts by President Trump and Rudy Giuliani to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and the 2016 presidential election, revised his Oct. 17 testimony on Nov. 4, according to the transcript. He stated that he told an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that military assistance would not be released until Zelensky issued a statement agreeing to investigate Burisma, a gas company with ties to Biden's son.
62% of people who approve of the job Donald Trump is doing as president say they can't think of anything he could do that would cause him to lose their support, according to a Monmouth University poll published Tuesday. The sample size for the question was 401.
Why it matters: The figures come in the midst of an impeachment inquiry that has highlighted fierce partisan divisions. Not a single House Republican voted in favor of a resolution formalizing impeachment inquiry procedures last week.
President Trump offered Mexico military support on Tuesday after at least nine members of a Mormon family — who held U.S. and Mexican citizenship — were killed during a cartel attack near the border, reports CNN.
Why it matters: The brutal attack highlights "the escalating danger posed by organized-crime groups" in Mexico, writes the Washington Post.
Donald Trump Jr., a popular speaker and radio guest in Trump country, is out today with "Triggered."
The big picture: The book's thrashes political censorship, Big Tech and Hillary Clinton and other Democrats and previews how the president's eldest son will stump for his father during the 2020 presidential election.
One of the issues being hotly debated among presidential candidates and political operatives leading up to the 2020 campaign isn't health care, or the economy — it's free speech.
Why it matters: Disagreements about how to apply the First Amendment to the speed and scale of social media are consuming the political debate this election cycle and cementing unprecedented levels of polarization.
A South Carolina aide for 2020 candidate Tom Steyer’s campaign resigned after an internal investigation into allegations that he stole volunteer data from the campaign of Democratic presidential rival Kamala Harris, Steyer's campaign confirmed in a statement late Monday.
Why it matters: South Carolina is a key state, as it holds the first primary in the South. Charleston's Post and Courier first reported Steyer's campaign put its deputy S.C. state director Dwane Sims on administrative leave so it could investigate allegations that he stole the data of thousands of contacts "using an account from when he worked with the S.C. Democratic Party." The South Carolina Democratic Party told Axios it had disabled his account.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) apologized for blocking the Twitter account of a former Brooklyn assemblyman as she agreed to settle a First Amendment lawsuit, the New York Times reports.
Why it matters: Per the New York Daily News, Ocasio-Cortez was scheduled to testify in Brooklyn federal court Tuesday in the case, brought by Dov Hikind in July — days after a federal appeals court made a landmark ruling that President Trump violated the Constitution in blocking critics on Twitter.
President Trump railed against Democrats' impeachment inquiry and made a last-ditch appeal at his campaign rally in Lexington, Kentucky, Monday night for voters to back Gov. Matt Bevin, who faces a tough re-election fight.
Why it matters: Trump held the rally on the eve of the gubernatorial election, which the New York Times notes the president is "casting as a test of his strength" as he stares down the prospect of a possible impeachment in Washington, D.C.
Democrats must pick a 2020 candidate who can win the Electoral College, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said Monday during an event in Denver while discussing her new book, The Hill reports.
Why it matters: The former secretary of state won the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election but lost to President Trump in the Electoral College. Per The Hill, Clinton said "several of our candidates could win the popular vote, but as I know ... that's not enough."
Sen. Kamala Harris told CNN Monday there's a "trope" among some Democrats that African Americans are homophobic or transphobic. And she called suggestions that fellow Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is struggling with black voters in South Carolina because he's gay "simply wrong."
