On Politics A.M.: House Democrats Release Impeachment Report

2019年12月4日星期三

December 4, 2019

Good Wednesday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today.

House Democrats released a 300-page impeachment report Monday saying that President Trump “placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States.” The report’s release starts up the next phase in the impeachment process: a decision by the House Judiciary Committee over whether to charge the president.

Phone records cited in the draft impeachment report show the extensive reach of Rudolph W. Giuliani’s campaign first to remove the American ambassador to Ukraine and then to force Ukraine to announce criminal investigations for Mr. Trump’s political gain.
While the Hill was focused on impeachment, Mr. Trump unsettled the global economy on Tuesday when he threatened NATO allies and suggested that he could wait a year to reach a trade agreement with China, sending stock markets swooning.
The president’s main focus of the day, though, was President Emmanuel Macron of France. In a tense exchange Mr. Macron questioned Mr. Trump, putting him on the defensive about his vision for NATO and handling of Syria.

Mr. Trump usually is proud of being the “Great Disrupter,” once keeping European leaders off balance. Now, an ambitious president in France, a lame-duck leader in Germany and a breakaway populist in Britain have Mr. Trump scrambling for a new strategy.

After months of low poll numbers and a series of missteps that crippled her campaign, Senator Kamala Harris has dropped out of the Democratic presidential race. Her departure means that the December debate in Los Angeles might have only white candidates.

Senator Cory Booker proposed investing $100 billion in historically black colleges and universities, a broad proposal in a Democratic field that has offered varying plans to prop up this longstanding yet struggling arm of the educational system.

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has lost his advantage in Iowa. The strategy to win over rural voters again? A “No Malarkey” bus tour.

Newly uncovered documents show that McKinsey & Company, the international consulting giant, helped the Trump administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement find “detention savings opportunities” — including measures the agency’s staff sometimes viewed as too harsh.
Michael Cohen told federal investigators that another lawyer representing Mr. Trump dismissed his warnings that a letter to Congress describing discussions about a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow omitted key details, newly released memos show.

Today’s On Politics briefing was compiled by Isabella Grullón Paz in New York.

Is there anything you think we’re missing? Anything you want to see more of? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.