On Politics A.M.: Moderate Democrats Back Impeachment

2019年12月17日星期二

December 17, 2019

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

Two days ahead of a historic vote on two articles of impeachment, about a half-dozen first-term Democrats in districts that Mr. Trump won in 2016 — all impeachment skeptics — said Monday that they would cast votes this week to impeach President Trump.
Representative Elissa Slotkin, a moderate Democrat from Michigan, announced Monday that she would vote to impeach Mr. Trump — and quickly faced the consequences.

Nearly all of Representative Jeff Van Drew’s Washington staff resigned over the weekend as the Democrat planned to switch parties just as the House was preparing to undertake its historic vote on articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump.
Carly Fiorina, the former Republican presidential candidate, said Monday that she believed it was “vital” that President Trump be impeached, but left open the possibility of voting for him in the fall of 2020.

With both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren stockpiling reliable funding, progressives are hung up on the same question: How does it end? It’s increasingly clear that their biggest obstacle to winning the Democratic nomination is each other.

An unexpected surge in manufacturing jobs early in Mr. Trump’s term was never as pronounced in the Midwest as elsewhere in the country. Now, those states — many of them critical to Mr. Trump’s re-election chances — are struggling as the boom has faded.

The Supreme Court said on Monday that it would not hear a closely watched case on whether cities can make it a crime for homeless people to sleep outdoors.
Five days before the government is set to run out of money, Congress unveiled its legislation to fund the government. Here’s what’s in it.

Although the Trump administration often boasts that it doubled the federal child tax credit to $2,000 per child, millions of Americans earn too little to fully qualify. In short, children who need the tax credit most are least likely to benefit.

The Chinese government denounced on Monday the United States’ secret expulsion of two Chinese diplomats suspected of espionage. The expulsions appeared to be the first of Chinese diplomats suspected of spying in more than three decades.

Today’s On Politics briefing was compiled by Alana N. Herlands 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.