Trump supporters gather for rally in Atlanta

Quick break from impeachment coverage. Trump is slated to speak at a rally in Atlanta for the new Black Voice for Trump coalition. The president is expected to speak at 3pm, and supporters have already gathered in anticipation. Here’s more from Khushbu Shah, who’s at the rally in Atlanta:

The path leading up to the Black Voices for Trump launch is lined with police (and more police) and security, but not a single protester is to be found. However, waiting to enter a conference room in the back of the the Georgia World Congress Center are Trump supporters. Some are wearing the ubiquitous MAGA hats seen at any Trump event, a few in couple cowboy hats, and some in Black Voters for Trump shirts. Diamond and Silk, social media personalities and Fox Nation hosts are escorted to the front of the line and pass through security with Herman Cain, who Trump announced he was recommending for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board earlier this year before Cain withdrew his name for consideration. Cain, a former pizza exec, briefly ran for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination but dropped out after sexual harassment allegations came to light. The room where Trump will speak looks to fit a couple hundred people. CL Bryant, who has come down from DC for the day, is an African-American Baptist minister who estimates 400 people might fit in the room, though it looks much smaller.

Tom McCarthy

Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney approved a White House meeting for the Ukrainian president – if Ukraine announced investigations tied to Joe Biden, a political rival of Donald Trump, according to testimony unveiled on Friday by the congressional committees pursuing an impeachment inquiry.

Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, “blurted out” that Mulvaney had approved the meeting if the Ukrainians announced an investigation of Burisma, a gas company that formerly employed Hunter Biden, the former vice president’s son, said Fiona Hill, a national security council member who was deposed by the committees last month.

Hill’s account was corroborated by simultaneously released testimony by another firsthand witness to the conversation, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman.

While previously released testimony has indicated a central role for Mulvaney in brokering an agreement in which Ukraine would intervene in the 2020 US election by announcing the Burisma investigation, the testimony released Friday was the first to describe direct involvement in the plot by the acting chief of staff.

Hill described for investigators a 10 July meeting attended by herself, Sondland, nationals security adviser John Bolton, Ukrainian officials and others.

Hill testified:

“Then Ambassador Sondland blurted out: ‘Well, we have an agreement with the chief of staff for a meeting if these investigations in the energy sector start.’ …And Ambassador Bolton immediately stiffened and ended the meeting.”

Vindman gave a similar account of the meeting.

“I heard him say that this had been coordinated with White House Chief of Staff Mr. Mick Mulvaney,” Vindman said.

Here’s what happened when House Republicans stormed the room when Fiona Hill was testifying, according to the transcript

The House committees released highlights of key passages in the transcripts (which combined are 786 pages long). Here is the top highlight from Fiona Hill, former aide to national security adviser John Bolton:

“I went back to talk to Ambassador Bolton. And Ambassador Bolton asked me to go over and report this to our NSC counsel, to John Eisenberg. And he told me, and this is a direct quote from Ambassador Bolton: You go and tell Eisenberg that I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up on this, and you go and tell him what you’ve heard and what I’ve said. So I went over to talk to John Eisenberg about this. … I told him exactly, you know, what had transpired and that Ambassador Sondland had basically indicated that there was agreement with the chief of staff that they would have a White House meeting or, you know, a Presidential meeting if the Ukrainians started up these investigations again. And the main thing that I was personally concerned about, as I said to John, was that he did this in front of the Ukrainians.”

Find more of Hill’s testimony highlights here.

And here is the top highlight from Lt Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council:

Q: All right. So you did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen. You used the word “demand,” it was not proper to demand. Where in the transcript do you believe that the President made a demand to investigate a U.S. citizen?

A: So, Congressman, the power disparity between the President of the United States and the President of Ukraine is vast, and, you know, in the President asking for something, it became—there was—in return for a White House meeting, because that’s what this was about. This was about getting a White House meeting. It was a demand for him to fulfill his—fulfill this particular prerequisite in order to get the meeting

Find more of Vindman’s testimony highlights here.

The House impeachment committees have just released a transcript of the deposition of Fiona Hill, a former aide to US national security adviser John Bolton, and Lt Col Alexander S Vindman’s, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council.

Previous reports of her testimony, which lasted 10 hours, said Hill claims Bolton was alarmed by the back-channel efforts to pressure Ukraine. Vindman reportedly expressed concerns in his testimony that the president and his allies were trying to enlish Ukraine into a campaign to smear political rivals.

Read Hill’s transcript here and Vindman’s here. We’re going through it now.

Here’s something to keep in mind re: Republicans and the impeachment inquiry:

An economist who has vouched for US senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren’s $20.5 trillion healthcare plan has expressed skepticism about the plan’s wealth tax revision.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told Reuters that while he agrees with the calculations behind Warren’s plan, he doesn’t believe the wealth tax will achieve the projected amount needed.

“It’s not hard to believe billionaires are going to use every resource to avoid paying the tax,” Zandi said, though he added that Warren may be able to compensate the difference through other tax measures, like a tax on corporations and employers.

At a campaign stop in North Carolina yesterday, Warren was asked to respond to criticism that her Medicare for All plan is a pipe dream. “You don’t get what you don’t fight for,” she said.

Referee says US Rep knew about sexual assault allegations against sports doctor

Picking up momentum on politics Twitter this morning: An anonymous professional referee alleged in a lawsuit filed yesterday that he told US Congressman Jim Jordan that Richard Strauss, the now-dead Ohio State University sports team physician, masturbated in front of him in a shower in 1994, NBC reported last night. Jordan replied, “Yeah, that’s Strauss,” according to the lawsuit.

More than 100 former students have accused Strauss of sexual misconduct, according to an investigation that was revealed this summer. Other ex-athletes in July accused Jordan of ignoring the alleged abuses.

Jordan, a high-ranking Republican and one of Trump’s top defenders in the impeachment inquiry, was a former assistant coach of the wrestling team at the university. Jordan has denied that he knew, and implicitly overlooked, allegations against the doctor. “I never knew about any type of abuse. If I did, I would have done something about it,” he told Politico in July.

Besides saying that he is considering going to a Russia military parade in May (!), Trump answered a bunch of other questions near the White House just moments ago ranging from Ukraine to Michael Bloomberg. Here’s some bits via pool reports:

• On Gordon Sondland: “I hardly knew the gentleman.” (Note: the gentleman donated $1 million to Trump’s campaign ahead of his inauguration)
• On the transcript of an earlier call he had with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky: “I will give it if they want it.” He added that the call was good, but releasing the transcript would set a “bad precedent”.
• On a complete rollback on tariffs against China: “I won’t do it.”
• On Bloomberg entering the Democratic primary: “He’s not going to do well, but I think he’s going to hurt Biden actually. … There’s nobody I’d rather run against than little Michael.”

“Little Michael”, huh?

The president just told pool reporters on the White House lawn that Russian president Vladimir Putin invited him to the Russian military parade in May and he is considering attending.

Trump at one point admitted that Russia helped elect him as president, though he quickly backtracked on that statement. “Russia, Russia, Russia!” he once tweeted in May in a fury Tweetstorm in the wake of the release of the special counsel’s report.

Robert Mueller said in public remarks that his investigation established that the “Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome.” It’s no wonder Putin invited him to the parade...

Ivanka Trump: Identity of whistleblower is not “substantive part of conversation”

Ivanka Trump spoke to the AP earlier this morning in her first interview since the impeachment inquiry began. She gave the usual talking points delivered by her father and his allies: Read the transcript, the impeachment investigation is an attempt to overturn the 2016 election, “Americans are prospering like never before”, etc.

But one thing she said did stick out: “I don’t view the whistleblower as... it shouldn’t be a substantive part of the conversation because this is a third-party who was not privy to the call and did not have firsthand information.”

In a stark comparison, the president and his allies have attacked the whistleblower’s anonymity. At a rally in Kentucky earlier this week, Republican senator Rand Paul told media outlets to “do your job and print his name” as Trump stood behind him, smiling and clapping.

Experts say the aggressive strategy of public attacking whistleblowers is risky and can potentially damage the whistleblower system that is meant to keep power in check.

An NBC reporter said on Twitter that the House impeachment committees are expected to release transcripts of Fiona Hill and Lt Col Alexander S Vindman’s testimonies today.

Hill, a former aide to US national security adviser John Bolton (who was a no-show himself at a schedule deposition yesterday), spoke to the committees for 10 hours last month. Reports of her testimony claim that Hill told them that her former boss was so alarmed by the back-channel efforts to pressure Ukraine, he told a senior aide to report it to White House lawyers.

Vindman, a US army lieutenant colonel and the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, reportedly expressed concerns in his testimony that the president and his allies were trying to enlist Ukraine into a campaign to smear political rivals.

Happy Friday, and welcome to the politics live blog! This busy week in the impeachment investigations is coming to a close with a sizzle. Last night, the House committees in charge of the impeachment inquiry subpoenaed acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to testify this morning at 9am. Like a handful of White House officials deposed by the committees, Mulvaney will likely be a no-show.

Mulvaney admitted during a press conference last month that he withheld $400m of aid to pressure Ukraine. Though he has walked back on his statement, officials who have already testified in front of the House impeachment committees have indicated Mulavaney withheld the aid. That the House committees subpoenaed Mulvaney hints that they are ready to take the impeachment inquiry public next week, a plan they announced Wednesday.

Here’s what else is happening in the world of politics today:

• An interview with Ivanka Trump by the AP was released this morning. The eldest Trump daughter said that while she believes the impeachment inquiry is an attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election, she said the identity of the whistleblower is “not particularly relevant”, parting ways with her father and his closest allies who have demanded the media to reveal the identity of the anonymous whistleblower.
• The Elder Trump is heading to Georgia today for a rally to kick off the Black Voices for Trump coalition after he attends a high-dollar fundraiser for a Georgia Repbulican senator.
• The House is prepared to start the process of revising the Equal Rights Amendment to allow Virginia to ratify the amendment after the state’s legislature turned blue earlier this week. An amendment needs ratification from 38 states to become a part of the Constitution. Virginia would be the 38th state to ratify the amendment, which bars discrimination on the basis of sex.