Month: October 2019

President Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday night that the Democrats’ investigation into the Ukraine scandal “is not an impeachment, it is a COUP” — an authoritarian rhetorical escalation that shows how unstable American politics could become as the impeachment process goes on.

Definitionally, a coup refers to the overthrow of a leader by the country’s security forces. Obviously, that’s not what’s happening here: House Democrats are initiating a legal process for removing the president enshrined in the Constitution, pretty much the opposite of an extrajudicial overthrow of a leader by military force.

By labeling impeachment a “coup,” Trump is …

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Former Dallas police officer convicted of murder; protests in Hong Kong escalate with police using live ammunition.

A jury agrees: shooting an unarmed man in his home was murder

Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/AP

• Former police officer Amber Guyger, who is white, was convicted Tuesday of murdering her unarmed black neighbor Botham Jean, when she shot him in his own home in 2018

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is pushing back against House Democrats’ effort to investigate the State Department’s involvement in the Ukraine scandal as part of their impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Last week, top House Democrats wrote to Pompeo to notify him that they had scheduled depositions of five current and former State Department officials who might have knowledge about Trump’s efforts to pressure the government of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. The depositions were scheduled to take place this week and next week.

But Pompeo, in a fiery letter to House Foreign Affairs Committee …

It’s been roughly a week since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, and the underlying Ukraine scandal keeps spiraling in new directions. Recent reports about Trump and Attorney General William Barr’s contact with leaders in Australia, Italy, and the UK have created a sense of sprawling mess, making it seem like a tough-to-follow meta-scandal akin to the Trump-Russia morass.

But despite the new developments — which involve Trump and Barr attempting to enlist foreign leaders’ help in investigating the origins of the Trump-Russia probe — the scandal remains straightforward.

President Trump has turned …

Last week saw some of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s best polling since she first entered the race for president. It wasn’t just because of who she surpassed in a handful of polls (former Vice President Joe Biden) but also where she surpassed him: the key early states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

A slew of recent polls, like the Des Moines Register/CNN poll in Iowa, the Monmouth University/USA Today poll in New Hampshire, and a national Quinnipiac University poll show Warren settling into frontrunner status along with Biden (while the polls show Warren gaining, Biden hasn’t lost much ground with his …

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California college athletes set to receive money from endorsements; mass demonstrations in Moscow advocate the release of protesters.

California vs. the NCAA

Jonathan Devich/Getty Images

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed Senate Bill 206, a measure that would allow college athletes to profit from endorsement deals by 2023 — the latest shift in a long and contentious national debate over paying college athletes.