Day: November 16, 2019

Former President Barack Obama has studiously avoided commenting on the Democratic presidential primary, but on Friday, before a crowd of wealthy liberal donors in Washington, he finally weighed in. His message? Don’t move too far to the left.

“This is still a country that is less revolutionary than it is interested in improvement,” he said at the annual meeting of the Democracy Alliance. “The average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.”

Obama’s remarks come at a time when the primary’s central dynamic is a clash over whether the best way forward …

David Holmes, a Kyiv-based State Department aide, told the House lawmakers leading the impeachment inquiry that he overheard a July call between President Donald Trump and Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland in which they discussed their efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Holmes’s opening statement — part of a closed-door testimony — was first obtained by CNN on Friday. It provides new firsthand information about Trump’s role in pressuring Ukraine, and also further highlights the key role Sondland, a former hotel magnate and Trump donor, has played in advancing Trump’s Ukraine agenda.…

Louisiana is the last of three states to hold its gubernatorial election this year and the stakes are significant: This race could ultimately determine whether the lone Democrat in the Deep South is able to hang onto his seat.

The contest is also an increasingly close one. Incumbent Gov. John Bel Edwards faces a serious challenge from Republican businessman Eddie Rispone, who’s attempted to tie himself tightly with Trump during the campaign. In the week ahead of the election, polling had the two candidates nearly tied, and Cook Political Report has classified the race as a “toss-up.”

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Republicans’ recent loss in the Kentucky governor’s race didn’t reflect well on the president, but the real proving ground of President Donald Trump’s influence might just be the upcoming race in Louisiana this weekend.

The southern state is the third and final one to vote on its governor this November, and it’s the latest one where the Republican candidate has tied himself closely to the president. Republican challenger Eddie Rispone is taking on incumbent Gov. John Bel Edwards, the rare Democratic state executive in the Deep South, and he’s leaning heavily on Trump to do so.

Edwards first won the …

Everything’s coming up Milhouse! After many websites across the entirety of this great internet of ours — including the one you are reading right now — complained about Disney+ displaying the first 19 and a half seasons of The Simpsons in an aspect ratio that cut out much of the visual information and many of the show’s funniest gags, the service has announced it is adding the episodes in their original aspect ratio.

The change will take place in “early 2020,” according to a statement from Disney.

Here’s what else Disney had to say:

We presented “The Simpsons” in 16:9

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Three witnesses, almost 12 hours of testimony

• The impeachment inquiry moved squarely into the public eye this week with the first open hearings, featuring testimony from State Department officials Bill Taylor, George Kent, and Marie Yovanovitch. [CNBC / Kevin Breuninger]
• In his testimony alongside Kent on Wednesday, Taylor furnished one big new piece of information: a phone call on July 26

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