As a note on the Democrats coming out in support of starting an official impeachment inquiry, the next few are going to be really important. Some are very scared probably, because the person who gets them to an official 118 will be a history marker and won’t be forgotten. It appears to be at 116 right now, but could be 114 (based on another count). Any Congressperson who joins at 117 or 118 will raise their profile significantly. If this comes from a swing district, it will be truly something. Hopefully the dam breaks after 118.
I’m talking about for the media, not for Congress/Pelosi (we have to wait out the recess for full impact of any of this to them). The AP did a report on the groundswell today…the AP.
Their lede was that they were nearing half of Democrats in Congress. It’s historical in that half a Caucus would be for something that should be happening but isn’t.
Is your Representative on the record for wanting to start an official impeachment inquiry yet?
Fair enough, it will influence the coverage somewhat significantly.
My current and future rep are both on the record for supporting an impeachment inquiry. My past one is not, and I could call and use my old address, but for now I’m not going to do that.
You’re talking about this in future tense. The 118th member will get press when it happens. It won’t matter after an official impeachment inquiry begins, but some people probably don’t want to be that hump person if they can avoid it.
A possible meaning behind this (take with a grain of salt) is that if an official impeachment inquiry begins before their briefs are submitted it would make the case irrelevant in the courts (or will at least turn it into a wildly different consideration).
Ben Carson kicked off of church property in Baltimore
Ben Carson, the US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary, was in Baltimore today to speak about HUD programs to help impoverished communities.
But in the wake of Trump’s racist attacks on Baltimore, Morning Star Baptist church kicked Carson off their property, where he planned to hold a press conference, reports local news station WJZ.
Gregory Evans, a member of the church, told WJZ that Carson’s representatives should have spoken to the church before cleaning up the property and setting up a press conference there. Evans said asking Carson to leave had nothing to do with him being a member of the Trump adminstration.
So even though this motion stated the materials were for an impeachment inquiry, the courts are still involved? I was told this wouldn’t happen!
At least we know the administration won’t frivolously oppose legitimate requests for evidence, so we can be sure this will all be done in a timely manner.
Two former top staffers to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have lobbied Congress and the Treasury Department on the development of a new Kentucky aluminum mill backed by the Russian aluminum giant Rusal, according to a new lobbying disclosure.
The disclosure comes as Democrats are pushing the Trump administration to review Rusal’s $200 million investment in the Kentucky project — concerned that the mill will supply the Defense Department — and as McConnell weathers criticism for helping block a congressional effort to stop the investment.
The Russian firm was only able to make the investment after it won sanctions relief from penalties the Treasury Department initially imposed in April 2018 on Rusal and other companies owned by Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch and Kremlin ally accused of facilitating Moscow’s nefarious activities, such as seizing land in Ukraine, supplying arms for the Syrian regime and meddling in other countries’ elections.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced in December that the department would lift the sanctions on Deripaska’s companies, which had roiled global aluminum markets, if the oligarch agreed to drastically reduce his stake in the businesses. The deal was reportedly potentially beneficial to Deripaska, however. Deripaska himself still remains under U.S. sanctions.
Attention over the sanctions relief deal has focused on McConnell, given his role in halting a bipartisan congressional effort to stop the penalties rollback. McConnell told reporters in May that his support for lifting the sanctions was “completely unrelated to anything that might happen in my home state.”
“A number of us supported the administration,” McConnell said. “That position ended up prevailing. I think the administration made a recommendation without political consideration. And that’s — that was how I voted — the reason I voted the way I did.”
