|
Capital Journal
|
Good morning from the WSJ Washington Bureau.
|
|
|
Trump's Day: The transcript of President Trump's call with Ukraine's president is due out today. Meanwhile, at the United Nations, Mr. Trump meets with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and has a visit scheduled with the president of El Salvador. Mr. Trump holds a press conference at 4 p.m. More below.
Congress: House Democrats plan to vote on a resolution condemning Mr. Trump for not yet releasing the whistleblower complaint against him.
U.S.-China Rift: China's foreign minister warned that the decoupling of the world’s two largest economies would have disastrous results, as the two countries remain at an impasse in a more than yearlong trade war.
|
|
|
|
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would move ahead with an “official” impeachment effort after reports that President Trump withheld aid to Ukraine while he was pressing the country to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Natalie Andrews and Andrew Duehren report. The move is a culmination of a nearly yearlong debate among Democrats about how hard to push for Mr. Trump’s impeachment.
The White House is set to release a transcript of a July phone call between President Trump and Ukraine’s leader today and is preparing to turn over the whistleblower complaint to Congress by the end of the week, a person familiar with the matter said.
-
Mr. Trump, tweeting from his home in Trump Tower in New York City after his appearance at the United Nations, called the inquiry “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!”
|
|
What had started as a fringe idea within the party became a mainstream demand with remarkable speed. Mrs. Pelosi knows the political risks of launching an impeachment inquiry, but her ability to resist the impeachment urge collapsed within a matter of hours, Jerry Seib writes.
|
|
The impeachment inquiry has cast a spotlight on Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence. Mrs. Pelosi told Mr. Maguire to turn over the full whistleblower complaint by Thursday. “He will have to choose whether to break the law or honor his responsibility to the Constitution,” Mrs. Pelosi said, Warren P. Strobel and Dustin Volz report.
|
|
|
|
Why Pelosi Announced an Impeachment Inquiry
|
|
|
|
New pressures pushed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to start a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump after resisting such an investigation for months.
|
|
|
Photo: Associated Press
|
|
|
|
Legislative Agenda Makes Way for Impeachment
|
|
|
|
The beginning of a formal impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives is threatening to derail the passage of legislation this fall.
Congress returned to Washington earlier this month with an ambitious fall agenda: ratify the Trump administration’s revised trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, advance a bill lowering the price of prescription drugs, and reach an agreement on new regulations for gun sales and ownership in the U.S. On top of all that, of course, looms the necessary task of funding the federal government and avoiding yet another shutdown.
But with fury about President Trump’s efforts to pressure the Ukranian president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden now swelling into a formal impeachment inquiry in the House, both Democrats and Republicans are pessimistic about bipartisan compromise in the coming weeks.
A call between Mr. Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday morning was initially focused on gun legislation but later transitioned to a conversation about the whistleblower complaint that at least in part is about Mr. Trump’s approach to Ukraine, according to a Democratic aide.
Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, released a statement Tuesday night saying that the beginning of an impeachment inquiry “destroyed any chances of legislative progress for the people of this country by continuing to focus all their energy on partisan political attacks.”
Democrats who had been working with the administration on legislation before revelations about Mr. Trump’s request to Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, said that has since changed.
“I think some other issues have gotten in the way of our background check negotiations,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.), who has been working with the White House on possible gun legislation, said on Monday. “I mean, I'd be pleasantly surprised if I hear from the White House. But my feeling is they don't have a lot of room to move legislative business.”
Eric Ueland, the White House legislative affairs director, attended a lunch meeting with Senate Republicans on Tuesday and said the administration hopes to still make progress on gun legislation.
“We’re focused on the day job, which is delivering results up here on the Hill on behalf of the president and his agenda and his direction,” he said. “We’re hopeful that Congress will be responsive in kind.”
The Senate is set to pass a short-term funding measure this week to stave off a government shutdown at the end of the month, and Mr. Trump is expected to sign it. But funding will run out again on Nov. 21, and Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R., Ala.) said an impeachment battle could further complicate the negotiations.
“I think it would have an impact on taking oxygen out of the air,” he said.
Write to Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com
|
|
|
|
At the United Nations Tuesday, President Trump called upon all nations to respect American sovereignty and the right of the U.S. to protect itself, as he confronts a trade dispute with China and seeks to cobble together a global coalition to negotiate a new agreement with Iran that goes beyond nuclear matters, Vivian Salama reports.
|
|
Military drones are now common to nearly 100 nations, a report by the Center for the Study of the Drone finds, and drone operations are becoming deeply embedded in armed forces world-wide in ways that are changing global security, reports Warren P. Strobel.
|
|
France's Emmanuel Macron mounted an intensive effort Tuesday to broker a meeting between Mr. Trump and Iran's president, but the attempt failed when the Iranian side insisted the U.S. first commit to easing sanctions, report Laurence Norman and Michael R. Gordon.
|
|
|
|
China is tapping the private sector to aquire foreign intelligence for its military, raising U.S. alarms, according to U.S. officials and a report from the nonprofit C4ADS.
|
|
From reporter Kate O’Keeffe:
The People’s Liberation Army has struggled to make better use of China’s private-sector firms for a while. This time is different, though, U.S. officials fear. It’s not just because China’s President Xi Jinping is a more aggressive leader—it’s also because of the nature of modern technology. For example, firms specializing in artificial intelligence will naturally produce tools with both military and civilian applications.
|
|
|
The U.S. has charged a Chinese government official in an alleged visa scheme to recruit U.S. science talent, report Aruna Viswanatha and Kate O’Keeffe. Zhongsan Liu and his allies targeted at least seven universities to sponsor visas for purported Chinese research scholars, and succeeded at least once, the Justice Department complaint says.
|
|
|
|
Former lobbyists Tony Podesta, a Democrat, and Vin Weber, a Republican, won’t be prosecuted for not registering as foreign agents for Ukraine, report Aruna Viswanatha, Brody Mullins and Rebecca Davis O’Brien, marking a quiet end to the inquiry that led to the conviction of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his longtime deputy.
-
The decision is the latest setback for the Justice Department’s efforts to crack down on unregistered foreign agents.
|
|
|
|
Sen. Sanders campaigned at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill on Thursday. PHOTO: PRESTON EHRLER/ZUMA PRESS
|
|
|
Bernie Sanders proposed an annual wealth tax topping out at 8% for the richest Americans, offering the largest Democratic plan to pay for expanded government programs and break up concentrated fortunes.
|
|
From reporter Richard Rubin:
Bernie Sanders saw Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax -- and then he raised it. Mr. Sanders' new tax proposal on Tuesday looks just like Ms. Warren's January plan. It has a large exemption that limits the tax to a tiny sliver of the population. It has the broad base of all net worth, an exit tax to prevent people from escaping the U.S. to escape the tax and money to beef up IRS audits of the super-rich. But where Ms. Warren tops out at a 3% tax each year, Mr. Sanders keeps going, all the way up to 8% on wealth above $10 billion, high enough so some of those fortunes would start shrinking. The result: Mr. Sanders's tax generates more than $1.50 for every dollar Ms. Warren's does.
|
|
|
|
•
|
Elizabeth Warren's campaign plans a $10 million television and digital ad buy in the four early voting states. (Full story)
|
•
|
What benefits or drawbacks do you see the Sanders's wealth tax proposal? (Weigh in)
|
•
|
Who's running for president? (Graphic)
|
|
|
|
|
-
President Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, supplanted national-security officials and led a months-long campaign to pressure Ukraine before military aid was withheld and Mr. Trump urged the new Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden. (Washington Post)
-
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is placing a high-stakes bet that the president's attempt to pressure a foreign leader to help him politically is the last straw for many Americans with doubts about Mr. Trump. (National Journal)
-
A non-aggression pact between Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders can't last. (Salon)
|
|
|
This newsletter is a production of the WSJ Washington bureau. Our newsletter editors are Tim Hanrahan, Kate Milani, Troy McCullough and Daniel Nasaw. Send feedback to capitaljournal@wsj.com. You can follow politics coverage on our Politics page and at @wsjpolitics on Twitter.
|
|