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9 OCTOBER
White House won't cooperate with impeachment investigation
The White House will block any cooperation with the US House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry, it announced Tuesday.
In a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the three House committee chairs leading the impeachment investigations, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone wrote: “Given that your inquiry lacks any legitimate constitutional foundation, any pretense of fairness, or even the most elementary due process protections, the Executive Branch cannot be expected to participate in it.”
A federal judge heard arguments Tuesday in a case deciding whether to give House Democrats access to some of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s grand jury material as impeachment investigations take place. The US Department of Justice is fighting those attempts, with its attorney suggesting during the hearing that a historic Watergate case granting Congress access to grand jury material was wrongly decided. Chief US District Judge Beryl Howell responded to that suggestion with: "Wow, OK."
NEWS WRAP
We dig it: Making a stand on rare earths
As US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross touches down in Australia for discussions on rare earths security, new USSC research by David Uren was released this week examining how the Australian government should respond to a US push for non-Chinese sources of supply. The Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald and West Australian all reported on the release today. Uren also wrote for The Australian on the topic. READ MORE HERE.
Turkey has signalled its intent to press ahead with an attack on US-backed Kurdish-led forces in north-east Syria. This is despite confusion over US policy after officials appeared to backtrack on President Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from the area. Senior Fellow Bruce Wolpe spoke with Sky News about Trump's surprise decision, which has angered some of his most loyal colleagues in the Republican Party. WATCH HERE.
- Australia has entered into formal negotiations with the United States for a bilateral agreement under the US CLOUD Act, which creates a legal framework regulating how law enforcement can access data across borders. A bilateral agreement would enable Australian law enforcement to serve domestic orders for communications data needed to combat serious crime directly on US-based companies, and vice versa. Director of the USSC's Innovation and Entrepreneurship program Claire McFarland spoke to The Guardian Australia about the potential agreement. READ MORE HERE.
- When Australian interest rates approach zero, does the RBA need to rethink monetary policy by looking to the US experience with quantitative easing? Trade and Investment Program Director Stephen Kirchner draws from his USSC research on the subject in his ABC column this week, which looks at the alternatives to lowering interest rates. READ MORE HERE.
- Despite the prolific punditry that is filling the airwaves and news columns, no one knows who is going to benefit the most from the impeachment inquiry at this stage. Lecturer in US Politics and Foreign Policy Gorana Grgic, writing for the Australian Institute of International Affairs, notes that the only certainty is that the next thirteen months are going to bring more mess and divisions within the American body politic on top of what was already poised to be a contentious election campaign. READ MORE HERE.
- The next Democratic presidential primary debate, on October 15 in Ohio, will feature a huge line-up of a dozen candidates on stage at once, party officials announced last week. The 12 presidential candidates are the most to have ever shared a single stage in a primary debate in US political history. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and billionaire former hedge fund investor Tom Steyer qualified to join the 10 candidates who appeared at last month’s debate in Houston. READ MORE HERE.
Senator Sanders was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction.
Bernie Sanders' treating physicians, Arturo E. Marchand Jr. and Arjun Gururaj, reveal the presidential hopeful suffered a heart attack last week.
(4 October 2019)
ANALYSIS
The conspiracy theorist-in-chief
Brendon O'Connor
Associate Professor in American Politics
The whistle-blower scandal reveals something essential about Donald Trump’s repeatedly questionable and idiosyncratic behaviour. It is also telling with regards to the prevalence of opinion over evidence in the internet age. The impulse to play out whether Trump will be dismissed before proper investigations have taken place reflects how impatient and hubristic we have become as we are assaulted with constant updates across our multiple devices.
For an elected politician, Trump is unusually drawn to conspiracy theories. His road to the presidency started with him being among the most prominent members of the “birther” movement, which claimed Obama was born in Kenya and that Obama’s birth certificate was a forgery. When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died, Trump asked whether he’d been suffocated because he had died face down in his pillow. Trump's willingness to repeat and possibly believe such scuttlebutt should be of great concern. One would have hoped that with access to top-rate experts and intelligence reports, the president would have relied less on alt-right internet rumours, lies and mischief to understand politics.
Trump’s phone conversation with the Ukrainian president is a strong reminder of the conspiratorial circles Trump moves in. The tabloid headlines about the Bidens are what Trump hopes will be remembered from this scandal. In our highly partisan world, untrue claims stick because that’s how tribal thinking works.
The internet has made conspiracy theories commonplace because the editorial control that traditionally blocked the spread of lies and misinformation is nowhere near as rigorous or extensive as it once was. It is not just teenage boys and the alt-right who are obsessed with conspiracy theories, it is also a significant section of the alternative left. Within the alt-left, theories about 9/11 being fabricated or an inside job, and the evils of vaccines are dangerously popular.
If the internet makes the spreading of lies easy, when it is combined with a celebrity culture where getting attention is highly valued, you have a world where saying outrageous things is a common way of communicating. This is the world Trump has long operated in: he constantly says things on Twitter and elsewhere to gain attention or to distract – “Can you believe it, Trump wants to buy Greenland”, etc.
Given Trump’s unremitting narcissism, he will relish the upcoming impeachment proceedings. The capacity of the narcissist to play the victim, no matter how much they brought the situation on themselves, should not be forgotten in the weeks ahead. Trump’s self-justification system is almost impervious to falsification, so do not expect him to admit mistakes were made or to resign.
In the weeks ahead, as impeachment proceedings are undertaken, truth and evidence will hopefully be valued by the Congress above tribalism. However, as Senate Republicans illustrated with their vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, partisanship can thwart justice being served in the face of convincing evidence. It will ultimately take a hard swing in public opinion against Trump for Republicans to find their consciences and vote to dismiss him from office.
DIARY
The week ahead
Thursday, 10 October: President Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks at a rally in Minneapolis.
Monday, 14 October: Both houses of Australian Parliament return for sittings.
Monday, 14 October: Columbus Day.
Tuesday, 15 October: Democratic primary debate at Otterbein University, Ohio.
EVENT
Mia Love on Trump, race and the future of the Republican Party
For most of America's history, race has powerfully shaped its politics. Today, race is as relevant as it has been since the Civil Rights era, perhaps the single most important political fault line in the US electorate, destined to feature prominently in the 2020 election cycle.
Charges of racism have dogged Donald Trump's presidency. Republican members of Congress have also been accused of cowardice in not supporting these criticisms of the president, of abandoning the best traditions of the Grand Old Party in favour of populism, nativism and racism.
To discuss these recent developments in American politics — and how they will figure in the 2020 campaign — the United States Studies Centre is pleased to host Mia Love, the first black Republican woman to be elected to the US Congress. She'll be joined in conversation by the ABC’s US politics analyst and presenter of Planet America John Barron and United States Studies Centre CEO Professor Simon Jackman for a discussion guided by new USSC-YouGov polling on attitudes to race and immigration in the United States and Australia.
DATE & TIME
Monday, 21 October 2019
5.30pm–7.15pm
LOCATION
Harbourside Room, Level 6, Museum of Contemporary Art, 140 George St, The Rocks
COST
$25
VIDEO
"A national nightmare is upon us": Meet the Press' Chuck Todd on Trump's request that China investigate the Bidens
THE WEEK IN TWEETS
#Syria
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Institute Building H03
University of Sydney NSW 2006
