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Sam Levin in Los Angeles (now) and Joanna Walters in New York (earlier)

Barr defends Trump as report clears FBI of illegal surveillance – as it happened

Live political reporting continues on Tuesday’s blog:

Summary

That’s all for today, thanks for following along during this newsy start to the week. Some links and key events:

The attorney general, William Barr, is still planning to host a major holiday party at the Trump international hotel in Washington, a justice department spokesperson confirmed today to the Washington Post. The event was originally supposed to happen over the weekend, but has been rescheduled, though the DOJ has declined to say when it is happening.

Barr signed a contract with the hotel that required a minimum of $31,500 in spending and he already put down a $10,000 deposit, according to the Post.

Barr is reportedly paying for the party himself. But his choice of venue has still raised ethical questions, considering that Trump is still profiting from his businesses while president.

Here’s Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer today on the justice department’s inspector general report and the president’s “deep state” conspiracy theories:

More from Schumer:

Let me repeat so that all of those conspiracy theorists out there hear it: this report confirms that the predicate for the FBI’s investigation was valid and without political bias. In fact, the report quotes the FBI Deputy General Counsel as saying “[the FBI] would have been derelict in our responsibility had we not opened the case”.

I’m sure my Republican friends will do their level best to reject the report’s conclusion. But FBI Director Wray appointed by President Trump, has already embraced the central finding of the report. Asked whether he thought the FBI unfairly targeted the Trump campaign, Director Wray said “I do not.”

His full statement is here.

In non-Trump news, there are more details out today about congressman Duncan Hunter, who recently pleaded guilty to corruption charges related to his misuse of campaign funds.

The Republican from California used those funds to pay for video games, vacation, groceries and flights for a pet rabbit, according to an ethics committee report released earlier.

Hunter and his wife were indicted last year, and the congressman recently announced his plans last week to resign after the holidays. From today’s committee report, via CNN:

Rep Hunter and his wife repeatedly used campaign committee funds for flight costs with no clear campaign nexus, including the cost of flying a pet rabbit ... In 2014 and 2015, Rep Hunter’s campaign committee spent $625.00 on five separate $125.00 ‘pet in cabin’ United Airlines charges to fly a pet rabbit.”

Updated

Today’s hearing has just come to and. Here’s an excerpt from congressman Jerry Nadler’s closing remarks:

We know that president Trump has put himself before his country. I am struck by the fact that my Republican colleagues have offered no serious scrutiny of the evidence at hand. They have talked about everything else, but they have offered not one substantive word in the president’s defense. I suspect that is because there is at base, no real defense for the president’s actions.”

Some other highlights from the day:

Updated

Calls for hearing on war in Afghanistan

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a member of the armed services committee, has called for a hearing on Afghanistan, following the Washington Post’s major investigative report today revealing that senior US officials repeatedly failed to tell the truth about the war and hid evidence that the war was un-winnable:

The Post’s reporting was based on thousands of pages of unpublished notes of interviews with people directly involved in the war, including generals, diplomats, aid workers and Afghan officials.

Next year America faces an epic choice ... and the results could define the country for a generation.

A message from Guardian US editor-in-chief:

These are perilous times. Over the last three years, much of what the Guardian holds dear has been threatened – democracy, civility, truth. This US administration is establishing new norms of behaviour. Anger and cruelty disfigure public discourse and lying is commonplace. Truth is being chased away.

In the coming year, many vital aspects of American public life are in play – the supreme court, abortion rights, climate policy, wealth inequality, Big Tech and much more. The stakes could hardly be higher – and the need for a robust, independent press has never been greater.

As 2020 approaches, we’re asking our US readers to help us raise $1.5m by early January to support our journalism. We hope you’ll consider making a year-end gift.

We also want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported the Guardian in 2019. You provide us with the motivation and financial support to keep doing what we do.

Make a contribution.

The White House has officially confirmed to reporters that Trump is meeting with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, tomorrow, along with Mike Pompeo “to discuss the state of the bilateral relationship”:

Some context:

If you’ve tuned away from the hearings this afternoon, it’s worth watching this clip of Congressman Eric Swalwell, who summarized the key framework of impeachment in these five minutes:

The White House is backing bipartisan legislation aimed at curbing rising healthcare costs, including taking steps to restrict “surprise” medical bills in the emergency room. The AP reports:

House and Senate participants said the measure would establish a system of arbitration aimed at resolving disputes over surprise bills, which can occur when patients are unwittingly treated by providers from outside their insurance networks.

It would also raise the federal minimum age for buying tobacco products to 21 from its current 18. It would provide $20bn over five years to finance community health centers, which provide medical care to millions of lower-earning people in thousands of towns, and take steps toward limiting the growth of prescription drug prices.

In a written statement, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said the measure represents “months of delicate work” and expressed hope that Congress would approve it this year.

Hospital groups have opposed the bill:

Some more background here:

Updated

Hello – Sam Levin in Los Angeles here, taking over our live coverage for the rest of this busy Monday.

Pete Buttigieg’s campaign has confirmed that it plans to “soon” release a list of clients the Democratic candidate served while her worked for McKinsey from 2007 to 2010. The South Bend mayor has faced intensifying pressure in recent days to disclose details of his work history, especially following revelations about McKinsey’s work with the Trump administration.

Earlier today, McKinsey confirmed that it has authorized Buttigieg to release information about his clients. Here’s his senior advisor:

Updated

Late afternoon summary

The impeachment hearing is still going and there’s more of everything coming up in the next few hours. East coast handing blog to the west coast now, and my colleague in Los Angeles, Sam Levin.

Here’s what’s happened this afternoon

  • The FBI director, Christopher Wray, has given an interview where he accepts the findings of the Department of Justice internal watchdog that the agency was justified and legitimate in its launch of an investigation into the Trump election campaign’s dealings with Russia during the 2016 election.
  • The UN security council will meet tomorrow over rising tensions between the US and North Korea. The meeting is at the request of the US.
  • The new US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade deal is oh so close.
  • Management consulting kingpin McKinsey will allow 2020 Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg to disclose which clients he served when working for McKinsey from 2007 to 2010.

Updated

FBI boss dismisses talk of deep state

The FBI director, Christopher Wray, tells ABC the idea that there’s a secret, underground liberal deep state organization with the US intelligence community, working to undermine Donald Trump, is an affront to the agency.

Updated

White House reax to IG report – Grisham

The White House passes this along from the press secretary, Stephanie Grisham:

The shocking report from the DOJ Inspector General shows an out-of-control FBI under President Obama and former Director Jim Comey.

The report makes clear that the phony Steele Dossier was “central and essential” for the FBI to secure wiretaps from the FISA Court to spy on the Trump campaign.

But the FBI repeatedly lied to the FISA Court to make Steele seem credible and to hide information showing that the Dossier was false.

The Dossier was bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee – but that fact was hidden from the FISA Court.

Astoundingly, when evidence was repeatedly uncovered showing no wrongdoing by candidate Trump, that also was hidden from the FISA Court. On top of all that, one FBI lawyer altered an email in an effort to continue and extend the wiretapping – and he has been referred for criminal prosecution.

All of this shows a repeated effort to mislead the FISA Court long after the FBI was aware the “Dossier” was false, phony and could not be used justify spying on the Trump Campaign.

The American people should be outraged and terrified by this abuse of power. This should never happen to another presidential candidate or any American ever again.”

Updated

Buttigieg may disclose McKinsey clients

Democratic 2020 election candidate Pete Buttigieg has been given the green light by consulting giant McKinsey to disclose the clients he worked for while he was at McKinsey in the not-too-distant past.

As the Guardian wrote just last week: Secrecy surrounds much of the work of McKinsey, seen by many as the gold standard in management consulting. While it has worked with Fortune 500 companies, it has also been accused by the Massachusetts attorney general of fanning the flames of the opioid epidemic by advising Purdue Pharma on how to “turbocharge” sales of the drug, and it has worked to expand the influence of authoritarian regimes such as Russia and Saudi Arabia. In his book The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business, Duff McDonald wrote that McKinsey “may be the single greatest legitimizer of mass layoffs”.

Buttigieg’s time at the firm warrants greater scrutiny and transparency, no doubt about it.

Whiter than white: Pete Buttigieg, in his trademark campaign trail look of crisp white shirt, campaigns at the private liberal arts school Grinnell College in Iowa last Friday
Whiter than white: Pete Buttigieg, in his trademark campaign trail look of crisp white shirt, campaigns at the private liberal arts school Grinnell College in Iowa last Friday Photograph: Preston Ehrler/Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media

Next year America faces an epic choice ... and the results could define the country for a generation.

A message from Guardian US editor-in-chief:

These are perilous times. Over the last three years, much of what the Guardian holds dear has been threatened – democracy, civility, truth. This US administration is establishing new norms of behaviour. Anger and cruelty disfigure public discourse and lying is commonplace. Truth is being chased away.

In the coming year, many vital aspects of American public life are in play – the supreme court, abortion rights, climate policy, wealth inequality, Big Tech and much more. The stakes could hardly be higher – and the need for a robust, independent press has never been greater.

As 2020 approaches, we’re asking our US readers to help us raise $1.5m by early January to support our journalism. We hope you’ll consider making a year-end gift.

We also want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported the Guardian in 2019. You provide us with the motivation and financial support to keep doing what we do.

Make a contribution.

Lighthizer and Kushner head for talks

USMCA draws near. The US trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, and Jared Kushner, senior adviser to his father-in-law Potus, are off to Mexico tomorrow to try to get the new US-Mexico-Canada trade deal in the bag.

Updated

Comey on again off again Fox

Former FBI director James Comey, ahoy. Comey was fired by Donald Trump in 2017, (over “this Russia thing”), triggering the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to carry on with the Trump-Russia investigation.

After the US Department of Justice watchdog report today concluded that the FBI was right to start the investigation into the Trump election campaign’s dealings with Russian operatives in 2016, Comey hopped onto Twitter this afternoon.

A little earlier he wrote:

Updated

Noises off

US attorney general Bill Barr said of his DoJ’s watchdog report, which officially found that the FBI was justified in kicking off the Trump-Russia investigation in 2016:

“The Inspector General’s report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a US presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken,” Barr said.

He added that “the evidence produced by the investigation was consistently exculpatory”.

Ever since the Mueller report that concluded the Trump-Russia investigation, Barr has been a fierce protector of Donald Trump, which infuriates critics who point out that Barr appears to act less like the independent AG at times and more like Trump’s personal defense lawyer.

And, in a day of crossover business on Capitol Hill

Updated

Tentative agreement over USMCA

House Democrats have reached a tentative agreement with labor leaders and the White House over a rewrite of the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal that has been a top priority for Donald Trump, the AP writes.

“I’m hearing very good things, including from unions and others that it’s looking good. I hope they put it up to a vote, and if they put it up to a vote, it’s going to pass,” Trump said this afternoon. “I’m hearing a lot of strides have been made over the last 24 hours, with unions and others.”

The tentative accord was revealed by a Democratic aide not authorized to discuss the talks and granted anonymity because the agreement is not official.

Details still need to be finalized and the US trade representative will need to submit the implementing legislation to Congress. No vote has been scheduled.

The new, long-sought trade agreement with Mexico and Canada would give both Trump and his top adversary, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a major accomplishment despite the turmoil of his likely impeachment.

An announcement could come as early as today. Pelosi still has to officially sign off on the accord, aides said.

The new trade pact would replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which eliminated most tariffs and other trade barriers involving the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Avocados
Avocados. Photograph: Getty Images

Updated

UN to meet over North Korean escalation

The UN security council will meet publicly on Wednesday over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, diplomats said today.

The meeting has been requested by the United States. A US state department official earlier said Washington wanted the 15-member council to discuss North Korea’s missile launches and the possibility of an “escalatory” provocation by Pyongyang.

The whirlwind bromance between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un is definitely over.

Tensions are rising and they are veiled (or sometimes not so veiled) insults and threats are flying between the leaders again.

North Korea has recently given the US until the end of the year to come up with some offer to the hermit nation to break the deadlock over nuclear talks and sanctions, but pretty quickly on the heels of that, came an ominous assurance at the weekend that “denuclearization is already off the negotiating table with the US and lengthy talks with Washington are not needed.”

The Guardian has warned of a “brewing nuclear crisis”.

All downhill since June
All downhill since June. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Updated

US officials misled the public over war in Afghanistan

In case you missed it, the blog must draw your attention to the Washington Post’s exclusive, years-long investigation into the conflict in Afghanistan, showing presidents repeatedly hiding what they knew about how un-winnable the war was.

AOC has tweeted it out, btw.

Wray raps own knuckles over IG report

A justice department inspector general report on the early days of the Trump-Russia investigation identified problems that are “unacceptable and unrepresentative of who we are as an institution”, the FBI director, Christopher Wra,y said today, in detailing changes the bureau plans to make in response.

Wray said the FBI had cooperated fully with the inspector general, which concluded in its report released earlier today that the investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia was legitimate but also cited serious flaws. Wray accepts all its recommendations, he said in an interview with the Associated Press.

Wray said the FBI would make changes to how it handles confidential informants, how it applies for search warrants from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and how it conducts briefings on foreign influence for presidential nominees.

He also promised changes in how it structures sensitive investigations like the 2016 Trump-Russia probe - and he has also reinstated ethics training.

“I am very committed to the FBI being agile in its tackling of foreign threats,” Wray said. “But I believe you can be agile and still scrupulously follow our rules, policies and processes.”

He emphasized that the DoJ watchdog, Michael Horowitz, found the investigation justified and did not find it to be tainted by political bias. It noted some errors, however, and the appearance of bias from some.

Wray added: “The American people rightly expect that the FBI, when it acts to protect the country, is going to do it right each time, every time.”

Wray declined to say if there was one problem or criticism that he found most troubling, but noted: “As a general matter, there are a number of things in the report that in my view are unacceptable and unrepresentative of who we are as an institution. This is a serious report.”

Updated

Battle for voting rights cranks up

Georgia rising star Democrat and voting rights champion Stacey Abrams and the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) announced a new effort today to focus on crucial voting rights battles at the state level.

The DGA and Abrams announced the new project, called Every State, Every Vote in a call this morning.

The new organizational body will serve as a centralized place to support the nation’s Democratic governors in the country as they work on voting rights issues.

The program underscores the important role that state lawmakers and governors play in shaping voting rights policy. Democrats are particularly invested in winning governors’ mansions and state legislative seats in 2020 because lawmakers will redraw electoral districts for the next decade in 2021.

Republicans dominated state contests during the last round of redistricting in 2010 and Democrats have already invested significantly in ensuring that does not happen again.

“The battles over fair representation and voting rights are waged at the state level and will be won or lost in the governor’s office,” the DGA said in a description of the new effort. “Every State, Every Vote will amplify how Democratic governors are the strongest tool in protecting our democratic process overall.”

The initiative will be led by Oregon’s governor, Kate Brown, and Abrams, who lost Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial race. Voting rights became a flashpoint in Abrams’ race. Since then, she started Fair Fight Georgia, a new group focused on combating voter suppression.

Stacey Abrams
Stacey Abrams Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images

Updated

US-Mexico-Canada trade deal on the horizon

The US Senate finance committee chairman, Charles Grassley, has discussed alterations to the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade deal with US trade representative Robert Lighthizer today, and hopes that a deal can be announced soon, a Grassley spokesman said, the AP writes.

The spokesman offered no further details about the conversation, which came amid increasing signs the Trump administration, Mexico and Democrats in the House of Representatives are nearing an agreement for changes that can allow the rewritten North American trade pact to proceed to a ratification vote in the US Congress.

When Trump and the leaders of Canada and Mexico signed a deal rewriting the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) a year ago, it faced an uncertain passage through the US Congress.

Trump warned at the weekend that without quick action, the USMCA could collapse.

“We’re getting close, I’m confident,” Jésus Seade, the deputy foreign minister for North America, told reporters outside the US trade representative’s office on Saturday.

Mexico approved the USMCA this year but US ratification has been held up by Democrats who have voiced concerns over the enforcement of labor and environmental provisions.

Updated

'The direct evidence is very damning'

The impeachment hearing just took a 15-minute break. Immediately prior, California Democrat Zoe Lofgren said the direct evidence against Donald Trump in his dealings with Ukraine “is very damning.”

“And the president has offered no evidence to the contrary,” she said, adding: “If he had evidence of his innocence why would he not bring it forward?”

Lofgren also said she had been discussing the impeachment process with her Texas colleague and fellow judiciary committee member Shiela Jackson Lee.

“We’ve been hearing over and over that it [the impeachment inquiry] is too fast,” she said. Then she pointed out that the impeachment process for Bill Clinton lasted 73 days, while the Trump impeachment process “is already on the 76th day”.

Have hearing, need coffee. California Democrat Zoe Lofgren arriving on Capitol Hill earlier today for the impeachment hearing
Have hearing, need coffee. California Democrat Zoe Lofgren arriving on Capitol Hill earlier today for the impeachment hearing Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP

Updated

Next year America faces an epic choice ... and the results could define the country for a generation.

A message from Guardian US editor-in-chief:

These are perilous times. Over the last three years, much of what the Guardian holds dear has been threatened – democracy, civility, truth. This US administration is establishing new norms of behaviour. Anger and cruelty disfigure public discourse and lying is commonplace. Truth is being chased away.

In the coming year, many vital aspects of American public life are in play – the supreme court, abortion rights, climate policy, wealth inequality, Big Tech and much more. The stakes could hardly be higher – and the need for a robust, independent press has never been greater.

As 2020 approaches, we’re asking our US readers to help us raise $1.5m by early January to support our journalism. We hope you’ll consider making a year-end gift.

We also want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported the Guardian in 2019. You provide us with the motivation and financial support to keep doing what we do.

Make a contribution.

Updated

Afternoon summary

We promised a manic Monday. So it has been and will continue. Don’t go away.

So far today:

  • A protester linked to Infowars disrupted the start of the latest hearing in the impeachment inquiry. The House judiciary committee this week begins the stage of moving from an inquiry to drawing up articles of impeachment against Donald Trump on the basis that he has abused his power in his dealings with Ukraine. There should be a vote to impeach from the House before Christmas.
  • News came through that the former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker has died. He tackled galloping inflation in the eighties.
  • Trump will reportedly meet Russia’s foreign minister in Washington tomorrow.
  • An opinion poll put Trump ahead of Democratic rival Joe Biden in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, three key states in the 2020 election.
  • Trump poses “imminent threat” to US national security because of his dealings with Ukraine and how he’s handling the fallout, the impeachment inquiry heard from the Democrats’ congressional counsel.
  • The Department of Justice internal watchdog found that the FBI was justified in opening the Trump-Russia investigation into collusion between Trump’s election campaign and Russian operatives in 2016, outweighing sloppy errors along the way.

Updated

It’s definitely not a good day for the FBI

But it could have been so, so much worse. A loose ship is not the same as the mythical Deep State (the theory of which one of its most ardent promoters or yore, Steve Bannon, says is “for nutcases”).

Here’s foxy Chris Wallace’s take:

Relevance of Steele dossier resurfaces

The DoJ inspector general has found that a dossier of research compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele into Donald Trump’s dealings in Russia during the 2016 election “did not lead” to the opening of the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign, aka the Trump Russia investigation.

To go back in time, it was the late US Republican senator for Arizona John McCain who passed documents to then FBI director James Comey in January 2017 alleging secret contacts between the Trump campaign and Moscow - and that Russian intelligence had personally compromising material on the Trump himself. Trump was president-elect at the time, about to be inaugurated.

The material, was seen by the Guardian at the time, was a series of reports on Trump’s relationship with Moscow by Steele, who at that point was working as a private consultant.

At the time, BuzzFeed published the documents, which it said were “unverified and potentially unverifiable”.

A spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin at the time denied Russia had collected compromising information on Trump and dismissed news reports as a “complete fabrication and utter nonsense”.

One report, dated June 2016, claims that the Kremlin has been cultivating, supporting and assisting Trump for at least five years, with the aim of encouraging “splits and divisions in western alliance”.

The material claimed that Trump had declined “various sweetener real estate deals offered him in Russia” and, most explosively, the report alleged: “FSB [today’s equivalent of the Soviet KGB] has compromised Trump through his activities in Moscow sufficiently to be able to blackmail him.”

Christopher Steele in 2017
Christopher Steele in 2017. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

Updated

Ivanka Trump was pals with Steele

In the Department of Justice internal watchdog’s report today examining the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, the inspector general finds that the FBI had a “reasonable basis” to use information provided on Donald Trump’s dealings with Russia by British former spy Christopher Steele.

He was the author of an infamous “dossier”, of which a reminder in a moment. But meanwhile, hold onto your pearls, folks, coz he knew Ivanka.

There’s reference in today’s report that a Trump “family member” had a friendship with Steele, and ABC now reports that that family member was the president’s elder daughter and advisor, Ivanka Trump. Awkward!

Driven....on the taxpayer’s dime. Ivanka Trump working last month
Ivanka Trump working last month. Photograph: Bob Daemmrich/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

FBI not squeaky clean but in the clear

After quick fire posts, here’s a wrap on the DoJ watchdog report into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. Meanwhile, the impeachment hearing on Capitol Hill into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine is ongoing.

The US justice department’s internal watchdog said it found numerous errors but no evidence of political bias by the FBI when it opened an investigation into contacts between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia in 2016, Reuters writes.

The report by the inspector general, Michael Horowitz, was likely to give ammunition to both Trump’s supporters and his Democratic critics in the ongoing debate about the legitimacy of an investigation that shadowed the first two years of his presidency.

Horowitz found that the FBI had a legal “authorized purpose” to ask for court approval to begin surveillance of Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser in 2016.

But Horowitz also found a total of 17 “basic and fundamental” errors and omissions in the original application and all subsequent renewals to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) (by agents seeking search warrants). Those errors made the case appear stronger than it was, Horowitz said.

In particular, the report singled out an FBI lawyer who altered an email contained in a renewal of the application which claimed that Page was “not a source” to another US government agency.

In truth, Page served as an “operational contact” to another agency, which was not named in the report.

The FBI investigation, launched in the summer of 2016 ahead of the November election pitting Trump against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, was taken over in May 2017 by Robert Mueller after Trump fired FBI director James Comey.

Mueller’s 22-month special counsel investigation detailed a Russian campaign of hacking and propaganda to sow discord in the United States, harm Clinton and boost Trump.

Mueller documented numerous contacts between Trump campaign figures and Moscow but found insufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy. He did not exonerate the president, however, and his report also documents attempts to obstruct the investigation.

The FBI director, Christopher Wray, has today agreed with all of the inspector general’s findings. The attorney general, William Barr, says he has confidence in Wray.

The Justice Department building on a foggy morning in Washington today
The Justice Department building on a foggy morning in Washington today Photograph: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Updated

FBI director accepts watchdog findings

The FBI director, Christopher Wray, says he accepts the DoJ watchdog’s findings (essentially that the FBI was justified in investigating Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign over evidence of improper links with Russian operatives, but that the FBI was sloppy in some of its execution).

The attorney general, William Barr, says he has full confidence in Wray.

Watchdog Michael Horowitz found no evidence of political bias in the FBI’s original opening of the Russia investigation, which happened in secret during the election campaign in 2016. It was only later that it was taken over by Robert Mueller, after freshly inaugurated president Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey.

Tastes okay. FBI Christopher Wray at a hearing on Capitol Hill last month. The reputation of the FBI was on the line with the oversight of the Trump-Russia investigation by the DoJ watchdog. It has emerged bruised but intact.
Christopher Wray at a hearing on Capitol Hill last month. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Updated

Attorney general slams Trump-Russia investigation

The US attorney general, William Barr, says the report of DoJ inspector general, Michael Horowitz, shows that the “FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a US presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions”.

Bill Barr in Washington earlier this month
Bill Barr in Washington earlier this month Photograph: Loren Elliott/Reuters

Updated

The US justice epartment’s inspector general has found that an FBI investigation into advisers to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign was opened on a legitimate and properly authorized basis.

The department’s watchdog further found, in his oversight of the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, that political bias on the part of FBI employees did not influence the agency’s decision to open its investigation – an investigation that eventually led to Robert Mueller’s examination of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Updated

DoJ inspector general clears FBI of illegal surveillance

The justice department watchdog Michael Horowitz’s report is out. It concludes that the FBI had a legal, “authorized purpose” in monitoring communications of Trump election campaign adviser Carter Page, Reuters writes.

More details imminently.

Updated

Another Bush running for office

As the impeachment hearing descends once again into procedural squabbling, let’s not that Pierce Bush, the grandson of former president George HW Bush, has announced his candidacy for a congressional seat in Texas, becoming the latest member of his famous Republican family to enter politics.

But his first run for office won’t be easy, the AP writes. Bush joins one of the nation’s most crowded congressional races of 2020 in his bid to replace the Republican congressman Pete Olson, who is retiring from his suburban Houston district that Democrats nearly flipped last year and are aggressively targeting again.

Pierce Bush’s announcement video, rolled out on the deadline in Texas for candidates to get on the 2020 ballot, includes an image of him speaking next to a picture of his late grandfather, who died last year.

“We face a very challenging time in our nation,” Bush says, adding that the country is “on the brink of losing a generation to an idea that socialism and free stuff are the answers to their future. But we all know that socialism has failed everywhere and everyone.”

His candidacy opens a new test for the Bush name in the Trump era. Other Republican candidates in the field have expressed unwavering support for Donald Trump, who has clashed with the Bush family that for decades defined the GOP establishment.

George HW Bush voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and President George W. Bush didn’t vote for either one of them.

The only Bush currently in public office, the Texas land commissioner, George P Bush, broke with his family in 2016 and supported Trump. During a visit to Texas earlier this year, Trump introduced George P Bush, who is the son of the former Florida governor Jeb Bush, as “the only Bush that likes me”.

Pierce Bush, whose father is Neil Bush, has spent the past three years as chief executive of the not-for-profit Big Brothers Big Sisters in Texas.

Updated

Goldman: Trump 'undermined national security' in dealings with Ukraine

House judiciary chairman Jerry Nadler asked Democratic congressional counsel Daniel Goldman if Trump “undermined national security” in his dealings with Ukraine. Goldman said: “Yes.”

In follow-up questions from Nadler, Goldman says that Trump has compromised the national security of the US and is a threat to “our election”.

Nadler is hitting his gavel continuously now to try to eliminate more Republican protests at the process of the hearing. Various GOP members are now weighing in.

Updated

Finally ... phew, Steve Castor just said that word, which hopefully means he’s about to wrap up his droning delivery spelling out why the impeachment inquiry is a load of unjustified guff and Trump did nothing wrong.

We’ll get on to actual questions from committee members soon, the blog hopes. Partisan fireworks and brimstone can be excruciating but it’s surely more interesting (in the moment, that is) than the important but rather dull set pieces.

Ah, some more point of order bickering before we proceed to questions. Bang, goes Nadler’s gavel. AKA: “Shut up.”

Here goes the committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, with first round of questions.

Updated

DoJ inspector general report on its way ...

Lawmakers are talking about emerging from almost two hours of briefing on the Department of Justice inspector general Michael Horowitz’s report on the Trump-Russia investigation.

So get ready for a spin storm. Still not sure what the official procedure is for making the internal watchdog’s report public today, but be assured the Guardian US is on standby.

Updated

Next year America faces an epic choice ... and the results could define the country for a generation.

A message from Guardian US editor-in-chief:

These are perilous times. Over the last three years, much of what the Guardian holds dear has been threatened – democracy, civility, truth. This US administration is establishing new norms of behaviour. Anger and cruelty disfigure public discourse and lying is commonplace. Truth is being chased away.

In the coming year, many vital aspects of American public life are in play – the supreme court, abortion rights, climate policy, wealth inequality, Big Tech and much more. The stakes could hardly be higher – and the need for a robust, independent press has never been greater.

As 2020 approaches, we’re asking our US readers to help us raise $1.5m by early January to support our journalism. We hope you’ll consider making a year-end gift.

We also want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported the Guardian in 2019. You provide us with the motivation and financial support to keep doing what we do.

Make a contribution.

Harris leads call for removal of Stephen Miller

The Democratic senator Kamala Harris hasn’t wasted a lot of time since abruptly leaving the 2020 campaign trail.

Today she leads 26 of her colleagues in a letter to Donald Trump, demanding the immediate removal of the rightwinger and white nationalist at the core of Trump’s inner policy circle, Stephen Miller, from his position as a White House senior adviser.

The letter follows recent reports detailing more than 900 emails, sent from Miller to far-right Breitbart News between 2015 and 2016, which confirm that Miller worked to advance white supremacist, anti-immigrant ideologies.

In today’s letter, the senators connect the emails to specific immigration policies Miller has implemented in his current position.

In addition to Harris, Senators Dianne Feinstein of California, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Chris Coons of Delaware, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie K Hirono of Hawaii, Cory Booker of New Jersey, ) Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Patty Murray of Washington, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Gary Peters of Michigan, and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada signed the letter.

“Mr Miller’s demonstrable white nationalist ideology has directly translated into your administration’s policies, which have been widely criticized for systematically targeting communities of color,” wrote the senators. “The Muslim ban targeted individuals of color and caused chaos at US airports around the country, wreaking havoc on the lives of countless individuals and families. The family separation policy tore children from their families, resulting in widely reported mistreatment and human rights abuses of immigrants in detention facilities nationwide ... We demand that you remove Stephen Miller immediately.”

The letter has the support of Southern Poverty Law Center, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Bend The Arc, Immigration Hub, National Immigrant Justice Center, Center for American Progress and Families Belong Together.

Updated

Trump poses 'imminent threat' to US national security

The impeachment hearing is on a short break. Democratic congressional counsel Daniel Goldman said a few moments ago that, far from refraining from involvement with the kind of interactions with Ukraine that have put him in hot water, Trump “has not given up” on allegedly harnessing the country to his re-election efforts.

“He and his agents continue to solicit Ukrainian interference in our election, causing an imminent threat,” Goldman said.

Agents = primarily Rudy Giuliani, one surmises.

Updated

Putin and Zelenskiy in Paris for first talks together

Is there any way this can’t end badly for the US and Donald Trump? Let’s hope we can rely on M & M - Merkel and Macron.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelinskiy, just sat down in France for his first face-to-face talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

There has been talk in diplomatic and Democratic circles of late worrying that the way that Donald Trump’s bullying of Zelenskiy since the former comedian (VZ, not DJT) took office risked driving Ukraine closer into the death grip of Russia’s embrace and away from western Europe.

Vladimir Putin arrives at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris to attend a summit on Ukraine
Vladimir Putin arrives at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris to attend a summit on Ukraine. Photograph: Chesnot/Getty Images

Updates later on what emerges from this latest meeting in Paris today. The event is a four-way summit to discuss the situation in Ukraine, also attended by French president Emmanual Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy reminds us that Donald Trump indicated the need for not one, but TWO, investigations, to be announced publicly by VZ, that Ukraine was investigating the Bidens and that it was Ukraine that interfered in the 2016 US election to help Hillary, not Russia to help Trump (a debunked, but now vigorously revived by the president and Republican activists for Trump, conspiracy theory).And, at right, Macron
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, reminds us that Donald Trump indicated the need for not one, but two investigations. And, at right, Macron. Photograph: Chesnot/Getty Images

Angela Merkel prepares to sit down with, from left, Putin, Macron and Zelenskiy.

High stakes: four go to Paris
High stakes: four go to Paris. Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP

Updated

Amazon slams Trump over defense deal

Amazon says Donald Trump’s “improper pressure” and behind-the-scenes attacks harmed its chances of winning a $10bn Pentagon contract.

The Pentagon awarded the cloud computing contract to Microsoft in October, the AP writes.

Amazon argues in a lawsuit unsealed Monday the decision should be revisited because of “substantial and pervasive errors” and Trump’s interference.

Updated

‘Vast amount of evidence’

The Democratic counsel for the House intelligence committee, Daniel Goldman, is now giving his opening arguments in today’s judiciary committee hearing.

Goldman said there is a “vast amount of evidence showing a months-long scheme directed by the president” to pressure Ukraine.

He opened by saying his counterpart representing the Republican standpoint today, Steve Castor, was wrong when he sought to dismiss the case for impeachment, moments ago.

Goldman starts out by reminding the public what is at the heart of the inquiry (bolding by the Guardian):

President Trump directed a months-long scheme to solicit foreign help in his 2020 re-election campaign, withholding official acts from the government of Ukraine in order to coerce and secure political interference in our domestic affairs.

As part of the scheme, President Trump applied increasing pressure on the president of Ukraine to publicly announce two investigations helpful to his personal reelection efforts.

He applied this pressure himself and through his agents within and outside of the US government by conditioning a desperately-sought Oval Office meeting and $391m in taxpayer-funded, congressionally-appropriated military assistance – vital to Ukraine’s ability to fend off Russian aggression – on the announcement of political investigations helpful to his personal interests.

When the president’s efforts were discovered, he released the military aid, though it would take congressional action for the money to be made fully available to Ukraine. The Oval Office meeting still has not happened.

Meanwhile, my colleague Julian Borger, in the hearing room, notes this:

James Sensenbrenner

Wisconsin Republican James Sensenbrenner at the impeachment inquiry hearing today
Wisconsin Republican James Sensenbrenner at the impeachment inquiry hearing today. Photograph: Michael Brochstein/Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media

Updated

Next year America faces an epic choice ... and the results could define the country for a generation.

A message from Guardian US editor-in-chief:

These are perilous times. Over the last three years, much of what the Guardian holds dear has been threatened – democracy, civility, truth. This US administration is establishing new norms of behaviour. Anger and cruelty disfigure public discourse and lying is commonplace. Truth is being chased away.

In the coming year, many vital aspects of American public life are in play – the supreme court, abortion rights, climate policy, wealth inequality, Big Tech and much more. The stakes could hardly be higher – and the need for a robust, independent press has never been greater.

As 2020 approaches, we’re asking our US readers to help us raise $1.5m by early January to support our journalism. We hope you’ll consider making a year-end gift.

We also want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported the Guardian in 2019. You provide us with the motivation and financial support to keep doing what we do.

Make a contribution.

Updated

About that disruption ... pizzagate

The protester who interrupted the start of today’s impeachment hearing was Owen Shroyer, who works as a host at the far rightwing conspiracy site InfoWars.

Shroyer was active in spreading the most bizarre conspiracy theory of the 2016 presidential election, that Hillary Clinton was running a pedophile ring through a string of pizza restaurants, the Guardian’s Julian Borger writes.

The spreading of the extravagant fabricated allegations led to staff at the targeted restaurants being subjected to threats and harassment. An armed man turning up a Washington pizzeria in December 2016 with an AR-15 assault rifle, threatening staff and shooting off the lock of a cupboard, in pursuit of “investigating” the pedophile claims. He was sentenced to four years in jail.

Standing up at the back of the hearings room, interrupting the committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, Shroyer yelled: “You’re the one committing treason. America is done with this.”

He was removed by the police. His Twitter feed later reported that he had been arrested, promoting the hashtag #FreeOwenShroyer.

Infowars host Owen Shroyer popping off at the impeachment heraring this morning
Infowars host Owen Shroyer at the impeachment hearing this morning. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Updated

Biden now behind Trump in some vital swing states – poll

If you’re a Democratic operative or candidate battling in the parts of the midwest, the alarming headline from Axios today is: Poll finds impeachment helping Trump in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.

Firehouse/Optimus Polling shows Trump pulling ahead of Biden in some vital swing states.
Firehouse/Optimus Polling shows Trump pulling ahead of Biden in some vital swing states. Photograph: Axios

Polling by the Republican firm Firehouse Strategies, with Optimus, a few months ago showed Trump struggling in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But in the newest edition, he beats every Democrat in the 2020 race, Axios reports.

Trump won by an average of 6% in hypothetical match-ups against all current Democratic candidates, including Joe Biden, who was out-performing Trump in earlier polls.

AND a majority of likely 2020 voters surveyed do not support impeaching and removing Trump from office, the pollsters found

Firehouse partner Alex Conant told Axios: “Democrats racing towards impeachment are at serious risk of leaving behind the voters they need to retake the White House.”

Biden campaigning in Iowa on Saturday
Biden campaigning in Iowa on Saturday Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Updated

House counsel for Democrats gives opening arguments

Barry Burke, House counsel, is giving opening oratory on behalf of the Democrats at the judiciary committee impeachment hearing on Capitol Hill.

He’s running through some of the highlights of the Democrats’ case, relating to the charge that Trump has abused his office. He’s replayed some of the points from the previous intelligence committee hearings, and reminding us of Donald Trump saying Ukraine “should investigate the Bidens” - ie his 2020 election rival Joe Biden and the former vice president’s son, Hunter Biden.

And also Trump citing article 2 of the US Constitution in saying: “I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” Burke says that is fundamentally wrong. He also calls on members of Congress to “put aside political rancor”. Ha.

More procedural bickering. The Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, is at the hearing and will bring you reports and observations as the day goes on.

Congressional staff member Stephen Castor, for the Republicans, has just begun his opening arguments. Oh, he goes straight to “baloney!” to characterize the impeachment inquiry.

Just prior:

Updated

Supreme court rules on abortion law

The US supreme court just decided to leave in place a Kentucky law requiring doctors to perform ultrasounds and show fetal images to patients before performing abortions.

The justices did not comment in refusing to review an appeals court ruling that upheld the law, the AP writes.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had challenged the law on behalf of Kentucky’s lone remaining abortion clinic. The ACLU argued that so-called “display and describe” ultrasound laws violate physicians’ speech rights under the first amendment of the US constitution.

The federal appeals court in Cincinnati, Ohio, upheld the Kentucky law, but its sister court in Richmond, Virginia, struck down a similar measure in North Carolina.

Doctors’ speech also has been an issue in non-abortion cases. The federal appeals court in Atlanta struck down parts of a 2011 Florida law that sought to prohibit doctors from talking about gun safety with their patients.

Under the law, doctors faced fines and the possible loss of their medical licenses for discussing guns with patients.

In Kentucky, doctors must describe the ultrasound in detail while the pregnant woman listens to the fetal heartbeat.

Women can avert their eyes and cover their ears to avoid hearing the description or the fetal heartbeat. Doctors failing to comply face fines and can be referred to the state’s medical licensing board.

The law was passed in 2017 and was signed by the state’s anti-abortion governor, Republican Matt Bevin. He narrowly lost his re-election bid last month. But Republicans remain in control of the state legislature.

Updated

Trump to meet Russia's foreign minister tomorrow

Squabbling in the impeachment hearing. Bang, bang, bang goes Nadler’s gavel.

While order is restored, let’s catch up with the fact that the Interfax news agency reports that Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will meet Donald Trump during talks with his US counterpart in Washington tomorrow, Reuters writes.

Lavrov’s trip to Washington for talks with the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, comes as bilateral ties are at post-cold war lows, strained over everything from alleged election meddling to the wars in Ukraine and Syria.

Time is also running out for the two sides to strike a deal that would replace or extend their New Start nuclear arms treaty that is set to expire in February 2021.

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, last week offered the United States an extension on the deal without any pre-conditions or further discussion.

Russia’s foreign ministry confirmed Lavrov’s trip to Washington in a statement. It did not mention a meeting with Trump, but Interfax cited a foreign ministry source saying there would be such a meeting.

US intelligence agencies have said Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election campaign in order to tilt the vote in Trump’s favor. Moscow denies it.

Bird flies free, at least. Downtown Moscow
Bird flies free, at least. Downtown Moscow Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images

Updated

Paul Volcker is dead – report

Paul Volcker, the towering former Federal Reserve chairman who tamed US inflation in the 1980s and decades later inspired tough Wall Street reforms in the wake of the global financial crisis, died on Monday at the age of 92, according to the New York Times, which quoted his daughter.

Volcker, who media reports said had been suffering from prostate cancer, was the first to bring celebrity status to the job of US central banker, serving as chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987. As with the man who succeeded him, Alan Greenspan, Volcker could soothe or excite financial markets with just a vague murmur, Reuters writes.

In 2018 he published a memoir, Keeping at It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government, and expressed concern about the direction of the federal government and the loss of respect for it.

“The central issue is we’re developing into a plutocracy,” he told the New York Times in October 2018. “We’ve got an enormous number of enormously rich people that have convinced themselves that they’re rich because they’re smart and constructive. And they don’t like government and they don’t like to pay taxes.”

In 2009, Volcker began serving as a key financial adviser to President Barack Obama and faced a maelstrom of financial turmoil, government bailouts and fallout from the deepest recession since the 1930s Great Depression.

In working to help the US economy recover from the 2008 crisis, he proposed what became known as the Volcker rule that restricted banks from making high-risk investments with depositors’ cash. Since Donald Trump, who favors fewer regulations, became president in 2017, the rule has been under review.

Paul Volcker addresses the Bretton Woods Committee annual meeting at World Bank headquarters in Washington, 2014.
Paul Volcker addresses the Bretton Woods Committee annual meeting at World Bank headquarters in Washington, 2014.
 Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Updated

What’s the key phrase?

Ranking member Doug Collins has kicked off his now familiar sarcasm show.

He asks what will turn out to be the key phrase from this impeachment process?

He reminds us that the key phrase, burned into our memories over the decades, from the Nixon Watergate process was: “What did the president know and when did he know it?” A: a lot, from the beginning.

The memorable sentence from the Bill Clinton impeachment was: “I did not have sexual relations with that women.” A: Yep, you did.

And Collins suggests the key phrase from the impeachment of Donald Trump will be: “Where is the impeachable offense?” Very lame, Doug. The key phrase is already and will likely remain: “I would like you to do us a favor, though.”

That’s what Donald Trump said in a July phone call to the politically and militarily vulnerable, new president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, when asking for an investigation of his US political rivals in exchange for military aid.

Updated

Protester disrupts opening of impeachment hearing

The hearing of the House judiciary committee got underway at 9.07AM local time in Washington but there was an early interruption.

A protester, appearing to on the side of Donald Trump and against impeachment, shouted at the committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, that he and the Democrats are committing “treason” in their inquiry, according to CNN’s Manu Raju.

Nadler, who is punctuating his opening statement with occasional clearing of his throat with a short, rattling cough, is pushing on regardless.

“Donald Trump put himself before country,” he has said, twice already. Nadler is outlining “corruption of public office” by the president’s pressuring Ukraine to investigate his domestic political rivals (AKA “Do us a favor, though”) in return for crucial military aid for its existential battle against aggressive Russian forces on its Crimean flank.

Attempted Republican interruption to make a motion. Squished by Nadler.

Updated

Horowitz expected to outline justification for Trump-Russia inquiry

The US justice department’s internal watchdog will release a highly anticipated report today that’s expected to reject Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the investigation into whether he or his campaign colluded with Russia was illegitimate or illegal and that it was not blighted by political bias in the FBI.

But it is also expected to document errors during the investigation that may animate Trump supporters, the Associated Press writes.

The report, as described by people familiar with its findings, is expected to conclude there was an adequate basis for opening one of the most politically sensitive investigations in FBI history.

It began in secret during Trump’s 2016 presidential run and was ultimately taken over by Robert Mueller after Trump fired FBI director James Comey early in his presidency in 2017.

The release of DoJ inspector general Michael Horowitz’s review is unlikely to quell the partisan battles that have surrounded the Russia investigation for years. It’s also not the last word: a separate internal investigation continues, overseen by Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, and led by a US attorney, John Durham. That investigation is criminal in nature

Horowitz’s report is expected to identify errors and misjudgments by some law enforcement officials, including by an FBI lawyer suspected of altering a document related to the surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide.

But the report will not endorse some of the president’s theories on the investigation, including that it was a baseless “witch-hunt” or that he was targeted by an Obama administration justice department desperate to see Republican Trump lose to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

It also is not expected to undo Mueller’s findings or contradict his conclusion that Russia interfered in order to benefit the Trump campaign.

The FBI opened its investigation in July 2016 after learning that a Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, had been told before it was publicly known that Russia had “dirt” on the Clinton campaign via hacked emails.

James Comey on Capitol Hill last year
James Comey on Capitol Hill last year Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Updated

DoJ watchdog to issue report on Trump-Russia investigation

Good Morning, US politics watchers. It’s going to be nothing less than a manic Monday in Washington today, festive spirits be darned.

  • The inspector general of the Department of Justice, Michael Horowitz, aka the DoJ internal watchdog, is going to make public his report into the origins of the Trump-Russia inquiry during and after the 2016 presidential election. It has extraordinary implications for the reputation of the FBI. It’s not clear yet exactly when the report will be released today – so do stay glued. It is expected to find that the intelligence community did have enough legitimate evidence in 2016 of links between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russian operatives seeking to interfere in his favor to obtain secret surveillance warrants. There was no illegal spying and that outweighs some secondary findings that there was some sloppiness and political bias on display from some FBI figures.
  • Beginning within minutes, at 9am ET, the House of Representatives’ judiciary committee will hold its second public hearing in the impeachment inquiry against the president. The congressional lawyers Daniel Goldman and Stephen Castor will be the witnesses, discussing the grounds for impeachment found by the intelligence committee in recent weeks. Expect stormy waters and a long hearing. We now move from the inquiry phase into the process for the Democratic controlled committee to draw up the articles of impeachment (effectively the indictment against Trump), to be voted on by the House before Christmas and leading to a congressional trial in the Senate early next year. Of special note: will the committee include obstruction of the Mueller report (the product of the Trump-Russia investigation) in the articles?
  • Democratic 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren says an all-women ticket in the election can beat Donald Trump. She and Joe Biden also seem to be, well, not closed to the idea of recruiting the other as their vice-president. How would a Warren-Kamala Harris ticket go down with America, for example. Stacey Abrams? Intriguing.
  • There’s also news on Rudy Giuliani, Afghanistan, Mike Pompeo, Michelle Obama, the Pensacola shooting and more. Stay tuned.

Updated

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