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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Maanvi Singh in San Francisco (now) and Joan E Greve in Washington (earlier)

Two White House budget officials resigned over Ukraine aid freeze, witness says – as it happened

Adam Schiff, chair of the House intelligence committee. Lawmakers have released the last transcripts from closed-door testimony.
Adam Schiff, chair of the House intelligence committee. Lawmakers have released the last transcripts from closed-door testimony. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Live political reporting continues on Wednesday’s blog:

Summary

Here’s a recap of today:

  • Two officials at the White House budget office resigned over the administration’s freeze on aid to Ukraine, according to testimony made public today.
  • The House judiciary committee announced it would hold its first impeachment hearing next week, on December 4. The committee invited Trump and his legal team to participate, but the president is unlikely to attend. He is scheduled to attend the Nato summit in London that day.
  • The House oversight committee filed a lawsuit to enforce subpoenas against attorney general William Barr and commerce secretary Wilbur Ross.
  • Trump is speaking at a rally in Florida.

Report: Trump knew about the whisteblower complaint when he unfroze aid to Ukraine

Donald Trump was briefed about the whistleblower complaint about the president’s dealings with Ukraine before he unfroze aid to the country, the New York Times reports:

Lawyers from the White House counsel’s office told Mr. Trump in late August about the complaint, explaining that they were trying to determine whether they were legally required to give it to Congress, the people said.

The revelation could shed light on Mr. Trump’s thinking at two critical points under scrutiny by impeachment investigators: his decision in early September to release $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine and his denial to a key ambassador around the same time that there was a “quid pro quo” with Kyiv. Mr. Trump used the phrase before it had entered the public lexicon in the Ukraine affair.

Mr. Trump faced bipartisan pressure from Congress when he released the aid. But the new timing detail shows that he was also aware at the time that the whistle-blower had accused him of wrongdoing in withholding the aid and in his broader campaign to pressure Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to conduct investigations that could benefit Mr. Trump’s re-election chances.


It’s been a rough news day for Pete Buttigieg.

First, he came under fire for saying in 2011 that people of color undervalued education. Now, a HuffPost piece has revealed that the political action committee he launched in 2017 to boost other Democrats mostly boosted his own presidential bid.

The PAC had done relatively little to help Democrats during the 2018 midterm elections, when the party waged its hard-fought battle to win control of the U.S. House. But it had paid significant sums to a host of Democratic consultants and staffers to promote Buttigieg’s image. Of the slightly more than $400,000 Buttigieg raised for the PAC, it donated just $37,000 to other Democratic candidates.

At the same time, the PAC paid nearly $70,000 to Lis Smith, who served as Buttigieg’s spokesperson and became the communications director for his presidential bid. Another $27,500 went to Michael Schmuhl, who served as the PAC’s treasurer and is now Buttigieg’s campaign manager. The PAC’s finance director received $34,500. A top Democratic media consulting was paid $28,500.

The PAC helped Buttigieg catapult from a well-credentialed mayor of a 101,000-population college town to a leading contender for the nation’s highest office. It served as a springboard that had more to do with personal promotion than it did with aiding other Democrats.

Buttigieg shut down the PAC, which he said was meant to “mobilize resources to elect Democrats, at every level”, as his 2020 presidential campaign began to take off.

Two OMB officials resigned over Ukraine aid freeze, according to testimony

White House Office of Management and Budget official Mark Sandy responded “Yes” when asked if anyone in the office’s legal department resigned due to the administration’s freeze of Ukrainian security assistance.

“This person expressed to me concerns about actions vis-à-vis the Impoundment Control Act,” Sandy said, referring to a law that prevents the president from unilaterally withholding Congressionally allocated funds for extended periods.

Another official in the OMB who resigned “expressed some frustrations about not understanding the reason for the hold” Sandy testified.

Updated

Meanwhile, Donald Trump, who did not take any questions from the press as he boarded Marine One this afternoon, is headed to Florida for a rally.

The Guardian’s Richard Luscombe reports:

The importance of Florida to Donald Trump’s hopes of winning reelection in 2020 are reflected in the president’s decision to host a “homecoming” rally tonight in Sunrise, essentially a self-celebration of his becoming a full-time resident of the Sunshine State.

Trump won Florida by fewer than 113,000 of the 9.4m votes cast in 2016, and with 29 electoral college votes at stake, the nation’s most valuable swing state is a key prize in the chase for the White House next year.

“Florida always matters,” Brad Parscale, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, told The Guardian as the 21,000-capacity BB&T Center filled ahead of the rally.

“It’s been important in every election for decades. Florida has done well under his presidency and is clearly in the win column for 2020, polling shows that. It’s his first time in Florida since he became a resident, and the people of Florida want to celebrate that.”

We await to hear whether Trump has plans to accept House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler’s earlier invitation to attend his panel’s impeachment hearing on 4 December.

While thousands of MAGA-hat wearing Trump supporters make their way inside, Florida’s Democratic Party is holding a rally outside the arena, with the Baby Trump protest balloon in the skies.

“Florida is tired of being hurt by Trump’s broken promises,” said Terrie Rizzo, chair of the Florida Democratic Party. “This isn’t a homecoming rally, it’s a retirement party.”

Updated

Pete Buttigieg responds to criticism over comments about people of color undervaluing the importance of education.

Pete Buttigieg said he reached out to The Root’s Michael Harriot, who wrote a piece titled ‘Pete Buttigieg Is a Lying MF.’

The Indiana mayor and leading candidate in the Democratic presidential primaries told CNN:

Well I reached out to the author, and while I obviously, I think that some of the characterization of me personally is unfair, I do understand the concern. What I said in that comment before I became mayor does not reflect the totality of my understanding then, and certainly now, about the obstacles that students of color face in our system today.

I believe I was speaking about the need for mentorship and the need for career pathways but the problem is to the extent that, that feels like it’s validating a narrative that sometimes blames the victim for the consequences of systematic racism, I understand why he was upset and I understand the perspective and largely agree.

Harriot’s piece highlights Buttigieg’s comments from 2011 that “there are a lot of kids—especially [in] the lower-income, minority neighborhoods, who literally just haven’t seen it work. There isn’t someone who they know personally who testifies to the value of education.”

The candidate acknowledged during last week’s debate that he’s having trouble attracting Black voters.

Updated

House committees have released remaining transcripts from closed-door depositions

Congress released transcripts of testimony from Mark Sandy, an official in the White House Office of Management and Budget, and Philip Reeker, a state department official.

Sandy said that the OMB began the process of withholding funds on July 25 — the same day as Donald Trump’s now infamous phone call with the Ukranian president. He also testified that he wasn’t initially given a reason for withholding the funds, and was reassigned after he raised concerns that a freeze would violate the Impoundment Control Act.

Reeker, who has worked at the state department since 1992 and testified despite pressure from the White House not to do so, said there was “understanding” among officials that Rudy Giuliani was feeding Trump negative information about Ukraine. He also said that top state department officials, under the guidance of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blocked an effort to release a statement of support for former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

With these latest releases, the House Intelligence Committee has made the last of the remaining closed-door testimonies public.

Updated

Evening summary

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands:

  • The House judiciary committee announced it would hold its first impeachment hearing next Wednesday, exploring the constitutional grounds for impeaching a president. Trump has been invited to particiapte in the hearing by sending counsel, and he has until Sunday to let the panel know whether he plans to do so.
  • Trump claimed he wanted administration officials to testify in the impeachment inquiry but worried about the repercussions for future presidents, an assertion that was met with heavy skepticism given the White House’s refual to comply with the investigation.
  • In a press briefing at the state department, secretary of state Mike Pompeo dodged questions about the impeachment inquiry. Asked whether he would consider testifying, Pompeo vaguely said, “When the time is right, all good things happen.”
  • The House oversight committee has filed a lawsuit to enforce subpoenas against attorney general William Barr and commerce secretary Wilbur Ross in connection to its investigation of efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The lawsuit indicated Democrats feel emboldened after yesterday’s ruling that Don McGahn must testify about his time as Trump’s White House counsel.
  • The justice department filed its expected appeal in the McGahn case, which could have sweeping implications for the impeachment inquiry.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Trump is now en route to Florida, where he will hold a campaign rally tonight before spending Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago with his family.

Trump’s rally at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida, demonstrates how important the state is to his 2020 reelection strategy. The Washington Post reports:

President Trump’s Tuesday night rally near Miami, billed by his campaign as a ‘homecoming’ extravaganza, follows his recent decision to move his formal residence from New York to Florida — and underscores the state’s importance to his reelection efforts as he grapples with the impeachment proceedings that threaten his presidency.

Florida is now not only Trump’s home but what Republicans hope is an emerging GOP bastion. His strategy in the state reflects his broader push to galvanize his core voters ahead of next year’s election by unleashing an incendiary defense of his conduct, be it on Twitter, cable news or in front of thousands in an arena.

Republican senator Susan Collins expressed skepticism when asked whether she thought Joe Biden and his son Hunter should testify in the impeachment inquiry, saying she did not think it was “likely appropriate.”

A number of Trump’s congressional allies have called for the former vice president to testify about the baseless corruption allegations against him and his son, but Collins, who is up for reelection in Maine next year, does not appear to be echoing that argument.

The first lady’s office has issued a statement in response to her appearance this morning at a youth summit in Baltimore, where she was loudly booed by the crowd as she attempted to deliver remarks on raising awareness about the opioid epidemic.

“We live in a democracy and everyone is entitled to their opinion,” Melania Trump said in the statement. “But the fact is we have a serious crisis in our country, and I remain committed to educating children on the dangers and deadly consequences of drug abuse.”

The Quinnipiac poll emphasized another solidifying trend in the Democratic primary race: every candidate besides Joe Biden is struggling to win over African Americans, who represent a key swath of the party’s voting base.

Few swayed by impeachment public hearings - poll

Also from that Quinnipiac poll, the survey found that two weeks of public impeachment hearings in the news haven’t significantly hurt Donald Trump’s popularity among American voters.

While 40 percent of all registered voters approve of the job Trump is doing, 54 percent disapprove. This compares to a 38 - 58 percent approval rating in an October 23 poll, Quinnipiac reported, and falls within the range of where his job approval rating has been over about the last two years.

The country remains closely divided on whether to impeach and remove Trump from office. While 45 percent of those responding though Trump should be impeached and removed from office, 48 percent don’t think he should be. In an October 23 poll, 48 percent thought he should be impeached and removed and 46 percent didn’t think so.

However, twice as many respondents may be swayed towards supporting the axe for Trump as those who may be talked out of it.

Pollsters found that, among those who think the president should be impeached and removed from office, 8 percent say they might yet change their mind, while among those who think the president should not be impeached and removed from office, 17 percent say they might change their mind.

Protesters outside the White House earlier in the fall
Protesters outside the White House earlier in the fall Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Updated

Poll shows Biden leading Democratic field

A new poll from Quinnipiac University showed Joe Biden leading the pack of 2020 Democrats as Pete Buttigieg has surged and Elizabeth Warren has stumbled.

According to the poll, Biden is attracting the support of 24% of Democratic voters -- compared to Buttigieg’s 16%, Warren’s 14% and Bernie Sanders’ 13%.

Those numbers represent a 14-point drop for Warren and a 6-point rise for Buttigieg compared to a late October poll from Quinnipiac. In comparison, Biden and Sanders have remained relatively stable since then.

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg also hit 3% in the poll, tied with candidates who have been in the race for months like senators Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar.

John Bolton, who recently regained access to his Twitter account after it was allegedly commandeered by the White House, is tweeting about the need to “make U.S. national security a priority.”

Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security adviser until his September departure, has been asked to testify in the impeachment inquiry. However, Bolton’s lawyer has said he will not testify until a judge rules on whether his former deputy, Charles Kupperman, should comply with a congressional subpoena.

Bolton’s lawyer reiterated today that he would not testify for now, despite yesterday’s ruling in Don McGahn’s similar case, but the former official seems to be leaving breadcrumbs indicating he wants to talk to impeachment investigators.

The House judiciary committee’s letter to Trump inviting him to participate in next week’s impeachment hearing also implicitly seeks clarification on who will be representing the president in the inquiry.

“If you would like to participate in the hearing, please provide the Committee with notice as soon as possible, but no later than by 6:00 pm on December 1, 2019,” chairman Jerry Nadler wrote to Trump. “By that time, I ask that you also indicate who will act as your counsel for these proceedings.”

The pardoning of the National Thanksgiving Turkey obviously could not take place without Trump criticizing the House intelligence committee chairman for his handling of the impeachment inquiry.

Meanwhile, Trump is about to pardon the National Thanksgiving Turkey, an annual tradition at the White House, and the president is marking the occasion by celebrating the state of the stock market.

In Jerry Nadler’s statement about his panel holding its first impeachment hearing, the committee chairman offered Trump an ultimatum: either participate in the process or quit complaining about it.

“I have also written to President Trump to remind him that the Committee’s impeachment inquiry rules allow for the President to attend the hearing and for his counsel to question the witness panel,” Nadler said in the statement.

“At base, the President has a choice to make: he can take this opportunity to be represented in the impeachment hearings, or he can stop complaining about the process. I hope that he chooses to participate in the inquiry, directly or through counsel, as other Presidents have done before him.”

Trump has until 6 p.m. on Dec. 1 to notify the judiciary committee about whether he intends to have counsel represent him at the hearing.

The announcement of the judiciary committee’s first hearing in the impeachment inquiry brings House members one step closer to voting on articles of impeachment against Trump.

Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, said in a “Dear Colleague” letter yesterday that his panel intended to transmit its report on the impeachment inquiry to the judiciary committee shortly after Thanksgiving.

That timeline could set the Senate up for a January trial to determine whether to remove Trump from office. However, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said again yesterday that he could not imagine two-thirds of senators voting to remove Trump.

House judiciary committee chair invites Trump to impeachment hearing

The chairman of the House judiciary committee, Jerry Nadler, sent a letter to Trump inviting him to participate in the 4 December hearing, which is entitled The Impeachment Inquiry into President Donald J. Trump: Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment.

Nadler wrote in his letter that the hearing would give his committee the chance to explore the meaning of “high crimes and misdemeanors”, the constitutional standard for impeachment.

The hearing will also reportedly include a panel of constitutional experts who will testify about the founders’ interpretation of impeachable behavior.

Updated

House judiciary committee announces its first impeachment hearing

The House judiciary committee has just announced it will hold its first impeachment hearing next Wednesday.

It appears the airspace violation in Washington this morning, which caused a brief lockdown at the White House and the Capitol, may have been caused by a flock of birds appearing on the radar.

Former Clinton aide reportedly advised Trump on impeachment

Mark Penn, a former top strategist to Bill Clinton, reportedly visited the White House last week to offer Trump advice on how to combat the impeachment inquiry.

The Washington Post reports:

Penn came to the Oval Office for more than an hour last Monday, three people familiar with the meeting said, and brought polling data and impeachment advice for the president. Penn reassured Trump that he wouldn’t be removed from office, according to people familiar with the meeting, and encouraged him to travel the country like Clinton did when he was fighting impeachment over 20 years ago, officials said.

Vice President Pence and counselor Kellyanne Conway were also present for the meeting, where Diet Cokes were served. Penn was escorted by Andrew Stein, a longtime Trump friend from New York who recently penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed calling for Nikki Haley to replace Pence on the ticket.

Penn recommended that Trump ‘stay focused on the substance’ of the allegations surrounding trading access and aid for political favors from Ukraine, according to Stein, ‘and not respond to everything.’

It seems Trump has had trouble following that advice, given his many tweets attacking the House Democrats leading the inquiry and resharing Fox News clips of his allies defending him against the allegations at the center of the investigation.

Representative Brenda Lawrence, a Democrat from Michigan, has quickly backtracked on comments she made over the weekend about preferring a censure of Trump rather than impeachment.

“I was an early supporter for impeachment in 2017,” Lawrence said in a new statement. “The House Intelligence Committee followed a very thorough process in holding hearings these past two weeks. The information they revealed confirmed that this President has abused the power of his office, therefore I continue to support impeachment.

“However, I am very concerned about Senate Republicans and the fact that they would find this behavior by the President acceptable.”

Over the weekend, Lawrence said in an interview that she was wary of impeaching Trump with less than a year to go until the 2020 election. “We are so close to an election,” Lawrence initially said. “I will tell you, sitting here knowing how divided this country is, I don’t see the value of taking him out of office. I do see the value of putting down a marker saying his behavior is not acceptable.”

Afternoon summary

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Trump claimed he wanted administration officials to testify in the impeachment inquiry but worried about the repercussions for future presidents, an assertion that was met with heavy skepticism given the White House’s refual to cooperate with the investigation and Trump’s avoidance of an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller.
  • Speaking to reporters at the state department, secretary of state Mike Pompeo once again dodged questions about the impeachment inquiry. Asked whether he would consider testifying before House investigators, Pompeo vaguely said, “When the time is right, all good things happen.”
  • The House oversight committee is suing to enforce subpoenas of attorney general William Barr and commerce secretary Wilbur Ross in connection to the administration’s efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, indicating that Democrats feel emboldened after a judge ruled Don McGahn must testify about his time as Trump’s White House counsel. But the justice department filed an appeal in the McGahn case this morning.

The blog will have much more coming up, so stay tuned.

Democrats on the House foreign affiars committee lashed out against Mike Pompeo after the secretary of state claimed his department was complying with the impeachment inquiry.

The panel, one of three overseeing the inquiry, noted that the state department has not yet turned over any documents in connection to a subpoena from the inquiry.

First lady loudly booed at Baltimore event

Speaking at a youth summit in Baltimore meant to raise awareness about the opioid epidemic, Melania Trump was loudly booed by the crowd.

A reporter who has covered the first lady for three years said it was the first booing she has witnessed at an event where Melania Trump appeared without her husband.

According to the pool report, the first lady was “greeted with some cheers but also a resounding chorus of loud boos, which lasted for about one minute.” Melania Trump still deliverd her prepared remarks, but attendees continued to talk while she spoke.

The Trumps have a controversial history with Baltimore, which the president once called “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” as he criticized the city’s longtime congressman Elijah Cummings. (Cummings passed away last month.)

Conan is definitely male. This is done.

Multiple defense officials have now confirmed Conan, the military dog who participated in the al-Baghdadi raid, is definitely male. One official said they had “triple checked” to make sure, which the blog does not want to dwell on.

With that, this controversy is hopefully settled, and Conan can continue his very important duties with the US military without further interruption.

White House reporters reacted to a report that Conan the military dog was actually female with confusion and exasperation, considering administration officials reversed themselves on the straightforward question yesterday.

The extended back-and-forth over the military dog’s sex prompted inevitable questions of, “Why does this matter?” But reporters argued the matter touched on the credibility of White House officials.

Controversy over military dog's sex continues

It appears we are doomed to see another day of the controversy over whether Conan, the dog who participated in the al-Baghdadi raid, is male or female.

Trump had initally referred to the dog using male pronouns during a Rose Garden news conference with the animal yesterday. A White House official then said the dog was actually female. Hours later, other White House officials said the dog was, indeed, male.

However, the confusion over a rather straightforward fact spurred speculation that Trump had instructed his aides to correct the correction so that he would appear right.

The questions over Conan’s sex sparked comparisons to Sharpiegate, when Trump appeared to alter a map of Hurricane Dorian’s expected trajectory to make him appear correct after he falsely said the storm might hit Alabama.

After signing an executive order establishing a task force on missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives, Trump was asked by a reporter about the protests in Hong Kong as he continues to negotatiate a potential trade deal with China.

“It’s going very well, but at the same time we want to see it go well in Hong Kong, and I think it will,” Trump said. “I think that President Xi [Jinping] can make that happen and I know him and I know we’d like to make it happen.”

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo dodged a question about whether Trump would sign a bill supporting the Hong Kong protesters, which passed Congress with veto-proof majorities. However, it’s possible the president may allow the bill to go into law without signing it.

Pompeo offers vague answer on testifying in impeachment inquiry

Asked by a reporter whether he would consider testifying in the impeachment inquiry, secretary of state Mike Pompeo offered the vaguest possible answer.

“When the time is right, all good things happen,” Pompeo said during his press briefing at the state department.

The comment came less than an hour after the president tweeted that he would “actually like” administration officials to testify, naming Pompeo and others specifically.

Pompeo echoes Trump request for investigation of 2016 election

Speaking ro reporters at the state department, Mike Pompeo echoed Trump’s request for an investigation into baseless claims that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election.

The intelligence community has thoroughly concluded that Russia meddled in the 2016 race, but the secretary of state indicated he believed there were unanswered questions about election interference.

“Anytime there is information that indicates that any country has messed with American elections, we not only have a right but a duty to make sure we chase that down,” Pompeo said during his briefing with reporters.

Pompeo: 'I don't have much to say' on impeachment inquiry

It seems unlikely that the officials who Trump named in his tweet thread will jump at the chance to testify in the impeachment inquiry.

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo, for example, has repeatedly dodged reporters’ questions about the inquiry even after Gordon Sondland testifed last week that he kept Pompeo and others in the loop about the campaign to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and the 2016 election.

“I don’t have much to say with respect to the Ukraine investigation,” Pompeo just told reporters during a breifing at the state department, avoiding a direct answer on whether he was involved in efforts to recall former US ambassador to Ukraine Maria Yovanovitch. “We had a very clear policy with respect to Ukraine.”

House oversight committee sues to enforce Barr and Ross subpoenas

The House oversight committee has now filed a lawsuit in an effort to enforce subpoenas against attorney general William Barr and commerce secretary Wilbur Ross in their ongong battle to uncover information about the Trump administration’s attempts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The lawsuit comes less than a day after a judge ruled former White House counsel Don McGahn must comply with a congressional subpoena, indicating that House Democrats believe the decision could aid them in other investigations of the Trump administration.

The House voted in July to hold Barr and Ross in contempt for failing to cooperate with the investigation. The late oversight committee chairman Elijah Cummings said at the time, “In this case, the attorney general and secretary Ross have blatantly obstructed our ability to do congressional oversight into the real reason secretary Ross was trying — for the first time in 70 years — to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.”

Trump dubiously claims he'd be happy to have aides testify

Trump has just sent a tweet thread claiming he would “actually like” his current and former aides to testify in the impeachment inquiry but that he is “fighting for future Presidents and the Office of the President.”

This claim should be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism, given Trump’s past assertions that he would actually love to testify. The president spent months insisting he wanted to sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller, whose investigation concluded after about two years without a Trump interview. (The president submitted written answers to some questions, but Mueller considered those responses to be incomplete or inaccurate at points.)

On top of that, Trump’s tweets contain falsehoods. European nations have contributed more to Ukraine’s defense against Russia than the United States has, and the president has previously bashed the reputation of former national security adviser John Bolton.

The US Capitol Police has provided additional details on the airspace violation that caused this morning’s brief lockdown at the White House and the Capitol. The police force said there was a report of a possible aircraft at 8:27 a.m. ET, and it took about 45 minutes to assess the potential security threat.

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is attracting a lot of criticism for his 2011 comments about people of color allegedly undervaluing the importance of education.

“There are a lot of kids -- especially the lower-income, minority neighbrohodds -- who literally just haven’t seen it work,” Buttigieg said during a 2011 toundtable while he was running for mayor of South Bend, Indiana. “There isn’t somebody they know personally who testifies to the value of education.”

The resurfaced clip sparked outraged responses from some commentators. “This is not a misunderstanding. This is not a misstatement,” Michael Harriot wrote for the Root. “Pete Buttigieg went to the best educational institutions America has to offer and he—more than anyone on the goddamned planet—knows that everything he just said is a baldfaced lie.”

Harriot went on to cite statistics about majority-minority schools receiving less funding than majority-white schools and black students being disciplined more harshly than white students.

The resurfaced comments will not help Buttigieg connect with the black voters whose support he will need to win the Democratic nomination. Polls from the early voting state of South Carolina, where more than half of the 2016 primary electorate was African-American, show Buttigieg attracting almost 0% of the support of black voters.

Impeachment polling remains unchanged

When the FiveThirtyEight polling average on impeachment dipped by a few points last week, Trump’s allies rushed to claim that the slight decline was evidence of the American public turning against the inquiry.

But additional polls appear to have debunked that claim. It seems the recent damning testimony from current and former Trump officials like Gordon Sondland and Fiona Hill has not moved the needle much, with around half of Americans supporting the impeachment of the president.

A new CNN/SSRS poll out this morning shows that 50% of Americans believe Trump should be impeached and removed from office, compared to 43% who say he should not be. Those numbers are unchanged from an October poll.

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo has announced he will deliver remarks to the media at 11 a.m. ET. It’s unclear whether Pompeo will also take questions from reporters, who would inevitably ask about the cabinet member’s role in the Ukraine controversy.

Following his remarks to the media, Pompeo will head over to the White House, where he will have a meeting with the vice president and lunch with Trump.

Bolton lawyer says McGahn ruling does not apply to his clients

This could be some bad news for those hoping to soon see testimony from John Bolton in the impeachment iqnuiry. A lawyer who represents Bolton and his former deputy at the national security council, Charles Kupperman, said the ruling in Don McGahn’s case does not apply to his clients.

The officials’ attorney argued that, because the House judiciary committee was specifically not seeking information from McGahn on “sensitive topics of national security or foreign affairs,” the ruling could not provide guidance on whether his clients should testify.

Kupperman has filed a separate lawsuit seeking a judge’s ruling on whether he should comply with his congressional subpoena or the White House order not to cooperate with the inquiry.

A Fox News reporter has additional details on the airspace violation that sparked this morning’s lockdown on the White House and the Capitol, which has now been lifted.

It looks like the lockdown on the Capitol has also been lifted. Officials briefly enforced a lockdown on Capitol Hill and at the White House due to an airspace violation that forced fighter jets to be redirected.

White House lockdown lifted

It appears the lockdown at the White House, due to an airspace violation, has been lifted.

Police officers were also allowing people to enter the office buildings on Capitol Hill, although the status of the Capitol itself is unclear.

The US Northern Command is now responding to the potential security threat in Washington due to an airspace violation.

White House on lockdown due to airspace violation

The White House is currently on lockdown due to an airspace violation reported in Washington, forcing fighter jets to be redirected.

Reporters at the White House today are being kept in the briefing room for their safety.

Justice department appeals McGahn ruling

As expected, the justice department has filed an appeal to judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s ruling that Don McGahn, Trump’s former White House counsel, must comply with a congressional subpoena.

Dershowitz on McGahn ruling: Trump 'far more powerful' than a king

Good morning, live blog readers!

The president’s allies are lashing out against the ruling from judge Ketanji Brown Jackson that Don McGahn must testify about his time as Donald Trump’s White House counsel, a decision that could have sweeping implications on the impeachment inquiry.

“It is a core tenet of this nation’s founding that the powers of a monarch must be split between the branches of the government to prevent tyranny,” Jackson wrote in her decision. “Stated simply, the primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that presidents are not kings.”

Speaking to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham just hours after the ruling was issued, Alan Dershowitz, a former Harvard law professor and frequent Trump defender, said Jackson “went nuts” describing the limits of presidential power.

“This has no substantive impact,” Dershowitz said. “The judge went out of her way to say I’m not ruling on the issues of privilege, all I’m saying is he has to show up. Then she went nuts talking about how the president’s not a king. Of course the President’s not the king. The President’s far more powerful than the king. The President has the power that kings have never had.”

It will be curious to see if the Republican lawmakers who have ardently defended Trump throughout the impeachmennt inquiry pursue a similar line of argument.

Bread and Butter, the National Thanksgiving Turkey and its alternate, walk in their hotel room at the Willard Hotel.
Bread and Butter, the National Thanksgiving Turkey and its alternate, walk in their hotel room at the Willard Hotel. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Here’s what else the blog is keeping its eye on today:

  • Trump will sign an executive order and have lunch with secretary of state Mike Pompeo before participating in the annual White House turkey pardoning. He will later travel to Florida for a campaign rally before continuing on to Mar-a-Lago for Thanksgiving.
  • Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg are campaigning in Iowa.
  • Bernie Sanders will appear on “The Tonight Show” at 11:35 p.m. ET.

The blog will have much more coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

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“I was a good bass player, and I am proud of my Celebrity Skin work, but oh my God, it changed my level of musicianship forever”: Melissa Auf der Maur on what she learned from playing with Billy Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins
Auf der Maur joined the Pumpkins in October 1999 following a five-year stint with Hole
Guitar World
Guitar World
The View guest host Sheryl Underwood addresses feud with former co-star Sharon Osbourne
‘I still believe there's some love between me and Sharon Osbourne,’ Underwood said about her former ‘The Talk’ co-host
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
William Shatner Shared His Opinion On Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, But Not In The Way Some Hoped
He wasn't taking the bait.
Cinemablend
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