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WELL, THEY IMPEACHED THE MOTHERFU—ER … "Trump is impeached by the House, creating an indelible mark on his presidency," via WAPO: The Democratic-controlled House passed two articles of impeachment against Trump — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — related to the president’s attempts to withhold military aid to Ukraine and pressure its government to investigate former vice president Joe Biden, a potential 2020 Democratic opponent …
All Republicans voted against both articles. Among Democrats, two voted no on the first article and three on the second, with one — Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) — voting "present" both times.
DEFIANT AS EVER … "Trump taunts Dems at Michigan rally: 'Doesn't really feel like we're being impeached'," via FOX NEWS: "The do-nothing Democrats, and they are do nothing, are declaring their deep hatred and disdain for [the] American voter" with the impeachment process, Trump said. He called impeachment "political suicide."
"Have you seen my poll numbers in the last four weeks?" Trump added. "They've been trying to impeach me since before I ran."
SAD DEMS DOING SOLEMN DUTY ORDERED NOT TO TOSS CONFETTI … via AXIOS: "House Democratic leaders told caucus members not to cheer or applaud when [Wednesday’s] impeachment vote totals are announced, and Democratic members described the day as sad and solemn, Axios' Alayna Treene reports.
One Democratic member from a Trump-won district said the instruction is: "Don’t cheer, keep it solemn."
CHASER … "Watch: Nancy Pelosi shoots Dems an icy stare after impeachment article passes," via NY POST: Nancy Pelosi shot down cheers from her own party with a stare and a hand gesture as she gaveled in the passage of the first article of impeachment against President Trump Wednesday night.
DEMS THREATEN TO HOLD THEMSELVES HOSTAGE … "Pelosi threatens to delay Senate impeachment trial," via POLITICO: Pelosi’s comments, which echo suggestions raised by other Democrats throughout the day, inject new uncertainty into the impeachment timetable and send the House and Senate lurching toward a potential institutional crisis …
[Steny] Hoyer said Democratic colleagues have approached him in recent days, citing an op-ed by constitutional lawyer Laurence Tribe in which he calls on Democrats to delay sending impeachment articles to the Senate until McConnell agrees to run a fairer process.
GHOST OF BUBBA … "Impeachment Then and Now," by WFB’s David Rutz: "There must never be a narrowly voted impeachment or an impeachment supported by one of our major political parties and opposed by the other," [Rep. Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.)] said [of Bill Clinton]. "Such an impeachment will produce the divisiveness and bitterness in our politics for years to come and will call into question the very legitimacy of our political institutions."
When CNN's Dana Bash asked him about his prior standard, Nadler said it was up to Republicans to "decide whether they want to be patriots or partisans."
TRUMP TO MAKE TRAINS RUN ON TIME … "Democrat Claims If the House Does Not Impeach Trump, Then 'We Will Live In a Dictatorship'," via TOWN HALL: Rep. David Cicilline (D., R.I.) warned on the House floor on Wednesday that if the House of Representatives does not vote to impeach President Trump, then the country will be a "dictatorship."
Cicilline was participating in the planned six-hour long debate in the House before members take the vote on impeachment.
HIGH ANXIETY AND MISDEMEANORS … "Impeachment Is Making Democrats Nervous," via YOUGOV: The ferocity of the debate may have shaken some Democrats' faith that impeachment is the right decision. Americans blame Democrats more than they blame Republicans for inaction in Congress, and the level of blame for Democrats has been rising all year …
At the moment, registered voters don’t think any of the Democratic frontrunners will defeat the president next November. Biden comes closest: 40 percent of registered voters think he will win, while 46 percent believe the president will be re-elected if Biden is the nominee.
AND THEY SAID THE TRUMP WHITE HOUSE WAS A SNAKE PIT …"Hundreds of Obama Alumni Stab Joe Biden in the Back, Endorse Warren," by WFB’s Cameron Cawthorne: Former Barack Obama aides Sara El-Amine and Jon Carson collected more than 200 signatures from former Obama staffers endorsing Warren, CNN reports. El-Amine and Carson both worked on Obama's 2008 campaign, but the group they assembled to publicly back Warren includes a range of officials from the Obama era …
The 231 endorsements of Warren come after Obama said women are "indisputably" better than men during a private leadership summit in Singapore on Monday.
SEPTUAGENARIAN SKIRMISH … "Bloomberg says Democratic candidates, including Biden, don't have the right experience," via NBC NEWS: "I don't think any of them have the experience," [Michael] Bloomberg said in an exclusive interview with MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle inside his childhood home in the Boston area.
When asked if that comment applied to Biden, who represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate for more than 35 years and served as vice president under Barack Obama, Bloomberg said: "He's never been the manager of an organization, he's never run a school system."
M$M COLLUDE$ WITH CHICOM$ … "China Violates Disclosure Law to Publish Propaganda in NY Times, WaPo," by WFB’s Yuichiro Kakutani: China routinely broke federal law by not disclosing how much it spent to publish regime propaganda in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other newspapers, an expert review of foreign agent registration filings concluded.
China Daily, an official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, has published hundreds of propaganda articles designed to look like ordinary news stories in some of America's most influential newspapers. While foreign agents may place ads in the United States, the propaganda outlet has repeatedly violated the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) by failing to provide full disclosures about its purchases.
MARKET FORCES OR KARMA? … "Labour party staff angry at handling of possible redundancies," via GUARDIAN: Labour party staff who are angry that they face losing their jobs while senior aides to Jeremy Corbyn remain on the payroll have been called in to meetings to discuss possible redundancies …
One Labour staffer at risk of redundancy said: "Where there is real anger here is what’s happened with [Seumas Milne and Karie Murphy] being put on permanent contracts with the Labour party. It’s not rare, it is unprecedented. It has never happened before."
ENCHANTED … "This CNN Reporter Can’t Stop Fawning Over the Dems She Covers," by WFB’s Andrew Stiles: "Mistakes were made," [Maeve Reston] wrote of [Joe] Biden's error. "But in comparison to a 73-year-old President [Trump] who eschews exercise and seems to prefer riding around in a golf cart to walking, Biden walks at a clip that sometimes makes it difficult for the throng of reporters and cameras to keep up."
Most recently, Reston has been covering for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), a former top-tier candidate … During the October debate, Warren refused on multiple occasions to say whether her Medicare for All proposal would raise taxes on middle-class families. (It would.) Reston described the noteworthy occasion as Warren "fending off attacks on … whether she is capable of a yes-or-no answer on taxes." (She was not.)
THE CONTINUATION OF THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS … "Is Tinsel Cancelled?," via NYT: Glitter, tinsel and shiny wrapping paper are now signs of the apocalypse, judging by the #zerowasteholidays and similar hashtags that are blooming on Instagram. These reveal a new world made from orange-peel garlands and ornaments fashioned from dried apples and dehydrated citrus slices. Indeed, desiccated fruit would seem to be a badge of responsible style.
FATAL ATTRACTION … "Elle Magazine Celebrates Anti-Semites on ‘Women Of Color In Politics To Watch’ List," by WFB’s Adam Kredo: Elle‘s list included Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) and Linda Sarsour, both of whom have come under fire for their dissemination of anti-Semitic rhetoric and support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement …
In Elle‘s write up of Sarsour, a veteran anti-Israel activist who repeatedly employs anti-Semitic tropes in her criticism of the Jewish sate, the magazine touted her "radical love."
FIRST IN WAR, FIRST IN PEACE, AND THIRD IN IMPEACHMENT … "Donald Trump Makes History Again!," by WFB’s Andrew Stiles: Donald J. Trump made history again on Wednesday, joining Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton as the third president since America's founding to be "impeached" by his enemies in Congress …
The House vote to impeach Trump is functionally irrelevant, given the fact that 1) no one cares, and 2) The Republican-controlled Senate will never vote to remove Trump from office on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R., Ky.) watch.
DAYS SINCE JOE BIDEN DID A SUNDAY SHOW: 1,103. Come back, Joe!
"You know who really doesn’t have it? Joe Biden." —Former President Barack Obama
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