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Senate Democrat All but Tells Nancy Pelosi to End Impeachment Articles Holdup

. . .The scores of witnesses Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) brought before the House Intelligence Committee didn’t back up their elaborate impeachment scheme. in fact, it only increased Trump’s approval ratings and made swing state voters look on this move with greater disapproval; it pushed key battleground areas further away from Democrats this year. Bravo. Oh, and the whistleblower report from which this big top event was spawned was from a CIA agent who is a registered Democrat and had contacted Schiff’s’ staff prior to filing the report. Schiff knew the contents beforehand and prepared to weaponize them in this effort. Yeah, not a witch hunt. This whistleblower also worked with a 2020 Democratic candidate. There is zero credibility with this impeachment nonsense. None. All it did was lower the bar for this political maneuver.

The House voted on the impeachment articles, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi withheld them because she wanted assurances that the Republican Senate would hold a fair trial. That’s not her call. She stalled because she knew this faces certain death in the Senate. As Kimberley Strassel of The Wall Street Journal noted, this is “rolling impeachment.” Democrats don’t want a trial; that’ll only further rip apart their garbage case. They want time to logroll other nonsense into this circus act. The more this is in the news, to them, the greater the chance Trump’s numbers are damaged. Well, that didn’t happen, and the economy is booming, so great strategy there, Democrats.

Now, with even moderate Republicans holding firm on nixing a witness deal that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wants, despite him not wanting witnesses for when Bill Clinton was impeached—Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) has accepted defeat. He pretty much told Nancy that with the GOP not budging, she might as well send over the articles. Yet, McConnell probably should have moved on this without the articles and dismiss the charges. The longer this stayed in limbo, the longer the Democrats had a chance to further degrade constitutional order on the Hill.

(Read more from “Senate Democrat All but Tells Nancy Pelosi to End Impeachment Articles Holdup” HERE)

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Trump Responds to Iranian Attacks, Pentagon Releases Statement

By Daily Wire. President Donald Trump responded to Iran attacks [on] U.S. forces in Iraq on Tuesday night by announcing that damage assessments that are taking place appear to show that minimal, if any, damage was done.

Trump tweeted, “All is well! Missiles launched from Iran at two military bases located in Iraq. Assessment of casualties & damages taking place now. So far, so good! We have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world, by far! I will be making a statement tomorrow morning.”

(Read more from “Trump Responds to Iranian Attacks, Pentagon Releases Statement” HERE)

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U.S. Military Bases Attacked by Iran Have Hosted Trump and Pence, Damage Unclear: What We Know

By USA Today. Two military bases attacked by at least a dozen Iranian missiles late Tuesday have hosted President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in the past year or so, and Trump appeared to refer to one of them this week when he threatened Iraq with sanctions if it tried to expel U.S. troops.

The Pentagon confirmed missile strikes on the Ain Assad Airbase in western Iraq and a base in Irbil in northern Iraq. It was unclear late Tuesday whether there were casualties. . .

Both bases host U.S. and coalition forces assigned to fighting the Islamic State. The United States has about 5,000 soldiers in Iraq.

“It was a massive attack with ballistic missiles,” said a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly. (Read more from “Us Military Bases Attacked by Iran Have Hosted Trump and Pence, Damage Unclear: What We Know” HERE)

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WATCH: Russian Pranksters Dupe Maxine Waters by Calling as Greta Thunberg Claiming to Have Dirt on Trump

. . .The 81-year-old career politician — who has been calling for Trump’s impeachment since the day he took office — appears to have been tricked by Russian pranksters into thinking she was talking to Greta Thunberg, who reportedly claimed she had dirt on Trump.

The pranksters, Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, who go by the stage names Vovan and Lexus, recently posted a video of them talking to a woman, who identified herself as Maxine Waters in the audio. One pretends to be Greta, the other to be her father.

The conversation begins with the fake Greta telling Waters that she is in North Carolina at a climate summit calling for the protection of the fake “Chon-Go-Chango” islands. . .

“It was a really terrible meeting in the U.N. building in September with him. And I had nightmares afterwards. It’s terrible,” fake Greta told Waters. “I saw him in the hallway. He was with security and I shouted at him, ‘Sign the Paris Climate Agreement again!’ He came over, he leaned in towards me, and said softly, ‘Listen carefully to me, little girl. You will never achieve your goal, like the congressional goal, trying to accuse me.’”

“He said you will never achieve your goal? Oh my goodness.” Waters said, sounding shocked. “Did you ask him if he would rethink signing the Paris Climate Agreement? Is that your question to him?”

(Read more from “Watch: Russian Pranksters Dupe Maxine Waters by Calling as Greta Thunberg Claiming to Have Dirt on Trump” HERE)

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Here’s How the Airstrike That Killed Soleimani Affected Trump’s Approval Rating

President Donald Trump’s approval rating has increased sharply following the impeachment proceedings against him and his decision to order the airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top terrorism architect.

According to RealClearPolitics, Trump’s average approval rating now stands at 45.3 percent, up from a low 41.6 percent just two months ago after Democrats began their formal impeachment investigation.

Since the airstrike that killed Soleimani, Trump’s approval has risen one percent.

The rating is nearly a three-year high, the Washington Examiner noted. Trump’s approval rating has not been this high since Feb. 2017, just two weeks after his inauguration when he notched a 46 percent approval rating. (Read more from “Here’s How the Airstrike That Killed Soleimani Affected Trump’s Approval Rating” HERE)

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Secret Service ‘Aware’ of Actor’s ‘Death’ Threat Against President Trump

By Daily Caller. The United States Secret Service is “aware” of an Instagram post from comedian George Lopez that many perceived as a threat on President Donald Trump’s life.

“The Secret Service is aware of the [post] made by Mr. Lopez,” a U.S. Secret Service representative told the Daily Caller via a statement. “The Secret Service takes all threats against the President and or any of our protectees seriously, and as a matter of practice, we do not comment on matters involving protective intelligence.” . . .

“We’ll do it for half,” the comedian wrote, leading many to wonder if the detail in charge of protecting the president was aware of the statement. (Read more from “Secret Service ‘Aware’ of Actor’s ‘Death’ Threat Against President Trump” HERE)

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Qassem Soleimani Eulogist Offers $80 Million Bounty for Donald Trump’s Head During Iranian General’s Funeral

By Newsweek. A eulogist speaking during funeral events for assassinated Iranian general Qassem Soleimani has called for a multi-million dollar bounty on President Donald Trump as mourning continues for the slain Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander.

Huge crowds packed the streets of Tehran on Monday as the regime held a funeral service for Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad on Friday. He was the commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, and oversaw Iran’s foreign military strategy and covert operations.

His funeral procession travelled through various cities and sites in Iraq and Iran on its way to Tehran. In the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad, enormous crowds attended the event, which was broadcast live on Iran’s state-owned Channel One TV station.

At one point, an unidentified eulogist called for a bounty to be placed on Trump’s head. “We are 80 million Iranians,” he said. “If each one of us puts aside one American dollar, we will have 80 million American dollars, and we will reward anyone who brings us [Trump]’s head with that amount.” (Read more from “Qassem Soleimani Eulogist Offers $80 Million Bounty for Donald Trump’s Head During Iranian General’s Funeral” HERE)

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Flashback: Obama Bombed Countries, Went to War, Used ‘Kill List’ Without Congress

Democrats plan to pass a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives this week declaring that President Donald Trump violated international law with last week’s airstrike against terrorist Iranian General Qasem Suleimani. . .

But few Democrats raised objections when President Barack Obama went to war — often exceeding the boundaries of his legal authority as president. The most notorious case was the Libya War, which President Obama launched in March 2011 without congressional authorization. He continued the war effort beyond the War Powers Resolution’s deadlines because, the administration argued, the U.S. was not engaged in “hostilities” but “leading from behind.”

Some on the left bent over backwards to defend Obama’s unconstitutional war. Former Yale Law School dean Harold Koh was once “one of the country’s foremost defenders of the notion that the president of the United States can’t wage wars without the approval of Congress,” the New York Times noted, but later became “the administration’s defender of the right to stay engaged in a conflict against Libya without Congressional approval.” . . .

Obama later abandoned that plan, but he did bomb Syria during the campaign against the so-called “Islamic State” (or ISIS, which he called “ISIL”). He also dropped “26,171 bombs” on Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan in 2016 alone, according to the Council on Foreign Relations — often for reasons tangentially related to the 9/11-era Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). And in 2012, the Obama White House leaked to the Times that in addition to killing Osama bin Laden, he personally oversaw a terrorist “kill list.” Few protested, other than Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), the former mounting a filibuster to protest the use of drones against U.S. citizens — including in the hypothetical example that they would be used in the United States. (Read more from “Flashback: Obama Bombed Countries, Went to War, Used ‘Kill List’ Without Congress” HERE)

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Iraqi Parliament Calls for Expulsion of Foreign Troops; Trump Warns of Sanctions

By Aljazeera. Iraq’s parliament has passed a resolution calling on the government to expel foreign troops from the country as Iran-US tensions escalate following the killing of a top Iranian military commander and Iraqi armed group leader in a US strike in Baghdad.

In an extraordinary parliamentary session on Sunday, parliament called on the government to end all foreign troop presence in Iraq and to cancel its request for assistance from the US-led coalition which had been working with Baghdad to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

“The government commits to revoke its request for assistance from the international coalition fighting Islamic State due to the end of military operations in Iraq and the achievement of victory,” the resolution read.

“The Iraqi government must work to end the presence of any foreign troops on Iraqi soil and prohibit them from using its land, airspace or water for any reason.” (Read more from “Iraqi Parliament Calls for Expulsion of Foreign Troops” HERE)

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Trump Warns of Sanctions If Iraq Tries to Expel U.S. Troops

By AP News. President Donald Trump insists that Iranian cultural sites are fair game for the U.S. military, dismissing concerns within his own administration that doing so could constitute a war crime under international law. He also warned Iraq that he would levy punishing sanctions if it expelled American troops in retaliation for a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that killed a top Iranian official.

Trump’s comments Sunday came amid escalating tensions in the Middle East following the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds force. Iran has vowed to retaliate and Iraq’s parliament responded by voting Sunday to oust U.S. troops based in the country.

Trump first raised the prospect of targeting Iranian cultural sites Saturday in a tweet. Speaking with reporters Sunday as he flew back to Washington from his holiday stay in Florida, he doubled down, despite international prohibitions. (Read more from “Trump Warns of Sanctions If Iraq Tries to Expel U.S. Troops” HERE)

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Impeachment Witness Says Case Against Trump ‘Collapses Under Weight of Time’

Democrats are demanding Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell call a list of witnesses the Democrats believe will bolster their impeachment case against President Trump. In their rush to impeach the president before the holidays, the Democrats abandoned their legal fight to subpoena the witnesses they once proclaimed were central to building their case. Now Democrats want a do-over in the Senate.

Jonathan Turley, the Republican witness and legal scholar who testified before the House Judiciary Committee during the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry, wrote an op-ed explaining how the Democrats’ weak case against the president is already collapsing as Senate Republicans continue to wait for Speaker Pelosi to transmit articles of impeachment.

(Via The Hill)

As the House and Senate continue their struggle over the coming Senate impeachment trial of President Trump, a federal judge in Washington issued an opinion that was largely lost in the crush of New Year’s stories. The opinion could loom large in the trial, however, and one line in particular may be repeated like a mantra by the Trump defense team: “The House clearly has no intention of pursuing” the witness.

The witness was Charles Kupperman, a deputy to former national security adviser John Bolton. Other than Bolton himself, Kupperman is one of the officials most likely to have direct knowledge of an alleged quid pro quo involving aid to Ukraine. After subpoenaing him in October, the House mysteriously withdrew its subpoena before the court could rule on compelling his testimony. It also decided not to subpoena Bolton and other key witnesses. Judge Richard Leon dismissed the case just before New Year’s Eve with a hint of frustration, if not bewilderment, that the House did not seem interested in hearing from a possible eyewitness. Historically, that lack of interest in not just witnesses but a triable case will remain one of the most baffling blunders of this impeachment.

(Read more from “Impeachment Witness Says Case Against Trump ‘Collapses Under Weight of Time'” HERE)

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Trump: 2020 Democratic Candidates ‘Trying to Punish Religious Believers’ (VIDEO)

President Trump warned members of his evangelical base that every 2020 Democratic presidential candidate poses a threat to their religious liberty.

“Our faith is needed now more than ever,” Trump said during a Friday “Evangelicals for Trump” rally in Miami. “While certain fads come and go, it’s an eternal truth that faith and family lead to the stability, happiness, and prosperity of nations.”

“Yet as we speak,” Trump continued, “every Democrat candidate running for president is trying to punish religious believers and silence our churches and our pastors.” . . .

“Our opponents want to shut out God from the public square so that they can impose their extreme anti-religious and socialist agenda on America,” Trump continued. The New York Times reported that “many supporters outside [the rally] were Cuban émigrés who said their primary concern was what they saw as the threat of socialism. Most said they were lifelong Republicans who were more concerned than ever about the Democratic Party gaining more power, citing fears that they would face more government mandates.”

(Read more from “Trump: 2020 Democratic Candidates ‘Trying to Punish Religious Believers'” HERE)

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‘What the Hell Were You Thinking?’: Trump Berated White House Staff for Not Telling Him Putin Was Trying to Call Him

President Donald Trump berated his former national security adviser Michael Flynn and other senior staff members for holding off on arranging a phone call with the Russian president soon after taking office, according to a new book on the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with the Pentagon.

In “Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos,” the national security reporter Peter Bergen recounted the tenuous conversation between the US president and his staffers, one of many intimate talks whose details were sourced from dozens of interviews with current and former White House officials and military officers.

On January 27, 2017, weeks after winning the presidency, Trump had his first official visit from a foreign leader at the White House, with British Prime Minister Theresa May. During lunch, May asked Trump if he had talked to Putin, according to Bergen. . .

Flynn, a former three-star US Army general, was nearby and leaned in to tell Trump: “Sir, we’re arranging that call now. President Putin called several days ago, but we haven’t been able to get it on your calendar yet.”

“Are you kidding me? Vladimir Putin tried to call me, and you didn’t put him through? What the hell were you thinking?” Trump said. (Read more from “‘What the Hell Were You Thinking?’: Trump Berated White House Staff for Not Telling Him Putin Was Trying to Call Him” HERE)

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