In The Past 24 Hours Or So

Your Daily Dose of Trump and His Administration News

10/29

•  Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council’s top Ukraine expert, tells House impeachment investigators that he was so troubled by Trump’s July phone call with Ukraine’s President that he reported his concerns to a superior, “I was concerned by the call. I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine…I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained.”

• More from Alexander Vindman’s opening statement: “In the Spring of 2019, I became aware of outside influencers promoting a false narrative of Ukraine inconsistent with the consensus views of the interagency. This narrative was harmful to U.S. government policy.”

NOTE: With no evidence, Trump attacked Vindman just before the official was to tell House impeachment investigators he raised alarms about what Trump told Ukraine’s president during a July phone call.

• Five senior Trump administration officials who watched in real time told The Daily Beast that they had no idea where Trump got the “whimpering and crying and screaming” Baghdadi detail.

• Officials cringed as Trump spilled sensitive details about the al-Baghdadi raid. A few details he revealed are inaccurate, others are classified or tactically sensitive. Officials say they worry about what to put in briefings for a man with no filter.

• Top Democrats at the deposition of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, said his testimony Tuesday was “extremely disturbing” and praised him for appearing despite attacks from the White House.

• Murray Energy, the largest privately owned coal company in the US, has become the 8th coal company in a year to file for bankruptcy protection.

• Federal Court Bars Use of Entangling Nets in Vital North Atlantic Right Whale Habitat. The Trump administration tried to expand the gauntlet of fishing gear that can harm & kill these whales without considering how it would affect the population.