In The Past 24 Hours Or So

Your Daily Dose of Trump and His Administration News

11/22

• Fox News analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said that the evidence presented in the impeachment proceedings against President Trump is “overwhelming” and that it is sufficient “to justify about three or four articles of impeachment.” 

• Trump called into on Fox & Friends and spoke for fifty-three minutes.

• President Trump repeated his debunked claim that Ukraine is connected to a hacked Democratic server from the 2016 election one day after a former Russia expert in his administration, Fiona Hill, chastised Republicans for giving air in the impeachment hearings to conspiracy theories that Ukraine, and not Russia, was behind it. “A lot of it had to do, they say with Ukraine. Why did they give it to a Ukrainian company,” Trump said of Crowdstrike. 

NOTE: Crowdstrike is the US company hired to investigate the hack of Democratic servers.

• Trump says he likes Nikki Haley but will stick with Mike Pence as his running mate in 2020. “He’s my guy, he’s my friend.”

• In a flub that some may see as a Freudian slip, when referring to Ukraine undertaking investigations in exchange for a White House visit, Trump said, “”I do want always corruption.”

• President Trump said he would like a full Senate trial if the House votes to impeach him.

• Trump condemns former American ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch for purportedly refusing to hang up his picture in her office. “This ambassador that everyone says is so wonderful, she wouldn’t hang my picture in the embassy. This was not an angel, this woman, okay? And there were a lot of things that she did that I didn’t like.” He also complained that Republicans didn’t attack her enough during impeachment hearings and said they only refused to do so because of her gender.

• Trump blames White House counselor Kellyanne Conway for her husband’s criticisms of his presidency. “She must’ve  done a number on him,” Trump said, referring to the Conways. “She must’ve done some bad things to him, because that man’s crazy.”

• Trump takes sole credit for China not turning Hong Kong into a nuclear wasteland. “If it weren’t for me, Hong Kong would’ve been obliterated in 14 minutes,” the president claimed, before adding, “We have to stand with Hong Kong, but I’m also standing with President Xi.”

• President Trump suggested that he might veto legislation designed to support anti-government protesters in Hong Kong — despite its near unanimous support in the House and Senate — to pave the way for a trade deal with China. The president said that he was balancing competing priorities in the U.S.-China relationship. “We have to stand with Hong Kong, but I’m also standing with President Xi, he’s a friend of mine. He’s an incredible gu. I’d like to see them work it out, ok?” the president said. “I stand with freedom, I stand with all of the things that I want to do, but we are also in the process of making one of the largest trade deals in history. And if we could do that it would be great.”

• The CEO of Ukrainian state gas company Naftogaz told Time he is ready to give evidence to U.S. federal prosecutors probing the business dealings of President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. “I will with a high likelihood be invited to testify in this case,” Andriy Kobolyev said, adding that he “would be willing to come and testify” if he were summoned. Naftogaz is reportedly connected to Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two men who allegedly worked with Giuliani to pressure Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. Parnas and Fruman allegedly tried to use their political connections to replace the leadership at Naftogaz, which resisted the two men’s efforts for a gas deal.

• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hand-delivered a plan to the Saudi royal family to help the crown prince get away with ordering the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to a bombshell new report. Citing a senior Saudi source, Middle East Eye reported Monday evening that Pompeo devised a plot to help shield Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (“MBS”) from the fallout following the highly publicized murder of Khashoggi, who was brutally killed in the Saudi consulate in Turkey on October 2.