January 1, Trump vs. Pelosi: A Constitutional Game of Chicken

This Day in History | 1936

The Hoover Dam begins sending electricity to Los Angeles

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Good Morning Middle Americans!

The Constitution gives the House of Representatives  “the sole power of impeachment.” We are about to find out exactly what that means. Nancy Pelosi’s Democrats are playing a Constitutional game of chicken with Donald Trump’s White House. The winner of this fight will ultimately have a YUUUGE impact on the how we define the Separation of Powers moving forward. It doesn’t help that President Trump is misrepresenting facts as he blasts his investigators and seeks to highlight the administration’s efforts to fulfill campaign pledges on the economy and war in the Middle East. 

White House vows to stop any and all cooperation with what it considers an illegitimate impeachment probe by House Democrats. Lawyers of all political stripes are blasting the letter as a joke. 

As for Democrats, Elizabeth Warren is rising in the polls – but she’s also getting more attention. And not all of it is good. Someone is spending a lot of money on opposition research. She’s facing new criticism and scrutiny, not just from President Trump but her Democratic opponents as well. Bernie Sanders reemerged on Tuesday, after his recent heart attack. From his home in Vermont, he says he has no plans of leaving the race. 

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is urging President Donald Trump to warn the public about efforts by foreign governments to interfere in U.S. elections.

And after years of limiting public fights with President Donald Trump, congressional Republicans broke ranks over the president’s plans to withdraw U.S. forces from northern Syria. 

Read all about it!

– Fraser Dixon

Trump’s All-Out Blockade Threatens Democrats’ impeachment Drive

(Politico) – Trump dramatically upped the political ante on Tuesday, with White House counsel Pat Cipollone blasting the Democrasts’ impeachment inquiry as “illegal” and “dangerous,” and insisting the administration won’t cooperate with a probe it considers constitutionally improper.

Democrats now have to work quickly to determine how to contest Trump’s broadside as they push ahead with an investigation into whether the president abused his power in pressuring Ukraine to intervene in the 2020 election and investigate Joe Biden.

Learn more about this controversy here…

The Elizabeth Warren Pregnancy Firing ‘Controversy’

(Vox) – Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s rise in the polls in the Democratic presidential primary race has brought increased scrutiny of her past, including whether she was let go from a teaching job in 1971 for being pregnant. Warren has been telling the story for years. Now, some circles are questioning the veracity of her claims, and she is sticking by them.

Read more about Elizabeth Warren’s firing ‘controversy’ here…

Senate Report Says Russian Election Interference ‘Invariably’ Supported Trump, Recommends National PSA

(Tech Crunch) – “This campaign sought to polarize Americans on the basis of societal, ideological, and racial differences, provoked real world events, and was part of a foreign government’s covert support of Russia’s favored candidate in the U.S. presidential election,” the report reads at the outset. So much is already known, but the report goes into great detail on the exact means.

More importantly, it officially characterizes what had in many ways only been observed by other parties or alluded to: that “Russia’s favored candidate” was Trump from the beginning and that operations were undertaken specifically to get him and no one else elected.

Read more here

Republicans Slam Trump’s Syria Pullout: ‘Disaster,’ ‘Betrayal,’ ‘Mistake’

(NBC News) – A long list of Republicans — including several top allies of President Donald Trump — lined up in vehement opposition Monday to the president’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from the northern border of Syria and allow a Turkish operation there.

Find out more here…

Elsewhere in America…

(The Times Picayune) –  Three Louisiana men are suspected in the killing of a witness who testified at the murder trial of a former Dallas police officer, and authorities say the killing had nothing to do with that case. More here…

(NBC New York) – A New Jersey man already serving life for planting bombs in New York City has been convicted of attempted murder and assault stemming from a shootout with police. More here…

(Chicago Tribune) – A 9-year-old child has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder in a mobile home fire that killed five people in central Illinois. More here…