Hillary Clinton mocks Rudy Giuliani accusation: 'Yes, I am famously under-scrutinized'

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton shot back at Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, on Twitter on Tuesday after he accused her of being “protected and immune” to media scrutiny.
“(The Washington Post), NBC, and CNN are going after me because I’m the messenger, and covering up the message, Dem corruption,” Giuliani tweeted about questions over his involvement in trying to get Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. “Meanwhile, they have yet to ask Biden difficult questions because he is protected and immune like the Clintons and crooked Clinton Foundation!”
“Yes, I am famously under-scrutinized,” Clinton sarcastically tweeted in response, alluding to the investigation into her use of a private email server as secretary of state that dominated the 2016 presidential campaign, the Benghazi investigation while she was secretary of state as well as others going back to her time as first lady.
The State Department expanded its investigation into Clinton’s private server in August.
The House of Representatives is launching an impeachment inquiry into Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he asked Zelensky to investigate alleged wrongdoing by Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in the country.
Clinton is scheduled to appear on both “The View” and “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Wednesday as she promotes “The Book of Gutsy Women,” which she co-wrote with her daughter Chelsea Clinton.

Giuliani threatens lawsuits against individual House Dems amid Trump impeachment inquiry

President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday he’s considering individual lawsuits against House Democrats for allegedly violating the constitutional and civil rights of the president and members of his administration amid new congressional inquiries and subpoenas resulting from a whistleblower’s complaint.
Speaking on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle," Giuliani said he sought the advice of civil rights and constitutional lawyers who recommended such legal action.
“I think we have to raise their consideration of constitutional and criminal rights. This is worse than McCarthy. How about a total illicit impeachment proceeding? This is an illicit, rogue impeachment proceeding,” Giuliani told host Laura Ingraham.
The former mayor of New York City suggested that some House Democrats were guilty of violating Article II of the Constitution, which outlines the president’s powers during his four-year term as commander in chief, specifically his power to conduct the foreign policy of the United States. He also said he may sue Democrats in Congress for allegedly violating attorney-client privilege and over obstruction-of-justice claims.
The chairmen of three House committees subpoenaed Giuliani on Monday, seeking key documents related to the Ukraine controversy as part of their Trump impeachment inquiry. Giuliani lawyered up Tuesday, hiring former Watergate prosecutor John Sale.
Though still mounting a defense, Giuliani claimed he has evidence, in the form of video recordings and interview notes, which are protected from an additional subpoena under the statute of attorney-client privilege. He said the evidence incriminates House Democrats for allegedly trying to threaten foreign powers into keeping quiet amid the impeachment inquiry.
He pointed to the example of Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who last month boasted to reporters, including conservative columnist John Solomon, that he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that cooperating with Trump and Giuliani would be viewed as election meddling and would be “disastrous for long-term U.S.-Ukraine relations,” The Hill reported.
Giuliani also accused mainstream media organizations of bias, claiming they turned a blind eye to the Ukraine activities of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
“[The media] are covering up for the Democrats because they are more corrupt than anyone realizes. They are covering up serious crimes that were committed against the United States by the Bidens and taking millions and multimillions of dollars and putting the United States in a very compromised position,” he said.

“[The media] are covering up for the Democrats because they are more corrupt than anyone realizes. They are covering up serious crimes that were committed against the United States by the Bidens and taking millions and multimillions of dollars and putting the United States in a very compromised position.”
— Rudy Giuliani

Giuliani said Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress are trying to silence him and Attorney General William Barr solely because they are effective in their legal defense of the president. Biden's presidential campaign requested in a letter Sunday that major news networks not invite Giuliani on air anymore, after Giuliani spent the morning on a series of talk shows aggressively highlighting what he called Biden's apparently corrupt dealings in Ukraine and China.
Ingraham mentioned members of Congress are given immunity from prosecution in regard to comments made during legislative sessions. Giuliani said he would come after House Democrats for their remarks made outside of Congress, include Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who recently tweeted that Trump should be kept in solitary confinement, and another unnamed congressmen who allegedly said Barr should be arrested.
Biden has acknowledged on camera that, when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire a prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the natural gas firm Burisma Holdings — where his son Hunter Biden had a highly lucrative role on the board paying him tens of thousands of dollars per month, despite limited relevant expertise. The elder Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired.
Fox News' Gregg Re, Brooke Singman and Blake Burman contributed to this report.

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GOP 'Texodus' continues with Mac Thornberry retirement, Dems eye seats

The sixth House Republican from Texas announced Monday that he will not run for re-election in 2020 as an unfolding “Texodus” marks a shift in American national politics as Democrats eye the traditionally red Lone Star as potential battleground territory.
Rep. Mac Thornberry, who represented a district in the northern Texas panhandle, said in a press release Monday, quoting a verse from Ecclesiastes: "We are reminded ... that 'for everything there is a season,' and I believe that the time has come for a change. Therefore, I will not be a candidate for reelection in the 2020 election."
He served 13 terms in Congress since he was first elected to the U.S. House in 1994, the same year George W. Bush won the presidency. Thornberry was one of the longest-serving representatives on either party in Congress, the Dallas Morning News reported.                
His impending departure marks the sixth Texas Republican in Congress since July to announce that they will not seek reelection.
Rep. Pete Olson started the trend, followed by Reps. Mike Conway, Will Hurd, Kenny Marchant and Bill Flores. Conway is the top Republican on the House Agriculture Committee and Hurd is the only African American Republican in Congress, according to NPR.
"While we steadily invest in the Lone Star State, Washington Republicans just flew into Texas to declare they'll win back the majority and jetted away without a plan to stop the Texodus," Lucinda Guinn, executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told the Dallas Morning News.
Because Thornberry’s district is strongly Republican---President Trump won by an 80 percent margin there in 2016—the congressman’s resignation does not pose a risk to the GOP losing the seat to the Dems come 2020, the Dallas Morning News reported. Some of the other seats are more vulnerable to a Democratic takeover come Election Day.
Unlike Democrats, the Republican Party sets term limits on how long representatives can hold committee leadership positions in the House. Some speculate Thornberry and other Republican representatives decided against re-election because they don’t want to return to the status of a rank-and-file member of Congress. The Republican Party is considering amending that rule to prevent others from flying to coop, according to Politico.
Others believe Republicans in Congress no longer want to serve in a chamber as a member of the minority party. It’s unlikely the GOP will regain the House as a result of the 2020 election.
According to the Texas Tribune Washington bureau chief, Abby Livingston, some GOP Republicans might have been dissuaded by the smaller margins by which they won re-election the last time. Though Texas remains red, the Democrats have gradually been seizing influence in a ground up movement at the state level, as more of the wealthier suburbs in Houston and Dallas are now represented by Democrats, according to NPR.
The recent Texodus comes after the Republican Party lost control of the House for the first time in eight years following the 2018 midterm elections. Two GOP congressmen lost their re-election bids that year while six others announced their retirements in 2018, according to the Dallas Morning News.

WinRed, new GOP donor platform, reaps impeachment windfall, rakes in millions since probe launch

EXCLUSIVE – WinRed, the new GOP online fundraising platform designed to compete with Democrats in the battle for small-dollar campaign donations, has raised over $28 million since launching three months ago, with top officials crediting the Democrats’ impeachment push for a big spike in fundraising over the last week, Fox News has learned.
WinRed raised $28.1 million in the third fundraising quarter, which began in July and ended Monday. The online platform is used to raise money for President Trump’s re-election, campaign committees and various Republican candidates across the country.
In an interview, WinRed's president, Gerrit Lansing, said the Democrats’ moves to ramp up impeachment efforts against Trump “helped a lot,” saying fundraising numbers “spiked” after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement of a formal inquiry last week.
WinRed has raised over $11.8 million from over 237,000 contributors since the announcement from Pelosi, D-Calif., he said.
“It just poured gas on the situation where there is a ton of money being raised in all levels and all campaigns,” Lansing said.
The platform has been off to a stronger start than the Democrats’ version which launched in 2004. FEC records indicated the $30 million raised through WinRed was more than what ActBlue -- the Dems' big online fundraising platform -- raised in its first three and a half years. The records showed that ActBlue raised $99,000 in its first quarter of operations from June to August 2004.
“They were starting in a position that didn’t have all the party behind it,” Lansing said of ActBlue. “The DNC wasn’t on ActBlue until several years ago. Hillary and Obama weren’t on ActBlue,” he said, referring to former President Obama and ex-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
But, ActBlue has grown into a fundraising behemoth since then: it raised $246 million in the second fundraising quarter of this year.
Lansing said WinRed has benefitted from top Republican campaigns and organizations embracing it from the beginning. WinRed launched in late June, and this was the platform’s first full fundraising quarter.
“We’re starting off with a big bang where everyone’s on it, everyone’s excited about, and I think it reflects in that big number in our first three months,” he said.
Those running WinRed were hoping to raise $20-25 million this quarter but blew through it after last week’s impeachment drama. The days leading up to the end of the quarter – when campaigns would ramp up fundraising appeals – also could see increases in donations. WinRed had over 601,000 donations this quarter.
“Impeachment helped a lot with that,” Lansing said.
Republicans have boasted of increased fundraising in the wake of the impeachment inquiry announcement. Officials said the Trump campaign, along with the RNC, brought in $5 million in the 24 hours after Pelosi’s announcement. National Republican Congressional Committee officials also said its online fundraising soared by 608 percent on the day Pelosi announced the inquiry.

Joe, Hunter Biden seen golfing with Ukraine gas company exec back in 2014, photo shows

EXCLUSIVE: A photo obtained by Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" shows former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter golfing in the Hamptons with Devon Archer, who served on the board of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings with Hunter.
Earlier this month, Joe Biden told Fox News in Iowa that he never discussed his son’s foreign business dealings with him.
“I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” Biden said, pointing the finger at President Trump. “I know Trump deserves to be investigated. He is violating every basic norm of a president. You should be asking him why is he on the phone with a foreign leader, trying to intimidate a foreign leader. You should be looking at Trump.”
Hunter Biden told The New Yorker previously that he and his father had spoken “just once” about his work in Ukraine.
A source told Fox News the photo was taken in August 2014. Contemporaneous news reports indicated the vice president was in the Hamptons at the time.
Hunter Biden and Archer joined the Burisma Holdings board in April 2014.
Earlier this month, Trump suggested that despite his claims, Joe Biden seemingly discussed Ukraine matters with his son. The White House has sought to point to possible corruption by the Bidens, amid the House Democrats' formal impeachment inquiry against the president.

Devon Archer, far left, with former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, far right, in 2014.

“And now, he made a lie when he said he never spoke to his son,” Trump said. “Of course you spoke to your son!”
Biden has acknowledged on camera that in spring 2016, when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire top prosecutor Viktor Shokin. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings — where Hunter had a lucrative role on the board despite limited relevant expertise.
The vice president threatened to withhold $1 billion in critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired.
"Well, son of a b---h, he got fired," Biden joked at a panel two years after leaving office.
Shokin himself had already been widely accused of corruption.
Critics alleged Hunter Biden might have been selling access to his father, who had pushed Ukraine to increase its natural gas production.
"Impossible to justify $50k/month for Hunter Biden serving on a Ukrainian energy board w zero expertise unless he promised to sell access," political scientist Ian Bremmer tweeted.
Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, on Sunday, suggested Shokin was the target of an international smear campaign to discredit his work.
In a combative interview on ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday, Giuliani presented what he said was an affidavit signed by Shokin that confirmed Hunter Biden was being investigated when Shokin was fired.
"I have an affidavit here that's been online for six months that nobody bothered to read from the gentleman who was fired, Viktor Shokin, the so-called corrupt prosecutor," Giuliani said. "The Biden people say that he wasn't investigating Hunter Biden at the time. He says under oath that he was." The Shokin affidavit purportedly said the U.S. had pressured him into resigning because he was unwilling to drop the case.
Later, Giuliani added: "I have another affidavit, this time from another Ukrainian prosecutor who says that the day after Biden strong-armed the president to remove Shokin, they show up in the prosecutor’s office -- lawyers for Hunter Biden show up in the prosecutor’s office and they give an apology for dissemination of false information."
After anchor George Stephanopoulos expressed skepticism, Giuliani fired back: "How about if I -- how about if I tell you over the next week four more of these will come out from four other prosecutors? ... No, no, no, George, they won’t be [investigated], because they’ve been online for six months, and the Washington press will not accept the fact that Joe Biden might have done something like this."
Speaking separately to Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," Giuliani brought up the affidavits and called the situation Clintonesque.
“The pattern is a pattern of pay for play. It includes something very similar to what happened to the Clinton Foundation," Giuliani said, "which goes to the very core of, what did Obama know and when did he know it?"
Giuliani referred to a December 2015 New York Times article about Hunter Biden, Burisma and a Ukrainian oligarch, and how the younger Biden's involvement with the Ukrainian company could undermine then-Vice President Biden's anti-corruption message.
"The question is," Giuliani asked, "when Biden and Obama saw that article, about how the son was pulling down money from the most crooked oligarch in Russia, did Obama call Biden in and say, 'Joe, how could you be doing this?'"
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” producer Alex Pfeiffer contributed to this report.

Graham calls out NY Times report saying Trump 'pressed' Aussie PM

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., criticized a report by the New York Times that claimed President Trump "pressed" the prime minister of Australia for information to discredit the probe conducted by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, calling it an "effort" to shut down Attorney General William Barr's investigation.
"This New York Times article about Barr talking to Australia is the beginning of an effort to shut down Barr's investigation to find out how this whole thing started," Graham said on "Hannity" Monday.
A Justice Department official told Fox News on Monday that Barr asked Trump to make introductions to foreign countries that might have had information pertinent to U.S. Attorney John Durham's ongoing probe into possible misconduct by the intelligence community at the outset of the Russia investigation.
But, a person familiar with the situation told Fox News it would be wrong to say Trump "pressed" the Australian prime minister for information that could have discredited Mueller's now-completed probe, as the New York Times reported earlier Monday.
Graham said that Barr should be talking with Australia as well as the U.K. and Italy in order to do his job properly.  He also said he would write a letter to those three countries asking them to cooperate with Barr and cited a letter his colleagues sent to Ukraine last year asking them to cooperate with Mueller or the U.S. would stop sending aid.
"So here's what I want American people to know: it's OK to cooperate with Mueller to get Trump but it's not OK to cooperate with Barr to find out if Trump was the victim of an out-of-control intelligence operation," Graham said. "We're not going to have a country like that."
The senator told host Sean Hannity it "bothered him" that "the left" would say it was wrong for Barr to talk with other countries.
"This New York Times article is an effort to stop Barr from looking at how this whole thing began in 2016 regarding the Trump campaign," Graham said. "What are they afraid of."
Fox News' Gregg Re and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.

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