Trump tears into impeachment inquiry, defends military pardons at Florida 'homecoming rally'

President Trump took the stage in Sunrise, Fla. Tuesday night to address supporters at what his reelection campaign rally dubbed a “homecoming rally”  before the start of his Thanksgiving break at Mar-a-Lago, his new primary residence.
Tuesday's rally marked his first official campaign visit to the Sunshine State since he changed his state of residence from New York, and he made a point of telling Florida voters that “less than one year from now I will join voters across the Sunshine State, my home, as we head to the polls.”
Trump claimed his residency change was motivated by the poor treatment he was receiving from New York politicians investigating him. However, Florida's far more attractive tax rates could have played some part in the decision as well.
"Welcome home to Florida," Gov. Ron DeSantis, told Trump before joking he was more excited to welcome first lady Melania Trump to the state.
Winning Florida will be crucial for the president’s reelection. Trump won the state over Hillary Clinton by 110,000 votes, but Tuesday's rally took place in one of the most Democratic areas of the state. Clinton overwhelmingly won Broward County, where Sunrise is located, in 2016.
About 200 anti-Trump protesters rallied on a street outside the BB&T Center before the president arrived. They raised a helium-filled “Baby Trump” balloon, and some chanted, “Lock him up.”
However thousands inside the arena broke out in chants of  "four more years," and "USA, USA." During Vice President Mike Pence's introductory remarks, a chant of "Conan, Conan" broke out when Pence mentioned the Belgian Malinois that played a starring role in the raid that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
"Our troops are coming home and Conan the hero dog is just fine," Pence told the crowd.
The president touted his administration's record on the economy, noting that the stock market just reached another all-time high: "Everybody's getting rich and I'm working my a-- off." He also noted the 6.7 million new jobs created under his administration and the almost 600,000 jobs created in Florida since 2016.
Trump also worked to butter up voters as he described his supporters as the "super-elite."
"You people are successful as hell," he told them. "You're smarter. You're better looking. You're sharper."
Trump also spent time discussing recent controversies, including an unannounced trip he paid to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on a Saturday earlier this month, assuring the crowd that if he "didn't feel great," he "wouldn't be ranting and raving" to crowds so large.
Trump also defended his decision earlier this month to pardon two soldiers accused or convicted of war crimes, including Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, who was six years into a 19-year sentence for second-degree murder after he ordered his soldiers to open fire and kill three men in Afghanistan.
"We're going to take care of our warriors," the president said, referring to officers who reportedly opposed the pardons as "the deep state." "I will always stick up for our fighters, people can sit in their air-conditioned offices and complain."
He then pivoted to impeachment, accusing what he called "the radical left Democrats" of "trying to rip our nation apart."
"First it was the Russia hoax, total hoax, a failed overthrow attempt and the biggest fraud in the history of our country," Trump said. "Now the same maniacs are pushing the deranged impeachment, a witch hunt the same as before."
The president pointed to polls that show the public to be ambivalent about impeachment.
"A lot of bad things are happening to them," he said. "You see what's happening in the polls? Everybody said, 'You know what? That's real bulls---.'"
Trump also criticized the media's coverage of the House Intelligence Committee's public impeachment hearings, saying he "won these last two weeks so solidly, but anyone who read The New York Times or The Washington Post "would have no idea we won."
The president repeated his assertion that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said there was "no pressure" to investigate the Bidens.
"The Ukrainian foreign minister said 'Ambassador [to the European Union Gordon] Sondland did not tell us about assistance,'" said Trump. "I have never had a direct link between security aid and an investigation."
Trump said Republicans asked him if they could keep the impeachment debate going longer. "They said,' Sir, can we keep this sucker going a little longer? We've never seen anything like it in the polls."
The president also implored congressional Democrats to take action on the USMCA trade agreement, vowing that it would be an improvement on "the NAFTA catastrophe, if [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi will ever sign it."
"We're waiting months, she doesn't want to give the people of our country a victory," said Trump. "She and the Democrats have done nothing, they're doing nothing.
"Nancy's on track to go down as the single worst and least productive Speaker of the House in our history."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Trump vows not to change the name of Thanksgiving despite cries from the 'radical left'

President Trump told supporters at a rally held in Sunrise, Fla., Tuesday that he wouldn’t allow the “radical left” to change the name of Thanksgiving.
The president, who recently switched his residency from New York to Florida, claimed at his "homecoming rally" that the left wants to change the name of the upcoming secular holiday after what he previously described as “a war on Christmas.”
“As we gather together for Thanksgiving, you know, some people want to change the name Thanksgiving,” Trump began Tuesday night. “They don't want to use the term Thanksgiving. And that was true also with Christmas. But now everybody's using Christmas again. Remember this?”
While campaigning before the 2016 election, Trump vowed he was “a good Christian,” and therefore, would ensure people could “say ‘Merry Christmas’ again” in stores and public places instead of being obliged to opt for the more secular greeting “Happy Holidays,” according to The Hill.
“But now we're going to have to do a little work on Thanksgiving,” Trump continued at the Florida rally. “People have different ideas. Why it shouldn't be called Thanksgiving. But everybody in this room, I know, loves the name Thanksgiving. And we're not changing.”
Twitter users used the hashtag “#WhatLiberalsCallThanksgiving” to mock the president’s remarks. One person, who said she was Native American, pointed to how she prefers to instead name the fourth Thursday of November a “#nationaldayofmourning."
Since 1970, Native Americans in New England have organized an annual protest dubbed the National Day of Mourning on the same day as Thanksgiving, gathering at noon on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth.
“Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers,” according to a plaque erected at the protest site by the Town of Plymouth on behalf of the United American Indians of New England.
“Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their culture,” the plaque states.
Also at the Florida rally, Trump said “Americans have so much to be thankful for,” this year.
“The economy is booming. Wages are rising. Crime is falling. Poverty is plummeting. Confidence is soaring. And America is stronger than ever before,” the president said. He also spoke of his administration’s work to create new jobs, take care of the American worker, build a border wall and protect veterans.
“For years and years and years, I was like you. I was a civilian,” Trump said of his previous Thanksgiving celebrations. “I loved my life. My life was so much simpler. It was so nice and soft and easy. You build a building and you have fun. But I'd always see you turn on the news…”

Trump said the mistreatment of veterans is what inspired him to run for president. He also said Americans should be thankful for “the rebuilding the awesome power of the United States military,” pointing to the recent death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a raid in Syria.  The president also defended his decision to pardon three service members caught up in the military justice system last week, who he says were being targeted by the “deep state.”
“It was a beautiful, beautiful thing. We gave a pardon because we're going to take care of our warriors,” Trump said. “I will always stick up for our great fighters. People can sit there in air-conditioned offices and complain.”

He also accused "the radical left Democrats" of "trying to rip our nation apart," first with the "Russia hoax" and now with House impeachment hearings.

Mike Bloomberg Cartoons

Bloomberg News punts on candidate Bloomberg and Dems, but not Trump

Back when he was New York’s mayor, Mike Bloomberg routinely feuded with the press over his whereabouts.
He doggedly refused to release his weekend schedule, even if he was traveling out of town, favoring his own privacy over the public’s right to know.
Now, as of Sunday, he’s running for president. But one organization that won’t be covering him aggressively is Bloomberg News.
This is a journalistic giant, churning out 5,000 stories a day, some of them market-moving. Bloomberg News has 2,700 journalists spread across 150 bureaus around the globe, along with a television network, a magazine and those extremely lucrative Wall Street terminals.
But after the 77-year-old billionaire jumped into the Democratic race, the news service’s editor-in-chief, John Micklethwait, issued an edict to his staff.
“We will continue our tradition of not investigating Mike (and his family and foundation),” the memo said. And that prohibition would extend to his rivals in the party because “We cannot treat Mike’s Democratic competitors differently.”
So everyone from Biden to Bernie to Booker to Bloomberg is off-limits for investigation.
But its team “will continue to investigate the Trump administration as the government of the day.”
If you wanted to come up with a policy that would seem to favor Bloomberg and his re-adopted party—he ran for mayor as a Republican—while disadvantaging the man whose job he wants, it would be hard to beat this.
I get that it’s a messy situation, but this is a compromise that satisfies precisely no one.
If Bloomberg’s family (and presumably Joe Biden’s son) are off-limits, are Donald Trump’s kids still fair game?
Bloomberg News has always been squeamish about covering its founder. A similarly restrictive policy was in place during Mayor Bloomberg’s 12-year tenure. But now he’s running for the highest office in the land. What issue doesn’t in some way touch on the presidential campaign?
When the ex-mayor flirted with a 2016 run, Kathy Kiely resigned as Bloomberg News’ political editor because of the same policy.
“I think that when you're running a political operation as we were that you should follow every story aggressively, and I felt that we weren't able to follow this story aggressively,” Kiely told me on “Media Buzz.” “And that I thought compromised us as an organization. I certainly --- I certainly felt it compromised me as an editor.”
Megan Murphy, Bloomberg’s former Washington bureau chief, tweeted that the policy was “ridiculous” and “not journalism.” She said she threatened to resign over a similar memo during that 2016 exploration.
The Micklethwait memo also addresses Bloomberg Opinion. The two top editors, Tim O’Brien (an MSNBC contributor) and David Shipley, are taking leaves to join the Bloomberg campaign. Meanwhile, the rest of the editorial board is being suspended and the section will refuse to publish any outside op-ed on the 2020 campaign. Closed for business.
The company says it will assign a reporter to follow the Bloomberg campaign, writing about speeches, policies and polls. The initial story on the launch said the candidate is “offering his own mix of moderate policy stances and experience in business, government and philanthropy as the way to beat President Donald Trump.”
The editor-in-chief says he doesn’t want to lay down too many rules so they can adapt to changing circumstances, and will reassess the situation if Bloomberg wins the nomination.
This is a dilemma not seen since William Randolph Hearst blatantly used his newspapers to promote his 1904 presidential bid. But Bloomberg’s company dwarfs that early 20th-century enterprise.
Other media companies examine their owners, or corporate parents, with little fuss. The Washington Post reports on Jeff Bezos and Amazon. ABC sometimes has to cover Disney. CNN had to cover Time Warner and now AT&T. It’s a fact of life in the era of corporate media.
Mike Bloomberg, to his everlasting credit, took a $10-million payout from a Wall Street firm to launch an incredibly successful business news operation. Many talented journalists have worked there over the years. It’s a shame that this short-sighted move could taint its reputation for journalistic independence.

Schiff's panel 'now preparing' impeachment report, signaling next phase of inquiry

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., announced Monday that Democrats "are now preparing a report" for the House Judiciary Committee, signaling that his panel is wrapping up its work and that the next phase of the impeachment inquiry against President Trump is imminent.
Calling the evidence against the president "overwhelming, unchallenged and damning," Schiff nevertheless asserted that investigative work would continue, and left open the possibility that Democrats would hold additional hearings.  But all scheduled public hearings before Schiff's panel wrapped up on a testy note last week, and no new proceedings are planned.
"As required under House Resolution 660, the Committees are now preparing a report summarizing the evidence we have found this far, which will be transmitted to the Judiciary Committee soon after Congress returns from the Thanksgiving recess," Schiff wrote in a letter to congressional colleagues.
He noted that the report "will catalog the instances of non-compliance with lawful subpoenas as part of our report to the Judiciary Committee, which will allow that committee to consider whether an article of impeachment based on obstruction of Congress is warranted along with an article or articles based on this underlying conduct or other presidential misconduct. Such obstruction was the basis of the third article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon."
In a worrying omen for moderate Democrats in swing districts that could have factored into Schiff's decision, polls have shown that independents are souring on the impeachment process. Fifty percent of independents questioned in an NPR/PBS/Marist poll conducted Nov. 11-15 did not support impeaching and removing Trump from office, with just 42 percent backing such a move. That’s a slight dip in support compared with the previous NPR/PBS/Marist poll – conducted the first week in October – when support stood at 45 percent.
Once it receives Schiff's report, the House Judiciary Committee has the option of drafting articles of impeachment outright or holding further hearings. Under a resolution passed by House Democrats on the Rules Committee this past October, Trump and the White House potentially would have more rights to defend themselves in any potential Judiciary Committee hearings. For example, attorneys for the president could participate in such proceedings.
But, in a bid for leverage, Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., would be allowed under the rules to deny "specific requests" by Trump representatives if the White House continued refusing to provide documents or witnesses sought by Democratic investigators.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., would oversee the next phase of the impeachment inquiry. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

A possible timetable for impeachment has been unclear. It’s generally thought the Judiciary Committee may hold a "markup" in which it writes articles of impeachment in mid-December. If that were to happen, it's possible the full House could vote on articles of impeachment sometime close to Christmas. That would be a similar timeframe to the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton: The House impeached Clinton just before Christmas in 1998. The Senate trial then began in January 1999.
Fox News reported last week that Democrats were considering four articles of impeachment against the president: Abuse of power, bribery, contempt of Congress, and obstruction of justice.
At a meeting with top GOP senators and Trump administration officials at the White House last Thursday, Fox News is told there was a consensus that should Trump be impeached by the House, the GOP-controlled Senate should hold a full trial, rather than ignore the issue.
"Frankly, I want a trial," Trump declared Friday on “Fox & Friends.”

"Frankly, I want a trial."
— President Trump

Trump has argued that U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland's testimony before the Intelligence Committee was a total exoneration. "I just noticed one thing and that would mean it’s all over," Trump said on the White House lawn before reading from handwritten notes taken during Sondland’s testimony. Sondland testified about a conversation with Trump during which he asked the president what he wanted from Ukraine.
"It was a very short, abrupt conversation," the ambassador said. "He was not in a good mood, and he just said, 'I want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell Zelensky to do the right thing.' Something to that effect."
Reports have surfaced that Republicans were considering even holding a long trial to disrupt the 2020 presidential primaries. Several Democrats seeking to unseat Trump -- including Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders -- are senators who would need to divert at least some of their campaigning time toward a potential trial.
Should the House approve impeachment articles and trigger a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate, Trump’s allies are already indicating they will look more closely at allegations involving Democrats -- including Trump's allegations of corruption against Joe and Hunter Biden involving their Ukraine dealings.
Additionally, Republicans would likely focus on Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 election, and defend the president's push for investigations in that area before releasing any foreign aid. Numerous media outlets, and a Ukrainian court, have confirmed that Ukrainian actors meddled in the election, despite claims by Democrats and many media personalities that the allegations amount to a "conspiracy theory."
However, the House theoretically could pass articles of impeachment, but delay a vote to send them to the Senate for consideration -- perhaps to delay handing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., control over the proceedings.
"I think most everybody agreed there's not 51 votes to dismiss it before the managers get to call their case," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News after huddling with other top Republican senators and White House officials. "The idea you would dismiss the trial before they presented the cases is a non-starter. You're not going to get a motion to dismiss."
But, Graham indicated that any Senate trial wouldn't be pleasant for at least one Democratic presidential frontrunner. On Thursday, Graham penned a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo requesting the release of any documents related to contacts between Biden former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, and to a meeting between son Hunter Biden’s business partner and former Secretary of State John Kerry.
The letter pertained to Biden's successful push to have Ukraine's top prosecutor fired by threatening to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid when he was vice president and in charge of Ukraine policy. The prosecutor was probing Burisma holdings, where Hunter Biden held a highly lucrative role on the board despite having little relevant experience.
Already, some witnesses in the impeachment probe have raised concerns about the Biden's dealings in Ukraine.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, for example, testified behind closed doors last month that he had qualms about the younger Biden's role on the board of Burisma. And former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch said she was "aware" of a potential issue, because Obama administration officials prepped her for questions about Hunter Biden during her confirmation process.
"I was aware of it because as I told you before in the deposition, there had been a -- in terms of the preparation for my Senate confirmation hearings for Ukraine, there was a question about that and a select answer, so I was aware of it," Yovanovitch said.
She added that she was told that if the matter came up, she should refer questions to other departments.
Fox News' Jason Donner, Paul Steinhauser, and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Navy SEAL Gallagher to retire from active duty, no review board

Eddie Gallagher, the Navy SEAL at the center of a high-profile standoff between President Trump and some top officials in the Navy, will retire from active duty and will not take part in a review board over his conduct in 2017 while deployed, a Navy spokesman said late Monday.
Gallagher, a highly decorated SEAL who received two Bronze Stars with V for valor, was acquitted of murder in the stabbing death of an Islamic State militant captive but was convicted of posing with the corpse.
Lt. Cmdr. Clay Doss, the Navy spokesman, said there will be no additional information due to privacy concerns.
The announcement was not a surprise. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said earlier that he was given a direct order by Trump to allow Gallagher to retire without losing his status as a Navy SEAL.
Esper on Sunday asked for Richard V. Spencer, the secretary of the Navy, to step down over the handling of the case. Esper claimed that Spencer made overtures to the White House to rig the disciplinary process to ensure that Gallagher would keep his Trident.
“I am deeply troubled by this conduct shown by a senior DOD official,” Esper said on Sunday. “Unfortunately, as a result, I have determined that Secretary Spencer no longer has my confidence to continue in his position. I wish Richard well.”
Spencer’s ousting was not a consequence of standing up for military justice – but rather was for taking the matter into his own hands and not going through the proper military channels, the senior U.S. official told Fox News. He was fired for “lack of candor,” the official added.
Spencer, for his part, issued a statement that appeared to suggest his ouster was a direct result of the Gallagher review. He said, "I no longer share the same understanding with the Commander in Chief who appointed me, in regards to the key principle of good order and discipline."
Fox News' Jennifer Griffin, Vandana Rambaran, Alex Pappas and Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report

House Dem now sees no 'value' in impeachment, as polls show falling support among independents

Michigan Democratic Rep. Brenda Lawrence, a prominent supporter of Kamala Harris who has previously supported the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, abruptly announced Sunday that she no longer saw any "value" in the process and called for her fellow Democrats to throw their support behind a symbolic censure resolution.
Lawrence's about-face came as polls have shown that independents are souring on the idea of impeaching and removing Trump from office, including in critical battleground states like Wisconsin, even as House Democrats aggressively presented their poll-tested "bribery" case against the president over the past two weeks.
"We are so close to an election," Lawrence said Sunday on a Michigan radio program, noting that Trump stands little chance of being convicted by the GOP-controlled Senate. "I will tell you, sitting here knowing how divided this country is, I don't see the value of taking him out of office. But I do see the value of putting down a marker saying his behavior is not acceptable. It's in violation of the oath of office of a president of the United States, and we have to be clear that you cannot use your power of the presidency to withhold funds to get a foreign country to investigate an American citizen for your own personal gain. There's no way around that."
Lawrence continued: "I want him censured. I want it on the record that the House of Representatives did their job and they told this president and any president coming behind him that this is unacceptable behavior and, under our Constitution, we will not allow it. ... I am a Democrat, but I am an independent United States of America citizen."
Lawrence occupies a safely Democratic district that includes eastern Detroit, and her reluctance to move forward with impeachment suggested that moderate Democrats in swing districts may also be getting cold feet now that all scheduled hearings in the probe wrapped up last week.
Recent surveys indicate that even Democratic voters are losing interest in impeachment. Meanwhile, 50 percent of independents questioned in an NPR/PBS/Marist poll conducted Nov. 11-15 did not support impeaching and removing Trump from office, with just 42 percent backing such a move. That’s a noticeable dip in support compared with the previous NPR/PBS/Marist poll – conducted the first week in October – when support stood at 45 percent.
And, a Gallup poll conducted the first two weeks of November indicated that 45 percent of independent voters supported impeaching and removing the president – with 53 percent opposing the move. That’s a switch from October, when the previous Gallup survey put the split at 53-44 percent.

Michigan Democratic Rep. Brenda Lawrence said she no longer sees any "value" in impeachment, and called for a censure resolution. (House of Representatives)

Republicans could also use a Senate trial to turn the tables and damage Democrats politically, should the House vote to impeach.
The Washington Examiner noted that in a radio interview Oct. 4, before support for impeachment fell sharply, Lawrence was far more supportive of the proceedings against the president.
"I feel strongly that for my legacy, for my time in history, sitting here at this table with an oath of office to protect this country, to protect the democracy of the United States of America, I cannot sit silent, that I must move forward with [impeachment] because this is egregious," Lawrence said in October.
The House is now comprised of 431 members, meaning Democrats need 217 yeas to impeach Trump. There are currently 233 Democrats, so Democrats can only lose 16 of their own and still impeach the president. 31 House Democrats represent more moderate districts that Trump carried in 2016.
There have been signs close to home for Lawrence that Democrats should consider pulling the ripcord on the impeachment process. In an editorial last week, The Detroit News wrote that the House "should censure, not impeach" the president.
"Democrats still don't have the strong case they're seeking to justify removing President Donald Trump from office," the paper wrote. "Censure amounts to a public shaming. ... But it also recognizes the offense does not merit removal from office. That, too, seems appropriate, given the inconclusive testimony so far."
Earlier this month, freshman Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich. -- who flipped a GOP district in 2018 that Trump won by 7 points in 2016 -- told Fox News that she was tentatively weighing all the evidence.
"My constituents expect me to make an objective decision," Slotkin said as the hearings concluded, "not one based on an hour of testimony."
Slotkin went on to acknowledge that launching an impeachment inquiry was a "politically tough thing to do."
The censure process is not prescribed by the Constitution, and amounts essentially to a condemnation of conduct, without any substantive consequence, by a majority vote in either the House or the Senate.

"I don't see the value of taking him out of office. ... I want him censured."
— Michigan Democratic Rep. Brenda Lawrence

President Andrew Jackson was censured in a largely political process by the Senate in 1834, although it was expunged three years later. Several other U.S. presidents have been reprimanded by Congress, including Abraham Lincoln, James Buchanan, and William Howard Taft.
Still, top Democrats have signaled they will go ahead with impeachment, at least for now. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., announced Monday that Democrats "are now preparing a report" for the House Judiciary Committee, indicating that his panel is wrapping up its work and that the next phase of the impeachment inquiry is imminent.
Calling the evidence against the president "overwhelming, unchallenged and damning," Schiff nevertheless asserted that investigative work would continue, and left open the possibility that Democrats would hold additional hearings.  But all scheduled public hearings before Schiff's panel wrapped up on a testy note last week, and no new proceedings are planned.
"As required under House Resolution 660, the Committees are now preparing a report summarizing the evidence we have found this far, which will be transmitted to the Judiciary Committee soon after Congress returns from the Thanksgiving recess," Schiff wrote in a letter to congressional colleagues.
He noted that the report "will catalog the instances of non-compliance with lawful subpoenas as part of our report to the Judiciary Committee, which will allow that committee to consider whether an article of impeachment based on obstruction of Congress is warranted along with an article or articles based on this underlying conduct or other presidential misconduct. Such obstruction was the basis of the third article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon."

Leftist Democrat Cartoons