Surveying The State Of The Republican Party
As the impeachment trial looms, we talk with Republicans about the risk and rewards of standing with Trump.
Guests
Lisa Desjardins, correspondent for PBS NewsHour. (@LisaDNews)
Seth Weathers, Republican political consultant and digital strategist. Founder of the political campaign agency Weatherscorp. Georgia state director for the 2016 Trump campaign. (@sethweathers)
Kim Alfano, Republican strategist and president and CEO of Alfano Communications. (@ALFANOCOMM)
From The Reading List
CNN: “White House will not participate in Judiciary Committee hearing” — “Neither President Donald Trump nor his attorneys will participate in Wednesday’s House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing, they said late Sunday.
“In a letter to Chairman Jerrold Nadler, White House counsel to the President Pat Cipollone said, ‘We cannot fairly be expected to participate in a hearing while the witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains unclear whether the Judiciary Committee will afford the President a fair process through additional hearings. More importantly, an invitation to an academic discussion with law professors does not begin to provide the President with an semblance of a fair process. Accordingly, under the current circumstances, we do not intend to participate in your Wednesday hearing.’
“Cipollone said they would respond separately to the Friday deadline about their participation in future hearings.”
The Hill: “Top Judiciary Republican: ‘My first and foremost witness is Adam Schiff’” — “Rep. Doug Collins (Ga.), the top GOP member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Sunday that Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is the most important witness Republicans want to question in the upcoming phase of the impeachment inquiry.
“‘My first and foremost witness is Adam Schiff,’ Collins said on ‘Fox News Sunday,’ also noting that Schiff had ‘compared himself in the past to a special counsel’ and that then-special prosecutor Ken Starr testified during the GOP-controlled House’s impeachment of former President Clinton.
“‘[Schiff] has put himself into that position,’ Collins added. ‘If he chooses not to [testify], then I really have to question his veracity in what he’s putting in his report.’
“‘It’s easy to hide behind a report,’ Collins said. ‘But it’s going to be another thing to actually get up and have to answer questions.’ ”
The Hill: “Trump faces uphill 2020 climb” — “President Trump is a slight underdog to win a second term with less than a year to go before the 2020 election.
“The president is saddled with low approval ratings nationally and weaknesses with key voting groups. Trump’s approval ratings are mired in the low 40s, and he may remain the first president since modern polling began whose favorability number has never been above 50 percent in a Gallup poll.
“Trump’s fiery and impulsive style appeals to members of his core Make America Great Again base, who continue to pack large arenas for his campaign rallies. But it costs him badly among other segments of the electorate.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org. [Copyright 2019 NPR]
