Corey Lewandowski makes a spectacle of his hearing; details about the whistleblower complaint come out, and yes, it’s about Trump; huge Youth Climate Strikes span the globe; Boris Johnson might have illegally suspended Parliament; Israel holds new elections (yet again); costs stall Trump’s border wall; DHS reinstates medically protected status; Trump waives more tariffs; and will we go to war with Iran? It was a big week, and it’s already totally eclipsed by the news from the following week.

Here what happened in politics for the week ending September 22…

Shootings This Week:

1. Here are this week’s mass shootings (defined as killing or injuring four or more people):

• • A shooter kills two adults and injures two teenagers in Cheyenne, WY. It was apparently a drug deal gone wrong.
  • A shooter in Wilmington, CA, walks up to a group of people and kills two of them and injures two others.
  • A drive-by shooter kills three people and injures one more in Chicago.
  • A shooter kills one person and injures five others in Washington, DC.
  • A shooter kills one person and injures five others in New Orleans.
  • A shooter in a nightclub in Lancaster, SC, kills two people and injures eight others.
  • Four people are found dead from gunshot wounds in an abandoned house in Cleveland, OH.
  • A shooting between two cars in New Orleans leaves four people injured.
  • A nightclub shooting in Kansas City, MO, leaves five people injured.
  • Two people are dead and two are injured in Gary, IN, after someone shoots at a car and the driver swerves into a tree.
  • A shooter kills one teenage boy and injures three others as they’re walking down a street in Chicago.

2. Almost 230,000 people have experienced a school shooting since the Columbine shootings.
3. Colt announces that they’ll suspend production of the AR-15 for civilian use. They say it’s because they’ve reached market capacity, not that they don’t think civilians should have the weapons.

• • Colt’s competitors sell similar guns for less than what Colt charges for theirs.

Russia:

1. Corey Lewandowski “testifies” to the House Judiciary Committee. He says the White House told him not to provide any answers that can’t already be found in the Mueller report, and as such he is combative.

• • Lewandowski does confirm that everything in the report about Trump asking him to fire Jeff Sessions is accurate.
  • Lewandowski says the investigation is an attempt to “take down a duly elected President of the United States.” But then he says he never questioned the validity of the Mueller report.
  • Lewandowski appears to be using the hearing to make a splash in New Hampshire, where he plans a Senate run.

2. The hearing is chaotic until the staff counsel starts asking the questions (as opposed to Members of Congress). Counsel gets Lewandowski to admit:

• • He lied to the American people multiple times on TV. Lewandowski says he doesn’t have to tell the media, and by extension the American people, the truth.
  • He took the Fifth and asked for immunity before meeting with Mueller’s team. Lewandowski has also said publicly that you only take the Fifth when you’ve done something wrong.
  • Before Trump asked him to fire Sessions, he brought up the possibility of giving Lewandowski a job in the White House.
  • He wanted to meet in private with Sessions so there would be no record.

3. Trump tweets his appreciation of Lewandowski’s performance.
4. Committee Chair Jerry Nadler is considering holding Lewandowski in contempt.
5. There’s an explosion in Russia at the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, which is one of two locations in the world where live smallpox viruses are stored. Russia says there’s no threat from the virus, just like they said there was no radiation released from the explosion of their nuclear-propelled missile.

Legal Fallout:

1. The Manhattan district attorney subpoenas eight years of tax returns from Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA. This is related to the Stormy Daniels case. Mazars says they’ll comply.

• • I feel like I just keep writing the same stories over and over again, but yet again, Trump sues his accounting firm to stop them from complying with the subpoena.
  • In attempting to block the subpoena, Trump’s lawyers argue that a sitting president can’t be subject to the criminal process, suggesting that Trump can’t be investigated or tried.

2. Senator Chris Coons says he told the FBI last year about the allegations of more bad behavior by Brett Kavanaugh while in school, but the FBI doesn’t appear to have followed up on it.
3. In addition to the Air Force sometimes housing their crew at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, Turnberry gifts high-ranking officials with special pins on their visits, and some of the visits last for up to five days. Sometimes the crew gets stranded due to bad weather, and some complain that their per diem is barely enough to get by at the expensive resort.

• • In the past two years, Air Force spending at Trump’s Turnberry golf course has nearly tripled from the previous two years.

4. It’s still in question whether the DOJ will prosecute former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe for allegedly lying about a media leak, but his lawyers say Trump’s attacks on McCabe have made a fair prosecution impossible.
5. A federal court of appeals reinstates the lawsuit filed by Seth Rich’s parents against Fox News. Rich was a DNC staffer who was murdered in a botched robbery, and Fox repeatedly pushed the conspiracy theory that he was murdered because he was behind the leak of DNC documents in 2016.
6. Last week we learned about a whistleblower report that wasn’t turned over to Congress as required. Per the Wall Street Journal, the complaint revolves around the Ukraine. During a phone call in July, Trump repeatedly pressured Ukraine’s new president to investigate Joe Biden’s son, and asked him several times to work with Rudy Giuliani on this. Giuliani met with top Ukrainian officials in June and August about it.

• • Trump doesn’t deny asking Ukraine’s president about Joe Biden and says he didn’t do anything wrong. He also says someone should look into Biden’s efforts force out Ukraine’s prosecutor general as it relates to Biden’s son, Hunter, being on the board of Burisma Holdings, which at one point was under investigation by Ukraine’s prosecutor.
  • A Ukrainian prosecutor has already found there was no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden or by his son.
  • Background: This has been fully investigated in Ukraine, and neither Joe Biden nor his son Hunter were found to have done anything wrong. The investigation into Burisma Holdings didn’t involve Hunter and was over a deal that occurred before Hunter joined the board. Around that time, Biden threatened to withhold aid from Ukraine in order to battle the corruption of the government (which, in a strange way of coming full circle, Paul Manafort helped into power). Joe Biden’s actions to remove Ukraine prosecutor Viktor Shokin were coordinated with our allies, and the recommendation to do so came from our embassy in Kiev. In fact, the IMF had threatened to withhold money for the same reason a month earlier.
  • Trump says the complaint was filed by a partisan whistleblower. Does that mean he knows the identity of the whistleblower? He says he doesn’t, which means he’s just making that partisan bit up.
  • Trump says it doesn’t matter what he discussed with foreign leaders.
  • Three House committees are already investigating Rudy Giuliani over this matter, and committee chairs and Nancy Pelosi threaten additional legal actions if the whistleblower complaint isn’t turned over as mandated by law.
  • Rudy Giuliani goes on the press circuit to try to get ahead of the Ukraine story. He says he didn’t ask Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden, but literally less than 30 seconds later he says that of course he did.
  • The news of the whistleblower story causes growing support in the Democratic House caucus for impeachment.
  • Both Representative Adam Schiff and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi say that impeachment might be the only way forward now. This is notable because both have been reticent to fully commit to impeachment.

Healthcare:

1. You might remember that a while back, Trump loosened up the laws on temporary healthcare plans that don’t meet the standards of the ACA by expanding their coverage from three months to one year. Well, now those plans have flooded the market, and people are finding out that their healthcare costs aren’t being covered. Just one success in the GOP’s efforts to gut the ACA.
2. Two bills expanding access to abortions go into effect in Maine after anti-abortion activists fail to get the necessary signatures to fight them. One bill requires insurance plans covering prenatal care to also cover abortion care, and the other overturns a ban on nurse practitioners providing abortion care.
3. A federal judge denies Missouri’s request to put into effect their ban on abortions after 20 weeks while the case against it moves through the courts. The original law bans abortions after 8 weeks, but includes triggers to ban abortions at 14, 18, and 20 weeks if the 8-week ban is found unconstitutional.
4. The House passes a bill designed to help lower prescription drug prices by increasing the ability to negotiate prices. Trump praises the bill right after Mitch McConnell says the bill is dead on arrival in the Senate because it’s “socialist.”
5. Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, files for bankruptcy.

International:

1. The Trump administration releases satellite images that appear to implicate Iran in the attacks on Saudi oil plants. The images show 19 strikes at two facilities, which Trump officials say couldn’t be carried out with 10 drones, as claimed by the Yemeni rebels. Iran continues to deny involvement.

• • Officials say that our surveillance satellites caught Iran preparing for the attacks, but are calling the evidence circumstantial.
  • Trump and Rouhani were working on setting up a meeting at the UN summit, but now Iran is ruling that out completely.
  • Mike Pompeo heads over to Saudi Arabia to discuss a response to the attacks. Pompeo says the administration wants a peaceful resolution, but defense officials present a list of potential targets should we decide to retaliate alongside Saudi Arabia.
  • Iran’s foreign minister threatens an all-out war if the U.S. or Saudi Arabia strikes Iran.
  • Trump deploys 500 additional U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia.
  • Trump announces additional sanctions on Iran, which target their national bank.

2. Two suicide bombings in Afghanistan kill nearly 50 people. One was near the U.S. embassy and NATO compound.
3. A Scottish court finds that Boris Johnson illegally suspended Parliament last month, pushing the case up to Britain’s Supreme Court.
4. Does this sound familiar? Close to the Israeli election, Netanyahu and his party accuse minority Arab citizens of voter fraud and they send out racist robocalls warning about high Arab turnout.

• • The Israeli vote is too close to call. Netanyahu’s Likud party trails the centrist Blue and White party by two seats. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will consult with party leaders and decide whether Netanyahu or Gantz gets a first shot at forming a government. In a first, Arab parties have said they’d be open to forming a government with Blue and White.
  • With his lead, Gantz declares victory, but Netanyahu says they should share power. Gantz rejects the power sharing offer, and says he’ll lead a coalition of parties from across the political spectrum.

5. Trump names Robert O’Brien to be the new National Security Advisor. O’Brien is the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (aka a hostage negotiator) who recently made news when Trump sent him to Sweden to monitor the trial of A$AP Rocky.
6. In the middle of the whistleblower controversy, Trump says he’ll meet with the Ukraine president at next week’s UN summit.

Legislation/Congress:

1. House Democrats hold hearings on DC statehood.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

1. Trump starts to discuss sensors in the fences going up at the border, which is apparently sensitive technology. When he asks the General in charge to describe the technology, the General says, “Sir, there could be some merit in not discussing that.”
2. At the same visit, Trump says that the world’s best mountain climbers have tested his wall and couldn’t scale it. I think rock climbers would be better testers, but regardless, world-class mountain climbers have no idea what he’s talking about.
3. The Department of Defense says they won’t go forward with three projects to build border wall in Arizona and California because it’s too expensive. So far 60 miles of fencing have been updated.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. A new study finds that one in 16 women say their first sexual experience was rape, and those women tend to have higher rates of unwanted first pregnancies, abortions, and subsequent physical and mental health problems. 75% were younger than 17 when it happened, and nearly half of those were younger than 14.
2. After Trump says the DOJ should rescue Brett Kavanaugh, Attorney General William Barr’s past skepticism over rape claims comes to light. Barr has accused Obama of “fanning the false narrative of rape culture” (um, see above study, Mr. Barr). He also endorsed a book that accuses schools of treating people accused of rape unfairly.
3. Immigration services reverses their new policy of deporting people who are here under medical protected status (the deferred action program) after a huge public outcry and a House hearing about it.
4. The Pentagon is the group in the Trump administration still fighting against Stephen Miller’s plans to drastically cut the number of refugees allowed in the U.S. The Pentagon argues that bringing in refugees is in our national security interest, and they’re specifically arguing for visas for Iraqis who’ve helped out U.S. troops.
5. Trump plans to skip the UN summit on climate change next week and instead will chair a session on worldwide religious persecution.
6. Due to the recent mass shootings, the Department of Homeland Security finally adds White Supremacy to its list of terrorist threats. The DHS was formed as a reaction to the 9/11 attacks, so their focus was on Muslim extremists, rightly or wrongly so. They unbelievably expanded to include minority groups before they included the White Supremacists attacking those groups.

• • This victory rings hollow to me. Six of the victims of the El Paso shooting were family members of DHS employees. So this is another instance of “it’s not a problem until it affects me.”

Climate:

1. EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler threatens to cut U.S. highway funds to California, saying that our air is too polluted.

• • Why is this ironic? At the same time, Trump formally revokes California’s waiver on federal emission standards. The waiver allows the state to set stricter emissions limits than what the federal government mandates so that we can reduce our air pollution.
  • But whatevs. Ford, Honda, BMW and Volkswagen all say they’ll stick to their agreement with California on stricter emissions standards. Industry leaders say that Trump’s anti-trust lawsuit against them is causing other automakers to think twice about joining them, though.

2. Tropical Depression Imelda drops over 40 inches of rain on parts of Texas, causing massive flooding and killing three people. This is the same area hit by Hurricane Harvey.
3. Before the upcoming UN summit on climate change, millions of people march in the Youth Climate Strike in over 150 countries. An estimated 4 million people in thousands of cities participate.
4. The bird population in the U.S. and Canada has fallen by almost a third since 1970, partly due to our encroachment on their habitats and the growing use of pesticides.
5. In order to justify cutting aid to Guatemala, the Trump administration had to ignore its own evidence of climate change being a major factor in the current migration from Guatemala. Part of the aid Trump froze was supposed to go to help small farmers mitigate the effects of climate change. From a DHS official:

• • “Everyone knows [White House adviser Stephen] Miller isn’t interested in hearing about climate change,”

6. Three Mile Island, the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history, finally shuts down for good. Because of the nature of nuclear energy, it will take decades to completely decommission the plant—it should be complete in 2078.

Budget/Economy:

1. In the first auto workers strike in 12 years, about 46,000 members of the United Auto Workers’ (UAW) at GM walk off the job. At issue is GM’s idling of five plants, wages, healthcare, and permanent positions for temporary employees.

• • There’s also a scandal within the union right now regarding misappropriation of funds. Bad timing there.

2. All market indicators seem to be weird right now. The inverted bond yield might or might not be predicting a recession. The consumer price index might or might not be predicting inflation. Your guess is as good as anybody’s at this point.
3. Trump complains that homeless people live in “our best highways, our best streets, our best entrances to buildings.” He says he’s speaking to tenants who “want to leave the country,” whatever that means. He also says homelessness started two years ago, and that he ended it in DC already.
4. CEO confidence is at its lowest level since before Trump took office, and they’re downgrading their expectations for hiring and growth.
5. The Fed cuts interest rates by 1/4 point for the second consecutive quarter with three dissenting votes from the board, reflecting 1) concerns about an economic downturn and 2) conflict within the Fed over whether the action is warranted.
6. For the first time since 2007, the Fed injects money into the short-term money market due to a spiking “repo” rate. The repo rate is the price at which securities like U.S. government bonds can be temporarily swapped for cash. The Fed pumps up the market with $128 billion in cash.
7. Trump waives tariffs on over 400 items imported from China. He says he’s having a little spat with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
8. The farm bailout reaches $28 billion, which is more than twice what the automaker bailout cost us after they paid everything back (the auto bailout ended up costing U.S. taxpayers around $12 billion).
9. Saudi Arabia says their oil output and production will return to normal by the end of the month.
10. Amid hopes that Britain will avoid a no-deal Brexit, the British pound rises to a 2-month high against the dollar. Which isn’t saying much. In August, the pound was at its lowest rate against the dollar since 1985.
11. The Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to hear a case that could allow them to fire the head of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, the agency created by Elizabeth Warren to be a watchdog against the kind of corporate malfeasance that played such a big role in the Great Recession.

Elections:

1. Republicans in four states have cancelled their GOP primary elections, but Michigan Republicans aren’t able to. So instead they change the rules to ensure Trump gets all their delegates.
2. The Alaska Republican Party cancels its 2020 presidential primary, becoming the fifth state to do so.
3. Hate those coastal elites? Well, Trump just fundraised about $15 million off of them in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
4. Finally Mitch McConnell puts his support behind $250 million in funding to harden our election security.

Miscellaneous:

1. With Trump’s current nominee to head up FEMA being held up for personal issues, Trump will nominate Peter Gaynor to head up FEMA. He’s the current deputy director of FEMA.
2. Police finally arrest Democratic donor Ed Buck after a third victim nearly dies at his home, which police are calling a drug house. This is a super bizarre story, and I don’t know how he wasn’t arrested sooner.
3. Darrell Issa’s FBI file is holding up his nomination for director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. No word on what specifically is in that file, but Issa’s already looking into running for the House again in California’s 50th district where the current representative, Duncan Hunter, is indicted on 60 felony counts.
4. Mike Pence brings his motorcade (eight SUVs) to Mackinac Island, MI, a national historic site that typically doesn’t allow non-emergency vehicular traffic. Pence is the first government official to break with the island’s tradition of not allowing cars. His trek from the airport to the Grand Hotel, host of the Republican Party conference, is all of one mile.
5. Trump’s administration has one of the highest levels of turnover, with change in 78% of the positions. 31% of those have turned over multiple times.

Polls:

1. A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that 69% of registered voters do not like Trump, even if they like his policies. That makes him the most disliked out of his five most recent predecessors.