Ari Melber explains how Donald Trump could be impeached for bribery, and what to expect in the impeachment inquiry. Watch: https://youtu.be/gVXG8MLFh0w   The hearing is set to start at 10 a.m. Wednesday. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., will make an opening statement, followed by an opening statement by the ranking Republican on the committee, Rep. Devin Nunes of California. The witnesses testifying today are Bill Taylor, the Trump administration's top diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. NBC News reports: In his closed-door deposition, Taylor said he threatened to [...]

New government data reveals a record number of migrant children have been held in U.S. government custody over the past year.  69,550 children have been detained away from their parents, more than any other country, according to United Nations researchers. And it’s happening even though the U.S. government has acknowledged that being held in detention can be traumatic for children, putting them at risk of long-term emotional and physical damage. The AP reports: The nearly 70,000 migrant children who were held in government custody this year — up 42 percent in fiscal year 2019 from 2018 — spent more time [...]

Donald Trump Jr's visit to University of California to promote his new book didn't go according to plan when his audience demanded a Q&A session. After speaking about 'Triggered' and accusing the left of attempting to silence conservative's voices, the President's son left his own book launch after just 20 minutes after being heckled by the crowd. The Guardian reports: The audience was angry that Trump Jr and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, would not take questions. The loud shouts of “USA! USA!” that greeted Trump when he first appeared on the stage of a university lecture hall to promote his [...]

Nikki Haley, the former US ambassador to the UN, has said two top White House aides encouraged her to undermine President Donald Trump. In a new book, With All Due Respect, Haley says then-Chief of Staff John Kelly and then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told her to resist some of Trump's demands. They reportedly told her they were "trying to save the country". The BBC reports: "It was their decisions, not the president's, that were in the best interests of America, they said," Haley wrote in her book With All Due Respect, which was seen by the Washington Post before [...]

Juli Briskman, a marketing executive from Virginia, made national news in October 2017 when a photo of her flipping off President Trump's motorcade went viral. CNN reports: Speaking to Jeanne Moos in 2017, Briskman contended she's "really not" the bird-flipping type, but still made her feelings toward Trump clear. "Health care doesn't pass, but you try to dismantle it from the inside," she said. "Five hundred people get shot in Las Vegas; you're doing nothing about it. You know, white supremacists have this big march and hurt a bunch of people down in Charlottesville and you call them good people." [...]

Virginia Democrats continued their winning streak on Tuesday and took full control of the statehouse for the first time in more than two decades.   https://twitter.com/vademocrats/status/1191911693418405889   Time reports: Democrats seized control of both houses of Virginia’s state legislature for the first time in 25 years, aided by unusually high turnout across the state. It was an intensification of the trend that began in 2017, when Virginia’s off-year election provided some of the first signs of the backlash against President Donald Trump that would help Democrats seize control of the House of Representatives in 2018.   The blue wave was [...]

Democrat Andy Beshear declared victory in Kentucky's tight governor's election late Tuesday night. With 100% of precincts reporting, Beshear had a lead of 5,333 votes, a margin of just under 0.4 percentage points.   "Tonight, voters in Kentucky sent a message loud and clear for everyone to hear," Beshear, currently the state's attorney general, told supporters in Louisville. "It's a message that says our elections don't have to be about right versus left — they are still about right versus wrong." Watch: https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1191988589263015936     While Beshear spoke of his win,  Bevin refused to accept the defeat at his own [...]

Sen. Rand Paul demanded the press print the name of the whistleblower at the center of the impeachment inquiry during a Trump rally Monday night in Kentucky. Joining the President on stage, the Kentucky Republican said “We also now know the name of the whistleblower. The whistleblower needs to come forward as a material witness because he worked for Joe Biden at the same time Hunter Biden was getting money from corrupt oligarchs.” https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1191547856651456512     His comment was swiftly condemned across Twitter.   https://twitter.com/BradMossEsq/status/1191527298891210757 https://twitter.com/HotlineJosh/status/1191519256925655041 https://twitter.com/funder/status/1191557828361818114 https://twitter.com/MarkSZaidEsq/status/1191598346634498048 https://twitter.com/BradMossEsq/status/1191520982214807553   Paul's call for publicly naming the whistleblower is at odds [...]