Week three of the official impeachment inquiry into President Trump's dealing with Ukraine got off to a rocky start for House Democrats with the State Department ordering U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland to skip a closed-door deposition on Capitol Hill Tuesday, just hours before it was scheduled to begin.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) quickly responded to the cancellation by accusing the administration of obstruction. "The failure to produce these documents we consider yet additional strong evidence of obstruction of the constitutional functions of Congress, a coequal branch of government."
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) echoed the obstruction claim in an interview with Cheddar on Tuesday, saying, "If the administration continues to not have it's administration officials come forward, that will indicate obstruction."
"Obstruction is a high crime and misdemeanor," she added.
While Democrats try to use the public forum to pressure the White House to provide information related to the impeachment inquiry, some Republican lawmakers are publicly supporting the decision to withhold Sondland. Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told reporters, "We wish [Sondland] would have been able to testify too, but we fully understand why the administration made the decision they did."
The ambassador's failure to appear before the House committees marks the first time an official has refused to come forward in regard to the inquiry. However, last week Secretary of State Mike Pompeo failed to turn over subpoenaed documents by the Friday deadline.
Schiff, along with House Foreign Affairs Chair Eliot Engel and Oversight and Reform Chair Elijah Cummings ultimately subpoenaed Sondland for failing to appear Tuesday before the committees.
Text messages released by the committees last week revealed that Sondland was among the U.S. diplomats involved in conversations with then-State Department special envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine Bill Taylor, and President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani .
Clarke began calling for the impeachment of Trump long before the Ukraine whistleblower. This latest development, she said, is "a pattern of corruption. We've seen this since 2017."
"People are recognizing the existential threat that Donald Trump is to our lives," the congresswoman added.
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without much of the economic data it typically relies on from the government. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that there were “strongly differing views” at the central bank's policy meeting about to proceed going forward.
U.S. and Chinese officials say a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies is drawing closer. The sides have reached an initial consensus for President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to aim to finalize during their high-stakes meeting Thursday in South Korea. Any agreement would be a relief to international markets. Trump's treasury secretary says discussions with China yielded preliminary agreements to stop the precursor chemicals for fentanyl from coming into the United States. Scott Bessent also says Beijing would make “substantial” purchases of soybean and other agricultural products while putting off export controls on rare earth elements needed for advanced technologies.
A new poll finds most U.S. adults are worried about health care becoming more expensive.
The White House budget office says mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
President Donald Trump says “there seems to be no reason” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as part of an upcoming trip to South Korea after China restricted exports of rare earths needed for American industry. The Republican president suggested Friday he was looking at a “massive increase” of import taxes on Chinese products in response to Xi’s moves. Trump says one of the policies the U.S. is calculating is "a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States." A monthslong calm on Wall Street was shattered, with U.S. stocks falling on the news. The Chinese Embassy in Washington hasn't responded to an Associated Press request for comment.
Most members of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate setting committee supported further reductions to its key interest rate this year, minutes from last month’s meeting showed.
