Pompeo says US does not view Israeli settlements as violation of international law – as it happened

Live political reporting continues in Tuesday’s blog:

• The Justice Department inspector general will testify before the Senate judiciary committee on December 11. The IG has been investigating whether officials violated surveillance rules by looking into Trump’s 2016 campaign.
• The US official who overheard a conversation between EU ambassador Gordon Sondland and Donald Trump will reportedly testify publicly on Thursday in the House impeachment inquiry.
• Republican senator Ron Johnson, who was part of the US delegation at the Ukrainian president’s inauguration, questioned officials who have testified in the inquiry.
• Secretary of state Mike Pompeo said Israel’s West Bank settlements are no longer considered illegal, breaking with previous US policy and international law.
  

The Hill is reportedly reviewing work by John Solomon, a former columnist for the publication after Marie Yovanovitch on Friday denied claims he published, according to Politico.

In her testimony last week, Yovanovitch denied Solomon’s claim that she gave Ukraine’s then-top prosecutor a list of who not to prosecute. Solomon’s reporting has been promoted by Fox News and Donald Trump.

The conservative columnist defended his work. “All facts in those stories are substantiated to original source documents and statements,” he told Politico.

Meanwhile, it seems Pete Buttigieg has moved supporters to... move in puzzling ways.

Buttigieg supporters have taken to performing a coordinated dance to “High Hopes” by Panic at the Disco!.

Here’s a performance from September, in Iowa:

Here’s a supporter, explaining the choreography:

But why?

“This dance is fun!” GrandmasforPete tweeted.

Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz will appear before the senate Judiciary Committee to testify on an upcoming report looking into whether the FBI violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during the Russia probe.

Horowitz will testify publicly on Dec. 11, according to Senate judiciary committee chair Lindsay Graham. He’s likely to address whether the FBI’s court-ordered surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide was handled properly

Graham and other Trump allies have suggested that the upcoming report will undermine the credibility of the Russia probe by providing improper conduct during the early stages of the investigation.

The report is likely to be released at the height of the impeachment inquiry and could bolster Republicans who claim that Trump has been unfairly targeted by government officials investigating his actions.

Ron Johnson, a Republican senator from Wisconsin, responded to Republican congressmen involved in the impeachment hearings with his account of the Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. In a letter to Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan, Johnson said that Trump denied a link between investigations and aid to Ukraine, and that the president said he “barely knew” EU ambassador Gordon Sondland.

Johnson also questioned the motives of witnesses who have testified in the impeachment inquiry, and called the inquiry a “ “continuation of a concerted, and possibly coordinated effort to sabotage the Trump administration”.

The Republican senator and frequent Trump defender attended Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inauguration in May as part of a delegation that also included Sondland, Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker, energy secretary Rick Perry, Trump’s energy secretary; National Security Council official Alexander Vindman.

Politico and the Democratic National Committee are reportedly at odds over the ideology of a proposed moderator of the December presidential primary debate.

Because Tim Alberta, the chief political correspondent for Politico Magazine, used to write for the National Review, a conservative magazine and has spent much of his recent career reporting on the Republican Party, DNC officials are concerned that he’s ill-suited to moderate a debate that’s meant to better inform Democratic voters, sources told NBC news.

Journalists for various outlets have come to Alberta’s defense, noting that he is a non-partisan journalist.

Some pointed out that other Democratic debate moderators have had an ideological bias.

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The US official who overheard a key phone conversation between Eu ambassador Gordon Sondland and Donald Trump will testify publicly as part of the House impeachment inquiry, according to CNN.

David Holmes, the counselor for political affairs at the US Embassy in Ukraine, said in a closed-door testimony last week he overheard Sondland tell Trump that the Ukrainian president “loves your ass”.

Holmes will testify alongside former White House official Fiona Hill on Thursday, CNN reported, citing a Democratic aide.

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• Secretary of state Mike Pompeo announced the US does not consider Israel’s West Bank settlements to be a violation of international law, marking a significant Middle East policy shift. Pompeo also dodged questions about the impeachment inquiry, including whether he still has confidence in acting US ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor.
• House lawyers told a federal court that lawmakers are investigating whether Trump lied to Robert Mueller as the Justice Department seeks a stay on congressional Democrats receiving the special counsel’s grand jury materials.
• Trump said he would “strongly consider” testifying in the impeachment inquiry, but that suggestion was met with skepticism given the president’s past refusals to sit for an interview with Mueller.
• The Supreme Court issued a temporary stay on a House committee receiving Trump’s financial records from a subpoena it issued.
• The House will vote on a continuing resolution tomorrow that would fund the government through Dec. 20 and avert a shutdown.
• New polls confirmed Joe Biden maintains a strong lead in South Carolina as his fellow Democratic presidential candidates have struggled to put a dent in his polling advantage among African American voters.

Maanvi will have much more coming up on the news of the day, so stay tuned.

The House intends to vote tomorrow on a continuing resolution to fund the government through Dec. 20 as concerns mount about a potential shutdown amid the impeachment inquiry.

Current government funding expires on Thursday, and the Democrats leading the House are proposing to keep spending at current levels for another month, with the hope they’ll be able to strike a deal with Republicans on a full spending bill by Dec. 20.

The new Quinnipiac poll of South Carolina has given Tom Steyer his final qualifying poll for the December debate, and Andrew Yang now only needs one more to cross the polling threshold.

Steyer still needs to meet the donor requirement, but he is reportedly on track to do so, and Yang has already attracted enough donors to qualify. If they do meet the requirements, the billionaire activist and tech entrepreneur would be the seventh and eighth candidates to qualify for the December debate.

Another poll has been released showing Joe Biden with a commanding lead in the early voting state of South Carolina, buoyed by the support of African American voters.

According to the Quinnipiac poll, Biden has the support of 33% of South Carolina Democrats, putting him 20 points ahead of Elizabeth Warren. Bernie Sanders hit 11%, and Pete Buttigieg trails at 6%.

Among the state’s African American Democrats, Biden hits 44% compared to Sanders’ 10% and Warren’s 8%. Buttigieg attracted 0% of the support of black Democrats in South Carolina, once again underscoring the Indiana mayor’s difficulties in appealing to African American voters.

Buttigieg has surged in the mostly white states of Iowa and New Hampshire, but his struggles to attract the support of African Americans -- who make up a large share of the Democratic primary electorate -- could hinder his candidacy in the later-voting states.

During his press conference announcing the policy shift on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, secretary of state Mike Pompeo notably dodged a question on whether he still trusted Bill Taylor, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine.

Trump has reportedly expressed frustration with Pompeo for asking Taylor to step in after the ouster of Maria Yovanovitch, accusing the secretary of state of jeopardizing his presidency by hiring officials who have testified in the impeachment inquiry.

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo has announced the US does not consider Israel’s West Bank settlements to be a violation of international law, marking a significant policy shift in the Middle East.

The New York Times reports:

The United States has in the past described the settlements as illegitimate, and Palestinians have demanded the land for a future state, a goal that has been backed by the international community.

But President Trump has been persistent in changing United States policy on Israel and the Palestinian territories — moves aimed at boosting political support for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who has failed to form a government after two rounds of elections with razor-close outcomes.

Pompeo also tried to brush off questions about the House impeachment inquiry just three days after Maria Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, criticized state department leadership for not standing by its foreign service officers. “I always defend state department employees,” Pompeo told reporters.

Nancy Pelosi also argued in her “Dear Colleague” letter on the impeachment inquiry that the investigation is crucial to protecting the integrity of US elections.

“The weak response to these hearings has been, ‘Let the election decide,’” the House speaker wrote. “That dangerous position only adds to the urgency of our action, because the President is jeopardizing the integrity of the 2020 elections.”

Some of Trump’s allies have argued the inquiry is undermining the 2020 race because lawmakers are considering whether the president should be impeached and removed from office just a year before the election.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi just released a “Dear Colleague” letter defending the impeachment inquiry amid Trump’s repeated attacks on the investigation.

Pelosi emphasized the House is continuing to work on legislation related to government funding and trade, even as the investigation intensifies. Trump has repeatedly claimed the impeachment inquiry is interfering with the House’s legislative agenda. “At the same time we legislate, we continue to investigate and litigate, as the impeachment inquiry proceeds,” Pelosi said.

The House speaker went on to lay out the accusations against Trump, once again using the term “bribery” to describe the president’s alleged efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.

“The facts are uncontested: that the President abused his power for his own personal, political benefit, at the expense of our national security interests,” Pelosi wrote.

“There are also some who say that no serious wrongdoing was committed, because the military assistance to Ukraine was eventually released. The fact is, the aid was only released after the whistleblower exposed the truth of the President’s extortion and bribery, and the House launched a formal investigation.”

A bipartisan pair of senators are considering an IRS whistleblower’s claim that a Trump political appointee may have interfered with the routine audit of the president and vice president’s tax returns.

The Washington Post reports:

Staff members for Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (Ore.), the chairman and ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, met with the IRS whistleblower earlier this month, those people said. Follow-up interviews are being scheduled to further explore the whistleblower’s allegations.

It could not be learned to what extent the senators consider the whistleblower a credible source. Trump administration officials have previously played down the complaint’s significance and suggested that it is politically motivated.

The whistleblower, a career IRS official, initially filed a complaint in July, reporting that he was told that at least one Treasury political appointee attempted to improperly interfere with the annual audit of the president’s or vice president’s tax returns. In recent weeks, the whistleblower filed additional documentation related to the original complaint, which was given to congressional officials in July, [two people familiar with the matter] said.

Representative Richard Neal, the Democratic chairman of the House ways and means committee, previously said the complaint raised “serious and urgent concerns” about the IRS audit process, which is supposed to be protected from political interference.

Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who became famous following his speech condemning Trump at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, has announced he is endorsing Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

“I’m supporting Joe Biden for President because of the America he stands for and the one he will fight for — the country that my son, Humayun Khan, believed in and fought for so bravely,” Khan said in a statement released by Biden’s campaign.

“Beating Donald Trump and the hatred he promotes is the top priority in this election. But after Trump is gone, we need someone to help unite us and help us heal. I trust Joe Biden to be that person because I know his heart like I know my own.”

In his 2016 speech, Khan reflected upon the loss of his son in the Iraq War and lambasted Trump’s proposal to block Muslims from entering the country. “Let me ask you, have you even read the United States constitution?” Khan famously said, addressing Trump. Producing a reproduction of the constitution from his pocket, Khan added, “I will gladly lend you my copy.”

The speech sparked an attack from then-candidate Trump, who claimed Khan had not “allowed” his wife Ghazala to speak. That triggered criticism from both Republicans and Democrats and was considered by many to be one of the lowest points of Trump’s campaign.