January 1, The Next Phase of Impeachment

This Day in History | 1963

President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas Texas.

Good morning Middle Americans.

The public impeachment hearings wrapped up this week. And what did we learn? For one, we learned that the Trump administration’s Ukraine policy is exactly like Sen. Lindsey Graham described. “Incoherent.” Over the past two weeks, we’ve heard from a steady stream of entrenched diplomats, and career national security officials. And most of them cast a dubious shadow over the Trump administration’s decision to mix domestic politics with foreign policy. You can call it what every you want. A quid pro quo, a pressure campaign you might even call it bribery and extortion. But the bottom line is this. President Trump is not going to be removed from office. Not because of the whistle blower, not because, the July phone call.

As unsavory as it may have been, President Trump and Rudy Giuliani do have a legitimate right to investigate the involvement of certain Ukrainian officials in the 2016 election.

Look no further than this Politico article from 2017, titled “Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfired. Subtitled, “Kiev officials are scrambling to make amends with the president-elect after quietly working to boost Clinton.”

We have more info about the public impeachment inquiry below. Also, in case you missed it.  Federal Marijuana legalization took a major step forward this week. And Wall Street it taking notice.

Read all about it!

– Fraser Dixon

Former Security Official Undercuts Trump Impeachment Defense

(AP) – In riveting testimony, a former national security official declared Thursday that a U.S. ambassador carried out a controversial “domestic political errand” for Donald Trump on Ukraine, an allegation undercutting a main line of the president’s defense in the impeachment inquiry.

Fiona Hill told House investigators she came to realize Ambassador Gordon Sondland wasn’t simply operating outside official diplomatic channels, as she and others suspected, but carrying out instructions from Trump.

“He was being involved in a domestic political errand, and we were being involved in national security foreign policy,” she testified, “and those two things had just diverged.”

Hill’s comment followed a blistering back-and-forth during questioning from Republicans at the House hearing.

Testimony from Hill and David Holmes, a State Department adviser in Kyiv, capped an intense week in the historic inquiry and reinforced the central complaint: that Trump used foreign policy for political aims, setting off alarms across the U.S. national security and foreign policy apparatus.

Read more here

Poll: Sharp Swing in opposition to Impeachment Among Independent

(The Hill) – A new national survey finds independent voters leading a sharp swing in opposition to impeachment, the second major poll to produce those findings this week.

The latest national poll from Emerson College finds 45 percent oppose impeaching President Trump, against 43 percent who support it. That’s a 6-point swing in support from October, when 48 percent of voters supported impeachment and only 44 percent opposed.

More importantly, the poll shows more independents now oppose impeachment than support it, a significant change from Emerson’s polling in October. The new poll found 49 percent oppose impeachment compared to 34 percent who support it. In October, 48 percent of independents polled supported impeachment, against 39 percent who opposed.

Take a look at the new poll numbers here

Pot Stocks Soar as Legalization Bill Moves Ahead

(Reuters) – Shares of marijuana companies rose on Thursday after a U.S. congressional committee passed a legislation to decriminalize cannabis, taking it a step closer to being approved by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.

The bill, which was passed 24 to 10 in the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, sent shares of Canopy Growth (WEED.TO), Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO), Aphria Inc. (APHA.TO) and Tilray Inc. (TLRY.O) up between 8% and 15%.

Is it time to invest in pot stocks? Learn more here