President Trump's former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, is set to testify Tuesday as part of the House Judiciary Committee's first impeachment hearing, and sparks are likely to fly.
Lewandowski will speak after the Judiciary Committee voted last week to set the guidelines of its hearings, with Democrats saying they're investigating whether to recommend articles of impeachment against Trump. But CNN notes this "could be a combative hearing," especially since when Lewandowski last appeared before Congress, things turned quite heated and expletive-laden. Unlike that 2018 hearing, Tuesday's will be public, beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET.
The White House on Monday directed Lewandowski, who never actually worked in the White House, not to talk about any conversations with the president outside of what's mentioned in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report. No significant new information, therefore, should be expected. As this is the first official impeachment hearing, it will be the first time that Judiciary staff questions a witness, The Washington Post reports.
Mueller in his report said that Trump instructed Lewandowski to tell then Attorney General Jeff Sessions to deliver a statement declaring that Trump has done nothing wrong and to limit the scope of the Mueller investigation. Lewandowski didn't do so. The report also says that on another occasion, Trump again told Lewandowski to deliver the message to Sessions and fire him if he refused. This time, Lewandowski passed that task off to another White House official, Rick Dearborn, who again didn't deliver it. Democrats have identified these incidents as examples of obstruction of justice by Trump; Mueller did not determine whether Trump obstructed justice.
Lewandowski, who is considering a 2020 Senate run, tweeted Monday morning that he's "excited" about the opportunity to testify and push back against the "angry Democrats who tried to take down a duly elected president." He also previewed this hearing as possibly serving essentially as a campaign stop by using the hashtag "#Senate2020." Brendan Morrow
Israeli voters go to the polls Tuesday in an election that will determine whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stays in power. It is the country's second national election in five months, coming after Netanyahu's failed effort to form a governing coalition.
Netanyahu, seeking a fourth straight term with corruption charges against him looming, is the longest serving leader in Israel's history. Ahead of the vote, he promised to annex Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank, and touted his relationship with President Trump, Politico reports. Retired military chief Benny Gantz's centrist Blue and White party was even with Netanyahu's Likud in polls ahead of the vote. Gantz said he offered a fresh start.
Either side was expected to have trouble forming a majority coalition. Harold Maass
A bomb blast killed at least 24 people at a campaign rally for Afghanistan's president, Ashraf Ghani, on Tuesday, The New York Times reports. At least 31 other people were wounded. Ghani was inside a building when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated the bomb outside. He was unhurt; many of the casualties were women and children, The Associated Press reports.
Ghani has been campaigning in his re-election bid mostly by video conference ahead of the Sept. 28 vote, which is taking place under threat of attacks by Taliban insurgents. The Taliban has vowed to disrupt the vote. Hours after the blast at the rally, another blast hit near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Few details on the second explosion were immediately available, and no group claimed responsibility for either blast. Harold Maass