Feeling particularly feisty on Wednesday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) let the world know exactly how he feels about Attorney General William Barr and Rudy Giuliani.
"I think Bill Barr has all the duplicity of Rudy Giuliani without all the good looks and general likability of Rudy Giuliani," Schiff said during the Center for American Progress 2019 Ideas Conference. "The most dangerous thing, I think, that Bill Barr has done is basically say that a president under investigation can make the investigation go away if he thinks it's unfair which, by the way, means the other 14 investigations firmed up through other offices he can also make go away."
Barr, Schiff added, acts more like "a personal attorney" for Trump, and needs to resign. Barr refused to turn over documents related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and skipped a hearing before the House Intelligence Committee last week, and earlier Wednesday, the panel postponed a vote on holding him in contempt of Congress. "Department of Justice has accepted our offer of a first step towards compliance with our subpoena, and this week will begin turning over to the committee 12 categories of counterintelligence and foreign intelligence materials as part of an initial rolling production," Schiff said in a statement. Catherine Garcia
Don't get your hopes up for a running mate announcement from presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden this week.
Although Biden last week said that he was "going to have a choice" for his vice president pick "in the first week in August," The Washington Post reports that his search has been "extended," and the campaign is "signaling that it will likely wait until the second week of August" to tap his running mate. ABC News similarly writes that "it's looking like" the announcement won't happen this week.
As the search continues, Biden is expected to interview "five or six finalists," but he seems to be "entering the final phase of the search without a clear favorite," the Post reports. Last week, Politico reported that Biden's "biggest concern is that there is nobody on his list with whom he has any previous deep relationship," with this report suggesting a dark horse could potentially emerge.
Meanwhile, Politico reports that although the buzz has recently centered around Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, one Biden aide claims that "11 women remain in the mix."
But as the knives come out for some of the leading contenders during Biden's extended search, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told the Post the situation has become "messier than it should be," and ABC News observes that "with just two weeks left before his convention, the coming time crunch could fray party unity at a moment his campaign needs it most." Brendan Morrow
"Picture this Thanksgiving: turkey, football (maybe), tenser-than-usual interactions with relatives," media columnist Ben Smith writes at The New York Times. "And perhaps a new tradition: finding out who actually won the presidential election."
The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to prompt a surge in mail-in voting, at a time when the U.S. Postal Service is grappling with service-slowing cost-cutting measures handed down by the new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, a major donor to President Trump. Key states like Pennsylvania may be counting those ballots for weeks after Election Day, and with Trump filling that time tweeting more "false allegations about fraud," Smith writes, "the last barriers between American democracy and a deep political crisis may be television news."
TV hosts, election analysts, network chiefs, and social media executives exude "blithe confidence" about their ability to handle an election that won't be decided for days or weeks, Smith writes, but there's "near panic among some of the people paying the closest attention."
"The nerds are freaking out," Brandon Finnigan, the founder of Decision Desk HQ, told the Times. "I don't think it's penetrated enough in the average viewer's mind that there's not going to be an election night. The usual razzmatazz of a panel sitting around discussing election results — that's dead."
Media companies can prepare their viewers and change how they report election results, "but what the moment calls for, most of all, is patience," Smith writes. "And good luck with that."
"Nobody I talked to had any real idea how cable talkers or Twitter take-mongers would fill hours, days, and, possibly, weeks of counting or how to apply a sober, careful lens to the wild allegations — rigged voting machines, mysterious buses of outsiders turning up at poll sites — that surface every election night, only to dissolve in the light of day," Smith said. But one war game of an election in which Joe Biden wins a big popular majority and tiny electoral college loss ended with the U.S. military casting the deciding vote. Read more at The New York Times. Peter Weber
John Hume, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work ending "The Troubles" in his native Northern Ireland, died on Monday after a short illness, The New York Times reports. He was 83. Hume, a moderate Roman Catholic politician, worked doggedly for peace, inspired by the late U.S. civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Hume played a major role in peace talks that led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair called Hume a "political titan" who "refused to believe the future had to be the same as the past," the BBC reports. Hume's family said it seemed "particularly apt for these strange and fearful days to remember the phrase that gave hope to John and so many of us through dark times: We shall overcome." Harold Maass