Mick Mulvaney’s quid pro quo has put Republicans in a bind.
White House officials knew almost immediately that President Trump’s acting chief of staff had opened a whole new controversy when he said military aid to Ukraine had been put on hold this summer to pressure Kiev to investigate the president’s theory that Ukraine — not Russia — was behind the 2016 election interference. Mr. Mulvaney tried to clean it up hours later and deny what everyone saw — that he said there was a quid pro quo.
The fallout might be beginning.
“You don’t hold up foreign aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative,” Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska and a famously cautious congressional veteran, told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon. “Period.”
It could not have been comforting for Mr. Mulvaney when Sean Hannity, Mr. Trump’s friend and favorite conservative commentator, told his radio audience that the acting chief of staff is “dumb.”
“What is Mulvaney even talking about? I just think he’s dumb, I really do. I don’t even think he knows what he’s talking about. That’s my take on it,” Mr. Hannity said.
The Senate has left Washington, but the House is in session Friday morning — enough time for reporters to look for more cracks.
Are the politics of impeachment shifting?
Since Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared the opening of an impeachment inquiry, Republicans have taken it on faith that the push to impeach the president would be a political loser for Democrats, especially in swing House districts.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is circulating a memo saying, in effect, not to worry.
“The numbers do not back up Republicans’ posture that impeachment worsens the political environment for House Democrats,” a pollster for the House Democrats’ campaign arm wrote. “National polling conducted by the DCCC finds voters back a Democrat who supports an impeachment investigation over a Republican who opposes an impeachment investigation by 11 points. Even in the 57 most competitive battleground districts, moving the inquiry forward is slightly favorable at 49-48. Additionally, Democrats’ lead in the generic ballot remains steady in national polling (+8 average) and in battleground districts (+3 average).”
In swing districts, those numbers might feel uncomfortably tight. So the committee is offering up some advice:
1. When discussing Trump’s actions, keep the language simple, direct and values-based: President Trump abused his power and put himself above the law when he asked the Ukrainian President to interfere in the U.S. election.
2. Emphasize the core value that no one is above the law. Incumbent members who support the inquiry are simply working to uphold the rule of law and Republicans who oppose the inquiry are failing to fulfill their oath of office.
3. The whistle-blower did the right thing by coming forward — members of Congress have a duty to protect this person, and Trump is wrong to threaten this person and impugn their character or motives.
4. Demonstrate your constant focus on the biggest issues facing families in the country, specifically health care and wages. These issues continue to outrank impeachment as priorities for voters, especially swing voters.
Catch up on impeachment: What you need to know about the inquiry.
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President Trump repeatedly pressured President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to investigate people and issues of political concern to Mr. Trump, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Here’s a timeline of events since January.
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A C.I.A. officer who was once detailed to the White House filed a whistle-blower complaint on Mr. Trump’s interactions with Mr. Zelensky. Read the complaint.