This week, the House Judiciary Committee debated  and voted to approve two articles of impeachment against Donald J.  Trump, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. After two fiery  days of debate, the panel took a somber vote Friday, marking the fourth  time in U.S. history the Judiciary passed articles of impeachment.  Remarkably, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell appeared on Fox News the night  prior, saying he was in “total coordination” with the White House, and  there was “zero chance” Trump would be removed from office.

On the same day Democratic House leadership  announced the House would move forward on impeachment, Trump hosted  Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in the Oval Office, closed to  U.S. press. Notably, the day prior, Ukrainian President Volodymyr  Zelensky, who has yet to be invited to the White House, met with Russian  President Vladimir Putin in Paris, without Trump issuing any sort of  statement or tweet in support of Ukraine.

This week the Justice Department Inspector  General report was released, and although IG Mike Horowitz found no  political bias and said the FBI was justified in opening its  investigation, Trump and Attorney General William Barr both publicly  disparaged the report. Former AG Eric Holder called on Barr to step  down.

With impeachment in full gear, Trump, who fears  the stain on his legacy, while portraying strength, has taken to binge  tweeting — on one day alone tweeting or retweeting 123 times. The full  House will vote on impeachment next Wednesday, and as the week came to a  close, only one moderate House Democrat had defected.

Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-161/