Early Headlines: Asia Stocks Down, Dollar Up, Oil Down, Gold Up, Yields Down, Trump's 'Demand', GOP Witnesses 'Turn', Sondland On The Spot, Elise Stefanik, Oz Environment, Plus More - 26 Articles, 7 Graphics

Early Bird Headlines 20 November 2019

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Asia stocks decline as Trump threatens higher tariffs if China doesn’t strike a deal (CNBC) Asia stocks declined on Wednesday as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese goods if the two economic powerhouses do not strike a deal. Mainland Chinese stocks ended the day lower. The U.S. dollar index was higher at 97.909 after seeing an earlier low of 97.848. Oil prices were lower in the afternoon of Asian trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures slipping 0.23% to $60.77 per barrel. U.S. crude futures declined about 0.1% to $55.16 per barrel. Spot gold was up 0.3% at $1,476.50 an ounce and U.S. gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,477. US treasury yields continued to fall.

U.S.

Takeaways: Trump request to Ukraine seen as a “demand” (USA Today) A key National Security Council expert testified Tuesday he considered President Donald Trump’s request that Ukraine investigate Joe and Hunter Biden as a “demand” that was “improper” for Trump to make. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, an expert on the eastern European country, was describing the July 25 phone call where Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to probe his political rivals while the Trump administration held up nearly $400 million in military assistance. Vindman appeared Tuesday morning alongside Jennifer Williams, an NSC aide to Vice President Mike Pence. Both were among a handful of administration security officials authorized to listen in on the July 25 call.
Later Tuesday afternoon, former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker and NSC Senior Director for Russia and Europe Tim Morrison appeared before the panel, both witnesses called by Republican members of the committee. Volker told lawmakers he thought there was “an important distinction” between investigations into Ukrainian gas company Burisma (on whose board Hunter Biden served) and Joe Biden. He added that he did not realize Trump or others had conflated an investigation of “possible Ukrainian corruption” with an investigation into the former vice president. Volker praised Joe Biden as someone of integrity and said he rejected Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s “conspiracy theory” that the then-vice president would have been influenced in 2016 by money Hunter was receiving from Burisma.

‘Comes down to one guy’: In impeachment probe, all eyes turn to Gordon Sondland (The Washington Post) Only a handful of subordinates to a U.S. president have ever found themselves in the unenviable position of deciding whether to publicly implicate the commander in chief in impeachment proceedings: John Dean, Monica Lewinsky and others whose names are seared into American history.

No one, however, has faced quite the dilemma now confronting Gordon Sondland.
The evidence gathered to date points to Sondland as the witness who, more than any other, could tie President Trump directly to the effort to persuade Ukraine to launch investigations that might benefit him politically.
On Wednesday, with cameras rolling, the millionaire Republican donor-turned-ambassador could solidify the case against Trump, though doing so would require that he revise his previous testimony or acknowledge significant omissions. Or he could stand by his statements and face withering questioning from Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee over inconsistencies between his testimony and that of a growing number of witnesses.

‘He’s in Deeper Water Than Most’: G.O.P. Senator at Center of Impeachment Inquiry (The New York Times) Some of President Trump’s staunchest defenders in the Senate have twisted themselves into contortions to avoid becoming enmeshed in the impeachment inquiry into his pressure campaign on Ukraine. Then there is Senator Ron Johnson. Long an outspoken advocate of Ukraine, Mr. Johnson, a manufacturing baron from northeastern Wisconsin elected in 2010 on the Tea Party wave, has landed squarely in the middle of the impeachment inquiry. He is now emerging as one of Mr. Trump’s most vocal congressional allies.

The outsize role Mr. Johnson has played in Mr. Trump’s Ukraine policy was illustrated in an 11-page slash-and-burn letter he released on Monday. In that telling, he appeared over and over as a supporting character in a series of events House investigators are scrutinizing alongside a number of witnesses who will testify this week.

Stefanik grills Vindman over Biden & Burisma (Fox News) Rep. Elise Stefanik (R, NY) grills Lt. Col. Vindman about Hunter Biden’s potential for conflict of interest due to his seat on the board of Burisma. She also questioned former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker and NSC Senior Director for Russia and Europe Tim Morrison.

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