This light, breathable trail running jacket is the first to use The North Face’s new Futurelight fabric.
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Intro Video
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
The Tech Helping Dogs Learn to 'Talk' With Humans
Five Years of Tech Diversity Reports—and Little Progress
The Massive, Overlooked Potential of African DNA
Meghan calls for gender equality in SA universities
Study: Better sleep habits lead to better college grades
Two MIT professors have found a strong relationship between students’ grades and how much sleep they’re getting. What time students go to bed and the consistency of their sleep habits also make a big difference. And no, getting a good night’s sleep just before a big test is not good enough — it takes several nights in a row of good sleep to make a difference.
Those are among the conclusions from an experiment in which 100 students in an MIT engineering class were given Fitbits, the popular wrist-worn devices that track a person’s activity 24/7, in exchange for the researchers’ access to a semester’s worth of their activity data. The findings — some unsurprising, but some quite unexpected — are reported today in the journal Science of Learning in a paper by MIT postdoc Kana Okano, professors Jeffrey Grossman and John Gabrieli, and two others.
One of the surprises was that individuals who went to bed after some particular threshold time — for these students, that tended to be 2 a.m., but it varied from one person to another — tended to perform less well on their tests no matter how much total sleep they ended up getting.
The study didn’t start out as research on sleep at all. Instead, Grossman was trying to find a correlation between physical exercise and the academic performance of students in his class 3.091 (Introduction to Solid-State Chemistry). In addition to having 100 of the students wear Fitbits for the semester, he also enrolled about one-fourth of them in an intense fitness class in MIT’s Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation, with the help of assistant professors Carrie Moore and Matthew Breen, who created the class specifically for this study. The thinking was that there might be measurable differences in test performance between the two groups.
There wasn’t. Those without the fitness classes performed just as well as those who did take them. “What we found at the end of the day was zero correlation with fitness, which I must say was disappointing since I believed, and still believe, there is a tremendous positive impact of exercise on cognitive performance,” Grossman says.
He speculates that the intervals between the fitness program and the classes may have been too long to show an effect. But meanwhile, in the vast amount of data collected during the semester, some other correlations did become obvious. While the devices weren’t explicitly monitoring sleep, the Fitbit program’s proprietary algorithms did detect periods of sleep and changes in sleep quality, primarily based on lack of activity.
These correlations were not at all subtle, Grossman says. There was essentially a straight-line relationship between the average amount of sleep a student got and their grades on the 11 quizzes, three midterms, and final exam, with the grades ranging from A’s to C’s. “There’s lots of scatter, it’s a noisy plot, but it’s a straight line,” he says. The fact that there was a correlation between sleep and performance wasn’t surprising, but the extent of it was, he says. Of course, this correlation can’t absolutely prove that sleep was the determining factor in the students’ performance, as opposed to some other influence that might have affected both sleep and grades. But the results are a strong indication, Grossman says, that sleep “really, really matters.”
“Of course, we knew already that more sleep would be beneficial to classroom performance, from a number of previous studies that relied on subjective measures like self-report surveys,” Grossman says. “But in this study the benefits of sleep are correlated to performance in the context of a real-life college course, and driven by large amounts of objective data collection.”
The study also revealed no improvement in scores for those who made sure to get a good night’s sleep right before a big test. According to the data, “the night before doesn’t matter,” Grossman says. “We've heard the phrase ‘Get a good night’s sleep, you've got a big day tomorrow.’ It turns out this does not correlate at all with test performance. Instead, it’s the sleep you get during the days when learning is happening that matter most.”
Another surprising finding is that there appears to be a certain cutoff for bedtimes, such that going to bed later results in poorer performance, even if the total amount of sleep is the same. “When you go to bed matters,” Grossman says. “If you get a certain amount of sleep — let’s say seven hours — no matter when you get that sleep, as long as it’s before certain times, say you go to bed at 10, or at 12, or at 1, your performance is the same. But if you go to bed after 2, your performance starts to go down even if you get the same seven hours. So, quantity isn’t everything.”
Quality of sleep also mattered, not just quantity. For example, those who got relatively consistent amounts of sleep each night did better than those who had greater variations from one night to the next, even if they ended up with the same average amount.
This research also helped to provide an explanation for something that Grossman says he had noticed and wondered about for years, which is that on average, the women in his class have consistently gotten better grades than the men. Now, he has a possible answer: The data show that the differences in quantity and quality of sleep can fully account for the differences in grades. “If we correct for sleep, men and women do the same in class. So sleep could be the explanation for the gender difference in our class,” he says.
More research will be needed to understand the reasons why women tend to have better sleep habits than men. “There are so many factors out there that it could be,” Grossman says. “I can envision a lot of exciting follow-on studies to try to understand this result more deeply.”
“The results of this study are very gratifying to me as a sleep researcher, but are terrifying to me as a parent,” says Robert Stickgold, a professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Sleep and Cognition at Harvard Medical School, who was not connected with this study. He adds, “The overall course grades for students averaging six and a half hours of sleep were down 50 percent from other students who averaged just one hour more sleep. Similarly, those who had just a half-hour more night-to-night variation in their total sleep time had grades that dropped 45 percent below others with less variation. This is huge!”
Stickgold says “a full quarter of the variation in grades was explained by these sleep parameters (including bedtime). All students need to not only be aware of these results, but to understand their implication for success in college. I can’t help but believe the same is true for high school students.” But he adds one caution: “That said, correlation is not the same as causation. While I have no doubt that less and more variable sleep will hurt a student’s grades, it’s also possible that doing poorly in classes leads to less and more variable sleep, not the other way around, or that some third factor, such as ADHD, could independently lead to poorer grades and poorer sleep.”
The team also included technical assistant Jakub Kaezmarzyk and Harvard Business School researcher Neha Dave. The study was supported by MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the Lubin Fund, and the MIT Integrated Learning Initiative.
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Monday, September 30, 2019
Is Dwayne Johnson returning to his wrestling roots?
Is Dwayne Johnson returning to his wrestling roots?
Kind of.
The superstar and former wrestling icon Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson will return to WWE’s SmackDown this week for the first time since 2013. He’s set to make a special appearance during the highly anticipated premiere of Friday Night SmackDown on October 4.
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson shocks social media fans with Hawaii wedding photo
FOX recently acquired the WWE franchise and moved it from Tuesday to Friday night, with the first installment airing this week from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The premiere will be preceded by a 30-minute blue carpet special that will highlight “arrivals and backstage access to celebrities and athletes, as well as past and present WWE Superstars to kick off the new era of WWE on Fox.”
Dwayne Johnson confirmed the news on social media.
FINALLY…I come back home to my @WWE universe.
This FRIDAY NIGHT, I’ll return for our debut of SMACKDOWN!
LIVE on @FOXTV.
There’s no greater title than #thepeopleschamp.
And there’s no place like home.
Tequila on me after the show 😈🥃#IfYaSmell🎤 #Smackdown#RocksShow #FOX pic.twitter.com/V5i4cxqIqH— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) September 30, 2019
The newlywed who is currently starring on the final season of HBO’s Ballers has had quite a year.
In August, he shocked fans by marrying his longtime girlfriend, Lauren Hashian, in an intimate Hawaiian ceremony. The couple shares two children, Jasmine, three, and Tiana, 15 months and have reportedly been an item since 2007.
The post Is Dwayne Johnson returning to his wrestling roots? appeared first on theGrio.
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REPORTS: R. Kelly wants OUT of jail because its unfairly strict
R. Kelly is looking to get out of jail and his reasons are pretty ridiculous, even for him.
According to reports, lawyers for the singer who was locked up without bond on racketeering charges insist R. Kelly is not a danger to the community. They filed an 11-page motion in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on Monday in an attempt to have him released on bond while he awaits trials, due to the unfairly strict restrictions of jail.
Snoop Dogg jokes about Tekashi 69, and drags R. Kelly into it
One of the “strict” restrictions reportedly include his inability to see both of his girlfriends, Joycelyn Savage and Azriel Clary at the same time.
“Presently, he is only allowed one unrelated person to visit,” one of his attorneys said. “In other words, although he lives and has lived with two lady friends, only one of them is allowed to be on his visiting list, and after 90 days he is required to switch. No other friends or professional colleagues are allowed to visit. That is not right.”
The motion also insists that R. Kelly is not a flight risk.
“Mr. Kelly possesses almost no financial resources, and no evidence was presented to the Court to the contrary. Indeed, there is nothing in the record to support such an inference. Likewise, Mr. Kelly is not a frequent international traveler. His passport is presently in the custody of authorities in Cook County, Illinois in connection with Illinois State court proceedings. That passport was issued approximately eight years ago and does not contain a single stamp for travel.”
The 52-year-old Grammy winner landed behind bars after a 13-count federal indictment accused him of conspiring to interfere with his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County by paying off victims and witnesses in the case.
He’s also charged with four other indictments in Cook County including allegations of sexual assault of one woman and sexual abuse of three minors.
R. Kelly maintains his innocence, pleading not guilty on all of the charges against him.
The post REPORTS: R. Kelly wants OUT of jail because its unfairly strict appeared first on theGrio.
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Gabrielle Union is bringing ‘Black Girl Magic’ to NBC
Gabrielle Union is booked and busy and now she’s bringing Black Girl Magic to NBC.
The superstar who’s currently holding court as a judge on America’s Got Talent will executive produce the series written by Emebeit Beyene, Crystal Boyd and Chandra Russell.
The trio co-create the web series Downtown Girls together in 2013 and Russell writes fro Comedy Central’s hit South Side.
According to reports, the 30-minute series will be a “mystical comedy” about three estranged sisters who learn a mysterious secret about their family history that changes their lives and brings them back to the magical world of New Orleans.
Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union list Biscayne Bay home for $32.5 million
Emebeit Beyene confirmed the good news on social media.
“This is what dedication looks like. I worked hard for this, man,” Beyene posted. “Cried all year off taking so many L’s. Grateful to my team for believing in me, @gabunion for advocating day in and day out, and most importantly, to those two ride or dies pictured next to me. Let’s do this.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by MEB (@emebeitbeyene) on
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Moroccan journalist Hajar Raissouni jailed on abortion charges
The imam who died fighting racism in South Africa
Delivery system can make RNA vaccines more powerful
Vaccines made from RNA hold great potential as a way to treat cancer or prevent a variety of infectious diseases. Many biotech companies are now working on such vaccines, and a few have gone into clinical trials.
One of the challenges to creating RNA vaccines is making sure that the RNA gets into the right immune cells and produces enough of the encoded protein. Additionally, the vaccine must stimulate a strong enough response that the immune system can wipe out the relevant bacteria, viruses, or cancer cells when they are subsequently encountered.
MIT chemical engineers have now developed a new series of lipid nanoparticles to deliver such vaccines. They showed that the particles trigger efficient production of the protein encoded by the RNA, and they also behave like an “adjuvant,” further boosting the vaccine effectiveness. In a study of mice, they used this RNA vaccine to successfully inhibit the growth of melanoma tumors.
“One of the key discoveries of this paper is that you can build RNA delivery lipids that can also activate the immune system in important ways,” says Daniel Anderson, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science.
Anderson is the senior author of the study, which appears in the Sept. 30 issue of Nature Biotechnology. The lead authors of the study are former postdocs Lei Miao and Linxian Li and former research associate Yuxuan Huang. Other MIT authors include Derfogail Delcassian, Jasdave Chahal, Jinsong Han, Yunhua Shi, Kaitlyn Sadtler, Wenting Gao, Jiaqi Lin, Joshua C. Doloff, and Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT and a member of the Koch Institute.
Vaccine boost
Most traditional vaccines are made from proteins produced by infectious microbes, or from weakened forms of the microbes themselves. In recent years, scientists have explored the idea of making vaccines using DNA that encodes microbial proteins. However, these vaccines, which have not been approved for use in humans, have so far failed to produce strong enough immune responses.
RNA is an attractive alternative to DNA in vaccines because unlike DNA, which has to reach the cell nucleus to become functional, RNA can be translated into protein as soon as it gets into the cell cytoplasm. It can also be adapted to target many different diseases.
“Another advantage of these vaccines is that we can quickly change the target disease,” he says. “We can make vaccines to different diseases very quickly just by tinkering with the RNA sequence.”
For an RNA vaccine to be effective, it needs to enter a type of immune cell called an antigen-presenting cell. These cells then produce the protein encoded by the vaccine and display it on their surfaces, attracting and activating T cells and other immune cells.
Anderson’s lab has previously developed lipid nanoparticles for delivering RNA and DNA for a variety of applications. These lipid particles form tiny droplets that protect RNA molecules and carry them to their destinations. The researchers’ usual approach is to generate libraries of hundreds or thousands of candidate particles with varying chemical features, then screen them for the ones that work the best.
“In one day, we can synthesize over 1,000 lipid materials with multiple different structures,” Miao says. “Once we had that very large library, we could screen the molecules and see which type of structures help RNA get delivered to the antigen-presenting cells.”
They discovered that nanoparticles with a certain chemical feature — a cyclic structure at one end of the particle — are able to turn on an immune signaling pathway called stimulator of interferon genes (STING). Once this pathway is activated, the cells produce interferon and other cytokines that provoke T cells to leap into action.
“Broad applications”
The researchers tested the particles in two different mouse models of melanoma. First, they used mice with tumors engineered to produce ovalbumin, a protein found in egg whites. The researchers designed an RNA vaccine to target ovalbumin, which is not normally found in tumors, and showed that the vaccine stopped tumor growth and significantly prolonged survival.
Then, the researchers created a vaccine that targets a protein naturally produced by melanoma tumors, known as Trp2. This vaccine also stimulated a strong immune response that slowed tumor growth and improved survival rates in the mice.
Anderson says he plans to pursue further development of RNA cancer vaccines as well as vaccines that target infectious diseases such as HIV, malaria, or Ebola.
“We think there could be broad applications for this,” he says. “A particularly exciting area to think about is diseases where there are currently no vaccines.”
The research was funded by Translate Bio and JDRF.
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Senegal coach Aliou Cisse rings the changes for Brazil friendly
Olympian Allyson Felix breaks Usain Bolt’s record for world championship medals
U.S. Olympic team sprinter Allyson Felix won a 12th world track and field title breaking a tie the world’s fastest man Usain Bolt, cementing a monumental comeback and her first gold medal after becoming a mom.
She joined in the first mixed-gender 4×400-meter relay at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar along with Americans Michael Cherry, Wil London III and Courtney Okolo for a finish of just over 3.9 seconds. Felix ran a 50.4-second split, or time she completed her leg of the relay.
READ MORE: Olympian Allyson Felix opens up about giving birth eight weeks premature last month
The nine-time Olympic gold medalist surprised her fans late last year when she gave birth to her baby girl Camryn last November, but she suffered medical complications that sent her into labor eight weeks early.
“So special, to have my daughter here watching means the world to me,” Felix told NBC Sports. “It’s been a crazy year for me.”
Felix became the first athlete since Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988 to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games. But she feared that having a child would somehow sideline her career and she struggled with trying to “live up to my pristine nice girl image”.
“Having a child felt like I’d be risking my career and disappointing everyone who expected me to always put running first,” she said previously.
She returned to running over the summer with an outspoken message about women’s rights in sports, particularly after she left Nike as a spokesperson when the athletic gear company gave her a 70 percent cut in pay after her pregnancy.
However, she fought against companies punishing women athletes for lesser performances after being pregnant.
READ MORE: Allyson Felix talks ‘Active’ schools campaign, keeping sports clean
“If we have children, we risk pay cuts from our sponsors during pregnancy and afterward. It’s one example of a sports industry where the rules are still mostly made for and by men,” she wrote in a New York Times op-ed earlier this year. She has since signed a contract with women’s sports gear maker Athleta.
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Samuel L. Jackson Signs On as First Celebrity Voice Of Amazon’s Alexa
Can’t get enough of Samuel L. Jackson? Well, now you will be able to hear his voice in your home or car on-demand via the Amazon Alexa.
Jackson, who is known for his signature profanity-laced phrases, is the first celebrity voice slated to be used in Alexa-themed devices. Amazon’s celebrity voice feature will cost an additional 99 cents and will be featured on Amazon’s home devices as well as Amazon’s new wearable line of earbuds, eyeglasses, and a ring. More celebrity voices are expected to be added in the near future. Users will have the option to utilize one of two different versions of Jackson’s voice: an explicit edition and a non-explicit one.
Amazon made the announcement on its blog about the newly added premium feature featuring the actor. “Actor and producer Samuel L. Jackson is the first celebrity voice we’ve created for Alexa using neural text-to-speech (NTTS) technology. Simply ask Sam to tell you jokes, information about the weather, set timers and alarms, play music and more—all with a bit of his own personality. You’ll be able to interact with Samuel L. Jackson, in explicit and non-explicit versions, later this year for $0.99.”
As reported on Amazon’s corporate site, the company also revealed it will soon start selling wireless earbuds, finger rings and prescription eyeglasses with its Alexa voice assistant built-in.
“Customers want their smart home technology to make everyday tasks easier, but not at the expense of spending their whole weekend, or hiring an expert, just to get everything set up,” said Daniel Rausch, Amazon Vice President, Smart Home. “We think customers will be delighted with what we have coming this fall—more ways to find smart home devices they can set up in minutes, new Alexa features that take the stress out of being away from home, and new products that help families enjoy great meals together or just have a little fun.”
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Cory Booker says he hit his $1.7M campaign fundraising goal
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker says he’s hit the $1.7 million fundraising goal he set for his campaign a week ago, ensuring he has enough money to continue his White House bid.
Booker says on his website he’s “proud of this grassroots team — thank you.”
The New Jersey senator had said if he failed to raise the money by Monday he’d end his 2020 bid. The plea prompted support from politicians including former rival New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (KEER’-sten JIHL’-uh-brand) and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who hopped on an all-staff phone call Sunday to encourage Booker’s team.
Booker’s campaign manager said the money would go toward ballot access and hiring staff, among other things.
Booker raised $4.5 million during the second quarter but spent nearly $1 million more than that.
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Twitter’s grammar snobs swoop in on Antonio Brown after he seeks help
Antonio Brown hopped on the internet to ask for help in his new college class, but it didn’t go over so well for the embattled former Patriots wide receiver.
Brown who is facing accusations that he raped his former trainer Brittany Taylor and sexually exposed himself to another unnamed woman, is sitting on the sidelines after the New England Patriots released him amid the explosive claims.
READ MORE: Antonio Brown blasts Patriots, says he’s done with the NFL in Twitter rant
Brown, whose 2019 NFL year crashed within the first month of the season, slammed the NFL and decided to turn back to education and apparently signed back up for some college classes and shared it on social media last week.
My English paper do by tonight 12am need a prof reader make sure As and Bs #Eng303
— AB (@AB84) September 29, 2019
But after seeing the errors in his tweet, the Twitterverse shut the athlete down and concluded he needs help is more ways than one, Brobible reports.
I just proofread your tweet. You’re very welcome. pic.twitter.com/OkFzUDiU5U
— ⚜ WHO DAT Cool Breesy ⚜ (@Steve2duhO) September 29, 2019
I’ll do it for $30M guaranteed
— Jordan (@2ndTag) September 29, 2019
— __iTweet__ (@__iTweet__) September 29, 2019
Imagine grading Antonio Brown’s English paper pic.twitter.com/OsZXEZ1gLu
— Duncan Smith (@DuncanSmithNBA) September 29, 2019
I would pay big money to see a draft of Antonio Brown’s college essay.. pic.twitter.com/CItuU4CVQI
— Geoff Warholak (@gbw5027) September 30, 2019
Well the epic hit backs from fans was a lesson he looks like he needed.
Brown reenrolled at Central Michigan University, which he left in 2010 to enter the NFL draft after three seasons. He signed up to take Introduction to Management, Technical Writing, Death and Dying, and a Racism and Equality course, The Daily Mail reports.
“Back to school @cmuathletics,” Brown wrote on Instagram.
READ MORE: Antonio Brown signs up for college after being cut from Patriots
Brown’s legal issues
Brown was released by the New England Patriots last week after a second woman came forward and accused him of sexual harassment, following an explosive sexual assault claim by his former trainer Brittany Taylor who filed a civil suit.
After being released, Brown blasted the Patriots owner Robert Kraft pointing out Kraft’s own legal troubles involving alleged sexual solicitation at a Florida massage parlor.
He is also battling both the Raiders and the Patriots for payment of the “guaranteed” millions they reportedly owe him.
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Oprah Winfrey gifts HBCUs with $1.15 million at United Negro College Fund event
Oprah Winfrey surprised attendees at a Charlotte fundraiser by announcing that she would match the $1.15 million it had already raised.
During the 17th annual Maya Angelou Women Who Lead Luncheon, when the billionaire media executive got up to speak, she asked how much money the fundraiser had brought in.
READ MORE: Oprah Winfrey launching wellness arena tour in early 2020
“We do want to make this the world record-breaking event,” Winfrey told the crowd of 1,120 people. “I believe in the power of education, there is nothing better than to open the door for someone.”
The annual event was held to raise funds for deserving college students at HBCUs to bolster their success rates, The Charlotte Observer reports.
The United Negro College event’s fundraising goal was to raise $1.15 when Winfrey blessed them with a matching gift totaling 2.3 million.
“Oprah Winfrey inspires us to live a purposeful life,” said Tiffany Jones, area development director for the UNCF.
Boom! The awesomeness that is @oprah just matched the $1million dollars that was raised during the #UNCFCharlotte Maya Angelou Women Who Lead Luncheon. Yes, so now over $2million was raised to support #HBCUs this afternoon! Peep this👇🏾#UNCF #blackgirlmagic ❤️🙏🏿 @ Oprah pic.twitter.com/lYeceynhFC
— UNCF (@UNCF) September 28, 2019
Winfrey was close friends with Angelou, who diedin 2014. She shared with the audience the importance of leaving an indelible legacy.
“‘You have no idea what your legacy is going to be, because your legacy will be every life you touch,’” Winfrey said Angelou told her. “Your legacy is how you treat everybody.”
READ MORE: Oprah says Ta-Nehisi Coates new book moved her like ‘Beloved’ did
“Listen to the whisperer,” she continues. “Your job is to figure out the pattern of your life, the flow.”
But she joked, “Some need bricks.”
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GOP split over impeachment pushback as Democrats plow ahead
By LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The president’s lawyer insists the real story is a debunked conspiracy theory. A senior White House adviser blames the “deep state.” And a Republican congressman is pointing at Joe Biden’s son.
As the Democrats drive an impeachment inquiry toward a potential vote by the end of the year, President Donald Trump’s allies are struggling over how he should manage the starkest threat to his presidency. The jockeying broke into the open Sunday on the talk show circuit, with a parade of Republicans erupting into a surge of second-guessing.
At the top of the list: Rudy Giuliani’s false charge that it was Ukraine that meddled in the 2016 elections. The former New York mayor has been encouraging Ukraine to investigate both Biden and Hillary Clinton.
“I am deeply frustrated with what he and the legal team is doing and repeating that debunked theory to the president. It sticks in his mind when he hears it over and over again,” said Tom Bossert, Trump’s former homeland security adviser. “That conspiracy theory has got to go, they have to stop with that, it cannot continue to be repeated.”
Not only did Giuliani repeat it Sunday, he brandished pieces of paper he said were affidavits supporting his story.
“Tom Bossert doesn’t know what’s he’s talking about,” Guiliani said. He added that Trump was framed by the Democrats.
Senior White House policy adviser Stephen Miller, meanwhile, noted that he’s worked in the federal government “for nearly three years.”
“I know the difference between whistleblower and a deep state operative,” Miller said. “This is a deep state operative, pure and simple.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, heatedly said Trump was merely asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to root out corruption. That, Jordan said, includes Hunter Biden’s membership on the board of a Ukrainian gas company at the same time his father was leading the Obama administration’s diplomatic dealings with Kyiv. There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either of the Bidens.
Mixed messaging reflects the difficulty Republicans are having defending the president against documents released by the White House that feature Trump’s own words and actions. A partial transcript and a whistleblower complaint form the heart of the House impeachment inquiry and describe Trump pressuring a foreign president to investigate Biden’s family.
In a series of tweets Sunday night, Trump said he deserved to meet “my accuser” as well as whoever provided the whistleblower with what the president called “largely incorrect” information. He also accused Democrats of “doing great harm to our Country” in an effort to destabilize the nation and the 2020 election.
Trump has insisted the call was “perfect” and pushed to release both documents.
“He didn’t even know that it was wrong,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, describing a phone call from Trump in which the president suggested the documents would exonerate him.
But Democrats seized on them as evidence that Trump committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” by asking for a foreign leader’s help undermining a political rival, Democrat Joe Biden. Pelosi launched an impeachment inquiry and on Sunday told other Democrats that public sentiment had swung behind the probe.
By all accounts, the Democratic impeachment effort was speeding ahead with a fair amount of coordination between Pelosi, Democratic messaging experts and its political operation.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Sunday that he expects the whistleblower to testify “very soon,” though details were still being worked out and no date had been set. Hearings and depositions were starting this week. Many Democrats are pushing for a vote on articles of impeachment before the end of the year, mindful of the looming 2020 elections.
Schiff said in one interview that his committee intends to subpoena Giuliani for documents and may eventually want to hear from Giuliani directly. In a separate TV appearance, Giuliani said he would not cooperate with Schiff, but then acknowledged he would do what Trump tells him. The White House did not provide an official response on whether the president would allow Giuliani to cooperate.
Lawyers for the whistleblower expressed concern about that individual’s safety, noting that some have offered a $50,000 “bounty” for the whistleblower’s identity. They said they expect the situation to become even more dangerous for their client and any other whistleblowers, as Congress seeks to investigate this matter.
On a conference call Sunday, Pelosi, traveling in Texas, urged Democrats to proceed “not with negative attitudes towards him, but a positive attitude towards our responsibility,” according to an aide on the call who shared the exchange on condition of anonymity. Polling, Pelosi said, had changed “drastically” in the Democrats’ favor.
A one-day NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll conducted Sept. 25 found that about half of Americans — 49% — approve of the House formally starting an impeachment inquiry into Trump.
There remains a stark partisan divide on the issue, with 88% of Democrats approving and 93% of Republicans disapproving of the inquiry. But the findings suggest some movement in opinions on the issue. Earlier polls conducted throughout Trump’s presidency have consistently found a majority saying he should not be impeached and removed from office.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries of New York urged the caucus to talk about impeachment by repeating the words “betrayal, abuse of power, national security.” The Democrats’ campaign arm swung behind lawmakers to support the impeachment drive as they run for reelection, according to another call participant to spoke on condition of anonymity.
The contrast with the Republicans’ selection of responses was striking.
A combative House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said that nothing in Trump’s phone call rose to the level of an impeachable offense.
“Why would we move forward on impeachment?” the California Republican said. “There’s not something that you have to defend here.”
Bossert, an alumnus of Republican George W. Bush’s administration, offered a theory and some advice to Trump: Move past the fury over the 2016 Russia investigation, in which special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of conspiracy but plenty of examples of Trump’s obstruction.
“I honestly believe this president has not gotten his pound of flesh yet from past grievances on the 2016 investigation,” Bossert said. “If he continues to focus on that white whale, it’s going to bring him down.”
Two advisers to the Biden campaign sent a letter Sunday urging major news networks to stop booking Giuliani on their shows, accusing Trump’s personal attorney of spreading “false, debunked conspiracy theories” on behalf of the president. The letter to management and anchors of shows at ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, MSNBC, CNN and Fox News added: “By giving him your air time, you are allowing him to introduce increasingly unhinged, unfounded and desperate lies into the national conversation.”
___
Giuliani appeared on ABC’s “This Week” and CBS’ “Face the Nation,” while Schiff was interviewed on ABC and NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Bossert spoke on ABC and Miller on “Fox News Sunday.” Jordan appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Pelosi and McCarthy appeared on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Eric Tucker and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington; writer Bill Barrow in Atlanta; and AP Polling Director Emily Swanson contributed to this report.
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Follow Kellman on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellman
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