Sunday shows – Next impeachment phase dominates

Discussions on the Sunday political talk shows turned to open hearings and other developments after the House last week voted to approve rules for the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

The 2020 presidential race was also a focus, with appearances by Democratic candidates Pete Buttigieg and Andrew Yang.

Read The Hill’s complete coverage below.

Conway spars with Wallace on whether White House will cooperate with impeachment inquiry after formal vote By ZACK BUDRYK    Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway sparred with Fox News’ Chris Wallace Sunday on whether the White House would cooperate with the House’s impeachment inquiry following a vote to formalize the process. Read the full story here

Conway: ‘I don’t know’ if military aid was withheld from Ukraine over request for Biden investigation By JUSTINE COLEMAN    President Trump’s counselor, Kellyanne Conway, said Sunday that she doesn’t know if military aid was withheld from Ukraine because the White House wanted the nation to look into 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Read the full story here

Engel promises public impeachment hearings ‘very soon’ By RACHEL FRAZIN   House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday that there will be public hearings in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump “very very soon.” Read the full story here

Hoyer: We are going to move as fast ‘as the facts and truth dictate’ on open hearings By ZACK BUDRYK    “Time is not constraining us, the truth and the facts are constraining us. We are going to move as soon as the facts and the truth dictate,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Read the full story here

Clyburn says House would move forward on impeachment vote without GOP support By JUSTINE COLEMAN   A top House Democrat predicted on Sunday that the lower chamber would move forward with a vote on impeachment against President Trump without support from GOP lawmakers. Read the full story here

Intelligence Democrat asks why the Trump administration is ‘afraid’ to let witnesses testify By RACHEL FRAZIN    “This administration is doing everything to make sure that witnesses don’t get a chance to come and be heard. And why are they hiding it?” Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Read the full story here

Himes: The GOP has ‘fully given itself over to being a personality cult for Donald Trump’ By ZACK BUDRYK   Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the No. 2 Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, defended the House’s party-line vote on formalizing procedures in its impeachment inquiry, saying the vote was the result of the GOP being a “personality cult for Donald Trump.” Read the full story here

McCarthy argues Trump’s removal would ‘undo’ 2016 election even if Pence became president By ZACK BUDRYK    House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) blasted the House’s impeachment inquiry process Sunday, arguing that removing President Trump would represent an undoing of the 2016 presidential election, even as CBS’s Margaret Brennan reminded him that Vice President Pence would in that case become president. Read the full story here

Scalise doesn’t directly say whether it’s OK for Trump to ask Ukraine to investigate political opponents By RACHEL FRAZIN   House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) did not directly answer questions on Sunday about whether it was acceptable for President Trump to ask Ukraine to look into his political opponents. Read the full story here

Scalise: There were no ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ By RACHEL FRAZIN    House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said in an interview that aired Sunday that President Trump did not commit any “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Read the full story here

House Republican: ‘There is very little likelihood that the president will be removed’ By RACHEL FRAZIN   Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) criticized the House impeachment inquiry into President Trump in an interview that aired Sunday, saying there is “very little likelihood that the president will be removed.” Read the full story here

49 percent support Trump impeachment, removal: poll By KYLE BALLUCK    Roughly half of the respondents in a new poll – 49 percent – support President Trump’s impeachment and removal from the Oval Office. Read the full story here

Yang: ‘There’s a chance’ impeachment could hurt Democratic nominee By JUSTINE COLEMAN   “The downsides of that, the entire country get engrossed in this impeachment process,” presidential candidate Andrew Yang  said. “And then, we’re gonna look up and be facing Donald Trump in the general election and we will not have made a real case to the American people.” Read the full story here

Biden leads among 2020 Democrats, beats Trump by 12 points in matchup, poll finds By JESSICA CAMPISI    Former Vice President Joe Biden remains the top choice among 2020 Democratic primary voters and holds a double-digit lead over President Trump in a head-to-head matchup, a recent Fox News poll finds. Read the full story here

Warren, Buttigieg make gains in new national poll By KYLE BALLUCK   Frontrunner Joe Biden’s support held steady in a new poll of the 2020 Democratic presidential race that saw Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg make gains. Read the full story here

Buttigieg knocks Warren on ‘my way or the highway’ health care plan By RACHEL FRAZIN    South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Sunday criticized a health care plan by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a fellow 2020 White House hopeful, as a “my way or the highway idea.” Read the full story here

Trump economic advisor says he’s ‘cautiously optimistic’ about trade deal with China By TAL AXELROD   Stephen Moore, an economic adviser to President Trump, said he’s “cautiously optimistic” that the U.S. and China will sign the first phase of a trade deal. Read the full story here