Happy Wednesday and welcome to Overnight Defense. I’m Rebecca Kheel, and here’s your nightly guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. CLICK HERE to subscribe to the newsletter.
THE TOPLINE: The impeachment inquiry into President Trump dominated Washington on Wednesday.
The White House released a five-page partial transcript of a call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that revealed Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart to work with his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and his attorney general to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s role in the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor.
“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great,” Trump told Zelensky in the July 25 call.
“Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me,” Trump added.
The Ukrainian president then assured Trump that he would be installing his own prosecutor and officials and said he “will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue.”
It’s unclear if he was referring to Joe Biden or Crowdstrike, a company with ties to the Russia investigation that Trump raised earlier in the call.
Biden’s name is mentioned three times on the call and Giuliani’s name comes up five times, according to the document, which is titled formally as a “memorandum of telephone conversation.” The document makes clear it is not a verbatim transcript of the conversation.
Trump told Zelensky on the call that he would have Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr talk to him.
“I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it. I’m sure you will figure it out,” Trump said.
Quid pro quo?: Many Democrats have argued that Trump raising an investigation of a political rival on a call with a foreign leader is sufficient proof of wrongdoing, even if there was no explicit quid pro quo.
Democrats are concerned that Trump pressured a foreign government to look into a political opponent, and that he may have used U.S. military aide as leverage.
While Trump highlights how the U.S. provides aid to Ukraine and expresses frustration that France and Germany don’t contribute more, the transcript does not contain any explicit quid pro quo in which Trump directly ties aid for Ukraine to opening an investigation into the Bidens.
However, the document does show the Ukrainian leader thanking the U.S. for help on defense, with Trump subsequently requesting “a favor” before asking him to look into Biden.
Meeting Zelensky: Hours after the White House released the memo, Trump met one-on-one with Zelensky on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.
Zelensky appeared reluctant to wade into the controversy when asked if he felt pressured by Trump to investigate Biden, saying he didn’t want to get involved in “elections of USA.”
“We’ve had I think [a] good phone call. It was normal. We spoke about many things,” Zelensky said, adding that “nobody pushed me.”
“And there was no pressure,” Trump added.
But Trump insisted that Biden, who leads the president in multiple polls of hypothetical 2020 matchups, was guilty of wrongdoing.
Zelensky later clarified that he had not reached out to the country’s prosecutor general to request an investigation into any matter.
Democrats bolstered: House Democrats are seizing on the release of the partial transcript as evidence that bolsters their case for impeachment.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement that the memo “confirms that the president engaged in behavior that undermines the integrity of our elections, the dignity of the office he holds and our national security.”
“The transcript and the Justice Department’s acting in a rogue fashion in being complicit in the president’s lawlessness confirm the need for an impeachment inquiry. Clearly, the Congress must act,” Pelosi said.
Biden’s response: Biden released a lengthy statement Wednesday afternoon blasting Trump’s call with Zelensky, saying, “It is a tragedy for this country that our president put personal politics above his sacred oath.”
“The 2,000-word summation of a 30-minute phone call released by the White House makes clear that days after the President ordered the delay of Congressionally-appropriated military assistance to Ukraine, he implored the President of Ukraine to work with his personal attorney to manufacture a smear against a domestic political opponent, using a malicious conspiracy theory that has been universally debunked by every independent outlet that has looked at it,” he said.
Takeaways: The Hill’s Brett Samuels and Morgan Chalfant broke down the memo into five essential takeaways. Catch up on that here.
SENATE VOTES AGAINST BORDER EMERGENCY … AGAIN: The impeachment drama may have grabbed the most headlines, but it wasn’t the only setback for Trump on Wednesday.
For the second time, the Senate voted to nix Trump’s emergency declaration, which he issued to be able to use billions in Pentagon funding to build his border wall.
Senators voted 54-41 on a resolution to end the declaration. Under the National Emergencies Act, a resolution ending the declaration needed only a simple majority to clear the Senate, making it likely to be approved.
But underscoring the broad swath of concern about Trump’s actions among the Senate GOP caucus, 11 Republican senators voted to nix the declaration.
GOP Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Roy Blunt (Mo.), Susan Collins (Maine), Mike Lee (Utah), Jerry Moran (Kan.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rand Paul (Ky.), Rob Portman (Ohio), Mitt Romney (Utah), Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.) voted to end the president’s declaration.
What Democrats say: Democrats have seized on the administration’s decision to shift money away from military construction projects as a way to politically box in Republicans by forcing them to decide between breaking with Trump or voting to allow money to be shifted away from projects in their own states.
“The vote today is the surest and likely the only way to restore funding the president has stolen from our troops and military projects across the country,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said ahead of the vote.
He added that if Republicans voted to uphold Trump’s use of his emergency powers they would be setting “a dangerous precedent that could embolden not just this president but future presidents to ignore congressional authority.”
What Republicans say: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) knocked Democrats on Wednesday, arguing they were forcing them to hold a repeat vote even though they knew the outcome — that Congress won’t be able to override a veto.
“Still unwilling to work with the president and Republicans on a long-term bipartisan solution for border security, Senate Democrats are making us repeat the same show vote again. I would urge my colleagues to vote for border security and vote against Democrats’ resolution,” he said.
Republicans who support ending the emergency declaration argue that their decision isn’t about Trump personally but about broader concerns on upholding the separation of powers.
“Let me be clear: The question before us is not whether to support or oppose the wall, or to support or oppose the President. Rather, it is: Do we want the Executive Branch — now or in the future — to hold a power that the Founders deliberately entrusted to Congress?” GOP Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), a co-sponsor of the resolution, asked earlier this month.
CONGRESS BRIEFED ON IRAN: Congress received classified briefings Wednesday on Iran following attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities the Trump administration has blamed on Tehran.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a typical Trump ally who has clashed with the president over how to respond to the attacks, emerged from the Senate’s briefing continuing to push military action, but said he thinks President Trump is “waiting to see what happens with the coalition building.”
“I am more determined now than ever to make the case that to restore deterrence Iran has to pay a price that they can feel and sanctions will never do the job and that we should be considering a military response,” Graham said. “I’m hoping the president will respond in a fashion where the Iranians will not be confused about the price they pay to disrupt the world.”
The briefing was conducted by mid-level Defense, State and intelligence officials, senators said.
Coming out of Wednesday’s briefing, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said the Trump administration is living in “an absolute fantasy world.”
“The administration continues to believe they’re going to be able to put together some broad multilateral coalition to pressure the Iranians into coming back to the negotiating table when in fact the exact opposite is true,” Murphy said. “Our European partners are actually actively trying to undermine our maximum pressure campaign. And [the briefers] sit in this room and try to pretend as if they’re on the cusp of getting the Europeans to join us.”
Iran at the UN: Earlier Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke at the U.N. General Assembly.
Rouhani warned that a “single blunder” in the Gulf region could “fuel a big fire.”
“Our region is on the edge of collapse, as a single blunder can fuel a big fire,” Rouhani told world leaders assembled at the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.
“We shall not tolerate the provocative intervention of foreigners,” he continued. “We shall respond decisively and strongly to any sort of transgression to and violation of our security and territorial integrity.”
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ON TAP FOR TOMORROW
The House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee will hold a joint hearing on “Sustaining U.S. Pacific Insular Relationships” at 10 a.m. at the Rayburn House Office Building, room 2172. https://bit.ly/2lzV0Hn
A Senate Foreign Relations Committee subcommittee will hold a hearing on Hong Kong at 10:45 a.m. at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 419. https://bit.ly/2lPL10D
A House Foreign Affairs subcommittee will hold a hearing on U.S. nonproliferation policy at 2 p.m. Rayburn 2172. https://bit.ly/2lbU4sz
ICYMI
— The Hill: US military warns service members about extremist violence at ‘Joker’ screenings
— The Hill: Military pursuing new eligibility rules for burial at Arlington National Cemetery
— The Hill: Opinion: Iran is surviving, in spite of Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’
— The Hill: Opinion: How the ‘Obama Doctrine’ can solve the Iran stand-off