Live political reporting continues on Wednesday’s blog:

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy says he has “no concerns” over call records in the impeachment report.

The report mentioned that Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was in contact with Devin Nunes, a Republican representative on the Intelligence Committee leading the impeachment inquiry, as Giuliani began spreading baseless allegations against Joe Biden and his family.

“I don’t have a problem with Devin talking to individuals,” McCarthy told reporters. “I have no concerns.”

What now? Next steps in the impeachment process

Now that the Intelligence Committee has approved its impeachment report, the proceedings will move over to the House Judiciary Committee, which is holding hearings starting tomorrow.

Judiciary is then expected to draft the specific articles of impeachment against Trump, today’s report hints could include charges of obstruction of Congress and allegations that Trump comprised national security for personal gain by asking Ukraine to investigate his political rivals.

Kamala Harris to Trump: ‘I’ll see you at your trial’

When Kamala Harris announced she was dropping out of the presidential race earlier today, Donald Trump’s campaign reacted by congratulating Tulsi Gabbard, who often clashed with Harris on the debate stage. Trump tweeted, “Too bad. We will miss you Kamala!”.

Harris responded, “Don’t worry” — she’s still a senator who, if the House votes to impeach the president, will be at the trial deciding whether he should be removed from office.

AT&T said in a statement that it was “required by law” to hand over phone records to the House intelligence committee, which were requested as part of the panel’s impeachment inquiry.

The phone records showed Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, was in contact with Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee, and an official at the office of management and budget as he started to peddle baseless corruption allegations against Joe Biden.

“Like all companies, we are required by law to provide information to government and law enforcement agencies,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement. “In all cases, we ensure that requests for assistance are valid and that we act in compliance with the law.”

Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, dodged a question about why he was calling an official at the office of management and budget as he was simultaneously pushing for the ouster of Maria Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine.

Call records included in the impeachment report from Democrats on the House intelligence committee indicate Giuliani was in contact with not only the OMB official but also Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee.

As Trump combats the impeachment inquiry, his personal lawyers have reportedly been sidelined by White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his team of attorneys.

The Washington Post reports:

In the face of allegations that Trump abused his office for political gain, the White House lawyers are not sharing with his personal attorneys some internal government records central to the inquiry about the pressure the administration put on Ukraine, citing the need to protect executive privilege.

The unusual decision to have the White House counsel captain the president’s defense — at least for now — departs from how previous presidents have contended with impeachment proceedings and has worried some Trump allies, who believe a multipronged defense would be stronger.

It also contrasts sharply with the legal strategy the White House deployed in responding to former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation. In that case, Trump’s personal lawyers led his defense in coordination with select White House attorneys.

A lawyer for Lev Parnas, the former associate of Rudy Giuliani’s who aided the Trump lawyer’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to launch investigations into the Democrats, suggested congressman Devin Nunes should have recused himself from the impeachment inquiry.

The impeachment report from Democrats on the House intelligence committee showed Parnas and Nunes were in communication as Giuliani began spreading baseless corruption allegations against Joe Biden.

Ro Khanna, a Democratic member of the House oversight committee, suggested the judiciary committee should quickly begin drafting articles of impeachment against Trump following the release of the intelligence committee’s report on the inquiry.

The judiciary committee will hold its first public hearing in the inquiry tomorrow, which will focus on the constitutional standard for impeaching a president.

Adam Schiff has just concluded his news conference following the release of the House intelligence committee’s report on the impeachment inquiry.

The committee chairman concluded his remarks by answering a reporter’s question about Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the panel who was apparently in contact with Rudy Giuliani as the president’s personal lawyer began to peddle baseless corruption allegations against Joe Biden.

Schiff acknoweldged it was “deeply concerning” that there “may have been members of Congres complicit in” trying to dig up dirt on Biden, but the chairman warned there was still much left to uncover about those communications.

“Our focus is on the president’s conduct first and foremost,” Schiff said, suggesting it may be up to others -- possibly the House ethics committee? -- to investigate the actions of some of Trump’s allies.

Adam Schiff encouraged his Republican colleagues to seriously consider the allegations against Trump, warning that their dismissal of the inquiry could set a dangerous precedent for future presidents.

“To my Republican colleagues, they need to consider when we have a Democratic president, are they willing to say to their oversight that the president can simply refuse?” the House intelligence committee said.

But Schiff emphasized Democrats would not abandon the investigation, despite Republican opposition. “I firmly believe that if one party relinquishes its responsibility to the constitution and to their oath, it does not relieve us of our obligation to the same,” Schiff said.

House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff said his panel’s report on the impeachment inquiry “chronicles a scheme” by Trump to pressure Ukraine into “doing the president’s political dirty work.”

The California Democrat asserted Trump had leveraged a potential White House meeting and military assistance to pursue his political agenda. “These were things that Ukraine desperately wanted and needed,” Schiff said.

“This is not about Ukraine. This is about our democracy,” the chairman added, accusing Trump of “betraying that oath that he took to the constitution to protect our country and defend its institutions.”

The impeachment report from Democrats on the House intelligence committee outlines frequent communication between Rudy Giuliani and the White House as the president’s personal lawyer pushed for the ouster of Maria Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine.

Yovanovitch was recalled from her post in May, even though the deputy secretary of state told her she had done nothing wrong in the role.

The editor-in-chief of the Hill said the newspaper was launching a “meticulous review” of John Solomon’s columns after the impeachment report from Democrats on the House intelligence committee revealed the former opinion writer was in frequent contact with former Giuliani associate Lev Parnas.

According to the impeachment report from Democrats on the House intelligence committee, John Solomon, a former opinion writer for the Hill newspaper who wrote misleading op-eds about Ukraine, was in frequent contact with Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani’s who is now facing federal campaign-finance charges.

The impeachment report from Democrats on the House intelligence committee levels two main charges against Trump: that he “Conditioned a White House Meeting and Military Aid to Ukraine on a Public Announcement of Investigations Beneficial to his Reelection Campaign” and that he “Obstructed the Impeachment Inquiry by Instructing Witnesses and Agencies to Ignore Subpoenas for Documents and Testimony.”

“The President demanded that the newly-elected Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, publicly announce investigations into a political rival that he apparently feared the most, former Vice President Joe Biden, and into a discredited theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 presidential election,” the report’s executive summary says.

“To compel the Ukrainian President to do his political bidding, President Trump conditioned two official acts on the public announcement of the investigations: a coveted White House visit and critical U.S. military assistance Ukraine needed to fight its Russian adversary.”

The impeachment report from Democrats on the House intelligence committee runs 300 pages long and outlines the lawmakers’ argument that Trump abused the power of the presidency to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and the 2016 election.

“President Trump’s scheme subverted U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine and undermined our national security in favor of two politically motivated investigations that would help his presidential reelection campaign,” the report’s executive summary says.

With the announcement that she is suspending her presidential campaign, Kamala Harris is poised to become a key voice for Senate Democrats during the expected trial on whether to remove Trump from office.

Harris serves on the Senate judiciary committee and has become well known for the tough questions she poses to Trump administration officials, including former attorney general Jeff Sessions.

Trump’s reelection campaign reacted to the news that Kamala Harris was ending her White House bid by congratulating Tulsi Gabbard, who repeatedly clashed with Harris on the debate stage.

Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, who eclipsed Kamala Harris in polling in recent months, celebrated the California senator’s long career and predicted she would continue to play a vital role in the Democratic Party.

Kamala Harris’ opponents applauded her as a “trailblazer” and a “lifelong fighter for opportunity and justice” following the California senator’s announcement that she would not continue with her presidential campaign.

With Kamala Harris’ withdrawal from the Democratic presidential race, six candidates are now expected to participate in the December debate -- although there are nine days left to qualify.

As one commentator pointed out, without Harris on the stage, all the candidates who have already qualified -- Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer -- are white.

In an email to supporters announcing her decision, Kamala Harris said her campaign lacked the financial resources to continue with the bid. The California senator lagged behind fellow candidates like Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg in third-quarter fundraising.

Harris wrote in her email:

Eleven months ago at the launch of our campaign in Oakland I told you all: ‘I am not perfect. But I will always speak with decency and moral clarity and treat all people with dignity and respect. I will lead with integrity. I will speak the truth.’

And that’s what I have tried to do every day of this campaign. So here’s the truth today.

I’ve taken stock and looked at this from every angle, and over the last few days have come to one of the hardest decisions of my life.

My campaign for president simply doesn’t have the financial resources we need to continue.

I’m not a billionaire. I can’t fund my own campaign. And as the campaign has gone on, it’s become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete.

In good faith, I can’t tell you, my supporters and volunteers, that I have a path forward if I don’t believe I do.

So, to you my supporters, it is with deep regret -- but also with deep gratitude -- that I am suspending my campaign today.

The timing of Kamala Harris’ announcement makes more sense in the context of the California presidential primary, given that the senator only had a few days left to drop out without appearing on the state’s primary ballot.

Kamala Harris has not yet confirmed she is dropping out of the presidential race, but her husband just shared this photo as reports indicate the California senator has informed her staff of the decision.

Kamala Harris’ niece has just shared this tweet amid reports she is ending her White House campaign. A video announcing the decision is reportedly forthcoming from the California senator.

Kamala Harris canceled a fundraiser with major donors in New York earlier today, citing a “personal matter” and not elaborating on a possible rescheduling date for the event.

CNBC reported:

The event, which was scheduled to take place on Tuesday at the Paul Weiss law firm, was suddenly dropped due to what was described by the campaign as a ‘personal matter,’ according to people familiar with the situation. No date was given for rescheduling. Donors were informed of the decision earlier Tuesday.

An invitation shows that the fundraiser was expected to draw some of Harris’ top bundlers, including hedge fund executive Marc Lasry, financier Blair Effron and Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp. All three are listed as members of Harris’ finance committee. Also slated to attend was Citigroup executive Ray McGuire and music industry investor Matt Pincus.

Representative Jim Himes, a Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said the panel’s report on the impeachment inquiry runs hundreds of pages long, but the Connecticut lawmaker would not say whether it recommends specific articles of impeachment against Trump.

Meanwhile, it looks like the sentencing of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in 2017, has been pushed back until at least mid-January as a federal judge has granted the former official permission to travel to South Korea later this month.

Senator John Kennedy, who has repeatedly suggested that Ukraine may have meddled in the 2016 election, dodged a question about the baseless accusation as he entered an elevator with Mitt Romney, who said in a statement today that he has seen “no evidence” of Ukrainian election interference.

Senate Republicans are offering a range of answers on whether they believe the accusation that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, a baseless claim peddled by the Kremlin and echoed by Trump and some of his allies.

Some GOP senators have argued Ukraine might have meddled in the election alongside other countries like Russia, but a handful of lawmakers -- including Utah senator Mitt Romney -- have placed the blame for 2016 election interference squarely on the Kremlin, as the US intelligence community has.

Trump talked to reporters three times today -- appearing alongside Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. All together, the US president spoke to the press for more than two hours today.

Meanwhile, Republicans on the House oversight committee are keeping up their messaging campaign against the impeachment inquiry by ... photo-shopping chairman Adam Schiff’s face into a poster for the movie “Back to the Future.”

Speaking to reporters just now in London, Trump called Schiff a “maniac,” a “deranged human being” and a “very sick man” for his handling of the impeachment inquiry.

Trump just claimed to reporters that he does not follow the stock market after the Dow hit a one-month low following the president’s comments that he does not have a “deadline” for reaching a trade deal with China.

In reality, Trump has repeatedly boasted about the state of the stock market and has demanded credit for its rallies while shaking off responsibility for its trade-related tumbles.

Sitting alongside Justin Trudeau, Trump said Canada must increase its financial contribution to Nato, suggesting the country should be put on a “payment plan” to up its defense spending for the alliance.

The Canadian prime minister pushed back by pointing out his country has increased its Nato spending by 70% in recent years and insisted Canada is a key partner in the alliance.

Trump told reporters that he thought the initial question about supporting the protesters in Iran pertained to financial support, hence his surpising answer that he did not back the demonstrators.

“We do support them totally and have supported them from the beginning,” Trump said at the start of his news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in London.

Trump’s clean-up of his earlier comments aligns the president with secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who has said the US backs the protesters and has tried to keep online communications open in Iran depsite the government’s efforts to shut down the internet.

If the federal appeals court’s ruling stands, House Democrats could have unprecedented insight into Trump’s business dealings. However, the president’s legal team is likely not done trying to fight the order.

Trump’s press conference with Emmanuel Macron has just wrapped up, during which the French president repeatedly challenged the US leader on a number of foreign-policy issues. But Trump stuck by his controversial stances -- arguing, for example, that there was a benefit to communicating with Russia because the idea is popular at his campaign rallies.

Sitting next to Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron repeatedly criticized the US leader for his stances on a number of foreign-policy issues, particularly his welcoming of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after the Turkish president launched a violent military oepration in Syria.