9:17 a.m. ET, November 2, 2019
Team Trump still divided over decision to release Ukraine transcript
From CNN's Kevin Liptak and Kaitlan Collins
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/AFP via Getty Images
When President
Trump declared in September he hoped the world would read his phone call with Ukraine's President, some of his advisers cringed. The transcript, they believed, would not provide the instant vindication Trump hoped.
One month, more than a dozen witnesses and
a formal vote on impeachment proceedings later, the move is still a sore spot. Some aides wonder why the transcript was released at all. And the document's rollout has been viewed in some corners as a disaster.
But if the resentments are still percolating, the precedent was set. As the impeachment crisis enters a new phase, Trump has established himself as the sole architect of his defense. Instead of working to craft a coherent strategy, officials are now aiming simply to adapt to the President's lead.
"He is the war room," White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Friday on Fox News, dismissing the suggestion a more robust defense effort be mounted since Trump, she said, was innocent. "We don't feel the need for a war room and we'll see what happens."
Putting the impeachment inquiry in perspective: A year away from his election reckoning, Trump this week became the fourth US president subjected to formal House impeachment investigation opened by vote. A string of witnesses, some still working at the White House, have come forward to the investigative committees to detail what they describe as concerning behavior toward Ukraine.
At the White House and Trump campaign headquarters, the impeachment developments have become all-consuming. A half-hearted attempt to wall off the matter inside the West Wing has largely been abandoned. Policy items the President once hoped to complete this fall, such as drug price reforms and some type of gun control action, have been put aside.
Some of Trump's allies, including Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have encouraged him to leave the impeachment matter to lawyers and communications specialists. Instead of trying to ignore the matter, however, aides say they are following the lead of the President, who has railed against impeachment at nearly every public appearance since September and tweets about it every day.