He thought things were going well with the reelect and impeachment—but then Lev Parnas surfaced. “This is House of Cards s--t,” said a source.

As he flew back to Washington aboard Air Force One from a campaign rally in Milwaukee on January 14, Donald Trump flipped on CNN to catch some of the Democratic debate. Trump needed only a few moments watching the six candidates spar onstage in Des Moines to deliver his verdict. “This is boring!” he said, according to a Republican on the plane. “His voice was a little sore. But he was feeling really good.”

The respite would be brief. By the time Trump landed at Joint Base Andrews, the media was reporting on new impeachment evidence that Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas had handed over to the House Intelligence Committee. (The document trove included text messages between Parnas and Connecticut landscaper turned GOP congressional candidate Robert Hyde that suggested Hyde was surveilling—and possibly planning to harm—America’s Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.) Last night Parnas sat for ahttps://livenewschat.eu/politics/n explosive prime time interview with Rachel Maddow, during which he alleged, among many things, that Trump, Mike Pence, and William Barr were all involved in the plot to deny Ukraine nearly $400 million of military assistance unless Ukrainian prosecutors investigated the Bidens.

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In private, though, some Republicans have a darker view. “This is pretty bad,” a prominent Republican close to Mitch McConnell told me. “Rudy strikes again.”
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As the Senate impeachment trial begins, Trump has agreed to let McConnell run the show. “They’re hoping for a quick acquittal,” a former West Wing official told me. But multiple sources told me all bets are off if Trump perceives the trial as not going exactly how he wants. Already, Trump is leaving little to chance. According to two Republicans, Trump has repaired his relationship with David Bossie and has assigned Bossie to lobby GOP senators to stick with Trump. One source said people close to Trump have been investigating what John Bolton might have on Trump if Bolton does testify. “This is House of Cards shit,” the source said. “If there’s one or two bad days, Trump will blow the whole thing up,” Nunberg told me.