The Ukraine Gambit:  Two of President Trump’s envoys to Ukraine tried to get that country’s new president to commit to investigating Trump’s political rivals, The NY Times reports according to sources and documents.

  Trump has become fascinated with what are so far just conspiracy theories involving Ukraine, the Democrats, and the 2016 US election. He has claimed it was Ukraine, not the Russians, that hacked the Democratic National Committee in 2016, a theory that has been thoroughly debunked.

  The envoys were trying to get Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to sign a statement mostly provided by Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, committing to investigating the energy company that employed Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. It was never released, but if it had been it would have been a knife in Biden’s back without Trump’s fingerprints on it.

  It’s also important to note that Giuliani has no diplomatic appointment and does not work for the US government in any way. 

  Kurt Volker, who recently resigned as the State Department’s special envoy to Ukraine, spent all day yesterday testifying before House investigators. The House wants to know whether President Trump used his position to pursue a personal political campaign with Ukraine to damage Biden, the leading Democratic candidate for president.

   Among text messages released yesterday, William Taylor Jr., the top American diplomat in Ukraine, suggested that Trump was withholding military aid to Ukraine to pressure Ukraine’s president. Taylor wrote on Sept. 9 to Volker and Gordon Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, “As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.” 

The Daily Double: Facing potential impeachment for asking Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, President Trump yesterday openly invited China to do the same.

  Starting out referring to Ukraine, Trump said in the White House driveway, “If they were honest about it, they’d start a major investigation into the Bidens.” He added, “And by the way, likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens because what happened in China is just about as bad as Ukraine.”

  His accusations stem from Hunter Biden being on the board of an investment firm with Chinese ties and the board of a Ukraine energy company while his father was vice president. Trump has not provided any evidence of wrongdoing, but you have to concede that Hunter’s primary qualification in both cases was that daddy was vice president.

  Trump tweeted last night, “As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out!”

  In a statement released yesterday, Joe Biden called Trump’s remarks “a grotesque choice of lies over truth and self over the country.”

  The President is in full attack mode and succeeding at filling the air with accusations about the Bidens while claiming the Ukraine matter is a hoax. But his political walls are crumbling. A lot of Republican politicians are staying silent rather than defend him, and he’s even created a division among Fox News anchors, some of whom actually concede that the Ukraine business doesn’t look good.

The Money Poll: Vice President Joe Biden is slipping in the money race among democrats running for president. Biden raised $15.2 million in the past three months, a drop of $7 million from the previous quarter and less than several of his rivals in the latest quarter. Bernie Sanders pulled in $25.3 million and “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg, $19.1. Elizabeth Warren has not reported yet.

The Bulletin Board: MGM Resorts has agreed to pay up to $800 million to settle lawsuits brought by victims and families of the dead in the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. Fifty-eight people were killed and hundreds wounded. The shooter smuggled in guns and fired from a hotel window at the Mandalay Bay, owned by MGM. — Ohio University suspended all of its fraternities following stories of widespread hazing. The suspension of the 15 fraternities is immediate and indefinite. The university expelled one fraternity last year after the hazing death of a student. — The government of Hong Kong has banned the wearing of face masks. Protesters all summer have worn masks to hide their identity from the police. 

Locker Room Report: The football players at Division III Grinnell College decided to forfeit the remainder of their season after losing 11 of 38 members to injury in the first three Saturdays.   

  The players say they acted in protest. They want more assistant coaches, more training facilities, recruitment of more football players, and a commitment from the admissions department to admit them.

  Now they may have to do what they never expected. Go to college.

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