On this day in 2019, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into allegations that Donald Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine in an attempt to extract political dirt on Joe Biden. Trump was ultimately impeached – and acquitted.
Good morning. Andrew here, breaking down exclusive polling on a new Senate resolution that demonstrates how sharply public opinion has shifted on Israel and its violent occupation of Palestine.
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ Democrats and Republicans agree the U.S. should investigate the killing of nine Americans in the occupied West Bank; Donald Trump and his administration revealed the exact level of bullshit they will put in a court filing before a federal judge; and Trump’s Iran war drags on and on. Let’s read on.
‘Protecting U.S. Citizens’… From Israel
New polling shared exclusively with Zeteo finds bipartisan supermajority support for an effort by Democratic senators to require the State Department to investigate the killings of Americans and increasing Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 15 Americans in the West Bank since 2003. Nine Americans have been killed since 2022.
Twenty-four Democratic senators, led by Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, are pushing a privileged resolution that would require Donald Trump’s State Department to report to Congress on the killings of Americans in the West Bank since 2022, as well as on “the human rights situation concerning Palestinian children in Israeli military detention in the West Bank.”
“Protecting and supporting United States citizens abroad is one of the foremost responsibilities of the United States government,” the resolution states.
It names the nine Americans killed since 2022: Omar Assad, Shireen Abu Akleh, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, Mohammad Khdour, Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, Amer Rabee, Sayfollah Kamel Musallet, Khamis Ayyad, and Nasrallah Abu Siyam. It spells out how they were killed or how they were believed to have been killed, by Israeli soldiers or violent settlers.
Signatories on Van Hollen’s resolution include progressives Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Ed Markey, but also moderate Democrats like Richard Blumenthal, Chris Coons, Jeanne Shaheen, and Jack Reed. The senators can force a vote on the measure before the Senate goes on recess for the month of October, potentially as early as Friday.
A survey of likely voters from the Institute for Middle Eastern Understanding Policy Project, conducted by Data For Progress and shared with Zeteo, finds strong support for the resolution and its goals.