The Daily 202: The 12 biggest storylines of the 2010s

President Obama and his national security team monitor updates in the White House Situation Room during the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in May 2011. (Pete Souza/The White House/AP)

THE BIG IDEA: The raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 brought catharsis and closure for Americans a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the world had forever changed. 

“When he was killed, it was supposed to be this global huge sigh of relief,” said Kati Collier. “But terror and unease continued, whether it was the Islamic State or mass shootings or Russian aggression.”

Collier was among more than 1,200 readers who responded to my recent request for a word or phrase to sum up the 2010s as they come to an end. She suggested “unease.” 

“I had two babies in this decade (2015 and 2018) and the 2020s will be their formative years,” she wrote. “I hope the unease settles, for their sake and others.”

This has been a topsy-turvy decade of disruption and divisiveness. “Chaos” was perhaps the most frequently suggested word to sum it all up. Thank you to everyone who sent thoughtful and witty replies. I sincerely enjoyed reading your notes, whether they were a single line or several pages. And I appreciated how much you widened the aperture, not focusing on the outrage of the current news cycle but the developments by which history will remember this era.

You marveled at how much has changed on some issues, like gay marriage, but also how little progress has been made on others, like responding to climate change or the epidemic of gun violence. You recounted the strides, and setbacks, for women and racial minorities seeking equality. It was, for instance, the decade of belligerent birtherism but also the Black Lives Matter movement. You reflected on how technology has changed our lives, for better and worse. And you noted that the biggest flashpoints of the 2010s remain unresolved, from how much of President Trump’s border wall gets built to what’s left of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act after a possible third trip to the Supreme Court.

There’s a palpable sense that this stretch will be remembered as “a transition into uncertainty,” as Cam Yearty put it. “We have left the ‘American Century,’ and this decade has shown that the future is uncertain and unlikely to be controlled by one country the way much of the last one was,” he said.

“Tectonic plates in motion,” said Gloria Clark, “and remaining so for the 2020s.”

“My phrase of the decade is ‘Things fall apart, the center cannot hold’ for obvious reasons,” said William Morris.

“Reality TV run amok,” said Kevin Hancock.

“A decade of inaction,” said Doug Taggart, citing climate change, gun violence and the national debt.

“This was the decade where the three defining crises of the time – global climate chaos, economic inequality, and floundering democratic institutions – revealed themselves to be intimately, intricately, and frighteningly self-reinforcing,” said Laura Dresser of Wisconsin.

John Atkins lamented the loss of “referees” and the continuing decline in public trust and corrosion of civil society. “Without any formal burials, we have witnessed the death of shame,” he said.

“The 2010s were an age of artifice, a decade of deceit,” said Graham Harwood. “Fundamentally I believe this decade represents a second gilded age. First impressions rarely stood up to greater scrutiny. … We post pictures to social media of the idealized lives we all purport to be leading, but [experts] say the pandemic of loneliness poses the greatest risk to average life expectancy.”

Pat Eisenberg sees “a lack of compassion” as the most troubling strain of the decade. “You can see it everywhere, from random people filming accidents and crimes instead of assisting the victims to prominent people boldly calling for people or groups they don’t like to be disempowered,” Eisenberg emailed from Tucson. “My dear father-in-law said in the 1990s that he thought people were just as intolerant as ever but had learned they should not say some things out loud. Now, people feel free to say these things out loud, in print and online.”

“We are ending a decade of retreat,” said Kevin Cronin, an attorney in Cleveland. “The U.S. has established a pattern of retreat from the global stage: NATO, climate change, science, nuclear controls [like the Iran deal], world trade, even the arts. We have retreated to our own little cocoon, seeking safety in the belief that non-engagement is the answer.”

At home, everyone could agree that Americans became less agreeable. “This country is reeling from a lack of unity and common purpose,” said Richard C. Bulman Jr. “The failure of leadership in government to tackle this problem will be historically significant.”

“During the Trump era I feel that, just like all families, we have gotten used to fighting each otherand forgotten how to appreciate what each person, idea, theology, and political party brings to the table,” said Rebekah Martin. “It is our diversity that makes Americans and our nation a melting pot – not our need to be right.”

“We have seen a complete abandonment of once-accepted behavior norms pertaining to respect and courtesy,” said Catherine Mergen. “In the process, we have seen our country utterly divided along partisan and hate-filled lines. Of all the damages Trump has inflicted, these will be the hardest from which to recover.”

“I am not sure this is the biggest issue of the decade, but something I have been thinking a lot about is how people in our country have evolved to lose their ears and develop over-sized mouths,” said Duff Donnelly. “Everybody is yelling at each other, and nobody is listening.”

My job is to listen, and I hear you. 

Based on the collective, crowd-sourced wisdom of the Daily 202 community, these were the dozen biggest storylines of the 2010s:

President Trump announces that the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord during a June 2017 speech in the Rose Garden. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

1) Climate change, from Paris to the pullout

“The biggest issue of the 2010s has to be the denial of climate change and the lack of understanding that, if we don’t do something now, it will be too late,” said Annette Ratzenberger of Nags Head, N.C. “We will become known as the ‘ostrich’ generation who put their heads in the sand and took no personal responsibility to ensure that this planet will be a viable living place for future generations. This is bigger than Trump. He is just the poster child for the ostrich.”

Patrick Cherneski mentioned multiple global heat records, the growing number of billion-dollar disasters, the growing intensity of hurricanes, the proliferation of plastic pollution, the dramatic rise in species extinction, coral bleaching and melting glaciers.

“It may take some time for this to become entirely clear, but I believe the passing of a tipping point in global climate change will prove to be the most devastating eventuality of this decade,” said Thomas Murphy of Prescott, Ariz. “I dread the thought of what our grandchildren are likely to face if they manage to survive to my age, now approaching eighty.”

2) Changing perceptions of how technology will affect freedom

“In the early 2010’s, the conventional wisdom was that that new technologies would inevitably help,” said Stephen Burke. “People would have access to more information to make decisions and hold leaders accountable. Governments could better engage with stakeholders. Citizens of repressive countries could organize to demand reform, as evidenced by the color revolutions and the Arab Spring.

“As the decade closes, the script has been flipped,” Burke added. “Disinformation is leading to division, and in some cases, violence. Extremist groups have leveraged video platforms and social media as effective recruitment tools. Governments in China, and presumably other places, are using big data to track citizen behavior with social credit scores and more traditional forms of repression. Silicon Valley titans use their troves of data to protect their businesses from competition and accumulate staggering wealth. … Technological advances still have tremendous potential to improve the world, but the unbridled optimism of 10 years ago has been tempered by experience.”

“To quote Olaf in ‘Frozen 2’: Advancing technology, it’s both our savior and our doom,” said Duncan Neasham.

“I had to set my spam filter to allow e-mails from my doorbell,” noted Robert Carlisle.

“This was the decade where we gave up our privacy,” said Jon McDowell of Landisville, Pa. “It won’t return. Most people did this while being completely unaware of the decision they were making. Children raised this decade have had their entire lives recorded and shared on social media. We still don’t know what all this data adds up to in the future, but it’s out there and there is no going back.”

Matt Ferebee thinks the “the Teens” will be remembered as technology’s adolescent phase, and he’s hopeful that the industry will mature. “In the same way an adolescent child grows more intelligent, learns new skills, and gains new strength from ages 10 to 19, technology has gone through a similar transformation from 2010 to 2019 with a tremendous impact on our daily lives,” Ferebee wrote from Chicago. “And in the same way a teenager may not have gained the requisite experience, wisdom, or a well-defined moral compass to know right from wrong yet, technology has also grappled with its newfound capabilities and influence in the world.”

3) The aftershocks of the Great Recession 

Allen Linton II, a doctoral student in political science at the University of Chicago, wrote that a headline for the decade could be: “Capitalism Questioned.” 

“The Great Recession was the biggest story. It was a gift that kept on giving — everything from mass addiction to Trump,” said Lisa Strick.

The decade that started with Occupy Wall Street ends with a democratic socialist in the top tier of contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, all against the backdrop of rising income inequality.

“Prior the Great Recession, technocratic centrism was the global governmental norm, coming in two competing but complementary flavors: center-right and center-left,” said Joseph L. Chambers. “Although there were issues that inspired contentious debate, the day-to-day tradition was one of management by experts. The financial collapse blew up that consensus by shattering any vestige of confidence that anyone knew what they were doing. In the absence of such confidence, it became much easier to exploit resentment of the system for political purposes.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin confers with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Kremlin in Moscow in June. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

4) The collapse of post-war global order, and the rise of China

“Democracies around the globe were struggling with divisions while the totalitarian nations of China and Russia ascended in power and influence,” said Jonathan Schwartz. “Economically and politically, from the U.S. to Europe to Asia to Latin America, democratic nations were rocked by protest and division between the haves and have nots and the right and the left. More and more of the global economic and technological leadership was being ceded to China. Western democracies found it harder to create stable governing coalitions.”

“Leaders of both our major parties abandoned strategic efforts to promote long-term transformation across the globe in favor of short-term, politically expedient positions,” said Emil Skodon, who spent a career in the foreign service, including as an ambassador. “Among other examples, there were: the race by leaders of both parties to figure out some face-saving way to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, at the expense of abandoning our original goals for these campaigns; rejection of the groundbreaking [Trans-Pacific Partnership] trade agreement by both candidates in the 2016 election; and the misguided policy of offering rhetorical support to the Syrian people without the willingness to risk tangible action to back it up. The denigration of NATO and abandonment of international agreements by the current Administration only further advance this trend to absurd lengths. The ‘Shining City Upon a Hill’ seems intent on seeking shelter inside an isolated cave.”

Naomi Ridout said the most important story of the decade was “China’s return to one-man dictatorship” under Xi Jinping. 

“It’s not just the headlines like Muslim suppression, annexing Hong Kong, or the [Spratly Islands],” added Bruce Bender of Santa Fe, N.M. “It’s the combination of unethical-intellectual-property-theft-capitalism with a regression to Mao-thought-style governance.”

Republican lobbyist Bruce Mehlman, a veteran of the George W. Bush administration, says “deglobalization” is the best way to sum this up. “For two decades after the Cold War ended, corporations were pushed by Wall Street and enabled by Washington to become hyper-global,” he said. “To maximize shareholder value, they shifted their intellectual property to Singapore, information technology to Bangalore, manufacturing to China, assembly to Mexico, tax headquarters to Dublin, etc. There is a lot of (growing) backlash against this model. Populists and nationalists have come to power demanding the hyper-global elites stop working for global shareholders only and start working more for local stakeholders.”

5) The #MeToo movement, and another Year of the Woman

Trump’s victory after the revelation of his lewd comments on the “Access Hollywood” video helped spur the backlash that led to the #MeToo movement. Women were emboldened to speak out. 

“Never have so many powerful people fallen so fast,” said Craig Albright, “because hushed, gross, reprehensible behavior finally became sufficiently unacceptable that it had to be rooted out.”

Though Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 as the first female presidential nominee of a major party, Nancy Pelosi got her Speaker’s gavel back in 2019 because of a historically large slate of first-time female candidates running for Congress in what will be remembered as another Year of the Woman, akin to 1992.

“The emergence of women as power players in the past decade is a key storyline,” said Ellen Malcolm, the founder of EMILY’S List.

Kevin Barragan and his partner Adam Smith celebrate the Supreme Court’s decision to allow gay marriage on June 26, 2015, as do Kelly Miller and her wife Lindsey Miller. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

6) Love won

In 2015, the Supreme Court recognized a national right to same-sex marriage in a 5-to-4 ruling. “Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. “They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”

This followed, but also accelerated, growing public acceptance of the LGBTQ community. In 2017, Danica Roem defeated one of Virginia’s most socially conservative state lawmakers to become one of the nation’s first openly transgender elected officials. 

“This was a banner decade for the LGBTQ community,” said Julie Janson. “While RuPaul’s Drag Race originally aired in 2009, it’s now in its 11th season with 23 major awards, including 13 Emmys. … But we must keep fighting.”

7) Black Lives Matter, and a backlash to the first black president 

Obama was president for most of the decade, but he was replaced by someone who spent years fanning the flames of birtherism. 

“The single most significant factor in the 2010s was President Barack Hussein Obama,” said Annie Chavez. “The United States elected a black man as president and that president brought the country back from the brink of economic collapse. … Trump is nothing more than a reaction to the transformative Obama presidency.”

There was a surge in wokeness, but also white nationalism. Systemic racism was exposed, but it endured. “Racism is America’s unsolved problem,” said Lester Lloyd.

The violence that broke out in Charlottesville in the summer of 2017 between white supremacists who were rallying to keep a Confederate statue and those who were protesting them was a low point of not just this decade but American history. Trump responded by saying there were “some very fine people on both sides.”

8) The immigration wars 

“I think the story of the 2010s is the flood of refugees and immigrants that sparked nationalist movements across the globe,” said Dan Seals. “It is a contest between those who have lost their homes and those who feel their own homes are at risk.”

Immigration has proven to be an almost intractable issue. The last major overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws was enacted under Ronald Reagan. Bush and Obama tried unsuccessfully to do something. And Trump’s demand for money to build a border wall led him to force the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history – and then declare a national emergency to divert money that had been appropriated for the military.

“The one issue that stands out and stains our nation now and into the future is the separation of immigrant children from their parents and caging them in horrible conditions,” said Cate Timmerman Frezza. “How have we allowed this to happen and why are we letting it continue? We have forgotten who we —the American people— are, and history will record our lack of humanity.”

9) Obamacare’s fight for survival

“The most significant story of the decade is the Affordable Care Act,” said Anne Ladky. “It extended health coverage to millions of people who didn’t have it, materially improving their lives. It exposed the extreme partisanship that is now so obvious to everyone.”

When the law passed in March 2010, Joe Biden called it “a big [expletive] deal.”

Indeed, it’s been a big deal in the elections of 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 and the 2020 primaries. Passing the law cost Democrats their House majority in 2010, but the issue helped them win back control in 2018. 

Republicans almost repealed the law in 2017, but the late John McCain’s thumbs-down vote saved it. 

The Supreme Court has also saved the law twice. As part of the tax-cut legislation in 2017, the GOP got rid of the individual mandate to buy health insurance. That prompted a fresh legal battle, which the Trump administration supports, to get rid of the law. It’s still being litigated.

Warren Faulk’s suggested headline for the decade is “Obamacare survives.”

“The ACA is now and will be for decades to come part of the fabric of American life and culture, and it, or its successors, will be held in the same esteem as Social Security and Medicare,” he predicted.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) walks to his office at the Capitol with an aide in January after casting a vote. (Oliver Contreras/For The Washington Post)

10) The conservative takeover of the judiciary

Mitch McConnell’s proudest achievement during 35 years in the Senate is preventing Obama from putting Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court when Antonin Scalia died in 2016. The successful GOP blockade didn’t just allow Justice Neil Gorsuch to get the slot. It helped motivate conservative turnout for Trump and might have made the difference in such a close election. 

“This decade was filled with a thousand moments worthy of Greek tragedy but the Garland Affair … absolutely triumphs as the symbol of the decade’s miasma,” said Sid McCausland.

Walter Sorg said the 2010s should be called “the Mitch McConnell decade.” 

Trump’s victory, and a willingness to discard long-standing norms like the blue slip, created an opening to pack the courts with young conservatives who will fundamentally change jurisprudence for the next generation.

“It may be a while before the full effect is realized but it will have tremendous ramifications in the future,” said Donald Thompson.

11) Dark money flooded into politics after Citizens United

Arguably, the most consequential Supreme Court decision of the decade was handed down in January 2010: Citizens United v. FEC.

“Citizens United and the rising influence of the corporation has influenced everything this decade,” said Paula Fish. “The idea that money is speech and that corporate profits can sustain the economy over the purchasing power of the middle class has led us to a huge wealth gap.”

Ken Gilroy, a self-described “cynical Gen X guy” from Cleveland, sees “the Onset of Minoritarian Rule in the US” as a top contender for story of the decade.

Douglas Pascover recalled Ambrose Bierce’s definition of politics: “A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.”

“So, my argument is that, in politics, the big story from this decade is the masks coming off,” said Pascover.

Lynn and Christopher McDonnell grieve on Dec. 14, 2012, after learning that their seven-year-old daughter Grace was killed at  Sandy Hook Elementary School. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)

12) The failure to address an epidemic of gun violence

Saturday was the seventh anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where a 20-year-old killed 20 first-graders and six adults. Despite bipartisan efforts to enact universal background checks and other changes to the gun laws, nothing happened. And horrific mass shootings, followed by continuing inaction, became regular occurrences. 

“The killing of students while in school, concert fans in Las Vegas, shoppers in El Paso and gay people at a nightclub in Orlando were all horrible acts of violence against innocent Americans,” said Robert Hedges of Ames, Iowa.

“We began the decade being shocked at the news of such unbelievable acts,” added Sharon Gibson from Port Orchard, Wash. “What is even more unbelievable is that it has become such a frequent occurrence that, although we are still sad, we end this decade in resignation and almost an acceptance that active shooters are now the new normal. These acts of violence are driven by some form of hatred, which is also a big story of the past decade in and of itself.”

Gibson recalled being overwhelmed by “a feeling of hopelessness” after the February 2018 shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla. 

“Hopelessness started turning into despair, and then a wonderful thing happened,” she said. “The survivors of that tragedy began to speak out against gun violence, and the rest of the youth in the country joined in to take a stand for something they believe in, advocating not just for a basic right, but for change in order to save their very lives. Hope rebounds, and I expect we will see that when these young advocates become our new leaders in the next decade.”

THE IMPEACHMENT BATTLE:

— The House Judiciary Committee released its impeachment report early this morning. The 658-page report explains, in four parts, the committee’s process and justification for recommending the two articles of impeachment against the president, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The first part details the House Intelligence Committee’s findings, while the second is dedicated to the standards for impeachment under the Constitution. Parts three and four, respectively, break down the cases Democrats are making to argue that Trump abused the power of his office to pressure a foreign government and obstructed Congress’s ability to hold the executive branch accountable. “The Committee now transmits these articles of impeachment to the full House,” the report states. “By his actions, President Trump betrayed his office. His high crimes and misdemeanors undermine the Constitution. His conduct continues to jeopardize our national security and the integrity of our elections, presenting great urgency for the House to act. His actions warrant his impeachment and trial, his removal from office, and his disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.” 

— Trump has made 15,413 false or misleading claims over 1,055 days as president, according to a new tabulation from The Washington Post Fact Checker team. The impeachment probe has led to an explosion of false and misleading claims.

— A private campaign is underway to draft Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) as an impeachment manager in the Senate trial of President Trump, a bid to diversify House Democrats’ appeal to voters with a rare conservative voice. Rachael Bade reports: “A group of 30 freshman Democrats, led by Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), has asked House leaders to consider the libertarian, who left the Republican Party earlier this year, for the small group tasked with arguing its case for removing Trump in the upper chamber … The thinking … is that Amash would reach conservative voters in a way Democrats can’t, potentially bolstering their case to the public. He also would provide Democrats cover from GOP accusations that they’re pursuing a partisan impeachment; Amash is one of the most conservative members of the House… 

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would ultimately make the call and is expected to announce managers early this week … Amash did not respond to a request for comment about whether he would accept such a position. But Phillips, who is in touch with Amash about the idea, said the lawmaker has agreed to consider it if asked. The move would be unorthodox but not entirely unprecedented. Pelosi chose a five-member bipartisan group from the House Judiciary Committee to oversee the impeachment of a corrupt federal judge about a decade ago. Still, most Democrats predict that impeachment managers will hail from their own party and be steeped in the evidence gathered by the House Intelligence and Judiciary panels. Amash is not on either committee.

“While most Democrats would fall in line with her strategy in the Senate, Amash would be something of a wild card, given his lack of loyalty to the Democratic Party. However, Democrats supportive of the idea — a group that includes conservative Blue Dogs as well as liberal members — applaud Amash for his courage in standing up to Trump and his own party. While Amash was not part of the House investigative process, he’s a former lawyer known for his strict interpretations of the Constitution and is well-versed in the writings of the Founding Fathers.”

— Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for subpoenaing several senior Trump administration officials who refused to testify in the House’s impeachment inquiry to be witnesses for the expected trial. Seung Min Kim, Karoun Demirjian and Steven Mufson report: In a letter to Mitch McConnell, Schumer “outlined a number of procedural demands that Democrats say would make the Senate trial fair and able to be completed ‘within a reasonable period of time.’ That includes subpoenas issued by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. for acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney; Robert Blair, a senior adviser to Mulvaney; former national security adviser John Bolton; and Michael Duffey, a top official at the Office of Management and Budget. Mulvaney, Blair and Duffey had been subpoenaed by the House committees and defied the summons; Bolton has not been subpoenaed but indicated he would fight one in court. … 

“Under Schumer’s proposal, the trial proceedings would begin Jan. 6, although Roberts and the senators wouldn’t be sworn in until Jan. 7, and House impeachment managers would begin their presentations on Jan. 9. The proposal on witnesses is almost certain to draw the most resistance from McConnell. The top Senate Republican … would prefer not to call the type of high-wattage witnesses that Trump has demanded — such as Hunter Biden … and the whistleblower whose complaint triggered the impeachment inquiry — and McConnell has warned privately that a battle over witnesses would be ‘mutually assured destruction.’ Schumer proposes allowing up to eight hours of testimony per witness … McConnell and Schumer could begin hashing out the scope of a Senate trial as early as this week, and Schumer’s proposal came on a day when Democrats ramped up their criticism of McConnell and his assertion that he was in ‘total coordination’ with the White House on Trump’s trial despite his role as a juror.”

— Five staffers sent a joint letter of resignation on Sunday to Rep. Jeff Van Drew, the New Jersey congressman who plans to switch parties this week. From Politico: “The aides in Van Drew’s Washington office wrote in a joint letter to his chief of staff that Van Drew’s decision to become a Republican after winning his seat last year as a Democrat ‘does not align with the values we brought to this job.’ … Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairwoman Cheri Bustos later said the committee would hire any staffer who quit Van Drew’s office. … Van Drew, who was his party’s most vocal opponent of impeaching Trump, made the decision to leave the Democrats after a personal meeting with Trump on Friday. The congressman had begun informing some of his staff later that day, but didn’t want it to be public until the following week. But by Saturday, the news had leaked.”

— Here’s a headline you probably didn’t see coming: Trump went after Pelosi’s teeth as the House gears up for the impeachment vote. The president suggested on Twitter that the speaker has dentures, and her teeth were falling out as she answered a reporter’s question about why bribery was not made an article of impeachment. “The video shows that just before answering the reporter’s question, Pelosi moved her mouth slightly and took a sip of water, but her teeth did not appear out of place and her speech was not interrupted,” Karoun Demirjian reports. “Spokespeople for Pelosi did not immediately offer a comment about the president’s tweet Sunday night. Pelosi and a bipartisan group of lawmakers were marking the second day of a trip overseas to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Bulge.”

— A Fox News poll found that 50 percent of Americans want Trump impeached and removed from office, while 41 percent believe he shouldn’t be impeached. According to the poll, while 85 percent of Democrats favor impeachment and removal and 84 percent of Republicans don’t, there’s a new high in support for impeachment among independents – 45 percent favor it, compared to 38 percent in Fox’s October poll.

Former prosecutor general of Ukraine Yuri Lutsenko gives a news conference in Kyiv. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP) 

— The New Yorker’s Adam Entous profiles Yuri Lutsenko, the former prosecutor general of Ukraine whose name has been cited more often than almost any other in the impeachment inquiry. You may better recognize him as the man who fed Rudy Giuliani information that the president’s lawyer and his allies later spun to smear the reputations of the Bidens and of former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. “Lutsenko, who is fifty-five, left his job in August. He’d become a figure of some notoriety in Kyiv, and, in the fall, he relocated temporarily to London, enrolling in an English-language immersion program. I first met him at a hotel bar in Kensington in October. An entertaining raconteur with a deadpan sense of humor, he was determined to rehabilitate his image. As he alternated beverages—double Scotch, Coke, double Scotch, beer—he railed against his treatment by American diplomats, including Yovanovitch.” Initially, in what he called a “win-win” situation for him and Giuliani, Lutsenko was looking for a meeting with Attorney General William Barr to talk about $7 billion from Ukraine that he claimed were held by the U.S. financial firm Franklin Templeton, a claim Franklin Templeton denies. In exchange, he would give Giuliani Burisma intel. “But by May each man felt that he had been led on by the other. After Giuliani failed to arrange a meeting with [Barr] … and Lutsenko failed to publicly announce a Ukrainian investigation into the Bidens.” Then the trouble started.

“In May, Lutsenko met with an American friend, who warned him that his association with Giuliani’s smear campaign against the Bidens and Yovanovitch was causing serious damage to Ukraine’s standing in the United States. The friend told me, of Lutsenko, ‘He may be ambitious and occasionally reckless, but he is ultimately patriotic.’ Lutsenko retreated. On May 16th, he told a reporter for Bloomberg News, ‘Hunter Biden did not violate any Ukrainian laws—at least as of now, we do not see any wrongdoing. A company can pay however much it wants to its board.’ Lutsenko told me that he chose to speak to Bloomberg ‘to declare my real position’ and ‘to show I’m not Giuliani’s marionette.’ Giuliani was furious. ‘It was going along fine,’ he said, before Lutsenko seemed to let the Bidens off the hook. It undermined everything.’ Giuliani reached out to [his associate Igor] Fruman and arranged a phone call with Lutsenko. It was the middle of the night in Kyiv when they spoke, Lutsenko told me. Giuliani recalled, ‘I got pretty angry at him on the phone.’ He told me that he thought Lutsenko should have brought a case against [Joe] Biden for bribery—an idea apparently based on Biden’s threat that he would withhold a billion dollars in I.M.F. loans unless [Victor] Shokin was fired. ‘I said, ‘Have you ever read your goddam bribery statute?’’ Giuliani told me. …

“According to Lutsenko, Giuliani kept on repeating ‘bribery, bribery’ in a loud and agitated voice. Lutsenko said that he told Giuliani that the bribery assertion didn’t make any sense to him. If Giuliani was correct, then anytime a state withholds something of value from another state to get something it wants, which happens all the time, it could be accused of bribery. According to Lutsenko, Giuliani responded by saying, ‘I’m a lawyer, you’re not.’ … Toward the end of the [interview], Giuliani spoke wistfully of Lutsenko as a ‘critical witness’ in his investigation, and he said, ‘If there’s some way to, kind of, sit down and patch it up, I’m open to it.’” Giuliani didn’t waste time. A few days later, Giuliani announced that he and Lutsenko are working together on an “important project” for One America News Network, a right-wing television outlet.

DEVELOPMENTS THAT SHOULD NOT BE OVERSHADOWED BY IMPEACHMENT:

— The U.S. economy is now free of recession fears in a striking turnaround. Heather Long reports: “The U.S. economy is heading into 2020 at a pace of steady, sustained growth after a series of interest rate cuts and the apparent resolution of two trade-related threats mostly eliminated the risk of a recession. This marks a dramatic turnaround in momentum since August, when some forecasters predicted a 50 percent chance of a downturn starting by the end of next year. Many economists credit the Federal Reserve’s recent interest rate reductions and the slightly improved trade picture for propelling the stock market to fresh record highs and causing forecasters to bump up their predictions for how long the economy can keep growing and adding jobs without stumbling. [Trump] secured Democrats’ sign-off last week on a trade deal with Mexico and Canada that will keep most goods traded between the three nations tariff-free. He also reached a limited trade agreement with China that scrapped hefty tariffs set to take effect over the weekend in exchange for China agreeing to buy about $200 billion more in U.S. goods over the next two years. 

“The trade deals, while not nearly as ambitious as Trump promised, have lessened one of the biggest drags on the U.S. economy: uncertainty. … ‘Tariffs will be much more stable for quite a while,’ Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, told The Washington Post. ‘Some of the obstacles to growth, including the Fed and trade uncertainties, are being removed, and that will have a powerful positive impact on the economy.’ U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer said Sunday that some of the larger-scale structural changes the White House wants China to make could take ‘years’ to accomplish, reinforcing the belief that the White House could scale back some of its adversarial tactics next year as Trump nears his reelection bid. … Kudlow predicts 3 percent economic growth next year, a pace that Trump promised voters but that has not been reached since 2005 and almost no forecasters outside the White House say is feasible.” 

— A top Mexican trade negotiator flew to Washington on Sunday for urgent talks as a hitch emerged in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, just days after it was signed. Mary Beth Sheridan reports from Mexico City: “Jesús Seade, undersecretary for North America in the Foreign Ministry, accused the United States of blindsiding Mexico by deciding to send up to five U.S. attaches to monitor labor conditions as part of the treaty. That decision was included in implementing legislation sent to the U.S. Congress on Friday. … Mexico’s labor practices were a major sticking point in the final rounds of negotiations on the accord. U.S. unions — and their allies in the Democratic Party — pushed for tough enforcement of a new Mexican law that guarantees workers the right to elect their leaders and approve contracts. In the past, Mexican unions were often under the thumb of businesses and politicians, who kept a lid on workers’ wages.

“During the talks, Mexico rejected a U.S. proposal for foreign labor inspectors, saying it would violate the country’s sovereignty. Instead negotiators agreed to establish three-member panels — made up of Mexican, American and other experts — to resolve disputes. … The decision to send labor attaches was ‘never mentioned to Mexico — never,’ Seade told journalists on Saturday. … Mexico’s Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to approve the treaty, just two days after it was signed by the three nations’ negotiators in the Mexican capital. But the labor issue has since blossomed into a political controversy here. Critics have charged that Seade was careless or naive.”

— The U.S. secretly expelled two Chinese officials suspected of espionage after they drove onto a sensitive military base in Virginia. The New York Times reports: “American officials believe at least one of the Chinese officials was an intelligence officer operating under diplomatic cover, said six people with knowledge of the expulsions. The group, which included the officials’ wives, evaded military personnel pursuing them and stopped only after fire trucks blocked their path. The episode in September, which neither Washington nor Beijing made public, has intensified concerns in the Trump administration that China is expanding its spying efforts in the United States as the two nations are increasingly locked in a global strategic and economic rivalry. American intelligence officials say China poses a greater espionage threat than any other country.” 

— The U.N.’s global climate talks in Madrid ended with a thud as participants left with hard feelings and few results. Brady Dennis and Chico Harlan report: “After more than two weeks of negotiations, punctuated by raucous protests and constant reminders of a need to move faster, negotiators barely mustered enthusiasm for the compromise they had patched together, while raising grievances about the issues that remain unresolved. The negotiators failed to achieve their primary goals. Central among them: persuading the world’s largest carbon-emitting countries to pledge to tackle climate change more aggressively beginning in 2020. … Delegates from nearly 200 nations wrestled for more than 40 hours past their planned deadline — making these the longest in the 25-year history of the talks. As officials scrambled to finalize a complex set of rules to implement the 2015 Paris climate accord, a handful of higher-emitting countries squared off against smaller, more vulnerable countries. 

“Negotiators were at loggerheads while crafting rules around a fair and transparent global carbon trading system, and they pushed the issue to next year. Fights also dragged on about how to provide funding to poorer nations already coping with rising seas, crippling droughts and other consequences of climate change. … The Trump administration has said it officially will withdraw from the Paris accord on Nov. 4, 2020 — the day after the U.S. presidential election. … Negotiators had been asked to iron out a set of complex but important details about how the deal will be implemented. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres spent much of this year pleading with countries to produce more aggressive plans to combat global warming over the coming year. … He said the ‘world’s largest emitters are not pulling their weight.’”

— U.S. Steel built America. Now, it’s facing its age, as workers, executives and investors acknowledge that many of the company’s largest plants are unreliable, inefficient and, in some cases, dangerous. From the Wall Street Journal: “Chief Executive David Burritt has rolled out ambitious strategies in the past 2½ years to spend billions of dollars on renovating or replacing equipment that has been in service for decades. … The first American company to reach a $1 billion market valuation in 1901, U.S. Steel has been one of the country’s least profitable steelmakers over the past decade, recalling the struggles of other manufacturing stalwarts such as General Electric Co. … Tariffs on foreign-made steel imposed by [Trump] have curbed imports and for a short time drove up U.S. prices, giving U.S. Steel a window to repair its plants and improve its competitiveness. But several of the company’s domestic rivals, known in the steel industry as minimills, stepped up with major investments in new production capacity that will add several million tons of additional steel to the U.S. market over the next three years. With steel prices already weakening again, the industry’s building spree is raising questions about whether the U.S. is facing a glut that could drag down prices and profits.”

— Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and senior adviser, answered questions from a State Department spokeswoman in a bizarre interview at the Doha Forum in Qatar. From BuzzFeed News: “In a room packed with high level officials from around the world, Trump answered admiring questions about her pet project advocating for women’s economic development from a spokesperson for her own government, who is also working on the project. ‘One of the things that I love about what you’re doing to help women around the world is that you have tied economic security, global stability and countries national security interest with how they treat women,’ began Morgan Ortagus, a current State Department spokesperson and former Fox News contributor. The forum typically hosts tough interviews, and an array of senior leaders took hard questions before and after Trump spoke. … But Ortagus pitched Trump a series of softball questions about about her Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative and her impressions on recent trips to Morocco and Latin America.”

— The Hallmark Channel took down a wedding planning company’s commercials featuring brides kissing after a conservative group objected. The network then changed course after it was heavily criticized for that decision. Hannah Knowles reports: “The TV network known for its annual lineup of holiday movies was pulling four of six commercials depicting couples who wish they’d turned to Zola’s services for their big day. The rationale given in a Thursday email to Zola representatives was vague: ‘We are not allowed to accept creatives that are deemed controversial,’ the note [explained]. It seemed that Hallmark had rejected only the ads that showed a lesbian couple. … Zola announced it would stop advertising with the channel. By Sunday night, the owner of the Hallmark Channel had backtracked and apologized for the ‘hurt and disappointment it has unintentionally caused.’ The company said it would reinstate the commercials, work to re-partner with Zola and enlist a nonprofit’s help to improve its representation of the LGBTQ community.”

— Officials at West Point and Annapolis are investigating whether hand signs flashed by students standing behind a reporter during a TV interview were “white power” gestures. Cindy Brown reports: “The incident involved two U.S. Military Academy cadets and a Naval Academy midshipman who were behind ESPN’s Rece Davis as he reported on the sideline before the annual rivalry game Saturday in Philadelphia…. Lt. Col. Chris Ophardt told The Post that the ‘U.S. Military Academy is looking into the matter. At this time, we do not know the intent of the cadets.’ The gesture, which is open to interpretation, resembles the common one used to indicate ‘okay,’ but with the hand pointing downward to form a W and P for ‘white power.’ In September, it was moved from a trolling gesture to a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League, which maintains a database of hate symbols. In doing so, the ADL was careful to note on its website that the gesture has multiple meanings.”

— A homeowner living next to an elementary school in Iowa painted Confederate battle flags and swastikas on pallets around his property, which are clearly visible from the school. He thinks the symbols are not racist. From Fox News: “‘It’s a free country,’ William Stark said. ‘I’ll put it out there if I want to.’ He added that people shouldn’t construe the painted pallets as racist. But Morris Elementary in Des Moines disagreed and released a statement denouncing Stark’s display. School officials say the students, who are about 60% nonwhite, see the symbols when arriving and leaving the school and even from the playground. … Meg Viola, a school parent, said the swastika is a symbol of white supremacism and is racist, offensive, and disgusting. ‘It’d really be nice if they just take the stuff down,’ Viola said.”

— Boeing is considering either suspending or cutting back production of its 737 Max jet amid growing uncertainty over when the plane will return to service. From the Journal: “Boeing management increasingly sees pausing production as the most viable among difficult options as the plane maker’s board began a meeting Sunday in Chicago … Cutting production further, following an earlier reduction in April, would inflate Boeing’s costs and trigger charges against its financial results as fixed expenses would be spread among fewer planes. It could also spur job cuts and furloughs across the global aerospace industry, as well as further disruption to airlines hit by the grounding of a fleet of around 800 jets that is likely to stretch to nearly a year.”

2020 WATCH: 

— Pete Buttigieg, in a bid to woo Latino voters, unveiled a policy plan this morning that lays out how he would invest in the community. The plan focuses not only on immigration but also tackles housing, environmental justice and voting rights issues, with an emphasis on the Puerto Rico community’s weakened political representation. Campaign spokeswoman Marisol Samayoa said Buttigieg’s personal experiences inspired some of the proposals, including his work creating a municipal ID for undocumented residents of South Bend, Ind., and his experience serving alongside Puerto Ricans in the Navy, who don’t receive the same health benefits that citizens from the mainland do. “He’s not Latino, he’s not a person of color, but because he’s had these wide range of experiences, he understands that the community isn’t a monolith, and he really takes that into account and applies it to these policies,” Samayoa said. 

Buttigieg’s plan calls for a climate disaster preparedness policy, crafted after conversations with displaced victims of Hurricane Maria in Orlando; establishing a national museum of the American Latino; and investing up to $10 billion in federal capital to establish a fund for underrepresented entrepreneurs. Buttigieg also advocates for expanding worker protections for gig workers, farm workers and domestic workers, who are disproportionally Latino. Like other candidates — including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — Buttigieg promises to help farm and domestic workers unionize. Samayoa said the Buttigieg campaign expects to publish a separate immigration plan soon.

— Buttigieg, who is having trouble reaching non-white voters, has been on a years-long, sometimes clumsy, quest to understand the black experience. Robert Samuels reports: “The journey began even before running for office, as a college student, an intern, a young adult trying to make sense of his heritage and his sexual orientation. … Just this month, Buttigieg shocked some of his own residents when he said that in South Bend, his racially stratified hometown, he had ‘worked for years under the illusion that our schools in my city were integrated.’ ‘It sounded like he wasn’t even from here,’ said Henry Davis Jr., a city council member who ran against Buttigieg for mayor in 2015. … Buttigieg tried to play down such criticisms. ‘I think that’s an uncharitable interpretation of the humility that I try to express, knowing how big a mistake it would be to pretend that I understand African American culture or life any better than I do,’ Buttigieg told The Post. …

“Growing up, Buttigieg had related to African Americans through novels such as Ralph Ellison’s ‘Invisible Man’ and Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye,’ a seminal work that explored the inner-tumult of a black girl who wanted white features in a world that didn’t appreciate her beauty. Buttigieg saw himself in Pecola Breedlove, the book’s main character. As the son of a Maltese immigrant with a funny name and a young man struggling with his sexual orientation, he, too, felt like an outsider. … [At Harvard,] when he asked his minority friends if they thought the country was becoming colorblind, their answer was resoundingly ‘no.’ Buttigieg said he saw their reality up close one summer when he visited his roommate, Uzodinma Iweala, a Nigerian American who lived in the wealthy, mostly white Washington suburb of Potomac, Md. In one day, Buttigieg kept seeing what he called ‘racial bullshit.’ He recalled someone stopping Iweala to ask if he lived in the neighborhood — while presuming that Buttigieg did. …  Buttigieg said the experience showed him how exhausting the ‘everyday nature of racism’ must be.”

— The Post’s Editorial Board met with Buttigieg last week. Here is the full transcript and audio recording of their conversation.

— Michael Bloomberg’s sexist remarks fostered a company culture that degraded women, according to court records reviewed by ABC News: “Bloomberg has on repeated occasions faced and fought allegations that he directed crude and sexist comments to women in his office, including a claim in the 1990s that he told an employee who had just announced she was pregnant to ‘kill it.’ ‘He told me to “kill it” in a serious monotone voice,’ the woman alleged in a lawsuit. ‘I asked “What? What did you just say?” He looked at me and repeated in a deliberate manner “kill it.”’ Bloomberg has repeatedly denied that specific allegation — which arose in a discrimination lawsuit that was settled out of court. But over the years a number of women have alleged in legal filings that Bloomberg’s use of lewd comments around co-workers fostered a frat-like culture at the company he founded and still owns. Quotes attributed to him in court filings include, ‘I’d like to do that piece of meat,’ and ‘I would do you in a second.’”

— A new NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist national poll shows Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders lead the crowded Democratic field. Biden leads with 24 percent, followed closely by Sanders at 22 percent. Elizabeth Warren comes in third at 17 percent and Buttigieg is polling at 13 percent. No other candidates reach double digits. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang is at 5 percent. Bloomberg, the latest addition to the pack, is at 4 percent, along with Sens. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and Cory Booker (N.J.).

SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ:

Trump tweeted and retweeted more than 25 times on Sunday. In one of his messages, he threatened to jail the former FBI director: 

Rudy Giuliani pushed his Ukraine conspiracy theories on a pro-Trump TV network:

A Democratic senator noted that four GOP senators crossing over could compel testimony from a range of White House officials:

Former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein said he feels like a “forgotten man” in a Page Six interview. More than 20 women who have accused him of sexual assault and harassment pushed back: 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is further fueling speculation about whether he will run for Senate in Kansas by using a new personal Twitter account. So far, the West Point grad has only tweeted about sports:

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a public message to the president about biofuels:

VIDEOS OF THE DAY:

“Saturday Night Live” imagined what Christmas dinners might look like in American households across three different states this year:

SNL also redid the popular Netflix film “Marriage Story,” this time starring the Conways: