Good Wednesday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing. Stay tuned after the show for a message from charter communications.

And I'm Jake Sherman. The AP has some breaking news this morning. The State Department has ordered all U.S. non-essential embassy staff to leave Iraq amid escalating tensions with Iran.

Our colleague Heather Kegel scoops about the meeting of the

day. Speaker Nancy Pelosi will host Bob Lightheiser, the USTR, amid growing concern over the president's

aggressive stance on trade. Pelosi controls much of the president's trade agenda, and the speaker

has not agreed to move a vote yet on the USMCA. Let's all zoom out for a minute and take stock of the Democrats' investigations.

How would you explain what is going on to a normal person outside Washington?

Substantively, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, the panel that matters the most,

want the unredacted Mueller report, the underlying evidence the special counsel gathered in

his investigation, and to hear from key witnesses like Don McGahn and Bob Mueller himself.

The House Ways and Means Committee wants the president's tax returns.

Just yesterday after an extended bout on the sidelines, Adam Schiff seemed to get in on the

actions, saying the president's lawyers

might have encouraged Trump fixer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. The big picture for Democrats is

Donald Trump is crooked and the White House is stonewalling their attempts to keep him accountable.

But they're trying to amplify that message amid a day-to-day din between the committee chairs,

the leadership, and the Justice Department. Here's the big problem for Democrats.

They say the administration's stonewalling amounts to a constitutional crisis.

But they have all but ruled out impeachment, the process by which Congress deals with

constitutional crises, because many atop the party believe it's a political disaster in the

making.

So now, the Democrats' message has turned into this.

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