WASHINGTON — 

As the impeachment inquiry against President Trump moves into a public phase this week, leading Democrats — joined by at least one GOP lawmaker — on Sunday rejected Republican demands for public testimony by the whistleblower whose complaint set the process in motion.

Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, who has broken with the White House on other issues, said Sunday the whistleblower should not have been included on a list of witnesses the Republicans wanted to testify in open hearings set to begin Wednesday.

The person’s confidential complaint, formally filed in August, voiced alarm about Trump pressuring Ukraine to dig up dirt on Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading 2020 Democratic presidential contender, and his son Hunter. There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens in Ukraine.

Democrats in late September convened an impeachment inquiry centering on whether Trump abused his power by withholding $400 million in crucial aid to Ukraine, a vulnerable ally, in order to advance his own political agenda. The president also pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate baseless claims that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The scattered and sometimes contradictory White House response to the allegations made by a parade of impeachment witnesses who have testified behind closed doors over the past several weeks were reflected in appearances by several senior Republican lawmakers on Sunday’s news-talk shows.

They variously declared that Trump’s conduct might have been questionable but was not impeachable, or that testimony by former and current administration officials represented a misreading of Trump’s intent in his dealings with Ukraine’s president. Or they simply asserted that the president did nothing wrong.

In advance of the public hearings, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), who is spearheading the impeachment inquiry, has not yet finalized the witness list. But in a letter sent Saturday to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Schiff said there would be no facilitating of efforts to “threaten, intimidate and retaliate against the whistleblower who courageously raised the initial alarm.”

Hurd, a former CIA officer who also sits on the Intelligence Committee, defended the unidentified individual’s right to privacy, citing laws shielding those who seek to expose fraud, abuse and wrongdoing in government. “We should be protecting the identity of the whistleblower,” he told “Fox News Sunday.”

Hurd, who is not running for reelection, is unusual in risking Trump’s ire by publicly supporting protections for the whistleblower. But the overall White House impeachment-defense strategy, which has included a furious personal focus by Trump on the individual behind the complaint, has prompted some unease in Republican ranks.

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At campaign-style rallies, including one in Louisiana last week, Trump has again and again called for publication of the whistleblower’s identity, drawing sharp objections from the individual’s legal team. Right-wing media outlets have circulated the person’s purported name, and Trump’s son Donald Jr. last week tweeted out a Breitbart article that included it.

Although Trump consistently tells rally crowds that the whistleblower’s account has been shown to be false, closed-door testimony by current and former administration officials has in fact corroborated core elements of the complaint, which centered on Trump’s efforts to pressure Zelensky to investigate the 2016 election as well as Biden’s son Hunter, who formerly sat on the board of directors of a Ukrainian energy company.

Democrats say the whistleblower’s complaint is no longer relevant because Trump has acknowledged that he made the request, even as he was withholding the aid, though he has said the two things were not related. A rough White House transcript of the telephone call between the leaders described Trump as asking Zelensky for a “favor” — to open the investigations. U.S. diplomats have since described the demand as a quid pro quo in which a foreign government was pressured to get involved in the 2020 election for the personal benefit of Trump.

While continuing to attack the inquiry process as tainted, Republicans signaled with Saturday’s proposed witness list that they intended to try to turn the spotlight away from accusations that the president abused his power for political ends and instead would seek to discredit U.S. intelligence findings, reaffirmed by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, that Russia interfered with the 2016 election with the aim of aiding Trump.

Other Republicans steered clear of the substance of allegations or questioned their significance. On ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), said that although Trump’s behavior might have been inappropriate, “I do not believe it was impeachable.”

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, one of Trump’s staunchest allies, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that there was ample precedent for successive presidents using aid as an incentive or deterrent for certain behavior by foreign governments.

“I think we’ve gotten lost in this whole idea of quid pro quo,” Paul said, using the Latin phrase meaning “something for something,” which describes a service or favor being expected in return for one provided. “Presidents have withheld aid before because of corruption.” Trump has said he withheld the $400 million in aid to Ukraine because he was concerned the government was not doing enough to fight corruption.

Democrats contend that for the president and his allies, expressing worry about corruption was code for pressuring authorities in Kyiv to procure information that could be damaging to the Bidens and Democrats. That, witness testimony by diplomats and national-security officials has suggested, was part of a shadow foreign policy carried out by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, with the aid of figures such as EU ambassador Gordon Sondland, who relayed the president’s demands to Ukraine.

Another GOP senator, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that officials’ closed-door testimony offered so far did not establish that Trump’s motive in pressuring Zelensky was personal political gain.

“That’s their impression,” Johnson said of the officials who painted a picture of Trump improperly pressing Zelensky to go after the Bidens. “I never heard the president say, ‘I want to dig up dirt on a 2020 opponent.’ ”

The requested-witness list also reflected Republicans’ desire to spotlight Hunter Biden, who was paid $50,000 a month for his work for Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company, while his father was vice president. Ukrainian officials say Hunter Biden is not suspected of any wrongdoing.

While breaking ranks with fellow Republicans over the call for the whistleblower’s testimony, Hurd said in his “Fox News Sunday” interview that he agreed the younger Biden should be called to appear.

One Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, also interviewed on Fox, suggested that the main consideration in summoning witnesses should be whether they had “knowledge or evidence about the president’s conduct” in regard to Ukraine. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York said he couldn’t speak for Schiff but that figures like Hunter Biden and the whistleblower would not fall into that category.

Nor, Maloney said, would Nellie Ohr, a contractor with Fusion GPS, a research firm that hired former British intelligence official Christopher Steele to investigate allegations about ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign. She is also on the Republicans’ list of requested witnesses in the impeachment inquiry.

WASHINGTON — 

Republican Steve Knight, a former Los Angeles police officer who served two terms in the House before being defeated by Democrat Katie Hill, said Sunday he will try to win back his old seat after Hill abruptly announced her resignation last month.

Hill, an up-and-coming freshman lawmaker who was elected to Democratic House leadership, was forced to step down amid allegations of affairs with a campaign aide, which she confirmed, and a House staffer, which she denied. She also feared the continued nonconsensual release of intimate photos, which she blamed on her estranged husband and a culture of “revenge porn.”

Republicans hope Hill’s departure could open the door to winning back the north Los Angeles County congressional district, which had been in GOP hands for decades. But the area, like many others in California, has shifted to the left.

In a statement on his website Sunday, Knight said, “I have always answered the call to serve and today is no exception. I am proud to announce my run to return to Congress.”

Knight joins a crowded Republican field that includes Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Cripe, former Navy pilot Mike Garcia and Lancaster City Councilwoman Angela Underwood Jacobs. Also in the race is George Papadopoulos, a former campaign aide to then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Papadopoulos, 32, pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to federal agents in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and spent two weeks in jail.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has until two weeks from Hill’s formal resignation date of Nov. 1 to call a special election, which must be scheduled more than four months in the future. The primary has to be held first; any candidate who garners more than 50% in the primary would win the seat.

Otherwise, the top two vote getters would face off in the special election. The winner would have to compete for the seat again in November 2020.

Hill won the seat by nine points when she ran against Knight, and her victory reflected the changing demographics in the district, which is made up of Simi Valley, Santa Clarita, Palmdale and part of Lancaster.

It was a longtime Republican stronghold that formerly skewed heavily to white voters, many of them working in law enforcement, the aerospace industry or the military. But in recent years, new arrivals have included Latinos, Asian Americans and others seeking more affordable housing than can be found closer to central Los Angeles.

TAIPEI, Taiwan — 

The pro-China opposition candidate in Taiwan’s presidential election set for early next year has chosen a former Google executive as his running mate.

Chang San-cheng, a political independent, on Monday joined the ticket of Nationalist Party candidate Han Kuo-yu, who lags behind Democratic Progressive Party incumbent Tsai Ing-wen in most polls. Chang is an engineer who received master’s and doctoral degrees from Stanford and Cornell universities in the United States.

China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has sought to isolate Tsai for her independence-leaning positions. The sides split amid civil war in 1949 and Beijing has threatened to use military force to bring the self-governing, democratic island under its control.

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Chang served briefly as Cabinet chief in the administration of Tsai’s predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou, who was favored by Beijing for his policies promoting integration between the sides.

Chang worked as search engine Google’s head of technology in Asia from 2010 to 2012.

The presidential election is scheduled for Jan. 11, along with polls for the legislature.

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Democrats made history two years ago by knocking off seven Republican congressional incumbents, a key component of the party’s takeover of the House of Representatives. GOP candidates are already lining up in hopes of taking back some of those seats.

But brand-new voter registration data suggest that won’t be so easy. In fact, there are very few pieces of good news for Republicans in the report released last week by state elections officials.

DEMOCRATS MAKE INROADS IN BATTLEGROUNDS

While voter registration is a dynamic thing and the numbers change every day, this analysis examines the official state report issued 154 days before the primary election in March and compares it with the same period in 2018. (The report also offers a fascinating comparison to 2016, but we’ll get to that in a moment.)

Simply put: In almost every House district in which a Republican incumbent lost in 2018, Democrats have either expanded their lead in registered voters or narrowed the registration gap — thus boosting their chances of holding the seat in 2020 and perhaps giving them some room to embrace their party’s effort in the impeachment inquiry against President Trump.

Democrats outnumbered Republicans in three of the seven districts at this same point before the 2018 election season and now are clearly the dominant party in four of the districts — those currently represented by Reps. Josh Harder (D-Turlock), T.J. Cox (D-Fresno) and Gil Cisneros (D-Yorba Linda) and the one that was represented by Democrat Katie Hill until her recent, abrupt resignation.

Democrats have just about doubled their registration edge in Harder’s San Joaquin Valley district and in Hill’s former district encompassing outlying communities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. For Cisneros, the numbers are especially good: His seat representing Orange County as well as parts of Los Angeles and San Bernardino has flipped from a Republican plurality to now having Democrats as top dogs.

In the other three districts — won in 2018 by Reps. Katie Porter (D-Irvine), Harley Rouda (D-Laguna Beach) and Mike Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano) — longtime Republican dominance has again weakened. None are more notable than Porter’s Orange County district, where Republicans had a 14.2-percentage point advantage in 2016 and now have seen that gap shrink to less than 4 percentage points.

As hinted at earlier, many of the comparisons to this same point in the 2016 election calendar show even larger GOP voter registration erosion in California battleground districts and even some downsizing in relatively safe Republican seats.

In the Sierra Nevada foothills of the state’s 4th Congressional District, represented by Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove), Republicans have gone from a 15.5-point registration advantage in 2016 to a 12.2-point advantage. In the Central Valley district of Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare), the GOP lead in voter registration over four years has been cut almost in half, with now only a 7-percentage point advantage over Democrats. A similar trend can be seen next door in the district of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield).

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If there’s any real problem spot for Democrats in the newly released voter registration report, it’s in the 21st Congressional District represented by Cox, where Democratic dominance has slightly shrunk since 2016. There, the real growth in voters has been those who choose “no party preference.”

And unaffiliated voters, it should be noted, continue to be the big long-term story of California’s electorate, as voters become less formally partisan even as they align with Democrats on election day. So-called independent voters could be a key factor in the race to succeed Hill — joined over the weekend by the man she beat two years ago, former Rep. Steve Knight. And they are probably part of the story in Rouda’s coastal Orange County district too, where GOP registration has shrunk since the era of Trump began in 2016.

One other thought on the congressional voter registration data: Next year’s elections will be the last in all 53 districts, each of which will be redrawn in 2021 after the coming census. Some Central Valley, Sierra foothills and Northern California cities are likely to see big changes in the maps based on a booming population. That, in turn, could come at the expense of urban areas in Southern California represented by a bevy of veteran Democrats.

20,328,636 AND COUNTING

California’s total electorate has grown by more than 3 million people since the snapshot taken at this same point in the 2016 election cycle. The state’s 20.3 million voters are more than the total number of registrants in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan combined. Not that there’s any reason to highlight those three states, right?

“We’ve seen a significant increase in voters,” California Secretary of State Alex Padilla told reporters last week. “I am expecting record voter turnout in 2020.”

NATIONAL LIGHTNING ROUND

— Bolivian President Evo Morales announced his resignation Sunday under mounting pressure from the military and the public after his reelection victory triggered weeks of fraud allegations and deadly protests.

— Chanting “humanity first,” dozens of people protested outside the UCLA hall on Sunday where Donald Trump Jr. was speaking as part of a promotional tour for his new book.

— A somewhat reluctant Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in this year’s most far-reaching immigration case over Trump’s revocation of a policy that allowed more than 700,000 immigrants brought to the country illegally as children to temporarily live and work in this country.

— As the impeachment inquiry against Trump moves into a public phase this week, leading Democrats — joined by at least one GOP lawmaker — on Sunday rejected Republican demands for public testimony by the whistleblower whose complaint set the process in motion.

— With some Democrats growing anxious about an uncompromising progressive at the top of the ticket, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., is packing venues in Iowa and New Hampshire by talking about moderation and reconciliation.

— Ex-felons in Florida had their right to vote restored through Amendment 4. But within months, Florida’s Legislature tried to limit the effect of the initiative.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

— Taft is a red “oil field strong” town in blue California, but residents don’t let politics get in the way of supporting each other through day-to-day life.

— Westlands Water District, a sprawling Central Valley farm district with ties to the Trump administration, is poised to get a permanent contract for a massive quantity of cheap federal irrigation supplies.

— In the year since the Camp fire, Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Legislature pushed through laws requiring cities and counties to identify inadequate evacuation routes in residential developments built in hazard zones and increased funding to update the 911 system and reduce the kinds of vegetation that fueled the deadly blaze.

— In a dramatic shift to how Southern California cities plan to grow over the next decade, a regional agency has decided to push for more housing in coastal rather than inland communities.

— California Supreme Court justices seemed skeptical last week that the Legislature acted legally to require presidential primary candidates to disclose their tax returns.

— More than 5,000 people have signed a petition begging Del Norte County not to cut down the redwoods lining Wonder Stump Road outside the unincorporated community of Fort Dick.

— The former head of the L.A.-based anti-poverty nonprofit Youth Policy Institute improperly used the organization’s funds to pay the property taxes on his house, buy furniture for his home office and make national political donations, the group alleged in new court documents.

LOGISTICS

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PITTSBURGH  — 

The foundation of the Rams’ attack for the past two years, the bedrock on which a playoff team and a Super Bowl team were built, has been reduced to a soap opera of sorts: “As the Offensive Line Turns … Over.”

Continuity was the strength of the line in 2017 and 2018, when the same group played every week with the exception of a few late-season games in which coach Sean McVay rested starters.

It was center John Sullivan, guards Rodger Saffold and Jamon Brown and tackles Andrew Whitworth and Rob Havenstein in 2017. There was only one change in 2018, when Austin Blythe replaced Brown.

The release of the aging Sullivan and a series of injuries forced more of a revolving-door approach this season, and the line crumbled under the weight of the upheaval in Sunday’s 17-12 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field.

While the Rams defense was dominant for much of the game, contributing a touchdown on Dante Fowler’s 26-yard scoop-and-score in the first quarter and a safety on an end zone sack of Pittsburgh quarterback Mason Rudolph by Aaron Donald and Clay Mathews in the fourth, the offense sputtered.

Quarterback Jared Goff, often under heavy pressure, was sacked four times for a loss of 25 yards, absorbed five other hits and had two interceptions. Of the Rams’ 10 penalties, which cost them 95 yards, five were committed by offensive linemen for 40 yards and stunted several drives. The Rams converted one of 14 third-down plays.

“We let the defense down today — that’s the bottom line,” said Blythe, who moved from right guard to center after Brian Allen suffered a knee injury early in the second quarter and didn’t return. “It’s very frustrating.

“The defense played lights out. They gave us every opportunity to seize control of the game and to win the game, even at the end there. That’s all we can ask of the defense. We just didn’t get it done today.”

The line was a work in progress before Sunday. Left guard Joe Noteboom suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 6 against San Francisco. When his replacement, Jamil Demby, struggled, the Rams moved rookie David Edwards to left guard for the Oct. 27 game against Cincinnati.

Then things went a little haywire Sunday. McVay moved Edwards, a fifth-round pick out of Wisconsin last April, to right guard and Blythe to left guard during their week off, because Edwards played on the right side in college.

When Blythe moved to center in the second quarter, Austin Corbett, a second-round pick by the Cleveland Browns in 2018, entered at left guard, making his Rams debut.

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When Havenstein departed because of a knee injury late in the fourth quarter, Coleman Shelton, an undrafted free agent from Washington, entered at right guard, moving Edwards to right tackle.

“A lot of moving parts,” McVay said. “No matter how you cut it, we have to figure out a way to get it done.”

Goff did complete 22 of 41 passes for 243 yards, and Todd Gurley rushed 12 times for 73 yards, but Goff, who lacks the mobility to extend many plays with his feet, had little time to operate against a swarming Steelers defense.

Pittsburgh tackle Cameron Heyward bull-rushed Blythe and dropped Goff for a 10-yard loss on a third-and-eight play to start the second quarter. Linebacker T.J. Watt submarined under Havenstein and sacked Goff for an eight-yard loss on a second-and-nine play late in the second quarter.

Steelers nose tackle Javon Hargrave hit Goff’s arm, forcing a fumble that Minkah Fitzpatrick returned 43 yards for a touchdown and a 14-7 lead with 1 minute 44 seconds left in the second quarter.

An Edwards holding penalty just before halftime forced a third-and-20 play at Pittsburgh’s 49-yard line. Goff threw 13 yards to Robert Woods, but Greg Zuerlein’s 56-yard field goal attempt was wide left as the first-half clock expired.

“Any time you have new guys in there, young guys who haven’t played … you’re kind of learning on the run, learning on the fly,” said Whitworth, a 14-year veteran. “And then when the center goes down in the middle of the game, that’s a massive blow.

“That’s where all the communication, the timing comes from. It would be one thing if you were home and in normal cadence, but when you’re on silent [snap] … the center is the commander of the group, and that makes it a challenge.”

Goff said the disruptions along the line changed “the overall jelling and chemistry” of the group, and McVay acknowledged that the line’s struggles changed his play-calling. The Rams mixed in a few more short out patterns, quick slants, screen passes and draw plays with limited success.

“It kind of gets you rattled,” Whitworth said of Sunday’s turnover on the line. “You’ve got to be able to convert some third downs early in the game, which we weren’t, and then you start turning the football over. Any time you do that, you’re going to be in trouble.”

Connor McDavid had a hat trick and became the eighth NHL player to record 400 points before his 23rd birthday as the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Anaheim Ducks 6-2 on Sunday night.

It is the fifth hat trick of McDavid’s career and his first since Feb. 18, 2018, against Colorado. Edmonton’s superstar center is the 13th player in league history to reach 400 points in 306 or fewer games.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored twice for the Oilers, who have won four of their last six. Zack Kassian had a goal and two assists and Leon Draisaitl added three assists to move into the NHL scoring lead with 33 points (14 goals, 19 assists).

Oscar Klefbom had a pair of assists and Mikko Koskinen made 31 saves for his seventh win in 10 games.

Rickard Rakell and Max Jones scored for Anaheim and John Gibson stopped 25 shots.

McDavid reached the 400-point milestone with 9:06 remaining in the first period when his wrist shot beat Gibson to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead.

McDavid then completed the hat trick with a pair of third-period goals. He put another wrist shot past Gibson at 7:14 to give Edmonton a 5-2 lead and then got his fourth power-play goal of the season with 6:35 remaining.

Nugent-Hopkins notched the 17th multi-goal game of his career after coming into the game with only one goal. He put the Oilers on the board 88 seconds into the game when he took advantage of a turnover behind the Anaheim net and jammed it past Gibson’s short side. Edmonton’s James Neal pressured Anaheim’s Korbinian Holzer to turn it over, allowing Nugent-Hopkins to take advantage for his second goal of the season.

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He then added a power-play goal at 7:45 of the second period with a snap shot the found the upper left corner of the net.

Rakell tied it at one when he was able when he lifted a backhand over Koskinen’s shoulder for his fifth of the year. Jakob Silfverberg was able to gain possession behind the net and fed it to a wide-open Rakell, who was playing in his 400th NHL game.

Steel got his first goal of the season early in the third with a wrist shot that beat Kosskinen on his stick side.