Democrat Jon Ossoff isn't quite ready to use the i-word about President Donald Trump yet.
In an interview with WABE's Denis O'Hayer that was conducted before reports of Jim Comey's explosive memo surfaced, Ossoff tapped the brakes on calls for Donald Trump's impeachment.
"I don't think we're there," he told O'Hayer. "I think that we need a full and transparent and independent assessment of what level of interference there was by Russian intelligence services in the U.S. election. And overseers in Congress and any independent counsel or commission to do so should follow those facts wherever they lead."
In an interview later Friday, he elaborated:
"I don’t think we have the information yet to draw that conclusion," said Ossoff. "But we have very good reason for there to be a serious, independent transparent investigation and for Congress to do its due diligence on a bipartisan basis putting partisan politics aside to get to the truth."
That position reflects the position of national Democrats wary of invoking the threat of impeachment.
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Georgia Republican strategist Nick Ayers is running Vice President Mike Pence's new super PAC aimed at helping House Republicans win next year's votes.
The "Great American Committee" is seen as a launching pad for Pence to mount a future White House bid, though Ayers said the idea has been in the works since December.
"The vice president is playing a leading role in passing legislation on the Hill," Ayers told Bloomberg. "He wants to support House and Senate members who are helping pass the president's agenda."
Ayers has much on his plate. He is mulling over a potential gubernatorial bid and his advisers say he is already starting to put a potential campaign team together.
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The money keeps pouring into Georgia's 6th District.
The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee both announced six-figure investments on Thursday.
So did the House Majority PAC, a super PAC with ties to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The group said it will spend $700,000 in the race, including a $500,000 broadcast ad buy for new TV spots that will launch next week. The rest will go to an "unprecedented" get-out-the-vote effort that starts this weekend and will run through the June 20 runoff.
The race between Republican Karen Handel and Democrat Jon Ossoff is already the costliest U.S. House contest ever with a tally of more than $30 million that is only growing.
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Bloomberg News published an analysis of a Republican super PAC that's pouring millions of dollars of funding into the special elections in Montana and Georgia that found the group is being funded by tobacco giants, video game makers and other well-heeled donors.
The piece honed in on the Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC endorsed by House Speaker Paul Ryan that's spent more than $5 million trying to thwart Democrat Jon Ossoff's election in Georgia's 6th District.
The most recent contributions to the Congressional Leadership Fund, known as CLF, also include an individual contribution of $1 million given last month by Steven A. Cohen, founder of the hedge-fund group SAC Capital Advisors, who now heads Point72 Asset Management. Most the Republican super PAC's money, however, has come directly from company treasuries and from AAN, the super PAC's nonprofit arm, which doesn't disclose its donors.
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