Pharma fight: President Donald Trump told supporters in Florida during a health policy speech he “wouldn’t be surprised” if any of the “hoax” investigations he has faced or is facing originated from sectors like the pharmaceutical industry, which he has pushed to change business practices. Moments earlier, he said he had told his staff of drug companies: “Let their stock prices go down” as long as prescription drug prices could be curbed.

Pump the brakes: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Thursday sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi requesting she suspend Democrats’ impeachment investigation into Trump “until transparent and equitable rules and procedures are established to govern the inquiry.”

“Very serious investigation”: A day after ducking a question on what he wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to do about the Bidens, Trump told reporters Thursday he was interested in the Kiev government opening “a very serious investigation” of the former vice president and his son.

Risky business: House Democrats have brandished a legal concept to help speed through an impeachment inquiry and pin wrongdoing on the Trump administration — but the strategy might create weaknesses in their case farther down the path to removing Trump from office.

Priorities: New York Democratic Rep. Max Rose really wanted to talk about traffic at a Wednesday town hall, and so did his Staten Island constituents. But that was likely to be eclipsed by questions about his position on the impeachment inquiry into Trump’s Ukraine dealings. So Rose, a vulnerable freshman who had been one of only a handful of House Democrats not backing the inquiry, got his announcement out of the way quickly.

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