Biden rips Trump’s “phony nationalism”

• So if Mitt Romney or Ben Sasse feel like voting to convict, they can and it wouldn’t make a difference.
• The red wall doesn’t include Susan Collins or Cory Gardner, the two Republican senators from states that voted for Hillary Clinton (Maine and Colorado). Both are up for re-election next year.
• They could vote to convict too, and it still wouldn’t matter.

Remember that impeachment, which only takes a majority vote in the House, doesn’t end Trump’s presidency. That only happens if two thirds of the Senate votes to convict and remove him — 67 senators if they all show up.

The catch: The wall gets weaker if you factor in Trump’s approval ratings. They’re negative in some of the states he won in 2016.

• But even if all of those senators jumped ship — which is a stretch — he'd still have more than enough votes to block conviction. That would only change if he started to lose senators from states where he's still popular, too.

By the numbers:

• 36 Republican senators represent Trump states where he’s still popular. 15 of them are up for re-election.
• 15 Republican senators represent Trump states where his approval ratings are underwater, but only 5 of them are up for re-election.
• Trump could lose 17 senators from his red wall — or 19 Republicans if Collins and Gardner were in the mix — and still stay in office.

The bottom line: Trump believes the combination of right-wing media backing + GOP senators' fear of crossing Trump voters will save him.

• Right now, there are few noticeable cracks in this wall.

Editor’s note: This post has been corrected to show that Martha McSally is up for election to hold on to her seat in 2020.

Where it stands: Politico reported last night that the former Texas governor is "expected" to announce his resignation by the end of November. A subsequent Washington Post story says the timing is "by the end of the year," while The New York Times reports the timeframe is "by December."

• The Energy Department pushed back against the stories but stopped short of denying them outright.
• "While the beltway media has breathlessly reported on rumors of Secretary Perry’s departure for months, he is still the Secretary of Energy and a proud member of President Trump’s cabinet," DOE spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said in a statement.
• "One day the media will be right. Today is not that day," she added.

The big picture: Perry has been a vocal advocate for U.S. fossil fuel production and exports, in particular touting the role of U.S. liquefied natural gas in bolstering allies' energy security.

• However, his high-profile efforts to create new federal support for coal-fired and nuclear plants at risk of closure never came to fruition.
• Perry has also backed DOE's alternative energy programs, a delicate role at a time when White House officials have called for steep cuts that Congress has rejected on a bipartisan basis.
• He notably has talked up the Advanced Research Projects Agency — Energy, which White House budget proposals have sought to choke off.

What's next: Democrats are seeking more information about Perry's interactions with Ukrainian officials as they investigate Trump ahead of potential impeachment.

• However, per the Post: "[N]o evidence has emerged that Perry participated in the effort to pressure Ukranian officials to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter."

Go deeper: Democrats press Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Ukraine travels

The big picture: The number of hospital mergers and acquisitions in the first half of this year tracked in line with 2018 and featured deals with big players, according to an analysis from Kaufman Hall. Plenty of smaller transactions are rolling out now, too.

• Louisiana: Ochsner Health System is taking over Lafayette General Health, a 7-hospital system with more than $750 million of annual revenue that is roughly 70 miles away from Ochsner's Baton Rouge facilities.
• Pennsylvania: Lehigh Valley Health Network is acquiring Coordinated Health, a local network that has facilities in the same towns as Lehigh Valley. Coordinated Health and its still-current CEO recently paid a combined $12.5 million to the Department of Justice to settle claims they fraudulently overcharged for orthopedic surgeries.
• Maryland: Anne Arundel Medical Center merged with Doctors Community Health System, creating a system with $1 billion in annual revenue. Their main hospitals are 20 miles apart.
• Georgia: HCA Healthcare is looking to acquire a small hospital that would bulk up its presence in the Savannah metro area.

Between the lines: Hospitals contend their deals are about improving patient care. But their press releases and executives rarely, if ever, talk about the financial benefits of their new enhanced negotiating power.

• If hospitals in smaller communities combine, commercial insurers will have a harder time excluding any one of them from their networks, even if a hospital has poorer quality or higher prices. This is commonly called "all-or-none" contracting, and it's been cited in the pending Sutter Health case.

State and federal antitrust officials also have fewer resources to investigate these kinds of regional deals, making it easier for those with antitrust issues to go forward.

Go deeper: A reality check on hospital mergers