“Senate Republicans are fuming after Rep. Jerry Nadler accused them on the Senate floor of engaging in a ‘cover up’ to protect the president, seizing on his remarks Wednesday as a significant misstep that they say undercuts Democrats’ impeachment case,” Politico reports.
Said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): “If the Democrats are smart, they won’t put Jerry Nadler on the field again. He was so out of line. It’s offensive accusing us of a cover-up.”
Paul McLeod of BuzzFeed News tweets an amusing observation on the Senate floor:
Mitch McConnell’s poker face finally broke. After 2 hours of talking and 15 mins after senators expected a break, Schiff seems to wrap up then says “now let me turn to the second article of impeachment.”
McConnell threw his hands down and made a clear “Are you kidding me?” face.
A new Pew Research survey found that 51% say the outcome of the Senate trial should be President Trump’s removal from office, while 46% say the result should lead to Trump remaining in office.
“Pete Buttigieg elicited a moment of awkward silence during a campaign event in Iowa that’s sparking comparisons to another viral moment during the 2016 election cycle,” the New York Post reports.
Said Buttigieg: “By having better hands guided by better values on those pulleys and levers of American government. So I’m going to look to you to spread that sense of hope to those that you know.”
The candidate took a brief pause, which was met with complete silence by attendees.
“Come on!” Buttigieg exclaimed and awkwardly chuckled, to which the crowd applauded.
President Trump appeared to brush off the traumatic brain injuries and concussion-like injuries sustained by U.S. service members after Iran’s missile strike on a military base in Iraq, saying he did not consider them to be “very serious injuries,” ABC News reports.
Said Trump: “I heard that they had headaches. And a couple of other things.”
Alayna Treene, a reporter inside the Senate chamber, reports senators looked visibly exhausted just an hour into the House impeachment managers presenting their case against President Trump.
She notes: “Lots of senators rubbing their eyes repeatedly, fidgeting in their seats, or ‘resting their eyes.'”
Yesterday’s debate over trial rules ended around 2 a.m. ET.
“In the hours before House impeachment managers presented their initial arguments for the removal of President Trump, senators of both parties delivered a warning: Attack us, the jurors, at your peril,” the Washington Post reports.
“The warnings — delivered gently by Democrats and sharply by Republicans — came after a testy marathon debate over the rules for the impeachment trial that continued until nearly 2 a.m. — culminating in an admonishment from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who is presiding over the trial.”
Politico: “Privately, Sanders’ aides and allies feel that Clinton is trying to bait them… Sanders’ campaign told staffers internally to not discuss Clinton’s comments.”
A judge ordered Hunter Biden to appear next week in an Arkansas court for a hearing on whether he should be held in contempt for failing to disclose financial information to a woman who says she bore his child, CNBC reports.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) claimed to the Washington Post that 45 Republicans are ready to dismiss the charges against the president and he would keep pushing to rally a majority of GOP senators to end the impeachment trial.
Said Paul: “There are 45, with about five to eight wanting to hear a little more. I still would like to dismiss it, but there aren’t the votes to do it just yet.”
House impeachment manager Adam Schiff dismissed a suggestion that former National Security Adviser John Bolton could be called to testify in exchange for calling Hunter Biden.
Said Schiff: “This isn’t like fantasy football, here. We are not making trades or we shouldn’t be: We’ll trade you one completely irrelevant, immaterial witness that allows us to smear the President’s opponent in exchange for ones that are really relevant, that you should hear. Is that really a fair trial?”
President Trump told CNBC that he is looking to cut entitlements like Medicare “at the end of this year.”
He called it “the easiest of all things.”
According to FiveThirtyEight, Michael Bloomberg has spent $180 million on campaign ads and Tom Steyer has spent $120 million.
The amount spent by all other Democrats combined is just $43 million.
President Trump expressed concern with having former National Security Adviser John Bolton testify at the Senate impeachment trial, CBS News reports.
Said Trump: “The problem with John is that it’s a national security problem… He knows some of my thoughts. He knows what I think about leaders. What happens if he reveals what I think about a certain leader and it’s not very positive and I have to deal on behalf of the country?”
But Trump also noted Bolton did not leave the White House on the best of terms: “You don’t like people testifying when they didn’t leave on good terms.”
“So, we’re doing very well. I got to watch enough. I thought our team did a very good job. But honestly, we have all the material. They don’t have the material.”
— President Trump, admitting he’s obstructed Congress by not honoring House subpoenas.
“Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent Jeff Bezos a photograph of woman loosely resembling the one he was having an affair with months before the National Enquirer published a report exposing the liaison, according to a United Nations investigation,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Two United Nations special rapporteurs released a statement Wednesday detailing forensic evidence linking MBS to the Bezos hack, which suggests the future king of Saudi Arabia may have been threatening the owner of The Washington Post and founder and CEO of Amazon.”
Dahlia Lithwick: “Every time we witness a gun tragedy in this country, Republicans who live in thrall to the death cult that is the National Rifle Association make the same argument: “It’s too soon.” It’s too soon to politicize whatever the existing tragedy might be, and we must all wait until the appropriate time and politicize it then. Two weeks later it is always, always too late. Ten minutes later, it would also be too late. This is the long-standing procedural deflection for remediation of any exigent political problem: Berate your opponent for intemperate and unseemly haste, then run the heck out of the clock. There are, evidently, always only twelve seconds in which the time for action is ripe.”
“Throughout this first day of the historic Senate impeachment trial for Donald Trump on Tuesday, this was the standard play for Trump’s legal team. Scoff at Democrats for being hasty, reckless and intemperate as they moved impeachment through the House, then insist they were now simply too late to do anything. The Republicans, as has been noted, will have to rely exclusively on such purely procedural contortions throughout the Senate trial in order to obstruct testimony and evidence that was already ably obstructed by the White House throughout the House inquiry. But there is a laughable argument being advanced in these opening hours that should now be, well, laughed at. In tabling Chuck Schumer’s various motions to call witnesses and subpoena documents and records, Trump’s defenders are somehow claiming both that it’s too late to obtain such evidence, and also, of course, that it’s far too early.”
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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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