Palm Beach police say they are conducting an “open and active criminal investigation” at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s South Florida estate, following an unspecified incident Monday night, the Miami Herald reports.
When Trump Ordered the Iran Strike
Conservative talk show host Howie Carr writes in the Boston Herald about his time at Mar-a-Lago as President Trump ordered the assassination of Iran Gen. Qassem Souleimani.
Trump was more interested in discussing whether ‘Bernie or Biden’ would be easier to beat in November.
Bloomberg Will Target Trump In Super Bowl Ad
“After news emerged that President Trump’s re-election campaign was looking to run a 30-second ad during the upcoming Super Bowl, the campaign of Michael Bloomberg decided to one-up the president: It secured a 60-second spot that will air nationally during the game, an ad buy that will likely cost at least $10 million,” the New York Times reports.
“The campaign added that the Super Bowl ad would be a new spot that would directly target Mr. Trump, rather than a biographical spot highlighting Mr. Bloomberg’s career.”
Prosecutors Recommend Prison Sentence for Flynn
Federal prosecutors recommended up to 6 months of incarceration for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, a reversal of their request for leniency one year ago, saying he no longer accepts responsibility for his criminal conduct and that he sought to undermine prosecutors, Politico reports.
McConnell Will Move Forward on Impeachment Rules
“Senate Republican leaders are preparing to move forward on a set of impeachment trial rules without Democratic support,” Politico reports.
“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is on the verge of having sufficient backing in his 53-member caucus to pass a blueprint for the trial that leaves the question of seeking witnesses and documents until after opening arguments are made.”
Buttigieg Failed to Secure Delegates In Diverse Districts
“Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign filled less than half of the delegate slots for the four most diverse congressional districts in Illinois, a sign of how his campaign continues to struggle with Black and Latino voters,” the HuffPost reports.
“Finding a person to fill each slot — and collecting the 500 signatures necessary to put them on the ballot — is considered an early test of a campaign’s strength in the delegate-rich state, and supporters of Buttigieg’s rivals said his failure to fill the slots points to a potentially fatal weakness with voters of color.”
Why It’s Too Early to Name Running Mates
Jonathan Bernstein: “One is that the upside is limited: It’s simply not likely to win a lot of votes. Nomination voters are picking a nominee, not a ticket. The reason that Castro is available as a potential running mate, along with two dozen other hopefuls who dropped out either before or after formally declaring their candidacies, is that they all failed to win enough support to continue their campaigns. They simply don’t command votes to supply to the top of the ticket.”
“There’s more, however. One of the problems with having a vice-presidential nominee during primaries and caucuses is that it opens up new lines of attack… And nomination voters are more likely than general-election voters to be sensitive to small differences in policy preferences. General-election voters, after all, mostly vote based on party. Voters in primaries are looking for ways to sort through and eliminate candidates, and a bad vote or action in a running mate’s past could supply an easy way to narrow the field.”
“By the way, a lot of this logic applies as well to the pundit fantasy that a nominee would name a cabinet during the campaign — another thing that might be appealing in the abstract, but wouldn’t help a candidate succeed.”
Trump Sees Political Upside to Iran Conflict
Washington Post: “Trump, who rarely makes major moves without first calculating the ramifications for his popularity and self-image, has confided to advisers that he sees a political upside in his hard-line approach to Iran at the dawn of this year’s campaign.”
“Trump believes he has an opportunity to expand his support among voters as a wartime commander in chief and is trying to cast his Democratic critics as soft on terrorism, they said. They added that he sees his party as more united behind him than ever, even as his impeachment trial looms in the Senate, with some Republicans now arguing that it would be irresponsible and dangerous to remove a president amid a national security crisis.”
Schumer Vows to Force Votes on Impeachment Witnesses
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) said that Democrats will force votes on witnesses at the start of the impeachment trial even as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has secured enough support to delay the decision until mid-trial, The Hill reports.
Said Schumer: “Make no mistake, on the question of witnesses and documents, Republicans may run but they can’t hide. There will be votes at the beginning on whether to call the four witnesses we’ve proposed and subpoena the documents we’ve identified.”
He added: “America and the eyes of history will be watching what my Republican colleagues do.”
Did McCarthy Admit the ‘Wag the Dog’ Theory?
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) suggested on Fox & Friends that if Democrats hadn’t focused on impeaching President Trump, then perhaps Trump wouldn’t have had to order the assassination of a top Iranian general.
Related: Why Wagging the Dog Won’t Work
Quote of the Day
“The administration tore up the Iran agreement, placed a significant, severe embargo on Iran, and then killed one of their major generals — nobody in their right mind would actually think that that would lead to negotiations. So when Secretary of State Pompeo’s out there saying, ‘Well, maximum pressure, our goal is to get them back to the negotiating table,’ no naive child would believe that, you would have to be brain-dead to believe that.”
— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), on CNN.
Trump Met with Saudi Prince
Saudi Prince Khalid bin Salman shared a photo from an Oval Office meeting yesterday with President Trump, saying they discussed “efforts to confront regional and international challenges.”
The meeting did not appear on Trump’s public schedule.
Pentagon Initially Told Lawmakers Letter Was Faked
The Pentagon initially told lawmakers on Capitol Hill the letter announcing U.S. withdrawal from Iraq was faked, The Dispatch reports.
However, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, later told reporters that the letter was a mistake that shouldn’t have been drafted or released.
Pelosi Stays Quiet on Articles of Impeachment
Speaker Nancy Pelosi “is not telling anyone yet about her plans to send over the articles of impeachment — not even her closest allies, not even Schumer,” CNN reports.
“Schumer has told colleagues he thinks articles could be sent over this week but doesn’t know for sure.”
Feds to Release Roger Stone Records
“Federal prosecutors told a judge they are prepared to release sealed materials in search and seizure warrants against Roger Stone issued during the FBI probe into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia,” Courthouse News reports.
Trump’s Obsession with Obama Grows
CNN: “Trump has been lambasting Obama for years, even before he ran for the top job. Recently, though he’s been doing it more often. A November analysis from CNN’s Daniel Dale shows Trump has mentioned Obama and the Obama administration by name more frequently in the past 18 months than he had in the first 18 months of his presidency.”
Writes Dale: “Through October, Trump had mentioned Obama by name 537 times during 2019 as a whole — an average of 1.8 times per day.”
When Did Lindsey Graham Become a Fox Contributor?
CNN: “Once upon a time, Lindsey Graham was a Republican senator who was not afraid to exit the Fox-verse and appear on other networks. But, in recent months, Graham has been appearing almost exclusively on Fox. In fact, he’s become a regular fixture on the president’s favored network.”
“Since September 1, 2019, Graham has appeared at least 36 times on either Fox News or Fox Biz. He has appeared twice on CBS News in that time frame. We couldn’t locate any other interviews he has sat down for on other networks.”
Trump’s Legal Team Prepares for Impeachment Trial
Politico: “President Trump’s lawyers have their strategy in place for the upcoming Senate impeachment trial. All they need now is a start date. Coordinating over the last month, the White House counsel’s office and the president’s team of private lawyers have prepared a detailed legal brief pushing back against last month’s House-passed impeachment articles that seek Trump’s removal from office for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.”
“That document, according to a person familiar with the Trump legal strategy, is modeled after one that President Bill Clinton’s lawyers submitted at the start of his 1999 Senate impeachment trial — which ended a month later with his acquittal. Trump’s lawyers have also been preparing their oral arguments — and who will give them.”