A new Economist/YouGov poll finds that 46% of Americans think Donald Trump was the worst president in the history of the country. Barack Obama got the second highest at 24%.
However, Obama also led the poll as the best president in history, edging out Abraham Lincoln.
“Six GOP senators voted this week to move forward with President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. But Republicans believe several more of them may be considering conviction,” Politico reports.
“As the Trump defense made its argument on Friday, Republicans privately estimated between 5 and 10 of their senators are seriously weighing conviction. There’s no official whip count, and the matter is not being discussed at party meetings, leaving many in the 50-member conference to only guess at their colleague’s inclinations.”
“Federal health and education officials urged the nation’s elementary and secondary schools on Friday to reopen safely as soon as possible, saying they can operate by strictly adhering to safety precautions to reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission in classrooms and in their communities,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Trump-allied lawyer and conspiracy theorist Lin Wood says he’s representing Sidney Powell in a $1.7 billion defamation lawsuit filed against her by Dominion Voting Systems, ABC News reports.
Said Wood: “Get ready to rumble, Dominion. You made a mistake suing Sidney. You are going to pay a heavy price.”
“Members of Congress have been falling over themselves to praise the bravery of the Capitol Police since the attack on Jan. 6,” BuzzFeed News reports.
“But behind the scenes, Capitol Police have been casting ballots in a vote of no confidence in their management.”
“The 2020 census data needed for the redrawing of voting districts around the country are extremely delayed and now expected by Sept. 30,” NPR reports.
“Dogged by the coronavirus pandemic and the Trump administration’s interference with the census schedule, the latest expected release date — six months past the March 31 legal deadline — could throw upcoming elections into chaos in states facing tight redistricting deadlines for Congress, as well as state and local offices.”
“David Schoen, one of former Trump’s defense attorneys, on Friday accused House impeachment managers of having manipulated evidence in their presentation by selectively editing video footage and altering tweets,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Schoen: “We have reason to believe the House managers manipulated evidence and selectively edited footage. If they did and this were a court of law, they would face sanctions from the judge.”
He added: “We have reason to believe that the House managers created false representations of tweets, and the lack of due process means there was no opportunity to review or verify the accuracy.”
Joe Biden and his family plan to spend Presidents’ Day weekend at Camp David, their first trip to the presidential retreat since he took office last month, Bloomberg reports.
New York Times: “The Capitol assault resulted in one of the worst days of injuries for law enforcement in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. At least 138 officers — 73 from the Capitol Police and 65 from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington — were injured, the departments have said. They ranged from bruises and lacerations to more serious damage such as concussions, rib fractures, burns and even a mild heart attack.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence has “no plans to condemn Trump or to speak out during the Senate impeachment trial”, despite the near miss with rioters Pence experienced on January 6, the Washington Post reports.
“He is still operating from a playbook of obsequiousness that has become second nature — never airing grievances publicly, and delivering his often rose-colored counsel to Trump only in private, one-on-one settings.”
Vanity Fair: “A White House official tried to quash a story about his relationship with a reporter by issuing threats and using derogatory language to another reporter pursuing it, according to two sources familiar with the incident. In a sympathetic profile Monday, People revealed that White House deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo is dating Axios political reporter Alexi McCammond, who covered the Joe Biden campaign.”
“But behind the scenes, Ducklo had previously lashed out at Politico reporter Tara Palmeri, who was reporting the story, exhibiting behavior that led to tense meetings between the Washington news outlet’s editors and senior White House officials.”
Update: CNN reports Ducklo has been suspended without pay for one week.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) on Twitter: “I remember the moment I saw Trump’s tweet attacking Pence. We were in the chamber as aides were scrambling to bar the doors. Some were sobbing in fear. The mob was outside. Someone yelled out shots had been fired.”
“I turned to Tim Kaine and said, ‘Oh my god, he’s egging them on.'”
The United Kingdom’s economy shrank by 9.9% last year amid the pandemic lockdowns, the worst since modern records began, and only beaten by the Great Frost of 1709, the Guardian reports.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and his top aides “were facing new allegations on Friday that they covered up the scope of the death toll in the state’s nursing homes from the coronavirus, after admissions that they withheld data in an effort to forestall potential investigations into state misconduct,” the New York Times reports.
“The latest revelations came in the wake of private remarks by the governor’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, and a cascading series of reports and court orders that have nearly doubled the state’s official toll of nursing home deaths in the last two weeks.”
Jonathan Bernstein: “I thought the House managers and the Senate Democratic majority were making a big mistake by failing to take the time to gather testimony from witnesses before the trial — either in a special committee, or just by taking videotaped depositions as was done during Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial.”
“As it turned out, for the most part the evidence the managers presented was vivid and persuasive in most places. But there was one big exception: Trump’s actions during the insurrection. For that, the managers had to rely on news sources that were neither convincing nor comprehensive. Did Trump really revel in the riot? To what extent was he involved in efforts to secure the Capitol? Did people have to work around him? I don’t know if definitive answers to those questions would change anything, but in my view we don’t have full answers to any of them. It’s a real failure of what was otherwise a very good job by the House managers.”
“That said: No senator has voted yet. Witnesses could still come forward on their own and provide news interviews, or even just on-the-record statements, of what they know. It sure seems to me that anyone with direct evidence, whether it helps or harms Trump, should spill the beans now.”
A St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial blasted Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) over their handling of former President Trump’s impeachment trial, calling it an “embarrassment to the state.”
David Brady and Brett Parker: “We find that in the decisive states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin), Biden exceeded his national performance among pure independents (the small fraction of voters that eschew all partisan leanings) and substantially bested Clinton’s 2016 showing among that group. He also managed to convert more former Trump voters than Trump did ex-Clinton voters.”
“Ultimately, however, Biden’s improvement on Clinton’s effort was small, reflecting the extraordinary difficulty of winning a contemporary presidential election by a dominant margin in the Electoral College. Moreover, Biden’s win was in large part a repudiation of Trump which did not carry over to House and Senate races, where Democrats did not meet expectations.”
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.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.