Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) warned Senate Republicans in an interview in The Hill that a vote to impeach President Trump would be a career-ending decision.
Said Paul: “When it comes to whether or not you’re going to impeach a president of your own party, particularly over a policy difference or whether or not he has lack of decorum or whatever, I think that’s something that a lot of voters will not excuse.”
Former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (R), who served under President Obama, told the Springfield State Journal-Register he did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016 and will “absolutely not” vote for him in 2020.
He also said he backs former Vice President Joe Biden.
Joe Biden told the Dallas Morning News that he would consider former presidential candidates Beto O’Rourke and Julián Castro to be a running mate or a member of his Cabinet if he is elected president.
Said Biden: “My plea to both of them is that they stay engaged. They are talented, talented people.”
Biden also told the Sacramento Bee that he would consider Sen. Kamala Harris for “anything that she would be interested in,” including vice president.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) told The Root about the struggles she faces with alopecia, a condition that can cause hair loss, and revealed her bald head for the first time in public.
Said Pressley: “I think it’s important that I’m transparent about this new normal.”
“Savings for the top six U.S. banks from President Trump’s signature tax overhaul accelerated last year, now topping $32 billion as the lenders curbed new borrowing, pared jobs and ramped up payouts to shareholders,” Bloomberg reports.
“US intelligence officials have quietly asked the Senate and House Intelligence Committees not to hold public hearings on this year’s World Wide Threats Assessment after testimony from agency chiefs last year prompted an angry response from President Trump, CNN reports.
“Officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence broached the topic during informal preliminary discussions with committee staff.”
“While these officials made it clear that they don’t want top intelligence officials to testify publicly, they haven’t formally refused to do so as an invitation to appear has not been issued yet… The request is unlikely to be granted.”
A New York Times review of Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig’s new book, A Very Stable Genius, suggests the title is “savvy marketing. It’s possible to imagine both Donald J. Trump’s detractors and his admirers eagerly grasping a copy.”
“The admirers will not make it past the table of contents. Among the chapter titles: ‘Unhinged,’ ‘Shocking the Conscience,’ ‘Paranoia and Pandemonium’ and ‘Scare-a-Thon.’ This verbiage makes Rucker and Leonnig’s book sound like one more enraged polemic. It isn’t. They’re meticulous journalists, and this taut and terrifying book is among the most closely observed accounts of Donald J. Trump’s shambolic tenure in office to date.”
“It reads like a horror story, an almost comic immorality tale. It’s as if the president, as patient zero, had bitten an aide and slowly, bite by bite, an entire nation had lost its wits and its compass.”
Nate Silver: “More nuanced analyses of the Sanders-Warren conflict suggest that maintaining a nonaggression pact would be mutually beneficial because otherwise Biden could run away with the nomination. But the word ‘mutually’ is debatable. I’d argue nonaggression toward Warren is pretty clearly in the best interest of Sanders, who was in the stronger position than Warren heading into the debate and who would probably prefer to focus on Biden. But it’s probably not beneficial to Warren. Any scenario that doesn’t involve Warren winning Iowa will leave her in a fairly rough position — and winning Iowa means beating Sanders there.”
Wall Street Journal: “The flow of cash—dubbed the Bloomberg effect by media-measurement firm Advertising Analytics LLC—has upended the financial dynamics of the election. Television ad rates jumped 45% in Houston after the Bloomberg campaign bought $1 million worth of ads in November, Advertising Analytics said. The campaign paid as much as double the going rate for staff and promised jobs to workers through November, whether or not Mr. Bloomberg stays in the race. The candidate now has 1,000 campaign staffers.”
“It’s a big part of the reason roughly $20 billion is expected to be spent on political advertising this election cycle, dwarfing the previous record of $12 billion in 2016.”
The House impeachment managers went to the Senate chamber to read the articles of impeachment against President Trump aloud to senators.
The chief justice of the United States, John Roberts, will administer an oath for the senators to deliver “impartial justice.”
The New York Times has a rundown of the day’s activities. The trial is expected to formally begin on Tuesday.
Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) dismissed a CNN reporter as a “liberal hack” and refused to answer questions when asked about new claims that President Trump was involved in a pressure campaign in Ukraine.
“The Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, designed to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement,” Axios reports.
“The deal now heads to President Trump’s desk for his signature, allowing the president to accomplish one of his biggest policy goals ahead of his 2020 re-election battle — hours before the official start of his impeachment trial.”
“The speaker distributed souvenir pens to her own colleagues, emblazoned with her own golden signature, that literally came in on silver platters. Nothing says seriousness and sobriety like handing out souvenirs as though this were a happy bill signing instead of the gravest process in our Constitution.”
— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by Politico, on Speaker Nancy Pelosi handing out commemorative pens to House impeachment managers.
“The FBI has arrested alleged members of a white supremacist group on federal gun charges and other alleged crimes,” the Washington Post reports.
“The charges grew from an investigation of a somewhat new effort among online extremists who refer to themselves as ‘the Base,’ the English translation of ‘al Qaida.'”
The New York Times says the three men “had weapons and discussed traveling to a pro-gun rally next week in Richmond, Va., in anticipation of a possible race war.”
Aaron Rupar: “By almost any standard, President Trump’s rally on Tuesday evening in Milwaukee was a bizarre affair. The president went on a lengthy tirade about lightbulbs, toilets, and showers; touted war crimes; joked about a former president being in hell; and said he’d like to see one of his domestic political foes locked up.”
“I tried to capture some of the speech’s disconcerting oddness in my write-up of the event. In many ways, the remarks the president made were typical of him. And that provides the media with a challenge: Describing Trump as he really is can make it seem as if a report is ‘anti-Trump’ and that the reporter is trying to make the president look foolish.”
“But for media outlets that view themselves as above taking sides, attempts to provide a sober, ‘balanced’ look at presidential speeches often end up normalizing things that are decidedly not normal.”
A new Marquette Law poll in Wisconsin finds very close general election matchups between Trump and four Democratic candidates.
Joe Biden would beat Trump 49% to 45%, while Bernie Sander would top him 47% to 46%.
However, Trump would beat Elizabeth Warren 48% to 45%, and would top Pete Buttigieg 46% to 44%.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) told the Casper Star Tribune that she will not be making a bid for the U.S. Senate, “initiating a reelection campaign some predict could one day lead to her becoming speaker of the House.”
“Germany’s defense minister on Thursday confirmed a report that the United States was threatening to impose a 25% tariff on European car exports if it continues backing the Iran nuclear deal,” AFP reports.
Said Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer: “This expression, or threat, as you will, does exist.”
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.