The Commentariat -- February 7, 2020

Afternoon Update:

NBC News is reporting that, according to his attorney, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman "has been escorted out of the White House." Mrs. McC: He should get another medal for this & a promotion to full bird. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was escorted out of the White House on Friday and told to leave his position at the National Security Council (NSC), according to a statement released by his attorney. Vindman was one of the key witnesses who testified in connection with the House impeachment inquiry about President Trump's phone call with the Ukrainian president during which Trump raised investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden's dealings in Ukraine. 'There is no question in the mind of any American why this man's job is over, why this country now has one less soldier serving it at the White House,' David Pressman, Vindman's attorney, said in a statement. 'LTC Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth. His honor, his commitment to right, frightened the powerful.'... 'Well, I'm not happy with him. You think I'm supposed to be happy with him? I'm not. They'll make that decision. You'll be hearing. They'll make a decision,' Trump, apparently referring to the NSC, told reporters Friday morning before departing for a speech in North Carolina." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Ellen Mitchell of the Hill: "Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday said the Pentagon protects its service members from retribution, following reports that President Trump may oust the top White House expert on Ukraine [Alexander Vindman] after he testified during House impeachment hearings. 'We protect all of our persons, service members, from retribution or anything like that. We've already addressed that in policy and other means,' Esper told reporters at the Pentagon during a press conference with his Colombian counterpart."

Profiteer-in-Chief. David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's company charges the Secret Service for the rooms agents use while protecting him at his luxury properties -- billing U.S. taxpayers at rates as high as $650 per night, according to federal records and people who have seen receipts. Those charges, compiled here for the first time, show that Trump has an unprecedented -- and largely hidden -- business relationship with his own government.... Trump's company says it charges only minimal fees. But Secret Service records do not show that.... At the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, the Secret Service was charged $17,000 a month to use a three-bedroom cottage on the property, an unusually high rent for homes in that area, according to receipts from 2017. Trump's company billed the government even for days when Trump wasn't there.... The records show more than $471,000 in payments from taxpayers to Trump's companies. But -- because these records cover only a fraction of Trump's travel during a fraction of his term -- the actual total is likely to be higher." TPM has a summary report here. ~~~

     ~~~ Jonathan Chait: "There are several important takeaways from the Post's report. First, it shows that the Trump Organization has flat-out lied about the benefits it gets from the government business Trump throws its way.... Second, the Trump Organization appears to be overcharging the Secret Service for the use of its cottage properties.... Third, the federal government is withholding documentation about just how much it is spending on Trump properties.... While [the Secret Service is] required to report such expenses to Congress twice a year, it's only filed two of the six required reports. What's more, the reports it did file omitted key details.... And finally, as one might infer from the lack of disclosure, there may be a lot worse stuff out there.... Trump claims he has a 'legal obligation' to report corruption by people who happen to be running against him for president, but he is refusing even to comply with the current legal obligations to disclose his own profiteering at public expense."

<Iowa and New Hampshire will not be moved from the Primary Schedule as long as I am President. Great tradition! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet today

While a president* may exert some control over the primary schedule of his own party, he can't do squat over primaries of other parties. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Marina Villeneuve of the AP: "New York state will file a lawsuit challenging the Department of Homeland Security's decision to block New Yorkers from participating in 'trusted traveler programs' in retribution for a new state law that could hinder federal immigration enforcement, officials said Friday. 'It's an abuse of power. It's extortion. It is hurting New Yorkers to advance their political agenda. And we're going to fight back,' Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said at a news conference in New York."

Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump is preparing to push out a national security official who testified against him during the impeachment inquiry after he expressed deep anger on Thursday over the attempt to remove him from office because of his actions toward Ukraine. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman -- a National Security Council aide who testified during House Democrats' impeachment hearings -- will be informed in the coming days, likely on Friday, by administration officials that he is being reassigned to a position at the Defense Department.... Vindman had already informed senior officials at the NSC that he intended to take an early exit from his assignment and leave his post by the end of the month..., but Trump is eager to make a symbol of the Army officer soon after the Senate acquitted him of the impeachment charges approved by House Democrats." The Hill has a summary report here.

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Thursday finalized plans to allow mining and energy drilling on nearly a million acres of land in southern Utah that had once been protected as part of a major national monument. The Interior Department's release of a formal land-use blueprint for the approximately 861,974 acres of land will allow oil, gas and coal companies to complete the legal process for leasing mines and wells on land that had once been part of Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, established by President Bill Clinton. In December 2017, President Trump cut the monument's acreage about in half, aiming to open the newly unprotected land for drilling and development. At the same time, he removed about a million acres from another Utah monument, Bears Ears. Together, the moves were the largest rollback of public lands protection in United States history." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Jonathan Chait: "Unsurprisingly, Trump is ginning up charges of illegality against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Speaker's alleged 'crime' is tearing up her printed copy of Trump's State of the Union address.... First of all, it's an official document, you're not allowed, it's illegal what she did. She broke the law,' [Trump said].... As a non-insane person may have intuited, it is not actually a crime to tear up the printed copy of a speech.... There are rules requiring the preservation of documents such as memos to the president, which must be preserved for historical records. Trump in fact violates that law literally almost every day. There are people whose job it is to tape back together the documents that Trump illegally tears up."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court has rejected a lawsuit from Congressional Democrats who accused ... Donald Trump of violating the Constitution by receiving profits from foreign governments' spending at his luxury Washington hotel and other businesses. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision did not address the legality of Trump's business dealings, but held that the more than 200 Democratic senators and House members who banded together in 2017 to bring the suit against the president lacked legal standing to do so. The unanimous ruling from an ideologically diverse three-judge panel suggested that if the House or Senate had formally authorized the suit, it may have been allowed to proceed, but the lawmakers acting as plaintiffs in the case did not have standing to pursue it on their own. 'Only an institution can assert an institutional injury,' the court wrote in its brief, 12-page decision."

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "A pledge to investigate the Bidens and Ukraine once the impeachment trial wraps is sparking divisions among Senate Republicans.... Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a vocal ally of Trump's, is pledging 'oversight.' Other GOP senators are warning that it's time for the Senate to move on after a weeks-long divisive fight that left scars on the chamber's normally clubby atmosphere. 'I know there's been some about the Judiciary Committee taking a look at that. I think what I would like to see happen around here is a return to normalcy,' said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Republican senator...."

Naomi Jagoda of the Hill: "Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) is criticizing the Treasury Department for providing Republican senators with financial records as part of their probe concerning Hunter Biden. Pascrell, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, blasted the department for turning over the documents while at the same time refusing to provide House Democrats with President Trump's tax returns. 'Continuing to violate the law to shield Donald Trump's tax returns while simultaneously aiding a blatantly partisan investigation is an affront to public service,' Pascrell wrote in a letter dated Thursday to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Pascrell's letter comes after a spokeswoman for Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Thursday that the Treasury Department is complying with a request for documents from two Senate GOP chairmen. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) sent a letter to Treasury in November as part of an investigation into 'potentially improper actions by the Obama administration' concerning Ukraine and Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas company where Hunter Biden ... worked."

Katie Glueck & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Anita Dunn, a veteran Democratic operative and top adviser to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., is taking on an expanded role in his campaign as he seeks a reset after a disastrous fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.... But it's not clear that promoting Ms. Dunn will alter Mr. Biden's trajectory in the race -- or be the last change Mr. Biden makes."

Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Former US Rep. Joe Walsh is ending his uphill challenge against Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, after suffering a crushing loss in the Iowa GOP caucuses in which he received only 1% of the vote."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Will Sommer, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Fox News' own research team has warned colleagues not to trust some of the network's top commentators' claims about Ukraine. An internal Fox News research briefing book obtained by The Daily Beast openly questions Fox News contributor John Solomon's credibility, accusing him of playing an 'indispensable role' in a Ukrainian 'disinformation campaign.' The document also accuses frequent Fox News guest Rudy Giuliani of amplifying disinformation, as part of an effort to oust former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, and blasts Fox News guests Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova -- both ardent Trump boosters -- for 'spreading disinformation.' The 162-page document ... was created by Fox News senior political affairs specialist Bryan S. Murphy, who produces research from what is known as the network's Brain Room -- a newsroom division of researchers who provide information, data, and topic guides for the network's programming."

~~~~~~~~~~

Matt Elliott of CNET: "Ahead of the state's first-in-the-nation primary next Tuesday, seven candidates including front-runners Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will take the stage for the eighth Democratic primary debate.... The debate will take place in Manchester, New Hampshire on Friday, Feb. 7 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET (5 p.m. to 8 p.m. PT) and broadcast live on ABC." The other candidates who qualified are Amy Klobuchar, Tom Steyer & Andrew Yang.

Rebecca Morin of USA Today: "With 100% of precincts reported, Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders are in a near tie in state delegates in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. The complete results, which were long-delayed after Monday's caucuses, show Buttigieg, the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor, with 26.198% of delegate equivalents and Bernie Sanders with 26.128%, late Thursday evening.... The Associated Press on Thursday evening announced it is unable to declare a winner in the Iowa Democratic caucuses. 'The Associated Press calls a race when there is a clear indication of a winner. Because of a tight margin between former Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders and the irregularities in this year's caucus process, it is not possible to determine a winner at this point,' said Sally Buzbee, AP's senior vice president and executive editor." ~~~

     ~~~ Politico's stats, currently (at 9:40 pm ET Thursday) showing 99.94% reporting, are here. ~~~

~~~ Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Buttigieg insisted as early as Monday night that he was the clear victor, and he reportedly reassured supporters of that in a phone call on Wednesday. Sanders, meanwhile, told supporters in New Hampshire that he was leading in popular-vote totals and would come out of Iowa with the same number of national convention delegates as Buttigieg."

Nolan McCaskill & Zack Motellaro of Politico: "The leader of the Democratic National Committee called for an immediate recanvass of the Iowa caucuses Thursday, dealing another blow to Iowa's reputation and further extending an already delayed process to tally votes from Monday night. DNC Chairman Tom Perez‘s announcement came shortly before Bernie Sanders claimed victory Thursday in a race that officially remains too close to call. 'Enough is enough,' Perez tweeted. 'In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass.' The parallel developments underscored the chaos that has gripped the party in the aftermath of Iowa's caucus debacle.... In a defiant statement, however, the Iowa Democratic Party made no mention of the the DNC's request for a recanvass. 'While I fully acknowledge that the reporting circumstances on Monday night were unacceptable, we owe it to the thousands of Iowa Democratic volunteers and caucusgoers to remain focused on collecting and reviewing incoming results,' said Troy Price, the state party chairman. 'Should any presidential campaign in compliance with the Iowa Delegate Selection Plan request a recanvass, the IDP [Iowa Democratic Party] ... will audit the paper records of report, as provided by the precinct chairs and signed by representatives of presidential campaigns.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nate Cohn, et al., of the New York Times: "The results released by the Iowa Democratic Party on Wednesday were riddled with inconsistencies and other flaws. According to a New York Times analysis, more than 100 precincts reported results that were internally inconsistent, that were missing data or that were not possible under the complex rules of the Iowa caucuses. In some cases, vote tallies do not add up. In others, precincts are shown allotting the wrong number of delegates to certain candidates. And in at least a few cases, the Iowa Democratic Party's reported results do not match those reported by the precincts.... Not all of the errors are minor, and they raise questions about whether the public will ever get a completely precise account of the Iowa results." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Nate Cohn: "The winner of the Iowa Democratic caucus might come down to one not-so-simple question: How many state delegate equivalents does a satellite caucus get? The Iowa Democratic Party's answer, first evident when it released the results of satellite caucuses Wednesday night, differs from what was expected by at least one Democratic campaign and here at The Upshot, based on the state party's official delegate selection plan. The difference between the two interpretations is a net 3.8 state delegates -- small in just about any contest except one separated by 3.42 state delegates, as the Iowa race is right now." ~~~

~~~ Ben Collins, et al., of NBC News: "The phone number to report Iowa caucus results was posted on a fringe internet message board on Monday night along with encouragement to 'clog the lines,' an indication that jammed phone lines that left some caucus managers on hold for hours may have in part been due to prank calls. An Iowa Democratic Party official said the influx of calls to the reporting hotline included 'supporters of President Trump who called to express their displeasure with the Democratic Party.' The party official's comments were first reported late Wednesday by Bloomberg News. Users on a politics-focused section of the fringe 4chan message board repeatedly posted the phone number for the Iowa Democratic Party, which was found by a simple Google search, both as screenshots and in plain text, alongside instructions." Related stories linked below. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jon Keller of CBS Boston: "In the latest exclusive WBZ/Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll, Pete Buttigieg continues his remarkable post-Iowa surge. Bernie Sanders is holding steady at 24 percent, but Buttigieg is up four points over last night with 23 percent, a virtual tie in a survey with a margin of error of 4.4 percent. Elizabeth Warren takes over third place with 13 percent, and Joe Biden slips to fourth with 11 percent. Mayor Pete's gains don't seem to be coming at the expense of Sanders, whose numbers haven't changed much all week. Instead, Buttigieg seems to be attracting registered Democrats. And his biggest gains appear to be raided from key backers of Warren and Biden."

Jonathan Chait: "Bernie Sanders is currently favored to win the nomination, a prospect that would make Donald Trump a heavy favorite to win reelection.... It is hard to see how the situation is likely to improve soon.... It seems hard to imagine how [Joe] Biden or a Biden alternative could emerge in the next three contests.... So it is entirely possible that, following South Carolina, Sanders will have won three or all four of the contests." You'll have to read the whole post to grasp Chait's thinking. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Right now, I think the only two candidates still standing who could beat Trump are Klobuchar & Warren, in that order. But Klobuchar, and to a lesser extent Warren, look like also-rans at this point. That really leaves the only alternative to Sanders as Buttigieg, and -- even tho he's smart as a whip -- he's greener behind the ears than Trump was in 2016. I would choose some who have dropped out over Buttigieg, even though I would not have voted for them in the primary: Harris, Booker, Castro, Gillibrand, Inslee, even O'Rourke. I think Buttigieg's rise to No. 1 or 2 is a backlash to Biden's candidacy. It troubles me that less than a week before my own state's primary, I don't know who will get my vote, Warren or Klobuchar. And whichever I choose, I may kick myself later.

Matt Viser, et al., of the Washington Post: Following his 4th-place showing in Iowa, Joe Biden left the campaign trail & retreated to to Delaware where he met with top advisors to regroup & held no public events.

Peter Beinart of the Atlantic: "... impeachment appears to have hurt Biden more than Trump.... Not only will Trump remain president, and not only does he appear stronger politically than before the impeachment battle began, but he has succeeded in doing precisely what he wanted in the first place: He tarred Joe Biden, who last year looked like Trump's most formidable Democratic rival, with the kind of vague suspicion of wrongdoing that presidential candidates can't easily shake.... By keeping Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine in the news, they have turned them into a rough analogue to Hillary Clinton's missing emails in 2016 -- a pseudo-scandal that undermines a leading Democratic candidate's reputation for honesty.... Biden's extremely defensive response to the story has made matters worse." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: In fairness to Biden, few other Democratic presidential candidates can parry with Trump. Elizabeth Warren failed miserably in the Pocahontas fiasco. Those who seem to have done best are Michael Bloomberg -- who called Trump a liar in response to a Trump dig and questioned Trump's wealth in another case -- and Bernie Sanders who famously yelled during a 2016 debate with Hillary Clinton, "The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails." The candidates should ask Nancy Pelosi for advice; she makes Trump craz(ier).

~~~ And the Beat Goes on. Asawin Suebsaeng & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "... some of [Trump's] allies and most prominent lieutenants are in no mood to let the Ukraine impeachment scandal go.... Rudy Giuliani ... is planning on 'ramping up' his investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden. It's a matter of the fair administration of justice for real,' he told The Daily Beast.... One America News Network [-- which collaborated with Giuliani in a series supposed to exonerate Trump & implicate the Bidens --] ... doesn't appear to be through.... About an hour after Wednesday's acquittal, GOP senators Chuck Grassley (IA) and Ron Johnson (WI) announced a review regarding 'potential conflicts of interest posed by the business activities of Hunter Biden and his associates during the Obama' era."

Hunter Moyler of Newsweek: "New poll results from Morning Consult released Monday showed all five of the leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination defeating ... Donald Trump in hypothetical match-ups. Mike Bloomberg ... had the greatest lead over Trump. Forty-seven percent of respondents said they would vote for him if he were nominated to run against Trump, while 40 percent said they would vote for Trump and 13 percent were undecided." Mrs. McC: What this poll means to me is that Bloomberg, because he has been advertising in a lot of states, has higher name recognition than some of the other Democratic candidates. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "The Navy secretary ousted by President Trump said Thursday that he would endorse Michael R. Bloomberg for president, a high-profile defection that Mr. Bloomberg's allies hope will convince Democratic voters that their best chance of defeating Mr. Trump is the former mayor of New York. Richard V. Spencer, who was ousted as Navy secretary in November after he publicly disagreed with Mr. Trump's intervention in an extraordinary war crimes case involving a member of the Navy SEALs, is a lifelong Republican." An NBC News story is here.

Martin Matishak of Politico: "Widespread paralysis in the Obama administration prevented the U.S. from developing an effective response to combat Russian hacking in the 2016 election, according to a new, bipartisan report from the Senate Intelligence Committee. The panel found that the U.S. government 'was not well-postured to counter Russian election interference activity with a full range of readily-available policy options.'... [The report] lays out several factors tha hamstrung the White House's ability to coordinate a response, including partisan concerns not only on the campaign trail, but also in Congress. The report details resistance by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to issuing a bipartisan statement in 2016 about the Russian effort.... The committee makes a number of recommendations to counter future attacks on U.S. elections...." Mrs. McC: Ha ha. Good luck with that. Putin's Puppet is encouraging foreign hacking, not countering it.

Mrs. McCrabbie: I saw only three minutes of Trump's victory speech. I thought he sounded NUTS even though he wasn't drooling and screaming in that moment. Then I read this by unwashed in yesterday's Comments: "Made myself watch the display by the Orange Menace. All I can say is Oh-My-Geebus.... It'll likely be used in training future mental health experts." So I guess any sample snippet will do. (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: "At a jampacked ceremony in the East Room of the White House that veered back and forth between celebration and condemnation, the president complained about the 'crooked politics' that had resulted in his impeachment and trial on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. In addition to Democrats and other favorite targets, he singled out Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the only Republican to vote for conviction. 'It was evil,' Mr. Trump told the roomful of supporters from Congress and his administration in a long, rambling, stream-of-consciousness talk, tossing aside the text that had been so carefully prepared for him by his staff.... He reviewed the long litany of investigations against him over the last three years, dismissing them all as nothing more than partisan efforts to take him down and suggesting that the 'top scum' at the F.B.I. had plotted to stop him from serving as president." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Thursday unloaded on his perceived political enemies, declaring that the investigations into him have been 'all bullshit' in a sprawling and teleprompter-free address at the White House less than a day after senators acquitted him on two articles of impeachment.... He lit into his antagonizers from the opulent East Room, lobbing verbal attacks at everyone from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), and calling them 'some very evil and sick people.' He singled out Utah Sen. Mitt Romney ... and Hunter Biden, the son of the former vice president.... The hourlong stemwinder was also littered with doting anecdotes and praise for the president's allies, including at one point a reenactment of the 2017 shooting of House Minority Whip Steve Scalise and a compliment of GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik's appearance." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post have numerous entries on what-all Trump said. This is an update of a report linked yesterday. ~~~

~~~ Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump ripped into his critics on Thursday, making clear he plans to use his bully pulpit to exact at least some verbal revenge on Democrats and Republicans who crossed him during his impeachment and subsequent Senate trial. He called Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a 'horrible person' and derided Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) as a flip-flopping Republican with 'no sign of principles' whose vote to convict Trump on abuse of power charges was born not out of principle but bitterness over his failed 2012 presidential bid.... Some of the president's aides are discussing whether to remove or reassign administration officials who testified during the impeachment inquiry, according to aides and advisers who spoke on the condition of anonymity...." ~~~

~~~ Jen Kirby of Vox has the transcript of Trump's remarks. "The rambling, stream-of-consciousness, more-than-hourlong 'speech' touched on the usual grievances: Russia, Mueller, witch hunts, impeachment. Trump leapt from topic to topic, calling out random members of the Senate, House, and Cabinet with weird biographical details, including a Chuck Grassley impression. At one point, he referenced the NCAA and Rep. Jim Jordan's lack of a sport jacket. At another, he talked about Rep. Devin Nunes going into dungeons to get documents." Mrs. McC: BTW, one person Trump didn't thank or mention was his personal attorney Rudy.

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Our vindictive president, now unshackled by his frightened followers in Congress, may well be teed up to punish his perceived political enemies. And we needn't exercise much imagination to envision how this loaded-gloved counterpuncher might weaponize his executive authority. Because he's done it already. Many, many times.... Consider the selectively punitive antitrust actions undertaken by this administration, which is otherwise not exactly known for caring about market concentration.... Elsewhere, he has allegedly tried to use federal procurement to punish perceived enemies -- in particular, Amazon, because the company's chief executive, Jeff Bezos, personally owns The Post.... And for years, Trump has openly called for the Justice Department to prosecute his political adversaries. He pressured senior law enforcement officials, including former attorney general Jeff Sessions, to appoint a second special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Here is an example of how Trump's personal corruption translates to institutional acts of corruption: ~~~

~~~ Luppe Luppen of Yahoo! News: "The Treasury Department has complied with Republican senators' requests for highly sensitive and closely held financial records about Hunter Biden and his associates and has turned over '"evidence" of questionable origin' to them, according to a leading Democrat on one of the committees conducting the investigation. For months..., powerful committee chairmen in the Republican-controlled Senate have been quietly but openly pursuing an inquiry into Hunter Biden's business affairs and Ukrainian officials' alleged interventions in the 2016 election, the same matters that President Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani unsuccessfully tried to coerce Ukraine's government to investigate.... 'Applying a blatant double standard, Trump administration agencies like the Treasury Department are rapidly complying with Senate Republican requests -- no subpoenas necessary -- and producing "evidence" of questionable origin,' [Sen. Ron] Wyden['s (D-Oregon)] spokesperson Ashley Schapitl said in a statement. 'The administration told House Democrats to go pound sand when their oversight authority was mandatory while voluntarily cooperating with the Senate Republicans' sideshow at lightning speed.'" ~~~

~~~ One example not convincing? How about two in one news cycle? ~~~

~~~ Joel Rose & Colin Dwyer of NPR: "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says it will no longer allow New York state residents to enroll in programs intended to expedite international travel because of a state law that blocks immigration authorities from accessing motor vehicle records. New York's 'Green Light' law, which took effect in December, allows immigrants without legal status to apply for driver's licenses. It also includes a provision barring state officials at the Department of Motor Vehicles from sharing data with immigration authorities unless a judge orders them to do so. Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary at DHS, told reporters on a conference call Thursday that the state law was 'dangerous -- really thoughtless in terms of unintended consequences.'... He said his department has suspended all applications and renewals connected with several of its Trusted Traveler programs, such as Global Entry and NEXUS, which are designed to facilitate and speed up security screening at ports of entry." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Anthony Faiola & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "In the year since the Trump administration declared what amounted to economic war against the Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro -- an oil embargo that cut it off from its biggest petroleum buyer, the United States -- the move has yielded some clear losers, including U.S. investors now shut out of the market. It has also produced one clear winner: Vladimir Putin's Russia. U.S. officials, oil industry insiders and analysts say secret deals between Moscow and Caracas to produce, transport and sell oil to other markets have become a cash cow for Russia that is earning its state-controlled enterprises an estimated $120 million a month.... The Russians are to some extent extorting Maduro.... They're chartering vessels from third parties and obscuring the origin of the crude as they market it around the world. But they're also charging Maduro dearly for their efforts.... Today's relationship with socialist Venezuela is providing Russia with a rare opportunity to make a mint as it strengthens its foothold in the backyard of the United States." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Uh, isn't Russia's surest foothold in the U.S. on the steps of the South Portico?

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Though Jared Kushner was a 'lead point of contact' for US allies worried about Donald Trump's threats to Nato, the president's son-in-law did not 'seem to know what Nato actually did', a new book [by Daily Beast reporters Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng] claims. Kushner even appeared to be ignorant of article 5, the treaty clause which stipulates that an attack on one member is an attack on all." Mrs. McC: He shoulda read some books about NATO, so he could be an expert.

Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "An indignant Nancy Pelosi signaled Thursday she was in no mood to reconcile with President Trump and his congressional Republican allies a day after the Senate voted to acquit him of impeachment charges. Instead, the House speaker launched into a fierce attack on Trump's State of the Union address, his record on the economy and health care, his response to the months-long impeachment process and the swipes he leveled Thursday morning at the National Prayer Breakfast targeting the faith of his political enemies. And the California Democrat defended her decision to publicly tear up a copy of Trump's speech Tuesday night in the moments after he concluded his speech, saying she did not 'need any lessons from anybody, especially the president of the United States, about dignity.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael Gerson of the Washington Post: At yesterday's National Prayer Breakfast, "the president again displayed a remarkable ability to corrupt, distort and discredit every institution he touches. The prayer breakfast was intended to foster personal connections across party differences. Trump turned it into a performative platform to express his rage and pride -- the negation of a Christian ethic.... Trump has again shown a talent for exposing the sad moral compromises of his followers, especially his evangelical Christian followers.... Trump's unholy outburst (and the White House event that followed) shows we are reaching a very dangerous moment in our national life. The president is seized by rage and resentment -- not heard on some scratchy Watergate tape, but in public, for all to see and hear. He now feels unchecked and uncheckable." Gerson leads with this:

"... the main remarks were made by the former president of the American Enterprise Institute (and Post columnist) Arthur C. Brooks, who spoke on the themes of his wonderful 2019 book 'Love Your Enemies.' President Trump then prefaced his speech by saying: 'Arthur, I don't know if I agree with you. But I don't know if Arthur's going to like what I'm going to say.'... The command to love your enemies, of course, came from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. 'Love your enemies, bless those that curse you, do good to them that hate you.' It might be expected for a president to express how difficult obeying such a mandate can be. Trump decided to dispute the command itself."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course Christian evangelists' favorite president* had no idea he was refuting what is regarded as the second of the "two greatest commandments" and using the prayer breakfast itself to essentially disavow the religion he claims to follow and make of himself a new, Old Testament-style messiah. ~~~

~~~ Daniel Burke of CNN: "... the National Prayer Breakfast is typically a nonpartisan event that organizers say is meant to provide a spiritual refuge from political warfare.... It's striking to hear Trump, who is a Presbyterian, so directly reject one of Christianity's core teachings. Instead, the President has said he prefers another part of the Bible, where it talks about taking 'an eye for an eye.' (Ironically, some Christians see Jesus' instruction to turn the other cheek as moving past that kind of morality.) Later in his speech on Thursday, Trump seemed to acknowledge that many in the room, which included Christians, Muslims and other faith leaders from around the world, might disagree with him about loving one's enemies. 'I'm sorry, I apologize,' he said. 'I am trying to learn. Not easy. It's not easy when they impeach you for nothing, and you're supposed to like them.'" Mrs. McC: Yeah, and right after that "apology," Trump took another swipe at President Obama.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Li Yuan of the New York Times: "The Chinese public have staged what amounts to an online revolt after the death of a doctor, Li Wenliang, who tried to warn of a mysterious virus that has since killed hundreds of people in China, infected tens of thousands and forced the government to corral many of the country's 1.4 billion people. Since late Thursday, people from different backgrounds, including government officials, prominent business figures and ordinary online users, have posted numerous messages expressing their grief at the doctor's death and their anger over his silencing by the police after sharing his knowledge about the new coronavirus."

News Ledes

USA Today: "Federal investigators on Friday dispelled the notion that engine failure was to blame for the helicopter crash last month that killed Kobe Bryant his daughter and seven others. The helicopter damage was consistent with 'powered rotation' -- from the engine moving the rotors -- when the flight crashed, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board. The finding is significant because investigators determined immediately after the accident that the copter was in a fast descent at the time of impact, after having climbed to try to get out of thick clouds. That gave rise to the notion that perhaps the engines had failed."

AP: "Hiring jumped at the beginning of the year as U.S. employers added 225,000 jobs, bolstering an economy that faces threats from China's viral outbreak, an ongoing trade war and struggles at Boeing. The Labor Department also said Friday that a half-million people streamed into the job market in January, though not all of them found jobs. That influx meant more people were counted as unemployed, and it boosted the jobless rate to 3.6%, from a half-century low of 3.5% in December."

The New York Times' coronavirus updates are here. A guide to protect yourself from this & other viruses is linked below under PSAs.

The Commentariat -- February 6, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Nolan McCaskill & Zack Motellaro of Politico: "The leader of the Democratic National Committee called for an immediate recanvass of the Iowa caucuses Thursday, dealing another blow to Iowa's reputation and further extending an already delayed process to tally votes from Monday night. DNC Chairman Tom Perez's announcement came shortly before Bernie Sanders claimed victory Thursday in a race that officially remains too close to call. 'Enough is enough,' Perez tweeted. 'In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass.' The parallel developments underscored the chaos that has gripped the party in the aftermath of Iowa's caucus debacle.... In a defiant statement, however, the Iowa Democratic Party made no mention of the the DNC's request for a recanvass. 'While I fully acknowledge that the reporting circumstances on Monday night were unacceptable, we owe it to the thousands of Iowa Democratic volunteers and caucusgoers to remain focused on collecting and reviewing incoming results,' said Troy Price, the state party chairman. 'Should any presidential campaign in compliance with the Iowa Delegate Selection Plan request a recanvass, the IDP [Iowa Democratic Party] ... will audit the paper records of report, as provided by the precinct chairs and signed by representatives of presidential campaigns.'"

Mrs. McCrabbie: I saw only three minutes of Trump's victory speech. I thought he sounded NUTS even though he wasn't drooling and screaming in that moment. Then I read this by unwashed in today's Comments: "Made myself watch the display by the Orange Menace. All I can say is Oh-My-Geebus.... It'll likely be used in training future mental health experts." So I guess any sample snippet will do. Okay, let's see if the pros clean up Trump's act, as they usually do. ~~~

~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: "At a jampacked ceremony in the East Room of the White House that veered back and forth between celebration and condemnation, the president complained about the 'crooked politics' that had resulted in his impeachment and trial on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. In addition to Democrats and other favorite targets, he singled out Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the only Republican to vote for conviction. 'It was evil,' Mr. Trump told the roomful of supporters from Congress and his administration in a long, rambling, stream-of-consciousness talk, tossing aside the text that had been so carefully prepared for him by his staff.... He reviewed the long litany of investigations against him over the last three years, dismissing them all as nothing more than partisan efforts to take him down and suggesting that the 'top scum' at the F.B.I. had plotted to stop him from serving as president." ~~~

~~~ Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Thursday unloaded on his perceived political enemies, declaring that the investigations into him have been 'all bullshit' in a sprawling and teleprompter-free address at the White House less than a day after senators acquitted him on two articles of impeachment.... He lit into his antagonizers from the opulent East Room, lobbing verbal attacks at everyone from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), and calling them 'some very evil and sick people.' He singled out Utah Sen. Mitt Romney ... and Hunter Biden, the son of the former vice president.... The hourlong stemwinder was also littered with doting anecdotes and praise for the president's allies, including at one point a reenactment of the 2017 shooting of House Minority Whip Steve Scalise and a compliment of GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik's appearance." ~~~

~~~ John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post have numerous entries on what-all Trump said. This is an update of a report linked earlier.

Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "An indignant Nancy Pelosi signaled Thursday she was in no mood to reconcile with President Trump and his congressional Republican allies a day after the Senate voted to acquit him of impeachment charges. Instead, the House speaker launched into a fierce attack on Trump's State of the Union address, his record on the economy and health care, his response to the months-long impeachment process and the swipes he leveled Thursday morning at the National Prayer Breakfast targeting the faith of his political enemies. And the California Democrat defended her decision to publicly tear up a copy of Trump's speech Tuesday night in the moments after he concluded his speech, saying she did not 'need any lessons from anybody, especially the president of the United States, about dignity.'"

Nate Cohn, et al., of the New York Times: "The results released by the Iowa Democratic Party on Wednesday were riddled with inconsistencies and other flaws. According to a New York Times analysis, more than 100 precincts reported results that were internally inconsistent, that were missing data or that were not possible under the complex rules of the Iowa caucuses. In some cases, vote tallies do not add up. In others, precincts are shown allotting the wrong number of delegates to certain candidates. And in at least a few cases, the Iowa Democratic Party's reported results do not match those reported by the precincts.... Not all of the errors are minor, and they raise questions about whether the public will ever get a completely precise account of the Iowa results." ~~~

~~~ Ben Collins, et al., of NBC News: "The phone number to report Iowa caucus results was posted on a fringe internet message board on Monday night along with encouragement to 'clog the lines,' an indication that jammed phone lines that left some caucus managers on hold for hours may have in part been due to prank calls. An Iowa Democratic Party official said the influx of calls to the reporting hotline included 'supporters of President Trump who called to express their displeasure with the Democratic Party.' The party official's comment were first reported late Wednesday by Bloomberg News. Users on a politics-focused section of the fringe 4chan message board repeatedly posted the phone number for the Iowa Democratic Party, which was found by a simple Google search, both as screenshots and in plain text, alongside instructions." Related stories linked below.

Jon Keller of CBS Boston: "Bernie Sanders continues to lead the field [in New Hampshire's Democratic presidential primary] with 25%, but [Pete] Buttigieg is closing in with a 19% showing, his best yet in our poll. Joe Biden dropped three points from last night to 12%, and Elizabeth Warren is holding steady at 11%. Looking deeper into the crosstabs, Buttigieg appears to be siphoning voters away from Biden in a couple of key areas. He's up by four among women while Biden is down by four, with a similar scenario among registered Democrats, a crucial demo for Biden. Sanders continues to hold steady but is showing no signs of growth.... Keep in mind that this poll has a margin of error of 4.4% and the race remains quite fluid, with 14% undecided and 43% saying they could change their minds before voting day next Tuesday...."

Hunter Moyler of Newsweek: "New poll results from Morning Consult released Monday showed all five of the leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination defeating ... Donald Trump in hypothetical match-ups. Mike Bloomberg ... had the greatest lead over Trump. Forty-seven percent of respondents said they would vote for him if he were nominated to run against Trump, while 40 percent said they would vote for Trump and 13 percent were undecided." Mrs. McC: What this poll means to me is that Bloomberg, because he has been advertising in a lot of states, has higher name recognition than some of the other Democratic candidates.

~~~~~~~~~~

It's 4:42. How long before tweets start claiming total exoneration? -- unwashed, in yesterday's Comments

Today, the sham impeachment attempt concocted by Democrats ended in the full vindication and exoneration of President Donald J. Trump. -- White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, in a statement issued Wednesday at about 5:20 pm ET (Emphasis added.)

So less than an hour. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

The President has been impeached forever. -- Nancy Pelosi, in a statement Wednesday

God's Will. John Wagner of the Washington Post @9:20 am ET: "Trump used his remarks to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington to attack Democrats responsible for his impeachment and to praise Senate Republicans who voted to acquit him Wednesday. 'As everybody knows, my family, our great country and your president has been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people,' Trump said, as [Nancy] Pelosi sat on the dais at an annual event that draws lawmakers and others in the spirit of reconciliation and bridge-building. 'They have done everything possible to destroy us and by so doing very badly hurt our nation. They know what they are doing is wrong, but they put themselves far ahead of our great country.'...Trump seemed to target both Pelosi, who has said on several occasions that she prays for him, and [Mitt] Romney, who cited his faith as a factor in voting to remove Trump from office. '"I don't like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong,' Trump said. 'Nor do I like people who say, "I pray for you," when they know that that's not so.'"

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump boasted of his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial during an appearance at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, showing off newspaper headlines that blared the news. As Trump entered the room at the Washington Hilton and went to take his seat, he smiled and held up copies of USA Today and The Washington Post, each bearing headlines about the Senate's verdict." Mrs. McC: This is shocking. How did Trump get a copy of the WashPo? I thought he cancelled his subscription & banned federal agencies from subscribing, too.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The Senate acquitted President Trump on Wednesday of charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress, as Republicans turned back an election-year attempt by House Democrats to remove him from office for pressuring a foreign power to incriminate his political rivals. The tally for conviction fell far below the 67-vote threshold necessary for removal and neither article of impeachment garnered even a simple majority. The first article, abuse of power, was rejected 48 to 52, and the second, obstruction of Congress, was defeated 47 to 53. Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, was the only member to break with his party, voting to remove Mr. Trump from office." The Guardian's story, by Tom McCarthy, is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Neal Katyal & Joshua Geltzer in a New York Times op-ed: "The vote to acquit President Trump was a dark day for the Senate. Uninterested in hearing from witnesses (and likely scared by what they would say), uncritical of outrageous legal arguments made by the president's lawyers and apparently unconcerned about the damage Mr. Trump has done to the integrity of America's elections, a majority of senators insisted on looking the other way and letting him off the hook for a classic impeachable offense: abuse of public office for private gain.... But ... This impeachment ... was a process, and that process yielded a public education of extraordinary value." (Also linked yesterday.)

Andrew Napolitano of Fox "News": "The Senate impeachment trial of President Trump ended not with a bang but a whimper.... And in its wake is a Congress ceding power to the presidency, almost as if the states had ratified a constitutional amendment redefining the impeachment language to permit a president to engage in high crimes and misdemeanors so long as he believes that they are in the national interest and so long as his party has an iron-clad grip on the Senate.... Trump will luxuriate in his victory. But the personal victory for him is a legal assault on the Constitution. The president has taken an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. Instead, he has trashed it." --s

nbsp;    ~~~ Thanks to PD Pepe for the link. ~~~

~~~ Mitt Stands Alone -- the Sole Republican Patriot. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said he would vote to convict President Trump on the impeachment charge of abuse of power, describing his actions as an 'appalling abuse of public trust.' In a stunning break with his party, Romney became the first Republican to say that he would find Trump guilty of an impeachment charge, with his remarks coming just hours before the Senate was set to vote. 'The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor. Yes, he did,' Romney said in remarks on the Senate floor. Not a single GOP senator was in attendance for Romney's somber remarks on the floor and only a few Democrats were on hand in the chamber." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Burgess Everett of Politico: "Mitt Romney brought a stunning twist to the end of ... Donald Trump's impeachment trial: A bipartisan vote to convict the president on charges of abuse of power. The Wednesday announcement by the Utah Republican made him the only member of the GOP to break with the president and his party on the crucial question of whether Trump deserved to be removed from office. The 2012 Republican nominee said he was left with no other options, regardless of the volcanic reaction instantly delivered by some of the president's supporters." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Sonam Sheth of Business Insider: "Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah caught the White House -- and the rest of Washington -- by surprise when he announced Wednesday that he will vote to convict ... Donald Trump of one of the two charges against him following a bitter impeachment trial.... Within minutes of [Romney's] Senate floor speech, the White House canceled a closed-door meeting between Trump and Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido in the Oval Office that reporters were invited to attend. Romney also did several media interviews about his decision to convict Trump that dropped right after he made the announcement. But The Los Angeles Times' Eli Stokols reported that the White House was not informed of any of the interviews before they were published." ~~~

     ~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "No senator ever voted to remove a president of his party from office. Until Mitt Romney.... What's particularly remarkable about Romney's decision is the political environment in which it comes. Congress is much more polarized now than it was for the Johnson or Clinton impeachments. So is the electorate: Data from Gallup released on the day Trump's impeachment trial began show that the gap in approval of Trump between the parties is wider than it has been for any president on record.... Also noteworthy: The total in favor of Trump's acquittal is itself entirely partisan. Only Republicans voted Trump not guilty on the impeachment charges -- the first time no members of the opposing party have voted with the president. The votes to convict will come from Democrats, independents and a Republican." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ You can watch Romney's full speech here. ~~~

     ~~~ Adam Schiff, Jerrold Nadler, Zoe Lofgren, Hakeem Jeffries, Val Demings, Sylvia Garcia & Jason Crow in a Washington Post op-ed: "... the president's defenders resorted to a radical theory that would validate his worst, most authoritarian instincts. They argued that a president cannot abuse his power, no matter how corrupt his conduct, if he believes it will benefit his reelection.... When we made our final arguments to the Senate, we asked whether there was one Republican senator who would say enough, do impartial justice as their oath required, and convict the president. And there was. Mitt Romney. The senator from Utah showed a level of moral courage that validated the Founders' faith that we were up to the rigors of self-governance."

Alexander Bolton: "Sen. Joe Manchin, a centrist Democrat whose home state of West Virginia gave President Trump his biggest margin of victory in 2016, said he would vote Wednesday with other Senate Democrats to convict the president on two articles of impeachment. 'The charges brought against President Trump are serious and carry grave consequences for our nation,' he said. 'The evidence presented by the House Managers, including video testimony of witnesses under oath in the House of Representatives, clearly supports the charges brought against the President in the articles of impeachment,' he added. Manchin's decision is a setback for Trump who was hoping to be able to point to a bipartisan acquittal in the Senate trial." (Also linked yesterday.)

Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) said she would vote to to convict President Trump on both House impeachment charges, stating shortly before the Senate vote that the facts were clear that Trump had withheld security aid from Ukraine for personal gain. 'Today, I vote to approve both articles, as my highest duty, and my greatest love, is to our nation's Constitution,' Sinema said in a statement first shared with The Arizona Republic." (Also linked yesterday.)

Profile in Courage (Even though Jones Says It Isn't). Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), viewed as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat running in November, said on Wednesday that he will vote to convict President Trump on both articles of impeachment. 'After many sleepless nights, I have reluctantly concluded that the evidence is sufficient to convict the President for both abuse of power and obstruction of Congress,' he said in a statement. Jones's announcement comes hours before the Senate's votes on the two House-passed articles of impeachment: abuse of power over the delayed Ukraine aid and obstructing Congress's investigations into those actions." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Ryan Goodman of Just Security: "A bipartisan majority of senators -- including at least six Republicans -- concluded that the House Managers proved their central case and that what the president did was wrong. As a result, Trump's claim of 'Exoneration!' should ring hollow.... That includes: Senators Lamar Alexander, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman, Mitt Romney, and Ben Sasse." As evidence, Goodman republishes statements these senators made. He adds, Mitch's backroom coordination with the White House throughout the trial has been revealed.... If this were a regular courtroom, it would be deemed a mistrial and the verdict void." Emphasis original. ~~~

~~~ Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "In a lunch with news anchors Tuesday, Trump was asked about [Sen. Susan] Collins's contention that he had learned a lesson during impeachment. The president insisted that he had done nothing wrong: 'It was a perfect call.'"

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in a New York Times op-ed: "In private, many of my [Republican] colleagues agree that the president is reckless and unfit. They admit his lies. And they acknowledge what he did was wrong. They know this president has done things Richard Nixon never did. And they know that more damning evidence is likely to come out.... I have asked some of them, 'If the Senate votes to acquit, what will you do to keep this president from getting worse?' Their responses have been shrugs and sheepish looks. They will not say that they are afraid.... But history does not look kindly on politicians who cannot fathom a fate worse than losing an upcoming election. They might claim fealty to their cause -- those tax cuts -- but often it's a simple attachment to power that keeps them captured by fear." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Forgotten 69 Million Americans. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Over the course of the impeachment trial of President Trump, one figure was frequently invoked by his defenders: 63 million.... Those 63 million people, the people who backed Trump in the 2016 presidential contest, were presented as being at risk of having their presidential vote thrown out. For the Senate to vote to convict Trump on the charges presented by the House would be nothing short of an undoing of the election that brought Trump to power, his attorneys argued.... What that calculus ignores, of course, is that Trump is not the only person who serves with a mandate of voters.... Nearly 69 million votes were cast for senators who supported removing Trump from office based on that first article of impeachment, about 12 million more votes than were received by senators who opposed his removal." Mrs. McC: And for some reason the nearly 66 million who voted for Hillary Clinton never get a mention either.

Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that it is 'likely' that the House will issue a subpoena to President Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton>." (Also linked yesterday.)

"I Believe." George Conway, in a Washington Post op-ed, proves he has a sense of humor: "I believe the Senate is right to acquit the president. I believe a fair trial is one with no witnesses, and that the trial was therefore fair. I believe the House was unfair because it found evidence against him. I believe that if the president does something that he believes will get himself reelected, that's in the public interest and can't be the kind of thing that results in impeachment. I believe former national security adviser John Bolton has no relevant testimony because he didn't leave the White House on good terms. I believe the president's call was perfect. I believe he is deeply concerned about corruption in Ukraine. I believe the president can find Ukraine on a map." And so forth. Worth a read. Thanks to MAG for the link.

Some Emoluments of Impeachment. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Well, where else were they going to go?One mile from the scene of President Trump's acquittal in his impeachment trial, members of his defense team, family and administration gathered Wednesday evening at the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington."

Caroline Kelly of CNN: "Two Republican Senate committee chairmen requested Hunter Biden's travel information from when his father, Joe Biden, was vice president from the Secret Service director on Wednesday following the Senate's vote to acquit in the impeachment trial of ... Donald Trump. Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley, of Iowa, and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, announced in a letter to Secret Service Director James Murray that their panels 'are reviewing potential conflicts of interest posed by the business activities of Hunter Biden and his associates during the Obama administration.'"

Anne Gearan & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "White House national security adviser Robert C. O'Brien asserted Wednesday that President Trump had not sought Ukrainian help investigating former vice president Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, despite evidence to the contrary. Trump expressly asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to 'look into' the Biden family during the July 25 phone call that played a central role in House Democrats decision to impeach the president for allegedly pressuring a foreign ally to investigate his domestic political rival.... 'Look, I'm not aware of any request the president made to investigate the Bidens per se. I think what the president wanted done was he wanted the Ukrainians to investigate corruption in the Ukraine and he made that very clear,' O'Brien said before an audience of ambassadors and reporters at the Meridian International Center."

Matt Gertz of Media Matters: "It is ... revealing that it was Trump who awarded [Rush] Limbaugh the medal [of freedom]. You can draw a straight line between Limbaugh's rise to prominence and his acceptance by the Republican establishment and the president's own conquest of the party.... Limbaugh's career shows that by relying on a toxic slurry of bigotry, conspiracy theories, smears, and right-wing talking points, you can win a massive audience of devoted fans who will shower you with lucre and hang on your every word.... Once that standard was set in right-wing media, it was only a matter of time before a political entrepreneur tested the same mix in a national political context." --s

Scott Wong & Christina Marcos of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday trashed President Trump's raucous State of the Union address while huddling with rank-and-file Democrats, and explained why she dramatically ripped up his speech as he wrapped up his remarks. 'He shredded the truth so I shredded his speech,' Pelosi told House Democrats during a closed-door caucus meeting, according to sources in the room. Like she did the night before, she called his 90-minute address 'a manifesto of mistruths.' 'You are supposed to talk about the State of the Union,' Pelosi continued, 'not the State of your alleged mind.' Trump, Pelosi said, 'disrespected' the House chamber and used it as a 'backdrop for a reality show ... to give a speech that had no connection with reality.... 'About a quarter through [the speech] I thought, "You know -- he's selling a bill of goods like a snake oil salesman. We cannot let this stand,"' she said. 'So, somewhere along the way realizing what was coming, I started to stack my papers in a way that were tear-able.'" ~~~

On #LSSC tonight: Nancy Pelosi figured out what to do with the ripped up State of the Union speech. pic.twitter.com/Uv0CWdCPMS

— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) February 6, 2020

~~~ Cease & Desist. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "A former writer for 'The Simpsons' on Wednesday ripped Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for using a snapshot from the show to knock Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), saying 'please do not ever ever ever use Simpsons material in your twitter or watch the show or refer to it in any way.' Bill Oakley, along with his writing partner Josh Weinstein, was the executive producer and showrunner during the seventh and eighth seasons of the long-running animated sitcom. He took to Twitter after President Trump's State of the Union to make the request of Pompeo, who tweeted an image of Lisa Simpson tearfully ripping up a sheet of paper -- an apparent dig at Pelosi after the Speaker tore a copy of the president's speech at the end of the address Tuesday night."

Nina Lakhani of the Guardian: "At least 200 Salvadoran migrants and asylum seekers have been killed, raped or tortured after being deported back to El Salvador by the United States government which is turning a blind eye to widely known dangers, a new investigation reveals. Human Rights Watch has documented 138 deported Salvadorans murdered by gang members, police, soldiers, death squads and ex-partners between 2013 and 2019. The majority were killed within two years of deportation by the same perpetrators they had tried to escape by seeking safety in the US.... Amid widespread terror and impunity [in El Salvador], the number of Salvadorans fleeing has soared, with asylum applicants in the US increasing by almost 1,000% in five years to 60,000 in 2017, according to UN figures." --s

The New York Times has the latest results of the Iowa caucuses here. As of about 11:45 pm ET Wednesday, with 97% reported, "A new batch of results from the Iowa Democrats has almost eliminated Pete Buttigieg's narrow lead over Bernie Sanders in state delegate equivalents.... The margin between Buttigieg and Sanders [in the delegate apportionment] is now one-tenth of a percentage point." Sanders has expanded his lead in the actual vote counts, too; he is nearly 6,000 votes ahead in the "first vote" count & more than 2,500 ahead in the "final vote" count. The AP is still calling the race too close to call.

We are in the process of waiting for the mail to arrive. -- Troy Price, Iowa Democratic party chair, explaining how caucus votes were being tallied

Exactly how does that process work, Troy? Does it mean sitting on a stool by the mailbox? Occasionally sending clerks to the post office? How much staff did you allocate to the process? What sort of job training is required for the process? Or are you leaving this important process to untrained volunteers? -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ~~~

~~~ Trip Gabriel & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Iowa Democratic officials said on a private conference call on Wednesday night that nearly all the much-delayed results of Monday's caucuses would be released by Thursday, although a few precincts might remain outstanding. The reason? Tally sheets had been dropped into snail mail. Party leaders revealed new details of how the reporting process went calamitously awry.... Besides an untested, buggy smartphone app that was used for the first time, a backup hotline number for caucus organizers to call in results was flooded with nuisance calls after the number was disseminated on social media, party leaders said. 'All the Trump people from around the country started calling and tearing everybody a new one,' Ken Sager, the Iowa Democratic Party treasurer, told members of the party's central committee...." ~~~

~~~ Tyler Pager & Jennifer Epstein of Bloomberg: "Supporters of President Donald Trump flooded a hotline used by Iowa precinct chairs to report Democratic caucus results after the telephone number was posted online, worsening delays in the statewide tally, a top state Democrat told party leaders on a conference call Wednesday night.... The phone number became public after people posted photos of caucus paperwork that included the hotline number, one of the people on the call said." (article firewalled) --s

     ~~~ A Daily Beast summary report is here.

Katie Glueck, et al., of the New York Times: Joe "Biden's performance in the Iowa caucuses on Monday dealt a damaging blow to the former vice president; with over 90 percent of the results counted by Wednesday night, he trailed Pete Buttigieg and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, with Senator Amy Klobuchar not far behind. 'I am not going to sugarcoat it,' Mr. Biden said Wednesday as he campaigned in New Hampshire. 'We took a gut punch in Iowa.'... He now faces jittery donors, an uncertain landscape in upcoming Democratic contests and a sharp challenge to the central argument of his campaign message: that he is the party's strongest candidate to win a general election.... Mr. Biden spent ... weeks grappling with the best way to respond to the Ukraine controversy. And party officials continued to describe his Iowa organization as scattershot...." ~~~

~~~ Natasha Korecki & Marc Caputo of Politico: "Joe Biden's campaign has parted ways with its Iowa field director, two days after the former vice president came in an embarrassing fourth place in the primary caucus state. Adrienne Bogen, who headed field operations for Biden, will not stay on the campaign, even as other members of senior leadership were asked to head to other early states or to assist in Super Tuesday operations. According to several sources within the campaign, Bogen is the first staff casualty following Biden's disappointing showing in the state."

Ted Nesi of WPRI Providence, R.I.: "Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg and [Rhode Island] Gov. Gina Raimondo played it coy Wednesday about whether she could be his running mate, after she became the first governor in the country to endorse the former New York City mayor. Bloomberg traveled to Providence to join Raimondo at a well-attended rally in the Wexford Innovation Complex, where she announced she will serve as a co-chair of his campaign. The two began their morning at the vegan eatery Plant City, then walked to the event across Providence's new pedestrian bridge -- giving Bloomberg's campaign ad team a made-for-TV visual."

** Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Attorney General William P. Barr issued new restrictions on Wednesday over the opening of politically sensitive investigations, an effort meant to avoid upending the presidential election as the F.B.I. inadvertently did in 2016 when its campaign inquiries shaped the outcome of the race. The order by Mr. Barr, announced in a memo reviewed by The New York Times, comes after a scathing report by the inspector general that showed how F.B.I. agents did not follow protocols and falsified information in their bid to investigate Carter Page, a former Trump campaign associate.... The memo said that the F.B.I. and all other divisions under the department's purview must get Mr. Barr's approval before investigating any of the 2020 presidential candidates.... He previewed the new policy at a news conference in January, when he said his approval would be required in future investigations involving presidential candidates or campaigns.... Mr. Barr is the first [attorney general] to require that the F.B.I. consult with the Justice Department before opening politically charged investigations." ~~~

     ~~~ A Hill summary report is here. Rachel Maddow had the story first. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This might be all right if Barr were not a partisan hack. But you know he'll approve investigations into Democratic candidates and disapprove any investigations into Article II Man who can do anything he wants.

All that said, here's most of what you have to know of the news of the week:

Way Beyond the Beltway

Juan Cole: "Nothing could have been a better gift to Iran in the region than the Kushner Apartheid.... In fact, since Iran stands so forcefully for the Palestinians, and the entire Arab League voted to reject the Kushner Apartheid entirely, this issue was a godsend for Iran in the Middle East generally. It put the Saudis, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt -- all foes of Iran whose populations are very pro-Palestinian, in a very difficult population. As American allies, they look as though they are helping Jared Kushner screw over their own people." --s

The Commentariat -- February 5, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Mrs. McCrabbie @12:30 pm ET Wednesday: Looks as if the Iowa Democratic party has gone on vacation. It's been more than 12 hours since they updated results; they still have reported on 71% of the results of an election that ended Monday night. Update: The party has reported more results this afternoon. Nearly 85% of the caucus results now have been reported.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The Senate acquitted President Trump on Wednesday of charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress, as Republicans turned back an election-year attempt by House Democrats to remove him from office for pressuring a foreign power to incriminate his political rivals. The tally for conviction fell far below the 67-vote threshold necessary for removal and neither article of impeachment garnered even a simple majority. The first article, abuse of power, was rejected 48 to 52, and the second, obstruction of Congress, was defeated 47 to 53. Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, was the only member to break with his party, voting to remove Mr. Trump from office." The Guardian's story, by Tom McCarthy, is here.

~~~ Neal Katyal & Joshua Geltzer in a New York Times op-ed: "The vote to acquit President Trump was a dark day for the Senate. Uninterested in hearing from witnesses (and likely scared by what they would say), uncritical of outrageous legal arguments made by the president's lawyers and apparently unconcerned about the damage Mr. Trump has done to the integrity of America's elections, a majority of senators insisted on looking the other way and letting him off the hook for a classic impeachable offense: abuse of public office for private gain.... But ... This impeachment ... was a process, and that process yielded a public education of extraordinary value."

     ~~~ Thanks to PD Pepe for the link. ~~~

~~~ Mitt Stands Alone -- the Sole Republican Patriot. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said he would vote to convict President Trump on the impeachment charge of abuse of power, describing his actions as an 'appalling abuse of public trust.' In a stunning break with his party, Romney became the first Republican to say that he would find Trump guilty of an impeachment charge, with his remarks coming just hours before the Senate was set to vote. 'The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor. Yes, he did,' Romney said in remarks on the Senate floor. Not a single GOP senator was in attendance for Romney's somber remarks on the floor and only a few Democrats were on hand in the chamber." ~~~

     ~~~ Burgess Everett of Politico: "Mitt Romney brought a stunning twist to the end of ... Donald Trump's impeachment trial: A bipartisan vote to convict the president on charges of abuse of power. The Wednesday announcement by the Utah Republican made him the only member of the GOP to break with the president and his party on the crucial question of whether Trump deserved to be removed from office. The 2012 Republican nominee said he was left with no other options, regardless of the volcanic reaction instantly delivered by some of the president's supporters." ~~~

     ~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "No senator ever voted to remove a president of his party from office. Until Mitt Romney.... What's particularly remarkable about Romney's decision is the political environment in which it comes. Congress is much more polarized now than it was for the Johnson or Clinton impeachments. So is the electorate: Data from Gallup released on the day Trump's impeachment trial began show that the gap in approval of Trump between the parties is wider than it has been for any president on record.... Also noteworthy: The total in favor of Trump's acquittal is itself entirely partisan. Only Republicans voted Trump not guilty on the impeachment charges -- the first time no members of the opposing party have voted with the president. The votes to convict will come from Democrats, independents and a Republican." ~~~

~~~ Alexander Bolton: "Sen. Joe Manchin, a centrist Democrat whose home state of West Virginia gave President Trump his biggest margin of victory in 2016, said he would vote Wednesday with other Senate Democrats to convict the president on two articles of impeachment. 'The charges brought against President Trump are serious and carry grave consequences for our nation,' he said. 'The evidence presented by the House Managers, including video testimony of witnesses under oath in the House of Representatives, clearly supports the charges brought against the President in the articles of impeachment,' he added. Manchin's decision is a setback for Trump who was hoping to be able to point to a bipartisan acquittal in the Senate trial." ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) said she would vote to to convict President Trump on both House impeachment charges, stating shortly before the Senate vote that the facts were clear that Trump had withheld security aid from Ukraine for personal gain. 'Today, I vote to approve both articles, as my highest duty, and my greatest love, is to our nation's Constitution,' Sinema said in a statement first shared with The Arizona Republic." ~~~

~~~ Profile in Courage (Even though Jones Says It Isn't). Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), viewed as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat running in November, said on Wednesday that he will vote to convict President Trump on both articles of impeachment. 'After many sleepless nights, I have reluctantly concluded that the evidence is sufficient to convict the President for both abuse of power and obstruction of Congress,' he said in a statement. Jones's announcement comes hours before the Senate's votes on the two House-passed articles of impeachment: abuse of power over the delayed Ukraine aid and obstructing Congress's investigations into those actions." ~~~

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in a New York Times op-ed: "In private, many of my [Republican] colleagues agree that the president is reckless and unfit. They admit his lies. And they acknowledge what he did was wrong. They know this president has done things Richard Nixon never did. And they know that more damning evidence is likely to come out.... I have asked some of them, 'If the Senate votes to acquit, what will you do to keep this president from getting worse?' Their responses have been shrugs and sheepish looks. They will not say that they are afraid.... But history does not look kindly on politicians who cannot fathom a fate worse than losing an upcoming election. They might claim fealty to their cause -- those tax cuts -- but often it's a simple attachment to power that keeps them captured by fear."

Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that it is 'likely' that the House will issue a subpoena to President Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton."

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~ OR NOT ~~~

The New York Times has Iowa vote totals, so far, here and on the front page. Early this morning, the party dumped another batch of results, bringing the total to about 71% of the count. The new batch left the candidates' percents of the vote unchanged.

** Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Iowa Democratic party chairman Troy Price said in remarks beginning just before 5 pm ET Tuesday that they would be reporting 62 percent of results from all 99 counties, with more "batches" of results to follow. I'll get a print report up ASAP. The results are showing first preferences, final preference and maybe delegate counts. Looks as if, on the delegate count, it's Buttigieg, Sanders, Warren, Biden, Klobuchar, in that order. BUT ~~~

~~~ Politico's report (as well as the NYT report far down the page) also shows the popular vote count, and with about 62% reporting, Sanders edges out Buttigieg, & Warren is quite a bit ahead of Biden & Klobuchar.

The New York Times' latest liveblog is here. This includes some info on the caucus count that's been released. ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's liveblog is here. And here's the Guardian's. The Guardian posts a link to the newest Gallup poll that shows Trump's approval rating at the highest evah. (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~ An earlier (but not yet dead) New York Times' liveblog is here (link corrected).

Bill Barrow & Brian Slodysko of the AP: "Joe Biden's third presidential bid enters a critical stretch after a disappointing finish in the Iowa caucuses sent the former vice president on to New Hampshire with a skittish donor base, low cash reserves and the looming threat of billionaire rival Michael Bloomberg and his unlimited personal wealth.... That leaves some establishment Democrats, including some Biden supporters, questioning his contention that he'll reclaim clear front-runner status in the race against ... Donald Trump once the primary fight moves beyond overwhelmingly white Iowa and New to more racially diverse electorates. And it's a reminder of how Biden's previous presidential campaigns never advanced beyond Iowa."

Elizabeth Bruenig of the New York Times in an op-ed: "With Mr. Biden's front-runner status compromised, Mr. Sanders emerges from Iowa as a formidable candidate -- without establishment imprimatur.... Mr. Sanders's strong showing ... is a powerful repudiation of establishment hegemony -- and an inflection point in the battle between the party's center and left wing.... It is difficult to see a robust centrist victory in the months ahead." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Based on the most recent (early Wednesday morning) Iowa reporting, if you consider only the top four candidates, then the progressives Sanders & Warren received far more votes than more moderate Buttigieg & Biden: 58,600 to 48,000. But if you add Klobuchar's votes to the Buttigieg-Biden total, the number is 63,600, demonstrating that centrists received more votes than progressives.

Jennifer Medina & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Michael R. Bloomberg's presidential campaign moved on Tuesday to exploit the chaotic outcome of the Iowa caucuses, escalating an already enormous campaign of television advertising and publicly making the case that a messy outcome in the early states opened the way for Mr. Bloomberg.... Encouraged by the murky outcome, Mr. Bloomberg authorized his campaign team to double his spending on television commercials in every market where he is currently advertising and expand his campaign's field staff to more than two thousand people, strategists involved in the conversations said." An AP story is here.

Jamie Lovegrove of the Charleston, S.C., Post & Courier: "A group of prominent Upstate Republicans is preparing to launch a wide-scale effort this week to encourage GOP voters across South Carolina to vote for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Feb. 29 Democratic primary, The Post and Courier has learned. The Republican plan to impact the Democratic race, emerging just weeks before the 'First in the South' primary, has two goals: Boost the candidate who the Republicans believe presents the weakest general election threat to ... Donald Trump and pressure Democrats to support closing state primaries in the future. South Carolina has open primaries, meaning voters do not have to register by party and can participate in either party's contest.&"

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post has this right: "... the most important tally of the night has been reported, and it should worry Democrats. Even as the Iowa Democratic Party was trying to sort out the chaos in its reporting system, a party official announced that turnout was 'on pace' with what they had seen in 2016. In other words, it was mediocre. About 170,000 people participated in the 2016 Iowa Democratic caucuses, far short of the unprecedented 240,000 voters who turned out in 2008 and launched Barack Obama on his way to the White House. What was so exciting a dozen years ago was not only how many Iowans showed up, but who they were: young people, first-time caucusgoers, an ethnically diverse mix of voters in an overwhelmingly white state." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ David Siders of Politico agrees.

Nate Silver of 538 explains why Iowa "might have screwed up the whole nomination process[:]... The lead story around the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses is now -- and will forever be -- the colossal shitshow around the failure to release results in a timely fashion. Maybe there will eventually be a decent-sized Iowa bounce despite all of this. But there's a good chance that the candidates who did well in Iowa get screwed, and the candidates who did poorly there get a mulligan.... There's very little importance in a mathematical sense to who wins 41 delegates. Iowa is all about the media narrative it produces and all about momentum, and that momentum, whoever wins, is likely to have been blunted." (Also linked yesterday.)

Steve Peoples, et al., of the AP: "The Iowa Democratic Party said Monday night that results from the state's first-in-the-nation caucus were greatly delayed due to 'quality checks' and new reporting rules, an embarrassing complication that added a new layer of doubt to an already uncertain presidential primary season.... Long before any significant results were released, the candidates pressed ahead with post-election rallies claiming momentum." Mrs. McC: With no results announced, Pete Buttigieg delivered a speech implying he had won. Since there's more than one way to "win" in Iowa, he may be right. Besides, why not claim the prize? Klobuchar's campaign chairman said their internal count shows Klobuchar matched or bested Biden. (Also linked yesterday.)

Quint Forgey of Politico: "Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders each declared triumph -- and war on each other -- after a technical meltdown prevented the release of results from the Iowa caucuses, plunging the Democratic field into chaos. The former South Bend mayor was the most aggressive out of the gates, anointing himself 'victorious' in a speech to supporters and releasing unverified internal counts that the campaign said showed it was 'on our way to winning' the delegate count.... Sanders' campaign quickly followed suit, releasing its own unverified internal caucus numbers that portrayed the Vermont senator with a sizable lead in the Iowa delegate race." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Natasha Korecki, et al., of Politico: "The biggest 'winner' might have been Joe Biden. According to the Iowa entrance poll, he was hovering close to the viability threshold of 15 percent statewide. But the questions surrounding the vote-counting served to obscure a potentially poor performance. The former vice president, facing potentially ugly headlines going into New Hampshire and beyond, couldn't get out of Iowa fast enough." (Also linked yesterday.)

Not Ready for Prime Time. Not Meant to Be Ready for Prime Time. Nick Statt of the Verge: Shadow, the company that built the poorly-performing app, deployed the app only as a beta test designed to discover bugs and lacking proper authentication & encryption software, not as a finished product. "... it looks like the company used the version of TestFairy anyone can try for free, which deletes any app data after 30 days and limits the number of test users that can access the app to 200.... According to the NYT, Shadow was also building tools for the Nevada Democratic Party, but earlier this morning, the Nevada party said it would no longer be using Shadow for its upcoming primary." ~~~

~~~ Alexis Madrigal of the Atlantic: "Shadow incorporated only in September, meaning that a crucial piece of the Iowa caucus was in the hands of a company that was technically five months old. Despite serious warnings from experts, Iowa's Democratic Party handed part of its election infrastructure to a highly networked start-up with a handful of engineers building an entirely untried app. The resulting mess shows the deeply interconnected nature of political operatives and the risks of chasing the newest new thing.... The biggest question is: Why and how did an unproven company end up building this one-off caucus app, which seems entirely distinct from its primary work?... The problem with conspiracy theories, though, is that they assume high levels of coordination and competence. Look around and that seems far-fetched." Madrigal outlines some of the interrelationships among the perps, like their connections to Clinton & Buttigieg and the fact that they're married to each other or brothers. ~~~

~~~ Nick Corasaniti, et al., of the New York Times: "The app that the Iowa Democratic Party commissioned to tabulate and report results from the caucuses on Monday was not properly tested at a statewide scale, said people who were briefed on the app by the state party. It was quickly put together in just the past two months, said the people, some of whom asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly. And the party decided to use the app only after another proposal for reporting votes -- which entailed having caucus participants call in their votes over the phone -- was abandoned, on the advice of Democratic National Committee officials, according to David Jefferson, a board member of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan election integrity organization." Read on. There were quite a few top chefs pissing in this broth; it was a recipe for epic fail, partly because none of the chefs even bothered to taste the broth. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Is this going to be the second presidential election in succession where Democrats lose because they can't handle technology? And -- as comes as no surprise to me -- the second where the DNC is one of the culprits. New York's Intelligencer kinda captures the chaos. Scroll down the page (it won't be there forever). ~~~

~~~ Matthew Rosenberg, et al., of the New York Times: "The faulty smartphone app behind the chaotic aftermath of Iowa's Democratic caucuses was the work of a little-known company called Shadow Inc. that was founded by veterans of Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful presidential campaign, and whose previous work was marked by a string of failures, including a near bankruptcy. The app grew out of a broader push by Democrats, backed by tens of millions of dollars in donor money, to match the Republicans' prowess in digital advertising and organizing after the 2016 election. Much of the energy and investment have gone into enterprises that are intended to both boost the Democrats' digital game and turn a profit, like Shadow." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The NYT reporters note that Shadow's major investor is a [dark-money] nonprofit called Acronym, and one of Acronym's board member is 2008 Obama campaign guru David Plouffe. MSNBC had Plouffe on for several hours Tuesday as an expert pundit on all things Iowa. Plouffe, to my recollection, expressed shock & chin-scratching concern that the Iowa party had so badly screwed up reporting caucus results. When Chris Hayes asked him about Shadow, Plouffe said he knew "absolutely nothing about it."

Saying the Stupid Stuff Out Loud. Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "Donald Trump's closest allies seized on Iowa's caucus woes on Tuesday to promote conspiracy theories about a 'rigged' process, and some Democrats lapped it up. 'The fix is in...AGAIN,' Donald Trump Jr. tweeted.... 'Mark my words, they are rigging this thing,' Eric Trump tweeted. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) ... trott[ed] out a connect-the-dots theory that sounded like it was ripped from a Scandal script. Democrats, he suggested, had suppressed a newspaper poll and then orchestrated a technical glitch to cover up a poor showing by Joe Biden.... Sanders supporters promoted hashtags like '#MayorCheat' and '#CIAPete,' a reference to conspiracy theories that Buttigieg is a CIA operative.... Much of the speculation has focused on Shadow, the obscure Democratic tech firm that designed the Iowa reporting app. Both Biden and Buttigieg's campaigns have previously paid Shadow, which was launched by Democratic dark money group ACRONYM, providing grist for conspiracy theorists' suspicious that the app's developers were biased against Sanders. Sanders fans also pointed out that Shadow CEO Gerard Niemira worked on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign." Read on for more inventive theories. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: My own conspiracy theory is one Libby Watson points to in the essay linked next: "that incredibly important functions in the Democratic Party are handed out to people with the right connections instead of the right expertise, and that those sorts of decisions can lead to massive screw-ups." (The NYT story, by Rosenberg, et al., linked above, backs up Watson.) The Democratic party establishment, just like the GOP establishment, is a clique corrupted by its false assumption that its elite friends are uniquely talented & deserve to be rewarded for their (fake) superiority. Even glaring evidence against this righteous belief will not shake them. Hillary Clinton is the avatar for this belief system, and 50 years of fuck-ups have shaken neither her faith nor the faith of her followers. They keep on keepin' on. ~~~

~~~ Libby Watson of the New Republic: "After Monday night's debacle, it is time to recognize that -- quirky and charming though we may find it -- there is too much at stake to continue treating the crucial first step of the Democratic nominating contest as an opportunity to play Model UN with our democracy.... a ridiculous and antiquated process, in which delegates can be won or lost depending on how loudly a person can shout across a high school gymnasium, which awards few delegates but feeds the already-gluttonous media beast.... The fact that we are still waiting to find out who won is largely due to the failure of a Democratic Party-endorsed app.... Every aspect of this misadventure warrants further investigation." ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait takes a more benign view, calling the clusterfuck "a banal organizational failure" and compares the Democratic "process" to Monty Python's lampoon in Holy Grail: "'We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune,' a peasant explains to the impatient King Arthur. 'We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week, but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more major ...')" Chait blames Bernie & Bernie bros for forcing the party to complicate the count.

Eric Levitz of New York: "The 'first-in-the-nation' Iowa caucuses died Monday night after a protracted battle with advanced-stage omnishambles. Or so we can hope. Iowa's eccentric, endearing -- and wildly anti-democratic -- nominating contest has always been an indefensible institution. There is no reason why the most politically-engaged and/or time-rich citizens of America's 31st most populous state should have the power to veto presidential candidates before anyone else in the country has a say. And yet, few of Iowa's bitterest critics ever dreamed it would subject the country to something like this." (Also linked yesterday.)

This is the pre-SOTU edition of New York Times' reporter Peter Baker's take. I'm leaving it up as is because of some of the content emphasized. (There's a post-SOTU edition linked below): "President Trump will take the rostrum in the House chamber on Tuesday night to deliver his annual State of the Union address, making the case for his presidency even as he fends off charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in a Senate impeachment trial.... Mr. Trump said on Tuesday that he plans a low-key State of the Union address..., telling network anchors that he will reference the impeachment trial that is still underway without dwelling on it, according to people in the room. While low-key is not a phrase often applied to Mr. Trump, he has in past State of the Union addresses stuck close to his script and avoided the more incendiary language he uses in other settings. This time, he told the anchors, he plans to save his thoughts on impeachment for a separate speech he wants to give after the final vote on Wednesday, when the Senate is poised to acquit him." A Politico story is here.

Patricia Mazzei & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said on Tuesday that she would vote to acquit President Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, calling his conduct 'wrong' but saying she could not support removing him from office." ~~~

     ~~~ Grace Segers of CBS News: "Republican Senator Susan Collins announced Tuesday she will vote to acquit President Trump in his Senate trial, telling CBS News she believes the president has learned a 'pretty big lesson' from impeachment and will be 'much more cautious' about seeking foreign assistance in the future." Mrs. McC: "He won't do again what he's always done" is apparently Collins' fallback rationale whenever she wants to pretend she's principled. She used it in her pivotal vote placing Brett Kavanaugh on The Supreme Court (of course in the first abortion-related case that passed across the bench, Brett voted with the anti-abortion "justices"). She and many of her GOP colleagues are like parents who choose to believe that their wayward children are "good boys" who will keep their promises to reform. The difference? Trump didn't even bother to make a hollow promise; rather, he said he would do it again. And he will. Thursday.

The Littlest Prick. Kyle Cheney & Burgess Everett of Politico: "Sen. Rand Paul read aloud the name of the alleged whistleblower who first raised alarms about ... Donald Trump's conduct toward Ukraine. And most Republicans didn't seem to care. After being denied by Chief Justice John Roberts last week, Paul used a period reserved for senators' impeachment speeches to read aloud the name of an intelligence community official alleged to be the whistleblower.... It's the type of move that might have prompted a backlash from within his own party not too long ago, and several senators said they would not have done it. But after three weeks of the impeachment trial and with Trump's firm grip over the party, there was little blowback from his colleagues on Tuesday.... Under the Constitution, Paul's own speech is protected on the Senate floor. That means 'he can do whatever he wants on the floor,' said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)."

The Washington Post's liveblog of impeachment developments is here.

Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "An Arizona man indicted in October for threatening to kill Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told police he was likely reacting to a Fox News segment when he left the alcohol-fueled voicemail, according to newly filed court documents. Jan Peter Meister, a convicted sex offender with a long rap sheet, was indicted on Oct. 23, 2019 for leaving the voicemail with Schiff's Washington, D.C. office. After a search of Meister's residence, prosecutors also charged him with illegal possession of firearms, including a loaded .380 caliber handgun, a 9mm handgun and an American Tactical Rifle, along with 700 rounds of ammunition."

Peter Baker of the New York Times reports the "highlights" of Trump's State of the Union speech (also linked above):

"It was a night of awkward encounters and pointed snubs. As he arrived at the rostrum, Mr. Trump turned to hand copies of his speech to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence but when Ms. Pelosi offered her hand to shake, he turned away without taking it. She shrugged. Moments later, Ms. Pelosi announced Mr. Trump to the assembled lawmakers with the simple words, 'Members of Congress, the president of the United States' -- eschewing the more florid language that speakers, including her, have used in the past.... The snubbing continued right until Mr. Trump finished speaking, when Ms. Pelosi stood, an expression of vague disgust on her face, and tore up her copy of the speech -- in full view of the television cameras, while Mr. Trump had his back turned.

"Some of [Trump's] moves seemed cribbed straight from daytime television: bringing home a soldier from Afghanistan and reuniting him with his family, awarding a nine-year-old girl with a scholarship, and awarding the conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- complete with a ceremony in the First Lady's box." ~~~

~~~ Matt Fuller of the Huffington Post: "Delivered in a House chamber that had impeached him less than seven weeks ago, Trump ... mostly stuck to the teleprompter, delivering crafted lines peppered with an assortment of lies and half-truths. But Trump also stoked his normal partisan cheers, with sections of his speech focused on building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, arresting undocumented immigrants, and attacking progressive health care proposals as dangerous socialism ― even saying that '132 lawmakers in this room have endorsed legislation to impose a socialist takeover of our health care system.' During his roughly 80-minute speech, Trump didn't bother striking much of a bipartisan tone, and he managed to spin some of his least populist policies as popular wins. At one point, he touted 7 million people 'coming off' of food stamps and 10 million people being 'lifted off' of welfare, an interesting way to describe kicking millions of people off of social programs.... GOP lawmakers routinely interrupted his speech to cheer everything Trump said." ~~~

~~~ Amber Phillips & Kristina Orrego of the Washington Post have the full transcript as delivered, annotated. Vox has the prepared transcript here.

     ~~~ Kevin Drum of Mother Jones liveblogged the speech, too. ~~~

~~~ Jim Newell of Slate: "The speech is being described as a Trumpian reality show for its assortment of stunt-pegged character call-outs in the gallery. It was more of a variety show, though, divided into alternating segments of election-season appeals to the middle, gags, and abrupt fascism." ~~~

~~~ Annie Lowrey of the Atlantic: "The White House has far less control over the economy than generally assumed. And Trump's signature economic legislation, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), has not provided anything like the economic 'rocket fuel' the Republican White House promised, particularly not for blue-collar workers in the heartland.Contrary to Trump's crowing at the State of the Union, the country's growth performance is not unusual or extraordinary.... Indeed, the economy remains on pretty much the exact same growth path it has taken for the past decade.... Trump inherited a decent economy that continues to be decent, and has managed to avoid tipping it into a recession. The state of the union, in economic terms, is okay. But the really good news for Trump is that voters seem to credit him with today's growth, and are likely to reward him for it in November." ~~~

     ~~~ Jordan Weissmann of Slate provides a bunch of economic charts to make Lowrey's point. They're worth beholding. ~~~

~~~ Fred Kaplan of Slate: "President Trump spent little time on foreign policy in his State of the Union Address Tuesday night, but nearly everything he said on the subject was wrong." Kaplan then scrolls thru a litany of the wrong stuff Trump said. "'Our job,' Trump said, reciting his campaign slogan, 'is to put America first.' This is less profound than he pretends. None of his rival politicians believe in putting America second. Where they differ is with Trump's concept of 'America first,' which has left America alone."

~~~ Christina Cauterucci of Slate: "Trump used an actual toddler to stoke fear about abortion" at the SOTU. "Trump and the pro-lifers who love him often equate fetuses with toddlers in an attempt to portray abortion as murder. On live TV, Trump directed the nation's attention to an actual toddler to do it.... Opponents of abortion rights love this type of juxtaposition, which suggests that women who choose abortion and the grateful parents of young children are somehow on opposing sides of an issue -- as if advocates for reproductive rights don't want premature infants to survive.... Banning abortion wouldn't do anything to help premature infants survive, but it would make it harder for women to govern their own lives -- to decide when, whether, and how to become parents." ~~~

~~~ Josh Boak & Hope Yen of the AP: "... Donald Trump's portrayal of American renewal Tuesday night drew on falsehoods about American energy supremacy, health care and the economy as well as distortions about his predecessor's record. The Associated Press fact-checked remarks from Trump's State of the Union speech." The reporters take "a look at some of the [false] claims."

Trump Hosts the "News" Quislings. Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast: "Much to the disappointment of folks at CNN, nobody at [Donald Trump's pre-SOTU lunch for news organizations] -- who included NBC's Lester Holt and Chuck Todd, ABC's David Muir and George Stephanopoulos, and CBS's Norah O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan -- bothered to ask why the president had gone out of his way to exclude the cable network run by Trump's former friend Jeff Zucker. 'MSDNC isn't here as well,' Trump quipped -- to polite chuckles but zero protests (not even by ... MSNBC anchor Todd) from his captive audience, who were there ostensibly for a briefing on tonight's State of the Union address but instead were treated to a lot of presidential boasting about his poll numbers and the 'through-the-roof' stock market, and a lot of gloating about the 'fiasco' of Iowa's Democratic caucuses and the general disarray in the out-of-power party.... A good time was had by all." ~~~

     ~~~ Democracy Dies in Complicity. David Bauder of the AP: "The White House excluded CNN on Tuesday from its annual off-the-record briefing with television news personalities prior to the State of the Union address with no public protest from the network or any other journalists who attended. No news organization boycotted the event to show support for CNN, in contrast to the British journalists who walked out of a Monday meeting with an aide to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to back competitors who were being kept from the session." ~~~

     ~~~ Kaitlan Collins, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump trashed former national security adviser John Bolton and handicapped the 2020 Democratic primary race as part of a wide-ranging off-the-record lunch with anchors from major news networks on Tuesday ahead of his State of the Union address.... The conversation is considered off the record, but CNN was excluded this year, and therefore did not agree to the mandate.... Trump characterized Bolton as a turncoat who used his position inside the West Wing to try to advance himself rather than serve the President. And he mocked him for always wanting to be referred to as 'ambassador,' the person said.... Trump said there should be a criminal penalty if Bolton publishes [his] book and he should not be allowed to use the ambassador title.... Trump called Sen. Bernie Sanders 'nasty,' but despite Joe Biden's apparent floundering in Iowa, he remained fixated on the former vice president and his perceived misdeeds in Ukraine, despite the lack of evidence of wrongdoing. Trump spoke for a long time about Biden's son, Hunter, and his dealings with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, characterizing both Bidens as corrupt, accusation that are at the heart of his impeachment trial."

Matthew Choi of Politico: "Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer hit back at ... Donald Trump's 'blue collar boom' Tuesday night in her Democratic response to the president's third annual address before Congress. The Democratic governor, who was selected by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to deliver the Democrats' answer to Trump&'s address, focused on economic issues to counter the president's message of unprecedented economic growth.... 'Instead of talking about what he is saying, I'm going to highlight what Democrats are doing,' she said.... Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) offered the Spanish-language response and focused on similar themes. Escobar represents El Paso, a city shaken by a mass shooting in August that was targeted against the city's Latino community. Escobar lamented the state of health care in Texas, but offered an optimistic message centered on Democrats' efforts to lower drug costs and shore-up protections for people with pre-existing conditions."

Gabby Orr, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump plans to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- the highest civilian award in the U.S. -- to conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh after learning of his advanced cancer diagnosis, the president told television anchors at a private lunch.... A Florida resident himself, Limbaugh has repeatedly been spotted golfing with Trump at the president's Mar-a-Lago beach club and dining at the clubhouse afterwards." Update: Trump conferred the medal at the SOTU.

News Lede

New York Times: "Kirk Douglas, one of the last surviving movie stars from Hollywood's golden age, whose rugged good looks and muscular intensity made him a commanding presence in celebrated films like 'Lust for Life,' 'Spartacus' and 'Paths of Glory,' died on Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 103."