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."

The Commentariat -- February 4, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Debate over President Trump's removal from office resumed in the Senate on Tuesday morning as Trump prepared to deliver a State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber, where he was impeached in December. The historic trial is expected to wrap up Wednesday with an acquittal in the Republican-led Senate. The theme of Trump's speech Tuesday night will be 'the Great American Comeback,' a signal that he is eager to move forward after the impeachment proceedings." ~~~

~~~ Brian Stelter of CNN: "... Donald Trump's targeting of CNN is moving to yet another arena: The annual presidential lunch with television network anchors. CNN anchors are being excluded from Tuesday's lunch, three sources said on Monday night. Trump, like presidents before him, typically invites anchors from all the major networks to dine with him at the White House in advance of his State of the Union address. The lunch conversation is considered off the record, but it gives the anchors a sense of the president's state of mind before they anchor SOTU coverage. 'Despite Trump's persistent attacks on the news media, he's kept up such traditions,' Politico pointed out last year. CNN's Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer attended last year's lunch. Blitzer has been attending these lunches longer than almost any other anchor -- 20 years in a row. Journalists from other networks are still planning on attending Tuesday's session, according to sources at those networks."

Ryan Devereaux of the Intercept: "A federal judge in Tucson, Arizona, reversed the conviction of four humanitarian aid volunteers on religious freedom grounds Monday, ruling that the government had embraced a 'gruesome logic' that criminalizes 'interfering with a border enforcement strategy of deterrence by death.' The reversal, written by U.S. district judge Rosemary Márquez, marked the latest rebuke of the Trump administration's crackdown on humanitarian aid providers in southern Arizona, and the second time in matter of months that a religious freedom defense has prevailed in a federal case involving the provision of aid to migrants in the borderlands." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: While this & a like decision in an earlier case are good news, it troubles me that the cases were decided on religious grounds. When my parents lived near Las Cruces, New Mexico, my father gave water & food to every migrant who happened by, and my father was not a religious person. I have no idea whether or not my father broke any laws on the books, but I know he followed the moral law. One should not have to demonstrate a religious affiliation or purpose to justify a simple act of decency.

More below as the Iowa fiasco continues into the late morning afternoon. ~~~

~~~ OR NOT ~~~

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."

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 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."

The New York Times' latest liveblog is here (link corrected). "The Iowa Democratic Party will begin releasing results from the caucuses at 5 p.m. Eastern time.... [Iowa party] chairman Troy Price ... told the campaigns 'the majority' of results that it had in hand would be made public later Tuesday but he dodged questions from the campaigns about how much would be released and when final totals would become available." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McUltraCrabbie: What usefulness is a partial release? It can only misrepresent results. It's like declaring Hillary Clinton president because New York State, Washington, D.C., & Massachusetts had released their 2016 general election results.

~~~ 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.

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.

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." ~~~

~~~ 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."

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." 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. ~~~

~~~ 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).

@12:45 pm ET, MSNBC reported the Iowa Democratic party held a conference call with the campaigns; the call got very heated; and the party "hung up on the campaigns" as campaign reps began asking questions.

Mrs. McCrabbie @11:55 pm ET Monday: Glad I didn't skip my teevee show.No Iowa results yet. According to the New York Times liveblog (linked below), "Party officials said the results had been delayed because of efforts to do 'quality control' before data was made public. 'We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results,' said Mandy McClure, the party's communications director. 'In addition to the tech systems being used to tabulate results, we are also using photos of results and a paper trail to validate that all results match and ensure that we have confidence and accuracy in the numbers we report. This is simply a reporting issue, the app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion...." Gee, maybe the Iowa caucuses shouldn't be "first in the nation." ~~~

~~~ 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."

New York Times reporters are liveblogging the Iowa caucuses. "The Iowa presidential caucuses begin at 8 p.m. Eastern time at more than 1,600 sites across the state. The caucuses vary in length; small gatherings can be over in minutes, larger ones can last up to two hours. The first results are expected at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time, with most results in hand by 11 p.m. Seven Democratic candidates are mounting competitive campaigns in Iowa. They are Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusets, former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the former tech executive Andrew Yang and the former hedge fund investor Tom Steyer. ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' results page is here. The Times also has results graphics on its front page.

~~~ The Washington Post's liveblog is here. The Post's results page is here, with results graphics currently on its front page, too.

~~~ The NBC News liveblog is here. Gee, It's not even 8:45 pm ET, & NBC News has already predicted candidate Trump won the GOP caucuses. ~~~

     ~~~ Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "... Donald Trump and his reelection campaign seized on the chaos of Monday's Iowa Democratic caucuses, the results of which are still unknown as of Tuesday morning due to technical issues with the tallying process. 'The Democrat Caucus is an unmitigated disaster,' Trump tweeted early Tuesday. 'Nothing works, just like they ran the Country.' He then patted himself on the back, claiming that he was 'the only person' who won 'a very big victory' in Iowa." Mrs. McC: Can't blame him for that. Thanks, Iowa, for giving Trump a couple of great talking points!

Let's see how this turns out: ~~~

~~~ Ryan Lizza of Politico: "If you were an alien visiting Iowa this weekend and were asked to guess the order of Monday's results based on nothing but watching the top four Democrats speak, you would predict a Bernie Sanders victory, followed by Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden.... The alien would notice that Sanders' events, at least the two big ones this week with musicians, are large and electric, that Biden's are small and sleepy, and that Warren and Buttigieg's fall somewhere in between. The Iowa caucuses reward enthusiasm, especially at the end. The famous three-step strategy that every campaign attempts to implement was popularized by former Rep. Dave Nagle and is often summarized as: Organize, organize, and get hot at the end. In the final weekend of every caucus I have covered, the 'hot' candidates were apparent from their final events."

MEANWHILE. Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The two top officials overseeing Milwaukee's host committee for the 2020 Democratic National Convention were sidelined Monday amid allegations of a toxic work culture. In a letter to staff obtained by the Journal Sentinel, the board said it had retained an attorney to investigate 'concerns about the work environment' for the Milwaukee 2020 Host Committee. During the investigation, Liz Gilbert, president of the host committee, will not be in the office and 'will not have direct contact with staff,' the letter says. Adam Alonso, the chief of staff for the group, has been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the probe. Both will be paid as the investigation moves forward. The letter gives no timeline when Carmen N. Decot, a partner with Foley & Lardner, will finish her probe. The abrupt move comes less than six months before the start of the Democratic National Convention. The host committee -- the civic, nonpartisan arm of the convention -- is responsible for raising $70 million to stage the July event at Fiserv Forum and recruit some 15,000 volunteers."

The Petty, Petit, Picayune President*. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that ... Donald Trump's campaign ejected Jennifer Jacobs, a reporter for Bloomberg News, out of a campaign event in Iowa. The decision, according to the report, is in accordance with the campaign's 'pledge no longer to approve credentials for the news organization.' Trump cracked down on credentials for the organization as its CEO, Michael Bloomberg, has mounted a campaign for president and blanketed the airwaves across the country with advertisements slamming the president." The Wall Street Journal report is here.

Nicholas Fandos & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "In their final appeals in President Trump's impeachment trial, House Democrats argued on Monday that he had corrupted the presidency and would continue to put American interests at risk if the Senate failed to remove him from office. Mr. Trump's defenders, denouncing the case against him, said he had done nothing wrong and should be judged by voters.... The abbreviated closing arguments constituted the substantive end of Mr. Trump's impeachment trial, the third such proceeding in American history. In a mark of just how entrenched both sides were in their positions, senators skipped a period of deliberation and instead made their way to Senate floor one by one to announce their positions ahead of Wednesday's final vote on the House's abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges. In 1999, the Senate spent three days weighing President Bill Clinton's fate during his impeachment proceeding."

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Centrist Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) on Monday urged the Senate to censure President Trump for holding up military aid to Ukraine in order to spur an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, predicting a formal reprimand could pick up bipartisan support. 'I do believe a bipartisan majority of this body would vote to censure President Trump for his actions in this matter. Censure would allow this body to unite across party lines, and as an equal branch of government to formally denounce the president's actions and hold him accountable,' Manchin said in a speech on the Senate floor. Manchin's proposal has received little traction among Senate Republicans who control the schedule, but it could gain the support of a handful of Republicans who have expressed concern over Trump's actions, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Manchin warned that if the Senate failed to respond in a bipartisan way to Trump's attempt to solicit foreign influence in the 2020 election, it would represent a serious setback for the chamber." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's story is here.

~~~ The New York Times' live updates of the Senate impeachment proceedings are here. ~~~ (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

~~~ Nicholas Fandos: "The key to the House's abuse of power charge against President Trump has always been whether he conditioned official acts ... on investigations into his political rivals. As they closed their defense on Monday, Mr. Trump's team insisted again that he did not -- but the denial was narrowly tailored in light of new disclosures.... [For instance, Michael] Purpura ... said that 'none of the House witnesses ever testified that there was any linkage between security assistance and investigations.'... That is strictly true. But John R. Bolton ... has written in a manuscript that Mr. Trump told him directly that he would only release the assistance on help with the investigations. He has also offered to testify, but senator refused to call him to the trial."

The Guardian's liveblog is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sarah Kendzior in The Globe and Mail: "The Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump was never a matter of law. It was always a matter of power.... The way that Mr. Trump gets out of crimes is not by actually proving his innocence, but by declaring that crimes are not crimes when he commits them.... The President does not want to be punished but he loves to get caught. He flaunts every crime he gets away with because it showcases the degradation of law, which ironically was furthered by his opponents' blind faith in it.... But the trial still had witnesses. We, the people, are the witnesses.... We are so tired of being witnesses that we feel like a captive audience. But it is important to remain a witness in a time of autocratic consolidation.... It doesn't feel empowering to be a witness under a regime determined to destroy the very concept of truth. But the truth always matters. If the truth didn't matter, they wouldn't work so hard to suppress it." --s

"It's Payback Time." Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "With Senate Republicans on track to acquit Donald Trump on Wednesday, Washington is bracing for what an unshackled Trump does next. Republicans briefed on Trump's thinking believe that the president is out for revenge against his adversaries. 'It's payback time,' a prominent Republican told me last week. 'He has an enemies list that is growing by the day,' another source said. Names that came up in my conversations with Republicans included Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, Mitt Romney, and John Bolton. 'Trump's playbook is simple: go after people who crossed him during impeachment.' Several sources said Bolton is at the top of the list.... 'Trump has been calling people and telling them to go after Bolton,' a source briefed on the private conversations said. The source added that Trump wants Bolton to be criminally investigated.... According to a former official, the White House is planning to leak White House emails from Bolton that purportedly allege Bolton abused his position at the National Security Council." Emphasis added. ~~~

~~~ Brian Schwartz of CNBC: “Several of ... Donald Trump's most loyal donors and supporters are telling other conservative financiers to shun former national security advisor John Bolton's political action committee and super PAC as he prepares to publish a memoir that is reportedly critical of the administration.... The move by these donors to take on Bolton is the latest example of how Trump has command of those who fund the Republican Party.... 'He's dead to everyone,' said a longtime aide of a Trump megadonor." ~~~

~~~ Rhea Mahbubani of Business Insider: Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the Conservative Political Action Conference [CPAC], lashed out at Sen. Mitt Romney in a tweet Friday, saying that he will not be welcome at the 2020 gathering. Schlapp's move followed the senator's decision to break ranks and vote with 47 Democratic senators who sought witnesses and additional documents during ... Donald Trump's impeachment trial Friday."

Sarah Blaskey of the Miami Herald: "... Donald Trump has repeatedly said all Americans should 'stand proudly' during the national anthem, and publicly chastises those who don't as disrespectful of the troops. But during the national anthem at his own Super Bowl watch party Sunday night, a brief video posted to Instagram shows Trump greeting guests, adjusting his chair, and straightening his suit jacket as other attendees -- including first lady Melania Trump and their teenage son -- stand with their hands over their hearts. As 'The Star Spangled Banner' crescendoes, Trump raises both of his hands in the air, and twirls them around as if conducting the music. The video was included in an Instagram story by a real estate agent for a Russian-American firm who frequents Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties and events." You can watch Trump clowning his way through the anthem on this YouTube video.

Jonathan Chait explains why some Trumpbots -- like Steve Doocy & Matt Schlapp -- are defending Trump's misplacing the KC Chiefs in the wrong Kansas City. "The stupidity is the point...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) As for Adam Steinbaugh's Sharpie "correction" to the Kansas state map embedded yesterday? Better go with it. ~~~

~~~ SharpieGate 1.0. Nathalie Baptiste of Mother Jones: "Last September, as powerful Hurricane Dorian barreled towards the Bahamas, Donald Trump tweeted that several southern states, including Alabama, would be in its path.... Instead of admitting that he made an error, the president doubled down [altering an official map with a Sharpie]. Emails just released to Buzzfeed News and other media outlets show the internal panic over Trump's false claim at NWS and its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.... The emails show NOAA officials confirming that the White House's map was 'doctored' and referred to the Trump administration's attempt to cover up the president's mistake as 'crazy.' As worry spread throughout both NWS and NOAA, agency forecasters and scientists feared retaliation if they contradicted the president by providing accurate information about the deadly storm." --s

Jake Johnson of Common Dreams: "... Jared Kushner is once more under intense scrutiny after new reporting revealed that his lucrative financial relationship with Israel has deepened even as his influence over U.S. Middle East policy -- from his leading role in Trump's effort to 'derail' a U.N. vote against Israel to his sway over the president's Jerusalem move -- has continued to grow. According to a report published Sunday by the New York Times, Kushner's real estate firm received a $30 million investment from Menora Mivtachim -- one of Israel's largest financial institutions -- just before he accompanied Trump on his first diplomatic trip to Israel last year.... The deal ... was not made public.... And the Menora deal is just one component of Kushner's sprawling and complex financial ties with Israel, the Times makes clear." --s

Jonathan Swan, et al., of Axios: "Veterans Affairs deputy secretary James Byrne was fired Monday morning..., the White House confirmed.... VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said he dismissed Byrne 'due to loss of confidence in Mr. Byrne's ability to carry out his duties.' Wilkie said the decision 'is effective immediately.'... The VA has come under fire after a House staff member said she was sexually assaulted at the VA hospital in Washington. The White House was disappointed by the way Wilkie and the VA handled the situation, according to three sources.... Facing pressure from the White House, Wilkie asked for Byrne's resignation Monday.... VA press secretary Christina Mandreucci denied that Byrne's dismissal was related to the sexual assault investigation, but did not elaborate further.... The staff member's complaint of sexual assault was investigated by the agency's Office of Inspector General, but no charges were brought. In a letter to the House Veterans Affairs Committee Chair Mark Takano (D-Calif.) last month, Wilkie called the staffer's claims of sexual assault 'unsubstantiated' and defended the VA as a 'safe place for all veterans.' The agency IG Michael Missal then pushed back in a letter to Wilkie, saying he had thoroughly briefed Wilkie and Byrne on the decision: 'Reaching a decision to close the investigation with no criminal charges does not mean that the underlying allegation is unsubstantiated,' he said." ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Mr. Byrne, who was confirmed by the Senate just five months ago, was closely involved in the agency's Office of Accountability and Whistle-Blower Protection. The office was set up by the Trump administration in 2017 to root out malfeasance and has become a target of accusations that it retaliated against the very people it was meant to protect." ~~~

~~~ Andrea Goldstein, the victim of the alleged assault, describes in a Jezebel opinion piece the effects Wilkie's dismissive letter had on her: "Secretary Wilkie's continued refusal to take ownership of the hostility and sexual violence at VA further perpetuated this hostile culture by both revictimizing a veteran in public and denying the culture of harassment and assault whose existence is well documented."

Natasha Bertrand & Mona Zhang of Politico: "A businessman facing federal charges over an alleged plot to trade political donations for help obtaining marijuana licenses around the country was working on a medical cannabis research deal with the Department of Veterans Affairs just weeks before his indictment. Andrey Kukushkin [is] a Ukraine-born cannabis investor whose multi-state marijuana projects and political donations were allegedly illegally funded by a Russian national.... Kukushkin was indicted alongside the businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman ... and their associate David Correa.... The VA's proposed Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, known as a CRADA, with Kukushkin's company, Oasis LLC, has not been previously reported. National security experts say the arrangement raises red flags, given the level of access Kukushkin and his alleged Russian funder would have had to government scientists, including one who does work with the Pentagon." --s

Matthew Cole of The Intercept: "The commander of the Navy SEALs [Naval Special Warfare Command, Rear Adm. Collin Green,] who found himself at odds with ... Donald Trump over disciplining a notorious member of his force has informed the Navy that he will step down a year early, according to three people familiar with the decision.... His departure follows two years during which he sought to repair the vaunted military unit's image after a slew of criminal charges against SEALs, including war crimes, murder, drug use, and sexual assault.... Green's departure is unusual in part because it comes as his current tour length of two years is being extended to three, meaning he has effectively declined a final year in the job and won't seek a third star." --s

Mike Brest of the Washington Examiner: "Conservative radio hos Rush Limbaugh revealed that he had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. On his radio show Monday, Limbaugh, 69, also said that he would likely miss some time on the program while he undergoes treatment." Thanks to safari for the lead.

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