The Commentariat -- February 3, 2020

Afternoon Update:

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."

~~~ The New York Times' live updates of the Senate impeachment proceedings are here.

~~~ 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 senators refused to call him...."

The Guardian's liveblog is here. ~~~

Jonathan Chait explains why some Trumpbots -- like Steve Steve Doocy & Matt Schlapp -- are defending Trump's misplacing the KC Chiefs in the wrong Kansas City. "The stupidity is the point...." So Adam Steinbaugh's Sharpie "correction" to the Kansas state map below? Better go with it.

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John Wagner of the Washington Post: "The Senate is poised to hear up to four hours of closing arguments Monday in the impeachment trial of President Trump.... The Senate is set to hear closing arguments Monday from House impeachment managers and Trump's lawyers starting at 11 a.m. Both sides will have up to two hours to make their case, under a resolution adopted along party lines on Friday after the Republican-led Senate voted against hearing from former national security adviser John Bolton and other witnesses in the historic impeachment trial." Emphasis added.

Presidential Race

Here's the New York Times' liveblog of mostly old white people running & voting for POTUS. The caucuses begin at 8 pm ET. Mrs. McC: I personally am going to spend the time watching an episode of "Vera."

Jason Clayworth of the Des Moines Register: "Iowa's backlog of hundreds of felon voter restoration applications has been processed ahead of Monday's presidential caucuses, a spokesman for Gov. Kim Reynolds [R] said Friday. Voter advocates last month had voiced concern about the backlog of more than 300 applications, some saying that denying the vote to the applicants could damage the reputation of the state's first-in-the-nation caucuses. Reynolds, in turn, vowed to process the applications ahead of Monday, Caucus Day. League of Women Voters of Iowa President Terese Grant said Friday she is happy with Reynolds' progress."

Allan Smith of NBC News: "... Donald Trump and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg traded barbs on Sunday hours before their dueling ads were set to compete during the Super Bowl.... '... You know, now he wants a box for the debates to stand on. OK. It's OK. There's nothing wrong. You can be short. Why should he get a box to stand on. He wants a box for the debates. Why should he be entitled? Does that mean everyone else gets a box?, [Trump said to Sean Hannity in a pre-Super Bowl interview.]... Bloomberg's campaign said there was no truth to Trump's remarks. 'The president is lying,' Bloomberg campaign spokesperson Julie Wood said in a statement. 'He is a pathological liar who lies about everything: his fake hair, his obesity, and his spray-on tan.' The former mayor echoed his spokesperson's remarks, saying that Trump 'lies about everything so you shouldn't be surprised that he said things like that.'"

A Fucking Distraction. Natasha Korecki of Politico: "John Kerry is supposed to be stumping for Joe Biden. But the former Secretary of State caused a kerfuffle Sunday after NBC News published a story detailing a phone call Kerry had in a hotel lobby here. Kerry was overheard by an NBC analyst apparently strategizing how he could enter the presidential race now that there was 'the possibility of Bernie Sanders taking down the Democratic Party -- down whole.' In the conversation, which took place in the Renaissance Savery hotel downtown, Kerry reportedly said, 'maybe I'm f[uck]ing deluding myself here,' then went on to explain the steps he would have to take if he jumped into the fray, including hitting up wealthy donors who might be frightened by Sanders' rise. Kerry ... emphatically denied he had renewed White House aspirations, tweeting 'any report otherwise is f[uck]ing (or categorically) false.' He later deleted the tweet with the expletive and re-posted a full statement adamantly denying he had any interest in running and that he was fully behind Biden's candidacy.?

The Oscar for Sunday's Worst Impeachment Commentary by a Republican Goes to ... Joni Ernst. Summer Concepcion of TPM: "On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) entertained the idea of impeaching Joe Biden if he were to win the presidency.... Ernst's latest remarks come on the heels of her controversial comment last week when she wondered aloud to reporters whether the Trump legal team's Biden-focused arguments in the Senate impeachment trial would influence Democratic Iowa caucus-goers. In her interview with Bloomberg News Sunday, Ernst suggested that if elected, Biden would run the risk of being impeached by Republicans because 'this door of impeachable whatever has been opened.'.... Ernst also told Bloomberg News that Biden would be impeached 'for being assigned to take on Ukrainian corruption yet turning a blind eye to Burisma because his son was on the board making over a million dollars a year,' stoking the debunked claim by former Ukraine prosecutor general Viktor Shokin that his investigation into Burisma led to his ouster...." ~~~

~~~ First Runner-up: Lindsey Graham. Felicia Sonmez & Rachel Bade of the Washington Post: "Senate Republicans on Sunday acknowledged President Trump was wrong to pressure Ukraine for his own political benefit, even as they defended their decision to prohibit new evidence in his impeachment trial while pressing ahead with the president's all-but-certain acquittal. The remarks from key Republicans ... came after the Trump administration revealed the existence of emails that could shed light on the president's reasons for withholding military aid to Ukraine.... [Lindsey Graham] suggested a sweeping GOP counterattack following Wednesday's vote to acquit the president.... Graham outlined a plan that would include an investigation of former vice president Joe Biden, who is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, and a pursuit of the whistleblower whose account triggered the probe into Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine." ~~~

~~~ Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Alan Dershowitz, a member of President Trump's defense team in his Senate impeachment trial, said Sunday that the president tying military aid to Ukraine to investigations of his rivals would be 'troubling if it were proved' but that 'troubling is not the criteria for impeachment.' 'On Election Day, as a citizen, I will allow that to enter into my decision,' Dershowitz said when asked by Fox News's Chris Wallace if he would find the alleged quid pro quo at the center of the impeachment fight 'troubling.'... Dershowitz responded, 'Of course any citizen would find that troubling if it were proved.... If a president linked aid to an ally to personal benefit that was not in the public interest, that would be wrong,' he added. 'That would be a reason for him not to vote for him.'" Mrs. McC Translation: I only say this stuff to get on national teevee. Vote for the anti-Trump.

~~~ Hahahahahaha. Zack Budryk: "Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said on Sunday he believes that despite his certain acquittal this week, President Trump's impeachment will dissuade him from conduct of the kind that led to the impeachment proceedings.... 'If a call like this gets you an impeachment, I would think he would think twice before he did it again,' Alexander added, referencing a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky...." Mrs. McC: That's a lot like how the Mueller investigation made Trump think twice when he called Zelensky the day after Mueller wrapped up his report by testifying before Congress. Is Alexander stupid or does he think we are? ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Mrs. McCrabbie: Apparently the incredible "Trump learned his lesson" is now the GOP party line. Joni Ernst repeated it on CNN.

Matt Ford of the New Republic on how Senate Republicans have embraced Trumpian nihilism. "Republican lawmakers, blanching at the prospect of removing the president from power, remove themselves instead.... What set [Lisa] Murkowski's [R-Alaska] statement apart is that she said her 'no' vote on witnesses wasn't because they weren't necessary for the proceedings or wouldn't be relevant to the case, but because their testimony wouldn't matter. 'I have come to the conclusion that there will be no fair trial in the Senate,' Murkowski said. 'I don't believe the continuation of this process will change anything. It is sad for me to admit that, as an institution, the Congress has failed.' It's hard to dispute that statement. But her assertion nonetheless reminds me of a GPS-navigation company's ad in 2010 that told commuters, 'You are not stuck in traffic. You are traffic.' It's one thing to complain that there won't be a fair trial in the Senate. It's another thing to vote in favor of ensuring that there won't be a fair trial in the Senate. But it's really something to do both."

** David Leonardt of the New York Times: "It wasn't the most notorious part of the 'Access Hollywood' tape, but it was the most revealing: 'And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.'... In the more than three years since the tape emerged, it's become clear that the you-can-do-anything line ... was describing his attitude toward everything: If you're rich, famous or powerful, you can get away with much more than most people understand. You just do it. You don';t need to worry about ethical niceties or even, sometimes, the law. You use your advantages to bulldoze any obstacles. For anyone trying to make sense of the impeachment trial, this attitude is central.... And although the United States is not an autocracy, our country is taking steps in that direction that I never imagined we would."

The great thing about the You-Ess-Ay is that you can be dumb as dirt and still get elected to the highest public office. ~~~

Chris Chavez of Sports Illustrated: "... Donald Trump took to Twitter after the Kansas City Chiefs' 31-20 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV to congratulate the team and the 'Great State of Kansas.' But the Chiefs play in Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. 'Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs on a great game, and a fantastic comeback, under immense pressure. You represented the Great State of Kansas and, in fact, the entire USA, so very well. Our Country is PROUD OF YOU!' Trump wrote. Trump apparently realized his mistake, as he deleted the tweet a few minutes later." Mrs. McC: I doubt it was Trump who realized the mistake. As Matt Stieb of New York conjectures, the mistake "could only have been a harrowing experience for the aide that had to inform the president of yet another basic failure of geography." ~~~

pic.twitter.com/qcgsIRSQQR

— Adam Steinbaugh (@adamsteinbaugh) February 3, 2020

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump often says he's the smartest person in the room on virtually every topic. Now, after taking several risks on what he privately calls 'big shit' and avoiding catastrophe, Trump and his entire inner circle convey supreme self-confidence, bordering on a sense of invincibility.... Three years into Trump's presidency, their view is the naysayers are always wrong.... Every day, Trump grows more confident in his gut and less deterrable. Over the last month, 10 senior administration officials have described this sentiment to me. Most of them share it.... Trumpworld's sense of being unbeatable has only grown. This is partly because the president sometimes defines victory in narrow terms, like pleasing the base and juicing the markets."

S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "Taxpayers shelled out another $3.4 million to send ... Donald Trump to Florida this weekend so he could host a Super Bowl party for paying guests at his for-profit golf course. The president's official schedule shows him spending two and a half hours Sunday evening at a 'Super Bowl LIV watch party' at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. Tickets sold for $75 each, but were only available to members of the club -- the initiation fee for which reportedly runs about $450,000, with annual dues costing several thousands of dollars more."

Rachel Wolf of the Jerusalem Post: "European Union High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell said that ... Donald Trump's Middle East peace deal, 'challenges many of the internationally agreed parameters: the 1967 border, as agreed by both parties, with a state of Israel and an independent, viable State of Palestine, living side-by-side in peace, security and mutual recognition.'... On Sunday, the EU released Borrell's remarks following his meeting with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi. Speaking in Jordan, Borrell noted the country's 'very special role' in the peace process, 'in particular as regards Jerusalem and as custodian of the Holy Sites.' He affirmed that the EU shares this position and is committed to 'two-state solution and respect for international law.'"

Beyond the Beltway

The great thing about the You-Ess-Ay is that you can be dumb as dirt and still get elected to public office. ~~~

~~~ Montana. Holly Michels of the Billings Gazette: State Rep. Rodney Garcia, "a Billings Republican legislator, said Saturday he believes the U.S. Constitution calls for the shooting or jailing of those who identify as socialists.... [A]fter a speech [at a GOP election kickoff gathering] by former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, who was Montana's representative in the U.S. House for two years, Garcia said he was concerned about socialists 'entering our government' and socialists 'everywhere' in Billings, before saying the Constitution says to either shoot socialists or put them in jail.... On Saturday, a reporter asked Garcia to clarify his remarks. 'So actually in the Constitution of the United States (if) they are found guilty of being a socialist member you either go to prison or are shot,' Garcia said. Garcia could not to point to where in the Constitution it says socialists could be shot or jailed.... 'I agree with my Constitution,' Garcia said. 'That's what makes us free. We're not a democracy, we're a Republic Constitution.'... The Montana Republican Party later condemned Garcia's remarks."

News Lede. The New York Times is live-updating developments & effects of the coronavirus crisis.

The Commentariat -- February 2, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Alan Dershowitz, a member of President Trump's defense team in his Senate impeachment trial, said Sunday that the president tying military aid to Ukraine to investigations of his rivals would be 'troubling if it were proved' but that 'troubling is not the criteria for impeachment.' 'On Election Day, as a citizen, I will allow that to enter into my decision,' Dershowitz said when asked by Fox News's Chris Wallace if he would find the alleged quid pro quo at the center of the impeachment fight 'troubling.'... Dershowitz responded, 'Of course any citizen would find that troubling if it were proved.... If a president linked aid to an ally to personal benefit that was not in the public interest, that would be wrong,' he added. 'That would be a reason for him not to vote for him.'" Mrs. McC Translation: I only say this stuff to get on national teevee. Vote for the anti-Trump.

Hahahahahaha. Zack Budryk: "Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said on Sunday he believes that despite his certain acquittal this week, President Trump's impeachment will dissuade him from conduct of the kind that led to the impeachment proceedings.... 'If a call like this gets you an impeachment, I would think he would think twice before he did it again,' Alexander added, referencing a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky...." Mrs. McC: That's a lot like how the Mueller investigation made Trump think twice when he called Zelensky the day after Mueller wrapped up his report by testifying before Congress. Is Alexander stupid or does he think we are?

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Presidential Race

Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "After a long campaign of ideological clashes, policy debates and talk of a grand reckoning on the direction of the Democratic Party, the presidential primaries starting on Monday will be shaped by a less lofty but increasingly urgent matter: determining the best candidate to defeat an incumbent who has already proved to be a political survivor. With Republicans ready to acquit President Trump of two impeachment charges next week, the nation's political table has been set for 2020: Congress will not remove him from office..., leaving the fate of Mr. Trump to the November general election and the candidate nominated by Democrats in the coming months. From the liberal left to the moderate middle, the major presidential contenders are now honing or recalibrating their final appeals before Iowa's caucuses to make the case that they represent the party's best chance to overcome Mr. Trump's well-funded re-election operation and win back the White House this fall."

Lisa Lerer, et al., of the New York Times: "A highly anticipated poll of Iowa Democrats, set to be released two days before the presidential caucuses, was shelved on Saturday night because of concerns about irregularities in the methodology. The apparent problem, raised by aides to Pete Buttigieg, prompted CNN to cancel an hourlong special organized to release the results of their survey, conducted with The Des Moines Register.... A [Buttigieg] supporter received a poll phone call from an operator working for the polling operation, but ... [Buttigieg's] name was not listed on the menu of options.... The poll is conducted by telephone from a call center, where operators read from a prepared script.... One operator had apparently enlarged the font size on their computer screen, perhaps cutting off Mr. Buttigieg's name from the list of options, according to two people.... The survey, published by The Des Moines Register for 76 years, is considered the gold standard for polling in the notoriously hard-to-predict state and is carefully watched as an early indicator of strength in the caucuses." Politico's story is here.

Reid Epstein, et al., of the New York Times explain how the Iowa caucuses work (or not). Mrs. McC: I read somewhere else that there will be some kind of call-in wrinkle this year to further confuse things. The story doesn't mention that.

Jim Tankersley & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York unveiled a plan on Saturday that would raise an estimated $5 trillion in new tax revenue from high earners and corporations, a proposal that would almost certainly raise his personal tax bill but is less aggressive than those from his most liberal rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination. The proposal includes a repeal of President Trump's 2017 tax cuts for high earners, along with a new 5 percent 'surcharge' on incomes above $5 million per year. It would raise capital gains taxes for Americans earning more than $1 million a year and maintain a limit on federal deductions of state and local tax payments set under the 2017 law, which some Democrats have pushed to eliminate." An AP story is here.

The Plot Against Bernie. David Siders of Politico: "A small group of Democratic National Committee members has privately begun gauging support for a plan to potentially weaken Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign and head off a brokered convention. In conversations on the sidelines of a DNC executive committee meeting and in telephone calls and texts in recent days, about a half-dozen members have discussed the possibility of a policy reversal to ensure that so-called superdelegates can vote on the first ballot at the party's national convention. Such a move would increase the influence of ... top party officials, who now must wait until the second ballot to have their say.... It is possible [Sanders] could arrive at the convention with the most delegates -- but without enough to win the nomination on the first ballot. It is also possible that he and Elizabeth Warren, a fellow progressive, could arrive at the convention in second and third place, but with more delegates combined than the frontrunner. If, on the second ballot, superdelegates were to throw their support to someone else, tipping the scales, many moderate Democrats fear the upheaval that would cause could weaken the eventual nominee."

The New York Times is live-updating Saturday events in the presidential race. The Washington Post has Iowa caucus updates here.

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "The Department of Justice revealed in a court filing late Friday that it has two dozen emails related to ... Donald Trump's involvement in the withholding of millions in security assistance to Ukraine -- a disclosure that came just hours after the Senate voted against subpoenaing additional documents and witnesses in Trump's impeachment trial, paving the way for his acquittal. The filing, released near midnight Friday, marks the first official acknowledgment from the Trump administration that emails about the President's thinking related to the aid exist, and that he was directly involved in asking about and deciding on the aid as early as June. The administration is still blocking those emails from the public and has successfully kept them from Congress. A lawyer with the Office of Management and Budget wrote to the court that 24 emails between June and September 2019 -- including an internal discussion among DOD officials called 'POTUS follow-up' on June 24 -- should stay confidential because the emails describe 'communications by either the President, the Vice President, or the President's immediate advisors regarding Presidential decision-making about the scope, duration, and purpose of the hold on military assistance to Ukraine.'" Emphasis added.

The Dangers the Senate Has Unleashed. Sam Brodey & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: After Senate Republicans acquit him, "U.S. administration officials and foreign officials acknowledge Trump will increasingly manufacture his own foreign policy decisions, with his personal associates, without the input of his intelligence and national security agencies. That means Trump will more likely have the ability to run his personal political errands -- and business agenda -- with little, if any, scrutiny. And when that scheme falls apart, and Trump's personal associates turn on him, or decide to detail the behind-the-scenes shenanigans, the U.S. will lose credibility on the world stage.... National security officials ... [are] genuinely concerned, they said, that the American political system will systematically be compromised by American adversaries and that the foundation of the country's democracy will be peeled away.... Perhaps even more concerning ... is Trump's reliance on conspiracy theories to form the basis of his foreign policy objectives."

Todd Purdum of the Atlantic writes another Requiem for the Senate, in which he recognizes "McConnell's years-long legacy of hyper-partisanship, unremitting obstruction of Barack Obama, and unswerving loyalty to Donald Trump and his caucus's raw political interests crystallized into a profound upending of the norms and procedures of the body he purports to revere."

Jeremy Diamond & Kristen Holmes of CNN: "... don't expect Trump to apologize or express any contrition for his conduct. Instead, people close to the President say they anticipate he will claim vindication and continue to proclaim his complete and total innocence."

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "The state of the union is upside down and inside out and sauerkraut. Trump has changed literally everything in the last three years, transforming and coarsening the game. On Friday night, he became, arguably, the most brutishly powerful Republican of all time. Never has a leader had such a stranglehold on his party, subsuming it with one gulp."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Jack Khoury of Haaretz & the AP: "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday the Palestinian Authority has cut all ties with the United States and Israel, including those relating to security, after rejecting a Middle East peace plan presented by ... Donald Trump. Abbas was in Cairo to address the Arab League, which backed the Palestinians in their opposition to Trump's plan. The Arab League rejected Trump's plan, saying in a communique it would not lead to a just peace deal and adding it will not cooperate with the United States to execute the plan." Mrs. McC: What?? You mean Jared read 25 books for nothing?? He should publish his syllabus so we'll know what not to read.

News Ledes

Guardian: "A man has been shot dead by armed police on a busy south London high street following a terrorist-related incident in which a number of people are believed to have been stabbed. Witnesses said they saw a man with silver canisters strapped to his chest and holding a 'machete' being chased by armed plainclothes officers down Streatham High Road before being shot. The attacker was under active surveillance, implying he was considered to post a serious risk, and was well known to the counter-terror authorities, the Guardian understands. He was also the subject of a live investigation."

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the coronavirus epidemic are here.

The Commentariat -- February 1, 2020

With no real witnesses, the Senate will be moving into Alice in Wonderland territory. Following the trial of the Knave of Hearts, the Queen of Hearts pronounced 'sentence first, verdict after.' In the Senate, with no witnesses, this sequence will change. It will be 'verdict first, trial never.' -- Stephen Gillers, NYU Law professor, in a Just Security op-ed, January 27

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: As I understand it, the next Senate impeachment proceeding will be debate beginning Monday @11 am ET, without the CJ. Debate will continue into Tuesday, but Tuesday night everyone moseys over to the House for the SOTU extended boast. Then the Senate will vote to acquit the SOB, with the CJ presiding, beginning @4 pm ET Wednesday. Here's a CNN story by Jeremy Herb & others on how that schedule came to be. However, when McConnell asked for & got the adjournment Friday, I don't think he had the schedule nailed down, as the story suggests.

Michael Shear & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The Senate brought President Trump to the brink of acquittal on Friday of charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress, as Republicans voted to block consideration of new witnesses and documents in his impeachment trial.... The Democrats' push for more witnesses and documents failed 49 to 51, with only two Republicans, Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine, joining Democrats in favor. A vote on the verdict is planned for Wednesday.... Senators recessed the trial for the weekend and will return Monday for closing arguments, with a vote on the verdict on Wednesday. The timetable will rob Mr. Trump of the opportunity to use his State of the Union address scheduled for Tuesday night [Mrs. McC: and a Super Bowl Sunday interview] to boast about his acquittal.... Instead, he will become the second president to deliver the speech during his own impeachment trial....

"The president has insisted that he did nothing wrong, calling a July telephone conversation in which he asked the president of Ukraine to investigate his political rivals 'perfect' and the impeachment inquiry a 'sham.' For months, he has demanded that his allies deliver nothing less than an absolute defense of his actions. But while they were poised to acquit him, several Republicans offered words of criticism, instead. Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, said that 'some of the president's actions in this case -- including asking a foreign country to investigate a potential political opponent and the delay of aid to Ukraine -- were wrong and inappropriate.' Senator Marco Rubio of Florida [said]..., 'Just because actions meet a standard of impeachment does not mean it is in the best interest of the country to remove a president from office,' he said."

Shorter Marco: "He did it, it's impeachable, don't count on me." -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Addy Baird, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "After days of arguments and questioning in ... Donald Trump's impeachment trial, many Republican senators have come to the same conclusion: The president did it, and they don't care."

The New York Times' live updates of Friday's impeachment proceedings are here. "Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, called a recess after the vote, but gave no indication how long it would last."

"... Adam B. Schiff ... rose one final time on Friday to appeal to a Senate that had already essentially made up its mind against him. Vote for additional witnesses and documents, he implored them, or risk 'long lasting and harmful consequences long after this impeachment trial is over.' Mr. Schiff's warning to senators was threefold: First, he said, it would set a dangerous precedent for every future impeachment trial that witnesses and evidence were not necessary; second, the facts about Mr. Trump's pressure campaign on Ukraine will come out regardless; and third, Americans will see that for the president, there is a double standard of justice." ~~~

~~~ "Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said Friday she would vote against including new witnesses and documents in President Trump's impeachment trial.... In a statement released just as the House managers began pleading their case for witnesses, Ms. Murkowski called their impeachment articles too 'rushed and flawed' to warrant prolonging the trial. But she also said she had become convinced that the Senate would be unable to deliver a fair trial...." ~~~

"John F. Kelly, President Trump's former chief of staff and secretary of homeland security, said on Friday that the Senate would be known forever as a body that 'shirks its responsibilities' if it wraps up the trial of his former boss without hearing witnesses." (Also linked yesterday.)

Washington Post Editors: "REPUBLICAN SENATORS who voted Friday to suppress known but unexamined evidence of President Trump'’s wrongdoing at his Senate trial must have calculated that the wrath of a vindictive president is more dangerous than the sensible judgment of the American people, who, polls showed, overwhelmingly favored the summoning of witnesses. That's almost the only way to understand how the Republicans could have chosen to deny themselves and the public the firsthand account of former national security adviser John Bolton, and perhaps others, on how Mr. Trump sought to extort political favors from Ukraine. The public explanations the senators offered were so weak and contradictory as to reveal themselves as pretexts.... We can hope only that voters who wanted that evidence to be heard in the trial will respond by showing incumbent senators they are a force to be reckoned with, as much as the bully in the White House." ~~~

~~~ New York Times Editors: "... no one ever lost money betting on the cynicism of today's congressional Republicans. The move [against calling for witnesses & documents] can only embolden the president to cheat in the 2020 election. [See George Soros' NYT op-ed linked under "Presidential Race" below.] The vote also brings the nation face to face with the reality that the Senate has become nothing more than an arena for the most base and brutal -- and stupid -- power politics. Faced with credible evidence that a president was abusing his powers, it would not muster the institutional self-respect to even investigate.... Every impeachment trial in American history had included witnesses.... It's not Congress as an institution that has failed [as Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)]; it's Senate Republicans. They didn't refuse to hold a fair trial so much as they refused to hold any trial at all.... The Senate may acquit Mr. Trump, but it will not, it cannot, exonerate him. Mr. Trump is the most corrupt president in modern times...."

** Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "More than two months before he asked Ukraine's president to investigate his political opponents, President Trump directed John R. Bolton, then his national security adviser, to help with his pressure campaign to extract damaging information on Democrats from Ukrainian officials, according to an unpublished manuscript by Mr. Bolton. Mr. Trump gave the instruction, Mr. Bolton wrote, during an Oval Office conversation in early May that included the acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, the president's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani and the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, who is now leading the president's impeachment defense. Mr. Trump told Mr. Bolton to call Volodymyr Zelensky, who had recently won election as president of Ukraine, to ensure Mr. Zelensky would meet with Mr. Giuliani, who was planning a trip to Ukraine to discuss the investigations that the president sought, in Mr. Bolton's account. Mr. Bolton never made the call, he wrote. The previously undisclosed directive that Mr. Bolton describes would be the earliest known instance of Mr. Trump seeking to harness the power of the United States government to advance his pressure campaign against Ukraine, as he later did on the July call with Mr. Zelensky...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill has a summary report on the NYT story: "Cipollone's involvement in meetings about the pressure campaign on Ukraine would place additional scrutiny on the White House counsel. While leading Trump's defense in the impeachment trial, Cipollone has insisted there is no evidence of wrongdoing by the president and argued that the Senate does not need to hear from Bolton." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ According to this Yahoo! news story by David Knowles, either Bolton is lying or everyone else is. Trump said the meeting "never happened," Rudy tweeted, "The meeting the Times describes is a lie," and Mulvaney has claimed he always stepped out of a room when Rudy & Trump were in it to avoid compromising Trump & Rudy's client-lawyer confidentiality. Not sure what Cipollone has said during the course of the trial & elsewhere that would suggest the meeting "never happened." Knowles notes that "Records unearthed by House investigators, however, show that Giuliani's months-long pressure campaign on Ukraine overlapped with the May meeting alleged in Bolton's book." Mrs. McC: So who ya gonna believe, the POTUS*, his chief-of-staff, and two lawyers or one guy hawking a book?... Oh, the bookseller. ~~~

~~~ Paul Waldman & Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Stephen Gillers, a professor at the New York University School of Law, told us that this raises serious questions about the propriety of [Pat] Cipollone's role as Trump's chief counsel. As Gillers wrote in a recent piece, Cipollone had an obligation, at a minimum, to disclose all his own knowledge of the facts surrounding the case. As Gillers wrote, a legal ethics rule known as the 'advocate-witness rule' says that 'when a lawyer should be a witness at trial, she cannot also be an advocate in the courtroom.' Now [John] Bolton has placed Cipollone right in the room with Trump as he ordered Bolton to pressure the Ukrainian president to work with Trump's personal lawyer to set up a shadow operation that would subvert our foreign policy and national interest to Trump's corrupt political ends.... The new Bolton revelations show that the trial has been even more corrupted by Trump and his team than we thought in another important way.' ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait: "Giuliani's role is the deepest, darkest cesspool in the Ukraine scandal. Probably for that reason, Trump and his lawyers have consistently denied knowledge of Giuliani's activities. Last November, in an interview with Bill O'Reilly, Trump repeatedly denied having directed Giuliani's work in Ukraine.... Earlier this month, Trump was asked about a signed letter by Giuliani to Zelensky, stating that he was representing Trump as a personal lawyer, with Trump's knowledge and permission. Trump again dissembled.... Meanwhile, Trump and his legal team maintain that this whole agenda was being driven in service of Trump's alleged desire to clean up corruption in Ukraine. As pathetic as Trump's defense may be, no element is as incriminating on its face as Giuliani's work. Even conceding it existed is to admit guilt. But Bolton apparently has the receipts." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Another "murky" Rudy deal was his advocacy for "Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, for whom Giuliani has said he did consulting work, [who] was on the verge of being fired by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from a separate post as the appointed head of the city administration, a move that would greatly reduce his power," according to Rosalind Helderman & others of the Washington Post. However, Rudy asked top Zelensky aide Andriy Yermak to keep Klitschoko in the administration. As Ronen Bergman & others of the New York Times put it, "But despite the fact that Mr. Zelensky's cabinet approved Mr. Klitschko's removal, he remains there today, leaving his adversaries in the murky and lucrative world of Ukrainian municipal politics to wonder whether Mr. Trump's personal attorney may have tipped the scales in his favor."

Steve Benen of MSNBC: "The lawyer for Lev Parnas ... reached out to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) this afternoon, sending him a letter signaling what Parnas would say if he's allowed to testify in the trial as a witness under oath. From the letter (pdf): 'If Lev Parnas was called as a witness, he would provide testimony based upon personal knowledge, corroborated by physical evidence..., which is directly relevant to the president's impeachment inquiry.... Mr. Parnas would testify to the efforts he and a handful of Republican operatives engaged in over a period of months, to remove Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and gather 'dirt' on Joe and Hunter Biden. Mr. Parnas would testify that those holding various roles in this plot included GOP super PAC America First, President Trump, Vice President Pence, former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General Bill Barr, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Congressman Devin Nunes, Nunes' Staffer Derrick Harvey, Journalist John Soloman, Attorneys Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, [Rudy] Giuliani, and others. He is prepared to review and explain relevant phone records, text messages, and other evidence in connection with these activities.'" (Also linked yesterday.) Here's an NBC News story by Josh Lederman & Lisa Ferri.

Abilgail Williams & Phil Helsel of NBC News: "Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, a central figure in the impeachment investigation..., retired from the State Department on Friday after three decades in the foreign service...."

Mrs. McCrabbie: To me, the worst part of this corrupt scheme was not Trump & Giuliani's going after the Bidens or even after Marie Yovanovitch (tho that was horrible). It was the repeated, relentless attempts to corrupt & compromise a new Ukrainian government, one the U.S. needed to promote "our" values in the region & stand up to Russia's aggression & anti-democratic mores. And no Republican -- that includes you, Lisa Murkowski -- is off the hook for aiding & abetting this gross abuse of U.S. power. Every American who has a Republican representative in Congress should ask him what he stands for, bearing in mind that the true answer is, "Myself." Throw the bums out. The vote to acquit (or in the case of House members, against impeachment) should be a badge of shame tattooed on their foreheads. It should, and sometimes will, be the first line of their obituaries.

** Michael Biesecker of the AP: "Charity watchdogs for years have raised concerns about the blurred lines between for-profit businesses tied to [Trump "lawyer" Jay] Sekulow and the complex web of non-profit entities he and his family control. The Associated Press reviewed 10 years of tax returns for the ACLJ [American Center for Law and Justice, a non-profit Christian legal advocacy group] and other charities tied to Sekulow.... The records from 2008 to 2017, the most recent year available, show that more than $65 million in charitable funds were paid to Sekulow [and his family].... All six of the [ACLJ] charity's paid board members share the last name Sekulow, including Jay's wife, Pam, and their sons, Jordon and Logan." --safari: A deep dive into Sekulow's life of scams. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Applicable maxim: If you work for Trump, you're a fool or a crook. Corollary: Seculow is not a fool. Ergo ....

Only While Christians Need Apply. Maria Sacchetti, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump added six countries to his administration's travel ban Friday -- including ­Nigeria, Africa's most populous country -- in a widely anticipated expansion that Democrats blasted as 'clearly discriminatory' against people from predominantly black and Muslim nations. Citing national security concerns, officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department said Trump's proclamation would bar most citizens of Nigeria, Eritrea, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan from coming to work and live in the United States. Two nations, Tanzania and Sudan, would be banned from applying for the visa lottery, which issues up to 50,000 visas a year worldwide to countries with historically low migration to the United States. The new ban takes effect Feb. 22; travelers who have received visas or are in transit at that time will not be affected."

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The only "experience" Trump brought to the top job was his "professional" career building tall things. Let's see how well his sole area of "expertise" has worked out: ~~~

     ~~~ Bienvenido a los Estados Unitos. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "President Trump's border wall probably will require the installation of hundreds of storm gates to prevent flash floods from undermining or knocking it over, gates that must be left open for months every summer during 'monsoon season' in the desert, according to U.S. border officials, agents and engineers familiar with the plans. The open, unmanned gates in remote areas already have allowed for the easy entry of smugglers and migrants into the United States." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Thursday, we learned from Matt Stieb of New York that "... on Wednesday, Customs and Border Protection confirmed to CNN that newly-installed wall panels in Calexico, California were knocked down by wind gusts of up to 37-miles-per-hour, causing the metal slats to timber into Mexican territory[.]... The wall has faced a few setbacks that contradict Trump's claims of near-impenetrability, like in November when the Washington Post reported that smugglers were using reciprocating saws -- available for less than $100 -- to cut through sections of the steel-bollard barrier in minutes. And though the president has claimed that no one would be able to climb the wall, smugglers have found a simple summiting method, using rebar ladders to hoist up one side, and rope ladders to scale down the other."

Kayla Tausche of CNBC: "In November 2017 ... Trump was on a 12-day tour through Asia, his second major international trip since taking office.... What wasn't on the White House or State Department agendas: a meeting with private equity investors convened by Jared Kushner ... and U.S. Ambassador Terry Branstad.... At the time of the meeting, the Kushner family was under fire for its pursuit of overseas investors.... The meeting and its guest list ... was arranged by Wendi Deng Murdoch, a longtime friend of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.... CNBC filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act with the State Department [about the meeting].... The State Department acknowledged the request on Dec. 11, 2017, but suggested getting the information would take a long time.... Last October, the department finally provided a date: July 23, 2021 -- 3½ years after the original filing. Put another way: 1,323 days. During the first two years of the Trump presidency, the State Department processed 83% of 'complex' requests in less than 400 days, according to analysis of public data available on FOIA.gov." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Not surprisingly, the most corrupt administration ever is also the least transparent.

Joe Heim of the Washington Post: "The Library of Congress abandoned plans last year to showcase a mural-size photograph of demonstrators at the 2017 Women's March in Washington because of concerns it would be perceived as critical of President Trump, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post. The massive 14-by-10-foot print of the photograph -- showing tens of thousands of demonstrators filling Pennsylvania Avenue NW for the Women's March on Jan. 21, 2017 -- was envisioned by the library as one of the dominant displays of the 'Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote' exhibit celebrating the centennial of women's right to vote. Instead, the exhibit opened June 4 with that photograph replaced by an image of eight people taking part in a Women's March in Houston. The change was made so late in the process -- just five days before the exhibit opened -- that the photographer who captured the original image, Kevin Carroll, is credited in the exhibit's brochure and the photographer of the replacement image is not.... The National Archives said two weeks ago it made a mistake when it blurred out anti-Trump signs from a large photograph, also of the 2017 Women's March but by a different photographer...." ~~~

~~~ OR, we could just pretend anti-Trump protests never happened at all. Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Sarah Blaskey, et al., of the Miami Herald: "A Connecticut woman chastised for dancing on her car at a Palm Beach hotel late Friday morning ended up driving away and crashing her vehicle through two security barricades outside Mar-a-Lago..., drawing gunfire from law enforcement officers, before leading a police helicopter on a chase that ended in her arrest. Hannah Roemhild, 30, a trained opera singer, is now in the custody of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. 'This is not a terrorist thing,' Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said at a Friday afternoon news conference. 'This is somebody that obviously was impaired somehow.'"

Presidential Race

George Soros in a New York Times op-ed: "I believe that Mr. Trump and Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, realize that their interests are aligned -- the president's in winning elections, Mr. Zuckerberg's in making money.... Mr. Zuckerberg met with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office on Sept. 19, 2019.... [In] an interview on the sidelines at the World Economic Forum on Jan. 22..., Mr. Zuckerberg [said that Trump] 'told me that I'm No. 1 in the world in Facebook.' Mr. Trump apparently had no problem with Facebook's decision not to fact-check political ads.... Facebook's decision not to require fact-checking for political candidates' advertising in 2020 has flung open the door for false, manipulated, extreme and incendiary statements. Such content is rewarded with prime placement and promotion if it meets Facebook-designed algorithmic standards for popularity and engagement. What's more, Facebook's design tends to obscure the sources of inflammatory and false content, and fails to adequately punish those who spread false information. Nor does the company effectively warn those who are exposed to lies." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Democrats should run ads against Facebook: "If you saw it on Facebook, it's probably a lie." In the meantime, it is hard to see how the U.S. differs from Russia in the countries' systems of government of, by and for oligarchs. We are all Russians now. Alas, most of us are serfs, trodden & abused by our masters.

Nishita Jha of BuzzFeed News: "A former aspiring actor [Jessica Mann] testified Friday that Harvey Weinstein forced oral sex on her, raped her, and then manipulated her into a sexually humiliating relationship, which she said included him wanting to film her having sex, urinating on her, and asking if she liked his 'big Jewish dick.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Pilar Melendez of the Daily Beast: "'The first time I saw him fully naked, I thought he was deformed and intersex,' [Jessica Mann] said, as Weinstein put his head into his hand. 'He has extreme scarring that I didn't know if he was a burn victim but it didn't make sense. He does not have testicles and it appears that he has a vagina.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

Kevin Rawlinson of the Guardian (@18:00 ET in Friday's liveblog): "The United Kingdom has left the European Union. As the clock struck 11pm GMT, the nation officially enacted the biggest constitutional change in living memory and, in doing so, became the first member state ever to leave the EU." (Also linked yesterday.)