Donald Trump wants his impeachment trial to end before his state of the union address in just two weeks’ time, Lindsey Graham said on Sunday.
Related: Alan Dershowitz: Trump impeachment acquittal would make me unhappy
Continue reading...‘America’s mayor’ led polling in the Republican primaries for almost a year in 2007. But his campaign collapsed into chaos
If things had gone a little differently, Rudy Giuliani might have been elected president in 2008.
The former New York City mayor turned Donald Trump stooge led polling in the Republican primaries for almost a year, and was seen as someone who could defeat Hillary Clinton – then the presumptive Democratic nominee – in key metropolitan areas.
Continue reading...Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, Pulitzer-winning Washington Post reporters, have produced a vital and alarming read
In January 2018, Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury made headlines as it depicted a president out of control and a White House that careened from crisis to crisis. Donald Trump threatened legal action against author and publisher. He also lauded himself and his electoral college victory: “I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius … and a very stable genius at that!”
Related: Trump 'abused' and 'harassed' Kirstjen Nielsen over border, new book reveals
Continue reading...Donald Trump’s legal team has delivered a fiery response to impeachment summons from the Senate, calling the two articles passed by the House “a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their president”.
Related: Impeachment: is Trump set to survive and win a second term?
Continue reading...As Democrats marched the articles to the Senate, the president basked in policy success. Many think re-election is coming
It was, the White House tweeted on Friday, “an incredible week” for Donald Trump. On that, no one could disagree. But what kind of incredible depended on which end of Pennsylvania Avenue you were standing.
Related: How to dump Trump: Rick Wilson on Running Against the Devil
Continue reading...The pioneers who struggled for legalisation in the 60s are seeing the same battles being fought all over again
The telephone sat in the dormitory hallway, and when it rang it might have been for any of the residents – young women in their teens and early 20s, all students at the University of Chicago. Calls came from family and friends and boyfriends, from colleagues and classmates and clubs. But sometimes the voice at the end of the line would ask for “Jane”.
This was 1965, and in Chicago the social justice movement was gathering pace – a new era that encompassed civil rights, student rights, women’s rights and resistance to the war in Vietnam. Among those involved was Heather Booth, a 19-year-old social sciences student from New York. Booth had spent the summer of 1964 in Mississippi, volunteering as part of the Freedom Summer project, an attempt to register as many African American voters as possible. It was an experience that had galvanised her and taught some valuable lessons: “One is that if you organise, even in what seem like the most hopeless circumstances, you can change the world,” she says. “Number two: sometimes you have to stand up to illegitimate authority.”
Continue reading...House prosecutors to arrive at Senate to formally open trial as Lev Parnas tells reporters president was fully aware of efforts to pressure Ukraine
An independent government watchdog, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), said the White House budget office violated the law when it froze US military aid to Ukraine.
“Faithful execution of the law does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law,” the report said.
Yesterday, the House voted to send articles of impeachment to the Senate, setting in motion the third impeachment Senate trial in US history.
Here’s how that looks today:
Continue reading...Booker emailed supporters announcing move to shutter his campaign after struggling with fundraising and failing to qualify for debates
Donald Trump is having a busy day on Twitter, including going after the Democrats over their reaction to the assassination of Gen Qassem Suleimani.
“The Fake News Media and their Democrat Partners are working hard to determine whether or not the future attack by terrorist Suleimani was ‘eminent’ [sic – he means “imminent”] or not, & was my team in agreement,” the president wrote, in a tweet that was deleted and reissued, spelling fixed.
Related: Esper contradicts Trump claim Iran planned attacks on four US embassies
The Democrats and the Fake News are trying to make terrorist Suleimani into a wonderful guy, only because I did what should have been done for 20 years. Anything I do, whether it’s the economy, military, or anything else, will be scorned by the Rafical [sic] Left, Do Nothing Democrats!
The corrupted Dems trying their best to come to the Ayatollah's rescue.#NancyPelosiFakeNews pic.twitter.com/a0ksPHeXCy
Related: Iranian police fired live rounds to disperse protesters, say witnesses
Senator Cory Booker announced Monday that he is suspending his presidential campaign.
He sent the following email to supporters announcing the move:
Friend,
Nearly one year ago, I got in the race for president because I believed to my core that the answer to the common pain Americans are feeling right now, the answer to Donald Trump’s hatred and division, is to reignite our spirit of common purpose to take on our biggest challenges and build a more just and fair country for everyone.
Continue reading...Whether or not Nancy Pelosi is the “absolute worst Speaker of the House in US history”, as Donald Trump insists, the Democrat said on Sunday her caucus will meet on Tuesday to decide when to transmit two articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial.
Related: John Bolton impeachment testimony will be blocked, Donald Trump says
Continue reading...Andrea Bernstein delivers the goods on the bad business which propelled two New York families to Washington
America’s cold civil war rages, impeachment inches ahead and Donald Trump remains a focal point of conflict. As for Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, he is markedly more unpopular than his wife, her father or her gun-toting brother. Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump are rated among the top Republican contenders for 2024.
Related: Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump ‘knew they were lying’ over ploy to sell condos, book claims
Continue reading...Susan Collins and other Republicans open to allowing witnesses in impeachment trial, a key sticking point in impasse between House and Senate
Kari Paul here, logging off for the weekend! Here is a summary of the key events of the last few hours:
Two parents whose children were separated from them as a result of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” border policies are suing the federal government for $12m, claiming the children were subject to abuse and neglect while in federal custody.
“The United States government tore these families apart pursuant to a cruel and unconstitutional policy: The government intended to inflict terror and harm on these small children and their fathers, as a means of deterring others from seeking to enter the United States”, said the lawsuit, which was filed Friday in U.S. District Court of Arizona.
According to the lawsuit, the fathers were separated from their children for more than two months, and the federal government gave little, if any, information regarding the location and safety of the children.
The families “suffered, and continue to suffer, physical, mental, and emotional harm,” the lawsuit states. More than a year after they were reunited, the lawsuit says the children exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Continue reading...Mark Esper says memo on US troops’ ‘onward movement’ from Iraq is not accurate and ‘there’s been no decision’
Kari Paul here, logging off for the night. Here are today’s top events to make note of:
Pete Buttigieg is heading back to Iowa on Jan. 12 to do more campaigning ahead of the upcoming caucus there, his team announced on Monday.
According to the announcement, Buttigieg has now visited Iowa 21 times, with visits to 49 counties to hold 100 events across the state.
Continue reading...Killing of Suleimani will help Trump among his supporters, but it could hurt him at the ballot box after promises of ‘America first’
“We have God on our side.” They have long been some of the most chilling words in the English language. Perhaps never more so than when uttered by Donald Trump in a re-election campaign.
The president made the claim at an Evangelicals for Trump rally at a megachurch in Miami on Friday night, a day after taking America to the brink of war with the killing in Baghdad of Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s top general and potential future leader.
Continue reading...Friday’s rally recognized Trump’s need to retain the loyalty of the evangelical voting bloc that propelled him to victory in 2016
They came to pray with their president, though in truth many came just to worship him. Donald Trump’s Friday launch of his so-called “coalition of evangelicals”, an attempt to shore up the support of the religious right ahead of November’s election, had the feel of any other campaign rally, except this time with gospel music.
An estimated 7,000 “supporters of faith” packed the King Jesus international ministry megachurch in Miami to hear the word of the president, and decided that it was good. The Maga hat-wearing faithful cheered Trump’s comments on issues calculated to resonate with his churchgoing audience, including abortion, freedoms of speech and religion, and what he claimed was a “crusade” from Democrats against religious tolerance.
Continue reading...The president delivered a truck load of red meat to his base – but has he considered what follows the immediate sugar rush?
The only predictable thing about Donald Trump is his unpredictability. Two days into the month of an impeachment trial and an election year, he gave the kaleidoscope a mighty shake with arguably the most consequential decision of his presidency.
Related: Iran crisis: McConnell lauds death of 'master terrorist' as Democrats question Trump strategy – live
Continue reading...Key Democrats and election analysts say more needs to be done to ensure safe elections free from ‘foreign malicious actors’
Potential electronic voting equipment failures and cyber attacks from Russia and other countries pose persistent threats to the 2020 elections, election security analysts and key Democrats warn.
Related: Embassy protesters in Iraq deal symbolic blow to US prestige
Continue reading...Republican senator unhappy with Senate leader saying he was working in ‘total coordination’ with White House
Republican US Senator Lisa Murkowski has said she was “disturbed” by the Senate leader’s approach to working with White House counsel on the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, saying there should be distance between the two.
The comments by the Alaska lawmaker come after Mitch McConnell, majority leader of the Republican-led Senate, said during a Fox News interview earlier this month that he was working in “total coordination” with the White House on the upcoming trial.
Continue reading...
That’s all from me. Thanks for sticking around for the tail end of this momentous week.
Here’s a summary of the day’s major stories:
Bernie Sanders spoke with my colleague Sam Levin this morning, and reiterated his critique of Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden and billionaires:
They will tell you, ‘It doesn’t impact me. It really doesn’t mean anything to me.’ That is clearly nonsensical. Why would billionaires and wealthy people be making large contributions if it didn’t mean something to them?
The United Kingdom, last I heard, is not the United States. Brexit is not a major part of what this campaign is about. The issues that I am campaigning on, in fact, are precisely the issues the American people support. Talk about raising the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour. Four years ago when I introduced that concept, it was a radical idea. Not radical anymore.
Yesterday’s historic vote was covered on conservative sites in the same way as any other news event of the last three years
If you thought that the impeachment of the leader of the Republican party would be a tough sell for conservative media, you haven’t been paying attention. Yesterday’s historic vote has been used in much the same way as almost any other news event during the last three years: as an opportunity to attack perceived enemies, and to explain why this is actually good for Trump.
The main line of attack was accusations of insufficient seriousness on the part of Democrats and members of the hated mainstream media (“MSM”). After the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, repeatedly said that impeachment was a “solemn occasion”, outlets went looking for any sign that someone might be enjoying themselves.
Continue reading...Trump will be wounded, seething, hellbent on revenge – and turn the weight of impeachment against his foes in 2020
After Donald Trump’s inaugural address, George W Bush turned to Hillary Clinton and said: “Well, that was some weird shit,” the former secretary of state confirmed earlier this month.
For nearly three years since that chilly day here at the US Capitol in Washington, Democrats (and many others) have accused of Trump using and abusing the United States like his personal punchbag. On Wednesday, that slice of America finally punched back via impeachment.
Continue reading...