General
Three rockets hit US Embassy compound in Baghdad, US official says
Barbara Starr and Jennifer Hansler, CNN
Three rockets struck the US Embassy compound in Baghdad on Sunday, leaving one person injured, a US official told CNN initial reports indicate. The official said the injury was minor and the individual had since returned to duty.
Top Latino Mayoral Hopeful in New York City Drops Out
Azi Paybarah, The New York Times
For nearly his entire adult life, Ruben Diaz Jr. had seemed to be on a one-way path to political stardom. At the age of 22, he was elected to the New York State Assembly.
Trump Hotel Sale Has DC MAGA Groupies Scared About Losing Their Safe Space
Will Sommer, The Daily Beast
Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington, D.C., went up for sale this month, with bids to take up the president’s 60-year lease on the federally owned Old Post Office due last Thursday. But while the winning bidder’s plans for the hotel likely won’t be known for a while, MAGA activists are already mourning the expected loss of what has become the capital’s social center for Trumpism.
White House & Administration
Trump’s Mideast Plan Is Seen Mainly as an Election Lift for Netanyahu
Mark Landler, The New York Times
Less than a month after being sworn in, President Trump welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to the White House with a bold promise: He would broker a peace accord between the Israelis and the Palestinians — the diplomatic unicorn that had eluded half a dozen of his predecessors. “I think we’re going to make a deal,” he said in 2017.
Trump plots a flashy series finale for impeachment
Nancy Cook, Politico
President Donald Trump is already itching to broadcast the series finale of his impeachment. In recent days, he and top White House aides have been considering how he should celebrate his presumed acquittal by the Republican-controlled Senate and whether he should deliver a rare Oval Office address to mark the occasion, according to three senior administration officials.
Emails support NPR host after Pompeo calls her a liar in setting up contentious interview
Paul Farhi, The Washington Post
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says an NPR host lied in setting up an interview with him on Friday, but email records support the journalist’s account of how the contentious exchange came to be. The emails, obtained by The Washington Post, indicate that Pompeo’s staff was aware that NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly would ask Pompeo about several topics in the interview and raised no objections, contrary to Pompeo’s characterization.
’I stand with Greta’: Mnuchin’s wife posts — then deletes — support for climate activist
Evan Semones, Politico
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s wife on Saturday appeared to publicly break with her husband over support for Greta Thunberg’s climate change activism. “I stand with Greta on this issue. (I don’t have a degree in economics either),” actress Louise Linton wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post after Mnuchin chided the 17-year-old’s call for governments to end their support of fossil fuels at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, saying she should attend college and study economics.
Senate
Senate Republicans eye quick Trump acquittal after witness vote
Burgess Everett and John Bresnahan, Politico
Senate GOP leaders are strongly considering a move to quickly end President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial next week if a motion to call additional witnesses is defeated, according to three top Republican senators. The Republican strategy — which is still fluid — could mean senators have limited time between key procedural votes and the final vote on whether to convict the president of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Sen. Hawley readies subpoena votes for Bidens, Schiff
Burgess Everett, Politico
If the Senate decides to consider new impeachment trial witnesses and documents next week, Sen. Josh Hawley plans to try and force votes on everyone from Adam Schiff to Joe Biden. The Missouri Republican is preparing to file subpoena requests for witnesses and documents that Democrats and Republicans alike won’t want to vote on.
House
‘We did’ give in to Trump stonewalling, House impeachment manager says
Connor O’Brien, Politico
House Democrats surrendered to President Donald Trump’s efforts to block witnesses from testifying in their impeachment probe, one of the House managers of the trial said Sunday. In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) was pressed by host Jake Tapper on her comments during the trial imploring senators not to “surrender to the president’s stonewalling,” given that the House did not pursue court cases further to force witness testimony.
Nadler to miss part of impeachment trial due to wife’s cancer
David Cohen, Politico
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday that he would miss part of the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump to be with his wife, Joyce Miller, who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. “On Monday, I will be in New York with her to meet with doctors, determine a path forward, and begin her treatment,” Nadler said in a statement.
2020
Bernie Sanders faces barrage of attacks from rivals as polls point to surge in early-voting states
Chelsea Janes and Sean Sullivan, The Washington Post
Sen. Bernie Sanders faced a sudden barrage of attacks from his rivals Sunday amid signs that he was surging in the critical early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire and closing the gap nationally with the race’s longtime polling leader, Joe Biden. Sanders’s rise, with only days left before the Feb. 3 caucuses here, prompted urgent warnings from competing campaigns that the party is in jeopardy of nominating a self-identified democratic socialist whose far-left views would turn off the broad swath of voters required to defeat President Trump in the November general election.
Bernie Sanders and His Internet Army
Matt Flegenheimer et al., The New York Times
The defense from Bernie Sanders was straightforward: It wasn’t me. He had been milling about on the Senate floor one day in the summer of 2017 when a colleague, Kamala Harris, stepped toward him. “Do we have a problem?” Ms. Harris asked, according to Democrats familiar with the exchange.
On Day Off From Impeachment Trial, Senators Campaign Frantically in Iowa
Joshua Jamerson and Eliza Collins, The Wall Street Journal
Jody Dvorak worried Elizabeth Warren might cancel on her. After all, the senior senator from Massachusetts is campaigning for president while serving as a juror in President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate—only the third time in U.S. history that the chamber-turned-courtroom has undertaken such a task.
Buttigieg takes his case to Fox News before Iowa
Elena Schneider, Politico
Pete Buttigieg shot into 2020 contention with a viral town hall last March. On Sunday, he turned back to that setting for one final pre-Iowa caucuses boost — this time on Fox News, seeking an audience of disaffected moderates and “future former Republicans” to pitch on electability.
Bloomberg Warns of Anti-Semitism ‘Rearing Its Ugly Head’
Rebecca R. Ruiz and Elizabeth Dias, The New York Times
Michael R. Bloomberg on Sunday addressed rising anti-Semitism and spoke personally of his Jewish heritage in a speech at a prominent synagogue near Miami, a sign that courting Jewish voters is core to his strategy of building support in Florida. The speech was a rare instance of a major address by a Democratic presidential candidate this cycle that specifically confronted the rise in anti-Semitic attacks across the country.
Bloomberg snags fifth congressional endorsement
Christopher Cadelago, Politico
Rep. Scott Peters endorsed Mike Bloomberg for president on Monday, citing his plans to fight climate change and spiraling gun deaths and holding him up as having the best chance to defeat President Donald Trump. Peters, a California Democrat who will serve as national chair for Bloomberg’s climate, energy and environment council, is the fifth House member to sign on with the former New York mayor’s presidential campaign in recent days.
Rep. Seth Moulton Endorses Joe Biden for President
Ben Kesling, The Wall Street Journal
Rep. Seth Moulton (D., Mass.) on Monday endorsed Joe Biden for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, citing what he said was the former vice president’s ability to build a coalition within the party and proven foreign-policy credentials. Mr. Moulton, a 41-year-old Marine Corps combat veteran who briefly vied for the nomination himself and who has stressed the need for the party to avoid tacking too far left, adds a young voice with foreign policy experience to those backing Mr. Biden’s bid.
Poll Results Put Andrew Yang Back On The Democratic Debate Stage
Benjamin Swasey, NPR News
A flurry of qualifying polls released Sunday has put tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang back on the Democratic debate stage. Yang is the seventh candidate to qualify for the Feb. 7 debate in Manchester, N.H., which is just four days ahead of the primary there.
In Crucial Pennsylvania, Democrats Worry a Fracking Ban Could Sink Them
Lisa Friedman and Shane Goldmacher, The New York Times
Though they are both Democrats, John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, and Bill Peduto, this city’s mayor, have their differences on the environment. Mr. Fetterman, who toppled an incumbent Democrat in 2018 from the left, nevertheless calls Pennsylvania “the Saudi Arabia of natural gas” and sees extracting and taxing gas as critical to the state’s economy and the “union way of life.”
States
State Attorneys General to Meet With Justice Officials to Coordinate on Google Probe
John D. McKinnon et al., The Wall Street Journal
State attorneys general will meet with U.S. Justice Department attorneys next week to share information on their respective probes of Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit, a step that could eventually lead to both groups joining forces, according to people familiar with the matter. The meeting is seen as the start of a periodic dialogue that could expand into more formal cooperation as the probes continue, the people said.
Election Officials To Convene Amid Historic Focus On Voting And Interference
Pam Fessler, NPR News
Top election officials from all 50 states are meeting in Washington this week to prepare for 2020 — a gathering amid widespread concern over whether the upcoming elections will be fair and accurate, as well as free of the kind of foreign interference that marred the 2016 campaign. Despite major government efforts to upgrade security, an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found that about 41% of Americans surveyed do not think the country is prepared to protect the U.S. election system from another attack.
Third woman accuses Lucido of sexual harassment, unwanted touching
Chad Livengood, Crain’s Detroit Business
At the Michigan Credit Union League’s annual government affairs conference last May, Melissa Osborn stood at a table in the Radisson Hotel handing out name badges to legislators as they arrived for lunch with credit union executives from across the state. One veteran male lawmaker who arrived at the downtown Lansing hotel’s second-floor conference center complimented Osborn about her reddish hair.
Advocacy
Tech Giants’ New Appeal to Governments: Please Regulate Us
Sebastian Herrera, The Wall Street Journal
Top executives of big technology companies are presenting global policy makers with an unusual message from an industry once antagonistic to government intervention: Regulate us. Facing antitrust investigations and a growing backlash over privacy, encryption, artificial intelligence and content monitoring, leaders at tech giants including Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp., Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc. are now calling for new laws on a range of issues—even though some have worked to torpedo others designed to restrict their activities.
Trump should apologize for minimizing troops’ injuries, VFW says
Anne Gearan, The Washington Post
A major veterans group has called for President Trump to apologize for “misguided” remarks minimizing the severity of traumatic brain injuries suffered by U.S. forces in an Iranian air attack earlier this month. The Veterans of Foreign Wars, the oldest major U.S. veterans group, appears to be the first large veterans organization to publicly chastise the president for dismissing the injuries as “headaches” and “not very serious.”
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
Bellwether New Hampshire Town’s Voters as Scattered as Dems Across the Country
Patrick Hynes, Morning Consult
On Feb. 11, 2020, the Granite State will hold the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, as it has done since 1952. New Hampshire has been admired for its retail political environment, derided for its lack of diversity and dismissed by many for its outsized voice in the important task of picking a president.
Yes, Secretary Pompeo, Americans Should Care About Ukraine
William B. Taylor, The New York Times
As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepares to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv later this week, he has reportedly asked, “Do Americans care about Ukraine?” Here’s why the answer should be yes: Ukraine is defending itself and the West against Russian attack.
John Roberts Can Call Witnesses to Trump’s Trial. Will He?
Neal K. Katyal et al., The New York Times
An overwhelming number of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, believe the Senate should hear from relevant witnesses and obtain documents during President Trump’s impeachment trial. Striking new revelations about the president’s role in the Ukraine affair, as reported from an unpublished manuscript by John Bolton, underscore the need for his testimony and that of others.
Research Reports and Polling
Trump begins reelection year more competitive against Democrats than he was three months ago, Post-ABC poll finds
Scott Clement and Dan Balz, The Washington Post
President Trump begins his reelection year in a more competitive position than he was last fall against potential Democratic challengers, aided by rising approval for his handling of the economy, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. The state of the economy and perceptions of Trump’s handling of it pose a challenge for Democratic presidential candidates, who have criticized the president’s policies and focused their economic messaging on inequities between the richest Americans and everyone else and on alleviating the financial struggles of many families who are dealing with rising health-care, child-care or educational costs.
Sanders gains among Democrats, Biden still best against Trump
Dana Blanton, Fox News
The Democratic nomination race has tightened at the top. According to a new Fox Poll, Bernie Sanders has pulled within three percentage points of frontrunner Joe Biden, who appears to have lost support to billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
Poll: Sanders, Buttigieg top Democratic field in New Hampshire
Mark Murray, NBC News
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg lead the Democratic presidential race in New Hampshire, while the top four Democratic candidates all enjoy early advantages against President Donald Trump in hypothetical general-election matchups in the Granite State. In the initial NBC News/Marist state poll of the 2020 presidential race, Sanders gets the support of 22 percent of likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire, with Buttigieg at 17 percent.
|
