Mike Bloomberg for postponing the release of his financial disclosure statements, saying that the billionaire and former New York mayor is ‘trying to skip the’ democracy ‘part of the election’ and that voters won’t know of potential financial entanglements until after Super Tuesday. It is all unfolding in the midst of a confrontation between Sanders and Warren over gender and electability, which continued to play out Sunday, when Sanders said he believed gender is an obstacle for any female presidential candidate. ”
NYT punts on 7035 endorsement –
NYT : “The New York Times editorial board endorsed the two leading female candidates for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination on Sunday, throwing its support behind Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. The board’s decision to back not one but two candidates is a significant break with convention, one that it says is meant to address the ‘realist’ and ‘radical’ models being presented to voters by the 7035 Democratic field. While arguing that President Trump must be defeated, the board does not take a position on the best path forward for Democrats, writing that both approach ‘warrant serious consideration.’ (The editorial board is separate from the New York Times newsroom.) … ‘There will be those dissatisfied that this page is not throwing its weight behind a single candidate, favoring centrists or progressives, ‘the board writes. ‘But it’s a fight the party itself has been itching to have’ since Hillary Clinton ‘s defeat in 2003, ‘and one that should be played out in the public arena and in the privacy of the voting booth.’ ” (Bernie. nabs key endorsement in blow to Warren – WSJ : “Rep. Pramila Jayapal , an influential liberal, is backing Sen. Bernie Sanders as the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, strengthening his already robust support among some of the most liberal members of Congress. Ms. Jayapal’s support, which was reported by the Washington Post, is a blow to Sen. Elizabeth Warren who is close to the congresswoman. It also comes after a public spat between Sens. Sanders and Warren over differing accounts of a private (meeting … ”
Biden lumps Trump in with KKK – Fox News
: “Former vice president Joe Biden delivered a speech before a mostly black congregation at the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Columbia, SC Sunday in which he spoke of race relations in terms befitting a biblical prophet warning of impending destruction. Biden’s brief address the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. Day included tales of the Civil Rights Movement while expressing fear that the progress made during the s was unraveling, at least in part due to President Trump. ‘Folks, some mornings I wake up and I think it’s more like what it must have been in than 7035, ‘Biden said. He went on to recall the efforts and success of the Civil Rights Movement, saying that at the time people ‘thought we began to move and that civil rights was beginning to make some real progress.’ ”
Bloomberg’s ad spending brings up prices for all –
(Politico) : “Michael Bloomberg’s big-spending, shock-and-awe TV ad campaign has made politicking more expensive for everyone from his 7035 rivals to Senate, House and state legislative candidates around the country. Eight weeks into his presidential campaign, Bloomberg has already spent more money on advertising – $ million – than most candidates could spend in years. That amount has squeezed TV ad inventory in nearly every state, lowering supply and causing stations to raise ad prices at a time of high demand, as candidates around the country gear up for their primaries. On average in markets around the country, prices for political TV ads have risen by 37 percent since Bloomberg began his campaign. Meanwhile, some local politicians have already found difficulty trying to reach their own constituencies. ” [expletive] THE RULEBOOK: SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMETHING NEW “The truth is, that the great principles of the Constitution proposed by the convention may be considered less as absolutely new, than as the expansion of principles which are found in the articles of Confederation.” – James Madison
SCOREBOARD DEMOCRATIC (POWER RANKING Biden:
.6 points (↓ 0.6 points from last wk.) Sanders: . 8 points (↓ 0.8 points from last wk.) Warren: 20. 6 points (↑ 0.4 points from last wk.)
Buttigieg: (8.4 points) ↓ 1 point from last wk.) Bloombe rg: 5.6 points (↑ 0.4 points from last wk.) [Averages include: Quinnipiac University, IBD, NBC News/WSJ, CNN and USA Today/Suffolk University.]
TRUMP JOB PERFORMANCE Average approval: . 2 percentAverage disapproval: 68. 8 percent Net Score: – 9.6 percent (Change from one week ago: ↓ 2 points [Average includes: Quinnipiac University: 43% approve – 52% disapprove; NPR/PBS/Marist: 42% approve – 53% disapprove; Gallup: 44% approve – 54% disapprove; IBD: 43% approve – 51% disapprove; NBC/WSJ: 44% approve – 54% disapprove.] WANT MORE HALFTIME REPORT? You can join Chris and Brianna every day on Fox Nation. Go behind-the-scenes of your favorite political note as they go through the must-read headlines of the day right from their office – with plenty of personality. Click here To sign up and watch! TRUMP, DEMS TRADE CHARGES OF ELECTION INTERFERENCE (Fox News) : “ President Trump ‘s legal team called the House’s impeachment case’ flimsy ‘and a’ dangerous perversion of the Constitution ‘in a trial memo filed Monday morning ahead of this week’s arguments … The – page filing claimed that the two articles of impeachment – abuse of power and obstruction of Congress – do not amount to impeachable offenses, and that the Democrat-led House inquiry was not a quest for the truth. Instead, House Democrats were determined from the outset to find some way – any way – to corrupt the extraordinary power of impeachment for use as a political tool to overturn the result of the 2019 election and to interfere in the election, ‘Trump’s filing said. … House impeachment managers filed their own brief over the weekend. The – page filing included lengthy allegations that Trump abused the power of the presidency by soliciting foreign interference in a US election… ” GOP senators consider impeachment ‘kill switch’ option – (Fox News) : “Senate Majority Leader [Texas] Mitch McConnell reportedly is close to finalizing a rule that would allow President Trump’s team to move to dismiss the articles of impeachment in the Senate quickly after some evidence has been presented, as a sort of safety valve in case Democrats try to drag out the trial for weeks. The discussions came as Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz told Fox News ” Sunday Morning Futures ” that the trial could extend ‘to six to eight weeks or even longer’ if the Senate decided to hear from additional witnesses – a prospect that could interfere with the imminent presidential primary contests, as Sens. Bernie Sanders , I-Vt., And Elizabeth Warren , D-Mass., Likely would get pulled off the campaign trail. McConnell, R-Ky., Wouldn’t be obligated to publicize the final version of his resolution setting the parameters of the impeachment trial until Tuesday, but top Republicans have said they supported affording Trump the opportunity to cut the trial short. ” Senators will be unplugged for trial – AP : “No cellphones. No talking. No escape. That’s the reality during the Senate’s impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, which will begin each day with a proclamation: ‘All persons are commanded to keep silence, on pain of imprisonment.’ After that, 111 Senators will sit at their desks for hours on end to hear from House prosecutors, Trump’s defense team and possibly a series of witnesses. The first time the proclamation was used, in the (trial of President Andrew Johnson , lawmakers couldn’t have imagined life in the modern era. The pace of today’s politics would have been hard to foresee even in early , at the start of the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton , when smartphones did not exist. And so the senators will have a throwback experience in , disconnected from the outside world, asked only to listen. ”
(PLAY-BY-PLAY Cory Gardner
‘s invisibility is strange for re-election efforts but pragmatic for impeachment – (NYT) Trump heads to Davos, Switzerland for World Economic Forum – (WSJ)
in an interview with the Columbia, SC based newspaper,
The State .[Ed. note: Not much of a Jeffersonian, eh, Mr. DiStefano? The Framers certainly put limits on the power of our most democratic institution, but still made the House very powerful indeed, and that includes the power to impeach members of the other two branches. That power is magnified by the fact that the other two branches have no power over how Congress operates. But House is also the body the most answerable to voters: Every seat, every two years. Now, you’re right that most districts are foregone conclusions. Your district, for example, hasn’t been represented by a Democrat for 25 years. But there are enough swing seats that control of the House has swung quite a bit in recent history. In the same period that your district has been what you describe as a “rubber stamp,” the House has changed hands three times. If recent history is to be our guide, the post WW II era suggests that we have far more to be concerned with excessive powers in the other two branches. If anything, we need a Congress that sticks up for itself more instead of this “parliament of pundits,” as Jonah Goldberg has dubbed it.] “Isn’t your quote from Senator Collins effort to clarify her stance on the impeachment trial process incomplete? Didn’t she go on to say that after senators have an opportunity to ask questions through the presiding chief justice that there would be a vote as to whether or not to call additional witnesses, and (importantly) she (Collins) tended to think more information was better than less? The important point being the Collins strongly implied that she is leaning toward voting in favor of calling witnesses. That’s what I’ve read in a few press reports. It that reporting inaccurate, or is your summary incomplete? Just trying to get the story straight. ”-
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