Former White House National Security Adviser John Bolton says he&#8217;s prepared to consider a subpoena requiring him to testify, but Democrats don&#8217;t seem interested in asking Bolton to speak to their committees, months after he was initially invited to address allegations of problems in the White House.
Bolton is aggressively promoting his book, &#8220;The Room Where It Happened,&#8221; on cable news &#8212; a book he claims should be essential reading for voters considering casting a ballot for President Donald Trump (Bolton, of course, says he won&#8217;t be voting for Trump a second time in November).
Late last year and into early January, Bolton waffled on whether to testify in front of the House on President Trump&#8217;s dealings with Ukraine, which Bolton now claims involved a quid-pro-quo agreement to trade an investigation into whether former Vice President Joe Biden family pulled strings for Hunter Biden in return for thousands of dollars in American foreign aid.
At one point, Bolton threatened to sue Democrats if they issued him a subpoena, but later, Bolton, then apparently a disaffected former White House employee, hinted that he would be willing to testify in the president&#8217;s Senate trial. Republicans blocked Democrats&#8217; efforts to introduce new testimony in the second half of the impeachment inquiry, ending the matter.
Now, Bolton is again hinting that he could comply with Democrat&#8217;s efforts to investigate the president.
“Let’s see what they decide to do,” Bolton told ABC&#8217;s “Good Morning America,” according to <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jun/22/john-bolton-noncommittal-subpoena-what-dems-do-nex/">the Washington Times</a>. “The primary way we rein presidents in is not through impeachment — it’s through elections.”
“What they do next, obviously, is up to them,” Bolton continued, adding that he believes the Democrats &#8220;mishandled&#8221; the impeachment.
A chance to testify publicly in a Congressional hearing would, of course, benefit Bolton&#8217;s book sales and extend his publicity tour, but Democrats don&#8217;t seem to be interested in hearing what Bolton has to say months after his testimony might have been useful to their impeachment efforts.
Speaking to Jake Tapper Sunday, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) called further testimony from Bolton  “a waste of time and effort.&#8221;
“No, we’re not interested in Bolton’s testimony,” Nadler added.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) was less committal, leaving the door open to the possibility of a Bolton appearance on &#8220;Meet the Press&#8221; &#8212; but even the head of the impeachment inquiry seemed to think Bolton&#8217;s offer to consider testifying in front of a House select committee too little too late.
“We haven’t had a chance to read the book,” Schiff said. “When we do, and we expect we will within the next 24 to 48 hours, like the rest of the country, we will look at what allegations like those involving Turkey and other countries, particularly involving China, need to be fleshed out and exposed to the light of day. And then we’ll make our decisions.&#8221;
He added, though, that it&#8217;s unlikely the House will launch into any further impeachment proceedings with the November election just around the corner. &#8220;But, you know, we do need, I think, to expose the length and breadth of this president’s depravity and how much it is endangering the country. So those facts are going to need to come out and we are discussing with the speaker and my fellow chairs just how to do that.&#8221;
Bolton&#8217;s book is due out on Tuesday.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Bolton

John Bolton Says He’d Consider Testifying Before Congress But Democrats Aren’t Interested

Adam Schiff

Impeachment

Jerrold Nadler

John Bolton

During his Saturday coronavirus press briefing, President Donald Trump was asked to defend his firing of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson. Trump called Atkinson – whom he appointed – “terrible” and “a total disgrace.”
Trump had fired Atkinson Friday evening, writing in a letter to congress that he no longer had confidence in Atkinson as an inspector general.
“As is the case with regard to other positions where I, as President, have the power of appointment … it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general,” Trump wrote, as previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-fires-intelligence-community-watchdog-who-helped-launch-democrats-impeachment-inquiry">reported</a> by The Daily Wire. “That is no longer the case with regard to this Inspector General.”
On Saturday, Trump defended his decision to the press, saying Atkinson did “a terrible job” when he turned over a whistleblower complaint to congress that led to Democrats impeaching the president, Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-inspectorgeneral/hes-a-total-disgrace-trump-defends-firing-u-s-intel-watchdog-idUSKBN21M0KK">reported</a>.
“He took a fake report, and he brought it to Congress,” Trump said, referring to the fact that the whistleblower had no direct knowledge of what he was complaining about and was merely <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/yup-looks-big-anti-trump-whistleblower-story-was-ashe-schow">reporting rumors</a> he had heard from other people – many of which ended up being false and others gravely misconstrued.
Atkinson had deemed the whistleblower complaint of “urgent concern” and sent it to a Democrat-controlled congress determined to remove the president from office. Then-Acting Direct of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, however, said Atkinson was not required by law to turn the complaint over to congressional Democrats.
Further, the complaint was filed 18 days after the allegedly egregious phone call where Trump allegedly demanded a quid pro quo from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to a transcript released by the White House, no quid pro quo took place and Zelensky said he felt no pressure from Trump to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter over their Ukraine dealings. Trump brought up the Bidens in his phone call with Zelensky, but didn’t directly ask for anything to be done.
Democrats ran with the whistleblower complaint and impeached the president. They then waited nearly a month to turn over the article of impeachment to the senate, even though they claimed the matter was of immediate concern. Democrats then asked Senate Republicans to investigate people and reports that they didn’t bother to look into while conducting their impeachment inquiry in the House. Republicans refused and acquitted Trump.
The president’s firing of Atkinson did lead to some senate Republicans worrying about the ramifications. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), noted that Trump has absolute firing authority but suggested IG’s should be independent.
“Like any political appointee, the inspector general serves at the behest of the Executive,” Burr said in a statement released Saturday. “However, in order to be effective, the IG must be allowed to conduct his or her work independent of internal or external pressure.”
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), who has been loyal to Trump throughout his administration, was aggrieved by Atkinson’s firing.
“Congress has been crystal clear that written reasons must be given when IGs are removed for a lack of confidence,” he said. “More details are needed from the administration.”
For his part, Atkinson said in a statement on Sunday that he was fired for doing his job.
&#8220;It is hard not to think that the President’s loss of confidence in me derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial Inspector General,&#8221; he said, as <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/05/atkinson-trump-fired-whistleblower-complaint-167371">reported</a> by Politico, &#8220;and from my commitment to continue to do so.&#8221;

Trump

Trump Defends Firing ‘Terrible’ Intel IG: ‘He’s A Total Disgrace’

Donald Trump

National Intelligence

President Donald Trump has forced out the Intelligence Community Inspector General who shared the whistleblower complaint with Congress, which led to Democrats impeaching the president, who was acquitted in the Senate.
Michael Atkinson, the Intelligence Community Inspector General, will leave his post in 30 days and will be the latest casualty of Trump’s war on disloyal people within his administration. Trump was the one who appointed Atkinson.
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/yup-looks-big-anti-trump-whistleblower-story-was-ashe-schow">reported</a> last September, Atkinson determined a vague whistleblower complaint about Trump making a “promise” to a world leader was of “urgent concern” and sent the complaint to congress. Then-Acting Direct of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, however, said he was not required by law to turn the complaint over to congressional Democrats, who were looking for anything they could use to impeach Trump.
Maguire didn’t turn the complaint over because it was a rumor told to the whistleblower, who hadn’t listened in on the phone call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. The whistleblower filed his complaint 18 days after the allegedly egregious phone call.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced Democrats would open an impeachment inquiry before any hard evidence was released. The next day, Trump released a transcript of the phone call between him and Zelensky, which showed the president asking the Ukraine leader to cooperate with U.S. investigations into corruption in Ukraine. Trump also mentioned Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son’s lucrative job with a Ukraine energy company despite having no qualifications for the job.
This launched a months-long “investigation” into Trump and his alleged withholding of aid to Ukraine. Zelensky said he was not aware the aid was withheld and that Trump never demanded he look into the Bidens in exchange for the money. Further, Trump had withheld foreign aid from many countries – including Ukraine – before for various legitimate reasons.
In the end, Democrats impeached Trump in the House. They then waited nearly a month to turn over the articles of impeachment to the senate, even though they claimed removing Trump was urgent and necessary. They then staged a “somber” delivery of the articles as members of the party tried to keep from smiling as cameras rolled.
Democrats then demanded Republicans in the Senate call more witnesses than the House did, which the Senate refused. The Senate acquitted Trump after a short trial.
Trump informed congress of his decision to fire Atkinson in a letter sent Friday night and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/03/politics/trump-fires-inspector-general-michael-atkinson/index.html">obtained by CNN</a>.
&#8220;As is the case with regard to other positions where I, as President, have the power of appointment &#8230; it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general,&#8221; Trump wrote. &#8220;That is no longer the case with regard to this Inspector General.&#8221;
Though Atkinson won’t officially leave his post for 30 days, he has been put on administrative leave effective immediately, a congressional source told CNN.
Trump previously had removed several other people who worked against him on impeachment.
“Atkinson&#8217;s firing is the latest case of the Trump administration removing officials who took part in the President&#8217;s impeachment. Trump also removed Alexander Vindman, a then-National Security Council official who had testified in the House&#8217;s proceedings, along with Vindman&#8217;s twin brother, both of whom were reassigned out of the NSC, and fired then-US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland,” CNN reported. “Other officials, including then-US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and her acting successor, Bill Taylor, left the Trump administration after the impeachment proceedings.”
Trump has the authority to fire people in his administration at will, and is trying to ensure the people who work for him carry out his agenda instead of their own.

Trump Fires Intelligence Community Watchdog Who Helped Launch Democrats Impeachment Inquiry

Congressional Democrats are reportedly in the early stages of putting together a &#8220;9/11-style commission&#8221; to investigate the Trump administration&#8217;s response to the coronavirus pandemic, even though most of the nation is still in the midst of fighting the deadly disease.
<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/informal-discussions-begin-9-11-style-commission-coronavirus-response-n1173516?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma">NBC News</a> reports that &#8220;informal discussions&#8221; have begun on the possibility of forming up an investigative committee, and that plans are still &#8220;very preliminary.&#8221; The news organization also says, however, that the planning discussions have settled on at least two specific areas of focus: pandemic preparedness and the Trump Administration&#8217;s use of the National Defense Authorization Act.
&#8220;One option could be a plan to review the administration&#8217;s response in the annual National Defense Authorization Act,&#8221; two sources told NBC News. &#8220;The review would focus on lessons learned about the government&#8217;s preparedness and what the administration could have handled better, they said, adding that the goal would be to come up with a better plan to handle a pandemic in the future.&#8221;
With Congressional Democrats at the helm, though, it&#8217;s likely the investigation would be a &#8220;wholesale examination of the administration&#8217;s response&#8221; to the coronavirus crisis.
At least one prominent Democrat involved in the first set of impeachment inquiries, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), took to social media Wednesday to tease a possible House investigation, and announced that he&#8217;s &#8220;working on a possible bill&#8221; to create a &#8220;nonpartisan commission&#8221; on coronavirus.
&#8220;After Pearl Harbor and 9/11, we looked at what went wrong to learn from our mistakes,&#8221; Schiff tweeted. &#8220;Once we&#8217;ve recovered, we need a nonpartisan commission to review our response and how we can better prepare for the next pandemic. I’m working on a bill to do that.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
After Pearl Harbor and 9/11, we looked at what went wrong to learn from our mistakes.
Once we&#39;ve recovered, we need a nonpartisan commission to review our response and how we can better prepare for the next pandemic.
I’m working on a bill to do that.<a href="https://t.co/uqO3BwVldN">https://t.co/uqO3BwVldN</a>
&mdash; Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1245352023433887744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 1, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/after-the-pandemic-subsides-the-us-must-learn-from-its-mistakes/2020/03/31/99a37368-7387-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html">Washington Post op-ed published Wednesday</a>, Schiff claims that &#8220;the U.S. needs to know what went wrong.&#8221;
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who was left disappointed and embarrassed by the Senate&#8217;s decision to acquit the president on charges he inked a &#8220;quid-pro-quo&#8221;-style agreement with Ukrainian officials, trading information on presidential contender Joe Biden for foreign aid, also mentioned the possibility of an investigation on Sunday in an interview with CNN.
&#8220;What did he know, and when did he know it?&#8221; Pelosi asked about Trump. &#8220;That&#8217;s for an after-action review.&#8221;
Some Democrats may be getting a jump on an investigation, despite leadership&#8217;s pledge to wait until after the coronavirus issue has resolved. The House Oversight and Reform Committee announced last week that it plans to investigate why there was an initial lack of testing for the novel coronavirus, per NBC News.
&#8220;The committee&#8217;s top priority is the health and safety of the American people, so we have been working to push the administration to identify and fix problems and to share more accurate information with the public,&#8221; the committee&#8217;s chairwoman, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) told the outlet. &#8220;There is no doubt that the administration has mishandled this entire crisis, and our committee will certainly be engaged in robust oversight to review what happened and how to avoid these mistakes in the future.&#8221;
<a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1243891922856554501"> Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CA), suggested on social media</a> that he&#8217;d be open to probing whether the Trump Administration declined a request for masks and other personal protective equipment from Michigan&#8217;s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Whitmer, who first claimed the Trump Administration was instructing vendors not to send items to her state, has since walked back her statements, telling CNN that she meant she was competing with other states for Federal resources from a central stockpile.

Impeachment Part Two? Congressional Dems Exploring A ‘9/11 Style Commission’ To Investigate Trump Administration Coronavirus Response

Coronavirus

Democrats

Nancy Pelosi

President Trump said Tuesday that his response to coronavirus was not affected by his impeachment trial in the Senate — but said Democrats were.
The virus, known as SARS-CoV-2, was first detected in Wuhan, China on Dec. 1, according to Chinese officials. Trump&#8217;s Senate trial began Jan. 16, a day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) signed the articles of impeachment with more than a dozen commemorative pens.
The first <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001191">diagnosis</a> of the virus in the United States was Jan. 20. Trump&#8217;s 20-day trial ended Feb. 5 with his acquittal.
During his impeachment trial, the Trump administration created a coronavirus task force, which occurred on Jan. 27. Two days later, Trump chaired a meeting of the task force, which is now led by Vice President Mike Pence. On Jan. 31, the president enacted a travel ban on China, blocking all entries from the country, a move criticized by many Democrats. And on Feb. 4, he mentioned coronavirus in his State of the Union address.
Pelosi later tore Trump&#8217;s speech in half.
Democrats, meanwhile, had done little. On Feb. 5, the day Trump was acquitted, Democrats held a hearing, but only in a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Still, they have pointed out that Trump initially downplayed the virus, at one point saying it was already contained in the U.S.
In a radio interview, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was asked by host Hugh Hweitt: &#8220;In your experience in the Senate, was Senator [Tom] Cotton the first one to say &#8216;Hey, Leader, hey Mitch, this is a deadly situation that I do not trust to the Chinese?&#8217; Was he first?&#8221;
Said McConnell: &#8220;He was first, and I think Tom was right on the mark. And it came up while we were tied down on the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment. But Tom figured this out early, and he was absolutely right.&#8221;
On Tuesday, during the daily coronavirus task force press conference at the White House, Trump was asked, &#8220;Did [impeachment] divert your attention, or your team’s attention?&#8221;
Trump gave a lengthy response.
&#8220;Did it divert my attention? I think I’m getting A-pluses for the way I handled myself during the phony impeachment, OK? It was a hoax. But certainly I guess I thought of it. And I think I probably acted — I don’t think I would have done any better had I not been impeached, ok? I think that’s a tribute to something. Maybe it’s a tribute to me. But I don’t think I would have acted any differently, or I don’t think I would have acted any faster. But the Democrats, their whole life, whole being, their whole existence was to try and get me out of office any way they can, even if it was a phony deal — and it was a phony deal,&#8221; he said.
In his radio interview, McConnell also criticized Pelosi for “inserting herself” into Senate negotiations on the recently passed coronavirus stimulus bill.
“The way I thought it would work best would be for those of us in the Senate to try to get started on a bipartisan basis and we were doing really quite well, as you may recall, until the Speaker of the House decided to insert herself into the process,” the Senate leader said. That, he said, &#8220;created a couple of days of unnecessary partisan sniping.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/buy-american-trump-announces-more-affordable-car-rule-hits-obama-politically-correct-companies">‘Buy American!’: Trump Announces ‘More Affordable’ Car Rule; Hits Obama, ‘Politically Correct’ Companies</a>

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP-SOTU

Trump On Coronavirus Response: I Wasn’t Distracted By Impeachment — But The Democrats Were

2020 Election

Democratic Party

Despite <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joe-scarborough-says-everybody-but-trump-saw-coronavirus-coming-in-early-january-thats-not-true">revisionist claims</a> that everyone but President Donald Trump knew the coronavirus was serious in January, at that time, Democrats were focused solely on impeaching the president over a phone call.
National Review’s John McCormack has <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/the-senator-who-saw-the-coronavirus-coming/">an article</a> explaining that while Democrats and the media were focused on impeachment, one Republican Senator – Tom Cotton of Arkansas – was sounding the alarm on the coronavirus.
“On January 22, one day before the Chinese government <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/chinas-devastating-lies/">began</a> a quarantine of Wuhan to contain the spread of the virus, the Arkansas senator sent a <a href="https://www.cotton.senate.gov/files/documents/200122_Cotton%20HHS%20Letter_Wuhan%20Coronavirus%20FINAL.pdf">letter</a> to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar encouraging the Trump administration to consider banning travel between China and the United States and warning that the Communist regime could be covering up how dangerous the disease really was. That same day, he amplified his warnings on <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1219973310630563841">Twitter</a> and in an appearance on the radio program of Fox &amp; Friends host Brian Kilmeade,” McCormack wrote.
“At the time, the Senate impeachment trial was dominating the news cycle. The trial, which lasted from January 16 to February 5, had even blotted out coverage of the Democratic presidential primary in the days leading up to the Iowa caucuses. When the first classified briefing on the virus was held in the Senate on January 24, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/30/how-coronavirus-shook-congress-complacency-155058">only 14 senators reportedly showed up</a>,” he continued.
In <a href="https://www.cotton.senate.gov/files/documents/200128_Senator%20Cotton_Coronavirus_Letter.pdf">another letter</a>, written to Azar as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, Cotton warned that “no amount of screening [at airports] will identify a contagious-but-asymptomatic person afflicted with the coronavirus.” In that same letter, dated January 28, Cotton requested Americans in China be evacuated and that travel to and from the country be stopped.
On January 29, Cotton spoke to Trump about the virus, missing nearly three hours of the impeachment trial. Around that time, Cotton said the coronavirus outbreak was “the biggest and the most important story in the world.”
National Review spoke to Cotton about why he was sounding the alarm so early about the coronavirus when at the time it seemed contained to China and hadn’t infected many people.
“Two things struck me about China’s response,” he told the outlet. “First their deceit and their dishonesty going back to early December. And second, the extreme draconian measures they had taken. By the third week of January, they had more than 75 million people on lockdown. They were confined to their homes and apartments, otherwise they were arrested. In some cases, the front doors of those buildings were welded shut. All schools had shut down. Hong Kong had banned flights from the mainland. [These are] the kind of extreme, draconian measures that you would only take in a position of power in China if you were greatly worried about the spread of this virus.”
Two days after meeting with Cotton, Trump announced restrictions on commercial flights between American and China. Cotton told National Review that those who supported the restrictions were national security aides and that “most of his economic and public-health advisers were ambivalent at best about the travel ban.”
Cotton told the outlet he was also trying to get the administration “to be very aggressive and very flexible when it came to testing and diagnostic protocols. One consistent thing I had seen in the literature from past outbreaks is that the FDA and especially the CDC is unfortunately somewhat slow to act in these circumstances.”
Cotton said he discussed testing with Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and his deputy, Matthew Pottinger.
Cotton said that ultimately Trump bears responsibility for the CDC and FDA’s testing failures, as “sometimes you have to push very, very hard” to get through the bureaucracy. As to what happens now, Cotton said the virus needed to be contained before the economy can open up again.
“You can’t have a virus rampaging through society and expect the economy to open up, but you can’t have economic collapse and expect our health-care system to continue to work,” Cotton told National Review. “You have to get the virus under control before you gradually start reopening things like white-collar work and manufacturing capacity and low-density retail and ultimately high-density retail.”

Tom Cotton

While Democrats Pushed Impeachment, One Republican Senator Sounded Alarm On Coronavirus

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), who has led the charge against President Donald Trump since he was inaugurated, is fighting in court to keep secret the subpoenas he issued last year as part of Democrats’ impeachment investigation into the president.
Jerry Dunleavy <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/adam-schiff-fights-to-keep-impeachment-subpoena-records-secret">reported</a> at The Washington Examiner (my former employer) that Schiff has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, who sought access to “the controversial subpoenas issued for phone records,” that led to the revealing of contact between Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and journalist John Solomon, among others.
“[Schiff’s] legal team, led by Douglas Letter, the Democratic-led House’s general counsel, told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday that ‘these requests and subpoenas were integral to the Committee’s inquiry and consistent with its mandate to investigate and issue a report’ about whether Trump should be <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/analysis-trumps-ukraine-crowdstrike-conspiracy-theory-front-and-center-in-impeachment-hearing">impeached</a>,” Dunleavy reported.
Judicial Watch’s lawsuit had argued: “The records are of critical public importance as the subpoenas were issued without any lawful basis and violated the rights of numerous private citizens.” It further stated that “disclosure of the requested records would serve the public interest by providing information about the unlawful issuance of the subpoenas” and that “the requested records fall within the scope of the public’s right of access to governmental records.”
Schiff’s motion argued that Judicial Watch “has not demonstrated that the public interest in disclosure outweighs the House Defendants’ interest in non-disclosure,” adding that “it is unclear for what precise purpose” the conservative watchdog group wanted the records, claiming it “does not allege whose rights have been violated.”
More from Dunleavy:
<blockquote>Schiff’s lawyers cited four reasons why the court should dismiss the case: They claimed that “the doctrine of sovereign immunity” deprives the court of jurisdiction over House Democrats, argued the records sought by Judicial Watch “are absolutely protected by the Speech or Debate Clause” of the Constitution because they were obtained during <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/analysis-mueller-findings-underpin-democratic-articles-of-impeachment">impeachment,</a> asserted that the subpoena documents are not “public records” and thus aren’t subject to the common law right of public access, and said Judicial Watch “fails to state a claim because Congress has created a comprehensive scheme for the review of government records — the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) — that preempts the common law right sought to be vindicated by this litigation.”</blockquote>
As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-democrats-subpoenaed-and-published-phone-records-for-devin-nunes-rudy-giuliani-journalist-john-solomon">reported</a>, during the course of Schiff’s partisan investigation into whether Trump abused his power when speaking to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and then obstructed congress, phone records were selectively released to implicate Nunes, Giuliani, and Solomon in Trump’s alleged misdeeds.
Part of the attempt was to tie Solomon to Lev Parnas, who was indicted for lying and falsifying records, though Solomon spoke to Parnas for a story months before the indictment and journalists often have to speak to bad people for a story.
When The Daily Wire originally wrote that article, Nunes provided a response to Schiff’s publishing of the California Republican’s phone records.
“The Democrats’ impeachment charade is flailing, and desperate people do desperate things,” Nunes said. “So, Schiff suddenly published phone records of myself, current and former Republican staff members, and a journalist whose reporting he doesn’t like. It’s a gross abuse of power for a congressman to go after his political opponents, staffers, and reporters in this way, but it’s characteristic of the way Schiff has run this entire show. He’s going to need a long rehabilitation period when this is over.”

Adam Schiff Doesn’t Want You To Know About His Impeachment Subpoena Records

Devin Nunes

Judicial Watch

Someone prepare House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for some bad news: her impeachment efforts boosted the popularity of congressional Republicans so that now more Americans approve of congressional Republicans’ job performance than congressional Democrats’ performance.
That news comes from the <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/287633/approval-congressional-republicans-tops-democrats.aspx?utm_source=alert&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=morelink&amp;utm_campaign=syndication">latest Gallup poll</a> released on Tuesday, the first time Gallup has asked that question since the Dec. 18 impeachment of President Trump in the U.S. House of Representatives. 40% of respondents approved of congressional Republicans while 35% approved of congressional Democrats.
Gallup noted:
<blockquote>The rating for Republicans in Congress has risen six percentage points <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/268097/approval-members-parties-congress.aspx">since late October</a>, before the impeachment of President Donald Trump in the U.S. House of Representatives. Over the same period, congressional Democrats&#8217; approval rating has edged down three points and disapproval has climbed five points, from 57% to 62%. In general, congressional Democrats have historically had slightly higher job approval ratings than congressional Republicans.</blockquote>
Gallup pointed out that Republicans&#8217; approval of congressional Republicans rose 13 points to 76% since October while Democrats&#8217; 65% approval remained at the same general plateau.
Gallup also found that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell&#8217;s took a leap upward since October, when it languished at 27%; it now rests at 33%. Gallup stated, “Although, on a relative basis, McConnell&#8217;s favorability is not particularly high, it is his highest rating since Gallup&#8217;s first reading in 2010.”
Meanwhile, Pelosi&#8217;s unfavorable rating has risen from 50% in October to 55% now, almost as high as it was before the 2010 midterm elections when GOP retook the House, when it was 56%. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer? His 46% unfavorable rating is the highest it has ever been.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) was more popular with Democrats than Republicans. 56% of Democrats approved of him but only 23% of Republicans agreed. His favorable rating has risen 19 points with Democrats and plunged 22 points among Republicans.
Plenty of warnings were issued to the Democrats that an impeachment of Trump might backfire; in November FOX Business&#8217; Stuart Varney stated, “Time to set a few things straight about impeachment. Number one: it is a purely political strategy. The Democrats intend to damage the president as much as possible right before the election. It is entirely partisan; all Republicans voted no; all but two Democrats voted yes. No matter what the lawyers say, this is not a legal issue. Are we prepared to remove this president from office on the basis of a phone call to the Ukraine? Don’t be fooled by legalisms; that is a political question.”
Varney continued, “Two: Impeachment has little or no impact on the stock market; investors are not dancing to Speaker Pelosi’s tune; investors care about profits and the economy; trade and employment. This impeachment drive hasn’t scared Wall Street; Trump doesn’t scare Wall Street, but if Sanders or Warren look likely to win next year, watch out below … Number three: There will be a backlash. Unless a real ‘high crime’ is revealed, the impeachment drive will fail in the Senate, and when it fails, voters will ask what the Democrats achieved. All they’ve done is damage a president that they hate. That’s where I’m coming from. Impeachment is all vicious politics. It will fail, and voters won’t forget.”
Video of Varney’s prescience below:
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MIYGG6uNN1o" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

US-POLITICS-VOTE-MIDTERMS-DNC

Pelosi’s Impeachment Effort Backfires. Congressional GOP Now More Popular Than Dems. She Was Warned.

Congress

House Republicans

After months of the Democrats behaving as if John Bolton&#8217;s testimony would have somehow been the nail-in-the-coffin in President Trump&#8217;s impeachment trial, the former national security adviser finally broke his silence to disabuse people of that notion.
Speaking at Vanderbilt University this week, Bolton said that impeachment efforts against Trump were “grossly partisan,” while clarifying that his testimony would not have altered the president&#8217;s acquittal in the Senate.
&#8220;Bolton contended that the House &#8216;committed impeachment malpractice,&#8217; drawing some grumbling from the audience, saying &#8216;the process drove Republicans who might have voted for impeachment away because it was so partisan,'&#8221; reports the <a href="https://apnews.com/1c269df302e881e972137be6c128c88a">Associated Press</a>.
Prior to the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump, The New York Times <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/critics-hammer-bolton-after-book-pre-order-goes-live-following-leaked-manuscript-published-by-nyt">reported</a> on a leaked manuscript of Bolton’s book about his time working in the Trump administration. In the book, Bolton reportedly alleged that President Trump told him to freeze the $391 million in military aid to Ukraine until officials agreed to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s corruption and 2016 election meddling. The leak prompted Senate Democrats to demand that Bolton be called to testify in the impeachment trial, which Republicans blocked from happening. Though Bolton said he did not expect to have his testimony stopped, he ultimately believed it would have made no difference.
“People can argue about what I should have said and what I should have done,” Bolton said. “I would bet you a dollar right here and now, my testimony would have made no difference to the ultimate outcome.”
Bolton was appearing alongside Susan Rice, former Obama national security adviser, who said that her own book was subject to pre-clearance by the White House, adding nothing caused her “to refuse to share information with Congress or the public that I thought was of national import.”
“I can’t imagine withholding my testimony, with or without a subpoena,” Rice said. “I also can’t imagine, frankly, in the absence of being able to provide that information directly to Congress, not having exercised my First Amendment right to speak publicly at a time when my testimony or my experience would be relevant.”
Earlier this week, while speaking at Duke University, Bolton openly worried about his upcoming memoir being censored by the White House, which will touch upon hot-button issues, such as the president’s dealing with Ukraine.
“For all the focus on Ukraine and the impeachment trial and all that, to me, there are portions of the manuscript that deal with Ukraine, I view that like the sprinkles on the ice cream sundae in terms of what’s in the book,” Bolton <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/17/us/politics/john-bolton-trump-ukraine.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> the audience. “This is an effort to write history and I did it the best I can. We’ll have to see what comes out of the censorship.”
“I’m hoping ultimately I can get the book published,” he added. “I hope it’s not suppressed.”
During the same talk, Bolton said that Trump’s North Korea policy was “<a class="LinkWrapper LinkWrapper--external" href="https://twitter.com/GrahamDavidA/status/1229543949183807488">a wasted two years,</a>” and that talks to denuclearize the Kim Jong Un regime “are doomed to failure” since his only goal is to “break free” of sanctions.
“It was perfectly evident it was going to fail,” Bolton said, as reported by <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/john-bolton-blasts-failed-trump-policies-that-he-helped-implement?ref=home">The Daily Beast</a>. “There is not a single piece of evidence that the government of North Korea has made a strategic decision to give up the pursuit of nuclear weapons.”

Former White House Nat&#8217;l Security Adviser John Bolton Speaks At Duke University Forum

John Bolton Breaks Silence: Impeachment ‘Grossly Partisan,’ Testimony ‘Would Have Made No Difference’

Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi falsely claimed in an interview that aired on Monday that President Donald Trump was not acquitted by the U.S. Senate earlier this month.
&#8220;What about though, the fact that the president seems liberated &#8230; he was acquitted, his poll ratings are higher,&#8221; CNN&#8217;s Christiane Amanpour said before being interrupted by Pelosi.
&#8220;He was not, there was no acquittal,&#8221; Pelosi falsely claimed. &#8220;You can&#8217;t have an acquittal unless you have a trial, and you can&#8217;t have a trail when you have witnesses and documents.&#8221;
&#8220;So he can say he&#8217;s acquitted, and the headlines can say &#8216;acquitted,&#8217; but he&#8217;s impeached forever, branded with that and not vindicated,&#8221; Pelosi continued.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
This is delusional
Democrats refused to accept the results of 2016; refused to accept the results of Mueller witch hunt; and now are refusing to accept the results of their impeachment charade
The Senate acquitted <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> *forever* after hearing the House&#39;s own case! <a href="https://t.co/MQtxuB53Va">pic.twitter.com/MQtxuB53Va</a>
&mdash; Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) <a href="https://twitter.com/LizRNC/status/1229598760478629889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Later in the interview, Pelosi said, &#8220;I can&#8217;t even envision a situation where he would be re-elected, but we don&#8217;t take anything for granted. &#8230; but everybody knows that we must be unified in making sure that he does not have a second term.&#8221;
Pelosi continued, &#8220;Our country is great, the American people are wonderful, we&#8217;re a resilient country, we can withstand one term, but the destruction that he would do to the courts of our country and the environment &#8230; he must be defeated.&#8221;
Pelosi concluded by saying that when candidates are in the &#8220;arena&#8221; that &#8220;you have to be prepared to throw a punch, because you have to be prepared to take a punch, for the children.&#8221;
Pelosi&#8217;s claims were categorically false as Trump was acquitted in an official Senate trail from both of House Democrats&#8217; partisan articles of impeachment.
Pelosi is not the first Democrat member of Congress that has falsely claimed that Trump was not acquitted from Democrats&#8217; partisan articles of impeachment.
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) told CNN&#8217;s Wolf Blitzer the same thing earlier this month after Trump&#8217;s acquittal.
“The Senate has clearly spoken now, the president was acquitted,” CNN host Wolf Blitzer began. “Do you think your –”
“No! Wolf, (laughs), [Trump] wasn’t acquitted,” Hirono falsely claimed. “It was a rigged trial. You don’t get acquitted when you don’t even get to call witnesses or relevant witnesses or have the documents because the president stone walled all efforts on the part of the House to get the information they requested.”
“So, there you go,” Hirono continued. “It was a rigged trial, he can run around saying he was acquitted but you don’t get acquitted in a rigged trial.”
“Well, I just want to point out Senator, there was a roll call, guilty or not guilty, not guilty was the majority and the Chief Justice of the United States announced that he was acquitted, that he was not guilty,” Blitzer responded.
“But the American public knows that it was a rigged trial,” Hirono claimed without evidence. “So, okay you’re found not guilty in a rigged trial. I don’t think that they think this was all kosher, not it wasn’t. So, meanwhile you have the president crowing about it, which is totally expected, and now it’s anything goes for this president and this administration and all his enablers.”
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
You know who I go to for high level analysis? Sen. Mazie Hirono. Apparently Trump wasn&#39;t acquitted and she definitely doesn&#39;t suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. <a href="https://t.co/iuGfCYkY9W">pic.twitter.com/iuGfCYkY9W</a>
&mdash; (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) <a href="https://twitter.com/jasonrantz/status/1225574246211960832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Speaker Pelosi Speaks To Media In Weekly Press Conference

Pelosi: Trump Was Not Acquitted By Senate, He’s ‘Branded’ As ‘Impeached Forever’

President Trump kicked off Friday by unloading on two of the more moderate senators — one with a D next to his name and another with an R — for their votes in in the Senate impeachment trial.
When it came time for the Senate to rule on the two articles of impeachment, which were passed by the Democrat-controlled House without a single Republican vote, only one senator voted against the party line: frequent Trump-critic Utah Republican Mitt Romney, who voted &#8220;guilty&#8221; on &#8220;abuse of power&#8221; (which failed 48-52), but voted to acquit Trump on &#8220;obstruction of Congress&#8221; (which failed along party lines, 47-53).
One of the Democrats most likely to vote to acquit Trump was West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who at one point seemed to indicate that he might move to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-democrat-senator-asks-democrats-to-censure-trump-instead-of-convict">censure</a> the president rather than vote to remove him. In the end, however, Manchin fell in line with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), voting guilty on both charges last week.
In a pair of tweets Friday morning, Trump expressed both surprise and disappointment with Manchin for turning out to be what he described as a &#8220;puppet&#8221; for the Democratic leadership. The president also worked in a shot at Romney, with whom he&#8217;s been publicly feuding for months, and who explained his &#8220;guilty&#8221; vote by citing his religious faith. &#8220;I am a profoundly religious person,&#8221; said Romney in a statement ahead of the vote. &#8220;I take an oath before God as enormously consequential.&#8221;
&#8220;I was very surprised [and] disappointed that Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted against me on the Democrat’s totally partisan Impeachment Hoax,&#8221; Trump wrote. &#8220;No President has done more for the great people of West Virginia than me (Pensions), and that will always continue.&#8221;
&#8220;Every Republican Senator except Romney, many highly religious people, all very smart, voted against the Impeachment Hoax,&#8221; Trump added before returning to his Manchin criticism. &#8220;[Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)] was all in (a great person). I was told by many that Manchin was just a puppet for Schumer &amp; Pelosi. That’s what he is!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&#8230;.always continue. Every Republican Senator except Romney, many highly religious people, all very smart, voted against the Impeachment Hoax. <a href="https://twitter.com/SenCapito?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenCapito</a> was all in (a great person). I was told by many that Manchin was just a puppet for Schumer &amp; Pelosi. That’s what he is!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1228339437685395458?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Trump&#8217;s reference to &#8220;highly religious people&#8221; was a follow-up to his thinly veiled criticism of Romney at the National Prayer Breakfast last Thursday following his acquittal by the Senate the day before.
&#8220;As everybody knows, my family, our great country, and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-trump-takes-aim-at-romney-pelosi-at-national-prayer-breakfast">said</a> Trump (video below) &#8220;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.&#8221;
After praising &#8220;courageous Republican politicians and leaders&#8221; for pushing back against the Democrats&#8217; impeachment campaign, Trump took a swipe at Romney without mentioning his name. &#8220;I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong,&#8221; he said.
Trump then hit House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who famously said she regularly prays for him. &#8220;Nor do I like people who say ‘I pray for you’ when they know that that’s not so,&#8221; said Trump.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-fbi-director-just-admitted-surveillance-of-my-campaign-was-illegal">Trump: FBI Director Just Admitted Surveillance Of My Campaign Was Illegal</a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
President Trump: &quot;I don&#39;t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. Nor do I like people who say &#39;I pray for you&#39; when they know that that&#39;s not so. So many people have been hurt and we can&#39;t let that go on.&quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NationalPrayerBreakfast?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NationalPrayerBreakfast</a> <a href="https://t.co/79XCLpD7GP">pic.twitter.com/79XCLpD7GP</a>
&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1225423944410451968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

President Trump

Trump Expresses ‘Surprise’ By ‘Puppet’ Manchin, Hits ‘Religious’ Romney

Joe Manchin

Mitt Romney

West Virginia

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) told CNN&#8217;s Jake Tapper on Wednesday that House Democrats could seek to impeach President Donald Trump again in the near future after he tweeted about the harsh sentencing recommendations for Roger Stone.
&#8220;Might you impeach him over this, over Roger Stone and the sentencing?&#8221; Tapper asked.
&#8220;We&#8217;re not going to take our options off table,&#8221; Swalwell responded. &#8220;We don&#8217;t wake up in the morning wanting to impeach him. We want to work with him on prescription drugs, background checks and infrastructure. But we&#8217;re not going to let him just torch this democracy because he thinks that he&#8217;s been let off once and we&#8217;re not going to do something about it.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe title="Eric Swalwell On Jake Tapper" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JMglmDtV1W4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>TAPPER: Moments ago, President Trump said he learned lessons from impeachment. The lesson he learned? That Democrats are crooked, vicious, and they should not have pursued his impeachment.
Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California. He serves on both the Intelligence and Judiciary committees.
Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.
Tell me what your take is on what President Trump said he learned in terms of the lessons learned.
REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): He is learning the wrong lessons.
He&#8217;s acting to now corrupt the Department of Justice.
And we&#8217;re going to act immediately. We had a meeting today on the Judiciary Committee, an emergency meeting, to decide what&#8217;s next. And so we&#8217;re going to bring the attorney general in. We&#8217;re also going to conduct oversight of what&#8217;s going on with the Stone sentencing.
But, Jake, I will just say this. He could just pardon Roger Stone. It would be wrong to do that, but to infect his corruption into the DOJ, I think that&#8217;s what&#8217;s so concerning to so many people who want independence among our prosecutions.
TAPPER: So, Barr has announced that he will come before your committee, the House Judiciary Committee, in March.
SWALWELL: That&#8217;s right.
TAPPER: You&#8217;re on the committee. What do you want to ask him?
SWALWELL: Well, we want to know, who&#8217;s making these decisions? Are
prosecutors still independent? What is going on with other investigations into Trump officials?
Because now we know, in the 2020 election, Barr has the ability to sign off on any investigation. He has to sign off on any investigation into a campaign. And so the erosion of independence among prosecutors is our chief concern.
TAPPER: The sentencing of Roger Stone will ultimately be left up to Judge Amy Berman Jackson.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa said &#8212; quote &#8212; &#8220;I think the judge is going to take care of all that, and nobody&#8217;s going to question the judge&#8217;s decision.&#8221;
What do you think?
SWALWELL: I agree.
She&#8217;s an independent judge. I should not be recommending a sentence. The president of the United States should not be recommending a sentence. She should be given the ability to make that decision herself, based on the facts of the case and where Roger Stone should go based on the sentencing guidelines.
TAPPER: Even some Trump critics said that the seven-to-nine-year recommendation was harsh and excessive.
Do you question that? Do you disagree?
SWALWELL: Well, it fits within the sentencing guidelines.
He should not be treated any differently than anyone else who committed so many crimes and also went to trial. Jake, remember, in our criminal justice system, you are rewarded for taking responsibility early in the proceedings.
If you go to trial, and you put up a bogus defense, or you try and mislead the court, you can be punished for that in your sentence. And that is what is going to happen here, I think.
TAPPER: The Justice Department and the White House and President Trump all deny that President Trump directly told Attorney General Barr what to do or directly coordinated with him.
As always, the president did send out a tweet. Is that enough to object to?
SWALWELL: Yes.
And, as Michael Cohen told our committee, President Trump knows, in many of the mob-like ways that he operates, that he doesn&#8217;t have to say something directly, that, indirectly, he can signal what he wants someone to do.
That was how Cohen said he would communicate with the president. And I think by tweeting out that, Attorney General Barr got the message.
TAPPER: Take a listen to Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Are you concerned that four prosecutors felt so strongly about it that they resigned?
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): No.
QUESTION: That they got off the case?
CORNYN: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Cornyn not concerned.
What do you think? Are you concerned?
SWALWELL: Yes, I&#8217;m very concerned that the independence of prosecutors, the ability of judges to just weigh the facts and the evidence is eroding, that the president&#8217;s taken a wrecking ball to that.
And he was just impeached for that. We&#8217;re not going to stop holding him accountable. We have learned, when you hold him accountable, you can actually stop the corruption, whether he&#8217;s removed or not.
And, ultimately, it&#8217;s going to be for the voters to judge in November.
TAPPER: Might you impeach him over this, over Roger Stone and the sentencing?
SWALWELL: We&#8217;re not going to take our options off table.
We don&#8217;t wake up in the morning wanting to impeach him. We want to work with him on prescription drugs, background checks and infrastructure.
But we&#8217;re not going to let him just torch this democracy because he thinks that he&#8217;s been let off once and we&#8217;re not going to do something about it.
TAPPER: Congressman Eric Swalwell, Democrat of California, thanks so much.
SWALWELL: Thanks, Jake. My pleasure.</blockquote>

Eric Swalwell

Democrat Eric Swalwell: We May Impeach Trump Again Soon

According to CBS News&#8217; sources, Department of Justice officials, at the direction of Attorney General William Barr, have been &#8220;quietly&#8221; reviewing over the past &#8220;several weeks&#8221; records and documents related to the &#8220;Ukraine matter,&#8221; including documents provided by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Citing a source familiar with the matter, CBS News&#8217; Catherine Herridge and Clare Hymes <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/justice-department-has-been-reviewing-ukraine-material-for-several-weeks-source-says/">reported</a> Tuesday that &#8220;staff outside of Main Justice in Washington have been assigned by Attorney General William Barr to review the Ukraine matter, adding that the review is being handled by the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office in Pittsburgh and is separate from U.S. Attorney John Durham&#8217;s probe into the origins of the FBI&#8217;s Russia probe.&#8221;
Among the materials reportedly being reviewed by Justice Department officials at Barr&#8217;s behest are some provided by Giuliani, who was specifically mentioned by President Trump in his famous July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and who appears to have served as point man for the pursuit of investigations into allegations of corruption involving former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, and Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.
Herridge and Hymes note that that investigation also &#8220;goes beyond&#8221; matters related to the Bidens, according to the source.
In the call which sparked the Democrats&#8217; impeachment campaign, President Trump asked Zelensky to &#8220;look into&#8221; the allegations involving the Bidens and Burisma. After a whistleblower complaint accused Trump of attempting to pressure Ukraine into investigating his political rival, Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry resulting in two articles of impeachment, which passed in the House but for which Trump was acquitted by the Senate.
As Herridge and Hymes reports, the allegations involving the Bidens and Ukraine &#8220;have gained new life&#8221; since Trump&#8217;s acquittal, with Barr stating Monday that the department has established an &#8220;intake process in the field&#8221; for material concerning Ukraine.
During the impeachment trial in the Senate, Trump&#8217;s lawyers repeatedly brought up the issue of corruption in Ukraine, around which Trump&#8217;s request to Zelensky centered. At one point, President Trump’s deputy counsel Patrick Philbin connected the &#8220;Ukraine matter&#8221; to the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the impeachment.
“If the whistleblower, as is alleged in some public reports, actually did work for then-Vice President Biden on Ukraine issues, exactly what was his role?” asked Philbin. “What was his involvement when issues were raised — we know from testimony that questions were raised — about the potential conflict of interest that the vice president then had when his son was sitting on the board of Burisma. Was the alleged whistleblower involved in any of that and in making decisions to not do anything related to that? Did he have some reason to want to put the deep-six on any question raising any issue about what went on with the Bidens and Burisma and firing Shokin and withholding a billion dollars in loan guarantees and enforcing a very explicit quid pro quo — you won’t get this billion dollars until you fire him? We don’t know. And because Manager [Rep. Adam] Schiff was guiding this whole process, because he was the chairman in charge of directing the inquiry and directing it away from any of those questions, that creates a real due process defect in the record that has been presented here.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-fbi-director-just-admitted-surveillance-of-my-campaign-was-illegal">Trump: FBI Director Just Admitted Surveillance Of My Campaign Was Illegal</a>
<div class="content-recirculation__wrapper "></div>

Joe Hunter Biden

Report: Justice Department Has Been ‘Quietly’ Reviewing Ukraine Materials For Several Weeks, Separate From Durham Probe

Department of Justice

Hunter Biden

Joe Biden

William Barr

The following is satirical.
The news media is tremendously unhappy about Donald Trump’s acquittal in the Senate on charges he did something or other that was very bad for some reason.
At The Washington Post, where Democracy dies in darkness after Post editors throw it downstairs where Post reporters kick it until it stops moving, editorialists waxed eloquent on the tragic consequences that will follow Trump’s acquittal as surely as Ted Knight follows Doris Day.
Post Editorialist Nimrod Blankley wrote, “After Bill Clinton was impeached, he apologized for committing adultery, then perjury, then lying about committing adultery then perjury, then letting Bin Laden get away because he was so busy committing adultery then perjury then lying about it, but not once has Donald Trump apologized for any of those things, proving he’s a much worse person than that Democrat president we all remember so fondly because he helped create an economy almost half as good as this one.”
At The New York Times, a former newspaper, Editor-in-Chief Blithering Prevarication the Third, wrote, “Once a President can do whatever Trump is accused of doing with impunity, we are living in Nazi Germany and I myself am being carted away to what would be a concentration camp if it didn’t have stuffed armchairs and an excellent Cabernet Sauvignon and happen to be my apartment.”
At CNN, Anchorwoman Shapely Nudnick put on her Very Serious Face in order to deliver her Very Serious Opinion to the CNN audience, who was running to catch his connection to Wichita. Miss Nudnick said, “Who told the Democrats they should go off half-cocked and impeach Trump without even charging him with a real crime? Okay, it was me, but why did they listen? I mean, look at me. Do you think I got this job because of my brains? Don’t be absurd.”
Many commentators feel Trump’s acquittal will cause even more deaths than Global Warming which, they say, is surely going to destroy the planet in five years ago.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pelosi-demands-twitter-facebook-pull-viral-speech-ripping-video-turning-point-usa-responds">Pelosi Demands Twitter, Facebook Pull Viral ‘Speech Ripping’ Video; Group Behind It Responds</a>

President Elect Trump Continues His &#8220;Thank You Tour&#8221; In Grand Rapids, Michigan

Commentators Say Trump’s Acquittal May Cause Even More Deaths Than Net Neutrality [Satire]

Media Bias

Satire

Moments after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-romney-confirms-yes-vote-on-witnesses-issues-statement-on-what-decided-it">voting</a> with Democrats to call for additional witnesses in the impeachment trial, Republican Sen. Mitt Romney (UT) found himself disinvited from this year&#8217;s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) by the event&#8217;s organizer. The president of the group has since said in a follow-up explanation about the decision that the senator was disinvited in part out of concern for his &#8220;physical safety&#8221; at the event.
Romney was the lone Republican to vote guilty on either of the Democrats&#8217; two articles of impeachment against President Trump — in fact, he was the only senator from either party to break ranks at all during the two votes. Ahead of his &#8220;guilty&#8221; vote, which he described as an act of &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/read-it-heres-the-note-romney-gave-to-every-republican-explaining-why-he-was-going-to-vote-guilty-with-democrats">an act of conviction</a>,&#8221; Romney joined with fellow moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins (ME) to join Senate Democrats in voting for more witnesses and documents in the trial.
The vote sparked instant blowback from American Conservative Union president Matt Schlapp, who tweeted in response: &#8220;The &#8216;extreme conservative&#8217; and Junior Senator from the great state of Utah, [Sen. Romney], is formally NOT invited to [CPAC 2020].&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING: The &quot;extreme conservative&quot; and Junior Senator from the great state of Utah, <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorRomney?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenatorRomney</a> is formally NOT invited to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CPAC2020?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CPAC2020</a>. <a href="https://t.co/f35tYy73V1">pic.twitter.com/f35tYy73V1</a>
&mdash; Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) <a href="https://twitter.com/mschlapp/status/1223379382003294208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In its initial report on the CPAC disinvite, <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/02/01/cpac-uninvites-mitt-romney-after-his-impeachment-witness-vote/">The New York Post</a> noted that Romney &#8220;used CPAC as a platform to woo the party’s base as he sought the Republican nomination in 2012, where he labeled himself a &#8216;severely conservative governor.'&#8221;
&#8220;On my watch, we fought hard and prevented Massachusetts from becoming the Las Vegas of gay marriage,&#8221; Romney <a href="https://nypost.com/2012/02/11/the-mitts-are-off/">told</a> the CPAC audience in 2012. &#8220;I fought against long odds in a deep-blue state, but I was a severely conservative governor.&#8221;
In an update on the CPAC disinvite story, the <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/02/10/cpac-chair-says-romney-was-uninvited-because-physical-safety-would-be-at-risk/">Post</a> noted that Schlapp recently elaborated on the decision, citing fear for Romney&#8217;s &#8220;physical safety&#8221; as a reason he is not invited to attend the event at the end of February.
&#8220;This year, I’d actually be afraid for his physical safety, people are so mad at him,&#8221; Schlapp told former Fox News host Greta Van Susteren on her show &#8220;<a href="https://www.fullcourtgreta.com/video/2020/02/09/cpac-chairman-explains-why-mitt-romeny-is-not-invited-cpac-conference/">Full Court Press</a>&#8221; on Saturday.
&#8220;The biggest problem we have with Mitt Romney is not that he’s just an individual following his political course,&#8221; Schlapp added. &#8220;It’s the fact that he’s lied so continuously to conservatives.&#8221;
&#8220;When he needed a conservative like Donald Trump to endorse him in his Senate primary last time, he wanted him in,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;But then, when he gets the Senate job, he wants to distance himself from Trump. He’s a use-’em-and-lose-’em kind of guy.&#8221;
Many on the right, including some of his Republican colleagues, have slammed Romney for his decision to side with the Democrats, including on their first article of impeachment, &#8220;abuse of power,&#8221; which ultimately failed 48-52 (Romney voted to &#8220;not guilty&#8221; on the second article, &#8220;obstruction of Congress,&#8221; which failed 47-53). But the frequent Trump-critic says that he was simply doing his duty as an &#8220;impartial&#8221; juror and voting his conscience.
&#8220;As a Senator-juror, I swore an oath, before God, to exercise ‘impartial justice,'&#8221; Romney said in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/read-it-heres-the-note-romney-gave-to-every-republican-explaining-why-he-was-going-to-vote-guilty-with-democrats">statement</a> ahead of his vote. “I am a profoundly religious person. I take an oath before God as enormously consequential. I knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the President, the leader of my own party, would be the most difficult decision I have ever faced. I was not wrong.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/read-it-heres-the-note-romney-gave-to-every-republican-explaining-why-he-was-going-to-vote-guilty-with-democrats">READ IT: Here’s The Note Romney Gave To Every Republican Ahead Of The Impeachment Vote</a>

Romney Uninvited To CPAC For Fear Of His ‘Physical Safety’

CPAC

For perhaps the first time during his entire presidency, it seems reasonably clear that President Donald Trump is a favorite to win a second term at the ballot box this November.
For a myriad of reasons, Trump has always been an ahistorical president. He famously lost the national popular vote in the 2016 presidential election, instead relying on a Rust Belt-centric coalition to secure a narrow victory in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-electoral-college-under-assault-heres-why-josh-hammer">Electoral College</a>. The somewhat lopsided nature of the final Electoral College margin obscured the fact that Trump&#8217;s victory was only due to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/the-election-came-down-to-77-744-votes-in-pennsylvania-wisconsin-and-michigan-updated">a mere 77,000+ voters</a> spread across Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. And Trump&#8217;s job approval rating average has never once risen above 50%, which has oftentimes been viewed as a marker presidential incumbents strive to hit in order to feel comfortable about their chances for re-election.
The president&#8217;s margin for error, in short, is very slim. And while the Democrats&#8217; overly zealous <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/31/this-whole-pathetic-impeachment-effort-was-worse-than-a-waste-of-time/">partisan impeachment stun</a>t has no <a href="https://www.axios.com/trump-impeachment-poll-michigan-pennsylvania-wisconsin-6776a580-9a0f-4362-a8a7-e6180f18ed14.html">doubt disproportionately hurt Democrats</a> across many of the key Rust Belt swing states, the reality is that his approval rating in many of those same swing states was <a href="https://morningconsult.com/tracking-trump-2/">was lagging far behind</a> a comfortable level prior to the impeachment saga&#8217;s onset.
But despite all these trends, there now seems to be an emerging consensus that Trump is a <a href="https://www.predictit.org/markets/detail/3698/Who-will-win-the-2020-US-presidential-election">favorite, albeit a slight one</a>, to be re-elected this fall. This emerging consensus is correct, and there are a few reasons for that.
The president had a <a href="https://theresurgent.com/2020/02/06/the-democrats-terrible-week-donald-trumps-best-week/">historically good week</a> last week. In a span of three days, the Democratic Party exhibited an unforeseen level of gross institutional incompetence in the dumpster fire that was their botched Iowa caucuses process, Trump gave a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-trump-successfully-framed-the-stark-2020-election-choice-during-last-nights-sotu-address">very well-received</a> State of the Union Address, and he was acquitted on each of House Democrats&#8217; two adopted articles of impeachment. Furthermore, the post-Iowa fallout and crystallizing polling consensus for tomorrow&#8217;s New Hampshire Democratic Party presidential primary have both been simply disastrous for erstwhile frontrunner Joe Biden — the leading purported &#8220;moderate&#8221; of the Democratic field who many promoted as the candidate perhaps best positioned to defeat Trump in the general election.
The Democratic Party also evinced for all to see, during the State of the Union Address, just how substantively out of touch it is with the desired political agenda of the median <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-who-will-stand-for-the-forgotten-american">&#8220;forgotten&#8221;</a> American. Democrats routinely refused to applaud objectively salutary data about the extraordinary state of the American economy — an economy, that is, about which Americans have a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americans-are-more-optimistic-about-the-economy-than-they-have-been-in-decades">higher collective sense of optimism</a> than they have had in decades. Democrats at the State of the Union Address also audibly booed during the president&#8217;s powerful excoriation of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-hammer-on-tipping-point-with-liz-wheeler-sanctuary-cities-are-neo-confederate">neo-Confederate</a>, <a href="https://cis.org/Camarota/NonCitizens-Committed-Disproportionate-Share-Federal-Crimes-201116">criminal-mollycoddling</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-why-no-one-pointing-out-sanctuary-cities-josh-hammer">illegal</a> entities known as sanctuary cities. It is perhaps difficult to imagine a more out of touch moment than a political party opposing the deportation of violent illegal aliens who commit such heinous crimes as rape or homicide; alas, the modern Democratic Party, whose leading presidential candidates seem to love debating no issue more than they love debating whether to outlaw private health insurance for over a hundred million Americans, has become an utter <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-democratic-party-has-become-parody-itself-josh-hammer">parody of itself</a>.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/who-will-win-democratic-primary-latest-2020-josh-hammer">leading candidate</a> for the Democrats&#8217; 2020 presidential nomination is an unvarnished communist who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-bernie-sanders-entire-worldview-grotesquely-josh-hammer">literally honeymooned</a> in the former Soviet Union. Imagine the kind of person who gets married and decides to honeymoon abroad not in a Caribbean resort or a Pacific island, but in a freezing, gulag-riddled, totalitarian <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/100-years-of-communismand-100-million-dead-1510011810">beacon of pure evil</a> that, at the time of the honeymoon, happens to be in an existential state of &#8220;mutually assured destruction&#8221; with the United States. Seriously, try to imagine the kind of human being who does such a thing. That kind of human being is now the leading candidate to win the presidential nomination of the party of Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy.
Trump&#8217;s margin for error remains slender, and his <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval-6179.html">average job approval rating</a> still has a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/11/06/trump-is-down-far-out/">bit of work to do</a> to allow his campaign operatives to sleep well at night. But for the first time of his presidency, it does seem that he is a favorite to win a second term.
&nbsp;
RELATED: <a href="http://lp.dailywire.com/getelectionwire/">Sign up here for Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer’s weekly newsletter on election news, polling data, and analysis: “Election Wire”</a>

President Trump Hosts Keep America Great Rally

HAMMER: Trump Is Finally A Favorite For Re-Election

Iowa Caucuses

Republican Party

State of the Union

Actor Brad Pitt made a political statement at the Oscars on Sunday about President Donald Trump&#8217;s Senate impeachment trial and was subsequently mocked online by critics.
Pitt, who won Best Supporting Actor for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” said during his acceptance speech, &#8220;They told me I only have 45 seconds up here, which is 45 seconds more than the Senate gave John Bolton this week.&#8221;
Referencing the director of the movie, Quentin Tarantino, Pitt continued, &#8220;I&#8217;m thinking maybe Quentin does a movie about it and in the end the adults do the right thing.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oscars?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Oscars</a> Moment: Brad Pitt wins Best Supporting Actor for <a href="https://twitter.com/OnceInHollywood?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@OnceInHollywood</a> <a href="https://t.co/TSGjMB3v8P">pic.twitter.com/TSGjMB3v8P</a>
&mdash; The Academy (@TheAcademy) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheAcademy/status/1226680327835242497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Following his acceptance speech, Pitt was confronted about it by a reporter who said, &#8220;Some unkind souls have suggested that you had a writer throughout the speeches this award season, say it ain&#8217;t so.&#8221;
&#8220;Well, no, I&#8217;ve actually, historically I&#8217;ve always been really tentative about speeches, like, they make me nervous,&#8221; Pitt <a href="https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1226685290980364288">responded</a>. &#8220;So, this round I figured if we&#8217;re going to do this, like, put, like, some real work into it and try to get comfortable and, and this is a result of that. Um, no I definitely right them, I have some funny friends, I have some very, very funny friends that help me with some laughs but, but no it&#8217;s got to come from the heart.&#8221;
Another reporter asked, &#8220;Tonight, you did have your political reference, what kind of prompted you to go that way?
Pitt responded, &#8220;I was really disappointed with this week and I think when gamesmanship trumps doing the right thing, it&#8217;s a sad day and I don&#8217;t think we should let it slide and I&#8217;m very serious about that.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Brad Pitt on why he chose to get political in his acceptance speech: “I was really disappointed with this week… I don’t think we should let it slide and I’m very serious about that” <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oscars?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Oscars</a> <a href="https://t.co/LGLoviQ3Xn">pic.twitter.com/LGLoviQ3Xn</a>
&mdash; Variety (@Variety) <a href="https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1226689481689817088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Critics quickly responded to Pitt&#8217;s remarks online, noting his apparent lack of knowledge about the impeachment process and what happened.
British news personality Piers Morgan said, &#8220;Took 10 seconds for the first winner (Brad Pitt) to bash President Trump. Only surprised it took that long. As always, this will help Trump not hurt him.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Took 10 seconds for the first winner (Brad Pitt) to bash President Trump. Only surprised it took that long. As always, this will help Trump not hurt him. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oscars2020?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Oscars2020</a>
&mdash; Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) <a href="https://twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/1226677613826981888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Fox News host Greg Gutfeld said, &#8220;I have to hand it to Brad Pitt for coming up with that brave political statement extemporaneously, without any help from various speech-writing agencies that his people definitely did not contact.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
i have to hand it to Brad Pitt for coming up with that brave political statement extemporaneously, without any help from various speech-writing agencies that his people definitely did not contact.
&mdash; GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) <a href="https://twitter.com/greggutfeld/status/1226677530280812544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Media personality Larry Elder responded, &#8220;Brad Pitt, winner of Best Supporting Actor &#8230; made a crack about John Bolton not testifying before the Senate during the Trump impeachment trial. Apparently, Pitt is unaware that Bolton has REFUSED to testify without a subpoena.&#8221;
Actress Alana Stewart added, &#8220;The first acceptance speech has to have a political jab? Can’t we just have one award ceremony without offending half the viewers? Newsflash, Hollywood, most people don’t care about your political views.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The first acceptance speech has to have a political jab?Can’t we just have one award ceremony without offending half the viewers? Newsflash, Hollywood, most people don’t care about your political views. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BradPitt?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BradPitt</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oscars?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Oscars</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oscars2020?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Oscars2020</a> <a href="https://t.co/CLVTGOs7Ns">https://t.co/CLVTGOs7Ns</a>
&mdash; Alana Stewart (@AlanaKStewart) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlanaKStewart/status/1226681435240587264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Fox News contributor Tomi Lahren tweeted, “Brad Pitt, &#8216;They told me I only have 45 seconds up here, which is 45 seconds more than the Senate gave John Bolton this week.&#8217; Look, TDS and @realDonaldTrump have now made the Left cozy up to John Bolton. Their illness knows no bounds!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Brad Pitt, “They told me I only have 45 seconds up here, which is 45 seconds more than the Senate gave John Bolton this week.”
Look, TDS and <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> have now made the Left cozy up to John Bolton. Their illness knows no bounds!
&mdash; Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomiLahren/status/1226685026881789952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Media personality Dana Loesch mocked Pitt, writing, &#8220;Maybe in Quentin’s movie he’ll explore why House Dems didn’t call more relevant witnesses during their investigation.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Maybe in Quentin’s movie he’ll explore why House Dems didn’t call more relevant witnesses during their investigation ¯_( ツ)_/¯ <a href="https://t.co/WNsYAeRIdH">https://t.co/WNsYAeRIdH</a>
&mdash; Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1226677932216782848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

US-ENTERTAINMENT-FILM-OSCARS-PRESS ROOM

Brad Pitt Makes Political Statement At Oscars, Gets Mocked By Critics

Brad Pitt

Hollywood

Oscars

During the “Weekend Update” segment of “Saturday Night Live” this week, head writers and co-anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che lambasted President Trump over his acquittal in the United States Senate and mocked radio host Rush Limbaugh, who was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom during Tuesday’s State of the Union.
“The day after the Senate vote, President Trump gave a speech at the White House, which he called a celebration,” said Che. “Let’s take a look.”
The screen then showed footage from the moment when former football player O.J. Simpson was found “not guilty” of the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson Brown and the murder of Ronald Goldman. In the clip, Simpson smiles and raises his hand in the air upon being found “not guilty.”
The “SNL” audience reacted with laughter and groans.
“Oh, that’s the wrong clip. Here’s the actual one,” Che chuckled before playing a series of snippets from Trump’s actual post-acquittal speech in which the president slammed Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), calling them “horrible” people.
The snippets also included Trump calling former FBI Director James Comey a “sleazebag,” and referring to the Russia investigation as “bulls***.”
After the clip, Che noted that the audience for the speech “consisted of his legal team and Republican lawmakers because I guess that circle ain’t gonna j*** itself.”
The first mention of Rush Limbaugh was harmless enough, with Jost saying that the president awarding the conservative radio host the Medal of Freedom, as well as celebrating the new Space Force, was “predicted by a MadLib I did in 1992.”
The following joke from Michael Che got vicious.
“During the State of the Union, President Trump, in a touching moment, awarded Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Che began. “And then immediately after the speech, in a more touching moment, Rush traded the medal for a bottle of Oxy.”
After audience laughter and groans, Che followed up, saying, “Now, say what you want about Rush Limbaugh,” then stopped speaking, and looked down.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JDlguuL0yEs?start=60" width="720" height="385" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
For the uninitiated, Rush Limbaugh <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/high-school-teacher-on-leave-after-tweet-celebrating-limbaughs-cancer-diagnosis-its-awesome-that-hes-dying">announced</a> during his radio show on Monday that he had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.
“I have to tell you something today that I wish I didn’t have to tell you,” he said. “I have been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. Diagnosis confirmed by two medical institutions back on January 20th.”
The radio host was subsequently invited to attend President Trump’s State of the Union address, during which he was presented with the Medal of Freedom.
According to Limbaugh, while he was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/limbaugh-returns-after-cancer-announcement-explains-how-trump-talked-him-into-attending-sotu">aware</a> that he would be presented with the award itself, he believed that it would happen weeks later at the White House. When it was awarded to him during SOTU, he was clearly stunned.
Micahel Che’s joke about “Oxy” was in reference to Limbaugh’s previous addiction to the drug. In 2003, after reports surfaced that Limbaugh was addicted to OxyContin and other painkillers, the host confessed on his radio program.
Limbaugh <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rush-limbaughs-statement/">stated</a> in part:
<blockquote>I am not making any excuses. You know, over the years athletes and celebrities have emerged from treatment centers to great fanfare and praise for conquering great demons. They are said to be great role models and examples for others. Well, I am no role model. I refuse to let anyone think I am doing something great here, when there are people you never hear about, who face long odds and never resort to such escapes. They are the role models. I am no victim and do not portray myself as such. I take full responsibility for my problem. At the present time, the authorities are conducting an investigation, and I have been asked to limit my public comments until this investigation is complete.</blockquote>
Britannica <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rush-Limbaugh">notes,</a> “In 2006 [Limbaugh] was arrested for drug fraud after authorities <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alleged">alleged</a> that he ‘doctor shopped’ (illegally obtained prescriptions from multiple physicians). Limbaugh later reached a deal with prosecutors, and the charges were dropped after he received treatment.”

Michael Che and Colin Jost

WATCH: SNL Makes O.J. Simpson Reference Over Trump’s Acquittal; Mocks Rush Limbaugh’s Former Drug Addiction

Colin Jost

Michael Che

Rush Limbaugh

Saturday Night Live

It would have been hard to orchestrate a worse week for Democrats. From Iowa to impeachment, the political winds shifted against them.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, only a few months ago, had been praised by the American political press as a strategic genius. Her role in orchestrating the impeachment of President Donald Trump had her declared a political winner by a host of news network reporters, not just pundits. The Democrats started by coordinating with a whistleblower whose name everyone in Washington seems to know but only Sen. Rand Paul will dare utter.
After that coordination, Democrats opened an investigation the media found absolutely devastating. The number of reporters who declared everything terrible for the President increased. But the number of Americans who wanted the President tossed from office barely budged from around 47%, tied with those who wanted him to remain.
Then, having helped orchestrate the impeachment, Pelosi held on to the articles of impeachment. The media proclaimed it to be another strategic victory designed to build pressure on the Senate for fair rules. Ultimately, Pelosi sent the articles, and the Senate created rules that had no relation to the delay. Pelosi and the Democrats then demanded witnesses they had never called in the House. Media allies proclaimed the Senate had heard from no witnesses, despite having 17 witnesses entered into the record. As an aside, it is amazing how much the mainstream American press, from news networks to newspapers, was willing to parrot the Democrats&#8217; talking point on witnesses.
The Republican objection had always been that the Senate should hear from no witnesses the House had not first heard from. It was a fair point. Since the first impeachment in the late 1800s, the Senate has rarely heard from witnesses who have not first testified before the House. It has happened only a handful of times, in the trials of Walter Nixon, Bill Clinton and Thomas Porteous. In the President&#8217;s case, the House failed to get the White House chief of staff or former national security advisor to testify. They blamed the court system but failed to push for an expedited court review. They just passed their job to the Senate.
The Senate rejected calling witnesses. Then, despite media hysteria, they acquitted Trump. It remains underappreciated that the House Democrats got only one Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney, to vote for impeachment, given how many House Republicans privately loathe the President. And one House Democrat actually became a Republican over impeachment.
On the week the Senate acquitted the President, Democrats had an embarrassing spectacle in Iowa. The former vice president of the United States, who served for two terms under Barack Obama, utterly failed to gain traction. The technology-focused Democrats, who spent four years lecturing Americans about voter security, managed to roll out an app to count the vote in Iowa, and it crashed. We now know the Department of Homeland Security offered to help vet the app&#8217;s security, and the Democrats refused. The spectacle of the Democrats&#8217; failure helped to overshadow both Joe Biden&#8217;s collapse and Bernie Sanders&#8217; momentum.
The next day, Trump delivered a remarkable State of the Union address tailor-made for a nation that no longer remembers lines of speeches but will remember Instagramable moments. One of those moments was honoring the last surviving Tuskegee Airman, and another honored an African American mother whose daughter is about to get a great education. For both, the Democrats sat. The end of the speech saw Pelosi rip up the printed copy of the President&#8217;s speech. Even a lot of Democrats were appalled.
For months, Democrats and the press have been in a feedback loop of self-congratulatory back-patting. Guided by elite opinion on social media, Democrats marched themselves off a cliff to applause from the left. They now face a President with higher approval ratings than Obama had when he began his campaign for a second term.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Nancy Pelosi.

ERICKSON: Democrats Just Overplayed Their Hand

On Friday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The View,&#8221; co-host Joy Behar complained about President Donald Trump&#8217;s impeachment acquittal in the Senate, comparing the president to alleged wife-murderer O.J. Simpson.
The co-host also said Trump&#8217;s &#8220;winning,&#8221; confessing that he&#8217;s made her &#8220;crazy&#8221; and &#8220;nuttier and nuttier.&#8221;
&#8220;By the way, acquittal, acquitted, doesn&#8217;t mean you didn&#8217;t commit a crime,&#8221; Behar said on Friday. &#8220;Three words: O.J. Simpson.&#8221;
After shocking the audience by ripping out her ear piece, Behar continued to complain, &#8220;I&#8217;m crazy, today. He&#8217;s made me crazy, this week.&#8221;
&#8220;I mean, he&#8217;s winning because I&#8217;m getting nuttier and nuttier,&#8221; the host added.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Joy Behar: &quot;Just because you were acquitted doesn&#39;t mean you didn&#39;t commit a crime. Three words: O.J. Simpson&#8230;I&#39;m crazy today, he&#39;s made me crazy this week. He&#39;s winning because I&#39;m getting nuttier and nuttier.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/qdmSf3ZsUW">pic.twitter.com/qdmSf3ZsUW</a>
&mdash; The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1225886788943826944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
On Wednesday, President Trump was acquitted on both articles of impeachment in the Senate. Nearly every Republican voted &#8220;not guilty,&#8221; save for one &#8220;guilty&#8221; vote from Trump critic and Utah Senator Mitt Romney on the &#8220;abuse of power&#8221; impeachment article.
In a hand-signed letter sent to each Republican senator, Romney claimed he was acting to uphold his oath before God.
“As a Senator-juror, I swore an oath, before God, to exercise ‘impartial justice,&#8217;” the twice-failed presidential candidate wrote. “I am a profoundly religious person. I take an oath before God as enormously consequential. I knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the president, the leader of my own party, would be the most difficult decision I have ever faced. I was not wrong.”
“Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and disruptive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine,” said Romney.
“As it is with each senator, my vote is an act of conviction,” he concluded. “We have come to different conclusions, fellow senators, but I trust we have all followed the dictates of our conscience.”
Behar is no fan of President Trump, or anyone on the Right, for that matter.
In 2016, for example, Behar <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/view-co-host-id-vote-rapist-over-conservative-amanda-prestigiacomo">argued</a> that it was preferable to vote for men who&#8217;ve allegedly raped or killed women than vote for a conservative.
The co-host was referencing former President Bill Clinton, who was accused of raping Juanita Broaddrick, and former Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA).
Here&#8217;s the partial transcript via <a href="http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/scott-whitlock/2016/01/05/joy-behar-id-vote-rapist-long-theyre-liberal?platform=hootsuite#.9sl4tnp:8vLH">NewsBusters</a>:
<blockquote>BEHAR: It puts her in a bind. On the other hand, it’s her policies that really matter. Like, Republicans have voted against the Violence Against Women Act. Now, that to me, is more important than anything that Bill Clinton did or didn’t do because it’s what she’s going to vote for, how she’s going to lead the country that matters more than that. On the other hand, he is a dog. Let’s face it. 
…
BEHAR: People have to understand, it’s policy. Teddy Kennedy. Remember Chappaquiddick? Am I the oldest person in the room? Chappaquiddick. I mean, a girl drowns and he abandons her and she drowned and women still voted for Teddy Kennedy. Why? Because he voted for women’s rights. That’s why. That’s the bottom line of it in my opinion. I mean, I don’t like either one of them, to tell you the truth, Teddy or Bill. They’re both dogs as far as I’m concerned. But I still will vote for Bill Clinton because he votes in my favor.</blockquote>

Menu

Impeachment

John Bolton Says He’d Consider Testifying Before Congress But Democrats Aren’t Interested

Trump Defends Firing ‘Terrible’ Intel IG: ‘He’s A Total Disgrace’

Trump Fires Intelligence Community Watchdog Who Helped Launch Democrats Impeachment Inquiry

Impeachment Part Two? Congressional Dems Exploring A ‘9/11 Style Commission’ To Investigate Trump Administration Coronavirus Response

Trump On Coronavirus Response: I Wasn’t Distracted By Impeachment — But The Democrats Were

While Democrats Pushed Impeachment, One Republican Senator Sounded Alarm On Coronavirus

Adam Schiff Doesn’t Want You To Know About His Impeachment Subpoena Records

Pelosi’s Impeachment Effort Backfires. Congressional GOP Now More Popular Than Dems. She Was Warned.

John Bolton Breaks Silence: Impeachment ‘Grossly Partisan,’ Testimony ‘Would Have Made No Difference’

Pelosi: Trump Was Not Acquitted By Senate, He’s ‘Branded’ As ‘Impeached Forever’

Trump Expresses ‘Surprise’ By ‘Puppet’ Manchin, Hits ‘Religious’ Romney

Democrat Eric Swalwell: We May Impeach Trump Again Soon

Report: Justice Department Has Been ‘Quietly’ Reviewing Ukraine Materials For Several Weeks, Separate From Durham Probe

Commentators Say Trump’s Acquittal May Cause Even More Deaths Than Net Neutrality [Satire]

Romney Uninvited To CPAC For Fear Of His ‘Physical Safety’

HAMMER: Trump Is Finally A Favorite For Re-Election

Brad Pitt Makes Political Statement At Oscars, Gets Mocked By Critics

WATCH: SNL Makes O.J. Simpson Reference Over Trump’s Acquittal; Mocks Rush Limbaugh’s Former Drug Addiction

ERICKSON: Democrats Just Overplayed Their Hand

Joy Behar, Furious Over Acquittal, Says Trump’s ‘Winning’: ‘He’s Made Me Crazy!’

Menu

Impeachment

John Bolton Says He’d Consider Testifying Before Congress But Democrats Aren’t Interested

Trump Defends Firing ‘Terrible’ Intel IG: ‘He’s A Total Disgrace’

Trump Fires Intelligence Community Watchdog Who Helped Launch Democrats Impeachment Inquiry

Impeachment Part Two? Congressional Dems Exploring A ‘9/11 Style Commission’ To Investigate Trump Administration Coronavirus Response

Trump On Coronavirus Response: I Wasn’t Distracted By Impeachment — But The Democrats Were

While Democrats Pushed Impeachment, One Republican Senator Sounded Alarm On Coronavirus

Adam Schiff Doesn’t Want You To Know About His Impeachment Subpoena Records

Pelosi’s Impeachment Effort Backfires. Congressional GOP Now More Popular Than Dems. She Was Warned.

John Bolton Breaks Silence: Impeachment ‘Grossly Partisan,’ Testimony ‘Would Have Made No Difference’

Pelosi: Trump Was Not Acquitted By Senate, He’s ‘Branded’ As ‘Impeached Forever’

Trump Expresses ‘Surprise’ By ‘Puppet’ Manchin, Hits ‘Religious’ Romney

Democrat Eric Swalwell: We May Impeach Trump Again Soon

Report: Justice Department Has Been ‘Quietly’ Reviewing Ukraine Materials For Several Weeks, Separate From Durham Probe

Commentators Say Trump’s Acquittal May Cause Even More Deaths Than Net Neutrality [Satire]

Romney Uninvited To CPAC For Fear Of His ‘Physical Safety’

HAMMER: Trump Is Finally A Favorite For Re-Election

Brad Pitt Makes Political Statement At Oscars, Gets Mocked By Critics

WATCH: SNL Makes O.J. Simpson Reference Over Trump’s Acquittal; Mocks Rush Limbaugh’s Former Drug Addiction

ERICKSON: Democrats Just Overplayed Their Hand

Joy Behar, Furious Over Acquittal, Says Trump’s ‘Winning’: ‘He’s Made Me Crazy!’

Don't miss a beat of our coverage.