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

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

Devin Nunes

Impeachment

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:
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US-POLITICS-VOTE-MIDTERMS-DNC

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

Congress

House Republicans

Nancy Pelosi

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’

Donald Trump

John Bolton

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:
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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>
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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>
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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>
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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>
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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:
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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

2020 Election

Democratic Party

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>
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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>
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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>
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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>
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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>
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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>

Joy Behar

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

O.J. Simpson

The View

Just when you thought this week couldn&#8217;t get any better for President Donald Trump, government figures released Friday show that the administration, again, outpaced jobs expectations.
In the month of January, 225,000 jobs were added, according to Labor Department figures, far exceeding the Wall Street estimate of 158,000 jobs, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/07/us-nonfarm-payrolls-january-2019.html?__source=sharebar%7Ctwitter&amp;par=sharebar">CNBC</a> reported.
Moreover, according to CNBC, the unemployment rate ticked to 3.6%, &#8220;for the right reason as the labor force participation rate increased 0.2 percentage points to 63.4%, matching its highest level since June 2013, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.&#8221;
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Wages are also on the rise. &#8220;Average hourly earnings rose 3.1% over a year ago to $28.44, ahead of estimates for 3% growth,&#8221; CNBC noted. &#8220;That marked 18 consecutive months of wage gains above 3%, as the initially reported 2.9% for December was revised up to 3%.&#8221;
And necessary revisions show a jobs count boost for the months of November and December, 5,000 and 2,000 more jobs respectively.
The news comes on the heels of a slam-dunk week for the president. On Tuesday, Trump gave an optimism-infused State of the Union speech that was praised by the likes of CNN anchor Jake Tapper and CNN contributor Van Jones, both of whom lean left.
&#8220;We’ve seen the type of thing where a war hero like Tuskegee Airman Gen. McGee. That was a lovely moment,&#8221; commented <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2020/02/04/cnns-jake-tapper-trumps-sotu-had-lovely-moments-never-seen-anything-like-it/">Tapper</a>. &#8220;To have a 100-year-old Tuskegee Airman there with his grandson, who wants to be in the Space Force. President Trump telling a little girl that she’s going to get a scholarship, President Trump announcing that there is a solider coming home and reuniting with his wife and children, we’ve never seen anything like that before.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-van-jones-silences-cnn-panel-with-wake-up-call-trump-is-helping-african-americans-in-real-life">Jones</a> tweeted of the speech: &#8220;WAKE UP, folks. The [Iowa caucus] was a debacle, followed by a strong [State of the Union] speech laying out Trump’s strategy to win – which includes going for Black voters.&#8221;
The Democrats&#8217; reaction to the address was, arguably, also good news for Trump. For example, a CNN reporter questioned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on how &#8220;dignified&#8221; her actions were, regarding the Democratic leader ripping up her copy of Trump&#8217;s SOTU speech in front of scores of media cameras.
The moment also made for some pretty effective ads against Democrats:
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<a href="https://t.co/QhTWvcY4Ke">pic.twitter.com/QhTWvcY4Ke</a>
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1225553117929988097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Additionally, the president was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trump-acquitted-from-democrats-partisan-articles-of-impeachment">acquitted</a> in the Senate on both articles of impeachment on Wednesday.
“The Senate, having tried Donald John Trump, President of the United States, upon two articles of impeachment exhibited against him by the House of Representatives and two-thirds of the Senators present not having found him guilty of the charges contained therein,” announced Chief Justice John Roberts. “It is therefore ordered and adjudged the said Donald John Trump be, and he is hereby, acquitted of the charges in said articles.”
And as for the Democrats, they had plenty of trouble in Iowa, which is, of course, more good news for Trump.
&#8220;The Associated Press said Thursday that it is unable to declare a winner of Iowa’s Democratic caucuses,&#8221; the <a href="https://apnews.com/4f9044fe46f551d397d48dd8ca3d58db">AP</a> reported Thursday night, two days following the caucuses.
&#8220;[T]here is evidence the party has not accurately tabulated some of its results, including those released late Thursday that the party reported as complete. The AP’s tabulation of the party’s results are at 99% of precincts reporting, with data missing from one of 1,765 precincts, among other issues,&#8221; the report noted.
President Trump has trolled the Democrats over the troubles, suggesting the DNC is working against presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) again, adding more fuel to theories already floating around agitated Democratic voters.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ap-declares-no-official-democrat-winner-in-iowa-trump-has-advice-on-who-to-blame">AP Declares No Official Democrat Winner In Iowa; Trump Has Advice On Who To Blame</a>
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CFP National Championship presented by AT&amp;T &#8211; Alabama v Georgia

President Trump Caps Off Successful Week By Outpacing Jobs Expectations

Economy

At long last, the most brazenly partisan presidential impeachment in over a century and a half has come to an end. President Trump was formally acquitted on Wednesday by the U.S. Senate on each of the U.S. House’s adopted articles of impeachment: “Abuse of power” and “<a href="https://nypost.com/2019/12/13/obstruction-of-congress-is-an-utterly-ridiculous-impeachment-charge/">obstruction of Congress</a>.” The president was acquitted on the “abuse of power” article by a count of 52–48, and he was acquitted on the “obstruction of Congress” article by a count of 53–47. That lone vote discrepancy, of course, is due to the fact maverick Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), the Republican Party’s presidential standard-bearer a mere eight years ago, voted to convict on the first article and acquit on the second article.
Romney thus becomes the first senator in the history of the United States to vote to convict an impeached president from his/her own political party. His Senate floor speech explaining his vote made it seem like it was a decision he deeply wrestled with, but the reality is that his vote had — and will have — serious consequences.
First, Romney’s conviction vote — from a senator representing a deep-red state like Utah, no less — will place many moderate Republican senators facing potentially difficult re-election bids later this year (perhaps especially Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Thom Tillis (R-NC)) in a very difficult spot when they are grilled by adversaries as to why they did not join the former Republican presidential nominee in voting to convict Trump. Second, Romney providing nominal Republican cover to vote to convict Trump likely caused at least one — and perhaps more than one — of more moderate Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Doug Jones (D-AL), and Kyrsten Sinema to flip their respective votes from acquittal to conviction. Third, because of the second point, Romney thus likely single-handedly transformed a bipartisan acquittal of the president into a bipartisan conviction of the president.
Nonetheless, this impeachment is officially in the books. The outcome was foreordained, of course, from day one, and all signs still point toward the Democrats having overplayed their hand and the electoral politics redounding to Republicans’ interests in November.
From a historical perspective, The Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky has a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-impeachment-history-hans-von-spakovsky">good piece</a> on the eerie similarities between this impeachment and the post-Civil War impeachment of President Andrew Johnson on similarly frivolous grounds. I offered my own final commentary on the serious harm wrought by this lamentable saga in <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/31/this-whole-pathetic-impeachment-effort-was-worse-than-a-waste-of-time/">last weekend’s New York Post</a>: “[T]o call it a mere waste of time is likely far too charitable. The Democrats took stock of the decrepit state of our national politics, the bitterly fractious nature of our partisan tribalism, the pathetic regard the American people have for their Congress and took a sledgehammer to it all. The most immediate tangible result of this failed gambit will be to only further coarsen and debase our politics. … Most damaging of all, the Democrats’ pursuit of the draconian remedy of impeachment based on their claims of Trump’s corrupt subjective intentions on a diplomatic phone call has set a truly reckless precedent for the future. … For Democrats to argue that Trump’s purportedly corrupt motive somehow transmogrifies … constitutionally protected conduct into an impeachable offense is nothing short of astonishing.”
History will not judge the Democrats kindly for this stunt. But it’s now time to move on.
&nbsp;
This piece will be frequently updated.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-mitt-romney-is-no-shining-example-of-political-principle">Mitt Romney Is No Shining Example Of Political Principle</a>
RELATED: <a href="http://lp.dailywire.com/getelectionwire/">Sign up here for Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer&#8217;s weekly newsletter on election news, polling data, and analysis: &#8220;Election Wire&#8221;</a>

Chief Justice John Roberts

Impeachment Wire: The Latest On The Effort To Impeach President Trump

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono (HI) falsely claimed on Thursday that President Donald Trump was not acquitted yesterday when the U.S. Senate fully acquitted him of all impeachment charges that he faced from House Democrats.
&#8220;The Senate has clearly spoken now, the president was acquitted,&#8221; CNN host Wolf Blitzer began. &#8220;Do you think your&#8211;&#8221;
&#8220;No! Wolf (laughs), wasn&#8217;t acquitted,&#8221; Hirono falsely claimed. &#8220;It was a rigged trial. You don&#8217;t get acquitted when you don&#8217;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.&#8221;
&#8220;So, there you go,&#8221; Hirono continued. &#8220;It was a rigged trial, he can run around saying he was acquitted but you don&#8217;t get acquitted in a rigged trial.&#8221;
&#8220;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,&#8221; Blitzer responded.
&#8220;But the American public knows that it was a rigged trial,&#8221; Hirono claimed without evidence. &#8220;So, okay you&#8217;re found not guilty in a rigged trial. I don&#8217;t think that they think this was all kosher, not it wasn&#8217;t. So, meanwhile you have the president crowing about it, which is totally expected, and now it&#8217;s anything goes for this president and this administration and all his enablers.&#8221;
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>
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Senate Impeachment Trial Of President Trump

Democrat Senator Mazie Hirono: Trump ‘Not Acquitted’. CNN Rips Her, She Doubles Down.

Mazie Hirono

Following his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-mitt-romney-voting-to-convict-and-remove-trump-from-office">vote yesterday to convict</a> President Donald Trump on the House&#8217;s first adopted impeachment article, &#8220;abuse of power,&#8221; Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) is being hailed and feted as a paragon of moral conviction and political principle by all sorts of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hollywood-celebrities-love-mitt-romney-following-impeachment-vote">strange new friends</a>. In Romney&#8217;s mild defense, his Senate floor speech explaining his vote evinced a genuine internal struggle, and he voted to acquit the president on the <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/12/13/obstruction-of-congress-is-an-utterly-ridiculous-impeachment-charge/">risible, constitutionally illiterate</a> second impeachment charge of &#8220;obstruction of Congress.&#8221;
Let us first state the obvious: Romney made the wrong decision to vote to convict the president on the first article of impeachment. This was the most blatantly partisan impeachment sham in a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-impeachment-history-hans-von-spakovsky">century and a half</a>, going back to the vehement &#8220;Radical Republican&#8221; opposition to President Andrew Johnson. The conduct upon which Democrats attempted to impeach Trump is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-what-exactly-are-they-impeaching-him-for-again">dramatically less ruinous</a> than the conduct upon which the Framers would have considered impeachment justified, and reeks of the sort of petty politics that led the Framers to deliberately reject the far lesser <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/inside-founding-fathers-debate-over-what-constituted-impeachable-offense-180965083/">“maladministration”</a> as a possible constitutional standard for impeachment.
What&#8217;s worse, Romney&#8217;s vote rewards an unhinged Democratic Party that has only further coarsened our politics, further embittered an already fractious and tribal citizenry, and <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/31/this-whole-pathetic-impeachment-effort-was-worse-than-a-waste-of-time/">recklessly lowered the bar</a> for future impeachments so as to make them far likelier — perhaps even mundane — when differing political parties come to control the House and the White House. Romney&#8217;s vote also (1) will muddy the re-election waters for endangered Republican moderates who did vote to acquit, like Sens. Susan Collins (ME), Cory Gardner (CO), and Thom Tillis (NC); (2) likely caused at least one (perhaps more) of moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (WV), Doug Jones (AL), and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) to flip their votes from acquittal to conviction; and (3) therefore likely single-handedly transformed a bipartisan impeachment acquittal into a bipartisan conviction.
The analysis that Romney&#8217;s vote was merely a personal choice is thus too simplistic by half. There actually were, are, and will be tangible consequences to his decision. Those consequences will disproportionately redound against Republicans&#8217; interests, come November. Hopefully, Republican primary voters in Utah are paying attention.
But even more importantly, the emerging narrative that Romney&#8217;s vote was symptomatic of a broader fealty to devout political principle is beyond farcical and needs to be swatted down. Mitt Romney, the man who ran against Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) in 1994 by avowing he&#8217;d be to the &#8220;left&#8221; of Kennedy on &#8220;gay rights&#8221; but then famously described himself as &#8220;severely conservative&#8221; when seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, has taken both sides of essentially every major political issue imaginable in his career. He has publicly waffled on at least gun rights, abortion, embryonic stem cell research, health care, illegal immigration, tax cuts, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-mitt-romney-dead-wrong-claim-there-no-josh-hammer">Israel</a>. Romney is undoubtedly a lifelong devout Mormon and we can all admire his devotion to his faith — but at least in the realm of politics, he has had no truer guiding light than the solipsistic pursuit of his own raw political power.
Consider Erielle Davidson&#8217;s column yesterday at The Federalist:
<blockquote>For starters, Romney’s track record on religious freedom has been poor. <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/romney-pulled-the-rug-out-from-under-catholic-hospitals-adoption-agencies-m" data-reader-unique-id="14">Catholic leaders</a> in Massachusetts, the state in which Romney formerly served as governor, have emphasized Romney’s role in forcing Catholic hospitals to administer the abortifacient Plan B, even if doing so violated the consciences of the employee required to administer the deadly drugs. “The injury to the conscience rights of Catholic hospitals was not done so much so much by the church’s ideological enemies on the Left but by the Romney administration,” C.J. Doyle, executive director of the <a href="http://www.catholicactionleague.org/" data-reader-unique-id="15">Catholic Action League</a>, explained to LifeSiteNews.com back in 2012. &#8230;
In a 1994 debate with Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, he proudly announced, “I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years, that we should sustain and support it. I sustain and support that law and the right of a woman to make that choice.” He “evolved” to eventually arrive at the pro-life position. &#8230;
The playbook is the same for health care, where he went from supporting an insurance mandate — arguing that he would love to export the Massachusetts Romneycare model to the nation at large — to accusing Bret Baier of being “wrong” when the Fox host attempted to remind him of this. The Baier interaction occurred in 2011, as Romney geared up for yet another presidential bid.</blockquote>
I have met Mitt Romney and, by all accounts, he seems like a genuinely good, decent, and upstanding man. I will not join those who are now calling him a &#8220;traitor&#8221; to the republic. But he made a very foolish decision yesterday — a decision, that is, with far broader-reaching implications than many may immediately realize. Romney&#8217;s vote, furthermore, is hardly indicative of his being a principled conservative — or even a principled anything in the sphere of politics. Rather, his vote is indicative of life&#8217;s worth of political work in which the junior senator from Utah, former governor of Massachusetts, and twice-failed presidential candidate has flirted with more political stances than Bill Clinton has flirted with Little Rock call girls. Romney is not a shining example of principle so much as he is a shining example of overly finely tuned technocratic indecisiveness.

HAMMER: Mitt Romney Is No Shining Example Of Political Principle

Eight years after trashing him as a homophobe, who straps dogs onto the hoods of cars, and who wants to put &#8220;y&#8217;all back in chains,&#8221; Hollywood celebrities suddenly adore Sen. Mitt &#8220;Pierre Delecto&#8221; Romney (R-UT) after he voted on Wednesday to convict President Trump on the House&#8217;s first article of impeachment adopted against the president.
On Wednesday, Romney announced that he would vote to impeach President Trump for &#8220;abuse of power&#8221; due to his allegedly temporarily withholding military aid to Ukraine to coax the government into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden&#8217;s corrupt activities in the country.
“The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to a level of a high crime and misdemeanor,” Romney said “Yes, he did. The president asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival. The president withheld vital military funds from that government to press it to do so. The president delays funds for an American ally at war with Russian invaders. The president’s purpose was personal and political. Accordingly the president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust. What he did was not perfect, no, it was a flagrant assault on our electoral rights, our national security, and our fundamental values.”
“Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destruction violation of ones oath of office that I can imagine,” Romney continued. “I acknowledge that my verdict will not remove the president from office.”
Immediately after, celebrities from Mark Hammill to Rosie O&#8217;Donnell voiced their praise of Romney all over Twitter, hailing him as a true man of integrity, as reported by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/celebrities-mitt-romney-vote-convict-donald-trump">Fox News</a>.
&#8220;Romney made a great speech, logical, well reasoned, emotional and true. It honestly looks as if #Romney is the ONLY person of courage in the entire party. THAT’S THE REAL OUTRAGE,&#8221; tweeted Bette Midler.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Romney made a great speech, logical, well reasoned, emotional and true. It honestly looks as if <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Romney?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Romney</a> is the ONLY person of courage in the entire party. THAT’S THE REAL OUTRAGE.
&mdash; Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) <a href="https://twitter.com/BetteMidler/status/1225242944397094912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Thank you [Romney] for putting #CountryOverParty &amp; voting your conscience. Is there any doubt the outcome would have been much different had it been a secret ballot?&#8221; tweeted Mark Hamill.
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Thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/MittRomney?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MittRomney</a> for putting <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CountryOverParty?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CountryOverParty</a> &amp; voting your conscience. Is there any doubt the outcome would have been much different had it been a secret ballot? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CowardlyGOP?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CowardlyGOP</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HistoryIsWatching?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HistoryIsWatching</a>
&mdash; Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) <a href="https://twitter.com/HamillHimself/status/1225171680751837184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Mitt Romney shows us all is not lost: &#8216;My own view is that there’s not much I can think of that would be a more egregious assault on our Constitution than trying to corrupt an election to maintain power. And that’s what the president did,&#8217;” tweeted Mia Farrow
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Mitt Romney shows us all is not lost: ““My own view is that there’s not much I can think of that would be a more egregious assault on our Constitution than trying to corrupt an election to maintain power. And that’s what the president did.” <a href="https://t.co/lti4BhVcLi">https://t.co/lti4BhVcLi</a>
&mdash; Mia Farrow (@MiaFarrow) <a href="https://twitter.com/MiaFarrow/status/1225159661529239553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Thank you [for] demonstrating at this trial what integrity looks like, Senator Romney,&#8221; tweeted George Takei.
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Thank you demonstrating at this trial what integrity looks like, Senator Romney.
&mdash; George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) <a href="https://twitter.com/GeorgeTakei/status/1225140653971202050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;A lot of respect for Mitt Romney following his conscience and doing what he feels is right. One vote that will mean a lot to many,&#8221; tweeted Ben Stiller.
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A lot of respect for Mitt Romney following his conscience and doing what he feels is right. One vote that will mean a lot to many. <a href="https://t.co/YQ1b35xVIJ">https://t.co/YQ1b35xVIJ</a>
&mdash; Ben Stiller (@RedHourBen) <a href="https://twitter.com/RedHourBen/status/1225152626003759105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Thank you for doing what’s right, [Romney]. History will remember you as a decent, courageous, man among cowards and fools,&#8221; tweeted Alyssa Milano.
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Thank you for doing what’s right, <a href="https://twitter.com/MittRomney?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MittRomney</a>. History will remember you as a decent, courageous, man among cowards and fools. <a href="https://t.co/YPQkDTex1p">pic.twitter.com/YPQkDTex1p</a>
&mdash; Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) <a href="https://twitter.com/Alyssa_Milano/status/1225142301791408129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Incredible. The radical idea that an elected official must put their oath to uphold the constitution above what’s most convenient for them politically. Thank you, [Romney]. Let’s help him blow this spark of decency into a fire that engulfs the madness of hatred and division,&#8221; tweeted Bradley Whitford.
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Incredible. The radical idea that an elected official must put their oath to uphold the constitution above what’s most convenient for them politically. Thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/MittRomney?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MittRomney</a>. Let’s help him blow this spark of decency into a fire that engulfs the madness of hatred and division. <a href="https://t.co/w3vKQSDlzw">https://t.co/w3vKQSDlzw</a>
&mdash; Bradley Whitford (@BradleyWhitford) <a href="https://twitter.com/BradleyWhitford/status/1225147043187871744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Romney tells the truth <a href="https://t.co/snUphe84Pb">https://t.co/snUphe84Pb</a>
&mdash; John Cusack (@johncusack) <a href="https://twitter.com/johncusack/status/1225157419615031298?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Good for Mitt Romney. <a href="https://t.co/MxgcbVNjDv">https://t.co/MxgcbVNjDv</a>
&mdash; John Legend (@johnlegend) <a href="https://twitter.com/johnlegend/status/1225138168204161024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorRomney?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenatorRomney</a> for your political courage and for honoring your oath to the Constitution. Your colleagues will not be kindly looked upon in the history books of tomorrow.
&mdash; Josh Gad (@joshgad) <a href="https://twitter.com/joshgad/status/1225137491809689600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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NCAA Presser

Hollywood Celebrities Love Mitt Romney Following Impeachment Vote

The Democratic Party has spent the past four years cooking up anything they can to use as grist with which to impeach President Donald Trump. Now that Trump has been acquitted by the Senate, the mainstream media are clutching their pearls over the president&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/06/politics/donald-trump-impeachment-victory-lap/index.html">vindictive impeachment victory lap</a>.&#8221;
Writing at CNN, Kevin Liptak lamented how President Trump gave a victory speech on Thursday that was &#8220;vindictive and angry.&#8221;
&#8220;There was no indication he planned to adopt a new approach following the ordeal. Instead, Trump spent more than an hour bouncing between disparate injustices and angry asides,&#8221; lamented Liptak.
&#8220;The formal White House event was meant to be the final word on the impeachment saga. But few expect the ordeal to fade from view; Trump is stung and angry at being impeached by the House and his allies say it&#8217;s unlikely he&#8217;ll let it go anytime soon,&#8221; he later added.
Speaking in the White House East Room, President Trump rightly minced no words in the wake of the Democratic Party&#8217;s failed attempt to forcefully remove him from office, denouncing the leading Democrats as &#8220;dirty cops&#8221; who enacted a plan that was both &#8220;evil&#8221; and &#8220;corrupt.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;ve been going through this now for over three years,&#8221; the president said. &#8220;It was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops, it was leakers and liars. And this should never, ever happen to another president, ever.&#8221;
On CNN, Brianna Keilar referred to the president&#8217;s remarks as &#8220;unscripted&#8221; and &#8220;vindictive,&#8221; adding that it was &#8220;at times profane&#8221; and &#8220;angry.&#8221;
&#8220;An avalanche of grievances &#8230; It was vindictive &#8230; it was mean-spirited, it was poisonous, it was spiteful,&#8221; said Gloria Borger. Take a look:
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Keiler, &quot;You have been watching the President &#8230;. with an unscripted, vindictive, at times profane, angry, rambling response to his impeachment acquittal.
Borger: &quot;An avalanche of grievances &#8230; It was vindictive&#8230;it was mean-spirited, it was poisonous, it was spiteful.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/bi0urv9Y2Y">pic.twitter.com/bi0urv9Y2Y</a>
&mdash; Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) <a href="https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/1225487462467801090?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Also at CNN, John Harwood <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnns-john-harwood-and-panel-stunned-by-dark-trump-speech-hes-in-deep-psychological-distress/">fretted over the darkness</a> of Trump&#8217;s speech, asserting that it offered a glimpse into the dark depths of his mind.
“This was a very disturbing tableau for the country. It was dark because he’s made clear that his mind is dark,” said Harwood. “This is somebody in deep psychological distress right now. Self-pitying, insecure, angry.”
“With Donald Trump, if he did it, it’s not wrong. He doesn’t recognize abstract concepts like right and wrong, like morality or immorality, like true or false, he recognizes what is good for him in the moment,” Harwood continued. “And what has happened … what Mitt Romney has done by casting that vote, what Nancy Pelosi has done, has felt very, very unpleasant to him.”
Marina Fang of <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-impeachment-acquittal-speech_n_5e3c25cdc5b6bb0ffc0c7210">HuffPost</a> referred to the moment as a &#8220;horror show in the East Room,&#8221; lamenting the president&#8217;s &#8220;improvisational ramblings that appeared more like fascist propaganda than a White House event.&#8221;
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&#8220;As the former reality television host walked to his lectern, he received a standing ovation while &#8216;Hail to the Chief&#8217; played, before launching into an unhinged riff targeting some of his favorite and most frequently mentioned subjects, listing them off in a Mad Libs-like frenzy,&#8221; wrote Fang. &#8220;The speech, which resembled his ad-libbed campaign rallies, was held in the East Room, typically reserved for more measured and sometimes somber official White House events.&#8221;
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