In a move that &#8220;could enhance her chances of becoming vice president but could also anger liberals in California,&#8221; as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/us/politics/kamala-harris-joe-biden-endorsement.html">The New York Times</a> puts it, former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris appears to be moving closer to making a public endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden.
Citing &#8220;multiple Democratic officials familiar with her deliberations,&#8221; the Times reported Thursday that Harris is &#8220;weighing an endorsement&#8221; of the man she famously targeted in a racially charged exchange during the first Democratic primary debate.
&#8220;Such a move could lift Mr. Biden’s campaign and perhaps do even more to enhance Ms. Harris’s chances of becoming vice president, but it could also anger her liberal base in California,&#8221; the Times&#8217; Jonathan Martin notes.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Times that if she does end up endorsing Biden, or any candidate for that matter, she will likely hold off until the Senate impeachment trial is over.
&#8220;Yet she and Mr. Biden, the former vice president, have remained in contact since she exited the race and had a long conversation in the immediate aftermath of her departure,&#8221; Martin writes.
Democrats &#8220;close&#8221; to Harris told the Times that she is &#8220;mindful&#8221; that her endorsement would impact the remaining female senators in the race, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and is &#8220;uneasy about the prospect of backing a candidate only to see him or her lose California.&#8221;
A spokesman for Harris insisted that Harris has not decided yet about whether she will endorse a candidate. “Senator Harris remains focused on the ongoing impeachment trial of President Trump,” Harris spokesman Chris Harris told the Times. “No decisions have been made about whether she will endorse, which candidate, nor when an endorsement decision will be made.”
Harris&#8217;s consideration of throwing her support behind Biden follows some head-turning comments by the frontrunner a day after she announced that she was ending her campaign in early December. Asked if he would consider her on the ticket, Biden said, “Of course I would.&#8221;
&#8220;Look, Sen. Harris has the capacity to be anything she wants to be,&#8221; said Biden, who&#8217;s enjoyed a healthy lead in the national polls until recent weeks as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has closed the gap. &#8220;I mean it sincerely. I talked to her yesterday. She’s solid, she can be president someday herself, she can be vice president, she could go on to be a Supreme Court justice, she could be attorney general. I mean she has enormous capability.&#8221;
As The Daily Wire&#8217;s Emily Zanotti <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joe-biden-says-hes-considering-kamala-harris-as-a-running-mate">noted</a> at the time, Biden particularly benefited from Harris’ departure. &#8220;With Harris gone, Biden can consolidate support among minority voters, increasing his margin of victory in places like South Carolina and Nevada, giving him a commanding lead in places he’s already expected to win,&#8221; Zanotti wrote.
While Biden and Sanders contend for the top spot, the woman with the best shot at the nomination, Warren, has steadily lost ground after a brief bump in the polls in early fall.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-father-asks-elizabeth-warren-if-hes-going-to-get-his-money-back-after-paying-for-daughters-education">WATCH: Father Asks Elizabeth Warren If He’s Going To Get His Money Back After Paying For Daughter’s Education</a>
&nbsp;

Kamala Harris

NYT: Kamala Harris Considers Major Move, Backing Biden; Follows Biden’s VP Comments

Bernie Sanders

Elizabeth Warren

Impeachment

Joe Biden

Former Vice President Joe Biden has dashed Senate Democrats&#8217; hopes that he might submit to a witness trade, testifying in front of President Donald Trump&#8217;s impeachment trial in return for testimony from former White House national security advisor, John Bolton.
Biden was asked about the deal during a campaign stop in Iowa, and while he admitted that the issue wasn&#8217;t &#8220;irrational&#8221; he claimed Trump&#8217;s trial centered around a &#8220;Constitutional issue,&#8221; rather than one involving his and his son&#8217;s work in Ukraine. Testifying in front of the Senate, Biden added, would turn the trial into &#8220;some kind of farce or political theater,&#8221; as if it wasn&#8217;t already headed in that direction.
CBS News captured the exchange.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Watch: <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JoeBiden</a> says NO DEAL to the idea him or his son Hunter would testify for the Senate impeachment trial in exchange for other witnesses like John Bolton. Biden in part said this is a &quot;farce&quot; &amp; &quot;political theater&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CBSNews</a> <a href="https://t.co/8QHXQLIE9d">pic.twitter.com/8QHXQLIE9d</a>
&mdash; Bo Erickson CBS (@BoKnowsNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/BoKnowsNews/status/1220110833960857601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Ultimately, Biden says, he wants &#8220;no part&#8221; of any deal that would require he testify so that a White House official would also take the stand.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz floated the idea initially but, according to reports that surfaced yesterday, a group of Senate Democrats were seriously considering a testimony trade just so that Senate Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, would cave to the idea of hosting some witness testimony during the Senate impeachment trial.
Democrats have been desperate to find some way to get witnesses on the Senate floor, ostensibly to help close holes left in the Democrats&#8217; case against the president from the House impeachment inquiry. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) tried, valiantly, to force McConnell to welcome testimony by withholding the articles of impeachment from the Senate, but even moderate Republicans, who were the deciding factor, said they&#8217;d prefer the case be set out in full by the Senate impeachment managers.
On Tuesday, in a vote that came near midnight, the Senate voted against allowing witness testimony during the first part of Trump&#8217;s Senate trial, but several Senators &#8212; including those same moderate Republicans &#8212; reserved the right to reverse their vote if, after the two sides present their opening arguments, questions remained about the president&#8217;s behavior.
Tuesday night, Democrats met in secret to discuss the Biden for Bolton trade (though, at the time, it wasn&#8217;t clear whether they would have given up Joe Biden or his son Hunter, whose involvement in Ukrainian oil and gas company, Burisma, is at the center of what Democrats claim is a &#8220;quid-pro-quo&#8221; agreement between Trump and the Ukrainian government, foreign aid in return for an investigation into both Bidens&#8217; roles in how Burisma was treated by Ukrainian prosecutors back during the Obama Administration.
Democrats in charge of the trial seemed reticent to ink the deal and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), one of the House&#8217;s seven &#8220;impeachment managers,&#8221; openly decried the issue, calling it &#8220;irrelevant.&#8221; Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), a key &#8220;Resistance&#8221; figure in Congress added that Hunter Biden&#8217;s testimony would be &#8220;irrelevant,&#8221; and that only Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney would need to testify.
If the Senate does vote to allow witnesses, it will be up to Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the trial, to determine which witnesses are &#8220;relevant&#8221; to the task at hand.

Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Holds Campaign Town Halls In New Hampshire

Joe Biden Nixes Deal That Would Have Him Testify In Senate Impeachment Trial

John Bolton

Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden made a series of troubling remarks this week about U.S. national security matters, stating that the U.S. does not need a standing military and that the U.S. should be focusing on helping communist China.
&#8220;We talk about China as our competitor? We should be helping, and benefiting ourselves by doing that,&#8221; Biden said during a campaign event in Iowa. &#8220;But the idea that China is going to eat our lunch, it was like I remembered debates in the late 90s, remember Japan was going to own us? Give me a break.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Biden: “we should be helping” China, “the idea that China’s going to eat our lunch…give me a break”<a href="https://t.co/dcsFyvAG1E">https://t.co/dcsFyvAG1E</a> <a href="https://t.co/n8EWGhltNu">pic.twitter.com/n8EWGhltNu</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1219720226327142402?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The idea that we have a serious problem facing us now that&#8217;s different, and it&#8217;s dealing with the whole idea of cyber war, underground cables that go across the Atlantic that allow us to control everything from satellites to shipping,&#8221; Biden told the audience. &#8220;We have to be prepared to modernize those, keep ourselves way ahead of the game to make sure that they are not able to be screwed with.&#8221;
Biden continued, &#8220;So, the idea we&#8217;re gonna cut the defense budget significantly, we can cut it some, but we don&#8217;t need standing armies, we need to be smarter than we&#8217;re dealing now into how we handle this.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Joe Biden: “we don’t need standing armies”<a href="https://t.co/EZy18QnhIu">https://t.co/EZy18QnhIu</a> <a href="https://t.co/0zICHLRZQO">pic.twitter.com/0zICHLRZQO</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1219811712523739136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Obama Defense Secretary Robert Gates told CBS News&#8217; Margaret Brennan last May that former vice president Biden has an outstanding track record of always being wrong on issues pertaining to national security and foreign policy.
Here is the <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/05/13/gates_stands_by_statement_that_biden_has_been_wrong_on_nearly_every_major_foreign_policy_question.html">exchange</a> that Brennan had with Gates:
<blockquote>MARGARET BRENNAN: I was rereading your memoir before we sat down to talk and you said in your memoir, Joe Biden is impossible not to like.
Quote: &#8220;He&#8217;s a man of integrity, incapable of hiding what he really thinks, and one of those rare people you know you could turn to for help in a personal crisis. Still, I think he&#8217;s been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.&#8221;
Would he be an effective commander-in-chief?
ROBERT GATES: I don&#8217;t know. I don&#8217;t know. I think I stand by that statement.</blockquote>
In 2014, NPR asked Gates to back up his claims against Biden, to which Gates responded: &#8220;Frankly, I believe it. The vice president, when he was a senator — a very new senator — voted against the aid package for South Vietnam, and that was part of the deal when we pulled out of South Vietnam to try and help them survive. He said that when the Shah fell in Iran in 1979 that that was a step forward for progress toward human rights in Iran. He opposed virtually every element of President Reagan&#8217;s defense build-up. He voted against the B-1, the B-2, the MX and so on. He voted against the first Gulf War. So on a number of these major issues, I just frankly, over a long period of time, felt that he had been wrong.&#8221;
Even left-wing PolitiFact <a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/jan/16/robert-gates/robert-gates-criticism-vice-president-joe-biden/">rated</a> Gates&#8217; criticisms of Biden&#8217;s appalling foreign policy and national security record as mostly true.

Joe Biden: ‘We Don’t Need Standing Armies’; ‘We Should Be Helping’ Communist China

China

At a campaign event in Iowa on Wednesday, Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden lost his cool when a reporter asked him about his apparent feud with fellow candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
“Yesterday, yesterday, you said you accepted Bernie’s apology. Now you’re attacking him. Why are you doing that?&#8221; CBS reporter Ed O’Keefe asked Biden, according to <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/22/joe-biden-loses-cool-after-reporter-grills-him-about-feud-with-bernie-sanders/">The New York Post</a>. &#8220;Why wasn’t his apology enough, Mr. Vice President? Why attack Sanders?”
An agitated Biden walked toward the reporter, placed his hands on O&#8217;Keefe&#8217;s chest, and mockingly shouted, “Why, why, why, why, why, why, why! You’re getting nervous, man. Calm down! It’s okay!”
The Democrat then complained that Sanders only &#8220;apologized for saying that I was corrupt, he didn’t mention anything about whether or not I was telling the truth about Social Security.&#8221;
The former VP, with a clenched fist, gave O&#8217;Keefe a light punch on the chest before turning around and leaving the area.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
WATCH: After a campaign event in Mason City, Iowa, <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@joebiden</a> reacts to <a href="https://twitter.com/edokeefe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@edokeefe</a>&#39;s question about his ongoing feud with <a href="https://twitter.com/BernieSanders?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@berniesanders</a>: &quot;Calm down, it&#39;s okay.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/a2hmMbnjnf">https://t.co/a2hmMbnjnf</a> <a href="https://t.co/ymOMWRR2zP">pic.twitter.com/ymOMWRR2zP</a>
&mdash; CBS News (@CBSNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1220053331189682177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Mr. Biden has a history of getting nasty with reporters. In September, for example, the Democrat got testy with Fox News reporter Peter Doocy, who confronted Biden over his Ukraine scandal concerning his son Hunter Biden.
&#8220;Doocy’s question for Biden centered around Biden’s <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/436816-joe-bidens-2020-ukrainian-nightmare-a-closed-probe-is-revived">admission</a> that he used his position as Vice President to shut down a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating a company that was employing Biden’s son,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-biden-explodes-when-confronted-his-ukraine-ryan-saavedra">The Daily Wire</a> reported at the time.
“Mr. Vice President, how many times have you ever spoken to your son about his overseas business dealings?” asked Doocy.
“I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” Biden responded. “And here’s what I know, I know Trump deserves to be investigated. He is violating every basic norm of a president. You should be asking him the question, why is he on the phone with a foreign leader trying to intimidate a foreign leader, if that’s what happened, that appears to be what happened, you should be looking at Trump.”
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Joe Biden on his Ukraine scandal: “Why&#39;s [Trump] on the phone with a foreign leader trying to intimidate [them]?”
Biden in 2016 on what he told Ukraine: “I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money’” <a href="https://t.co/IjNgweVH67">pic.twitter.com/IjNgweVH67</a>
&mdash; Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1175471237138485249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In August, Biden forcefully grabbed a girl by the arm when she pressed him about how many genders exist. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-biden-forcefully-grabs-girl-after-being-ryan-saavedra">The Daily Wire</a> reported:
<blockquote>The incident happened while Biden was campaigning at the “Political Soapbox” at the Iowa State Fair when a girl named Katie, who is a student in the state, approached Biden with questions.
“How many genders are there?” Katie asked.
“There are at least three,” Biden responded.
“What are they?” Katie asked.
Biden becoming visibly angry, responded: “Don’t play games with me, kid.”</blockquote>
“When I asked the question it took a few seconds for the question to register [in Biden’s mind] and then he responded with ‘three,'&#8221; Katie told Turning Point USA following the incident.
“I started to walk away and then, it doesn’t stop there, he grabs my arm and pulls me back to make eye contact with him again and yells something about marriage at me,” she continued. “So I walked away and I was mad, just very, very mad that someone would actually treat me like that.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-biden-forcefully-grabs-girl-after-being-ryan-saavedra">WATCH: Biden Forcefully Grabs Girl After Being Asked How Many Genders There Are</a>

WATCH: Joe Biden Snaps On Reporter, Gets Physical Over Bernie Feud

A handful of Senate Democrats are reportedly discussing a trade deal that would allow former White House national security advisor John Bolton testify in President Donald Trump&#8217;s Senate impeachment trial by trading Bolton&#8217;s testimony for Hunter Biden&#8217;s.
<a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/senate-democrats-privately-mull-biden-for-bolton-trade-in-impeachment-trial/ar-BBZcdgW">MSN reports</a> that some Senators are considering the deal in order to &#8220;call Republicans&#8217; bluff&#8221; on witnesses, because they believe Bolton&#8217;s testimony will be far more damaging to the White House than Hunter Biden&#8217;s, though the same group admits they do not know what either would say under oath.
In a grueling, thirteen-hour session Tuesday, Senators argued over Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell&#8217;s (R-KY) stated rules for Trump&#8217;s Senate impeachmen trial, hammering each other over documents, witnesses, session times, and argument length. At 2am, after five straight losses, Democrats finally threw in the towel on presenting additional evidence and hearing from witnesses who did not testify in the House impeachment inquiry, though even Republicans left the door open for welcoming further testimony once the two sides have finished presenting opening arguments.
Most Democrats responded to the losses by blaming Republicans for being &#8220;complicit&#8221; in a White House &#8220;cover up,&#8221; even though Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) deliberately limited who could testify in the House impeachment inquiry, lest witnesses accidentally provide evidence to the panel favorable to President Trump. Some Democrats, though, MSN says, have started working on a different sort of response.
&#8220;[B]ehind closed doors, a small group of Democratic senators and aides has begun to question that logic, sounding out colleagues on whether to back a witness deal that could lead to testimony from former national security adviser John Bolton or other administration officials with possible firsthand knowledge of the Ukraine controversy, according to multiple Democratic officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private discussions,&#8221; the outlet reported.
&#8220;These Democrats said they believe having Hunter — or possibly Joe Biden — testify could backfire on Trump and the GOP,&#8221; MSN continued, &#8220;giving Biden and the party a platform to strike back and paint Republicans and the White House as obsessed with trying to damage one of Trump’s 2020 presidential rivals.&#8221;
But it&#8217;s not clear, even to these Democrats, that having Joe or Hunter Biden testify is foolproof. Although Senators like Illinois&#8217; Dick Durbin believe Joe Biden would be &#8220;comfortable&#8221; in the Senate and willing to answer simple questions about Trump&#8217;s behavior towards him and his son, Democrats ultimately do not know the extent of Joe or Hunter Biden&#8217;s involvement in Ukraine, and may not want to have the pair answering questions when they aren&#8217;t quite sure what either will say.
Joe Biden&#8217;s camp, also, wants to avoid mention of the Ukraine issue on such a national platform where they don&#8217;t control the message &#8212; and, while they aren&#8217;t saying it publicly, given Hunter Biden&#8217;s recent troubles, may want to avoid associating the former Vice President&#8217;s son with his presidential campaign.
And there may be no payoff: John Bolton has said he will only testify in front of the Senate if called by Republicans, and when asked about what he might say, Bolton was silent. In a confrontational situation, Bolton may just plead the Fifth Amendment, leaving Democrats without much to gain, and everything to lose.

Bolton For Biden? Senate Dems Quietly Considering Trial Witness Trade Deal

Hunter Biden

As we approach the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, former Vice President Joe Biden continues to hold a sizable lead over the rest of the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primary field in national polling. <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020_democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html">Biden currently stands 8.0% above second-place Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)</a> in the average of recent national polling. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg round out the top five in most recent national polling. Sanders&#8217; lead over third-place Warren is now substantial: 5.6%.
Buttigieg and Sanders have both been surging in the crucial early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire over the past couple of months, although Buttigieg&#8217;s moment may have finally passed. Sanders can always reliably count on the fact that his supporters are the most enthusiastic and loyal of any candidate&#8217;s in this 2020 Democratic presidential primary field. The septuagenarian socialist Sanders is likely the candidate with the most momentum at the present moment, although Biden himself has slowly crept back up in both the Iowa and New Hampshire statewide polling averages. Alas, never count out Joe Biden.
Warren emerged over the latter parts of the summer as a national frontrunner, but her moment has passed — she will all but assuredly need a surprise victory in Iowa or New Hampshire to resuscitate her campaign&#8217;s fading hopes. Biden&#8217;s consistent polling has remained relatively unaffected by the onset of the Ukraine scandal and subsequent impeachment imbroglio — perhaps to the surprise of many pundits who thought he would ultimately have to be dumped by Democrats as a sacrificial lamb of sorts.
At this point, pundits should be hard-pressed to predict anyone other than Biden as the likely Democratic presidential nominee — at least until we get results from Iowa and New Hampshire. But Bernie Sanders, with his rabid base of Soviet Union-nostalgic radicals, has now positioned himself as a very serious contender. The uniquely wealthy Bloomberg is also a candidate to still keep a close eye upon, despite the Democratic National Committee&#8217;s recurring outside donation debate criterion that portends to box out the self-funding Bloomberg from the debate stage for the foreseeable future.
Electoral prediction market website <a href="https://www.predictit.org/markets/detail/3633/Who-will-win-the-2020-Democratic-presidential-nomination">PredictIt</a> now has Biden as its frontrunner, although Sanders is in second by a wide margin. After that large gap, Bloomberg, Warren, and Buttigieg then all distantly follow. The Warren campaign collapse from its erstwhile frontrunner perch, with now even Bloomberg leading her in the electoral betting market, is truly something to behold.
The <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020_democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html">RealClearPolitics</a> polling average for 1/06/20 – 1/16/20 shows Biden with an average national polling lead of 8.0%.
A recent <a href="http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=b4747822-277e-4d2c-b896-eb4e04672c09">SurveyUSA</a> national poll conducted from 1/14/20 – 1/16/20 showed Biden, at 32%, with an 11-point lead over Sanders. Sanders was up seven points on Warren, and no one else polled in double digits.
A recent <a href="https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/ueji3eha6i/econTabReport.pdf">Economist/YouGov</a> national poll conducted from 1/11/20 – 1/14/20 showed Biden, at 27%, with a seven-point lead over Sanders. Sanders was up one point on Warren, and no one else polled in double digits.
A recent <a href="https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/478208-sanders-hits-highest-support-since-august">Hill/HarrisX</a> national poll conducted from 1/13/20 – 1/14/20 showed Biden, at 29%, with a 10-point lead over Sanders. Sanders was up eight points on Warren, and no one else polled in double digits.
A recent <a href="https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=3653">Quinnipiac</a> national poll conducted from 1/08/20 – 1/12/20 showed Biden, at 25%, with a six-point lead over Sanders. Sanders was up three points on Warren, and no one else polled in double digits.
A recent <a href="https://morningconsult.com/2020-democratic-primary/">Morning Consult</a> national poll conducted from 1/06/20 – 1/12/20 showed Biden, at 29%, with a six-point lead over Sanders. Sanders was up nine points on Warren, and no one else polled in double digits.
Will Biden remain the frontrunner? Can Sanders sustain his early state surge? Stay tuned.
Latest Aggregate Early State-By-State Polling Data
Iowa: Biden 21.0%, Sanders 17.3%, Warren 16.7%, Buttigieg 16.3%, Klobuchar 8.3%
New Hampshire: Sanders 19.8%, Biden 18.5%, Buttigieg 14.3%, Warren 14.3%, Klobuchar 5.8%
Nevada: Biden 25.0%, Sanders 19.3%, Warren 14.7%, Buttigieg 7.7%, Steyer 7.3%
South Carolina: Biden 32.0%, Sanders 15.0%, Warren 14.0%, Steyer 8.3%, Buttigieg 6.3%
This article has been updated to reflect the most recent survey data.

Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate In Detroit Over Two Nights

Who Will Win The Democratic Primary? The Latest On 2020 Presidential Primary Polling.

2020 Election

Democratic Party

Pete Buttigieg

Tomorrow will commence the third presidential impeachment trial in the history of the United States Senate. And on the eve of such a rare and solemn institutional undertaking, it is still not entirely clear what exactly President Donald Trump has done to deserve such a fate.
At the outset of this saga, House Democrats spent weeks promoting an oh-so nefarious &#8220;quid pro quo&#8221; that transpired during Trump&#8217;s now-infamous July 25 phone call last summer with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. It turns out that abstruse Latinate didn&#8217;t poll-test well — and never mind that such a &#8220;quid pro quo,&#8221; when cabined to a public official&#8217;s lawful exercise of his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-at-the-new-york-post-trumps-alleged-impoundment-of-ukraine-money-doesnt-make-for-an-impeachable-offense">constitutional authority</a>, amounts to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-there-is-one-terrific-impeachment-defense-that-the-white-house-is-not-making">constitutionally protected free speech</a>. Democrats next engaged in the hilariously public floating of bribery — which is actually enumerated as a presidential impeachment criterion in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleii">Article II, Section 4</a> of the Constitution — before deciding that they simply lacked the grist to advance such a claim. Democrats ultimately settled on the mealy-mouthed, amorphous gibberish of &#8220;abuse of power&#8221; and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-at-the-new-york-post-obstruction-of-congress-is-an-utterly-ridiculous-impeachment-charge">utterly nonsensical</a>, constitutionally illiterate &#8220;obstruction of Congress&#8221; as their charges of choice.
As Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro and I have each <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-todays-judiciary-committee-impeachment-hearing-is-yet-another-waste-of-time">observed</a> countless times since Democrats first glommed onto the Ukraine phone call as possible grounds for impeachment, it is true that actually committing a black-letter crime is not a constitutional requirement to impeach a sitting president. &#8220;High crimes and misdemeanors,&#8221; the catch-all presidential impeachment criterion enumerated in the Constitution after treason and bribery, was a well-known term of art in the English common law. Alexander Hamilton <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed65.asp">explained</a> in <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed65.asp">The Federalist No. 65</a> that it encompasses &#8220;offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.&#8221;
True, the Hamiltonian language presents a necessarily political and malleable standard. But it is also true that the Constitution&#8217;s Framers did not view everything as a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-stop-calling-everything-impeachable-offense-josh-hammer">potentially impeachable offense</a>. To wit, the Framers <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/inside-founding-fathers-debate-over-what-constituted-impeachable-offense-180965083/">expressly deliberated</a> whether to make the far lesser &#8220;maladministration&#8221; an impeachment criterion before rejecting it out of fear that it could lead to highly partisan impeachment proceedings motivated by either a mere policy disagreement or the raw pursuit of political power. Hamilton certainly understood that, writing in the same Federalist that impeachment would &#8220;seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community, and to divide it into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused.&#8221;
Accordingly, even though the actual violation of a law is not constitutionally required, Democrats&#8217; current partisan gambit represents the first time in the history of the republic that an impeachment has nonetheless been attempted without the undergirding of a legally violative act. President Andrew Johnson violated the Tenure of Office Act — an unambiguously unconstitutional statute, but technically a statutory violation nonetheless. President Bill Clinton, investigated for years by former independent counsel Ken Starr, committed perjury. President Richard Nixon, who resigned in disgrace before a formal House vote on impeachment, was knee-deep in the Watergate scandal.
What exactly has President Trump done? He acted in a ham-fisted and sloppy manner on a phone call with a foreign leader when it came to the conducting of his foreign policy — an action squarely within his well-established <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-at-the-new-york-post-trumps-alleged-impoundment-of-ukraine-money-doesnt-make-for-an-impeachable-offense">constitutional bailiwick</a>. True, he should not have mentioned Joe Biden by name. But ultimately, Trump tried to attach <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/the-two-theories-of-trumps-actions-in-the-ukraine-affair/">corruption-related strings</a>, however clumsily, to the doling out of one of the most consistently <a href="https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2016/03/11/foreign-aid">politically unpopular</a> items in annual federal budgets: Foreign aid.
The conduct upon which Democrats are now attempting to impeach the president is orders of magnitude less destructive than the conduct upon which the Framers would have considered impeachment justified. It reeks of the sort of petty politics and jostling for power that led the Framers to conscientiously reject the far lesser &#8220;maladministration&#8221; as a possible grounds for impeachment. What&#8217;s worse, House Democrats rushed their process due to political timing and, in their rush, have <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-12-09/opinion-trump-impeachment-hearings-democrats">fundamentally failed to make their case</a> to the American people. They have <a href="https://theresurgent.com/2020/01/20/democrats-have-failed-at-impeachment-trump-will-remain-president/">failed at impeachment</a>, and they have no one to blame but themselves. And in their recklessness, Democrats have also set a deeply pernicious precedent for the future of the Constitution&#8217;s carefully calibrated separation of powers framework.
Alas, let the trial commence.

House Speaker Pelosi And Senator Schumer Hold News Conference On DACA Case

HAMMER: What Exactly Are They Impeaching Him For, Again?

Adam Schiff

Charles Schumer

Constitution

Donald Trump

Federalist

Jerry Nadler

In the soon-to-be-released documentary about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, &#8220;Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words,&#8221; the jurist has some harsh words about former vice president and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/who-will-win-democratic-primary-latest-2020-josh-hammer">current leading</a> 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden. At the time of Thomas&#8217;s infamously raucous confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden, a Delaware Democrat, was the committee&#8217;s chairman.
Director Michael Pack, <a href="https://video.foxnews.com/v/6124958353001">speaking this morning</a> to Fox News host Steve Doocy on &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends,&#8221; described the much-anticipated documentary as a chance for viewers to &#8220;hear [Thomas&#8217;s] whole story&#8221; from the famously reticent justice himself. Pack noted that Justice Thomas and his wife Ginni are the only two people directly interviewed in the film.
Thomas, a black man who grew up in extreme poverty in Jim Crow-era Georgia, endured an extraordinarily nasty Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing following his nomination to the nation&#8217;s highest court by then-President George H.W. Bush. Thomas famously described the efforts to derail his nomination, in the aftermath of the public airing of allegations of sexual harassment by Anita Hill, as a &#8220;high-tech lynching.&#8221; Thomas is seen in the film&#8217;s trailer telling the camera: &#8220;We know what this is all about. This is the &#8216;wrong black guy.&#8217; Just say it.&#8221;
In December, The Daily Wire&#8217;s Amanda Prestigiacomo <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-trailer-for-new-clarence-thomas-documentary-drops-justice-says-liberals-worse-than-the-klan">highlighted</a> how, in the documentary, Thomas also claims that modern-day liberals have proved to be a bigger &#8220;impediment&#8221; for him throughout his meteoric rise than has the Ku Klux Klan itself:
<blockquote>“I felt as though, in my life, I had been looking at the wrong people as the people who would be problematic toward me,” Thomas reportedly says in the documentary, according to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/justice-clarence-thomas-rebukes-biden-led-confirmation-hearings/story?id=67235780" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ABC News.</a> “We were told that, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be the bigot in the pickup truck; it’s gonna be the Klansmen; it’s gonna be the rural sheriff.&#8217;”
“But it turned out that through all of that, ultimately the biggest impediment was the modern-day liberal,” the justice continued. “They were the ones who would discount all those things because they have one issue or because they have the power to caricature you.”</blockquote>
That Thomas excoriates Biden in the documentary has been previously reported. Earlier this month, The National Interest <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/we-watched-new-clarence-thomas-documentary-its-not-good-biden-113466">wrote</a> that, &#8220;[a]t one juncture of the film, Thomas was asked about a colloquy with Biden over natural law philosophy and the Constitution. Though he did not cite Biden by name, Thomas lamented that lawmakers do not seem to have full command of the subject matter during judicial confirmation hearings.&#8221;
In a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-2020-democratic-field-will-come-down-josh-hammer">Daily Wire op-ed</a> last March, I noted the leading role that Biden had similarly played in the <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/12/19/167645600/robert-borks-supreme-court-nomination-changed-everything-maybe-forever">vicious 1987 smearing</a> of then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Robert Bork:
<blockquote>Biden simply has too much baggage, in the current environment. Who in their right mind thinks that coquettish <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/joe-bidens-woman-touching-habit" data-reader-unique-id="48">creepy</a> “Uncle Joe” is a good fit for the current #MeToo moment? Who in their right mind thinks that Biden’s formerly held views on <a href="http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/joe-biden-record-on-busing-incarceration-racial-justice-democratic-primary-2020-explained.html" data-reader-unique-id="49">race</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/21/politics/joe-biden-criminal-justice/index.html" data-reader-unique-id="50">crime</a> won’t come back to destroy him in the minds of the increasingly dominant hard left faction of the Democratic base? Biden has simply been in the national spotlight for too long, and has too long a track record to cleanly avoid opposition research-driven scrutiny. And, amazingly, the man who once tag-teamed with Ted Kennedy to vilely <a href="https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/america-freer-with-bork-on-supreme-court/" data-reader-unique-id="51">savage Robert Bork’s</a> judicial career is almost assuredly now too “moderate” for the batcrap crazy hard Left.</blockquote>

Clarence Thomas Confirmation Hearing

Justice Clarence Thomas Blasts Joe Biden In Soon-To-Be Released Documentary

Clarence Thomas

Fox News

Judicial Branch

Judiciary

Supreme Court

U.S. Senate

Harkening back to his &#8220;they want to put y&#8217;all back in chains&#8221; <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-tells-african-american-audience-gop-ticket-would-put-them-back-in-chains/">moment</a> from the 2012 presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden lumped President Trump in with the KKK while speaking over the weekend before a predominantly black church in South Carolina.
“What I realized is that hate just hides. And it when it comes out from under the rocks, when it gets a little bit of oxygen. This president and his — the Ku Klux Klan and the rest of them, they think they’ve beaten us again but they have no idea. We’re just coming back,&#8221; Biden said before the congregation at Bethlehem Baptist Church.
Biden made his comments while reflecting upon the president&#8217;s statement following the August 2017 Charlottesville protest, in which he famously said that there were &#8220;very fine people on both sides.&#8221; Prior to seemingly comparing the president to the KKK, Biden reflected upon the advancements of the civil rights movement and expressed fear that President Trump has taken America back one hundred years.
“Folks, some mornings I wake up and I think it’s more like what it must have been in 1920 than 2020,” Biden said, as reported by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-speaks-against-racism-lumps-trump-in-with-kkk-during-speech-before-black-congregation">Fox News</a>. “I thought you could defeat hate … hate only hides.”
Recalling Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.&#8217;s famous &#8220;I have a dream&#8221; speech, Biden urged everyone to keep fighting.
“Dr. King didn’t give up on the dream,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And I’m asking you all, don’t give up on it. Don’t give up now. We can defeat this moment of hate.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden has a history of deploying racial division to maximum political effect in front of black audiences, such as when he said that Republicans &#8220;want to put y&#8217;all back in chains&#8221; during the height of the 2012 presidential campaign.
“Romney wants to let the — he said in the first hundred days, he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules, unchain Wall Street,” <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-tells-african-american-audience-gop-ticket-would-put-them-back-in-chains/">Biden said</a>. “They’re going to put you all back in chains.”
Biden has been playing the &#8220;Trump supports white supremacists&#8221; card <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/25/politics/joe-biden-2020-president/index.html">since the release of his first 2020 presidential campaign video</a>, framing the race as a &#8220;battle for the soul of this nation.&#8221;
&#8220;He said there were quote some very fine people on both sides,&#8221; Biden said. &#8220;With those words, the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it. And in that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime.&#8221;
&#8220;The core values of this nation, our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made America, America, is at stake,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;That&#8217;s why today I&#8217;m announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.&#8221;
Despite positioning himself as the great moral crusader, Biden took a hit in credibility last year <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/now-joe-biden-regrets-segregationist-remarks-paul-bois">when he praised</a> two former segregationists with whom he worked during his early years in the Senate for being &#8220;civil.&#8221; Though Biden apologized for the remarks, his continual gaffes since then have only further tarnished his image, such as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-poor-kids-just-bright-and-talented-white-paul-bois">when he said</a>: &#8220;Poor kids are just as bright and talented as white kids.&#8221;

Democratic Presidential Candidates Participate In Iowa State Educators Forum

Biden Talks Of Trump And ‘The Ku Klux Klan’ At Southern Black Church

Blacks

Christianity

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

On Saturday, former Vice President and current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden snapped that Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) presidential campaign should “disown” what Biden referred to as a “doctored video” that some Sanders supporters argued revealed Biden favoring the reduction of Social Security and Medicare.
Speaking in Indianola, Iowa, Biden stated, “Let’s get the record straight. There’s a little doctored video going around put out by one of Bernie’s peoples saying I agreed with Paul Ryan, the former vice presidential candidate, about wanting to privatize Social Security. It is simply a lie, that video that’s going around. And ask anybody in the press, it’s a flat lie. They acknowledged that. This is a doctored tape. And I think it’s beneath him. And I’m looking for his campaign to come forward and disown it. But they haven’t done it yet.”
<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/18/joe-biden-falsely-attacks-bernie-sanders-100811">Politico</a> noted that Biden added, “PolitiFact looked at it and they doctored the photo, they doctored the piece, and it’s acknowledged that it’s a fake.”
As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/19/biden-sanders-doctored-video-social-security-medicare">The Guardian</a> reported, “The video in question, circulated on Twitter by a top Sanders adviser, does not appear to be altered. But the short clip omits Biden’s larger argument over how Ryan handled the 2017 tax cuts and subsequent budget debates.”
<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/biden-demands-apology-sanders-over-doctored-video-social-security-n1118481">NBC News</a> reported that a Biden campaign official stated, &#8220;The Sanders campaign has pushed a video and transcript that were intentionally, deceptively edited to make it seem like Vice President Biden was praising and agreeing with Paul Ryan, when it is clear he was doing the exact opposite. In the speech, Biden was reiterating his core belief that we need to undo Trump&#8217;s tax cuts for the super wealthy and replace them with a tax code that rewards work, not just wealth.&#8221;
Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir fired back at Biden, “Joe Biden should be honest with voters and stop trying to doctor his own public record of consistently and repeatedly trying to cut Social Security. The facts are very clear: Biden not only pushed to cut Social Security – he is on tape proudly bragging about it on multiple occasions … The vice president must stop dodging questions about his record, and start explaining why he has so aggressively pushed to slash one of the most significant and successful social programs in American history, which millions of Americans rely on for survival.”
A Sanders adviser pushed forward a video showing Biden favoring a reduction in the two entitlement programs in 1995 and 2007.
In a January 1 tweet, Sanders adviser Warren Gunnels wrote, “Ever since Paul Ryan 1st proposed paying for Trump’s tax beaks to the top 1% by cutting Social Security &amp; Medicare, I’ve been proud to be by @BernieSanders side fighting against it. To hear Biden say ‘Ryan was correct’ to go after Social Security &amp; Medicare is soul-wrenching.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Ever since Paul Ryan 1st proposed paying for Trump&#39;s tax breaks to the top 1% by cutting Social Security &amp; Medicare, I&#39;ve been proud to be by <a href="https://twitter.com/BernieSanders?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BernieSanders</a> side fighting against it.
To hear Biden say &quot;Ryan was correct&quot; to go after Social Security &amp; Medicare is soul-wrenching. <a href="https://t.co/kfZz9qlqJd">https://t.co/kfZz9qlqJd</a>
&mdash; Warren Gunnels (@GunnelsWarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/GunnelsWarren/status/1212532213989949441?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Shortly before the Biden official made his remarks about the video, Sanders told a crowd in New Hampshire, &#8220;I think the best thing for all Democratic candidates, and what we&#8217;re going to do in our campaign, as you heard me tonight, you didn&#8217;t hear me say a word about any of the other candidates. We are going to focus on the issues of the working families of America and bring them together.&#8221;

Biden and Sanders.

Biden Rips Sanders Campaign For ‘Doctored Video’

On Friday, <a href="http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=b4747822-277e-4d2c-b896-eb4e04672c09">SurveyUSA</a> released a new national Democratic primary poll, which was conducted between January 14 &#8211; 16 on 5,000 adults, 4,069 of whom “are registered voters,” with “1,086 likely to vote in a Democratic Primary.”
The survey asked: “Where you live, if there were a Democratic primary today, which Democrat would you vote for to be the Democratic Party&#8217;s nominee for President of the United States?”
In first place is former Vice President Joe Biden with 32%. In a distant second place is Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) with 21%, and in third place is Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) with 14%.
In fourth and fifth place are Mayor Pete Buttigieg and billionaire Michael Bloomberg, each with 9% support.
When broken down by age, Biden still leads in three of four groups. 27% of the 35-49 age group support Biden compared to 25% for Sanders, and 16% for Warren. 45% of the 50-64 age group support Biden compared to just 12% for Sanders and 13% for Warren. Biden’s support dips a bit to 37% among the 65+ group, but Sanders tanks with the elderly voters with just 8%. Warren nabs 13%.
However, among the 18-34 age group, Sanders explodes with 38% support compared to Biden’s 20% and Warren’s 16%.
Biden also dominates among African American voters, where he has 50% support compared to second-place Sanders’ 18%, and Warren’s 9%. Among Hispanic voters, Biden and Sanders are virtually tied with 31% and 30%, respectively. Warren sits in a distant third with 10% Hispanic support.
Another area where Biden triumphs over the rest of the field is among religious individuals who attend regular services.
46% of those who attend religious services “regularly” support Biden compared to 14% who support Sanders and 13% who support Warren.
Among those who “almost never” attend religious services, the field is much more open. 26% of those who “almost never” attend religious services support Biden compared to 22% who support Sanders, and 17% who support Warren.
“Strongly pro-life” respondents also side with Biden in a major way, giving him 44% support over second-place Sanders’ 16% and Warren’s 8%. The “strongly pro-choice” respondents are more spread out, with 27% supporting Biden, 24% supporting Sanders, and 17% supporting Warren.
According to the <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020_democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html">RealClearPolitics</a> average of national polls, Biden remains in the lead with 28.4% to Sanders’ 20.4%, and Warren’s 14.8%.
In Iowa, Biden and Sanders are in a near tie with 20.7% and 20.3%, respectively. In New Hampshire, which votes second, Sanders actually leads Biden 22.5% to 21%. Warren sits in third place in the state with 16.3% support, with Buttigieg nipping at her heels with 14.5% support.
Biden’s largest advantage is still in South Carolina, where he leads Sanders by 17% (32% to 15%).
What this new SurveyUSA poll appears to indicate is that while Sen. Bernie Sanders is on the rise nationally, and Biden remains in a healthy first position, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who was once considered a potential threat to the former vice president, continues on her steep tumble.
With Iowa just 15 days away, the candidates are losing time to change the numbers before the caucus state sets the tone of what’s to come afterward.

Joe Biden.

Biden Flies High In Post-Debate Poll; Warren Continues Months-Long Tumble

On January 11, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/11/bernie-quietly-goes-negative-on-warren-097594">Politico</a> reported that the campaign for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was allegedly instructing its people to attack rival Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) by implying she is a candidate who cannot expand beyond the “highly educated” and “more affluent.”
Following the report, Warren <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/claws-out-elizabeth-warren-accuses-bernie-sanders-of-playing-dirty-trashing-her-in-iowa">said</a> she was “disappointed to hear that Bernie is sending his volunteers out to trash me.”
CNN then dropped a bombshell <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/13/politics/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-meeting/index.html">report</a>, claiming that in 2018, Sanders told Warren that he didn’t believe a woman could win in 2020.
In response to CNN’s report, Warren said: 
<blockquote>Among the topics that came up was what would happen if Democrats nominated a female candidate. I thought a woman could win; he disagreed. I have no interest in discussing this private meeting any further because Bernie and I have far more in common than our differences on punditry.</blockquote>
During Tuesday’s Democratic <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-warren-refuses-to-shake-sanders-hand-after-debate-fellow-candidate-weighs-in-on-kerfuffle">presidential debate</a>, the fissure was brought to the fore. Moderator Abby Phillip of CNN asked Sanders about the alleged exchange, and Sanders denied he ever said that a woman couldn’t win.
“As a matter of fact, I didn’t say that. And I don’t want to waste a lot of time on this because this is what Donald Trump, maybe some of the media would want,” Sanders <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-warren-refuses-to-shake-sanders-hand-after-debate-fellow-candidate-weighs-in-on-kerfuffle">replied</a>. “Anybody who knows me knows it is incomprehensible that I would think that a woman could not be president of the United States.”
Sanders went on to talk about Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote, and that he would back any woman on the stage with him if they were to become the nominee.
Phillip then asked Warren: “What did you think when Senator Sanders told you a woman could not win the election?” Sanders looked incredulous that such a presumptuous question would be asked, and the audience laughed.
Warren responded: “I disagreed. Bernie is my friend, and I am not here to try to fight with Bernie. But, look, this question about whether or not a woman can be president has been raised, and it’s time for us to attack it head-on.”
Following the debate, Warren <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/15/politics/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-debate-audio/index.html">approached</a> Sanders while still on camera and with mics still recording, and accused him of calling her “a liar on national TV.” Sanders rebuffed Warren, first claiming that she was the one calling him “a liar,” then stating that if they wanted to talk about it, they should do so later.
CNN was widely trashed on social media, and by political commentators, for the way in which the exchange was handled.
Speaking with <a href="https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/478722-ex-obama-official-on-sanders-warren-feud-i-dont-think-it-played-out-well-for-either-of-them">The Hill</a> on Thursday, former Obama official and former Virginia Deputy Attorney General Stephen Cobb said that the internecine fight between Warren and Sanders didn’t play “out well for either of them,” and if any candidate were to benefit from the kerfuffle, it would be former Vice President Joe Biden.
“If you are arguably the front-runner or a front-runner and you go into a debate where everyone is taking potshots at each other and you can kind of rise above the fray, you get to come out the winner,” Cobb said.
However, one new poll conducted entirely after the debate has Sanders in the lead.
According to the latest <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-democrats-poll/sanders-climbs-now-tied-with-biden-among-registered-voters-reuters-poll-idUSKBN1ZG00D">Reuters/Ipsos</a> national poll, which was conducted between January 15 &#8211; 16 (the two days following the debate) on “681 Democrats and independents, including 552 who were registered to vote,” Sen. Sanders takes the lead with 20% support. In second place is Biden with 19%. In third is Warren with 12%.
Reuters notes that this poll showed “an increase of 2 percentage points [for Sanders] from a similar poll that ran last week.”
That said, according to the <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020_democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html">RealClearPolitics</a> national average of polls, Biden still leads Sanders by a healthy 8% (28.4% to 20.4%). Biden also leads Sanders in Iowa by 0.4%, but in New Hampshire, Sanders leads Biden by 1.5%. Warren sits in third place nationally, fourth place in Iowa, and third place in New Hampshire, per RealClearPolitics polling avareges.

Dem debate.

Obama Official: Warren/Sanders Spat Didn’t Play ‘Out Well For Either Of Them,’ Biden Could Benefit

The front-runner&#8217;s Hollywood backers aren&#8217;t a &#8220;who&#8217;s who&#8221; of Tinsel Town. It&#8217;s more like, &#8220;who is that again?&#8221;
The former First Lady attracted a Who’s Who of Hollywood elites during her failed 2016 presidential campaign. This celebrity PSA captures a small group of A-listers who pleaded with voters to make her the country’s first female president.
<iframe title="IMPORTANT" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nRp1CK_X_Yw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
We don’t know who will be the Democrat’s presidential candidate yet. Still, week after week, poll after poll suggest former Vice President Joe Biden will square off against President Donald Trump come November.
So where is Hollywood’s support for Biden? You have to squint to see it.
An “exclusive” in the <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/joe-biden-campaign-rolls-first-celeb-2020-endorsements-1268274">far-left Hollywood Reporter</a> trumpets the first official wave of Biden’s celebrity backers. Does the story name check Bruce Springsteen? Scarlett Johansson? Beyonce? Ellen DeGeneres?
What about the<a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/taylor-swifts-miss-americana-netflix/"> newly woke Taylor Swift?</a>
No.
<blockquote>Actress Vivica A. Fox and actor Sean Patrick Thomas are endorsing Biden, and will be hitting the campaign trail in the near future, as the former senator seeks to capitalize on his top-tier status as Democrats begin casting their primary ballots.</blockquote>
The pair are part of “several waves of famous fans in the run-up to the Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina primary contests,” according to THR.
Both Fox and Thomas has been working in Hollywood for some time, but their celebrity cache is a fraction of what A-list stars bring to the pop culture table.
THR framed the news as credible and important. Buried near the bottom of the story? Sen. Bernie Sanders, a 79-year-old socialist, boasts a far more impressive squad of celebrity supporters.
<blockquote>Sanders’ endorsement roster features a long list of actors and entertainers, including Cardi B, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon and Shailene Woodley. (Emily Ratajkowski joined Team Bernie this week.)</blockquote>
Biden’s presidential campaign has been marred by a series of unforced, occasionally laughable, errors. He’s mixed up the states he’s campaigning in, shared a bizarre story about a gangster named <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/09/16/joe-biden-tells-story-corn-pop-wilmington-swimming-pool/2340548001/">“Corn Pop”</a> and delivered uninspired debate performances.
His unsteady health has dogged his campaign, too, including one CNN town hall appearance where his eye appeared to fill up with blood.
<iframe title="Biden&#039;s Eye Bleeds During CNN Town Hall" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s203ba36u4s?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
“I don’t know if he wants to be president or the next Bond villain,” “The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon cracked after that incident.
Once the primary smoke settles, Hollywood may rally to Biden’s cause in a similar fashion to Clinton’s 2016 campaign. That’s more than likely the case.
For now, Biden can summon only two “name” stars for his all-important primary push.
A version of this article is also published on <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/joe-biden-hollywood-vivica-fox/">Hollywood In Toto</a>.

Meet Biden’s Shockingly Small Celebrity Support Team

Hollywood

On Wednesday, asked if she was prepared for the possibility of Hunter Biden, the son of former vice president and current presidential contender Joe Biden, testifying in the impeachment trial of President Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi relinquished the microphone to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, who <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/nadler-says-hunter-biden-is-not-relevant-to-for-the-senate-impeachment-trial-76806213607">claimed</a> the Democrats were prepared for such an eventuality but immediately bristled that Hunter Biden was not a “relevant” witness to the inquiry.
Nadler answered that the Democrats were “prepared”:
<blockquote>We are prepared, but the relevant question is relevance. Is relevance. In any trial, you call witnesses who have information about the allegations, about the charges. The allegations, for which there is a mountain of evidence, are that the president betrayed his country by trying to extort the (sic) Ukraine by withholding $391 million dollars in military aid that Congress had voted in order to get Ukraine to announce an investigation of a domestic political opponent. That’s the allegation.</blockquote>
Then he segued to why Hunter Biden was not “relevant”:
<blockquote>Any witness who has information about whether that is true or not true is a relevant witness. Anybody, like Hunter Biden, who has no information about any of that is not a relevant witness. Any trial judge in this country would rule such a witness as irrelevant and inadmissible. If someone is accused of robbing a bank, witnesses who say, &#8220;We saw him run into the bank, we saw him some place else&#8221; are relevant. A witness who says, &#8220;He committed forgery on some other document&#8221; is not relevant to the bank robbery charge. That’s the distinction.</blockquote>
On Monday night Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) tweeted, “My colleagues can&#8217;t have it both ways. Calling for some, while blocking others. If we are going to give a platform to witnesses the Dems demand, I look forward to forcing votes to call Hunter Biden and many more!&#8217;
On Tuesday night during the Democratic presidential debate, Joe Biden lamented, “&#8217;This Republican Party, they&#8217;ve gone after — savaged my surviving son —  gone after me, told lies that your networks and others won&#8217;t even carry on television because they&#8217;re flat-out lies … And I did my job, the question is whether he (Trump) did his job. And he hasn&#8217;t done his job.”
On Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ted-cruz-suggests-idea-for-impeachment-trial-that-could-make-joe-biden-hunter-biden-testify">suggested an idea</a> that could trigger calling Joe Biden and Hunter Biden to be called as witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate. Cruz called for “witness reciprocity,” which would enable GOP leaders in the Senate to call a witness of their own for every witness called for by Senate Democrats.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated in his usual laconic style, “We’ll be dealing with the witness issue at the appropriate time into the trial. And I think it’s certainly appropriate to point out that both sides would want to call witnesses if they wanted to hear from them. So if you get to that issue, I can’t imagine that only the witnesses our Democratic colleagues want to call will be called.”

Speaker Pelosi Announces Impeachment Managers, Signs And Transmits Articles To Senate For Trial

After GOP Suggests Hunter Biden May Testify, Dems Bristle He’s Not ‘Relevant’

Nancy Pelosi

As 2020 kicks into gear, a series of focus groups involving &#8220;low-information voters&#8221; conducted by Barack Obama&#8217;s former speechwriter offer some deeply troubling — if at times hilarious — takeaways for Democrats.
The study, which involved focus groups in four different cities, was conducted late last year by Obama&#8217;s former speechwriter, Jon Favreau, for the second season of his Crooked Media-produced podcast &#8220;<a href="https://crooked.com/podcast-series/the-wilderness/">The Wilderness</a>.&#8221; Each focus group consisted of 10 voters with specific voting records: Philadelphia&#8217;s group of ten all voted for Hillary in 2016; Milwaukee&#8217;s group voted for Obama in 2012, flipped to Trump in 2016, then voted Democrat again in 2018;  the group in Miami was mostly black and Hispanic voters who voted for Obama in 2012, but either stayed home in 2016 or voted third party; and the Phoenix participants all flipped from Romney in 2012 to Clinton in 2016. All but the Phoenix group consisted of what politicos generally call &#8220;low-information voters.&#8221;
Vanity Fair&#8217;s <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/01/why-trump-has-huge-advantage-over-democrats-low-information-voters">Peter Hamby</a>, who spoke with Favreau about the focus groups, offers a rather devastating summary of what the podcaster leaned from the three &#8220;low-information&#8221; voters.
“I came away thinking that Trump may not be as big of a challenge as the cynicism and distrust that a lot of these voters have towards the entire political system and the media,” Favreau told Hamby. “Most of them don’t like Trump at all, but since politics hasn’t delivered for them in a tangible way, they’re starting to ignore the circus altogether, which makes them very hard to reach.”
Hamby points out that among the Democrats the low-information crowd named when asked about who they associate with the &#8220;Democratic Party,&#8221; only two of the current Democratic presidential candidates&#8217; names came up frequently: Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Elizabeth Warren was named by just three people, while Pete Buttigieg&#8217;s name was cited by only one. Though respondents said they largely aligned with the Democratic Party on key issues, they also associated it with &#8220;infighting, taxes, socialism, ineptitude, and &#8216;too many candidates,'&#8221; Hamby notes.
Though most of the Democratic candidates appeared to be off most of their radars, Trump was &#8220;everywhere,&#8221; said Favreau. &#8220;I purposely waited to bring up Trump because I wanted to ask them about their thoughts on issues important to them and why they vote and what they think about government first,&#8221; he told Hamby. &#8220;But in almost every focus group, someone just brought up Trump almost immediately. He is everywhere, like a national psychic wound.&#8221;
While Favreau characterized Trump as inflicting trauma on everyone, he also admitted that while &#8220;none of them&#8221; liked him, they also weren&#8217;t thrilled about or committed to any of the Democrats and exhibited a deep distrust in the media. Hamby reports:
<blockquote>But even as they universally expressed displeasure with Trump, including the people who voted for him in Milwaukee but flipped in 2018, almost every participant told Favreau they wouldn’t yet commit to voting for the Democratic nominee in 2020. Some said it depends on who the nominee is. Others were open to voting for a third-party candidate instead of the Democrat. “None of them really like Trump, but they don’t have much love for Democratic politicians, Republican politicians, and especially the media, which they don’t trust at all,” Favreau said. “They really do see Trump as part of a broader political media culture that’s just out of control, silly, nasty, and not focused on what they care about.” A theme that surfaced again and again, not just about Democrats but about politics generally, was that the whole process is confusing, tedious, and off-putting—and that news organizations and social media do little to make sense of it.</blockquote>
Hamby also offers some rather humorous highlights of words and phrases the focus group participants associated with the top Democratic candidates:
<blockquote>In Milwaukee words that came to mind for Biden included “hugger,” “oil tycoon,” “cops,” and “old white money.” Six of the voters—all of whom had voted in the past two election cycles—responded with some variation of “nothing” or “I have nothing” when Biden was named. In Philadelphia the voters associated Biden with “crime bill,” “too old,” and “not fired up.” A grandmother and self-described “cat lady” named Jean said, “I heard he said a bad thing, I didn’t like it.” Biden elicited better reactions in Miami, where attendees said “Obama,” “experience,” and “well dressed” when the former vice president’s name was mentioned.
Sanders, too, was described as “too old” in all three cities, though many of the responses were, if not on message, at least message-adjacent. The Miami group associated Sanders with “crazy hair,” “grinny,” “free college,” and “wants to give away too many things for free.” The Philadelphia group said “your crazy uncle,” “health care,” “questionable health,” and “passionate hand talker.” In Milwaukee the Obama–Trump voters described Sanders as “for the people,” “crazy but in a good way,” “boisterous,” and “bold”—while three of the voters had no response to his name.</blockquote>
Warren inspired a few positive responses from people, including the words &#8220;energy&#8221; and &#8220;progressive,&#8221; but Favreau also noted that the participants &#8220;knew almost nothing about her,&#8221; Hamby notes. Buttigieg was almost totally unknown by any of the participants, one responding when asked about him, “Who dat?” (<a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/01/why-trump-has-huge-advantage-over-democrats-low-information-voters">Read Hamby&#8217;s full piece for Vanity Fair here</a>.)
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/economists-have-bad-news-for-democrats-hoping-for-2020-recession-to-topple-trump">Experts Have Bad News For Democrats Hoping For 2020 Recession To Topple Trump</a>

Donald Trump Melania Trump

‘Low-Information Voters’ Study Offers Some Very Troubling, And Sometimes Hilarious, Results For Democrats

Vanity Fair

On Tuesday, Sen. <a style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;" href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/person/ted-cruz">Ted Cruz</a> (R-TX) suggested an idea that could trigger calling former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter to be called as witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate. Cruz called for “witness reciprocity,” which would enable GOP leaders in the Senate to call a witness of their own for every witness called for by Senate Democrats.
Cruz brought up the idea during a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and GOP leaders, according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/witness-reciprocity-trump-impeachment-senate-trial-ted-cruz-mitch-mcconnell">Fox News</a>, which added that other people who might be called by the GOP include House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and the whistleblower who publicized a July phone call between Trump and the leader of Ukraine.
McConnell, who consulted with Cruz,senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah regarding tactics for the impeachment trial, stated,“We’ll be dealing with the witness issue at the appropriate time into the trial. And I think it’s certainly appropriate to point out that both sides would want to call witnesses if they wanted to hear from them. So if you get to that issue, I can’t imagine that only the witnesses our Democratic colleagues want to call will be called.”
Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, “I love @tedcruz’s plan of witness reciprocity. The American people want to hear from #wheresHunter Biden, #sleepyJoe Biden, #fullofschiff, the phony “whistleblower” etc. much more than they do anyone on our side especially since the house had free reign of witnesses for months.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I love <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@tedcruz</a>’s plan of witness reciprocity.
The American people want to hear from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wheresHunter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#wheresHunter</a> Biden, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sleepyJoe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#sleepyJoe</a> Biden, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/fullofschiff?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#fullofschiff</a>, the phony “whistleblower” etc. much more than they do anyone on our side especially since the house had free reign of witnesses for months.
&mdash; Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1217251711057874944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
A likely witness whom the Democrats would like to call would be former national security advisor John Bolton; three GOP senators, Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have suggested they might be open to agreeing he should be called as a witness. With 53 senators in the Senate, the GOP needs every vote, as it requires a simple majority to win a motion in the Senate. President Trump told Fox News last week that he might invoke executive privilege so Bolton could not testify.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.VA) noted McConnell is famous for keeping his plans secret, asserting, “He’s been around a long time. And he’s close to the vest. The thing he has on his radar screen is … 51 [votes]. Where can he get to 51? And no matter what his personal beliefs might be or how he feels about it. And I think that’s really the difficulty he has, trying to weave that,” as <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/14/mitch-mcconnell-trump-impeachment-098908">Politico</a> reported.
White House Director of Legislative Affairs Eric Ueland pointed out the close ties between Trump and McConnell, saying, “They have a lot of conversations, and I don’t think there’s any problem between the two of them in terms of how their being crisp and clear with each other on the various priorities each has pulling together this trial process.”
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) approved of McConnell waiting to announce his plans, stating, “If I was him, I certainly wouldn’t disclose it because then Nancy Pelosi could say, ‘Oh, now that I’ve seen the rules, I’m not gonna send these [articles] over.’ Why throw your hand in when you’ve won the game?”

Lawmakers And Presidential Candidates Attend Texas Tribune Festival In Austin, Texas

Ted Cruz Suggests Idea For Impeachment Trial That Could Make Joe Biden, Hunter Biden Testify

Ted Cruz

Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden is not referring to his son, Hunter Biden, by his name anymore as public pressure mounts for Biden&#8217;s son to testify in President Donald Trump&#8217;s Senate trial over his alleged corrupt business dealings with Ukrainian gas company Burisma.
The former vice president on Tuesday referred to his son as &#8220;my only surviving son,&#8221; in an apparent attempt to cast sympathy for him, during CNN&#8217;s Democrat presidential debate and on Twitter.
&#8220;Republicans have savaged my only surviving son,&#8221; Biden tweeted. &#8220;They’ve spread lies about me that networks won’t even carry. It doesn’t matter if they go after me. As President of the United States, I have to be able to not only fight — I have to heal. And that’s what I’ll do if I’m elected.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Republicans have savaged my only surviving son. They’ve spread lies about me that networks won’t even carry. It doesn’t matter if they go after me.
As President of the United States, I have to be able to not only fight — I have to heal. And that’s what I’ll do if I’m elected.
&mdash; Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1217289913969840130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
During the presidential debate, Biden had the following exchange with CNN&#8217;s Wolf Blitzer [emphasis added]:
<blockquote>BLITZER: Tomorrow, the speaker, Nancy Pelosi, will send articles of impeachment against President Trump to the United States Senate, launching the third trial of a U.S. president. The Republican-led Senate has signaled that it is likely to acquit him.
Vice President Biden, if you&#8217;re the nominee, is it going to be harder to run against President Trump if he&#8217;s been acquitted and able to claim vindication, especially after what he&#8217;s said about your family?
BIDEN: It&#8217;s irrelevant. There&#8217;s no — there&#8217;s no choice but to — for Nancy Pelosi and the House to move. He has, in fact, committed impeachable offenses. Whether the Senate makes that judgment or not, it&#8217;s for them to decide.
But — and, by the way, I&#8217;m told that, you know, we — that I don&#8217;t — I say we have to unite the country and it&#8217;s going to be harder after this trial. It may be. But, look, you know, I understand how these guys are, this Republican Party. They&#8217;ve got gone after — savaged my surviving son, gone after me, told lies that your networks and others won&#8217;t even carry on television because they&#8217;re flat-out lies.</blockquote>
Biden&#8217;s new way of referring to his son comes after The New York Times <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-russians-hack-ukrainian-gas-company-tied-to-bidens-attacks-were-successful">reported</a> this week that the Russian military successfully hacked Burisma in an effort to dig up dirt on the Bidens ahead of the 2020 election.
&#8220;The controversy surrounding Biden stems from the fact that his son was hired by Burisma to be on the company’s board of directors — despite not having any experience in natural gas or in Ukraine — at a time when the Obama administration tapped Biden to handle U.S. interests in Ukraine,&#8221; The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-russians-hack-ukrainian-gas-company-tied-to-bidens-attacks-were-successful">reported</a>. &#8220;In 2016, Biden sought to remove a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating the company that his son was working for over allegations of corruption.&#8221;
Biden has repeatedly blown up on the campaign trail when people have asked him about his son, who was previously <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2014/10/16/politics/hunter-biden-discharged-from-navy/index.html">kicked out</a> of the U.S. Navy for using cocaine.
“Mr. Vice President, how many times have you ever spoken to your son about his overseas business dealings?” Fox News&#8217; Peter Doocy asked.
“I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” Biden <a href="https://twitter.com/dmartosko/status/1175480222164160512">falsely claimed</a>. “And here’s what I know, I know Trump deserves to be investigated. He is violating every basic norm of a president. You should be asking him the question, why is he on the phone with a foreign leader trying to intimidate a foreign leader, if that’s what happened, that appears to be what happened, you should be looking at Trump.”
“Everybody looked at this, and everybody’s looked at it and said there’s nothing there,” Biden claimed. “Ask the right questions!”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Joe Biden on his Ukraine scandal: “Why&#39;s [Trump] on the phone with a foreign leader trying to intimidate [them]?”
Biden in 2016 on what he told Ukraine: “I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money’” <a href="https://t.co/IjNgweVH67">pic.twitter.com/IjNgweVH67</a>
&mdash; Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1175471237138485249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In November, Doocy asked Biden about his son fathering a child with a woman in Arkansas while he was <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/us-news/2019/11/hunter-biden-fathered-child-with-woman-while-dating-brothers-widow-dna-test-reveals.html">dating</a> his brother’s widow.
Doocy asked Biden, “Do you have a comment on this report and court filing out of Arkansas that your son Hunter just made you a grandfather?”
“No, that’s a private matter, I have no comment,” Biden responded.
“But only you would ask that,&#8221; Biden said in an agitated state. &#8220;You’re a good man. You’re a good man. Classy.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Biden gets angry at a reporter for doing his job:
Reporter: &quot;Do you have a comment on this report and court filing out of Arkansas that your son Hunter just made you a grandfather?&quot;
Biden: &quot;No, that&#39;s a private matter, I have no comment. But only you would ask that. &#8230; Classy&quot; <a href="https://t.co/vxPzE8St8Q">pic.twitter.com/vxPzE8St8Q</a>
&mdash; Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1197618070123995136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Joe Hunter Biden

Joe Biden Isn’t Using Hunter’s Name Anymore, Has New Way Of Referring To Him

Ukraine

Former Vice President Joe Biden is back on top in the most recent Iowa polls, pulling back ahead of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) among &#8220;firmly decided&#8221; caucus-goers, just days after Sanders topped a Des Moines Register poll of probable voters.
The Monmouth poll, released late Monday, shows Biden with a considerable lead, besting Sanders, the second-place finisher, by six points, 24% to 18%.
&#8220;Biden is ahead with 24% support, up 5 points from the same poll in November. Bernie Sanders is in second place with 18%, virtually tied with Pete Buttigieg at 17%, and with Elizabeth Warren at 15%,&#8221; MSN reported Tuesday. &#8220;Biden has been at at the top of most Iowa polls, though Sanders had the lead in a Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll released Friday, with 20%. Biden was fourth in that poll, with 15% support, behind Warren and Buttigieg.&#8221;
The Monmoth poll, the news outlet says, is &#8220;notable,&#8221; because it indicates things are settling for Iowa caucus-goers, who have just over two weeks to decide who they plan to caucus for in their first-in-the-nation contest. Independents and undecides are beginning to break &#8212; and they&#8217;re beginning to break in Biden&#8217;s favor.
Biden&#8217;s team hadn&#8217;t expected to win the Iowa caucus, so if these numbers hold, it will be a nice surprise for the former Veep, and given him a significant boost going into more critical primaries, like those in South Carolina &#8212; where African-American voters will make their voices heard &#8212; and Nevada, where Hispanics are the fastest-growing segment of the voting population. Both demographics are key for any Democrat who plans on snagging the 2020 presidential nomination and taking on Donald Trump.
Sanders is expected to win New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation primary, repeating his 2016 victory.
The Monmouth poll is bad news for Buttigieg and Warren. Any candidate who takes in less than 15% of the vote in the first round of the Iowa caucus has to forfeit the contest, and his or her caucus-goers have to realign with a different candidate. Warren benefits only if Biden doesn&#8217;t make the first round. MSN reports that she&#8217;s the top &#8220;second choice.&#8221;
That&#8217;s cold comfort, of course. Warren once led comfortably in Iowa, and has seen both her poll numbers and her fundraising take a significant slide since November, when she was forced to contend with accusations that she would raise taxes on the middle class to pay for her expansive &#8220;Medicare for All&#8221; healthcare plan.
Biden, it seems, isn&#8217;t sitting on his laurels in Iowa. After a breakneck campaign tour on his &#8220;No Malarkey&#8221; bus, he&#8217;s putting millions into a last minute ad campaign in the state, trying to secure his lead. <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/14/biden-super-pac-iowa-098499">Politico reports</a> that Biden and Biden-aligned super PACs are poised to spend at least $2 million on ads in the last two weeks before the Iowa caucuses alone.
<div class="container__column container__column--story summary-middle">
<div class="container__row container__row--story story-layout--fixed-fluid">
<div class="container__column container__column--story center-horizontally">
<div class="story-text">
&#8220;The Unite the Country super PAC is accelerating its support for Joe Biden in Iowa with a new TV ad buy targeting President Donald Trump for his controversial handling of Iran,&#8221; the Washington, D.C.-based outlet reports. &#8216;The new statewide commercial is part of $2 million statewide ad buy scheduled to run through the state’s caucus day, Feb. 3, where polls show a tight race. Unite the Country has already spent about $2.2 million on TV to help Biden.&#8221;
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Biden Back On Top In Polls, Pledges Millions On Last-Minute Television Ads

The Washington Post recently released a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/washington-post-ipsos-poll-of-african-americans-jan-2-8-2020/a41b5691-e181-4cda-bb88-7b31935103d9/">survey</a> of only African American adults with questions pertaining to the 2020 election, and the Democratic candidates more specifically.
The survey, which was conducted between January 2 &#8211; 8 on 1,088 “non-Hispanic black adults,” has a margin of error of +/-3.5 points overall, and +/-4 points among the smaller sampling of 769 “Democrat-leaning registered voters.”
To the 769 who leaned Democrat, the survey asked: “If the Democratic primary or caucus in your state were held today, for whom would you vote? Which candidate would you lean toward?”
Perhaps not surprisingly, the overwhelming plurality of respondents chose former Vice President Joe Biden, who came out with 48% support among African American voters. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) came in a distant second place with 20% support. No other candidate reached double digits.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) had 9% support, followed by billionaire Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who were tied with 4% support. In sixth place was businessman Andrew Yang with 3% support, and in seventh, a tie between Mayor Pete Buttigieg and billionaire Tom Steyer, each with 2% support.
Again, unsurprisingly given the answer to the first question, when asked who their second choice would be, 24% of Democrat-leaning African American voters chose Sanders, 20% chose Warren, and 17% chose Biden.
Rounding out the top seven spots were Booker with 8%, Bloomberg with 5%, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Yang with 4%, and Buttigieg and Steyer with 3%. For comparison, “None of these” took 11% of the second choice vote.
Perhaps the most interesting question posed to Democrat-leaning African American voters was this: “Are there any candidates you would definitely NOT consider supporting for the Democratic nomination?”
Respondents were told they could choose multiple candidates for their answers.
Roaring into first place with 23% of Democrat-leaning African American voters saying they would “definitely NOT consider” her is Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI). The candidate has not fared well among the Democratic establishment due in part to her heterodox views. This sentiment, which appears to have extended to voters, can be traced all the way back to her resignation from the DNC to endorse Bernie Sanders against Hillary Clinton in February 2016.
Coming in second in the category that no candidate wants to be in is Michael Bloomberg with 17%. Third place is Pete Buttigieg with 15% of Democrat-leaning African American voters saying “No thanks.”
Other notable mentions are former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick with 13%, Klobuchar with 11%, and Yang with 10%.
At the bottom of the list are Sanders with 7%, Warren with 6%, and Biden with 5%.
However, 44% of Democrat-leaning African American voters said they “would support any of the candidates above.”
Another fascinating question pertained to name ID. When asked about “favorability,” only two Democratic candidates escaped the fate of low name recognition among African American adults – Biden (3% “never heard of”) and Sanders (5% “never heard of”).
Even Warren had a “never heard of” number of 17%. Almost every other candidate’s “never heard of” percentage was in the 20s and 30s, including ostensible top-tier candidate Pete Buttigieg, who 34% of African American adults had “never heard of.”
Check out the entire poll <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/washington-post-ipsos-poll-of-african-americans-jan-2-8-2020/a41b5691-e181-4cda-bb88-7b31935103d9/">here</a>.

Top Dem candidates.

Washington Post Poll Of African Americans Reveals Stunning Info About Perceptions Of Some Dem Candidates

African American

On Friday, a surprising new Democratic primary poll was released by <a href="https://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2020/images/01/10/rel1_ia.-.democrats.pdf">CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom</a> that shows a new leader of the pack in the state of Iowa.
The new poll, which was conducted between January 2 &#8211; 8 on “3,131 active registered voters in Iowa, including 701 likely Democratic caucusgoers,” asked respondents to list their first and second choices for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The poll also includes a follow-up: “I’m going to read the list one more time, excluding any names you may have already mentioned. This time, please tell me if the person is someone you are actively considering or not.”
Iowa voters’ first choice among the Democratic candidates was Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) with 20%. Second place went to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) with 17%. Third place went to Mayor Pete Buttigieg with 16%, followed closely by former Vice President Joe Biden with 15%.
Aside from the 11% of voters who were “not sure,” the next two candidates were Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) with 6% and businessman Andrew Yang with 5%.
When asked to rank their second choice, respondents moved some folks around. Taking first place (in the second choice category) was Warren with 16%. Second place was Buttigieg with 15%. 13% of respondents had no second choice. Biden and Sanders tied for fourth place with 12% each.
Perhaps the most interesting and informative was the “actively consideration” category because it shows who still stands a chance even if they are lower in the primary rankings.
Tying for first place in the “actively considering” category were Andrew Yang and Pete Buttigieg with 29% each. Second place went to Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Joe Biden, each with 28%. Third place went to Klobuchar with 27%, fourth to Warren with 26%, fifth to Sanders with 23%, and sixth to billionaire Tom Steyer with 22%.
When the poll asked “likely Democratic caucusgoers” if their minds were made up or if they could still be persuaded to move to another candidate, 40% said that their mind was made up while 45% said that they could still be persuaded. In November, those numbers were 30% and 62%, respectively.
With this latest poll (as well as the accumulation of other recent polls), Sanders has dethroned Buttigieg from his perch atop the Iowa caucus candidate list – but just barely.
As of publication, the RealClearPolitics average for the Iowa Democratic caucus, which takes place on February 3, has Sanders in first place with 21.3%, Buttigieg in second with 21%, Biden in third with 17.7%, and Warren in fourth with 17%.
Sanders also leads in New Hampshire, which will vote second on February 11, with 21.5% to second-place Biden’s 18.8%, and third-place Buttigieg’s 18.3%.
Nevada and South Carolina, which vote February 22 and 29, respectively, are still strongly Biden country, and nationally, Biden still holds a commanding lead over all competitors with an RCP average of 29.3% to second-place Sanders’ 20.3%. Third and fourth place nationally belong to Warren (14.8%) and Buttigieg (7.5%).

Menu