Trump impeachment news: Democrats taunt president with his own words as historic Senate trial begins
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Donald Trump has again labelled his Senate impeachment trial a “witch hunt” and a “hoax” from the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, before addressing the business summit with a blustering, hyperbolic speech laying out his supposed economic and environmental achievements.
Proceedings in the upper chamber of Congress will began in earnest on Tuesday after the president was charged with abuse of power and obstruction by the House of Representatives last month. The prosecution team from the House faced the president's legal counsel, making their first appearance in the impeachment proceedings, and debated trial rules proposed by Mitch McConnell, whose gauntlet called for a brief trial without testimony or evidence and would likely end up in the president's acquittal.
House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff, leading the prosecution team, argued against the Senate Majority Leader's attempts to table efforts to subpoena White House documents.
White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley called Democrats "an utter joke" after attempts to draw out White House counsel Pat Cipollone as a fact witness.
A new poll from CNN has meanwhile found that 51 per cent of Americans now support Mr Trump’s removal from office and 69 per cent want to hear testimony from new witnesses like ex-national security adviser John Bolton, White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, top aide Rob Blair and Office of Management and Budget official Michael Duffey.
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The 14 sitting GOP senators who voted to oust Bill Clinton on obstruction grounds
With little by way of precedent to turn to when it comes to presidential impeachment trials, the Bill Clinton case of 1999 has been at the forefront of the minds of lawmakers in recent weeks (so much so in Trump's case that he hired Ken Starr to represent him!)
It turns out there are 14 Republican senators still sitting who served as jurors last time out and voted to throw President Clinton - a Democrat - out of office on obstruction grounds. Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham among them, you will observe.
Will they do the same this time around now that the man in the dock is one of there own? Surely they must as a matter of principle - no?
Here's Clark Mindock with a refresher on the Lewinsky scandal.
Economist Joseph Stiglitz: 'Trump's characterisation of the economy is totally wrong'
Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum this morning has already been shot down for misrepresenting the economy and failing to address the problem of climate change by a Nobel Prize-winning economist.
Looking on as the president spoke in Switzerland, Joseph Stiglitz afterwards rejected the address and argued that Trumps “characterisation of the economy is totally wrong”.
Conrad Duncan has the full story.
Greta Thunberg pictured looking very bored indeed at Trump speech
During that same address earlier, Trump called on his audience to "reject the perennial prophets of doom" regarding the environment and declared: "This is not a time for pessimism. This is a time for optimism."
That is being read by some commentators as a dig at Greta Thunberg, who was looking on while he spoke and certainly looked bored out of her mind.
(Gian Ehrenzeller/AP)
Bernie Sanders apologises for op-ed attack on Joe Biden
Democratic 2020 candidate Bernie Sanders has apologised to rival Joe Biden after The Guardian published an op-ed by his campaign surrogate Zephyr Teachout attacking the frontrunner in the race to secure the nomination to take on Trump.
The piece accused Biden of being corrupt - a line sure to be music to the ears of the president - but Bernie distanced himself from the argument. "It is absolutely not my view that Joe is corrupt in any way. And I'm sorry that that op-ed appeared," the Vermont senator told CBS.
Teachout argues in the piece that the ex-vice president should not have accepted campaign contributions from large donors and special interests, accusing him of upholding a style of politics no longer endosed by the American electorate.
"It looks like 'Middle Class' Joe has perfected the art of taking big contributions, then representing his corporate donors at the cost of middle- and working-class Americans. Converting campaign contributions into legislative favours and policy positions isn’t being “moderate”. It is the kind of transactional politics Americans have come to loathe," she wrote.
"Biden has a big corruption problem and it makes him a weak candidate," she added. "I know it seems crazy, but a lot of the voters we need - independents and people who might stay home - will look at Biden and Trump and say: 'They’re all dirty.'"
This was Biden's response.
'Trump's impeachment memorandum was a warning to Republicans'
For Indy Voices, Hannah Selinger says the 110-page memo Trump's legal team put out last night was an open call to for GOP unity, cautioning senators not to waver in their defence of the president.
Trump exchanges pleasantries with Conor McGregor on Twitter
The president has a new admirer, it seems.
Asked what he thought about Trump on election day 2016, McGregor answered: "I just could not give a b******s, with all due respect, the whole thing is weird to me... The public are just brainwashed into thinking something is going to happen with this one.
"I don’t think either of those two contenders [Trump or Hillary Clinton], or whatever they are, have power in anything, anyway."
Mitch McConnell's 'national disgrace' impeachment trial resolution explained
Confused about what we're in for today? Here's a handy overview from CNN's New Day.
Legendary Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein coined a new nickname for McConnell on Anderson Cooper's show last night to express his anger at the Senate leader's antics.
Rudy Giuliani contradicts himself over Trump meeting with Lev Parnas
The president's personal attorney was interviewed by Laura Ingraham on Fox News last night and again tied himself in knots, this time by insisting there were four people in the room who could disprove Les Parnas's claim to have met with Trump at a White House Hannukah party in 2018, having previously insisted there were five.
He said in the same interview that he felt "misled" by Parnas and revealed he is godfather to the man's child (!)
Chris Baynes unpicks all this for us.
Parnas lawyer trolling Trump World by setting client's incriminating clips to music
Earlier we brought you news of Lev Parnas's lawyer, Joseph Bondy, and his attempt to take William Barr out of the game when it comes to prosecuting his client for campaign finance violations.
What you may have missed about Bondy is his superb social media game.
Last night he posted this video of Parnas socialising with vice president Mike Pence set to Earth, Wind and Fire's disco classic "September" on account of its "Do you remember...?" chorus, reminding his followers that the administration is lying when its members deny knowing the man.
Bondy has actually been firing out videos like this for the last week, all set to well-chosen bangers to taunt the Trump administration, from "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield to Drake's "Hotline Bling".
My personal favourite remains this inspired deployment of "Together Again" by Janet Jackson.
Adam Schiff slams Mitch McConnell: 'This is the process for a rigged trial'
The Democrats' lead impeachment manager has been attacking "Midnight Mitch" just now over his resolution for the Senate trial in no uncertian terms, appealing to Republican senators to remain impartial.
His colleague Jerrold Nadler was equally unstinting.
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