Trump news: Ken Starr blasted for hypocrisy for bemoaning 'political impeachment' as key Republicans signal they could turn on president
President's trial defence continues with arguments from former Clinton prosecutor as legal team attacks Joe Biden
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Twenty years after leading the impeachment efforts against Bill Clinton, Ken Starr made his debut on the Senate floor in defence of Donald Trump, while two Republican senators admit that John Bolton's testimony is becoming "increasingly likely" following bombshell revelations in the former national security chief's book.
The president reacted angrily after the manuscript Mr Bolton's book was leaked in which the former aide claims the president told him the decision to withhold military assistance to Ukraine last summer was explicitly tied to demands for an investigation into Joe Biden.
"If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book," Mr Trump tweeted, arguing that the House should have subpoenaed Mr Bolton when it was gathering evidence in November (it did), prompting impeachment manager Adam Schiff to say the revelation "blasts another hole" in his counsel's defence.
Senator Mitt Romney said Mr Bolton's revelations are "relevant" and that he would like to hear them on the Senate floor.
Susan Collins of Maine echoed Mr Romney's concerns and said that Mr Bolton's claims "strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues".
Mr Starr was widely criticised for his defence and accused of contradicting his own arguments he made as a prosecutor. He derided the impeachment of Mr Trump over a lack of bipartisan support and claimed that the president was afforded executive privilege allowing him to withhold documents and testimony from subpoenas.
The president's defence also attacked Joe Biden and his son Hunter for what they argued was his corrupt role on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
Meanwhile, Fox host Chris Wallace railed against a contributor he told to "get your facts straight" on air as the talking heads squabbled over the admission of evidence in the Clinton trial compared to the Trump proceedings.
Back at the White House, Mr Trump hosted Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his opposition counterpart Benny Gantz for briefing on his plans to bring peace to the Middle East.
The president intends to announce those plans on Tuesday amid widespread criticism and calls for boycotts from Palestinians, who have largely been ignored from US-led discussions over the region's future.
Follow live coverage as it happened:
Jerrold Nadler to miss today's Senate hearing
One of the Democrats' key impeachment managers will miss Monday's session in the upper chamber as he attends to his wife in hospital in New York City where she is undergoing treatment after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Susan Collins: John Bolton revelations 'have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues'
More on the Republican panic over Bolton as Susan Collins issues this statement...
...and Nebraska's Deb Fischer suggests the moustachioed ex-national security adviser simply put out a press release of his own, thus sidestepping the whole question of subpoeanas and testimony.
Chuck Schumer: 'We're all staring a White House cover-up in the face'
The Senate minority leader is currently giving a press conference and is not wasting his opportunity to heap pressure on the opposition over Bolton and the need to call further witnesses.
The old hawk himself appears to write only one tweet a week and this is what we're getting today, which is highly commendable but not quite what we were hoping to hear from him today.
Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the White House as Trump trails Tuesday peace plan announcement
Here's Trump greeting the Israeli prime minister earlier, after he arrived in town to hear Jared Kushner's pitch to bring peace to the Middle East. Uh huh.
(Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty)
They're speaking now, with Trump saying he'll announce his cunning plan at high noon tomorrow.
He doesn't appear to have discussed matters with the Palestinians.
Buttigieg wins applause from Fox audience after accusing Trump of using 'language of dictators'
More on Pete Buttigieg, who managed the extraordinary feat of winning a round of applause at a Fox News town hall on Sunday by going after the president in uncompromising style.
Darren Richman has more for Indy100.
Bernie Sanders' newest fan is probably the last person you'd expect it to be
Here's Graig Graziosi on the new Democratic front-runner (by some polls) and his least likely supporter.
The White House has issued a statement recognising International Holocaust Remembrance Day, in which the president calls on Americans to "combat evil and oppressive regimes with democracy, justice, and the compassionate spirit." After spending the weekend calling his political rivals corrupt, dumb, liars and cheaters, he claims that the administration aims to "create a culture of respect that deeply values the dignity in every human life."
Starr makes his debut in Trump's impeachment trial
Returning to the Senate's impeachment trial, Ken Starr is on the floor, with a slow-burning condemnation of Democrats and the "age of impeachment" of which he was a principle architect.
Starr — who led the impeachment investigation into Bill Clinton and determined that he was eligible to be impeached for abuse of power, perjury, obstruction of justice and witness tampering — is now tasked with defending the president against at least two of the things that he believed Clinton was guilty of.
In lieu of defending against the charges facing the president, Ken Starr is lecturing about the divisiveness of the impeachment process, seeming to contradict his own arguments he made during the Clinton hearings and in his own published work that followed.
He's repeating the Republican defence against impeachment, claiming it's an attempt to overturn the results of an election and endanger the 2020 election. He's arguing that impeaching the president is too divisive and must be a bipartisan effort.
He said the process should "signal to the nation to return to our traditions."
"Let the people decide", he said.
Meanwhile, on Fox, Chris Wallace tells contributor Katie Pavlich to "get your facts straight" on air, as they squabble over the admission of evidence in impeachment proceedings in the Clinton and Trump eras.
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