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 begin in earnest on Tuesday after the president was charged with abuse of power and obstruction by the House of Representatives, with today’s session set to see heated debate over majority leader Mitch McConnell’s proposals for a compressed format, already labelled the basis for nothing more than a “rigged trial” by House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff.
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.
Please allow a moment for our live blog to load
The president's impeachment trial is beginning in the Senate.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is laying out his proposed rules for the proceedings. First, the case will be presented by the House managers, the prosecution team, followed by a response from the president's counsel. The Senate will then consider questions for either side, managed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Then, they'll consider "whether we feel any additional evidence or witnesses are necessary."
McConnell is slamming the impeachment proceedings in Congress and threatening to table any amendments to subpoena witnesses or documents at beginning of the trial.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will propose that, in a series of amendments related to subpoenas for White House documents that were previously blocked by the president during the congressional investigation.
The Trump administration is looking into a revival of a travel ban affecting majority-Muslim countries, the president told the Wall Street Journal while he's in Davos. Trump didn't say which countries would be affected.
His confirmation follows reports that the White House was mulling an extension of the ban.
Here's a report from earlier this month:
Trump could revive Muslim travel ban, reports say
The IndependentWhite House preparing to extend immigrant travel restrictions impacting majority Muslim countriesDonald Trump met with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan during his sessions with world leaders in Davos.
He didn't answer whether he'd visit Pakistan, saying instead: "Well, we’re visiting right now, so we won’t have to. From the standpoint of our two countries, we’re getting along very well... We are very close right now because of the relationship we have.”
AOC criticises Democrats: ‘We don’t have a left-wing party in the United States'
Speaking to writer Ta-Nehisi Coates on Martin Luther King Day, popular New York progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez turned her fire on her own party (picking an odd time to do it) by saying characterising its current political leaning as “centre or centre-conservative”.
Alex Woodward has the full story.
Chuck Schumer to pitch 'series of amendments' following Democratic outcry over McConnell's impeachment resolution
The Senate minority leader remains incensed at his Republican counterpart's tight schedule for the trial's proceedings, set to run on long into the night.
Jerry Nadler has meanwhile been arguing that White House counsel Pat Cipollone should recuse himself from the process because he is a "fact witness". A good point!
Iranian politician offers $3m reward for Trump assassination
Ahmad Hamzeh, an Iranian politician, has offered a $3m (£2.3m) reward for Trump's murder and said his country could counter the president's threats if it had nuclear weapons of its own, according to the ISNA news agency.
Good grief.
'The president is not really familiar with America's story'
Trump has made several attacks now on A Very Stable Genius, the new book by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, most recently calling the authors "Two stone cold losers" and implying their newspaper is in the pocket of its owner, Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos.
The book contains anecdotes suggesting that Trump did not understand the significance of the bombing of Pearl Harbour and was unable to read the US Constitution when asked, complaining it was "like a foreign language" and is not going away any time soon.
In the latest leg of her media tour to promote the book, Leonnig tells New Day: "The president is not really familiar with America's story".
What a truly daming statement that is.
Hillary Clinton says 'nobody likes' Bernie Sanders
The senator from Vermont has already fallen out with rivals Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden in the last week and now finds himself under attack from the former first lady, secretary of state and defeated 2016 candidate.
Hillarly calls Bernie a "career politician" in a new Hulu documentary about her life and decries the "Bernie Bros" who follow him and carry out "relentless attacks... particularly on women".
Bernie has since responded:
Here's more from Alex Woodward.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
'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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
Lev Parnas lawyer asks Trump's attorney general William Barr to recuse himself from client's investigation
Joseph Bondy, the lawyer representing Rudy Giuliani's former associate Lev Parnas - now a key figure in the Ukraine scandal and a possible impeachment trial witness - has sent a letter to attorney general William Barr asking him to recuse himself from the investigation into his client.
Parnas and business partner Igor Fruman were arrested at Washington Dulles International Airport in October, accused of campaign finance violations in support of Trump, but Bondy argues Barr's Justice Department must appoint a special prosecutor from outside as the Trump-appointed AG himself has a "conflict of interest" in the case.
"Given the totality of the circumstances, we believe it is appropriate for you to recuse yourself from the ongoing investigation and pending prosecution of Mr Parnas," wrote Bondy, having also filed a motion on the matter with a federal court in New York.
The lawyer argues Barr was mentioned several times by President Trump in his notorious 25 July call with Volodymyr Zelenksy of Ukraine, in which he asked the Ukraine president to "do me a favour" by launching a corruption investigation into his domestic political rival Joe Biden in exchange for the release of $391m (£302m) in congressionally-approved military aid.
President's House Republican cronies to join Senate impeachment team
In addition to sending out its 110-page briefing attacking the Democrats impeachment case late on Monday, the president's legal representatives also named eight House Republicans - some of his wildest cheerleaders - to a special team tasked with rallying support beyond the Senate chamber in the court of public opinion.
Those GOP members of Congress are:
- Doug Collins (Georgia)
- Mike Johnson (Louisiana)
- Jim Jordan (Ohio)
- Debbie Lesko (Arizona)
- Mark Meadows (North Carolina)
- John Ratcliffe (Texas)
- Elise Stefanik (New York)
- Lee Zeldin (New York)
What, no Matt Gaetz? Their role in the proceedings will be "largely ceremonial", according to CNN.
