Donald Trump has lashed out at lead impeachment manager Adam Schiff, again calling him “mentally deranged”, as Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell claims to have seen off the threatened Republican rebellion on subpoenaing new witnesses and hopes to press ahead with the president’s acquittal on Friday after a final question-and-answer session in the upper chamber today.
US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross is meanwhile in hot water after saying during an interview with Fox Business, with a staggering absence of basic compassion, that China being struck by the coronavirus “will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America”.
In a further embarrassing development for the president, a section of his US-Mexico border wall – which he once promised would be “impenetrable” – has been blown over in El Centro, California, after being hit by strong desert winds.
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The impeachment trial has resumed for another period of questioning. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says nearly 100 questions were answered yesterday.
The Chief Justice has arrived in the Capitol and the proceedings are set to begin shortly.
The US Senate impeachment trial against Donald Trump is set to begin momentarily, with senators taking their seats for another day of proceedings at 1:00pm EST.
The questioning period of the trial will resume, as Democrats call for witnesses like former National Security Adviser John Bolton - who has a new book reportedly linking the president in first-hand conversations to the Ukraine scandal - to deliver testimony under oath. A vote on the decision of whether to add additional witnesses could arrive on Friday.
We'll bring you live updates as they come in.
Tim Mullaney has a new Voices piece on The Independent today that looks at potential difficulties the president will face when campaigning on the economy, now that his policies are seemingly having an adverse impact just before the election:
Joe Biden has acknowledged he must pick a vice president capable of taking over the White House “immediately” if he wins the Democratic nomination, admitting to voters in Iowa this week: “I’m an old guy.”
Speaking openly about an issue that has followed the 77-year-old former vice president as he campaigns in the early-voting state, Mr Biden addressed his age and said he could of “at least eight women, at least four or five people of colour” who he believed were “totally qualified to be vice president”.
“But for me, it has to be demonstrated that whoever I pick is two things,” the 2020 hopeful continued. “One, is capable of [being] president because I’m an old guy.”
Mr Biden said he was serious as some in the crowd laughed, according to Washington Examiner, which first reported the quotes from the former vice president.
“Look, I thank God I'm in great health. I work out. No, I'm serious. You know, I work out every morning. I'm in good shape — knock on wood, as my mother would say,” he said.
Story to come...
House Foreign Affairs chairman hits hack at Don Jr over Bolton claim
Yesterday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee posted this thread on Twitter in response to Trump's latest attack on Bolton unexpectedly revealing that the ex-national security adviser had also expressed his concerns about the administration's approach to Ukraine to its own chairman, New York Democrat Eliot Engel.
When the president's idiot son expressed scepticism, Engel came right back at him:
Trump administration to loosen restrictions on landmines
Here's the president latest regulatory rollback in the name of free enterprise, this one empowering the US military to place deadly explosives to mame enemy combatants despite their being banned in over 160 countries.
As Media Matters editor Parker Molloy wrote earlier this month, the myth of "Donald the dove" is one of the most dangerous misconceptions surrounding his presidency.
Nancy Pelosi: 'You cannot be acquitted if you don't have a trial'
The House speaker is currently giving her weekly press conference and has hailed her impeachment managers and been quoting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Paul Revere.
"You cannot be acquitted if you don’t have a trial," she says on the president and the need to call John Bolton. "You don’t have a trial if you don’t have witnesses and documentation and all of that."
She also says the president's legal team "disgraced themselves terribly".
The Iowa caucus explained
On Monday, Americans will be be able to cast a vote for who they’d like to see become president of the United States for the first time this election year.
But why is it taking place in Iowa, a predominantly rural state with a relatively small and largely white population, only 16 per cent of whom turned out in 2016?
Graig Graziosi explains it all.
President lays into impeachment trial star as senators prepare for final Q&A
Trump has just issued his latest attack on Adam Schiff, saying he "only dreams of the Impeachment Hoax" and is "mentally deranged" - in his opinion.
In today's second and final Q&A session of the impeachment, this is how long the senators have left to ask questions of the 16 alloted hours...
...and this is how many each senator has asked and who has yet to ask any at all.
Meanwhile, on CNN this morning, Wyoming Republican John Barrasso issued this incredibly craven defence of Alan Dershowitz's most controversial argument.
Here are a couple of contrary interpretations.
White House adviser credits Trump for increasing US life expectancy
Kellyanne Conway has announced that American life expectancy has increased for the first time in four years and that drug overdoses are down for the first time in 29 years - although 70,000 died from overdoes, 48,000 of which were the result of the opiod crisis.
She credits a "whole of government approach to treat the whole person led by President Trump, first lady Melania Trump and really the entire administration".
This administration?
Mike Pompeo dodges questions on US refusal to extradite diplomat's wife over Harry Dunn death
Trump's secretary of state is in London and ducking questions on the administration allowing Ann Sacoolas to "evade justice" after fleeing the country following the killing of the Northamptonshire teen in a collision last August.
Pompeo and British foreign minister Dominic Raab engaged in a show of unity after recent spats over the assassination of Qassem Soleimani and Boris Johnson's decision to allow Hawei to build the UK's new 5G network, contrary to advice from the White House.
Rob Merrick has this report.
Trump's commerce secretary suggests coronavirus 'will help to accelerate jobs to North America'
Interviewed by Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business, US commerce secretary Nosferatu the Vampyr Wilbur Ross just served up a sizzling hot take on why China suffering a coronavirus outbreka is a boon for the American economy.
Here's Chris Riotta on the old ghoul.
Why Trump is likely to be acquitted - and very soon
John T Bennettt says the president is riding a "metaphorical bullett train" to acquital - and, if the Republican rebellion on admitting new witnesses fails to materialise, it could all be over by Friday.
"That's the plan!" says Mitch McConnell.
Don Jr to speak at world’s largest trophy hunt convention
Trump Jr, who has recently been accused of shooting endangered animals under controversial circumstances, will speak at the world’s largest trophy hunting convention in Reno, Nevada, next week, staged by Safari Club International.
He's also planning to auction off the chance to go animal killing with him in Alaska.
Chris Riotta has the full story.
'Trump’s "deal of the century" is so absurd and banal, it’s impossible to take seriously'
For Indy Voices, Robert Fisk offers an even more damning assessment.
Deal of the century or ‘path to apartheid’? Inside Trump’s divisive peace plan
Here's Bel Trew to examine the president's "Vision for Peace" in the Middle East, which he unveiled to a rapturous reception at the White House on Tuesday but which gave rise to angry protests among Palestinians in Gaza City.
One of the architects of the plan, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, told Sky News Arabia yesterday that he'd put the hours in before redrawing the map.
“I’ve been studying this now for three years,” he said. “I’ve read 25 books on it, I’ve spoken to every leader in the region, I’ve spoken to everyone who’s been involved in this.”
Why is that somehow not altogether reassuring?
White House seeking to halt publication of Bolton memoir
The administration is seeking to put the brakes on The Room Where It Happened, according to The Hill, which has obtained a letter from a National Security Council (NSC) official arguing it contains "significant amounts of classified information."
The manuscript was submitted to the council on 30 December for review but daming details relating to Trump's intentions towards Ukraine were subsequently leaked to The New York Times, which ran its explosive story on them on Sunday night.
"Under federal law and the nondisclosure agreements your client signed as a condition for gaining access to classified information, the manuscript may not be published or otherwise disclosed without the deletion of this classified information," Ellen J Knight, senior director for records, access and information security management, wrote to Bolton's attorney Charles Cooper in a letter dated 23 January.
Knight said some of the information included reaches the threshold of being "top secret" based on a preliminary assessment. The NSC's records division is still reviewing the document, she said, and would provide additional guidance once the process was completed.
"We will do our best to work with you to ensure your client's ability to tell his story in a manner that protects US national security," she wrote.
Cooper wrote back a day later arguing against key passages being blocked out. “We do not believe that any of that information could reasonably considered classified, but given that Ambassador Bolton could be called to testify as early as next week, it is imperative that we have the results of your review of that chapter as soon as possible,” the lawyer said.
The Room Where It Happened is due to be published on 27 March and is already available for pre-order on Amazon.
Evangelical pastor labels John Bolton 'slime ball of the highest order'
Trump-affiliated conservative pastor Rodney Howard-Browne - who was among the pastors to join hands and pray over the president in the Oval Office in 2017 - has taken to Twitter to give his two cents on the ex-national security adviser.
It's quite something.
In addition to calling Bolton "a slime ball of the highest order" and "a Benedict Arnold", the good reverend goes on to denounce him as "a globalist sellout" and "a 'clown' walrus".
'Behind the scenes, Republicans are worried the Senate impeachment trial might be falling apart'
Andrew Feinberg offers this insider's glimpse of the anxiety GOP members are sharing in private about how the case against Trump is really playing out.
