Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh in San Francisco (now), Joan E Greve in Washington (now) and Paul Owen (earlier)

Trump responds to impeachment acquittal with rambling, vitriolic speech – as it happened

Live political reporting continues in Friday’s blog:

Summary

  • The White House confirmed the killing of Qassim al-Rimi, an al-Qaida leader who claimed responsibility for last year’s deadly shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola,
  • Trump celebrated his acquittal with a triumphant, profane speech at the White House this morning. “It was all bullshit,” the president said.
  • Earlier while, speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump attacked the faith of House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Mitt Romney, the only Republican senator who voted to convict the president.
  • The Treasury Department is reportedly complying with Republicans’ investigation based on a conspiracy theory about Hunter Biden and Ukraine interference in the 2016 elections, in sharp contrast with the Trump administration’s stonewalling of the Democrats’ impeachment investigation.
  • Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders are nearly tied in the Iowa caucuses. With 97% of precincts reporting, the AP has said the race is still too close to call.
  • Amidst fresh claims of reporting inconsistencies and technical issues, Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez called for a “recanvass” of the tally . in Iowa.
  • Ahead of the New Hampshire debate tomorrow, candidates are participating in a CNN town hall. Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer spoke yesterday. Bernie Sander’s has kicked off the town tall today.

Both Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders have claimed victory in Iowa, even as technical delays and reporting issues have prolonged the delay in tallying the Democratic caucus votes. Sanders has touted his raw vote tally; Buttigieg holds a narrow lead in the number of state delegate equivalents he’s amassed.

Both candidates will be speaking tonight in a CNN town hall ahead of the New Hampshire primary contest next week. Deval Patrick and Amy Klobuchar will be participating as well, answering questions from supporters and network hosts.

Yesterday, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, and Tom Steyer had a turn to make their case, during the first half of the town hall.

And tomorrow, all the candidates (except for Patrick, who didn’t qualify) will face off directly during the New Hampshire Democratic debate.

Several women of color have reportedly left Elizabeth Warren’s Nevada campaign, complaining of a work environment that tokenizes minorities, Politico reports.

The six staffers have left the roughly 70-person Nevada team since November, during a critical stretch of the race. Three of them said they felt marginalized by the campaign, a situation they said didn’t change or worsened after they took their concerns to their superiors or to human resources staff.

“During the time I was employed with Nevada for Warren, there was definitely something wrong with the culture,” said Megan Lewis, a field organizer who joined the campaign in May and departed in December. “I filed a complaint with HR, but the follow-up I received left me feeling as though I needed to make myself smaller or change who I was to fit into the office culture.”

Another recently departed staffer, also a field organizer, granted anonymity because she feared reprisal, echoed that sentiment. “I felt like a problem — like I was there to literally bring color into the space but not the knowledge and voice that comes with it,” she said in an interview.

The staff departures come at a crucial time for Warren’s campaign, ahead of the Nevada caucuses this month. Responding to the report, Warren apologized.

“For me this is about taking personal responsibility which I do and being determined that we will have accountability in this organization and keep doing better every day,” she said in an interview with WBTS.

Updated

Associated Press is unable to declare a winner in Iowa's Democratic caucuses

With 97% of precincts reporting, Pete Buttigieg is in the lead, with Bernie Sanders trailing by three state delegate equivalents — a margin of .14 percentage points.

State officials have yet to count results from some satellite caucus sites, which could push reorder the leading candidates.

Earlier today, the Democratic National Committee’s chairman Tom Perez called for an “immediate recanvass” of the tally, following a days-long delay due in part to problems with a mobile app that the state’s Democratic party used to could votes.

“The Associated Press calls a race when there is a clear indication of a winner. Because of a tight margin between former Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders and the irregularities in this year’s caucus process, it is not possible to determine a winner at this point,” said Sally Buzbee, the AP’s executive editor.

Updated

White House confirms killing of AQAP leader in Yemen

The Trump administration has confirmed reports that it carried out a strike against the leader of Al Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen, known as Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

In a series of tweets on Saturday, the president appeared to verify reports that the US had killed Qassim al-Rimi, the group’s leader but the Department of Defense officials would not offer confirmation.

The United States, our interests, and our allies are safer as a result of his death,’ the White House said in a statement. “ We will continue to protect the American people by tracking down and eliminating terrorists who seek to do us harm.

Background on Rimi the Guardian’s earlier report:

Rimi reportedly became leader of AQAP following a 2015 drone strike that killed Nasir al-Wuhayshi.

In 2017, days after a special forces raid on a compound in Yemen in which a US soldier was killed, Rimi taunted Trump, saying in a recorded message: “The new fool of the White House received a painful slap across his face.”

In an attempt to prevent al-Qaida from establishing a secure base in Yemen, the US recorded 131 strikes there in 2017 but only 36 in 2018. In that year, US officials said a CIA drone strike killed Ibrahim al-Asiri, a senior al-Qaida bomb maker behind the “underwear bomb” attempt on a flight on Christmas Day in 2009.

In January last year, a US strike killed Jamal al-Badawi, an al-Qaida operative linked to the 2000 attack on the USS Cole while it was being refuelled in Aden.

Updated

Report: Mike Bloomberg’s campaign plagiarized policy plans

Michael Bloomberg speaks at a campaign event Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020, in Providence, R.I.
Michael Bloomberg speaks at a campaign event Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020, in Providence, R.I. Photograph: David Goldman/AP

The former New York mayor and billionaire businessman’s presidential campaign appears to have lifted exact passages and fact sheets from media outlets and non-profit groups, The Intercept reports:

Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign plagiarized portions of its plans for maternal health, LGBTQ equality, the economy, tax policy, infrastructure, and mental health from research publications, media outlets, and a number of nonprofit, educational, and policy groups.

The Intercept found that exact passages from at least eight Bloomberg plans or accompanying fact sheets were direct copies of material from media outlets including CNN, Time, and CBS, a research center at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the American Medical Association, Everytown for Gun Safety, Building America’s Future Educational Fund, and other organizations. Bloomberg co-founded Everytown for Gun Safety, a political organization focused on gun control, and Building America’s Future Educational Fund, a nonprofit working on infrastructure investment and reform, and has chaired them in the past, and he was listed as a co-author on the educational fund’s reports. He is not clearly affiliated with the other sources. The plagiarized sections ranged in length from entire paragraphs to individual sentences and fragments in documents that were between five and 14 pages long.

Representative Jim Jordan was temporarily added to the House Intelligence Committee during the impeachment inquiry.
Representative Jim Jordan was temporarily added to the House Intelligence Committee during the impeachment inquiry. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio – a close ally of Donald Trump – has been named the new ranking member of the House judiciary committee, replaying Doug Collins of Georgia. Collins has stepped down so he can challenge Senator Kelly Loeffler for her seat, according to reports.

Jordan is the founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. During the impeachment inquiry, he was temporarily added to the House intelligence committee. He was noted for his auctioneer intonation and aggressive questioning-style and became the president’s chief defender throughout the impeachment.

When William Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, testified before lawmakers, Jordan asked, in his characteristic style, “You’re their first witness? You’re the guy? I’ve seen church prayer chains that are easier to understand than this.”

A former wrestler, Jordan faced allegations last year that he ignored sexual misconduct during his time as a wrestling coach at Ohio State University.

Republican Mark Meadows – another staunch Trump supporter – will take over Jordan’s post as ranking member of the House oversight committee.

Updated

The treasury department is complying with Republicans’ request for information as part of an investigation into Hunter Biden and his business in Ukraine.

The Republican senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson requested information from the department in November as part of their investigation into “potentially improper actions” during the Obama administration. The department’s compliance, in this case, stands in sharp contrasts to the Trump administration’s stonewalling of Democrats’ requests for information during the impeachment investigation.

Grassley and Johnson are looking into Hunter Biden’s business affairs and Ukrainian officials’ alleged interventions in the 2016 election, which is exactly what Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani tried to push Ukrainian officials to investigate.

Per Yahoo News, which first reported the story:

The “rapid” production of sensitive financial information from the Treasury Department in response to congressional requests is apparently uncommon. A source familiar with the matter said the Treasury began turning over materials less than two months after Grassley and Johnson wrote to FinCEN on Nov. 15, 2019, requesting any SARs and related documents filed by financial institutions regarding Hunter Biden, his associates, their businesses and clients.

Updated

Evening summary

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Donald Trump delivered a divisive, profane and unapologetic response to his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial, as Republicans continue to insist the president has learned a lesson from the process.
  • Speaking earlier today at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump attacked the faith of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and Mitt Romney, the only Republican senator to support an article of impeachment.
  • The Democratic National Committee chair, Tom Perez, called for a recanvass of the Iowa caucuses to ensure the accuracy of the results.
  • Bernie Sanders declared victory in the Iowa caucuses, even though results currently show him slightly trailing Pete Buttigieg.
  • House Democrats killed a Republican resolution to condemn Pelosi for tearing up Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
  • During her weekly press conference, Pelosi said she did not regret tearing up Trump’s speech. “I tore up a manifesto of mistruths,” Pelosi said. “It was necessary to get the attention of the American people to say, ‘This is not true.’”

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

After declaring victory in the Iowa caucuses despite trailing Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders said the raw vote total, or the “popular vote,” justified his announcement.

But as the blog has previously stated, the Associated Press and other outlets made clear before the caucuses that the winner would be determined using a different metric, the state delegate equivalents. On that front, Sanders is very slightly behind Buttigieg.

“The rules were changed,” Sanders told CNN. “This is the first time in the Iowa caucus that the popular vote has been made public. That was not the case before.”

Sanders blamed some “confusion on the part of the media” for the focus on SDEs, even though that is the officially recognized metric for determining a winner, and noted he and Buttigieg would likely come out of Iowa with the same number of delegates for the party’s nominating convention, which is true.

The White House is now reportedly sending out talking points aimed at criticizing Mitt Romney after the Republican senator supported one of the articles of impeachment.

The idea of attacking Romney for not hacing principles seems particularly noteworthy, considering the Utah Republican cast his decision on impeachment as a matter of duty.

Explaining his decision yesterday, Romney said, “My vote will likely be in the minority in the Senate, but irrespective of these things, with my vote, I will tell my children and their children that I did my duty to the best of my ability believing that my country expected it of me.”

In a new statement, Democratic senator Patrick Leahy criticized Trump’s rambling, divisive response to his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial.

Leahy contrasted Trump’s remarks with those of Bill Clinton, who told the nation after his acquittal that he was “profoundly sorry” for his actions.

“In stark contrast, today President Trump held a White House campaign rally and was entirely unrepentant,” Leahy said. “Sadly, the only lesson he’s learned is how almost the entire Senate Republican Caucus let him get away with misconduct.”

Even though every House Democrat voted to kill a Republican resolution to condemn Nancy Pelosi for tearing up Trump’s State of the Union, two more moderate members of the caucus chastized the House speaker for her actions.

The Washington Post reports:

Reps. Joe Cunningham (S.C.) and Ben McAdams (Utah) together spoke to Pelosi for several minutes on the House floor before they cast votes to block the attempted reprimand.

McAdams said he told Pelosi that he thought the gesture ‘was inappropriate and that we deserve better than that.’

‘I thought it was disrespectful,’ he said. ‘I found things that I agreed with and things that I didn’t agree with in the president’s speech, but I thought that that was beneath us.’

Other House Democrats have blamed Trump for the tension between him and Pelosi, citing the president’s apparent refusal to shake the speaker’s hand when he arrived to deliver his State of the Union address.

Pete Buttigieg’s campaign said in an email to supporters that it has raised $2.7 million since the Iowa caucuses.

It’s an impressive haul for the former Indiana mayor, who is currently leading in the Iowa caucuses, although Bernie Sanders is close on his heels with 97% of precincts reporting.

Buttigieg will need those funds to get him through New Hampshire and on to the later voting states, especially because he is currently polling at 7% nationally, according to the RealClearPolitics average.

Pete Buttigieg is clearly enjoying a surge in voter interest after his strong showing in the Iowa caucuses.

The former Indiana mayor is hosting an event in Merrimack, New Hampshire, today that is so crowded even some reporters haven’t been able to get inside.

New Hampshire polls released in recent days have also shown Buttigieg jumping into second place, trailing only Bernie Sanders, in the second voting state, which will hold its primary on Tuesday.

Speaking to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week, Trump was reportedly “apoplectic” about the UK’s decision to allow the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei to participate in building up the country’s 5G network.

The Financial Times reports:

The UK prime minister spoke to the US president last week soon after he announced his decision to allow the Chinese manufacturer to participate in the UK’s next-generation cellular network. This was in spite of vocal opposition from senior figures in the Trump administration, which is opposed to Huawei on national security grounds.

Following the decision, the UK and US tried to gloss over their differences with muted public statements. But one individual briefed on the contents of the call said Mr Trump was ‘apoplectic’ with Mr Johnson for his Huawei decision and expressed his views in livid terms.

A second official confirmed that the Trump-Johnson call was ‘very difficult’. British officials with knowledge of the exchange said they were taken aback by the force of the president’s language towards Mr Johnson.

The White House said in a statement shortly after the announcement of the UK’s decision that it was “disappointed” by the move, and attorney general WIlliam Barr suggested today that the US and its allies should invest in Huawei’s rivals like Nokia and Ericsson to counter the company’s strength.

Yang fires staffers - report

Long-shot 2020 candidate Andrew Yang has fired dozens of campaign staffers after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses this week - a result that was obvious despite the ongoing (and in some ways deepening) debacle over the collation and reporting of results.

Among those dismissed were the national political and policy directors of the campaign, as well as the deputy national political director — all senior-level positions. The people who were fired worked across Yang’s organization, from his headquarters in New York to the now-disbanded Iowa operation, Politico reports.

Support for their guy from the Yang Gang, in Exeter, New Hampshire
Support for their guy from the Yang Gang, in Exeter, New Hampshire Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

House kills GOP resolution to condemn Pelosi for tearing up State of the Union

The House has voted along party lines to table (or kill) the Republican resolution condemning Nancy Pelosi for tearing up Trump’s State of the Union on Tuesday night.

Republican congresswoman Kay Granger, who introduced the resolution, said Pelosi’s bold move was “a breach of decorum” that “degraded the proceedings of the joint session.”

But Pelosi defended her actions during a press conference today, saying she was justified in tearing up the speech because it contained falsehoods.

“I tore up a manifesto of mistruths,” Pelosi told reporters. “It was necessary to get the attention of the American people to say, ‘This is not true. And this is how it affects you.’ And I don’t need any lessons from anyone, especially the president of the United States, about dignity.”

The Iowa Democratic Party has issued a statement in response to Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez’s call for a recanvass of the caucus results.

“Should any presidential campaign in compliance with the Iowa Delegate Selection Plan request a recanvass, the IDP is prepared,” the statement concluded, indicating the party will not conduct a recanvass based solely off Perez’s statement.

Jonathan Turley, the legal expert who criticized the impeachment inquiry during the House’s public hearings and has been repeatedly quoted by Republicans, expressed disapproval of Trump’s “victory marathon” speech.

Sanders claims victory in Iowa as results show him trailing Buttigieg

Addressing reporters in New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders claimed “strong victory” in the Iowa caucuses, even though he is currently trailing Pete Buttigieg in the first voting state.

The Vermont senator pointed to his lead in the state’s raw vote total, or “popular vote,” to argue he is the true winner of the caucuses, although another metric (state delegate equivalent) is actually used to determine the state’s top finisher. Buttigieg currently leads in SDEs.

Sanders’ announcement comes as Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez has called for a recanvass of Iowa to ensure accuracy of the results.

Afternoon summary

Well, that was an experience. Here’s where the day stands after Trump’s remarks on the impeachment:

  • Showing no remorse and using profanity to attack his enemies, Trump celebrated his acquittal in the Senate trial with an hour-long speech at the White House. Trump described the acquittal as a complete vindication of his actions, even as Republican senators continue to claim the president learned a lesson from his impeachment.
  • Trump earlier attacked House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Mitt Romney, the only Republican senator to support an article of impeachment, at the National Prayer Breakfast.
  • Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez said the party would conduct a “recanvass” of the Iowa caucuses to ensure accuracy of the results.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

Trump concludes his impeachment remarks

Trump offered a small apology to his family as he concluded his remarks about his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial.

“I want to apologize to my family for having them have to go through a phony, rotten deal by some very sick, evil people,” Trump said. “And that includes Barron,” he added, referring to his youngest son.

With that, Trump concluded his remarks after speaking for a little over an hour.

Updated

Trump said he is concluding his remarks now, calling today a “day of celebration” after he “went through hell” with the impeachment.

Trump then gave two of his closest House allies, congressmen Mark Meadows and Jim Jordon, a chance to make some comments.

Meadows said Trump’s reception today was a “strong reflection of the support you have all across the country.” “We’ve got your back,” Trump said.

Trump seems to have wrapped up his praise of his congressional allies and has returned to attacking his perceived enemies.

He referred to former FBI director James Comey as a “sleazebag” and attacked “the top scum” at the FBI, referring to the bureau’s top leadership.

In his remarks that are ostensibly meant to celebrate his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial, Trump offered a play-by-play account of the 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball practice, complete with hand motions to immitate gunfire.

Trump says Scalise is 'better-looking' after being shot

Trump turned his praise to congressman Steve Scalise, who was severely wounded when a shooter opened fire in 2017 on a Republican baseball practice.

The president marveled at how upset Scalise’s wife was when she learned he was shot. “A lot of wives wouldn’t give a damn,” Trump said. “She was a total mess.”

Trump said Scalise had probably “set a record for blood loss” and complimented the congressman that he was “better-looking now.”

The president has reportedly made the comment about Scalise’s wife, and used it as a joke to mock his own marriage, before:

DNC chairman calls for Iowa caucuses to be 'recanvassed'

In the latest twist of the Iowa caucuses debacle that has been unfolding this week, the DNC chairman Tom Perez has called for a “recanvass” of the vote.

After initial confusion about what a “recanvass” means, Perez then clarified:

As it stands, Buttigieg leads Sanders in the tally of state delegate equivalents by 26.22% to 26.07%. Meanwhile, Sanders leads Buttigieg in the popular vote.

Trump thanked congressman Jim Jordan, one of his closest House allies in the impeachment inquiry, by praising his workout routine

“I thought, huh, never wears a jacket. He’s obviously very proud of his body,” Trump said of Jordan, who often declines to wear a suit jacket in the House. “When he works out,” Trump added, “the machine starts burning.”

Trump also praised Jordan as a “champion top-top wrestler” and a “warrior.”

While speaking at the White House, Trump appeared to raise the possibility that he could be impeached again.

“We’ll probably have to do it again,” Trump said, claiming that his critics “have gone stone cold crazy.”

“I’ve beaten them all my life, and I’ll beat them again,” he added.

Trump told the audience at the White House that his children could “make a fortune” if Hunter Biden’s business activities in Ukraine were legal. (US and Ukrainian officials have said the former vice president’s son did not break any laws.)

“Is Ivanka in the audience?” Trump asked, looked for his eldest daughter, who was present for his remarks. “My kids could make a fortune,” Trump said of Biden’s business activities.

The Washington Post reported in 2018:

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the president’s daughter and son-in-law, brought in at least $82 million in outside income while serving as senior White House advisers during 2017, according to financial disclosure forms released Monday.

Trump attacks Pelosi and Schiff as 'horrible' people

Trump is unsurprisingly lashing out against the House Democrats who led the impeachment inquiry, namely speaker Nancy Pelosi and lead impeachment manager Adam Schiff.

“Adam Schiff is a vicious, horrible person,” Trump said. “Nancy Pelosi is a horrible person.”

Trump also once again scoffed at Pelosi’s repeated comments about praying for the president.

“I doubt she prays at all,” Trump said.

Trump attacks Romney in his impeachment remarks

Trump took a shot at Mitt Romney after the Republican senator voted to convict the president on the first article of impeachment, abuse of power.

The Utah Republican said of his decision yesterday, “As a senator-juror, I swore an oath before God to exercise impartial justice. I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am. I take an oath before God as enormously consequential.”

But Trump was completely dismissive of that rationale. “Then you have some who used religion as a crutch,” Trump said at the White House. “They never used it before. Never heard him use it before. ... But you know it’s a failed presidential candidate, but things can happen when you fail so badly.”

The president’s allies were silent as Trump criticized Romney and only cheered when he turned his attention to other Republican senators.

But Trump wasn’t done. As he praised Utah senator Mike Lee, Trump asked him to tell the residents of his state, I’m sorry about Mitt Romney.”

Trump addressed his controversial comments at this morning’s National Prayer Breakfast, during which he issued thinly veiled insults against Nancy Pelosi and Mitt Romney.

“I had Nancy Pelosi sitting four seats away, and I’m saying things that a lot of people wouldn’t have said, but I meant them,” Trump said.

Pelosi has repeatedly said she prays for the president, and Trump said this morning, “Nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you,’ when they know that that’s not so.”

Trump specifically thanked Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who organized Republican senators to block witness testimony and ensure the president’s acquittal in the impeachment trial.

“Mitch McConnell, I want to tell you, you did a fantastic job,” Trump said, prompting another standing ovation.

For comparison, when Bill Clinton addressed the public after his Senate acquittal in 1999, he began by expressing how “profoundly sorry” he was for actions.

Trump on Russia probe: 'It was all bullshit'

Trump’s remarks after his Senate acquittal is turning into a screed against all of the probes into his administration, starting with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference.

“We first went through Russia, Russia, Russia,” Trump said. “It was all bullshit.”

That last comment will likely rankle the television networks who are carrying Trump’s remarks live.

Even Trump described his remarks not as a speech but as a “celebration” after the Senate acquitted him in the impeachment trial.

“This is really not a news conference, it’s not a speech,” Trump said. “It’s not anything. It’s just we’re sort of ... it’s a celebration, because we have something that just worked out. I mean, it worked out. We went through hell unfairly, did nothing wrong.”

“I’ve done things wrong in my life, I’ll admit,” Trump continued. “But this is what the end result is,” he added, holding up a copy of the Washington Post’s front page, reading, “Trump Acquitted.”

Trump says impeachment was 'evil'

Trump immediately launched into attacks on his critics as he started delivering his remarks on the Senate impeachment trial.

“It was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops, it was leakers, it was liars,” Trump said.

The president even mentioned former FBI director James Comey, who was fired by Trump nearly three years ago.

“Had I not fired James Comey, who was a disaster by the way, it’s possible I wouldn’t even be standing here right now,” Trump said.

Trump receives standing ovation as he arrives for impeachment remarks

Trump has arrived in the East Room to deliver remarks on his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial and was greeted with a prolonged standing ovation from his allies sitting in the audience.

The president’s legal team, who defended him during the Senate impeachment trial, was greeted with a standing ovation as they arrived to witness Trump’s remarks.

As we await the president’s arrival for his remarks on the impeachment trial, Capitol Police issued a statement saying officers responded to a report of a suspicious substance in the Rayburn House office building.

According to Politico, the suspicious substance was near the office of lead impeachment manager Adam Schiff.

In just a few minutes, the president is scheduled to deliver remarks about his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial at the White House.

Some of the members of Trump’s impeachment defense team have already arrived to witness the speech.

During her press conference, Nancy Pelosi said House Democrats “have no plans right now” to subpoena former national security adviser John Bolton.

The former Trump administration official said he would testify in the Senate trial if subpoenaed, but the Senate voted against calling new witnesses in the trial.

House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler said yesterday that his panel “will likely” subpoena Bolton.

Nancy Pelosi brushed off a question about whether she had stepped on her own message about Democrats remaining composed in the face of Trump’s taunts when she ripped up the president’s State of the Union address.

“That was not a state of union, that was his state of mind.” Pelosi said, arguing her actions were “entirely appropriate.” She added that Trump’s apparent rejction of her handshake at the onset of the speech meant “nothing to me.”

“I feel very liberated,” Pelosi said. “I feel I’ve extended every possible courtesy, I’ve shown every level of respect.”

When she was earlier asked about whether she can still work with Trump, Pelosi said, “That would be up to him. ... We’ve had a strained relationship for a while, and we were able to keep the government open.”

Nancy Pelosi was particularly critical of Trump’s comments this morning at the National Prayer Breakfast, where he implicitly insulted the House speaker and Republican senator Mitt Romney.

Pelosi has said she prays for the president, and Trump seemed to take a shot at that when he said at the prayer breakfast, “Nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you,’ when they know that that’s not so.”

On Romney, who invoked his faith yesterday to explain his vote to convict Trump, the president said, “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong.”

Pelosi said Trump’s comments about Romney were “particularly without class.”

“I dont know if the president understands about prayer or the people who do pray,” Pelosi said. “He’s talking about things he knows little about: faith and prayer.”

Pelosi applauds Romney's 'courage'

Speaking to reporters at her weekly press conference, Nancy Pelosi applauded Republican senator Mitt Romney for voting to convict Trump on the first article of impeachment.

“God bless him for his courage,” the House speaker said of Romney.

Pelosi also reiterated that Trump would be impeached “forever,” arguing the president’s legacy would be permanently marred by the House vote. “You’re never getting rid of that scar,” Pelosi said.

Nancy Pelosi’s criticism extended beyond Trump to include the Republican lawmakers who chanted “Four more years!” during Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

The House speaker said the chant was a “serious breach” of protocol and was “totally inappropriate.”

A number of commentators said the State of the Union had the atmosphere of one of Trump’s campaign rallies.

Nancy Pelosi accused Trump of taking credit for the economic accomplishments of the Obama administration in his State of the Union address, which the House speaker called “appalling.”

Pelosi read off some statistics about US economic growth under the Obama administration to underscore her point. “The president didn’t inherit a mess,” Pelosi said. “He inherited a momentum.”

She also took aim at Trump’s repeated boasting about the stock market. “He still hasn’t even matched President Obama’s growth in the stock market,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi slams Trump over State of the Union

Nancy Pelosi has arrived for the House speaker’s weekly press conference, her first appearance since Trump was acquitted in the Senate impeachment trial.

But Pelosi opened her remarks by taking aim at Trump’s claims in the State of the Union address on Tuesday. (The House speaker caused a stir when she ripped up her copy of the president’s remarks after he wrapped up the speech.)

Pelosi’s staff handed out a factsheet about Trump’s false claims, and the House speaker accsued Trump of having “used the Congress of the United States as a backdrop for a reality show.” She added Trump had “a state of mind that had no context with reality whatsoever.”

The White House has said Trump’s 12 pm ET remarks about his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial are “not a perss conference,” so don’t expect the president to take any questions.

According to a pool report, the White House has also made clear there will not be seats for press during the remarks.

Despite Trump’s acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial, the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said he plans on “ramping up” his investigations into Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

The Daily Beast reports:

Giuliani did not go into details regarding what these continued private probes would entail, but the former New York mayor wasn’t alone in his enthusiasm.

In Giuliani’s quest to uncover dirt on, or provoke a Ukrainian announcement of an investigation into, the then-frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, he openly collaborated with the fervently pro-Trump cable news outlet One America News Network. ... OAN President Charles Herring said in an interview Wednesday that his network has more investigations forthcoming on the Bidens, as well. ...

Additionally, Trump allies on Capitol Hill have already made clear that they’re itching for some payback. About an hour after Wednesday’s acquittal, GOP senators Chuck Grassley (IA) and Ron Johnson (WI) announced a review regarding ‘potential conflicts of interest posed by the business activities of Hunter Biden and his associates during the Obama’ era.

Following the Senate’s vote to acquit Trump, Republican senator Rick Scott is now proposing raising the voting threshold for the House to approve articles of impeachment.

This effort is a long shot at best, considering constitutional amendments can only be approved at a constitutional convention (which won’t be called anytime soon) or by a two-thirds majority vote in both the House and the Senate (which won’t happen as long as Democrats control the House).

But it’s notable that Republicans are still trying to cast a cloud of illegitimacy over the House’s impeachment of Trump, even after he was acquitted by the Senate.

Iowa results "riddled with inconsistencies" - report

The results that are still coming in from the blighted Iowa caucuses on Monday night are littered with errors, an analysis by the New York Times has found.

The results released by the Iowa Democratic Party on Wednesday were riddled with inconsistencies and other flaws. According to a New York Times analysis, more than 100 precincts reported results that were internally inconsistent, that were missing data or that were not possible under the complex rules of the Iowa caucuses.

In some cases, vote tallies do not add up. In others, precincts are shown allotting the wrong number of delegates to certain candidates. And in at least a few cases, the Iowa Democratic Party’s reported results do not match those reported by the precincts.

Updated

Trump tilts at Romney and Pelosi

Speaking at the national prayer breakfast, which is happening now and can be watched live here, Trump has alluded to the support for his impeachment by both Mitt Romney and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who led the process.

Pelosi has often said she prays for the president. Trump didn’t mention either opponent by name, but after tilting at Utah Republican Romney he also said, implying Pelosi: “ Nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you,’ when they know that that’s not so.”

He added: “So many people have been hurt, and that cannot go away. I will be discussing that a bit later at the White House.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Capitol Hill yesterday
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Capitol Hill yesterday Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Updated

Trump speaking at national prayer breakfast

The president appeared to tilt at Mitt Romney in the opening of his address to the national prayer breakfast in Washington, which is underway.

He began by thanking his loyal Republican ranks for their “wisdom, fortitude and strength to do what everyone knows was right”. Trump was acquitted yesterday in his impeachment trial, by the Republican majority in the Senate.

But one person became the first Senator in history to vote in an impeachment trial to remove a president from their own party - Mitt Romney, Senator of Utah, voted to convict Trump yesterday, saying it was his obligation to adjudicate fairly having taken an oath to do so before God.

Moments ago, Trump said: “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong.”

The president is going to address the topic of his impeachment trial more fully at the White House at midday - we’ll be covering that live, of course.

Donald Trump Jr has called for Romney to be expelled from the party.

New Hampshire poll shows Buttigieg climbing as Sanders leads

The Iowa bump appears to be helping only one Democratic presidential candidate in New Hampshire: Pete Buttigieg.

As the Iowa results show Buttigieg locked in a close race for first with Bernie Sanders, a new poll found the former Indiana mayor on the rise in the second voting state of New Hampshire.

According to the latest Boston Globe/WBZ-TV/Suffolk University poll, Buttigieg has jumped into second place in New Hampshire, attracting support from 19% of the state’s likely voters.

In comparison, Sanders hit 25%, a strong showing but one that is only one percentage point higher from the outlets’ last poll.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren are languishing behind the front runners at 12% and 11%, respectively, while undecided voters register at 14%.

There are still five days until the primary in New Hampshire, a state that is well known for often making a different decision than Iowa. But the numbers indicate Biden and Warren, who are hoping for a strong showing there after failing to come in the top two in Iowa, could be in some trouble.

Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House, also delivers a prayer, this one for various high-level politicians and other public figures.

Nancy Pelosi delivers a prayer for the “poor and the persecuted”.

Trump holds up copies of USA Today and the Washington Post with the same headline: “Trump acquitted.”

A relaxed-looking Donald Trump has arrived to speak at the prayer event at a hotel in Washington.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi – whose tensions with Trump were illustrated so vividly when she ripped up her copy of his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night – is in attendance, along with vice-president Mike Pence, a friendlier face.

Trump to speak at Christian event

Donald Trump is due to speak shortly at the annual ‘National Prayer Breakfast’, a Christian gathering in Washington.

You can watch it live here or here.

This is ahead of the full speech he is planning to give on his impeachment acquittal at midday ET (5pm UK).

White House threatens to veto Puerto Rico aid

The White House is threatening to veto a $4.7bn emergency aid package for Puerto Rico, in the latest example of hostility to helping the US territory recover from a 2017 hurricane and a recent series of earthquakes.

“Neither Puerto Ricans nor the American taxpayers benefit when emergency aid is misallocated, lost, or stolen through waste, fraud, and abuse,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement. “Multiple high-profile cases of corruption have marred distribution of aid already appropriated and have led to ongoing political instability on the island … If [the bill] were presented to the President in its current form, his advisors would recommend that he veto it.”

Trump has consistently seemed reluctant to help aid Puerto Rico, notoriously making the false claim in 2018 that 3,000 people did not die there as a result of Hurricane Maria, claiming the number was made up by the Democratic party “to make me look as bad as possible”. In fact it was the figure arrived it through independent analysis commissioned by the governor of Puerto Rico.

A man walks on a highway divider while carrying his bicycle in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2017.
A man walks on a highway divider while carrying his bicycle in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2017. Photograph: Ricardo Arduengo/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Former Ukraine ambassador hits out at Trump

Marie Yovanovitch arriving to testify in the House impeachment inquiry in November.
Marie Yovanovitch arriving to testify in the House impeachment inquiry in November. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine who was one of the key figures in the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, his written for the Washington Post to accuse the Trump administration of having “undermined our democratic institutions”.

Yovanovitch was abruptly recalled from her post in May last year after coming under attack from Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, as he attempted to persuade Ukrainian officials to carry out an investigation into Joe Biden.

The memo summarising Trump’s now-infamous 25 July 2019 conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy shows the US president predicting that Yovanvitch is “going to go through some bad things” – something she told the impeachment inquiry she thought “sounded like a threat”.

A recording from before she was removed, and released last month, reveals Trump ordering associates to “Get rid of her!” and “Take her out.”

She writes in the Post:

We must not allow the United States to become a country where standing up to our government is a dangerous act. It has been shocking to experience the storm of criticism, lies and malicious conspiracies that have preceded and followed my public testimony, but I have no regrets. I did — we did — what our conscience called us to do …

This administration, through acts of omission and commission, has undermined our democratic institutions, making the public question the truth and leaving public servants without the support and example of ethical behavior that they need to do their jobs and advance U.S. interests.

To add to the woes of the Iowa Democratic party, Trump supporters began phoning its caucus results hotline on Monday, slowing the reporting process down further, Bloomberg (the news site, not the presidential candidate) reports.

According to two participants on the call, Ken Sagar, a state Democratic central committee member, was among those answering the hotline on caucus night and said people called in and expressed support for Trump. The phone number became public after people posted photos of caucus paperwork that included the hotline number, one of the people on the call said.

Sanders rakes it in

Bernie Sanders may or may not eventually be crowned the winner in Iowa, but he has had a lucrative January, announcing today that his campaign raised $25m. It was his best fundraising month to date.

“The Vermont senator spent $50 million during the final three months of 2019 and finished the year with $18.2 million in cash on hand, putting him in a stronger position than many of his rival candidates even before his latest bonanza last month,” reports AP.

Sanders’ campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, announced Thursday that his candidate will immediately increase staffing in states that vote during the Democratic primary’s Super Tuesday, on March 3. The campaign also plans to spend $5.5 million on television and digital ads in eight new states voting then: Arkansas, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah.

And Sanders will expand ad buys the campaign already made in California and Texas, the two largest states voting on Super Tuesday.

By contrast, Elizabeth Warren, his main rival on the left, has cancelled $375,000 of ad spending in Nevada and South Carolina – the next two primary states after New Hampshire – after her disappointing showing in Iowa, the Washington Post reports.

Warren’s reliance on grass-roots donations — and her decision not to do a high-dollar program — has been one of her main talking points, and she has credited the decision with focusing her campaign on people rather than the powerful. But, it also means a perceived lack of momentum can cause money to dry up quickly as low-dollar donors look elsewhere.

Updated

Good morning. On Wednesday Donald Trump was acquitted in his impeachment trial in the Senate. The president tweeted that “the Impeachment Hoax was just a continuation of the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats corrupt practices”, and announced he would make a speech about the verdict at midday ET (5pm UK).

Only one Republican – Mitt Romney – broke ranks to vote to convict him.

Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, made a powerful speech on the Senate floor explaining why he was voting to convict Trump of abuse of power:

The verdict is ours to render under our Constitution. The people will judge us for how well and faithfully we fulfill our duty. The grave question the Constitution tasked senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor. Yes, he did.

The president asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival. The president withheld vital military funds from that government to press it to do so. The president delayed funds for an American ally at war with Russian invaders. The president’s purpose was personal and political. Accordingly, the president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.

What he did was not perfect. No, it was a flagrant assault on our electoral rights, our national security and our fundamental values. Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.

The abuse of power charge fell 52-48. Romney voted not guilty on the second charge, which fell 53-47. All Democratic senators voted to convict Trump on both charges.

Trump seemed to be saving his response for his speech today. But he did tweet in response to Romney’s vote: “Had failed presidential candidate @MittRomney devoted the same energy and anger to defeating a faltering Barack Obama as he sanctimoniously does to me, he could have won the election. Read the Transcripts!”

(Here you go.)

His son Donald Trump Jr posted a childish picture of Romney on Instagram and called for him to be thrown out of the Republican party. But there is thought to be no appetite for such a punishment among Romney’s GOP colleagues. “We don’t have any doghouses here,” said Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell. “The most important vote is the next vote.”

Trump was impeached for conditioning military aid and a White House meeting for Ukraine on the announcement of investigations into his potential rival for the White House in the 2020 election, Joe Biden, and son Hunter Biden, and into a conspiracy theory that Ukraine, instead of Russia, was behind foreign tampering in the 2016 US election.

Here’s some further reading on yesterday’s proceedings:

Primaries

Bernie Sanders: close race.
Bernie Sanders: close race. Photograph: Tom Brenner/Reuters

Meanwhile, the Democrats’ Iowa caucus is still too close to call following Monday’s botched election, the first stage in the party’s process of choosing a candidate to face Trump in the November election.

With 96.94% of local precincts reporting, Pete Buttigieg is very narrowly ahead of Bernie Sanders, with the centrist former mayor having won 26.2% of the state’s 41 delegates, and the socialist senator 26.1%.

Sanders, however, seems to be winning the popular vote in the state – 26.5% to 25% – another reason critics of the Iowa caucus system may accuse it of being not fit for purpose.

(Here’s an explanation of how the controversial system works and what went wrong on Monday.)

The Democratic candidates have moved on to New Hampshire, which votes on Tuesday... using a more conventional system.

Sanders seems firmly ahead there, although polling shows a slight increase in Buttigieg’s vote share this week.

Joe Biden, the former vice-president whose frontrunner status has taken a serious knock this week, admitted “we took a gut punch in Iowa”. If he falls into third place behind Buttigieg in New Hampshire supporters and donors in the centrist Democratic establishment may start to abandon him and switch to Buttigieg or former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg instead.

Buttigieg and Sanders, as well as lower-tier candidates Amy Klobuchar and Deval Patrick, will take part in town hall events on CNN tonight.

Updated

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.