memeorandum: Denver Post Columnist Fired After Arguing There Are Two Sexes (Alex Griswold/Washington Free Beacon)

8:50 PM ET, January 20, 2020

Top Items:

Trump's lawyers, Senate GOP allies work privately to ensure Bolton does not testify publicly — President Trump's legal defense team and Senate GOP allies are quietly gaming out contingency plans should Democrats win enough votes to force witnesses to testify in the impeachment trial …

Michael C. Bender / Wall Street Journal:

White House Calls Impeachment Charges ‘Frivolous’ and ‘Dangerous’ in Legal Brief — President Trump's legal team argued Monday that the articles of impeachment were frivolous and dangerous and should be swiftly rejected by the Senate. — Mr. Trump's team filed a 110-page legal brief …

Discussion: National Review, Law & Crime and Power Line

Politico:

Senate Republicans plan speedy Trump trial — Senate Republicans released their partisan impeachment trial resolution on Monday evening, a blueprint that could result in President Donald Trump's swift acquittal. — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) plans to pass impeachment trial rules giving …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and The Hill

George Conway / Washington Post:

The worst thing about Trump's answer to the impeachment articles — President Trump has filed his answer to the articles of impeachment against him. In legal parlance, an “answer” is a document filed at the beginning of a proceeding, typically a civil case, in which the defending side gives …

Discussion: Law & Crime

Joyce White Vance / Washington Post:

Witness ‘reciprocity’ isn't a thing. So no, there can't be a Biden for every Bolton. — Only testimony that bolsters or casts doubt on facts necessary to deciding on the articles of impeachment is relevant at trial — The Senate must answer just two questions at President Trump's impeachment trial.

Discussion: Raw Story

Cmte Intelligence (D) RSS Articles:

U.S. House of Representatives Files Replication to President's Answer to the Articles of Impeachment — f t # e — Washington, DC — Today at noon, the House Managers, on behalf of the U.S. House of Representatives, filed with the Secretary of the Senate a Replication to the Response …

Politico:

Trump lawyers seek quick rejection of Democrats' impeachment case — President Donald Trump's lawyers on Monday offered a sweeping condemnation of the articles of impeachment against him, contending they're a legally defective “affront to the Constitution and to our democratic institutions” …

Discussion: Associated Press, Law & Crime, Fox News, Digby's Hullabaloo and The Hill

New York Times:

McConnell Unveils Rules for Trump Impeachment Trial — On Monday, the president's lawyers asserted he did nothing wrong and urged the Senate to “swiftly reject” the charges against him. — WASHINGTON — Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, unveiled ground rules on Monday …

CNN:
Impeachment resolution shortens trial's opening arguments to two days per side

Discussion: National Review and Mediaite

CNN:
Senate debate over McConnell resolution expected to begin in open session Tuesday

Discussion: FOX2now.com

Paul Waldman / Washington Post:
The White House doubles down on its dumbest impeachment defense

Discussion: Raw Story, Mediaite and Associated Press

Michael Gerson / Washington Post:
Trump pushes his party to normalize corruption

Discussion: Raw Story

Michael Balsamo / Associated Press:
Schumer navigates rocky terrain as impeachment trial unfolds

Discussion: The Hill

New York Times:
Trump Legal Team Asks Senate for Speedy Acquittal in Impeachment Trial

Discussion: Raw Story and Mediaite

Washington Post:
White House calls for Trump acquittal in ‘rigged’ impeachment as Senate prepares for swift trial

Discussion: Mother Jones, Axios and TheBlaze

CNN:

CNN poll: 51% say Senate should remove Trump from office — Schumer: We will force votes on witnesses and documents — (CNN)About half of Americans say the Senate should vote to convict President Donald Trump and remove him from office in the upcoming impeachment trial (51%) …

Discussion: Politico, The Week, POLITICUSUSA, The Hill and Mediaite

Quinta Jurecic / The Atlantic:

Trump's Impeachment Brief Is a Howl of Rage — Over the weekend, as the Senate prepared for the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, the newly appointed House impeachment managers and the president's newly appointed legal team both filed their initial legal briefs. — At least, one of them was a legal brief.

Discussion: Raw Story, Digby's Hullabaloo and Washington Post

Charlie Savage / New York Times:
‘Constitutional Nonsense’: Trump's Impeachment Defense Defies Legal Consensus

Discussion: Law & Crime, Raw Story, Lawfare and Mediaite

Jenna Ellis / Fox News: Trump impeachment trial - Here are four legal problems House Democrats have to face

Vanity Fair:

“It's Like a Foreign Language”: Donald Trump's Encounter With the Constitution Did Not Go Well — While being filmed for a documentary, the president stumbled through his chosen passage, taking his frustration out on everyone around him, Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig write in A Very Stable Genius.

Discussion: Breitbart, Law & Crime and Contemptor

Paul Steinhauser / Fox News:

New poll: Biden with slight edge in Iowa with caucuses 2 weeks out — With two weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses, a new poll indicates that former Vice President Joe Biden has a slight edge over his 2020 rivals for the Democratic nomination in the state that kicks off the presidential primary and caucus calendar.

Discussion: Washington Post, Breitbart and The Daily Beast, more at Mediagazer »

Focus on Rural America:
January Poll Results

Discussion: Iowa Starting Line and National Review

Associated Press:

Virginia's capital braces for gun-rights rally — RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Gun-rights activists — some making deliberate displays of their military-style rifles — began to descend on Virginia's capital city Monday to protest plans by the state's Democratic leadership to pass gun-control legislation.

Discussion: Washington Post, National Review, NBC News, PoliceOne, Politico, Richmond Times-Dispatch, KTLA, FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV, Talking Points Memo and WHYY

John Bacon / USA Today:
Heather Heyer's mom owns guns and says Democrats in Richmond, Virginia, are going too far

Discussion: Big League Politics

Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:

Don Jr. Admits Meeting Lev Parnas: ‘I Thought He Was Israeli’ — 'IT'S FUNNY' — Presidential son Donald Trump Jr. admitted on Sunday to meeting indicted Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, claiming he and his father merely took fundraiser photos with the businessman whose involvement …

Discussion: Politico

CNN:
From pot to impeachment: The high-wire legal act from Lev Parnas' attorney

Discussion: The Hill

Alex Griswold / Washington Free Beacon:

Denver Post Columnist Fired After Arguing There Are Two Sexes — A Denver Post columnist says he was fired after disputing the idea that there are more than two sexes. — Jon Caldara, president of the libertarian Independence Institute, announced that he has been fired from the Post …

Discussion: National Review

Sacramento Bee:

Devin Nunes' Ukraine lies are a betrayal. Voters in his district deserve better — Kiev, Ukraine, is nearly 6,200 miles from Tulare, Calif. That's a long way from home for Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, who now faces explosive allegations that he and his staff contacted shadowy Ukrainian figures …

Discussion: Raw Story, Washington Post, New York Times and Politico

Zephyr Teachout / The Guardian:

‘Middle Class’ Joe Biden has a corruption problem - it makes him a weak candidate — We don't have to choose Biden's way, which would give Trump a perfect foil — Democrats are trying to choose a candidate to beat Donald Trump, the most corrupt president in history.

Discussion: Townhall, Twitchy, Washington Post, National Review, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Bern Notice and Bad News

Cassie da Costa / The Daily Beast:

‘The Assistant’: The #MeToo Film That Has Hollywood Worried — THE ROT — Kitty Green's new film “The Assistant,” in theaters Jan. 31, examines the abuse—both physical and psychological—in Hollywood through the eyes of an office assistant. — I wouldn't call writer-director Kitty Green's …

Esha Ray / New York Daily News:

Art preservationists want Frick Collection to buy Jeffrey Epstein's townhouse as part of museum expansion plan — Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan perv palace could soon be an art museum. — The convicted sex offender's posh Upper East Side mansion — a house of horrors where he allegedly abused dozens …

New Jersey Online:

Atlantic City mayor wants former Trump casino ‘eyesore’ torn down — Atlantic City's mayor wants to demolish the former Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino. — Mayor Marty Small said in a speech Thursday to a business group that knocking down the vacant casino once owned by President Donald Trump is one of his main goals for 2020.

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

The Fox-Trump monopoly, in one graph — Mediaite in 2017 accorded the idiotic morning show “Fox & Friends” the top slot in its ranking of the most influential figures in U.S. media. “The President of the United States regularly starts his day watching Fox & Friends and then tweets …

Discussion: Twitchy, HuffPost and Media Matters for America

Joseph Simonson / Washington Examiner:

Bernie Sanders chartering private jet to Wednesday campaign rally — DES MOINES, Iowa — Sen. Bernie Sanders will be flying a private jet to his Wednesday campaign stop in Cedar Falls, the Washington Examiner has learned, a consequence of the Senate impeachment trial that will keep him in D.C. for most of the day, six days a week.

Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:

Kellyanne Conway Claims Martin Luther King Would Be Against Trump Impeachment — The top Trump aide made the comments when asked how the president planned to observe the federal holiday. — Kellyanne Conway on Monday responded to a question on how the president is observing Martin Luther King …

Discussion: Contemptor