memeorandum: Former GOP Senator Jeff Flake on impeachment: Republicans are on trial with Trump (David Morgan/CBS News)

10:50 AM ET, January 21, 2020

Top Items:

Hillary Clinton in Full: A Fiery New Documentary, Trump Regrets and Harsh Words for Bernie: “Nobody Likes Him” — With four-part Hulu series ‘Hillary’ set to premiere at Sundance, one of America's most groundbreaking (and polarizing) figures opens up about Monica Lewinsky, her marriage …

Cara Korte / CBS News:

Sanders apologizes to Biden for surrogate's op-ed alleging he has a “big corruption problem” — Des Moines, Iowa — Senator Bernie Sanders apologized to former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday for an op-ed written by one of his campaign surrogates that claimed Biden has a “big corruption problem.”

Discussion: Washington Monthly, National Review, NBC News, CNN, HuffPost, VICE, Sputnik News, Politico, Washington Times, Fox News, New York Times, Mediaite, Twitchy, The Hill, IJR, Townhall, Axios, The Daily Caller, Breitbart, The Guardian and Bern Notice

Matt Stevens / New York Times:

Hillary Clinton on Bernie Sanders: ‘Nobody Likes Him’ — Mrs. Clinton also dodged a question about whether she'd endorse and campaign for Mr. Sanders if he became the Democratic nominee. — Hillary Clinton, who battled with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont for months in a 2016 Democratic primary …

Discussion: CNN and The Hill

Rashaan Ayesh / Axios:

Hillary Clinton on Bernie Sanders: “Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him” — Hillary Clinton makes her feelings clear about Sen. Bernie Sanders in a new documentary about her career, saying that “nobody likes him” and “nobody wants to work with him,” per The Hollywood Reporter.

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Biden, Sanders, Social Security and Smears — Lying about a rival is bad, even if you don't like his past positions. — While the news media has been focused on the “spat” between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, something much more serious has been taking place between the Sanders campaign and Joe Biden.

Discussion: American Prospect and Politico

Will Weissert / ABC News:
Warren wants task force to investigate Trump administration

Discussion: The Hill

Aaron Blake / Washington Post: Hillary Clinton savages Bernie Sanders: ‘Nobody likes him’

Sean Sullivan / Washington Post:
Sanders apologizes to Biden for supporter's op-ed alleging corruption

Discussion: Associated Press, The Hill, Talking Points Memo, National Review and Mediaite

Sam Jones / Financial Times:

Swiss police suspect Davos plumbers of being Russian spies — Russian plumbers do not tend to summer in Davos. Even those with diplomatic passports. — Five months before world leaders began their pilgrimage to the annual World Economic Forum this week — among them US president Donald Trump …

Discussion: CNBC, The Week and New York Times

Pan Pylas / Associated Press: Thunberg slams Davos elites on climate as Trump takes stage

Washington Post: Trump crows about the U.S. economy at Davos as Senate impeachment trial begins back home

Edmund DeMarche / Fox News:
Trump addresses World Economic Forum in Davos, touts trade deals, US economy

Discussion: Breitbart, Politico, The Hill, One America News Network and The Week

Washington Post:

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 …

Discussion: Politico, CNN, Fox News, The Week, HuffPost, Associated Press and National Review

David Morgan / CBS News:

Former GOP Senator Jeff Flake on impeachment: Republicans are on trial with Trump — Former Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, who declined to seek reelection over his disagreements with President Donald Trump, said Monday that the Republicans' “cult of personality” …

Discussion: Associated Press, The Hill and War Room

Axios:

GAO report poses evidence test in Trump impeachment trial — A Government Accountability Office report accusing President Trump of violating the law is taking on heightened importance at the start of his impeachment trial. — Why it matters: The key argument Trump's legal team plans …

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Hill and Washington Post

Timothy P. Carney / Washington Examiner:

Virginia Second Amendment rally proves the media hate gun owners — Reporters and editors at the largest news outlets overwhelmingly dislike and distrust the people demonstrating against Virginia's proposed gun restrictions. This is clear as day, and every journalist, center-left media critic …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Washington Post, New York Post, NB Blog, NBC News and The Hill

Matt Vespa / Townhall:

The Liberal Media Totally Eats It With Their Fake News Coverage of VA's Pro-Gun Rights Rally — Virginia Citizen's Defense League had their Lobby Day yesterday. Thousands attended. It was probably the best turnout in years. And that's the keyword here, folks: years.

Discussion: NBC News, NB Blog, Twitchy and Dana Loesch

Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Richmond woman charged with wearing mask in public following gun-rights rally

Discussion: National Review, Big League Politics, Washington Free Beacon and Power Line

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: HuffPost, Raw Story, Washington Post and New York Times

Kim Wehle / The Bulwark:
The New Evidence Against Trump Since He Was Impeached

Discussion: Raw Story and New York Times

Politico:
MAGA stops, TV and the pope: How Pence plans to sidestep impeachment

Discussion: Raw Story and Law & Crime

Caroline Kelly / CNN:

Dershowitz on impeachment reversal: ‘I am much more correct right now’ — Cooper presses Dershowitz over changing impeachment view — (CNN)Constitutional lawyer and Trump impeachment legal team member Alan Dershowitz said Monday that he is “much more correct right now” …

Discussion: ABC News and Axios

Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:
How Donald Trump's Unlikely Legal Team Will Try to Defend Him

Discussion: The Atlantic and Lawfare

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

Discussion: Althouse, Just Security, Washington Post, Raw Story and Mediaite

The Hill:

White House appoints GOP House members to advise Trump's impeachment team — The White House announced Monday that President Trump appointed several prominent Republican House members to advise his impeachment defense team ahead of the Senate trial set to begin this week.

Discussion: Redstate, One America News Network, Letters from an American, TheBlaze, Fox News, Townhall, Associated Press and Digby's Hullabaloo

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:
McConnell Impeachment Rules Modify Clinton Precedent

Discussion: CNN and IJR

New York Times:
McConnell Unveils Rules for Trump Impeachment Trial

Discussion: Twitchy, New Republic, NPR, Raw Story, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Politico, POLITICUSUSA and New York Post

Susannah Luthi / Politico:

Supreme Court won't hear Obamacare case before election — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Democrats' plea to consider a high-stakes legal challenge that could kill Obamacare, punting a resolution in the politically fraught case until after the presidential election.

Discussion: Axios, Washington Post and Associated Press

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Trump Third Year Sets New Standard for Party Polarization — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Eighty-two percentage points separated Republicans' (89%) and Democrats' (7%) average job approval ratings of President Donald Trump during his third year in office. This is the largest degree of political polarization …

Discussion: The Hill

The Boston Globe:

Sanders, Biden lead tight pack of front-runners in Suffolk/Globe New Hampshire poll — Senator Bernie Sanders has the slimmest of leads among a knot of four top presidential contenders, with Senator Elizabeth Warren dropping to the rear of the top tier amid significantly weaker support among men …

Discussion: Political Wire

Laura Olson / Morning Call:

Pat Toomey's Senate ‘candy desk’ may prevent hangry lawmakers during impeachment — The last time the U.S. Senate was considering impeachment of a president, Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum found himself in a sticky situation over some Hershey's bars. — The Republican lawmaker …

Joseph Menn / Reuters:

Exclusive: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained - sources — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) dropped plans to let iPhone users fully encrypt backups of their devices in the company's iCloud service after the FBI complained that the move would harm investigations …

Brett Neely / NPR:

NPR Poll: Majority Of Americans Believe Trump Encourages Election Interference — Weeks before the first votes of the 2020 presidential election, Americans report a high level of concern about how secure that election will be and worry about the perils of disinformation, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll.

Daniel Nichanian / The Appeal:

When New Jersey Next Redistricts, It Will Count Incarcerated People Where They Lived — A new law ends prison gerrymandering in legislative redistricting. New Jersey will continue to disenfranchise incarcerated people. — Most states draw political maps by counting incarcerated people …

Eli Yokley / Morning Consult:

How Voters Grade Trump, Three Years Into His Presidency — Overall marks have stayed about the same since Trump's first year, but he's getting more A's on jobs, economy — President Donald Trump speaks during a Jan. 16 event in the Oval Office. A new poll found voters are grading …

Discussion: The Hill

Haris Alic / Breitbart:

Joe Biden's Brother Frank Linked to Projects Receiving $54,000,000 in Taxpayer Loans from the Obama Administration—Despite No Experience — Frank Biden, the youngest brother of former Vice President Joe Biden, saw his business interests benefit from millions of dollars in taxpayer loans to Caribbean nations during the Obama years.

The White House:

Statement from the Press Secretary Announcing Congressional Members of the President's Impeachment Team — Today, President Donald J. Trump announced that the following Members of the House of Representatives will serve as part of his team working to combat this hyper-partisan and baseless impeachment.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, IJR and Axios

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

A big tell in Trump's own legal brief exposes McConnell's coverup — Now that Mitch McConnell has rolled out the rules for President Trump's impeachment trial, the full dimensions of the Senate Majority Leader's efforts to cover up Trump's bottomless corruption are coming into view.

Martin London / TIME:

John Roberts Has More Power Than Mitch McConnell Would Like You to Think. But Will He Use It? — London is a retired partner for the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and the author of The Client Decides; he was a principal lawyer for Vice President Spiro Agnew.