memeorandum: Obstruction still isn't exoneration, no matter what Trump may argue (Philip Bump/Washington Post)

12:30 PM 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: ABC News, Associated Press, Washington Monthly, National Review, Washington Post, NBC News, CNN, HuffPost, VodkaPundit, VICE, Sputnik News, Politico, New York Times, Washington Times, Fox News, Mediaite, Twitchy, IJR, The Hill, The Daily Caller, Townhall, Axios, Breitbart, The Guardian and Bern Notice

Matt Stevens / New York Times:

Hillary Clinton Says ‘Nobody Likes’ Bernie Sanders and Declines to Commit to Backing Him — Mrs. Clinton sharply criticized her former primary rival in a forthcoming documentary series, and stood by her comments in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. — Hillary Clinton …

Discussion: Real Clear Politics

Rashaan Ayesh / Axios:
Hillary Clinton on Bernie Sanders: “Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him”

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon and Mediaite

Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Biden, Sanders, Social Security and Smears

Discussion: Common Dreams and American Prospect

Paul Campos / Lawyers, Guns & Money:
Maybe Hillary Clinton shouldn't sound like a character from a Maureen Dowd column

Discussion: CNN, Washington Free Beacon, The Hill and Balloon Juice

Aaron Blake / Washington Post: Hillary Clinton points to alleged sexism in Bernie Sanders's campaign: 'It's part of a pattern'

Ernesto Londoño / New York Times:

Glenn Greenwald Charged With Cybercrimes in Brazil — Mr. Greenwald is accused of being part of a “criminal investigation” that hacked into the cellphones of prosecutors and public officials. — RIO DE JANEIRO — Federal prosecutors in Brazil on Tuesday charged the American journalist Glenn Greenwald …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Talking Points Memo, Common Dreams, Contemptor, Law & Crime and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

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, HuffPost, The Week, Associated Press, IJR and National Review

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Democrats say Cipollone was a witness to Trump's Ukraine scandal

Discussion: Washington Post, One America News Network and The Week

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

Discussion: Associated Press, The Hill and War Room

NBC News:
Why aren't Democrats making life miserable for vulnerable Republicans on impeachment?

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal

Axios:
GAO report poses evidence test in Trump impeachment trial

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

Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

Pelosi Statement on McConnell Cover-Up Resolution — Washington, D.C. - Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued this statement on Leader McConnell's resolution on rules for the impeachment trial of the President, which will operate on a greatly compressed schedule and rejects the need for witnesses and documents:

Discussion: Axios, Washington Post and Daily Kos

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:

McConnell Impeachment Rules Modify Clinton Precedent — The Senate Republican leader proposed impeachment trial rules that push the 1999 precedent toward President Trump's preferences. — WASHINGTON — For weeks, Senator Mitch McConnell sought to deflect charges that he was trying to stack …

Discussion: Cmte Intelligence (D) …, CNN and IJR

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 …

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 and Washington Post

Washington Post:

Lev is talking. So where is Igor? — Lev Parnas, Rudolph W. Giuliani's trusted fixer in the Ukraine saga, has dominated the airways on the eve of President Trump's impeachment trial, turning over eye-popping text messages to House lawmakers and pointing the finger at the president in prime-time cable interviews.

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

Discussion: Raw Story and New York Times

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.

Discussion: Raw Story

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: Townhall, Axios, Washington Post, Associated Press and The Week

Andrew Chung / Reuters: U.S. Supreme Court lets Flint, Michigan residents sue over water contamination

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

Discussion: Associated Press

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 Wire, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, New York Post, NB Blog and Louder With Crowder

Matt Vespa / Townhall:
The Liberal Media Totally Eats It With Their Fake News Coverage of VA's Pro-Gun Rights Rally

Discussion: Fox News, NBC News, NB Blog and National Review

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 …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Khaleda Rahman / Newsweek:

Hillary Clinton Defends Harvey Weinstein Association: ‘How Could We Have Known?’ — Hillary Clinton has defended her years-long association with disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein, saying it was “something that everybody thought made sense.” — Weinstein has long been a major donor …

Caroline Court / The Federalist: How A Feminist Juror's Lies Could Get Harvey Weinstein's Conviction Tossed Out

Andrew Restuccia / Wall Street Journal:

Trump Doubles Down on Threats to Impose Tariffs on European Cars — U.S. president is attending World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland — DAVOS, Switzerland—President Trump said Tuesday that he is serious about imposing tariffs on European automobiles if he can't strike a trade agreement with the European Union.

Discussion: The Hill

Vicky Prodeline / Polls:

Majority Support Allowing New Impeachment Evidence — But overall opinion of Trump and impeachment is virtually unchanged — West Long Branch, NJ - A majority of Americans say that House managers should be able to introduce new evidence in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.

Discussion: Political Wire, Roll Call and Bloomberg

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: The Hill

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

Ben White / Politico:

'He could have had it all. And he doesn't have it all.' — President Donald Trump launches into the fourth year of his presidency this week with some strong economic numbers to support his case for reelection: Unemployment is low, job growth remains solid, wages are rising and the stock market is soaring.

Discussion: Raw Story

Tim Pearce / Washington Examiner:

Joe Biden: 'I don't count drunk driving as a felony' — 2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden said his administration would fire Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who arrest and deport illegal immigrants who are not guilty of felony crimes, adding that he doesn't “count drunk driving as a felony.”

Jamie Ross / The Daily Beast:

Parnas Lawyer Shares Pence Video After Vice President Denies Knowing Him — DO YOU REMEMBER? — Lev Parnas' legal team has shared a video of his client socializing with Mike Pence and his wife after the vice president vehemently denied that he knows Parnas. Pence said during a CNN appearance last week: “I don't know the guy.”

Discussion: Raw Story and Mediaite

Max Read / New York Magazine:

Peter Thiel's Latest Venture Is the American Government — In mid-January, at the conclusion of a special meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society, the venerable free-market organization, after appearances by Condoleezza Rice and Niall Ferguson, Peter Thiel was slated to give closing remarks on “Big Tech and the Question of Scale.”

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 American Independent and The Hill

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.

David Sharp / Associated Press:

Planned Parenthood endorses challenger to Sen. Susan Collins — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Planned Parenthood announced Tuesday that it is endorsing a Democratic challenger to Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, saying Collins “turned her back” on women and citing her vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh …

Discussion: The Hill