memeorandum: Even in battleground states, support for removing Trump is higher than his job approval (Philip Bump/Washington Post)

4:10 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 …

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: Washington Post, Washington Free Beacon, The Hill, CNN, Fox News and Mediaite

Paul Campos / Lawyers, Guns & Money:

Maybe Hillary Clinton shouldn't sound like a character from a Maureen Dowd column — This is . . . not helpful: … I can understand Clinton's bitterness, and her assessment of the worst of the Bernie Bros is of course correct, but saying you're withholding judgment on whether you'll support Sanders …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Federalist, The Daily Caller and Balloon Juice

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

Discussion: Washington Post, VICE, The Hill, Mother Jones, The Independent and Breitbart

Cara Korte / CBS News:
Sanders apologizes to Biden for surrogate's op-ed alleging he has a “big corruption problem”

Discussion: Redstate, Common Dreams, ABC News, Breitbart, National Review, VICE, Washington Post, The Guardian, Sputnik News, VodkaPundit, NBC News, Washington Monthly, HuffPost, Twitchy, CNN, Politico, Washington Times, New York Times, Fox News, IJR, Mediaite, The Hill, The National Interest, Townhall and Axios

Alex Griswold / Washington Free Beacon:
Hillary Clinton Pleads Ignorance About Harvey Weinstein Despite Multiple Warnings

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Hill and Mediaite

Khaleda Rahman / Newsweek:
Hillary Clinton Defends Harvey Weinstein Association: ‘How Could We Have Known?’

Discussion: Twitchy

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, VICE, The Week, Fox News, Common Dreams, Breitbart, Twitchy, HuffPost, The Verge, Contemptor, Law & Crime, Mediaite, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Lunch Break, more at Mediagazer »

Susannah Luthi / Politico:
Supreme Court won't fast-track Obamacare case

Discussion: Fox News, VICE, Townhall, Associated Press, Axios, Washington Post, The Week and UPI

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook PM: Capitol Hill tensions boil over

Discussion: The Federalist, Politico, Fox News and Common Dreams

Scott Bauer / Associated Press:
Wisconsin voter purge ruling appealed to state Supreme Court

Discussion: The Hill

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

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:

Trump and his Republican cronies have made three big mistakes — A Democratic aide working on impeachment scorned the 110-page brief President Trump's lawyers filed on Monday. “It's an 110-page tweet. ... Maybe the longest tweet in history,” the aide said.

Discussion: The Nation, Daily Kos and Wall Street Journal

David A. Graham / The Atlantic:

Mitch McConnell's Potemkin Trial — Everyone's going to hate the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump. — The president, who would prefer that there is no trial at all, will hate that it's happening in the first place. Senators as a whole, who may have to sit—sans chatter or phones …

Discussion: New York Times, Raw Story, Wired, The Gateway Pundit and NPR

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

Discussion: Vanity Fair, CNBC and The Dispatch

NBC News:
McConnell makes last-minute, handwritten changes to Trump impeachment trial rules

Discussion: CNN, Politico, The Week, POLITICUSUSA and Washington Post

Axios:
GAO report poses evidence test in Trump impeachment trial

Discussion: NBC News, New York Post, The Hill, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion 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, The Hill and Washington Post

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: Townhall, Political Wire, The American Independent, The Hill, IJR and CNN

Laura Olson / Morning Call:
Pat Toomey's Senate ‘candy desk’ may prevent hangry lawmakers during impeachment

Discussion: New York Post

Cmte Intelligence (D) RSS Articles:
House Managers Statement on McConnell Resolution

Discussion: TalkLeft, The Gateway Pundit and New York Times

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
Trump Impeachment: Live Updates From the Senate Trial

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

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: Bloomberg, Fox News, Roll Call, Raw Story and CNN

Philip Bump / Washington Post:

Even in battleground states, support for removing Trump is higher than his job approval — But new polling on impeachment largely reveals an old divide — Ask Americans how they view a very specific facet of the Senate impeachment trial focused on President Trump, and they have an opinion.

Discussion: Raw Story, Bloomberg, The American Independent, Democrats, The Week, Daily Kos and Politico

Eli Yokley / Morning Consult:
How Voters Grade Trump, Three Years Into His Presidency

Discussion: The Hill and The American Independent

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, New York Times, The Independent, Politico and The Week

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

Discussion: Associated Press

Katherine Tully-McManus / Roll Call:

Senators bend the rules by wearing Apple Watches to Trump trial — The rules of decorum state that senators can't use phones or electronic devices in the chamber during President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, but what about Apple Watches? — At least eight senators had them strapped …

Discussion: Redstate and New York Times

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:

What the House impeachment response tells us — The House's response to President Trump's brief ahead of his impeachment trial is succinct and powerful. On the president's argument that abuse of power is not impeachable (despite previous articles of impeachment, the Constitution …

Discussion: Digby's Hullabaloo

Brooke Singman / Fox News:
House impeachment managers target top Trump defense attorney Cipollone, claim he is ‘material witness’

Discussion: Associated Press and The Daily Caller

Politico:
Democrats reject Trump's impeachment defense as ‘dangerous’

Discussion: NBC News, CNN, Vox, IJR and One America News Network

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: CNN, National Review, KTLA, The Week, The Daily Caller, The Hill and IJR

Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Call Richmond's MLK Day gun rally what it was: An outbreak of terrorism on American soil — In 2020, some images of modern America are so shocking that even a nation of political ranters with our incandescent Twitter accounts can be stunned into near numbness.

Discussion: NB Blog and CNN

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

Discussion: The Daily Wire, NBC News, The Daily Caller and Fox News

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

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

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:

Patriots' Benjamin Watson Producing Abortion Documentary — The movie, budgeted at less than $1 million, features former presidential candidate Ben Carson and Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — Due to a Jan. 4 playoff loss to the Tennessee Titans …

Discussion: National Review, The Federalist and The Daily Signal

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 and The Week

Associated Press:

AP FACT CHECK: Trump spreads distortions at Davos — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump spread distorted information about the U.S. economy and his administration's involvement with historically black colleges in a preening performance Tuesday at the Davos economic conference in the Swiss Alps.

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.