memeorandum: Republicans Bless Trump's Crimes: He Did It, Get Over It (David R. Lurie/The Daily Beast)

8:10 AM ET, February 1, 2020

Top Items:

Trump Told Bolton to Help His Ukraine Pressure Campaign, Book Says — The president asked his national security adviser last spring in front of other senior advisers to pave the way for a meeting between Rudolph Giuliani and Ukraine's new leader. — WASHINGTON — More than two months …

Washington Post:

The cringing abdication of Senate Republicans — REPUBLICAN SENATORS who voted Friday to suppress known but unexamined evidence of President Trump's wrongdoing at his Senate trial must have calculated that the wrath of a vindictive president is more dangerous than the sensible judgment …

Discussion: New York Times, The Independent, HuffPost, Fox News, FiveThirtyEight, The Hill and Raw Story

Jonathan D. Salant / New Jersey Online:

Trump's former chief of staff says Senate impeachment trial without witnesses is ‘a job only half done’ — WASHINGTON — A Senate vote to end President Donald Trump's impeachment proceedings without calling witnesses should be considered “half a trial,” the president's former chief of staff John Kelly said Friday.

Discussion: Breitbart, The National Interest, New York Times, Mediaite, CNN, The Week, The Hill, Axios, Raw Story and Politico

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

The Senate impeachment trial was rigged! — In the end, they didn't even pretend to take their oaths seriously. — Senators were instructed “to be in attendance at all times” during President Trump's impeachment trial. But as the Democratic House managers made their last …

Discussion: HuffPost and Althouse

Paul Waldman / Washington Post:
What Democrats must do when impeachment is over

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Raw Story, The Mahablog and Washington Monthly

Senator Marco Rubio / Medium:
My Statement on the President's Impeachment Trial

Discussion: Raw Story, New Republic, Reason, Common Dreams, Slate, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, CNN, Mediaite, National Review, The Hill, The American Independent and Daily Kos

Washington Post:
Bolton faces potential legal battles in standoff with White House over his book

Discussion: Raw Story, ABC News and POLITICUSUSA

BuzzFeed News:
Republicans Now Say Trump Did What He Was Accused Of — They Just Don't Care

Discussion: Washington Post, Raw Story, HuffPost and Breitbart

Politico:
Republicans defeat Democratic bids to hear witnesses in Trump trial

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Hill, Associated Press, NBC News, Washington Post, Common Dreams, The Moderate Voice, Townhall, Slate, New York Post, The Daily Beast, Disrn, Breitbart, BuzzFeed News, The Gateway Pundit and Mother Jones

New York Times:

A Dishonorable Senate — Republican legislators abdicated their duty by refusing to seek the truth. — The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.

Discussion: Balkinization, Washington Monthly, The Daily Signal, The Atlantic, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski … and Balloon Juice

Wall Street Journal:

How Republicans Scotched the Idea of Witnesses in Trump's Impeachment Trial — White House, Senate GOP leaders swung into a good-cop, bad-cop routine to keep lawmakers in the fold after Bolton book leak — WASHINGTON—At the White House on Sunday evening, as the phones started ringing nonstop …

New York Times:

Alexander Says Convicting Trump Would ‘Pour Gasoline on Cultural Fires’ — Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, explained why he would cast a pivotal vote against having witnesses at President Trump's impeachment trial, ensuring a quick acquittal.

Discussion: HuffPost, The Hill, NPR, Balloon Juice and Senator Susan Collins

Eric Tucker / Associated Press: GOP senators seek to acquit Trump without condoning conduct

CNN:
White House officials not thrilled but resigned to new vote timeline in impeachment trial

Discussion: HuffPost and Mother Jones

David R. Lurie / The Daily Beast:
Republicans Bless Trump's Crimes: He Did It, Get Over It

Discussion: The Guardian, The Atlantic and Washington Post

Politico:
Why four key Republicans split — and the witness vote tanked

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, NBC News and The Week

Shane Goldmacher / New York Times:

Hillary Clinton Slams Bernie Sanders for Not Working to Unite Democrats in 2016 — In a podcast interview on Friday, Mrs. Clinton also described the caucuses in Iowa, where Mr. Sanders leads in some polls, as “undemocratic.” — DES MOINES — Hillary Clinton said on Friday in a podcast interview …

Discussion: Michigan Advance

Bret Stephens / New York Times:
Bernie's Angry Bros

Discussion: VICE

Apple Podcasts:
Apple Podcasts Preview

Discussion: Fox News, The Hill and HuffPost

Brooke Seipel / The Hill:
Tlaib boos Clinton at Sanders event, says ‘haters will shut up on Monday when we win’ Iowa

Discussion: IJR and BON IVER IN IOWA

Brie Stimson / Fox News:
Rashida Tlaib boos Hillary Clinton at Bernie Sanders event in Iowa

Discussion: The Hill

David Siders / Politico:

DNC members discuss rules change to stop Sanders at convention — DES MOINES, Iowa — A small group of Democratic National Committee members has privately begun gauging support for a plan to potentially weaken Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign and head off a brokered convention.

Discussion: The Daily Wire, Common Dreams, The Gateway Pundit, NBC News, Associated Press, New York Times, Twitchy and The Wrap

Politico:

DNC overhauls debate requirements, opening door for Bloomberg — The Democratic National Committee is drastically revising its criteria to participate in primary debates after New Hampshire, doubling the polling threshold and eliminating the individual donor requirement …

Michele Kelemen / NPR:

Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch Has Retired From Foreign Service — Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine until last spring when she was ousted following a disinformation campaign by the president's private lawyer, is retiring — not resigning.

Discussion: Mediaite and Axios

Vanessa Romo / NPR:

Former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, Key Figure In Impeachment Trial, Retires — The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, who accused the Trump administration of a “smear” campaign against her, has retired from the foreign service, NPR has learned.

Discussion: New York Times, NBC News, Letters from an American and UPI

CNN:
Marie Yovanovitch, diplomat at center of impeachment drama, retires

Discussion: The Hill

James B. Comey / Washington Post:

Trump won't be removed. But we'll be fine. — James B. Comey is a former director of the FBI and deputy attorney general. — When I was a little kid, the United States seemed to be coming apart. The president was murdered in public. The first lady had his blood on her pink suit.

Discussion: The Hill and Raw Story

Victoria Bekiempis / Vulture:

Weinstein Accuser Says He Has No Testicles — Jessica Mann testified in a Manhattan courtroom Friday that Harvey Weinstein engaged in forced oral sex and raped her in early 2013 and alleged that she was in a twisted relationship with him because of her sexual inexperience.

Discussion: Consequence of Sound and Slate

Page Six:
Weinstein accuser Jessica Mann tells court his genitalia looked ‘like a vagina’

Discussion: The Daily Caller and New York Times

Associated Press: Woman says Weinstein yelled, ‘You owe me!’ before raping her

Ryan Broderick / BuzzFeed News:

A Pro-Trump Blog Doxed A Chinese Scientist It Falsely Accused Of Creating The Coronavirus As A Bioweapon — A popular pro-Trump website has released the personal information of a scientist from Wuhan, China, falsely accusing them of creating the coronavirus as a bioweapon …

Discussion: The Post Millennial, Breitbart, The Verge, Instapundit and American Greatness, more at Mediagazer »

Zolan Kanno-Youngs / New York Times:

Trump Administration Adds Six Countries to Travel Ban — President Trump added Africa's biggest country, Nigeria, as well as Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Tanzania, to his restricted travel list. — WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday added six countries to his list …

Discussion: Masayet, The Week and Vox

Ted Hesson / Reuters:
Trump's expanded travel ban targets Nigeria, five other countries

Discussion: United We Dream

Hillel Italie / Associated Press:

Author Mary Higgins Clark, ‘Queen of Suspense,’ dead at 92 — NEW YORK (AP) — Mary Higgins Clark, the tireless and long-reigning “Queen of Suspense” whose tales of women beating the odds made her one of the world's most popular writers, died Friday at age 92.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

Pelosi Statement on Senate Vote to Block Witnesses and Documents — Washington, D.C. — Speaker Nancy Pelosi released this statement after Senate Republicans voted against calling witnesses and compelling documents in the impeachment proceedings: — “The Senate Republicans' vote …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and The Hill

Andrea Bernstein / The New York Review of Books:

Corruption with No Consequences, from Bridgegate to Impeachment — Two days before he was sworn in to preside over the US Senate impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump, the Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts conducted a hearing on a different case entirely …