memeorandum: Romney impeachment vote heartens some, angers others in Utah (Lindsay Whitehurst/Associated Press)

9:45 PM ET, February 5, 2020

Top Items:

McKay Coppins / The Atlantic:

How Mitt Romney Decided Trump Is Guilty — Mitt Romney didn't want to go through with it. — “This has been the most difficult decision I have ever had to make in my life,” he told me yesterday afternoon in his Senate office. Roughly 24 hours later, Romney would deliver a speech announcing …

Discussion: Washington Post, Breitbart, New York Times, HuffPost, Roll Call, National Review, Big League Politics, Vanity Fair, The Federalist, The National Interest, Reason, Redstate, Raw Story, Mother Jones, The Hill and PJ Media Home

Laura Bassett / GQ:

Why Susan Collins Is More Dangerous Than Mitch McConnell — It's doubtful that Collins is simply naive and easily duped after serving in the Senate for more than two decades. — In the era of Trumpian hyper-partisanship, Susan Collins, the “moderate” Republican senator from Maine …

Discussion: New York Times, Slate and CBS News

Washington Post:

Romney votes to convict Trump on charge of abuse of power, becoming the lone Republican to break ranks — Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) sealed a place in history Wednesday by voting to convict President Trump of abuse of power, becoming a lone voice of dissent in a Republican Party that otherwise …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Deseret News, ABC News, Axios, Politico, Raw Story, Townhall, Breitbart and The Hill

Julia Arciga / The Daily Beast:

Don Jr. Calls Sen. Mitt Romney a ‘Pussy’ for Announcing Vote to Convict Trump — TRIGGERED — Donald Trump Jr. posted a picture on Instagram calling Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) a “pussy” after the former GOP presidential candidate announced that he would be voting to convict President Trump on one of two impeachment charges.

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Charles Sykes / The Bulwark:

Romney: One Man Alone — One and God make a majority. — His vote did not change the outcome, but Mitt Romney reminded us on Wednesday how one man alone can dramatically change the tone and the moral character of a moment. — “We're all footnotes, at best, in the annals of history,” …

Discussion: HuffPost, New York Times, Breitbart and Washington Post

Peter Wehner / The Atlantic:

A Profile in Courage — Mitt Romney is doing something nearly unheard of these days: He's putting his country above his party. He's voting his conscience when doing so comes at a cost. He's not rationalizing weakness and timidity by prettying them up as virtues.

Discussion: Washington Post, Breitbart and HuffPost

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Romney denies Trump unanimous Republican support

Discussion: Washington Post, Mother Jones, The Hill, LifeSiteNews, Townhall, No More Mister Nice Blog, Axios and Breitbart

Peter Baker / New York Times:
Impeachment Trial Updates: Senate Acquits Trump, Ending Historic Trial

Discussion: The Conversation, Washington Post, The Daily Beast, The American Spectator, The Daily Caller, KFOR-TV, The Gateway Pundit, Daily Kos, BuzzFeed News, Twitchy and Task & Purpose

NBC News:
Senate acquits Trump on both impeachment charges

Discussion: Associated Press, The Atlantic, Axios, Breitbart, The Hill, Washington Post, ABC News, UPI, The Root and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:
What Mitt Romney learned from his father

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Lindsay Whitehurst / Associated Press: Romney impeachment vote heartens some, angers others in Utah

Politico:
Trump gets bittersweet vindication with a surprise twist from an old foe

Discussion: Washington Post and Breitbart

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
Mitt Romney shows us all is not lost

Discussion: Breitbart

Tyler Olson / Fox News:
Fox News Exclusive: Romney says he had to follow ‘conscience’ on vote to convict Trump, expects ‘enormous consequences’

Discussion: Associated Press, Disrn and Breitbart

YouTube: WATCH: Sen. Romney's full statement on Trump's impeachment trial | Trump impeachment trial

Erielle Davidson / The Federalist:
Romney's Entire Career Has Been About Punishing Republicans For Voting For Him

Discussion: American Greatness and Breitbart

Tamar Lapin / New York Post:

Nancy Pelosi ‘pre-ripped’ pages of Trump's SOTU speech, video shows — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi apparently made tiny tears into her copy of President Trump's State of the Union address — so that her speech-ripping moment could go off without a hitch. — As Trump introduced cancer …

Discussion: Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller and The Babylon Bee

Politico:

Pelosi unloads on Trump in private meeting after SOTU standoff — Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped into President Donald Trump in a private meeting with Democrats Wednesday, just hours after the two jousted in a silent sparring match during his State of the Union address.

Discussion: Variety, The Hill, POLITICUSUSA, Talking Points Memo, Vanity Fair, Breitbart and Daily Kos

Rick Wilson / The Daily Beast:
Trump's Speech Was a Bataan Death March of Bullsh*t

Discussion: Raw Story

The Hill:
Pelosi trashes Trump address: ‘He shredded the truth, so I shredded his speech’

Discussion: Redstate, Townhall and New York Post

Jonathan Turley / The Hill:
Nancy Pelosi should resign

Discussion: JONATHAN TURLEY, Breitbart, Fox News, Townhall and CBS News

Des Moines Register:

Iowa Democratic Party releases 85% of caucus results but an error forces correction — After all of its struggles to release proper results from the Iowa Democratic caucuses Monday night, on Wednesday afternoon, the party released some mistaken results. — “There will be a minor correction …

Discussion: Washington Times, PJ Media Home, Twitchy and The Hill

ProPublica:

The Iowa Caucuses App Had Another Problem: It Could Have Been Hacked — ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. — A glitch in the smartphone app used to count and report votes …

Discussion: Mashable, VICE, The Verge, Twitchy, protocol, Fortune, BuzzFeed News, National Review and UPI, more at Techmeme »

New York Times:
What Went Wrong for Joe Biden in Iowa

Discussion: Mother Jones and IJR

Yvonne Wingett Sanchez / Arizona Republic:

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema says she will vote to convict President Trump on impeachment charges — Citing her concern for the Constitution as well as the conduct of future presidents, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema will vote Wednesday to convict President Donald Trump on the impeachment charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Discussion: CNN, The Hill, Townhall and Twitchy

Sherrod Brown / New York Times:

In Private, Republicans Admit They Acquitted Trump Out of Fear — One journalist remarked to me, “How in the world can these senators walk around here upright when they have no backbone?” — Mr. Brown is a Democratic senator from Ohio. — Not guilty. Not guilty.

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

Politico:

First head rolls after Biden's weak Iowa finish — DES MOINES — Joe Biden's campaign has parted ways with its Iowa field director, two days after the former vice president came in an embarrassing fourth place in the primary caucus state. — Adrienne Bogen, who headed field operations for Biden …

Discussion: NBC News, Associated Press, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Fox News, The Hill and ABC News

Politico:
‘A major, corn-fed f—up’: N.H. smells opportunity in Iowa flop

Discussion: Fox News

Washington Post:
Biden and Warren shift strategies after Iowa ‘gut punch’

Discussion: Politico, CNN, HuffPost and The Hill

Washington Post:

House managers: Trump won't be vindicated. The Senate won't be, either. — Reps. Adam Schiff (Calif.), Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), Zoe Lofgren (Calif.), Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), Val Demings (Fla.), Sylvia Garcia (Tex.) and Jason Crow (Colo.) were the Democratic House managers in the impeachment trial of President Trump.

Morgan Phillips / Fox News:
McConnell announces he will award Chief Justice Roberts the ‘Golden Gavel’

Discussion: The Hill

Matthew Haag / New York Times:

Surprise for New York Renters: No More Broker Fees — Regulators unexpectedly banned broker fees for renters, which in the city have long amounted to as much as 15 percent of the annual lease. — In New York's City intensely competitive rental market, tenants usually deal with middlemen known as brokers …

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:

What's next — giving the Presidential Medal of Freedom to David Duke? — So that the right-wing, faux-outrage crowd does not have a meltdown, let me be clear: I am sorry to hear talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh has cancer. Any decent person should hope he has a full recovery.

Discussion: Vox, Redstate, COURIER, CNN, Twitchy, Outside the Beltway, NB Blog, Raw Story, The Guardian and The Daily Beast, more at Mediagazer »

Ted Nesi / WPRI-TV:

VP Raimondo? Bloomberg, gov keep the door open — PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg and Gov. Gina Raimondo played it coy Wednesday about whether she could be his running mate, after she became the first governor in the country to endorse the former New York City mayor.

Andrew Stiles / Washington Free Beacon:
Mike Bloomberg's Historically Diminutive Stature, In Context

Discussion: Townhall

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

TV Ratings Declined for Trump's State of the Union Speech — About 37 million Americans tuned in on Tuesday, the smallest audience of President Trump's tenure. — President Trump put a “Celebrity Apprentice” spin on his State of the Union address on Tuesday, seeding the 78-minute broadcast …

George Conway / Washington Post:

I believe the president, and in the president — George T. Conway III is a lawyer in New York and an adviser to the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump super PAC. — I believe the president, and in the president. — I believe the Senate is right to acquit the president.

Discussion: Mediaite

Josh Kovensky / Talking Points Memo:

New Evidence Shows Pressure Campaign Started Earlier With Prior Ukraine Prez — As the Senate votes to acquit President Trump over his bid to extort the Ukrainian government into providing him with domestic political help, TPM has new evidence suggesting that the pressure campaign came far closer …

Discussion: Fox News, Spectator USA and Raw Story

Christopher Miller / BuzzFeed News:
Evangelical Christians Also Wanted To Get Rid Of The US Ambassador To Ukraine

Discussion: The Hill

Hollywood Reporter:

Kirk Douglas, Indomitable Icon of Hollywood's Golden Age, Dies at 103 — The actor starred in such films as ‘Champion,’ ‘The Bad and the Beautiful,’ ‘Lust for Life,’ ‘Gunfight at the O.K. Corral’ and ‘Spartacus,’ to name just a few. — Kirk Douglas, the son of a ragman who channeled a deep …

Morgan Gstalter / The Hill:

Former ‘Simpsons’ writer slams Pompeo tweet: ‘Please do not ever ever ever use Simpsons material’ — A former writer for “The Simpsons” on Wednesday ripped Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for using a snapshot from the show to knock Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), saying …

Discussion: MSNBC, NBC News, Spectator USA, IJR and Raw Story

Jessica Donati / Wall Street Journal:

U.S. Troops in Standoffs With Russian Military Contractors in Syria — Top U.S. envoy warns that rise in tensions could lead to hostile action between two powers — WASHINGTON—Russian personnel are engaging in tense standoffs with U.S. troops on highways in northeastern Syria in violation …

Rick Porter / Hollywood Reporter:

TV Ratings: State of the Union Falls in Early Broadcast Numbers — Preliminary figures show the annual address down by double digits versus 2019. — The State of the Union address drew a considerably smaller audience on the broadcast networks than it did a year ago, at least in the preliminary ratings from Tuesday.

Discussion: The Daily Caller and POLITICUSUSA

Anne Quito / Quartz:

Frustration grows in China as face masks compromise facial recognition — Because China — Even small changes in China have global effects. — Face masks are mandatory in at least two provinces in China, including the city of Wuhan. In an effort to contain the coronavirus strain …

Discussion: Wired