Top Items:
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, Talking Points Memo and Vanity Fair
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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:
Raw Story
The Hill:
Pelosi trashes Trump address: ‘He shredded the truth, so I shredded his speech’ — Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday trashed President Trump's raucous State of the Union address while huddling with rank-and-file Democrats and explained why she dramatically ripped up his speech as he wrapped up his remarks.
Discussion:
Townhall, Breitbart and New York Post
Cganemccalla / NewsOne:
Rush Limbaugh's Most Racist Quotes: A Timeline Of Destructive Commentary — Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has announced that he had been diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. The 69-year-old made the announcement on his show on Monday, ABC News reported.
Discussion:
The Nation
Matt Gertz / Media Matters for America:
Rush Limbaugh's bigotry set the stage for Trump's takeover of the Republican Party — I have sympathy for Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk radio host who announced this week that he had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, and wish him a speedy recovery.
Discussion:
CNN, The White House and IJR, more at Mediagazer »
Rick Wilson / The Daily Beast:
Trump's Speech Was a Bataan Death March of Bullsh*t — And it was a wakeup call for Democrats, who have acted as if 2016 was a fluke and Trump's personal sh*tshow, corruption, and idiocy all but ensure an easy win in November. — BEAST INSIDE — Donald's Trump State of the Union speech Tuesday night …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Miami Herald:
Parkland father removed from State of the Union speech after shouting at Trump
Discussion:
The Hill, The Guardian, Vox, Mother Jones and Axios
Stephen Collinson / CNN:
Trump makes dazzling, divisive reelection pitch in State of the Union
Discussion:
Press Watch, COURIER, Columbia Journalism Review, New York Times and KTLA
Elizabeth Vaughn / Redstate:
Reaction to SOTU: ‘We Need to Put a Cape on His Back, an ‘S’ on His Chest, and Call Him Superman’
Discussion:
Vanity Fair and Real Clear Politics
Ashley Parker / Washington Post:
With chants, walkouts and a ripped-up speech, bitter partisanship dominates Trump's State of the Union
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, New York Times, Associated Press, Outside the Beltway, Axios and Politico
Jim Geraghty / National Review:
Pelosi's Petty Move
Discussion:
The American Spectator, No More Mister Nice Blog and National Journal
Kenneth P. Vogel / New York Times:
Beyond the Partisan Fight, a Wealth of Evidence About Trump and Ukraine — Regardless of the Senate's verdict, the impeachment inquiry, President Trump's own words and other revelations yield a narrative establishing his involvement in the pressure campaign.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
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Christopher Miller / BuzzFeed News:
Evangelical Christians Also Wanted To Get Rid Of The US Ambassador To Ukraine — KYIV — In the summer of 2018, an American evangelical pastor and dozens of Ukrainian Christian groups prayed for Marie Yovanovitch to be fired from her job as the US ambassador to Kyiv.
Discussion:
The Hill
Marc Caputo / Politico:
Biden concedes Iowa was ‘a gut punch’ — SOMERSWORTH, N.H. — Joe Biden is no longer denying his surprisingly weak performance in Iowa. — “I'm not going to sugarcoat it. We took a gut punch in Iowa,” Biden said Wednesday, before cracking a joke about Iowa's botched caucuses.
Discussion:
The Hill
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jones.senate.gov:
Senator Doug Jones Statement on Impeachment Decision — “As this chapter of history draws to a close, one thing is clear: our country deserves better than this. We must find a way to come together, to set aside partisan differences, and to focus on what we have in common as Americans.”
Discussion:
Mother Jones, IJR, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit and Bloomberg
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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
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Tony Maglio / The Wrap:
Donald Trump's 3rd State of the Union Address Tumbles in Broadcast TV Ratings — Donald Trump's State of the Union address was all anybody could talk about on Tuesday, but “Ellen's Game of Games” showed up for NBC too. — This third SOTU from the 45th president of the United States …
Tom Nichols / The Atlantic:
This Is No Way to Beat Trump — Watching the Iowa caucus this year was a new experience for me. Before the ascendancy of Donald Trump, I was an establishment conservative, one of those liberal New England Republicans whose tribe is now only of blessed memory.
Discussion:
Raw Story
RELATED:
Issie Lapowsky / protocol:
He complained about Democrats' tech ‘morass’ — then built the Iowa app
Discussion:
Politico, Bloomberg, National Review, VICE, Fortune and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
Osita Nwanevu / New Republic:
Trump Has Never Looked More Comfortable as a Demagogue
Discussion:
Raw Story
BuzzFeed News:
She Shunned Islam And Was Embraced By Trump World. They Took Her Money, Then Turned On Her. — Rabia Kazan, a Turkish national who used to be a Trump fanatic, made a big donation to the president's campaign. But she's not a US citizen. — A former rising star in MAGA world recently renounced …
George Conway / Washington Post:
All the things I believe about President Trump — 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
Vivian Salama / CNN:
Pentagon officials stunned by White House decision to block Ukraine aid, new emails show — Washington (CNN)Days before the July 2019 call between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, US officials were still working to expedite the delivery of Javelin anti-tank missiles to the country …
Paul Bedard / Washington Examiner:
Record economic optimism under Trump, better than Reagan, Clinton, Obama — Economic optimism has reached a 44-year high and economic gloom a record low under President Trump in the latest survey that shows people in the United States are cheering their best personal economy in decades.
RELATED:
RJ Reinhart / Gallup:
Record-High Optimism on Personal Finances in U.S.
Discussion:
Townhall, The Federalist, UPI and Twitchy
Andrew / Statistical Modeling …:
How much of Trump's rising approval numbers can be attributed to differential nonresponse? — Josh Marshall writes: … Marshall goes through several natural explanations (economic prosperity, trade agreements, acceptance of Trump's behavior), and then continues: … That's right.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, The Federalist, JONATHAN TURLEY and The Hill
Alex Griswold / Washington Free Beacon:
Bloomberg Used Box to Boost Height as NYC Mayor, Documents Show — The Bloomberg campaign was quick to shoot down President Donald Trump's claim that the Democratic presidential candidate plans to use a box to boost his height at Friday's Democratic debate.
Discussion:
The Babylon Bee
The Boston Globe:
Kill the tradition: NH and Iowa should not vote first — A hundred years ago, New Hampshire blazed a trail as the first among 20 states to hold a 1920 presidential primary election. It is a tradition that has endured for the century since, and will repeat on Feb. 11 — a fact owed not just to custom …
Discussion:
Axios and The Smoke Eater
Daniel Bice / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Board fires two leaders of the 2020 DNC Host Committee — The two leaders of Milwaukee's host committee for the 2020 Democratic National Convention are out. — Late Tuesday, the board for the Milwaukee 2020 Host Committee terminated President Liz Gilbert and her chief of staff, Adam Alonso.
Discussion:
Politico, Washington Post, The Hill, Althouse, The Daily Caller and PJ Media Home
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Pelosi ripped up a speech. Trump is ripping up our democracy. — Nancy Pelosi ripped up a copy of President Trump's State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, and the civility police are on a rampage: On “Morning Joe,” host Willie Geist lectured that the House Speaker's act is “not what the country needs.”
Discussion:
Twitchy, Mediaite, POLITICUSUSA and New York Times
Washington Post:
Fact-checking President Trump's 2020 State of the Union address — President Trump's State of the Union speech once again was chock-full of stretched facts and dubious figures. Many of these claims have been fact-checked repeatedly, yet the president persists in using them.
Discussion:
Vox, Associated Press and Daily Kos
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