memeorandum: Romney denies Trump unanimous Republican support (Burgess Everett/Politico)

6:10 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: The Federalist, Redstate, Breitbart, HuffPost, National Review, Mother Jones, Reason, Washington Post, Big League Politics, Vanity Fair, Raw Story, The Hill and PJ Media Home

Dan Balz / Washington Post:

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

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Axios, ABC News, The Daily Beast, Politico, Deseret News, Townhall, Breitbart, Outside the Beltway and The Hill

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Romney denies Trump unanimous Republican support — Romney: President's actions 'most abusive and destructive violation of one's oath of office' — Mitt Romney brought a stunning twist to the end of President Donald Trump's impeachment trial: A bipartisan vote to convict the president on charges of abuse of power.

Discussion: Just Security, Washington Post, Mother Jones, Townhall, Axios, The Hill, LifeSiteNews, The Daily Beast and Breitbart

Peter Wehner / The Atlantic:
A Profile in Courage — Mitt Romney is doing something nearly unheard …

Discussion: The Federalist, Raw Story, Breitbart and HuffPost

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

Discussion: Politico and Breitbart

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

Discussion: Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, The Daily Beast, Daily Kos, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit and Twitchy

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

Discussion: Disrn and Breitbart

Wall Street Journal:
Senate Expected to Vote to Acquit Trump on Impeachment

Discussion: COURIER, Disrn and The Hill

Amber Phillips / Washington Post: ‘The president is guilty’: Mitt Romney's speech on his vote to convict Trump, annotated

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

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, Breitbart, Vanity Fair, POLITICUSUSA, Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos

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

Jonathan Turley / The Hill:

Nancy Pelosi should resign — The House has its share of infamies, great and small, real and symbolic, and has been the scene of personal infamies from brawls to canings. But the conduct of Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the State of the Union address this week will go down as a day of infamy for the chamber as an institution.

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

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

Discussion: Redstate, Townhall and Breitbart

theepochtimes.com: Pelosi Does Her Best to Reelect Trump at State of the Union

Cganemccalla / NewsOne:
Rush Limbaugh's Most Racist Quotes: A Timeline Of Destructive Commentary

Discussion: The Nation

Steve Benen / MSNBC:
Pompeo accidentally proves the wrong point with Simpsons reference

Discussion: The Hill, HuffPost and Vanity Fair

Tom Tillison / BizPac Review:
‘Slanderous’: Rush's longtime producer Bo Snerdley asks CNN, Acosta to prove racist claim against boss

Discussion: Louder With Crowder, The Gateway Pundit, Redstate and Washington Examiner

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, Townhall, The Hill and Twitchy

Jessica Taylor / The Cook Political Report:

Alabama Senate Moves From Toss Up to Lean Republican — Alabama Democratic Senator Doug Jones was always going to be the most endangered incumbent in 2020. He narrowly won a 2017 special election over Roy Moore, the deeply flawed and controversial GOP nominee, and has had a target on his back ever since.

Mike DeBonis / Washington Post:
Sen. Jones says he will vote to convict Trump, drawing criticism from GOP rivals

Discussion: The Hill

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: Associated Press, Fox News, The Hill, Vanity Fair and ABC News

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: Associated Press, Washington Post, The Hill and Bangor Daily News

Marianna Sotomayor / NBC News:
After Iowa ‘gut punch,’ Biden sharpens criticism of Sanders and Buttigieg

Discussion: Politico and UPI

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

Discussion: Mother Jones, Breitbart, IJR and Political Wire

Bhaskar Sunkara / The Guardian: The DNC can't steal the election from Bernie Sanders despite the Iowa chaos

William Saletan / Slate:
How Pete Won — Last week in Iowa, former Vice President Joe …

Discussion: Mother Jones, New York Times and NBC News

Cleve R. Wootson Jr / Washington Post:
Biden calls Iowa caucuses standing a ‘gut punch’

Discussion: The Hill

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

Tony Maglio / The Wrap: Donald Trump's 3rd State of the Union Address Tumbles in Broadcast TV Ratings

Deadline:
State Of The Union Viewership Down Double-Digits From 2019; Fox News Tops All, Only Net To Rise Over Last Year - Update

Discussion: Raw Story and Bloomberg

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

Morgan Phillips / Fox News:

McConnell announces he will award Chief Justice Roberts the ‘Golden Gavel’ — Senators vote 53-47 to acquit President Trump of obstruction of Congress at Senate impeachment trial — Just after the Senate voted to acquit President Trump of both articles of impeachment …

Discussion: 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: protocol, VICE, Fortune, The Verge and BuzzFeed News, more at Techmeme »

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

Kenneth P. Vogel / New York Times:
Beyond the Partisan Fight, a Wealth of Evidence About Trump and Ukraine

Discussion: Politico and The Moderate Voice

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 …

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 …

Discussion: Raw Story

Andrew Stiles / Washington Free Beacon:

Mike Bloomberg's Historically Diminutive Stature, In Context — Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, the presumptive frontrunner to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, would make history if elected. Bloomberg would not only be the first Jewish president in American history …

Hollywood Reporter:

Brutally Honest Oscar Ballot: ‘Irishman’ “Was Boring,” Tarantino “Amazing,” “I Want an American Director to Win” — by Anonymous, as told to Scott Feinberg — As voting ends, a female member of the Academy's actors branch, granted anonymity to speak freely, shares which films earn her precious vote (and — gulp — why).

Discussion: VICE