If You Think It's Bad for Mainstream Democrats Now, Just Wait  —  It is always darkest, John McCain used to say, before it gets totally black.  So it is for the American center-left right now.  Bernie Sanders is currently favored to win the nomination, a prospect that would make Donald Trump …

Trump celebrates end of impeachment with angry, raw and vindictive 62-minute White House rant  —  The Debrief: An occasional series offering a reporter's insights  —  He spoke without a teleprompter.  He cursed in the East Room.  He called the House speaker a “horrible person.”

Fox News Internal Document Bashes Pro-Trump Fox Regulars for Spreading ‘Disinformation’  —  In a dossier obtained by The Daily Beast, Fox's research unit advises colleagues to be wary of “disinformation” from several Trump-boosting on-air regulars, including Giuliani.

China Tightens Wuhan Lockdown in ‘Wartime’ Battle With Coronavirus  —  With infections doubling every four days and more than 600 deaths, China intensified its response in Wuhan, with house-to-house temperature checks and mass confinements at quarantine centers.

White House Weighs Ouster of Aide Who Testified Against Trump  — Army's Vindman could be removed as part of a broader sweep  — Some officials may be reassigned from NSC in impeachment wake  —  The White House is weighing a plan to dismiss Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council …

Treasury Department sent information on Hunter Biden to expanding GOP Senate inquiry  —  The Treasury Department has complied with Republican senators' requests for highly sensitive and closely held financial records about Hunter Biden and his associates and has turned over " …

Women of color bolt Warren's Nevada campaign in frustration  —  A half-dozen women of color have departed Elizabeth Warren's Nevada campaign in the run-up to the state's caucuses with complaints of a toxic work environment in which minorities felt tokenized and senior leadership was at loggerheads.

Bloomberg Plagiarized Parts of At Least Eight of His Plans  —  Mike Bloomberg's presidential campaign plagiarized portions of its plans for maternal health, LGBTQ equality, the economy, tax policy, infrastructure, and mental health from research publications, media outlets, and a number of nonprofit, educational, and policy groups.

Mikie Sherrill endorses Bloomberg for president  —  New Jersey congresswoman says Bloomberg ‘embodies the integrity we need from leadership’  —  Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) is endorsing Michael Bloomberg for the Democratic nomination for president, giving the former New York City mayor …

EXCLUSIVE: Indiana U defends ‘Sex Fest’ featuring BDSM demos, ‘kink’ and ‘sex toys’  — The second night offered BDSM demonstrations, including a man whipping a tied up woman in public.  —  New video and photos out of Indiana University show an individual being publicly whipped as part of a university-sponsored “sex fest.”

On Facebook, anti-vaxxers urged a mom not to give her son tamiflu.  He later died.  —  Online groups that routinely traffic in anti-vaccination propaganda have become a resource for people seeking out a wide variety of medical information.  —  Facebook groups that routinely traffic …

Statement from the President  —  At the direction of President Donald J. Trump, the United States conducted a counterterrorism operation in Yemen that successfully eliminated Qasim al-Rimi, a founder and the leader of al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and a deputy to al-Qa'ida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

How Trump Wins Again  —  Are Democrats going to give this election away?  —  As several people have noticed, this was the most politically successful week of the Trump presidency.  —  First, President Trump's job approval numbers are rising.  When the impeachment inquiry got rolling in October his Gallup approval rating was 39.

Trump Is Blowing Up a National Monument in Arizona to Make Way for the Border Wall  —  Contractors working for the Trump administration are blowing apart a mountain on protected lands in southern Arizona to make way for the president's border wall.  The blasting is happening …

Donald Trump ‘apoplectic’ in call with Boris Johnson over Huawei  —  Donald Trump vented “apoplectic” fury at Boris Johnson in a tense phone call over the UK's decision to allow Huawei a role in its 5G mobile phone networks, according to officials in London and Washington.

Trump's health care rhetoric shows at least short term appeal  —  Tapper rolls the tape on glaring Trump falsehood in SOTU  —  Washington (CNN)Before the State of the Union speech she would later rip up on camera, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called a news conference to rip President Donald Trump's “all-out assault on health care.”

Challenging Trump for the GOP nomination taught me my party is a cult  —  Real conservatives think for themselves.  Trump Republicans have been brainwashed.  —  When I announced my primary challenge to President Trump last year, I knew running against him for the GOP nomination was the ultimate long shot.

Trump hints at Republican compromise in messy Georgia Senate race  —  President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that he's working on a compromise between U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler and U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, two Georgia Republicans who are clashing over the same seat in a November election.

Yang fires dozens of staffers after Iowa debacle  —  Andrew Yang's campaign fired dozens of staffers this week after an abysmal finish in the Iowa caucuses, according to four former staffers who were let go.  —  Among those dismissed were the national political and policy directors of the campaign …

Navy Secretary Pushed Out by Trump Says He'll Endorse Bloomberg  —  Richard Spencer, ousted as Navy secretary after he publicly disagreed with President Trump's intervention in a war crimes case involving a Navy SEAL, is a lifelong Republican.  —  WASHINGTON — The Navy secretary ousted …

Ukraine Says The US Is Holding Up $30m Worth Of Guns And Ammo — And It Wants Its Money Back  —  KYIV — At the heart of the impeachment saga that ended on Wednesday in Donald Trump's acquittal was $391 million in US military assistance for Ukraine that the president ordered be withheld.

Trump planned a surprise, on-camera military reunion.  This is what they're really like.  —  The flight shuttling war-weary Green Berets home had been delayed, and nobody at battalion headquarters thought to unlock the door for their families waiting in the freezing rain.

Venezuela Moves U.S. Oil Executives to Caracas Prison  —  The six Citgo employees have been detained since 2017 without trial  —  WASHINGTON—Venezuelan authorities rounded up U.S. oil executives held under house arrest in Caracas Wednesday night and moved them to a prison, the top U.S. envoy to Venezuela told reporters on Thursday.