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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial distracted the federal government from the novel coronavirus as it reached the United States in January, despite warnings at the time from public health experts and members of Congress about the spread of the virus. McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday that the deadly virus “came up while we were tied down on the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment.″ […] McConnell said Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas...

On Wednesday, President Trump's former national security advisor, John Bolton, made a public appearance alongside Obama's former national security advisor, Susan Rice, at Vanderbilt University, where he blasted the Democrats' ”grossly partisan” impeachment against Trump, and downplayed the impact of the testimony he would have had on the outcome of the impeachment vote. According to Bolton, the House “committed impeachment malpractice." He added that “the process drove Republicans who might have voted for impeachment away because it was so partisan.” Bolton also revealed that he was surprised the Senate voted against him testifying, but dowplayed the impact his testimony would...

WASHINGTON - House lawmakers are readying to campaign in the post-impeachment landscape, with Democrats eager to focus on policy issues and Republicans planning to attack swing-district Democrats for voting to remove a president whom many of their constituents support. Democrats plan to defend the majority, and specifically their 30 seats in districts that Mr. Trump won in 2016, by discussing the issue that gave them the gavel in 2018: lowering health-care costs. Lawmakers expect to stay far away from talking about the two articles of impeachment the House passed against the president in December. Republicans, meanwhile, will largely embrace running...

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said Wednesday on MSNBC that Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) vote to convict President Donald Trump on the first article of impeachment was “the right thing to do.” When asked what she thought of Romney’s speech on the Senate floor, Warren said, “I thought I was listening to a decent and honorable man who stood up and did the right thing.”

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said on Thursday that Republicans in Utah are not pleased with the state's other Republican senator, Mitt Romney, after he voted to convict President Trump for abuse of power in the Senate impeachment trial. “There will be some people who might be happy with it, and they might be called Democrats, for the most part. I think Republicans are very upset about it. And I, for one, disagree with it and disagree with it strongly,” Lee told Shannon Bream on “Fox News at Night.” ~snip~ Lee pushed back on Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., for praising Romney’s...

Exulting in his impeachment acquittal, President Donald Trump took a scorched-earth victory lap Thursday, unleashing his fury against those who tried to remove him from office while looking ahead to his reelection campaign. Trump, triumphantly waving a newspaper front page - “ACQUITTED” - denounced his political foes, declared the impeachment proceedings a “disgrace” and portrayed himself as a victim rather than a president accused of serious corruption. That echoed broadsides hours earlier that stunned the crowd at an annual prayer breakfast. “It was evil, it was corrupt,” Trump declared at the White House. “This should never ever happen to another...

President Trump appeared to mock House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week by gleefully handing out souvenir pens at the USMCA signing ceremony — a move that came after Pelosi was slammed for handing out souvenir pens with her name on them on the day she signed the resolution to transmit two articles of impeachment against Trump to the Senate. Pelosi, D-Calif., gave out the commemorative pens Jan. 15 to a number of House Democrats who were involved in impeachment, a stark contrast from what she had repeatedly said was a “somber” and “prayerful” act. This led a number of commentators...

Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee will oppose calling more witnesses in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, all but dashing Democratic efforts to hear more testimony and boosting odds the Senate will vote imminently to acquit without new testimony, in a matter of days. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said late Thursday she would vote to allow witnesses in the impeachment trial, building momentum for the Democrats’ effort. But Alexander then said in a statement there was “no need for more evidence,” giving the Trump team the likelihood of a Senate vote in its direction. […] A vote on...

The possibility of a 50/50 deadlock on witnesses was fun but unlikely, since it probably would have achieved nothing and only annoyed Republicans. Roberts likely would have declined to cast a tiebreaking vote, throwing the trial into momentary chaos and handing Democrats a new way to add an asterisk to Trump’s eventual acquittal.Murkowski opted to vote no to spare everyone that chaos, I bet. Collins needs to vote for witnesses because it’ll help her in Maine to do so and Romney needs to vote for witnesses because Romney is Romney, but Murkowski doesn’t need to vote for them. She’s...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday hammered the lawyers leading President Trump's impeachment defense, saying they've trampled on the Constitution while questioning how they've been allowed to keep their jobs. "I don't know how they can retain their lawyer status, in the comments that they're making," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. Pelosi was responding largely to comments made Wednesday evening by Alan Dershowitz, a celebrity lawyer on Trump's legal team, who asserted on the Senate floor that presidents cannot be impeached for actions designed to boost their reelections — if they believe that retaining a grip on the White...

Paul Krugman slammed President Trump for threatening 25% tariffs on European vehicles and auto parts as they posed potential risks to national security. The Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist also criticized Trump's refusal to turn over to Congress a report about an investigation into the national-security risks. "Pretty sure that's just plain illegal," Krugman tweeted. "Congress ... didn't make him a dictator free to set tariffs wherever he likes without even offering an explanation."

A top White House spokesman invoked the 1987 Mel Brooks classic “Spaceballs” in laying out just how flimsy lead impeachment manager Adam Schiff’s, D-Calif., impeachment case is against President Trump. Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told “The Story” on Friday that the House Democrats’ case against Trump — in which they alleged abuse of power in the form of the president trying to personally benefit through foreign policy with Ukraine — effectively has no first-hand witnesses. Democrats, he said, are trying to “splice it together [and] pass it off as real.” […] “It’s all ‘your father’s brother’s cousin’s nephew’s former...

In the otherwise scripted impeachment trial, it was a rare spontaneous moment: Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of President Donald Trump’s chief defenders, stopped Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead prosecutor, to shake his hand and compliment him on his arguments for Trump’s removal. Schiff is the face of the House’s impeachment case against Trump, which has made him the principal target of Trump’s ire. Though he has six managers by his side, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Schiff, her confidant, as the lead impeachment manager. He is setting the tone of the prosecution’s case. “In a way I do feel like...

by Joe Callen | Washington Editor A bombshell new report is derailing the Democrats' momentum against President Trump on Day One of the Senate impeachment trial. The article -- in the left-leaning Politico of all places -- on Tuesday night alleges that House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff appears to have “mischaracterized” evidence that was used in House Democrats’ impeachment investigation. But Republicans are calling the report "soft-pedaling", insisting that Schiff "fabricated evidence" in a naked attempt to "frame" Trump. Either way, the shocking late-night report has thrown the Democrats' Senate plan into complete chaos. The stunning report focuses on...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's defense failed him at the opening of his Senate impeachment trial on Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had one job. He just had to collect 51 votes for the trial rules he had written, in close consultation with White House officials, to deliver Trump an acquittal quickly, quietly and with as few surprises as possible. He couldn't do it. Fellow Republicans balked at his plan so late in the game — moments before the start of the trial — that he had to order up handwritten changes sought by Democrats just to secure...

Two weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was in a bind. Cracks were beginning to form in the ranks of Senate Republicans, and some moderate and vulnerable GOP senators were voicing their support for calling witnesses in Trump's impeachment trial — a measure McConnell and other allies of President Donald Trump were staunchly against. Then John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser, said he was prepared to testify. The announcement was McConnell's worst nightmare. A pivotal witness who was in the president's inner circle had stepped forward and offered to testify in Trump's trial. Could McConnell and Senate Republicans...

(CNN)New documents released Friday evening by House Democrats show communications between indicted Rudy Guiliani associate Lev Parnas and an aide to the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee in which they arrange interviews with Ukrainian officials and apparent meetings at the Trump hotel in Washington, DC, including with Giuliani

Romney loses GOP support in Utah after challenging Trump on impeachment "Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney lost support from Republicans and independents in his home state during the weeks after he called for witnesses in President Trump's Senate impeachment trial, a new poll shows. The Morning Consult survey found support for Romney, 72, going down after he called for former national security adviser John Bolton to testify at Trump’s impeachment trial, which began on Thursday. ... In the prior quarter, 65% of Utah Republicans supported Romney, and while a majority still do presently, that number sank to 57%. ... Democrats...

How imbecilic are those Republicans trying to make a name for themselves by supporting the unconstitutional Schiff/Pelosi articles of impeachment? Beyond polite description. Susan Collins, Rob Portman, probably the self-serving Mitt Romney, are each trying to be the biggest monkey wrenches in an already ridiculous endeavor to remove President Trump from office. Each of them should just admit they are Democrats at heart and switch parties. How else to explain their betrayal of their own party? Poor judgment is one thing, like Matt Gaetz voting for Pelosi's meaningless resolution to limit Trump's ability to counteract Iran. That was just dumb,...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she will “soon” transmit the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, signaling a potential thaw in the standoff with Senate Republicans as she warned against rushing to an acquittal without a fair trial. Pelosi, D-Calif., faces mounting pressure from Republicans and some Democrats to quit delaying the president’s trial in the Senate, three weeks after the House Democrats impeached Trump on charges of abuse and obstruction. Republicans say Democrats are embarrassed by their vote. But Pelosi countered that Democrats are “proud” of upholding the Constitution and said she doubted that Senate Republicans will do...