Maggie Haberman
@maggieNYT

Per sources, some GOP senators privately pushing White House for information on who at administration had visibility into the manuscript over the last month. Senators feel blindsided.

8:36 AM · Jan 27, 2020·Twitter for iPhone

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1221789190725283840

Mrs. Betty Bowers
@BettyBowers

Federal Rule of Evidence 107(b): "If the plaintiff calls a material witness with relevant testimony, the defendant gets to call an immaterial witness with irrelevant testimony just to fuck with them.”

https://twitter.com/BettyBowers/status/1218264879326470146

Senator Ted Cruz
@SenTedCruz
Ted Cruz: If Democrats call Bolton as impeachment witness, GOP can call Hunter Biden

Aaron Rupar
@atrupar

Ken Starr unironically lamenting that impeachments are happening "all too frequently" is so much better with a laugh track

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1221862439026921474

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. With that being said, the...

12:18 AM · Jan 27, 2020·Twitter for iPhone

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1221663763138588672

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

...transcripts of my calls with President Zelensky are all the proof that is needed, in addition to the fact that President Zelensky & the Foreign Minister of Ukraine said there was no pressure and no problems. Additionally, I met with President Zelensky at the United Nations...

12:18 AM · Jan 27, 2020·Twitter for iPhone

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1221663764031905793

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

...(Democrats said I never met) and released the military aid to Ukraine without any conditions or investigations - and far ahead of schedule. I also allowed Ukraine to purchase Javelin anti-tank missiles. My Administration has done far more than the previous Administration.

12:18 AM · Jan 27, 2020·Twitter for iPhone

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1221663764971491329

Kobe Bryant Dead at 41 in Helicopter Crash in California

https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/kobe-bryant-dead-at-41-in-helicopter-crash-in-california/

NBA superstar Kobe Bryant died at 41 in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, on Sunday, January 26, TMZ is reporting.

The former L.A. Lakers player was traveling with at least three other people on his private helicopter when a fire reportedly broke out. Fire brigade and paramedics attended the scene but TMZ reports that five people are confirmed dead.

It’s believed that Bryant’s wife, Vanessa Bryant, was not on board.

Story is developing.

MSNBC host Joy Reid showed no patience with former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) on Sunday morning as the advocate for the re-election of Donald Trump repeatedly was called out for lying about the facts of the Ukraine corruption case against Donald Trump as well as the House impeachment trial.

Sitting on a panel with the Intercept’s Mehdi Hasan, Kingston was given the first crack at addressing the defense case put forth by Trump’s lawyers on the Senate floor on Saturday, only to be pulled up short by the MSNBC host after stating a falsehood, for which he received an admonishment.

With Kingston claiming Democratic members of the Senate who are currently running for their party’s presidential nomination did not attend the Saturday hearing, Reid quickly cut him off.

“Hold on a second, Jack,” she lectured him. “They were sitting and listening to the entire hearing. The hearing was ended because Republicans only did two hours then they wrapped the hearing for the day and that’s why those senators are not sitting and listening to it because there’s nothing happening right now.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/trump-defender-kingston-shamed-into-silence-by-msnbcs-joy-reid-after-blizzard-of-lies-on-impeachment/

Trump wants a Democrat to vote for acquittal in impeachment trial. The White House eyes Joe Manchin.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-wants-a-senate-democrat-to-vote-for-acquittal-in-impeachment-trial-white-house-eyes-joe-manchin/2020/01/25/ef0a912e-3c64-11ea-971f-4ce4f94494b4_story.html

By Josh Dawsey
Jan. 25, 2020 at 3:25 p.m. EST

President Trump and White House officials are looking for at least one Senate Democrat to vote against removing the president from office at the end of his impeachment trial, and they see Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) as the most likely candidate.

Trump took particular pride that three House Democrats voted against his impeachment, White House officials said, and he would like to be able to get at least one Senate Democrat to vote for his acquittal so he can claim the decision was bipartisan.

Manchin has sided with Trump on tough votes before, such as the confirmation of Supreme Court Brett M. Kavanaugh. But voting to acquit the president would be an even more politically charged decision, one that could help him maintain his reputation as a moderate back home but would probably make him a pariah within his own party.

He struck a conciliatory note toward the president Saturday, becoming the only Democrat to publicly praise Trump’s defense team even as he called for more witnesses, such as former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

The Trump administration is finalizing a plan to let states convert a chunk of Medicaid funding to block grants, even as officials remain divided over how to sell the controversial change to the safety net health program.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma plans to issue a letter soon explaining how states could seek waivers to receive defined payments for adults covered by Obamacare's Medicaid expansion, according to seven people with knowledge of the closely guarded effort. An announcement is tentatively slated for the end of next week, more than one year after Verma and her team began developing the plan.

Capping Medicaid spending, even among just Obamacare's expansion population, would be a major transformation of how the federal government finances the safety net health care program that has grown to cover about 1 in 5 Americans. The plan is guaranteed to enrage critics and invite attacks from Democrats in an election year.

Republicans have long argued that states should receive defined funding for Medicaid, instead of the current open-ended structure in which the federal government matches state spending. Democrats, along with many hospital and physician groups, have fiercely opposed the idea, warning that strict funding constraints would result in cuts to enrollment and health care services.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/23/trump-targeting-obamacare-102887