GETTING CHIPPY
The two Midwesterners were not, well, nice during Wednesday night’s debate.
Sam Brodey is the congressional reporter for The Daily Beast. He previously was the Washington correspondent for MinnPost and a fellow at Mother Jones. Send him tips: sam.brodey@thedailybeast.com, or tips@thedailybeast.com. You can also use our anonymous document submission system, SecureDrop. Click here to find out how.
NEW NORMAL
Richard Grenell, a Trump loyalist, does not have any direct experience in the intelligence field—a fact that triggered alarm bells for some.
WALL 2020
The funds—more than $1 billion—will come from the National Guard’s reserves equipment budget.
POWER STRUGGLE
“This is not about wanting a weak presidency, or a weak commander in chief… This is neither hawkish or dovish,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT).
BONUS
“Whether it’s real or imagined, discussed or not, Bloomberg is a guy who can fund an entire campaign for somebody,” said one New York City Democratic elected official.
MISSING WITNESS
The party is re-assessing after the president’s acquittal. And some lawmakers aren’t sure there’s much to be gained.
‘THE CASE WAS MADE’
The Republican senator said his decision was made out of an “inescapable conviction that my oath before God demanded it.”
APPRENTICED
The 2020 State of the Union didn’t bother sneering at impeachment. Trump took a different sort of victory lap—one heavy on spectacle.
FLIP IT
With impeachment all but defeated, the president’s base is now eager to turn the tables on Democrats and investigate Joe and Hunter Biden’s conduct on Ukraine.
KICK ME
Crimes, conspiracies, and off-the-book ops—that’s just a taste of what an impeachment acquittal could usher in, U.S. officials and Senate Democrats fear.
