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Peter Strzok says he is ready to respond to President Trump's "attacks." The former FBI agent reviled by Trump and his allies tweeted Thursday evening, something he rarely does, to respond to the president who mocked him and fellow FBI alumna Lisa Page hours earlier at the White House. He shared a message from his lawyer, Aitan Goelman, who said: "Angered by the disclosures of yet more instances of his betrayal of our national security in the service of his own political advantage, President Trump raged and threatened those public servants tasked with investigating or testifying about his serial misconduct."...

Trump Jr. tweeted Friday evening after his father, President Trump, pushed two top impeachment witnesses who testified against him during the House impeachment investigation out of their government roles earlier in the day. "Allow me a moment to thank — and this may be a bit of a surprise — Adam Schiff. Were it not for his crack investigation skills, @realDonaldTrump might have had a tougher time unearthing who all needed to be fired," Trump Jr. said. "Thanks, Adam!"

This will be a weekly post. Count remains at 185 judges confirmed. 133 District Court judges 50 Circuit Court judges 2 Supreme Court justices McConnell has teed up cloture and confirmation votes for next week, including Andrew Brasher, nominee for the 11th circuit. After a lengthy impeachment interlude, the confirmation gears are turning once more!

Congressional Record Links to Debate on Trial Procedure Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - Answer and Trial Briefs Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - Debate on Impeachment Procedure, S.Res.483 Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - Debate on Amendment @ 3:16 p.m.: Amendment 1284: Subpoena Acting Chief of Staff of White House Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - Debate on Amendments @ 5:16 p.m.: Amendment 1285: Subpoena Documents from Department of State (Pompeo, Counselor T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, Volker, Taylor, Sondland) Amendment 1286: Subpoena Office of Management and Budget Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - Debate on Amendments @ 8:13 p.m.: Amendment 1287: Subpoena Mick Mulvaney Amendment...

Rep. Rashida Tlaib said she and Rep. Ilhan Omar had to hold hands at points during President Trump's State of the Union address to comfort each other. "It think was a huge struggle for me because I don't think people realize its worse in - when you're actually there," the Michigan Democrat said at an event with Rep. Ilhan Omar about listening to the address. "No, it really is, it actually - there was moments of triggering, and I kept holding your hand," Tlaib said, looking at Omar. "And we intentionally sat next to each other to support each other."...

I’ll freely admit it, I teared up a bit while watching conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from first lady Melania Trump during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. As a wide-eyed college student working on his first political campaign only to be absolutely devastated when Bill Clinton upset George H.W. Bush in ’92, discovering and listening to the bombastic, confident Limbaugh pack more hard-hitting truths with half his brain tied behind his back than most mere mortals could with their entire faculties was comforting, encouraging, cathartic even. We were in the bunker together...

Most of the minority candidates have bowed out of the race, in large part because black and Latino Democratic voters preferred the white candidates, but the first-ever intersectionality primary continues. During an extended back-and-forth on race issues at the Democratic presidential debate on Friday, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders went for the finish line. "We have a racist society from top to bottom," he declared. He said it's in the healthcare system, criminal justice, the economy, and everywhere else. I won't analyze the psychology behind calling an entire country, whose people you want to like you, racist. I don't think I'd...

MSNBC anchor Katy Tur on Friday asked if gerrymandering could help break the Republican hold on the U.S. Senate. "Is gerrymandering something that would help improve the situation? How does that sort of divide promote consensus in the Senate, or even in the House?" Tur asked.

In the aftermath of the Democrats’ impeachment debacle and the chaotic breakdown of the Iowa caucuses, the Democratic Party establishment has stepped up its efforts to undermine the campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for the party’s presidential nomination. With Trump’s poll numbers rising, despite the shift to the left among working people and youth reflected in the broad support for Sanders, the Democratic leadership is determined to suppress the issue of social inequality in the 2020 campaign for fear of encouraging the growth of social opposition and anti-capitalist sentiment. The lead role in attacking Sanders from the right has...

[T]he data on the economy are giving [Trump] something genuinely worth boasting about. That was especially evident in the first employment numbers of 2020, released Friday morning. It was about as good a jobs report as an incumbent president could hope for nine months before Election Day — and not just in obvious ways. The big headline out of the latest numbers was that employers added 225,000 jobs in January, comfortably more than analysts had expected. That alone suggests that economic growth is steady at a minimum, and maybe accelerating as the year begins. The seemingly bad news in the...

Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg's campaign was mocked Friday for editing a clip from a CNN town hall that included inserting fake applause after a remark made by the 38-year-old presidential candidate. "To me, that is not just a concern for our generation, it's a concern that calls on us to build an alliance among generations to try to make sure that the future really is better than the past," Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., said in answering a question from an audience member in New Hampshire. In the live CNN event on Thursday night, Buttigieg's answer did...

I am an American born citizen, living overseas for the last 45 years. I have never voted in a presidential election but this time I would like to support President Trump. But since the president will win by Electoral College votes, and I don't live in an American state...will my vote actually help him? What happens to the votes of people who don't have a residence in the USA? I was born and raised in NY, lived in Texas, stayed in California a number of times for weeks at a time, but my residence has been overseas in Australia. What...

The basic building blocks of U.S. health care are now under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. -- Chinese President Xi Jinping recently warned of the “grave” situation posed by the “accelerating spread” of the coronavirus in China. Xi’s frank warnings were unusual for the seniormost official of the Chinese Communist Party and reveal the depth of the concern at the highest levels of the country’s leadership. Already, nearly 500 people have died and tens of thousands more have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. It has been found in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Europe and the United States....

Vegans across the country are protesting Starbucks for its "insane" institution of a "vegan tax" against non-dairy drinkers. The controversy, which stems from the fact that the coffee chain typically charges extra for plant-based milk options, has led to sit-ins at Starbucks locations nationwide, Insider reported. PETA, the animal rights group, has organized many of the protests, which have taken place in cities such as San Diego, Queens, N.Y., and Meriden Township, Minn., as well as outside the home of the company’s CEO, Kevin Johnson. **SNIP** The protests began in December 2019, when PETA announced it was purchasing shares of...

The drumbeat for Democratic National Committee boss Tom Perez to be “held accountable” for recent party failures appears to be getting louder. The latest Democrats to criticize Perez include U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., all backers of 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Recent party setbacks have included the vote-count fiasco at Monday’s Iowa caucuses and Tuesday night’s disclosure that two officials on the host committee of the party’s upcoming national convention in Milwaukee had been fired over non-specified allegations that they oversaw a work environment where staff members were not being...

MANCHESTER, NH – Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg came under attack at Friday night’s Democratic presidential nomination debate by two of his top-tier rivals over his acceptance of campaign donations from billionaires and his reliance on super PACs to help support his White House bid. Sen. Elizabeth Warren – who’s contributions have almost entirely come from small dollar grassroots donors – slammed the former South Bend, Indiana mayor without naming him. “I don’t think anyone should be able to buy their way into a nomination or to be president of the United States, she emphasized, before adding that, “I don’t...

Actor and comedian Orson Bean is dead after being struck by a car while crossing the street ... TMZ has learned. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ Bean was allegedly jaywalking in Venice Friday night when he was clipped by one vehicle and then struck by another. We're told Bean died at the scene and both vehicles stayed after the incident. Cops are currently investigating whether the collision was criminal or an accident.

Lead House Impeachment Manager Congressman Adam Schiff of California stated during closing arguments in the Senate trial that he had irrefutable proof President Trump was going to give Alaska back to the Russians. He had learned about it just an hour ago, Schiff claimed, from an anonymous whistleblower who approached him during lunch. He was wearing a brown paper bag over his head with a hand-drawn picture of a whistle on it. The man told Schiff that he had overheard Donald Trump promising Vladimir Putin that he'd give him Alaska if Russia helped him to cheat in the 2020 election....

Thanks to all of y'all for your prayers and support. Your prayers helped a great deal but I am not out of the woods yet. Yesterday the doc did the scoop on me and the cancer has spread, but not very far he says. He took out as much as he felt he could and I will soon be seeing an oncologist for I assume chemo and radiation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) characterized President Trump's State-of-the-Union speech as "a manifesto of lies and misrepresentations" and tore it to shreds as most of the audience loudly applauded his remarks. Her first complaint alleged that "he refused to shake my hand. That's how demeaning he is to those he disagrees with." As it so happens, Trump didn't shake hands with Vice-President Mike Pence either before he stood at the podium to speak. Pelosi also found fault with Trump's invited guests. "Who is he to presume to honor the last surviving Tuskegee airman?" she demanded to know. "The Tuskegee airmen...