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Trump’s lawyers kick off his impeachment trial by arguing that the President can’t be impeached, Mitch McConnell is forced to make concessions on the rules, Biden and Bernie tangle on Social Security, and the New York Times endorses Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren. Then Chris Lidell-Westefeld talks to Tommy about his oral history of the 2008 Obama campaign.

Show notes

Impeachment

• NPR: READ: McConnell Lays Out Plan For Senate Impeachment Trial Procedure
• CNN: Senate debate over McConnell resolution expected to begin in open session Tuesday
• NBC News: New details emerge about Trump’s Senate trial as Democrats protest being kept in the dark
• NYT: Trump Legal Team Asks Senate for Speedy Acquittal in Impeachment Trial
• NYT: Lawmakers Clash Over Shape of Impeachment Trial as Rules Vote Looms
• New York Magazine: House Prosecutors, Trump Lawyers File Official Impeachment Briefs
• NBC News: House managers cite ‘overwhelming’ evidence against Trump in their brief to Senate
• AP: AP FACT CHECK: Distortions in Trump’s legal defense
• NBC News: Trump’s legal team calls impeachment articles ‘an affront to the Constitution,’ urges quick acquittal in Senate
• CNN: Trump’s legal team argues impeachment process a ‘charade’
• The Atlantic: Trump’s Impeachment Brief Is a Howl of Rage
• Axios: Inside Trump’s impeachment strategy: The national security card
• CNN: House Democrats call Trump filing on impeachment ‘dead wrong’ in new brief for Senate trial
• NYT: Even C-SPAN Is Piqued: Senate Puts Limits on Trial Coverage
• NPR: Reporters Challenge New Restrictions In Trying To Cover Senate Impeachment Trial
• AP: Reporters getting 1st taste of impeachment restrictions
• WSJ: What Has Happened Since House Vote to Impeach
• NYT: Democrats Seek More Testimony and Evidence for Impeachment Trial
• Politico: Battle over impeachment witnesses escalates
• Politico: Schiff says House did its best to get Trump witnesses
• AP: Schiff accuses NSA, CIA of withholding documents on Ukraine
• NYT: Democrats Release More Material From Lev Parnas on Ukraine Campaign
• WaPo: Senate impeachment trial begins with rancor over witnesses and new evidence about Trump’s Ukraine dealings
• PBS: See all the new impeachment evidence relating to Lev Parnas 
• NYT: Where Is Cory Gardner?
• NYT: Impeachment Trial Puts Susan Collins, Stung by Kavanaugh Backlash, Under Scrutiny
• AP: Impeachment lands Sen. Collins in familiar spot: crosshairs
• CNN: McConnell tries to set trial rules as pressure building on vulnerable senators
• Daily Beast: Republicans Melt Down as Evidence of Trump’s Guilt Piles Up
• Morning Consult: Impeachment Trial Set to Put Vulnerable Senate Republicans in a Familiar Bind
• NYT: 3 Republicans Are Open to Impeachment Witnesses, but Democrats Need a 4th
• The Hill: Poll: Democrat Mark Kelly leads incumbent McSally in Arizona Senate race
• CNN: CNN poll: 51% say Senate should remove Trump from office
• The Guardian: Trump impeachment: Schumer ready to ‘force votes for witnesses’
• NBC News: Democratic senator says he’s ‘fine’ with Hunter Biden testifying in impeachment trial
• The Hill: House Democrats may call new impeachment witnesses if Senate doesn’t
• The Nation: Democrats Should Embrace the Politics of Impeachment
• Morning Consult: Most Voters Want More Impeachment Witnesses as Senate Prepares for Trial
• Politico: How Schumer might get the last laugh on impeachment trial
• WaPo: Lev Parnas’s feverish text messages show his wide reach among Ukraine’s oligarchs and political elite
• WSJ: Lev Parnas Paid His Way Into Donald Trump’s Orbit
• Politico: Here’s what the Parnas revelations mean for Trump
• Politico: Parnas and Ukraine aid bombshells jolt impeachment trial
• NYT: Lev Parnas, Key Player in Ukraine Affair, Completes Break With Trump and Giuliani
• WaPo: When McConnell speaks, Trump listens. Impeachment trial will test the unlikely bond.

2020

• WaPo: With two weeks until Iowa, the Democratic presidential candidates are getting aggressive — with each other
• Bloomberg – Biden Tops Iowa Poll by Democratic Rural Group
• Politico: Biden pulls ahead in new Iowa poll
• The Hill – Poll: Sanders holds 5-point lead over Buttigieg in New Hampshire
• AJC: Poll of Georgia voters, January 2020
• NYT: Joe Biden’s Poll Numbers Are Steady, but Are They Immovable?
• FiveThirtyEight – Election Update: The First Post-Debate Polls Are In! And They’re … Pretty Weird – By Nate Silver
• CNN: The Iowa caucuses look like a hot mess – By Harry Enten
• NYT: Democrats Can Qualify for the Next Debate by Winning a Single Delegate in Iowa
• NYT: Biden and Sanders Clash Over Social Security
• WaPo: Bernie Sanders hits Joe Biden on Social Security as the presidential contest grows more heated
• Politico: Warren joins Bernie in jabbing Biden on Social Security
• American Prospect – Biden’s Advocacy for Social Security Cuts Has Had Real Consequences
• New Hampshire Public Radio – Sanders Declines To Elaborate on Gender Talk With Warren, Says There’s ‘No Perfect Candidate’
• Slate: Sanders on Whether Gender Is Obstacle for Candidates: “Everybody Brings Some Negatives”
• Politico: Sanders runs into resistance as he looks beyond Warren dispute
• WaPo: Sanders vs. Warren and the state of the progressive movement
• NYT:THE DEMOCRATS’ BEST CHOICES FOR PRESIDENT
• NYT: What It Was Like to Witness The Times’s Democratic Endorsement
• Daily Beast – New York Times Ed Board Defends Dual Endorsement: ‘People Misunderstand the Point’
• The New Republic – The New York Times’s Endorsement Charade
• NBC News Op-Ed – The New York Times presidential endorsement shows why newspapers must end the practice – By Matt Laslo
• Mediaite – NY Times Gets Clobbered for Grandiose Special Leading to Warren-Klobuchar Copout: ‘Have These People Zero Self-Awareness?’
• WaPo: Amy Klobuchar desperately wants an Iowa moment. Impeachment is getting in the way.
• WaPo: Rep. Jayapal, a leading liberal congresswoman, endorses Sanders for president
• Des Moines Register – Iowa Senate Democratic Leader Janet Petersen endorses Elizabeth Warren
• Politico: Biden picks up endorsement from key black lawmaker
• Politico: Trump accuses Dems of using impeachment trial to hurt Sanders campaign
• Politico: Bloomberg’s massive ad campaign hikes TV prices for other candidates
• Politico: Mayor Pete: Portrait of the B.S. Artist as a Young Man
• WaPo: Biden, Buttigieg seek edge amid Warren-Sanders fight and impeachment complications