Trump fires second key impeachment witness Gordon Sondland in Friday purge – as it happened

Saturday Night Massacre Prompted Angry Telegrams

Some more historical comparisons: 1973 was a different time.

Do you remember what it was like when all major breaking news did not happen simultaneously?

How good is the Saturday Night Massacre comparison?

Curious how well the White House’s actions tonight compare to Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre” in 1973?

You can look back at what Nixon did via:

• NPR’s Brief History of the ‘Saturday Night Massacre’
• The Saturday Night Massacre episode of the hit Watergate podcast Slow Burn
• The original Sunday morning report on the massacre in the Washington Post

Full statement from Second Fired Impeachment Witness

Just a reminder: there are 269 days until the 2020 presidential election!

Tonight, the Democratic presidential primary continues with a televised debate. My colleague Joan Greave has more details on our debate night live blog.

In a week marked by impunity and vengeance in Washington, my colleague Ed Pilkington has a story on a black radical who has finally won his freedom. The release of the final incarcerated member of the Move 9 comes more than three decades after Philadelphia police dropped an incendiary bomb on a row house where black activists lived, resulting in the deaths of eleven people, including five children, and a fire that razed dozens of homes in a predominantly black neighborhood.

One of the great open wounds of the black liberation struggle of the 1970s has finally been healed with the release of the last member of the Move 9, the group of radicals rounded up in a Philadelphia police siege in 1978 and held behind bars for more than four decades.

Chuck Sims Africa, 59, walked free from the Fayette state correctional institution in La Belle, Pennsylvania, on Friday morning. The youngest of the incarcerated group, he has been in custody since shortly after he turned 18.

His freedom marked his reunion with his family for the first time in almost 42 years.

Schumer Responds to White House firing Vindman

“This action is not a sign of strength,” senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

Presenting this statement without comment, since the emoji I need is not available on this liveblog.

White House Fires Twin Brother of Impeachment Witness

The twin brother of Lt Col Alexander Vindman, a national security expert who testified during Trump’s impeachment trial about his concerns about the president pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, his political rivals, was also fired by the White House today, multiple news outlets reported.

Vindman’s twin brother, Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny Vindman, was a lawyer at the National Security Council.

The New York Times reported that President Donald Trump spoke publicly yesterday, at a prayer breakfast, about his antipathy toward “Lieutenant Colonel Vindman and his twin brother.”

Early GOP responses on Vindman’s firing

Lois Beckett here in our West Coast office, taking over our live politics coverage at the end of a week that has been quite uneventful, really, just an impeachment vote and some lively discussions about democracy in Iowa. (Remember last Friday, when the UK left the European Union?)

Politico’s Kyle Cheney has some early reactions from GOP lawmakers to the White House’s choice to fire one of the key witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial today.

In two words: “Good riddance.”

Congressional Democrats are on Twitter expressing their shock at the news that Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was fired from his post on the national security counsel.

Bill Taylor: Smears against Marie Yovanovitch ‘unconscionable’

Bill Taylor, a former acting ambassador to Ukraine who testified in the impeachment trial, told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that the smear campaign against Marie Yavonovitch, former US ambassador to Ukraine who also testified in the impeachment trial is “unconscionable”.

Yovanovitch was removed from her post after attacks from Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, went on a smear campaign with the goal of removing her from office so the investigation into Hunter Biden could continue.

While Tapper did not reference Donald Trump specifically in his question, the president lashed out against Yovanovitch on Twitter in November, seemingly as backlash against her testifying in front of Congress. “Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad,” he wrote.

Defending Yovanovitch, Taylor said he believes the former ambassador’s credibility. “It of course bothers me any time I see someone like Masha Yovanovitch or Alex Vindman unfairly attacked,” Taylor said, referring to Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, an adviser on the national security counsel who testified in the impeachment trial.

If you see your local influencer gushing about former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg on Instagram anytime soon, here’s why: Bloomberg is turning to social media influencers to help him gain traction in the 2020 election, according to the Daily Beast.

The Bloomberg campaign is using Tribe, a platform that connects influencers with brands for advertising purposes. Bloomberg’s campaign is specifically targeting “micro-influencers” – users who have between 1,000 and 1,000 – for $150 posts on why they support the mayor.

The campaign’s posting on Tribe asks influencers to “Show+Tell why Mike the candidate who can change our country for the better, state why YOU think he’s a great candidate”.

Trump just ridiculed Democrats during a speech he delivered in North Carolina, saying, “They can’t count simple votes, but they want to fix your healthcare system,” he told the crowd at the Opportunity Now Summit in Charlotte.

Donald Trump is now giving a speech at the North Carolina Opportunity Now Summit in Charlotte, North Carolina. Here’s a little cheery nugget from his speech:

Reminder that rallies are typically for presidential candidates looking to run for office, which a president cannot do if they just served for two terms.

Donald Trump retweeted this afternoon two tweets that recommended he fire Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, an adviser on the national security counsel who testified in the impeachment trial. This morning, Trump said he wasn’t happy with Vindman and that decisions would be made about his post. Here are the tweets – one is from November.

House passes Puerto Rico aid package

The House just passed a $21bn emergency aid package in response to the 6.4 magnitude earthquake that struck the island 7 January. The earthquake left one dead and destroyed dozens of homes and structures, along with disrupting power and water for days.

“In recent weeks, thousands of families in Puerto Rico were forced from their homes, schools were flattened, roads and infrastructure were severely damage,” said US rep Nita Lowey, House appropriations chairwoman, in a statement.

Congressional Republicans, 17 of whom in the House voted for the bill, have indicated that they will give the package trouble once it gets to the Senate. Donald Trump has already threatened to veto it.

Is this a preview of the kind of content former NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg’s campaign Twitter will be spitting out during tonight’s debate? Only time will tell.

Comments that pundit Donny Deutsch made on MSNBC’s Morning Joe about senator Elizabeth Warren’s electability is getting some heated backlash on Twitter this morning.

When the show’s host, Joe Scarborough, asked Deutsch and Vice reporter Shawna Thomas why they think Warren has fallen behind senator Bernie Sanders, Thomas made the argument that it was because people weren’t comfortable about the electability of a woman. “If you look around and your neighbors, they’re not sure a woman can beat him, that starts to wear on a campaign,” Thomas said.

Deutcsh cut in.

“Is it a woman or is it her? There’s a certain stridentness to her that, do we want to invite her into our bedrooms and living rooms every day for four years?” Deutsch said. “I don’t think it’s a gender issue – it’s a likability issue.”

Something interesting to keep in mind: Educational attainment is a top determinant for who shows up to the polls.

During the 2018 election, those whose highest degree is a high school diploma had a 42% turnout rate in 2018, while those without a high school degree had a 27% turnout. Comparatively, 65% and 74% of those with a bachelor’s degree and advanced degree, respectively, went to the polls.

Would you like a side of politics with those eggs?

Senator Bernie Sanders is scheduled to speak this morning at a quirky event that’s become a New Hampshire tradition: Politics & Eggs.

The event, which has been held for over 20 years, largely consists of local business leaders, giving politicians a chance to schmooze and campaign for the upcoming primary.

Politics & Eggs even comes with souvenirs for attendees. Commemorative wooden eggs from the event have become something of a collectible in the state, especially since candidates are often asked to autograph the eggs while attending the breakfast.

And if you were wondering, the eggs are actually made in nearby Maine.

Trump pockets up to $650 when his own Secret Service agents stay at his hotel

The president’s company charges his own Secret Service agents up to $650 a night to stay at his properties – a bill that is ultimately paid by U.S. taxpayers – when they stay the night protecting him, the Washington Post reported this morning. Here’s more from the Post:

At Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, the Secret Service was charged the $650 rate dozens of times in 2017, and a different rate, $396.15, dozens more times in 2018, according to documents from Trump’s visits.

And at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, the Secret Service was charged $17,000 a month to use a three-bedroom cottage on the property, an unusually high rent for homes in that area, according to receipts from 2017. Trump’s company billed the government even for days when Trump wasn’t there.

These payments appear to contradict the Trump Organization’s own statements about what it charges members of his government entourage. “If my father travels, they stay at our properties for free — meaning, like, cost for housekeeping,” Trump’s son Eric said in a Yahoo Finance interview last year.

Dostre effect a la today’s Washington Post

B-boys are battling it out in town

Though Democrats are still trying to wrap their heads around what the hell actually happened in Iowa this week, the race still goes on. The candidates will be brawling on TV tonight for the latest Democratic debate in New Hampshire tonight before the primary vote takes place on Tuesday.

The scene in New Hampshire is tense in the wake of the Iowa caucus. Former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg’s on-the-margin win in Iowa helped him surge in a recent New Hampshire poll, putting him in a near-tie with senator Bernie Sanders, who closely followed him in the caucus (though declared a caucus victory of his own). Sanders received 24% of support in the poll, while Buttigieg got 23% – a huge soar compared to the 11% he scored in a New Hampshire poll on Monday. Expect the two to throw punches at each other on stage tonight.

Former vice president Joe Biden’s campaign appears to be quickly losing momentum. In the poll, Biden trailed senator Elizabeth Warren – who received 13% of support in the poll – getting 11% of support. Biden recently got backlash for a cringey video of Biden apparently stroking the face of Samuel Habib, a 20-year-old student and disability rights advocate, who approached the candidate asking him what he will do to support students with disabilities. Habib has since said the interaction felt patronizing.

After retweeting various people praising him and attacking enemies like Elizabeth Warren and Nancy Pelosi, Trump has welcomed actor James Woods back to Twitter after he left the platform, claiming it was censoring him.

Trump told him: “Welcome back James!” and earlier on retweeted a post by Woods that called Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a “moron”.

He also weighed in on the Democrats’ inability to declare a winner in Iowa, suggesting that they should blame Russia and making a disingenuous comparison with their plans for increased health coverage. Trump has always poured scorn on the US intelligence community’s assertion that Russia meddled in the 2016 election in order to help him win.

Walsh placed third in the Republican Iowa caucuses this week, with 1.07% of the vote.

His move leaves former governor Bill Weld as the only Republican challenger to Trump. He got 1.32% in Iowa.

Trump came in first with 97.14%.

The president mused about his two challengers during his speech yesterday.

We also had an election out there and we got 98 percent of the vote. We have two people running, you know. I guess they consider them non-people. One is a governor, but they’re running. They said, who is that crowd over there? It was Trump, right, Mark Meadows? It was Trump. This was a Trump crowd.

Walsh said today: “Donald Trump is the greatest threat to our republic right now ... The rest of this country needs to come together to stop this guy, period.”

My colleague David Smith interviewed Walsh recently.

Donald Trump has been tweeting his support for his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping as Beijing struggles to deal with the coronavirus (you can read the latest on that here).

China is reportedly worried about what the virus means for its ability to stick to the terms of its new trade agreements with the US, and some officials are apparently angry at Washington’s travel restrictions and commerce secretary Wilbur Ross’s comment that the outbreak “will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America”.

Who has won the Iowa caucuses? We still don’t know.

With almost 100% of the vote in, former Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg is only 0.09% ahead of socialist rival Bernie Sanders in the delegate count, while Sanders is ahead of the young pretender in the popular vote.

The Associated Press says it is still too close to call.

Both Buttigieg and Sanders claimed victory last night.

CNN asked the centrist former mayor for his reaction to the latest tally. “That’s fantastic news, to hear that we won,” Buttigieg said.

Meanwhile, Sanders pumped out social media posts baldly claiming “Bernie wins Iowa” – and basing that in the small print on his lead in the popular vote. “We did very well,” Sanders told CNN. “We won in Iowa.”

In truth, it’s probably accurate to call Iowa a draw. The Democratic race will be decided based on the number of delegates won, and both Buttigieg and Sanders will probably come out of Iowa with the same number.

That said, Sanders went in to the contest as the narrow favourite, so in terms of perception and momentum it has probably been a win for the former mayor.

The winner certainly wasn’t the Iowa Democratic party. National party chair Tom Perez called for a “recanvass” of the tally on Thursday. “A recanvass is a review of the worksheets from each caucus site to ensure accuracy,” he explained after some confusion about that. He later said he was only calling for a recanvass in certain sites.

To add to the confusion, AP reported that “it was unclear if the party planned to follow the directive of the national leader to recanvass those results … Iowa chairman Troy Price suggested in a statement Thursday that he would only pursue a recanvass if one was requested by a campaign.”

“We’ve got enough of Iowa,” Sanders told CNN on Thursday night. “I think we should move on to New Hampshire.”

That contest is on Tuesday and uses a conventional voting system.

Also today:

• 8.30am ET (1.30pm): The monthly US jobs report will be released
• 1pm ET: Trump will speak at the North Carolina Opportunity Now Summit. He will later speak at the Republican Governors Association Finance Dinner in Washington
• 8pm ET: Democratic candidates will take part in a debate in New Hampshire