The long-anticipated Elizabeth Warren vs. Bernie Sanders fight has arrived.
Driving the news: CNN reported today, "Bernie Sanders told Elizabeth Warren in [a] private 2018 meeting that a woman can't win." Politico reported on Saturday, "Sanders’ campaign has begun stealthily attacking Warren as a candidate of the upper crust who could not expand the Democratic base in a general election."
Two-thirds of Americans surveyed want former national security adviser John Bolton to testify in the Senate impeachment trial, according to a Quinnipiac national poll of 1,562 voters released Monday.
Why it matters: Bolton, who is believed to have been a prolific note-taker with key insights into President Trump's decision-making on Ukraine, said earlier this month that he would be willing to testify if subpoenaed by the Senate. Popular support for Bolton's testimony could put pressure on moderate Republican senators to vote to call him as a witness.
The U.S. budget deficit hit $356.6 billion in the first quarter of fiscal year 2020, up 11.8% compared to the same period the previous year, Bloomberg reports.
Why it matters: The deficit, which President Trump pledged in 2016 to eliminate within eight years, is on pace to exceed $1 trillion by the end of 2020. The U.S. has not seen $1 trillion annual deficits since the three years that followed the 2008 financial crisis, per the New York Times.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said Monday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has declined to attend a committee hearing tomorrow on the Trump administration's decision to kill Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
Why it matters: The administration's mixed messaging on the justification for the airstrike on Soleimani has created doubt among some lawmakers about the "imminent threat" the administration claimed he posed to U.S. forces in the Middle East.
President Trump tweeted Monday his analysis of the current state of the Democratic presidential field, bringing up this weekend's quarrel between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders over campaign scripts.
"Bernie Sander's volunteers are trashing Elizabeth 'Pocahontus' Warren. Everybody knows her campaign is dead and want her potential voters. Mini Mike B is also trying, but getting tiny crowds which are all leaving fast. Elizabeth is very angry at Bernie. Do I see a feud brewing?"
Read up on the candidates who have announced their runs for president to learn about their backgrounds and criticisms and see where they stand on key issues.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) announced Monday that he is dropping out of the 2020 presidential race.
The big picture: Although Booker was seen as a rising star in Democratic politics, he struggled to shine in the 2020 race. In recent weeks, he focused his ire on the dwindling diversity in the Democratic field, saying in December that the race had "more billionaires than black people" after Kamala Harris' departure.
Mike Bloomberg wrote Monday in a CNN op-ed that Democrats are benefiting President Trump with their focus on Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states to vote for president, arguing they do not represent the party's electorate.
Why it matters: Bloomberg wrote that, if elected, he would work with state party leaders to "re-order the primary calendar in ways that better reflect our diverse electorate and channel more resources into the states we actually need to win in November."
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's public comment that he will not be an "impartial juror" in President Trump's Senate trial has alienated some swing voters here — even though they support Trump and are fed up with impeachment.
Why it matters: These voters told us they think all 100 senators on both sides of the aisle have a responsibility to be impartial under the Constitution. (Their oath requires them to promise "impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws.")
In his Friday interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham, President Trump let slip he's been talking to Bob Woodward for an upcoming book. But it was what he said about Woodward that caught my attention.
What he's saying: "I was interviewed by a very, very good writer, reporter," Trump told Ingraham. "I can say Bob Woodward. He said he's doing something and this time I said 'maybe I'll sit down.'"
Sen. Elizabeth Warren told reporters Sunday she was "disappointed" to hear about a volunteer script from fellow 2020 candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders' campaign that criticizes her as a candidate of the elite.
Why it matters: The two progressive candidates have had a non-aggression pact throughout the 2020 campaign, but that could be changing with 22 days left until the Iowa caucuses.
President Trump argued in a tweet Sunday that the Senate holding an impeachment trial based on what he claims is "no evidence," rather than dismissing the trial altogether, "gives the partisan Democrat Witch Hunt credibility that it otherwise does not have."
The big picture: The White House has worked in close coordination with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in organizing the parameters of the Senate trial. Despite House Speaker Nancy Pelosi withholding the articles of impeachment for three weeks in an attempt to get more "fair" trial terms, the proceedings are expected to be favorable to Trump, with no vote on witnesses until after opening arguments.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that President Trump "keeps getting policy that's not his policy" because he has surrounded himself with hawkish advisers who "disagree" with the president's instincts to withdraw the U.S. from the Middle East.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg shot back at criticisms that he's running a self-aggrandizing campaign for the Democratic nomination, telling Reuters in an interview: "Number one priority is to get rid of Donald Trump. I’m spending all my money to get rid of Trump."
Why it matters: The campaign finance debate has taken on new significance in 2020, creating a clear divide within the Democratic Party. Progressive candidates like Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have turned away big-dollar donations in favor of grassroots fundraising, rebuking moderates like Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden for soliciting donations from the wealthy.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday that she does not regret waiting three weeks to transmit the articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate, arguing that the tactic has "produced a very positive result."
Most U.S. presidential candidates identify China as a serious national security challenge, but they're short on details as to how they'd tackle the economic, technological and human rights threats posed by the world’s largest authoritarian power.
Why it matters: The Chinese Communist Party is seeking to reshape the world in its own image and amass enough power to marginalize the United States and Western allies regardless of whether China is contending with President Trump for another four years — or one of his Democratic rivals.
